Best Remote Work Software
Personal technology and digital connectivity have created ways to work offsite, away from the office. However, concerns regarding communication, knowledge sharing, mentoring, performance evaluation, and data security persist. To maximize employee efficiency, employers will need visibility over what remote workers are doing. The best solution is for businesses to lean into the remote working software technology to engage, educate and manage the workforce while remote. Gathering accountability and work insights are going to be so simple with the best remote work software.
What Is Remote Work Software?
Remote working software is a combination of tools to help your contingent workforce and multi-functional departments execute, operate, streamline, and manage their work efficiently from anywhere. It allows employers to monitor their employees’ productivity. Remote working tools offer features like remote access, employee monitoring, secure file sharing, project management, team communication/collaboration, reporting/analytics, live chat, and audio-video conferencing to make remote working or WFH (work from home) hassle-free. Employers can reduce employee distractions and wasteful activities by constantly monitoring web usage and applications used by the employees on remote workstations.
How Does Remote Working Software Benefit Businesses?
Remote working solutions offer numerous advantages to businesses, including:
- Easy remote working
- Cost-saving
- Better accountability
- Real-time tracking
- Improved productivity
- Enhanced team collaboration
- Access control and security
- Analytics and reporting
- Better evaluation of remote employee performance
- Gain work insights
How to Choose the Best Remote Work Software?
Finding an easy and efficient remote working software for your business is challenging. GoodFirms has utilized its expertise and experience and performed extensive research and analysis to curate this list of top remote work software solutions with features, reviews, and pricing information of each solution. For best results, filter the list for business size, features you require, pricing model, deployment type, and more. Leverage this list of well-researched remote working tools below to unleash the productivity of your workforce.
List of Best Remote Working Tools
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Access your computer or mobile device from anywhere, anytime using Zoho Assist; your one-stop solution for remote support, screen sharing and unattended access. Get started today with one of the industry's most secure, reliable and affordable software. Requires no prior installation. Cross-platform support available. Works across devices. Supports all major web-proxies and firewalls. ... learn more about Zoho Assist
Entry Level Price$6.40 Per MonthFree Trial15 Days25%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Making information accessible to your organization is important now more than ever. Confluence can serve as your company's primary Knowledge Management Software tool. Use it to capture, preserve, and organize your most valuable assets. Whether it be company updates, project plans, or other important intel, keep it accessible and trackable with Confluence. ... learn more about Confluence
Entry Level Price$5.50 Per MonthFree Trial7 Days11%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Zoom Meetings are easy, reliable, and secure, providing HD video, audio, and content sharing across everything from your mobile and desktop devices to telephones and conference room systems. Special features include cloud and local recording with transcripts and multi-user annotation capabilities via screen share. Easy access with one click, chat across platforms and share files all with encrypted... learn more about Zoom
Entry Level Price$14.99 Per MonthFree TrialN/A25%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Miro
The online collaborative whiteboarding platform to bring teams together, anytime, anywhere.Keep your team's minds in sync with Miro (formerly RealtimeBoard and AWW app). A virtual whiteboard and remote collaboration tool, Miro helps cross-functional teams work more efficiently together to build great things. The platform allows teams to ideate, visualize, and share ideas without any boundaries. It comes with over 50 pre-made templates for capturing and visualizing ideas, collaboration t... learn more about Miro
Entry Level Price$10 Per MonthFree TrialAvailable25%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
From sales and marketing to HR and operations, teams can design and customize Trello to fit their unique needs and work styles. And with over 100+ integrations with other key tools like Google Drive, Slack, Jira, and more, Trello is a living, breathing project hub of cross-team collaboration no matter where your work needs to happen. Trello brings joy to teamwork by making it transparent and easil... learn more about Trello
Entry Level Price$5 Per MonthFree Trial14 Days11%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Dropbox Business simplifies your work, with a central place to access and share files. Keep all your files securely stored, up to date, and accessible from any device. Quickly send any file—big or small—to anyone, even if they don’t have a Dropbox account. Keep your files private with multiple layers of protection from the service trusted by millions. Manage tasks, track file updates, and st... learn more about Dropbox Business
Entry Level Price$11.99 Per MonthFree Trial30 Days25%Category Focus
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Webex brings together Calling Meetings, and Messaging modes of collaboration into a seamless, inclusive and intelligent experience. Make meetings more interactive and engaging - Reduce disruptions with background noise removal and voice enhancement - Enable audiences to share their reactions with animated emojis and gesture recognition - Improve audience engagement with next-gen dynamic polling an... learn more about Webex
Entry Level Price$12.63 Per MonthFree Trial30 Days11%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
An industry leader in web conferencing, GoToMeeting is trusted by millions of people every day for professional real-time virtual communication. GoToMeeting provides a fast, easy and reliable professional online meeting solution that enables customers to meet face to face, share presentations and chat with colleagues, all with the click of a button. GoToMeeting pairs productivity with the flexibil... learn more about GoToMeeting
Entry Level Price$12 Per MonthFree Trial14 Days20%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Basecamp is more than just a project management tool — it’s a better way to work. Teams that switch to Basecamp are more productive and better organized. They communicate better and require fewer meetings. And they’re far more efficient than before. Here’s how Basecamp makes it happen. ... learn more about Basecamp
