Best 22 Remote Work Tools in 2021!

The spread of coronavirus has led companies to adapt to remote working, helping reduce the spread of the virus while also aiming to limit the impact on productivity, but in order to achieve that Remote teams need to have an armor made of the best remote work tools currently on the market.

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Best Project management Tools

Project management tools help remote workers complete client requirements and manage time, tasks, budget, and so on but with so many available options it can be confusing to choose the right one for your remote team.

1. Trello

Trello is an easy to use, lightweight, flexible and fun project management tool, with an interface that's easy on the eye and simple to navigate. The Setup is straightforward and only takes a matter of minutes.

The card system allows team members to interact and collaborate with each other on projects, you can add comments, links, files and photos to project cards. It comes with a handy drag and drop feature when working on your boards. You can manage your remote team and their tasks through each board you create. Everything is displayed neatly and coherently, and you will have no problem following your project’s progress through this platform.

2. Basecamp

Basecamp is one of the best-known project management platforms in the world, and aims to help remote workers achieve a higher level of productivity through better communication and organization. It's an all-in-one system that gives you access to the same features you’d normally have to sign up to multiple services to get, and also comes with file storage, document editing, Realtime chat, and advanced to-do list attributes.

Are members of your remote team complaining about having to work in different programs that don’t talk to one another? If you want a convenient way to organize your business, track individual or team tasks, and communicate with clients, Basecamp could well be the right remote working tool for you.

3. Asana

Asana is an extremely versatile project management app for remote work with a highly intuitive and flexible interface that makes it easy to work within teams of any size. The platform’s suite of tools includes task assignment which Asana do best, along with workload management, and 1000+ app integrations!

While it doesn’t include tools like time track, live chat, and document editing natively, the huge number of app integrations ensures that you can add these features. At the same time, Asana offers a very customizable platform for assigning and tracking tasks and ensuring that team members have a balanced workload.

Best team collaboration tools

Team messaging apps allow remote teams to communicate with one another either in group chat or private conversations for better connectivity.

4. Slack

Slack is a remote work messaging tool, with 12 million+ users from around the globe. It's incredibly fast and smart and allows team members to send direct messages and files to a single person or a group of people. This app has the ability to organize conversations into different channels that you can create according to your team's needs. For example you can create one channel for General team communication, and another one for sales and marketing, and so forth. Slack also supports video calling so you can talk to your colleagues about projects and work in-depth, without having to type everything into DMs. You are able to drag, drop and share files with your teammates. It’s also compatible with services such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and plenty of apps that integrate perfectly within Slack.

To Sum up, Slack is a mighty collaboration tool without a doubt, that even we at Petitcode use daily for our team communication. I can't recommend it enough.

5. Microsoft teams

Microsoft Teams is a hub for team communication and collaboration that combines persistent workplace chat, video meetings, file storage, and application integration. This remote work tool is designed to be an all-in-one workplace communication hub for businesses who already use Microsoft 365, or who are looking to reinvent their organization’s digital communication and collaboration workspaces.

6. Troop Messenger

Troop Messenger is a remote team collaboration and workplace communication platform that helps you connect, discuss and share work across a single and smart user interface. It offers instant messaging, project managing, video conferencing, and more in a simple, cohesive app. Plus it integrates with Google Drive, and Dropbox and works on virtually all operating systems, including Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android.

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Best Cloud Storage Services

In this day and age, cloud storage is a must to have remote work tool to save files of all kinds, everything is stored on remote servers far away from where you are and accessed just by login onto the web.

7. Google Drive

Google Drive is a free cloud file storage service that allows you to store and access your documents, spreadsheets, and slides etc, online and share them with your remote team. Additionally it syncs stored files across all devices, so you can view and update them from anywhere.

8. Dropbox

Dropbox is also an online storage service for remote workers to store and share files, especially large ones. Syncing in Dropbox is much faster since it utilizes box syncing which means any changes made on your desktop will be automatically synced to your Dropbox account to avoid the hustle of repeatedly downloading and uploading documents to save time and help boost your workflow.

Best Productivity Tools

Remote workers juggle with so many tasks that it becomes difficult to keep up with. So here are our top three productivity tools for working remotely that can help boost your productivity.

