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Our criteria: How we chose the best vendors
We take our research seriously and want to make sure we are presenting our readers with the very best solutions in a given software category. Here's how we select vendors to be in our buyer guides:
- Product: We want to have a deep understanding of a vendor's product before recommending it. This usually means getting a demo by a senior executive (their CEO, head of product, etc), and/or using the product ourselves to make sure it has a solid UI, intuitive workflows, and the features to make it a best in class offering.
- User feedback: We do our best to understand what users say when they experience this product. User input allows us to accomplish a more thorough due diligence of products, put new vendors on our radar, and generally make sure we are presenting the right products to our readers.
- Financial metrics: We are very much finance nerds and so use a product's retention rates, growth, profitability, and scale to understand whether or not it is truly best in class.
- Best for a use case: Sometimes the best solution is the cheapest, the best tool for international companies, or the best for startups. We try to include a diversity of solutions so that our readers can find the tool that is best for what they need.
Here's more detail if you want to read further on how we research vendors.
In this guide you'll find
The best remote team management tools allow companies to engage employees, collaborate, and grow their business. Remote work has been on the rise for nearly two decades, and even more so since the COVID-19 crisis. In the U.S. alone, a study revealed that remote work has increased by 28% between 2020 and 2022 - a trend that’s highly likely to continue. As such, software solutions and remote team management tools have become increasingly necessary. After all, they help companies maximize productivity, collaboration, and culture — all of which are critical for organizational success.
But as you probably already know, there are seemingly endless options. Some help companies better manage their remote teams, while others help remote workers be more productive. In this guide, we’re going to help you figure out which solutions are right for your organization with a list of top tools, what they cover, and why you might need them; common mistakes and how to fix them; implementation guidelines; and more.
Featured in
Top Remote Team Management Tools
Here are the best remote work tools for companies looking to engage employees, collaborate, and grow. We'll be adding to this list frequently as we discover more awesome tools to include.
Why we love it
:
Oyster lets you hire, pay, and provide benefits to your team members across a myriad of borders.
Oyster
Review:
Oyster is notable among the global EOR and payroll vendor landscape for being able to help with hiring, compliance, benefits, payroll, and other HR processes in over 180 countries. You can hire and onboard A-players, regardless of their location, in a matter of days.
Another cool thing about Oyster is that they’re a remote company too. Their team is distributed across 30+ countries and 5 continents, so they’re certainly no strangers to the remote-first philosophy, which is evident in their product and operation.
Oyster
Customers:
Quora, Wagestream, Impala, Grover
Quora, Wagestream, Impala, Grover
Oyster
Stats:
- Hiring and HR processes in 180+ countries
- Grew revenues 8x in the last year
- Hiring and HR processes in 180+ countries
- Grew revenues 8x in the last year
Oyster
Pricing:
With Oyster, you can choose whether to hire people with them acting as the employer of record, or take people on as contractors. You can have up to two contractors for free. Then, pricing is as follows:
- Contractors: $29 per team member per month
- Business: pay $399 or $699 per employee per month, when Oyster acts as the EOR.
- Enterprise: get custom pricing for extra HR and legal support apart from payroll processing services.
With Oyster, you can choose whether to hire people with them acting as the employer of record, or take people on as contractors. You can have up to two contractors for free. Then, pricing is as follows:
- Contractors: $29 per team member per month
- Business: pay $399 or $699 per employee per month, when Oyster acts as the EOR.
- Enterprise: get custom pricing for extra HR and legal support apart from payroll processing services.
Best For
Remote companies whose global workforce is growing quickly.
Why we love it
:
ChartHop is an organizational management platform. They're rapidly evolving into one of the more interesting HR Tech companies in the space.
- Charthop nicely integrates with your existing HR and ATS systems. Having everything under one roof means not having to use ten different applications.
- Charthop’s organization chart is its biggest asset. Their drag-and-drop feature to edit the chart is a hit amongst a majority of the users. Overall, the tool makes navigation throughout the company really easy - you can find the people you need, figure out their responsibilities, and track changes after the latest company re-organization.
