The 11 Best Collaboration Software for Productive Teams

By Mohsin Ansari On Mar 9, 2020

81% of employees who’ve been using team collaboration software say that their productivity improved after using these apps. If you’ve stopped by Troop Messenger blog previously, you might know that we love to discuss top team collaboration software, compare their features and functionalities, and share results of our analysis with the world. We share these comparison articles not only to help our readers find the best office collaboration tool but also to share with them how telecommuting has been on the rise.

According to NYTimes, Telecommuting has risen 79 percent between 2005 and 2014 and now makes upto 2.6 percent of the American workforce, or 3.2 million workers. This explains why:

9 out of 10 companies today are willing to adopt a cognitive collaboration solution “ASAP”
Microsoft Teams has more than 500,000 organizations on their platform
48% of employees today prefer using collaboration tools for workplace communication
97% of employees believe a lack of alignment and communication within a team impacts the outcome of a task or project

Let’s accept this: Cognitive Collaboration has transformed the way we work, and in order to adapt to this change, our teams need a state-of-the-art collaboration tool that can meet the demand of this fast-pacing era.

With that belief in our mind, we’ve put together, in this article, a list of top 11 team collaboration in 2020:

1. Microsoft Teams: Hub for Teamwork in Office 365

Key Features:

Collaborate in files with built-in apps of Office-365
Communicate effectively through online meetings, web conferencing, and calling
Customize workspace by adding third-party apps
Office 365 End-to-end security, administrative control, and compliance
Microsoft Teams Support
Conversation channels: Standard and Private channel
Fast Searching on Information

What’s New?

Microsoft Teams Rooms: To start meetings with one touch, on time, experience-rich audio and video with the remote participants.
Desk Phones: Participate in audio conferences and Join calls by having teams UI on desk
Collaborate with supplier, vendors, and clients with selective admin control
Slash Commands: Short typed phrases preceded by Slash (/), cause a specific action within the application. For example, “/away” sends your status to Away.
Secure private channels
Custom Backgrounds
Content Cameras and Intelligent capture

What’s Missing?

Kanban Boards
Gantt Charts
Unified search for all products

Pricing:

Microsoft Teams: Free
Office 365 Business Premium: INR 660 per user/month
Office 365 E3: INR 1320 per user/month

2. Troop Messenger: Unified Business Communication Platform

Key Features:

Instant Messaging: One-On-One Messaging, Video and Voice Calling, and Unlimited Groups
Help Tile: Explore the latest versions, How-Tos, and FAQs on app use, and app maintenance updates and latest news from TM Bulletin
Dashboard: For team, admins to perform all actions from purchasing subscriptions to adding new employees
Orange Member: Have a hassle-free collaboration with clients, vendors, and other company employees
Splashboard: To find all the functional features of Troop Messenger
Burnout: Confidentially chat in a private chat conversation window, where all chats will be deleted within a stipulated time period.
Forkout: Send a text to multiple individuals or groups, at one point of time
Sharing: File Sharing, Screen Sharing
Search: Global search, Text Search, Time filters, and Advance Search Filters
Live Chat Support: 24/7 technical assistance
Data Record: All details available at a flick of a finger
Message Search History: Retrieve all messages and files, Large Storage for an unhindered communication

What’s New?

Cattle Call (Video/Audio Conferencing)
Dropbox and Google Drive Integrations
Respond Later
Jumper: Private conversation with selected people
Fizzle Out: Sent Messages Get deleted automatically after a stipulated time period
Shoutout
Bunch it
Code Transfer and Compile
To-Do Targets
Click2Magic (Customer Support)

What’s Missing?

Kanban Boards
Gantt Charts

3. Monday.com: Team Management Application

Key Features:

Dashboards: High-level overview of all work
Integrations: MailChimp, G-Suite, Slack, and more
Guest Permission: To share boards with guests
Manage team’s Workload: Charts, Boards, Calendar View
Timeline View to plan teamwork in the visual view
Two-factor authentication
HIPAA Compliance
9% Uptime SLA
Google authentication
Self-Serve Knowledgebase and 24/7 Support
Single Sign-On (Okta, One login, Azure AD, Custom SAML)

What’s New?

