10 Team Productivity Apps and Tools for 2024
In today’s high-pressure work environment, teams are constantly juggling multiple demands. As tasks pile up faster than they can be completed, the consequences can be severe: declining work quality, missed deadlines, and ultimately, dissatisfied clients. While hiring additional staff might seem like a solution, it’s not always feasible, especially for small businesses and freelancers working with tight budgets.
What teams really need is a way to amplify their productivity without burning out. This is where team productivity tools come into play. By automating repetitive tasks, streamlining processes, and improving collaboration, these tools can help your team accomplish more without pushing them to their limits.
The market is flooded with productivity apps and software, each promising to revolutionize the way you work. To help you navigate this sea of options, we’ve curated a list of 10 standout team productivity tools for 2024. These selections are tailored to meet the needs of freelancers, small businesses, and growing teams, offering cost-effective solutions to boost efficiency and output.
Table of contents:
- Benefits of team productivity apps
- The 10 Team Productivity Apps and Tools for 2024
- Kimai Mobile
- Asana
- Slack
- Trello
- Notion
- Todoist
- Zoom
- Microsoft Teams
- Zapier
- Grammarly
Benefits of team productivity apps
- Enhanced Collaboration: These tools break down communication barriers, allowing team members to share ideas, documents, and feedback seamlessly. Whether your team is in the same office or spread across different time zones, productivity apps ensure everyone stays on the same page.
- Streamlined Workflows: By automating repetitive tasks and providing clear process structures, productivity apps help eliminate bottlenecks and reduce the time spent on administrative duties. This allows your team to focus on high-value tasks that drive your business forward.
- Improved Time Management: Tools like Kimai Mobile offer advanced time tracking features, helping teams understand how they spend their working hours. This insight is crucial for identifying areas of inefficiency and optimizing resource allocation.
- Increased Accountability: With clear task assignments and progress tracking, team productivity apps make it easier to hold team members accountable for their responsibilities. This transparency often leads to improved performance and more timely project completions.
- Data-Driven Decision Making: Many productivity tools offer analytics and reporting features, providing valuable insights into team performance, project progress, and resource utilization. These data points can inform strategic decisions and help in setting realistic goals.
- Reduced Overhead Costs: By improving efficiency and reducing the need for physical resources (like paper-based systems or in-person meetings), productivity apps can lead to significant cost savings over time.
- Enhanced Work-Life Balance: With better organization and more efficient workflows, teams can often accomplish more within regular working hours, reducing the need for overtime and helping to prevent burnout.
- Scalability: As your team or business grows, productivity apps can easily scale to accommodate increased workloads and more complex project structures without a proportional increase in management overhead.
By leveraging the right combination of team productivity apps, businesses of all sizes can achieve higher output, improved quality, and greater employee satisfaction. Now, let’s explore our top 10 picks for 2024 that can help you realize these benefits.
The 10 Team Productivity Apps and Tools for 2024
1. Kimai Mobile
Best for time tracking
With the Kimai Mobile App, you can track time efficiently on your phone, storing it automatically on your Kimai web server. Kimai Mobile records your own or your employees’ working hours and is able to print a summary of all activities if needed (coming soon). It gives you transparency on the status of your teams projects and tasks directly on your phone. Take a look at all the features Kimai Mobile has to offer.
It will handle all of your working hours and supports an unlimited amount of workspaces. That’s how you can manage all your tasks and projects in one easy-to-install application and get full transparency about it. Worry less about calculating expenses and billing, but spend more time on what really matters, your projects. Get insights on your team’s time management so you can motivate them accordingly.
Features:
- Mobile app
- Offline time tracking
- Reports
- Manage team
- Available in multiple languages
- Dark mode
- Set an alarm for a certain task
- Reminder to “take a break”
Pricing: Plans start at €19.99 per user, billed annually. A 7-day free trial is available.
Explore more Kimai Mobile pricing plans.
2. Asana
Best for managing agile workflows
Asana stands out as a comprehensive project management platform. Its intuitive project dashboards serve as a central hub, offering at-a-glance views of crucial project data, visual progress tracking, and key performance indicators. Team members benefit from a unified space where they can access task allocations, due dates, task interdependencies, and ongoing discussions.
