Each employee is a unique individual with a unique contribution to the overall mission. Those individuals comprise a group. That group is a team. And everyone on that team has an influence on the success of the organization. Team collaboration software allows you to correctly define and communicate what your team is doing at any given time, so it’s always clear what is expected from each member. A collaborative effort allows your team to get more work done with fewer headaches and more fun along the way!
There is much different collaboration software on the market, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. While you will get a hard time choosing the best software that suits your needs, here are the best free team collaboration software for you to choose from.
Flock
With Flock, team members can exchange messages, share files, host video conferences, manage to-dos, and set up calendar events all from one easy-to-use app. Flock integrates with popular business tools such as Google Calendar, Google Drive, Asana, MailChimp, and Twitter, making it easier for team members to stay on top of things without juggling a dozen different apps.
Flock’s free plan gives your team:
- Unlimited team members and one-to-one messages
- 10 public channels for group conversations
- Unlimited 1:1 video calls
- 5GB storage for file sharing and 10K message history for quick search
- Built-in productivity apps such as shared notes, polls, and reminders
- Unlimited integrations for third-party services, such as Asana, Jira, or Google Drive
Need more room? Flock PRO unlocks enhanced admin controls, group video conferencing, unlimited channels, guest accounts, more file storage, and access to priority support. At just $4.50 per user per month, we think it’s a steal, but our free plan is pretty generous and well, free. It’s your call.
Twist
Made by the folks behind Todoist, Twist makes it easy to organize and keep track of discussions with threads. Their message board-like interface is easy to use, though using threads and the inbox (they work more like email threads, not Slack threads) takes some getting used to. The upside? Fewer notifications!
Twist’s free plan
- Unlimited users, guests, messages, channels, and threads
- Access to 1 month of conversations
- 5GB storage for file sharing
- 5 service integrations
Twist doesn’t bother with audio/video conferencing or screen sharing features, they have a Wherein integration instead. For $5 a user per month, Twist Unlimited offers unlimited conversation history, file storage, service integrations, and priority support.
Rocket.Chat
If on-premise software is a must, look no further than Rocket.Chat’s open-source team collaboration app. Easily deployed to on-premise or cloud servers, Rocket.Chat is free with zero restrictions on core functionality. It’s your server! Just one caveat: If there’s trouble, you’re probably on your own – the free plan doesn’t come with any web, email, or phone support, so be prepared to hunt through pages of technical documentation for any fixes.
Image: GitHub
Rocket. Chat’s free plan
- Unlimited users, messages, channels, video calls, and file sharing
- It’s open-source, customizable, and you own all your data (again, it’s your server)!
- Inline message translations
Rocket. Chat offers cloud-based deployment plans with 24/7 email support at $2 a user per month.
Microsoft 365
Share and edit documents, now with messaging
TODAY’S BEST DEALS
REASONS TO BUY
+Familiar software+Collaborative editing+Teams provides UC+Cost-effective bundling
Microsoft Office may not be the first platform you think of when it comes to collaboration, but this now runs at the heart of the Microsoft 365 cloud-based office suite.
This is important because Microsoft Office remains the most used and therefore important office suite out there, and while there are competitors such as OpenOffice and Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) they still haven’t caught up to the same level of functionality and ease of use.
Therefore as Microsoft Office is likely to be at the heart of many businesses, the move to Microsoft 365 offers a number of advantages, not least the ability for teams to collaborate directly on the same set of documents. This could be anything from work shifts in an Excel spreadsheet to a presentation in PowerPoint, to client reports written in Word.
Added to this is that Microsoft Teams now comes bundled with a number of Microsoft 365 packages, allowing for Unified Communications integrated with the traditional office software.
What makes Microsoft 365 more attractive is that as a cloud-hosted platform it can be used not just with Windows, but also Mac, Android, and iOS.
Pricing depends on whether you are buying for personal or business use, with fees starting from $6.99 or $8.25 a month peruse, with business use requiring pre-paid annual plans.
