Collaboration is key to running a good business. It’s important for any company, from startups to fortune 500 companies, who want to ensure that employees across departments are interacting with each other and communicating effectively. Businesses have been using collaboration tools, both online and offline, for decades, but the rapid growth of cloud-based technology has led to more collaboration software being available than ever.
No matter what your business does – whether it’s a multinational conglomerate or a local hairdresser – you can benefit from having a look at the different types of collaboration tools out there – and find out which ones might work best for you.
ClickUp
Best for: Freemium plan
Cost is one of the most important considerations for SMEs. That’s why ClickUp, a relatively new project management platform, has already made a name for itself due to a generous list of features and budget-friendly pricing plan. It is structured using a company hierarchy, meaning different departments can work alongside each other virtually without stepping on each other’s toes.
Collaboration is a key part of ClickUp’s design. When someone else is editing, you can see their live cursor, as well as who else is viewing a task. ClickUp also allows you to add comments to specific tasks and share files like videos and images, which are stored alongside your projects to help keep your team working smoothly.
Is it right for my business?
If you’re looking for the best free collaboration tool, you’ll be hard pressed to find a more bountiful feature list than ClickUp. Its free plan includes:
- Custom views
- Multiple assignees
- Goals
- Mind maps
- Dashboards
- Gantt charts
- Real-time collaboration
- 100+ integrations
- Proofing
- Cloud-based file sharing
There are drawbacks to this low cost, however, with the majority of ClickUp’s features having monthly limits. It also only allows 5 spaces for your business (which essentially represent a project).
At only £3.62, ClickUp Unlimited is the platform’s lowest paid-for tier and withdraws most of these restrictions, making it a good upgrade option for those wanting a long-term solution.
Pricing
ClickUp’s free tier might be its biggest USP but its higher-tiered payment plans are similarly low-cost and high-value. For more information, read our ClickUp pricing guide.
Toggl Plan Online Project Management Tools
Toggl Plan makes it easy for managers, stakeholders, and team members collaboratively plan and deliver projects. It makes collaboration easy with color-coded visual overviews, making communication transparent, keeping all work related information in one place.
Managers can plan work based on team availability and workloads.
Team members get clear visual cues and notifications about what’s coming next. Plus, team members can work together on tasks. As well as, share ideas with task comments and file attachments.
Stakeholders can stay up-to-date without bothering about day-to-day activities with shared timelines.
Pros
- Start with 14 days for free. Basic plan is always free
- Improve work clarity with simple, intuitive, visual overviews
- Plan work with high-level or detailed, color-coded project plan timelines
- Set milestones and track work progress
- Manage team availability and workloads with team timelines
- Deliver agile projects iteratively with scrum and kanban boards
- Work closely on tasks with other team members. Discuss ideas using comments and file attachments
- Manage work better with Google Calendar, Github, Slack and Toggl Time Tracking integrations
Cons
- The mobile app doesn’t have all the features from the web app. But new features are being added continuously
ProofHub Online Project Management Tools
ProofHub is a remarkable project management and team collaboration software. It enables managers to work jointly with their team members to plan and deliver projects spotlessly. You can organize and assign tasks to the team members smartly. The in-built chat app helps you eliminate remote communication barriers.
ProofHub provides you an online workspace where you can organize files, share notes and monitor everyday progress. There’s an online proofing tool that helps you review and approve files. Comprehensive Gantt charts help you plan your project effortlessly by placing it into easy-to-understand visual timelines.
Pros
- Free trial
- Easy to set up and understand
- Simple pricing with no per-user charges
- Powerful collaboration features
Cons
- Limited third-party integrations
Trello
Here’s one of the most famous project management tools out there. Trello is optimized for keeping tasks organized and lets users create boards or lists that can be assigned to and shared with others.
Trello is replete with deadline reminders and email notifications, plus; it can integrate with other tools including Evernote, Google Drive, GitHub, and Slack for a unified team experience.
Pros
- It’s free
- Quick real time updates
- Simple and easy to add new member, create and assign tasks
Cons
- Difficult to handle large projects
- Not the best way to collaborate; You can choose tools such as Slack or Brief for your real-time communication
Asana
Best for: Real-time collaboration
Real-time collaboration is important for team working systems, and Asana scores highly for this criterion. As a project management software, it can help teams to improve the organization, tracking, and delegation of projects. Projects can be organised in a variety of different formats including lists, boards, calendars and even gantt charts, which you can use to consolidate your workflow into one easy tracking system.
