10 Best Productivity Apps for Businesses in 2023

The 10 Best Productivity Apps of 2023

1. Connecteam — Best all-in-one productivity app

   Available on

   • Web
   • iOS
   • Android

   

   Connecteam is the best all-in-one productivity app for businesses, managers, and workers. It includes powerful tools for managing teams, projects, and tasks—including task management, time tracking, and checklists. Workers can access all the information they need for their shift as soon as they clock in, including daily tasks and dynamic forms. 

   You’ll also find a full communications suite, with secure instant messaging, company-wide and team updates, surveys and polls, and a knowledge base to store all your company documents. In addition, you’ll have access to Connecteam’s features for managing and promoting company events. 

   Finally, you’ll find tools for rewarding and recognizing achievements, HR document management, onboarding and training, time off management, and more.

   Let’s take a closer look at some of the best productivity tools Connecteam has to offer. 

   Manage and assign tasks to employees, teams, and shifts

   Connecteam stands out as a powerful task management app that’s easy to use. You can create and assign tasks to teams, individual employees, or a particular shift. There’s also an option to create recurring tasks to save you time and effort.

   Detailed descriptions, unlimited subtasks, and video, image, and file attachments ensure employees have all the information they need as soon as they clock in—and right from their mobile devices.

   Due dates, reminders, and real-time notifications help keep workers on schedule and managers in the loop about progress and delays. Similarly, as a manager, you can view all your team’s tasks in one place, organize tasks with tags, and filter them by tag, completion status, assignee, and more. 

   Keep projects moving forward with digital forms and checklists

   Checklists provide an intuitive way for employees to work through daily, weekly, and monthly workflows. Connecteam makes it easy to create checklists with tasks, dates, images, and even employee eSignatures and geolocation—a must for safety checks, opening and closing procedures, and more. Take advantage of checklist templates for even greater productivity.

   Digital forms are another great way to ensure work is being completed properly and to standard. With Connecteam you can accurately keep track of cleanliness, safety standards, inventory, deliveries, and more in real time. Connecteam’s forms are simple to build and can change dynamically based on worker input. 

   As with tasks, you’ll receive real-time notifications as checklists are completed and forms are submitted. 

   In-app chat and updates feed for smooth communication

   Connecteam offers secure one-on-one and group conversations through its built-in chat feature. You and your team can share files, videos, images, and more within conversations, and push notifications ensure everyone stays up to date.

   As a manager, you have full control over team chats. You can delete inappropriate or confusing messages, restrict who’s able to message whom, and ensure conversations stay on track. 

   Chats integrate directly with all the operations features mentioned above, so you can have distraction-free conversations around projects, tasks, shifts, and more. 

   Finally, rest easy knowing your chats are stored securely in the cloud and never on employees’ devices. Messages and media can’t be exported or saved onto workers’ devices, and employees instantly lose access to chats when they leave your company.

   Keep all your documentation, guides, and policies in one knowledge base

   Connecteam’s knowledge base allows companies to create, store, and manage all their important documents in a centralized location. Team members can access it from anywhere, at any time. That said, managers and admins can control who sees what with access logs and user permissions. 

   Enrich knowledge base articles with everything from text to links to images, videos, and audio files. You’re also able to organize files with folders and tags, share staff policies and procedure manuals, track inventory with spreadsheets, and more.

   All your data is end-to-end encrypted, and there are no limits on the size or number of files you can store in Connecteam. 

   Drag-and-drop scheduling and an accurate time clock

   Maximize productivity by ensuring the right people are on the job and shifts are neither under- nor overstaffed. Connecteam’s drag-and-drop scheduling tool makes this easy to achieve.

   You can create and publish schedules in minutes—choosing from Connecteam’s large library of templates or drafting your own. Create recurring schedules and set them to repeat daily, weekly, or monthly. Connecteam will automatically notify you of any scheduling conflicts or overlaps. Likewise, your workers will get alerts when their schedule changes or a new one is published.

   Workers can see their schedule on their mobile devices, make requests to swap shifts, and see all the documents, forms, and checklists they need as soon as they clock in. 

   Speaking of which, Connecteam has a time clock that’s accurate down to the second and simple to use. It’s GPS-enabled as well, so you can make sure everybody’s in the right place at the right time, and that lone and field workers are safe. You’re also able to create geofences around job sites and restrict clock-in and clock-out to those areas. 

