We had a rough year or two.
But there is something that I must admit: I am happy that we got to experience working remotely.
Otherwise, I would have never known the perks that it would bring. Thanks to it, I feel that I can allocate my time according to my needs and wishes; I feel at ease when I create my own schedule. Working in my pajamas is just another plus!
BUT let’s be honest. Coming to this state was NOT easy. When we first learned that we had to work from home, we didn’t know what to do. Of course, we had a few ideas, but we had to be REAL quick not to fall behind the schedule as a newly-virtual team.
Today, I will be presenting you with a list of remote work tools so that you don’t go through the hardships we did. Get ready ’cause this will be an informative ride with many personal notes inside😌😌
IF you are new to this concept, click here to view my favorite work-from-home equipment to help you get through the day.
11 Remote Work Software Tools for Distributed Teams in 2023
From real-time messaging applications to HD video platforms, you will either find new remote working tools to make use of with your entire team OR see the alternatives of the platforms that you have been using for a long time.
Let’s roll!
#1 monday.com – everything you need to boost team efficiency
Putting monday.com at the top of the list was NOT my choice; it was a MUTUAL DECISION of mine and the entire team.
And it does not even surprise me anymore because we got to try multiple project management tools till we found THE ONE that suited the wishes of each team the best—to be honest, none of them were like monday.com.
monday.com is a cloud-based platform that allows users to create their own applications according to their needs. Its key features include dashboards, automations, kanban boards, files, integrations, Gantt charts, and documents. Thus, you can easily create workflows with several automations, which also allows collaboration at the same time.
During the long work hours, this Work OS (operating system) managed to offer a solution to each issue we had with its various features, whether providing remote employees with a platform or serving as a productivity tool enabling real-time collaboration. SO, I give this remote working software⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ on behalf of remote teams.
With monday.com as your online all-in-one collaboration tool, you can:
- plan, strategize, and deliver the project of your choice in a flash via the pre-built templates—which can be customized as well
- visualize your project with colorful Gantt charts to track and manage with ease
- reshape and monitor your task dependencies, task lists, task milestones, and many more throughout the project lifecycle
- make use of all kinds of dashboards by turning insights into data that will serve as your guide for your future business plans
- oversee your team’s workload to assign resources accordingly, thanks to real-time data
- use popular integrations to take your project to the next level
- and make use of the key features of monday.com (that I’ve briefly mentioned above) while adding custom items to your project
The project management software that will actually work for your team
Manage simple to complex projects and everything in between with monday.com
monday.com Pricing
- Free plan: €0 (up to 5 seats)
- Basic plan: €8/user per month when billed annually
- Standard plan: €10/user per month when billed annually
- Pro plan: €16/user per month when billed annually
- Enterprise plan: For this plan, please contact sales.
*All the plans above include a 14-day free trial, making it possible to try them out before committing to an annual purchase.
#2 Salesflare – great CRM with essentials for your sales and support team
Salesflare is a simple CRM that magically helps sales and support teams.
I’d say this if I wanted to keep writing a boring piece of copy, so I won’t.
I’ll cut to the chase and let you know that Salesflare is a great starting point for teams that haven’t used a CRM before.
It has features that come in handy, especially when you’re looking for charts that describe your customer base, thanks to its insights database.
As a marketer, I find the information displayed there of utmost importance as I have to write articles that will be of interest to our main audience, users.
But of course, this platform is more of use to sales and support teams as it supports them throughout the customer lifecycle and helps them strengthen the bonds between business and customers.
With Salesflare as your CRM, the features you’ll be granted access to are as the following:
- web and email tracking,
- lead scoring,
- hotness alerts,
- sales automations,
- visual depiction of your sales pipeline,
- task suggestions,
- custom fields,
- live notifications,
- and insights dashboard.
Plus, let me mention that Salesflare offers a 30-day free trial for you to try it out firsthand and see where it takes you!
Salesflare Pricing
- Growth: $29/month per user when billed annually
- Pro: $49/month per user when billed annually
- Enterprise: $99/month per user when billed annually
*All the plans above include a 30-day free trial, making it possible to try them out before committing to an annual purchase.
The CRM your team will love to use
A simple yet powerful CRM for small and medium-sized businesses selling B2B
#3 Walnut – sales demo tool to improve your bottom-line conversion rate
Walnut is a sales demo software that you can use to create personalized demos with ease.
To go into more detail, you can choose a demo template that you want to customize and display it as a base. When one prospect requires a demo, you can easily edit it based on the prospect’s company needs, using all elements to personalize the whole sales experience. Doing so, you’ll be able to offer unique and interactive product walkthroughs to your prospects, which can direct the focus to the real value of your product.
This no-code demo software also helps out boosting your lead nurturing as it lets you ask your prospects’ contact information so that you can reach them at any moment. Plus, you’ll be able to check which features are benefiting the prospects the most by checking the analytics reports that Walnut provides users with. Thus, development teams can make more fitting decisions regarding tool development, and marketing and sales teams can optimize the promoting sequence of the specific features as well.
