When it comes to planning and organizing projects, as well as sending and receiving messages to your business partners, there are many great online business communication platforms that can prove to be of great help. Back in the day those who needed such services had to pay a lot for them and work with software and hardware that was made for large enterprises and businesses. But nowadays we can use some great online business communication software and tools which give us the best features for free.
Do you want to learn about the best communication platform online? And what is communication tools? You’ve come to the right place, my dear friend. I’ve tested so many of these business communication platforms, but I’ll list below the best one according to my own tests and some recorded videos.
ProofHub
Platforms: Web, iOS and Android devices.
Features: Collaboration, file sharing, Gantt chart, Kanban board, chat, calendar management, project templates, search functionality, API, automatic notifications, workflow management, task scheduling, access control, reporting & statistics, time tracking by project, document storage, activity logging, discussion board, instant messaging, prioritizing, and more.
Integrations: Box, Dropbox, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Microsoft Outlook, and FreshBooks.
Pricing:
Essential – $50/month or $45/month (billed annually)
Ultimate Control – $99/month or $89/month (billed annually)
Free trial: Available (No Credit Card required).
BlueJeans by Verizon
Everyone has a preferred way of attending online meetings. BlueJeans, a cloud-based video communications platform, gives attendees the flexibility of joining video conferences using a web browser, desktop app, or mobile phone, all while making meetings more productive with a wide range of collaboration features that are available across platforms. These include the ability to host meetings in conference rooms and town halls, share screens, and record meetings.
BlueJeans makes it easy to combine workflows. For instance, you can schedule meetings with Outlook and Google Calendar and integrate the software with other popular business apps and services. All content is transmitted with AES-GCM 256-bit encryption, and conversations can benefit from BlueJeans’ real-time closed captioning for hearing-impaired users. Users who don’t have video- or audio-capable devices can phone in to join meetings.
Plans for BlueJeans Meetings start at $9.99 per host per month if billed annually. The Pro version, which supports up to 75 meeting participants, starts at $12.49 per host per month if billed annually. [Could your business benefit from video conferencing?
Windstream Enterprise OfficeSuite UC
Are your employees always on the go? OfficeSuite UC is a 100% cloud-based UCaaS (unified communications as a service) system that’s fully accessible anytime, anywhere. In addition to audio, web and video conferencing, OfficeSuite offers unlimited nationwide calling, toll-free phone service, and digital faxing. It also has useful mobility features: mobile twinning, which makes all incoming calls ring your desk and mobile phone simultaneously; hotdesking to enable incoming and outgoing calls from any phone; and virtual voicemail, allowing you to receive notifications and messages from any phone, online, or by email.
Built into OfficeSuite UC are integrations with third-party applications like Salesforce, Skype, Google’s G Suite, Slack and Microsoft Teams. UC also features contact center services to help users create queues for calls and chats, as well as live and historical agent activity and the ability to record calls. Contact Windstream Enterprise for pricing information.
Filestage
Platforms: Web, Windows, macOS, iOS and Android devices.
Features: comment and annotate files, share files, download files, one-click approvals, customizable projects, task and workflow automation, in-built versioning of files, unlimited reviewers, @mentions, private comments, real-time collaboration, threaded comments, due dates, email notifications, task lists, custom branding.
Integrations: Google Drive, Dropbox, Slack, Trello, Basecamp, Asana, Fleep, Jira Software, Smartsheet, Wrike, Zoom.
Pricing: Starts at 89 € per month, free trial available
RingCentral
Instant messaging. Video conferencing. Phone calls. Task management. File sharing. You get all of that and more with RingCentral, the collaboration and communication software for business that combines all these helpful features into one unified team workspace.
With RingCentral, you can chat in real time—from any device or location. You can share links and files, create team group chats based on projects, themes, or departments, and dial into video calls and meetings with just a click.
If you’re tired of having all your emails, discussions, and resources scattered across various platforms, you’ll love how RingCentral streamlines all of your team’s communication into shared conversations, files, tasks, and calendars.
RingCentral also integrates with many popular business tools like Google Drive and Box, and it gets a lot of love from its users for how easy it is to use and how simple it is to turn conversations into actionable tasks.
Here are a few of the top collaboration features in action:
Assign tasks in a snap
Start either an audio or video meeting in the same app
Oh, and you can switch between a phone and video call too
Drag, drop, and share files
Cisco Webex
Businesses that rely heavily on meetings need full-featured communications software. Cisco’s Webex offers HD video conferences with collaboration and file-sharing capabilities for all types of meetings, including presentations, sales demos, online training sessions, web-based events, staff meetings and remote tech support.
Webex is fully accessible on mobile devices with the Webex mobile app for iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry. The basic version of Webex is free and supports up to 100 meeting participants, but it’s limited to a single user, and meetings can only last up to 50 minutes. Premium versions start at $14.95 a month and include phone call-ins, file transfers, 5GB of cloud recording storage and live 24/7 support.
8×8: Good for small teams on a tight budget
The upsides
Like RingCentral, 8×8 offers an all-in-one communication tool, and the price is right. They’re one of the more affordable feature-rich options behind RingCentral with a streamlined interface. For these reasons, they might be worth investigating if you have a small monthly budget for new software.
The drawbacks
As you’ll find with the more inexpensive products on this list, there are some limitations. For example, 8×8 might not be the right choice for your team if growth is a main goal for your business. Both audio and video conferencing top out at 100 participants, even at the most expensive pricing tier. This could mean you’ll have to search for a communication tool all over again in a couple years, or sooner.
8×8’s file sharing is also limited. You can drop docs into any chat you like, but the functionality ends there. Unlike RingCentral, there’s no way to collaborate on a file or pin it for later, so you’ll have to scroll back through the chat to find what you need.
Chanty
Platforms: Web, Windows, macOS, iOS and Android devices.
Features: Team communication, task management, teambook hub, audio/video calls, voice messages, screen sharing, pinned messages, @mentions, discussion threads, code snippets, dark theme.
Integrations: Trello, Asana, Zapier, Google Drive, Dropbox, Onedrive, Github, Gitlab, Bitbucket, Mailchimp, Giphy.
Pricing: Free up to 10 team members, $3 per user per month.
Conclusion
You constantly research productivity tools because you constantly try to get the most out of your time. You probably look for tools that can help you communicate more effectively. Communication is what makes business work, and nowadays the world has become more remote. While there are still companies who rely on face-to-face communication to get things done, most companies need other ways to get their jobs done.