15 Free Tools for Web-based Collaboration
No man (or woman) is an island – and this statement can’t be any truer if you’re a designer or developer. Though paid/subscription services like Basecamp and Zimbra are great, individuals strapped for cash have a ton of alternatives that provide similar (if not better) features.
In this article, you’ll find 15 free tools to help you facilitate remote/web-based collaboration. Whether you need basic whiteboarding/brainstorming tools or fully-featured project management applications – you should be able to find a tool or two that’s worth checking out.
Google Docs
Google Docs is an excellent application for collaboration. You can share documents and spreadsheets and collaborate with your team/clients in real-time. Being a browser-based application – the requirements to get up and running is very minimal. Storing your work online means they’re readily available anywhere with an internet connection. Check out the user examples of Google Docs to gain some ideas on how to use Google Docs.
Stixy
Stixy is a flexible, online “bulletin board”/drawing board. There’s little structure and it’s up to you how you want to use it, so it’s a great whiteboarding application. One of the useful ways to use Stixy is mocking up or wireframing web pages – your team member or clients can then go in and modify the design or post notes on particular aspects of the design.
Project2Manage
Project2Manage is a fully-featured, free, hosted solution for project management and collaboration (similar to Basecamp). You can set up different roles and permissions to limit what each team members see, write in your milestones to show everyone your goals, and be able to manage unlimited projects.
bubbl.us
bubbl.us is a free, web-based application for collaborative brainstorming. You can create beautiful mind maps that you can share with team members. You can save, email, and print your mind maps or even embed them directly onto a web page.
Dabbleboard
Dabbleboard is a robust, online whiteboard that’s easy to use. Use Dabbleboard to create wire frames of your user interface, draw flow charts, and create network diagrams, among other things. You can create Toolkits (a set of reusable drawing objects) or use pre-made Toolkits.
Protonotes
Protonotes is a free annotation widget for your HTML prototypes. All you need to do is plop in a JavaScript onto your web page and voila – it just works. Usability testing, design critiquing, and quality-assurance testing are just some of the things that you can use Protonotes on. To get alerted when a new note has been posted, you can subscribe to your team’s notes RSS feed. You can export your data (your “protonotes”) as a CSV file which can be opened by spreadsheet applications like Google Spreadsheets or Excel or even use your own MySQL database to store your data.
ProjectPier
ProjectPier is a self-hosted, open-source, PHP-based project management application. Manage your tasks, team members, and projects under one interface. The interface is very simple and lacks the “whiz-bang” features of other solutions, but its does project management and collaboration quite well. If you need more convincing, read the 10 reasons for using ProjectPier straight from the creators.
Twiddla
Twiddla touts itself as a free, web-based meeting playground. Twiddla is an exceptional, no-hassle whiteboard solution for collaborating online. You can browse websites and draw on them, share files, and chat with your team. There’s even an “audio” option so you can communicate verbally (great for people who don’t draw well). Whether you’re critiquing a design or surfing the web for design inspiration, you’ll definitely find a use for Twiddla.
Wetpaint
Wetpaint is a freeform collaboration application that brings in features from wikis, blogs, forums, and social networks. Because it’s simple to use and requires no technical expertise, it’s an excellent platform for generating content from different sources which you can use “as-is” or on your website.
Skype
If you’ve been a web worker for a significant period of time, there’s little chance that Skype has evaded you. In case you haven’t heard of it, Skype is an application that allows you to make telephone calls over the internet (the technology is called Voice over Internet Protocol – or VoIP). You can make free calls to other Skype users and toll-free numbers, and even landlines/cell phones for a small fee. Aside from its VoIP feature, there are also built-in features for instant messaging (IM), video conferencing, and file sharing.
Thinkature
Thinkature is an excellent, free web collaboration tool. You’re given a workspace to help you visually communicate via chat, drawing, or grabbing content from around the web. Its flexibility allows you to dictate how you want to use it.
Spicebird
If you want to manage projects using a desktop application to conduct your remote/web-based collaboration, check out Spicebird – a robust, open-source platform for all your collaboration requirements. It has a built-in instant messaging chat system, a group calendar, an address book to place your team’s contact information, and much more. View the video demonstration to get a feel for what Spicebird is all about.
Mindquarry DO
Mindquarry DO is an open-source collaboration application written in Java (J2EE). They’ve discontinued the Mindquarry GO which used to be an online version of Mindquarry, but Mindquarry DO is still available for download. Check out the requirements specifications to make sure your server has what it needs to run Mindquarry.
