Remote work has its perks. The commute from your kitchen to your desk is far shorter than from your home to your office. Companies can scale their global footprint by hiring great talent across time zones.
But those perks come with a price.
Busy schedules, small windows for meetings, and more can take their toll if you don't have the right software for remote work. Some companies also face other challenges, such as collaborating across time zones, personalizing software, and aligning all team members on one platform.
The good news is that you can take full advantage of remote benefits while avoiding the common pitfalls companies that don’t have the right tools face.
Together, we'll explore the state of remote work, the top 10 tools to get started, and how to implement new software. Plus, you'll learn how to communicate with your team as effectively as you did in person for free.
Remote work is a growing trend
A survey from Forbes Advisor provides some insightful statistics on the future of remote work:
98% of workers want to work remotely (at least part of the time)
93% of employers want to continue remote job interviews
Additionally, Yahoo Finance reports that employees are willing to sacrifice 20% of their paychecks to work remotely, which signifies a desire for flexibility and location-based freedom. Since remote work also increases happiness by 20%, there's no denying that it offers benefits for team morale and attracts top talent.
The benefits directly affect companies, too—especially with remote team productivity.
When Slack's think tank, Pulse, surveyed 100,000 workers in 2022, it found that employees showed 29% more productivity with fully flexible schedules, and remote and hybrid employees exclusively showed 4% higher productivity than their non-remote counterparts. The main reason that remote and hybrid workers had better output was their ability to focus 53% more. Autonomy and control over their workplace environment contributed to success.
Still, the key to the remote workplace and its advantages depend on your tools. You cannot benefit from remote office settings without communicating ideas and incorporating tight feedback loops. Improved feedback processes make it easier to share goals and visions for new feature launches, finalize a design for an improved outcome, and other team benefits.
Thankfully, with the right software, you can scale your company with a top-talent team that increasingly produces better results. (Get more statistics on remote work.)
Key benefits to look for in remote work software
The remote work landscape increasingly offers clear advantages in productivity, access to more top talent, and more intuitive team collaboration. It’s become a permanent workplace model for many companies, and great tools make successful remote teams possible.
The future of remote work software embraces the following workplace practices:
Productivity and flexibility: The best remote work tools should make it easy to produce results together, regardless of location or time.
Affordable costs: Remote work is typically less expensive for most companies, and your software should provide the same benefits. These tools should provide everything you need to run a successful office within your budget.
Team alignment: Remote employees should be able to communicate effectively, provide feedback, manage projects, encourage one another, and build a healthy culture that fosters trust. Software should enable remote workers to accomplish all these with engaging features and solutions.
Intuitive collaboration: Your team should be able to communicate naturally, as if they were collaborating in person. The best remote work software provides state-of-the-art communication tools that might make working remotely even better than working face-to-face.
Innovative technology: Remote workplace software should offer the latest features, such as innovative AI functionality, to keep companies competitive in their industries and help team members collaborate using the best technology available.
The key features of essential remote work software equip teams to incorporate tight feedback loops, express ideas, and collaborate—which allow you to grow a successful remote workplace.
10 essential remote work software
Let’s take a look at the ten top tools to consider for your remote tech stack:
1. Loom: Best for all-in-one remote work communication
Dispersed and remote teams face challenges such as time zone differences, busy schedules, long-distance collaboration, and feedback loops. Loom, with its asynchronous video message platform, tackles these challenges.
Teams can record their screens and webcams to capture projects, presentations, and ideas. Members can then send their videos to the rest of their team, and viewers can collaborate in real-time with video replies and comments and express themselves with emojis—all in a centralized location.
Loom offers all-in-one asynchronous communication solutions so virtual teams can easily share ideas and build products and services as if they were together in person.
Loom’s AI upgrade also saves time with automatically generated titles and summaries.
Key features:
Record: Capture your screen and yourself simultaneously with intuitive screen sharing.
Edit with ease: Automatically remove filler words, rewind and re-record when you make a mistake, and streamline your changes to save time.
Express yourself creatively: Draw and illustrate your points while recording.
Share: Email, embed, and share links to your videos.
Engage: Comment and interact with team members directly on the video page.
Record easily: Eliminate background noise and communicate comfortably.
Pricing:
Loom starts as a free service. Companies can upgrade their plan for $12.50 per month (billed annually).
2. Confluence: Best for team workspaces
Whether you need to plan a project, create a wiki and resource hub, or launch a product, Confluence provides the remote workspace you need to get it done.
This remote work software allows teams to create, organize, and share work. You can make a central hub of all the essential documentation and resources your team needs to eliminate dispersed information.
Remote workers can communicate using the app's whiteboard, pages, and unique spaces. Confluence is also powered by AI technology, which summarizes, organizes, and condenses information so your team can leverage resources to their maximum potential.