9. Todoist

Todoist is a simple yet powerful to-do list app that can help remote workers stay organized and get more done during the day no matter where they are or what device they use. It bundles project scheduling, document management and task management functionalities within a single solution. From planning large scale projects to simply remembering to pay the rent, Todoist helps get things out of your head and into your to-do list.

Remote teams can then collaborate, share project statuses and invite other people to the project. The document management functionality enables you to upload and share documents via Google Drive and Dropbox.

If you're looking for the best to-do list app, one that works on all your devices, has great features for monitoring your productivity, and lets you geek out on organizing everything you have to do, this remote work tool is for you.

10. Blink

Blink is an intranet app designed for both remote and field workers in businesses across various industries. It includes calendar management, content management, an employee directory, file sharing and discussion forums.

Blink has BlinkFeed, which is an employee task inbox that helps managers and workers to post and access information regarding different tasks, stimulate discussions and create feedback loops , surveys and votes.

Additionally, Blink provides users built-in storage for their policies, job documents and features ‘Workforce Analytics’ functionalities and also supports integration with various tools such as Office 365, Google G Suite, and Salesforce.

Whether you're working from home or in the front line Blink is your route to increased employee satisfaction, productivity and engagement.

11. Krisp

Krisp is AI-powered noise cancelling software for your microphone. Remote workers can use it to suppress background noise during calls Like barking dogs and crying kids etc. Krisp adds a virtual filter between your microphone and your calling app. The filter doesn’t let any background noise pass through. Allowing you to have noise free and productive video calls with your colleagues and clients.

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Best Time Management Tools

Tracking time as you work lets you invoice more accurately than estimating time worked afterwards. Having a higher degree of accuracy creates trust for your clients, too, but it also benefits your business. When you know how you spend your time, you can analyze it and make smarter business decisions as a result.

12. Hubstaff

Hubstaff is a time tracking software with multiple productivity features to help your team get more done. It shows you data on your team’s work, such as the amount of time they tracked to each project and the apps and websites they spent time on, allowing you to gain insight into how they’re performing.

In addition to its work tracking capabilities, Hubstaff includes project budgeting, expense tracking, automated payroll, and online invoicing features. The app streamlines the whole process of managing your remote team so you can focus on more important tasks like growing your business.

13. Toggl

Toggl is a time tracking app that allows Remote workers to track their daily activities across different platforms, providing them with detailed insights and an opportunity to optimize their workflow by identifying areas where they can improve.

This app is one of the easiest to use tools which include tracking reminders, and idle detection to make sure the job gets done. It is mostly web-based, but does have apps for desktop, iOS, and Android that will sync together in real time, so for example, time monitoring can begin in the browser of a desktop PC, and then be stopped on a smartphone with time entries synced between devices.

Toggl works effortlessly because it doesn't ask much of you when you start timing a task meaning you can track your time now and worry about the details later like setting the project and the task and so on. Toggl also makes it simple to break down your working hours, by either the project, by client or by the task, and can then analyze them to determine which is making the best return for the hours spent to facilitate maximizing profits.

If you need a time tracking app and can't pay for one, you should use Toggl. It's our choice for free time-tracking tools for freelancers.

14. Timecamp

Timecamp is a cloud based time management app that enables project managers to collaborate, track billable work hours and monitor project status. It has a number of simple to use functions related to time tracking to maximize remote team productivity like team and billable time tracking, sending invoices based on time spent, and attendance tracker. It also can integrate with over 50 apps for ease of use, including Trello, Slack, and Evernote, and comes with add-on features for additional functionality.

This app also has Automatic Time Tracking which can be used for employee internet usage monitoring, and generates productivity analyses for each employee. The time management software function puts this all together to be able to track a team’s time spent on a project, and also their productivity.

15. Harvest

Harvest is an online time tracking tool designed for businesses of all sizes. It provides invoicing and timesheet features for small businesses and freelancers. Harvest Key offerings include time and expense management, team management, project management, scheduling and invoicing, providing both employees and employers with insights into how everyone on the team is spending time, how much projects actually cost, and how much they are bringing in.

