Introduction

Do you think remote team members can manage work and collaborate using old-fashioned, painfully slow methods such as texting and email threads? 

You’re already on the wrong foot if you expect your remote teams to be at their productive best without providing them with the best remote work tools. 

You see, there’s a strong reason why the collaboration software market is expected to generate over $17B by 2025. With 30% of employees now working remotely at exclusive remote companies, we expect this number to grow in the coming years. 

While remote work has its benefits in flexibility and convenience, it also presents some formidable challenges, like poor collaboration, unorganized work, lack of transparency, etc. 

Let’s look at why using the best remote work tools is essential to ensure efficient performance from your widely distributed workforce. 

Remote Work Tools – Why Are They Important? 

Using the right tools helps you to tackle some common and formidable challenges associated with remote work. 

Let’s check out some crucial benefits. 

• Using online work collaboration tools improves transparency as all team members are on the same page regarding task and project status, job roles and responsibilities, latest updates, etc.  

• Remote collaboration tools facilitate seamless collaboration among widely distributed team members through advanced features like chat, online proofing, file sharing, etc. 

• Remote workers can use online work management tools to organize and prioritize all their work in one place. They can attempt their tasks based on priority to ensure deadlines are met. 

• Remote work tools are easily accessible across multiple devices (PC, laptops, mobile, tabs). Users can log into their accounts anytime and access the latest project updates while managing their work on the go. 

• Top collaboration tools offer a range of work management and communication features on a single platform, which enables users to manage various aspects of work without switching various apps. 

• Remote work can make some people feel isolated and left out. Remote work tools keep all team members connected so they can easily exchange casual and professional conversations and feel like an integral part of the group. 

• Poor scheduling results in the wastage of up to 36 percent of employees’ work time. Remote collaboration software helps employees schedule their events, tasks, and milestones in one place to know all meetings and deadlines. Remote workers can schedule daily meetings, planning meetings, conferences, brainstorming sessions, and much more in just one click.

ProofHub (Project management & team collaboration)

Easy to use, simple to learn, and equipped with a suite of powerful features under one virtual roof, ProofHub is a SaaS-based project management and team collaboration tool that allows widely distributed employees to seamlessly collaborate on tasks and communicate with others from any location, on any device. 

What makes ProofHub a top-rated remote work collaboration tool is that teams of any size can easily use it to plan, organize, and execute projects while keeping every team member, client, and stakeholder in the loop. The tool is scalable and ideal for growing teams. 

From time tracking to task management, reporting to online proofing, file management to scheduling calendars, and more, ProofHub offers literally everything remote workers need to be more collaborative, efficient, and productive.

Some advanced collaborative features of ProofHub are: 

• Online proofing
• Instant chat
• File management
• Real-time updates
• Kanban boards
• Gantt chart
• Scheduling calendar
• Reporting
• Time tracking 

            Pricing: ProofHub offers flat-rate pricing with an unlimited number of users. The Ultimate Control plan, loaded with all CORE + Premium features is priced at $89 per month when billed annually. 

Zoom (audio and video conferencing)

For millions of professionals (both in-office & remote workers) across the globe, Zoom has become an automatic choice for scheduling high-quality one-on-one or group video meetings, webinars, and conferences. This cloud-based remote work tool is incredibly easy to use and you can attend any video meeting by simply clicking on the link provided by the host. 

Zoom’s free plan allows up to 100 concurrent participants, with a 40-minute time restriction. Users can upgrade to a paid plan to get access to more features. For remote teams, Zoom serves as a one communication solution for chats and channels, phone, whiteboard, meetings, and more. Its whiteboard provides a collaboration space where individuals, hybrid teams, and remote teams can come together, brainstorm, and learn. 

Some advanced collaborative features of Zoom are: 

• HD video and audio collaboration
• Whiteboard
• Chat
• Rooms and Workspaces
• Full-featured webinars
• Phone system
• Marketplace 

Pricing: The paid plan starts at $149.90 per user when billed annually. 

Discover the best practices for running great virtual business meetings. 

Asana (project management)

Asana is a popular remote work software solution to keep your dispersed teams connected for improved collaboration on projects. Asana enables remote teams to move work forward without switching tools as the tool integrates with commonly used apps like Slack, Outlook, Google Drive, Zoom, Gmail and more. 

Asana offers a list of useful features that allow you to bring your remote team’s work to one shared workspace. You can choose the project view (Board, Timeline, and List view) and collaborate no matter where you are working from. You can automate routine work to make sure your team has clarity and context from the onset. Keep your team aligned by sharing goals, key resources, and more to set the stage for work.

Some advanced collaborative features of Asana are: 

• Workflow builder
• Automation
• App integrations
• Timeline 
• Shared calendar
• Work request forms
• Workload
• Messaging 

Pricing: The paid plan starts from $13.99 per user, per month when billed annually. 

Trello (work organization application)

Trello is one of the most efficient collaboration tools available today for remote teams. It provides you with useful work-related information, like what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and where something is in a process. Trello offers a list of impressive features to remote teams to quickly set up and customize workflows for just about anything. 

Trello cards are your portal to better organize your work. You can manage, track, and share every single part of your task with teammates. Its built-in automation, Butler, reduces the number of tedious tasks on your project board by harnessing the power of automation across your entire team. 

