Best Online Team Collaboration Tools for SMBs - ToOLOwl
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Best Online Team Collaboration Tools for SMBs

Teamwork makes the dream work. The infamous saying is omnipresent in every sphere of life. It is applicable to the business world as well. Whether it’s online or offline, in devising a strategy or a plan, working together has irrefutably helped businesses succeed. It helps the teams reach new innovative ideas and more efficient methods to reach their goals. As a result, collaboration is an important part of any business’ success story.

The pandemic had restricted everybody to their homes, and communication between teams became a major challenge. However, the rise of online collaboration tools eased the situation. Now that the world is slowly moving towards its former glory, the hybrid work culture will take the key position in the game. As a result, businesses should look into getting a collaboration tool that is a good fit for the company. Hence, our experts have compiled a list of the best online team collaboration tools for SMBs.

  1. Monday.com

Monday.com is a project management tool, but it provides a strong emphasis on communication and planning. As a result, it is an excellent choice for businesses that are project-led such as the design industry or the marketing companies. The intuitive dashboard provides the necessary information to track team member progress at a glance. It also helps in improving project communication and report formation.

Our experts believe that Monday.com would be an excellent addition to the design-focused industries and businesses with unique client needs. The tools provide comprehensive tools that are excellent for customisation and design. It gives a visually delightful experience to the co-workers and helps them easily understand each other’s tasks and responsibilities. The tool makes use of innovative techniques such as Kanban boards and Gantt charts for real-time collaboration and brainstorming sessions. In addition, the tool comes with other exciting features such as custom fields, instant messaging, dashboard templates, cloud-based file-sharing options, unlimited users, and real-time timeline management.

Monday.com has a unique payment structure that depends on the number of seats. It can be a problem for businesses with fluctuating sizes. However, the tool does have a freemium option. Moreover, it provides a 14-day free trial with all the advanced features. The free plan can handle up to two users. There is an unlimited user plan costing $27 per month.

  1. Click Up

Cost is one of the major determiners of success in the SMB market. That’s why Click Up has been turning heads in the SMB market regardless of its relatively short history. The tool is infamous for its generous list of features and the noticeably budget-friendly pricing plan. It can be structured according to the company hierarchy and allows for different departments to work simultaneously without anyone crossing each other. As evident, collaboration is one of the key principles of the app. It allows the users to see live cursor movement on common pages, comment on specific tasks and easily share files, videos, and images. The free plan consists of excellent features such as custom views, multiple assignees, goal establishment, common mind maps, real-time collaboration, Gantt charts for project tracking, and much more.

However, not everything’s great about the free app. There are shortcomings to the low cost. Notably, most of the app’s free features have monthly usage limits and provide the user only five project spaces. But, these restrictions can be lifted by paying a nominal price of $3.62 per month.

  1. Wrike

Wrike is one of the most discussed online collaboration tools as it boasts some of the most impressive features in the domain. Its simple design and intuitive interface provide the user with a smooth experience, and the platform scores highly on any usability testing scale. In addition, the app has a clean interface with limited visuals that focus on providing the required information at a glance. As a result, stakeholders can be quickly updated on the project progress, and milestones can be tracked easily.

Time management is important for collaborative projects. Wrike understands that requirement. As a result, it focuses on real-time collaboration features such as document sharing and editing. It also has a project message board to help the employees stick to their schedules and timelines. Other great features include cloud storage integration, community forums, interactive spreadsheets, milestone identifiers, etc. Unfortunately, one of the major shortcomings of the tool is the lack of automation.

Wrike professional plan can be availed at a nominal cost of $7.20. The free plan permits unlimited users but limits some useful features.

  1. Asana

Asana is arguably the most well-known collaboration tool for teams with working systems. However, it is also a great project management software that can help companies improve their organisation capabilities, tracking and project delegation. The tool provides a variety of different formats to organise and display projects, including lists, boards, calendars, and even Gantt charts. This helps consolidate your workflows into one easy to track system.