- Charthop's goal tracking interface is simple, intuitive, and easy to build. There's not much else you can ask for.
- Charthop's Map feature allows businesses to see where each employee is located. For organizations that work remotely, this promotes a feeling of togetherness, which is crucial for employee engagement.
- Charthop's organization chart navigation isn't the best. The chart zooms in and out quite quickly, and the gestures aren't intuitive, making it difficult to use.
- Charthop can be a little complicated to figure out. Also, the fact that there are so many features is a little intimidating.
- Charthop's search function isn't user-friendly. There's not much information on how to use it effectively, and it sometimes throws the wrong results.
- Charthop's UI is somewhat dated and clunky.
ChartHop
Review:
ChartHop originally started out as an org chart software vendor. Now, they see their offering as a new category called organizational management. It is for that reason that they've added various new tools to their platform, such as people analytics and headcount planning. These tools can serve you very well when managing a remote team. For example, you can use this tool to facilitate collaboration and communication by getting everyone aligned under the same data. You can also measure the effectiveness of programs like DEI hiring, reduce attrition by identifying risks, and more.
ChartHop
Customers:
better.com, Postman, mongoDB, Remy Cointreu
Remy Cointreau, InVision, Sequoia, BetterCloud, and Postman
ChartHop
Stats:
- Saved customers a total of $2.5M in lost productivity
- Raised $14M in Series A funding
- Charthop saved InVision, a visual collaboration and productivity platform $2.5 million in lost productivity by empowering their team to make better strategic people decisions.
ChartHop
Pricing:
ChartHop operates on a per employee per month basis. Their base plan, called ChartHop Build, is $3.50 per employee per month. The next two plans, Grow and Scale, are $7 and $10 per employee per month respectively. They also offer an enterprise level solution with custom pricing.
For an additional $2 per employee per month, customers can get access to ChartHop’s compensation planning system as well.
Charthop has 4 different pricing plans. When billed annually, here’s what they look like:
- Charthop Build: At $3.50 per employee per month, this plan has all the fundamental features — a live org chart, employee profiles, DE&I reports, and integrations with HRIS, Slack, and Carta.
- Charthop Grow: Priced at $7 per employee per month, the Grow plan offers additional features such as employee engagement surveys, reporting, and custom data. If you don’t currently use a dedicated employee experience software, you can try check out this plan.
- Charthop Scale: This plan is best suited for businesses that want to scale at speed. Equipped with features like a performance management system, ATS integration, and headcount planning, this plan is priced at $10 per employee per month.
- Charthop Enterprise: Large enterprises whose main priority is agility and efficiency can opt for this plan. This pricing is not disclosed upfront. For more information, you can contact Charthop's sales team.
For an additional $2 per employee per month, billed annually, you also get access to their compensation planning tool. If you want to run your comp cycle on the same platform as your HRIS and performance management software, then this feature is beneficial.
Best For
Remote teams looking for a data-centric solution for team management.
Why we love it
:
Zoom a robust video conferencing solution that's used by millions of people worldwide. Anyone can access it for free on a browser, or via its desktop and mobile apps.
Zoom
Review:
Zoom has become the go-to video conferencing solution. It started with sales, and now is ubiquitous for 1:1 meetings, small groups, and even large scale webinars. While not perfect, their video conferencing is still the best on the market and a key for remote teams that want to organize happy hours, coffee chats, or meetings from disparate locations.
Zoom
Customers:
Uber, Zendesk, Logitech, Veeva, Rakuten, Atlassian, Nasdaq, Western Union
Zoom
Stats:
- Zoom has sold more than 1 million Zoom Phone seats around the world.
- Zoom was named a Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Meeting Solutions and a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for UCaaS, Worldwide.
Zoom
Pricing:
Zoom has 5 plans:
- Basic: This plan is suited for personal meetings. Anyone can get this plan for free.
- Pro: This plan is suited for small teams and is priced at $149.90 per year per license.
- Business: This plan suits small & mid-sized businesses and is priced at $199.90 per year per license.
