Managing a remote team is not a cakewalk. Different time zones, miscommunication, inability to monitor the progress, missing deadlines are some common problems that every remote team manager has to face.

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, working from home or remote working has become the new normal for professionals. To make things easier in these trying times, I’ve listed down 14 project management, time management, online communication, video conferencing, and security tools for better remote work management and communication.

Let’s take a look at the top 15 tools for remote teams

PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS

1. Asana

Keep remote and distributed teams, and your entire organization focused on their goals, projects, and tasks with Asana. Top businesses such as Uber, Airbnb, and Pinterest use Asana to track the progress of their projects.

Why use Asana?

• Build project plans, coordinate tasks, and hit deadlines
• Streamline processes, reduce errors, and spend less time to reduce tasks
• Monitor daily progress and status of key initiatives

2. Basecamp

Basecamp is your all-in-one toolkit for working remotely. It is the premier project management and internal communication tool helping you manage projects and communicate with stakeholders seamlessly.

Why use Basecamp?

• Create projects containing everything related to work at hand 
• Share docs, files, images, and spreadsheets for faster collaboration
• See current and overdue tasks to monitor progress

3. Wrike

Wrike is used by many large companies and freelancers alike to manage their multiple projects. Share real-time, interactive reports, and schedule notifications for report updates or reviews on a regular basis. 

Why use Wrike?

• Create Custom Workflows to keep your team on the same page
• Interactive Gantt charts to view project schedule and set dependencies
• Review and approve digital documents quickly and easily

4. ProofHub

ProofHub is an easy-to-use project management software with powerful collaboration features. Thousands of teams and businesses use ProofHub to stay in ultimate control of their tasks, projects, clients, and communications. 

Why use ProofHub?

• Create custom workflows for agile task management
• Add tasks with deadlines and assign them to team members
• Share files, review design files, annotate them using markup tools, all at one place

TIME MANAGEMENT TOOLS

5. Harvest

Harvest is a simple online time management tool helping team members with fast online invoicing and timesheet capabilities to efficiently work from home. 

Why choose Harvest?

• Easier time tracking and expense management
• Intuitive visual reports
• Create invoices, send them to your clients, and get paid online

6. Teamwork

Teamwork is an effective tool for remote workers to manage time, projects, and people at a single place. It improves collaboration, visibility, accountability leading to increased productivity.

Why use Teamwork?

• Automate repetitive tasks and maintain consistency across projects
• Simplify workflows and reduce errors by using pre-populated templates
• Create and share messages, chat, files, notebooks with remote team members and clients 

7. Paymo

If you’re looking for a remote team management tool that allows you to work better from wherever you are, give Paymo a try. With this remote time management tool, you can manage tasks, create team schedules, track work time, and bill your clients from the same platform.

Why use Paymo?

• Use tasks, task lists, due dates, milestones, and the Kanban module to organize tasks and activities
• Multiple timesheet views allow you to view, add, and edit time entries with only a few clicks
• Easily start discussions with your co-workers and comment on tasks about the latest project updates

COMMUNICATION & COLLABORATION TOOLS

8. Slack

Slack has to be the undisputed champion of online communication tools used by hundreds of companies and solopreneurs to manage remote teams and stay connected. 

Why use Slack?

• Share channels with companies and businesses to bring all the right people into the same room
• Search everything that’s been posted in channels or messages to never lose track of important affairs
• Easily integrable with most of the third-party applications

9. Google Hangouts

Originally a feature of Google+, Hangouts (also known as Google Meet) became a stand-alone product in 2013 and since then, it has become the first-choice of remote workers for team communication and collaboration.

Why use Google Hangouts?

• Instant messaging, voice calls, HD video calls
• Built-in screen sharing and intelligent muting
• Compatible with multiple computing devices

10. Jell

This communication tool allows you to organize daily virtual online standups to unite teams, make projects and progress visible and reach goals faster—all in minutes a day.

Why use Jell?

• Create customized check-ins for your teams to share metrics or high-level progress
• Keep track of what everyone’s working on and what they’ve accomplished
• Easily integrable with tools like Slack, GitHub, and many more.

VIDEO CONFERENCING & MEETING TOOLS

11. Zoom

Zoom is an award-winning tool that brings video conferencing, online meetings, and group messaging into one easy-to-use application. As cities go into lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, it has become the video calling app of choice for many businesses to stay connected.

Why use Zoom?

• One-on-one meetings and group conferences
•  Share your screen with others so they can see what you see
• Search makes it easy to find contacts, messages, files, or chat channels in Zoom

12. Whereby

Enjoy the freedom to work from anywhere with easy video meetings from Whereby. It offers custom backgrounds and fun logos too. You can join from your phone via browser or iOS app. 

Why use Whereby?

• Join with a click. No downloads, pin codes, registrations for guests
• Easy screen sharing allows teams to quickly resolve questions, workshop ideas, etc
• Add up to 50 people per call

13. Join.me 

Join.me is an online conferencing and meeting tool that lets multiple people from multiple locations connect with each other at the same time. Screen sharing, online meetings, and team collaboration are all fast and easy at join.me. 

Why use Join.me?

• You can add up to 250 participants on a call
• Anyone can join a meeting from any mobile device, including Android, iOS and iPads
• Schedule meetings and send invitations with the join.me Scheduler or directly through Outlook or Google Calendar

SECURITY TOOLS

14. Dashlane

Dashlane is a capable password manager for a single device that can store logins for up to 50 accounts in a secure vault with multi-factor authentication. It also monitors the dark web for data breaches and sends you personalized alerts.

Why use Dashlane?

• Easy syncing between devices
• Secure document storage
• Also includes VPN

15. 1Password

1Password is a password manager, digital vault, form filler, and secure digital wallet in one app. It remembers all your passwords for you to help keep account information safe.

Why use 1Password?

• Secure your team within minutes
• See everything that needs your attention

Final Words

Most of these tools are free or come with a free trial, make sure to give these tools a spin to get a fair idea if they meet your remote team’s requirements or not. 

Tell us in the comments below which tool(s) your remote teams use to manage work and stay connected. 

Stay at home. Stay safe!