Best Team Collaboration Tools of 2025

Written by
Best Team Collaboration Tools of 2025 Nick Perry
Updated

October 2, 2025

As of February 2025, 79% of American employees are still working hybrid or remote, making digital collaboration more important than ever. Team collaboration tools are a foundation for success, centralizing communication, streamlining workflows, and enabling teams to work together seamlessly from any location.

“Collaboration tools” is an admittedly broad umbrella. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of SaaS and cloud-based tools that support team collaboration. There are tools for communication, document management, project management, resourcing, and so on and so on. Ultimately, the common goal of all of them is to provide a single source of truth for projects, documents, and conversations, so you can reduce the email chains and information silos.

For our purposes, this article focuses on collaboration tools that offer some blend of features, including instant messaging, video conferencing, file sharing, and project management. You might see some tools you already use on here, and you might find some that make sense to add to your stack. This isn’t a mutually exclusive list; you could certainly use several of these tools together to support a more productive workforce.

Best for Small Business Google Workplace

Cobanker review
4.8
CoBanker choice
Overview

Formerly G Suite, Google Workspace is one of the most popular collaboration and productivity suites on the market, especially for individuals. Workspace is standard for anyone with a personal Gmail account, but it’s also extremely useful as a business tool. The suite centralizes Gmail, Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive, and Meet into a single seamless hub to support document creation, file sharing, communication, and real-time collaboration.

Quite simply, there is no better tool on the market for creating and updating files in real-time. The syncing is extraordinarily seamless, and the tools are intuitive, especially since so many people use Workspace in their personal lives as well. From seamless collaboration on files to the secure, organized interface of Google Drive cloud storage, Workspace is both an extremely accessible tool for new businesses and an extensible one for scaling ones. Especially since it’s dirt cheap.

Best for Small Business
Price Low
Pros
Great for collaboration; the real-time co-authoring features are the industry gold standard
Most people are already familiar with Google products, which makes the platform easy to adopt
The pricing is highly competitive, especially for the robust feature set it provides
Cons
Google Chat is functional but lacks some of the advanced features and integrations of a dedicated messaging platform like Slack
Workspace supports seamless collaboration, but if you want to manage projects and resources, you’ll need third-party integrations
While some features are available offline, the platform is primarily designed for online use
  • Allows multiple team members to edit and comment on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations simultaneously.
  • Provides the best file syncing on the market, ensuring everybody has the most updated version (and access to old versions) at all times.
  • Google Drive provides secure, centralized storage for all team files.
  • Combines video conferencing (Google Meet) and chat (Google Chat) within the same platform for quick and easy communication.
  • Provides strong security features, including built-in protection against malware and phishing, as well as easy-to-manage administrative controls.

Google Workspace offers a free plan for teams of up to 100 people, but many business owners have complained that they cannot add more than 50 members on an Essentials Plan. It’s unclear if Google has rectified this issue or quietly reduced the Essentials Plan benefit. Paid plans are:

  • Starter: $7/user/month for 30GB of pooled storage and more
  • Standard: $14/user/month for 2TB of pooled storage and more
  • Plus: $22/user/month for 5TB of pooled storage and more
  • Enterprise Plus: $35/user/month for 5TB of storage, support for 1,000 meeting participants, and more.

Best for New Business Slack

Cobanker review
4.6
CoBanker choice
Overview

Slack has become the gold standard for real-time business communication. The channel-based messaging platform is trusted by more than 200,000 organizations worldwide and has more than 42 million daily active users for good reason. To put it in Millennial terms: It’s AIM, except way better and made for business.

The channel-based messaging platform centralizes personal conversations, team conversations, files, and integrations into a single, searchable workspace. Slack’s intuitive interface and focus on instant communication make it a favorite for fast-moving teams, and it’s the closest tool you can get to completely replacing email given its ability to chat with external organizations that use Slack.

Over the years, Slack has evolved to integrate with a wide range of tools, including Google Workspace and Microsoft Teams, to support calendars, time tracking, task management, document sharing, and much, much more. If your team needs a way to talk through ideas asynchronously, Slack is an outstanding option.

