Coronavirus outbreak around the world has forced millions of users to start working from home. Now, it may be usual routine for freelancers out there but for the majority, it’s a big workflow shift compared to an office cubicle. You might be good at your work but getting things done from home requires more than that. Thankfully, the App Store, Play Store, and the web are filled with productive tools to get you through such times. Check out the best work from home apps and services that will make working remotely easier.
We are talking about apps and software solutions to manage projects, communicate with teams, video conferencing, task management, file-sharing software, document scanner, and even tools to keep your mind calm and relaxed. We have hand-picked top fifteen apps that can make your working from home experience better than ever. In this post, we will give a brief idea about them and when required, we will mention an alternative for the said app. Let’s get started.
Apps and Services to Use While Working From Home
The Overview
Best App to Manage Projects: Trello
Trello’s kanban style user interface coupled with sharing capabilities makes it easy for the project managers to keep track of ongoing tasks in the company.
Best Trello Alternative: Asana
With multiple templates and rules feature, Asana is basically Trello on steroids.
Best App for Team Communication: Microsoft Teams
A combination of Skype for Business, robust chat, calling function and Office 365 integration makes Microsoft Teams a must-have tool for organizations.
Best Microsoft Teams Alternative: Slack
For those living outside the Microsoft ecosystem, Slack makes perfect sense for them with over 1500 apps integration.
Best Video Conferencing app: Zoom
Forget face to face meetings, use Zoom to set up and discuss topics in virtual meetings. The software comes with a bunch of features to keep the meetings smooth and distract free.
Best App to Create Workplace: Notion
Notion’s unique modular approach with drag and drop function to design a workplace makes perfect sense for anyone looking to share them among colleagues.
Best Task Management App: TickTick
TickTick integrates everything from task management, habit tracking, Pomodoro, and calendar. It’s the swiss knife army of productivity apps.
Best TickTick Alternative: Todoist
Todoist has nailed down the task management with tags, subtasks, stats, and third-party app integrations.
Best Tool to Send Files: Firefox Send
With up to 2.5GB of file storage limit, Firefox Send is an essential tool to share media and files among team members.
Best Document Scanner: Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office is a combination of productive tools including Office Lens which scans documents and even lets you sign them.
Best App to Track Time: Toggl
With its slick interface and tracking capability, Toggl is the best app to count those working hours at home.
Best Cloud Storage App: OneDrive
OneDrive provides a robust integration in the Windows 10 OS. A generous 1TB of storage with Office 365 pack makes OneDrive a natural choice for the majority.
Best Alternative for OneDrive: Dropbox
With essential tools like Dropbox Paper and Dropbox Transfer, Dropbox cloud storage is a great choice for the Pro users.
Best Invoice App: Invoicing
Create Invoices on the fly with this free iOS app. No need to rely on others to get the job done.
Best Meditation App: Headspace
Headspace provides one of the best meditation, workouts, and sleeping sessions to keep your mind calm and stress-free.
The Best Apps and Services for Working from Home: Our Top Picks
1. Best App to Manage Projects: Trello
With its easy to use interface and kanban style project management, Trello is one of the best project management tools out there. Create a board, add sections, and add team members in the project. You can tag tasks to team members, add comments, images, and the due date for a task.
Power-Ups lets you integrate Dropbox, Google services, Microsoft apps, and other well-known software solutions to the Trello. Trello Gold at $4 per month, you can access customization features, and add files more than 10MB of size. The app is available on iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and Web.
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2. Best Trello Alternative: Asana
Asana is aimed at power users. One can create a project and add members. You can choose from the dozen of ready-to-go templates to manage projects. The USP of the software is the Rules function. You can create rules to assign the task to certain team members. For example, one can create a design related task and add UI tag and it will be automatically assigned the design head in the team.
Asana is priced at $11 per member per month. It unlocks Timeline view, Calendar view, and Rules feature.
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3. Best App for Team Communication: Microsoft Teams
Used by millions of enterprise consumers around the world, Microsoft Teams is the go-to IM app for Office 365 subscribers. It perfectly integrates with Office 365 app and allows group video and voice calling. The company recently announced new functions to remove background noise during video calls and added an offline mode to draft messages.
