26 Best Work From Home Tools and Tools for Online Collaboration

As I am writing this post, the world is grappling with the demon called coronavirus. The crisis has given us the lesson of our lives;  how fragile our systems are. Millions of people have lost their jobs and chances are, the road to economic recovery will be a long and treacherous one.

The only segment of our society that has remained somewhat immune to the effects of this global crisis is the one that deals with the online ecosystem. Yes, several software companies have felt the heat of the crisis but the silver lining seems to be the fact that far fewer jobs have been lost where there is a possibility for people to work from home and where they have access to tools for online collaboration.

Below, you can find an exhaustive list of

File-Sharing Tools

Design Tools

Documentation Tools

Communication Tools

Software Tools

Video Conferencing Tools

26 Best Work From Home Tools and Online Collaboration

File Sharing Tools

Google Drive

This is perhaps the most popular tool on the internet for sharing files. Anyone who signs up on Google Drive gets 15 GB of free storage for various documents and any other digital file. Files are easy to arrange in files and folders and provide easy sharing options. You can also collaborate on any file and edit them as and when you need them.

Dropbox

Irrespective of the device that you are using, Dropbox allows individuals to sync any document. Dropbox is free to use, however, its business version allows more space (1 terabyte) and more features, including  priority email support and more sharing limits.

Individuals can edit documents in real time and everyone will be able to see the real time version of the document.

Box

Box.com is meant for enterprises that need file sharing service.  Once you subscribe to the services of Box, businesses will get a file sharing service, collaboration services, a content management system and a centralized dashboard to manage your business .

Hightail

As a file-sharing platform, Hightail allows for creative collaboration among teams. For projects, you can specify the level of security you want and the kind of access everyone has. You can track changes and speed at which the project is moving forward  and you can also change the pace at which your team completes projects.

MediaFire

While many of the other file sharing sites on the list have evolved to more complicated platforms, MediaFire markets itself as a simple file sharing and storage platform.  Media Fire focuses solely on bringing its users the best file sharing service possible.

This is perfect for the users who don’t want to pay for extra features.

OneDrive

OneDrive, gives you 5 GB free usage and one can get another 50 GB for just $1.99 per month.

Though earlier versions of Windows do not have OneDrive installed by default, OneDrive is pre-installed on Windows 10. However, one can access OneDrive from previous versions of Windows too and can access and share files and photos on PC, Mac and operating systems like Android and iOS.

This tool allows you to collaborate on Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote from your device and the web.

Design Tools

Invision

Having some of the big names in the industry as its clients, Invision enables its users to create intuitive designs. It also allow its users to gather feedback from colleagues and customers from within the app. You can also explore your team’s idea on a digital whiteboard.

Their aim is to help their clients deliver the best possible digital product. Brands like Airbnb, Amazon, HBO, Netflix, Slack, Starbucks and Uber use this platform to make their products.

Mural

Mural makes digital collaboration very simple. Their tools help creating diagrams useful in agile methodologies really simple.It is just like a digital white board.  Just like Invision, Mural has some of the biggest names in the industry as its clients. IBM, Github, Zapier, Intuit are some of the biggies among others.

Through their platforms, users can put what they have in their minds on sticky notes. The sticky notes can further be aligned into lists, flowcharts, diagrams etc. so that the teams can be aligned.

Documentation Tools

Google Docs

Google Docs is probably the simplest and the most used tool for online collaboration of documents. It is feature rich, easy to use and powerful. Not just that Google Docs has cool features like allowing its users to create blog posts , spreadsheets, and presentations. Most importantly it is free. You can use these tools as much as you want without paying a penny.

Office Online

This is Microsoft’s free version of its original Office suite of tools. You get the core of Office: Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and Onenote.  When you combine it with Outlook.com, you essentially get the Office Home and Student suite.

There are certain limitations on the features that you get for free, however.  For instance, if you wish to add a references section such as a table of contents and add citations, you will need to upgrade to the paid version.

There are also some font and formatting limitations as well.  But, if you’re looking for basic documentation and editing tools, the free version will suit your needs just fine.

Etherpad

From its website: “Etherpad is a highly customizable Open Source online editor providing collaborative editing in really real-time.”

You can write articles, press releases, and to-do lists, with colleagues and clients all working and editing the same document in real time.  And because it is open source, Etherpad is free to download.

Zoho

Zoho Projects provides you with a set of project collaboration tools which helps the team members involved in the project to come together, plan, collaborate and get work done faster.

It helps you create project workspaces that will enable you to collaborate with teams in various geographical locations.  You can give feedback, discuss projects in forums, and share a project calendar to increase productivity among team members.

Communication

Yammer

Yammer is a private social network that helps employees collaborate across departments, locations and business apps.

Yammer is a social network that’s entirely focused on your business. In order to join your business’s Yammer network, your team member must have a working email address from your company’s domain.

In order to segregate relevant information to specific team members, you can create groups that will help reduce the noise in the Newsfeed.

