15 Best Remote Work Tools & Software for Maximum Productivity 2024

In the wake of the pandemic, our work lives have undergone a cosmic shift. The once-familiar office cubicles have transformed into virtual spaces, where coffee breaks are now Zoom chats and water cooler gossip echoes through Slack channels. In the era of remote work, instead of having to dress neatly and prepare for work, remote employees can now just turn on their computers and work from anywhere.

But here is the biggest change: remote work tools. They’re the trusty sidekicks that keep our remote team productivity engines humming, our sanity intact, and our team spirit alive. From communication, and online meetings to data exchange - everything related to remote teams becomes easier with the support of tools and platforms. In this article, we will explore the best remote work tools that are used and popular at work.

What Are Remote Work Tools?

Just imagine: You're sipping your morning brew, laptop perched on your kitchen table, and the world awaits your genius. But wait, how do you seamlessly collaborate with your team on team communication? How do you track projects, brainstorm ideas, and high-five your colleagues (virtually, of course) with other team members?

Remote work tools were created to help you make those things happen! Imagine them as your virtual toolbox, filled with everything you need to stay connected, organized, and efficient while working remotely. These tools can:

• Streamline your workflow: From project management platforms to task management apps, these tools help you manage repetitive tasks, stay organized, prioritize tasks, and meet deadlines with ease.
• Boost collaboration: Gone are the days of relying solely on email. Communication tools like instant messaging and video conferencing allow you to stay connected, share ideas, and brainstorm in real time with your team, regardless of location—perfect for remote collaboration with remote workers.
• Enhance productivity: File sharing and cloud storage solutions ensure everyone has access to the latest documents and information, while time tracking and productivity tools help you stay focused and efficient. Additionally, to-do list tools can help organize tasks to be completed on your own time.
• Increase overall business productivity: Remote work tools go beyond individual productivity. They can help companies improve communication, streamline operations, and attract top talent in a global marketplace.

Top 16 Best Remote Work Tools & Software in 2024

Slack: Your Communication Command Center

Are you looking for a tool to effectively engage your remote employees? Slack can be an ideal option—a communication platform designed specifically for the fast-paced world of remote work. Slack doesn't just replace emails; it becomes your central hub, fostering focused communication and information sharing.

With Slack, instant messaging allows for private discussions without derailing the flow of a channel when you need a quick answer or want to bounce ideas off a colleague. Besides, past conversations, decisions, and files are all easily retrieved, keeping your remote team on the same page and eliminating the need for repetitive questions. Slack empowers your remote team to stay connected, engaged, and informed—all within a desktop app environment that feels anything but distant.

Google Drive: Your Cloud-Based Collaboration Hub

In the age of remote work, cloud storage solutions like Google Drive are a game-changer. Imagine uploading documents, spreadsheets, and presentations directly to Google Drive; this user-friendly tool helps empower your team by making them instantly accessible to everyone.

Gone are the days of version control headaches—with Google Drive, multiple team members can edit documents simultaneously, with changes reflected in real-time for all collaborators. This transparency ensures everyone stays on the same page, eliminating confusion and wasted time spent searching for the latest version.

Plus, Google Drive doesn't chain you to your desk. Work on documents offline, and changes will sync automatically once you're back online. With ample storage space, Google Drive ensures that your team can access files whenever they need, boosting productivity and flexibility.

Seamless integration with other Google Workspace tools like Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides makes Google Drive the heart of your collaborative ecosystem. Your team can share files, create, and edit essential documents. By simplifying document sharing across virtual teams without the need for third-party tools, Google Drive is an essential asset for modern businesses.

Dialpad: Your Communication Hub, Simplified

Imagine a place where your phone calls, video conferences, text messages, and even faxes all reside in one convenient location, accessible from any device - That's what Dialpad can bring to your team meetings. With Dialpad, your communication hub travels with you, empowering you to stay connected, maintain a professional presence, and collaborate effectively, regardless of your location.

