Asynchromous communication tools for remote work

14 Best Asynchronous Communication Tools

Are you unable to keep up with the constant emails, meetings, in-person brainstorms, and phone calls at work? Are you looking for software solutions to manage the stress of this constant communication while ensuring you meet all your deliverables?

Well, you’re in luck. 🍀

At first glance, you may be overwhelmed by the plethora of asynchronous communication tools and unsure which ones to choose. Finding tools can be a full-time job, right?

After just a few minutes of learning about the top asynchronous communication tools below, their benefits, and use cases, you’ll be able to choose the best ones to meet your needs (your research stops here!).

Through this guide, you’ll find the best tools to drive successful communication, collaborate effectively, stay aligned, and increase productivity. 

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What is Asynchronous Communication?

Communication is critical for a company’s daily success in today’s fast-paced business world. However, traditional synchronous communication, such as face-to-face meetings or phone calls, is often time-consuming, disruptive, and expensive. With teams scattered across different time zones and the rise of remote work, the most successful companies are turning towards asynchronous communication.

Asynchronous communication allows team members to communicate on their own schedule without everyone needing to be available at the same time or with an immediate response. The right async tools are critical to prevent poorly managed asynchronous communication, which can lead to misalignment among teams, delayed projects, and even missed deadlines.

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Benefits of Asynchronous Communication Tools and What to Look For

Asynchronous tools can be categorized into project management, knowledge management, chat, video chat, and meeting management tools. These tools help employees avoid costly workflow interruptions, allowing for more focused deep work and enabling thoughtful responses. 

The flexibility provided by these tools promotes clear and effective communication and collaboration, leading to increased productivity and better work-life balance. Even if team members are in different time zones, these tools keep them connected, facilitate better planning, and allow for flexible knowledge-sharing through a living document.

When evaluating asynchronous tools, some key features to keep in mind that the best async communication tools provide are:

  • Collaboration features
  • Message organization
  • Notification settings
  • Customization
  • Mobile access
  • Security and privacy
  • Integrations

By considering these key features, teams can choose asynchronous communication tools that best support their collaboration needs and helps them work more efficiently and effectively.

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14 Best Asynchronous Communication Tools for 2024

Whether you’re a seasoned remote worker or new to virtual collaboration, this post will provide you with the top 14 asynchronous remote team communication tools.

1. ClickUp

Best for project management and team collaboration

ClickUp Docs, Chat, and List view in ClickUp
Monitor project updates, manage workflows, and collaborate with the team, all from your ClickUp Workspace

ClickUp is the ultimate collaboration, task, and project management tool that enables teams to work together and communicate asynchronously. Hybrid and asynchronous teams use the all-in-one tool to bring all their work into one place, streamline team communication, and manage every aspect of their work.

And with digital collaboration features such as Chat view for instant messaging, ClickUp Whiteboards for mapping complex workflows and ideas, ClickUp Docs with collaborative detection for document management, and Proofing for image, video, and PDF annotation, teams will have everything they need to work together in real-time or asynchronously.

Proofing images in ClickUp
Centralize feedback and expedite approval processes with Proofing by assigning comments directly on task attachments

Need to communicate complex instructions or provide feedback? ClickUp’s built-in screen recording app can help relay your message clearly. Use Clip by ClickUp to share screen recordings to convey your message precisely without the need for an email chain or in-person meeting. This is also helpful for team members who are visual learners or for those who prefer this type of communication.

