Top 30 Online Productivity Tools

Maintaining high productivity levels can be a challenge. Luckily, there are a number of apps aimed at helping you focus on your tasks and retain high productivity.

In this blog post, we’ll guide you through top productivity tools you can use to work more efficiently and finish your tasks with ease.

Top 5 productivity apps

Pumble — communication and collaboration tool

We begin our list of productivity tools with Pumble — a business management platform that helps your team collaborate and communicate.

You can create different channels for diverse projects and topics, and then invite all the relevant people to join them. Apart from channels, there’s an option to use direct messages, in case you need to reach out to particular colleagues.

This app also lets you customize your notifications. For example, if you want to engage in deep work, you can pause your notifications for 5 or 30 minutes or even longer (up to 2 hours). This will help you stay focused and complete your assignments.

Pumble is especially useful for remote teams because it enables real-time communication, like all team members are in the same place. This tool offers an unlimited number of users, unlimited chat history, and also self-hosting services.

Availability: macOS, mac (M1), Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, Web

Clockify — time tracking software

Clockify time tracker helps you keep track of all your time and gives you an insight into your performance in terms of productivity. You can track time with a timer in the timer mode, or add it manually, either in the manual mode or via a timesheet.

After you’ve finished tracking time, you’ll be able to conclude whether you’re productive, or spend too much time on trivial activities. To do this, you can generate and export Summary and Detailed Reports on all your activities, both work-related and other — you can then import your results to other programs, for further analysis. You also have access to Weekly Reports that show how much time you and your team tracked by day, to see whether you have fulfilled your desired daily and weekly quotas.

This app also allows you to add and track expenses and manage your vacations and other types of leave with the time off tracker.

Availability: Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, Web

Right Inbox — email tracking tool

Keeping up with the pile of emails you receive every day can be so exhausting. Luckily, there are many invaluable tools of productivity that can prevent such situations.

Right Inbox is an email tracking app that helps you manage your email productivity.

With this extension, you can set automatic email reminders to ensure you stay on top of your significant emails and deadlines. Right Inbox also provides you with the “email tracking” feature, which helps you have a clearer vision of your email receivers — who opens your emails and whether they click on email links.

In addition, you can turn your repetitive emails into email templates, as well as add email notes, which are only visible to you.

Availability: Chrome, Firefox, Safari extension, and Google Workspace

Zoom — video conferencing tool

Proper communication plays a vital role in any company, especially when working remotely. Since communication issues are among the most common remote work challenges, you’ll need a reliable online tool for your team.

As one of the Top 100 Fastest Growing Products, Zoom helps teams collaborate with each other by holding meetings and conference calls. To make sure that you don’t miss any important meetings, you can even integrate your Zoom account with Google calendar.

Moreover, with this tool, you’ll be able to host webinars, thus, build your business.

Availability: macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, extensions for Chrome and Firefox, plugins for Microsoft Outlook, IBM Notes, Skype for Business

Google Drive (Docs, Sheets, Slides) — file synchronization service

Next on our list of web productivity tools is Google Drive, the app that makes team collaboration and consultations regarding a project easier and faster. With it, you can create documents, edit, and share them with your team members.

This tool is perfect for collaborative projects because all team members can work in the same documents at the same time, from their devices.

People who have the link to the document can view it, directly edit it, or add suggestions. It depends on the permissions given by the person who’s created the document.

You get 15 GB free for all the images, videos, and texts you want to store and share (Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos), but you can also upgrade to a larger plan.

Availability: macOS/PC, Android, iOS

ProofHub — All-in-one project management software

ProofHub is an all-in-one project management and team collaboration software. This tool helps you keep things organized, increase accountability, communicate more efficiently, and keep everyone on the same page.

It helps you organize all your projects and tasks, set deadlines, share files, review and approve creative assets, leave comments in one location, and makes it easy for your entire team to know who’s doing what by when. It allows you to set time estimates and track time spent on tasks manually or with timers. 

ProofHub is the central hub of all your team’s work. It keeps you up-to-date on project progress and helps you stay on schedule and get the most out of your time. You can track team’s productivity, collaborate more easily, and reduce unnecessary workload. 

ProofHub also has third-party integrations with productivity software such as Google Calendar, iCal, Box, DropBox, Google Drive, Onedrive, Outlook, and Freshbooks.

