You possibly can solely ship on a mission once you work collectively along with your workforce members. Sharing common updates and collaborating throughout completely different tasks make tasks succeed.
Nonetheless, engaged on a number of initiatives with none technique of on-line collaboration wears out particular person members and the workforce as an entire. It generally results in isolation, burnout, and single-minded selections. These deadly errors can tank all of your onerous work.
To stop a mission from crashing, you may swap to free mission collaboration software program as an alternative of conventional mission platforms. These collab instruments enable teams to work together, get updates, ask for assist, and spotlight duties on precedence to enhance motivation, operational effectivity, and productiveness.
At G2, we have now compiled a listing of the eight greatest free on-line collaboration instruments to eradicate mismanagement and hesitation so you may work extra confidently.
Greatest free on-line collaboration instruments in 2024
- Smartsheet
- monday Work Administration
- Trello
- Asana
- ClickUp
- Wrike
- Basecamp
- Runrun.it
These free on-line collaboration instruments create an open work atmosphere that’s conducive to staying on deadline to scale back delays.
How did we choose and consider the perfect free on-line collaboration instruments?
At G2, we rank software program options utilizing a proprietary algorithm that considers buyer satisfaction and market presence based mostly on genuine consumer opinions. Our market analysis analysts and writers spend weeks testing options towards a number of standards set for a software program class. We provide you with unbiased software program evaluations – that is the G2 distinction! We do not settle for fee or change hyperlinks for product placements on this checklist. Please learn our G2 Analysis Scoring Methodology for extra particulars.
8 greatest free on-line collaboration instruments in 2024
The checklist beneath incorporates real consumer opinions from our free mission collaboration class web page. Please be aware that within the context of this checklist, software program that requires fee after a free trial is taken into account free.
To be included on this class, software program should:
- Present options for chat, discussions, and inside or exterior communications
- Enable customers to share paperwork and content material, together with model management
- Handle personal and workforce calendars by division or on the firm degree
- Assist customers collaborate, remark, or share duties and mission particulars
- Outline customized workspaces and mission views for inside and exterior sharing
- Handle entry rights to paperwork, chat, calendars, and mission views
This information has been pulled from G2 in 2024. Some opinions have been edited for readability.
1. Smartsheet
Smartsheet tracks mission milestones, automates kinds, updates mission achievements, and creates dynamic spreadsheets for various mission briefs. It additionally consists of mission administration strategies just like the waterfall mannequin or Gantt charts to prioritize duties, assign devoted motion objects, and promote collaboration and sync-ups.
Smarsheet follows a work breakdown construction (WBS) that takes the type of a pyramid to symbolize completely different phases inside a mission cycle; it may be custom-made and re-arranged by mission homeowners.
Execs of Smartsheet |
Cons of Smartsheet |
Person-friendly and correct mission audit administration |
Not an effective way to enter and retailer long-form writing |
Straightforward integration of job filters |
Subpar print, save, and PDF features |
Position-based entry for mission members |
Incapacity to type information by row or column |
What customers like greatest:
“I have been utilizing Smartsheet for fairly a while now, and total, it has been an amazing instrument for managing large-scale tasks and conserving issues organized. One of many issues I actually like is how customizable it’s. I can create dashboards, automate workflows, and observe progress in real-time, which makes it a lot simpler to remain on prime of duties and deadlines. It’s like a robust spreadsheet however with a lot extra performance, which has been an enormous plus for our workforce’s collaboration.”
– Smartsheet Overview, Valeria Mazo T.
What customers dislike:
“What’s difficult about Smartsheet is that whereas there’s a ton of functionality with the software program, studying methods to use it may be overwhelming. The sheer variety of coaching movies accessible is a deterrent as you attempt to discover what you’re searching for and attempting to be taught.”
– Smartsheet Overview, Scott H.
2. monday Work Administration
monday Work Administration provides a complete work administration and worker operations system that lets staff handle their day by day work agendas. With on the spot chat, e-mail escalation, type builders, rewards, and suggestions for appreciation instantly on the platform, monday.com’s built-in platform provides you the facility to raised handle department-wise tasks together with HR and payroll operations.
