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Top 10 Free and Paid Employee Communication Tools

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woman using a laptop

Remote work and hybrid work arrangements have become the norm following the pandemic. And to keep communication seamless in the office and at home, internal or employee communication tools will help you stay in touch with employees. But which of these software applications can you use for your business?

1. Slack

slack website

Slack is one of the leading companies in employee communication. For most workplaces, Slack has it all, such as chatting, app integrations, and video and audio. Its primary feature, the chat, lets teams create different channels. Plus, you can also invite clients or customers into your Slack channel for smoother discussions on any matter. And you can be sure that your messages and files are secure while using Slack.

Pricing

Free

Pro – $7.25/mo

Business+ – $12.50/mo

Enterprise Grid – Contact Sales

2. Microsoft Teams

microsoft teams website

Slack’s main competitor is Microsoft Teams. This employee communication software is ideal for businesses using Microsoft products, such as OneDrive and Word. Like Slack, your messages and files on the chat platform are safe and encrypted. One advantage Microsoft Teams has over Slack is video conferencing. In Microsoft Teams, meetings are more engaging using the Microsoft Whiteboard and live captions.

Pricing

Free

Essentials – $4/user/mo (annual subscription)

365 Business – $6/user/mo (annual subscription)

Standard – $12.50/user/mo (annual subscription)

3. Trello

trello website

An alternative to chatting software is a project management tool like Trello. The Kanban software helps you organize your tasks. But it’s another tool where you can chat with your co-workers, thanks to its comments feature.

Like all the other employee communication tools on this list, you can integrate apps into Trello, such as Slack, Jira, and IFTTT. And you can also automate workflows on Trello with power-ups, making your team even more productive than ever.

Pricing

Free

Standard – $6/user/mo

Premium – $12.50/user/mo

Enterprise – $17.50/user/mo (annual subscription)

4. Monday.com

monday website

Like Trello, Monday.com is a project management software. But your team can talk and collaborate with one another on their platform, making it one of the best employee communication tools. It’s jam-packed with so many features that you might think of staying on Monday.com the whole workday.

Although they’re a project management software, you can still collaborate with your teammates via integrations, like Slack and Microsoft Teams. The platform also has a built-in chat where you can update one another.

But if you want to know how else Monday.com can help your business, here are some of its other features:

  • Creative and design
  • Software development
  • Marketing
  • Sales & CRM
  • Task management
  • HR
  • Operations

Pricing (Minimum is 3 Seats)

Free (up to 2 seats only)

Basic – $8/seat/mo

Standard – $10/seat/mo

Pro – $16/user/mo

Enterprise – Contact Sales

5. Snapcomms

snapcomms website

Snapcomms is another collaboration and email communication software to use as an alternative to most of the employee communication tools on this list. They’re different from most platforms because this is for enterprises that rely on internal communications, from small matters to emergencies.

Besides the chat option, you can also send out email newsletters to your employees. Plus, you can also engage with employees by congratulating them on new milestones or getting feedback from them to improve your workplace culture.

Pricing (100 to 200 users)*

Inform – $40/employee/yr

Engage – $60/employee/yr

* Monthly fee becomes lower as more users sign up to your Snapcomms workspace

6. Workvivo

workvivo website

If you want engaged employees, Workvivo could be the ideal employee communication software for your team. When you use Workvivo, you can update employees about everything in your company.

On the other hand, employees can also personalize the updates they’re receiving about your company. Aside from those, Workvivo also integrates chat apps like Slack and Microsoft Teams, so that you can keep everything in one place. Plus, you can alert employees about crises. And finally, you can hold meetings through video and connect with them via podcasts.

Pricing

Workvivo did not disclose how much their employee communication platform is. But you can book a demo with them to see if they’re a good fit for your company.

7. ContactMonkey

contactmonkey website

ContactMonkey is ideal for teams depending on email for employee communication. With ContactMonkey, you can create custom templates that are engaging to read.

Aside from that, you can also compose an email newsletter to give employees updates on your business. In addition, you can add emojis or surveys to the newsletter. Finally, you can track analytics and know how to improve your next emails. Oh, and one more thing, ContactMonkey also has an SMS option to disseminate info if email isn’t available.

