The race for improving team collaboration has become a hip trend in the world of business. You can easily find a lot of strategies and how-tos describing ways to enhance employees’ performance and boost productivity. However, nobody gives you guarantees, that the advice you’ve decided to follow will work for sure and produce tangible results. What should you do to get the ball rolling?

No matter how many people work in your team, they all need to communicate, assign tasks, discuss projects and share knowledge. Given the fact that most of the team collaboration takes place online, collaboration software is a must for effective work today. Team collaboration tools improve both the process and the final outcome of teamwork saving time, money and nerves.

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After an in-depth search through the internet, our Chanty team is happy to present you the most comprehensive list of team collaboration tools classified into 7 categories. All the tools we offer to take a look at, while choosing a collaboration software for your team, have a detailed description with prices.

The tools we’ve used in our team are spiced up with feedback. Moreover, we highlighted ‘top’ products in each category based on our personal experience and preferences.

If you are not satisfied with collaboration tools you use every day or haven’t found the best solution for your business yet, keep reading – we got you covered.

Categories of team collaboration tools:

• Audio / Video Conferencing Tools
• Chat / Messaging Tools
• Project Management Tools
• Document Management Tools
• File Sharing Tools
• Knowledge Management Tools
• Time Management Tools

How can you figure out exactly what kind of software to look for? First and foremost, you should pay attention to what you expect from a team collaboration tool.

Audio and video conferencing tools bring your online meetings to life. They give teams an opportunity to interact as if people are sitting next to each other. If online calls are part and parcel of your business, you should search for a perfect software in this category.

Chat or messaging tools ensure staying in touch with your colleagues round the clock. They help improve relationships among your team members and track messages, discussions and shared files. Here you can keep all internal communication in one place in order not to lose any single notification.

Project management tools are used for planning projects, distributing tasks, accessing progress reports, creating to-do lists, subtasks and task dependencies. Choose the one for you to get all things done.

Document management tools serve to collaborate on documents in real time with different people simultaneously. Using one of them, you will quickly create, share, co-edit, search, e-sign all documentation related to your business.

File sharing tools provide uploading, downloading and distributing any size of documents, images or videos. Moreover, you can store and manage files, having access to them from virtually anywhere.

Knowledge management tools allow teammates to share or acquire up-to-date information needed to work. You can benefit from this software to create new content or capture, structure and optimize an already existing one.

Time management tools enable teams to organize and schedule tasks, projects and plans. You can also use them to find out what takes up your time during the work process, and thus enhance your focus on what is really important.

Audio / Video conferencing tools

TOP 1. Skype

Skype needs no introduction. This tool ensures staying in touch with people all over the world for free with voice and video calls, text messages and screen sharing between multiple devices. Moreover, it allows to call mobiles and landlines worldwide if a person doesn’t have a Skype account. Audio and video conferencing is available for up to 25 participants.

Our team tried Skype together with its 5 alternatives and reached the conclusion that Skype is still a powerful solution. Apart from high quality video service it has also got an expanded chat functionality which gives Skype a serious competitive advantage. Get more detailed information about our experience in the “We’ve Tried 5 Skype Alternatives and Here’s Our Honest Team Feedback” article.

Pricing options:

Freemium (calling mobiles and landlines is paid according to Skype’s rates).

Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS.

TOP 2. appear.in

appear.in is a very simple video collaboration tool. All you need is to create your personal video room, share its link via email or chat and start a group conversation with up to eight people at once. Thanks to screen sharing feature it’s easy to show presentation slides, images, photos, comment on documents and spreadsheets.

Our teammates appreciated various video add-ons like stickers and augmented reality in appear.in.  Although it’s not the #1 feature you need at work, it definitely gives your mood a boost. Video communication is the main purpose of this tool while chat functionality is a less important side feature.

Pricing options:

• Freemium (no login for guests; 4 participants, one room, screen sharing, stickers, lock room; super-size video; drag and drop videos);
• Subscription ($ 9.99/month).

Platforms: Web.

TOP 3. GoToMeeting

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With GTM your remote team has no need to go anywhere to have a meeting that feels like a real one. HD-quality video is perfect for conducting webinars and hosting conferences. The use of drawing tools helps to make annotations while sharing your desktop or mobile screen. It’s easy to access any conference simply by clicking the GTM link. You can also schedule in advance a new or recurring meeting in the application’s calendar if you don’t want to forget about it.