Execs of monday Work Administration |
Cons of monday Work Administration |
Adaptive information visualization options and customized reviews. |
Weak integration with reporting dashboards |
Challenge monitoring and job deadline setup |
Incapacity to change current subtasks |
Responsive and pleasant customer support |
Complicated dashboard automation |
What customers like greatest:
“We have now flexibility in tailoring dashboards to show tasks categorized by elements like campaigns, upcoming occasions, and so forth. Every mission comes with sections for milestones, dates, and managers. Moreover, each mission has its distinctive e-mail hyperlink, permitting us to maintain all communications seen in a single place on the respective dashboard. This eliminates the effort of switching between Outlook or different e-mail companies.”
– monday Work Administration Overview, Rubi R.
What customers dislike:
“Since including a number of dashboards to a selected folder can’t be automated, we should decide so as to add them to the final part, which makes setup a problem when managing a number of tasks without delay.”
– monday Work Administration Overview, Irfan Okay.
3. Trello
Trello customizes mission phases, units mission progress charts, and automates repetitive written duties for inside and exterior groups. With Trello, mission groups can align and work collectively in an built-in software. Trello additionally provides customized Gantt chart integration to set priorities, schedule opinions, and assign leads on explicit workflows.
Trello does not require any coding help and its tutorials for rookies give nice directions.
Execs of Trello |
Cons of Trello |
Shared communication and information visualization |
Incapacity to create superior flowcharts |
Gantt chart and WBS integration |
Weak card creation |
Personalised mission profiles |
Unauthorized and undefined updates |
What customers like greatest:
“Trello is good for job administration and monitoring mission progress. I take advantage of it to maintain observe of to-do lists, passwords and usernames, and different essential personal info comparable to entry codes. It encompasses a free model, often enough for the preliminary phases. It’s easy to make use of and integrates with different third-party functions. It’s best for mission administration and progress monitoring, significantly with distant groups.”
– Trello Overview, Promod B.
What customers dislike:
“Looking for playing cards or particular duties has all the time been an issue, and the price of the Trello service varies enormously relying on the variety of individuals on the workforce. Technical assist solves issues, however I’ve needed to wait a very long time for his or her solutions on a number of events.”
– Trello Overview, Hilary C.
4. Asana
Asana comes with job creation, mission filtering, milestone settings, overview and commenting for duties, and calendar assist so groups can keep transparency and suppleness for his or her tasks. Its numerous filters and customizations allow you to set customized job standards and predict mission closeouts. Additional, the quite a few graphic design choices can creatively elucidate and symbolize your lively duties and subtasks.
Asana additionally offers sturdy safety and authentication options. It indicators you out after seven days to substantiate your consumer identification.
Execs of Asana |
Cons of Asana |
Easy job monitoring and delegation |
Weak customer support and implementation assist |
Centralized mission administration options and automatic task-shifting |
Fewer options and companies with free plan |
Challenge price range monitoring and spending allocation |
Overwhelming information organizing and sorting |
What customers like greatest:
“Asana is great for managing a mission involving a number of employees. It will increase the workforce’s visibility by displaying updates and dealing on a single thread. Asana is great for easy mission administration. Some superior mission administration functions, like Gantt charts, want paid subscriptions. Nonetheless, Asana excels at establishing and conserving categorized job lists and allocating duties to particular people.”
– Asana Overview, Singhal S.
What customers dislike:
“I would love private help in establishing – and if not, possibly some questions in regards to the consumer after they start asking about what sorts of tasks they’re doing and what their targets are after which make some strategies about the place to start within the video and tutorial coaching.”
– Asana Overview, Elizabeth T.
5. ClickUp
ClickUp allows ticket creation, mission scheduling, agenda sorting, and job administration to your groups on a day-to-day foundation. It dynamically lists mission govt availability for managers and skip-level managers in order that they will plan the subsequent steps based mostly on the power and bandwidth of staff. You possibly can depend on it to arrange, type, and schedule mission submissions based mostly on issue degree and workforce dimension.
