9 Best Collaboration Software for 2022

Updated: October 09,2022
If you're looking for the best collaboration software for better information management, then you've stumbled upon the right website.
I’ll share with you some quality platforms so that you can pick the perfect one for your business.
Rest easy knowing that I've tested each one of them to the T.
Here’s what you’ll find in this article:
- Ten thorough reviews to show you the features, positives, and negatives of each solution
- The ideal scenario for applying each of the best collaboration tools
- A rundown of the key functionalities that a good solution should have, and the benefits of using each software
- A comprehensive and eye-opening buyers' guide to help shorten your decision-making process
- Insightful answers to your frequently asked questions
Let's dive right in!


1. Monday.com
- •Customizable boards
- •Notifications
- •Easy organization


2. LiquidPlanner
- •Easy to replicate projects
- •Accessible and intuitive
- •Rich report toolsets


3. Smartsheet
- •Gantt charts
- •Customizable dashboards
- •On-demand reports


4. Wrike
- •Robust tool
- •Top-notch customer support
- •Highly customizable


5. AirTable
- •Affordable
- •Beautiful worksheets
- •Flexible


6. Asana
- •Flexible pricing
- •Easy to navigate interface
- •Versatile


7. Mavenlink
- •Real-time views
- •Project margin reporting
- •Drag n' drop capabilities


8. Podio
- •Highly flexible
- •Robust reports
- •Pocket-friendly


9. Flock
- •Easy to use
- •Reliable customer service
- •Reminders
Best Collaboration Software for 2022
- •Monday.com – Best for construction companies
- •LiquidPlanner – Best for teams that handle less than 50 projects at a time
- •Smartsheet – Best for both individuals and businesses
- •Wrike – Best for 360-degree insights
- •AirTable -Best data organizer cum project manager
- •Asana – Best for creative request production
- •Mavenlink – Best for business intelligence
- •Podio – Best for medium to large enterprises
- •Flock – Best for video calls and messaging
1. Monday.com

Customizable boards
Notifications
Easy organization
Features
Teams in leading companies like Coca-Cola, Discovery, NBC, and BBC Studios, L'Oreal, utilize Monday.com for its amazing features.
It allows you to use one platform to manage your work - that’s why it's one of the best collaboration tools.
There's no waiting time after signing up. All you need to set it up is a couple of minutes, and you're good to go. Then, you can start inviting team members immediately.
The number of templates on this solution will amaze you. Moreover, they're customizable to suit your preference. They come in different categories, such as:
- Marketing
- Freelancing
- Content production
- Project management
- Sales and CRM
The workspaces on Monday.com make it one of the best group collaboration tools. You can import data, add templates, dashboards.
Team collaboration is so much easier with this system since it allows you to manage different creative requests stress-free.
This is how it does it:
This solution offers centralized communication. Therefore, you can oversee different workflows without switching through various portals, which saves you unnecessary headaches.
Monday.com is one of the best software for team collaboration to organize your schedules with its "My Week" feature. Here you can see assignments that you've completed and anything upcoming for the entire week.
And if you want to hit all your deadlines, you can take advantage of this tool's automatic reminders. You will get alerts for approaching deadlines and tasks past the due date.
If you want busy teammates to find boards whenever their schedule eases up, you can always use the @ feature. It ensures that everyone reads your message.
With this collaborative software, you can track how much time your workforce is spending on each task. Staff can use a timer every time they start working.
You can connect Monday.com to the tools you already use. Examples here include:
- Slack
- Zoom
- Google Drive
- Gmail
Also, you can say goodbye to the boring black and grays on your statuses:
This team collaboration software has 20 hues! You can use them to color-code different bits of communication to make it more conspicuous.
Pricing
Monday doesn't have a free version. However, it has a 14-day trial. It also has affordable rates for its paid packages.
Here are the tool's prices:
- Basic - $8/seat/month
- Standard - $10/seat/month
- Pro - $16/seat/month
- Enterprise - custom quote
*Note that the company only does annual billing.
Monday.com is intuitive and robust. It's also affordable, which makes it worth trying out.
2. LiquidPlanner

