What Are Cloud Collaboration Tools?

Cloud collaboration tools are online software platforms that you can use to collaborate with people around the world, and they facilitate working with others on projects and tasks. They typically provide a set of basic features such as text chatting and file-sharing capabilities, and in some cases act as video conferencing tools.

Is Dropbox a Cloud Collaboration Tool?

Yes, Dropbox can be used as a cloud collaboration tool. Dropbox allows users to share files and folders with others. It is also possible to share documents on one device with people who have Dropbox installed on their device.

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10 Best Cloud Collaboration Tools in 2024: Increase Your Team’s Productivity

Businesses use cloud collaboration tools to streamline their work and improve team productivity. These tools have many benefits, including scalability, manageability, accessibility and integration with other tools for easy communication.

Written by Beatrice Manuel (Writer)

Reviewed by Samuel Chapman (Writer, Editor)

Facts checked by Jasna Mishevska (Lead Fact-Checking Editor)

Last Updated: 25 Sep'24 2024-09-25T17:32:01+00:00

All our content is written fully by humans; we do not publish AI writing. Learn more here.

With remote working still ascendant after the pandemic’s business disruptions, cloud collaboration tools continue to be highly effective for business productivity. Beyond allowing teams to share their ideas and work in real time, they also allow team members to reach their customers without financial or geographic boundaries.

Key Takeaways:

Sync.com is the best cloud collaboration and storage tool, with great security.
Microsoft Office 365 is the best productivity collaboration tool.
Slack and Microsoft Teams are both good recommendations for chat-focused team collaboration.
Google Drive and OneDrive are great alternatives for Sync.com, with impressive storage capacities and plans.

Cloud collaboration tools provide a platform for teams to share, discuss and collaborate on their projects. You can use them to store files and manage tasks, with the functionality to assign tasks, schedule and manage meetings, and keep everyone updated on their progress.

As an added benefit, online collaboration tools can help reduce paper waste and save your company money. They prevent information overload by providing a centralized hub for document and file storage. Since online collaboration tools are accessible from anywhere, they can also help improve your company’s productivity by enabling employees to work from home or while traveling.

Meet the experts

Beatrice Manuel (Writer)

Since starting her career at Goldman Sachs in 2018, Beatrice Manuel has been studying the ways B2B software can enable better project management. In addition to contributing to Cloudwards on efficiency-boosting software, Beatrice is the head of content at Mediaberry. She prides herself on helping clients fulfill their vision through words by producing conversion-worthy content pieces. When she isn’t helping her clients win readers, you’ll find her working on her next novel and posting on her literary blog.

More about Beatrice Manuel

Samuel Chapman (Writer, Editor)

Samuel Chapman, a writer and editor at Cloudwards, possesses over four years of experience specializing in online security, privacy and cryptocurrency. Holding an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine, Samuel combines his academic background with a diverse professional portfolio, including writing web copy for notable brands and editorial contributions to various platforms. Beyond his professional life, Samuel indulges in fiction writing, historical fencing and board games.

More about Samuel Chapman

Learn more about our editorial team and our research process.

12/01/2022 Facts checked

Updated to provide two curated lists of the top five productivity and the top five cloud storage tools.
08/31/2024

Added video reviews for cloud storage providers in the list.
updates

What Makes the Best Cloud Collaboration Tools?

The best cloud collaboration tools should allow a team to communicate and work together on a project, even if team members are spread around the world. However, with collaboration apps having many similar features and integrating with a lot of other productivity tools, it might be difficult to choose the right one for your team. We’ve put together a list of our top picks to make your choice easier.

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5 Best Productivity Tools

First up, we have five tools that help increase productivity by facilitating communication and collaboration.

Microsoft Office 365 — The best productivity-based collaboration tool
Google Workspace — Share and work on documents live with messaging
Slack — Powerful collaborative chat application
Microsoft Teams — Flexible project collaboration chat app
Google Meet — Google’s video collaboration tool

5 Best Cloud Storage Tools

Next are five cloud storage solutions that lend themselves to file sharing and collaboration.

Sync.com — The best cloud storage for collaboration
Box — Advanced cloud storage with API features
Dropbox — Scalable online storage for businesses
Google Drive — Best free cloud storage for collaboration
Microsoft OneDrive — Super compatible with Windows

The reason we’ve chosen to separate productivity tools from cloud storage tools is because they have different feature sets and purposes.

