7 Best Free Collaborative Platforms to Use in 2022 to Manage Geographically Diverse Teams

Building a solid business and reaching the top relies heavily on communication. And, with the world dwelling in the new norms, that is, remote work or work-from-home culture, communication seems to suffer.

Assigning tasks, tracking them, responding to concerns, coordinating with your team, and catching up regularly with them are problems you will encounter. Unfortunately, the combination of all these factors can result in missed deadlines, late deliveries, and dissatisfied customers.

Furthermore, an increased ratio of dissatisfied customers directly harms your growing business.

What a mess!

However, every problem has a solution. Many online team collaboration platforms are available to minimise communication issues and make your work environment productive and collaborative. 

Not all online team collaboration platforms are the same; their features differ. These features include:

Video Conferencing

Many team leaders or managers see video conferencing as a crucial factor in collaboration platforms. This feature is necessary for offices with remote work or hybrid work models. 

Here are some essential video conferencing features to look out for.

• HD Audio and Video
• Live stream
• Conference calling
• Chat option
• Background screen
• Security such as a password to join the meeting, removing someone from the meeting, etcetera

Real-time file editing

Collaborative file editing with real-time synching is another feature that is a must in collaboration tools. You and your team members should be able to read, edit, and comment on the work and tag the responsible team member to make changes if needed.

Screen Sharing

The screen sharing feature should enable team members to demonstrate what they are working on currently or display notes for upcoming projects. For example, remote project presentations can be made easier with this feature.

In addition, the whiteboard feature is a must as well. Like a traditional office meeting, you can share blank pages, write, and draw on them. 

For brainstorming sessions and collaborative projects, a whiteboard is extremely useful. Moreover, it is possible to save whiteboards for later reference. 

Cloud File Storage

You should have a go-to destination where you and your team members can access files consistently, including everything from final content and ready-to-use creative templates. 

A cloud-based file storage space can assist your team members in quickly retrieving the data they need to post online, transmit it through marketing campaigns, or forward it to sales.

Task Management

Task management capabilities allow you to create and assign employee tasks and add notes for more information. In addition, it streamlines the task managing process as everyone knows their responsibilities and deadlines.

You can monitor the task’s progress from time to time, ensure the deadlines are met, and track employees’ productivity levels.

Mobile-friendly interface

Because remote employees usually work at stationary workplaces throughout the day, online collaboration platforms must be compatible with smartphones and other mobile devices. 

Transitioning smoothly to mobile devices is essential to coping with changing workplaces. Employees can work from many devices and access multiple screens at once.

Third-Party Integrations

The collaboration platform must integrate with your existing third-party software, such as business communication tools or project management software. Integrations allow team members to use their preferred applications within the same team collaboration interface.

The Top 10 Free collaboration Platforms

Here are some of the best free collaboration tools that offer the above and other additional features.

Trello

Trello is a collaborative platform where teams can work and grow together. Its unique features include a Trello card that allows you to attach files, write to-do lists, assign tasks, update task progress, and add comments. You can pin the card to a shareable overall project board and add users to your team boards to view, edit, update, and share files. 

The card can contain task assignments, task updates, due dates, attachments, and even conversations. In addition, Trello provides an extensive library of board templates for project management, remote work, marketing, classrooms and more.

Trello doesn’t support video conferencing features but integrates with Google Hangouts, Zoom, Slack, Yammer, Flock, Glip, Asana, etcetera.

Free plan features include:

The free plan best fits individuals or small teams looking to keep work organised.

• Unlimited cards
• Up to 10 boards per Workspace
• Unlimited Power-Ups per board
• Unlimited storage (10MB/file)
• 250 Workspace command runs per month
• Custom backgrounds & stickers
• Unlimited activity log
• Assignee and due dates
• iOS and Android mobile apps
• 2-factor authentication

Wrike

Wrike is a scalable desktop and iOS/Android remote team collaboration platform. It simplifies an organisation’s communication, improves team productivity and clarifies team members’ tasks and responsibilities.

You can reorder specific tasks by simple drag and drop. In addition, you can create specific activity stream filters so that you don’t have to screen out irrelevant information to find notes or updates about their assigned projects.