Easy to replicate projects
Accessible and intuitive
Rich report toolsets
Features
Quality online collaboration tools should display a pipeline of active, pending, and approved projects for easier management.
LiquidPlanner does that so well.
It evaluates all your portfolios and gives you insights regarding priorities for proper time management. At a glance, you will see how your scheduling will affect your delivery dates.
With LiquidPlanner's drag n' drop feature, you can adjust all your task timelines. That means you can prioritize more urgent jobs if need be to fit the correct deadlines.
Then, of course, it helps to expect uncertainties with projects. You never know how external factors will affect them.
LiquidPlanner has got you covered.
Another reason it's one of the top team collaboration and productivity solutions is that it helps with estimates. So, you can forecast a reasonable number of hours to complete your work.
This software also helps in leveling resources. So, you'll always know whether your team has everything they need to finish up their projects in good time.
Wondering how much your project will cost?
This platform not only enables you to make estimates but also tracks costs for better allocation.
LiquidPlanner is one of the best collaboration software in the industry. Examples here include:
- Resource report
- Workload report
- Project report
- Client report
- Export timesheets
- Sub-folder report
- Activity report
- Task report
Collaboration planning with LiquidPlanner is easy with its social features. It allows input from team members, even if they're not directly working on the project. Here, you can manage threads, describe tasks, attach documentation, and add necessary links.
Your workspace on LiquidPlanner has inbuilt worksheets that help you track time. The system automatically updates tasks' remaining hours and effort on your schedule throughout the project.
So, who is LiquidPlanner for?
LiquidPlanner is one of the best collaboration tools for software development, engineering, and professional services.
Pricing
This platform has no free version. Luckily, it has a 14-day trial period.
Here are its rates:
- Professional (for multiple projects) - $45/user/month
- Enterprise ( for hundred of projects) - Custom pricing
LiquidPlanner is one of the best project management collaboration software on the market. It's feature-rich yet so easy to use because of its intuitive nature.
3. Smartsheet

Gantt charts
Customizable dashboards
On-demand reports
Features
What better way to collaborate across the organization than to allow different users to view and edit sheets? Smartsheet appears on this list of best project collaboration software because of its "free users" feature.
Licensed users can share dashboards, sheets, and reports with free users for viewing and editing. The only thing that they can't do is create.
Smartsheet has a collection of tasks and milestones from different sheets. That way, you can share the documents with stakeholders for decision making.
This solution updates metrics in real-time. You can view charts of your dashboard to see how your team is performing at all times.
And there's more:
Smartsheet is one of the few team collaboration tools that send you notifications about conversations. You can view them on your mobile app. The system also sends you reminders regarding any edits on your sheet. You also get reminders about any pending deadlines.
And here's something that you'll love if you're tired of repeating redundant tasks:
You can automate jobs like making approvals, requesting updates, archive rows, etc. Real time-savers!
Smartsheet gives you different views, such as:
- Grid view - has different columns of real-time data
- Gantt view - offers insights into project dependencies and how various actions affect others.
- Card view - has drag-drop cards that make it easier to view tasks
- Calendar view - syncs with Google Calendar and shows project timelines
- Dynamic view - allows you to share different sets of data with the relevant people
Smartsheet is on this list of best collaboration software because of its excellent teamwork capabilities. System admins can add or remove users from smart sheets. They can also create groups and choose who to include. Members can share details and ideas regarding a job.
As for integrations, you can connect this solution to plenty of apps such as:
- Slack
- Skype for business
- Microsoft Teams
- Salesforce
- Jira
Smartsheet also intuitively tracks time using timesheets, i.e., work, sick days, or vacations, helping you make changes where necessary. The project dashboard shows all team members' time allocations and expenses to keep them in the loop for better panning on both sides.
Your team can report their hours on the go using the mobile app. This feature is especially useful for those working remotely or in the field.
Pricing
This collaboration software is free to use for 30 days. After that, you can choose between any of the following plans:
- Standard -$14 for individuals and $25/user/month for businesses
- Enterprise - custom pricing
- Premier - Custom rates
Smartsheet is yet another dependable tool with all the ideal features for collaborations.
4. Wrike