Pricing options:

• Free 14-Day Trial;
• Subscription (starts from $19 user/month).

Platforms: iOS, Windows, Mac, Web.

Amazon Chime

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Amazon Chime is an app service for secure video communication. Run video conference calls from your mobile device or desktop, begin a private, one to one or group chats during or after a meeting, share documents with people both inside and outside your company.

Pricing options:

• Freemium (video calls for up to 2 people; chat & chat rooms);
• Subscription (starts from $2.50 user/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac.

BlueJeans

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BlueJeans supports instant messaging, dual streaming, meeting recording and more from any device or conference room system. This video conferencing platform integrates with Skype for Business, Slack, HipChat (now Stride) and other collaboration tools making it easier to connect anyone outside your company no matter which software they use.

Pricing options:

• Free 30-Day Trial
• Subscription (starts from $19.95/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux.

EZTalks

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EZTalks brings both office and remote employees together. Users can join your meeting from almost any device or room system, that makes collaboration much easier. Interactive whiteboard helps to visualize how projects need to be done while screen sharing keeps the whole team focused on one common task.

Pricing options:

• Freemium (host up to 100 participants; 40 mins limit on meetings; unlimited number of meetings; instant or scheduled meetings; live broadcasting via browser; HD video & audio; full screen and gallery view; private and group chat; screen sharing with co-annotation);
• Subscription (starts from $12.99 host/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac.

Google Hangouts

Google Hangouts offers voice calls, text messages, screen and images sharing. Start a meeting, stream video calls live via YouTube, conduct a conference or join it from a computer, phone, or conference room. This tool doesn’t require any downloads or password codes for viewers, they only need to click on the shared link and join the meeting. You also can call landlines from your computing devices.

We compared this tool with Skype and found out that it is better to use Google Hangouts for video calls and mobile/landline international calls, but not for a day-to-day chat. If you want to find out more about Google Hangouts, check out our “We’ve Tried Skype vs Google Hangouts (Our Team Feedback)” article.

Pricing options:

• Free 14-Day Trial;
• G Suite Subscription (starts from $5 user/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, Web.

ReadyTalk

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Make your virtual meetings easy with ReadyTalk. This tool lets you attract customers and manage remote employees. Create your product demos, receive individual feedbacks, schedule, launch and record webinars, host presentations and interviews. Besides, you can make your meetings super secure – the option to set an access code gives you total privacy.

Pricing options:

• Free 14-Day Trial;
• Subscription (starts from $24 host/month).

Platforms: iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux.

UberConference

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By using UberConference you get unlimited free conferencing and international calling, HD audio, documents and screen sharing. No PINs required, you just add participants, choose music to create appropriate atmosphere and begin a meeting. Join a conference, view social profiles to see who is talking now, save calls as MP3s to listen to them later.

Pricing options:

• Freemium (phone and VoIP audio; up to 10 participants; unlimited conferences; screen and document sharing; call recording; HD quality audio; mobile apps);
• Subscription (starts from $15 user/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Web.

WebEx

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Cisco WebEx represents a group of products (WebEx Meetings and Cisco Spark). Each of these tools has its own features, but they both are focused on video calls. Admins or ‘hosts’ are the ones who establish the rules in WebEx: they decide whether to restrict a meeting at any time, to pass keyboard and mouse control, to let attendees download, print or comment a shared file. They can also create whiteboards and polls and save results for future analysis.

Pricing options:

• Free 14-Day Trial;
• Subscription (starts from $19/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Web.

Zoom

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Zoom meets requirements of all business sizes. Either you want to connect with a massive amount of colleagues through video conference or run a webinar with 10K guests, Zoom has got you covered. File collaboration, group messaging and whiteboarding assist you in working with your team in a collaborative and efficient way.

Pricing options:

• Freemium (host up to 100 participants; unlimited 1 to 1 meetings; 40 mins limit on group meetings; unlimited number of meetings);
• Subscription (starts from $14.99 host/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Web.

Chat / Messaging Tools

TOP 1. Chanty

Chanty is a simple business messenger and a single notification center. This worthy opponent to Slack with AI-powered algorithm enable you to stay up to date with what’s important. Powerful integrations are coming soon to save your time at work by delivering notifications from third party apps your team is using into one place. No more limited searchable history, no more lost data.

