If you were to ask someone to name the best note-taking apps, Evernote and Microsoft OneNote would be two powerhouses among the best note-taking apps.   It’s no surprise, why?   Microsoft OneNote is the best note-taking app that really popularized the concept, and Microsoft and Evernote are two of the biggest players around. If you’re thinking about signing up for note-taking apps, you might wonder who wins in a battle between OneNote vs Evernote vs Notion on features, pricing, and more.   Notion claims to bring the best of both worlds by offering a new block-based layout that is usable as a note-taking app, Kanban tool, and to-do list.   At Tvisha, all our team members are now working remotely. Needless to say, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we worked.   Now, our project management, team management, and customer relationship efforts all depend on the intuitive software that enables us to work from home.   Fortunately, we’ve our own Internal Team Communication - Troop Messenger that has saved us from the hard part of managing remote collaboration. With Troop Messenger, we are literally doing everything we were doing from our workplaces. Our team collaboration and internal communications are as strong as it was before the nationwide lockdown.   The only area we were having a problem with was ‘Note-Taking and Idea Management.’ Some of our employees felt that they don’t have a centralized tool to easily and conveniently store a great many ideas and information they come across on a daily basis.   And that’s when we decided to onboard our employees on a common note-taking app. In fact, we decided to use different note-taking apps for a week, and then ask each employee to vote for their best note-taking app.   Table of the Content 1. Overview 2. Interface 3. Note-Taking Form 4. Free NoteTaking Templates 5. Supporting Platform 6. Storage 7. Integration 8. Pricing   We also asked around with some friends to nudge them to share their advice. As a result, we shortlisted three note-taking apps.  OneNote  EverNote  Notion Our internal team used each of these tools to find what worked for us. But we didn’t stop there and eventually decided to share our experience here in the form of a comparison article. Now, let’s take a look at each of the important features of the best note-taking app. Below, we are sharing an unbiased comparison of different factors you need to consider before making the final decision between Evernote vs Onenote, Notion vs Onenote, or Notion vs Evernote. And before you get started on the features, let’s do a quick overview of each tool. We’ll hopefully help you decide for yourself in this comparison of three of the best-known best note-taking apps available.    Microsoft OneNote vs Evernote vs Notion: Overview   Microsoft OneNote Overview Known as a digital note-taking app, MS OneNote allows users to organize their thoughts, ideas, discoveries, and plans in a notebook form. It’s a multi-user collaboration tool that gives away a lot for free. It can do the 3Rs of Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic.   Microsoft OneNote is most often used by companies with 1000-5000 employees and >1000M dollars in revenue. In the Office Productivity category, Microsoft OneNote has a market share of about 0.2%.   72% of Microsoft OneNote customers are in the United States, 6% are in the United Kingdom and 6% are in Canada. Evernote Overview   Evernote lets you capture and prioritize ideas, projects, and to-do lists, so you focus on what matters the most and get quick access to that information anytime, from anywhere — since it works pretty much everywhere. Whilst Evernote remains the most used note-taking app, with a whopping 225M active users globally, and arguably, the world’s most well-known personal productivity software, it is losing many loyal users. Notion Overview Notion is a collaborative note-taking app that lets you take notes - write, plan, organize, and collaborate. With 30+ types of content to add, you get the freedom to create notes within different templates.   As of now, considering the comparison between Onenote vs Notion and Evernote — Notion has a market value of $2 billion — a huge sum for a company that only recently reached annualized revenue of $30 million.    Microsoft OneNote vs Evernote vs Notion: Interface   Microsoft OneNote Interface   OneNote’s Interface feels downright scrapbook. It’s jaunty. The color used to create a brand identity is the same shade of purple. The menu has large and colorful icons. Panels show your notebooks, pages, and a section that gives the feel of a school binder. OneNote allows users to have more freedom than Evernote. Users can have text boxes next to tables, audio clippings, and images. You can combine all the different elements on the page to create the document. In simpler terms, OneNote is more than a word-processing document. Evernote Interface   Both Evernote and OneNote have distinctive styles. Based on its UI and UX, Evernote clearly looks more polished. It looks and feels like business productivity software. Moreover, the staid color scheme of Evernote creates a non-nonsense feel. Evernote has rich formatting tools that appear as minuscule icons along the top menu bar - much like a near row of stars in the sky. Apart from this, Evernote can be customized according to a user’s preferences. You can change previews of notes according to your requirements. Simply put, when it comes to look and feel, Evernote has everything in place.   Notion Interface   Notion has a neat UI/UX where note-taking and other elements are easily accessible. It takes a different approach to note-making where instead of notebooks and sections, there are pages that are used to create blocks. Notion users can access the pages from the sidebar. They can further drill down to different sections and hop between pages to notes without too many clicks to go back and forth. In short, pages within pages offer incredible flexibility. You can have a ridiculous amount of information within one note.   Onenote vs Evernote vs Notion: Note-Taking Form OneNote   Microsoft OneNote, as one of the highly intuitive and versatile note-taking apps, allows users to take notes via text, images, and audio. One of the most powerful features of OneNote is that it allows users to handwrite notes if they’re using a touchscreen device. You can also scan the physical documents and store them in the notes folder. These notes rest in sections that are further stored inside the notebooks. EverNote   Evernote, as a cloud-based note-taking app, allows users to create, organize, and store different media files. On Evernote, you can take notes in the form of images, audio, video, web pages, and text documents. Apart from that, you can scan documents or physical papers and store them in the cloud notes. Since Evernote stores all your notes in the cloud, your notes are synced across all your devices. Notion   Notion uses the block form for note-taking. Hence, if a user wants to create notes, they begin by creating a new block. In this block, they have the option to take notes in the form of text, audio, gallery, video, wikis, table, Kanban-style, code, and more.   Through the sidebar, users can also drill down into the pages with no limits, which is different from note-taking in Evernote and OneNote.  Onenote vs Evernote vs Notion: Free NoteTaking Templates Since Note-Taking Templates are such an integral part of note-taking apps, it’s important to consider a number of templates before making the purchase: OneNote: Templates OneNote has a collection of 20+ pre-ready templates for users to use during meetings, project management, class, events, and more. You can download these templates from the OneNote Gem Website where you get access to the commonly used templates like Pre-Travel Checklist, Daily Work Schedule Template, Cornell Stone, Time Management Quadrants, and more. Evernote: Templates    As for Evernote, it offers an exclusive range of templates for users to choose from. Generally, the note-taking templates are categorized into the to-do list, meeting notes, writing, management resources, home and garden, party planning, travel, school, and more. Users also download, personalize, and manage these templates according to their use. Notion: Templates    Notion has a wide range of templates to allow users to take notes for different purposes. There are many free, editable, and highly useful templates. For example, you can use Weekly Agenda Template to plan the entire week’s workload and the Reading List Template for planning which books/tasks to read/accomplish next. More templates like these are helpful in organizing assignments or projects.    Onenote vs Evernote vs Notion: Supporting Platform In terms of the supporting platforms, all three apps like Notion, Evernote, and OneNote are compatible with web browsers, macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android, you can take notes anywhere, at any time.   Supporting Platform  Evernote  OneNote  Notion  Web Browser ✓ ✓ ✓ iOS  ✓ ✓ ✓ Android  ✓ ✓ ✓ macOS  ✓ ✓ ✓ Windows ✓ ✓ ✓   It's worth noting that OneNote, Evernote, and Notion have stand-alone desktop apps for macOS and Windows which allows users to make offline edits as well.    Onenote vs Evernote vs Notion: Storage Onenote, Evernote, and Notion — all handle the storage and storage limits in a distinct manner.   