Create detailed plans
Collaborate on deliverables
Track and monitor progress
Report on results
Diverse project management practices like PMBOK, Kanban, Scrum, and Agile

What’s Missing?

Repeating or scheduled tasks
Limited Project Management tools

4. ProofHub: All-In-One Project Planning Software

Key Features:

Create Discusses and bring selected participants at one place
@Mention to loop participants in the discussion
Create a content plan and prioritize tasks with deadlines
Kanban Boards: Divide tasks in workflows
Gantt Charts: Plan and Visualize workflow
Calendar View: Recurring tasks and automatic reminders
Chat: Team and Client Conversations
Multiple Languages: Set a language of your preference
Email-In: To become a part of tasks and discussions without having to log-in to ProofHub
White-Labeling: Add your team’s brand logo, custom domain, and a theme to match with its brand identity

What’s New?

Custom Roles: Admin can allow full, limited, or restricted access to the participants
Markup tools: Speed up the review of documents using markup tools
TimeSheets: Track time spent on tasks using the timers
Report: Detailed project and resource reports to plan ahead
IP restrictions: to avoid unauthorized access
APIs: To integrate easily with third-party services

What’s Missing?

Limited Integrations
Limited features in Gantt Chart

Pricing:

Ultimate Control: $45 per month (Unlimited Users, 15 GB storage, & 40 Projects)
Essential: $89 per month (Unlimited Users, 100 GB Storage & Unlimited Projects)

6. Quip: Collaborative Productivity Software Suite

Key Features:

1-on-1 Chat, team chat rooms, comment on anything
SpreadSheets that drive results with live SalesForce
Collaborative Editing and Real-Time Chat
Embed Charts in Slides
Team-Based Slides with Feedback polls and Connect Live data
Advanced security features to increase trust, transparency, and compliance for security-conscious organizations

What’s New?

Edit live Quip documents, spreadsheets, slides in Salesforce
2-way sync with Salesforce data
Spreadsheets with live Salesforce data
Sales, Service, and Marketing use cases

What’s Missing?

Lack of slide deck feature
Quip Lacks a clean UI/UX. The interface looks cluttered.

Pricing:

Starter Plan: Unlimited Documents, spreadsheets, and slides, $10 per user per month, billed annually
Enterprise Plan: Single Sign-on, Enterprise API, $25 per user per month, billed annually

6. TeamWork: Project Management Software

Key Features:

Communication: Messages, Chat, Files Sharing, Panoramic View of projects, Board View, and Timer app to keep track of time
Plan: Gantt Chart, milestones setting, tasks and subtasks creation, task list templates, project owner, and calendar view to check events, tasks, assign or reassign work, and more.
Collaboration: Permission of users and their access, advance privacy settings, files and versioning, notebook, followers
Deliver: Board View to visualize task flow, tags of specific categories, filters, risk registers to manage all risks, b******, time logging, and defaults
Report: Portfolio, Filters, Project Updates, and Track History

What’s New?

Easily Track changes made to milestones and task deliverables
Check Workload to see what bandwidth is available on the team and individuals
Dashboard to view the key metrics for the team and review activity timelines

What’s Missing?

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Markup tools to Speed up the review of documents
Email-In: To become a part of tasks and discussions without having to log-in to TeamWork

Pricing:

Pro Plan: 100 GB file space, Upto 20 users, 20 project templates, and 300 projects, $9 per month, billed annually
Business: 250 GB file space, Upto 100 users, 50 project templates, and 600 projects, $15 per month, billed annually

7. Asana: Work Management Platform

Key Features:

Boards: Create a board project, add ideas, tasks, goals, filter tasks by the due date, add or delete columns
Timeline: Map out a project plan, turn a spreadsheet into timelines, import SVC file
Automation: Reliable, Error-proof processes with built-in templates for different projects
Forms: Work Request Forms and approval processes
Calendar: Create Tasks in Calendar, Subtask count, Choose a custom Colors on your Project Calendar, Change Due Date using Drag & Drop
Portfolio: Organize and track multiple projects in a single view.
Workload: Drag-and-drop task scheduling, Capacity planning, resource allocation, Project milestones viewable
Integrations: Slack, Google Drive, DropBox, G-Suite and More than 100 integrations to choose from

What’s New?