Some advanced collaborative features of Trello are: 

• Easy-to-use templates
• Butler
• Cards
• Boards
• Integrations
• Project views (Timeline, Dashboard, Table, Map, Workspace, Calendar)

           Pricing: The paid plan starts from $5 per user per month when billed annually

10to8 (appointment scheduling)

10 to 8 is more than just a simple appointment scheduling tool for business owners and managers overseeing remote teams. This remote work tool allows you to schedule and run virtual appointments smoothly and native Zoom Video Conferencing and Microsoft Teams integrations enable you to host video appointments of all kinds, be it internal team meetings, video conferencing with clients, or remote one-on-one or group appointments.

10 to 8 allows you to coordinate better with your remote teams regardless of wherever they are and increase productivity by scheduling team meetings efficiently. This remote work tool has a user-friendly interface which means your learning curve is very short, and automates your daily activities and provides a professional look to your business.

Some advanced collaborative features of 10 to 8 are: 

• Accessibility suite
• Reminders
• Online booking
• Staff coordination
• Calendar sync
• Reporting
• Calendar 

Pricing: The paid plan starts from $9.6 per month for 2 staff logins. 

SocialPilot (social media marketing)

SocialPilot is an easy-to-use social media marketing tool that remote teams can use to automate their social media management. You can schedule and publish your social media posts across multiple platforms to engage with your target audience when they are active. 

With SocialPilot, you can customize your posts with images, videos, gifs, tags, etc, for each social media platform. The tool gives you a clear picture of your account’s performance and users get insights into their audience with informative charts and graphs of critical metrics. 

Some advanced collaborative features of SocialPilot are: 

• Client management
• Team management
• Bulk scheduling
• Content creation
• Social media scheduling
• Social media calendar

       Pricing: The Paid plan starts from $25.50 per month per user when billed annually  

Narrato.io (content creation & workflow software)

Narrato is a simple and effective content creation, planning, and collaboration tool that is exclusively designed for both in-office and remote content teams at SMBs, content agencies, web design agencies as well as those of individual content creators. Narrato puts your entire content workflow in one place and helps users to replace clunky docs, sheets, emails, folders, and optimization tools. 

What makes Narrato a highly useful tool for content creators is that it offers an AI content assistant to help content creators create high-performance content faster. Narrato offers a host of features like content ideation tools, content optimization tools, SEO planning tools, workflow automation, AI writing tools, team collaboration tools, and more. 

Some advanced collaborative features of Narrato.io are: 

• AI content assistant
• Free image search and graphics tool
• Content calendars and boards
• Custom workflows
• Team management
• Content workflow and management
• Content planning

            Pricing: The Paid plan starts from $8 per user, per month when billed annually

WebWork-Tracker (time tracking & employee monitoring software)

WebWork-Tracker is a popular time tracking and employee monitoring software that offers useful features for remote teams to help them stay productive consistently. Available as a cloud-based and on-premise solution, WebWork tracks time spent by users on different activities on their devices. 

Remote workers can record the time they spent on different tasks and analyze productivity. Managers and business owners can use WebWork to track employee productivity by analyzing mouse activity and keystrokes. Users can generate activity, project, and contract reports on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. 

Some advanced collaborative features of WebWork are: 

• Time tracking
• Apps and website monitoring
• Activity level
• Task management
• Screenshots
• Activity description
• Track offline activities 

            Pricing: The Paid plan starts at $2.99 per user, per month  

Recruiterflow (recruitment software)

Recruiterflow is a popular applicant tracking and CRM software for ambitious recruitment agencies. The tool offers you a wide range of recruitment tools, so your remote team knows exactly how and when to automate tasks quickly. 

Whether you are working remotely or from an office space, Recruiterflow helps recruiting and staffing agencies to source candidates, engage them, and collaborate with your team. You can post jobs for free on job boards, invite applications, and process them. Recruiterflow integrates with G Suite and Office 365. 

Some advanced collaborative features of Recruiterflow are: 

• Applicant tracking system
• Client relationship management
• Collaboration tools
• Email sequences
• Resume database
• Candidate management
• Applications management 

             Pricing: The Paid plan starts from $99 per user, per month

Empuls.io (employee engagement software)

Empuls is an all-in-one employee engagement platform that actively helps businesses engage their workforce by building a culture of appreciation and continuous improvement. Empuls encourages employee empowerment and engagement via feeds, groups, and chats, which help employees stay connected through consistent and transparent communication. 

Empuls has everything covered with its rich features to get your employees engaged. From engagement scores to contests, water cooler conversations, one-on-one feedback, peer & social recognition, and a wide variety of rewards, it helps anyone get started without much training. Empuls can be easily integrated with various HRIS & HRMS software like Slack, MS Teams, G-Suite, BambooHR, Zoho People, SAP Successfactors, etc.

Some advanced collaborative features of Empuls are: 

• Employee Recognition
• Employee Rewards
• Employee Surveys
• Employee Social Intranet
• People Analytics
• Remote rewards

           Pricing: $2.5 per user per month. It comes with a 30-day DIY Free Trial. The friendly UX makes it easy for any organization to get started within 60 minutes.

Conclusion

Remote work tools help your distributed team members be on a common platform and collaborate effectively on work from anywhere. Whether it’s tracking time, organizing and prioritizing tasks, tracking projects, or managing files, you can manage various aspects of your from a single tool rather than switching various applications. 

The choice of your ideal remote work tool depends on what your requirements are. Do you want a feature-specific tool or software offering a comprehensive suite of features for more functionality? 

Assess your requirements and choose a remote work tool that fits your needs as well as your budget!