- Zoom United Business: This plan is for large businesses and is priced at $350 per year per license.
- Enterprise: As the name entails, this plan is designed for enterprises. The price of this plan varies according to the size and needs of the business.
Best For:
Companies of all sizes looking to conduct online meetings - be it individual 1:1s or group sessions - as well as online events more efficiently.
Why we love it
:
Trainual goes beyond the typical LMS functionality; it offers tools for employee onboarding, process documentation, company Wiki, and standard operating procedure (SOP) creation.
Trainual
Review:
Trainual helps companies keep track of all the how-to's in their company which means faster onboarding of new employees and less time searching for the best way to do XYZ once they are on the job. This is a great way to document your company's playbooks for everything from customer facings roles to engineering. And, this sort of knowledge documentation becomes all that more important for remote companies.
Trainual
Customers:
IronMan, UPS, Stanford University, Design Pickle, Harmon Brothers.
Trainual
Stats:
Trainual
Pricing:
Trainual has two plans with fixed pricing:
- Pro: This plan allows up to 25 users to create unlimited documentation and gives them access to templates for training, tests, etc. This plan costs $99 a month when billed annually
- Premium: Users on this plan (up to 25) get everything from the Pro plan plus phone support/coaching, stock image library access, and more. This plan costs $149 a month when billed annually
A custom plan can also be created for larger companies upon request.
Best For:
Medium to large-sized companies looking to streamline the way they train their new hires.
Why we love it
:
Featuring a modern and intuitive interface, Lessonly is versatile training and coaching software that’s loved by nearly 4 million teammates.
Lessonly
Review:
From small companies to the Fortune 500, employee learning and development is incredibly important. Remote work means new challenges for onboarding and upskilling workforces. Lessonly's simple to use learning management system allows you to quickly build and deploy training materials. They also have a host of content around remote work specifically.
Lessonly
Customers:
HelloFresh, Trunk Club, McAfee, Salesloft, Jostens, Lending Home
Lessonly
Stats:
Lessonly has helped over 3 million learners from Fortune 100 enterprises to local businesses.
Lessonly
Pricing:
Lessonly has two plans:
- Pro: This plan includes Lessonly’s training software, intuitive lesson builder, interactive quizzes & surveys, automation & triggers, training event tracking, and integrations. Pro plan customers also get assigned a personal Customer Experience Manager
- Pro+Coaching: This plan includes everything from Lessonly’s Pro package, plus Lessonly Practice, Coaching, Conversations, and Certifications.
The pricing of the above plans isn’t disclosed on Lessonly’s website. Contact their sales team for a price quote accordingly to the size and scope of your operation.
Best For:
Companies of all sizes wanting to streamline the way to provide training to their employees.
Why we love it
:
Mistro easily provides benefits and perks in over 200 countries, from gym memberships to healthcare to equipment.
Mistro
Review:
Mistro was created specifically for the newly hybrid workplace. Therefore, rolling out benefits and perks to your remote workforce is easier. Mistro allows for detailed customization based on region, team members, and tenure, so you don't have to worry about forcing a rigid structure on your global team.
Mistro
Customers:
Mistro
Stats:
- Featured on Buffer's and AngelList's 2020 State of Remote Work
- Featured on Remote-How's Rising Stars
- Can be used in 200+ countries
Best For:
Mistro is best for large remote teams that wants to offer a wide range of perks and benefits.
Why we love it
:
Caroo is a versatile employee gifting service. Companies can use it to reward their top-performing employees or to simply cheer all employees with company-wide gifting.
Caroo
Review:
Caroo is a software-enabled employee gifting service. Companies of all sizes can use it to recognize certain employees for their performance or to simply cheer all employees with company-wide gifting. Caroo has different gift boxes to choose from; depending on the box chosen, these boxes can include anything from healthy snacks, premium gifts, and team-building activity items, delivered directly to your employees’ homes.
Caroo
Customers:
Google, Apple, GoodPx, Nike, Hulu, Peloton.