Share screen recordings to convey your message precisely without the need for an email chain or in-person meeting with Clip by ClickUp
Share screen recordings to convey your message precisely without the need for an email chain or in-person meeting with Clip by ClickUp

Additionally, ClickUp offers hundreds of features, over 15 custom views to view your work your way, and a fully customizable platform to accommodate complex workflows, unique work styles, and growing project needs. These key features and unique benefits make ClickUp a top choice for any type of team across different industries and time zones. 🙌

Key features

  • Workspaces: Organize projects and tasks into separate Workspaces accessed by specific team members. Facilitate communication and collaboration among those working on different projects
  • Proofing: Centralize feedback and expedite approval processes with Proofing by assigning comments directly on task attachments
  • Comments: Users add comments to tasks, projects, and documents, allowing collaboration and asynchronous communication
  • Mentions: Use the @mention feature within comments, tasks, documents, and more to notify a specific person or teams
  • Notifications and inbox: Notifications keep everyone in the loop, and the inbox feature allows each user to view important and relevant updates in an organized manner
  • Global time tracker: Users track their time on specific tasks and projects, so everyone is aware of how much time they are spending on tasks and to allocate their time efficiently
  • Integrations: Connect ClickUp to over 1,000 work tools to bring all your work into one place
  • Template library: Choose over 1,000 templates for every team and use case and customize them to fit your needs

Limitations

  • Learning curve due to the number of available features
  • Not all views are available in the mobile app yet 

Pricing

  • Free Forever
  • Unlimited: $5/month per user
  • Business: $12/month per user
  • Business Plus: $19/month per user
  • Enterprise: Contact for pricing 

Customer ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.7/5 (2,000+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.7/5 (3,519+ reviews)

2. Vowel

Best for video conferencing and meeting management with AI

Using Vowel as a remote communication tool
via Vowel

Vowel offers AI-powered asynchronous meetings for fast-moving teams. It’s an all-in-one meeting management and video conferencing platform for remote workers to boost productivity, stay aligned, and ensure effective communication. It’s great for synchronous communication, including daily stand-ups and other virtual meetings, and also turns your conversations into searchable, shareable knowledge to use asynchronously. With this video messaging platform, forget tools like Microsoft Teams or Zoom. You can even join meetings with a dial-in or record a video message to send to coworkers. 

Using Vowel as an all-in-one meeting management and video conferencing platform for remote workers
via Vowel

Key features

  • AI-powered meeting summaries: Distributed teams can easily revisit or share, even if they don’t attend a meeting
  • Bookmarks and clips: Revisit specific meeting moments to “tee up” your deep work
  • Video calls and recording: Includes an automatic, time-stamped, and searchable transcript (in many languages)
  • Universal search: Search through past meeting content across all your meetings via a central hub
  • A personal meeting room: Record video messages like intros, demos, onboarding, and more to share asynchronous video communication

Limitations

  • AI-generated meeting summaries only available on the paid Business plan
  • The Free plan only includes search functionality across meeting content for 7 days

Pricing

  • Free
  • Business: $16.49/month per host
  • Enterprise: Contact for pricing

Customer ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.5/5 (140+ reviews)

3. Trello

Best for simple software development projects

Trello Kanban Board view
via Trello

Trello is a well-known Kanban-based management tool to bring teams together. It supports simple projects with its automation, integrations, and ability to track progress. It’s a strong asynchronous communication team collaboration tool, providing a clear view of owners and what needs to get done via different views.

Key features

  • Interactive and customizable cards: Great for each team member
  • Checklists: For better task organization within remote teams
  • High-level views: For better team collaboration
  • Color-coded labels: Helps you organize tasks easily so everyone stays on track
  • Unlimited boards: Organize any project with the Standard plan’s unlimited boards

Limitations

  • Not suitable for managing complex projects 
  • Views (including table, calendar, and timeline) are only available on the Premium plan

Pricing

  • Free
  • Business: $9.99/month per user
  • Enterprise: $17.50/month per user

Customer ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.3/5 (10500+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.5/5 (16600+ reviews)

Check out these Trello alternatives!

4. Jira

Best for issue and project tracking

jira board view example
via Jira

Jira is a bug-tracking and project management software solution to manage software development projects for Agile and Scrum teams. This asynchronous tool brings team members together, specifically engineering and product teams. There’s even an open-source version for added customizability; all plans include free version control access.