Entry Level Price$99.00 Per MonthFree Trial30 Days20%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Microsoft Teams is a Cloud-based application developed for business communications that helps manage chat, meet, file sharing, and more. Whether it’s chat, calls, or video, anyone can engage at any time, bringing everyone closer. Your docs, photos, videos, chat history, and meeting notes are always there, so it’s easier to work together. Set up your team’s space with all the apps you need so... learn more about Microsoft Teams
Entry Level Price$5 Per MonthFree Trial30 Days20%Category Focus
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Google Drive is a File sharing platform that allows users to store and share contacts, photos, videos, presentations, recordings and more. Cloud-based file storage platform that enables businesses of all sizes to store and share contacts, photos, videos, spreadsheets, presentations and more. ... learn more about Google Drive
Entry Level PriceFree versionFree TrialAvailable25%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Asana helps teams orchestrate their work, from small projects to strategic initiatives. With Asana, you can connect all your work in one place and bring teams together, anywhere. From lists to boards, to calendars and Gantt charts, organize work your way. Join more than 107,000 paying organizations and millions of teams across 190 countries who use Asana to get more done. Get started in minutes to... learn more about Asana
Entry Level Price$10.99 Per MonthFree Trial30 Days16%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Wrike is a powerful professional services software trusted by 20,000+ companies worldwide. Create a streamlined digital workplace using custom request forms, Kanban boards, Gantt charts, time tracking, real-time updates, and performance reports all in one place that can be shared company-wide. Integrate Wrike with 400+ applications to automate your everyday processes. Customize workflows and reduc... learn more about Wrike
Entry Level Price$9.80 Per MonthFree Trial15 Days8%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Box makes it easy to work with your content internally and externally, from teammates to vendors to partners. And with security and compliance built-in, you know your data is safe and secure, while teams stay productive and healthy. Box Notes gives you one place to share ideas and feedback while letting multiple people make edits in real-time. Plus, you can seamlessly integrate all the apps you kn... learn more about Box
Entry Level Price$20.30 Per MonthFree Trial14 Days33%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
MURAL is a digital workspace for visual collaboration. MURAL enables innovative teams to think and collaborate visually to solve important problems. People benefit from MURAL’s speed and ease of use in creating diagrams, which are popular in design thinking and agile methodologies, as well as tools to facilitate more impactful meetings and workshops. Simply put what's on your mind on sticky note... learn more about MURAL
Entry Level Price$9 Per MonthFree TrialN/A20%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
monday.com is a cloud-based Work OS, where teams create workflow apps in minutes to run their processes, projects, and everyday work. Teams shape their workflows and projects, code-free, with a platform that adapts to shifting needs quickly, liberates teams from manual grunt work, and connects teams in a collaborative workspace. The platform’s features include customizable workflow templates to ... learn more about monday.com
Entry Level PriceFree versionFree TrialAvailable7%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Wire offers the most comprehensive collaboration suite featuring messenger, voice, video, conference calls, file-sharing, and external collaboration – all protected by the most secure end-to-end encryption. Secure messaging, conferencing, file-sharing, and more through end-to-end encryption for cloud, private cloud, and On-Premises. With Conferencing, you can talk to co-workers, guests, external... learn more about Wire
Entry Level Price$7.65 Per MonthFree Trial30 Days25%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
ClickUp is an all-in-one project management software that enables organizations to manage requirements, create documents, chat with colleagues, set goals, and track projects. Brimming with features like process, task, and time management, ClickUp offers mind maps, reports, forms, dashboards, and communication tools like email and messaging. ... learn more about Clickup
Entry Level Price$9 Per MonthFree TrialAvailable10%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Simplify task management with Flock! Email less and get more work done. From instant messaging to creating channels to integrating with your favorite external apps like Google, MailChimp, Dropbox, Jira, Trello, and more - organize all your work streams with Flock. Flock is a powerful work tool that comes loaded with built-in features like Shared To-Dos, Reminders, Notes, Polls, and more!... learn more about Flock
Entry Level Price$3.27 Per MonthFree Trial30 Days20%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Notion is an application that provides components such as notes, databases, kanban boards, wikis, calendars and reminders. Users can connect these components to create their own systems for knowledge management, note taking, data management, project management, among others. A new tool that blends your everyday work apps into one. It's the all-in-one workspace for you and your team. Write, plan, c... learn more about Notion
Entry Level Price$4 Per MonthFree TrialAvailable16%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
TeamViewer connects any PC, Server, Device on any platform globally in a few seconds. Available in over 30 languages, TeamViewer is a leading remote desktop tool with over 30,000 new downloads every hour. Currently, there are over 2.0 billion live TeamViewer IDs that access the world's largest and fastest remote connection network. We're serious about security, and we put our customers and their c... learn more about Teamviewer
Entry Level PriceFree versionFree TrialAvailable33%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Zoho Remotely is a suite of cloud applications that helps you communicate and collaborate with teams, keep track of work, and provide remote assistance to your customers anywhere in the world. Zoho Remotely will enable you to take your work remotely. We have brought together the most comprehensive suite of inter-connected web and mobile apps that will help you and your team communicate, collaborat... learn more about Zoho Remotely
Entry Level Price$3.17 Per MonthFree TrialN/A50%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Bluescape is a virtual work platform where distributed teams perform their best at work, on the go, and at home. Collaborate in real-time across laptops, mobile devices, and touch-enabled displays. From ideation sessions to sales meetings, situational awareness to strategic planning, remain connected to your colleagues, content, and customers. ... learn more about Bluescape