Super fast desktop and mobile apps with clean and intuitive interface let your team chat in public, private or one to one conversations, search for any information ever sent, forward/pin important messages and share files. And furthermore, Chanty lets you communicate with your team via high quality audio and video calls that will be available in the public beta.

Pricing options: Freemium (tool is now available in beta).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Web.

TOP 2. Slack

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Slack is an all-in-one communication solution for every business size. Private or open chat channels, reminder settings, searchable archive, numerous Slackbots improve instant communication within a team. Voice and video calls along with screen sharing are also available. In addition, you can receive all the notifications from the software you use at work at one place, as Slack integrates with about 800 different software products and services.

This is the most expensive app out of all team communication tools we’ve analyzed so far. In most cases its overcomplicated interface only confuses users, as they don’t have any idea how to profit from it. Moreover, people don’t know what to do with the channels once they get hundreds of them. Read more about Slack and Slack alternatives here in our in-depth review.

Pricing options:

• Freemium (unlimited private & public channels; 10,000 searchable messages; up to 10 apps; 1:1 voice & video calls; file sharing; personalized notifications);
• Subscription (starts from $6.67 user/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, Web.

TOP 3. Fleep

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Fleep supports dynamic communication within and across organizations. Here you can communicate with your colleagues or employees from other companies, track tasks, share files and make audio and video calls. Instead of the usual online/offline indicators there are ‘Presence features’ indicating whether a person has time to talk or not while the ‘Writing indicator’ tells you when someone is answering you.

Interesting fact about this app is that instead of creating a closed team ecosystem, you can communicate openly with everyone who is and isn’t using Fleep. All you have to know is the person’s email. With that said it’s hard to consider Fleep a “team” messenger.

Pricing options:

• Freemium (full message history; unlimited conversations and teams; unlimited integrations; 10 GB file storage);
• Subscription (starts from $5 user/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, Web.

Flock

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Flock has everything to satisfy remote teams’ needs. Flock enables private and open channels, audio and video calls, images and file attachments. You can easily find anything connected with your projects – from messages to links. The set of business apps (like Shared To-dos, Reminders, Polls, Note Sharing) helps to keep your team on track.

The one big issue we’ve experienced with Flock was a message history loss for over than 8 hours. It happened on a third day of our test period – our entire message history both in channels and private rooms was unavailable during a whole working day which really dazed us out. Nevertheless, Flock turned out to be a quite nice communication tool.

Pricing options:

• Freemium (unlimited messages, channels & users; unlimited apps & integrations; search message history upto 10k of your team’s most recent messages);
• Subscription (starts from $3 user/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Web.

Microsoft Teams

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Microsoft Teams ensures that you stay in touch with colleagues. Here communication is provided by chat messages in private or group conversations, voice calls and video meetings, uploading pictures and documents seamlessly to the conversation. Microsoft Teams integrates with other Office 365 apps and supports third-party plug-ins, that makes it a great solution for team collaboration.

Make sure you have a skilled admin as it’s unlikely you’ll be able to install Microsoft Teams by yourself (we have spent an entire day at work setting it up).

Pricing options:

• Microsoft Office 365 Subscription (starts from $5 user/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Web.

Rocket.Chat

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Rocket.Chat is an open source platform for team collaboration. It offers audio and video conferencing, online chatting, and screen sharing. Create channels, invite users and guests, exchange messages and files. Moreover, Rocket.Chat allows automatic real-time message translation which is very convenient for co-workers and partners who speak different languages.

Pricing options:

• Free 30-Day Trial;
• Subscription (starts from $50/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, Web.

Ryver

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Ryver is a software platform that combines a business chat tool and a task manager. Here you can create an open forum, make private teams and write direct messages in order to keep all conversations in harmony. There are also personal and team task boards, task lists and checklists for your team to become faster and more flexible.

We’ve tried Ryver with our team and it turned out the marketing message claiming 500+ integrations via Zapier could be quite misleading. The thing is you can only have 100 tasks per month and use only 5 apps (zaps) automations with Zapier in a free plan. It means you’ll run out of your tasks in a free plan after a hundred of tweets or a hundred of RSS notifications. The paid plans in Zapier aren’t too inviting – if you want to get 50K tasks and unlimited access to zaps, get ready to pay $250 per month. That’s how much the ‘free’ Ryver could cost you.

