Need help streamlining your content marketing processes? Online collaboration tools might do the trick.

A majority of B2B businesses (65%) used collaboration tools in their content marketing process in 2022, according to the Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs. This highlights the need for businesses to adopt these tools in order to remain competitive—and to keep up with large-scale content efforts.

Let’s take a look at some of the most popular online collaboration tools, including GatherContent, that help you work seamlessly with other teams and stakeholders.

15 online collaboration tools for productive teams

1. GatherContent

GatherContent is a full suite of content collaboration tools that simplify and streamline your production process. Stakeholders and team members can edit and leave comments on projects at the same time. Project owners can assign tasks, set due dates, and create content workflows to streamline clear collaboration responsibilities and timelines. And customizable templates allow you to embed content requirements to ensure your team produces high-quality content every time.

Top features:

• Collaborate in real-time: A cloud-based content editor allows teammates to update content, add feedback, ask questions, and request sign-offs at the same time.
• Improve quality consistency: Content templates include spots to list requirements and guidelines to maintain high-quality content production.
• Detailed revision history: Teams can see who changed what in order to correct mistakes or ensure subject matter experts have added their input.
• Integrations improve efficiency: Connect GatherContent directly to your CMS and other productivity tools through Zapier and API.

Pros:

• Customizable workflows and templates keep teams on track.
• Real-time collaboration removes the need for long email chains.
• Content calendar clearly outlines deadlines, tasks, and assignees.

Cons:

• Pricing may be too high for small teams or businesses.
• You’ll need the most expensive plan, Transform, to get access to training and a content import concierge service.

Pricing: Give GatherContent’s collaboration tools a try with our free 14-day trial. After your free trial, plans starts at $99 per month or $1,069 per year, and customizable plans are available.

2. Slack

A well-known communication tool, Slack has multiple collaboration features that help teams work together—even remotely and asynchronously. Along with customizable chat channels and direct messages, Slack allows you to hop into a voice chat with a coworker. You can also set permissions and share your Slack with people outside the company to ensure freelancers and clients can communicate easily.

Top features:

• Keep chats organized: Customizable channels allow for collaboration within and across teams without messages getting lost.
• Built-in document library: Use file sharing, pinned messages, and search to give every teammate access to necessary assets.
• Chat in real-time: Huddles and Clips allow teammates to chat within Slack or record audio messages.

Pros:

• Automations allow workflow notifications and status updates.
• Slack Connect lets you share your workspace with people outside the company.
• Connects with more than 2,400 apps for additional enhancements.

Cons:

• Users must manually turn off channel notifications, which can become a hassle and distraction.
• Single sign-on (SSO) and HIPAA compliance features require more expensive plans.

Pricing: Slack offers a free plan intended for individual use. Team plans start at $7.25 a month.

What is asynchronous communication? It’s when you share messages with teammates without expecting an immediate reply back, which results in improved productivity. A study published in 2020 found asynchronous communication reduced the time it took to complete a task by an average of 20 minutes.

3. Asana

The collaboration platform Asana uses kanban boards for workflow management. Teams can collaborate together on projects by tagging each other in cards, assigning tasks, and moving projects along within the workflow. Personalized fields and drop-down menus allow you to highlight key information on each project card as well.

Top features:

• Customizable kanban board statuses: Give everyone a clear view of each project’s status and completion, plus make it easy to drag and drop tasks as they’re updated.
• Personal board views: Teammates can quickly filter views to see only their tasks and focus on their responsibilities.
• Granular project management: You can connect two different Asana boards to update in tandem, allowing better tracking of sub-tasks and resources.
• Integrations with your Google workspace: Link your Google Sheets, Google Docs, and more within each Asana task.

Pros:

• Share Asana boards with external freelancers and clients to further collaboration.
• Create sub-tasks or dependencies and assign them due dates for a more granular project view.
• Tag and assign projects and tasks to individual team members.

Cons:

• Custom workflow automations require a more expensive plan.
• May get confusing if different collaborators use a different project management process.

