In today’s increasingly competitive marketplace, small businesses have to look for creative ways to connect with customers, manage customer relationships and collaborate internally. Small Business Collaboration Software at its best enables you to work together effectively to increase productivity, cut costs and build better customer relationships.
This is a short breakdown of collaboration software in the small business environment. It describes the pros and cons of using this type of software in your business. There are many types of collaboration platforms available in the market today. Just like there are many ways to organize your ideas, goals, projects and initiatives for your company. It is very important that you choose the right method for you, taking into consideration your organizational ability and time; otherwise choosing the wrong software could end up being costly to your company’s productivity and profitability
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.
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.
Image: Microsoft
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!
Image: Hacker Noon
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.
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.
monday.com
Popular collaboration tool monday.com also doubles as a communication app and is targeted at project management teams. It has the ability to sync all project information in a single location while promoting better decision-making for both agents and project team members. The system can improve department and team performance by streamlining contributions. It assembles and logically displays project progress information, making sure that all users understand them.
Businesses also get to enjoy incentives, which can greatly aid personnel in carrying out their individual tasks and assignments. Monday comes with a sleek interface, which is designed for collaboration. The app can be readily used after the installation as its simplicity gets rid of the need for user training.
monday.com can be purchased in different pricing packages, starting at $39/month, billed annually. For those who want to take it for a spin first, a free trial is also available.
If you want to know more about the features you can easily sign up for monday.com free trial here.
Clarizen
Enterprise-grade collaboration tool Clarizen combines project management and social engagement capabilities. Its social collaboration feature aligns project teams towards executing ideas. This cloud-deployed system is not only easy to deploy, but is quite easier to use. Its ability to improve team performance has made it the tool of choice for over 2,300 organizations worldwide. An appealing test drive of all software features is available to you when you sign up for Clarizen free trial here.
The system connects projects, tasks, and conversations, helping businesses achieve success. Companies also get to accelerate the way they manage their projects, work, and initiatives. Budgets, resources, projects, portfolios, resources, and tasks are prioritized automatically, keeping a handle on key resources and information.
Clarizen’s pricing details are not disclosed publicly. You have to visit its official website and ask for a quote.
Hive
Cloud-based collaboration app Hive is designed for use by teams of any size. It comes with many features such as task management, file sharing and chat. The platform allows for the creation and organization of tasks for any project team member. These tasks can be customized to accommodate attachments and display labels and deadlines. Project progress can be tracked while deadlines and workloads can be altered. Also, Gantt charts can be used in planning individual tasks. The solution integrates with Box, Google Drive and Dropbox, making files accessible from a singular dashboard. Files may be shared by attaching them to actions or dragging and dropping them into messages.
Hive can be purchased in two pricing plans, starting at $12/user per month. For those who want to give it a try first, a free trial is also available.
Asana
Popular project management platform Asana is also known for facilitating communication and collaboration among project team members. Using the software, projects and tasks can be created within projects. The progress of these tasks can be tracked from different devices and browsers while team members can be added to projects and tasks if needed. Users can also share files with others and communicate with them using the app. Asana gets rid of the need for third-party applications and email in communicating. It can also be used to share notes, upload attachments of various formats and organize tasks, resulting in streamlined workflows and timely project delivery. The system can notify Asana users through their inbox, through which they may be invited to follow, check or comment on an update. Other key features include task relating, searching, change management and prioritizing of completion.
Asana is available in two distinct pricing plans, starting at $99.9/month. For those who only want its basic features, a free version is also available.
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.
Conclusion
Collaboration software helps small businesses stay on top of their game by making it easy to connect with colleagues, partners, and clients. It provides enterprise-level business practices in an affordable package, so you can communicate securely with others for less cost than other options on the market.