Best for New Business
Price Middle
Pros
The channel-based system is excellent for organizing conversations and reducing email clutter
Its extensive integrations and automation capabilities allow you to build a highly personalized workflow for your business
The platform is clean, intuitive, and easy for new users to adopt
Cons
Let’s call a spade a spade: Slack is a lot of fun. The constant availability of team members and stream of notifications can get overwhelming for some, and time-wasting for others
The free plan only saves the last 90 days of messages
Slack can be a cost-effective tool for small businesses, but as you scale and need more advanced features, the cost can add up
  • Organizes conversations into public or private channels based on projects, teams, or topics.
  • Provides a quick way to start impromptu audio/video calls (Huddles) and share short video messages (Clips) to reduce the need for formal meetings.
  • Offers over 2,600 apps in its marketplace, allowing you to connect Slack to almost any tool you use, from Google Drive and Salesforce to Jira and Asana.
  • Allows you to easily find messages, files, and people from anywhere in your workspace.

Slack’s free plan supports a 90-day messaging history and up to ten integrations. The paid plans are as follows:

  • Pro: $7.25/user/month
  • Business: $15/user/month for AI integration
  • Enterprise+: Custom pricing for a custom workspace

Best for Budget Microsoft Teams

Cobanker review
4.4
CoBanker choice
Overview

A direct competitor to Google Workspace, Microsoft Teams does essentially everything that Workspace does… just not as well. It is, however, very reasonably priced.The all-in-one collaboration hub is deeply integrated with the Microsoft 365 suite, so you have chat, video meetings, file storage, and integration with Microsoft Office all in a single platform. It’s an easy choice for businesses that are already using Microsoft Office products, but it’s also a very cost-effective choice for businesses that need a cohesive, collaborative environment.

That said, Microsoft tools tend to be buggy and don’t always play nice with people who don’t have Microsoft products installed. Want to connect on a Teams call with somebody who doesn’t already have it? You’ll probably be okay, but there’s a non-zero chance it will turn into a headache.

Best for Budget
Price Middle
Pros
The deep integration with Microsoft 365 is a major advantage for businesses already invested in these tools
While Teams can be annoying when trying to connect with non-Teams account holders, the video conferencing tool is excellent for internal (and most external) meetings
Teams is included in many Microsoft 365 subscriptions, making it a very affordable option for many businesses
Cons
While it has many integrations, it doesn’t support some popular non-Microsoft tools, and it can be positively nightmarish even with the integrations it does support
The interface isn’t as clean as some other products, and it can be difficult to stay organized or figure out workflows
Microsoft should be relatively simple given its prominent role in introducing so many to computing, but it just plain isn’t. It has a much steeper learning curve than Google Workspace and seems to make some tasks unnecessarily complicated
  • Integrates effortlessly with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and SharePoint, allowing for real-time co-authoring of documents.
  • Offers high-quality video conferencing with features like screen sharing, live captions, meeting recordings, and breakout rooms.
  • As part of the Microsoft ecosystem, it provides enterprise-grade security, data governance, and compliance with global standards.
  • Combines chat, calls, meetings, and files into a single, centralized application, reducing context switching.

Microsoft Teams’ pricing tiers are:

  • Essentials: $4/user/month for 10GB of storage
  • 365 Business Basic: $6/user/month for 1TB of storage and Microsoft 365 access
  • 365 Business Standard: $12.50/user/month for more Microsoft tools
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

Best for Project Management Asana

Cobanker review
4.4
CoBanker choice
Overview

Asana is a project and task management tool more than a communication hub like the previous entries, but its robust collaboration features earn it a spot on this list. (And our top task management tool.) While Asana works best when paired with a streamlined communication app like Slack or Teams, it’s an invaluable tool to help teams track and manage their work collaboratively.

Asana simplest task management by organizing tasks, projects, and goals in a clear, structured way that works for your business. You can customize views from Board (Kanban) to Timeline (Gantt) and more to find the best way to visualize projects for your team. Everyone can collaborate on each task so the whole team knows who is in charge of what and when they have to have it done by.

Best for Project Management
Price Middle
Pros
The platform is designed to make it easy to see who is doing what, by when
Can be adapted to a wide range of workflows and team sizes
Provides a clear overview of a project's status, which helps to reduce confusion and miscommunication
Cons
While it has a messaging feature, Asana isn’t a real-time chat platform like Slack or Teams. Many teams use it in conjunction with a separate communication tool
The number of features and learning the UI can be overwhelming for new users
Although Asana offers generous free plans, the most powerful features are only available on higher-tier plans which can add up quickly
  • Provides a single platform for all tasks, projects, and conversations.
  • Allows users to assign tasks, set due dates, add comments, and attach files directly to a task card.
  • Offers different ways to visualize a project, including a board, list, calendar, and timeline (Gantt chart).
  • Automates repetitive tasks, such as sending reminders, updating task status, or assigning new tasks.

Asana offers a free plan for individuals and teams of up to 10 users. Then, the plans are:.