Entry Level PriceContact VendorFree TrialN/A16%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Smartsheet is intuitive online project management, collaboration & Gantt chart tool. It has a familiar spreadsheet-like interface, coupled with file sharing & workflow. Smartsheet enables teams to get work done fast and efficiently. We are a leading cloud-based platform for work execution, enabling organizations to plan, capture, track, automate, and report on work at scale, resulting in more effi... learn more about Smartsheet
Entry Level Price$14.00 Per MonthFree Trial30 Days7%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Host webinars to educate and engage your leads. Broadcast your screen, launch polls, and answer questions in real time. Record, watch, and share your webinars online. Analyze reports to identify and convert genuine leads to loyal customers. ... learn more about Zoho Meeting
Entry Level Price$3 Per MonthFree Trial14 Days20%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Hive is the real-time platform for driving your company's work forward. Every team should have a simple way to track who is working on what, and leaders should have a clear, real-time view of progress. Hive integrates with over 1,000 popular tools, like Slack, Google Apps, Salesforce, Mailchimp and WordPress. It also supports integrations for files from Box, Google Drive and Dropbox. Increase prod... learn more about Hive
Entry Level Price$12 Per MonthFree Trial14 Days12%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
ISL Light is a web-based remote desktop solution that lets you access and controls any Windows, Mac, or Linux computer in seconds from any computer or mobile device or to provide ad hoc technical support to mobile device users. Cross-platform, secure, high-speed screen sharing, cloud-based or on-premises license. Rich customization options allow you to rebrand the software to your own corporate id... learn more about ISL Light
Entry Level Price$145 Per YearFree Trial15 Days25%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Simplehelp
SimpleHelp is the simplest way for support professionals to help customers anywhereYour customers can request support in just two clicks: Download and Run. The support application gathers information from your customer and their computer and adds them to your support queue. In seconds your technicians can view and control their computer. SimpleHelp includes advanced file transfer capabilities to copy files to and from the remote machine, a diagnostics mode to better understand p... learn more about Simplehelp
Entry Level Price$300 One-timeFree TrialN/A33%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Lucidspark is a virtual whiteboard where teams can come together to bring their best ideas to life. Capture and share your ideas on a digital canvas that has all the flexibility you need. Toss ideas around, build off each other’s thoughts and share feedback to create the best ideas. Turn your ideas into a collection of clear, actionable next steps, to build momentum and keep things moving. ... learn more about Lucidspark
Entry Level Price$7.95 Per MonthFree TrialN/A25%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Teamwork is project management software that helps in-house teams & agencies improve collaboration, visibility, accountability, and ultimately results. With all the features you need to plan, collaborate on, and deliver your work, it takes care of the details so your team's talents are freed to achieve the results that matter to your business. Use Teamwork to manage everything from delivering clie... learn more about Teamwork
Entry Level Price$10 Per MonthFree Trial30 Days25%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Get your team on the same page inside online meeting rooms with collaborative productivity tools. Collaboration and meeting management solution designed to help businesses edit documents, conduct video calls and brainstorm ideas. ... learn more about Room
Entry Level Price$14.99 Per MonthFree TrialN/A12%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Stackby is One tool that brings together flexibility of spreadsheets, power of databases and built-in integrations with your favorite business apps. Use it to automate workflows, build custom tools, collaborate with your teams and organize anything, really. Your imagine, you create. We give you building blocks - spreadsheets, databases and APIs in an all-in-one flexible platform to plan, manage an... learn more about Stackby
Entry Level Price$5 Per MonthFree Trial7 Days12%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Dialpad’s mission is to make business communications great. Built on the Google Cloud Platform for unmatched security, reliability and scale, Dialpad’s product suite covers the full range of modern business communications needs with Dialpad, UberConference and Call Center solutions all powered by VoiceAI. Today more than 55,000 of the world’s most innovative businesses use Dialpad and its se... learn more about Dialpad Meetings
Entry Level Price$15 Per MonthFree Trial14 Days25%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Workshots is an advanced employee time tracking and monitoring software. This software helps you know your team's actual productivity. It is a web-based application that provides time tracking, cost tracking, time-sheet management, task management, automatic intermittent screenshot capturing, a ticketing system for support. If you are a service provider then you can also get client-specific report... learn more about Workshots
Entry Level Price$0.99 Per MonthFree Trial7 Days20%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Easy and fast to plan, organize, and track all your projects. Lumeer gives you super-easy visual project management. Everyone knows what to do next, why it is important, and how to do it. Remove unnecessary synchronization meetings, endless email threads, and confusing spreadsheets. Extreme flexibility gives anyone the freedom to create the perfect workflow, manage and track your progress. Flexibi... learn more about Lumeer
Entry Level Price$7.89 Per MonthFree TrialAvailable20%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Float is a resource management platform used by teams big and small (from 5 to 5,000+). Manage your capacity on autopilot with direct calendar integrations, custom work hours, and public holidays. Plan projects with precision by adding phases and budgets. Assign tasks quickly with easy-to-use scheduling tools. Forecast budgets and resources with powerful reporting. Track your team¿s time to monit... learn more about Float
Entry Level Price$6 Per MonthFree Trial30 Days25%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
The Mavenlink Industry Cloud for Professional Services™ is a powerful collection of operational management, resource optimization, business intelligence, integration, and workflow automation functionality that optimizes resources and elevates operational performance. A resource-first architecture, enables services businesses to field the best team, every time and see up-to-the-minute progress ag... learn more about Mavenlink
