The 16 best work collaboration tools for every team
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The 16 best work collaboration tools for every team
Elaine Keep
29 October 2024
8 min read
Elaine Keep
29 October 2024
8 min read
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What are collaboration tools?
Three signs your team needs to use a collaboration tool
Best for collaborative knowledge management
Best for project management
Best for team communication
Best for collaborative editing and whiteboards
Dreaming of more effective teamwork? The right tools can make it happen. From Confluence to monday.com, we explore the top 16 collaboration tools.
With so many collaboration tools to choose from, it can be difficult to decide which one (or few) are best for your company. In our carefully selected guide we’ll get into the best-known collaboration tools and what kind of collaboration they best lend themselves to.
Whether you’re looking to improve collaboration on projects or improve the user experience, the latest collaboration tools could be a wise investment, especially with a more remote workforce and ever-growing email inboxes. All of the tools listed below are great additions to the toolbox of any knowledge worker.
Whether you’re looking to improve collaboration on projects or improve the user experience, the latest collaboration tools could be a wise investment, especially with a more remote workforce and ever-growing email inboxes. All of the tools listed below are great additions to the toolbox of any knowledge worker.
What are collaboration tools?
Collaboration tools (or collaboration software) are online platforms created to simplify projects, boost communication, and improve teamwork. These tools help teams better organise documents, share knowledge more effectively, and keep team members in the loop about project updates, regardless of their physical location.
Three signs your team needs to use a collaboration tool
There are many reasons to use a collaboration tool, but you might not know whether it’s worth the cost or learning curve. These are the three biggest signs that your team’s productivity and happiness could benefit from some collaboration assistance.
- Tasks are being missed or misinterpreted. Team members might be struggling to keep on top of all of the information that’s been given to them - when communication is coming from different sources, it can be hard to keep track of, or even conflicting.
- You’re having too many meetings. Rather than using regular meeting times to make sure that everyone is on track, extra meetings are being made to explain ideas or changes that should’ve already been understood.
- Information is spread out across too many different platforms. You’re having to open far too many different programs and tabs to use information that will help you complete a task elsewhere. Information isn’t getting properly updated or carried over.
The best collaborative knowledge management tools
1. Confluence
Confluence is a knowledge management tool where content is organised into spaces and pages (documents). You can build, organise, and create everything related to a project in one handy place and work on collaborative documents with your team. You can even integrate tools like Trello or install apps, such as Community Forums for Confluence, to promote company-wide discussions and share news and updates in one place.
2. Google Workspace
Technically several tools in one, Google's product suite has a stellar lineup, allowing users to make collaborative edits on the same document simultaneously. While Google Meet is the obvious collaboration tool, Google Docs and Google Sheets shouldn't be overlooked. Changes made by one user are instantly visible to others, promoting real-time collaboration on documents, presentations, and spreadsheets.
3. Notion
Notion is an all-in-one workspace application offering various features to enhance productivity and organisation. With customisable templates and real-time collaboration across multiple devices, plus the ability to integrate other tools like Slack, it’s an effective central knowledge base.
The best collaborative tools for project management
4. Trello
Trello uses its own kind of digital Kanban boards to help organise projects and manage team workflows. You can add members to boards and cards (representing individual tasks), set deadlines, and track progress in a calendar or board view. Customise with add-ons, such as Daily Updates, which brings a daily stand-up to Trello, or for large projects, try Due Next for Trello and see realistic project predictions.
5. Asana
Asana is a project management and collaboration tool that helps with planning and communication. From one platform, work tasks and projects can be assigned and tracked or linked across multiple teams, and with custom fields, automation, rules, and forms, you can quickly get a handle on manual project admin tasks.
6. monday.com
Monday.com helps manage projects with smart automation and categorisation of project stats. See the status of tasks, set deadlines and milestones for team members, and view them by priority level. Add-ons like Priority Pro let you make a priority matrix that helps visualise tasks ranked by their importance to you.
7. Jira
Jira can help plan, track, and manage tasks and issues throughout the development lifecycle. While you'd typically use Jira in tech teams for bug tracking, issue tracking, and project management, its team communication and project visibility capabilities make it great for tracking expenses, warehousing, and more. Add-ons like ScriptRunner for Jira allow you to use scripted JQL functions to automate using escalation services and workflow functions or customise how you create and update issues.
8. Zapier
Zapier helps to automate business tasks. As well as visualising the work you have, plug-ins with tools such as Google Workspace functions and a GPT plug-in mean you can create logical workflows for your business. Create ‘Zaps’ that perform different actions based on if/then logic and run when conditions are met, such as when a new customer starts onboarding.
The best collaboration tools for communication
9. Slack
Slack helps enhance team communications. Create a channel, use individual ‘direct messages’, and share documents. You can set alerts on and off as needed, customise the app's look, and even use it on the go.
10. Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams boasts a chat function and video calling but also lets you share files. You can even integrate Microsoft Teams with monday.com, letting you message project members straight from your team's account.
11. Zoom
Zoom is a popular video calling tool that lets teams connect virtually across the globe. You can share files using the in-call chat function, enable closed captions to provide a more accessible experience, and even live collaborate in the app with whiteboards.
12. Yammer
Yammer takes the idea of team communications and turns it into more of a social networking platform. While the focus is on ideas and collaboration rather than project-specific engagement, threads and group chats can be used for this purpose.
The best collaborative editing and visualisation tools
Big ideas need to be laid out visually. Whiteboards in a physical office are out; instead, these collaboration tools are in.
13. Miro
Miro helps create visual diagrams, which is ideal for tech teams handling complex ideas. Create brainstorming boards, map user journeys, and ideate and add code blocks for collaborative coding programming or debugging. You can even move Jira issues directly to a Miro board.
14. InVision
Plan, organise, and design workflows with a freehand style in InVision. You can assign a project lead and integrate Trello, Jira, or Google and Mode documents so stakeholders can make informed decisions.
15. Loom
Loom makes it easy to use the in-browser extension to capture your screen to collaboratively share information. It also offers automated video summaries, titles, chapters, and tasks powered by generative AI.
16. Canva’s Whiteboard Tool
Visualise and organise ideas with Canva's Whiteboard. You can arrange sticky notes to organise thoughts and set a timer for rapid idea rounds. Visuals can be added in a snap, and it's easy to tag team members, even if they don't have a Canva Account.
Enhance your collaborative tech stack
Businesses of all sizes use collaboration tools to help their teams work better together. Are you ready to get started?
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Written by
Elaine Keep
Content Writer
Elaine has established herself as a respected authority in the HR industry and uses her experience gained as the head of marketing in the employee rewards and recognition software sector to inform her reporting.
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