9 Best Team Collaboration Tools, Apps, and Software

Gone are the days when managing employees and tasks was difficult. That paperwork and manual follow-up of tasks took a lot of time.

Today, in the fast-moving age, it is difficult to manage the whole team and projects every day. There are so many activities to look after.

Thus, many companies focus on automating it with the help of the best team collaboration tools.

Why is a Team Collaboration Tool Required?

We cannot deny the fact that COVID-19 made a huge impact on work culture. People are working from home.

There are many companies that have allowed certain departments to permanently work from home.

In such cases, communicating with remote employees and managing the tasks become difficult.

Also, today, freelancing is growing at a faster pace. Employees want liberty from their 9 – 5 jobs. So, many companies hire freelancers nowadays.

Now, managing those large teams of freelancers again becomes difficult.

So, this is where team collaboration tools and apps come into the role. They make managing and communicating tasks very easy.

As per Gartner’s survey, there is a 44% rise in using team collaboration tools, since the pandemic began, from 2019 to August 2021

Benefits of Team Collaboration Software

Team collaboration software is not only about better communication. It is much more than that.

Here are some of the benefits of team collaboration tools and software:

• Improved communication
• Smooth workflow
• Better project management
• Increased work speed
• More employee engagement
• Enhanced learning environment
• Elimination of hierarchy
• Cost-effective
• Increase in profit

Now, we will take a look at the 9 best team collaboration software, apps, and platforms in detail.

1. Motion

Motion is a team collaboration and productivity platform to streamline your tasks, projects, and workflows.

For starters, you can create, assign, and track tasks and projects. Set due dates, add comments, attach files, and organize everything into neat little projects.

Next, Motion lets you collaborate with your team in real time. Comments, mentions, and file sharing to keep everyone on the same page.

You can customize workflows to fit your team’s specific needs. Define stages, automate tasks, and set up notifications.

Need to track time?

Motion’s got your back with built-in time tracking.

And if you’re a data nerd like me, you’ll love the detailed reports and analytics on project progress, team performance, and productivity metrics.

But the real MVP here is the mobile app. With Motion on your phone, you can access your tasks, projects, and team anytime, anywhere.

Key Features:

• Task and Project Management — Create, assign, and track tasks and projects. Set due dates, add comments/files, and organize into projects.
• Team Collaboration — Enable real-time collaboration with comments, @mentions, and file sharing. Stay updated on project progress easily.
• Customizable Workflows — Define custom workflows tailored to your team’s needs. Set stages, and automate tasks, and notifications.
• Time Tracking — Built-in time tracking to log hours spent on tasks/projects for billing, analysis, and resource allocation.
• Reporting and Analytics — Detailed reports on project progress, team performance metrics, and productivity insights.
• Integrations — Connects with apps like Google Drive, Dropbox, Slack, etc. for seamless data sync.
• Mobile Apps — Access your tasks, and projects, and collaborate on the go via iOS and Android apps.

Pros:

• Centralized platform for task/project management and team collaboration
• Customizable workflows to fit your team’s needs
• Time tracking and reporting/analytics capabilities
• Integrations with popular productivity apps
• Mobile apps for on-the-go access

Cons:

• Not as advanced team features as apps like ClickUp.
• No free plan.

Ratings:

Capterra: 4.3/5

App Store: 4.3/5

G2: 4.2/5

Pricing:

Motion offers a 7-day free trial. Their Individual plan starts at $34/month or $19/month if you go with the yearly billing. The Team plan costs $20 per member/month ($12/month on yearly billing).

2. Notion

Notion is another team collaboration tool that is simple to use.

You can use it for personal or professional work. Any type of industry can use it to manage their teams and projects.

Notion positions itself in the market as an ‘all-in-one workspace’.

Your whole team can collaborate and work on projects at the same place. They can discuss all a task with a click on the particular task card and track their progress.

Currently, more than 5 million people worldwide download it.

Brands like Pixar, Loom, Kin+Carta, etc., trust Notion.

Key Features:

• Workspace – Create a workspace for the teams to collaborate and discuss all the tasks. Also, you can create a workspace for yourself where you can take notes, and save some important documents that you want to refer to from time to time.
• Kanban framework – There are many templates to choose from for your project and team management. The formates are, for example, excel, kanban, calendar, and many more.
• File sharing – You can share the files related to the task with your team. This improves productivity and communication speed.
• Project management – Notion makes project management easy. You can divide it into small tasks and assign them to employees who are apt for it. Also, mark the status of the project as ‘in progress’, or ‘completed’. Along with that, shift the task card to the next level as it gets completed. You can also add all the requirements and files related to that task within the task card. It helps to know the team what needs to be done.
• Team collaboration – Bring all your employees together to manage the projects. Notion helps improve communication by creating a workspace for the team. The separate departments can create separate workspaces to discuss the project. Also, the task cards contain a comment section where all the concerned people can communicate related to that task. Also, share the files within that task card.
• Integration – Notion helps integrate its platform with others for better work management. It helps save time switching platforms and increases work productivity.