Entry Level PriceContact VendorFree TrialN/A11%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Working from home? Tired of managing dozens of browser tabs and applications? Why search and switch between apps, log in and out of accounts? Focos is a simple and beautiful solution for managing everything better, great for entrepreneurs, freelancers, and teams. A single place for all of your apps, social media, and email accounts from a simple and clean desktop app. ... learn more about FOCOS
Entry Level Price$5.16 One-timeFree Trial14 Days100%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Live streaming you can count on. Deliver unforgettable virtual events and conferences. Securely engage your workforce remotely. Monetize your global audience. Ensure that your critical executive communications and "no-fail" events reach your audience in the highest possible quality, no matter where they watch. Build world-class live streaming experiences. Ensure that your critical executive commun... learn more about Vimeo Livestream
Entry Level Price$56.25 Per MonthFree TrialN/A25%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
pimentaCHAT is a unified collaboration and communication (UCC) tool for companies, educational institutions, associations, and churches. Get a solution that completely organizes your communication and that of your team. Make a video or audio call to more than 100 people at the same time! pimentaCHAT connects conventional phone calls, with audio or video calls via the internet on your smartphone or... learn more about pimentaCHAT
Entry Level Price$11.25 Per MonthFree Trial30 Days20%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
WorkPuls is Employee Monitoring and Time Tracking Software that gives insight into how employees spend working hours on computers. It is the perfect solution for monitoring, analyzing productivity, and tracking time spent on various projects. With WorkPuls, managing a remote workforce will be much easier. It's suitable for small businesses, enterprises, and remote teams.... learn more about Workpuls
Entry Level Price$8 Per MonthFree Trial7 Days25%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Provide managers of remote teams with the insights to guide their team members to success. Engage everyone, everywhere in continuous productivity improvement. ActivTrak helps companies unlock productivity potential. Their award-winning workforce analytics and productivity management software provides expert insights that empower people, optimize processes, and maximize technology. ... learn more about Activtrak
Entry Level Price$9 Per MonthFree Trial14 Days33%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Teramind provides a user-centric security approach to monitor your employee's digital behavior. Our software streamlines employee data collection in order to identify suspicious activity, improve employee productivity, detect possible threats, monitor employee efficiency, and ensure industry compliance. We help reduce security incidents by providing real-time access to user activities by offering ... learn more about Teramind
Entry Level Price$3.97 Per MonthFree Trial7 Days33%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
One App for 22+ messaging services WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Hangouts, Telegram, Skype, Slack, Twitter, Discord, GroupMe, Facebook Page messenger, VK, Chat, Tinder, and many, more Note: One Chat is a wrapper app, combining all the messaging services. Experience will be 100% similar to web extension of those services, which extra features as follows. Features: Schedule messages to send them at ... learn more about One Chat
Entry Level PriceContact VendorFree TrialN/A33%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Whereby is a collaboration tool for professionals who want to host easy and reliable video meetings. All meetings are from your browser - no downloads, and no login for guests. Regarded as the easiest to use video tool, Whereby serves the small and medium business market of various industries. Professionals can effortlessly connect to teammates, partners and clients on a secure platform they can t... learn more about Whereby
Entry Level Price$6.99 Per MonthFree Trial7 Days33%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Measure and boost employee productivity by capturing & analyzing activities in real-time. TeamOB is an end-to-end organizational intelligence & data analysis tool available with a set of features to view real-time dashboards, remote team attendance management, team productivity monitoring, and business intelligence reports. ... learn more about TeamOB Office
Entry Level PriceContact VendorFree Trial14 Days33%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Equip your team to become engaged self-starters. Range's daily, asynchronous updates keep your team more informed, engaged, and connected to its work. Range helps everyone on your team plan their day and share progress in minutes to keep everyone focused and productive no matter where they're working. ... learn more about Range
Entry Level PriceFree versionFree TrialAvailable33%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
CalendarHero makes booking, organizing, and keeping track of meetings easier. With features like timezone detection, buffer time, and meeting limits, CalendarHero offers teams scheduling efficiency and ownership over their time. Collaborate faster with shared availability and 60+ integrations, including Zoom, Slack, Google, and Microsoft. More than a scheduling link, CalendarHero can live in your ... learn more about CalendarHero
Entry Level Price$8 Per MonthFree Trial14 Days25%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Benefit from an AI-powered project portfolio management platform that reduces the hassle of managing projects and resources and grows out to cover all a suite of great functionalities. Forecast is a full-scale alternative to point project portfolio management solutions used in professional service firms. It also provides transparency into every aspect of the project, a big plus being the budget an... learn more about Forecast
Entry Level Price$29 Per MonthFree Trial14 Days33%Category Focus
Remote Work Software -
Todoist is the world's #1 to-do list & task manager to organize your life and work. Regain clarity and calmness by getting tasks out of your head and into Todoist, no matter where you are or what device you use. It's a simple yet powerful to-do list app ranked best-in-class by Apple, Google, The Verge, Forbes, and more. Since 2007, over 25 million people have used Todoist to organize work and life... learn more about Todoist
Entry Level Price$3 Per MonthFree Trial30 Days33%Category Focus
Remote Work Software
Buyer’s Guide
- Buyer’s Guide To Remote Work Software
- What Is Remote Working?
- The Rise In The Trend Of Remote Working
- What Are The Challenges Of Remote Working And How Technology Is Helping To Overcome Them?