Pricing options:

• Freemium (unlimited members & guests; unlimited teams/forums; unlimited messages & posts; personal task manager; unlimited storage; up to 5 webhook integrations)
• Subscription (starts from $19/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, Web.

Yammer

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Yammer is an enterprise network tool that encourages internal collaboration. You can send instant short messages to people who follow your profile, share ideas, solve problems and discuss projects with colleagues in internal and external groups. Yammer also makes editing and working together on documents easier by integration with Microsoft Office 365.

If you use Yammer and look for a tool that can replace it, here is the “9 Surprising Yammer Alternatives [True or False?]” article which can help you.

Pricing options:

• Microsoft Office 365 Subscription (starts from $5 user/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac.

Project Management Tools

TOP 1. JIRA

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JIRA is the most powerful agile project management tool. Do you want to get job done in a well-organized and controlled way? This software provides a lot of useful features like boards with to do/in progress/done categories, reports with real-time insights, roadmaps and others to assign work and manage team activity. Create effective workflows for your team with numerous apps and integrations available.

Pricing options:

• Free 7-Day Trial;
• Subscription ($10/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, Web.

TOP 2. Asana

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Asana provides an opportunity for teams to track everything they deal with. Create and organize tasks, divide the work among teammates, set deadlines, get an overview of all the ongoing work on team calendars, monitor progress with dashboards. Task and project conversations assist in discussing questions and sharing attachments which you can easily find, if necessary.

Pricing options:

• Freemium (unlimited tasks, projects, and conversations; up to 15 team members; basic dashboards; basic search);
• Subscription ($9.99 user/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows.

TOP 3. Basecamp

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Basecamp can replace a pile of different applications. This project management suite is designed to organize employees, delegate tasks, and monitor progress right from one place. Here you can chat with colleagues, receive feedbacks, make to-do lists, schedule projects, keep and share files, create daily/weekly standups online to get on the same page with a team.

Pricing options:

• Free 30-Day Trial;
• Subscription ($99/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Web.

HiveDesk

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HiveDesk makes it easier for you to monitor productivity of remote employees and manage projects your team members are working on. All you need to do is create projects, invite employees to join them and establish priorities. It’s quite useful for tracking performance of freelancers and helps to save more money by paying only for the work hours rendered.

Pricing options:

• Free 14-Day Trial;
• Subscription (starts from $15/month).

Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, Web.

ProofHub

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Proofhub is a project management software that deals with the problems any team can meet. Manage and run your teams with tasks, post updates in discussion topics, communicate with employees in group chats, create notes and to-do lists, share documents, files, and timesheets with remote teams and clients. ProofHub reminds about deadlines or events marked in the app calendar, so you will always stay a step ahead in scheduling.

Pricing options:

• Free 30-day Trial;
• Subscription (starts from $45/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Web.

Trello

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Trello represents an online board with ‘cards’. There can be notes, to-do lists, projects, shared files, or anything that you need during your work. Such design helps visualize tasks and brings order by organizing them. You can also add comments, create checklists, add labels and due dates, upload file attachments, and communicate with others in chat (Chrome extension).

Pricing options:

• Freemium (unlimited boards, lists, cards, members, checklists, and attachments; one power-up per board; file attachments up to 10 MB from your computer, or links to any files from your Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, or OneDrive);
• Subscription (starts from $9.99 user/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Web.

Wrike

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Wrike is helpful for both co-located and distributed groups. This tool allows to edit, assign, schedule and mark tasks by colors indicating their status, make activity reports, create user groups according to projects. Moreover, notifications and real-time updates will always keep you informed. Avoid chaos through ‘Activity Stream’ and @mention feature changing individual and team work pace.

Pricing options:

• Freemium (up to 5 users; a simple, shared task list for small teams);
• Subscription ($9.80/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Web.

Zenkit

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Zenkit is created to schedule your meetings, track your project’s progress and brainstorm new ideas. Invite employees or friends to work on projects, assign tasks, track their activity with checklists, make an inbox for your team, fly through your projects with to-dos. Comments with notifications and ‘@mentions’ ensure instant communication within a team.

Pricing options:

• Freemium (unlimited collections; 2 000 items per collection; 1GB attachment space; up to 5 users);
• Subscription (starts from $9.99 user/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Web.