However, one little advertised alternative option is Microsoft 365 Business Basics, which offers most of the same software packages and options as above, but only comes in at $5 per month per user when paid annually. This makes the entire package extremely cost-effective, especially when compared to standalone UC and collaboration software prices.
Overall, Microsoft 365 doesn’t simply offer a great office suite, but one that is also firmly designed for collaboration and sharing with teams.
Trello
An app for organising all your projects
REASONS TO BUY
+Clean, easy-to-use interface+Free version
REASONS TO AVOID
-Not many comms features
If you have ever looked into project management software and online collaboration tools, then no doubt you’ve come across Trello. Available on the web and with mobile apps, it lets you easily organize projects and work on them with colleagues.
The platform allows you to work with boards or lists, which can be organized by teams and different tasks. And within these, you can set up to-do lists and delegate amongst colleagues. There’s also the option to assign comments to cards – a quick way to give feedback to others.
Furthermore, Trello boasts a number of integrations with apps such as Evernote, GitHub, Google Drive, and Slack. You can download the app for free, but there are premium options available that give access to more features.
The Premium pricing tier unlocks a number of additional administrative features for better organization. There’s also an Enterprise edition which is priced according to the number of users required and provides some additional organizational management features.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is a business communication and collaboration platform that’s a part of the Microsoft 365 suite.
Users can meet via video, chat and share files via instant messaging, communicate via audio calls, and co-author and store files within the Microsoft 365 workspace (PowerPoint, Excel, Word, etc.) Video meetings can host up to 100 participants for a maximum of 60 minutes. Screen sharing, meeting scheduling, and unlimited chat messaging are also available.
If we had to choose the best option for free team collaboration tools, Microsoft Teams would likely be the winner for companies prioritizing video and audio calls.
However, Teams fall short in providing basic task management features. While the other options on this list include at least some native task management tools, only the paid versions of Teams provide project management features.
Just as team leaders must integrate some of the collaboration tools discussed here with video conferencing software in order to share screens and virtually meet face-to-face, Microsoft Teams requires app integration or payment to access project management tool features.
The free version of Microsoft Teams includes:
- Audio calls
- Blurred background
- Custom backgrounds
- Chat messenger
- Unlimited users
- Unlimited and searchable group chat history
- File sharing (2 GB maximum per user, 10 GB per team)
- Over 250 app integrations
- File notation/editing
Best For Microsoft Teams is best for companies that primarily communicate via video communication, and therefore need to be able to share screens, access in-video chat messaging, and share/edit files within video calls. Additionally, it’s ideal for teams already working within the Microsoft 365 universe.
Fleep
Fleep is a chat messaging, file sharing, and task management platform that organizes channels according to Conversations.
Each Conversation has a unique Pinboard where users can highlight important updates, files, links, or notes that they need everyone on their team to see and have editing access to. Note that you can search for external users in the Fleep database and automatically add them to your workspaces.
Fleep has advanced chat features including not only user presence but also information about when they were last online and read receipts to ensure you always know who has and has not received your messages. Fleep also has a writing indicator.
Users can create list-based tasks, assign tasks and upload relevant files to the task File Drawer, highlight important tasks, and monitor task progress. There’s also a Fleep weekly progress report that provides updates on tasks, completed projects, and upcoming projects.
Additional Fleep free plan features include:
- User status updates
- Chat history
- Integrations with Zapier, Slack, Google Drive, JIRA, and more
- 10 GB of storage
- Search chat history by user
- Full message history
- Unlimited 1:1 conversations
- VIdeo integrations
- Up to 3 Conversations
Best For Fleep is best for small teams that frequently collaborate with external users, as well as teams that have advanced task management needs.
Conclusion
The people who work for your organization are the most important factor to its success. Everyone has a voice and an opinion, and it is those opinions that often fuel successful plans. Collaborative efforts allow those voices to be heard so everyone falls in line with the same goal. Team collaboration software simplifies communication to everyone involved so you can focus more on getting things done and less on fighting to get them done.