Pros:

• Choose among the templates you want your project progress to be visible in.
• Take notes and create checklists for a task.
• Track every second of the project.
• Free version available.

Cons:

• If you do not use the Notion app, then you will always need to keep an eye on your mail for company updates. Else, you might miss important messages.
• Notion is not accessible offline.

Ratings:

Google Play Store: 3.7/5

G2: 4.6/5

Capterra: 4.8/5

Pricing:

There are four pricing plans offered by Notion.

3. Teamwork

Teamwork is another excellent project and team management software.

They offer many features like planning, budgeting, and resource allocation for a project. Assign the tasks to the employees and track the work progress every moment. Also, you can manage the clients using Teamwork if you run an agency.

Every size of company can use Teamwork to increase their team productivity.

Brands like PayPal, Disney, Spotify, HP, etc., trust them for enhanced team communication and project management.

Key Features:

• Project Management – Effortlessly manage many projects at a time.
• Client Management – If you run an agency, then you can manage the clients’ projects. Track their work and rank the task based on which client needs to get served first.
• Time Tracking – Track the time of tasks allocated to the team. You get to know if any project is taking much time. In such a case, you can set that task as a high priority so that the team will focus more on that to meet the deadline.
• Team Collaboration – Bring the whole team together under one roof. Whether they are working offline or remotely. Teamwork makes team management easy and quick. As a manager, you can assign small tasks with this tool and the concerned employee gets the notification of the task assigned to them.
• Billing – After tracking the billable time taken to complete a project, you can encash it with the clients.
• Reporting – Get the detailed analytics of which project is done, incomplete, time taken by a task, budget consumption, the resource used, etc. This report will help you control the current project, and also help you plan for the next.
• Chat – You can chat with your teammates, share files, and do video calls for a quick discussion.
• Integration – Teamwork integrates with all the important tools that your business needs for leveraging the work.

Pros:

• Quick setting up of project goals.
• Mark the task as high, medium, or low so that the team can work on the priority task immediately.
• Plan the budget for a project.
• Track the time taken to complete a task.
• There is a risk meter available. If you think that any risk may occur in the running project in the future, then you can create a risk post making the whole team aware of it. Risk can be related to budget, schedule, or performance.
• Get real-time notifications when you get assigned any task, mentioned in any chat, unread messages, etc.
• Use project tags to search the projects.
• Free trial available.

Cons:

• The interface and the features need time to learn and get used to it.
• Not too many customization opinions available like Asana.
• Reporting needs improvement. More options can be added.
• Limited features in the free version.

Ratings:

Google Play Store: 3.5/5

G2: 4.4/5

Capterra: 4.5/5

Trust Radius: 8.7/10

Pricing:

Teamwork offers four pricing plans. As you go up, you get additional features.

*Teamwork’s most recommended plan is ‘Grow’.

4. Taskade

If you want a simple team collaboration tool, Taskade is the answer.

It has a different interface as compared to other collaboration software.

Taskade helps you manage your projects by creating a plan sheet, assigning the tasks to the team, and tracking the work progress.

The whole team can communicate with each other through chats, sharing files, and meetings. They can also create to-do lists, and task scheduling in the calendar.

Also, you can do project planning and discussions with unique features like mind-mapping, calendar planning, project board, etc.

All these features reduce the manual task of maintaining separate documents. In Taskade, all the files are stored in one place which is accessible to the team.

Any type of company of any team size can use their software. Also, Taskade is downloadable in a wide range of systems like Linux, Edge, iOS, Android, Windows, and many more.

Brands like Netflix, Sony, Compass, Shopee, etc., trusted Taskade for teamwork and task management.

Key Features:

• Work templates – Choose among the wide range of templates that best suits your purpose.
• Team communication – The whole team can collaborate with this tool and communicate about the projects. They can chat and do video conferencing for discussions.
• Project planning – Many projects can be created and managed in Taskade. You can plan and schedule the tasks in the calendar available. So, the team can use it as a reference, which is the upcoming task.
• Integration – Taskade can also integrate with many outside tools that are useful for your business. Visit their website to see the list of integrating tools.

Pros:

• 500+ customizable templates.
• Free version available.
• Easy to use.
• Interesting visuals with different interfaces.
• Learning sources to know about Taskade in detail.
• You can share calendars and to-do lists with your team.
• The to-do lists are also printable and exportable.