Pricing: Asana’s Basic plan is free forever but limited to 15 users. The next plan up, Premium, costs $10.99 a month and doesn’t have a user limit.

4. Trello

Similar to Asana, Trello remains a mainstay in the world of small-team collaboration software. Its free plan is an excellent starting place for small teams that need to collaborate together on projects, and its template gallery makes it incredibly easy to set up a custom workflow. Additionally, automations help you keep your workflow as hands-free as possible so you can spend more time on creative tasks.

Top features:

• No-code automation tools: Automate project workflows and reduce time spent on admin tasks.
• Trello templates: Quickly set up a workflow and start your first project.
• Integrates with other collaboration tools: Power up your productivity with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and InVision.

Pros:

• Hundreds of integrations with tools and apps for an even more customized setup.
• Automations remove time spent on administrative tasks and workflow cleanup.
• Templates provide an easy starting point for creating your first workflow.

Cons:

• Free and Standard plan have limited file storage sizes of 10 MB and 250 MB respectively.
• You’ll need the Premium or Enterprise plan to see different views of your projects including a content calendar, timeline, and tables.

Pricing: Trello offers a free plan that’s limited to 10 boards per workspace. Paid plans start at $5 per user per month.

No one wants to hear “We don’t see the value in this, let’s hold off until we have a better idea.”

This is why collaboration tools like GatherContent are a must-have.

5. Microsoft Teams

Known primarily as a video conferencing tool, Microsoft Teams also comes with multiple collaboration features including file sharing, chat, a whiteboard, and collaborative annotations. The Microsoft 365 Business Basic and Business Standard plans also include Microsoft collaboration apps like Word, OneDrive, and SharePoint.

Top features:

• Integrates with other Microsoft apps: Get the full Microsoft toolkit, including Word docs, Outlook, SharePoint, Excel spreadsheets, and more.
• Text collaboration: Customizable chat channels allow teammates to collaborate via text.
• Screen sharing and collaborative annotations: Give teammates tools to problem solve and learn in real-time.

Pros:

• Business Basic and Business Standard plans give access to a full deck of Microsoft software along with Teams.
• Automated captions and transcripts improve accessibility for all.
• Includes meeting scheduling tools to keep everyone on the same page.

Cons:

• Limited workflow customization and collaboration.
• Works best for teams that already use Microsoft tools instead of G Suite.

Pricing: Microsoft Teams offers a free version limited to 100 users. Paid plans start at $4 per user per month.

6. Zoom

A popular tool for remote teams, Zoom is primarily a video conferencing platform. But don’t be fooled, it comes with plenty of collaboration tools as well, including screen sharing, an in-conference chat, collaborative annotation, and the ability to remotely control someone’s desktop or browser window during an online meeting. You can also create video and audio clips to share with teammates who aren’t logged in yet.

Top features:

• Screen sharing and collaborative annotation: Allow your team to seamlessly work together on-screen, even while doing remote work.
• Accessible to everyone: In-conference chat, captions, and transcripts improve accessibility and allow everyone to get in on the collaboration.
• Works with collaboration tools: Get more done with integrations like Miro, Asana, and Dropbox directly in Zoom.

Pros:

• Widely used across multiple teams and companies for video calls.
• Zoom Apps add functionality by connecting external collaboration tools.
• Easily schedule meetings with built-in Google Calendar support.

Cons:

• In-app chat features can be limited.
• Zoom-bombing is rarer than when the pandemic first started but still occurs.

Pricing: Zoom offers a Basic free plan with meetings up to 40 minutes long and limited to 100 attendees. Paid plans start at $15.99 per user per month (or $149.90 per user per year) and bump meeting length up to 30 hours.

7. Dropbox

Dropbox is a secure place to store your team’s shared documentation, content briefs, and other assets. Its cloud storage allows you to upload files up to 2 TB in size and share those documents with the DocSend feature. Dropbox Paper also allows you to create and edit content in real-time, perfect for creating cross-team content and brainstorming new ideas.