Pricing

Like WorkVivo, ContactMonkey did not disclose its prices. However, you can request pricing.

8. OfficeVibe

officevibe website

OfficeVibe doesn’t aim to enhance team communications; they want to provide a better employee experience for their platform. It’s not your typical employee communication tool. Still, if you want to communicate with them better, their tools can help you understand them better by getting feedback from them or meeting with them one by one through their alignment feature.

Pricing

Free

Essential – $8/person/mo

Pro – $12/person/mo

9. Connecteam

connecteam website

Get more people to say to work events or notify them of every single event when using Connecteam. You can chat with your teammates here. But it’s more than just that. Aside from conducting surveys and polls, you can also add a knowledge base. This serves as your office manual or handbook or a place where you can add your new memos.

Connecteam isn’t only for small businesses. Service-based businesses like cleaning, healthcare, hospitality, construction, and logistics can enjoy the features of using their platform.

Pricing (Communications)

Free

Basic – $35/mo (for 30 users; additional $0.6/user/mo)

Advanced – $59/mo (for 30 users; additional $1.8/user/mo)

Expert – $119/mo (for 30 users; additional $3.6/user/mo)

10. Basecamp

basecamp website

Organize your work with Basecamp since they’re a project management and employee communication tool. Get more work done with them with to-dos, chat with employees, schedule important meetings, and share files with the team.

Like Slack, you can invite clients and customers to Basecamp for smoother and seamless communication with them. There’s no need to compose an email or send a message outside Basecamp. But Basecamp has a leg up above Slack since Basecamp has privacy options you can set so clients can only see what they need to see in your workspace.

Pricing

Free (3 projects, 20 users, 1GB storage space)

Business – $99/mo

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Adam Neumann: Crashed WeWork, Got $350M from Silicon Valley

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adam neumann

Was it good for the economy or an embarrassment for Silicon Valley? The bottom line is, Adam Neumann is now $350 million richer. The current state of the world has divided us into two camps: those who believe we’re headed for a recession and those who think it’s just a rough patch we’re experiencing. 

Marc Andreessen, co-founder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, announced a massive investment in Flow. It is the real estate company of Adam Neumann, who dragged WeWork from a $47 billion valuation into bankruptcy in just six weeks.

On the Optimistic Side

adam neumann

Image credit: VOX

Economists who lean towards the optimistic side point us in a “not a recession” direction. Proof of this is that no company would give away $350 million if it were experiencing a decline in business. Silicon Valley has just handed ousted WeWork founder Adam Neumann, the guy who crashed WeWork, just that amount. 

This may be a good sign that the economy is indeed not going down the dumps as some would want to believe. However, it is an embarrassment for Silicon Valley in particular and the tech industry as a whole. A founder of Y Combinator said redemption is easy for a white guy who f*cked up in the biggest ways and is incredibly wealthy. It’s saddening that not everyone has those qualifications.

Adam Neumann Now

Image credit: WeWork

During his WeWork days, Adam Neumann came up with the concept of WeLive. Now, his new idea is a rebrand of WeLive, called Flow. It aims to own and manage apartments with the special Adam Neumann touch, which borders on being obsessive and faddish.

In his statement, Andreessen seems to believe that the housing problem in the US stems from a lack of branding. That is, apartments are not stylish or sexy enough, which is an about-face from what the real issues are: there aren’t enough supplies, plus the high costs of renting. 

This is in contrast to what Andreessen said two years ago, that we should be building things. Neumann, on the other hand, plans to acquire already existing buildings to turn them into giant playhouses for adults. That, with a bit of glamming and styling, the housing problem would be easily solved.

In a letter to the mayor of Atherton, California, Andreeseen and his wife said that multifamily housing zones would “massively” decrease the values of their homes. This is in response to the city’s efforts to address the housing shortage. The couple also said that these houses would reduce the quality of their lives as well as their neighbors’ and will increase noise pollution and traffic immensely.

