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There are so many different online communication tools for teams so making a shortlist of the best can be tricky. You want to facilitate communication and collaboration for your team no matter where they're located - and need the right tool. I've got you covered! In this post I share from my personal experience bolstering communication for large remote teams and share my picks of the best online communication tools for teams.

What are online communication tools?

Online communication tools are software that help people interact, share information, and collaborate effectively regardless of their location. These tools often include instant messaging, video conferencing, file sharing, and real-time collaboration on documents.

Online communication software enhances collaboration and communication among team members, which is crucial for the efficiency and success of modern workplaces. They help in breaking down geographical barriers, enabling remote and distributed teams to work together as if they were in the same room. This not only increases productivity but also supports flexible working arrangements.

Overviews of the Best Communication Tools

Lets get into the juicy details of each communication platform and what makes them a worthy candidate of this top 10 list.

Best communication tool for project management

  • 14-day free trial + free plan available
  • From $8/user/month (billed annually, min 3 seats)
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Rating: 4.7/5

monday.com is an intuitive platform where teams can track processes and workflows, communicate within and across teams, and bring all of their tools together under one system. Its simplistic design and flexible features mean teams can get started in minutes.

Teams can communicate easily by mentioning one another on updates and host conversations in context around certain projects or tasks. Sharing files is easy with Google Drive and Dropbox integrations and continuing the conversation on other platforms is made simple with Zoom and Slack integrations.

monday.com acts as a central place for teams to track projects, manage time, build and share reports, send messages, and easily understand and improve their workflow.

monday.com has over 40 integrations including Google Calendar, Jira, GitHub, Trello, Zendesk, Typeform, and many more that are accessible via Zapier. monday.com allows teams to collaborate and communicate from everywhere—ensuring transparency and real-time updates.

monday.com costs from $6/user/month and comes with a free 14-day trial. They offer a free plan for up to 2 users.

Best for team communication & collaboration

  • 90-day free trial + free plan available
  • From $8.75/user/month
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Rating: 4.5/5

Slack is a communication platform designed to centralize team interactions, offering real-time messaging, file sharing, and integration with various tools and services. It aims to improve team collaboration and productivity by providing organized spaces for conversations, known as channels, and features for audio and video meetings.

Slack offers various features, including channels for organizing teams and work, Slack Connect for working with external partners, messaging for chatting with team members, huddles for audio and video meetings, and clips for recording and sharing updates. Additionally, Slack's knowledge management features include a search function for shared knowledge, Canvas for creating rich, flexible documents, and file sharing capabilities to integrate files into the workflow.

The platform also includes automation tools like Workflow Builder to automate everyday tasks and integrations to bring external tools into Slack. Overall, Slack's features are aimed at improving communication and productivity within organizations, and it includes enterprise-level features such as AI, security, and knowledge management.

Slack natively integrates with several tools, including Luchidchart, Asana, monday.com, Zoom, Google Calendar, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, Hubspot, and Qualtrics.

Best for Jira integration & data visualization

  • Free plan available
  • From $9/user/month
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Rating: 5/5

Visor is a streamlined online communication platform designed to enhance team collaboration and efficiency. With a focus on simplicity and utility, it provides a direct and intuitive interface that caters to the essential needs of modern workplaces.

Visor offers offering seamless, real-time collaboration capabilities tailored for teams. It particularly stands out for its emphasis on reducing clutter and noise, ensuring that discussions are focused and productive. With robust support for direct messaging, group chats, and project-based communication channels, Visor ensures that information flows smoothly within teams, fostering a culture of openness and accessibility.

Visor also uses its impressive data visualization features to provide clear, concise, and immediate insights into project statuses, team performance, and workflow metrics. These visual tools are designed to cut through complexity, offering intuitive graphs, charts, and timelines that enable team members to quickly grasp the essence of data, identify trends, and make informed decisions.

Visor natively integrates with a variety of tools, including Slack, Asana, Trello, GitHub, Google Drive, Dropbox, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, and Jira. 

Visor costs from $9/user/month. A free plan is also available.

Best for mobile intranet access

  • 14-day free trial
  • From $1,300/year for 50 users

MyHub is an intranet software platform that provides businesses with a suite of tools to publish and manage content, communicate within teams, and organize company information. The platform is designed to be user-friendly, offering a simple interface and a powerful search function to help employees find the information they need efficiently. MyHub also supports mobile access, allowing team members to stay connected and productive while on the move. 