Key features:
Easy workflow: Create and edit documents with pages.
Collaborate: Develop ideas with creative flows using whiteboards.
Capture relevant data: Analyze insights that Atlassian Intelligence gathers and organizes.
Pricing:
Confluence offers a free plan. Companies can upgrade to the next tier for $6.05 per user per month.
3. Zoom One: Best for live remote meetings
While Loom would be the best choice for holding async virtual meetings and cutting down on live meetings, Zoom One would be the remote work tool of choice when you need to meet synchronously.
This live meeting app pioneered remote transitions and still offers some of the best features for in-person meetings.
You can meet in real time, comment while talking, screen share, and even record meetings and save them to the cloud for later viewing.
If you use Loom's video messages with Zoom, or any live meeting app, you can send pre- and post-meeting videos so that everyone is prepared and no one misses a beat. Loom’s paid AI add-on also automates Loom videos with context. It generates summaries and titles so you can inform teams before or after a Zoom call.
Key features:
Get everyone together: Host meetings with 100+ participants.
Communicate in more than one way: Utilize a team chat and whiteboard.
Meet easily: Automate processes with mail and calendar integrations.
Coordinate meetings your way: Invite participants to scheduled or last-minute meetings.
Pricing:
Zoom One offers a limited free plan with up to 40-minute meetings. The Business tier costs $18.33 per month (billed annually).
4. Figma: Best for remote teams to collaborate on designs
Figma is the perfect solution for design teams to produce, collaborate on, and iterate great work. This cloud-based software allows teams to work together in real time and comment to provide key feedback.
Figma makes the design process feel like it's in-person—and its intuitive interface offers a great way to create social media graphics and wireframes, present marketing copy in context, and more.
While Figma is a great collaboration tool for teams that already use the platform for design, it doesn’t fulfill all communication needs, such as expressing design ideas and feedback through face-to-face video.
Key features:
Create assets: Use powerful design editing features.
Build together: Collaborate with designers and stakeholders.
Work anywhere: Access designs anywhere in the world, at any time, with cloud storage.
Pricing:
Figma offers a limited free plan. Teams can upgrade to the Organization plan for $45 per month.
5. Todoist: Best for team to-do lists
Sometimes, teams need more simplicity in their workflow. Todoist provides a modern take on the age-old checklist.
Team members who are working together remotely can add each step and task they must accomplish during a set period. They can also label lists according to specific categories or projects.
Todoist isn't just a task management tool for individuals—it works with teams, too. You can leave comments for others and assign responsibilities. The platform helps you visualize what needs to be done while ensuring accountability and transparency.
Key features:
Organize your work: Filter different views to organize information in the moment.
Don’t miss a beat: Easily get a handle on your projects by tracking tasks.
Work together: Collaborate and share workspaces.
Share instantly: Invite guests to join a project.
Pricing:
Todoist offers a free plan. The Business plan costs $6 per member per month (billed annually).
6. Grammarly: Best for proofreading and generating written communication
One thing that automatically comes with remote workspaces is many more written messages.
Grammarly can proofread messages for spelling and grammar and generate text. The program also helps teams communicate with more inclusivity, positivity, and clarity.
Teams can use the browser version or integrate the app into their iOS or Android keyboard. Grammarly also comes with a great Google Chrome extension, so it follows teams wherever they need to write.
Key features:
Save time: Automate proofreading and editing.
Write consistently: Establish a consistent brand tone.
Eliminate writer’s block: Benefit from AI prompts.
Pricing:
Grammarly offers a free plan. The Business plan costs $15 per member per month (billed annually).
7. Filestage: Best for design and content review
As remote and dispersed teams produce content, they need platforms that help them collaborate on essential projects.
Filestage’s remote project management tool allows teams to create workflows and feedback processes to cut approval time by 30%.
Whether your team needs to work on internal projects or with clients to produce content, the app provides an efficient solution. Teams can draw on designs, comment on them, and track approvals. The app also eliminates time delays and bottlenecks caused by unclear processes and communication challenges.
Key features:
Multitask: Provide high-quality remote team management by tracking several active projects at once.
Leverage ultimate collaboration: Use multiple file types and file-sharing options.
Communicate with clarity: Incorporate due dates, reminders, pinned comments, batch reviews, and other essential collaboration software features into your workflows.
Pricing:
Filestage offers a free plan. The Basic plan for small teams starts at $49 per month.
8. Hubstaff: Best for productivity tracking and management
Hubstaff allows companies to track productivity. Its automated features track processes and metrics and help managers lead their teams with accountability.
The platform can track worked hours, completed tasks, sessions, and focus times. These metrics help you understand your team’s productivity and provide actionable improvements for better output.
