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The Top 15 Remote Work Software and Apps to Watch in 2021

· 8 min read
Sana Naz
A business management academic with corporate sector experience. Sana has been writing for over six years now and she is a keen blogger.

In the past, the rate of remote working adoption has consistently been high; however, it jumped to its peak during the Covid-19 pandemic. Millions of people shifted to this new working model while businesses struggled to keep pace with the new challenges by addressing the associated challenges. Fortunately, the path becomes easier for both remote workers and employers with the remote work software and apps. The article highlights what these software and apps are all about, why your remote work teams need the same, and the top 15 remote work software or tools that you should consider in 2021.

About Remote Work Software?

Remote work software is a team management tool that helps employers keep their remote employees working collaboratively. All the features of a physical workplace are provided to the employees in an online environment. Remote teams can easily do their tasks through features like messaging, chat, team collaboration, video conferencing, employee tracking, etc. It directs them in the right direction as a team.

The Top 15 Remote Work Software & Apps

1. Clockbook for Employee Productivity Tracking

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Clockbook serves as a perfect time tracker and workforce productivity tool used by both small and big businesses. The key features include tim.tracking and integrations with mainstream management software such as Trello.

Key Features

  • Time tracking through detailed reports like Activity Summary Report, Attendance Report, Project and Tasks Report, Web and App Usage Report, Custom export, and Productivity Report
  • Productivity ratings like Productive, Unproductive, Unrated, Neutral
  • Optional screencasts to let you know what remote employees do on their computers. Offline time tracking.
  • Simple user-interface and employee-friendly settings
  • Project assignment
  • Employees’ idle time tracking
  • No keystroke logging to save employee privacy
  • Strict privacy and data security policies.
  • Powerful Chrome extension
  • Payroll feature to make payments directly through PayPal, Gusto, Wise, etc.
  • 24/7 monitoring from productivity from anywhere using an app

Pricing

You can use Clockbook’s free trial (no credit card required) for its basic and premium plans, while their paid version starts from $3.99 and $5.99 per user per month respectively. The Enterprise plan starts from only $11.99 per user per month.

2. Slack

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Slack is a remote work software that enables real-time communication between teams. Users can send direct messages individually or in channels containing team members.

Key Features

  • Collaboration between clients and freelancers
  • Built-in Slack calls.
  • Integrate with other platforms like Clockbook, Trello, and Github.

Pricing

The paid version starts at $8/user per month.

3. Zoom

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It is the most popular video conferencing through which businesses can host webinars as well as team meetings. It has robust audio, video, and collaboration features, and connects remote teams for face-to-face interaction.

Key Features

  • One-on-one video calls and host meetings for up to 100 participants (in free version)
  • Breakout Rooms feature makes a virtual conference room
  • Record meetings
  • Screen sharing feature to demonstrate practical workflows and procedures

Pricing

The paid version starts at $149.90 per license.

4. Asana

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It is a project management tool that lets you create and assign project tasks and projects to a remote team. Its automation abilities streamline workflows.

Key Features

  • Task delegation to remote team members
  • Kanban-style boards to see projects’ statuses.
  • Live chats to organize conversations.
  • Make teams and projects private as per settings you define

Pricing

  • Paid plan starts from $13.49/user per month.

5. Google Drive

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Google Drive is a cloud storage and collaboration tool, with Google Docs as comprehensive writing software and Google Sheets to organize data online. You can save and share files in any format and access them from any device.

Key Features

  • photos, videos, documents can be saved
  • Categorization of files into folders and sorting files
  • File sharing and collaboration
  • Collaborate in Microsoft Office files

Pricing

It gives 15GB of free storage. In addition, you can buy.

6. Evernote

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It is a note-taking and knowledge base app through which users can share, edit, access, and upload their notes from any device or browser. It’s a great tool for quick to-do lists.

Key Features

  • syncing across multiple devices
  • Access to notes even being offline.
  • Pin notes to keep a reminder for important points
  • Integrates with Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, and Salesforce.