MyHub Intranet Solutions provides a comprehensive publishing platform equipped with a variety of tools to facilitate the distribution and retrieval of important information within an organization. The software also includes several functionalities such as chat, newsfeeds, forums, blogs, calendars, document storage, automated forms, staff directories, and notifications to support internal communication and information sharing. 

Overall, the intranet is designed to serve as a central repository for storing and sharing up-to-date files, eliminating the need to sift through multiple messaging apps to find critical information. The platform's communication tools are accessible through a user-friendly interface, which includes over 60 pre-built templates from their Template Library that can help facilitate the creation and management of content.

MyHub Intranet Solutions integrates with Gmail, Google Calendar, Salesforce, Microsoft 365, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure.

MyHub Intranet Solutions costs from $1,300/year for 50 users. A 14-day free trial is available.

Best collaborative whiteboard for hybrid teams

  • Free plan available
  • From $10/user/month
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Rating: 4.8/5

Miro is a collaborative whiteboard designed for hybrid teams, offering over 1,000 templates for diverse planning and brainstorming needs. Valued by top Fortune 100 companies, it supports teams at organizations like TransUnion and Cisco with a platform that suits the hybrid work model.

Key features of Miro include an infinite canvas for limitless project mapping and the flexibility to express ideas through various media. Its asynchronous collaboration tools, such as comments and reactions, enable productive teamwork across time zones. The TalkTrack feature also allows team members to record and share video explanations of process maps, fostering clearer communication.

With integrations including project management tools like Jira and Asana, Miro connects different project facets in one platform, making it a comprehensive tool for today's varied team dynamics.

Miro also integrates with a whole suite of tools, including Zoom, Figma, Monday.com Microsoft Teams, Slack, Google Drive, Box, Airtable, Notion, Azure, and Webex. Some integrations are limited to paid plans only.

Miro is free to use for unlimited members with up to 3 editable boards. Paid plans start at $8/user/month (billed annually).

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Free forever plan available
  • Intuitive and easy setup
  • Built-in communication features for streamlined collaboration

Cons:

  • Visitor/guest accounts locked to paid plans only
  • Zooming can be jumpy on larger projects
  • Free version does not allow high-quality export to pdf

Best communication tool with unlimited search history

  • 7-day free trial
  • From $2.50/user/month
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Rating: 4.8/5

Troop Messenger is far more than a simple chat interface. It was designed to improve the communication of internal teams of all sizes, from small teams to large corporations, and it delivers a robust feature set for doing so.

Overall this tool does a standout job with its feature offering and hits all of the criteria I look for in a communication tool, plus more. The main features include instant messaging, voice-video calling, video conferencing, file sharing, and desktop sharing.

But something I find especially useful in this tool are its more advanced messaging features. I like both the 'respond later' option as well as the 'burnout' option which lets you set a message to send at a later time. The self-messaging feature is also unique—a simple but useful feature that lets you send reminders and notes to yourself. Finally, there's a way to send bulk text messages and files to multiple users at once, using the 'forkout' feature. And the advanced search in this tool is really good, too.

Troop Messenger supports many native and third-party integration such as employee monitoring and tracking apps, attendance management systems, Google Drive, Dropbox, and LDAP. It's available across Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, and iOS.

Troop Messenger costs from $2.50/user/month. It's worth noting that although it’s a SaaS model, it offers the delivery models of self-hosting, API, and custom application.

Best communication tool for hosting online events

  • From € 89/month
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Rating: 4.5/5

Livestorm is a web-based communication and conferencing platform that enables teams to create a complete video communication strategy.

The tool is geared towards marketing, sales, customer success, or HR teams, and allows teams to create online events for their audiences. Livestorm can accommodate meetings, webinars, conferences, online training courses, podcast interviews, product demos, and more.

The tool is browser-based and teams can access it from a variety of devices. Other notable features include the ability to create custom landing pages; send promotional emails and reminders; host engaging online events with integrated chat, polls, and Q&A functionalities; and analyze event performance through an advanced analytics dashboard.