OneNote Storage OneNote, by default, uses OneDrive storage, so your usage limits are based on your OneDrive account. This means that, if you have a Microsoft Office subscription, you can use OneNote without any additional purchase. Simply, Sharepoint users also have their OneNote Storage capacity tied to their Sharepoint accounts. OneNote offers free storage of a 5GB limit for personal use. And users can pay more for more storage. The largest file size that can be uploaded to OneNote and synced to OneDrive is 2 GB. More on OneNote Storage   OneNote’s storage limits are connected directly to a user’s Microsoft OneDrive account; there are no restrictions on how many individual notes in OneNote the user can save. Restrictions of 25MB in the basic freemium plan. File size uploads of up to 200MB per file for both premium and business subscribers. The Freemium version restricts users to 500 synced notes and then prompts them to upgrade. The maximum file size that can be uploaded to OneDrive is 15GB, but for OneNote, this limit is only 2 GB. Evernote Storage Unlike OneNote, EverNote stores user data on its server, so you don’t have to use secondary storage. In short, Evernote claims that it offers unlimited storage to all its users. But, it’s not so.   Evernote users get an allotment of per month storage according to the plan they’ve purchased:   Freemium accounts have an option of 100,000 notes and a file-size restriction of 25MB per note. Premium subscribers can capture notes or upload files up to 100MB in size. Maximum of 250 notebooks that are synced across a user’s account. Maximum of 10,000 tags. Users can store up to 100 searches. Limit of 60MB of uploaded data per month in the freemium plan, premium users have a limit of 10GB, and business users to 20 GB. Notion Storage Notion uses blocks for setting the limit on how freemium users use it. The freemium plan does have a storage cap of one thousand blocks. This limit is sufficient for most people since there’s an option to delete the blocks that aren’t needed to free up storage.   5 MB upload limit 1000 blocks in the free plan Unlimited pages & blocks 5 MB upload limit Share with 5 guests 50+ starter templates Wikis, docs, & notes Databases with rich property types Table, list, calendar, kanban board, & gallery views To gain access to more blocks, Notion users can opt for paid plans by earning credit.      Onenote vs Evernote vs Notion: Integration  When it comes to integrations, Onenote, Evernote, and Notion measure up nearly equally. OneNote Integrations Apart from Onenote Trello integration, it also connects with apps like Salesforce, Wufoo, Basecamp, and Twitter via Zapier.   OneNote allows integrations with plenty of apps and services that allow users to save images, notes, and other apps listed below in the table.   Evernote Integrations Evernote offers a few unique integration options that allow users more flexibility. The best integration feature, however, is its ability to search both Google and your notes simultaneously. Evernote integrates with your favorite apps listed below in the table:   Notion Integrations Notion, as an all-in-one workspace app, can be integrated with 100+ Apps to create tasks and manage projects — all in one place. A few popular Notion integrations apps are listed below in the table:   A few popular apps integrations are listed below in the table:  OneNote  EverNote  Notion Chegg CloudHQ Docs.com NeatConnect Office Lens OneNote Web Clipper Google Drive Microsoft Teams Outlook Salesforce Slack Slack Trello, ToDoist, Asana Google Calendar, TimeSheet Gmail      Onenote vs Evernote vs Notion: Pricing OneNote Pricing   Since OneNote is a part of MS Office, you get free note-taking if you’re an MS Office paid user. But, you’d need to purchase the storage space since your storage is tied to the MS OneDrive account   You get 100 GB of storage space at $1.99 per month making the paid version quite affordable.   Evernote Pricing      EverNote  Notion Basic Plan Free 60 MB Upload limit 25 MB maximum note size Premium ($7.99 per user, per month) 10 GB Upload limit200 MB maximum note size Business ($14.99 per user, per month) 10 GB Upload limit 200 MB maximum note size Unlimited number of collaboration space     Basic Free Unlimited members, 1000 block storage, and 5 MB upload limit  Personal Plan $4 per month Unlimited block storage, No file upload limit Business  $8 per user, per month Priority Support, Version Support Unlimited members and block    OneNote pricing is better than Evernote pricing so as with Notion pricing. Final Thoughts Although all three apps — One Note, Evernote, and Notion are the best note-taking apps, each of them serves different purposes and they have different emphases. If you’re looking for a note-taking app that allows you to easily integrate with multiple apps, and enhance both your productivity and work management, you’ll need Evernote. If you want to create notes from scratch and then have them properly organized, you’d need OneNote. And if you need an all-around app that serves purposes other than note-taking, Notion is the one.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that team messaging platforms are widely popular among employees. Data shows that 71% of employees in the tech industry and 62% of the workforce in international companies rely on these tools.   They’re simply more efficient than email; you get instant responses, have an easier time staying productive, and can better foster relationships (the foundation of great collaboration). And with the recent shift to remote working due to the COVID-19 pandemic, instant messaging is more important than ever for proper business communications. However, picking a good team messaging solution can be tough – especially if you didn’t use one in-house until now and only relied on email. In fact, deciding is hard even if you are just looking to switch to a different platform. Why? Because there are so many options on the market right now. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, give up, and just stick with email instead because it feels like less hassle. Falling into that trap is annoying, time-consuming, and lowers productivity. Plus, you’ll only end up realizing you need instant messaging later, anyway. So, we came up with this list of must-have features for any instant messaging solution. It should save you a considerable amount of time and effort when reviewing services. Table of Contents 6 Things to Look for 1. Cross-Platform Compatibility 2. Support for Outside Contacts (Vendor-Client collaboration) 3. Simultaneous Messages 4. Advanced Search Functions 5. Self-Hosting Options 6. Custom App Option Troop Messenger – A Solution That Checks All These Requirements The Bottom Line 6 Things to Look for Here are the features we believe any instant messaging platform should offer to provide businesses with a full and streamlined experience: 1. Cross-Platform Compatibility The average digital consumer owns three connected devices. Sure, your employees should do most of their work and collaboration on a dedicated device (like their home computer or company-issued laptop), but let’s face it – that’s not always the case. Employees might switch from chatting on their laptops to doing it on their phones in an instant. If they’re at work, it can happen when they go to the coffee shop next door for their lunch break. If they’re working remotely, they might start suddenly using a mobile device because they need to do some emergency shopping or run some urgent errands. Any number of things can happen, so it’s best to be prepared. The instant messaging solution should offer native, easy-to-use clients on the most popular platforms (Windows, macOS, iOS, Android). Otherwise, you’ll just waste money on a service not everyone in the company can use. 2. Support for Outside Contacts (Vendor-Client collaboration) By “outside contacts,” we mean people like vendors, clients, or freelancers who don’t have a contract with your company. Here’s what we mean by “support” for those kinds of contacts: The platform should offer a way to add those outside contacts to your business’ communication channel without compromising company data or your employees’ privacy. As an example, let’s say you just hired a freelance writer to work on some blog posts. It’s much more productive for them to talk with your content manager on the company’s messaging platform than through email or phone. However, since they’re from outside the company, they won’t need access to the same channels internal employees use (like a channel discussing sales, recurring orders, or an upcoming birthday party). The same goes for vendors or customers. They only need to talk with the right person (like someone from sales, shipping, or distribution). They don’t need access to the inner workings of the company. So, the messaging platform should have an easy way of adding outside contacts and assigning restrictions and permissions to them. 3. Simultaneous Messages Sometimes you just need to message many people at the same time. The first instinct would be to send the message on a large channel where everybody can see it. But hold on – maybe not all the people there need to know the contents. If you’re planning a surprise party for an employee or more, you wouldn’t want them to find out. Similarly, maybe you only need to let your team know about the details of a project, not everyone else on the same department channel. True, you could just create a new channel or group where you can add all the people you need to message, and just talk with them there. But what if you only need to send a simple message and nothing more? Like letting employees know what time a video conference will be held, for instance. Setting up a dedicated channel/group just for that seems completely unnecessary. Ideally, the messaging platform should have a feature that lets you send simultaneous messages to individual users. If you can message separate groups too, it’s even better. 