Flow

Flow website

According to Andreessen, Flow will offer renters the opportunity to build equity in their apartments. He didn’t provide details and how it would work, though. Vicki Bryan, a credit analyst and the CEO of Bond Angle, says that in that case, the renters would only get a microscopic share, which amounts to almost nothing. 

The Flow deal is met with negativity, as it is seen as a quick way for Silicon Valley to throw money around. The concept does not seem to address a real problem, and worse, it’s going to be run by Neumann. Many liken his business skills to those of a child let loose in a park with a sugar high.

This will be an embarrassment to Silicon Valley, which has, over the past few decades, delivered little to no innovations amid being awash with money. As for Adam Neumann now, he should have learned something from the WeWork fiasco, but it seems he has not.

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Bit.ai Review for Businesses in 2025: Is It Still Worth It?

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When you’re collaborating on documents with other writers or co-workers, how do you keep everyone on the same page?

Truth be told, for most of you, the answer is probably Google Docs. It’s quick, efficient, and easy to share. But what if there was a better way?

Bit.ai professes to be “the world’s most powerful workplace and document collaboration platform.” In this Bit.ai review, we’ll put that claim to the test.

Bit.ai Review: What is Bit.ai?

Co-founded by Raj and Saje Sandhu, Bit.ai has been offering document collaboration to companies like Canon and Harvard University since 2007. The company employs a global team with headquarters in San Francisco.

What does Bit.ai offer?

Bit.ai has grown into a smart documentation and knowledge management platform tailored to businesses of all sizes. 

With the release of Bit 3.0 and the built-in AI Genius Writer in time for other tech players’ version of AI boom, the tool is now as much about content intelligence as it is about collaboration. 

Features include:

  • Collaborative document editor with AI assistance
  • Smart content library with internal linking
  • 100+ file type support and embed options
  • AI-powered writing and content structuring
  • Automated themes, templates, and formatting
  • Cloud integrations (Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, etc.)
  • Document tracking and engagement insights
  • Branded, interactive documents
  • Customizable workspaces and guest access
  • SSO, 2FA, and admin-level security controls

We’ll explore some of the key features in the next section.

How much does Bit.ai cost?

Individual users and Bit.ai offers a flexible pricing model suited for individuals, teams, and growing businesses. Here’s a breakdown of the current subscription plans (based on annual billing):

  • Free Plan – $0/user/month. Includes up to 10 documents per user, 5-user limit, single document import, access to integrations and collaborative workspaces. Exporting, version history, and AI tools are not included.
  • Pro Plan – $8/user/month (billed annually). Offers unlimited documents and users, bulk document import/export, access to version history, and 20,000 AI Genius Writer words (with add-on). Also includes advanced permissions and external sharing features.
  • Business Plan – $15/user/month (billed annually). Includes everything in Pro plus more advanced collaboration features like guest access, embed options, and extended AI capabilities. Also includes top-tier permissions and document management features.

Monthly billing is available at higher rates. Bit.ai also provides custom enterprise plans and continues to offer discounted rates for education, startups, and nonprofits.

Bit.ai Review: How to sign up

Getting started with Bit.ai is as simple as inputting your email and receiving a six-digit verification code.

After that, you’re asked to fill out information like your name, your job title, and your department at your company, as well as create a password. Right off the bat, Bit puts businesses first, setting itself apart from Google Docs before you even log in.

But it doesn’t stop there. When you sign up, you create a profile for your whole company, getting a custom subdomain for your team to access your library.

And there you have it! Once you’re logged in, you have the option to see a tutorial. If you want to upgrade to a paid plan, use the handy “Upgrade” button in the lower left corner of your dashboard.

Bit.ai Review: Features

The Bit.ai web app includes tabs for your dashboard and a list of all your workspaces.

The Bit.ai dashboard

Your Bit.ai homepage allows you to view recent activity, featured templates, tutorials and updates, as well as see how close you are to your document limit if you’re a free user.

Free users get access to most core collaboration features but not premium functions like AI, exporting, or advanced version tracking.

You can open documents directly from the dashboard, but only using a featured template or a recently-opened one. To create something from scratch, you’ll have to head over to Workspaces.

