14 Best Online Collaboration Tools for Teams in 2021

Managing work seamlessly with geographically distributed teams means teamwork, collaboration and productivity is a high priority. But, with the rise of mobile apps and collaboration platforms, the research can be very overwhelming.

There are tools for almost every use case, and some online collaboration tools surpass in one area while others are great. So, to help your teams achieve greater levels of transparency and manage projects & resources efficiently, we have collated a list of ultimate team collaboration tools.

Online collaboration tools for businesses of any size:

Project Management Tools

ClickUp

If you are looking for an online collaboration tool to take your productivity to the next level, then look no further than ClickUp. It is a project management and productivity tool used by highly productive teams from start-ups to large enterprises like Google, Uber etc. With over 1000+ integrations, it has everything you could ask for from a top-notch project management app. You can choose from over 100+ proprietary features and hide everything else. ClickUp is available for any platform to manage everything from anywhere, including Offline mode.

At Hanabi, we use ClickUp for multiple project management, time tracking, team collaboration, and all it can offer. And we highly recommend this one app to replace them all.

Monday.com

Monday.com is an excellent cloud-based Work OS. You can create your ideal workflows in minutes with their drag and drop 30+ column types. Or choose from 200+ ready-made templates based on how real teams use monday.com. The easy-to-use, visual interface lets any team member jump in and gets started with no training required. For agencies juggling client projects, it can be easy to connect project orders, briefs, and invoices to internal tasks related to any client campaign. The main distinction is Monday’s consideration of budget when planning tasks, making it especially useful for marketing teams.

Asana

Asana is a powerful, customisable project management software for seamless collaboration, and is one of the market leaders. It offers boards, timelines, universal reporting, automation to simplify workflows, streamline work requests, and much more – the features are endless. It allows team members to share goals and coordinate over milestones – making it easier to work as a team. Any team can plan and manage their projects more successfully starting with Asana templates. With Asana Enterprise, you will have access to Asana’s full suite of work management features plus powerful admin controls and advanced data protection.

Chat & Communication Tools

Slack

If you are not already aware of Slack, it is a messaging tool designed for professionals. It streamlines communication so you do not have to scroll through monstrous email chains to find what you are looking for. You can create different channels based on conversation topics, projects, and departments. It integrates with plenty of other tools available in the market. Slack supports collaboration at a global scale, with unlimited channels to mirror the way your company works. It offers enterprise-grade data protection, making it the first choice of brands like SKY, Airbnb, PWC, NatWest, etc.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a business chat tool mostly targeted towards enterprise companies. But if you happen to subscribe to one of the Microsoft Office 365 plans, you will already have access to Microsoft Teams. Though, you can start with the freemium version of the tool, if you do not have any of those plans. It includes all the essential team chat features like instant chats, audio/video calls, and integrations. It also offers integrations across all Office 365 products and more than 250 apps and services. It is also important to note that Microsoft Teams is not the easiest app to deploy, so make sure your team admin is tech-savvy.

Chanty

Chanty is a team communication and collaboration software that lets you connect and communicate with your team with ease. Besides exchanging text messages, you can also do audio and video calls and share your screen with other call participants. Chanty is a preferred choice of teams today as it offers unlimited search history, even in the free plan. The search function itself beats Slack at any time because it is much easier to use. It offers an Import feature that allows you to transfer your message history and other team data from a third-party messenger directly to Chanty.

Video Conferencing

Zoom

A solution made for modern teams. If you are looking for a simplified but robust video conferencing tool - Zoom is a solution. It is an easily scalable platform that allows you to host live virtual events with attendees ranging from 100 to 10,000. If your remote teams use Microsoft Outlook, then this is a top selection: it is easy to schedule video conferencing meetings from Outlook through the Zoom plugins. It also has breakout rooms, meaning virtual teams can gather inside video calls without ever losing the main feed. This is extremely helpful to discuss remote work when running a large webinar or training session.

Whereby

Another highly recommended online collaboration tool from our team is Whereby. We use it for in-house and client meetings, and it has everything for a minimal price.

This newly rebranded Whereby, formerly known as Appear, is an excellent choice for small businesses and teams. There is no app or software download required. Just choose your personalised URL and meet using your internet browser – on mobile or desktop. Host presentations and collaborate with team members using the screen-sharing feature. It also offers custom branding features, and you can record, download, or share a call. The free version hosts up to 100 participants for up to 45 mins and the paid plans upgrade options are available too.

ClickMeeting

ClickMeeting is a video conferencing, online meetings, and webinar software to bring your students, customers, and team members together. Webinars are backed up by secure data centres, with massive bandwidth, a backup recovery system, and more. It is easy to get started and you can customise your webinar room, on-demand, and paid webinars, engage with clients. You can also host huge virtual events with up to 10,000 viewers (thanks to webcasting technology). Explore the possibilities of live, automated, and on-demand webinars with a free trial, for up to 25 attendees.

Document & File Sharing Tools

Dropbox

Dropbox is a secure cloud storage file-sharing tool that allows users to store their digital media in one location. You can access Dropbox files from your computer, phone, or tablet. It has a user-friendly interface and simple experience that is frictionless. It is like you are storing documents and notes right on your hard drive, by dragging the appropriate files over to that little blue and white icon. Also, you can share files and notes to non-Dropbox users with a simple link–which pulls more people into their ecosystem. It automatically syncs files across multiple devices, allowing teams to work in tandem across different hardware.

Google Drive

Help your team move faster with a secure cloud-based collaboration platform that makes it easy for you to share, store, and access files. When Google Drive added Drive to the document collaboration apps field, it was a stroke of genius. If you are an enterprise, Google Drive protects and safeguard your company’s data with Data Loss Prevention, Vault for eDiscovery and archiving, and security centre. Moving easily between spreadsheets, presentations, and document collaboration is almost frictionless in Drive. They also offer a ton of storage for a low price, so implementing Google Drive and GSuite tools for your whole team is simple and worth the price.

Microsoft OneDrive

Microsoft Office needs no introduction, and Office 365 is its online incarnation. Office 365 comes as a part of the cheaply priced Microsoft 365 package, and it is also available for free for standalone use. It integrates with OneDrive, which lets you share files for team collaboration, like Google Drive and Docs. Store important files and photos with an added layer of protection in OneDrive Personal Vault and access them anywhere and from any device.

Time Tracking Tools

Harvest

Harvest is a cloud-based time tracking and expense monitoring tool suitable for businesses big or small. It includes scheduling and invoicing, time and expense management and team management within one time-tracking app. It helps the cost of each project, time spent by resources, and makes billing and invoicing easier. Harvest lets you send invoices to your clients straight from the app with Stripe or PayPal. That way, you will not have to pay for additional invoicing and payment software. You will also get great reports about how your team spends their time, which projects are taking the longest, and more.

This will help you estimate the time spent on future projects and where you may need more resources.

Toggl

Toggl is platform-independent software. It offers native apps for desktop, Android and iOS that sync together in real-time. The timelines and budget planning feature make Toggl a perfect solution for collaborative freelancers and SMEs working on complex, limited-budget projects. With features like the Pomodoro Timer, idle detection, and tracking reminders, this is the ultimate tool to help you stay focused on work. It features flexible and robust reporting capabilities to reveal actionable insights. It also offers features multiple billing rates, employee browsing history, virtual punch cards etc. Toggl also allows users to track time in offline mode. With Toggl, time tracking is a piece of cake.