  • Starter: $10.99/user/month to get Asana AI and more features.
  • Advanced: $24.99/user/month to get integrations with Salesforce, Tableau, and Power BI, and more.
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing with custom solutions.

Best for Creative Teams Miro

Cobanker review
4.2
CoBanker choice
Overview

Miro is an online collaborative whiteboard platform that can be a game-changer for visual and creative teams. It’s definitely not a beginner-friendly tool, even with the extensive built-in AI aimed to help you flesh out ideas and plans. Essentially, it’s an infinite canvas that allows team members to brainstorm, design, and plan in real-time, whether you’re mapping a user journey, creating a flowchart, or simply brainstorming.

Miro is an awesome tool if you have a lot of complex business needs to address and your work is creative in nature. It can be incredibly overwhelming if you have more basic collaboration needs, which is why it’s not rated higher here. Miro does offer a wide range of templates and the canvas interface is fairly intuitive, it just gives a little bit of that “blank page” overwhelm that writers get when they open a new word document. Nonetheless, it’s a powerful tool for remote and hybrid teams to work through ideas together or asynchronously.

Best for Creative Teams
Price Middle
Pros
It’s an outstanding tool for brainstorming and filtering through the muck to find golden nuggets
The platform is fun to use and helps teams feel connected, even when working remotely
The free plan offers a great starting point with 3 editable boards and unlimited team members
Cons
While it can be used for project planning, it isn’t a replacement for a dedicated task management tool like Asana or Jira
The infinite canvas can become disorganized and overwhelming if not managed properly
It’s not ideal for teams that primarily work with documents and text
  • Provides a shared, virtual whiteboard where multiple people can work simultaneously.
  • Offers a huge library of templates for flowcharts, mind maps, user story maps, sprint retrospectives, and more.
  • Allows you to turn your whiteboard into a professional presentation for internal or external use.
  • Integrates with popular tools like Slack, Jira, and Google Drive to bring your creative work into your existing workflows.

Miro’s free plan supports unlimited users and three editable boards. From there, the pricing is:

  • Starter: $8/user/month for unlimited boards in one workspace
  • Business: $16/user/month for unlimited boards in multiple workspaces, customized for each team or client
  • Enterprise: Custom quote for flexible licensing plan

Best for Growing Teams Notion

Cobanker review
4.2
CoBanker choice
Overview

An all-in-one workspace that combines notes, documents, project management, and a knowledge base into a single, customizable platform, Notion is an outstanding tool for brainstorming and collaborating in real-time. Your Notion account comes with an AI agent that can learn your needs, anticipate, and accomplish tasks quickly, taking work off your teams. That can streamline work, but it also provides great tools for staying organized and collaborating across a single source of truth.

Notion’s flexibility and modular nature make it extremely customizable and useful for a wide range of use cases, from creating a company wiki to managing a product roadmap. Because of its collaborative, whiteboard-esque design, it feels a little like an instant messaging app, but it’s important to note that it is not that. It’s a great support tool to help teams work towards common goals, but it won’t replace communication tools.

Best for Growing Teams
Price Middle
Pros
Can be used for almost any collaboration need, from a simple to-do list to a company-wide project hub
Provides a single source of truth for all team knowledge and documents
It’s excellent for remote teams that work across different time zones
Cons
Notion isn’t the most intuitive platform, and the number of features and working style may take some time for people to lear
Notion does not have a real-time chat feature and isn’t a replacement for a communication tool like Slack or Team
The lack of a rigid structure means it can quickly become messy without proper organization and team rules
  • The platform is built on “blocks,” which are individual pieces of content (like text, images, databases, etc.) that can be easily moved and combined for exceptional customization.
  • Allows you to create and connect databases to organize and visualize information in a variety of ways, like, table, board, calendar, or gallery.
  • Provides a clean, minimalist canvas for creating documents, notes, and wikis that can be shared and collaborated on in real-time.
  • The platform’s search function is excellent, and you can easily link between pages and documents to create a comprehensive knowledge base.

Notion offers a free plan for individuals. The paid plans are:

  • Plus: $10/user/month for unlimited blocks, charts, and uploads
  • Business: $20/user/month for premium integrations, improved security, and more.
  • Enterprise: Custom quotes for improved domain management, compliance support, and more.

Best for Video Conferencing Zoom

Cobanker review
4.0
CoBanker choice
Overview

Virtually everyone on the planet got familiar with Zoom in the COVID-19 pandemic, but since its peak popularity, Zoom has quietly evolved into more than just a video conferencing tools. While those capabilities are still elite, Zoom is now more of a comprehensive team collaboration platform. You can leverage features like Team Chat, Zoom Phone, and collaborative tools to truly maximize remote work.