Think about it this way: instead of searching for contact information across different platforms, initiating a call or sending a message through Dialpad takes just a few clicks. This efficiency translates to more time spent focusing on tasks and fostering stronger team collaboration. Dialpad further empowers collaboration by offering features like call recording, transcription, and voicemail transcription. These features promote transparency and keep everyone on the same page, even when working with remote teams.

Zoom: Bridging the Distance with Face-to-Face Connection

Nowadays, everyone is very familiar with Zoom as people use this application for most online meetings to make it easier to discuss and connect with people. This tool helps remote teams more easily present and share with each other at work through online meetings, both inside and outside the organization. Whether you're brainstorming ideas with a global team, conducting a client presentation, screen sharing or simply catching up with colleagues, Zoom provides a platform for real-time interaction that's as close to the same room as possible.

Zoom offers a variety of plans and features, including advanced features like breakout rooms, to suit different team sizes and needs, making it a versatile tool for businesses of all shapes and sizes. With its free basic plan, it ensures that video conferencing apps are accessible to everyone. Besides, mobile and web app options on communication platforms ensure that everyone can participate in meetings, regardless of their device or location.

TeamViewer: Easily Access to Your Computer from Any Device

What do you do if you're working remotely and need to access an important file or application on your office computer? Don’t worry, TeamViewer can help. With only a few clicks, TeamViewer enables you to securely connect to your computer from any device, anywhere in the world, facilitating remote work success through essential remote work tools.

Regardless of your location, TeamViewer can instantly access your desktop, files, and applications on your work computer. This digital tool can help your remote team share your screen, co-edit documents, and foster seamless collaboration at work. Furthermore, the TeamViewer tool works across various devices, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and even mobile phones, ensuring accessibility and flexibility for your remote team.

Microsoft Teams: Your All-in-One Collaboration Hub

As a freelancer or project manager, you know the struggle of juggling multiple tools for different tasks. Microsoft Teams eliminates this need by becoming your central hub for all things collaboration. With Teams, your remote team members don't need to switch between separate apps for chat, video conferencing, file sharing, or task management while working. This streamlined approach not only saves time and reduces app fatigue but also fosters a cohesive work environment for your remote team.

Think about it this way: you need to brainstorm ideas with your team, initiate a video call within Teams, share your screen to showcase visual aids, and even collaborate on documents in real-time – all within the same platform. This level of integration eliminates the need to switch between other apps, keeping your team focused and efficient. It is a useful remote working application that meets most work tasks for your team meetings.

Todoist: Improve Work Efficiency At Your Fingertips

If you are a freelancer or organizer of a remote work team, staying organized and on top of your workload is crucial. Todoist empowers you to do just that, transforming your to-do lists into a streamlined system for success.

The key to Todoist's effectiveness lies in its customizability. Todoist allows you to tailor your workflow to your specific needs: create color-coded projects, set recurring tasks, and break down large goals into smaller, manageable steps. With due dates, priority levels, and labels, you can personalize your to-do list to reflect your unique working style and priorities.

Besides, seamless integration with third-party apps and across devices ensures you always have your to-do list at hand, whether you're working from your laptop, checking your phone on the go, or even using the handy watch app. The easy-to-use interface and robust project management tools make it one of the best remote working tools you can use, all accessible directly from its web page.

Teamwork: Your Project Management Playground

For remote projects, Teamwork offers a comprehensive project management software platform designed to streamline your workflow and keep your projects running smoothly. With all its features, Teamwork is a single platform where you can create and manage projects, assign tasks to team members, track progress, and collaborate seamlessly.

Besides, Teamwork allows you to create task lists, set deadlines, and assign them to specific team members. With real-time progress updates, file-sharing capabilities, and built-in communication features, everyone stays informed and on the same page, fostering a collaborative and efficient work environment for remote workers. More importantly, it helps visualize your project management workflow, track progress through different stages, and identify potential bottlenecks—all within a user-friendly interface.

