Remote Work Tools: The Ultimate List (110 Remote Teams Share Their Favourite Tools)
There is a ton of teams working remotely these days, and nearly every one of those teams uses different tools to do their job, but which tools are the best? Which ones should your team use?
I interviewed over 100 remote teams (including Intercom, Help Scout, Buffer and Zapier) to learn what tools they use on a daily basis to stay productive, connected and sane, despite working from different cities, countries or even continents (still waiting for that co-working space on Mars!).
Below you will find a list of tools recommended by the 110 remote teams I interviewed, organised by the number of “upvotes”. Each tool I list here was recommended by at least two teams.
Of course, while the tools are important, the right attitude, processes, proactive communication and company culture are absolutely essential to make remote work work - a sentiment shared by many teams I interviewed.
Bonus PDF: Get access to a PDF version of this article. Includes additional 119 tools not mentioned in the article. Click here to download the PDF.
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Remote Tool #1: Slack
Undisputed leader of remote tools, recommended by over 80% of the companies I interviewed. Messaging app for teams big and small. Many teams create single-purpose channels for all sorts of things, integrating 3rd party apps, or simply saying #thanks to one another. It replaces email for some. Recommended by Intercom, Kissmetrics, Crew and 86 other companies.
Remote Tool #2: Google Drive (Docs/Sheets/Slides)
Google Drive and related products (Docs, Sheets, Slides) is taking over the world of a remote worker. This Google-powered office suite in the cloud seriously improved over the last few years, and can now easily compete with Microsoft Office, and in some cases (e.g. live collaboration) it is unquestionably superior. In fact, this very article has been created using Google Docs suite. Recommended by Safari, people.io, Scrapinghub and 53 other companies.
Remote Tool #3: GitHub
Code management service of choice for remote teams. Integrates beautifully with multiple other tools and services, including #1 on this list - Slack. The team over at Scrapinghub manages the staff vacation time in a git repo - how cool is that! Recommended by Owsy, Analytics Fire, Clerky and 45 other companies.
Remote Tool #4: Trello
Used for To-Do's and Done lists, Kanban boards, recruitation and employee onboarding checklists among other things - Trello is a very flexible tool, that pairs really well with Hangouts thanks to its near-instant updates on everyone's screens. Recommended by Lost My Name, StandupMail, Hostmaker and 41 other companies.
Remote Tool #5: Hangouts
Morning stand-up calls for development teams, company-wide meetings throughout the day or an always-on channel to feel less lonely working from a remote location. It works really well for small teams, however bigger companies tend to switch over to competitors, like Zoom or GoToMeeting, due to technical limitations of Hangouts. Recommended by YouEarnedIt, TrendyMinds and 38 other companies.
Remote Tool #6: Skype
The old school video call tool. Perfect for 1:1 calls, and more ubiquitous than the competition. Used by some as a backup for when Hangouts fails. Can be used with Ecamm Call Recorder to record interviews. Recommended by Mycelium, Engine Yard and 25 other companies.
Remote Tool #7: Google Apps for Work
Professional email addresses for your business. If you use and love your Gmail account, you will feel right at home with Google Apps. Premium accounts include unlimited storage for your emails and files in Drive. Recommended by HonkMobile, WegoWise and 24 other companies.
Remote Tool #8: Dropbox
The USB-flash-drive-in-the-cloud. It allows teams to share and sync files easily and securely. Provides official client software for pretty much every platform, including Linux (unlike Google Drive). A multitude of integrations with 3rd party software. Business tier includes unlimited file recovery. Recommended by Mokriya, Mobapi and 23 other companies.
Remote Tool #9: Zoom
This video conferencing app is stealing users from under Hangouts' nose. Consistently quoted as a solution to Hangouts' inability to deal with large group calls. Recommended by Remote Year, 17hats and 16 other companies.
Remote Tool #10: Asana
Tracking projects for teams, from start to finish. Competitor to Trello. In their own words: "Responsibilities and next steps are clear, so you can shoot for the moon — and get there." Recommended by Sticker Mule, HeyOrca and 14 other companies.
Remote Tool #11: JIRA
Project management tool for agile teams. It supports scrum and kanban boards. More than a dozen out-of-the-box reports. Integrates with other Atlassian tools, like Confluence and Bitbucket. Recommended by Vector, Hyperion Gray and 13 other companies.
