I know you were thinking it, but yes, I said “work.” Today’s blog post will be on some of the best collaboration tools available on the web for work—in general, not just marketing. It’s important to keep in mind that these tools might not be appropriate for your specific needs. But if you know a freelance marketer, a startup looking to streamline a workflow or a group of people working together—these tools can help. Some of them will cost you a pretty penny, but there are some great free options as well.
To make sense of them all, we are breaking down the best collaboration tools, based on the specific needs they satisfy. To make sense of this list, you should first determine your team’s specific needs. Consider the following questions:
- How does our team communicate best? – Do you prefer to use your collaboration tools strictly for communication? Do you like to use email as well? Answering these questions will help guide you to the best collaboration tool for your team.
- What types of projects are we collaborating on? – The tools an agency team would use to collaborate are very different from the tools that a team working in, say, manufacturing or real estate would use to collaborate. Make sure you have a solid understanding of the types of projects your entire team will be working on.
- How many people will be collaborating at one time? – This will affect the way you communicate, share information, and update on progress.
- Do we want to integrate multiple tools or do we want one, all-purpose platform? – Understanding your current tech stack and figuring out if you want to add to that or replace it is critical.
Team Communication Tools
Flock
We’d be remiss not to include Flock in our list of collaboration tools for productive teams. We’ve touted our features and pricing here on this blog, but here’s the deal:
Features
- Direct and team messaging
- Video conferencing and screen sharing
- File-sharing
- Advanced search
- Guest management
- Announcements
- Directory
- Auto-generated mailing lists
- To-dos
- Polls
- Notes
- Reminders
- Share code snippets
- Process automation
- Integrations
Pricing
- PRO plan: $4.50 per licensed user, per month (best value!)
- Custom pricing for large enterprises & organizations
Centralize your team’s communication and take teamwork to the next level. Try Flock.
Slack
Slack’s main interface
Slack is best known for its messaging platform, but also includes many integrations and tools that can be helpful for business.
Features
- Direct and team messaging
- Video conferencing and screen sharing
- File-sharing
- Advanced search
- Guest management
- Announcements
- Directory
- Private notes
- Reminders
- Share code snippets
- Integrations
Pricing
- Standard plan: $6.67 per person, per month
- Plus plan: $12.50 per person, per month
- Custom pricing for large enterprises & organizations
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is a newer tool, packaging together many Microsoft products like Skype, Office, and OneDrive.
Features
- Direct and team messaging
- Live Events – up to 10,000 viewers
- Video conferencing and screen sharing
- Built-in Office 365 apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and SharePoint.
- File-sharing
- Advanced search
- Guest management
- Announcements
- Directory
- Integrations
Pricing
- Free for chat only
- $12.50 per user/month for Office 365 Business Premium
- $20.00 per user/month for Office 365 E3
See our best team conferencing tools for business here.
Team Project Management Tools
Monday.com
Monday.com
Monday offers team and project management features with an assortment of different project trackers and file-sharing abilities.
Features
- Customizable project tracking templates
- Gantt charts and Kanban
- Calendar view
- Files view
- File-sharing
- Desktop and mobile
- Integrations
- Process automation
Pricing
- Based on user size
- $39 – $1599+ per month
Asana
Asana’s task tracker
Asana isn’t just for development teams. Asana is similar to Monday.com in its focus on tracking work and getting it done.
Features
- Customizable project tracking templates
- Lists and Kanban
- Calendar view
- Files view
- File-sharing
- Desktop and mobile
- Templates
- Integrations
Pricing
- Basic – Free for up to 15 users
- Premium – $10.99 per user, per month
- Business – $24.99 per user, per month
- Custom pricing for large enterprises & organizations
JIRA
JIRA project board
JIRA’s value lies in its ability to track projects and manage bug fixes in a product. This makes it effective for client-facing teams, especially SaaS companies.
Features
- Customizable project tracking templates
- Gantt charts, scrum boards and Kanban
- Reporting
- Integrations
Pricing
- Standard: starting at $7 per user, per month
- Premium: starting at $14 per user, per month
- Max 5,000 users
Trello
Trello
Trello offers a free plan that allows project and task tracking on a business-ready level. For more features, businesses can opt into their business or enterprise plan.
Features
- Customizable project tracking cards
- Create and comment via email
- Automation
- Calendar view
- Map view
- Voting
- Integrations (“Power-Ups”)
Pricing
- Free plan with limited features
- Business class: $9.99 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $20.83 per user, per month
Team Collaboration Tools
Google Drive
Google Drive
At this point, Google Drive is eponymous with file sharing. Its impressive storage, collaborative abilities, and cross-device sync makes it a leader for collaborative teams.
Features
- Storage
- Shared Drives
- Docs, Sheets, Slides
- Assign tasks
- Request approvals
- Track versions
- Device sync
- Sharing, viewing, collaborating
- AI-powered search
- Integration
Pricing
- Personal: Free for up to 15GB
- Enterprise: $8 per user, per month + $1 per 25GB
Dropbox
Dropbox
Dropbox is another leader in cloud-based file-sharing, in part due to its ease of use. Dropbox has also recently launched a Timelines feature, which makes for great project planning and tracking alongside file-sharing.
Features
- Storage
- Shared folders
- Assign tasks
- Track versions
- Device sync
- Sharing, viewing, collaborating
- To-dos
- Gantt-style timelines
- Personalized suggestions
- Remote wipe
- Integration
Pricing
- Standard: $12.50 per user, per month
- Advanced: $20 per user, per month
Quip
Quip’s Slides feature
Quip is among the newer players in collaborative software. Quip allows for easy file sharing with group chat and direct messaging features. Its pricing is competitive, and Quip touts building “a culture of action” among teams.
Features
- Sharing, viewing, collaborating
- Documents, spreadsheets, and slides
- Group chat and 1:1 messaging
- Integration
Pricing
- Starter: $10 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $25 per user, per month
Xtensio
Xtensio’s customizable documents
Xtensio is a collaboration tool that allows team members to create and share beautiful living documents easily.
Features
- Intuitive page builder
- Branded documents
- Customizable templates
- Dedicated workspace
- Access anytime, anywhere
- Responsive presentations
- Password-protected links
- Downloadable documents in PDF/PNGs
Pricing
- Basic: $8/mo/user
- Full Access: $15/mo/user
- Custom pricing for enterprise
Teamwork
Teamwork sets up project management over multiple styles
Teamwork is a powerful, feature-rich yet easy to use Project Management Tool used by over 20,000 companies.
Features
- View tasks as lists, gantt charts or board views
- Time tracking allows you to track the amount of time being spent on tasks and increases accountability.
- Resource and workload management allows you to assess team member workloads for more efficient task planning and distribution.
- Task and project creation and management, upload files, add comments all in one centralized location.
- Tailor client free access and permissions to areas such a time tracking and invoicing, perfect for agencies.
- Track project progress with dashboards, board view and project health status updates.
- Excellent customer support centre.
Pricing
- Free Forever: Max 5 users, 2 projects
- Pro: $10 per month per user (billed annually), $12.50 billed monthly
- Premium: $18 per month per user (billed annually), $22.50 billed monthly
- Contact for Enterprise rates
Conclusion
Most businesses are now without their own office space. The idea of working from home has grown in popularity due to flexible working hours, convenience and cost savings. Managing a team remotely is difficult without the right tools, but many work collaboration tools are available for use.