Caroo
Stats:
- Over 500,000 employees are happy with the service they’ve received from Caroo.
Caroo
Pricing:
Caroo has 3 packages that are priced as follows:
- Nourish: The pricing of the Nourish box starts at $26.95 and is shipped for free. This box can pack up to 30 delicious snacks from innovative brands.
- Inspire + Connect: This box packs premium-themed gifts and team-building activities. The pricing of this box starts at $53.95 plus free shipping.
- Concierge: Eligible for teams of 50 or more, the Concierge box is fully customizable and can include anything from premium snacks, wine, electronics, productivity supplies and more. The pricing of this box varies according to its contents.
Caroo also has seasonal boxes that pack season-appropriate snacks. The pricing of seasonal boxes starts at $33.95 plus free shipping.
Best For:
Companies of all sizes looking to reward or simply delight their employees regardless of the occasion.
Why we love it
:
Slack is undeniably every productive team’s go-to communication and collaboration solution. It facilitates private and group messaging, audio and video calls, file sharing, and more.
Slack
Review:
Slack's messaging platform has spread virally throughout the corporate world and is now a mainstay of corporate communications. Asynchronous standups, 1:1 messaging, or employee resource groups and so much more can be hosted on this platform. In addition, they have a large and growing ecosystem of apps that are native to Slack from employee recognition to notifications related to marketing, sales, engineering, or recruiting.
Slack
Customers:
Uber, Target, Fox, Ameritrade, Intuit, Time, One Medical, Oracle
Slack
Stats:
- Over 750,000 companies use Slack to get work done
- Slack integrates with over 2,200 apps using prebuilt modules
Slack
Pricing:
Slack has a free plan with limitations on message history access. Free plan customers can only view the last 10,000 of their team’s messages and the rest is archived unless an upgrade is made to any of the following paid plans:
- Standard: Suitable for small and medium-sized businesses. This plan costs $6.67 per person per month when billed annually.
- Plus: Suitable for larger businesses or those seeking advanced administration tools. This plan costs $12.50 per person per month when billed annually.
- Enterprise Grid: Suitable for very large businesses or those in highly regulated industries. The pricing of this plan varies according to the size and scope of your operation. Contact Slack’s sales team to learn more.
Best For:
Companies of all sizes looking for a robust team communication tool.
Why we love it
:
Atlas combines industry expertise and technology in their offering, empowering companies to hire and pay employees beyond their borders, while keeping them compliant with local labor laws.
- Atlas has legal entities in over 160 countries. They’ll help you take care of employee onboarding and payroll processing in any of those countries, eliminating the need to engage any local service providers.
- The platform simplifies how you hire, manage and pay employees and contractors abroad, without needing to set up an operation where they are located.
- Atlas helps you stay compliant with local labor laws and frees you from employer liability.
- Atlas has legal entities in over 160 countries. They’ll help you take care of employee onboarding and payroll processing in any of those countries, eliminating the need to engage any local service providers.
- The platform simplifies how you hire, manage and pay employees and contractors abroad, without needing to set up an operation where they are located.
- Atlas helps you stay compliant with local labor laws and frees you from employer liability.
- Atlas currently doesn’t offer global managed payroll for non-employer of record (EoR) clients; so if your company doesn't need Atlas to take on from you as EoR, but need to use Atlas' global payroll services, you can't do so at this time. Do note though that the team at Atlas is planning to offer this service next year.
- Atlas currently has limited prebuilt integration modules but they do offer API access for users to plug in third-party tools.
- Atlas currently doesn’t offer global managed payroll for non-employer of record (EoR) clients; so if your company doesn't need Atlas to take on from you as EoR, but need to use Atlas' global payroll services, you can't do so at this time. Do note though that the team at Atlas is planning to offer this service next year.
- Atlas currently has limited prebuilt integration modules but they do offer API access for users to plug in third-party tools.