Today, Zoom offers a unified suite for communication, meetings, and project work. It’s an excellent choice for remote businesses that need high-quality video, seamless virtual meetings, and brainstorming tools to boot.

Best for Video Conferencing
Price High
Pros
Zoom is unrivaled as a video conferencing tool, especially for large-scale video meetings and webinar
The interface is clean, easy to navigate, and requires minimal training
Combining video, chat, and phone into one application simplifies communication for teams
Cons
While it offers task and file-sharing features, it’s not a full-fledged project management tool
The cost of adding features like cloud storage, advanced analytics, and phone plans can add up
The app ecosystem is growing but is not as extensive as a platform like Slack
  • Zoom is the gold standard for high-quality video and audio, reliable performance, and a wide range of features like breakout rooms, polls, and virtual backgrounds.
  • Provides a powerful instant messaging platform with channels, direct messages, and file sharing.
  • Offers a collaborative whiteboard that can be used during meetings or as a standalone tool for brainstorming.
  • A marketplace of apps that can be integrated directly into your Zoom meetings for enhanced collaboration.

Zoom offers a free plan with a 40-minute and 100 participant limit on group meetings. The paid plans are:

  • Pro: $13.33/user/month for 30 hours and 100 participants per meeting
  • Business: $18.33/user/month for 30 hours and 300 participants per meeting
  • Enterprise: Custom quotes for up to 1,000 participants per meeting.
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What Is a Team Collaboration Tool?

There are many ways to collaborate virtually today, and a wide variety of software and digital tools designed to support collaborative efforts. For this review, we’re focusing on broad-reaching tools that support communication, information sharing, and collaborative work. Some of the features we’ve focused on include:

  • Real-time communication: Offers instant messaging, group chats (channels), and direct messages to facilitate quick communication and decision-making.
  • Video conferencing: Provides a platform for virtual meetings, screen sharing, and presentations to enable face-to-face interaction.
  • File sharing and management: Allows users to upload, store, and share documents, with features for co-authoring and version control to ensure everyone is working from the latest version.
  • Task and project management: Integrates features like to-do lists, task assignments, and progress tracking to keep projects organized and on schedule.
  • Integrations: Connects with other business applications like CRM, project management, and email clients to create a seamless, all-in-one workflow.
  • Knowledge management: Creates a searchable knowledge base or wiki where teams can store important information, documentation, and best practices.

How to Choose the Right Team Collaboration Tools

Let’s be clear: Many organizations use more than a single team collaboration tool. Many software categories, from HR software to task management tools, can facilitate collaboration. The goal of this list is to help you find tools that accomplish several business needs within a single platform. Depending on your goals, it might make sense to leverage more than one of them.

When considering a team collaboration tool, you should weigh these factors:

  • Team needs: Do you primarily need a tool for real-time communication, document sharing, or project management? Every business is different. This will help you narrow down your options.
  • Integrations: The system should seamlessly integrate with your existing business applications, such as CRM, HR software, and other productivity tools. Or, if you’re just starting out, it should serve as a good hub to facilitate future integrations.
  • Security and compliance: For businesses in regulated industries like healthcare and finance, you should ensure the platform offers enterprise-grade security, data encryption, and compliance with relevant laws like HIPAA and GDPR.
  • User-friendliness: The platform should be intuitive and easy for both senders and recipients to use. A difficult-to-use system can lead to low adoption and wasted time.
  • Cost: Look for a transparent pricing model that fits your budget. Some vendors charge a flat fee, while others charge per user or based on the features you need.

Almost all collaboration tools offer a free trial. It’s worth taking advantage of it to test the tool with your team to see how it fits with your workflow, communication style, and business needs

FAQs

An intranet is a private, company-wide network used for internal communication and information sharing, often acting as a digital headquarters for a business. A team collaboration tool is a more focused application designed for small groups to work together on specific projects, tasks, and conversations, though many can serve as a simple intranet.

While replacing email is a tall task for any organization (especially one with a lot of external communications), a collaboration tool can significantly reduce the dependency on email. Instant messaging and document management can make it easier to collaborate and communicate without the annoying email chains and disparate information.

Synchronous communication happens in real-time, with both parties present at the same time, like a phone call or video meeting. Asynchronous communication is time-shifted, meaning participants do not need to be present simultaneously, like email, instant messaging, or comments on a project. The best collaboration tools support both types of communication.