Vyew
Vyew is a web-based conferencing application that’s free to use for up to 20 participants. You can share your desktops, use the built-in screen capture tool to save sessions, customize your Vyew by adding your company logo, utilize useful plug-ins like DiagramVyew to create diagrams to share with everyone, and much more.
Writeboard
Writeboard by 37 Signals is a simple, web-based collaborative writing solution that’s free and easy to use. You start by creating your own Writeboard, invite your team members (if you want to collaborate), and then just start writing. People can see updates, edits, and changes in real-time. You can save, track revisions, create versions, and roll back to previous versions of your Writeboard.
What’s your web-based collaboration tool?
Is your free project collaboration tool/app not on the list? Share it with us and tell us why we should check it out in the comments!
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99 Comments
mrique
November 1st, 2008
Dimdim http://www.dimdim.com/
mark rushworth
November 1st, 2008
im loving project pier at the moment, specially with the Zura-Blue basecamp like skin… its easy to setup, does all the things with files, messages and tasks that i need and theres a PLUG IN for outlook calendars
Sty Liskit
November 1st, 2008
Very cool list! I use a lot of those shown above. I am going to try Stixy, that looks cool.
Scoops!™
November 1st, 2008
You left off http://www.dimdim.com
Jamsheed
November 1st, 2008
Useful Post. Thanks
eoolk
November 1st, 2008
Hi all , check out this collaboration tool…asking me this beats every word processor in town…
http://www.textflow.com
a great example…
http://www.textflow.com/blog/?p=21#comment-9
Blub
November 1st, 2008
How can you make a list like this and leave http://cosketch.com out.
I use it almost every day.
Mr X
November 1st, 2008
I have used Collabtrak with some success. I would recommend it . There is a Free and Pro version, both of which are supported and hosted by the Collabtrak team. It is light weight and enables the creation of multiple projects as well as project notes within. It also has multi-user functionality, file handling and a chat client.
http://www.collabtrak.com/
Josh
November 1st, 2008
http://www.showdocument.com is free and instant
no need to install anything, just upload your files and review with your friends.
tm
November 1st, 2008
http://www.diigo.com
all the best of sticky notes, delicious, groups, etc..
Maxime Gosmant
November 1st, 2008
I strongly recommend the open source mindtouch deki for collaboration purposes.
http://www.mindtouch.com
Jon Aston
November 1st, 2008
Wow!
It isn’t often I discover so many new things to check out in a single blog post. Thanks a million!
kk
November 1st, 2008
nice tools http://getfreefiles.blogspot.com
Bart
November 1st, 2008
If you want a more structured colaboration than a whiteboard, you should check out http://www.semmels.com
It allows you to define the structure, so it can be used for a variety of projects.
It also allows you to change the structure as the project evolves.
This structured approach becomes especially handy if you want to colaborate with a larger group of people.
Tim Rueb
November 1st, 2008
I would also put a plug in for Google Groups. Have used that as a collaboration tool instead of holding lots of meetings. Worked nicely for barnstorming and a central collection point for our team research.
EB
November 1st, 2008
What about http://www.mind42.com/ ?
I use it everyday to share my thoughts with customers and colleagues
sm
November 1st, 2008
Also try http://laboratree.org/
alberto
November 1st, 2008
http://www.teamwork.com
alberto
November 1st, 2008
sorry…
the right url is
http://www.teamworkpm.net
Angelo R.
November 1st, 2008
I think you mean evaded, not invaded in your Skype post. But never-the-less, great article! Most of these are ones that I’ve never heard about and I’ll definitely be looking into them.
Murat Kgirgin
November 1st, 2008
http://www.knowband.com
JM
November 1st, 2008
Yuuguu is awesome for sharing your screen with a group of people - we use it all the time for collaborative work.
keymon
November 1st, 2008
I strongly recommend visit the web http://www.cuquio.tk and http://www.guadalajara.tk
Dave Nilmra
November 1st, 2008
I have used Yakkle (http://www.yakkle.com) for about half a year now for IM, voice, and desktop sharing. Recently I have started using its built in Twitter client too.
Maria
November 1st, 2008
How about social bookmarking system like http://www.fark.my/ ?
Glenn
November 1st, 2008
http://www.code-roller.com is a free, collaborative software development project life cycle management solution building a community of entrepreneurs and engineers to deliver the next generation of great applications for the web.
