10 Best Remote Collaboration Tools (and 6 Free Virtual Collaboration Tools)
Table of contents
One of the aspects of the office that remote working can’t replicate is the organic conversations that spring up from being in a communal space. But just because those interactions are less frequent, doesn’t mean collaboration needs to suffer.
Improving collaboration and productivity among remote employees is possible via multiple strategies, including remote collaboration tools and remote team building activities.
We’ve put together a list of 10+ online collaborative tools and apps to spur ideation within your team no matter where they work.
| Remote Collaboration Tool | Effective for | Pricing |
| Slack | Messaging and chats, Voice and video calls, Workflow automation, Document management, Shared channels, & Reminders | Free versionPro plan: $7.25 per user per month (when billed yearly)Business+ plan: $12.50 per user per month (when billed yearly)Enterprise Grid plan: get a quote hereOpens in a new tab |
| Flock | File sharing, Polls, Video conferencing, Voice notes, Reminders, & To-do lists | Starter plan: free versionPro plan: $4.50 per user per month (A 30-day free trial is included)Enterprise plan: get a quote hereOpens in a new tab |
| Conversations® | Check-ins, Meetings, On-going feedback, & Gathering performance data | Get a quote here |
| Basecamp | Message board, Group chat, Automatic check-ins, File sharing, To-do lists, & Simple scheduling | $15 per user per month$299 per month for unlimited usersA 30-day free trial is included with both plans |
| Podio | Project management, Virtual workspaces, File sharing, Calendars, Mobile apps, & Add-ons | Free version (for 5 employees)Plus plan: $11.20 per employee per month (when billed yearly)Premium plan: $19.30 per employee per month (when billed yearly) |
| ProProfs Project | Seamless team collaborations, Communication facilitation, Secure data sharing, In-app notifications, Project calendar, Feedback sharing, Style guide, & Time tracking | Free trial for 15 daysMonthly plan: $49.97 per month for unlimited usersAnnual plan: $39.97 per month for unlimited users (when billed yearly) |
| Trello | Board and card system, Team collaboration, Data storage and search, Dynamic task management, Digital whiteboard, Workload management, & Progress monitoring | Free version (for individuals or limited teams)Standard plan: $5 per user per month (when billed yearly)Premium plan: $10 per employee per month (when billed yearly), includes a free 14-day trialEnterprise plan: custom pricing |
| Zoom | Virtual meetings, Team chat, Online whiteboards, & Conversation analytics | Basic plan: freePro plan: $149.90 per user per yearBusiness plan: $199.90 per user per yearEnterprise plan: custom pricing |
| Social Recognition® | Peer-to-peer recognition, Team awards, Personal notifications and nudges, Real-time recommendations, & Team-based, company-wide social feeds | Get a quote here |
| Tuple | Screen sharing, Crisp video and audio, One-click pairing, & Drawing while pairing | Free trial for 15 daysTeam plan: $30 per user per monthEnterprises plan: starting at $30,000 per year |
Best team communication tools
Communication is often reported as a challenge by remote employeesOpens in a new tab, but there are easy ways to keep employees connected.
1. Slack
Access to communication applications is one of the key ways to improve collaboration in remote work. Slack specializes in collaborative business communication.
Trusted by global businesses such as Uber, Airbnb, Etsy, and yes, even us at Workhuman, Slack packs all your tools and communications in one place.
According to responses from 2,707 Slack usersOpens in a new tab across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia, this tool improved communication for 85 percent of customers, improved workability for 86 percent, and strengthened team connections for 88 percent.
Slack operates via a channel system. You can set up channels for every team, topic, or project to keep all the related conversations in order. That way, all current members of a channel work in sync. Any new members get full context upon joining.
Slack allows you to hold voice and video calls, as well as share screens via Huddle. All messages, files, or images sent while using Huddle are stored in Slack for later access.