Robust tool
Top-notch customer support
Highly customizable
Features
With this virtual office software, you and your entire team will have 360-degree visibility of the whole project. With a bird's eye view, it's easy to communicate across the organization.
In all honesty, Wrike is so robust, and it can get overwhelming trying to figure out how the system works.
But relax:
It has video and text explanations on how the team collaboration software works.
You'll learn things like:
- How to set up your workspace
- How to onboard and collaborate with your team
- How to check your productivity
- How to personalize your software
And so much more.
Wrike is one of the best collaboration tools for 2021 to onboard your team. It has slides to help you launch the platform to your staff for better acceptance.
You can tailor the presentation to help you convey the exact message that you want. The solution also has a variety of project templates suitable for any team. They're flexible and customizable.
Wrike not only helps you plan and schedule, but it also has an estimation feature. You can allocate resources adequately and make adjustments only when necessary.
Wrike is one of the best collaboration tools if you’re a fan of Gantt charts. Your team can also view different forms of views, such as:
- Lists
- Timelines
- Boards
- Tables
Work can get overwhelming that you miss or forget essential communication. Fortunately, Wrike turns every online chat or meeting into collaboration plans.
The @ feature keeps the relevant team members in the loop of project happenings. You can also make live edits and give feedback, which your staff can see once you tag them.
Wrike helps you avoid team burnout by allowing you to track time. This feature checks workload management to ensure that you're allocating enough time for each task.
Pricing
Wrike is one of the best free team collaboration software for teams with less than five users. Its premium plans are affordable:
- Professional - $9.80 per user/month and ideal for up to 15 users
- Business - $24.80/user/month and suitable for five to 200 users
- Enterprise - for unlimited users and requires custom pricing
Wrike is a reliable tool for collaborations. It has plenty of features for optimum performance.
5. AirTable

Affordable
Beautiful worksheets
Flexible
Features
Airtable is one of the best file collaboration software because it allows you to import files in different formats - Google sheets, CSV files, Exel, or simply paste table data.
It also lets you create bases.
Bases?
Yeah, I know.
It's Airtable's unique way of referring to databases. The system groups them into workspaces, and here collaborators can make edits, write comments, and so on.
Checking out project progress with this online collaboration software is also easy. It shows you who's doing what, what's pending, or past due date.
It's paramount to track the amount of time staff spends on tasks for payroll purposes or for time allocation adjustments with future projects. Airtable has a time-tracker, and here's the best thing about it:
It records time down to the minutes.
The ability to eliminate redundant workflows makes Airtable one of the best online collaboration software. All you have to do is create a trigger to start automating tasks. You can choose from Airtable's list or request to individualize yours to represent your company's workflows.
The lovely scheduling templates are yet another one of this solution's strengths. Here you can keep track of every team member's weekly program to show you their availability at all times.
To help you customize your team's needs, Airtable lets you create various views such as calendar view, spreadsheet view, Kanban, or gallery.
And if you don't want to give up your favorite apps, worry not.
Airtable allows integrations with:
- Slack
- Gmail
- Github
Pricing
Airtable is one of the best free collaboration software for 1200 records per base. Here are its paid packages:
- Plus - $10/user/month for 5,000 records per base + 5GB attachment pace
- Pro - $20/user/month for 50,000 base records + 20GB attachment space
- Enterprise - Custom quotes for more that 50,000 records per base + 1,000 GB attachment space
If you're into spreadsheets, you'll love Airtable. It helps you organize your data, but unlike Excel and other tools in that line, it will also help you manage your projects.
6. Asana