Availability: Web, mobile app

Mentionlytics — web and social media monitoring app

Do you want to be up-to-date with your most relevant topics? Instead of manually searching for specific keywords, let an app do that for you.

Mentionlytics is a web and social media monitoring tool. This tool has been recognized as G2’s High Performer Fall 2021. To use this app, you need to enter your main keyword, which can be your brand or company name. Mentionlytics searches for given keywords across social media, online news, blogs, and other websites.

In addition, you can track your competitors, but also discover your target market.

Availability: web, Android, iPhone/iPad

Dropbox — file hosting service

There are many web productivity tools for data storage. If you’re not sure which one to use, we recommend Dropbox.

This app lets you keep all your data secure and in one place. You can upload all your documents on a cloud, then access them whenever you want to, from all your devices.

With Dropbox, you can safely share your files and folders with your team. Since there are options like “download permissions” and “password protection”, you can rest assured that no folders will get lost. Moreover, you can protect your files from deletions or viruses by restoring or recovering them.

Availability: macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, iPhone, iPad

Google Calendar — online calendar

The next app on our list of productivity tools is Google Calendar — a simple online calendar that helps you create and maintain a weekly schedule in just a few clicks. You can create schedules for yourself, or with your team.

This tool is aligned with the tasks you make in Google Tasks, an option you can find on the right side of your Google Calendar. Once you’ve added your assignments for the week, you’ll be able to see them in your calendar. Plus, you can mark them done when you complete them.

With Google Calendar, you’ll also be able to schedule meetings, organize events, add attachments, and make Google Meet video calls.

Availability: Android, iPhone, and iPad

ClickUp — all-in-one work management software

ClickUp is a powerful productivity tool for teams of all sizes across different industries. It’s completely customizable and offers a feature-rich experience to manage your workload, monitor project updates, and communicate with the team — no matter what project style you use.

ClickUp’s unique organizational Hierarchy gives you more flexibility and control to structure even the most complex projects, while subtasks and Checklists within tasks can help you manage anything from multi-step workflows to simple to-do’s.

Collaboration is at the core of every ClickUp feature; thread comments, assign comments, edit, and attach files as needed directly within a ClickUp task or Doc. Multiple views in ClickUp including Gantt, Mind Maps, List, and its Kanban-like Board view allow you to choose the optimal way to see current tasks, and customizable statuses let everyone see your project progress.

Plus, ClickUp seamlessly connects to over 1,000 other work tools like Google Drive, Slack, GitHub, Dropbox, and more.

Availability: Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, mobile app, Android

Calendly — appointment scheduling software

Another practical tool for scheduling meetings and appointments is Calendly. One of the crucial benefits of this tool is that it prevents back-and-forth emails you exchange with meeting participants.

You simply need to set your available hours during a week in Calendly, then anyone who wants to schedule a meeting with you will be able to see when you’re free. You can also set some buffer time, to ensure you take breaks throughout the day.

In addition, this tool allows you to integrate your Calendly account with other apps, such as Slack, Zoom, or Zapier.

Availability: web, iPhone, Android

Streak for Gmail — email manager

Managing your emails is always time consuming and rarely productive, but if you want to speed up your email work, you can turn to Streak for Gmail.

This tool allows you to track your emails, so you’ll know when and whether the recipients have opened them. It also allows you to write emails now and automatically send them later.

To save valuable time, be sure to give the “snippets” option a try. With this feature, you can create shortcuts and templates for recurring emails.

Furthermore, with the “Mail Merge” option, you can send many customized emails at once, by using the data from your CSV files.

Availability: iOS, Android, Chrome extension

EmailAnalytics — email visualization tool

EmailAnalytics is for anyone who uses Gmail or G Suite to conduct daily email activity. It visualizes email activity, providing you with insights into your own email productivity as well as that of your team or employees.

It calculates average email response time, which is a critical KPI for sales and customer service teams.

And it sends a daily email report summarizing yesterday’s email activity for your entire team, making it convenient and simple to monitor employee activity, rebalance workloads, and boost productivity.

Availability: web-based

Trello — To-do and project management tool

Trello is a web application for collaboration and team communication. But, it also goes beyond that, by allowing you to manage your tasks and projects.

In Trello, there are boards, and each board represents a project. Once you create a board, you can add cards, which serve as tasks.

