12 Creative Online Collaboration Tools For Small Teams & Businesses

Each roaring business relies on a team of highly-collaborative individuals. They’re like a well-oiled machine, combining their power to make things happen. But to keep the machine running smoothly in this ever-evolving world – businesses need creative online collaboration tools.

And with remote work on the rise, finding the right tools for productive and connected creative work is more critical than ever.

That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the 12 best creative online collaboration tools. These tools can help your team streamline your creative processes, increase productivity, and, last but not least, drive business growth and innovation.

What is Creative Collaboration?

Creative collaboration is the process of working together on a creative project to achieve a shared goal. The process involves combining everyone’s special skills to create an innovative solution. Their knowledge, skills, and perspectives come into play.

Creative collaboration can take many forms. A team can brainstorm their way out of a problem. They can use a project management tool to achieve goals & stay on the same page.

At its core, creative collaboration is all about working together to achieve a common goal and doing so in a way that leverages the strengths and expertise of each team member.

Why Collaboration Is The Foundation of Every Successful Business

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Collaboration has always been at the heart of remarkable human achievements. People have always worked together to solve complex problems and innovate.

Without collaboration, we wouldn’t meet here in this digital space.

So, whether you’re building a brand-new product, creating a work of art, or solving a societal issue, collaboration can help you achieve a better outcome than you could on your own. So far as you’re part of the right team.

After all, we’re a super-social species.

But how does collaboration expand the creative process? And why is it so important in a business environment?

One of the main benefits of collaboration is that it leverages the strengths of each team member. By working together, we combine our individual skills to create something greater than the sum of its parts.

Collaboration also reduces the risk of groupthink and entices members to explore novel ideas. But to fully enjoy it, each team member must feel free to express their unique views and ideas.

When everyone has the freedom to pitch in, ideas bounce off each other. And multiple solutions come forth. This is the core of divergent thinking. And as you may well know, divergent thinking can solve puzzling problems creatively.

So the key to effective collaboration lies in celebrating differences and focusing on the freedom to express one’s views.

As team members receive constant feedback, they can refine their skills and improve their work. This feedback loop of collaboration is what makes businesses thrive.

Why Does Your Business Need Online Collaboration Tools?

Well, the benefits of collaboration in business are undeniable. But the way we collaborate in the workplace has changed.

Clearly, pen and paper aren’t cutting it anymore.

As our notion of work has quickly shifted, so have our methods. Without digital creative collaboration platforms, working in sync wouldn’t be possible.

Here are some telling benefits of using creative collaboration platforms in the workplace:

1. Streamlined communication. Employee productivity is 25% higher in companies with streamlined communication. A sense of community and healthy communication make people feel like they belong. And that’s where online collaboration tools come in. These tools streamline communication, particularly for remote teams, and cut unnecessary emails and meetings.
2. Improved workflow. The best collaboration tools help keep everyone organized and on track. This allows teams to work more efficiently and get projects completed on time.
3. Consistency. Brand consistency is sacred – no doubt about that. Yet, without an asset management system, you can kiss it goodbye. That’s where collaboration tools come in. They ensure brand consistency at every step of the way, thus reducing the risk of errors. This helps to maintain a professional and polished look across all projects.
4. Increased creativity. Online collaboration tools provide a platform for sharing ideas and gathering feedback, allowing teams to build on each other’s ideas and develop more innovative solutions. By working together, teams can unlock their creativity and achieve more than they would alone.
5. Access to expertise. Sometimes, we need the wisdom of our colleagues to find a solution to our problems. With a creative collaboration tool, it’s easy to tap into the expertise of team members – no matter their location. This way, everyone’s skills are valued to the max.

12 Top-Tier Creative Online Collaboration Tools to Propel Your Business

1. Xara Cloud

Are you tired of working in silos? Break free and take your team to the next level with our top-tier creative online collaboration suite.

Xara Cloud is an all-in-one online platform that offers a suite of tools to make collaborative design and content creation easier, faster, and more efficient. With Xara, your creative teams can:

• Work together in real-time — whether they are in the same room or 2,000 miles apart. Collaborate on projects, give feedback, and make edits all in one place.
• Share, comment, and get feedback. You can get valuable input to improve the final product by sharing your work with clients or colleagues. Moreover, with a direct commenting feature, you can collaborate and iterate on designs with others.
• Keep track of changes and collaborate on the latest version of a document, image, or design.
• Ensure your brand stays consistent with shared brand assets, templates, and guidelines. With shared brand assets, templates, and guidelines, everyone in the team can follow the brand’s guidelines and create materials that represent the brand accurately.
• Have secure access to brand assets and marketing materials. The end-to-end encryption and secure access controls keep all your data safe. And your peace of mind.