- What Is Remote Work Software?
- What Are The Different Types Of Remote Work Software?
- Why Is It Critical For Businesses To Invest In Remote Work Software?
- What Are The Key Features Of A Remote Work Software?
- What Are The Factors To Consider While Selecting A Remote Work Software?
- What Can Be The Future Trends In Remote Work Software?
- How Much Can A Remote Work Software Cost?
- Why Refer To GoodFirms’ List Of Remote Work Software?
- The Final Checklist
Buyer’s Guide To Remote Work Software
The concept of "working remotely" or "work from home" has transformed the way Global workspace operates these days. Working from any other place besides your office premises has become relevant in the majority of sectors like sales & marketing, technical support, software development, copywriting, and many more. Especially during pandemics like COVID-19, telecommuting, and remote working has been a boon. The work from home methodology helps businesses and their employees survive even through the financial crisis.
Thanks to the internet & technology that has facilitated storing information on the cloud, conducting video conferences, and communicating through instant messaging apps, remote working is feasible and extremely convenient. Today, there are best remote work software solutions and applications available that have enabled employers and employees to follow remote working methods and simultaneously maintain high productivity & quality levels.
Regardless of whether you plan to purchase a new remote work management software or require to replace your existing one, this buyer's guide can help you pick the right solution as per your business needs. So, let's get started with the basic understanding of remote working, and then move on to the intricacies of remote working tools, enabling you to make smart purchase decisions.
What Is Remote Working?
Remote working is often confused with work from home, telecommuting, and flex hours. Let’s clarify the difference between these terms -
Remote Working - Employees work from a home, cafe, airport lounge, client's office, or any other location.
Work From Home - A subset of remote working in which employees work from home only.
Telecommuting - Employees work from the place of their choice but are supposed to visit the office on certain days.
Flex Hours - Employees follow flexible work timings regardless of the place they are working from.
The Rise In The Trend Of Remote Working
Around a decade ago, remote working was very rare among businesses. The employers used to provide remote working facilities to the employees in special cases or due to some critical circumstances only. But, now, many companies thrive with all the employees working from remote locations. The reason behind this is the changing preferences of the employees & employers, and advancement in the technology.
Earlier, there were no tools available to help employers monitor and supervise the employees working from a remote location. And so, productivity became the major concern for the companies while allowing their employees to work remotely. But, now there are many project management solutions and time tracking systems available that can help managers keep an eye on their employees consistently and restrict them from getting distracted towards unproductive tasks. Moreover, collaboration platforms, video conferencing tools, and live chat software are available that have made remote working quite convenient for the managers and employees both.
Remote working has helped employees to enjoy the flexibility and freedom to work at any time from anywhere. But, at the same time, employers have benefitted by saving on their overheads and hiring and retaining their top talent by providing them remote working facilities and remaining competitive within their industry.
As per Global Workplace Analytics, remote working has grown by 173% from 2005 to 2019. After the outbreak of Covid-19, working from home has become “The New Normal.” Referring to the Washington Post, big tech companies in the United States like Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Twitter have mentioned that the work from home trend is here to stay. They would prefer to be the last among the large companies reopening their office doors and welcoming their workforce back after this pandemic is over.
What Are The Challenges Of Remote Working And How Technology Is Helping To Overcome Them?
Communication Gap
As the remote working employees are not physically present in the office, there are chances of communication gaps between the teams working together. There are many virtual communication tools like GoToMeeting that can help the team members conduct video conferences and communicate on a real-time basis and solve their queries.
Difficulty in Collaborating
Team collaboration becomes difficult if all the members of the team are not under the same roof. There are chances that due to a lack of flawless collaboration, misunderstandings and conflicts occur between the team members. In that case, file-sharing platforms like Google Drive can enable all the team members to access updated information on a centralized platform and maintain transparency in the workflows.
Easy To Get Distracted
When employees are working from a remote location, they are not on their supervisors’ visual radar. So, the chances of them getting distracted by browsing social media and gaming apps. Technology in the form of time tracking applications like DeskTime can help the managers and supervisors to ensure that their subordinates are working efficiently on the tasks assigned to them and meeting the organization’s expectations in terms of productivity.
Procrastination Can Become A Habit
Like distraction, if procrastination becomes the employees' habit, it can harm the business organization's productivity. Especially when the employees are working remotely and answerable to no one if the tasks don't complete on time, the work gets delayed, and there are no deadlines achieved. Implementing the right project management tools and task management applications Wrike can help in overcoming this challenge.
Lack of Training & Mentorship
When it comes to assigning a new task to the employees, the first thing that comes into the mind is, do they have enough training to do this new task? Working from a remote location can be a great challenge for imparting training & mentorship to the employees. The solution to this problem would be to use remote connectivity software like Teamviewer, helping you access your subordinates' computers from a remote location and train them for the new tasks.
Mismanagement of Time
Many managers are concerned about productivity and thus don't encourage a remote working culture within their teams. But, it can be the opposite too. When your personal and professional jobs are supposed to be done under one roof, it becomes hard for the employees to maintain a work-life balance, and they tend to overwork themselves. In that case, the time management solutions like Time Doctor would help employees analyze the time they are spending on different projects and remind them to take breaks at regular intervals.