Mick
November 1st, 2008
Atlassian’s Confluence, enterprise J2EE wiki. Nothing short of bitchin’ fierce. http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence
Dennis
November 1st, 2008
http://www.acrobat.com
Collaborative authoring with Buzzword, and web conferencing with ConnectNow
Trynemjoel
November 1st, 2008
Buzzword is Adobe’s answer to Google Docs. Great document management and work environment with collaborationtools like desktopsharing, webcam and chat. Somewhat heavy, but a very nice working environment for people working across computers.
jag
November 1st, 2008
can’t leave off http://www.acrobat.com it’s all free and the tools are incredible.
Phil
November 1st, 2008
I use http://www.fmyi.com, I use their free version and it works amazingly.
Crain
November 1st, 2008
I use CollabTRAK for my web projects
Anton
November 1st, 2008
Big fan of tokbox.com as an alternative to Skype. It’s free, and a only the host need to be registered (free) with the site to hold a conference.
Jacob Gube
November 1st, 2008
Thanks for all these excellent suggestions everyone! I will compile all of these suggestions and post a follow-up article (”Readers’ Pick”) and contact some of you via email to see if you’d be interested in expounding on your answers (and if you’re interested now, shoot me an email for more details).
@Angelo R. Great catch, and thank you! I’ve corrected the error.
Judy O'Connell
November 1st, 2008
Did you also miss out Flashmeeting http://flashmeeting.e2bn.net/? and WizIQ another fabulous Free Online teaching and e-learning tool http://www.wiziq.com/? Educators around the world use these two for fabulous online collaboration.
John
November 1st, 2008
http://www.scriblink.com ???
steve chazin
November 1st, 2008
Jacob, I’m Steve from Dimdim and would be happy to discuss our new version (coming on Nov 11) that will blow you away. Still free!
Tyler West
November 1st, 2008
I appreciate your putting together this list and offering to do a followup post. Please allow me to offer up my own product for consideration. It’s a free web conferencing flash application. You can see it at http://www.coolconferencelive.com. No tricks or gimmicks… just 100% free.
I didn’t know there are so many amazing free collaboration tools to pick from. If I had I might not have got into the business I did, lol.
Sal
November 2nd, 2008
We use DeskAway - mentioned in Mashable’s 270+ must have tools for business. We mostly use it for tracking our projects, tasks and issues from a central location.
Moshe
November 2nd, 2008
http://www.yuuguu.com
Ashish
November 2nd, 2008
Thanks for this comprehensive list. Didn’t even knew about some of them :)
Thomas N. Burg
November 2nd, 2008
Not to forget http://www.mindmeister.com - next generation mindmapping and ideation tool with heavy focus on collaboraton - some say it replaces their entire intranet.
Cheers Thomas
John
November 2nd, 2008
sweet!
Den
November 2nd, 2008
Secure notes: http://sn.linkstore.ru
one time readable text notes
Jonathan Lister
November 2nd, 2008
Thanks for this article, I have bookmarked it as it’s really useful. I also would put it a vote for Google Groups, as it kicks ass. Google Sites is good too, but they need to iron out some interface problems, as it’s less intuitive than Groups.
Den
November 2nd, 2008
Annotations for links: http://alink.linkstore.ru
Clay
November 2nd, 2008
Looks like Sal is a DeskAway employee trying to disguise himself as a regular user. Click on his name, it goes to deskaway.com! pathetic.
“Sal
November 2nd, 2008
We use DeskAway - mentioned in Mashable’s 270+ must have tools for business. We mostly use it for tracking our projects, tasks and issues from a central location.”
PM Hut
November 2nd, 2008
Some of these tools are just impratical for Project Management. In fact, only a few of the 15 can actually be used efficiently by Project Managers.
I have recently published an article about the ideal project management tool, check it!
markux
November 3rd, 2008
I surprise that anyone use http://www.assembla.com
auntiejep
November 3rd, 2008
WOW - I cannot wait to visit all those sites! They look amazing
insic
November 3rd, 2008
wow! nice list!
Fabryz
November 3rd, 2008
I’d like to add Amy Editor:
http://www.april-child.com/amy/amy.php
Andrew Donnelly
November 3rd, 2008
Hi Jacob,
Perhaps you’d be interested in checking out Mikogo http://www.mikogo.com
Mikogo is an easy-to-use free screen sharing tool for group Web collaboration. We just released the new version with session recording, meeting scheduler, whiteboard, back monitor, voice conferencing service, instant screen build-up, and more.
Swing by our website and feel free to contact me if you would like further details.
