15 best remote work software and apps in 2024

Although remote working has been on the rise in recent years, it experienced unprecedented growth due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The sudden shift had people worldwide straining themselves to adapt to this new work environment. Businesses faced multiple challenges to keep up with the change and move online to continue functioning.

Thankfully, with the right remote work software, you can adapt to this shift with ease.

In this article, we’ll explain what remote employee software is and why your team needs it. We’ll also highlight 15 excellent remote work software to help your team manage work efficiently.

This article contains:

(Click on the links below to go to a specific section)

What Is Remote Work Software?
The 15 Best Remote Employee Software
Why Should You Use Remote Work Software

Let’s get started.

What is remote work software?

Remote work software solutions are team management tools that you can use to help employees who work remotely feel like they’re working together.

It offers remote employees all the features found in a physical office but provides them in an online setting.

With functions for messaging, video conferencing, team collaboration, employee monitoring, etc., the online office software helps remote teams easily tackle their tasks. It also gives them a sense of direction, helping your remote workforce operate as a team.

Feel free to skip ahead if you want to better understand why your team needs remote employee software. You can always scroll back here when you’re done.

The 15 best remote work software

Here are the best solutions for remote teams:

1. Time Doctor for productivity monitoring

Time Doctor makes a great addition to any remote team because it’s the ideal time tracker and workforce productivity tool. Large businesses and smaller companies use it, and it’s easy to see why.

More than an employee monitoring tool, Time Doctor’s functionalities range from time tracking to integrations with leading project management software like Trello. It’s the ideal app to boost employee productivity across the board.

Key features

Here’s how Time Doctor helps you boost remote employee productivity:

A. Time-tracking

Time Doctor’s time tracking feature helps employees work productively with a simple and easy-to-use interface to manage time.

Here’s how you track time manually:

Open Time Doctor and enter the task’s name you’ll be working on.
Click Start to track time.
Time Doctor will now track your time as you work.
If you need to take a break or you’ve completed the task, simply click Stop to stop the timer.

With this tracking software, you can also automate time tracking to start recording time when you turn on your computer. This way, you won’t forget to click Start or lose any record of your billable hours.

B. Detailed reports

Time Doctor doesn’t just track working hours — it also gives you comprehensive employee activity reports about employee activity.

Some of the reports you can generate include:

Timeline report: Daily or weekly reports give you insight into how much time each employee spends working and on breaks.
Activity summary report: Access active seconds and minutes, mobile use, unproductive behavior, and more.
Attendance report: See which remote worker is absent, partially absent, present, or late.
Project and tasks report: See how long your employees take to complete any given task.
Web and app usage report: View how much time each remote worker spends on different sites and apps.
Custom export: Create reports with custom data to suit your business needs.
Productivity report: View a detailed report on how productive or unproductive each remote worker is based on productivity ratings.

C. Productivity ratings

Most employee tracking apps classify social media websites like Instagram and Facebook as unproductive sites.

But what if you need to visit these sites for work?

For example, if your marketing team needs to browse through the company’s social media handles for work – it’ll show up as unproductive time.

Thankfully, Time Doctor has a productivity ratings feature that lets admins choose which websites and apps they consider productive and unproductive.

You can choose from four unique ratings:

Productive
Unproductive
Unrated
Neutral

The employee productivity reports generated are based on these productivity ratings.

D. Screencasts (optional)

Time Doctor’s optional screencasts is another monitoring feature that helps you understand what a remote employee does on their computers.

It takes screenshots or records short videos of their remote desktop screens during work hours. This way, you can gain insights into employee behavior during working hours.

You can also:

Set time intervals for screencasts.
Download images and videos.
Delete or blur screenshots with sensitive information like passwords.
View screencasts with no or low keyboard/mouse activity.

Note: Time Doctor isn’t a keystroke logger. Instead of recording keystrokes, it checks whether any keys were pressed or not. This helps protect employee privacy.

Pros

Manual and automatic time tracking modes for more flexibility.
Supports offline time tracking.
Straightforward user-interface and employee-friendly settings.
Create and assign projects to employees.
Track employees’ idle time percentage for better workforce productivity management.
See all the pages a user visits within each website, not just the root domain.
No keystroke logging functionality to protect employee privacy.
Strict privacy and data security policies.
Powerful Chrome extension lets you track time across various software like ClickUp, Asana, and Wrike.
Enable the Payroll feature to make payments to employees directly through PayPal, Gusto, Wise, etc.
Monitor productivity from anywhere using the feature-rich Android mobile app.

Pricing

Time Doctor offers a free 14-day trial (no credit card required). Paid plans start as low as $7/user per month.

Customer ratings

G2: 4.4/5 (180+ reviews)
Capterra: 4.5/5 (330+ reviews)

2. Slack for instant messaging

Slack is a popular remote work tool for real-time communication with your team.

You can send direct messages for one-on-one conversations or send texts in channels that include your team members. You can create individual channels for each project, task, or team.