10 Best Business Communication Software Solutions for 2024

What is business communication software?

Business communication software is an umbrella term for platforms that facilitate internal communications of all kinds — written, instant messaging, voice calling and video conferencing.

Types of enterprise communication software

There are lots of different ways to categorize different types of enterprise communication software. Here are some of the main types:

• Project management & productivity tools: These platforms support you in tracking workflows, assigning tasks and collaborating with your colleagues and employees.
• Video and audio calling: For online remote meetings, whether with colleagues or external parties.
• Company-wide intranet: This is where you might keep your internal resources and files.

10 Best business communication software and solutions for 2023

Riverside

Price: Get in touch for Riverside for Business pricing

Compatibility: Browser-based which means it works across all devices. iOS and Android apps available too.

Riverside is a browser-based video calling, recording, and editing studio. With Riverside’s local recording, you always get high-quality files with up to 4K video and 48kHz audio.

You can record with 8 speakers and up to 1000 audience members, where you can invite audiences to call in live. Every speaker's audio, video, and screen sharing tracks record separately giving you more editing flexibility.

After recording, make use of our AI-powered video editor to polish your videos in less time. You can add captions, enhance your audio and brand your content with your own logo and background. You’ll also get automatically generated show notes, transcripts and shareable clips of your recordings’ highlights.

You can use Riverside effectively to record internal training videos, communications, or to live stream and host webinars and conferences with a remote audience.

Key Features

• High-quality recording: Up to 4K video and 48kHz audio with uncompressed and lossless file formats (WAV and MP4).
• Local recording: Each remote participant is recorded on their own device instead of over the internet.
• Multitrack recording: Audio, video and screen shares are on separate tracks.
• Livestreaming: Stream directly from Riverside or to major social media platforms.
• Seamless video editor: Edit your video in less time with AI-powered text-based editing, audio enhancement, and more.
• Branding and customizability: Brand your live studio and add a background and logo to your video.
• AI transcripts: Highly accurate transcriptions available in over 100 languages.
• Add captions: Customize your captions’ placement, font, and size to match your business’ brand.  
• Secure and safe: SSO & SOC 2 Type II and ISO27001 compliant for maximum security.
• Collaborative working: Shared workspace for your team to create video content seamlessly.
• Magic Clips: - AI generator that identifies key moments from your full-length recordings and turns them into short-form videos.
• Producer mode: Your technical team can support your recording sessions or live calls without being picked up on the call.
• Async recording: You and your guests record asynchronously at different times in the same recording studio. This is perfect if you’re trying to coordinate a number of different schedules.

Pros of Riverside:

• High-quality recording. Riverside always local records each participant, this means bad internet won’t impact the quality of your final recording.  
• Flexibility to pre-record content or host live calls to fit all kinds of video making and business communication needs.
• Easy to use and professional user journeys for hosts, guests and audiences alike.

Cons of Riverside:

• Works for pre-recorded communications and live sessions, but not for chat-based live-messaging with colleagues.  

Best for: Businesses that want high-quality and professional content creation and remote calling software.

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Slack

Price:

• Free
• Pro - $8.75 per user/month
• Business - $15/user/month
• Enterprise - Get in touch for pricing

Compatibility: Mac, Windows and Linux

Slack is an all-encompassing “productivity” platform. Best known as an instant messaging platform for organizations and businesses, Slack has expanded to support all kinds of workflows and enterprise communication.

Key Features:

• 1000s of integrations with apps to help bring your whole tech stack together.
• Desktop and mobile app for easy communication.
• Enterprise-grade data protection to ensure your communications are as secure as they should be.
• A whole range of security features such as identity and device management, data protection, and more.
• Intuitive communications – create channels with groups of colleagues or individually message others in your organization.
• Invite external guests into your secure Slack channels to facilitate cross-organizational collaboration.
• Slack huddles lets you connect instantly with colleagues in remote video calls.
• Text, video, and voice chat for multi-medium communication.
• Automated workflows with Slack’s workflow builder.
• Slack AI includes generative AI to speed up your working: AI-powered search, channel recaps, and thread summaries.
• Slack Atlas helps you to get clear overview over your organization with an easy-to-navigate company directory.

Pros of Slack:

• Seamless integrations with popular apps for seamless working.
• Instant and direct messaging across your organization.
• Easy internal and external collaboration.
• Multiple types of communication: text, voice, video and audio, as well as huddles.

Cons of Slack:

• Not so budget friendly, especially as you scale.
• Huddles can only have a maximum of 50 participants.
• Unable to record high-quality resources for internal upskilling.

Best for: agile companies that are looking for a dynamic communication skill.

Microsoft Teams

Price:

• Microsoft Teams Essentials - $4.00/user/month
• Microsoft 365 Business Basic - $6.00/user/month
• Microsoft 365 Business Standard - $12.50/user/month

Compatibility: compatibility with all major operating systems

Microsoft Teams is an enterprise collaboration, communication, and messaging app. It sits within the Microsoft 365 suite and enables seamless communication and collaboration. You can instant message, schedule video and audio calls, share files, and work collaboratively on projects.

