Free Collaboration Tools

Collaborate more efficiently by using free collaboration tools, including Microsoft Office Online , Microsoft Lync Online, and Skype for Business Online.

As a new member, you’ll have free access to more than 60 of our most popular collaboration tools, including Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom and more.

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

Microsoft Teams

Initially an exclusive for businesses with Office 365 subscriptions, Microsoft Teams has since launched a free plan for small businesses. We love its innovative features such as inline translation for messages and the ability to record meetings with automatic transcriptions. Also a plus, its deep integrations with OneDrive and Office 365 services.

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Microsoft Team’s free plan

Up to 300 users
Unlimited messages, channels, and search
Unlimited audio and video meetings with up to 250 participants
10GB of team file storage + 2GB per user
140+ apps and service integrations

For advanced collaboration features such as meeting recordings and automatic transcriptions, you’ll need to pony up for an Office 365 subscription. Office 365 Business Essentials costs $5 a user per month and the full-featured Office 365 Business Premium will set you back $12.50 a user per month.

Discord

Discord bills itself as an all-in-one voice and text chat for gamers, and it’s clear why. In addition to the usual private and group DMs, Discord offers a new way of collaborating in real-time: Voice channels. Think of them as always-on radio channels to talk to your team. Loved by gamers, voice channels can also be an easier, less stressful way to collaborate remotely on shared documents. More importantly, Discord offers unlimited voice, video, and text chat—all for free!

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Discord’s free plan

Unlimited users, messages, text and voice channels, and file sharing (individual file size < 8MB)
Unlimited video conferences with up to 10 participants + screen sharing
A cool Text-to-Speech function that reads out what you type!

Discord Nitro Classic lets you upload a GIF avatar, use custom emojis everywhere, and ups that pesky file size limit to 50MB – for $4.99 per user per month.

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.

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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.

Looking for more options? Check out our guide to the best collaboration tools for productive teams (includes both free tools and pricier options).

“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.”
– Babe Ruth

In sports or business, teamwork is key to success, and choosing the right collaboration software can transform how your team works together. With the best business collaboration apps offering generous free plans, there really is no excuse to not get your team on-board anymore!

Video Conferencing

Given that Zoom’s user base went from 10 million to 200 million during the first 3 months of 2020, many project managers now see video conferencing as the most important feature or integration when choosing the right team collaboration tool.

This is especially true for geographically diverse teams, entirely remote teams, or teams with both in-office and remote employees.

When evaluating the video call capabilities of a collaboration solution, consider the maximum meeting length, the number of meeting attendees, and how many simultaneous participant screens can be displayed.

Look for solutions with HD audio and video, conference calling capabilities, and accompanying instant messaging (more on that in a moment.)

Other key web conferencing features include:

Host controls (screen sharing, mute/unmute users)
Background screen
Virtual hand raising
Live Streaming/webinar capabilities
Security (encryption, password protection, waiting room, remove/block users)

CloudApp

A screen capture and screen recording app which comes with annotation and comments feature. Perfect for remote team collaboration.

ClickUp

Drown out the info noise and focus on get things done for you and your team with ClickUp.

Awwapp

Express spur of the moment ideas, funnels, and business plans quickly by drawing it on this free whiteboard tool. Love this one.

Toggl

It’s been said a billion times but it’s still true. Time is money. And the fine people at Toggle are well aware of that.

Their time-tracking app monitors your daily activities across different platforms. It integrates nicely with Trello and has extensions for Chrome and Firefox browsers. It’s also compatible with Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, web and Windows platforms.

Using a time-tracking app can be tremendously helpful to startups still perfecting their workflows. Because online collaboration tools like Toggle can give you detailed insights into your workflow and identify areas where you and your team can improve.

It’s also extremely useful for projects or tasks that are paid by the hour. You can log the exact number of hours you’ve worked on a particular task.

This particular team collaboration app starts free so your business can get started without any extra expense. Then as you grow, Toggle gives you have the option to upgrade to one of their paid plans with more features and storage.

Skype

Skype is one of the most popular and widely used communication tools in the world. It became so popular, that in 2011, Microsoft acquired it for a hefty $8.5 billion.

And contrary to what people expected post-acquisition, Skype has remained a free app.

Skype allows both audio and video calls, sharing your screen during video calls, and it can also call and text regular phone numbers and Skype users outside your company.

Another cool feature of this app is that, while offline, it still allows you to read and search past messages, as well as type in new messages which will be automatically sent when your internet connection is restored.

Should one or more team members miss a call, you can record your Skype calls to keep everyone in the loop.

For startups and smaller teams that need to be able to keep track of messages and communications, Skype is an excellent option. It works on virtually every device.

Samepage

Samepage is an extraordinary substitute for standard project management software. Samepage is made for those tightly laced teams that will benefit from all the tools designed to bring them together. Some of these tools include; team chat, video conferencing, task management, file sharing, and instantaneous document collaboration.

Samepage fosters collaboration, as it gives team members the ability to share any type of digital file or media. Most importantly, it keeps everything organized in one place to save your team time.

Whereby

Whereby is the best way to meet over video. You don’t need to download an app or any software. Just choose your own personalized URL and meet using your browser – on mobile or desktop – in one click.

Whereby has a range of features to help you collaborate and communicate. Like Breakout Groups, virtual whiteboards with Miro, screen sharing and recording, and integrations with Google Docs, Trello and YouTube.

Pros

Voted ‘easiest to use’ video tool – start meetings in one click
Host meetings with up to 50 participants
No apps, downloads or installs required
Simple, beautiful design
Encrypted and secure video calls
Personalized meeting room with custom backgrounds and your company logo
Breakout Groups to run classes, virtual events, and workshops more easily

Cons

45-minute time limit for meetings with more than 2 participants on the Free plans
Not as widely known as other video conferencing tools

GoToMeeting

GoToMeeting is a robust online meeting and video conferencing tool designed to enable businesses to collaborate with their teams, clients, customers, and other businesses in real time via the Internet.

It is particularly great for international teams and can greatly reduce the learning curve as it also supports screen sharing.

The other handy features of the platform include messaging, group chat, recording, integration with other tools, and a one-click meeting feature that instantly schedules meetings in Google Calendar or Outlook.