Key features

  • Powerful Agile views: With Scrum and Kanban board to keep teams aligned
  • Customizable workflows and automated workflows: Great for aligning remote teams
  • Roadmaps: Power synchronous and asynchronous communication and align stakeholders
  • Powerful real-time reporting and insights: Everyone monitors progress
  • Integrations: Integrates with ClickUp and 3000+ apps and tools used for communication   

Limitations

  • Hard to set up and configure with a steep learning curve due to a complex UI
  • Lacks team collaboration features

Pricing

  • Free
  • Standard: $7.75/month per user (estimated)
  • Premium: $15.25/month per user (estimated)
  • Enterprise: Contact for pricing

Customer ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.2/5 (5,100+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.4/5 (12,900+ reviews)

Check out these Jira alternatives!

5. Slack

Best messaging apps for instant messages

Slack Messaging App for Business
via Slack

Slack is a cloud-based messaging and collaboration tool powering asynchronous communication. It’s a chat app with instant messages and a flexible and customizable platform. Teams collaborate by creating channels around various topics, teams, or projects for thoughtful discussions. Its search functionality makes it easy to find previous conversations and information.  Slack also integrates with many collaboration tools.

Key features

  • Different channels: with multiple people for asynchronous collaboration
  • Scheduled messages: Schedule messages to send later across time-zones 
  • File sharing: Great for asynchronous tasks 
  • Integrations: Integrations with 2400+ apps, including ClickUp and Google Docs
  • Huddles: Quick huddles for asynchronous chats

Limitations

  • No free plan 
  • The number of channels can become overwhelming

Pricing

  • Pro: $7.25/month per person
  • Business+: $12.50/month per person
  • Enterprise Grid: Contact Sales

Customer ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.5/5 (31,000+ reviews) 
  • Capterra: 4.7/5 (22,800+ reviews)

6. Google Workspaces

Best for team communication and collaboration

Google Workspace
via Google Workspace

Google Workspace is a cloud-based productivity suite with asynchronous and synchronous communication features. It includes Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet, and Chat. These asynchronous tools enable teams to communicate and work together asynchronously, regardless of their location or time zone. 

Key features

  • Collaborative content creation: Via Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Jamboard for a distributed team
  • Sheets: Edit and collaborate with all your data and edits in one place
  • Forms: Create virtual surveys and user research opportunities with customers
  • Secure cloud storage: Create, share, and store files with remote teams
  • UI/UX: easy to use and familiar UI/UX

Limitations

  • Not a dedicated project management tool (no built-in project trackers or task schedulers)
  • Docs lack advanced collaboration and content organization features

Pricing

  • Business Starter: $6/month per user
  • Business Standard: $12/month per user
  • Business Plus: $18/month per user
  • Enterprise: Contact sales

Customer ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.6/5 (40,300+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.7/5 (14,500+ reviews)

Check out these Google Workspace alternatives!

7. Figma

Best for design team collaboration and prototyping

Communicating with teams in Figma
via Figma

Figma is a web-based design and prototyping tool teams use to work together on design projects in real time. Figma powers asynchronous communication with a powerful platform for remote teams to collaborate on design projects, share feedback and work at their own pace. With Figma, teams collaborate effectively and efficiently, regardless of location or time zone.

Key features

  • Real-time collaboration: Work on the same design file simultaneously or at unique times
  • Prototyping: Interactive design prototypes, easily shared for review and feedback
  • Comments: Share feedback on design elements for constant discussion
  • Version history: Easily access previous versions and compare changes
  • Design system management: Create and manage design systems, like guidelines

Limitations

  • Have to pay for whiteboarding as an addition
  • Slow and buggy for many users

Pricing

  • Figma for design + prototyping
    • Starter: Free
    • Figma Professional: $12/month per editor
    • Figma Organization: $45/month per editor
    • Figma Enterprise: $7/month per editor
  • Figma Jam for whiteboarding
    • Starter: Free
    • FigJam Professional: $3/month per editor
    • FigJam Organization: $5/month per editor
    • FigJam Enterprise: $5/month per editor

Customer ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.7/5 (750+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.7/5 (550+ reviews)

8. Miro

Best for remote visual collaboration

Miro Example of Everything in One Place
Via Miro

Miro is an online collaboration platform for teams to work together in real-time, regardless of location. It is an asynchronous communication tool that allows remote teams to simultaneously work on a single board and contribute their thoughts via real-time communication. Teams are on the same page with a digital whiteboard to brainstorm, collaborate, and share ideas.