Flexible pricing (monthly/yearly)
Easy to navigate interface
Versatile
Features
Asana is a top website for design collaboration software. It's also perfect for engineering, HR, sales, and marketing.
As soon as I signed up, the system requested to set up my first project. It gave me a title suggestion based on my area of specialization and gave me an option to change it.
The solution also prepopulated my creative request area with a couple of tasks and allowed me to personalize them. In short, my setup wizard let me create my lists, boards, timeline, and calendar right away.
The process took me less than three minutes.
Asana is one of the coolest collaboration tools for business because it has an easy to navigate workspace. The to-do lists will show you the assignee's name, priority, status, and due date to help you easily keep track of your project.
The calendar and timeline features will show you the dates of each task.
Another reason why Asana is one of the best online collaboration software for 2021 is its ability to organize project data into modifiable charts. They show real-time updates to enable you to flag any issues early on.
Although this solution doesn't have an inbuilt time tracker, you can integrate it with apps like Clockify. The software will help you follow up on the hours that your team spends on projects.
Asana also helps you shorten the time that you spend doing manual tasks through automation. It streamlines your workflows and does all the work for you as your team concentrates on other tasks.
Pricing
Asana is yet another of the best free team collaboration tools for both teams and individuals. Here are its paid packages:
- Premium - $10.99/month when billed yearly or $13.49/month when billed monthly
- Business - $24.99/month when billed annually or $30.49/month when billed monthly
- Enterprise - Custom pricing
Asana is simple, feature-rich, yet affordable. It's also customizable; hence you can tailor it to represent your business.
7. Mavenlink

Real-time views
Project margin reporting
Drag n' drop capabilities
Features
Your team members might be in different parts of the world, but that doesn't mean that work has to stall with snail-like communication.
At least with this Mavenlink, one of the best remote collaboration software in the picture.
The system centralizes communication and brings up the most vital and relevant information regarding a project. It then updates related information in real-time.
Contextualizing collaborations has one significant advantage:
It helps your team members work on tasks more efficiently and productively.
Quality collaborative tools have project management features, and so does Mavenlink. It has customizable Gantt charts to help your workforce visualize the entire project.
You can compare the past and current projects. It makes it easy to check out performances to see improvements or any areas that need more work.
Mavenlink tracks the time that your workforce spends on tasks for payroll or invoicing your client.
Mavenlink is also one of the most powerful business collaboration tools because it has a business intelligence feature. It informs you about industry trends and projections so that you can align your company for a competitive edge.
This solution also does a great job at resource management. It has templates that will help you draft your project's plans regarding costs, hours, employee skill set, and availability.
You can also do lots with this platform by connecting it to apps like:
- Slack
- Trello
- Jira
- Gmail
- Google sheets
Pricing
To view Mavenlink's pricing, you have to fill a simple form to get a quotation depending on your requirements.
Mavenlink is a reliable software for collaborations and even goes a step further to offer business intelligence.
8. Podio

Highly flexible
Robust reports
Pocket-friendly
Features
Podio is one of the best online collaboration tools for centralizing communication. The tag feature keeps every team member in the loop so that they never miss meaningful conversations. Users can also make comments regarding tasks and get instant feedback as opposed to reading lengthy emails.
It uses color codes to show different statuses, for instance, pale pink for "entered," beige for "in progress," and pale green for "complete."
The system shows you all projects in progress, complete tasks, and their due dates. It also shows who's responsible and tracks time for different items for transparency purposes.
Another thing that this enterprise collaboration software does great is automating tasks. It creates workflows saving your time and energy by a considerable margin.
Podio integrates with lots of useful apps:
- Dropbox
- Evernote
- Google Calendar
- Google Drive
- Zendesk
Pricing
Podio is one of the top free collaboration tools for five external users+ five staff members. Here are its paid plans:
- Basic - $9/month or $7.20/month when billed yearly
- Plus - $14/month or 11.20/month when billed annually
- Premium- $24/month or $19.20/month when billed per year
Podio is the tool you need if you want your workforce to work in sync for better results.
9. Flock