Slack offers scheduled and instant messaging, plus voice and video clip recording/sharing. Additionally, you can integrate Slack with over 2,200 apps to streamline the workflow and automate routine tasks to avoid delays for maximum productivity.
Slack also makes it easy for employees to connect over common interests and hobbies that strengthen their bonds and friendships at work.
2. Flock
Research reveals that remote employees experience at least a 25 percent reductionOpens in a new tab in collaboration time with colleagues in different groups. As one of the communication-oriented collaboration tools for remote workers, Flock can make remote and hybrid teams connect and work effectively.
According to the Takshashila Institution, implementing Flock in its collaboration stream has reduced email by 75 percent, which positively impacted team productivity. This collaboration software keeps everyone on the same page with channel messaging, where you can instantly share ideas, insights, and files. You can also provide real-time feedback. Flock also lets you email all the contacts you want in one go, conduct one-on-one conversations via direct messaging, and have a private workspace via Me Channel.
Additionally, Flock supports voice and video conferencing for convenient meetings, integrated search for quick finding of materials, and instant voice messages for full context.
Flock also includes productivity-boosting features like shared to-dos, opinion polls, individual/team reminders, and live updates.
3. Conversations®
Developed in-house, Conversations is a tool for establishing a connection among team members and managers. And it’s especially useful for remote teams. Check-ins are one of the most effective ways to connect and collaborate. It’s a place for problem-solving, working through deadlines, and just seeing how the other person is doing.
Beyond the human element, Conversations makes an immediate business impact. According to Brandon Hall Group, 65 percent of HR executives need manager check-in with employees to be of higher quality to provide better coaching and feedback.
Conversations does exactly that.
It excels in delivering frequent, effective check-ins and meetings with managers to raise employee engagement and productivity. Besides initiating a check-in, you can also share progress updates, create/record agenda items, monitor tasks, and more.
You can integrate your existing process into Conversations to capture the workflow and values of your business. No matter the device you’re operating, you’ll find this tool to be flexible and easy to navigate.
According to the Vice President of Talent Development at Qlik, Vikki Sly, Conversations® transformed communication within the company from backward-looking and evaluative to future-oriented and proactive.After a year of implementing this tool, 98 percent of Qlik employees reported viewing feedback as a valuable learning instrument. Seventy-five percent of employees better understand where their priorities stand with respect to those of the team.
4. Basecamp
This online collaboration tool is another way executives and managers across the organization can help their employees overcome remote communication challenges, including misunderstandings and confusion with assignments and deadlines
Using Basecamp, you can keep your tasks, schedule, and projects all organized on one simple dashboard.
Any conversation regarding a certain topic stays on a single page so everyone can view them and keep up. You can set notifications to reach only people involved with the topic to avoid distracting others.
Basecamp also lets you form to-do lists, assign tasks, specify due dates, and monitor progress. Additionally, all the files, images, and docs of a project are grouped for secure storage and sharing.
Basecamp also offers real-time team chat, intuitive scheduling, automated check-in polls, a refined Kanban system, detailed reports, tailored contact channels, and more.
You can try Basecamp for free for a month; after that, you can choose one of 2 subscription plans. Both come with unlimited projects, free guest/client invites, loads of storage space, all features/tools, 24/7 support, extra classes, and reliable uptime.
Best project management collaboration tools for remote teams
When it comes to project management in remote work, feeling disconnected, losing motivation, inadequate feedback, and miscommunication are just some of the challengesOpens in a new tab.
As such, a project management tool is a must.
5. Podio
Podio is a web-based collaboration solution to effectively manage remote teams and projects. It’s designed to provide teams with a structured outline that supports clarity and focus while minimizing distractions and confusion.
According to Michael Lentz from VertOpens in a new tab, Podio excels in flexibility as it makes all its business functions available on the go. Richard Weiss from TrackOpens in a new tab says that Podio makes it easy to monitor progress and automate tasks, which saves the company a lot of time.
Podio combines conversations and content in one intuitive dashboard where you can attach files, add comments, and receive status updates on the same page. You can choose how to view your work, from dynamic cards to simple tables, and even craft progress reports.
