The 10 best home office software tools for productivity and collaboration

Key findings

• Slack is the solution for small teams to collaborate and stay productive with features like voice and video calls, drafts, and more.
• Microsoft 365 offers best-in-class solutions like Word, PowerPoint and Excel with 1 TB of OneDrive storage for all your files and media.
• Toggl Track is a time tracking and productivity software that is essential for teams, freelancers and businesses to understand how time is spent.

While working from home has its benefits, sometimes it can be difficult to maintain productivity and encourage collaboration. The right software can make all the difference and transform your home office chaos and potential distraction zone into a well-oiled machine for productivity and teamwork. Whether you're a solo entrepreneur or part of a remote team, these tools will enable you to achieve goals and thrive in the digital age.

1 Loose

Keep communication in your team under control

It should come as no surprise that Slack is at the top of the charts. It's a solution that helps small teams collaborate and stay productive. When creating a workspace, be sure to add relevant channels like General, Sales, Marketing, Finance, and more to streamline communication. Slack offers a number of features like voice and video calling, reactions, drafts, the ability to pin messages, and more.

The company recently introduced lists to manage small projects. One of Slack's greatest strengths is its integration with third-party apps and services. It works with all popular tools like Trello, Airtable, Asana, Google Drive, Zoom, and more. You can also automate common team tasks using the Workflow Builder. Slack offers a free plan, and you can subscribe to a monthly plan for $7.25 to unlock unlimited messaging, app integrations, and more.

2 Microsoft365

You can make anything possible

Microsoft 365 is another essential package for your home office setup. Whether you want to draft documents, create presentations, or go through spreadsheets, you need the industry-leading solutions to get the job done. While Google and LibreOffice offer similar tools, nothing beats Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.

The software giant offers native Office apps across all platforms, and your active Microsoft 365 subscription also includes 1 TB of OneDrive storage, which should be enough to store all your files and personal media. The seamless OneDrive integration also offers other benefits like Private Vault, private sharing, and the ability to add an expiration date to sharing links.

3 Switch track

Keep track of your time

Toggl Track is a time tracking and productivity software that helps individuals and teams understand how they spend their time. It is an essential tool for teams, freelancers and businesses to create reports, invoices and analytics.

Toggl Track shines with seamless integration with third-party tools like Trello, Asana, Jira, Evernote, Outlook, and more. Once you've finished setting up Toggl Track, explore the Zapier integration to connect it with other apps and use a dedicated button to track your time. There's also the option to enable a Pomodoro timer. Toggl Track offers a robust plan for freelancers, while the Starter plan costs $9 per month.

4 Performance

Create personal and flexible databases

Notion is an all-in-one productivity powerhouse for remote workers. It is a flexible software that allows you to create a task manager, habit tracker, subscription tracker, small project coordination, notes, and various databases as per your needs.

Thanks to hundreds of Notion templates available, you don't even have to start from scratch. Notion also offers AI integration to compose a blog post, summarize a page, correct grammar, and more. However, it may take some time to get used to the block editor with the forward slash (/) command. But once you get past the initial learning curve, using Notion is an absolute joy.

Notion integrates seamlessly with popular software solutions like Google Drive, Figma, Framer, Miro, Sketch, and more. This is very helpful when you work with multiple files in a Notion workspace. Notion has synced blocks that let you use the same blocks on different pages and make changes to all of them in real time.

5 Asana

Complete your projects in style

Your home office setup is simply incomplete without a dedicated project management tool. While there are hundreds of project management tools available (including Notion), Asana tops our recommendation list for several reasons.

You can track team tasks, manage projects, and increase your team's productivity in no time. Asana offers a customizable home menu with multiple widgets, a robust task menu to add all the relevant information, and supports various views like list, board, dashboard, calendar, and more. Asana also offers seamless integration with third-party solutions like Slack, Teams, Google Drive, Figma, Canva, and more. Pricing starts at $11 per member per month.

6 FigJam

Brainstorm ideas with team members

As a remote worker, you don't have the flexibility to use a physical whiteboard at home. If you prefer a traditional whiteboard approach to capture your ideas and thoughts, try FigJam. Developed by Figma, FigJam is a feature-rich whiteboard solution for small teams, professionals, and freelancers.

It is helpful in brainstorming, creating diagrams, developing strategies, planning and collaborating in virtual meetings. It includes all the essential tools like text, sticky notes, stamps, tables and more. Like Figma, it is a web-based software that allows real-time collaboration. In classic Figma style, there are dozens of templates to help you start your project planning.

7 TickTick

Complete your daily tasks in no time

In addition to database, project management, and team communication tools, you also need a task management app to handle a busy day. TickTick is our top recommendation for remote work for several reasons.

TickTick lets you create various lists and there are native apps on all platforms, tags and more. TickTick desktop apps also support basic project management with a list view, notes, habit tracking and more. There is also an option to enable a Pomodoro to track your productive time. The app has perfected the aesthetics. Besides the default dark and light shades, it supports multiple themes based on cities, seasons and more. The price is $4 per month.

8 1Password

Save your login details

When you work with so many software solutions and services, you need a powerful password manager to store and manage your login information. While there are dozens of password managers out there, 1Password stands out from the crowd for several reasons.

First of all, 1Password has native apps on all platforms, including a capable web extension for Chrome, Edge, and Safari. Although 1Password recently switched to Electron apps, the company has done a solid job with the overall look and execution of the app.

1Password supports multiple categories, vaults, and tags to help you manage your password entries like a pro. You can also create a profile to enter your personal and financial information with a single click. 1Password pricing starts at $3 per month.

9 Joplin

A robust solution for note-taking

When you work from home, you need a powerful note-taking app to capture your meeting details, ideas, thoughts, and research notes. Joplin is a solid note-taking solution with a long list of features, robust organization, Markdown support, and more.

Unlike other note-taking apps, Joplin has a standard toolbar at the top that helps you create notes with style. Joplin offers multiple theme options as well as native apps across all platforms. There is also the option to sync your Joplin notebooks with cloud storage solutions like OneDrive and Dropbox. Joplin also supports plugins, which can be beneficial for developers to extend the functionality of the app as per their liking.

10 Toschl

Track every cent

Are you managing a small team on a tight budget? As a project manager, you need to keep track of every penny. It's also an ideal option for personal use. You can keep track of all your cash, cards, and financial accounts like PayPal in one place.

Toshl offers a trendy flow view that helps you keep track of your expenses and income. You can also create budgets for different categories to plan your green money in style. Toshl supports location tracking that lets you track expenses based on different locations. If you have the paid Toshl plan, connect your local bank to it to import all transactions into the app. Toshl supports over 12,000 financial institutions worldwide.

Optimize your workflow

What are you waiting for? Whether you're a freelancer, a remote team member, or simply looking to streamline your home office space, these tools can boost productivity and collaboration in no time. In addition to software solutions, you'll also need the right hardware and gadgets to improve your home office setup. Check out our separate guide for the nine best products we recommend.