Users can share posts with specific groups simply by utilizing the drop down menus below the Update box (which is similar to Facebook’s Status Box).

Slack

One of the fastest growing startups today, Slack is the powerhouse messaging app used by remote teams.  Its powerful integrations, numerous bots, and the ecosystem being built on top of the platform have quickly transformed it into one of the most flexible communication tools on the market.

At its core, Slack operates in channels.  A company can create channels to track and archive conversations around teams and projects in order to get things done. Slack’s search feature ensures that you will never “lose” a conversation about a project.

Skype

One of the biggest reasons that Skype is the most popular communication tool is that it’s free.

Skype allows audio and video calls between multiple devices.  In other words, one person could be on a laptop and another can be on their phone.

And yes, if you’ve ever used Skype, you may have run into reliability issues.  But for the longest time, it was the best bang for your buck. (Now rivaled by Google Hangouts.  See below.)

Project Management Tools

Asana

Asana is a cloud platform that enables all of your employees to log in no matter where they are, as long as they have a wifi connection. The dashboard consists of three panels in order to give you all of the data you need on a given project.

As a business owner, Asana will give you an overview to all projects currently going on in your organization. This is the information on the left hand side of the dashboard. Once you click on a particular project, the middle of the dashboard will allow you to zoom in on the tasks associated with the project. And finally, the right hand side of the dashboard will be even more granular. There you can see who is assigned to a particular task and when it is due.

Podio

Podio is a powerful tool that helps entrepreneurs and managers operate their businesses effectively.

As a remote team of over 50 employees operating in over a dozen countries in all conceivable time zones, tools like Podio make it possible for for us to get everyone moving in the same direction.

All managers need to know what tasks employees are working on, how employees are spending their work day, and can be assured that employees are able to easily collaborate amongst themselves, no matter where they are located.

Trello

Trello is a web-based tool that allows you to organize your projects using cards that are organized on a board. To conceptualize this, imagine writing tasks on Post It Notes and sticking them in columns on a wall. You can write on them, take them off of the wall, and move them around.

Each column represents a different part of the project. As you and your team make progress on a card, you move it across the board. This lets you see the status of everything you’re working on with just a quick glimpse at the board.

Basecamp

Even though the guys running Basecamp didn’t invent the project management software category, they are probably one of the most loved software companies in the world.

With their simple, easy to use, powerful and very affordable software, it is perfect for small businesses. Its free offer and minimal learning curve mean you can get started without much of a hassle.

LiquidPlanner

The project management tool designed to serve technology teams.  According to its website “Technology teams are continually being asked to do more work with either the same or fewer resources.”

LiquidPlanner is flexible enough to allow developers to use either Agile or Waterfall methodologies in order to accommodate the needs of all users to their platform.

Users can organize projects, collaborate seamlessly, and even track time to see how long projects take to complete.

WorkflowMax

WorkflowMax is the project management tool for mid-sized client service firms.  Think of WorkflowMax as a hub for various services such as accounting, billing, project management, lead management, creating quotes, and a whole host of other services required to run a client service business.

With WorkflowMax, you generate beautiful and robust reports that will allow you to make sure your projects, from start to finish, are delivered on time and under budget so that you can ensure each one of your clients is profitable for your business.

GanttPRO

GanttPRO is a Web-based project planning tool based on Gantt charts.

Thanks to its intuitive UX/UI design, the software allows becoming an advanced user of it in 5-10 minutes. This Gantt chart software divides even large projects into clearly defined tasks with start and end dates along a timeline.

The tool allows users to create tasks and assign them to team members, create dependencies between tasks, track progress, and collaborate with project participants, get notifications, browse the whole history of a project, and simply be aware of all the processes in a plan.

Also, GanttPRO has a resource management feature. It provides with possibilities to work with resource workload what allows managers to track how everyone from his/her team is working: whether a resource underperforms or, vice versa, overloaded.

Software Tools

GitHub

At the time of this article, GitHub is the most popular software repository on the web.  According to a March 2015 Wired article, GitHub is one of the top 100 most popular websites in the world and hosted 9 million software projects.

GitHub wraps a version control system called a Git where developers can host their projects for free as well as exchange and talk “code” with other developers.

Bitbucket

Bitbucket is another large software repository platform and is brought to you by Atlassian, the same folks who own the JIRA and Hipchat brands.  Unlike Github, Bitbucket offers unlimited private repositories.

Where Github focuses on Opensource, Bitbucket is designed to help developers within enterprises to collaborate on projects.

Video Conferencing

12. Zoom

This longtime Skype alternative gives you the chance to easily have video calls, online demos or webinars with your virtual teams. Advanced features include selective screen sharing where some participants can see the presenter’s screen and others can’t.

If your remote teams use Microsoft Outlook, then this is a top selection: it’s easy to schedule video conferencing meetings from Outlook through the Zoom plugins.

It also has breakout rooms, meaning virtual teams can gather inside video calls without ever losing the main feed. This is very helpful to discuss remote work when running a large webinar or training session.