Xara Cloud Pricing

Xara Cloud offers an Essential plan for $12 a month. For scaling your brand, there is a Scale plan available at $20 a month. For larger organizations or multiple teams, a customized Enterprise plan is available, please contact us for pricing details.

2. Google Workspace

The next creative collaboration tool comes from no other than Google. Google Workspace, known as G Suite, can be a powerful creative collaboration tool for businesses of all sizes.

It provides a suite of tools such as Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides.

Sure, you can use these online collaboration tools for day-to-day business operations. Or, they can also be leveraged for organizing and simplifying creative work.

• Store important files in one cloud. The biggest advantage you get when using Google Workspace is cloud storage. You can store everything, from documents and marketing materials to videos and large design files.
• Manage and track projects. Google Workspace can help you plan and manage creative projects, such as marketing campaigns, more efficiently. You can use Sheets to plan the project and create Gantt charts to manage tasks and deadlines.
• Collaborate on creative work. You can use Google Docs and Sheets to collaborate in real time on various tasks. Google Workspace makes it easy for graphic design teams to discuss ideas and for marketing departments to implement campaigns.
• Meet remotely with your team. Collaborating in real-time, brainstorming ideas, and having real-time conversations are super easy with Google Meet.
• Collect feedback and insights from customers & team members. Google Forms are a godsend for teams looking to collect and analyze feedback. With its easy-to-use interface, teams can craft surveys to get the insights they need to deliver projects that exceed expectations. Here’s an example. Marketers can set up customer surveys to learn more about what customers need. Then, share the results with the rest of the teams to brainstorm solutions.

Google Workspace Pricing

Google Workspace offers three pricing plans, namely Business Starter ($6 per user per month), Business Standard ($12 per user per month), and Business Plus ($18 per user per month). They also offer customized enterprise solutions and add-ons.

3. Trello

Have you ever heard of the Kanban method? It’s a project management approach that originated in the automobile industry. In the late 1940s, Toyota assembly line workers started using annotated cards for manufacturing efficiency.

Kanban emphasizes visualizing your workflow, limiting work in progress, and implementing feedback loops to continuously improve your processes.

And this is what Trello is based on.

Trello is a game-changer for creative teams. It provides a fun, visually engaging method of organizing workflows.

With Trello, you can create boards for your different projects, add task cards to them, and drag and drop them across different stages of your workflow. It’s like a virtual Kanban board.

But Trello is not just a Kanban board. It’s a powerful creative collaboration tool that enables teams to work together seamlessly. You can add comments, attachments, labels, and due dates to task cards, making it easy to communicate and keep everyone on the same page.

Trello’s interface makes it suitable for all creative teams. Designers, marketers, and writers can reap the Kanban method’s benefits. You can customize your Trello boards to fit your team’s needs to collaborate in real-time. Whether you’re in the same office or working remotely.

So if you’re looking for visually-based online collaboration tools, Trello might be the perfect fit.

Trello Pricing

Trello offers different pricing plans to suit different needs. The basic plan is free and includes essential features such as unlimited personal boards, cards, and lists, as well as basic integrations with other online collaboration tools.

Here are the three paid plans that Trello offers: Standard, Premium, and Enterprise. Whether you own a small business or an enterprise, Trello has a plan for you. Pricing starts at $5 a month per user and can reach $17.50 a month per user.

4. Asana

Do you wish there was a better way to manage your creative projects, from ideation to final delivery? Well, Asana is one of those online collaboration tools that help you save time on ad hoc tasks and focus on what you love.

You can use Asana as a creative collaboration tool to manage design, content creation, and marketing workflows.

Here are some ways to use Asana for creative collaboration:

• Tracking creative work. Asana is an excellent tool for managing, tracking, and giving status updates on all your creative work.
• Use custom templates to streamline creative workflows. These allow you to create briefs, content calendars, marketing plans, and more.
• Communicate in one place. With Asana, you can attach files, leave comments, and even mention specific team members to keep everyone on the same page.
• Use Asana to automate routine tasks in a few clicks.
• Create goals for your creative teams and track them – all from the same platform.