With Walnut as your sales demo software, you can:
- improve the buying process for prospects by personalizing sales demos without starting over and over again thanks to sales demo templates,
- collaborate with your teammates to add more value to the demos,
- showcase your product’s key features during the product tour that you can embed within the demos, and
- make use of the insight you get from demos as they provide you with data regarding the features that are used the most throughout the demos.
Try this powerful tool to see what you can achieve ’cause there is a lot you can make out of it!
Walnut Pricing
Please contact Walnut’s sales team to learn more about their pricing system.
#4 Hive – a competent project management software
Used for marketing and advertising the most, Hive is a tool created for you to manage your projects with ease. Giving insight into employee productivity on a day-to-day basis, it helps you create a seamless employee scheduling.
I have used Hive for the tasks of business operations since it has native integration with Zoom, which enables my team members and me to prepare a specific agenda BEFORE the meeting, take notes, assign tasks, set deadlines DURING the meeting, and share and track these notes AFTER the meeting.
IF you don’t believe my word for how effective Hive is, let me tell you that many teams, including Starbucks, Toyota, EA, Google, and Comcast, benefit from Hive as a remote work tool for process management.
With Hive as your remote tool for project and process management, you can:
- create agile workflows that work for you and your team’s goals for each sprint by labeling and grouping your tasks
- manage your projects by tracking individual tasks and sub-tasks with unlimited access
- make use of flexible project views when generating a visual representation of data, such as Gantt, kanban, table, calendar, and portfolio
- construct forms to collect information from both internal and external participants
- create personal to-do lists to keep track of the due dates of your own work while managing side projects
- break down your team’s workload and use the time tracker function for each task
- integrate your Google Calendar to get a better view of events
- customize recurring tasks and prioritize your tasks to save time while allowing automations to take care of repeated processes
- send emails by using the in-app email function and add tasks to them with ease
- choose one of the pre-made notes templates and perform real-time collaboration within them
This is just the start; learn how to make use of Hive according to your needs and see how beneficial it is with your own eyes.
Hive Pricing
- Solo plan: $0
- Teams plan: $12/user per month when billed annually
- Enterprise plan: For this plan, please contact sales.
*Teams plan above includes a 14-day free trial, making it possible to try it out before committing to an annual purchase.
#5 Loom – helpful for enhancing team alignment
Loom is a video messaging tool that helps you get your message across faster via sharing the unique link it provides you with.
I use Loom to record my screen for the important AND complex matters I cannot just supply through a video call. For example, employee onboarding. Each time we onboard a new member to our team, Loom comes in handy since we have recorded many short videos that get our point across, thanks to the screen and microphone recording. However, I have to admit that EVEN I still use some of these videos when I doubt something about coding, editing, and placement of images.
THUS, Loom gives my team members and me the comfort of just clicking a link to see a process over and over instead of asking the person in charge AGAIN AND AGAIN—which could be considered a heavy action, especially for the newly-employed introverts😔
Thanks to Loom, you can easily record your screen and camera to explain everything you could do in a meeting by simply sharing a link WITHOUT an actual meeting.
Loom Pricing
- Starter plan: $0
- Business plan: $8/user per month when billed annually
- Enterprise plan: For this plan, please contact sales.
*Business plan above includes a 14-day free trial, making it possible to try it out before committing to an annual purchase.
#6 Zoom – an essential for video chat with external participants
You can get everything through Loom except for one thing: meeting with people outside your team—meaning your investors, collaborators, and anyone that is not actually a part of your company.
This is exactly where Zoom steps in.
Zoom is a video conferencing platform that became overly popular with the Corona outbreak since schools needed a platform to gather teachers and unite students without delay in their studies. However, it still holds a special place for remote teams in the business world.
Screen sharing ✅
Real-time messaging ✅
Tons of integrations ✅
Those are a few reasons that millions of teams and people use Zoom; however, there is one catch: its pricing plans. Don’t worry, though; I will be supplying you with a close alternative right below⬇️
Zoom Pricing
- Basic plan: $0
- Pro plan: $149.90/user per month when billed annually
- Business plan: $199.90/user per month when billed annually
- Enterprise plan: For this plan, please contact sales.
#7 Google Meet – a great platform for video chat with internal participants
Google Meet is a video-communication service that Google introduces.
Why do I believe that Google Meet is a great alternative to Zoom? Because it offers a superb service FOR FREE. All you need to have is a Google account—and we are living in 2023, people. We ALL have a Google account.
You can easily generate invitations to a video meeting that will last for 60 minutes for 100 participants for free, providing an online platform for remote employees to have a workshop, meeting, and feedback session.
To be honest, I use Google Meet a lot more than I use Zoom because my team members and I lose track of time really easily, especially at the beginning of meetings where we talk about what we did during the weekend. God knows the idle time gives me the power to stay awake for the rest of the dull meetings🙏
My point is that you can use Google Meet to your heart’s content, BUT if you need a FULL PACKAGE that will cover a variety of software, then you might consider giving Google Workspace (formerly Google Suite) a chance. Google Workspace includes platforms like Google Drive, Google Meet, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and many more.