You can integrate Podio with various marketing products, customer support tools, and file storage services, including Google Drive, Dropbox, Freshbooks, and Sharefile.
Additionally, Podio lets you break down tasks for smoother management and add extensions for specific use cases. It supports Android and iOS platforms for enhanced mobility.
6. ProProfs Project
Trusted globally by over 15 million users, companies such as Sony, Dell, Ford, and Toyota use ProProfs for project collaboration.
María Franco Avalos, from the United Nations Development Program, reported that using ProProfs Projects led toOpens in a new tab a higher number of activity progress reports, better communication, improved recording/control of tasks, easier activity logging, and enhanced accountability.This project management tool allows you to create tasks, calendars, and milestones to plan your work. You can easily give assignments, track progress, set deadlines, share files, and develop performance reports.
ProProfs features Gantt charts to view timelines and Kanban boards to organize work. You can receive real-time updates, arrange project priorities, instantly generate client invoices, track time, and even calculate billable hours.
This tool helps teams to work together across web, tablet, and mobile platforms, supporting Windows, Mac, and any OS or browser.
7. Trello
Among the many online tools for collaborative working, Trello stands out thanks to its simplicity and style. It’s used by thousands of companies daily, such as UNICEF, Scan2CAD, Instinct, and McCorvey, which all experienced positive results.
For example, with 100 percent of the BurgerFi business adopting TrelloOpens in a new tab, the company witnessed an increase in project accountability, easier communication across departments, and improved alignment of individual efforts with BurgerFi’s top priorities.Based on Kanban boards, Trello features boards to organize every step of your projects and let you instantly see the status of every task. You can also track progress via Timeline, stay on top of scheduling with Calendar, and monitor key metrics with Dashboard.
Trello allows you to automate pretty much any action via Butler. This tool also offers templates for hundreds of project types (such as remote onboarding), includes many plugins to make work easier, and can be linked to thousands of other apps/services that your team is already using.
Best online collaboration tool for video conferencing
Remote work caused communication and collaboration to significantly change due to the lack of face-to-face interactions. As such, remote team collaboration solutions that focus on simulating high-bandwidth communication are indispensable for businesses.
8. Zoom
The demand for high-quality video conferencing software is more significant than ever, and it doesn’t look like it’s stopping any time soon.
Zoom is one of the world’s largest video conferencing platforms, with over 300 million daily users, 89 percentOpens in a new tab of which use it for professional meetings. In 2022 alone, more than 500,000Opens in a new tab companies were using Zoom.
This platform allows you to hold online audio and video meetings wherever you are and from any device with easy navigation, reliable stability, and maximum security.
The built-in collaborative tools make meetings as interactive as you wish, whereas the added polls, reactions, and filters make them more engaging.
Zoom also streamlines team communication with instant messaging and supports global-scale calls with its VOIP phone system.
Ideal for remote meetings, Zoom also features online whiteboards and provides actionable insights to enhance productivity.
Best collaborative tool for employee recognition
Recognition is one of the most important tools for maximizing employees’ productivity and boosting employee retention.
When employees don’t receive fulfilling recognition, they’re 4 times more likely to actively look for another job. On the other hand, when employees receive adequate recognition, they’re 56% less likely to actively seek or be on the watch for other positions.
9. Social Recognition®
It’s not easy to come across an effective collaboration tool for employee social recognition, but Workhuman’s Social Recognition is here to make that happen.
It allows managers to show appreciation based on performance, work output, professional achievements, and milestones such as promotions, bonuses, and work anniversaries.
According to the Workhuman-Gallup Report, it’s good practice to take recognition a step further by celebrating events not related to the job. This remote collaboration tool helps you recognize the human behind the work and create more inclusion by commemorating personal occasions to convey the message that your company values its employees as people.
Such a level of care leads to positive retention rates.