Asana Pricing

Asana offers four tiered plans: Basic, Premium, Business, and Enterprise. The Premium plan costs €10.99 per user per month when billed annually. The Business plan costs €24.99 monthly, while the Enterprise plan requires a custom quote. There’s also a free Basic plan, more suitable for small teams or individuals who want to manage projects better.

5. Slack

Slack is a powerful tool for communicating effectively with your team members. It’s super easy to use and has a rich set of features that make creative collaboration a breeze.

For one, you can create channels to organize teams, topics, or projects. The idea is for everyone to have access to the same information. This helps team members work in sync.

Additionally, Slack is a great way to get feedback on your work. You can create a chat room for your team and invite them to join. This way, you can quickly get feedback on your ideas and work together on fixing them.

And what’s cool is that Slack also allows you to connect with external partners, collaborators, or clients. Securely. Let’s say you’re a real estate agent collaborating with a content writer for your blog posts. You can use Slack Connect to create a channel where you provide feedback on their work.

Slack Pricing

Slack’s pricing plans start at 7.25$ per person. This Pro plan is suitable for small businesses – you get unlimited message history, apps, and integrations, as well as unlimited voice-first huddles. Along with this, this plan also includes Slack Connect.

The Business+ plan, at 12.50$, is suitable for those who want to scale their business. And if you’re part of a complex organization, you can contact the sales team for a customized solution.

6. Figma

Figma is an impressive design online collaboration tool that allows teams to collaborate on designs in real time.

Designers can use Figam, the online whiteboard, to brainstorm, plan, and generate awesome ideas.

Then, they can hop on to Figma to come up with ground-breaking designs! Figma brings flow to workflows by allowing designers to quickly access the elements they need and make edits to those elements. All in one location. It offers automated tools for creating wireframes, UI components, and methods for collaborative design.

Figma Pricing

You can try Figma for free or invest in a paid plan. Figma Professional, suitable for freelancers or design professionals working solo, costs €12 per editor a month. Figma Organization costs €45. On the other hand, the enterprise solution costs €70 monthly.

7. Xara Designer Pro+

Xara Designer Pro+ is a professional design software that offers a wide range of tools. You can use it for photo editing or graphic and web design.

Undoubtedly, if you’re looking to take your branding game to the next level, this is the right tool for you.

But here’s the real game-changer: when you combine Xara Designer Pro+ with Xara Cloud, you unlock a whole new level of creative collaboration.

With cloud-based storage and real-time collaboration features, creative teams can work together on design and marketing projects from anywhere in the world. Plus, the sharing and feedback features allow for seamless communication and revisions.

Xara Designer Pro+ also stands out for its robust design tools. These include advanced vector drawing tools, text handling, or page layout features. Moreover, let’s not forget about the photo editing tools, which include features such as non-destructive editing, a Photoshop plugin, and various presets.

If your goal is to make your website the talk of the town – Xara’s got you covered. The web design features allow you to design the site you envision without the coding hassles.

Xara Designer Pro+ Pricing

If you want to automate your creative workflows and boost your creativity, pairing Designer Pro+ with Xara Cloud is the way to go! This package costs $16.99 a month per user. This is the perfect option for businesses that want to scale their business and automate creative workflows.

Collaborating with team members is a breeze. Whether you want to design a fresh logo for a client or you want to create social media content at scale for your business – Xara is the way to go. And the coolest part? You can try it for free.

8. Miro

Miro is the go-to whiteboarding platform for teams around the world. It’s intuitive, fun, and effective.

Miro works as a visual platform – and that’s what makes it stand out! Especially if your goal is to collaborate on creative solutions.

For one, you can brainstorm anywhere, with anyone. Its highly visual nature makes it easy to bring all your creative ideas to life. And the best part? Everyone can pitch in, in real time.

Since Miro integrates with online collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams or Google Workspace. It allows you to transform meetings. Especially in distributed teams. You can meet online and use Miro’s visual tools to ideate, interact, and innovate.

The ready-made templates make it a breeze to plan, set goals, and manage projects! You can use Gantt charts or SWOT analyses to creatively solve your organizational hurdles.

Marketing teams can use Miro to plan and execute customer-centric marketing campaigns. You can gather data from surveys and tools to create a data-driven buyer persona report. Then, plan and execute with ease. Besides, it can also be used by the design team as they take their project from the incubation stage to the delivery stage.