Missed Opportunities
While working remotely, many times, it happens that the efforts of the employees go unnoticed by their supervisors or managers. In that case, the employees miss opportunities like performance appraisals or new responsibilities to grow their careers. This can demotivate your employees and ultimately become difficult to retain them for a long period. The solutions like Teamwork can help solve this issue as it enables the managers to differentiate the employees in terms of their performance based on the time taken to complete the projects and the quality delivered by them.
Absence of Spontaneous Conversations
One of the most prominent reasons employees like working from the office is their spontaneous conversations with their teammates during lunch hours and coffee breaks. Working from a remote location takes away this chance from the employees and makes them feel lonely. Remote team communication software like PukkaTeam can help in solving this issue. HR managers can conduct events using virtual team communication solutions and keep them motivated and energetic enough to work with enthusiasm.
What Is Remote Work Software?
Remote work software is a set of tools that help businesses to manage and support their employees working from home or any other remote location besides their office. Whether it is about assigning tasks, managing projects, tracking working hours, sharing files, conducting virtual meetings, a remote working solution can handle everything relating to managing teams working in the office or remotely. Also, you can rely on remote work tools for managing your software subscriptions and data security. An efficient remote worker software helps the team members collaborate and communicate from wherever they are, supervisors to monitor the time spent on different tasks by their co-workers, and even track the progress of the organization's projects.
What Are The Different Types Of Remote Work Software?
The remote work solution types can be segmented based on three aspects - functionality, deployment, and price. Let's have a look at each one of them.
A. Functionality
i) Time Tracking Software - Helps track and monitor the spent time on different tasks and projects by the employees working remotely.
ii) Project Management Software - Allows the supervisors and managers to create & assign different tasks to their team members and track their progress.
iii) Collaboration Software - Enables users to communicate with each through emails, voice & video calls, and instant chat messaging.
iv) Desktop Sharing Software - Allows users to access desktops, laptops, and smartphones from a remote location to provide technical support and troubleshoot problems.
v) Video Conferencing Software - Helps the team members to conduct virtual meetings, share ideas, take notes, and plan strategies.
vi) Virtual Private Network Software - Enables remote working employees to securely connect with the company’s private networks and access confidential information.
All the above different remote working tools are available as stand-alone systems and, at the same time, integrated into a single remote worker software to provide versatile functionality. For example, Teamviewer is known for its desktop sharing capabilities, Zoom for its video conferencing functionality, and Asana for its project management features. You can select a remote working software depending on the exact blend of the features you require.
B. Deployment
i) On-Premise Remote Work Software
The software installed on the server located within your work premises is known as on-premise remote work software. You require a pre-defined infrastructure and technical abilities to upgrade and maintain the on-premise remote working solution. When it comes to deploying an on-premise remote work platform, you can consider one from the options given below -
- Hire a freelancer/in-house software developer or delegate the entire software development project to a professional company to get a customized remote work program built as per your business requirements
- Purchase a licensed version of remote working solution
- Download a free and open source remote work software
ii) Cloud-Based Remote Work Software
Cloud-based remote work platform refers to applications deployed on the distant servers owned by the software vendors. The users can access the software using their devices and the internet from wherever they are located. The benefit of using cloud-based remote work apps is that it would save your infrastructure and technical staff costs. The cloud-based software vendors would manage the task of managing and upgrading the remote work platform. This type of remote work solutions usually follow a monthly/yearly subscription pricing plan system and have proven to be quite affordable.
C. Price
i) Paid Remote Work Software
When it comes to selecting a paid remote work software, you need to choose one from the options given below -
- Purchase licensed copy of a remote work software
- Hire a team of developers or a software development company and pay them a mutually agreed amount for their services
- Purchase monthly/yearly subscription of a remote work software
ii) Freemium Remote Work Software
The freemium remote working tools include those software that are free to use for a limited time or have restricted features. For example, GoToMeeting is free to use for 14 days, and ToDoist is free forever but allows creating only 80 projects.
iii) Free Remote Work Software
Free remote work software may include limited features but can be very useful for freelancers, and startups, as they don't need to invest a considerable amount in staying on top of their work. If you are looking for a free option in this category, you can go through this list of the best free and open source remote work software. You can also consider a simple to register and use cloud-based free remote work apps like Trello and manage your remote working employees easily.
Why Is It Critical For Businesses To Invest In Remote Work Software?
Ensuring Productivity Is Maintained
Remote worker software helps managers keep their team members aligned and motivated as it helps in clearly defining the tasks and their deadlines. Moreover, it also helps them to track the time spent by each employee on different projects.
Keeping Teams Connected
Using the right tools for remote workers, you can conduct video conferences and meetings, communicate instantly through chat, and easily share updated documents. This improves collaboration among team members and keeps them motivated to do their jobs efficiently.
Gaining Insights On A Real-Time Basis
No matter where the employees are working from, the managers and supervisors have clear visibility over the jobs done and pending using remote worker software. It provides insights on a real-time basis, helping in taking crucial decisions relevant to each employee's task assignment and working capacity.
Maintaining Data Security
Working with employees from remote locations increases the risk of data being distributed to the people who can use the information against your business's interest or benefit. The remote work software ensures that the right person accesses the data's information, and security is being maintained.
Managing Risks
By using best tools for remote workers, you can sense the danger before it comes. You have clear insights about which project is pending and whether it would complete on time or not. You have a chance to apply more resources to the tasks based on their priority and avoid the circumstances that can harm your business.
What Are The Key Features Of A Remote Work Software?