Then, you can add people to these tasks and track your progress; you can create to-do lists, indicate what tasks you’re currently working on, and move them to the “done” column when finished.

Team members can discuss projects and tasks, add comments, and vote on ideas. You can also upload attachments, define due dates, and add labels, for quicker navigation through the tool.

Trello also allows you to integrate it with Google Calendar and Gmail, as well as many other apps, for a more streamlined work routine.

Availability: web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android

TeamViewer — remote control and desktop sharing tool

Another app we included in our list of web productivity tools is TeamViewer — a software that allows teams to connect remotely. With TeamViewer Meeting, teams can hold online meetings, make online presentations, and engage in online teamwork.

The biggest perks of this productivity tool are that it allows desktop and file sharing, and remote control. Once given permission, you can access all data on your colleague’s computer, and view all relevant documents, without bothering your colleague.

The online whiteboard is another handy feature, especially practical for brainstorming sessions with your team.

Availability: Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS, Raspberry Pi, Android, iOS

Evernote — note-taking app

Evernote is great for sharing information and taking quick notes while you work. These notes can be audio and video files, images, web clips, or web pages; you can share these notes, and access them from any device.

You can also add “ink” notes, and draw diagrams, charts, and arrows, to make your written notes more concise.

You can also use Evernote templates, such as the Business plan or the Project tracker, and scan important documents.

If you need to track your time and productivity, there is a Clockify integration with Evernote that allows you to track time on your notes with just one click. You can also integrate Evernote with Google Calendar, so that you can connect your notes with calendar events.

Availability: iOS, Android, Web Clipper browser extension

Hootsuite — social media manager

If your job is to manage a number of different social media platforms, then Hootsuite is the tool for you.

This tool helps you save time by allowing you to schedule multiple posts to appear on multiple platforms at the same time, with Bulk Composer. With Hootsuite, your colleagues can make edits before drafts get published.

You can also monitor all mentions of topics relevant to you on social media, as well as create ad campaigns.

Availability: iOS, Android

Buffer — social media manager tool

Another tool that can help you manage your social media accounts is Buffer, the app recognized as G2’s Leader Fall 2021.

You can plan and schedule your posts for various social media channels, but also set reminders for your Instagram stories. To ensure that you publish quality content, you can set an option to require approvals before posts go live.

Buffer also allows you to review your social media analytics, thus, have a better understanding of what your content should look like. With this feature, you can create custom reports, then share them with your supervisors or clients.

Availability: iOS, Android, Chrome extension

Chanty — team collaboration tool

With Chanty, your team can get more work done together.

Chanty has a lot more to offer. It also boosts your productivity by 55% compared to other collaboration tools. It’s inexpensive, and it also offers a user-friendly UI.

Chanty stands out since they provide an endless conversation history. Don’t stress about catching up if you’re new to the team. The audio and video conference options are delightful to use as well. The Kanban board also provides a customizable approach to execute and manage all of your activities in one location.

One fun thing about Chanty is that you can also turn any message into a task and follow it all up in one place as you integrate multiple apps on Chanty. This allows you to use only one app for all of your notifications and tasks, saving you time and effort.

Availability: Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android

Salesmate — Customer Relationship Management Software

Salesmate is a customer relationship management (CRM) software that automates manual operations and streamlines the workflow for your sales personnel.

It is an advanced sales CRM with straightforward features that boost customer engagement, assist in creating effective marketing campaigns, expedite your sales process, and store all your customer data in one location.

Moreover, it offers powerful features such as sales automation, marketing automation, sales pipeline management, and more while staying within your budget. 

Salesmate is one of the most effective sales productivity solutions for companies of all sizes. This cost-effective solution provides immediate and timely customer help.

Availability: Android, iOS

IFTTT — conditional statements creator

IFTTT works on the “if-this-then-that” principle, hence the name; you can sync two apps together, so that when one app completes its tasks, the other starts working on its own tasks.

Once you sign in, you can choose from an array of applets and services in the tool’s repository, and numerous “recipes” on how you can combine them, to streamline your workflow.

For example, you can combine Pocket app with your Kindle, so that whenever you tag an article in Pocket, it gets automatically sent to Kindle.

Availability: web, iOS, Android

Zapier — workflow automation tool

Another app that allows you to connect several tools is Zapier. With this app, you’ll be able to automate your workflow.