Miro Pricing

The free plan offers one workspace with 3 editable boards and unlimited members. You get access to their template library and can connect Miro with your favorite apps, such as Zoom or Slack.

The premium plans start at $8 per month per user and go up to $16 per month per user (when billed annually).

9. Zoom

Zoom is a video conferencing tool that allows people to communicate and collaborate with each other in real time. Zoom can be incredibly useful in a creative and remote team, where people must brainstorm and bounce ideas off each other.

Here’s how you can use it to power up collaboration in your team:

• Set up video conferences to bring your team together for meetings or presentations.
• Share your screen to boost creativity and efficiency. This feature is especially useful for creatives who need to showcase their ideas. It’s also great for brainstorming and real-time feedback.
• Use breakout rooms for hyperfocus. These rooms work by splitting a team into smaller groups for focused work. Use them for brainstorming, project planning, or even casual team-building activities. Creative teams can use them to work on different parts of a project simultaneously and come together later to share their progress.
• Record meetings or webinars to keep everyone on track.
• Chat, don’t distract. Zoom’s chat feature allows team members to communicate with each other without interrupting the flow of the meeting. This can be helpful for sharing links, files, or quick messages.

10. Monday.com

Monday.com is a project management tool for teams of all sizes. It helps manage tasks, track progress and collaborate on projects.

With Monday.com, creative teams can streamline their workflow and achieve better results.

Its centralized project management system, customizable templates, and online collaboration tools make communication and project management a breeze. Plus, its workflow automation features can save valuable time and allow team members to focus on the creative work that matters most.

The tool also integrates with other apps, like Adobe Creative Cloud and Slack, to create a seamless collaboration experience. And with analytics and reporting features, creative teams can identify areas for improvement and optimize their workflow for even better results.

11. Dropbox

Dropbox is a cloud storage platform that allows teams to store, share, and collaborate on files.

If you’re wondering how you can use it to collaborate on creative tasks, here are a few notable features:

• Centralized file storage. Dropbox’s centralized file management system allows creative teams to store and share files in a single location. This means that everyone on the team can access the latest versions of files. This reduces the risk of confusion and errors caused by many versions of a file floating around.
• Easy sharing. Dropbox makes it easy to share files with team members. Users can share files via links or invite team members to folders, providing a simple and efficient way to collaborate.
• Collaborative editing. Dropbox allows many users to edit a file simultaneously. This means that team members can work on the same document, design, or project simultaneously, making collaboration more efficient. However, the editing capabilities are quite limited.
• Commenting and feedback. Dropbox makes it easy to provide feedback and comments on files. Users can highlight specific areas of a document and add comments, making it easy to provide feedback and collaborate in real-time.
• Integrations. Dropbox integrates with other tools, such as Xara Designer Pro+, Adobe Creative Cloud and Slack. This will save teams a bunch of time!
• Secure sharing. Dropbox’s secure sharing options ensure that sensitive files are only accessible to authorized team members. It also provides backup and recovery options, protecting important files from loss or damage.

12. TypeForm

Typeform is a versatile tool often used for collecting feedback, surveys, and quizzes. But it can also be great as a creative collaboration platform.

Additionally, Typeform is a great tool for concept testing, idea generation, user feedback, collaboration, and data analysis. Its customizable form builder and data analysis tools make it perfect for creative and business purposes alike. Whether you want to refine your ideas or gather user feedback, Typeform can help you achieve your goals.

Surveys and quizzes are not only lead-generation magnets. Besides, they can also help engage team members and stimulate creativity.

With Typeform, collaboration is effortless. You can create forms to get feedback and collaborate like a pro! Thus, it helps streamline the feedback process and ensures everyone is on the same page.

Xara Cloud Helps Your Team Create Together, Better

Bringing creative visions to life can be a challenging process, especially in a remote team. Unless you have the right online collaboration tools in your arsenal.

Online collaboration tools streamline the creative process, ignite creativity, and make those visions a reality.

That’s where Xara Cloud comes in.

Xara Cloud helps creative teams from all walks of life create together. Better.

Make your ideas a reality. Collaborate with your team to create stunning marketing materials and delegate brand management.

Xara’s intuitive interface makes collaborating with your team on marketing materials easy. Moreover, brand assets will have everybody talking. Whether you’re a seasoned designer, marketer, or budding entrepreneur.

With Xara Cloud, you don’t have to worry about collaboration hurdles hindering the creative process anymore.

Upgrade your team’s online collaboration with Xara Cloud