Hubstaff is a great option for companies that want to start working remotely but are unsure how to transition without traditional safeguards and expectations for employee productivity management.
Key features:
Stay in the know: Easily access an overview of employee productivity with time tracking, timesheets, and activity levels.
Implement accountability: Gain access to team screenshots, reports, and app and URL tracking.
Streamline employee processes: Benefit from payroll and payment features.
Pricing:
Hubstaff offers a 14-day free trial. The Team plan costs $10 per user per month.
9. Consolto: Best for live video chatting with customers on your website
Consolto allows teams to easily interact with customers using live video. It’s a great tool for communicating with your target audience in a dispersed or remote workplace setting. You can initiate and host video meetings directly on your website, through email, or on other relevant channels.
Customers and key stakeholders can schedule a meeting from your website using the two-way scheduling feature. Then, when it’s time to meet, you can connect with your contact live.
Key features:
Easy scheduling: Schedule unlimited appointments.
Guest management: Use the platform’s micro customer relationship management system to organize your information.
Analytics: Study engagement and live meeting statistics.
Pricing:
The Clever plan, which includes 20 hours of chatting each month, starts at $16.04 per month (billed annually).
10. Troop Messenger: Best for team chatting
Imagine the team chatting advantages of Slack but with the familiar direct message experience of WhatsApp. Troop Messenger offers a natural, effective way to chat with team members and organize conversations.
When you want to contact an individual or a specific group, you can easily click on the chatting option and send your message. If you want to take the conversation further, you can use the voice or video call function. The app also includes end-to-end encryption for increased security.
Troop Messenger is a feature-rich chatting alternative for remote settings.
Key features:
Multiple ways to chat: Communicate through direct messages, discuss in groups, or meet live.
Share files: Send PDFs, Google Docs, videos, images, and other relevant resources to your team.
Friendly user interface: Worry less about learning curves with Troop Messenger chatting, which feels like a regular messaging app.
Pricing:
The Enterprise plan starts at $5 per user per month.
Best practices for using remote work software
Prioritize engagement
If team communication is the primary use case for remote work software, engagement should follow close behind. Healthy employee engagement promotes productivity, innovation, and a solid remote working culture. Choose software that can facilitate multiple forms of engagement.
For example, with Loom, there are various ways to express yourself and engage with team members. You can reply with time-stamped comments or react to a particular moment in a video with an emoji. Loom also supports recording a video reply and emailing or sharing your videos using the provided link. With Loom AI, you can also auto-compose messages to increase engagement and save time.
Take it slow
It’s OK to review tools one at a time. Doing so helps you adopt and scale your communication setup. Incorporate tools over time so your team can experience their value and relevant use cases. Teams can also use this time to overcome any learning curve, which is why finding a tool that can eliminate obstacles is essential.
Loom is a one-click recording solution with a minimal learning curve. Press the record button and communicate or present immediately with a process that is both familiar and natural.
Respect time zones
Remote workplaces should be flexible and respect boundaries. As a company leader, you want your team to work confidently, with your support, in a healthy environment. Asynchronous solutions eliminate the time zone gap.
Users can send a Loom video, and recipients can watch it whenever they have time.
Keep communication channels simple
Adopting 20 different tools at once does not promote effective communication and collaboration. The experience will only become confusing, and each tool’s impact will be hard to track.
Software should offer integrations, embeds, and sharing features that allow you to work within a primary communication source. Tools like Loom offer integrations and easy sharing links for tools like Slack, Salesforce, Gmail, and more. Teams can also communicate directly on the video page.
Tips for adopting remote software tools for distributed teams
Once you've found the right tools, quickly implement and test them with your team.
Successful remote software adoption requires a few components:
Identification of your need: You should determine the core necessities for your remote team and industry. Most likely, they're communication-focused. Deciding what type of communication and platform works best for you will solve 80% of your day-to-day needs.
Willingness to try: If you want your team to adopt the best remote tools, you have to try them out yourself. Test the free version of the app and see if it makes sense for your company. Ask others what they think and encourage open-mindedness.
Commitment: Successful implementation starts with leadership. Adopt the app yourself and begin to communicate with team members. Show them the new tool’s value.
An invitation: Finally, invite your team to adopt the tool. Once they've seen what it can do, team members will likely identify the use case and see why it's beneficial for the team.
Transform your remote work with Loom’s collaboration tool
After reviewing these top remote collaboration tools, you should have an idea of how to get started. One way to elevate your remote workplace strategy is to enable your employees with an all-in-one remote solution.
Loom offers a complete experience for remote teams. Remote employees can collaborate on projects, communicate asynchronously whenever and wherever they want, and share videos to the right person.
The best part? Loom is free. You can press record right now and send your first video to your team. Try Loom today and see how it can become the cornerstone of your remote tech stack.