Hardly a week goes by in a business that a new collaboration tool is not launched. Many of these tools are either killed off, or end up in the overcrowded paid for category. Thus, it can be hard to work out what the best tools are for your business needs.
Collaboration tools are not simply for large businesses. Collaborative tools also help small companies bring out the best out of their employees and enable them to achieve better performance. These days, with the IT industry developing rapidly, types of collaboration tools are also multiplying online.
monday.com
What would it mean for your productivity if you never had to check email, Slack, Salesforce, and Excel just to track down information about one project?
Whether you’re working in the office, from home, or from across the globe, monday.com helps your entire team stay in sync. This work operating system (Work OS) keeps all of your work clearly organized on one visual platform everyone can access.
Without any coding skills, you can customize monday.com so that it works best for your team. Automate data entry, workflows, and other repetitive tasks, so you can focus on more meaningful work. Then assign tasks so nothing falls through the cracks.
Plus, we surveyed 1,273 executives that use collaboration tools on a regular basis. And they voted monday.com as their favorite platform.
Pros
- Sign up for a free trial without entering your payment details
- Download pre-designed templates perfectly suited to your workflows
- Get the “bird’s eye view” of multiple projects in one convenient location
- Check your progress at any time from the mobile app
- View your projects in a calendar mode so you never miss any deadlines
- Assign new tasks to available team members so no one is overloaded
- Automate your workflows without coding
- Integrate all of your other apps on one unified platform
Cons
- Mobile app can be cumbersome, but they are working on it constantly
- More content on advanced concepts
Slack: The best team communication tool
Slack is one of the most widely used tools by remote teams. Remote-first companies like Zapier, Buffer, and Help Scout consider Slack their “virtual office”—a place where employees can get instant feedback and connect with their colleagues, both one-on-one and in groups.
One feature that stands out is the ability to install apps that automatically report on business activity, like new email subscribers or product reviews, and bots that help keep employees engaged.
When asked about Buffer’s remote team technology stack, loyalty marketer Bonnie Porter had this to say:
“At Buffer, we use a lot of tools to communicate and collaborate. The ones I use most frequently are Slack, Zoom, Buffer, Dropbox Paper, and Trello. One fun thing the marketing team has been using in Slack is the HeyTaco! Integration—it makes it fun to celebrate each other’s accomplishments (big or small) throughout the day. Who doesn’t love a taco party?!”
Zapier an alternative, on the other hand, uses Slack to communicate important status updates:
“In the age of open floor plans and constant collaboration, there is something that is rarely mentioned in today’s design world: Remote work is ideal for the creative process, because it easily allows for designers and researchers to have the solitude they need [….] We leverage Slack’s status+emoji feature to communicate to our teammates when we are ‘heads down’ in the creative process,” explained Julia Elman, the company’s Director of Design.
Related: How Zapier is building a remote design culture
They also use Slack to facilitate design critiques:
“Design Club is an inclusive space where anyone in the company can come to present their work for critique and provide feedback for others. This could be anything from research plans to visual designs from your product teams. We have both a Design Club Slack channel and a weekly Design Club video call where folks can sign up to receive asynchronous or real-time critique from their peers and stakeholders from around Zapier.”
If you’re looking for something different, check out this detailed review of Slack alternatives.
Nectar
Nectar is an award-winning employee recognition & rewards platform that bolsters online collaboration. It creates a simple, standardized way for organizations to give out recognition, spot bonuses, awards and wellness challenges all within budget. This includes peer to peer recognition as well as manager to direct reports.
With Nectar, you can reinforce great work anytime, anywhere through an interactive recognition feed. Keep morale up, teams connected and promote your company’s core values in an online working environment.
Pros
- Connects with your other tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams and more to make recognition as seamless as possible
- Has a robust rewards engine with hundreds of global gift card options or branded company swag
- Unlike others in this space, Nectar aligns with its customers through Fair Billing. You only pay for ACTIVE users instead of per employee per month. They also don’t do contracts or implementation fees.
- Has a free tier along with paid plans
Explore pricing and features to find the Nectar plan that best fits your team.