This tool offers one-click time entry for timesheets. It allows you to track time using different devices, such as desktop widget, mobile device, Mac and PC. It enables users to approve timesheets and the system sends automated reminders to employees to submit their individual timesheets.

Harvest is ideal for client service businesses that need a way for their team to track time and expenses to multiple projects as well as freelancers who need to track time and invoice clients.

16. Time Doctor

Time Doctor is a web based employee time management software that helps you and your remote team get a lot more done during the day. It provides time tracking, computer work session monitoring, reminders, screenshot recording, invoicing, reporting tools, integrations and so much more.

Time Doctor integrates with over 35 different tools such as Slack, Notion, and Trello, making it very easy for you to capture time spent on different tasks.

Best For Individuals and teams who want to increase their productivity, teams who have remote working team members, working from home and want to track their time and teams working in an office.

Best Video Calls and Screen Sharing Tools

Remote workers need to stay connected with coworkers, friends and family with the best video conferencing softwares on the market.

17. Zoom

Zoom is a pretty popular cloud video communication app that allows Remote teams to set up virtual video and audio conferencing, webinars, live chats, screen-sharing, and much more. It is available for both mobile and desktop devices and very quick and easy to set up, plus you won't need an account to attend a Zoom meeting.

Zoom has a simple and clean interface and, most importantly, a smooth conferencing experience, which makes it one of the best options for online video conferencing, Hands down.

18. Google Meet

Google Meet is a free communication solution that allows Remote workers to stay in touch with clients and team mates globally and it's part of the G Suite. The application works in sync with other Google applications and allows you to present, collaborate and live stream meetings to 100,000 viewers at one time. It also comes as a Chrome extension and can be used across all devices.

Google meet is best for small to large businesses who're looking to conduct voice/video calls among colleagues or business partners.Google meet is best for small to large businesses who're looking to conduct voice/video calls among colleagues or business partners.

19. Nextiva

Nextiva is a cloud based phone system that enables remote workers to communicate with their customers and team mates in a robust, secure and reliable way. It works across every device and comes with advanced features like video conferencing, mobile app, call recording, and more.

The system is simple to get up and running, with an easy to navigate interface, and offers just about every calling, collaboration, and mobile feature and tool a small business needs in a phone system. It also has an integrated CRM feature that gives remote teams greater insight into the customers they speak with.

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Best Note Taking Apps

Whether during an important client conference call, or right after waking up, we have to write down all kinds of notes on a daily basis.

20. Evernote

Evernote is a free note taking tool for remote workers to capture all their ideas, thoughts, and all kinds of files. It lets you create both simple and complex workflows using a combination of notebooks, notes and tags to keep everything organized. You can even record your meetings, interviews, speeches, and ideas, create lists, add voice or text attachments, and share your files with friends. Plus It integrates with apps like Slack, Gmail and Microsoft teams for better team productivity.

21. OneNote

OneNote, is designed to be the ultimate note taking app, whether you have ideas, things to do, or things to remember, one note is the perfect app, for capturing pretty much everything. It's really flexible and it gives you a very broad canvas to work on where you can type notes, record audio, and sketch or write ideas, add pictures and more.

This app allows you to share your notebooks with your remote team so you can all view and contribute at the same time plus It keeps all your notebooks synced across all your devices, too. It's well-suited for individuals attending numerous meetings per week and working on multiple collaborative projects.

22. Notion

Notion is all in one Note Taking tool that provides components such as databases, kanban boards, wikis, calendars and reminders. Remote workers can connect these components to create their own systems for note taking, data management, project management, and so on.

Notion is best for companies that want a better way to manage knowledge, projects, documents, and collaboration. Individuals can also use it for notes and organizing their whole lives like I do.

Conclusion

Now, that we have provided you with the best remote work tools to keep you and your remote team on track, it's up to you to take the wheel from here, it might take some time to get used to them, but when you do, your business will yield the best outcome.

As we wrap up this article, here are few hand-picked items for you to improve your remote working journey–

1. 10 crucial remote working tips you'll need in 2021!

2. 6 biggest Remote work myths to leave behind in 2021

3. 9 Benefits of Remote Work for both Employees and Employers

4. What is Remote Work?

5. Top 6 remote work stats you should care about in 2021!