Time Doctor: Transparency of Timekeeping

To remote working, how do you manage whether each employee on your team is working effectively or not? Tracking your time accurately when working remotely is crucial for both productivity and transparency. Therefore, Time Doctor, a time management software, offers a suite of features designed to help you stay focused and accountable, especially useful for remote workers.

Time Doctor fosters transparency and trust within your remote team. The tool automatically tracks your time spent on different applications and websites, providing detailed reports that shed light on your productivity patterns. This data-driven approach empowers you to identify areas for improvement, optimize your workflow, and ensure accurate billing for your freelance projects.

HubSpot Meetings: Scheduling Simplified

HubSpot Meetings shines with its effortless software tools for scheduling. With HubSpot Meetings, you can create personalized scheduling links directly from your calendar, allowing potential clients or colleagues to choose a time that works best for them from your available slots. This eliminates the need for lengthy email exchanges and saves everyone valuable time.

HubSpot Meetings goes beyond just scheduling; it also integrates seamlessly as a remote work software with your existing workflow. The tool syncs with your calendar, ensuring your availability is always up-to-date and preventing double bookings. Additionally, it allows you to collect contact information directly through the scheduling link, streamlining your lead-generation efforts. It also features automation features for virtual meetings, enhancing efficiency and connectivity in remote interactions.

Toggl Track: Save More Time, Work More Effective

If you feel like time is passing by and don’t know how many hours your team spends on solving tasks - time tracking with Toggl Track is highly preferable for your team. The tool has many features that are designed to help you understand your time usage, optimize your team workflow, and ultimately become a master of your remote work tool hours.

Furthermore, Toggl Track can be integrated seamlessly with various project management software and communication tools your organization might already use. With this advantage, the streamlined workflow helps your team eliminate the need for juggling other tools and ensures all your time-tracking data is centralized and easily accessible.  

World Time Buddy: Bridging the Time Zone Gap with a Glance

You are a global worker and often work remotely with teams in many countries across different time zones - World Time Buddy can accompany you. This clever remote work software goes beyond a simple world clock, offering a suite of digital tools designed to streamline communication and scheduling in a geographically diverse team.

World Time Buddy presents a user-friendly interface displaying multiple time zones simultaneously. Simply hover over a specific location to see the current time, eliminating the need for complex conversions or constant reference checks. It also empowers seamless scheduling where you can highlight your available time slots, and the tool will automatically showcase the corresponding times in each team member's location.

Clockify: Your Time Management Assistant

With Clockify, you can track your time with just a few clicks, whether you're working on a freelance project or managing a team's workload. Clockify empowers you to understand where your time truly goes. With its intuitive interface, you can categorize your work by project, client, or task, gaining valuable insights into your productivity patterns. It helps you identify areas for improvement, allowing you to become more efficient and focused in your remote work endeavors.

For remote teams, if you are a project manager you can leverage its features to manage your team's time effectively. Assign tasks, track their progress, and ensure everyone stays on track with deadlines. This transparency fosters accountability and empowers your remote team to work cohesively toward achieving shared goals.

Kickidler: Empowering Transparency and Productivity in Your Remote Team

Kickidler is designed to help you on managing your remote team's work activities and foster a collaborative work environment. The tool offers features like screen recording, website and application monitoring so that you can see your team's work activities, ensuring everyone stays focused and accountable. With the data retrieved from Kickidler, project managers can identify potential bottlenecks in workflows, providing constructive feedback, and ensuring everyone is contributing effectively. 

It also emphasizes transparency and open communication. By leveraging features like time-tracking reports and project activity logs, both team members and managers gain valuable insights into individual and team performance. By the way, it's important to remember that ethical considerations are paramount when using monitoring tools. Open communication with your team about the purpose and limitations of using Kickidler is crucial.