4. Advanced Search Functions For all messaging platforms have to offer, their search functions are usually lacking. And you will need to use them eventually; whether it’s finding an old document you forgot to back up or an important video presentation you got weeks ago. Unfortunately, most solutions only let you search by keyword. That’s sometimes enough, but most of the time, it just ends up being an annoying and time-consuming task. Some services offer some modifiers to make things easier for you, but the whole process still ends up feeling like a chore. To avoid wasting unnecessary time, you need a messaging platform with advanced search functions. Basically, you should be able to search for something by date range, images, videos, files, and even links. 5. Self-Hosting Options Messaging platforms usually offer decent security, but sometimes you just need to take matters into your own hands. Maybe you want to host the messaging service on your own physical servers to make sure no third parties access it. Or maybe you’re worried the service could suffer data loss or a breach and want to enjoy some peace of mind. We could go on and on with examples. The idea is the same: if the messaging platform lets you self-host, you get better privacy, security, and DLP (Data Loss Prevention). This is perfect for government agencies, large nonprofit organizations, Fortune 500 companies, and defense agencies. 6. Custom App Option A messaging platform might meet all your requirements, but what if it has extra features you don’t need? You might not feel right about the price because you end up paying for features you won’t be using at all. In a situation like that, it helps if the app developers are willing to accommodate your needs. Basically, if they’re open to creating a fully customized messaging app for you, that’s based on their e2e testing framework but only has the features you require. Bonus points if mobile developers can integrate the custom app with other services, allow you to run it on your servers, and store everything in your databases. Troop Messenger – A Solution That Checks All These Requirements You could spend a few hours looking up instant messaging platforms and checking which one has all those features. Or you could do the easier thing and give Troop Messenger a try. It already has all those must-have features: Cross-Platform Support – It has working clients on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and even Linux. All applications are very easy to set up, and the onboarding experience is excellent. Orange Contacts – These are outside contacts you can add to your channel. To protect team member privacy and privileges, you can assign conditions to them (like not being able to see user info or be added to groups). Forkout – A very easy-to-use feature that lets you send simultaneous messages to multiple groups and individual users. Picked the wrong people? No problem just hit the refresh button and you can quickly start the selection again. Advanced Search Filters – Looking up old files and messages is extremely simple and versatile. You can search by image, link, video, file, contact, favorite contacts, date range, and location. Self-Hosting – The setup process is very straightforward, and Troop Messenger lets you self-host on physical servers, AWS, Google Cloud, Digital Ocean, and Azure. Custom App Development – Have very specific needs? No worries. The guys behind Troop Messenger can design a fully customized messaging app just for you. They can even make it white-label so that it fully represents your brand. And those are just the highlights we mentioned here. Troop Messenger has a ton of other great features that will make in-house communications go very smoothly. If you’d like to learn more about Troop Messenger (including a quick in-depth look at how it works), check out our review at ProPrivacy. The Bottom Line Instant messaging is the future of business communications (if it isn’t already). If you want to increase productivity and efficiency, you need to use it to streamline collaboration with your teams, clients, and vendors. Just make sure you pick a good service – preferably one with self-hosting, advanced search filters, and simultaneous messages to individual users. If you know other must-have features, feel free to let us know in the comments.

Since the nationwide lockdowns in wake of COVID-19, there haven't been too many stocks that have been spared from the share market massacre. Since February, the broader markets have lost more than a quarter of their value. But for virtual collaboration tools like Zoom and Slack, the scenario is completely opposite. Zoom’s download has skyrocketed. Just take a look at the Zoom stock chart and see how COVID-19 changed the game for Zoom video Stock:   Zoom video stock has a strong RS line now. But considering the last few days, there has been a significant loss in momentum: So, what happened? Why did Zoom lose momentum? Why did Zoom Stock fall? For the answer, we turn to the pages of today's The Washington Post, which reports "some school districts around the country have started to ban the use of Zoom for online learning from home." These bans come in response to an FBI warning about the phenomenon of "Zoom-bombing" -- malefactors hijacking Zoom teleconferences and inserting themselves into the meetings. Now, this doesn’t mean Zoom is out of the game. Zoom Video stock is trading at a staggering 1,300 times trailing earnings -which suggests that the shares were priced for perfection and are forecast to generate a higher Return on Assets (6.98%). Much like Zoom, Slack also benefited from coronavirus lockdowns. Investors started to realize its full potential as a revolutionary product and this happened:   But, unfortunately, it is not all sunshine and rainbows at Slack either. There is a massive elephant in the room - Microsoft Teams. Apart from the competition with Microsoft, Slack’s lack of growth still remains a principal concern among investors. And, eventually, Slack too lost the momentum:   Now, if these ups and downs in the Slack stock chart and Zoom stock chart confuse you, and you can’t decide between either of these, this article can help. Slack vs Zoom 1. Slack and Zoom: Key Background 2. How COVID-19 has Impacted Zoom & Slack’s Growth 3. Slack Gained Momentum amid COVID-19 4. Zoom’s growth amid COVID-19 5. Who is Growing Faster 6. Who’s Losing the Momentum 7. Want to Buy Slack Stock or Zoom Stock 8. Verdict   In this article, I’ll share everything you need to know about buying zoom stock or slack stock - starting from the key differences between these tools, current market changes in wake of COVID-19, the overall growth and profitability, and much more. By the end of the article, you’ll be able to make a more informed decision about slack and zoom stock. Let’s start with an overview of both these tools: Slack and Zoom: Key Background   Slack as a business communication and collaboration tool Slack as a pioneer communication platform connects teams with communication and collaboration features. Founded in 2013, Slack became one of the fastest-growing SaaS startups in just five short years. The Slack free plan offers basic features and paid plan offers more perks like unlimited app integration, guest accounts, unlimited message archive, and a dedicated customer support team. Slack paid plan starts: at $6.67 per user per month when billed annually. For larger companies, Slack offers an enterprise plan that costs $12.5 per user per month. Zoom as a Video and Web Conferencing Tool Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars. Zoom has evolved from an already-successful IPO to a stock market juggernaut worth more than Uber and Lyft combined. Its mobile app has skyrocketed by 728% since March 2, 2020. Zoom is designed for larger group meetings. Its free tier allows users to host meetings for 40-minutes. The participant limit in the free plan is 100 people. Zoom’s paid plan costs: $14.99 to $19.99 per host per month. Paid users gain access to more cloud storage and larger group meetings and many more interesting features like auto-transcription and virtual backgrounds. How COVID-19 has Impacted Zoom & Slack’s Growth With the COVID-19 pandemic and the nationwide lockdowns, millions of workers have no option but to work from home. And Suddenly, it’s time for remote collaboration tools like Zoom ZM, +2.51%, and Slack WORK, -1.16% to shine. Amidst the bloodbath in the stock market, business collaboration and communication tools are on a roll — Both Slack stock and Zoom video communications stock have actually been rising. There’s a sudden increase in Google searches for Slack stock and Zoom Stock. Take a look: Since the pandemic lockdowns, the