First, you need to choose a trigger — a routine in a particular app. Then, set one or more actions that are supposed to happen automatically. For instance, when you receive an email in Gmail (trigger), you want Zapier to copy all attachments to Dropbox (first action), and alert you in Slack about these attachments (second action). This way, you can automate some repetitive tasks, thus, have more time to focus on significant assignments.

This tool has some pre-made workflows you can use. Moreover, you can also try Zapier for teams, if you want to help your colleagues automate their work and be more productive.

Availability: web

LastPass — password vault

Do you keep forgetting and changing the passwords you have for multiple accounts? If you’re familiar with this problem, be sure that LastPass can solve it. This app helps you store all your passwords and login data in a safe place. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about getting locked out of your accounts.

Once you download your LastPass, you’ll be able to see its button in the upper right corner of your browser toolbar. Next, log in to your account using this button. It’s vital you pick a strong master password to secure your data. Finally, add your sites either by importing them from your email or by choosing an option to let LastPass save sites every time you visit them and log in.

All your info is encrypted and made a secret, even from the software itself. Apart from the master password, you can choose a 2-step process of authentication, for extra security.

Availability: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and extensions

Dynalist — checklist creator

Dynalist is an app for creating lists. Once you craft your lists, you can turn them into checklists of tasks you have to complete.

This tool also lets you make notes and arrange items on your lists, by setting due dates. You’ll be able to categorize items by labeling them with tags, color coding, and cross linking them.

Dynalist also lets you collaborate with your team members and add shared files up to 50 MB in size.

Availability: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Chrome and Firefox extension

A Soft Murmur — noise generator

A Soft Murmur is a website that helps you stay focused on your work, by providing ambient sounds.

You can choose between a number of background noises, such as the sound of thunder, the sound of rain, the wind, coffee shop chatter, a singing bowl, and much more. You can then combine these sounds, to find the perfect mix for your productivity. If you’re working in an open office, or from home, where you’re likely to get distracted often, just switch on A Soft Murmur, and put your headphones on.

Another practical feature of this app is the timer. For example, if you want to fall asleep listening to the soothing sound of the waves, you can simply set the timer for the app to stop playing after some time.

Availability: iPad, iPhone, Android

Figma — design tool

Figma is a design tool that ensures collaboration and idea exchange within teams. This tool has been recognized as G2’s Leader Fall 2021.

Figma provides designers with options such as a modern pen tool and advanced font features. Besides, if you want to automate your recurring tasks, be sure to use plugins, which can be available for anyone, or you can make them private.

In addition, Figma lets you craft prototypes that you can share with your colleagues. Moreover, teams can browse Project pages and the latest files, which ensures proper collaboration.

Availability: Windows, macOS

Sketch — design toolkit

Another handy design app is Sketch. It’s simple to use, offers a number of practical features, and you can collaborate with your colleagues in real-time. It’s one of the best web productivity tools for Mac aimed at designers.

Sketch lets you create components and later reuse them. Besides, if you need to design for several platforms, be sure that you can export files in all sizes and formats.

This tool also allows you to turn your ideas to reality faster, by providing guides and grids that help you design faster, but with precision.

Availability: macOS

Alfred — shortcut creator

Alfred is another productivity tool for Mac. It helps you speed up your work through shortcuts, so you can find and open all your files faster, make quick calculations, control your music, and more.

You can turn to the Alfred workflows to reduce repetitive tasks; just download some of the already available workflows and integrate them into your work.

Or, if you want to have your own custom workflows, you can do that by mixing specific keywords, hotkeys, and activities.

Availability: macOS

Freedom – distractions blocker

Do you usually struggle with procrastination? Procrastination can take away a lot of your time, but, by turning to Freedom, you’ll minimize the time wasted on your phone and various websites.

You can use it on your Mac, Windows, Android, iOS, or Chrome, and later sync all your setting updates across these devices. With Freedom, you can block entire websites, apps, but also create block-lists, as well as schedule blocks to start automatically.

This productivity tool can even help you block the entire Internet, so you won’t be tempted to browse Facebook, YouTube, and similar websites.

Availability: Mac, Windows, Android, iOS, and Chrome

Recommendation

If you’d like to discover some more productivity and collaboration apps, we recommend the following articles:

• Top productivity tools for remote teams
• 30 Best online collaboration tools for teams