Asana is a great proposition for SMBs as it allows unlimited assignees on any task. It helps the business turn agile and fast-moving with visual workflows and issue resolution. It is a great proposition for businesses with under a lot of high-pressure deadlines such as financial services. Other interesting features include unlimited comments, activity logs, and storage. But the largest file size for upload is restricted at 100 MBs. It also provides a common inbox, status updates, and cloud-based file sharing. In addition, automation features are available that improves timelines.

The Asana Basic plan is free for up to 15 users. The premium plan starts at $9.49 per month and allows unlimited users. The business plan can be availed for $20.99 per month for unlimited users.

  1. Proofhub

Proofhub aims for simplicity. Their propositions all indicate the same statement. All of their features aim for simplicity and avoid complicating collaborative tasks. Visual document sharing is the key feature of the tool that pushes its aims. Project task progress can be tracked by file versioning, and ideas are shared as a thread for easy assessment. It also provides a group chat feature. Industries that have fluctuating team members love Proofhub as it follows a flat payment option which allows the accommodation of unlimited users. However, critics have found a few shortcomings, such as poor navigation and the simple design restricting the application of intuitive interfaces.

The USP of the tool is its emphasis on document sharing. All the key features of the tool focus on feedback and proofreading, which makes it one of the best tools online for teams with real-time document sharing needs such as coding and accounting. It also allows the user to make checks and revisions. Some of the core features include time tracking, task managers for specific projects, simplified Gantt charts, proofreading and file approval, group chats, automated calendars, multilingual translators, and much more.

As stated earlier, Proofhub has a flat pricing policy. Every plan comes with unlimited team members. The essential payment plan is the most wallet-friendly plan with unlimited users. It costs $32.68. With unlimited users, all its plans can be cheap or expensive according to the team size of the buyer. As a result, Proofhub is an excellent choice for bigger firms with larger teams that are looking for a reliable and powerful online collaboration tool.

  1. Trello

Trello is one of the most well-known project management tools available online. However, the new features added in the past updates have enabled the users to use it as an online collaboration tool as well effectively. Trello is a great tool as it lets you organise your projects on boards and helps you improve your work management skills. It has a simple layout that uses cards to represent the user’s daily tasks. Thus, the user can understand their duties efficiently at a glance. Trello’s intuitive interactive dashboard tells you and your team what’s being worked on and who’s working on what. This improves the team’s workflow and streamlines the process and task completion. The setup period for the tool is relatively short and is an excellent choice for SMBs.

The unique selling proposition of Trello is that it is not your regular team collaboration tool as it primarily focuses on functionality and accessibility. Instead of a long, sophisticated feature list, the tool provides the user with the most useful features and improves productivity. Some of the useful features include unlimited cards, unlimited users, cloud-based file sharing, unlimited storage, public board management, and much more.

The pricing policy of the company is very straightforward. For example, the SMB-focused plan – Business Class plan costs $9 per month and $7.25 if billed annually.

  1. Slack

Slack was founded in 2009 and is one of the most well-known and trustworthy names in the team messaging apps industry. Moreover, it has some of the most admirable customisation tools that include colour themes, emojis, clock types, screen formats, etc.

Slack is one of the industry favourites as it has a very simple layout and scaled-back features. As a result, Slack is focused on communication and years of building has made the tool very efficient in doing so. It also provides some of the most exquisite integration options. It has over 800 integrations with every major work management tool. Some of the key features include 10 GB storage for every member, two-factor authentication for added security, group video calls for up to 15 people, channel recommendation options, and screen sharing.

The payment plan for the tool is very affordable, with the Slack Pro costing $5.25 per month. It is the best plan for SMBs. The business plan is also affordable, but it is recommended for larger firms with international ties and requirements.

 

About ToOLOwl

I am ToOLOwl. I have few friends in my nest; whenever someone requests a tool’s review or I pick a one out of my interest, someone in the nest does research on the tool, someone takes a tool’s walkthrough and some of them share their experiences and expert advice. Based on all; I give it a  stereoscopic vision and present important insights for you to go through and ease your selection process for tools. Wish you Happy reading, Easy choosing.

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