One of Asana’s standout features is its timeline view, which allows teams to visually plot tasks, their relationships, and the overall project trajectory. The software doesn’t stop there – it also provides a suite of organizational tools including calendar integrations, task lists, user-friendly Kanban boards with drag-and-drop functionality, and detailed Gantt charts.
Features:
- Project dashboards
- Timeline view
- Workflow builder
- Gantt charts
- Kanban boards
- Custom project templates
Pricing: Plans start at $0 per month.
3. Slack
Best for real-time messaging
Slack is a communication platform primarily known for its chat software, but it contains several other tools that facilitate team productivity. Along with messaging, Slack has audio and video meeting tools, plus screen-sharing capabilities that allow teams to collaborate on documents and presentations in real time.
Slack’s workflow builder lets teams automate routine tasks and streamline workflows. Users can create custom workflows that trigger actions based on specific events within Slack channels. For instance, users can build a workflow to automatically assign a task to a team member when a specific keyword gets mentioned in a channel or to generate reports when a project reaches a particular milestone.
The solution’s canvas tool lets teams brainstorm ideas and share information in shared documents using text, images, videos, and links. Canvases can be used for collaborative brainstorming sessions, project planning workshops, or organizing key project information in a visually engaging format.
Features:
- Messaging
- Audio and video meetings
- Workflow builder
- Canvases
- Custom templates
Pricing: Plans start at $0 per month.
4. Trello
Best for team brainstorming
Trello is project management software known for its board-based approach to task organization. Trello provides a calendar view that allows teams to see upcoming deadlines and task due dates. The platform also has a map view depicting tasks as locations on a map, with connections that represent dependencies or task sequences.
Trello’s built-in automation tool, Butler, allows teams to automate repetitive tasks, set rules for automatic actions, and create custom buttons for frequently used functionalities. For example, Butler can automatically move cards between lists when users complete tasks, send notifications when deadlines approach, or generate reports based on card data.
Features:
- Automation
- Calendar
- Dashboard
- Map view
- Workspace tables
Pricing: Plans start at $0 per month. A free trial is available.
5. Notion
Best for free content management
Notion is a workspace management software that offers team productivity tools. Notion allows teams to build workspaces from scratch using building blocks like text boxes, tables, databases, and Kanban boards. Additionally, users can create dedicated project pages, house meeting notes, and track task progress.
Notion also has knowledge-sharing and collaboration features, such as built-in knowledge wikis. These wikis allow teams to create centralized repositories for important information, procedures, and resources. Team members can contribute content, update documentation, and collaborate on building a comprehensive knowledge base.
Notion also offers workspace analytics that provide insights into team activity and project progress. These analytics can track metrics like page views, edits, and collaborators.
Features:
- Collaborative workspace
- Workspace analytics
- Private team spaces
- Knowledge wikis
- Page history
Pricing: Plans start at $0 per month.
6. Todoist
Best for individual task management
Todoist is a task management tool that can aid employee productivity. One of Todoist’s core functionalities is its automated task sorting. It can categorize tasks based on due dates, priorities, and assigned labels. Additionally, Todoist integrates with popular calendar applications, allowing for automatic task scheduling and synchronization.
Todoist leverages natural language recognition to assist with task creation and scheduling. Users can type in phrases like “write a report by Friday” or “call the [client] at 3 p.m. tomorrow,” and Todoist automatically recognizes the task, assigns a due date or reminder, and adds it to the appropriate project.
Teams can also operate in a dedicated workspace where they can view, join, and create projects together. Todoist also features capabilities that let teams assign tasks to specific individuals, set deadlines, and leave comments for clear communication and coordinated project execution.
Features:
- Task reminders
- Priority settings
- Task views
- Activity history
- Team workspace
Pricing: Plans start at $0 per month.
7. Zoom
Best for virtual meetings and collaboration
Zoom is a leading video conferencing tool that enhances team productivity through seamless remote communication. One of Zoom’s core functionalities is its high-quality video and audio conferencing, supporting meetings with up to 1000 video participants and 10,000 viewers.
Zoom offers screen sharing capabilities, allowing presenters to share their entire screen, specific applications, or portions of their screen. This feature facilitates effective presentations, demonstrations, and collaborative work sessions. Additionally, Zoom integrates with popular calendar applications, enabling easy scheduling and joining of meetings directly from users’ calendars.