Pricing

Pricing starts at $14.99/user per month.

7. Calendly

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It is a calendar and scheduling app, with a 'team view' page best for remote teams. The team’s calendar schedules the time that is suitable for all.

Key Features

  • Connect with six of your calendars for automatic availability checking.
  • Confirmation and reminders for emails and texts.
  • Cap the meetings on the calendar each day.
  • Schedule appointments for customers directly from your website.

Pricing

Pricing starts at $8/user per month.

8. Krisp

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It is a noise-canceling app that enhances the quality of a virtual call by reducing noise.

Key Features

  • No need to mute on calls as this app removes all noise and echoes in the background
  • Integrates with communication apps like Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
  • Supports microphones, headphones, and speakers.
  • Offers HD voice quality.

Pricing

Pricing starts at $8/user per month.

9. Loom

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It is a simple screencasting app that records your screen and shares it with your co-workers.

Key Features

  • Take screencasts, record voice, and display face
  • Send quick videos
  • Apps for Windows, Mac, and iOS platforms.
  • Chrome extension

Pricing

Pricing starts at $10/user per month.

10. Donut

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Donut lets your virtual team members know each other and enhances employee engagement. You just make a Slack channel and get Donut to invite people.

Key Features

  • Make virtual informal meetups for your remote employees
  • Offers cross-department get-togethers virtually
  • Connects teams for a mentorship program, job-shadowing sessions, etc.

Pricing

Pricing starts at $59/month for 1-24 users.

11. Teamflow

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It is a virtual office for teams to come together.

Key Features

  • Remote team members watch their video in a bubble on a virtual workspace floor plan.
  • You can move the ‘character’ around the virtual office
  • You can hear people around their virtual bubble.
  • Screen-sharing
  • Whiteboard
  • Office scratchpads

Pricing

Pricing starts at $20/user per month.

12. Docusign

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This tool is great for signing documents virtually and thus helps to print and manually scan paperwork.

Key Features

  • Sign documents securely with manifold layers of built-in security and authentication.
  • Supports all file formats
  • PDF conversion before sending.
  • Document retrieval from cloud storage services, including Google Drive, Microsoft Office 365, Dropbox, Evernote, etc.

Pricing

Pricing starts at $15/user per month.

13. Brain.fm

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Brain.fm plays music in the background to keep employees from tasks or relax by positively enhancing the brain.

Key Features

  • Purpose-driven music sessions from 30 minutes to 2+ hours.
  • Background music for relaxation or falling asleep.
  • Compatible with Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, as well as iOS and Android

Pricing

Pricing starts at $6.99/user per month.

14. World Time Buddy

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It is a world clock app, time converter, and online meeting scheduling app.

Key Features

  • Visual time conversion and scheduling.
  • Integrate with Google calendar
  • Create an event page to share with teams
  • Supports DST (Daylight Savings Time.)

Pricing

Pricing starts at $2.99/month for 20 locations.

15. Lastpass

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Lastpass saves teams’ passwords in a virtual vault, so there is no need to remember. Key Features

  • Store & access all your passwords from your vault from any device
  • Easy access to LastPass vault with a single click
  • Add and manage all your passwords in the password vault
  • Multi-Factor authentication

Pricing

Pricing starts at $3/user per month when billed yearly.

Why Using Remote Work Software? It gives your remote teams a lot of benefits like:

  • Better communication
  • Office-like environment
  • Attendance and productivity management
  • Work-life balance

Final Thoughts

Here is a quick review of all the top remote work software we presented.

  • employee productivity: Time Doctor
  • instant messaging platform: Slack
  • video conferencing: Zoom
  • task management: Asana
  • Cloud document storing and collaboration: Google Drive
  • note-taking: Evernote
  • scheduling appointments: Calendly
  • background noises: Krisp
  • record and share video walkthroughs: Loom
  • team bonding: Donut
  • a virtual office: Teamflow
  • Sign documents digitally: DocuSign
  • boost focus: Brain.fm
  • time conversion: World Time Buddy
  • password management:LastPass