With collaboration services being one of the most in demand in today’s web-specific market, there have emerged a considerable number of online tools that help to ease the process of creative work.

The project collaboration app segment isn’t an exception here in any way. Freelance designers need convenient tools for communicating with their clients and getting sign-off on creative projects. Also, teams require reliable instruments that enable their online collaborative design work.

Even in this quite narrow field, demands for what is really essential can vary, but still we can identify a series of features almost every designer would find useful in a design collaboration service, such as: support for various file formats, commenting options, project management features, client approval tools, and more.

To help freelance designers make up their mind on what is the best online collaboration tool for project sign-offs that fits their creative business scope, we have reviewed a number of web collaboration services. To decide on the right service for you, consider such features as:

• Intuitive Interface – to save time, it’s of vital importance to grasp how everything works from the first minute you open the app, and without needing to read through a heap of guides.
• Reviewing Tools – any kind of built in tools that help you emphasize your creative work or make a visual comment, for instance: pointers, highlighters, shapes, etc.
• Discussion and Commenting – ways to organize a debate for your team or receive feedback from your clients. Ideally they should allow for convenient discussion and prompt collaboration.
• Versioning – options to easily switch to previous editions of a creative file, enabling designers and their clients to track work as it progresses.
• Support for Multiple Formats – the more formats an app is able to process, the wider the field of creative work it can support. Support varies for graphics, web design, mockups, and video files.
• Sharing and Access Rights – apps should provide options for a designer to give access to authorized team members, as well as customers, and correspondingly to restrict files from undesirable intrusion.
• Accessibility – cutting edge technologies have given way to cloud apps easily reached from any location in the world with only an internet connection needed.
• Affordability – cost effectiveness is everything. Some apps stick to the freemium model, giving away a part of functionality for free, meanwhile the majority will allow you only a free trial, with the flexible pricing options offered according to the number of users and amount of storage space used. However, we’ve also managed to trace several applications providing completely free accounts as well.

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There are plenty of online solutions in today’s project management and collaboration tools segment aiming to ease freelance and distant work. The search for the one that is most suitable to you can be no less exhausting than the pursuit of your significant other.

The majority of teamwork apps have a specific focus: Do.com only for task assignment, SugarCRM for sales management, Intuit for accounting. Some well-established project management market players like 37 Signals or Zoho have a whole bunch of tools, but each of their services is intended for separate deployment.

Nevertheless, in the dynamic online world with tons of information to process daily “all in one” solutions seem to be more and more tempting. When saving time and resources is a priority, either dictated by your client or freelance needs, you will definitely address apps where most of the tasks can be fulfilled centrally in one service or portal.

To help you make up your mind on what is the online project collaboration tool for your freelance business, this post will cover the most versatile and well-reputed services, while taking into account a series of important factors including:

• Intuitive Interface – speaking about “all in one” solutions, it’s of vital importance to grasp how everything works from the first minutes and without reading a heap of guides.
• Comprehensive feature-set – for a freelancer to get hold of the maximum functionality, a virtual office can provide, it should combine tools on task management, forum or instant messaging, file sharing, calendar, CRM and invoicing.
• Accessibility – cutting edge technologies have given way to cloud apps easily reached from any location in the world with only an internet connection needed.
• Data Synching and Integration – no matter how many features a service boasts, it’s always handy when it can be easily integrated with other useful or popular apps to provide more opportunities for working in one and the same workspace without additional installs or tab switching.
• Customization – any collaboration or project management service should be ready to serve the needs of a variety of professional spheres and the more customization options it can provide the better for users.
• Affordability – cost effectiveness is everything. Some apps stick to the freemium model, giving away a part of functionality for free, meanwhile the majority will allow you only a free trial, with the flexible pricing options offered according to the number of users and amount of storage space used.

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