8 Must-Try Collaboration Tools For Businesses In 2021

“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” – Phil Jackson

The term collaboration holds a significant meaning for the business world today. Whether you have a team of 10 or 1000 individuals working for you, if all of them are not on the same page, there’s a strong possibility of failing to deliver the desired results.

What is collaboration?

To put it in simple words, collaboration is a process of active participation of two or more people working together as a team, group, organization, or entity to achieve defined and common business goals. Collaboration exists in two forms:

• Synchronous Collaboration is when all team members communicate with each other through chat, phone calls, or video calls at a specific time to deliver or share information simultaneously.
• Asynchronous Collaboration is not time-specific but driven by a shared purpose. Communication takes place between two or more people, but not at the same time. For example- sending an email or uploading files to a drive is asynchronous.

Collaboration, undoubtedly, is crucial for the success of any business, whether big or small. And the spread of the global pandemic of COVID-19 has led businesses around the world to accommodate remote working.

However, remote work has posed a formidable challenge in front of millions of professionals to collaborate effectively with widely-dispersed teams, managers, and clients.

The ever-increasing need for collaboration tools for businesses

Remote work is the new normal for teams today, and the focus is on improved efficiency and increased productivity while working from scattered locations. It’s not easy for people working in different geographical locations and time zones to stay connected and be on the same page. But online collaboration tools solve this problem.

However, we have so many online collaboration tools available today that it can be hard to choose the right one for your business. You can get confused and overwhelmed as you go around looking for the right collaboration tool to meet your requirements.

So it’s important for you to find and use the best collaboration app that offers more bang for your buck. Given below are eight of the best online collaboration tools that can help you and your teams to work as a cohesive unit and deliver the goods.

Take a look: 

1. ProofHub

ProofHub is an award-winning team collaboration and project management software that is designed for teams of all sizes to work together in an easy and efficient manner.

Whether it’s unified communications, smart task management, time-tracking, online proofing, custom workflows, or reporting, ProofHub has got all your needs covered under one roof.

So many powerful features in a centralized location and fixed pricing plans with no per-user fee make it one of the most affordable and feature-rich collaboration tools available today.

Some Powerful Features Include:

• Workflows and kanban boards
• Task management
• Group chat
• Online discussions
• Gantt charts
• Online proofing
• Custom roles
• Reporting
• Timesheets and time-tracking
• Calendar

Pricing: The Ultimate Control plan is priced at $89 per month with unlimited users and projects, billed annually.

2. Flock

Flock is a top-rated app that makes collaboration and communication effortless. Flock allows you and your team to host video conferences, share files, exchange messages, manage to-do lists, and set up calendar events in one easy-to-use tool.

Flock supports channels for different teams as well as 1:1 or group conversations. You can search through messages, files, and links, and Flock will find it in a matter of seconds.

There are integrations with third-party apps like Google Calendar, Google Drive, MailChimp, and Twitter, which makes it easier for individuals to stay on top of things.

Some Powerful Features Include:

• Video conferencing
• Channel messaging
• File-sharing
• To-dos
• Polls
• Voice notes
• Integrated search
• Reminders

Pricing: The paid plan starts from $2.70 per user, per month.

3. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a chat-based collaboration platform with innovative features such as document sharing, inline translation for messages, recording of automatic transcriptions, online meetings, and many more to enable and enhance unified business communications.

Microsoft Teams also integrates with other Office 365 services such as SharePoint, Skype, Exchange, and Yammer. Microsoft Teams is designed for modern workspaces and offers a range of features to improve workers’ productivity in a unified set of tools.

Some Powerful Features Include:

• Video conferencing
• Screen sharing
• Custom backgrounds
• Together mode
• File sharing
• Apps and workflows
• Instant messaging
• Online meetings and webinars

Pricing: The paid plan starts from $1.70 per user, per month.

4. Citrix Podio

Citrix Podio is a flexible and customizable work management and communication solution for teams. Citrix Podio helps teams organize things to simplify the completion of tasks and projects.