Top features:

• Shared folders: Teams can create a central place for important documents and ensure everyone has access.
• Collaborative shared workspaces: Dropbox Paper allows teammates to tag each other and work together in shared documents.
• Leave feedback: Comments, signature requests, and annotations ensure content meets quality and compliance guidelines.

Pros:

• Offers a large file capacity of up to 2 TB.
• Dropbox Paper makes collaboration easy with real-time editing.
• Two-factor authentication and encryption keeps your documents secure.

Cons:

• There’s no free plan, but there is a free trial of 14 days.
• Salesforce and SSO integrations require more expensive plans.

Pricing: Dropbox offers a 14-day free trial. Paid plans start at $10 per user per month.

8. Monday.com

Monday.com offers tools to aid your team with project and task management, workflows, and processes. Along with customizable workflows and task statuses, Monday.com includes automations to keep your team in the loop. And dashboards let you keep an eye on overall project statuses, goals, and timelines, as well as more granular data like the number of tasks each team member has based on status.

Top features:

• Customizable workflows: Match how your team works together for a more streamlined process—Monday.com can be set up as a CRM for sales teams or used as agile project management software for others.
• Direct messages and group chats: Give everyone a chance to chime in and stay on top of what’s coming next.
• Integrations: Use Monday.com with other collaboration tools, including Slack, Dropbox, and Trello.

Pros:

• A user-friendly dashboard makes it easy to customize.
• Monday.com often updates with improvements and new features.
• Automations remove the need for repetitive tasks.

Cons:

• The customizable interface may be too overwhelming for some scenarios.
• The company suffered a data breach in January 2021, raising security concerns.
• Prices may be too expensive for smaller teams.

Pricing: You can get up to two free seats and up to three boards with a free Monday.com plan. Its paid plans start at $8 per user per month for three seats.

9. ClickUp

ClickUp claims to be the one app to replace your productivity toolkit. It features similar workflow and task-tracking tools to Asana and Monday.com, in-app chat similar to Slack and Google Hangouts, and thorough goal-tracking views to keep tabs on team needs and workloads. You can also collaborate on docs and whiteboards in real-time directly in the dashboard.

Top features:

• Custom dashboards: Each team member can create a customized view of their tasks and projects to stay on track.
• Real-time collaboration: Built-in collaboration tools allow you to work together on tasks and projects without delays.
• Prioritization features: Due dates, checklists, and custom statuses help your team quickly see which tasks to prioritize.

Pros:

• ClickUp offers a comprehensive set of features to help with most every aspect of content collaboration.
• Plans start at a reasonable price, making ClickUp viable for smaller teams.
• Customizable workflows can meet the needs for different teams including marketing, software devs, and sales.

Cons:

• A large number of features may make ClickUp difficult to customize.
• Some users report a poor experience with the Android app.

Pricing: ClickUp offers a free plan with 100 MB of storage. Upgrading to a paid plan starts at $5 per user per month.

See content collaboration in action. GatherContent helped internet marketing company PaperStreet collaborate with content, design, and development teams. PaperStreet noted that using GatherContent’s collaboration tools cut more than 8 hours off the time it took to create content.

10. Miro

Need a place to collaboratively brainstorm and share ideas? Miro’s whiteboard tools help you plan out new content ideas, map out workflows and site architecture, and host ice-breaker meetings. Use Miro’s Post-its, diagrams, and mind maps, as well as templates to gather everyone’s input in a visual way.

Top features:

• Templates jumpstart collaboration: Use Miros’ built-in templates to quickly get started brainstorming and collaborating.
• Communicate with others: Leave comments, tag teammates, and directly message your coworkers within Miro.
• Customizable whiteboards: Along with brainstorming, Miro’s boards can be used for project management and to keep an eye on things like sales performance.

Pros:

• Miro is easy to learn and use, no need to train coworkers on its features.
• You can collaborate in real-time, then share Miro boards with other teams or coworkers in different time zones.
• Multiple uses make Miro versatile.