Cloud storage tools are useful for storing large files and are great for collaboration because they allow users to access files through a browser. By comparison, productivity tools aid with the creation of files and documents that are usually smaller in size but can be easily managed by their own applications, without having to upload them to the cloud.

Together, they make for better overall cloud-based collaboration, since users can access documents faster, saving the time it would take to manage large files on their personal local systems.

Cloud Collaboration Tools: Traits We Look For

There are many factors that make a great cloud collaboration tool. You need to be able to communicate, share data and files, and collaborate with your team. You also need security and privacy controls, so you can manage who has access to what. Finally, the tool should work well on any device or operating system.

It’s important for team collaboration software to meet all your team’s online communication needs, from basic document emailing and file sharing to video conferencing and advanced project management tools. We looked at the key features like internal chat, file uploads and storage, and distributed teams to identify the best collaboration platforms.

Our top picks give you more flexibility than traditional email and Excel for sharing files, providing one-click access to everything you need so you can work faster. We also looked at security and data protection, as well as integrations with other business software. The best collaboration tools are also secure by default, with strong encryption and access-control features.

The 5 Best Productivity Tools for Collaboration

Keeping track of all the files, messages and tasks that come in each day is a lot easier with the right software. Here are five great tools you can use to keep your team productive as they collaborate together:

1. Microsoft Office 365

More details about Microsoft Office 365:

Pricing: From $6 per user per month
Provider website: office.com

Pros:

Smooth Windows integration
Simple file sharing & editing
OneDrive integration

Cons:

No zero-knowledge security
File versioning is limited

Microsoft Office 365 has a great set of collaboration features to improve productivity. These features include shared mailboxes, centralized administration and high availability. It combines the power of five Microsoft tools — like the cloud-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook — which enable you to create and share documents quickly.

You can also stay up to date on what others are working on by attaching files to a conversation in Outlook or sharing them via OneDrive. Microsoft 365 has every possible variation for online collaboration, including Windows and Mac applications that can be used with Android and iOS mobiles.

Microsoft Office 365 plans are available both in free and paid versions. The free version offers limited storage and usability, while the paid plans provide you with more storage and the full functionality of the MS Office suite.

Plan:	Price
Business Basic	$6 per user per month
Business Standard	$12.50 per user per month
Business Premium	$22 per user per month

Charges are billed annually

2. Google Workspace

More details about Google Workspace:

Pricing: Starts at $6 per user per month
Provider website: workspace.google.com

Pros:

Permission & role-based sharing
Among the best document editors
Completely free

Cons:

More susceptible to scams/hacking
No password protection for shared links

Google Workspace offers several features that make it a great productivity tool for collaboration. Its unique features, such as instant messaging, file sharing and mobile document access, make it one of the best team messaging apps.

Cloud collaboration in Google Workspace is as easy as using Microsoft products, with the addition of Google’s own collaboration features. You can work together in real time on documents, spreadsheets and presentations, and create custom spaces to share with coworkers.

Google Workspace comes with reasonable pricing. There’s a free version that allows you to try everything and get your work started, but with limited storage and usability. For advanced usage and higher file storage capacity, opt for one of the paid plans. You can give the paid plans a try first through the 14-day free trial.

Plan:	Price	Storage	Users
Business Starter	$6	30GB	300
Business Standard	$12	2TB	300
Business Plus	$18	5TB	300
Enterprise	Contact Google	Unlimited	Unlimited

Charges are per month, per user.

3. Slack

More details about Slack:

Pricing: Free plan available; Paid plans start at $7.25 per user per month.
Provider website: slack.com

Pros:

Incredible free plan
Feature packed
Lots of integrations

Cons:

Expensive paid plans
Low quality audio & video calls

Slack is a chat and collaboration tool with unique features that make it one of the best online collaboration tools. Features like dedicated channels for specific projects, custom emojis and pins, and direct message integration with all other apps help teams stay organized, on track and productive.

It has a simple user interface, which makes it easy for people of all skill levels to use. It also offers many features you won’t find elsewhere, such as direct message integrations with other apps like monday.com or Asana.

Slack is available for free with limited storage space. The ability to view and search messages and files on Slack’s free plan is also limited to the last 90 days. The paid versions allow you to take control of its full arsenal of powerful integrations.