Livestorm offers a free plan that includes limited functionality, and paid plans start at €89 (~$108 USD).

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Can be used on desktop and mobile without download
  • Advanced dashboard with features for promoting, hosting, and analyzing events
  • Integrates with a variety of apps including HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, and more

Cons:

  • Performance is dependent on a stable internet connection
  • Price point is higher than others on this list

Best communication tool for deskless employees

  • 14-day free trial + free demo
  • From $6.18/user/month
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Rating: 4.6/5

Blink is a communication tool for the unique needs of deskless workers, who, until now, didn’t have the same quality technology as their colleagues in HQ. In just one app, it includes workplace messaging, a social media style company Feed for top-down communications, directory, cloud storage, workplace analytics, polls, and more.

Blink is built around the concept of workplace messaging as the central functionality so peer-to-peer direct messaging, group Chats, and top-down communications via the company Feed, all play an important role. Moderators and admins who post in the company Feed also have the option of turning on and off push notification for each post depending on importance. Blink also features polls, powerful integrations, and digital forms for reporting.

Analytics for admins features prominently through the app: post by post analytics, Org-wide and Team analytics within the Admin Portal, and Hub analytics that measures interactions and adoption within the document storage and reporting section of the app.

Blink is a straight-out-of-the box Saas communication software; no technical knowledge is necessary to get started and to invite colleagues to the platform. Its user-friendly, brandable interface is designed with familiar social media style features (think emojis and like buttons) that encourages engagement from employees—even less tech-savvy ones.

You can use existing integrations with 3rd party systems such as Jira, Trello, Office 365 and G-suite or build new integrations to your existing systems using Blink’s public APIs. Blink supports Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac, and you can access Blink via your browser.

Blink costs from $3.40 user/month. They offer a free 14-day trial and you can book a demo through the homepage.

Best for organizing communication using channels

  • 30-day free trial + free plan available
  • From $6/user/month
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Rating: 4.4/5

Flock is one of the most robust communication apps, going far beyond a simple messaging system. This communication app stands out with its chat module which is designed to streamline and centralize communication from different groups and across different teams. Going a step beyond “back and forth” communication, Flock enables you to turn messages into useful resources with bookmarks, and convert discussions into tasks.

Flock’s features include video and audio calls, group and individual chats, and an intuitive screen sharing module. It also includes many nice-to-have communication tools, like the ability to create an anonymous poll, share it with your team, and download the results. You can also use tags in conversations to indicate high priority info. Another useful feature is the ability to automatically generate email lists of members in a particular discussion board, allowing you to quickly send out group emails to the right people.

Flock integrations include Trello, Airtable, Paperform, Slack, Asana,GitHub, Facebook Lead Ads, Twitter, Reddit, Evernote, Dropbox, Google Doc and Google Calendar, Office 365, and many more.

Flock costs from $6/user/month and offers a 30-day free trial. They also have a free plan with limited features to get started as well.

Best marketing communication tool

  • 30-day free trial
  • From $5.99/user/month (billed annually).
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Rating: 4.4/5

Used by over 20,000 companies, Teamwork has all the project management functions you would expect plus features keyed-in to communication needs, like Teamwork Chat, a centralized work board, templates for project consistency, and user capacity check-ins.

Teamwork Projects excels in levels of collaboration that any marketing team will find useful, like task-specific communication channels, social media content channels, real-time activity logs, and “notebooks” for additional data compilation.

Integrations include Gmail, HubSpot, Slack, Float, Numerics, Automate.io, timeBro, Userback, Easy Insight, Integromat, Chatify, PieSync, and hundreds more through Zapier.

The user interface can be intimidating compared to alternatives, which may be difficult if you need to onboard a variety of external clients. Additional graphics or more digestible data on the dashboard, for example, would be welcome. This lost them a few points in the UX category of the review.

Teamwork Projects costs from $9/month and has a freemium version of the software for up to 2 projects.

Communication Tools Comparison Chart

Tools Price
monday.com From $8/user/month (billed annually, min 3 seats)
Slack From $8.75/user/month
Visor From $9/user/month
MyHub From $1,300/year for 50 users
Miro From $10/user/month
Troop Messenger From $2.50/user/month
Livestorm From € 89/month
Blink From $6.18/user/month
Flock From $6/user/month
Teamwork.com From $5.99/user/month (billed annually).
Preview Image - <h2 class="c-block__title b-summary-table__title c-listicle__title h3" > Compare Software Specs Side by Side</h2>

Compare Software Specs Side by Side

Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.

