12 Team Collaboration Tools to Boost Productivity and Innovation

One of the biggest benefits of working in a team is the different ideas and perspectives each team member brings to the table. Collaborating across your team can boost innovation as new ideas are brought into the mix, while also increasing productivity as employees can help each other grow and learn.

Collaboration software and other collaborative tools can make working together easier than ever, whether your team is working remotely or in the office. Let’s look at 12 of the best workplace tools for collaboration.

1. Google Drive

As far as popular team collaboration tools go, pretty much everyone has heard of Google apps like Gmail, Docs, and Sheets. These apps are extremely popular for keeping your documents in one place. Google Drive’s cloud-based collaborative platform gives you a place to conglomerate your files from across Google applications like Docs, Forms, or Sheets. You can then restrict access to just yourself, or invite collaborators.

• Cost: Tiered pricing starting at $6 per user, per month.
• Our favorite feature: The ability to organize by folders within folders – keeping organization at a maximum!

2. Rev VoiceHub

The need for AI transcription is skyrocketing in many ways. Meetings are important to foster collaboration in the workplace – and afterward, you might find yourself needing a quick transcript of a meeting to pull out an important note or you might need to remember the task your coworker gave you on a phone call. Transcription services (like Rev’s productivity and meeting platform VoiceHub) can help you access these notes without having to sift through call recordings.

• Cost: Tiered pricing that begins with a limited free plan.
• Our favorite feature: VoiceHub is searchable, so you can easily find the exact sentence, question, or task you’re looking for in your call.

3. Zoom

Much like people use the word “Sharpie” to describe any permanent marker, people use the word “Zoom” to describe a video call. Zoom is many companies’ go-to for a collaborative video call software, where employees can all join the video meeting and speak to each other. Zoom also allows you to record the call, which you can then transcribe with an AI video transcription service or just save to review later.

Need a good Zoom alternative? Check out our top recommendations on our blog.

• Cost: Limited free tier (limited to 40-minute meetings), with tiered pricing for businesses depending on need.
• Our favorite feature: You can blur or customize your background so you can take calls from anywhere, regardless of your surroundings.

4. Asana

Asana is one of many great project management tools that can help your team keep track of projects and deadlines. You can use Asana to lay out a clear project plan, assign team members to specific tasks with unique due dates, and propel your projects through the pipeline. Asana also gives your team great visibility into who is working on which task, and where the project is.

• Cost: Tiered pricing for businesses starting at $10.99 per user, per month.
• Our favorite feature: Breaking your tasks into subtasks can help make big projects feel less overwhelming.

5. Slack

Slack is kind of a big deal in the business world and a huge team collaboration tool. Many teams from small businesses to big enterprises use Slack to communicate. With Slack, you can send a message for real-time communication, or if your coworker is out of office or in a different time zone you can schedule it to send at a time that works for them. Slack also has a video call feature if you need to hop on a quick call.

• Cost: Tiered pricing for businesses starting at $7.25 per user, per month.
• Our favorite feature: The ability to break chats up for one on one communication, small groups, or channels devoted to a specific topic only allows you to break up communications into what works best for you.

6. Hive

Hive is a catch-all for teamwork apps. It allows users to store and edit documents, tag their coworkers, manage a project timeline, and chat with their coworkers all in one place. You can even track your time in Hive, or use one of the many integrations like Jira, Zoom, Photoshop, and more to make it exactly what you need.

• Cost: Tiered pricing that begins with a limited free plan.
• Our favorite feature: The hundreds of applications and integrations you can add to your Hive dashboard make it extremely customizable to your workplace.

7. Bit.ai

Bit is modern collaborative document software. Users can store documents of different types (like slides, docs, surveys, and more) and collaborate on them in real time or separately. Bit also allows users to insert a host of different widget types including social media posts, tables, code blocks, and cloud files to make it simple to make your document exactly what you need it to be.

• Cost: Tiered pricing that begins with a limited free tier.
• Our favorite feature: The simple, modern design not only makes documents look beautiful, but it makes the application easy to use.

8. Miro

Miro allows teams to collaborate on projects with its whiteboard-style project management pipeline. More than just project management, however, Miro can even help with your graphic design efforts by providing a suite of design tools like drawing implements, vectors, and more. They also have sticky notes that your team can use to make edits or suggestions to your projects or your designs.

• Cost: Tiered pricing that begins with a limited free tier.
• Our favorite feature: You can create and share a mood board, which is a creative way to get your team on the same page.

9. Jira

Jira is a widely used project management and issue-tracking tool. You can create a ticket for each project or issue and move it through different stages, like scoping, development, and more. This can help you keep track of single issues or projects and it allows you to collaborate with your team through mentions and comments.

• Cost: Tiered pricing that begins with a limited free tier.
• Our favorite feature: Each ticket or project page is highly customizable, allowing you to set project stages that work for your company, deadlines, and more.

10. Filestage

Anyone who works with content, projects, or approvals knows how hard it can be to gather and manage feedback. Filestage is a feedback management platform that allows you to share files, and then keep track of feedback and approvals all in one place. This can help you move projects through the pipeline and make sure everyone has signed off by the deadline.

• Cost: Tiered pricing that begins with a limited free tier.
• Our favorite feature: Filestage’s smart annotation tools make it easy and quick to give feedback.

11. Trello

Trello is a project management and collaboration tool that uses a board system to move projects forward. Project tasks can be made into individual cards and assigned to members of your team, then when they’re complete that person can move it forward to a different part of the board. You can customize the different parts of the board from pre-sets or customize them for what fits your team.

• Cost: Tiered pricing that begins with a limited free tier.
• Our favorite feature: The board system makes it super easy to see your entire project with a single glance.

12. Coda

Coda is a super versatile app that you can use to create, store, and edit documents, streamline your workflows, and look over timelines all in one place. With different tabs, you can choose to look at a wide overview of the project, the timelines and assignees, the deliverables created, or bugs reported. This can allow each member of your team to easily access and collaborate on each part of the project.

• Cost: Tiered pricing that begins with a limited free plan.
• Our favorite feature: Coda allows for security features that can make sure your sensitive information stays sensitive.

Other Resources For Boosting Team Productivity

Studying how and why teams are productive can help you instill healthy habits into your team that will boost overall morale and team output. There have been many studies done, think pieces written, and discussions over the years on what makes teams productive and how you can tap into the secret.

Here are some resources on workplace productivity:

• The Best Productivity Podcasts For Optimizing Your Workflow, Rev
• AI Efficiency: Four Ways AI Helps Your Business Productivity, Rev
• Productivity Homepage, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Employee productivity statistics: Everything you need to know, Firstup
• 51 Employee Productivity & Engagement Stats, Exploding Topics
• Best Copilot Alternatives, Rev

Collaborate and Listen

Collaboration is the key to a good and productive office culture. Luckily, there are many tools available that can help your team collaborate easily from across the city, the globe, or just the office space.

See how Rev’s VoiceHub can improve your team’s collaboration.