Key features

  • Commenting: Leave comments and sticky notes to share feedback at different times
  • Mentions: Tag coworkers in comments, notifying them of relevant updates
  • Activity Feed: A real-time overview of all updates and changes, so everyone is up-to-date
  • Templates: 1000+ custom templates for your team’s needs
  • Board Sharing: Editors or Viewers share ideas and collaborate with access control

Limitations

  • Slow-speed opening Boards with a lot of content on them
  • You can only invite Guests to private boards, starting on the Business plan

Pricing

  • Free
  • Starter: $8/month per member
  • Business: $16/month per member
  • Enterprise: (Contact sales)

Customer ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.8/5 (4,200+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.7/5 (1,100+ reviews)

Check out these Miro alternatives!

9. Intercom

Best for customer support teams

Communication in Intercom
via Intercom

Intercom powers asynchronous communication with tools and features, so businesses communicate with their customers or coworkers at a convenient time. This software makes individuals more productive, easily managing conversations across multiple channels. It also establishes stronger customer relationships and improves overall customer experience with seamless, timely, and efficient communication.

Key features

  • Automated Answers: Respond to customer queries with trigger-based answers
  • Smart Suggestions: Knowledge base articles and saved replies provide faster and more accurate customer responses
  • In-App Messaging: Communicate with customers and share updates on your own time
  • Knowledge Base: Create and share customer resources accessible outside of business hours
  • Team Inbox: Manage customer messages and conversations in a single, shared inbox

Limitations

  • Pricing: Can be expensive, especially for smaller companies
  • Limited customization: May not provide the flexibility and customization options needed for more specialized asynchronous communication needs.

Pricing

  • Starter: $74/month
  • Support: (Contact sales)
  • Engage: (Contact sales)
  • Convert: (Contact sales)

Customer ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.4/5 (2,500+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.5/5 (900+ reviews)

10. Zendesk

Best for customer experience

zendesk-crm platform example
via Zendesk

Zendesk is a customer service and support platform great for remote team members. Zendesk helps businesses communicate with their customers and manage customer interactions asynchronously, improving efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction. Businesses improve the effectiveness of their support operations, reduce costs, and enhance the customer experience.

Key features

  • Email Support: Customers can send support requests outside of business hours
  • Help Center: Self-service resources for customers
  • Ticket Management: Support agents leave comments and update ticket statuses
  • Chat: Respond to customer inquiries and support requests quickly and efficiently
  • Automation: Automate repetitive support tasks like routing tickets and follow-ups

Limitations

  • Restricted customization on lower plans
  • High pricing for advanced features

Pricing

  • Suite Team: $49/month per agent
  • Suite Growth: $79/month per agent
  • Suite Professional: $99/month per agent
  • Suite Enterprise: $150/month per agent
  • Additional Enterprise plans: from $215/month per agent

Customer ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.3/5 (5,400+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.3/5 (140+ reviews)

11. Hubspot

Best for all-in-one marketing, sales, and customer service

HubSpot CRM Conversations Example
via Hubspot

HubSpot is a marketing, sales, and customer service platform with asynchronous communication and collaboration tools. HubSpot enables businesses to communicate with their customers and manage customer interactions asynchronously, improving efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction.

Key features

  • Email: Communicate with customers outside of business hours
  • Knowledge Base: Customers find answers to their questions without contacting support
  • Ticketing: Support agents can leave comments and update ticket statuses, whenever
  • Chat: Respond to customer support requests quickly, even outside of business hours
  • Task Management: Create tasks, assign them to team members, and track their progress

Limitations

  • Hubspot’s complex interface is a steep learning curve for new users
  • Some users have reported issues with Hubspot’s customer support, like long wait times

Pricing

  • HubSpot has Starter, Professional, and Enterprise pricing for each of its products.