This social collaboration and project management tool allows businesses to create custom applications to meet their unique requirements and preferred workflow. With content, conversations, and processes structured and together in one tool, Podio creates the focus and clarity your people need to get their best work done.

Podio provides you with tools for file sharing, viewing the status of ongoing projects, and getting feedback.

Some Powerful Features Include:

• Automated workflows
• Meeting scheduling
• Data visualization
• Social collaboration
• Task management
• Granular access
• Calendar
• Unlimited storage

Pricing: The paid plan starts from $7.20 per user, per month.

5. Ryver

Using multiple apps and emails to communicate with other team members is complex, difficult, and expensive. Ryver makes it affordable, easy, and convenient to organize your team’s collaboration in a single app.

Ryver is an easy-to-use collaboration tool that is designed to give your organization a highly effective medium of internal communication. It unifies chat efficiency and threaded discussions’ clarity effectively into one package. It accommodates unlimited messages, guests, and users to be searched.

Ryver also has some interesting filters. You can control who can see your posts in the app, and join the teams that are most relevant to you.

Some Powerful Features Include:

• Document management
• File sharing
• Project management
• Task management
• Push notifications
• Chat/Messaging
• Video conferencing
• Discussion threads

Pricing: The paid plan starts from $49 per month for up to 12 users.

6. Chanty

Chanty is an easy-to-use, fast team collaboration and chat app to boost communication and productivity. Chanty offers unlimited message history, powerful features, and apps to make your team super productive.

Using Chanty is as simple as taking a walk in the park, and even non-techy individuals and teams can use this with a simple interface without any learning curve. The platform is simple, yet it has the major features to get work done from wherever you are.

All your messages are synced across Chanty Mobile and Web App. Feel free to switch devices and never miss an important update!

Some Powerful Features Include:

• Teambook
• Conversation Actions
• File Sharing
• Business Instant Messaging
• Kanban board view
• Notifications
• Integrations
• Video Conferencing

Pricing: The paid plan starts from $3 per user, per month.

7. Acquire.io

Acquire.io is a popular multi-channel customer engagement software that is trusted by hundreds of companies across the world. Acquire meets the customer service, sales, and support needs of any business – on any device.

Acquire is an all-in-one solution for customer engagement. Be everywhere your customers are and engage with them through Acquire’s real-time communication tools and capabilities. Acquire has an impressive collection of support features and tools that allow for faster and smarter delivery of personalized support at any scale.

Some Powerful Features Include:

• Unified Agent View
• Cobrowse
• Live Chat
• Chatbot
• VoIP Calls
• Analytics
• Integrations
• Shared Inbox
• Video Chat
• Knowledge Base

Pricing: Available on quote.

8. Proprofs

Proprofs is a talented team of highly technical and talented developers thriving on technical challenges. Proprofs create delightfully smart software with awesome support so that you can work better, get smarter employees, and create happier customers.

This tech team designs each screen, writes every word carefully, and crafts software in a way that users have a simple and delightful experience. ProProfs hosts more than 1,000,000 pages of content in 70+ languages and is a leading platform for online training and assessment with the world’s largest library of professional tests and quizzes.

Some Powerful Products Include:

• Quiz Maker
• Training Maker
• Knowledge Base
• Qualaroo Insights
• Survey Maker
• Live Chat
• Project
• Help Desk
• Flashcards

Pricing: Different pricing plans according to requirements.

Wrapping up

So, these are eight of the best online collaboration tools for virtual teams. Even in-house teams can execute projects better and achieve a higher level of efficiency and unmatched collaboration by using these tools.

If you want to achieve more output in less time, it’s time to seriously consider and start using one or more of these tools, as per your requirements. 

Choose the tool that offers you the most features at an affordable price, and suits your requirements.

Guest author: Nandini Sharma is the Assistant Marketing Manager at ProofHub – a project management software. With years of experience in marketing, she has found some amazing ways to reach a large audience and create a connection. She also loves doing art and craft and trying her hands-on creative handmade cards & gifts.