Cons:

• Limited features in the free version.
• Few features as compared to other tools.
• Unlike other tools, tasks cannot be moved from one list to another.
• Lack of Gantt charts.

Ratings:

Google Play Store: 4.6/5

G2: 4.7/5

Capterra: 4.5/5

Pricing:

The three pricing plans of Taskade are as follows:

5. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a product of Microsoft. It is one of the best tools to bring remote workers together.

With over 100 million-plus downloads, Microsoft Teams has received a great response from the market.

Not only corporates but family and friends can also take advantage of it to organize parties through better communication with Microsoft Teams. Also, school students can use it for project and assignment completion together.

Key Features:

• Instant invitation – Send invites to the people to join groups with their email id or phone number.
• Chat – Create groups for improved communication among and within departments.
• Meet – Schedule or send instant meet links for face-to-face team meets.
• Calendar – Find all the scheduled meets, reminders, and holidays set in your calendar. You can even add Google Calendar to the Microsoft Teams software.
• Activity – In this section, check all the notifications like messages, mentions, replies, etc.
• File sharing – Share the documents with the team members.
• Integration – Microsoft Teams can integrate with Microsoft Office apps and third-party apps.

Pros:

• Free version available. You only need to create an account and you are good to go.
• Full security with data encryption.
• Cloud storage of 5 GB per user in the free version. You get more storage capacity in the paid version.
• Pin important messages to avoid unnecessary scrolling.
• Not only text messages, but you can create tables in the messaging space for organized message delivery.
• Share important messages by not copy-pasting but by clicking on more options and selecting the groups you want to share in.
• Download Microsoft Teams App for quick and remote access.

Cons:

• Limited service in the free version.
• Audio and video quality can be improved.

Ratings:

Google Play Store – 4.7/5

G2: 4.3/5

Gartner: 4.4/5

Capterra: 4.4/5

Pricing:

Microsoft Teams has two separate pricing plans for business and personal use.

You get the difference in the availability of features for both purposes. As you go up in the plans, extra features and benefits get added.

Here are the pricing plans in detail:

For Business:

*Their ’Microsoft 365 Business Basic’ is the most popular plan.

For Home:

* As per Microsoft Teams, ‘Microsoft 365 Family’ gives you the best value.

6. Workplace from Meta

Yes, you heard it right. Workplace is a collaboration tool by Meta (earlier known as Facebook).

They have everything you’ve got to improve communication within the team. We will be looking into its features in detail soon.

Unlike Microsoft Teams, Workplace is for corporate use only. Employees stay connected and informed whether they are remote or working in-office. Front-end and back-end, both communicate effectively for task management.

Over 7 million companies worldwide use Workplace. 10 million users downloaded their app as per Google Play Store.

Brands like Nestle, Domino’s, Spotify, Century 21, etc use Workplace by Meta.

Key Features:

• Live video – Organize your company’s live events anywhere and anytime. Connect with either a laptop or mobile device using the Workplace app.
• Analytics – Get detailed insights into how workers engage with live sessions, chats, and polls.
• Knowledge library – All the learning resources, your company’s policies, rules, articles, and ideas can be found in this mobile-friendly knowledge library.
• Chat – Create groups, mark important messages and announcements, create polls, appraisal posts, and many more.
• Integration – Quickly integrate with third-party apps.

Pros:

• Sharing of articles, ideas, and announcements has the same interface as Meta (Facebook).
• Easy to use the software.
• Mobile app for quick access.
• 30 days free trial.
• Full customer support.
• Translate the message as per the employees’ language preference.

Cons:

• Pricy for small businesses.

Ratings:

Google Play Store: 4.7/5

G2: 4/5

Capterra: 4.4/5

Pricing:

They have a Core plan of $4 per user/month. It includes all the basic features like live video, groups, posts, etc.

At the same time, they offer add-ons to the Core plan.

• Enhanced Admin and Support – $2 per user/month
• Enterprise Live – $2 per user/month

So, if you feel like you need these add-ons, you can buy them all as a package. But before that, I would suggest you go for a 30-day free trial.

7. Slack

Want something more secure than email?

Slack is that software that claims that it is more secure than email.

Unlike emails, they do not allow any spam or phishing messages from any third party. All the messages you receive will be from your organization members only.

At times, you might receive texts from third-party software that you have integrated with Slack.

Brands from any industry can use it. Also, Slack is fit for all the departments like marketing, sales, IT, security, HR, etc.

As per Google Play Store, over 10 million people across the world have downloaded Slack.

Enterprises like Netflix, Uber, Intuit, Expedia, Zomato, Swiggy, etc., trust Slack for team collaboration.