   Connecteam also offers built-in overtime and break management, automated timesheets, automatic reporting, payroll integrations, a kiosk app, and more. 

   Rewards and training, HR documents, and much more

   Connecteam brings together the best productivity features for teams of all sizes. Use rewards and recognition tools to reduce turnover and keep employees engaged, and manage all your HR documents and ensure currency and validity. 

   Plus, create dynamic training courses to upskill employees and boost efficiency, gather feedback with surveys to help streamline workflows and keep workers happy, and much more. 

   Connecteam also offers a free for life plan – Try Connecteam here!

   Key Features

   • Assign, organize, and track all tasks, team-wide

   • Build dynamic forms and checklists for maximum productivity

   • Secure, integrated, contextual chat, surveys, and more

   • Store and share unlimited how-tos, policies, guidelines, and docs

   • Scheduling, real-time notifications, and GPS-enabled time-clock

   • Additional tools for HR and operations management

   Pros

   • Highly customizable for any business in any industry

   • Simple to use, available anywhere

   • Built mobile-friendly from the ground up

   • All-in-one solution

   Cons

   • More third-party integrations in development

   Pricing

   Free-for-life plan availablePremium plans start at $29/month for 30 users

   14-day free trial, no credit card required

   Start your free trial
2. 

   Hive — Good for hybrid office teams

   Available on

   • Web
   • iOS
   • Android

   

   Hive offers tools for project and resource management and planning, time tracking, goal tracking, and client engagement. It’s built specifically for remote and hybrid teams, so it works well for deskbound workers but may not be well suited to deskless teams. 

   Project management features include tasks and subtasks, support for sprints and agile methodology, and dependencies, which can be visualized on Gantt charts and calendars. Hive also includes communications tools, such as in-app, contextual chat, video chat, and forms. Similarly, Hive Notes is a collaborative document editor for meeting notes, checklists, and project updates, with AI features. 

   Hive does include tools for time tracking and even digital timesheets, but you’ll need a separate app for scheduling. That said, it’s quite customizable and includes project and action templates, custom statuses, and notifications. There are also automation features, such as the ability to create tasks and assign owners, and team analytics. 

   Learn more about Hive

   Key Features

   • Project management with subtasks, sprints, and Gantt charts
   • Chat, video calls, and forms
   • Automations and templates
   • Team and company-wide goals

   Pros

   • Built-in AI for docs
   • Custom dashboards for teams

   Cons

   • Free plan has limited storage, no forms, and no time tracking
   • Per-user pricing gets expensive with larger teams

   Pricing

   Starts at $16/user/month Trial: Yes Free Plan: Yes

3. 

   Todoist — Good for freelancers and personal tasks

   Available on

   • Web
   • iOS
   • Android

   

   Todoist is a popular task management suite that’s especially useful for individuals, such as freelancers, and organizing personal projects and tasks. It features natural language task creation. For example, “Read work emails every day at 10 am” will schedule a recurring daily “Read work emails” task for 10 am.

   Users can create tasks, add subtasks, organize tasks by project, share projects with friends or colleagues, add priority levels, and create filtered views. Unfortunately, reminders are available only on the Pro plan.

   For teams, workers can delegate tasks to others, get notifications for due dates, organize tasks into Kanban boards, and attach tags and labels. Todoist also lets users add tasks via email, add comments and files, and create a feed to display tasks in a preferred calendar app.

   Finally, Todoist includes some “gamification” features to help boost productivity and motivation, such as goal tracking, activity history, and “Todoist Karma,” which awards points for completing tasks.

   While an able task manager, Todoist doesn’t include other business features, such as chat, time tracking, or documents.

   Learn more about Todoist

   Key Features

   • Organize and prioritize tasks
   • Share and delegate tasks and boards
   • Todoist Karma adds a gamification element
   • Natural-language task creation

   Pros

   • Works equally well for business and personal life
   • Plenty of different ways to view an organize tasks

   Cons

   • Limited business features, especially for larger teams
   • Free plan limited to 5 projects

   Pricing

   Starts at $150/month, for 50 users Trial: Yes Free Plan: Yes

4. 