Document Management Tools

TOP 1. G Suite (Google Docs, Sheets, Slides)

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G Suite assists people in working with different file formats. You are free to open, edit, save files and collaborate across the documents in real time. If you want to co-edit a file with people all you need to do is to share a link of your Google document and start working. You can also chat during the work process and write comments to help others.

Pricing options:

• 15Gb of storage and all features for free;

• $1.99/month for 100Gb storage, $9.99/month for 1TB and up to 30TB for $299/month.

Platforms: Android, iOS, Web.

TOP 2. Microsoft Office 365

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Office 365 combines apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneDrive, giving you an opportunity to work with documents offline as well as collaborate on files with your colleagues online. Open and edit different file formats, invite others to join you, manage access permissions, monitor changes with version history or integrated activity feed, organize all documents in one place in order not to lose anything.

Pricing options:

– Microsoft Office 365 Subscription (starts from $8.25 user/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Web.

TOP 3. Quip

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Quip is a decent solution for the collaboration on documents, notes, checklists, task lists with real-time chat and messaging functionality. This tool enables users to build a rich, multimedia, and multi-asset document in one place. Do you want to make a document that consists of a calendar, spreadsheet, and kanban board all in the same place? Quip will deal with your tasks.

Pricing options:

• Free Trial (the length of your free trial is based on activity, not time);
• Subscription (starts from $30/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, Web.

Etherpad

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Etherpad is simple and absolutely free to download editor that helps different people to work on the same document simultaneously. There is no overcomplicated interface or rich set of features. It will work best for you when you need to write and edit text files with others in real time. If you want more – there’s a great number of plugins to meet your needs.

Pricing options: Freemium.

Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux.

OnlyOffice

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OnlyOffice makes your team able to collaborate on text documents, spreadsheets and presentations online. This cloud office is available on multiple devices, supports all the popular formats of files and simplifies the file collaboration process. With the time tracking and project management feature set you will plan your work in the most effective way.

Pricing options:

• Free 30-Day Trial;
• Subscription (starts from $900/one server).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, Web.

ownCloud

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ownCloud is a self-hosted server that allows you to keep all documents under control and have access to them from any device. Work with text documents in .odt or .doc formats within the browser, read PDF’s, see pictures, watch videos, comment and share them with others, edit files with up to five people simultaneously, set passwords on public links, if needed.

Pricing options:

• Subscription (starts from $3.600/year).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, Web.

Sync.In

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Synс.in by Cynapse is a free web-based tool to co-edit notes online. If your team work on a text document, any new letter or punctuation mark will reflect on everyone’s screen immediately. Editors can choose a color they like to identify themselves, chat in real time with other colleagues, share public notes over social networks and protect individual ones with password.

Pricing options:

• Free 30-Day Trial;
• Subscription ($2 user/month).

Platforms: Web.

File Sharing Tools

TOP 3. Google Drive

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The most popular cloud storage service gives you space for collaboration with people and keeps files saved in one easy-to-manage place. This platform works with Gmail and Google Photos, so you can save all documents and attachments  directly to Drive. Share files and work on them with others with Docs, Sheets and Slides apps.

Pricing options:

• 15Gb of storage and all features for free;

• $1.99/month for 100Gb storage, $9.99/month for 1TB and up to 30TB for $299/month.

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Web.

TOP 2. Dropbox

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Dropbox is one of the most well-known online storage services with over 500 million worldwide users. Not only can you store all your files together in one place, but also share files and folders with others in order to collaborate. Send links via email or chat messages, leave feedbacks, access your documents easily from anywhere on any device.

Pricing options:

• Freemium (2 GB of space);
• Subscription (starts from $9.99/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, Web.

Hightail

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This file transfer software provides creative collaboration among teams. Hightail lets you stream your work process right in the browser, so that other people can preview it without downloading. Share images, videos, PDFs, presentations, MP3 files, track delivery and downloads, receive real-time feedbacks from colleagues and clients, – you have everything to improve work efficiency.

Pricing options:

• Freemium (250 MB file size send limit; 7 days file expiration; 2 GB storage space, limited file previews);
• Subscription (starts from $12/month).

Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Web.

MediaFire

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MediaFire is a simple online storage service where you can save photos, videos, aud