Key Features:

• Channels – Create channels for any department to communicate with your team.
• Messages – You can DM any of your colleagues for discussions.
• Project management – Create groups based on the project. Add the members from different departments who will be working on it.
• Alerts – Get instant notifications like mentions, unread messages, drafts, etc.
• Files sharing – Share docs, images, audio, and videos with the team. You can even share a screen and record it with Slack and share it with your team.
• Integration – Connect other third-party tools with Slack to find all your task in one place. It eases the management process.
• Enterprise Key Management – Use your key stored in Amazon WorkSpace’s Key Management Service (AWS KMS). It will encrypt all your organization’s files and messages and give you extra security.

Pros:

• Simple and easy-to-use interface.
• Free trial available.
• Quick sign-up with Google.
• Strong security system to protect your organization from a data breach by 90%.
• 24/7 customer support.

Cons:

• At times, you do not get the message notifications on the app.
• You can take a maximum of 15 people on a voice or video call.
• Very limited features in the free version.
• Fewer features as compared to other team collaboration tools.

Ratings:

Google Play Store – 3.8/5

G2: 4.5/5

Capterra: 4.7/5

Trust Radius: 9/10

Pricing:

Slack offers four pricing plans.

8. Trello

Want project management and team collaboration software that can automate your work?

Trello is the answer.

Like other tools, Trello also uses the Kanban technique to manage your projects.

Any size of business can use it to enhance its productivity by bringing the whole team together.

They use technology to automate your work. It reduces your manual tasks so that you do not worry about small and repetitive work.

Brands like Google, VISA, Zoom, Coinbase, Grand Hyatt, etc., trusted Trello.

Key Features:

• Lists and Cards – These help you manage your project. You can track the time, and tasks, plan in your calendar and get the productivity metrics. Also, as you click on the card, you get more details related to the task. The team members can comment on it whether it is perfect or needs any improvement.
• Automation – They have a bot named Butler who automates your regular tasks. For example, prioritizing tasks that are near to the deadline; assigning the task to the employees; moving the task card to the next workflow level with a click, and many more.
• Reporting – Get the reports of how your project is going and which one needs your attention.
• Integration – Integrate all those tools with Trello to manage all your work under one roof.

Pros:

• Easy to use.
• Free version available.
• Simple to set up.
• Wide range of templates to choose from.
• Follow industry standards.

Cons:

• Few features in the free version.
• Simple tool with limited features.
• No customization option.

Ratings:

Google Play Store: 4.3/5

G2: 4.4/5

Capterra: 4.5/5

Trust Radius: 8.4/10

Pricing:

Choose among the four plans Trello offers to you. You can try their free version first to get an idea of the tool.

*The ‘Enterprise’ plan is chargeable based on the number of users. For more than 5,000 users, you need to contact their sales team for pricing details.

9. ClickUp

ClickUp says that it can replace all the team collaboration tools offered in the market. As per them, their tool contains everything your business needs to manage teams and projects.

Well-established brands like Samsung, IBM, and Belmond trust ClickUp to manage their company’s tasks.

There are many exciting features like creating projects, setting goals, sharing docs, team communications, etc.

A team of 1,000+ can get collaborated with a click using ClickUp. All the types of departments can work together.

ClickUp is perfect for enterprises, startups, non-profit organizations, and personal use.

Key Features:

• Team Collaboration – Bring the whole team together. Chat, share files, comment on the tasks, and discuss the projects.
• Project Management – Create many projects at a time. Execute it by dividing it into small tasks and assigning them to different employees.
• Client Management – You can also manage clients if you run an agency or provide any service. Create their own project and separate teams to handle particular tasks.
• Integration – ClickUp can integrate with many third-party apps. It makes your work easier and increases your productivity.
• Reporting – Track the progress of every work, every minute. Get the reporting of which task is completed, or incomplete, and many more.
• Task Automation – Automate the manual task of assigning the work, changing the work status, and commenting. Automation reduces a lot of regular work, making you focus on the primary tasks.

Pros:

• Customizable view of task cards.Multiple user editing options.
• Whiteboard for team discussion of project planning.
• Visually appealing interface.
• Easy to use setup.
• Import the task from the third-party software you use.
• Free version available.
• Free software training.
• 24 /7 customer support service.
• Strong security of data.

Cons:

• Limited features in the free version.
• The software lags at times. It takes a few seconds to show the updated change.

Ratings:

Google Play Store: 3.9/5

G2: 4.7/5

Gartner: 4.7/5

Trust Radius: 8.7/10

Pricing:

Here are the five pricing plans of ClickUp on per user basis.

Conclusion

Today, most of us work from home. For a business, it becomes challenging to coordinate and follow up on work progress.

So, we have compiled this list of some of the best team collaboration tools on the market that can make this possible and easy. You can bring the team together online, track and manage the projects, and have a quality discussion.

Check out all the tools. Try their free versions and see which tool suits your company requirements the best.