10 Best Remote Collaboration Software for Hybrid Teams In 2023

Connecteam is a comprehensive employee management app that's designed to help businesses manage their remote or hybrid teams. It's a one-stop shop for everything from communication and scheduling to operations and task management.

Their app helps remote or field-based teams collaborate on specific tasks through customizable digital forms and checklists, individual task assignments, and task-specific communication streams. Managers can easily assign tasks with due dates to individual employees, and attach supporting materials, such as images or external documents, as needed. If employees need additional clarification, they can communicate directly within the instant messaging chat channel and tag colleagues using @mentions.

Other useful collaboration features include the ability to add sub-tasks, send push reminders, and track real-time updates on tasks as they're completed. You can also use Connecteam to create mobile-friendly training materials, track time and attendance, and create custom forms for things like daily reports, incident reports, and more.

Integrations include Google Calendar, Gusto, QuickBooks Payroll, and others.

Connecteam costs from $29/month for 30 users (paid annually) and offers a 14-day free trial + free plan.

Ziflow is a cloud-based collaboration platform specifically designed to support creative teams. Their review and approval workflows enable creative teams of project managers, designers, developers, copywriters, photographers, artists, and other professionals to collaborate across multiple time zones, file formats, and media types.

Ziflow eliminates the need for unnecessary meetings or back-and-forth emails, saving both time and money while providing an efficient way to track project progress from start to finish. Users can manage and assign tasks, track project progress, and review feedback. You can also easily see which tasks have been completed or are still pending completion.

Their platform provides real-time analytics that summarize how much time each task took and how many people were involved in each task's completion process. This feature helps managers get a better understanding of their team's workflow process so they can optimize it for maximum efficiency over time. Ziflow also offers workflow automation tools that make it easier for teams to manage their processes. Users can create custom approval workflows that speed up decision-making and help ensure consistency across the organization.

Ziflow allows users to create digital asset libraries to store and manage their files. This makes it easy for users to access their files anytime without searching through multiple folders or drives. Additionally, its library system includes customizable tags and filters so users can quickly find what they’re looking for without having to wade through long lists of assets.

Integrations are available with Asana, Basecamp, ClickUp, DropBox, Google Drive, Jira, Microsoft Teams, monday.com, Oracle Netsuite, Slack, Trello, and Zapier. In addition, Ziflow has plug-ins for all your Adobe Creative Cloud apps (After Effects, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, etc.), plus their Webhook Zibots, which can integrate with other software systems that offer an API.

Ziflow starts at $40/user/month, billed annually. They also offer a 14-day free trial, and a free forever plan for personal use.

MediaValet is a digital asset management (DAM) software that can facilitate remote collaboration on files and documents stored in the system. It has tools to help you keep your digital assets organized and searchable. You can use it to store and manage your documents, images, videos, and other assets.

This is a helpful collaboration tool for teams who rely on digital assets to do their work. Design, content, marketing, and other creative teams can rely on the platform as a central repository for all their creative assets. You can create libraries of specific types of media and have peace of mind knowing the system is SOC 2 compliant and encrypted.

One thing that's particularly impressive about this software is its AI capabilities. It can automate asset tagging so your team won't have to do it manually. But not only that, it can also make your assets highly searchable using color, face, and text recognition. It can also transcribe video and audio content, making it searchable, too.

Pricing and a free demo of the platform are available upon request.

Height is a project management software that distributed teams can use to collaborate virtually on their tasks and projects. Projects can be planned, managed, and tracked through the software, and teams can opt for a Gantt chart, Kanban board, or calendar or spreadsheet view of their work. Tasks can be assigned to specific team members and infinite nesting is available for subtasks. Every user has an inbox with notifications they can customize about their projects and tasks.

Teams can communicate within the context of their tasks and projects. The software has live chat functionality with tagging, replies, and emoji reactions. Video, image, and GIF messaging are all supported to create a more dynamic communication environment. Read receipts and typing indicators help team members keep up with what messages have been seen and when their coworkers are sharing information. Code highlighting is also available, keeping code snippets separated in chats.

The software integrates with other common workplace tools like Discord, Fivetran, GitHub & GitLab, Google Sheets, Notion, Sentry, Slab, Slack, and Zendesk. Additional integrations can also be unlocked with a paid Zapier account. Paid plans start from $8.50/user/month, and a 30-day free trial is available.