Its unified platform provides a 360° view of your current, authorised, and pipeline tasks and encourages you to take productive motion. It additionally provides safety and cloud storage options for elevated compatibility.
Execs of ClickUp |
Cons of ClickUp |
Customizable mission dashboards |
Slower loading on internet browser |
Complete human useful resource administration and buyer relationship administration (CRM) integrations |
No notification configuration templates |
Intuitive, color-based consumer interface |
Weak integration with Microsoft Suite merchandise |
What customers like greatest:
“I beloved the completely different customization choices you’ve gotten. I appreciated that they’d all the things arrange after I began working at my firm so I might begin working instantly. I had no expertise with CRM or mission administration software program, however I acquired the hold of it shortly.”
– ClickUp Overview, Gabriel R.
What customers dislike:
“The draw back to Clickup is the shortage of advanced customized calculations. Clickup might degree up if it might construct Excel performance into their customized columns. The dashboards can be significantly better, and the way a lot might be executed to create a listing would improve considerably.”
– ClickUp Overview, Aaron F.
6. Wrike
Wrike’s provides options like workforce collaboration, mission monitoring, and mission automation to gauge progress and timeline of your tasks. It additionally updates you with real-time push notifications and emails about delays and modifications. This retains everybody within the loop so that you end as near on time as potential.
You need to use Wrike to construct customizable dashboards for choose mission groups and keep clear communication at each new stage of the mission doc.
Execs of Wrike |
Cons of Wrike |
Straightforward workforce setup and navigation |
Wants higher e-mail notifications |
Management over incoming tasks |
Greater coaching curve for mission groups |
Strong workflow automation |
Weak reporting analytics |
What customers like greatest:
“Wrike is a instrument that means that you can fulfill most enterprise wants in a single place. This program retains your house organized, let’s you create workflows, request kinds, and bridge the communication hole. It reduces the e-mail load, assigns associated duties and deadlines, and helps create a pathway to assembly the companies wants. Wrike has grow to be important in my day and retains me organized and on prime of my duties. I talk with my workforce, get approvals, suggestions, and work on tasks. It was straightforward to implement into the enterprise, I can seek for assist and anwers on their web site, and it built-in effectively with my e-mail. It has been a life changer!”
– Wrike Overview, Paige T.
What customers dislike:
“I’d say that it will be good if it had a decrease threshold for customers to get to understand it, because it appears persons are a bit petrified of approaching potentialities. The filter features additionally might use a rework.”
– Wrike Overview, Thomas Received N.
7. Basecamp
Basecamp offers multimedia messaging, tracks mission workflows, and informs groups about new modifications. Customers can construct their day by day agendas and to-do lists on this platform. It additionally unifies mission job submissions, peer communication, and mission cycle synchronization for a number of departmental workflows.
Basecamp’s suite of productiveness instruments, together with chat, e-mail, and messaging, assist you preserve tabs on updates made to the mission. It additionally permits workforce members to work together peacefully.
Execs of Basecamp |
Cons of Basecamp |
Challenge simplifications with to-do lists |
Restricted options with paid model |
Skill to retailer belongings like pictures and movies |
Delayed response from buyer assist |
Customizable mission templates |
Weak setup for big, advanced tasks |
What customers like greatest:
“Basecamp has been nice for me. The most effective half is that it is an all-in-one. I’ve all the things from assigned duties to messages and calendars at my fingertips. Due to its mission administration instruments, I really like how organized I could be. The convenience of file sharing and contextualized discussions has enormously improved workforce collaboration.”
– Basecamp Overview, Gustavo C.
What customers dislike:
“Whereas I discover this system intuitive total, I feel new customers might discover it obscure at first. I might additionally prefer to see the cellular app’s restrictions up to date to match these of the desktop model.”
– Basecamp Overview, Virginia M.