The platform provides a virtual whiteboard feature, where team members can collaboratively brainstorm, sketch ideas, and annotate shared content in real-time. Zoom also offers breakout rooms, allowing larger groups to split into smaller sessions for focused discussions or teamwork before reconvening in the main meeting.
For enhanced productivity, Zoom includes built-in recording and transcription features. Users can record meetings for future reference or for team members who couldn’t attend, and AI-powered transcription makes it easy to search and review meeting content later.
Features:
- High-quality video and audio conferencing
- Screen sharing
- Virtual whiteboard
- Breakout rooms
- Meeting recording and transcription
- Chat and file sharing
Pricing: Plans start at $0 per month for basic features, with paid plans offering additional capabilities.
8. Microsoft Teams
Best for integrated workplace collaboration
Microsoft Teams is a comprehensive collaboration platform that boosts team productivity by combining chat, video meetings, file storage, and application integration. One of Teams’ core functionalities is its seamless integration with other Microsoft 365 applications, creating a unified hub for workplace communication and productivity.
Teams offers high-quality video conferencing capabilities, supporting meetings with up to 1000 participants. The platform provides rich meeting features such as background blur, live captions, and meeting recordings. Additionally, Teams integrates directly with Outlook calendar, allowing for easy scheduling and joining of meetings without leaving the application.
The platform excels in document collaboration, enabling real-time co-authoring of Microsoft Office files directly within Teams. Users can edit Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations together, with changes syncing instantly across all participants.
Teams also offers robust channel-based communication. Teams and channels can be created for different projects, departments, or topics, allowing for organized conversations and file sharing. The persistent chat feature ensures that all team communications are searchable and accessible, reducing information silos.
Features:
- Chat and threaded conversations
- Video meetings and webinars
- File sharing and collaborative editing
- Channel-based team organization
- Integration with Microsoft 365 apps
- Third-party app integrations
Pricing: Basic features are included with Microsoft 365 subscriptions, with additional capabilities available in premium plans.
9. Zapier
Best for integrating applications
Zapier is a software solution for automating repetitive tasks between different web applications. It acts as a central hub, allowing teams to connect various tools they already use and streamline workflows. One of Zapier’s core functionalities lies in its workflow automation tools. Users can build “Zaps,” which are automated processes triggered by specific events within one application.
For instance, a user can build a Zap to automatically add a new lead from a web form to a customer relationship management (CRM) system or send a notification to a team chat whenever a new file is uploaded to a cloud storage platform.
Zapier features a visual editor for building Zaps. This editor utilizes drag-and-drop functionality so users with minimal technical expertise can connect applications and automate workflows. Additionally, Zapier’s shared workspace allows teams to create and manage Zaps and share automation best practices.
Features:
- Visual editor
- Automated workflows
- Shared workspace
- Custom actions
- Automation filters
Pricing: Plans start at $0 per month. A 14-day free trial is available.
10. Grammarly
Best for enhancing written communication
Grammarly is an AI-powered writing assistant that improves team productivity by enhancing the quality and clarity of written communication. One of Grammarly’s core functionalities is its advanced grammar, spelling, and punctuation checking, which goes beyond basic spell-check tools to provide context-aware suggestions.
Grammarly offers real-time writing feedback, providing suggestions as users type in various applications and platforms. It integrates seamlessly with popular browsers, email clients, and productivity tools, ensuring consistent writing quality across different communication channels. Additionally, Grammarly works within Microsoft Office applications, allowing users to improve their documents, presentations, and spreadsheets without switching contexts.
The platform uses natural language processing to offer vocabulary enhancement suggestions, helping users find more precise and impactful words to convey their messages. Grammarly also provides style and tone recommendations, assisting users in adjusting their writing to suit different audiences and purposes, from formal reports to casual team messages.
For teams, Grammarly Business offers centralized billing, style guide creation, and analytics on team members’ writing improvements. This allows organizations to maintain consistent brand voice and track progress in communication quality over time.
Grammarly’s plagiarism checker (available in premium plans) helps ensure the originality of content, which is particularly useful for teams producing reports, articles, or marketing materials.
Features:
- Grammar, spelling, and punctuation checking
- Vocabulary enhancement suggestions
- Style and tone adjustments
- Plagiarism detection
- Cross-platform integration
- Team analytics and reporting (in Business plan)
Pricing: Plans start at $0 per month for basic features, with individual premium and business plans offering additional capabilities.