Plan:	Price (monthly)	Price (yearly)
Free	$0.00	$0.00
Pro	$8.75	$7.25 ($87)
Business+	$15	$12.50 ($150)
Enterprise Grid	Custom	Custom

Charges are per user, per month or annually.

4. Microsoft Teams

More details about Microsoft Teams:

Pricing: Free plan available; Paid plans start at $4 per user per month.
Provider website: microsoft.com

Pros:

Excellent value
Native integration with Microsoft apps
Preinstalled with Microsoft 365

Cons:

Confusing file structure
Limited to Microsoft apps

Microsoft Teams is a great productivity tool for collaboration that helps teams stay connected. One of the most impressive features is Teams’ deep integration with the Office 365 suite, which includes familiar applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. You can share documents easily from those applications when working in Teams.

For example, if you need to review a draft that’s shared on Office Online, you’ll get the latest changes in real time and be able to see who made those updates — or add your own feedback using the comments feature built directly into the document.

Teams is available for free with a limited number of users and storage. The paid options offer an increased number of users with proportional additional storage. It should also be noted that Teams comes integrated with Microsoft’s Office 365 suite when you buy that.

Plan	Price
Free	$0.00
Teams Essentials	$4 ($48 per year)
Microsoft 365 Basic	$6 ($72 per year)
Microsoft 365 Standard	$12.50 ($150 per year)

Charges are per person, paid annually.

5. Google Meet

More details about Google Meet:

Pricing: Free plan available; Paid plans integrated with Google Workspace and starts at $6 per user per month.
Provider website: meet.google.com

Pros:

Integrated with Google Workspace
Many integrations available
Simple & affordable

Cons:

Mobile app requires Google account sign-in
More prone to hacking

Google Meet is an exceptional productivity tool for collaboration because it’s free to use and simple to set up. You can easily invite collaborators via email and share your screen, or initiate a video call by simply clicking a link. Google Meet also offers high-definition audio and video calls, screen-sharing capabilities and other functions that can help you boost productivity.

Google Meet is available for free, where you can host meetings of up to 100 individuals for an hour. The paid versions expand this to 500 individuals and come integrated with Google Workspace.

Plan:	Price	Storage	Users
Business Starter	$6	30GB	300
Business Standard	$12	2TB	300
Business Plus	$18	5TB	300
Enterprise	Contact Google	Unlimited	Unlimited

Charges are per month, per user.

The 5 Best Cloud Storage Tools for Collaboration

If you need a secure place to store, access and share your files online, check out the best cloud storage tools for collaboration. They’re easy to use and integrate well with third-party apps. Here are our handpicked recommendations:

1. Sync.com

Sync.com Review | The Most Secure Cloud Storage Available?

More details about Sync.com:

Pricing: 5GB free; 1TB for $6 per month (one-year plan) per user per month
Provider website: sync.com

Pros:

Advanced sharing option
Competitively priced plans
Highly secure

Cons:

Some sharing options are behind a paywall
Mediocre speeds

Sync.com is one of the best cloud storage services for collaboration, because it’s secure, reliable and easy to use. It has an intuitive interface that makes sharing files easier than ever before. You can share with one or more people inside or outside your organization and keep everyone on the same page.

What makes Sync.com the best online collaboration software is that it has one of the best file-versioning features, allowing you to share files of all formats, including .docx, .xlsx and .pptx, without special software downloads from third-party apps. Storage is encrypted, so your files can’t be accessed by unauthorized users.

Another thing that makes Sync.com a great cloud storage tool for collaboration is its pricing structure. The free tier offers 5GB of storage; paid team plans start at $72 per month and vary in price depending on how much data you need.

Free

FREE

Pro Solo Basic

Key Takeaways:

What Makes the Best Cloud Collaboration Tools?

How to Master Project ManagementEven if You're New to the Field

Cloud Storage Courses

5 Best Productivity Tools

5 Best Cloud Storage Tools

Cloud Collaboration Tools: Traits We Look For

The 5 Best Productivity Tools for Collaboration

1. Microsoft Office 365

2. Google Workspace

3. Slack

4. Microsoft Teams

5. Google Meet

The 5 Best Cloud Storage Tools for Collaboration

1. Sync.com

2. Box

3. Dropbox

4. Google Drive

5. Microsoft OneDrive

Final Thoughts

FAQ

How to Master Project Management
Even if You're New to the Field