query for slack stock forecast has been on a consistent rise:       And the results are even more fascinating for Zoom. Take a look at Google Trend result for Zoom Video Communications Stock:       In all, both Slack Technologies and Zoom Video Communications are weathering the COVID-19 pandemic better than any other business in the market. Since 2020, Slack's stock has increased by roughly 25% And for Zoom, the numbers are jaw-dropping. Zoom Stock has surged more than 120%. Simply put, Slack and Zoom are gaining significant benefits because of the worldwide stay-at-home guidelines issued by the government. All employers and workers now rely on virtual collaboration tools - which explains why these tools are gaining momentum with mainstream and enterprise users. Let's review Let’s take a look at both Slack’s and Zoom’s growth: Slack Gained Momentum amid COVID-19 Slack’s growth rate, as shared in its quarterly report, looks solid. Here’s what Slack’s Chief financial officer said after its post-earnings plunge:   “We finished the year with 110,000 paid customers and 893 customers spending more than $100,000 annually with Slack,” said Allen Shim, Chief Financial Officer at Slack. While we invest in innovation and delivering more value to our customers, we also are showing significant leverage and remain on track to hit our growth phase target of free cash flow positive.”Slack quarterly reports.   Slack’s Fourth Quarter & Fiscal Year 2020 Highlights:   Total revenue was $181.9 million, an increase of 49% year-over-year. Calculated Billings were $254.7 million, an increase of 47% year-over-year. Total revenue was $630.4 million, an increase of 57% year-over-year. Calculated Billings were $765.3 million, an increase of 48% year-over-year. Over 110,000 Paid Customers, up 25% year-over-year. Over 32,000 Paid Customers using shared channels, up from over 26,000 at the end of last quarter. Slack’s CEO Steward Butterfield shared his delight about the sudden increase in Slack’s usage. He shared these pictures on Twitter. We could see in these charts the newly created Slack teams. The first chart is from March 12th, the second is from March 16th, and the third IS from March 23rd. Take a look,         Overall, Slack is winning not just against the status quo but also against its competitors.   Zoom’s growth amid COVID-19 Slack sure has witnessed a spike in sales and usage. But Zoom generated more traffic, downloads, and sales than Slack in the last few months. Unlike Slack, Zoom didn’t disclose its exact number of paid users last quarter. But Zoom announced that its total number of users rose to 86% with over $100,000 in annual revenue. Zoom also stated that the number of customers grew 61% to 81,900. According to Apptopic, Zoom saw about 600,000 new downloads last Sunday - which is the highest ever download in a single day.   “Zoom sits atop Apple’s rankings of the most popular free apps in dozens of countries, according to data from analytics company App Annie. Investors love it, at least for the moment. The Zoom Technologies stock sells for 58 times revenue, compared to a price-to-sales ratio of 8 for Microsoft, and it’s gained 26% since Feb. 19, while the S&P 500 has plunged 32% over that stretch.”Jordan Nover, CNBC     Zoom Usage Highlights:   During the Covid-19 pandemic, Zoom witnessed an increase of 67% between Jan and mid-March 2020 (Apptopia) During the Covid-19 outbreak, Zoom was used by 90,000 schools in 20 countries to teach remotely (Zoom) March 30, 2020, saw 4.84 daily mobile US users (a 151% increase year-on-year) (Apptopia via Reuters) Over the 2020 financial year (2019), 641 Zoom business customers were worth $100,000 or more, up to 86% (Apptopia) Zoom expects a revenue rise of 63% to 65% in the next quarter, which clearly beats their expectations for 53% growth. Who is Growing Faster: Zoom Stock vs Slack Stock It’s clear both Zoom and Slack are having a gala time. But as the trends show, Zoom is way ahead when compared with Slack’s growth. Take a look: Revenue Growth of Zoom and Slack:   Revenue Growth (YOY) Q1 2020 Q2 2020 Q3 2020 Q4 2020 Slack Technologies  47% 52% 47% 49% Zoom Video  103% 96% 85% 78% Source: Slack and Zoom Quarterly Reports It’s clear. Zoom is leading - leaving behind many of its competitors. Let’s have a few more statistical insights into Zoom’s growth over the last few months.   Which one is more profitable: Zoom Stock vs. Slack Stock? As the table depicts, Zoom is trading like a cult stock. So If you’re weighing options between Zoom technologies stock and slack stock, you’ve to see these statistics: Zoom daily downloads: January 2020 56,000 February 2020 1.7 million March 2020 2.13 million (Source: Apptopia via The Guardian and The Economic Times)   Zoom Revenue as of FY 2019: Q1 2019 $121.5 million Q2 2019 $60.1 million Q3 2019 $74.5 million Q4 2019 $90.1 million FY 2019 $105.8 million (Sources: Zoom and AlphaStreet) Zoom Revenue Forecast Q1 2020 $122 million Q2 2020 $145.8 million Q3 2020 $166.6 million Q4 2020 $188.3 million FY 2020 $622 million (Sources: Zoom and AlphaStreet)     Zoom Market Cap and Valuation: 1 July 2019 $23.6 billion 1 October 2019 $20.7 billion 3 January 2020 $16.1 billion 30 March 2020 $40.5 billion (Source: Macrotrends)   Zoom Technologies Stock Price: 1 July 2019 $86.86 1 October 2019 $75.81 3 January 2020 $68.72 30 March 2020 $146.12 (Source: Macrotrends and TechCrunch) Keeping these numbers in mind, one can see how Zoom’s net profit and usage have surged over the months. On a non-GAAP basis, Zoom’s net revenue increased more than six times to $101.3 million. Zoom is also expecting its non-GAAP EPS to rise 20%-29% in 2021 and it trades at 42 times its revenue forecast. Who’s Losing the Momentum? Slack Stock or Zoom Stock When you look at Slack in context to Zoom’s growth, Slack definitely seems to be losing its grip. If you’re considering buying slack’s stock, you have to know it’s not as profitable. We are saying that considering the cost of hosting, expanding, and promoting its servers continually offset its revenue from the paid customers. As you can see from its quarterly report, its net loss increased from $140.7 million in 2019 to $571.1 million in 2020. On the non-GAAP basis that excludes its one-time expenses and the stock-based compensation, Slack’s total loss narrowed very slightly from $115.8 million to $113.4 million. In simple terms, Slack expects to remain an unprofitable business despite the COVID-19 pandemic. When you compare Slack stock price with Zoom stock price, you can see Slack trades at 16 times the total revenue estimate for 2021. On the contrary, Zoom is trading at 42 times the revenue forecast. Slack’s Stock Forecast Slack is subject to the forces wreaking havoc across the economy. Slack’s Stock has tumbled 20% in extended trading. In the current quarter, revenue will be $185 million to $188 million. The Analysts projected $188.4 million. Excluding some items, the loss will be 6 cents to 7 cents a share. Analysts, on average, estimated 8 cents, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Want to Buy Slack Stock or Zoom Stock: Consider These Points First Sure, both Slack and Zoom’s growth has surged amid the Coronavirus pandemic. Even before the lockdowns, these tools were taking the market by storm.   But there’s another side of the coin that you’ve to consider before buying zoom or slack stock.   So far you know who’s growing by what margin and which stock may be profitable. Now, let’s have a quick overview of why you should think twice before buying any of these stocks: Things to Consider when buying Slack’s Stock:   Slack is fending competition with bigger rivals like Microsoft Teams -which witnessed even her surge in usage rates throughout the COVID-10 Pandemic. Slack’s net loss widened from $140.7 million in 2019 to $571.1 million in 2020. Slack's net loss only narrowed slightly from $115.8 million to $113.4 million. Analysts projected a loss of 6 cents to 7 cents a share, and Slack reported an adjusted loss of 4 cents a share Things to Consider when buying Zoom’s Stock:   A series of Zoom security blunders in the last two months sparked questions about its ability to help the security-conscious organization - which caused several customers to ban the app and go against its rivals. A report claimed that over 500,000 Zoom accounts have been hacked and are being sold on the dark web. In short, Zoom is still vulnerable to hacking attempts. Verdict: Wait for a Deeper Pullback Before Buying Zoom Stocks There’s no doubt that the COVID-19 crisis has lit a fire under team collaboration and communication tools like Zoom and Slack, but Slack still is far away from narrowing its losses. It’s also trying to fend off the competition with Microsoft and other Slack alternatives in the market. On the other hand, Zoom is trading like a cult stock. If you’re considering making an investment in either of these tools, Zoom may sound like a safe choice but Zoom’s vulnerability to hacking attempts has become a growing pain. It has caused so many businesses to ban the platform. Zoom needs to resolve its security issues before the hackers permanently trash its accountability and reputation. If Zoom can address such issues, it is definitely a better buy than Slack. But If you were to make a decision now, the best would be to wait for a deeper pullback before getting any shares.