Project & Task Management
Managing tasks and projects is a critical task without applying an automated tool. The remote working software should allow you to assign the tasks to your employees, set up the deadlines, and modify the task delegation, helping you manage your projects flawlessly.
Instant Messaging
Communicating on time is very important for smooth operations and avoiding conflicts between the employees and managers. The remote working software you choose should include a chat application that allows instant text messages, phone/video calls.
Video Conferencing
Conducting conferences and meetings are important to plan new strategies and ensure that everyone is on the same page. In companies where employees work from different locations, video conferencing can bring everyone together virtually.
Centralized File Storing, Editing & Sharing
Many times remote working requires multiple team members to work on the same files. The software for remote work you choose should allow the team members to store files in a centralized location, edit, and share them. This would help each team member to access real-time information and stay updated.
Time Tracking & Management
Some people may be having the misconception that remote working doesn't require watching the clock. On the other hand, if you have employees working remotely, tracking their time spent on different projects becomes extremely important. This would help you in ensuring that a high productivity level is being maintained in the organization.
Reporting
Generating reports relevant to which projects were completed on time and which ones were not and the hours spent by the employees on different projects daily, weekly, or monthly is crucial to make certain decisions beneficial for the business. The software for remote work you choose should be able to generate customized reports as per your business workflow.
What Are The Factors To Consider While Selecting A Remote Work Software?
Integration
You need to ensure that your remote work software can integrate with the other systems and applications you are currently using; otherwise, you will have to waste time on repetitive manual data entry tasks.
Scalability
Today if you have only 80 projects to manage, it is not necessary to have the same situation after a couple of years. Changing the software frequently would be a hassle. So, choosing a scalable remote working software that can grow with your business would be wise.
User-Friendly
The remote work software you choose should be well-organized so that users can locate its features easily and is free of bugs to provide an excellent user experience. This would encourage users to use the software without wasting their time and enable them to maintain efficiency and quality while working on any task.
Cost-Effective
Choosing an expensive working remotely software that includes the features you don't require can prove financial pressure to your business. Thus, you need to select a remote working software with features that you are going to use and its price within your budget.
Security
Security of the data is the prime concern, especially when it comes to managing employees working from remote locations. You need to ensure that the remote work software you choose includes high-end security features and a role-based access facility to keep your confidential information secure.
Support
While selecting a working remotely software, one of the most critical aspects you need to consider is the vendor's technical support. Just check the authentic reviews given by the remote work software users and choose the one that comes with prompt technical support so that you can carry out your business processes without any glitches.
Testing
Before purchasing a remote work software, it becomes important to test it. Many remote work tools are providing free trials or demos. Just ask your team to test it thoroughly and ensure that it includes all the functionality your remote work environment needs.
What Can Be The Future Trends In Remote Work Software?
Internet of Things (IoT)
IoT has empowered remote working in many sectors like supply chain, healthcare, manufacturing, and many others. IoT-enabled wearable devices indicate the patients' condition to the healthcare professionals located at a remote location and suggest a suitable treatment. Moreover, even the supply chain workers can easily monitor the inventory and prevent thefts from a remote location with IoT devices' help. In manufacturing industries, the IoT devices allow remote teams to detect, diagnose, and rectify the machinery's technical problems without being physically present at the place where machinery is located.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The integration of Artificial intelligence with remote working software can create the possibilities of automating many tasks that can reduce human efforts and improve the overall work environment. Artificial intelligence would allow supervisors and managers to analyze their team members' performance based on their working habits and behavior. Artificial intelligence is anticipated to eliminate the limitations of remote working in terms of team interaction and collaboration. Precisely, remote working software with inbuilt Artificial intelligence features can change businesses' landscape depending on the remote working environment.
Virtual Reality (VR) Conferencing
It has been predicted that virtual reality conferencing would replace video conferencing while dealing with employees and customers located at remote locations. Virtual reality conferences like GFiT would allow people to immerse themselves in interactive and engaging experiences, helping them better understand any product, service, situation, or concept. Virtual reality conferencing features integrated with remote work software would include creating 3D environments and introducing new paradigms in terms of digital collaboration and business management.
Chatbots
It is an inevitable fact that the concept of remote working is going to increase in the coming years. It would be challenging to make the reliable support available 24/7 to the remote working employees working in different time zones. HR & IT teams face several problems as it is not possible for them to instantly solve the queries of their employees working in different time zones. Thus, many companies are planning to integrate chatbot systems to their remote work applications. It would help the employees working remotely to have access to an instant support system whenever they require and eliminate all the obstacles they may be facing while accomplishing their tasks.
How Much Can A Remote Work Software Cost?
There are many remote working solutions available, ranging from $1.5/month to $99/month subscription charges. For example, Scalefusion is available for $1.5/month, Wrike at $9.80/month, and Basecamp at $99/month. If you are not comfortable with monthly subscription charges, you can go for ConnectWise Control at $24/year, ISL Online at $145/year, or FOCOS at $43 one-time subscription charges.
As all these remote work tools differentiate in terms of features, the price cannot be the only criteria to select one of them. You need to check the features included in each subscription plan to make the right selection.
Suppose you are searching for remote work management software offering customized pricing plans, you can consider Activetrack or Remotedesk so that you pay exactly for those features you are going to use.
Also, there are remote work solutions like ToDoist and Notion that include free versions. So, if these tools' free plan includes the features that suffice your needs, you can deploy them without investing. But, you need to ensure that the free remote work software you choose allows you to upgrade the subscription plan in the future whenever your business demands.