The Workspaces tab

First thing’s first: create a workspace. Workspaces are where your documents are created, saved, and shared. Once you’ve made one, you can create a new document, either by using a template, importing an existing document, or starting from scratch.

Creating a document with Bit.ai

When you create a new document in Bit.ai, you’re taken to a bare-bones writing editor similar to Notion. In addition, AI Genius Writer is now integrated into the editor to assist with outlines, rewriting, or prompts. I always find it hard to start writing when you don’t have anything visual to guide you, but once you get the hang of it, it’s fairly intuitive.

I think the reason for this no-frills approach is to make it easier to take meeting notes and write down quick thoughts about a project. For more in-depth functions, however, you can highlight your text after you’ve written it to change the formatting. There’s also a + icon next to your cursor that lets you add links, embeds, files, code blocks, and more.

One neat feature of this text editor is the ability to link directly to other documents and content in your Bit.ai library. It makes it much easier to cross-reference documents than it is in Google Docs, Word, Notes, etc., another great benefit for businesses.

There’s no need to save your documents in Bit.ai—that happens automatically. When you’re done, however, you can share it with collaborators and others, lock it to prevent further edits, change its associated colors, view stats and version history. Note: exporting, version history, and AI writing are reserved for Pro and Business plans.

Bit.ai writing templates

Bit offers a huge range of templates, with themes geared towards managers, marketers, designers, educators, and much more. Some of these are designed to function as static documents, such as thesis papers. Others can be hubs for entire business processes, like the video production template.

After trying out a few of these templates, they’re great at showing off all of Bit.ai’s functionality, but they’re useful even if you don’t use Bit for everything. They offer great templates for outlining your processes, making it easier to set a roadmap and including things you might not have thought of.

Importing documents into Bit.ai

While Bit.ai professes to support a massive range of file types, their import menu is a little peculiar. You can choose to import from “Word” (which just allows you to import .docx files from your computer), from a number of cloud-based sources, or Markdown, .txt, and .pdf files.

The strange thing is, you can’t click on “Word” and then upload a .txt file, nor can you click on “PDF” and upload a Word doc. I have no idea why it’s formatted like this, but it made my upload attempts very confusing.

Not to mention, formatting isn’t included when you upload, and the first two uncommon file types I tried (Pages and Final Draft) were both incompatible.

As of 2025, Bit.ai also includes AI Genius Writer in its paid plans—an AI assistant built into the editor that helps generate content, rewrite sections, and build outlines based on your input.”

Bit.ai Review: Final thoughts

So, how does Bit.ai live up to its thesis statement? Is it really “the world’s most powerful document collaboration platform”?

It may not be the most powerful, but it’s certainly grown into one of the smartest options for teams and businesses. While it’s still not a traditional writing tool—you won’t get full font customization or a rich formatting toolbar—it now offers much more under the hood.

With features like AI Genius Writer, smart internal linking, advanced templates, and built-in document analytics, Bit.ai shines as a modern content hub for collaboration, documentation, and knowledge management.

The platform still has room to improve when it comes to document organization and formatting flexibility, but it’s made impressive strides since its earlier versions.

Final grade: 8/10

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Top 10 Best Places to Buy a Mid Century Modern Office Chair

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What was once old is new again: mid century modern is back in style. From architecture to furniture, the postwar look is in, and the hype extends all the way to office chairs.

Do you need a mid century modern office chair in your life? If so, there’s plenty to choose from. Your office chair should be tailored to your style, whether you like luxury, utility, or something in between.

That’s why we’ve put together our 10 favorite places to find your ideal mid century modern office chair.

What is mid century modern design?

After World War II, spirits were high in the US, and new technology was taking the country by storm. Mid century modern refers to the design concepts that came about during this time.

As opposed to the frilly, ornate designs of classical furnishings, mid century modern designs are angular, material, and functional. Wood is a common design element, especially teak. Mid century modern furniture may also have materials like glass, vinyl, and metal. Designs are simple and geometric, with bold accent colors to make them pop.

The mid century modern aesthetic never really went away, but it’s made a noted comeback in recent years. Some have chalked it up to Boomer and Gen X nostalgia, others point to mid-century-set shows like Mad Men and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Why should I buy a mid century modern office chair?