So far, it’s limited to Office 365 users. Microsoft is expected to roll-out the consumer-friendly version of Teams on its March 30th event.
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4. Best Microsoft Teams Alternative: Slack
Slack is more suitable for small companies and start-ups. Besides channels and a chat function, Slack supports over 1500 apps and tools to integrate in-app and make the overall workflow smoother than ever. The company recently revealed a redesign across all the platforms. Slack is available on iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac.
The pricing starts at $2.7 per month which unlocks group voice and video calling, full access to message history, and more.
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5. Best Video Conferencing App: Zoom
Cancel the face-to-face meetings and move to Zoom for the group video calling. It provides a robust experience and even lets you blur the background to hide the messy room. It also provides chat functions as well as file sharing capabilities. Zoom is free for up to 100 participants.
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6. Best Tool to Create Workplace: Notion
Notion’s modular approach has won them over millions of users in a short time. You can create a wiki page, plan the week, or even manage projects using the built-in templates. Share them with team members and manage the workflow with a smooth user experience. Notion costs $8 per member per month.
➤ Download
7. Best Task Management App: TickTick
TickTick provides some of the best productivity tools in the market. It offers capable task management, habit builder, Pomodoro, and Calendar integration in the app. On the desktop, it lets you write notes, and manage projects. The app costs $2 per month.
TickTick is available on Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac.
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8. Best TickTick Alternative: Todoist
Todoist is the darling of millions of users out there. It offers a slick UI with a plethora of functions such as tags, themes, sub-tasks, basic project management, sharing, and more. It’s available on iOS, Android, Web, Windows, and Mac. Todoist Premium costs $50 per year.
➤ Download
9. Best Tool to Share File: Firefox Send
With Firefox Send, one can send up to 2.5GB of the file using its end-to-end encryption. Firefox also lets you password-protect the file and add an expiry date to make the link irrelevant after some time. Use it and exchange files among team members. Firefox Send is free to use.
➤ Download
10. Best Document Scanner: Microsoft Office
While working from home, you won’t have access to essentials such as printer and scanner. One can always use the Office Lens tool in the Microsoft Office app. The app also comes with features such as the ability to sign documents, scan pictures to pdf, Office apps, and more.
The company recently released the Microsoft Office app on iOS and Android.
➤ Download
11. Best App to Track Time: Toggl
You may want to log those working hours while doing the job at home. Toggl is the best app to keep track of time with calendar integration. It displays the detailed stats and one can even use the app with Siri Shortcuts. The app is completely free to use on iOS.
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12. Best Cloud Storage App: OneDrive
With its slick integration with Windows 10 and generous storage of 1TB with Office 365, OneDrive is the must-have app for you. It lets you share files with password-protection, expiry links, and even provide useful tools like Private Vault to store personal data and files.
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13. Best OneDrive Alternative: Dropbox
On top of cloud storage, Dropbox provides Dropbox Paper and Dropbox Transfer. While working from home, one can create a document in Dropbox Paper and share the information with team members. Dropbox Transfer is similar to Firefox Send but upgrades the storage limit to 100GB.
➤ Download
14. Best Invoice App: Wave Invoicing
You might require to create an invoice by yourself while working at home. Most of them are paid. If you are looking for a free and temporary invoice app then look no further than the Invoicing app. It’s free, provides good invoice design and lets you email the invoice from the app itself.
Invoicing is accessible on iOS.
➤ Download
15. Best Meditation App: Headspace
While working from home, you are advised to take a break from the routine. You need to keep your mind calm and relaxed from all those kitchen noises and coronavirus chaos. Headspace is the perfect app for you. The app provides meditation and sleeping sessions to help you through a busy day. Headspace has integrated workout sessions to reduce some fat too.
The subscription is priced at $100 per year. The company has waived off charges for healthcare professionals during this stressful COVID-19 outbreak. Headspace is available on both iOS and Android.
➤ Download
Get Work Done From Home
Use these tools above and make your work from home experience better than ever. While you are at it, do let us know which app or software solution you used the most? Share your experience in the comments section below.