Google Workspace Pricing
- Business Starter plan: $6/month per user
- Business Standard plan: $12/month per user
- Business Plus plan: $18/month per user
- Enterprise plan: For this plan, please contact sales.
#8 Slack – a great chat application to enhance communication between remote employees
Slack is an instant messaging platform that helps remote employees stay in touch and up-to-date by providing them with an intuitive online tool with several cool features, such as advanced integrations, file sharing, and screen sharing.
Thanks to the small icons that appear next to the names, we get to see who is occupied with what momentarily. Native integration with Google Calendar, I also get to see who is in a meeting (THEREFORE busy) or who is out of the office at the moment.
In addition, these small icons are very useful when it comes to messaging my team members because I can see when someone is giving a mini-break. So I don’t disturb them with a huddle request.
Easy as that.
Trusted by big names, such as Netflix, Airbnb, Uber, Spotify, and Time, Slack is one of the remote tools that you should check out.
Slack Pricing
- Free plan: $0
- Pro plan: $6.67/user per month when billed annually
- Business+ plan: $12.50/user per month when billed annually
- Enterprise Grid plan: For this plan, please contact sales.
#9 Notion – a great resource center for reporting
Notion can serve many objectives; for instance, as a remote collaboration tool where you and your team members record each action with an outcome OR prepare sprint lists.
AT LEAST, that is what WE do.
Noting every little item that falls into our area of responsibility, we keep each other up-to-date with our work. Therefore, the need for extra meetings to keep tabs on each other gets out of the way.
Also, it is really convenient for finding resources; for example, if you are looking for the last month’s presentation to compare data, it is highly likely that you will find it on a related Notion page.
To summarize, this half reporting and half communication tool is a MUST among tons of tools.
Notion Pricing
- Personal plan: $0
- Personal Pro plan: $4/month when billed annually
- Team plan: $8/user per month when billed annually
- Enterprise plan: For this plan, please contact sales.
#10 Canva – an amazing solution to create visual representations
Canva is a graphic design tool that helps you create beautiful visual representations for the data you have.
For instance, each team might use it on different levels: design teams can create visual content easily, marketing teams can generate simple designs to use on their blog page, and sales teams can make beautiful graphs to visualize their reports for the monthly meetings.
I have been a big fan of this remote tool for a long time; I used it to create colorful presentations for my classes most of the time🎨🎨 BUT it is not only me; big names like HubSpot, Sony Music, Salesforce, Skyscanner, Reddit, and Danone DO use Canva for their business ALL THE TIME.
With Canva as one of your remote working tools, you can:
- make use of pre-made templates that offer a wide variety to fit each need of your work line
- create folders for each team to keep their own projects in order
- collaborate on your content with your team members with ease—simply by sharing a link
- leave feedback via built-in comments, make changes according to them, and actively enhance teamwork
- present, download, and share your content
Canva Pricing
- Free plan: $0
- Pro plan: $12.99/month per user
- Teams plan: $36/month per user
*All plans above include a 30-day free trial, making it possible to try it out before committing to an annual purchase.
#11 Google Drive – a great cloud storage platform to keep all your files
Google Drive is a cloud storage solution that enables you to store your documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in one place where any team member can reach and edit—as long as they are permitted.
Using Google Drive as one of your remote working tools would definitely be a big benefit for you since this online tool that allows real-time collaboration helps you and your team to add, edit, share, and comment on each item you put in the system while promising you security for your digital data.
Well, I benefit from Google Drive on a daily basis as my job requires me to store, edit, and share my articles with my colleagues. Then again, which job does NOT require that?
I am pretty sure most do in a way.
In addition to your job description, this online tool is free to use, just like Google Meet. However, if you enjoy the remote working software products of Google, I recommend you to get the entire software called Google Workspace and do yourself a big favor.
Google Workspace Pricing
- Business Starter plan: $6/month per user
- Business Standard plan: $12/month per user
- Business Plus plan: $18/month per user
- Enterprise plan: For this plan, please contact sales.
In Conclusion
In 2023, everyone is looking for A solution that will access files, set a time period, have helpful integrations and decent pricing options, save cloud signatures, allow storage access and single sign, include built-in chat features, time tracker and screen recorder, track work hours, AND let them watch cat videos.
SORRY to tell you that such a software project is not here yet.
That is why I present you with nine different remote working software that will be indispensable for you and your team.
Don’t hesitate to try them since they could be your next best tool!
Frequently Asked Questions
Which tools are most useful to remote employees and coworkers?
There are several useful tools for remote employees and coworkers, but the ones that prove most useful are monday.com, Hive, and Loom since they manage to serve as both remote collaboration tools and productivity tools.
How do you improve remote team efficiency with software tools?
Improving remote team efficiency with software tools is easy as long as the tools that you use fit your needs and objectives. For example, if your work requires you to keep in touch with the other teams on a daily basis, then you need an agile instant messaging tool with a file-sharing feature.
What is the best task management tool for remote work?
monday.com is the best task management tool for remote work as it enables remote employees to collaborate on tasks in real-time, offers a platform with a wide variety of features to create visual representations of the data you have, and allows keeping tabs on each individual task, thanks to its Gantt and kanban views and user-friendly UI.
