An exhaustive list of tools for remote teams that help in all domains of collaboration

Team Communication Tools

The best remote teams use multiple communication tools to collaborate efficiently. Here are some of them:

Slack

An online collaboration tool that brings all the team communications in one place. You can have multiple channels viz. marketing, git-updates, assets, events etc for group discussions. Also, you can opt for direct messaging if you need to address someone individually. The integrations support makes it all the useful. Paid plans start at $6.67/active user/mo.

Flock

Team communication software that allows chatting (group/individual), share files, audio calls, and video calls across the team, anytime, anywhere. Also, it’s easy to integrate external apps to streamline the workflow. Paid plans start at $149/licensed user/mo.

Workplace by Facebook

A collaboration platform that uses AI to show you the most relevant messages that need your attention. Apart from using next-gen technologies, it provides regular features like call, chat, file share, integrations, etc. Paid plan costs $3/active user/mo.

Skype

Skype lets to talk, chat and collaborate with your team(anyone) from anywhere. It allows video calls, screen share, text chats, call recording, and even phone calls to connect you to anyone, anytime. Multiple subscriptions and pay-as-you-go options are available to choose from.

Jell

Jell lets you conduct virtual daily standups, create team check-Ins and define goals. This keeps everyone informed about who is working on what and makes the team more productive. It integrates with slack to fill the gaps. Paid plans start at $4/user/mo.

Zoom

Zoom is a video and web conferencing solution that allows online meetings, training, and technical support. HD video, high-quality audio, remote screen control, calendaring system support make it effective and easy to use. Paid plans start from $14.99/host/mo.

Google Hangouts

Google Hangouts allow messaging, voice, and video calls(group as well as one on one). It integrates with G Suite to facilitate direct file sharing from drive and collaboration on Google Docs, sheets, and slides. It is available as a feature for G Suite users whose paid plans start at $5/user/mo.

YouTube Live

YouTube Live allows live-streaming. Be it your thoughts or your event you can stream them live, free of cost.

Join.me

JoinMe is a platform to conduct and join online meetings. You can create a custom URL for the meeting and share it. It allows screen sharing, video/audio calling, google/outlook calendar scheduling and live whiteboard discussions. Paid plans start at $10/user/mo.

Groove

A simple help-desk solution that allows the team to collaborate on customer feedback, queries, and complaints. It provides email management, ticketing system management and live-chat options to stay tuned and reply effectively to customers. For all the features you just need to pay $19/user/month.

JotForm Assign Forms

JotForm Assign Forms transforms data collection into a collaborative effort by letting you work closely with your teammates. It enables teams to quickly distribute workload without needing any communications tool. Assign Forms carries form filling to the next level by keeping you in total charge. Team members can easily keep track of submissions and stay in control of collected data. JotForm has a free plan and paid plans you can choose from, starting at $24/mo.

Design Collaboration tools

zipBoard

zipBoard is a design feedback tool that allows the team as well as external stakeholders to annotate the design and share the feedback. Teams can share images, HTML pages, websites, PDFs, and any other web-hosted assets to seek feedback from anyone at any time. Paid plans start at $29/mo.

InVision

Invision is a prototyping solution that allows teams to collaborate on low fidelity and high fidelity prototypes. The paid plan starts at $15/mo.

Figma

Figma is a design tool that allows real-time collaboration. Here designers can design and comment in the browser itself. Also, multiple designers can work on the same design simultaneously. The paid plan starts at $12/editor/mo.

CodePen

Codepen is a social development environment that serves as a great place to show your work, get feedback and inspiration for front end developers. The paid plan for teams starts at $12/member/mo.

Software development Collaboration tools

GitHub

Github is a development platform that allows hosting code online. Also, team members can review each other’s code and work on different branches to avoid any clashes when working simultaneously. Paid plan starts at $ 7/mo

Cloud9

Cloud9 is a cloud-based development environment where teams can write, run and debug code. As you are coding in your browser, you have real-time access to each other’s inputs all the time. You can choose the pricing modal as per your needs.

Productivity Tools

Time tracking

• Hubstaff
• When I Work
• Paymo
• Harvest
• FunctionFox
• Teambook

Project Management

• Trello
• ProdPad
• Airtable
• Asana
• Basecamp
• Confluence and JIRA software
• Float
• Pivotal Tracker
• iDoneThis
• Workamajig
• Meistertask
• Apollo

Secure Sharing

Password Management Tools

• Dashlane
• 1password
• lastpass

Secure File Sharing, Storage, and Collaboration Tools

• Google Drive
• Dropbox
• Box
• Huddle
• One Hub

Document Editing and Collaboration Tools

Xtensio

Create anything you need – pitches, sales sheets, reports, case studies, agendas. Add images, videos, tables and other interactive modules. Drag and drop, resize, change backgrounds, colors. It’s the easiest editor ever. The easiest way for teams to create and share beautiful living documents. The Paid plan starts at $15/person/mo.

Penflip

Penflip allows each team member to work on its own version of the shared doc. Each version is saved differently which lets the team members do edits individually. These edits can later be merged like merging code from different branches on Git. Paid plans start at $10/mo.

Quip

It allows commenting and accepting/rejecting suggestions even from mobile devices. This is more of a requirement in today’s mobile-first world. The paid plan starts at $30/mo.

Scheduling Tools

• Calendly
• Doodle

Quick video creating and recording Tools

• VEED is an easy-to-use online video editor. It has tools that are intuitive and make video editing tasks simple. You can cut, crop, rotate, add music, text, screen record and even generate subtitles automatically. The days of downloading clunky video software are over. VEED brings you one-click editing online. It’s used by thousands of content creators – marketers, teachers, creatives – with a focus on producing material that engages and grows audiences. They are adding new features all the time, and have great customer service (with a Live Chat) if you ever need help.

Apart from VEED, you can also check-out these tools which also give amazing features to its users.

• Loom
• Snagit

Timezone Bridging Tools

• Every Time Zone — Visually track time zones.
• World Time Buddy — Timezone converter and meeting scheduler.
• Channel Time — Slackbot to covert time zones across slack messages.
• Timezone.io — Visual interface to show each member’s timezone.
• Boomerang — Email scheduling at a specific time.

Miscellaneous Tools

• Take a Break Please — Schedule breaks.
• Chimp or Champ — Anonymous employee feedback.
• Zapier — Workflow automation.

I’m sure there are many more missing in the list. Let us know about your favorite tools for remote teams in the comments.