For many of us, remote working has become a way of life. And what a wonderful life it is. Way more flexibility. A better work-life balance. No more lengthy commutes.
But it doesn’t come without its challenges.
One of the biggest struggles faced by remote workers is difficulties with collaboration and communication. After all, those two things are never going to be the same if you’re not working face to face.
Fortunately, there’s been an increase in the number (and quality) of remote work tools over the past few years. And with the right tools, you can dramatically improve your team’s ability to collaborate and communicate, no matter where they are in the world.
Want to improve how your team communicates day to day? There’s a tool for that. Need help with project management? There’s one for that too. Looking for support with virtual workshops? You get the point.
In this guide I’ll share the 10 best remote work tools to improve remote collaboration and make remote work more engaging and more productive for everyone involved.
See all your team’s feedback in one place
Bring files, versions, feedback, and approvals together with Filestage.
1. Filestage – best remote work software for feedback management
Managing feedback can be challenging, especially when there are lots of stakeholders involved. More often than not, feedback arrives in dribs and drabs, some by email and some via Slack.
Chasing. Conflicting suggestions. Confusion regarding who has approved what.
Enter Filestage.
Filestage is a remote collaboration tool that helps you collect feedback on designs, videos, documents, and more. All in one place. From sharing to sign-off, it makes the process of managing feedback faster, simpler, and less stressful. For both you and your reviewers!
Key features:
- Due dates keep your projects on track and help you meet deadlines
- In-context comments make for clear feedback that shows up in real time
- Visual annotations bring comments to life and make it clear what needs changing
- To-do lists give your team a clear picture of what needs amending
- Version history helps you keep tabs on previous comments and see what’s changed
- Review steps help to make sure your files get approved by the right people at the right stage of the process
- Project dashboards help you keep track of who you’re still waiting to hear from
- Automations reduce manual tasks and speed up content reviews
- Integrations with Dropbox, Google Drive, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and more make your workflow faster and easier to manage
2. Slack – best remote work tool for chatting with your teammates
Instant messaging software is invaluable when it comes to remote collaboration with your teammates. It makes it easier to chat back and forth, building rapport and getting speedy responses without starting yet another unnecessary email thread.
Slack is our pick of the bunch thanks to its organized structure, simplistic design, and easy-to-use interface.
Key features:
- Channels allow you to organize your work based on projects, topics, or teams
- Start one-to-one conversations with your teammates
- Notifications keep you informed, whether you’re at your desk or on the go
- Message history allows you to refer back to previous conversations
- Easily share files, documents, photos, and videos
- Integrates with Google Drive, Dropbox, Asana, Trello, and more
Alternatives to Slack:
- Microsoft Teams
- Google Chat
3. Google Drive – best shared drive for remote work
Whether you’re working remotely or not, it pays to have a shared drive for all your team’s work. Largely because it saves you from having to share files and documents over and over again.
Google Drive offers your team a safe place to store any type of project file. These files are easy to organize into folders, and they can be accessed from a range of devices. Best of all, it’s easy to share these documents and collaborate on them.
Key features:
- Files stored safely in the cloud, saving storage space on your device
- Access files anywhere and from any device
- Upload and store any file type
- Microsoft Office compatibility means you can upload Word, Excel, and Powerpoint documents without converting them
Alternatives to Google Drive:
- Dropbox
- OneDrive
4. Google Docs Editors suite – best remote work tools for documents, decks, and spreadsheets
The Google Docs Editors suite is a free set of online tools which includes Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides (among others). It’s available to anyone with a Google ID or Gmail account, and it’s a great remote work tool for collaborative work on documents, decks, and spreadsheets.
Key features:
- Files are saved in the cloud, and you can access them on any device
- Files are automatically backed up in real time
- Collaborate and edit files in real time, and use comments, suggestions and @-mentions
- 15 GB of free cloud storage, and you can upgrade for as little as $6/month for more
- Choose whether collaborators can view, comment, or edit
Alternatives to Google Docs Editors suite:
- Office365
5. Asana – best project management solution for remote work
When operating remotely, staying organized and keeping your team aligned on projects is key. Project management software to the rescue!
Asana makes it easy for you to organize, track, and manage your work. It makes it simple to plan workflows and projects, see how your project is progressing, and keep your team on schedule at every step.
Key features:
- Visualize your project as a board, list, timeline, or calendar
- Break work into tasks and subtasks for you and your team
- Add milestones to visualize significant checkpoints in your project to measure and share progress
- Set task assignees, so everyone knows who’s responsible for each task
- Set due dates, so everyone is aware of the deadline
Alternatives to Asana:
- Trello
- Monday
6. Notion – best remote work tool for your company knowledge base
Every business has a need to share information amongst employees – from process documents and product updates to HR policies and onboarding materials. Wiki software helps you share this information in one, easy-access place.
Notion is a brilliant wiki tool that helps you build up your company knowledge base, so that remote workers can find everything they need without having to ask you to forward emails, send documents, and share links.
Key features:
- Customize your wiki to make it work in the way that suits you best
- Choose from thousands of community-created templates for quick and easy setup
- View version history to monitor changes and roll back to previous versions if necessary
- Invite collaborators, so that a wider team can help keep knowledge up to date
Alternatives to Notion:
- Tettra
- Confluence
See all your team’s feedback in one place
Bring files, versions, feedback, and approvals together with Filestage.
7. FigJam – best whiteboard software for remote workshops
One of the hardest parts of remote working is collaborating, especially on creative projects. Online whiteboard tools help remote teams to ideate in real time.
FigJam is an excellent whiteboard tool for remote workshops, helping you and your team to bounce off one another in real time. From concept to design, you can keep all your ideas in one place.
Key features:
- Communicate with sticky notes, sketches, connectors, and expressions
- Add audio files to quickly explain designs and talk through ideas
- Integrates with Figma for seamless UX
Alternatives to FigJam:
- Miro
- Mural
8. Figma – best remote work software for product design teams
Figma allows product design teams to work together, no matter where you all are in the world. You and your teammates can co-design at the same time, and you’ll see changes and comments appear immediately, for flawless collaboration.
Key features:
- Collaborate from anywhere on any device
- Add in-context comments and tag your teammates for clear communication
- View version history so nothing gets lost
Alternatives to Figma:
- InVision
9. Zoom – best for remote calls and team meetings
The crème de la crème of remote meeting software, Zoom has become a staple for teams and companies that operate remotely. With HD video and audio and support for up to 1,000 video participants, Zoom can be used for anything from one-to-one calls to large-scale conferences!
Key features:
- Multiple video call participants can share their screens simultaneously
- Reactions, polls, and hand raising make virtual meetings more fun and engaging
- Record your virtual meetings and generate searchable transcripts that can be referred back to post-meeting
Alternatives to Zoom:
- Microsoft Teams
10. Loom – best for sharing quick screen recordings
Cut back on unnecessary meetings and use Loom to record quick messages and demos that you can send to your team instead.
With Loom, you can record your camera, microphone, and desktop as you walk your team through a process, explain a roadmap, or answer a complicated question. That way, your team can watch it in their own time and at their own pace.
Key features:
- Automatically save videos to the cloud and share them instantly with a link
- Edit and trim your video using the Loom web app
- Leave time-based comments and emoji reactions
- Get notified when someone views, reacts, or comments on your video
Alternatives to Loom:
- Berrycast
Final thoughts
With the best remote work tools at hand, remote working is more collaborative, more engaging, and more productive.
If you’d like to give Filestage a go and see for yourself how it can help with feedback management, start a free trial →