8. Runrun.it
Runrun.it provides a collection of mission integration and monitoring instruments to forecast budgets, useful resource prices, mission progress, mission supply, and workforce bandwidth. It additionally empowers groups to automate job administration and construct dependable mission workflows.
It additionally integrates with on the spot messaging apps like Gmail, Microsoft Groups, and Slack for improved teamwork.
Execs of Runrun.it |
Cons of Runrun.it |
Agile mission collaboration and monitoring |
No direct e-mail integration on mission updates |
Auto-allocation of price range to purchasers, prospects, and tasks |
Extra personalization for automations is required |
Straightforward to combine kinds |
Inconsistent software program upkeep |
What customers like greatest:
“We’re a part of the innovation workforce, and our supervisor suggested us to make use of RunRun.it steadily for inside processes. This helped and considerably improved the demand for assist and satisfaction in mission supply and its phases. I like to recommend RunRun to anybody who wishes it, not just for its simplicity but in addition for its interface and usefulness. Moreover, it was additionally straightforward to implement in our day by day procedures. RunRun is straightforward to combine, and we have now used it in numerous tasks, together with kinds.”
– Runrun.it Overview, Khristtony R.
What customers dislike:
“There isn’t any regional pricing. Some usability might be extra seen or accessible, and checklists might be extra useful.”
– Runrun.it Overview, Jean Adriel S.
Greatest free on-line collaboration instruments comparability
Earlier than rolling out your subsequent mission to your groups, introduce an ideal mission collaboration answer for a neater different to mission administration.
Here’s a abstract of all of the parameters for software program suppliers that we mentioned on this listicle.
Software program |
G2 Score |
Free plan |
Paid plan |
Smartsheet |
4.4/5 |
Free trial |
Begins at $9 per thirty days |
monday Work Administration |
4.7/5 |
Free plan |
Begins at $9 per seat per thirty days |
Trello |
4.4/5 |
Free plan |
Begins at $5 per thirty days |
Asana |
4.4/5 |
Free plan |
Begins at $10.99 per thirty days |
ClickUp |
4.4/5 |
Free plan |
Begins at $7 per thirty days |
Wrike |
4.2/5 |
Free plan |
Begins at $9.80 per thirty days |
Basecamp |
4.1/5 |
Free trial |
Begins at $15 per consumer per thirty days |
Runrun.it |
4.7/5 |
Free plan |
Begins at $8 per consumer per thirty days |
Free on-line collaboration software program: steadily requested questions (FAQs)
What are the highest on-line collaboration instruments on G2?
The highest on-line collaboration platforms on G2 are monday Work Administration, Smartsheet, Asana, ClickUp, and Trello.
Does a free on-line collaboration instrument combine with doc creation software program?
Sure, with instruments like Google Drive and Dropbox. Customers can allow doc permissions and hyperlink them on to the mission administration platform to simplify accessibility and approvals.
Can I combine a free on-line collaboration instrument with current CRM or ERP programs?
Sure, you may. Free on-line collaboration instruments could be built-in with business-specific CRM or enterprise useful resource planning (ERP) software program to optimize departmental productiveness and improve workforce visibility. By having centralized collaboration options like Kanban boards or Gantt charts on the primary platform, every workforce understands everybody’s work agendas and may contribute extra. Groups may video name and talk about new concepts.
Are free on-line collaboration instruments secure to make use of?
Sure. Most on-line collaboration platforms are safe as they observe regulatory compliance pointers to guard consumer safety and information. These instruments have a number of authorized certifications and won’t contradict firm coverage.
You+me = mission BFFs
Introducing new software program to revamp mission workflows can enhance your work atmosphere and improve workforce acceptance. It empowers everybody to construct on their information whereas incorporating everybody else’s expertise and expertise. Collab instruments are enjoyable, well-defined, and versatile, which makes them an ideal match for any type of enterprise. We hope that this checklist of free on-line collaboration instruments helps you make an knowledgeable determination!
Find out about greatest mission administration methodologies to expedite your mission planning and grow to be extra organized with work.