Because it has more sophisticated features than the other tools in this list, Asana does not have a quick onboarding process and new starters might find themselves confused by the software’s huge number of capabilities.
Is it right for my business?
Asana is an excellent collaboration software solution for small businesses, with unlimited assignees permitted to work on every task. It’s good for Kanban boards, which is an agile project management tool that enables you to visualise workflow and iron out any issues. Its timeline view allows you to coordinate your work more easily using dependencies and milestones, helping you to keep an eye on each other’s objectives. Because of this, it is a great choice for sectors that have a lot of high-pressure deadlines, like financial services.
Users can also add automated notifications for immediate team updates. For example, you can automatically get a notification when someone else on your team completes a task.
- Unlimited comments
- Unlimited activity logs
- Unlimited storage (100MB per file)
- Unlimited assignees
- Inbox
- Status updates
- Video messaging feature
- Automations
- Cloud-based file sharing
Pricing
Asana has a good freemium tier but, unlike ClickUp, it’s lacking a lot of the core team collaboration tools. SMEs should use it for a free sample of the platform, before committing to Asana Premium. In terms of affordability, it’s a good solution for small businesses at £9.49 per user, per month when billed annually. Compared to the other tools in this list it is also a bit of a splurge, but in our opinion the benefits are worth the added cost.
Google Drive
If you have a Gmail account then you are definitely familiar with Google Drive, your online storage for saving all your files and sharing them safely with your team(s). Once you grant them access, your team can easily reach the files stored on your Google Drive directory and use them to complete various projects as needed.
You can invite them to view, edit or leave comments on files stored on the drive, including videos, photos, and documents.
Pros
- Lets you choose the level of interactivity to assign a participant
- UI is intuitive and easy to use
- Accessible from both mobile and desktop devices
Cons
- When using Google Drive, it is challenging to login from other work addresses.
Salesmate
We also found a tool for your sales reps <smiles>. It’s called Salesmate, a sales CRM Software for small and medium-size businesses.
It has an intuitive and easy to use interface that allows sales reps to be more productive, increases their sales and allow them to engage deeply with customers.
The solution provides sales reps with the right insights, integrations and data to help them sell faster and deliver more personalized experiences to each customer.
Pros
- Built-in text sender allows for quick sending of promotional messages
- Integrated calling tool, connect with a single click
- Has a great level of transparency
Cons
- Requires a bit of learning to use properly
Wrike
Best for: Project progress
Wrike’s simple design makes for a smooth and intuitive user experience, and the platform scored highly in our testing for usability. Its interface is clean, with visuals that focus on relaying information at a glance, making it useful for quickly updating stakeholders and guests on the status of tasks and milestones.
Time management is a big concern when it comes to collaborative working, as having multiple assignees to one project can lead to more time spent on admin and quality assurance. Like Asana, Wrike also has excellent real-time collaboration features, including document sharing and editing, and a project message board. This means you’re more likely to stick to schedule – saving you both time and money.
Is it right for my business?
Key collaboration tools included in Wrike’s two lowest-tiered payment plans include:
- Cloud storage integration
- Community forum
- Kanban boards
- Spreadsheets
- Dashboards
- Preset widgets
- Milestones
- Project message board
- Guest Access
- Task comments
- Gantt charts
One area that Wrike did not score well in during our testing was automations – time-saving triggers that mean certain duties are completed automatically, rather than manually. The platform’s automation builder isn’t easy to access or use, so a member of your team will likely need to take on a specific administrative role for software upkeep.
Wrike pricing
At just £7.20 per user for Wrike Professional, the platform is low-range on the cost spectrum for PM software and will suit most SME budgetary requirements.
The app’s freemium tier, Wrike Free, is unusually generous for features and also permits an unlimited number of users, meaning that small businesses of any size can work collaboratively for zero charge. Higher tiers require a minimum of 5 users.
Conclusion
Thanks to the Internet, collaboration has become a lot easier – even if you don’t want to place yourself at risks of an overloaded inbox. With the right tools and apps, you can share files and notes with colleagues or clients without ever leaving your browser or phone app. Take some time to consider some of the top collaboration tools for business, so you can more efficiently share information with your team.