Remote Tool #12: Intercom
Intercom combines a number of tools into one. Their free customer intelligence platform is valuable on its own, but paired with live chat, marketing automation, customer feedback and customer support functionality is a killer combo. Recommended by Follow Up Boss, Scrivito and 13 other companies.
Remote Tool #13: Basecamp
The father of online project management tools, keeping everyone on the same page for 12 years and counting. A place to work and a way to work. Currently on version 3, updated for 2016. Recommended by CGCookie, Kaleo and 10 other companies.
Remote Tool #14: HipChat
Less-popular competitor of Slack for team communication. No real need to switch to Slack if you're already on HipChat and it works for you just fine. Used as a virtual #watercooler for remote teams. Recommended by DataStax, When I Work and 10 other companies.
Remote Tool #15: Confluence
Another product from Atlassian shop. Integrates with JIRA to give everyone transparency between the issues tracked in JIRA and related content in Confluence - product requirements, project reports, roadmaps, and more. Recommended by Nookal, Apptimize and 9 other companies.
Remote Tool #16: Screenhero
Real-time collaboration tool. Screenhero provides the lowest latency screen sharing on the market, even at full resolutions. You feel like you are working at the same desk. It recently joined Slack, and at the moment you cannot create new accounts on their website (while they integrate with Slack). Recommended by Airbrake, WeaveUp and 9 other companies.
Remote Tool #17: Help Scout
A help desk for teams that insist on a delightful customer experience. A great alternative to using a shared email inbox for support. Emails sent from Help Scout look like normal, plain-text emails, without any ticket numbers or customer portals to log into. Recommended by Silverfin, Edgar and 8 other companies.
Remote Tool #18: InVision
Web & mobile rapid prototyping tool. Great for sharing designs with the team and getting feedback. Recommended by Made By Munsters, Jaybird and 6 other companies.
Remote Tool #19: GoToMeeting
Video conferencing software. Rated #1 in customer satisfaction. Competitor to Hangouts, Zoom and join.me. Recommended by GatherContent, Project Ricochet and 6 other companies.
Remote Tool #20: join.me
Video conferencing software, again. This one is rated #1 in speed and ease of use. Competitor to Hangouts, Zoom and GoToMeeting. Recommended by Drip, Promoter.io and 5 other companies.
Remote Tool #21: Pivotal Tracker
Pivotal Tracker helps your developers and clients to facilitate constructive communication, reflect the status of a project, and help forecast its future. Recommended by Long Distance Voter, Rebrandly and 5 other companies.
Remote Tool #22: World Time Buddy
A great little tool that helps with scheduling events for team members working in different time zones. Similar to Every Time Zone. Recommended by Toptal, Groove and 4 other companies.
Remote Tool #23: Zendesk
Customer service software & support ticketing system. Competitor to Help Scout. Recommended by Harvest, Findify and 4 other companies.
Remote Tool #24: Bitbucket
Another code management service, similar to Github. It offers free private repositories for teams of up to 5 users. Unlike Github, their pricing model is based on the number of users, not private repositories. Recommended by Affiliate Plug.in, virtualQ and 4 other companies.
Remote Tool #25: WordPress
A tool that powers 25% of the internet. Remote teams use it for internal blogs to keep everyone in the loop. Recommended by Lumiserv, TeamSnap and 4 other companies.
Remote Tool #26: 1Password
Convenient password manager. Generate unique passwords for all services you use, and access them all with your one password. Recommended by Power Supply, Auth0 and 3 other companies.
Remote Tool #27: Evernote
Notes, notes, notes! Jot down anything and everything, and save it in the cloud to share with others (or simply to not lose it if you leave your phone or laptop in the taxi). Recommended by ShootZilla, Trend Pie and 3 other companies.
Remote Tool #28: Xero
Online accounting software for small businesses. Recommended by TidyHQ, Project Ricochet and 3 other companies.
Remote Tool #29: I Done This
Know what your whole team is doing. Super easy status reporting for super productive teams. Recommended by NomNom, iwantmyname and 2 other companies.
Remote Tool #30: CloudApp
Sharing for teams. Screenshots, screencasts, webcam videos. Recommended by Codeable, Compose and 2 other companies.