First, why are you comparing Google Drive with OneDrive or Dropbox?   If you’re reading this Dropbox vs Google Drive vs OneDrive analysis, it’s safe to assume you want to make a more informed choice about choosing your cloud storage solutions. Table of Content 1.  Cost, Pricing Plans & Storage 2.  Speed 3.  Version Control 4.  Security 5.  File Browsing and Search 6.  File Sharing Given how all these three giants are rolling one feature after another, the choice can be tough. And that’s what we are here for - to take the pain out of the Dropbox vs Onedrive comparison trap and simplify it for you. Dropbox vs Google Drive vs OneDrive: Fast Facts  At the moment of writing this article, Dropbox has over 600 million active users. 400,000+ teams are using Dropbox Business. It’s a sign that Dropbox is giving Google Drive a run for its money. Here is the full link - Dropbox 600 Million report But Hang on! Let me quickly check Drive’s usage statistics. 1 Billion! That’s the total number of users Google Drive has already crossed.    That’s explosive! But what about Microsoft OneDrive?   What’s it doing to stay in the Game?   Last Summer, Microsoft OneDrive rolled out a Personal Vault feature to give a neck-to-neck to both Google Drive and Dropbox.   The key selling point of OneDrive’s Vault is stronger authentication and additional security measures. And this feature has already given OneDrive its USP. Case in Point? OneDrive, Drive, and Dropbox - they’re all playing cards to trump each other. The question is who is taking the lead. And that’s the intent behind writing this article.    So, let’s have a quick review of all the key features of Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and Dropbox, and see who’s the Boss!  Google Drive vs Onedrive vs Dropbox: Cost, Pricing Plans & Storage  Google Drive is cost-effective. It gives you more space with the free plan - 15 GB.  Dropbox’s free plan offers a storage capacity of 2GB, which can be increased by inviting friends. OneDrive plans are cost-effective too. It offers 5GB of free storage. However, there’s a catch:   GoogleDrive’s 15 GB Storage is shared across your entire Google account - including photo backups, email attachments, and more. Hence, the 15 GB storage is easier to burn through it all. Dropbox sure gives only 2GB space in the beginning but also offers easy ways to expand it up to 19 GB. With each new friend you invite, the storage limit exceeds 500 MB. Given how Dropbox is so popular, it’s tough to onboard new friends who don’t have a Dropbox account. Which makes Google Drive a cheaper solution.     Google Drive   Microsoft OneDrive  Dropbox $2 per month for 100GB and $10 per month for 2TB The 1-month plan starts at $ 1.99 per month. $23.88 billed every year. $11.99 per month & $9.99 per month when paid annually Dropbox Business has three plans Standard plan at $12.50 / user/month (Send files up to 2 GB) Advanced plan at $20 / user/month (Send files up to 100 GB Dropbox vs Google Drive vs OneDrive: Speed  When comparing Dropbox vs Google Drive vs OneDrive, both Dropbox and OneDrive stand out in terms of speed. Dropbox offers the unique advantage of LAN sync, syncing files directly between computers on the same network.   OneDrive performs similarly with a file-syncing technology, often called block-level copying (but only for the MS-native files). So, if you mainly use Google’s apps, then OneDrive’s file-syncing technology has no real benefit to offer. With Google Drive, it’s different, a file on Computer A should be uploaded on the internet and then downloaded to Computer B.   Hence, in terms of Speed, Dropbox takes the lead.   Google Drive   Microsoft OneDrive  Dropbox Drive doesn’t support syncing at block level or LAN sync. It supports fast servers. OneDrive is compatible with block-level copying Block-level copying is only for MS-native files  Same to One-Drive, Dropbox supports block-level or LAN, and fast servers It syncs faster by supporting loc Dropbox vs Onedrive vs Google Drive: Version Control   If you need to restore the previous changes in a file, All three of these tools can help you. However, with Google Drive, you can have access to more detailed changed trackers and deleted files. Google’s broader suite of features has more options.   Google puts a deleted file in the trash folder. So, even if a file has been permanently deleted, it is available in the trash until you empty it. In Dropbox, the version history of files is great. It offers shortcuts for creating documents in MS Word online. Dropbox gets around with the smart sync feature that allows users to set a file as ‘online only’ - which means the file will not take up your drive's space. Dropbox has a ‘rewind’ feature that lets a user revert to an old version of their Dropbox account in case they’ve to face issues like a malware or virus attack. MS One Drive also offers similar features for both native and non-native files - but with basic features only. MS Drive also has a file-on-demand feature that speeds up syn time. Same to Dropbox’s rewind feature, Dropbox has a ‘file restore’ feature with a limit of 30 days.  Google Drive   Microsoft OneDrive  Dropbox With Google Drive, you can have a complete history of Google-native files. For non-native files, you have reviewed changes made in the past 30-days or 100 iteration MS Drive keeps a history of all files for 30-days File-On Demand feature File restore feature On Dropbox, users can recover the changed or deleted files of the past 30 days. For Business and professional plans, the limit is raised to 120 /180 days. The online-only feature that helps you save drive space Rewind feature that allows user to revert to the previous version Google Drive vs Onedrive vs Dropbox: Security When comparing Dropbox vs Google Drive vs OneDrive, the competition for security is fierce. Google Drive offers robust security measures, including two-factor authentication options, data encryption in transit, and protection against snooping.   Dropbox also offers two-factor authentication when you log in. This could be in the form of an authenticator app or an SMS. It encrypts data via 2FA, physical key, and app phone call, and also has the option for passwordless login.  MS OneDrive also offers many security features like Virus scanning during the time of file download. Two-factor authentication helps users to protect their accounts with an additional layer of security. One Drive also has a personal vault feature that forces users to use 2FA whenever they log in.   Google Drive   Microsoft OneDrive  Dropbox AES 128-bit and AES 256-bit encryption  The drive uses both of these to encrypt data at rest, and TLS protocol to encrypt it in transit. TLS encryption, AES256 Key,   Multiple factor authentication Dropbox uses AES 256-bit encryption for the encryption of data at rest.  For data-in-transit encryption, Dropbox uses SSL or TLS Dropbox vs Google Drive vs OneDrive: File Browsing and Search   Whether you choose Google Drive, MS One Drive, or Dropbox, the file browsing experience will be good. However, there are a few key differences.   Google's advanced search functionality surpasses OneDrive’s File browsing and search. With Drive, you get full access to the file management features via a web browser. It offers quick access to recent files in different viewing options like a grid, list, and thumbnails. There is an advanced feature that allows users to search by the date, type, date of last activity, and more. OneDrive also makes searching convenient but advanced search options are slim. So, when you type a search query, it won’t show suggestions or results until you hit the enter button. Also, it cannot search through media and images.    Dropbox allows users to create a folder that can be synced across devices. You can browse files on the web and sort them in order of when the file was last modified, who owns the files, and file type. In Dropbox, you can search for a specific term to reach subfolders.   Google Drive   Microsoft OneDrive  Dropbox Smart, Quick access and it supports machine learning in photo search and other advanced search parameters. Standard search functionality and file management Dropbox has all the basic file-searching features and it allows users to manually start items for easier access. Dropbox vs Onedrive vs Google Drive: File Sharing  For the most part, these tools are identical. However, Dropbox takes the leads with robust options. When you create a shareable link on Dropbox, you can also make it password-protected so that only people with the password can view it. There’s also an option to add an expiration date, post which the link will stop working. Google Drive makes it convenient for users to share files with custom options to view, comment, and edit Also, Google Drive supports opening and sharing various file types, including markup/code like HTML, JS, and CSS. The storage is friendly to third-party integrations to enhance file-sharing capabilities like automatically transmitting big CSV file to Google Sheets, keeping it, and sharing it on the drive. OneDrive and Google Drive offer a similar method of file sharing: using someone’s email address to share access or getting the shareable link of the file. On both these platforms, a user can choose permissions to give access or viewing or editing.   Google Drive   Microsoft OneDrive  Dropbox Basic sharing features with additional storage Basic sharing with advanced features of paid accounts Permission management, password protection Expiration dates, and one-click sharing Which Cloud Storage Software should I use? Overall, In the context of all the main features,   Google Drive and Dropbox clearly trump Microsoft OneDrive. You can choose either of these tools. If you want to sync documents and files between multiple devices, Dropbox should be a good choice. It’s reliable, fast, secure, and works in the background. Unlike Google Drive, it doesn’t have extra features. If you want an all-around solution, both Microsoft One Drive and Google Drive offers are compelling cases. I’d recommend going for Google Drive if you are a Google Docs Invoice Template, Sheets, or Slides user. And if you prefer Word, Excel, or other MS tools, One-Drive should be the go-to choice. What if you wanted to use both Google Drive and Dropbox?  I get it. Both Google Drive and Dropbox Excel when comes to storage features and functionalities. They give each other a neck-to-neck competition in terms of security, storage, and file sharing.   If you want to use both these storage apps - without switching between the two, we’ve got you a great solution: Troop Messenger.   With Troop Messenger, you can seamlessly integrate Google Drive and Dropbox. You don’t have to switch between apps and have access to a common space to find all files & folders. Troop Messenger is a feature-rich business chat app designed for internal communications. TM lets you virtually collaborate with all your employees, client, and vendors. Apart from using Dropbox and Google Drive from one single space, there’s so much more you can do with Troop Messenger:   Communicate with your entire workforce via 1:1 and Group messaging Boost team productivity with secure HD video calling  Real-time content and screen sharing Track message exchanges and evaluate workflows Have confidential chats with team members in a burnout window that collapses after a stipulated time -without storing the chat history anywhere  Use advanced filters for searching files by images, types, size, date, sender name, and more. End-to-End encryption  Add vendors or suppliers as orange members with restricted access.   Don’t Leave Just Yet  Both Dropbox and Google Drive are great. They’ve got features that can help your team collaborate without compromising security or privacy. But if you cannot choose between the two and want to leverage the benefit of both, take a month-day Enterprise Free Trial of Troop Messenger. What Troop Messenger does is take the pain out of managing different storage spaces and turn it into a single-space solution for all your files and media.