Finally, it would always be better to go for the remote work software that provides a free trial or demo to determine whether it suits your business processes or not before investing a considerable amount.
Why Refer To GoodFirms’ List Of Remote Work Software?
To help you further with the task of picking the best remote work platform, we would recommend you to go through the GoodFirms' list of the best remote work software along with in-depth details and authentic reviews because -
- GoodFirms has an experienced and skilled team of researchers that include only those remote working solutions built using the latest technologies and techniques.
- GoodFirms follows a professional and systematic approach while intricately curating the list of remote work tools and applications.
- Legit ratings and reviews given by the users for each remote work solution mentioned on GoodFirms' list would give you clear visibility over the right solutions.
- As GoodFirms consistently updates the remote work program list with emerging software and applications, it becomes easy for you to select the trending functionality.
The Final Checklist
Remote working is inevitably benefiting organizations as it has enabled them to hire people with specialized skills no matter what their physical location is. Similarly, employees have also gained the advantage over working from their convenient location with flexible timings. But, if remote working is not applied with the right tools and technology, it can be a disaster in terms of loss of productivity and leakage of confidential business information.
Finally, considering the below checklist becomes essential for selecting the best remote work program as per your business needs -
Is this tool user-friendly enough for not so tech-savvy employees?
Can you have access to the remote employees' devices easily using this tool?
Can you customize this tool to make it work according to your business needs and simultaneously maintain your brand identity?
Is this tool capable enough to meet the growing security standards of the company?
Is it easy to conduct support sessions using different methods like live chat & video conferencing using this tool?
Does the tool include features that can keep records of the tasks done by different remote employees and their conversation history?
Does this tool generate reports that facilitate smarter decisions?
We hope this buyer’s guide has helped you in choosing the right remote work solution available. Still, in case you need additional information, please get in touch with our consulting team to ensure that you are making a wise investment decision.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is the Best Software for Remote Work Available in the Market?
The top remote working tools available in the market offer different sets of features with their own merits. Still, the best remote work software for your business is the one that streamlines and grossly fulfills all your company’s remote work management needs. Besides, it should be user-friendly and must fit in your budget.
To choose the perfect remote working tool, you can leverage GoodFirms' list of the top remote work management systems that details the features, reviews, and pricing of different solutions. Leverage filters for features, business size, and pricing model for a better selection.
Do Remote Working Solutions Help Track Employee Productivity?
Remote work software systems typically offer tools that help companies track the productivity of their employees working remotely. These have provisions for monitoring total hours at work, login/logout time, productive hours, and more. The software solutions also offer customized analytics and reporting features for better assessment of remote workforce productivity.
What Are the Features to Look for in Remote Work Management Solutions?
Your company’s ideal remote work management system must provide all the tools needed for its employees’ efficient remote working. The core features that remote working software solutions typically offer include:
- Workflow management
- Project and task management
- Employee monitoring
- Time and productivity tracking
- Remote role-based access and controls
- Instant messaging
- Audio/video calling
- Meeting management and conferencing
- Collaboration tools
- Centralized file storage, sharing, editing
- Notifications and reminders
- Analytics and reporting
How to Ensure the Successful Implementation of Remote Work Software for Your Business?
Adopting remote working tools is complicated and time-consuming, but the below checklist can ease this task for you and ensure the solution’s successful implementation.
- Analyze and identify your company’s remote working needs and challenges
- Compare different solutions and select the one that matches your requirements
- Ensure the software you choose is user-friendly
- Discuss with the vendor about the security features the software offers for remote working
- Try the software product’s demo or free trial (if available) to analyze your team’s comfort level and training requirements
- Organize user-training sessions for your employees to ensure a smooth onboarding
What Factors Influence the Pricing of Remote Work Software?
The factors that typically affect the cost of remote working tools are:
- Features it offers
- Number of teams
- Number of users or participants
- Number of tasks
- Deployment model
Software vendors typically offer multiple packages for remote working solutions, starting from low-cost packages with basic features to higher-cost advanced features. Customized-feature plans cost very high depending on the complexity of requirements.
How Much Does Remote Working Software Cost?
The costs of remote work software vary a lot based on the factors listed above. Many software vendors offer free versions or freemiums of their software apart from the paid plans. For example, Asana, one of the best and the most popular remote working software, provides a free version for unlimited teams and upto 1000 tasks (per team). Trello is another top remote working solution and visual collaboration tool that offers a free starter version.
There are many top remote working software options available for less than $20 per month. WebWork Time Tracker costs as low as $2.99 per user per month, Wrike $9.8 per user per month, GoToMeeting $12 per organizer per month, Teamviewer costs $19 per month, and Zoom starter plan for small businesses costs $12.5 per month.
Are There Any Free Remote Working Software Tools Available?
There are multiple free remote work systems available in the market, for example, Google Drive. Businesses with budget limitations can avoid costly software solutions for remote work management and leverage these tools to streamline remote work. Please refer to our blog on the best free and open source remote work software tools for details.
Are Remote Working Software Tools Secure?
The best remote work management software available in the market typically provides multi-layer security features for your business’ safe remote work management. You must still ensure the security features for remote working tools, including access controls, end-point protection, data integrity, data sharing, data encryption, vulnerability scanning, two-factor authentication, etc., with the software vendor.
Resources for Remote Work Software
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