Cheers,
Andrew
The Mikogo Team
Bored
November 3rd, 2008
google docs and skype are definitely too of my favorites from this list
Speedy
November 3rd, 2008
Check out http://www.tynt.com/ free social annotation and markup!
Peter
November 3rd, 2008
Thanks for compliling such a great list.
Erin
November 3rd, 2008
http://www.yugma.com
Online collaboration- I use it with my branch offices for editing documents and for tech support.
John
November 3rd, 2008
Thanks for the list. I hadn’t heard of Stixy, but i’ll check that out. Looks like it would be useful for some of my phone calls where i’m trying to explain stuff to a client. It would be so much easier to draw it.
We use Intervals for our web-based collaboration because it has our time tracking, task management, and documents all in one place. It’s nice to login to one tool and see where a project is at on both the financial and productivity fronts.
Franco Dal Molin
November 3rd, 2008
Check out http://www.collanos.com, unified team collaboration - P2P style! The forthcoming November release will feature task management with Gantt charts, contact management, high quality VoIP integration including free conference calls. Tune in!
Dainis Graveris
November 3rd, 2008
oh, many new for me to ceck out, nice roundup!
Patrick
November 3rd, 2008
Google Docs just about does it for me. I like it’s simplicity.
Dicky
November 3rd, 2008
Nice collection. Most of the tools i never used before.
mixey
November 4th, 2008
Great collection
Danh ba web 2.0
November 4th, 2008
Wonderful post. Thanks for share
Keep up !
martin
November 4th, 2008
Fantastic list
And I totally aggree with above speaker
Textflow is amazing, a pure break in innovation
Martin
martin
November 4th, 2008
i forgot… http://www.textflow.com
Drakisath
November 5th, 2008
Collaber…http://www.collaber.com/
One of my “main utilities”
Rachel
November 6th, 2008
Wow - I didn’t know about half of these tools to collaborate. The new innovative services that people keep coming up with is amazing. When I started freelancing back zillions of years ago, there was nothing like this out here. Wow…thanks for posting.
Rachel
AllGraphicDesign.com
Suruchi
November 6th, 2008
Thanks for such a good list. We have been using Google Docs & DeskAway for collaboration & Project Management. DeskAway is a good tool to collaborate & manage documents online & share them.
http://www.deskaway.com
dess
November 8th, 2008
What I love here is Skype and Twiddla.. These stuffs are really helpful for teams and having business transactions online.
Scott
November 10th, 2008
http://www.sharpforge.com
Jerry M
November 11th, 2008
Thanks for sharing with us this wonderful list. I would like to add one more to this list of Collaboration Tools. Taroby http://www.taroby.org is a SaaS application which allows teams to share e-mail account amongst all the team members with certain access restrictions. Taroby is really useful for teams or work groups of any kind. Taroby allows you to have a complete overview of all message streams in your office, including snail mail, faxes, e-mails and SMSs. Taroby has got lot of cool features like Calendar, Calculator and many more…
Michael M
November 13th, 2008
This is a very valuable list; I am now involved in actively seeking a collaboration tool in my rapidly-growing business. I have spent a lot of time reviewing many of the sites suggested here and a bunch of others, too, and below are my top picks, based on ease of use, and overall operability. Opensource solutions are appealing but most require a mechanic to get them on the road and I don’t want to get bogged down with that.
- Projectspaces (www.projectspaces.com)
- fmyi (fmyi.com)
- Huddle (huddle.net)
spinguru
November 17th, 2008
Great list! Another one to check out: Spinscape…web-based application for visual collaboration with auto-discovery from wikipedia, delicious, google, google docs & spreadsheets, real-time chat, and more! http://www.spinscape.com
Dustin Ladd
November 25th, 2008
Hello all,
Hopefully someone reads my post. I am looking for a application I can install on my server that will provide web conferencing AND desktop sharing (actually be able to control someone else’s desktop). I find this so important I run my own company and have many clients than need help with one thing or another on their computer. This must be web based because i travel often and do not always use the same computer. Dimdim is the closest thing to what I want but it does not offer remote desktop. There is one tool that does it and it is Mitel’s Collaboration tool but you cannot purchase it alone you must have their voip sotware. Can anyone help??????
geografree
December 8th, 2008
Cool sites. But I’m looking for something even simpler to map out a website tree. Trying to get a handle on the site structure and content. Anyone? I recall there being a site mapper or something like that?
geografree
December 8th, 2008
Found it. http://writemaps.com/
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