Cons
- Wish there was more functionality on the free tier
- Reward options are limited outside of the US, UK or Australia
Bonusly
Make visibility a priority this year with Bonusly. This online collaboration platform gives managers, executives, and employees the ability to see and celebrate great work through an easy-to-use interface. Helping to create a culture where recognition is part of your day, Bonusly encourages employees to recognize their colleagues and promotes workplace collaboration.
Using this team collaboration software is a breeze, as it integrates seamlessly into the other online communication tools at your business. You can use it on a daily basis without feeling like you’re doing any extra work!
Bonusly’s 360-degree recognition also makes teamwork visible to everyone and empowers employees at all levels of your company. You can show appreciation for each other and build stronger working relationships while incentivizing a culture of online collaboration.
Pros
- Analytics point out team members’ strengths
- Make it easy for managers and leaders to gather, understand, and act on employee feedback with fun, lightweight surveys of all types.
- Easy onboarding meaning employees can start using it on their first day
- Best suited for teams/companies of 100+
- Automated custom rewards for employee milestones and completed projects
Cons
- No free plan, but they do offer a free trial here
- Expanding list of rewards
Hubstaff
Remote and asynchronous teams face communication challenges that in-office teams don’t. With Hubstaff’s stopwatch-style timer, teams can track time and see real-time updates from their desktop, web browser, or mobile device.
A virtual dashboard lets them view activity scores, enable optional screenshotting, and set productive and unproductive apps and websites for each member of their team. Integrations with over 30 popular project management, help desk, and HR apps make Hubstaff even more powerful for growing teams.
Pros
- Beautiful UI/UX
- Simple tracking
- Unlimited screenshots
- Automated timesheets
- Customizable invoices
- Easy team payments
Cons
- Relies on integrations
- If you’re looking for just a time tracker, there are free options that don’t provide the same features Hubstaff does but are cheaper.
Teamwork
Teamwork was built so you can manage ALL your client work in one platform. From invoicing, to time tracking, to unlimited client access, everything you need to run your client services is in Teamwork.
Teamwork gives you the tools and reports you need to maximize resources and never miss a billable minute again. Get a bird’s eye view of every project, from milestones to capacity planning, budgeting and time tracking and more.
Break work and projects into tasks and layers of subtasks – so nothing slips through the cracks and everyone knows what to do and when it’s done.
Pros
- Signup for a free 30-day trial of Teamwork with no commitments
- Teamwork has the growth-focused features like time tracking, custom client permissions, assigning tasks to multiple people and more
- A user-friendly learning curve and the essential features (like reports and resource management)
- Teamwork has the collaboration, client features and robust flexibility necessary for managing multiple complex projects
- Solid functionality so your team can manage large, complex projects without the learning curve and limitations
- Collaborate in real-time with your team and clients to get your questions answered and projects delivered on time & on budget.
Cons
- UX can be a bit cumbersome, but they are currently working on an overhaul
Nifty
True collaboration is where communication meets action. If you’re planning in one place and discussing in another — where is the collaboration truly occurring?
Nifty is the award-winning project management tool that closes the gap between communication and action to serve as the all-in-one remote office you and your team have been looking for. Packed with easy-to-use project management tools as well as direct and group messaging experiences, Nifty is the glue between planning and execution.
Pros
- Build roadmaps with Nifty’s milestones which are phase-based Gantts that roll up tasks into actionable steps and automate progress as the tasks are completed.
- Timeline, Kanban, List, and Swimlane views let teams of all types visualize their work in the way that suits them best.
- Tags scale across tasks, docs, and files in all projects to create scalability within the workspace
- Built in docs, including a two-way Google Doc, Sheet, and Presentations bring your notes, content, and specifications directly into your workspace.
- Overviews, Workloads, and All Tasks give automated managerial insight on project and portfolio health and make managing resources across projects as simple as can be.
- Project Discussions and Team Chat give opportunities for group and direct communications
Cons
- API in the process of being opened
- Free trial, but no Free plan
Conclusion
Collaboration is a fundamental part of modern business. It takes a lot of time and effort to coordinate projects, share information and communicate properly. In the past, it used to be a hassle to set up online collaboration tools because you had to leave your workplace and pay for a coffee shop or café every day.