Multi-select bulk rescheduling
Overview of workload by person and project
Built-in Templates for project plan, marketing project, event planning and more

What’s Missing?

Custom Roles for Admin to allow restricted access
Markup tools to Speed up the review of documents
TimeSheets to Track time spent on tasks using the timers

Pricing:

Premium: Upto 15 users, $10.99 per user per month, billed annually
Business: $24.99 per user per month, billed annually

8. Wrike: Collaborative Work Management Tool

Key Features:

Interactive Gnatt Chart: Real-time work visibility
Workload View: Drag and Drop Interface and Efficient Resource Management
Automated Workflows: Templatizing project tasks, assignees, timelines, and dependencies
Dashboards: for status updates
Reports: for executive reviews
Calendars: to keep everything on schedule
Integrations: Salesforce, Google, JIRA, Microsoft, Slack, Tableau
Collaboration: @mention, task descriptions, comment, and feedback sharing
Communication: built-in communication tools, Live Editor and Wrike Proof function
Support: 24/7 support and vibrant user community

What’s New?

Dynamic Request Forms
Visual Dependencies
Wrike Proof Tool

What’s Missing?

Custom Roles for Admin to allow restricted access
Markup tools to Speed up the review of documents
TimeSheets to Track time spent on tasks using the timers

Pricing:

Professional: Upto 15 users, $9.80 per user per month
Business: Upto 200 users, $24.80 per user per month

9. Miro: Online Collaborative Whiteboard Platform

Key Features:

Single Sign-On
Authentication via Slack, Google, Office 365
Collaboration: Real-time collaboration, private board sharing, and video chat
Editable Unlimited boards
Multi-Projects
Custom Pre-made templates
Jira and Confluence integrations
Asana integration
CA Rally and Azure DevOps Integrations
Developer platform and API access
Kanban Framework
High-resolution exports
Unlimited external board viewers and commenters

What’s New?

Multiple-team setup for company-wide account management
Dedicated customer manager
Advanced administration and permission
Advanced security, including domain whitelisting and audit logs
Personalized onboarding program

What’s Missing?

Markup tools to Speed up the review of documents
TimeSheets to Track time spent on tasks
Detailed project and resource reports to plan ahead

Pricing:

Team: For the team of 5+ users, $8 per user per month, billed annually
Business: For a team of 20+ users, $16 per user per month, billed annually

10. Soapbox: Team Management App for Managers

Key Features:

Personalized homepage
App integrations
Collaborative Agendas: Shared agendas, Suggested online agenda items, File attachments, Agenda templates
Integrated Meeting: Meeting search, Meeting feedback, Meeting archives, Shared meeting notes
Next StepTracker: Assign Next Step and add deadlines to next step

What’s New?

Private notes
One-off meetings
Voting
Real-Time Commenting

What’s Missing?

Kanban Boards
Screen Sharing
Visual Dependencies

Pricing:

Basic: Free
Business: For a team of first 100 users, flat price of $7 per user per month, billed annually

11. Flock: Team Messenger and Online Collaboration Platform

Key Features:

Unlimited 1-1 and Group messages
Unlimited Private and Public channels
Searchable messages
Multiple team admins
Screen Sharing
Group Video calls
Active Directory Search
Single Sign-On
24*7 Priority Support
Data encryption using TLS 1.2
Privacy of profile data and messages
Strict controls over data access
Third-Party apps and integrations
9% Uptime

What’s New?

ToDos – Project management
Polls and Reminders, Notes
Real-time Active Directory sync with Microsoft Azure, OneLogin, Okta and Ping
External Access: Multi-channel and multi-contact guests
Process Templates

What’s Missing?

Kanban Boards
Gantt Charts
Visual Dependencies

Pricing:

Pro: INR 199 per month
Enterprise: INR 349 per month

Choose the Best Collaboration Software for Your Team

While Microsoft Teams sure is becoming the prodigy of office collaboration tools, things are changing with the introduction of more next-gen communication apps like ProofHub and Monday.com.

If you are a small or medium organization, Miro and Wrike could be a good option because these two tools are great Slack alternatives, and they provide similar and better functionality.

But if you want to experience something extraordinary and ‘strictly-individual’ office software, our advice would be to switch to Troop Messenger. With this collaboration tool, you are in complete control of your workplace interaction.