   ClickUp — Good for cross-team collaboration

   Available on

   • Web
   • iOS
   • Android
   • Windows
   • Mac

   

   Clickup strives to be an all-in-one solution for productivity and business operations. It includes tools for tasks, whiteboards, dashboards, chat, goals and documents—all of which can be divided up into different “spaces.”

   Each space can be viewed as a list, board, or timeline. It’s well-suited to software developers, marketers, engineers and designers, but doesn’t include specific features for managing field workers and deskless teams. 

   That said, it is highly customizable. In fact, some users have found the learning curve to be a bit steep when getting started. The newest version, ClickUp 3.0 (invite-only at the time of writing), will include universal search, custom task types, and a central inbox. It will also include AI features for document creation. 

   ClickUp includes internal chat, forms, events and meetings, automations, and support for sprints. 

   Learn more about ClickUp

   Key Features

   • Projects and tasks with different views
   • Whiteboards for collaboration
   • Docs with AI features
   • Internal chat with mentions, links and files

   Pros

   • Highly customizable
   • Large template library

   Cons

   • Steep learning curve when starting out
   • No timesheets, scheduling, or surveys

   Pricing

   Starts at $5/user/month Trial: No Free Plan: Yes

5. 

   Airtable — Good for database-style data management
   

   Available on

   • Web
   • iOS
   • Android
   • Windows
   • Mac

   

   Airtable is a platform for creating custom applications to fit a variety of business use cases. Part spreadsheet, part database, it allows users to create relationships between different kinds of data—such as users and tasks—and visualize these as boards, calendars, and spreadsheets. 

   Airtable’s “Interfaces” offers businesses new ways to store, share, and collect data from employees and customers. It also features a comprehensive automations builder and its own script runner (only available on more expensive plans). 

   Like ClickUp, Aairtable is customizable but can be very complex to use. For example, you would need to “create” a simple task management system that includes projects, tags, subtasks and more. In this way, it’s not as intuitive for basic productivity functions as other apps on this list.

   That said, it is possible to create apps for many different scenarios. Just be prepared to invest a good chunk of time into learning the ropes and getting everything set up. The mobile app, as well, is a bit cumbersome when it comes to viewing and storing records, which may make it less useful for field and mobile-first workers.

   Learn more about Airtable

   Key Features

   • View records as a spreadsheet, calendar, Kanban, and more
   • “Interfaces” offer an interesting way to work with data
   • Extensive automations builder
   • Advanced filters and sorting

   Pros

   • Built for customizability—create apps for many situations
   • Many integrations and large app store

   Cons

   • Complex and requires time to create basic productivity apps
   • No built-in chat

   Pricing

   Starts at $10 per, user per month Trial: Yes Free Plan: Yes

6. 

   MindMeister — Good for brainstorming
   

   Available on

   • Web
   • iOS
   • Android

   

   MindMeister is a collaborative mind mapping app. It allows users to brainstorm and visualize ideas and workflows and manage associated tasks. It includes a library of themes, a variety of layouts and connectors, chart and list views, presentations (forthcoming at the time of writing), and templates. 

   Users can add notes, images, and files to connectors and nodes—which are individual ideas, tasks or concepts in your mind map. Collaborative features include commenting, version history, and share links. In addition, users can customize topics and connections with images and emojis and change their appearance.  

   MindMeister offers email notifications, real-time sync, and the ability to manage user permissions. There’s also an “Outline Mode” to view maps as bullet points and a “Focus Mode” to remove distractions. Plus, MindMeister has various integrations, including with Microsoft Teams and Google Workspace.

   Learn more about MindMeister

   Key Features

   • Various themes available
   • Chart and list views
   • Collaborative features and third-party integrations

   Pros

   • Highly customizable and visually appealing
   • Free trial and free-forever plan

   Cons

   • Limited functionality in free version
   • Reports of a steep learning curve for new users

   Pricing

   Starts at $7.53/user/month Trial: Yes Free Plan: Yes

7. 

   Scribe — Good for creating documentation
   

   Available on

   • Web
   • Windows
   • Mac

   

   Scribe allows you to create how-to documents by recording your screen as you go through a workflow. The application follows your actions and screen, and then creates a set of step-by-step instructions that can be shared with team members and customers. 

   It’s well-suited to teams that work on a computer but would have limited utility for workers in deskless industries like food and beverage, construction, hospitality, and healthcare, as most workflows in these industries happen in the physical world. 

