Collaboration Tools is a set of online tools for team collaboration. Team Collaboration Tools includes a ToDo list, a Board for Scrum and a Project. Each Team Collaboration Tool starts a web service that communicates via standard protocols, XML-RPC in particular, so it can be used in conjunction with DC’s desktop tools. The services are free forever.
Team Collaboration Tools is a unique collection of desktop, mobile and web tools for teams. It is intended to help team members with everyday tasks so they can improve productivity, reduce errors and collaborate better.
Slack
If you’ve heard of team chat, you’ve probably heard of them. IM, channels, video calls, integrations and bots for hundreds of third-party tools; Slack has it all. But the free plan limits you to 10 service integrations, so choose wisely.
Image: Slack
Slack’s free plan
- Unlimited users, messages, and channels
- Unlimited one-to-one voice and video calls
- 5GB storage for file sharing and 10K message history
- Up to 10 apps or service integrations
For video conferencing (up to 15 participants) and guest accounts, you’ll need to upgrade to a Standard plan that costs $6.67 per user per month. There’s also a Plus plan that adds more features at $12.50 a user per month.
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!
Image: TechRepublic
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.
Zoho Cliq
Zoho Cliq lets you view multiple conversations—each in its own column—so you don’t have to shuffle back and forth between a channel discussion and a private chat with a colleague. Also, host video conferences with up to 100 participants on the free plan.
Unsurprisingly, Cliq integrates smoothly with other Zoho apps, but there are also integrations for third-party services such as Asana, Wrike, and Zapier.
Image: Zoho
Cliq’s free plan
- Unlimited users, messages, and channels (up to 100 members in each)
- Video conferencing with up to 100 participants + screen sharing
- 100GB storage for file sharing and 10K message history
- 10 third-party app integrations
For $3 a user per month, Cliq Unlimited offers unlimited message search, ups file storage, and lets you connect up to 100 third-party integrations. It also unlocks the PrimeTime Assembly feature, so you can stream live video to as many as 10,000 participants.
Wrike
Wrike is a scalable desktop and iOS/Android mobile team collaboration platform designed to streamline interdepartmental communication, improve employee productivity, and clarify team member tasks and responsibilities.
Its free plan for up to 5 users includes basic task creation, real-time progress updates and activity streams, board and spreadsheet views, and customizable open-source templates/dashboards.
Users can drag boards to reorder specific tasks according to timelines or priority, and the activity streams are designed to mimic social media feeds for ease of use. Users can create specific activity stream filters to avoid having to comb through irrelevant information to find notes/updates on projects they have been assigned.
While Wrike integrates with Google Hangouts, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom, as of this writing, it does not have a native video calling feature or chat messenger tool (though users can leave comments and tag co-workers on Wrike boards.) In order to make a video call, share screens with others, or use chat messenger features, users will need to connect their preferred tool to Wrike.
Wrike also offers several paid add-on features like Wrike Integrate and Wrike Resource.
The free version of Wrike also includes:
- Organize activity into tasks, folders, or projects
- Task, folder, and project commenting/user tagging
- File sharing and up to 2GB of file storage
- Real-time Live Editor
- Mass Actions for tasks (bulk tasks status updates)
- Task filters according to status, assignee, deadline
- Table (spreadsheet) view
- Cloud storage integrations
- User inbox for notifications
- Google Drive, Outlook, Office 365, Dropbox integrations
Best For: Wrike is best for startups/micro-businesses that have a large amount of smaller daily tasks that don’t generally require a high amount of collaboration, but that are dependent on the task status of other team members’ projects. Popular use cases include product development, event planning, marketing departments, and IT teams.
Flock
Flock is a team messaging and cross-collaboration platform with a free version providing one-to-one video calls, chat communication channels, and task management capabilities.
Note that, though its interface is similar to Slack’s, Flock’s free version allows for public chat message channels only.
One of the best features of Flock is that it displays all of the new messages a user has been tagged in when they return to Flock after stepping away. This eliminates the need for users to dig through old messages to find important information.
Recently, Flock has also added the Voice Notes feature, where mobile users can send recorded audio messages to each other.
Task management capabilities include to-do lists with user tagging and task assignment, shared to-dos with automatic notifications, reminder setting, due dates, and task prioritization.
Though Flock’s free plan does include a video calling feature, users are limited to one-on-one conversations for a maximum of 20 minutes. Additionally, screen sharing is only available with a paid Flock plan, and it makes it difficult for users to find a screen sharing app that integrates with for free.
That being said, Flock still integrates with Jira, GitHub, ToDoist, Asana, Trello, and Zapier among others. It also allows you to build your own custom apps and integrate them with your Flock dashboard.
Flock’s free plan also includes:
- Up to 10 public channels
- Custom poling
- Channel muting
- Add tasks to integrated calendars
- 1 auto-join channel
- Announcement channel
- Unlimited third-party integrations
- File sharing and 5 GB of storage
- Note-taking app
- Chat pinning
- Unlimited 1-1 voice and video calls
- Team Admin
- Unlimited group messages
- Up to 10,000 searchable messages
Best For: Flock is best for SMBs that use many third-party communication and collaboration platforms, as well as businesses that need to integrate task management capabilities within their chat messaging platform. It’s also a good fit for mobile-first users.
Trello
Every business needs a task management platform, like Trello.
Trello is a digital collaboration tool that gives you a visual of all the projects or tasks your team is working on. It also shows you who is working on them and how much they’ve accomplished.
It works like a virtual whiteboard filled with post-it-note-like cards stacked in lists that can be moved across the board from a project’s phase to the next.
The layout focuses on the team’s view so that whoever checks a Trello board can understand the status of a project or task without having to email anyone for updates. Collaborators can assign themselves to any project or task they’re involved in.
Moreover, Trello is completely customizable. It allows users to build and customize their board according to their preferences and processes, not being tied to a predetermined structure.
But what makes Trello even better for startups is that its core product is free, regardless of location or industry.
Buffer
Over the years, social media has become a powerful marketing tool, and nowadays, a business that doesn’t have a solid social media presence might as well not exist.
In come Buffer, a team collaboration tool for carefully crafting timed posts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other platforms.
With one free account, users can manage one Twitter, one Facebook and one LinkedIn account with up to 10 pre-scheduled updates. For $65 per month, you can manage eight social accounts, send out 2,000 scheduled posts, and have a second-team member help manage the process.
Which option you choose will depend a lot on the industry your business operates in, and whether you conduct most of your business online or offline.
However, every brand, no matter the industry or size, should harness the marketing power of social media, and Buffer’s free account is the best option to start out with.
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.
Conclusion
Team collaboration tools help teams of all sizes stay connected through all phases of the software development cycle. Team members can be located in many places globally, working on different projects with different teams, yet remain part of one team that shares knowledge, information and work.