Remote Tool #31: appear.in
Super quick video conversations, without signing up or installing anything. Create a room, share a link and you're talking! Alternative to Hangouts if 8 people limit is not a problem for your team. Recommended by Help Scout, Grok Interactive and 2 other companies.
Remote Tool #32: WebEx
Video conferencing from Cisco. Another competitor to Hangouts. Recommended by CoreValue, Hazelcast and 2 other companies.
Remote Tool #33: UberConference
They market themselves as a stress-free conference call solution. No PIN required to join a call. Really affordable. Recommended by The Water Scrooge, Reaktiv Studios and 2 other companies.
Remote Tool #34: Spotify
Shared playlists, CTO-come-DJ. Recommended by Drip, Much Better Adventures and Rafflecopter.
Remote Tool #35: Harvest
Time tracking tool. Invoicing and payments. Expense tracking. Recommended by Barrel, KinHR and Phuse.
Remote Tool #36: BlueJeans
Video conferencing software. Recommended by Litmus, Crossover and GitLab.
Remote Tool #37: Sqwiggle
Online collaboration software for remote and virtual teams. Sqwiggle lets you see the faces of the people you work with throughout the day, giving you real presence. Recommended by Go Fish Digital, Much Better Adventures and Buffer.
Remote Tool #38: Wunderlist
Todo lists, reminders, errands. Recommended by Compose, Float and Buffer.
Remote Tool #39: Hackpad
Take collaborative notes, share data and files, and use comments to share your thoughts in real-time or asynchronously. Recommended by Zapier, Close.io and Buffer.
Remote Tool #40: Teamwork
Online collaboration and task management software. Recommended by Betterteam, Pathable and dsire.
Remote Tool #41: Freshdesk
Online customer support software and helpdesk solution. Recommended by EVELO, EditionGuard and Sherpany.
Remote Tool #42: Zapier
Connect the apps you use, automate tasks, get more out of your data. Recommended by Fuel Made, dsire and EditionGuard.
Remote Tool #43: Pipedrive
Web-based Sales CRM & Sales Pipeline Management Software. Recommended by Rebrandly, Recruitee and dsire.
Remote Tool #44: 15Five
15Five tells you what your employees accomplished, where they're struggling, how they're feeling and more. Recommended by Fuel Made, CrystalCommerce and GatherContent.
Remote Tool #46: WorkFlowy
Note taking, organised. Alternative to Evernote. Recommended by Codementor and Crossover.
Remote Tool #47: Podio
Project management software from Citrix. Recommended by Life.io and Fiveworx.
Remote Tool #49: Harvest Forecast
Schedule your team across projects. From the folks behind Harvest. Recommended by Barrel and KinHR.
Remote Tool #50: Olark
Live chat for your website. Live help, live support, live sales. Recommended by Rafflecopter and Underdog.io.
Remote Tool #51: UserVoice
Product management and customer support software. Recommended by Load Impact and Pathable.
Remote Tool #52: Workable
Recruitment software. Posting your job ad, managing candidates and more. Recommended by X-Team and EditionGuard.
Remote Tool #53: Flowdock
Group chat for teams. Integrates with Github, JIRA and Trello. Recommended by SupportBee and TextMaster.
Remote Tool #54: CircleCI
Continuous integration and delivery platform. Integrates with GitHub. Recommended by Doximity and SupportBee.
Remote Tool #56: Sketch
Mac application for designing interfaces, websites, icons, etc. Recommended by Barrel and Recruitee.
Remote Tool #57: Every Time Zone
A tiny utility for converting timezones. Alternative to World Time Buddy. Recommended by Litmus and Buffer.
Remote Tool #59: Smartsheet
Online project management software. Recommended by IDenTV and Cornershop Creative.
Remote Tool #60: Pager Duty
The incident resolution platform. Recommended by Hello Labs and Elastic.
Remote Tool #63: Buffer
Drive traffic, increase fan engagement and save time on social media. Recommended by Promoter.io and Barrel.
Remote Tool #64: IRC
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is an application layer protocol that facilitates communication in the form of text. Recommended by GitLab and Engine Yard.
Remote Tool #65: Calendly
Scheduling appointments and meetings made easy. Recommended by QuickMail.io and SaneBox.
How to get the most out of this list?
Download a PDF version of this article from the box below, for easy reference. It includes additional 119 tools not mentioned in this article.
PDF version of this article includes additional 119 tools. Download it here.
