Most businesses have had to go digital in recent months. Some tasks, such as writing or file-sharing might be easy to transfer into the virtual sphere, but those that require collaboration and group creativity might pose themselves as a problem due to a lack of an actual workspace.
Since that much-needed workspace is at the moment not available, alternatives to it are greatly needed. That’s why virtual whiteboards became immensely popular recently. They replace your office whiteboard effectively and add some features that would be completely unachievable on a real whiteboard.
So if you’re interested in something of that sort, check out our top picks for the best virtual whiteboard tools.
1. Collaboard
Organizing your thoughts and the work done by your team in a virtual space is going to become a whole lot easier with Collaboard’s features for adding sticky notes, images, shapes, icons, etc, and incorporating documents ranging from PDF to Word and Excel. There’s also an integrated video and image search option that allows for seamless addition of picture or video web material.
Just like on a real whiteboard, you can add your doodles and sketch out ideas for everyone to understand with automatic digital pen recognition. Spark your creativity and connect any element with another one, then choose a style for the connection and make an organized system of ideas to help your team get along faster.
Also, since the most important aspect of a digital whiteboard is collaboration, anyone signed in can create content for others to see with the administrator’s permission.
FEES: There is a special deal on Collaboard currently up on AppSumo. The Single version now costs $49 for a one-time purchase, the Double $98, and the Multiple $147.
2. Miro
Miro is an online whiteboard that gives its users an infinite canvas. There’s plenty of things you can add to it like arrows, post-it-notes, and drawings (both smart drawings and freehand).
Collaboration in real-time allows team members to present their ideas more clearly and with structure, so your meeting will always be organized and productive. You can even leave notes for your colleagues to read afterward and build on your suggestions.
Everything you create on Miro can be exported in PDF files and used for presentations offline. Miro also plays well with others and integrates with a vast number of third-party apps that you already use. And the security system is well developed so you don’t ever have to worry about your data.
FEES: Miro does offer a free plan, however, the number of boards in that plan is really small and if your need is a business-oriented board, you’ll probably need a bigger plan.
The Team plan costs $8/mo, the Business $16/mo, and to find out the price of the Enterprise plan, you’ll have to chat with the sales team.
3. MURAL
The notes and widgets you’ve added onto your board can be turned into charts, flowcharts, wireframes, and more if you’re a user of MURAL. This online whiteboard is also rather useful as a teaching tool, as it has many settings for the administrator to control and see what’s being done on any of the boards at any given time.
MURAL has over 100 templates to choose from when creating your whiteboards such as a design canvas, idea sketch pads, and many others.
It also helps you run more productive meetings as you’ll be able to keep an eye on what’s going on and have everything organized.
Another productive feature is the ability to set up a timer for your meetings and summon your teammates to a certain board, that way you can make sure everyone is looking at the same thing.
FEES: The Starter plan which allows up to 50 members is going to cost you $12/mo per user, the Plus $20/mo per user, and the price of the Enterprise plan has to be discussed with the sales team.
4. Ziteboard
The aim of this tool is to combine a whiteboard with a meeting platform like Zoom and it’s doing quite a good job at that. One benefit of Ziteboard is that it works on computers, laptops, iPads, and mobile phones (which is not all that common for this type of tool).
It’s very useful for remote teaching as well as company brainstorming as it aids in the organizational aspect. Plus, the standard free-hand drawing feature is enhanced by line smoothing and auto shape recognition.
Once you start your conference using Ziteboard you’ll be able to use things such as text chat, video, and audio participation, and subsequently, export everything your team has done during the meeting to PDF.
FEES: The Starter version is free but it only allows 3 boards. The monthly-billed Pro version costs $9per subscription or $85 if you choose to get it for a whole year.
5. Stormboard
Stormboard is a rather high-end tool aimed at teams that work remotely but still need close collaboration no matter the geographical separation. Stormboard’s canvas is also infinite and there’s plenty of things you can add to the board like files (PDF, Word), images, videos, or index cards which perfect for organizing a large number of ideas.
Its security system is rock-solid, so rest assured that your data is always going to be secure.
You can also organize your work beyond the borders of a digital whiteboard by creating detailed project plans and adding tasks, managing deadlines, as well as setting up goals for the entire team or each person separately.
Another good thing about Stormboard is that it integrates with many tools you probably already use.
FEES: The Personal version of StormBoard is completely free. For your business purposes, you can get either the Business version for $10/mo per user or the Enterprise for $16.67/mo per user. Both of the plans are discounted if you get an annual subscription.
Final Thoughts
In the end, your project is going to be as successful as its organization, and scattered ideas don’t produce organized work, so consider using a tool that’s bound to make at least one aspect of your work simpler.
In summary, many of these tools share characteristics and basic ideas, but Collaboard definitely stands out as it has all the important features you could need along with some unique and creative solutions of its own.
Hopefully, this article has helped you make your final decision or at least brought some new options into consideration. So let the fun of brainstorming creatively begin!
Keep reading the article at WP Pluginsify. The article was originally written by Editorial Staff on 2020-12-17 10:10:38.
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