Cons:

• Project management features may be too limited for some.
• You’ll need the more expensive Business plan to get advanced collaboration features.

Pricing: Miro offers a free plan with a single workspace and three boards. Paid plans start at $8 per user per month.

11. Canva

Canva is a robust design tool that allows teammates to collaborate on graphics, documents, presentations, and whiteboards. Recently, Canva introduced AI to its toolkit, and you can use it to write outlines, brainstorm ideas, and overcome writer’s block. Canva not only helps you work on docs together but design marketing assets as well with a huge library of templates, illustrations, and photos.

Top features:

• Real-time comments: Teams can gather feedback and sign-offs without having to send emails.
• Streamline production: Integrate Canva with Slack, Mailchimp, Slack, HubSpot, and social media sites for more efficient workflows.
• Store and share files: Get sharing links and store up to 1 TB of content per user.
• Brand kits: Help your team meet guidelines with preloaded brand logos, colors, and fonts.

Pros:

• Canva is one of the most user-friendly design tools so anyone can create graphics.
• A robust set of features, including hundreds of templates, docs, and whiteboards make Canva a useful tool in multiple situations.
• Canva’s free plan is an excellent way for small teams to collaborate with each other on graphics.

Cons:

• Canva’s price may be too steep for small businesses.
• You’ll need to pay for Canva to export images as .svg—but all other file types are available on the free plan.

Pricing: Canva offers a free plan with limited access to illustrations and photos. Paid plans start at $12.99 per person per month ($119.99 per year per person).

12. Airtable

Airtable is a highly customizable project management tool that helps teams stay on the same page. Tasks, project briefs, and responsibilities are all laid out in Airtable cards. Teammates can view only their assigned tasks and projects and views can be changed to tables, timelines, kanban, and calendars.

Top features:

• Real-time work management: See project and task updates as they happen in Airtable dashboards and comments.
• Customized views: Quickly see who’s assigned to what tasks and when each one is due—teammates can also reassign tasks to the next person in the workflow.
• Streamline production with integrations: Pair Airtable with other collaboration and productivity tools including Asana, Evernote, and WordPress.

Pros:

• Airtable offers a versatile set of collaboration and workflow tools, including custom views, fields, statuses, and labels.
• Task assignment and commenting features empower teammates to keep production flowing and manage prioritization.
• Automations keep the work moving without you having to break your focus.

Cons:

• Airtable’s cost may be too high, especially for smaller teams.
• Due to its customizability, Airtable may have a learning curve for new users.

Pricing: You can get a free Airtable plan that allows up to five total users. Paid plans start at $10 per user per month.

13. ProofHub

ProofHub provides a place for your entire team to work together. Along with tracking and assigning tasks and projects, ProofHub has time-tracking and workflow tools that help you keep content production on track. Discussions, proofs, annotations, and approval requests further ProofHub’s collaboration capabilities, especially across different teams.

Top features:

• Project management: Teams can create and assign tasks, set deadlines, and track project progress in real-time.
• Share feedback: Collaborate with anyone thanks to comments, chats, and annotations, then seek approval on final products.
• Gain an aerial view of progress: ProofHub’s reports help you keep an eye on project timelines, task completion, the total amount of time logged, and more.

Pros:

• A comprehensive set of project management and collaboration tools makes ProofHub a viable solution for most content challenges.
• ProofHub’s simplicity makes it easy to set up and use—even for beginners.
• The annotations feature makes it easy to proof visual assets.

Cons:

• ProofHub’s reports may be too simplistic for some teams.
• Small storage options of 15 GB for the Essential plan and 100 GB for the Ultimate Control plan could be too limiting.

Pricing: You can try ProofHub for 14 days with a free trial. After that, pricing starts at $45 a month.

14. Freehand by InVision

Freehand by InVision is a design tool that helps teams collaborate together on wireframes, customer journey maps, buyer personas, and sprints. Project planning boards allow teammates to move tasks along in the production queue, add assignees, and ideate directly on embedded documents.