Lucidspark is a digital whiteboard that's designed to help remote teams collaborate in real time. It's a cloud-based tool that lets you brainstorm, plan, and visualize ideas together, no matter where your team members are located. It's like having a physical whiteboard in your office, but one that everyone can access and contribute to from their own devices.

Lucidchart surpasses the typical collaborative editing capabilities found in many tools. While some platforms enable simultaneous document editing, Lucidchart takes this a step further by introducing real-time cursor tracking and integrated chat. The incorporation of chat within the diagram's context further simplifies communication, enabling collaborators to discuss changes, clarify ideas, and share insights without switching to an external messaging platform.

Something special about Lucidchart as a communications-based visualization tool is that it offers advanced data linking and visualization capabilities. This empowers users to connect their diagrams with external data sources like spreadsheets and databases, resulting in dynamic visuals seamlessly integrated with data. This innovation is particularly beneficial for complex diagrams such as organizational charts, process flows, and mind maps that require frequent updates tied to evolving data. Pulling data from one source and updating automatically is a form of passive communication that can't be understated in today's fast-paced project management world. 

Integrations include everything from Slack, Google Workspace, Asana, Atlassian, and Office365, to more industry-specific applications like Salesforce, AWS, Azure, and BambooHR. Lucidchart has a free plan available for individual users.

Lucidchart costs from $7.95/user/month and comes with a 7-day free trial. Lucidchart is free for 3 editable documents, 60 shapes, 100 templates, and basic feedback/communications features.

Unlike other similar remote collaboration tools, Miro does not limit their plans by users, so it’s easy to share a Miro board with someone while avoiding the hassle of signing up for an account just to be able to contribute to it.

Miro’s calendar block allows you to show when you’re online, offline, or busy to help ease the pressure of feeling like you need to respond right away. Miro has a Miroverse, which allows you to share and use project templates provided by the community.

Some of Miro’s integrations include Confluence, Jira, Slack, and Trello.

Miro starts at $8 USD per user/month. There is a free version for unlimited team members but with limited features (such as 3 editable boards).

Focused specifically on board meetings, OnBoard is a useful collaborative tool to create actionable insights and help with coordinating board tasks. The tool provides a simple to use agenda and meeting minutes builder.

OnBoard includes a built-in Zoom integration and a secure messenger that allows you to focus on the meeting as opposed to things getting lost in email purgatory.

OnBoard integrates with ADP, Google Drive, Govenda, Zoom Meetings, and Microsoft 365, including Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.

OnBoard offers customized pricing on request, as well as a free trial.

Quantive Results is a strategy execution platform that's built to help leadership teams plan their business strategy collaboratively. It also has tools to set and track team and company goals, helping to keep everyone aligned on their shared objectives.

Whiteboards can be used for mapping out your strategic planning. You can also use the retrospective templates included in the software to evaluate what went well in a past timeframe, and what needs improvement going forward. With your strategy in place, you can establish OKRs and KPIs in the system that can be interconnected, cascading, and assigned to specific teams.

Another helpful feature included in the software are OKR and task alignment, which helps connect specific projects and tasks with established business objectives. Some other key features include commenting on KPI dashboards, automated notifications, advanced access permissions, and reporting and analytics tools.

The software integrates with other workplace tools including Slack, Microsoft Teams, Asana, Miro, Jira, SurveySparrow, BambooHR, Workable, Humaans, and Rally, among others. You can also access additional integrations with a paid Zapier account.

Creately takes a more data-driven approach for its smart visual canvas. This canvas keeps everything in one place as opposed to spreading things across daily tasks, wikies, and other places.

The free-form canvas allows you to add data, notes, and tasks anywhere. Creately allows you to create workflows with rules and formulas, with no codes needed.

Creately integrates with Github, Office 365, Slack, and more.

Creately starts at $4/user/month, and offers a free plan with limited features.

Using customizable kanban boards, Redbooth makes it easy to sort, track and organize tasks across your organization. Redbooth features thorough productivity reports to see task status, and how time is spent. It also allows you to zoom in on one specific task, or review the entire project all in one view.

When assigning tasks, Redbooth will recommend the best person for the assigned task and due dates through their “Smart Redbooth” tool.

Redbooth integrates with tools like Dropbox, Gmail, Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Zapier, and more.

Redbooth starts at $12/user/month. Redbooth also offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.