Scribe: Saving You Time and Effort

With intelligent automation, Scribe can accompany you to increase work’s productivity. Imagine attending a meeting where you can focus on the discussion instead of frantically scribbling notes. Scribe uses advanced speech recognition and AI to transcribe conversations in real-time, capturing key points, speaker identification, and even action items. This allows you to actively participate in the meeting, knowing that Scribe has your back, and take care of your documentation work.

But Scribe doesn't stop at just transcribing. It also boasts powerful search and organization features. Scribe allows you to search by keywords, speaker, or even sentiment, helping you find specific information quickly and effortlessly. Additionally, you can organize your notes with tags and folders, ensuring everything stays neatly categorized and accessible.

Tips on How to Work More Effectively for Remote Teams

Since COVID-19, remote working has gradually become a popular form of working, sometimes people combine both remote and office work as a form of hybrid working. Working from home or anywhere else can offer many benefits, such as flexibility, autonomy, and cost savings. However, it also comes with some challenges, such as isolation, distraction, and communication issues. How can you make the most out of your remote work experience and stay productive, balanced, and happy? Here are some tips to help you work remotely more effectively, using the right remote work tools.

1) Establish a dedicated workspace 

Having a separate space for work can help you focus, avoid interruptions, and create a clear boundary between work and personal life. Ideally, you should have a comfortable desk, chair, and equipment that suits your needs and preferences, along with reliable internet access. If you don’t have a spare room or a separate area for work, you can use headphones, curtains, or partitions to create some privacy and separation.

2) Utilize collaboration tools for remote work

Working remotely doesn’t mean working alone. Throughout the work process, you still need to exchange, share, and collaborate with colleagues and stakeholders, both inside and outside the organization. Fortunately, there are many tools and apps that can help you do that effectively and efficiently. These tools can help you stay in touch, share information, and coordinate tasks with your team.

3) Communicate effectively

Communication is key to successful remote work. You need to communicate clearly, frequently, and respectfully with your team and others. You should also use the appropriate channels and modes of communication for different purposes and situations. Besides, pay attention to the tone, style, and etiquette of your communication, and avoid using jargon, slang, or sarcasm that might be misunderstood or misinterpreted.

4) Establish boundaries

One of the biggest challenges of remote work is finding a healthy work-life balance. When you work from home, it can be hard to switch off from work and relax, or to avoid interruptions and distractions from your family and friends. To balance, you can set a regular schedule and stick to it, inform your family and friends of your availability and expectations, and create some rituals or habits to mark the start and end of your workday.

5) Network and stay connected

Working remotely can sometimes make you feel isolated, lonely, or disconnected from your team, organization, and industry. To overcome this, you need to network and stay connected with your professional and personal contacts. Networking and staying connected can help you enhance your skills, knowledge, and opportunities, as well as your well-being, morale, and sense of belonging.

Conclusion

Remote work is not only a trend but also a skill that you can develop and improve over time. It requires not just adaptability and self-discipline but also the right remote working tools to make it effective and enjoyable. Ensuring a stable internet connection is fundamental, as it allows you to share files, handle sensitive information, and participate in virtual meetings without interruptions. Tools like Slack, an instant messaging platform, and Google Drive, offering free cloud storage, are essential for seamless communication and data management. Furthermore, applications such as Time Doctor provide time-tracking features that help manage work hours efficiently, ensuring productivity is kept at its peak.

In this article, we introduced some of the best remote work tools that can significantly enhance your remote work setup. Utilizing platforms like Zoom and Teamwork can transform the way you work, making tasks more manageable and communication more straightforward. By integrating these tools into your daily routine, you can ensure that your remote work experience is not only productive but also secure, as these tools often include advanced security measures to protect sensitive information.

If you enjoyed this article and are looking for more insights to refine your remote working capabilities, follow us for more career advice and job prospects. With Cake, you can explore new opportunities and avenues for both your career and personal growth. By staying informed and equipped with the right tools, you can navigate the challenges of remote work and thrive in this increasingly digital work environment.

— Originally Written by Andrea Do —