Top features:

• Easily share feedback: Comments, real-time workspaces, and workflows keep everyone on the team on track.
• Plays nice with other tools: Connect Freehand with multiple other collaboration tools, including G Suite, Zoom, Asana, and Slack.
• Built-in templates: Get started quickly with templates for sprint planning, org charts, sales pipelines, and even meeting icebreakers.

Pros:

• Freehand works with Sketch and Photoshop for easy design collaboration.
• Comments, annotations, and real-time editing features assist with collaboration.
• Pricing is affordable and the free plan also includes a robust set of features.

Cons:

• A limited number of templates may make Freehand difficult to implement.
• Freehand is missing the ability to work offline.

Pricing: InVision has a free plan that supports up to 30 users and three Freehand workspaces. Paid plans start at $4 per user per month for up to 50 users and unlimited Freehand workspaces.

15. Sketch

Sketch is an app that helps designers and developers collaborate with content teams efficiently. Its built-in tools allow you to browse files, inspect them, and add feedback through comments. Additionally, you can copy links directly to specific annotations to allow others to view and discuss them. Teams can also work on files together and share workspaces, frameworks, docs, and libraries filled with components.

Top features:

• Share and collaborate: Share libraries of design elements to maintain consistency, then collaborate on designs together in real time.
• Track changes: Sketch includes a version control feature that lets you check who made what changes over time.
• Power up with integrations and extensions: Sketch offers integrations with other apps plus community-created plug-ins that add extra functionality.

Pros:

• Provides an intuitive interface that makes collaboration even easier.
• Plugins boost Sketch capabilities to include UX, charts, and accessibility.
• Offers a 30-day free trial that doesn’t require a credit card.

Cons:

• Limited to macOS only—there’s no Windows, iOS, or Android support.
• The collaboration features may be too limited for some teams.

Pricing: Sketch offers a 30-day free trial period that doesn’t require a credit card. After that, you’ll need to subscribe to its paid plans that start at $9 per user per month. (It also offers free plans for students and teachers.)

Best team collaboration tools FAQs

What is an example of a collaboration tool?

An example of a collaboration tool is Slack, a messaging and communication platform that helps teams collaborate in real-time over multiple locations.

Another example of a collaboration tool that integrates content creation capabilities is GatherContent. Along with real-time co-editing features, the ability to assign tasks and projects to others, and customizable workflow statuses, GatherContent also lets you build custom templates and style guides to ensure everyone on any team keeps content quality consistent.

What is a collaboration tool?

A collaboration tool enables multiple people to work together on the same project, regardless of their location, time zone, or team. These tools often come as software or apps and help facilitate communication and feedback, project and task management, and approval processes.

Which is the best collaboration tool?

We might be a little biased, but we believe GatherContent is the best collaboration tool—at least for content marketing teams. Here’s what GatherContent offers as a collaboration tool:

• The ability to assign projects and tasks to teammates.
• Real-time editing and annotation with the in-app document editor.
• Customizable workflows and statuses that help you track deadlines.
• Filterable task views to keep everyone on track.

What are the 4 types of collaboration?

The four different types of collaboration at work are:

• Cloud collaboration: Data storage within the cloud has further enabled collaboration within teams by allowing multiple people to work on the same documents at once.
• Community collaboration: This type of collaboration tends to focus more on learning rather than completing tasks or projects, with a goal of helping each other solve challenges.
• Team collaboration: This is where a group of people has a common goal, trusts each other, and has distinct and clarified roles.
• Video collaboration: This type of collaboration became more popular after the pandemic and allows teams spread across multiple locations to communicate without traveling.

Collaboration tools like GatherContent and the 14 others we’ve listed here are game-changers for your team. As content creation and distribution becomes more complex, these tools can help you streamline your processes and keep everyone on the same page when it comes to content quality and needs.

GatherContent is not just a collaboration tool—it also offers features that help your team manage workflows, responsibilities, style guides, and even creation and publishing. Take GatherContent for a spin with our 14-day free trial and find out how it can boost your content team’s productivity, efficiency, and collaboration with each other and with other teams.