   Still, Scribe offers an interesting way to create documentation for complex or repetitive tasks that might take place at a main office. 

   Learn more about Scribe

   Key Features

   • Record Chrome, Edge, or any app with Desktop version
   • Generate how-to guides with links and screenshots
   • Customize guides with text and annotations
   • Share via PDF, HTML, Markdown or embed in a Wiki

   Pros

   • Easy to use
   • Save time creating documentation

   Cons

   • Fairly expensive for larger teams
   • Offers no other business functionality

   Pricing

   Starts at $12/user/month, for minimum 5 users Trial: No Free Plan: Yes

8. 

   Basecamp — Good for project-focused tasks and comms
   

   Available on

   • Web
   • iOS
   • Android
   • Windows
   • Mac

   

   Basecamp is a cloud-based project management and collaboration platform. It offers tools to manage projects, tasks, and deadlines—including to-do lists, messages boards, schedules, file storage, group chat, and project templates. 

   Basecamp’s chat is contextual: It takes place within projects, where you can also share docs and files. Basecamp also supports rudimentary scheduling—but only for key dates and milestones, not for employees. 

   To-dos allow you to create tasks and subtasks and assign them to team members. You can also see a team member’s activity history. Communication is broken up into threaded message boards and a real-time “Campfire” chat. 

   Learn more about Basecamp

   Key Features

   • Main hub to see all projects
   • Message boards and instant messaging
   • To-dos with due dates and assignments
   • Store and share project-related files

   Pros

   • Large library of integrations
   • Multiple views: calendar, lineup, Kanban, etc.

   Cons

   • No time tracking, forms, or surveys
   • Fairly expensive for small teams; no free plan

   Pricing

   Starts at $99.00/month Trial: Yes — 30-day Free Plan: Yes — For a single user

9. 

   Expensify — Good for tracking expenses

   Available on

   • iOS
   • Android

   

   Expensify is an expense management, invoicing, and payroll app. It includes receipt scanning, credit card import, support for multiple approvers, travel integrations, tax tracking, and auditing and compliance. There are tools for invoicing, including bulk invoicing, integrated payments, and customer-facing communications. 

   Expensify also offers its own bank card that connects with the app and features 4% cashback, plus a 50% savings on Expensify plans.

   Accounts payable features include bill scanning and automated payments, as well as automated payroll processing. 

   Finally, you can create, submit and approve expense reports, and enact manual or automated reimbursements. 

   It’s a capable expense management application, but there are no tools for tracking tasks—even expense-related ones. On the plus side, it’s relatively inexpensive. 

   Learn more about Expensify

   Key Features

   • Receipt and bill scanning
   • Automated payroll
   • Quick expense reimbursements
   • Create and send bulk invoices

   Pros

   • Comprehensive expense management
   • Expensify Card offers financial advantages

   Cons

   • No support for managing expense-related tasks
   • Users report delays in credit card synchronization

   Pricing

   Starts at $5/user/month Trial: No Free Plan: Yes

10. 

    Slack — Good for channel-based chat
    

    Available on

    • Web
    • iOS
    • Android
    • Windows
    • Mac

    

    Slack offers channel- and thread-based communications for teams. Teams can create channels for projects or topics, send direct messages, and share files. Users can also communicate over live audio and video calls, with screen sharing. Slack also features integrations with a large number of other apps and services. 

    Slack also features universal search, and you can narrow down searches by filtering by individual or project. Managers and admins can apply individual user permissions and determine what channels users can see. However, there are no user groups per se for quickly and easily adding users or hiding channels from specific groups. 

    While it integrates with other productivity apps, Slack doesn’t offer any built-in task management features. In addition, while messages are divided up into channels, as a stand-alone chat app, it’s difficult to have contextual conversations around specific tasks or shifts. 

    Learn more about Slack

    Key Features

    • Organize conversations into channels
    • Share channels publicly or with individual users
    • Share files via chat and pin attachments to channels
    • Video and audio conferencing

    Pros

    • Boasts a wide range of integrations
    • Easy to set up and use with teams

    Cons

    • Limited security features (not end-to-end encrypted)
    • Per-user pricing gets costly with larger teams

    Pricing

    Starts at $7.25/user/month Trial: No Free Plan: Yes