Atlas
Review:
Atlas is a 100% direct employer of record (EOR) and international payroll platform that enables companies to hire and pay talent almost anywhere in the world. They’ll assume the role of legal employer on your behalf; this means once you find employees that you want to hire, they’ll help you manage those employees’ lifecycle, from onboarding to payroll processing - all while keeping you compliant with local labor laws.
Atlas
Customers:
Atlas is used by over a thousand companies, including Toyota, CACI, Bath & Body Works, Coupa, PAE, and Namely.
Atlas
Stats:
Atlas reported the following figures:
- 160+ local entities around the world
- 90+ languages supported
- 95%+ customer retention
- 82% faster expansion to a new market
Atlas
Pricing:
- Essential: For $99 per month, this plan encompasses features and services that help users navigate the labor & employment laws in over 160 countries (+50 US States), manage employee lifecycle, compliance information between countries, be compliant with their accounting for travel and business expenses, receive personalized notifications, as well as have moderate access to expert insights and HR templates (which are priced separately).
- Premium: For $149 per month, this plan packs everything in the Essentials plan, plus compliance audit interactive checks, people analytics and planning features as well as dedicated account management.
- Enterprise: The pricing of this plan varies according to the number of purchased licenses and customer needs. You can reach out to Atlas’ Sales team for a custom price quote.
Add-ons:
- Contractor Pay: Starting at $49 per contractor per month
- Employer of Record: $595 per employee per month
- Visa & Mobility Sponsorship: Starting at $2,500 per visa
Best For:
Companies of all sizes can avail Atlas’ offering. If you’re looking to compliantly hire and pay employees globally, Atlas is worth checking out.
Why we love it
:
From the small stuff to the big picture, Asana organizes project and tasks so your team knows what to do, why it matters, and how to get it done.
Asana
Review:
Asana allows remote teams to stay organized across many different and complex team-based projects. Whether you are running a content calendar or building a new piece of software, their project management suite will allow you to manage, assign, and track work.
Asana
Customers:
Vodafone, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Slack, Deloitte, Google, Uber, Spotify, Sky, Avon, PayPal, The New Yorker
Asana
Stats:
- Asana is used by more than a million teams in 190 countries.
- Asana integrates with over 100 different 3rd party tools.
Asana
Pricing:
Asana has 4 plans:
- Basic: Suitable for individuals or teams just getting started with project management. This plan is completely free of charge.
- Premium: Suitable for teams that need to create project plans with confidence. This plan costs $10.99 per user per month when billed annually.
- Business: Suitable for teams and companies that need to manage work across initiatives. This plan costs $24.99 per user per month when billed annually.
- Enterprise: Suitable for organizations that need additional security, control, and support. The pricing of this plan varies according to the size and scope of your operation. Contact Asana’s sales team to learn more.
Best For:
Companies of all sizes looking to manage projects and collaborate more efficiently.
Why we love it
:
TFY packs features for applicant tracking, freelancer management, payroll and more in a single platform. Not only that, but the platform supports diversity hiring, and can support you in planning and running a host of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives.
- TFY offers features for applicant tracking, freelance management, payroll and more in a single platform.
- TFY’s platform supports diversity hiring, and can support you in planning and running a host of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives.
- TFY has simple and transparent pricing which is something software users always appreciate.
- According to user feedback, TFY’s UI feels outdated and takes some time to get used to.
- Interested users cannot create trial accounts on their own from TFY’s website.
- TFY doesn’t have prebuilt integration modules, but they do offer API access to connect with tools in your tech stack.
- TFY currently doesn’t have a mobile app.
TFY
Review:
TFY’s freelancer management system (FMS) allows you to find, hire, pay and communicate with freelancers, remote workers, contractors and other contingent workers from a single system. It can work hand in hand with TFY’s ATS, so if you want to work on step one and two, i.e. finding and hiring freelancers, TFY’s ATS can help you post jobs to dozens of job boards, schedule interviews, shortlist candidates and monitor their progress throughout your hiring process.
TFY
Customers:
TFY serves companies of different industries. Some of their most notable customers are Zigurat Business School, Exante, Kissflow, WeWork, Revolut, B-caused, and RedHat.