A mid century modern office design
source: Modsy

Mid century modern is the perfect fusion of style and utility. If you want to cultivate an office space that commands respect without being ostentatious, mid century modern is the style for you.

When it comes to office chairs, an MCM one is often made with sturdy wood and vinyl. They combine the ergonomics of a modern office chair with old-fashioned grace.

If you’re concerned with utility and utility only, a more bog-standard office chair may suit you. But a mid century modern office chair is great for someone who wants to wow colleagues with a mature, thoughtful business space.

Where can I get a mid century modern office chair?

1) Wayfair

mid-century office chair

When it comes to furniture, Wayfair offers the best of both worlds. Their goods, including their mid century modern office chairs, are stylish and affordable. You can get a sturdy task chair for less than $100 or a more distinguished seat for less than $350.

MCM office chair examples: Dovray ($126), Bradford ($139), Lithonia ($133)

2) France & Son

mid-century office chair

Wayfair’s chairs are affordable, but France & Son is the perfect option for luxury shoppers. Their mid century modern office chairs are robust and sleekly designed. If you dress to impress and enjoy the finer things in life, these are the chairs for you.

MCM office chair example: Brooks ($695)

3) Houzz

mid-century office chair

Started as a community for people to share home decor tips, Houzz has become a great ecommerce platform for finding stylish furniture. They’re more known for home decor than desk chairs, but they have plenty of great, affordable finds if you know where to look.

MCM office chair examples: Arvilla ($173), Rathburn ($259)

4) Laura Davidson

mid-century office chair

The Laura Davidson collection offers a fairly limited selection of classic office furniture. Still, there’s a reason they’re trusted by big-wigs like Apple, Disney, and Salesforce. Their chairs are sturdy and beautifully designed, reimagining classic Eames and Knoll designs.

MCM office chair examples: Rockefeller ($275), SOHO II Soft Pad ($450)

5) Icons of Manhattan

mid-century office chair

Icons of Manhattan has a simple philosophy: do one thing, and do it right. Their office chairs are handcrafted from premium materials and tailored to a mid-century modern style. If you want that Mad Men energy in your office (hopefully with a lot less angst), these are the chairs for you.

MCM office chair example: Ribbed Medium ($219)

6) Amazon

mid-century office chair

Yes, the internet’s premier shopping destination has a robust collection of mid century modern office chairs. Like with most products, their selection of seats is vast and can be hit or miss. Still, they’ve got stunning chairs available for any style, whether you care about comfort, class, or ergonomics.

MCM office chair examples: IDS Home Modern ($219), Art Leon MCM Swivel ($139)

7) AllModern

mid-century office chair

AllModern’s collection of desk chairs and other furniture truly embodies the mid century modern spirit. Their work is tight, angular, and functional above all. They’re part of the Wayfair family and they traffic in a number of modern styles, but their sleek chairs are perfect for any mid century modern space.

MCM office chair examples: Frederick ($229), Kealey ($349)

8) Overstock

mid-century office chair

Overstock is known as a one-stop shop for quality home goods at sub-wholesale prices. If you want a spiffy mid century modern office chair that won’t break the bank, they’re the first place to look. While they’re somewhat less reliable than the more upscale platforms on this list, their selection is massive.

MCM office chair example: Joseph Modern ($163)

9) Walmart

mid-century office chair

Hayneedle’s selection of mid-century modern office chairs falls somewhere between the minimal Laura Davidson and the endless Amazon catalog. Their array of mid-century designs is affordable and versatile, with chairs that match almost any style. While they may be part of the Walmart family, these chairs are anything but second-rate.

MCM office chair example: Waleaf ($97)

10) Target

mid-century office chair

Why splurge when you can save? As usual, Target is a hidden gem, offering a sturdy selection of mid century modern office chairs for some of the cheapest prices out there. Many of the chairs they offer are from the same designers as these other stores—Christopher Knight, LumiSource, Armen Living, etc.—at reduced prices.

MCM office chair example: Lombardi ($136)

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