Compare Software

Other Communication Software You Might Find Useful

There are so many communication tools out there—here are a few good options that we haven’t included in this review. Check them out!

  1. Microsoft Teams

    Best communication tool for Microsoft users

  2. Zoho Cliq

    Best for small enterprises

  3. FLEEP

    Best user interface and UX

  4. YAROOMS

    an end-to-end room booking solution that eliminates room scheduling conflicts and supports informed space planning decisions

  5. ProWorkflow

    Best for email and project communication integration

  6. nutcache

    Best for internal team communications

  7. Rocket.Chat

    Best free communication software

  8. Workmates

    Best online communication tool with native engagement functionality

  9. Slenke

    Best for built-in task management features

  10. Volley

    Best free video messaging software

How I Picked The Best Communication Tools

I evaluated the tools on this communication software list based on the following criteria:

User Interface (UI)

Does the tool have clear displays and intuitive navigation? This is especially important as tools add more collaboration features. The whole point of these tools is to facilitate effective communication between team members. A bad interface might deter your team from using the chat tools and move to alternatives or not communicate.

Usability

Is this an effective business communication software in that it’s easy to learn and use? Company communication tools should come with supplementary tutorials and training to help employees make the most out of it.

Features & Functionality

How many of the key business communications features and functions does it provide, and how powerful are they? Specifically, I looked for:

  • Messaging: Includes direct messaging, private chat, group chat, threaded discussions, open forums, and team or group-based messaging. Team messaging apps should allow you to upload and share documents. This should all work on a mobile device, too.

  • Threading: The best communication tools have threaded discussions that serve as an easily-searchable record of all communication.

  • Notifications: Whenever a message, call, thread change, or any type of employee communication occurs, the right people need to be notified. The notifications feature should allow you to update your preferences so your notification feed includes relevant updates while minimizing clutter.

  • Video calling: Video chat is a necessary feature for distributed teams, but it’s also a great tool for agencies who need to hold meetings with out-of-town clients. At the minimum, we look for the capacity to make high-quality video calls. Additionally, some business communication solutions support live video feeds and video conferencing with easy guest access.

  • Screen sharing: This is especially important for business communication tools where you’ll be walking clients through your digital product or progress.

Integrations

I look for all the ways in which these tools can connect to others and extend their capabilities. Therefore, I include information on out-of-the-box integrations and third-party software. I also mention ways to build custom integrations, like rest APIs and webhooks.

Pricing

Unless you are a huge enterprise, most of us are price sensitive. Therefore, I mention the price per month on a monthly plan, when available. As part of the pricing information, I also like to include details on free trials, free versions, or even available discounts to help you make informed decisions.

Communication Tools FAQs

Find some of the common questions other people ask about this topic.

What Are Communication Tools?

Communication tools are apps that act as virtual, online meeting rooms for team members, enabling remote team collaboration. They help your team have conversations, exchange vital project data, update others on progress, and share files, making remote work an option for just about every company.

Communication tools include any tool (offline or online) that helps you understand others and be understood. Team or interoffice communication tools include familiar tools like mail, email, and phones, as well as apps and software for web conferencing (Skype), screen sharing, sharing files, group messaging, and collaborative work management.

What Types Of Communication Tools Are Commonly Used In Business?

Common business tools for communication include: document collaboration tools, file sharing tools, chat and messaging tools, knowledge base tools, voice and video conferencing tools, and project management software.

What Are The Best Communication Tools For Small Teams?

We picked these as the best communication tools for small teams because they offer a free plan.

What Are The Best Communication Tools For Agencies?

These are some of the best communication tools for agencies because they offer useful file sharing, management, and user permission control along with standard messaging features: monday.com, Ryver, Fleep, Slenke, Flock, and Teamwork.

What Is Business Communication?

Business communication is a broadly applied term that can include interactive communication like messaging, emails, calls, and meetings as well as aspects of interdepartmental communication, client communication, and even customer management, marketing, and PR.

Why Is Communication Important In Business?