TFY
Stats:
- 150+ countries
- 130+ currencies
- 15+ CSR programs
- 100+ partners and affiliates
TFY
Pricing:
TFY price their ATS and FMS separately as follows:
- FMS: $5 per team member, billed monthly. This includes everything you need to manage and pay remote teams, consultants, and freelancers.
- ATS: $50 per posted job. This plan provides insights into candidates’ skills and salary expectations.
Best For:
TFY is best suited for companies looking to hire and manage over 100 freelancers. The platform would also make a good addition to companies looking to implement CSR activities.
Why we love it
:
Papaya combines global workforce and payroll management into a single global platform that's capable of connecting you to a wide network of verified local vendors.
PapayaGlobal
Review:
Remote work means employees all over the world. It probably also means contractors who work for you part time. Whether you are paying construction workers in South Africa or part time software engineers in Australia, PapayaGlobal is a payroll provider who can handle your needs. They'll also serve as the employer of record for your employees so that you can take advantage of group buying power on benefits.
PapayaGlobal
Customers:
Toyota, GDIT, Microsoft, Wix, Teradata, Ncino
PapayaGlobal
Stats:
Papaya works in 160+ countries.
PapayaGlobal
Pricing:
Papaya has 3 plans:
- Payroll: In this plan, Papaya runs and manages your entire payroll process for one, all-inclusive fee ranging from $20 - $100 per employee per month.
- Global EOR: In this plan, Papaya’s in-country partners will serve as employers of record and assume responsibility for payroll, workforce management, benefits, compliance, and more. The pricing of this plan ranges from $770- $1000 per employee per month.
- Contractor Management & IC Compliance: With this plan, you can outsource particular services to a domestic or foreign contractor. The pricing of this plan starts from $25 per employee per month.
Best For:
Medium to large-sized companies looking for a method to pay employees and independent contractors in different countries.
Why we love it
:
Not only is Peakon a great employee engagement solution, it has a ton of analytical functionality that makes it great for people planning too.
Peakon
Review:
In a remote environment, employee engagement software is an essential tool to measure your culture, and ensure your employee population stays connected to their work. Peakon allows companies to get feedback and act to built a better work environment. This is especially powerful for fast changing companies who need to stay on top of how their employees are feeling with new work norms.
Peakon
Customers:
EasyJet, Verizon, Nando's, Pret, Capgemini
Peakon
Stats:
- Peakon is trusted by 1000+ of the world's best workplaces
- 157,209,657 employee survey responses
- 28,933,431 employee comments
- 160 countries represented
Peakon
Pricing:
Peakon has a three-tiered pricing structure:
- Essential: This plan offers baseline engagement features, a mobile app, and 24-hour online support.
- Business: This plan provides everything from the Essential plan, but adds personalized benchmarking, custom insights, action plans, and HRIS integrations. You'd also have a dedicated Customer Success consultant.
- Premier: With this plan, you'll receive everything previously mentioned, plus micro-learning sessions, attrition prediction, hierarchy mapping, business impact metrics, and unlimited custom dashboards. You all have extended Customer Success support and change management training.
The pricing of the above plans isn’t disclosed on Peakon’s website. Contact their sales team for a price quote according to the size and scope of your operation.
Best For:
Large and enterprise-sized organizations who can put all of Peakon's features to good use.
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Next Steps
As we said earlier, remote work is on the rise. Currently, 43% of U.S. employees work remotely to some degree. And it’s becoming a key value proposition for employees and candidates. In fact, some employees will only take a job if it is remote. The global coronavirus pandemic is likely testing your company’s ability to operate remotely, so you’re already learning a lot about what’s working and what isn’t. Listen to the feedback you’re getting and use it to create a more formal strategy to foster and better manage remote workers.
And remember, at the end of the day, remote work success really comes down to two core functions: communicating and sharing. How you do these effectively depends on the tools you choose to invest in. So think about the struggles you’ve been facing now, identify a few tools that could help, and schedule your demos.
Best Remote Work Software
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