Various organizations joined forces with Workhuman, particularly using Social Recognition, and were able to successfully implement recognition and achieve impressive ROI (return on investment).
LinkedIn, for example, showed a 96% retention rate in current employees receiving recognition, whereas new workersOpens in a new tab receiving recognition demonstrated a 9% increase in retention rate. Similarly, employees at EATON were 2 times less likely to leave after receiving recognition.
Best online collaboration tool for screen sharing
When a teammate looks to collaborate with another, sharing a screen is sometimes necessary. The following collaborative software allows you to work in pairs.
10. Tuple
Originally designed for pair programming, Tuple is the ultimate platform for screen sharing.
While Zoom does a great job with this aspect, Tuple takes it several steps further to deliver highly-interactive remote pairing.
Far from generic, this innovative app allows both parties to control the mouse and keyboard at the same time. Pairing begins at a click, so the collaboration can start instantaneously.
Tupple comes with a handy screen annotation feature that lets you draw or highlight directly on the screen of your team during navigation. The 5K visual resolution and crisp audio mean that you’ll get every single bit of detail.
You may think that all of this pairing power demands a lot of CPU capacity; however, Tupple manages to do it at a very low CPU cost to keep your machine running smoothly for other processes. As such, you can focus on the work without hiccups.
Currently, TupleOpens in a new tab supports macOS and Linux only, but the company is working toward expanding to Windows as well.
6 Free virtual collaboration tools
1. ProProfs LMS
This remote employee training tool offers a 15-day free trial period. It features virtual classroom software and allows for course creation, self-paced learning, conducting surveys, giving quizzes, holding discussions, and generating learning reports.
2. Xtensio
This team collaboration software allows you to effortlessly build, manage, and share project documents. It features quick email notifications, accurate invoice generation, dashboard customization, and more.
The best part is that it’s available in a free forever planOpens in a new tab for unlimited users with a 3-project capacity.
3. 1Password
This app is one of the best remote collaboration tools for managing passwords. It features password generation, full compatibility with all devices and platforms, extensive security, and more — which you can enjoy for free during a 14-day trial periodOpens in a new tab.
4. Time Doctor
A remote work productivity study by Microsoft Teams revealed that while productivity has increased in employees working from home, 85 percentOpens in a new tab of leaders don’t trust their employees are being productive.
If needed, a time-tracking tool can monitor the output of any team member.
Time Doctor is one of the best online tools for time tracking, and you can try it for free for 14 daysOpens in a new tab.
5. InVision
This all-in-one online whiteboard serves as a solution for managers wondering how to engage remote employees via collaboration tools.
InVision is one of the best team collaboration tools for brainstorming, planning, and creating as remote workers. It offers a free forever planOpens in a new tab for up to 30 users, so you can try it right away.
📢 Attention all leaders and HR professionals! Are you struggling to create a recognition program that truly resonates with your employees? Look no further!
🔎 Our latest e-book, “There Is No One-Size-Fits-All Recognition,” provides valuable insights into the five essential pillars of meaningful recognition, with a focus on authenticity and personalization.
💡 Learn why these pillars are crucial for successful recognition programs and get practical tips for implementing them at your organization. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to improve your recognition strategy!
6. Psono
This self hosted password managerOpens in a new tab is designed for security-focused teams and individuals who need a self-hosted or cloud-based solution. It offers end-to-end encryption, multi-factor authentication, and extensive compatibility across devices and platforms. You can explore its features with a free version, while premium plans unlock additional enterprise-focused tools.
FAQS
What are the 4 types of collaboration tools?
These include communication tools, time management tools, organized tools, and roadmap tools.
What are virtual collaboration tools?
These tools enable people to share ideas and information online without being physically close to one another.
Final thoughts
Even with workforces spanning the globe, organizations don’t have to miss a beat with remote collaboration tools.
There’s a variety of online solutions, whether you’re looking for services focused on communications, project management, video conferencing, employee recognition, screen sharing, time tracking, or virtual whiteboards.