 COVID-19 is going to be a tipping point for the work-from-home business model. Work-from-home tools and productivity apps like Troop Messenger, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Slack have become essential. Business owners and team leaders are now relying on these tools to manage their staff remotely. Remote work has become a trend that’s showing no sign of slowing down. There has been a considerable upswing in the businesses that are operating remotely. For example, look at the Google trends results we collected for the work-from-home query     With the world declaring lockdown due to the coronavirus breakout, companies are left with no option but to follow the social distancing guidelines and adopt a work-from-home structure. Today remote work seems like the only logical precaution for employees and the employer. However, not all businesses have equipment or infrastructure that enables them to work remotely. That explains why there has been an upswing in search queries for work-from-home apps:     Without a doubt, the demand for remote collaboration software has increased. Typically, work-from-home business structure implementation of a set of tools like: Remote working video collaboration tool Remote desktop access and screen sharing Employee tracking Project management software Content sharing and management Supplier or Vendor management The transition to managing remote staff can be daunting but with the right tools, it can be a seamless process. Yes, there are dozens of software, but not every company can invest in these tools at the moment. Because - Coronavirus also means recession   Worldwide, the coronavirus lockdown has kept millions of people homebound and closed businesses. Given how production has come to a halt, the world is fearing economic downtime. Coronavirus also means a financial crisis for the majority of businesses. Not all businesses can afford to spend on a set of software or tools for business continuity. Hence, I’m going to break this article into three sections and recommend an all-in-one solution for businesses of all types. The goal is to help you find one software that can meet your remote collaboration requirements considering your team size and current finances: Small businesses (Budget team collaboration software) Medium-sized businesses (Affordable remote work solution) Enterprises (Premium collaboration tools) But before we jump to reviewing the best remote collaboration tools, let’s do a quick review of helpful tips to manage employees during this pandemic season. Table of Contents Coronavirus also means recession Tips to manage your work-from-home staff during COVID-19 Remote Collaboration Software for Small Businesses Remote Collaboration Software for Medium-Sized Businesses Remote Collaboration Software for Large-Sized Businesses or Enterprises What the future holds Key Takeaways Tips to manage your work-from-home staff during COVID-19   1. Establish daily check-ins Working from home can be a big change for your employees, especially if they’ve never done this before. Make sure to communicate on a regular basis and establish daily check-ins. Prepare FAQs, important tips, and documents containing all lists of best practices they might need. The daily check-ins can either be one-on-one phone calls, a video conference, or a group chat. The key is to keep the check-ins predictable and regular. 2. Provide communication technology options Phone calls or emails shouldn’t be the only option. To make remote collaboration successful, it’s important to provide your employees with richer technology like web conferencing and screen sharing. This gives participants visual cues. Screen sharing and video conferencing have many advantages - it feels more personal than audio-only or written communication. Make sure to onboard your teams on quick collaboration tools that allow visual meetings. Mobile-enabled virtual collaboration tools with messaging functionality can be used for simpler, time-sensitive communication. 3. Establish “rules of engagement” for remote working collaboration Remote collaboration can be successful if only there are defined rules for engagement. As an employee, it’s your responsibility to set ideal timing and frequency for communication. The most important factor is to ensure everyone in the team is sharing information whenever needed. Make sure everyone is on the same virtual collaboration Software It’s not a good practice when you are using Software A while your employees are using B. Hence, when you’re deciding to work from home, ensure that everyone is using the same software. 4. Offer Emotional Support With the abrupt shift to remote work, it’s your responsibility as an employer to acknowledge the stress and offer your employees emotional support. Ask them how the current situation is working out for them and help them with the solutions. Be sure to listen to them carefully and encourage them from time to time. Keeping these basic rules in mind, let’s go through the tools different types of teams can implement for remote work Remote Collaboration Software for Small Businesses Troop Messenger - Best Suited Internal communication app   Troop Messenger is a cloud-based collaboration tool for business. This work-from-home communication tool brings seamless communication through a suite of features that are designed to provide remote connectivity. As a compact chat app, TM allows instant communication between individuals and groups. Troop Messenger is particularly useful for teams that prefer collaborating on visual projects - it has screen-sharing features that can help your team discuss finer points relating to images, graphics, and PowerPoint presentations. The app can be integrated with Drive and Dropbox and thus allow content management at ease. Other useful features include the incognito window, orange member, and advanced search filters. In the incognito window, you can confidentially chat with a team member for a stipulated period of time and the chat will be deleted automatically, without getting stored anywhere else. The orange member access builds for giving restricted access to vendors and suppliers.   Pricing: Starts at $1 per month - making it one of the most affordable remote collaboration tools. Remote Collaboration Software for Medium-Sized Businesses Asana - Best Remote Collaboration tool for Project Tracking Asana is one of the most popular project-tracking software that has won many fans over the years. It has plenty of features including seamless integration with third-party apps like Microsoft Teams and Google Drive. Asana, with its intuitive dashboard and interface, makes it easy for users to visually track their projects. They can add individual tasks, assign them via the calendar, and share information with the right people. Asana’s project tracing features such as custom timeline management visualized workflows, and deadline management make it a must-have project tracking software for remote teams. Pricing: Free with basic features. Premium plans with advanced features start at $10 per user per month. Trello - Best To-do list Software Trello is known for its highly visual approach to project management and remote collaboration. This web-based software is great for teams that are spread across continents. Trello’s dashboard is inspired by the kanban methodology - it has lists, cards, boards, and drag & drops functionality that can help you manage your projects more efficiently. Trello also offers integration with the top-most third-party applications. The tool syncs seamlessly across all your devices - providing collaboration options like comments, due dates, attachments, and many more options.   