Collaboration and Communication

In this section, you will find a selection of free or low-cost tools for team collaboration and communication. Find tools to communicate with your team, share documents, brainstorm, and track the progress of all your projects.

Navigation:

Cloud Storage

  • Google Drive – 15GB of free storage. Regarded as the best online collaborative platform.
  • Microsoft OneDrive – 5GB of free storage. One of the most flexible cloud services for storing, syncing, and sharing files.
  • Sync - 5GB of free storage. High level of data privacy with "zero-knowlege" encryption. Data stored in Canada making Sync compliant with Canadian privacy legislation.
  • Box – 10GB of free storage with a maximum file size of 250MB.
  • Dropbox – Free for 2GB of space. Ideal for users who like simplicity, although it lacks sophisticated collaboration tools.
  • Hightail – Create unlimited visual project folders (called a Space) with a 250MB limit on the total file size uploaded to each Space.

Calls/Online Meetings/Webinars

  • Skype – Free Skype audio and video calls, and messaging. Up to 25 people on group audio calls.
  • Google Hangouts – Video call, phone, or message for free. Hold a video conversation with up to 10 participants.
  • Cisco WebEx Meetings – Meet and work with two other people for free. Meetings with more than two people starting at $19 per month.
  • GoToMeeting – Meetings starting at $24 per month for up to 5 attendees.

Team Collaboration

  • Slack –The most widely talked about and used team communications app available for all major desktop and mobile platforms. Free for unlimited time and unlimited number of people. 5GB of total storage and 10 service integrations.
  • Bitrix24 – Regarded as one of the best alternatives to Slack. Free for file storage of 5GB and 12 employees.
  • Flowdock – Integrates conversations, work items and tools in once place. Free for teams of 5 or less and students. $3 per user/month.
  • Bitbucket – Distributed version control system for software collaboration. Free for up to 5 users.
  • GitHub – Free software collaboration tool for public projects. Private projects starting at $7 per month.

Mind Maps/Diagrams

  • MindMeister – Considered by many to be the best online mind mapping application available. Completely web-based, no download and no updating. Free for up to 3 mind maps.
  • XMind – Open source, downloadable application for both Mac and PC with free and paid options.
  • Coggle – Ideal for single users who want an easy-to-use mind mapping software tool. Free for unlimited public diagrams. Create private diagrams starting at $5 per month.
  • Bubbl.us – Stands out from the competition because of its simplicity. Free for up to 3 mind maps and unlimited mind maps for $6 per month.
  • Creately – Cloud-based diagram and collaboration tool. Free for up to 3 collaborators and 5 public diagrams. Unlimited diagrams starting at $5 per month.
  • Lucidchart – Web-based diagramming software allowing real-time collaboration. Free for students and teachers.