Communication is important in business because healthy relationships are the lifeblood of business—and relationships are built and maintained through communication. The importance of great communication in business can’t be understated!

 

Get started on improving your comms with these communication strategies.

What are 7 Benefits Of Communication Tools?

Benefits of online communication tools include:

  1. Organizes conversations
  2. Provides context for discussions
  3. Enables asynchronous communication and remote working
  4. Keeps you working in real-time
  5. Minimizes costly mistakes
  6. Enables better management
  7. Boosts accountability

You can find out more about these benefits of communication software below.

If you are in the project managing game, even for just a day, you know the important role that good communication plays within a team. Some of the more robust project management tools out there already include functionality for team communication, but here, we’re exploring the best-in-class tools that specialize in communication. Nowadays, being online and connected with every team member is not a luxury, but a standard—and a good one at that.

In the modern workplace of today, many communication apps are inexpensive (or free)—it’s a no-brainer for agencies, studios, and startups who need to coordinate effort on fast-paced projects performed by distributed teams. In fact, many young companies rely heavily on instant messaging communication apps until they’re ready to scale and upgrade to something more comprehensive.

Communication Tools Buyer's Guide

How do you pick the best communication tools for your team? Let’s talk about what to consider when choosing between communication tools.

What Do You Need Communication Software For?

Are you upgrading from an old communication system and need to import existing data, or are you starting fresh? Also, what are the needs of your team? Consider whether you’re looking at internal communication tools or need software that’s client-facing. If you communicate via video, then consider Slack, or popular Slack alternatives like Flock or Ryver.

What’s The Size Of Your Team?

Getting everyone to use the same app can be hard to do, especially when your team is large and diverse in terms of technical literacy, location, project, etc. Robust tools with different levels of user permissions and guest access, like Microsoft Teams, are a good fit for large, distributed teams.

How Would It Fit Into Your Workflow?

This is often a matter of integration. Make a list of the tools you use to get the projects done. If you already have a collection of time tracking apps, invoicing apps, and others, then consider Fleep or Zoho Cliq, which have a large library of pre-built integrations.  On the other hand, if your toolkit is minimal now but you can see your operations scaling, try out a solution like Slenke, which offers project management and task management features to help out as you scale. Make a list of your integration requirements, and check it twice—and it doesn’t hurt to ask your team members what they use in terms of additional software and what they prefer.

How Long To Set It Up?

Most communication tools are intuitive to use and set up as an online app. However, if you prefer to host on your own servers, that takes a bit more time. Rocket Chat has a professional team to assist you, and Slack is a popular choice with good support. Either way, it depends on data sensitivity and the amount of data traffic your team expects.

What’s The Learning Curve?

Whether you are getting a new communication system or upgrading from an old one, everyone involved needs to get accustomed to the changes. Change management is often made easier with simple-to-use interfaces. 

Teamwork Chat is an example of a visually simple, easy-to-learn tool. Keep in mind that your team isn’t the only one using it—you might have clients or people who are not part of your day-to-day processes needing access to video conferences; if this is the case, make sure there’s an intuitive client portal.

What’s The Cost?

What’s your budget for a communication tool? Investing in communication tools is a good idea, but remember that less is often more—the good news is that many communication tools have a “free forever” version with limited functionality. The free communication tools version may serve your team’s needs just fine, offering all the “must-haves” without being overly complicated with the “nice-to-haves”.

communication tools logos list

What's Next?

As you know, communication in project management does not stop at having a nice tool. Therefore, here is an article on how to build a project communication plan. You can also broaden that scope and check out what are the 9 project controls, besides a communication plan, that you can incorporate into your PM lifecycle to tame the chaos.

By Ben Aston

I’m Ben Aston, a digital project manager and founder of thedpm.com. I've been in the industry for more than 20 years working in the UK at London’s top digital agencies including Dare, Wunderman, Lowe and DDB. I’ve delivered everything from film to CMS', games to advertising and eCRM to eCommerce sites. I’ve been fortunate enough to work across a wide range of great clients; automotive brands including Land Rover, Volkswagen and Honda; Utility brands including BT, British Gas and Exxon, FMCG brands such as Unilever, and consumer electronics brands including Sony. I'm a Certified Scrum Master, PRINCE2 Practitioner and productivity nut!