Pricing: Trello has a free plan for personal use, but the professional plans start at $9.99 per month. CuteHR - Human resource management tool Luther is aCloud Based complete Human resource management tool that has the ability to manage small and medium-sized teams remotely. It works on daily workplace ethics like an employee can use the check-in and checkout option to mark attendance. The employer gets an option to onboard client projects, and allocate their team with tasks that employees can work on while being tracked on a time tracker after they check in. The workforce can be monitored with a Live view. All the tasks done with time tracking records are used to help the employers or HR, generate payroll and invoices. There are also other smart features like the Applicant tracking system which automates the hiring process for any business. Not only this, CuteHR helps the HR team to monitor employee performance and generate work reports for monthly, quarterly and yearly reports. The HR team also gets options to create anonymous and intended surveys which help in taking feedback to identify the workplace atmosphere. Pricing: It is free for up to 10 users and beyond that, it cost $2/User (Annually) and $3/User (Monthly) Remote Collaboration Software for Large-Sized Businesses or Enterprises Monday.com - Workflow Management App Monday.com is one of the most intuitive workflow management applications that have a broad range of project templates that can help your teams get started on projects in a breeze. On Monday.com, you simply choose a template that fits your project’s workflow. You can further customize it with finer details and invite your team to be a part of the project via email. The team members can collaborate via a centralized dashboard that takes care of all your checklists, files, documents, briefs, and sheets. Monday.com is highly visual - making it easy for the teams to manage the project once they are up. Pricing: Free trials are available, and after the trial, the basic package starts at $39 per month. Zoho Projects - Best CRM and Project Management Software Zoho Project, as a suite of tools, provides comprehensive features and functionalities ranging from CRM to Project Management and invoicing. On Zoho, you can plan your projects, manage resources, assign work, and collaborate with the team members. Zoho has exclusive features like Gantt charts for tracking the task scheduled, and features that keep you aware of the dependencies and critical tasks. Project timesheet module and other built-in integration allow teams to generate an invoice, and keep a track of the billings. Zoho has plenty of advanced features like creating a task list, setting milestones, and more. Pricing: 10-day free trial and $18 per month after the trial period ends. Time Doctor - Best Employee Monitoring Software Time Doctor is an employee monitoring software that can be used by team leaders and managers to track the time worked by their team members, and evaluate an individual’s productivity - even if they are working from home. The tools give you a breakdown of the project, task, and client. The managers can review the time spent working on the task at hand and the time wasted on unproductive sites. It’s a great tool to identify inefficiencies in your team. Some of the most promising features include chat monitoring, powerful records, app, and web usage records, clients feature, time use alerts, GPS tracking, and integrations with key project management tools.    You can also check out some time doctor alternatives before choosing employee monitoring software for your remote employees.   Pricing: $12 per user per month TimeCamp-  First Class Automatic Time Tracking Software TimeCamp helps companies with efficient time tracking - it fills timesheets automatically with time entries and computer activities, saving the users time for what really matters at work.    Besides the accurate work hours recording, TimeCamp provides remote teams with a wide range of built-in and custom reports that are the perfect support for performance analysis. It also offers attendance management features like clocking in/out, Calendar integrations, or timesheet approvals.    Pricing: Free plan for unlimited users is available; it also includes unlimited projects and tasks. Paid plans start at $6.3 per user/month, free 14-day trial is available.  UnRemot UnRemot is a video-based remote collaboration tool, most suited for daily, repetitive collaborations among small teams. It allows users to set up virtual offices and reap the benefits of physical offices, remotely. With features like single-click video calls, UnRemot eliminates the need for sending calendar invites, sharing meeting code URLs, etc. giving you a seamless remote experience. Some of the unique features of the remote working tool include a virtual office, single click Video calls & chats (group and individuals), productivity reports & screen sharing to name a few. Pricing: Free for 1 team with 3 members, $ 2.99 per person - up to 25 teams with 18 members in each team. Storyxpress Recorder A lightweight Google Chrome extension that lets you capture your screen and webcam together. In one smooth motion, you can record a great video message and share it with a colleague, prospect, or customer via a simple copy-paste link. If like everyone else around, you too are tired of writing and receiving long cryptic emails at work, it is time you transformed your style of communication. Sales, marketing, and customer success professionals can use the recorder tool to create short engaging video bites to make their everyday business communication more personalized & effective. Ditch the olden ways of writing dead emails and cold-calling prospects. Embrace the StoryXpress Recorder instead and experience an improved response rate and faster conversions.   Pricing: Record & Send unlimited videos in the Free plan, Upgrade to unlock more features. TrackingTime TrackingTime is a simple time tracker software for freelancers and teams. Keep track of progress and billable hours for your projects. Organize and assign tasks for your team and manage their access with user permissions. Keep control over employee attendance, breaks, extra time, and time off with time cards. Create custom online timesheets for productivity, payroll, invoicing, budgeting, billing, and more. Export and share professional business reports with your clients. Track time anywhere you work, from any device or directly in your favorite project management apps like Asana, Trello, Slack, and 30+ online services. What the future holds The COVID-19 outbreak has caused an anxious trial run for the work-from-home business model on a grand scale. What we are going to learn in the upcoming months can shape the future of remote work. Remote working may not work in all industries but the status quo is already changing for millions of people. Fast Company has predicted that remote collaboration tools and technologies like AI, ML, and Virtual Assistance will play a major role in managing remote employees. In the long run, many businesses will be adapting to the remote work culture because work-from-home is here to stay. This is true, especially for businesses that don’t require personal meetings with customers. Key Takeaways For employers, using a remote collaboration tool can boost employee productivity, lower organizational costs, and reduce turnover, while the employees can enjoy the perks like a lack of commute and flexibility. To make work-from-home more effective, you’ll need to use team collaboration tools, and make sure you have got a separate workspace, a workable schedule, and internet services to meet your needs.

