10 team collaboration tools worth exploring in 2019
The way we work is evolving exponentially — more and more teams take advantage of remote working, others embrace the agile work style. Such changes bring along the need for different and better work approaches to make the transition smoother. This is especially true for the digital tools we use for organizing our tasks and communicating with our team. But there are countless apps out there so… where do you start?
If one of your 2019 resolutions is to make the year better and more productive, it is important to have the right instruments at hand. To make your choice just a little easier, we tried out popular and on-the-rise apps and picked the 10 tools for team collaboration, which are worth exploring in 2019.
Set up meetings with ease — Calendly
If your team works remotely, you are probably used to the pains of finding a suitable time for a meeting. Calendly takes this burden off your shoulders. The software can check the availability of the entire team and establish the best vacant slots. Integrating with the most common business calendars, the meetings are automatically added to your schedule. Additionally, arrangements are always synced with the time of the invitee, so you never have to go back and forth about the right time zone again.
Pricing: Calendly has as a free version with the most basic features. The paid options start at $8 and offer some additional features such as customized branding and app integrations.
A simplified way to organize your projects — Swipes Workspace
Swipes Workspace is a tool that gives you all the essentials you need for careful planning and execution. Its design is very simplistic and yet stylish, so the initial setup is quick and intuitive — you just break down your tasks into smaller steps. It is suitable for those who like to focus on their work instead of wasting hours organizing it. Great with smaller teams. The tool allows you to manage your in-app communication around threads so you can easily access all project-related discussions. A big advantage is its unlimited storage, so you can save all your data directly in the Workspace.
Pricing: Swipes Workspace costs $6.00/month per user for an annual subscription or $7.50/month per user for a monthly one. You can try it out for free with the 14-day trial.
Manage your workflow and repetitive processes — Process Street
Unlike the typical collaboration tools out there, Process Street concentrates on establishing processes and structures which allow you to automate your planning. The tool works like a checklist, where you can assign different responsibilities to your team members. Its advantage is the ability to schedule tasks on recurring intervals — weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually.
Pricing: The free version is limited to 5 checklists and templates. The paid plan starts from $12.50 per user per month.
Organize your work the Kanban way — Trello
In case you and the rest of your team like very visual plans, Trello might just be your tool. The collaboration there is made fun and engaging with many colors and cheerful stickers. Trello organizes your work in a series of post-it notes, grouped into different projects. On each memo, a different task is represented by its main features. The tool is easy to navigate, especially with its ability to drag and drop objects around the board.
Pricing: Trello offers a free plan. But if you prefer having greater customization and more integrations, you can upgrade to a paid version starting from $9.99 per user per month.
Have fun while organizing your work — Asana
Asana is a tool that has just about every feature someone can think of. This makes it particularly useful for teams that work mostly remotely and have little live contact with each other. There is a downside to this abundance, however — it takes time to learn how to use every feature and how to set it up. We would say this is the perfect tool for people who enjoy organizing or have someone dedicated to this task. The software offers many customisable features (like the cute unicorns) that make the planning process even more enjoyable.
Pricing: If you are a small team, the free version of Asana could be a good fit for you. The paid plans start at $9.99 per member per month.
Project management for enterprise — ProofHub
ProofHub is a cloud-based software particularly suitable for businesses with a more hierarchical structure. It appears to have all possible tools a manager might need to delegate the workload to a team, including a proofing option (so you can review and approve options). It offers several integrations and is able to sync with your accounting or invoicing software. You can easily invite your clients directly in ProofHub to monitor projects and reports on the work done with the Custom roles option. This is definitely one of the more corporate management tools out there.
Pricing: ProofHub has a flat fee payment regardless of the number of members. The basic version starts from $45/month but if you want to have full control over your planning you can go for the ultimate control version starting from $89/month
Shared sticky notes and whiteboards — Mural
If creativity and brainstorming lie at the core of your company, Mural can help you unite the minds in your team. The app allows you to create sticky notes, draw mind maps, attach files on a shared virtual board. It has a simple and intuitive design, which makes the whole experience very enjoyable, even for a new user. A handy feature is the anonymous voting, which allows your team to choose the most feasible solutions, without tension or prejudice. It also has a lot of pre-made templates that let you get to brainstorming even quicker.
Pricing: Mural plans start from $12 per member per month, but they also offer a free trial.
Communicate at your own pace — Twist
In case you are looking for alternatives to Slack and newly discontinued HipChat, Twist is an app worth exploring in 2019. Conversations are grouped in threads, so talks are focused around one particular topic and you can easily find the information you need. The scheduled snoozing option, helps you concentrate on your tasks and catch up later, at your own pace. And if you are a Todoist user, you can link the conversations of the team with your personal to-do list, so no information gets lost along the way.
Pricing: Twist has a free version with all main features. The paid version starts from $5/month per user.
Align with your team via video — Zoom
With the growing trend of remote working, nowadays it is essential to every team to have good and reliable tool for video conferencing. Zoom can be a good substitute to Skype (which is so 2010). It offers some cool features, such as a whiteboard, voting system and calendar integrations. It is particularly suitable for bigger teams as it has a bigger threshold for the number of participants in the video call (50 interactive participants and 10,000 view-only attendees).
Pricing: There is a free version with a limited duration of the meetings. Paid plans start at $14.99/month per host.
Connect all your business apps together — Zapier
If you prefer to work with a multitude of apps but don’t want to waste too much time switching from one to another, Zapier can be your trusted ally. It allows non-tech people to connect events and actions across the different tools without any coding. For example, you can set up triggers (called Zaps) which create Google calendar events from your Trello cards or post to a Slack channel whenever a new task is assigned. This feature allows you to automate a big part of your work and gives you the time to concentrate on the things that really matter.
Pricing: The free plan of Zapier is limited to making a 2-step Zaps. For more complex automation, you would need to upgrade to the paid versions starting at $20/month per membership.
Originally published at swipesapp.com.