Easy to use
Reliable customer service
Reminders
Features
Flock is one of the best enterprise collaboration software - it helps you organize your projects in simple to-do lists. On channels, you can turn discussions into tasks complete with due dates.
Even better?
The system sends you reminders regarding any projects with approaching deadlines.
You can communicate with different team members instantly on channels. With Flock, video conferencing, complete with screen share is only a click away.
Top of the range document collaboration tools should let you communicate both privately or collectively. Flock does so very well.
It allows you to send messages, share file attachments, or even build tables.
And you can take advantage of Flock's voice notes whenever you don't have time to type.
If you're worried about security, relax.
Flock encrypts data moving between servers and clients. It uses TLS 1.2, a leading technology for securing communication on the internet.
Pricing
If you’re looking for free online collaboration tools that focus on messaging and video calls, Flock is a great option. It also has paid plans, and here they are:
- Pro - $4.50/user/month
- Enterprise -$8/user/month
Flock is an excellent tool for collaboration with its channel creation and messaging hence worth a try.
What Is Collaboration Software?
Collaboration software is a solution for sharing, management, and processing files. It enables remote users to easily communicate and work more efficiently. It can be in the form of a team collaboration app that you can use on your smartphone or a program usable on the cloud or computer.
What Are the Key Features of the Best Online Collaboration Tools?
So, you want a collaboration solution, but you have no idea where to begin or what to look for.
We’ve got you.
The perfect solution comes with:
Mobile accessibility
The best group management apps should be compatible with different operating systems. We don’t have to spend more money doing an overhaul of our preexisting IT departments to accommodate the software.
It’s also vital that your staff can use the solutions on mobile as well. That allows users to take their work wherever they go.
Then, of course, we know the awesomeness that comes with not having to log in to your computer to reply to a message, right?
Ease of use
The best work collaboration tools shouldn’t be hard to use. They should be intuitive and straightforward, especially if most of your team members don’t have a technical background.
Integrations
It helps to have a system that makes it possible for your workforce to use tools they love. Flexibility to sync with other solutions adds to the productivity aspect.
It also saves time and effort that you might need to migrate import data across platforms. At times, that can lead to information loss, especially if the system doesn’t handle it correctly.
Messaging and notification features
The best team collaboration tools should have some form of texting for collaborators to communicate. It centralizes communication in one place.
What’s more?
It takes away from the distraction of social media. Getting out of the project’s confines to make calls or send messages could tempt your staff to wander off.
Automation
The best collaboration tools for virtual teams should allow you to make redundant tasks automatic. That saves on time and energy that your force can channel to other areas.
Onboarding
It helps a great deal if a platform can onboard staff for a smooth adoption. The software should also have documentation and tutorials.
Cloud storage
The best solutions are web-based collaboration tools for easy file sharing and access. Remote staff members can access files and materials anytime and from anywhere, without having to wait for someone to send them over.
Security
You don’t want anyone outside of your organization to gain access to sensitive project communication or data. Therefore, ensure that your solution has bank-grade or enterprise-level security.
The platform should:
- Incorporate 2-factor authentication
- Virtually delete data from lost mobile devices
- Have password formats and unique security protocols
- Allow or disallow device or cloud connection for security reasons
Document management
Document management is yet another must-have of collaboration platforms. The feature allows you to organize, store, share, and collaborate on different files.
Task and project management
Your solution should allow your team to share data, ask project-related questions, receive feedback, and so forth. Some solutions let you invite clients as guests to see how work is progressing for transparency.
It helps to have a platform that allows you to break down projects into small achievable tasks. Your system should make it easier for the entire team to check different jobs, follow up on due dates, track time, etc.
What Benefits Can Your Business Reap From Using Team Collaboration Software?
There was a time people relied on phone calls to pass important details regarding projects to their remote counterparts.
But not anymore.
Collaboration systems are here to reward businesses in many ways, such as:
Faster and easier communication
The entire team can easily access any information regarding a project at the click of a button. All collaborators can see a project’s progress and keep track of delivery dates.
Team leaders can ensure that everyone hits their deadline with timely communication. The result is higher productivity from all stakeholders.
Staff skill building
It’s easy for employees to learn from each other when using the same team collaboration tool. That’s because the software accommodates a pool of talent, and knowledge sharing is only natural when working on a project.
Happier customers
Most tools for collaborating allow project managers to add clients. There’s nothing that brings joy to clients other than letting them see the different aspects of a job. It makes them feel valued and respected.
Employee satisfaction
The solutions allow employees to contribute and air their views freely. Therefore, an employee feels like an important part of the team, which is likely to motivate them to deliver excellent results.
How To Choose the Best Online Team Collaboration Software?
Here is a simple yet practical buyer’s guide to help you choose the perfect system:
Pricing
Do you have a budget?
If you’re looking for an affordable collaborative system, Wrike, Asana, Podio, or Airtable are some of the market’s best options. Monday.com or SmartSheet are also reasonably-priced, but a little on the higher side.
Podio is pocket friendly and doesn’t charge per user, but depending on the features.
Others like LiquidPlanner are pricey and might be suitable for companies without budget restrictions.
Trial period
A trial lets you experiment with features before you decide on buying something.
Solutions like Mavenlink offer short trial periods of just ten days. Monday.com and LiquidPlanner have trial periods of 14 days. Others like SmartSheet or Podio have a more extended period of up to 30 days.
Team size
How many employees do you have?
Some solutions like LiquidPlanner are the best collaboration software for a small business or a large one. Others like Flock are suitable for small, mid-sized, and large enterprises.
Others like Monday.com have a minimum of three users up to 200+.
On platforms like Wrike, the minimum number of users is five, all the way to an unlimited amount, depending on your plan.
Operating System
You don’t want to change your current operating system because it’s not compatible with the software, right?
Monday.com works best on Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac machines. Others like LiquidPlanner, Wrike, Smartsheet, Mavenlink, or Asana are suitable for iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux.
Features
The best office collaboration software should have all the features that you need.
Some solutions like Monday.com, LiquidPlanner, Wrike, Smartsheet, Mavenlink, or Airtable have robust project management and collaboration features.
Platforms like Asana require you to do integrations for functions like time tracking or estimations. Podio, on the other hand, isn’t good at doing estimates.
Flock has lightweight project management features. However, it is excellent for collaboration with their messaging and video conferencing.
Wrap Up
Collaboration apps and software are of utmost importance for businesses that want to see better teamwork to achieve a common goal. Thanks to the platforms, employees can share knowledge and interact with each other.
With the programs, collaborators can also contribute to projects in real-time to achieve the results that you want. Aside from improving productivity, the tools also make clients feel like they’re part of the process. Win-win for everyone.
FAQ.
What is the best team collaboration software?
The best software for collaboration is Monday.com.
Where should I use collaboration tools?
Communication between people working on a project can be difficult, especially if they don’t work in the same office. The solutions are ideal if you want to eliminate the need to attend physical meetings or reply to dozens of emails asking about the same thing.
The platforms are also perfect if you want to make it easy for project managers or team leaders to communicate with everyone at once and see what tasks to give priority to. They also allow team members to get updates regarding a project in real-time.
What is the most popular workplace collaboration tool?
The most popular collaboration platform is Monday.com. It’s affordable and has top-notch features.
What is the best online collaboration tool?
The best online collaboration tool is Monday.com.
What are the best collaboration tools for startups?
Examples of the best collaboration software for startups are:
- Asana
- Podio
- Wrike

Eve-Carrie
Eve is a lover of everything technology. Figuring out how software works and creating content to shed more light on the value it offers users is her favorite past time. When not evaluating apps or programs, she's busy trying out new healthy recipes, doing yoga, meditating, or taking nature walks with her little one.
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