First things first, why are people searching for Discord alternatives, while Discord Screen Share is so popular?   Well, Discord has surrounded itself with quite a few controversies.    Discord is not secure    In 2017, Discord became a target tool for alt-right groups, and the app, due to lack of security, was used to rally supporters.   Discord is vulnerable to hacking attempts, and that’s one of the reasons why security-conscious organizations are looking for better and more secure alternatives to Discord.   It’s 2024, and Discord is still not secure enough to prevent data theft.   Discord is expensive  Moreover, Discord isn’t free. All the unique features like Upgraded upload limit, Server Boosting, and Higher Quality video are available as Nitro plans. Discord pricing plan includes; Free, Nitro Plan, and Nitro Classic. The Nitro plan starts at $9.99 per month. Best Discord Alternatives  1. Troop Messenger 2. TeamSpeak 3. Mumble 4. Slack 5. Telegram 6. Skype 7. Overtone 8. Steam Chat 9. Twitch 10. Tox 1. Troop Messenger Troop Messenger is a high-efficiency, feature-rich communication, and collaboration tool that allows users to exchange information swiftly and securely.   This Discord alternative has all essential features including 1:1 messaging, video conferencing, file and content sharing, dropbox and drives integration, and end-to-end encryption.   What’s missing in Discord that Troop Messenger has:   Communicate with your entire workforce via one-on-one and group messaging Storage space up to 1 TB Respond later, read receipts, recall or edit a sent message  Enterprise-grade security  Track message exchanges and evaluate workflows  Use Google Drive, LDAP, and Dropbox without switching between apps  Add vendors or suppliers as orange members with restricted access Incredible access to the chat history    Troop Messenger summary You should use this app if:   You’re a security-conscious organization   You need to interact with third-party vendors and suppliers without compromising data theft  You want to be in charge of the workflows and team productivity  You want to confidentially chat with others  You’re looking for cheaper Discord alternatives    2. TeamSpeak TeamSpeak is one of the most popular VoIP applications for audio communication between users when they are on a chat channel. It’s one of the best alternatives to Discord.  What’s missing in Discord that TeamSpeak has:   TeamSpeak has better audio quality.  In TeamSpeak, each team member has the authority to ban anyone irrespective of rank - which can be both good or bad. The users have an option for a completely functional window while they’re in the game.  TeamSpeak is not 100% free for communication, unlike apps like Discord.   TeamSpeak summary You should use this app if:   Your team’s priority is End to end data encryption Your collaboration relies on a Crystal-clear voice Your team needs scalability for up to thousands of users You need multiple customization options   3. Mumble Mumble is an app like Discord. Mumble is known as software developed for users who prefer to chat while gaming. With the use of the special codex, Mumble provides a greater audio-quality experience even with low bandwidth, and it's a perfect alternative to Discord.   What’s missing in Discord that Mumble has:   Mumble is one of the popular open-source Discord alternatives. Unlike Discord, it is totally free. Mumble allows authentication and encryption to ensure a secure environment. Provides great results with low bandwidth usage. User authentication is done by codes. Mumble summary You should use this app if:   You want to avail better audio quality  If you’re looking for a free Discord alternative, mumble is  a great choice  You need to use the Push-to-talk feature    4. Slack Slack, as the most popular collaboration tool, focuses mainly on the business sector. It has all the communication and collaboration functionalities with many integrations and very few limitations. It can be considered a perfect alternative to Discord. Slack may not be eligible to get into the league of apps similar to Discord but it can certainly serve you as a free Discord alternative.   What’s missing in Discord that Slack has:   Slack comes with three pricing plans; Free plan, Standard Plan, and Plus Plan.  Slack supports unlimited message history.  Slack’s interface is more organized.  Over 2000+ integrations.  Very friendly conversational structure.    Slack summary You should use this app if:   You want to use different apps without switching between apps  Your team’s priority is to organize  You need to have control over all your notification settings  You need a better screen-sharing and video-quality experience    5. Telegram Telegram is one of the most secure tools for communication and collaboration requirements. This app like Discord has an additional advantage for self-destructing messages.   What’s missing in Discord that Telegram has:   Possible to send photos and videos without compression High-quality calls  Inline bots and link previews Supergroups of up to 200,000 people Multiplatform native client apps Unlimited storage  Self-destruct messages Two-step verification    Telegram summary You should use this app if:   You want a space for free and convenient file sharing  Your organization's privacy focuses  You want all premium features at no cost  Do you prefer a customizable and clean UI    6. Skype Skype was introduced in 2013 as a telecommunication software. It was a leading software for video conferencing until Discord came into the picture. Skype for Business Online has been "retired" on July 31, 2021. However, Skype will continue to provide its great service and it can be your Discord streaming alternative.   What’s missing in Discord that Skype has:   Skype’s average CPU usage is 30% more than Discord’s Skype supports the transfer of all file types The maximum file sharing limit in Discord is 8 MB while it is 300 MB in Skype  You can share screens on Skype during a voice and video call and also record the calls    Skype summary You should use this app if:   Call recording is a priority You frequently make groups calls (Skype supports 25 members and Discord supports only 100) Private calling to mobile phone numbers and landlines    7. Overtone Overtone is a program like Discord. Overtone is a free discord alternative that feels and looks very much like it. It has all the essential features like text messages, group chats, and voice chats.    What’s missing in Discord that Overtone has:   Free to use  Quite easy to set up  Doesn’t use much of your system resources  Supports text messaging and group chats  Features social features to connect with people of similar interest    Overtone summary You should use this app if:   You’re looking for a free Discord alternative  You want to interact with others and be a part of a large community   8. Steam Chat Steam Chat is a program like Discord. Steam Chat offers a modernized chat experience for Android and iOS users. With Steam Chat, you can customize notifications per group, friend, chat, and channel.     What’s missing in Discord that Stream Chat has:   Steam Chat’s interface is cleaner and limited to three sections: Friends, Chats, and Groups  A small number of in-built emojis as compared to Discord  Voice and Video calls are quick to initiate    Steam Chat summary You should use this app if:   You prefer using two distinct tabs for Groups and Chats  You are looking for a cleaner, less-cluttered interface  You want to customize notifications per group, friend, chat, and channel.   9. Twitch Twitch is an app like Discord. Twitch is mainly a video streaming software that provides gamers around the world to chat, stream, and connect to share their gaming sessions.   What’s missing in Discord that Twitch has:   Twitch makes it easy for users to discover and join new channels  Twitch has rooms or channels that can be set to public or private mode  Twitch allows content partners to earn money with donations, ads, and subscription plans    Twitch summary You should use this app if:   Your priority is to stream live and interact with your audience during gameplay  You want to get merchandise and accessories from sponsors for free    10. Tox Tox is nothing but a Discord-like app, that has established its identity as an easy-to-use app that lets you connect with family and friends at no cost.   What’s missing in Discord that Tox has:   Tox is free  Open sources  Privacy-focused app with military-grade encryption  Multiple front-ends are available for different platforms    Overtone summary You should use this app if:   You are a security-conscious organization  You are looking for a free Discord alternative    Final Thoughts   Despite the privacy concerns, Discord has still managed to maintain its position as one of the best chat apps. However, Discord alternative clients like Troop Messenger can give Discord a run for its money because of additional features like adding an orange member, a confidential chat window, and high-grade security.   With that said, Discord should seriously concentrate on its features since every mediocre chat app is providing the same features.   FAQs     1. Why should I look for Discord alternatives?       You may need alternatives for better security, professional features, or to avoid gaming-centric tools in business communication.         2. Which Discord alternatives are best for business use?       Troop Messenger, Slack, and Microsoft Teams are excellent alternatives offering secure and professional communication.         3. Is there a more secure option than Discord?       Yes, Troop Messenger and Wickr offer enhanced security features like end-to-end encryption for sensitive communication.         4. Are there open-source alternatives to Discord?       Yes, Rocket.Chat and Mattermost are popular open-source options for team collaboration.         5. Can Troop Messenger replace Discord for gaming communities?       Troop Messenger is better suited for professional teams but can support any community with its rich features         6. Are Discord alternatives better for video conferencing?       Yes, tools like Microsoft Teams and Zoom are more robust for video conferencing.           7. What makes Troop Messenger a good alternative?       Its flexibility, on-premise hosting, and secure features make it ideal for businesses and regulated industries.       8. Do Discord alternatives integrate with other tools?     Yes, options like Slack and Troop Messenger offer extensive integrations with third-party apps and project management tools.       9.Can I use Discord alternatives for remote work?     Absolutely! Troop Messenger, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom are designed to enhance remote team collaboration.       10. Are there Discord alternatives for NGOs or government use?     Troop Messenger is an excellent choice for NGOs and governments due to its secure, customizable, and industry-specific features.         11. Is Troop Messenger available for mobile devices?     Yes, Troop Messenger is available on Android, iOS, and desktop platforms for seamless communication.         12. Which Discord alternative is best for small teams?       Flock, Chanty, and Troop Messenger are ideal for small teams needing simple yet effective collaboration tools.         13. How does Wickr compare to Discord?       Wickr offers stronger security but lacks Discord's community and gaming features.         14. Are there free Discord alternatives?       Yes, options like Rocket.Chat, Chanty, and Mattermost offer free plans for basic use.         15. Can I host a Discord alternative on my own server?       Yes, tools like Troop Messenger and Mattermost provide self-hosting options for complete data control.         16. Do Discord alternatives support file sharing?       Yes, most alternatives, including Troop Messenger and Microsoft Teams, support secure file sharing.         17. Are Discord alternatives better for professional environments?       Yes, tools like Slack, Troop Messenger, and Microsoft Teams are tailored for professional collaboration.         18. Can I migrate my team from Discord to an alternative?       Yes, most tools, like Troop Messenger and Slack, offer easy onboarding and data import features.         19. Do Discord alternatives offer customer support?       Yes, solutions like Troop Messenger provide 24/7 customer support for seamless operations.         20. Which alternative is best for project management?       Monday.com, Troop Messenger (with integrations), and Microsoft Teams are excellent for project management needs.