Best Project Collaboration Tools in 2024

Selecting suitable project collaboration tools for enterprises or SMBs can be a tricky task given the scores of platforms out there. To help you out, we have prepared this buyer’s guide which gives you tips on the list of important features of project collaboration tools and how to differentiate the best project collaboration tools from the ordinary ones.

Many project collaboration tools offer a free trial or demo to help users test drive their app’s features free of cost and do a general comparison of different tools. The free trial period gives you ample time to understand how a particular software can boost your business’s online productivity and growth. We recommend you start by shortlisting and registering for the free trials of the following apps which have received high SmartScore rankings and Customer Satisfaction ratings to choose the best project collaboration tools for your company: Projectplace reviews, Nutcache, eXo Platform, Mavenlink, Workfront, Samepage, and Slack.

• Startups and small businesses can use project collaboration tools to share and collaborate on information.
• Growing organizations and mid-sized companies can utilize the software for team communication and collaboration.
• Large enterprises and multinational companies can make use of the software to manage multiple projects simultaneously.

• Trello: As a collaboration tool, Trello helps members to discuss projects in real-time.
• eXo Platform: eXo Platform is a top-rated, open source social networking solution for small business and large organizations that is also designed as an intelligent collaboration tool.
• Nutcache: Nutcache puts efficiency in your quote to collection process, from estimates to getting paid.
• Mavenlink: Mavenlink offers a simple, intuitive platform to manage all project and team activities.
• Samepage: Samepage is a single platform that helps team collaboration through functionalities, such as scheduling, task lists, conversations, and instant messages.

There are three main types of project collaboration tools:

• Communication apps – These platforms include chat and instant messaging features.
• Conferencing apps – Groupware tools enable real-time collaboration of project members who can make use of a unified view screen. One presenter can control the view screen, and other members can offer their inputs by chatting or talking.
• Coordination apps – This is a recent collaboration software type that has high growth potential. Coordination software applications help you handle complex interdependent tasks with a common aim.

The following core features are part of a good project collaboration tool:

• Real-time collaboration (stream, forums, chat) – You can communicate with your team members in real-time
• Team collaboration (wiki, meetings, calendar) – These features facilitate easy collaboration for project success
• Group calendar – Helps you keep track of deadlines and appointments
• Email/document sharing – You can easily share emails, files, and documents with others

Our project collaboration tools reviews show this type of product offers the following benefits:

• Minimizes email clutter by moving all your project-related communication to a central place.
• You can maintain a historic information footprint of all details that have taken place in all client projects.
• The software can generate insightful reports that allow you to view project scorecards, timelines, time spent on projects, workload, and project activity.
• You can delegate and track tasks easily
• Makes communication simple and enables you to track multiple projects and employees in one place
• Top project collaboration apps allow you to customize them with your company colors and logo.

The following trends are guiding the ongoing growth of project collaboration tools:

• Better collaboration through mobile/BYOD: Mobile devices are becoming more popular than desktop units for internet access and browsing email. This makes it essential for project collaboration tools vendors to recognize the trend and invest in mobile apps to enable users to work from anywhere, anytime.
• Need for systems that work together: There is an increasing demand for systems that integrate easily with other products. End users should be able customize these integrations for their needs. Smooth integration with popular business systems and applications enhances the capabilities of the project collaboration tools and boosts company productivity.
• Growing importance of social collaboration tools: Social networking solutions are overshadowing email as the main channel for collaboration and communication. Top companies are recognizing this trend and are making use of internal or cloud-based social collaboration apps. Social collaboration software apps are a more effective platform for project collaboration and management compared to email, which has many drawbacks.
• Community forums are becoming popular: Many companies are providing self-help resources, such as a community knowledge base. These firms are encouraging customer evangelists and super users to take the initiative and help other users in forums. Wikis and forums are becoming important as they provide useful information to customers that is offered by fellow users.
• Collaboration with the help of AI: Artificial intelligence is now being used not just in predictive and analytic software but also in project collaboration tools. Their use is mainly to facilitate communication between members. Plus, they can also assist teams in streamlining task management.

A couple of potential issues have been noted while adopting project collaboration tools:

• Lack of context – To solve this issue, project collaboration tools vendors should focus on providing features that provide context to discussions. This will help employees learn how their responsibilities and actions fit in with the goals of the organization. Plus, it will also boost transparency as everyone in the company would be able to view the discussions across functional groups and departments.
• Linear discussion feeds – This is another drawback as well-devised plans are seldom linear. Users should be able to see how a specific conclusion is drawn, evaluate its success, and view all this in the context of other company objectives.

We hope this article has thoroughly informed you about the advantages and minus points of project collaboration tools. Define your business needs clearly, do educated comparisons, and then go about shortlisting suitable apps that have the potential to boost your company’s efficiency and bottom line.

Project collaboration tools are usually priced per month. It can either be for a fixed set of users or per user. Most vendors also have three tiers–even if you start with the most basic package, you can still upgrade when you need to or when you are ready.

Though the common pricing of project collaboration tools is monthly, vendors also offer annual options. And often, users or teams that sign up for a yearly payment receive reductions in cost.

Most project collaboration tools are now deployed via the cloud, care of vendors. This makes the solutions easier to manage, as users do not have to deal with maintenance and updates. Users can use the tools immediately after signing up. 

However, there are software developers that give companies the option to deploy their solution via a private or public cloud or in a hybrid environment. If businesses select any of these, they are responsible for the maintenance and security of the platform. This deployment type can take anywhere from weeks to months, depending on the complexity of the environment. 

Lastly, organizations can also choose to deploy software on-premises. This is the most costly option, though, and can take months to complete.