Customer ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.4/5 (9,300+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.5 /5 (3,600+ reviews)

12. GitHub

Best for version control for software development

Managing software development in Github
via Github

GitHub is an online software development platform that supports asynchronous collaboration. It’s suited for software development teams, providing a collaborative space for code review, feedback, and project management. Users review and comment on code changes, provide feedback and suggest improvements while working together effectively.

Key features

  • Collaboration: Code review and comments on code changes
  • Version control: Track changes to code and collaborate on projects in real-time
  • Pull requests and issues: Propose changes to code and use issues to track bugs and requests
  • Wikis: A space for documentation to easily find and share information
  • Integrations: Integrations with many tools like Trello and Jira

Limitations

  • Limited communication channels for general asynchronous communication
  • A complex platform with a steep learning curve

Pricing

  • Free
  • Team: $44/year per user
  • Enterprise: $231/year per user

Customer ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.7/5 (1,900+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.8/5 (5,700+ reviews)

13. Remote.com

Best for managing international contractors and employees

Managing contractors and employees in Remote.com
via Remote

Remote is an employer of record that helps businesses manage their remote contractors, facilitating asynchronous communication and effective collaboration. The platform’s messaging, task management, document collaboration, and time-tracking features improve productivity and team alignment with team members globally.

Key features

  • Messaging: Communicate asynchronously one-on-one or in group chats
  • Task Management: Create and assign tasks with due dates and reminders
  • Document Collaboration: Collaborate on documents in real-time or asynchronously
  • Time Tracking: Track time on specific tasks and projects and allocate time efficiently
  • Knowledge Base: Create and share resources customers access asynchronously

Limitations

  • Limited communication features: Lack of video tools to communicate instantly
  • Functionality: focuses on international contractors and employees

Pricing

  • Employer of Record: $599/month per employee
  • Contractor Management: $29/month per contractor
  • Remote Enterprise: Custom

Customer ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.5/5 (550+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.8/5 (35+ reviews)

14. Gainsight

Best for customer success management

Managing customer success in Gainsight

Gainsight is a customer success platform helping businesses manage their customer relationships asynchronously. Gainsight powers effective asynchronous communication by facilitating collaboration among stakeholders. With Gainsight, teams improve productivity and customer outcomes.

Key features

  • Email Automation: Send and receive emails, communicating outside of business hours
  • Discussions: Participate in customer success discussions with comments and tags
  • Tasks: Create and assign tasks to team members with due dates and reminders
  • Chatter: A real-time messaging tool for users to communicate, share files, and collaborate
  • Alerts: Send automatic alerts to users based on specific triggers or conditions

Limitations

  • Gainsight’s pricing is not publicly available
  • Limited integrations with other tools to support asynchronous communication

Pricing

  • Customer Success: Contact for pricing
  • Product Experience: Contact for pricing
  • Insided: Contact for pricing

Customer ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.4/5 (950+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.3/5 (40+ reviews)
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It’s Time to Start Communicating the Asynchronous Way

As remote work becomes increasingly common and people spend more time working from home, asynchronous communication tools are more important than ever. It’s time to adopt a modern solution to keep remote teams connected.

Choosing the right tools is crucial for companies looking to succeed in a remote environment and a better work-life balance. ClickUp and the other tools mentioned in this article supercharge your tech stack while improving collaboration, productivity, and overall team performance. Try ClickUp for free and connect it to your most-used apps to streamline your work and communication all in one place.

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Guest Writer:

Cindy Berman from Vowel

Cindy Berman is a startup consultant and active angel investor who has worked at Productboard, Segment, and Grammarly. She’s currently Head of Partnerships and the Startup Program at Vowel, an ai-powered video conferencing and meeting solution. She loves writing about startups, B2B SaaS, and AI, and has her MBA from the Wharton School of Business.

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