It doesn’t provide a video calling feature but can integrate with:

• Google hangouts
• Slack
• Microsoft teams
• Zoom

The free plan is the best fit for startups and small businesses with several daily tasks that don’t require much collaboration.

Free plans for up to 5 users include:

• Basic task creation
• Real-time progress updates
• Cloud storage integrations — Google drive, Outlook, etcetera.
• Real-time live editors
• Board and table views
• Open source customisable templates and dashboards

Asana

Asana is a team communication tool with an intuitive interface that lets you see upcoming tasks, projects, and real-time progress, so your team stays organised and connected. 

To organise and assign tasks, it provides a List view. In this way, teams know exactly what they need to do, which tasks are of the most priority, and when they have to complete them. 

With Asana’s Boards, you can also identify what’s important and where things are getting stuck at each project stage.

Automate routine tasks and reduce errors by creating custom rules in seconds. 

For example, you can set up forms to simplify the submission of work requests, organise everything your team needs to get started and keep track of everything in one place.

The free plan features include:

• Unlimited tasks, projects and messages
• Unlimited activity log
• Unlimited file storage (100MB per file)
• Collaborate with up to 15 teammates
• List view projects
• Board view projects
• Calendar view
• Assignee and due dates
• Project Overview
• Project Brief
• iOS and Android mobile apps
• Time tracking with integrations 
• 100+ free integrations with your favourite apps

Slack

The most popular team collaboration tool, Slack, has its audio and video calling features and a chat messenger. 

You can create public and private groups and send chat message channels according to topics, departments, projects, and more. In these conversations, you can tag your team members, upload files in multiple formats, react with emojis, and reply to messages directly in threads.

The Slack app also lets you upload polls to chat, create shortcuts, set reminders, and update your profile status. So you can keep track of all your messages without being disturbed by muting and starring messages.

The free plan features include:

• Access to 10,000 of your team’s most recent messages
• 10 integrations with other apps like Google Drive, Office 365 and many more
• 1:1 voice and video calls between teammates
• Enable two-factor authentication
• Share files and store up to 5 GB

Miro

Miro is all about visual collaboration. Miro provides a meaningful, intuitive, in-person collaboration experience – fully remote, hybrid, or in-office, no matter where your team is.

It combines aspects of diagramming software, mind mapping apps, and videoconferencing tools. 

You can use it to draw ideas and create slideshows. You can also edit the projects alone or with other team members. Miro has built-in video and audio calling and screen sharing, so you can discuss how you’re doing while you’re working or give a presentation. In addition, you can view media from other apps, such as a Vimeo video.

The free plan features include:

• 3 editable boards
• Premade templates
• Core integrations
• Basic attention management

Flock

A free Flock version offers teams one-to-one video calls, chat channels, and task management capabilities.

When a user returns to Flock after stepping away, it displays all the new messages they have been tagged with. This way, users won’t have to dig through old messages to find important information.

Flock users can also send audio messages to each other via Voice Notes. 

Several task management features include:

• to-do lists with user tagging
• task assignment
• shared to-dos with automatic notifications
• reminders setting, due dates, and task prioritisation.

The free plan features include:

• Unlimited 1-1 & Group messages
• 10,000 Searchable messages
• Unlimited third-party integrations
• File sharing and 5 GB of storage
• 10 Public channels
• 5 GB total per team
• Single team admin
• 1-1 Video calls
• Up to 10 public channels
• Custom poling
• Channel muting
• Announcement channel

Fleep

Fleep is an online chat messaging, file sharing, and task management platform.

The Pinboard in each Conversation lets you highlight essential updates, files, links, or notes that you want everyone on their team to see and edit.

Tasks can be assigned based on lists, files can be uploaded to the task file drawer, important tasks are highlighted, and progress can be tracked. Moreover, Fleep includes a weekly progress report on completed tasks and upcoming projects.

The free plan features include:

• Full message history
• Unlimited 1:1 conversations
• 1 group conversation
• 1 GB file storage
• Native apps

Key Takeaways

When employees adjust to remote work for the first time, using team collaboration tools alone won’t be enough to maintain the same business standards outside the office. So along with keeping track of your employees’ work, host fun virtual events to beat work-from-home fatigue.  

Now is the time to begin thinking about leveraging communication to its full potential using these collaboration platforms to provide employees with an in-office experience.