Key Features:

• AI-powered productivity with Copilot Pro.
• Integrates easily with Outlook and Calendar for easy scheduling and cross-channel communication.
• Easily manage your company’s organizational structure.
• OneDrive acts as a central hub for sharing and storing files.
• Works seamlessly with all of Microsoft Office’s apps .
• Online meetings with video and audio, plus extra tools for engagement.

Pros of Teams:

• Reliable and well-known platform that should be familiar to all your colleagues.
• Enterprise level security to keep your confidential internal files nad data safe.
• Integrates well with Microsoft Suite (Microsoft Excel, Word and Powerpoint).

Cons of Teams:

• Some businesses may find Teams to be too clunky or old-fashioned.
• If you don’t use other Microsoft applications then this might not make sense.

Best for: businesses that are committed to an entirely Windows workflow across communication, file storage and more.

Google Workspace

Price:

• Business Starter - $6/user/month
• Business Standard - $12/user/month
• Business Plus - $18/user/month
• Enterprise with unlimited storage and advanced controls

Compatibility: Browser based with mobile apps

Google Workspace is Google’s enterprise communication and collaboration platform. True to all Google products, you can expect simple and straightforward tools. Together, the Google suite makes it easy to instant message colleagues, share files, and jump on video or audio calls.  

Key Features:

• Access to all Google apps including Gmail, Meet, Calendar, Chat, Docs, Sheets, and more.
• Gemini Google AI-powered assistant which can work as a writing coach, sales assistant, research analyst, and more.
• Various forms of communication including email, video and audio conferencing, and instant messaging included.
• Simple and intuitive interface with easy-to-use user journeys.
• Enterprise-grade security and privacy to keep your confidential files and data secure.
• Google Admin lets you seamlessly manage your organization: add users, manage your devices, and toggle your security settings.
• Work insights for at-a-glance analytics of your organization’s activities.

Pros of Google Workspace:

• Subscription comes with access to all Google apps.
• Easy to use and intuitive workflows.

Cons of Google Workspace:

• Not extremely budget friendly, especially when you consider storage constraints.
• You have to use all Google apps and products to make it worthwhile. An organization-wide migration might not be realistic for all businesses.  

Best for: businesses who favor Google apps for all workflows and want to consolidate their enterprise communications to Google too.

Zoom One

Price:

• Free
• Pro - $159.90/year/user
• Business - $219.90/year/user
• Business Plus - Get in touch for pricing
• Enterprise - Get in touch for pricing

Compatibility: All operating systems and mobile app available

Zoom is a familiar name in both personal and business communications. Zoom One is a “unified business communication and collaboration tool”. It is a new bundle offering all types of communication: chat, phone, online whiteboard, email and calendar, virtual workspaces, and meetings for business users.

Key Features

• Video and audio calls with remote participants.
• Webinars and sessions let you live broadcast to big audiences. This can be both for internal communications or external-facing events.
• Team chat is Zoom’s version of instant messaging. You can also send video messages.
• Virtual workspaces including a digital whiteboard that creates an online collaborative project space.
• Integrates with a number of apps for easy workflows including with emails and calendars for seamless scheduling.  
• End-to-end encryption for all Zoom calls for peace of mind.
• Add to your Zoom One experience with add-ons though bear in mind that each add-on has an associated fee.
• Live captions of your Zoom calls for maximum accessibility.

Pros of Zoom

• Free plan works well for short meetings with up to 100 participants.  
• Flexible - you can use just for audio and video meetings or subscribe to Zoom one to cover all your communications.

Cons of Zoom

• Though Zoom One fulfills communication needs to an extent, its features and integrations don’t match competitors.

Best for: an affordable video and audio calling platform. If you’re looking for an all-in-one communication platform, we’d recommend looking at a different solution.

Meta Workplace  

Price:

• Core plan - $4/person/month (which you can customize to an extent with add-ons)

Compatibility: Browser-based

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, now also offers an “all-in-one” business communication platform. This brings together chat, video, groups, and intranet – essentially, Facebook but for company communications instead of social use.

Key Features:

• Knowledge library makes it easy for your employees to access any resource and information quickly and easily. This is basically your company intranet.
• Live video lets you broadcast to your entire company live. This is a great feature for running all-hands or town hall meetings.
• Video chat for interacting during remote meetings.
• Safety center lets you easily manage your employee’s wellbeing in the event of an emergency.
• Transition between browser and mobile for productivity wherever you are.
• Company culture features such as polls, surveys, comments, and employee profiles.
• News feed about all the new updates and activity across your business.
• Analytics and insights tell you what your employees are up to and how they’re using Workplace.
• Automatic translation of your posts into multiple languages.
• Create groups for different teams, projects, or for different social events within your company. This makes collaboration and communication super easy.  
• Customize your subscription with add-ons such as enhanced admin and support or “Enterprise Live” for peer-to-peer video streaming.

Pros of Workplace by Meta:

• Intuitive and modern interface characteristic of Facebook.
• Familiar user journeys since most employees will have used Facebook on a personal basis.
• Combines your video calling and intranet needs.

Cons of Workplace by Meta:

• Some users complain of too many notifications.
• The activity monitoring and management may not be something you’re looking for.
• Subscription fee may price some businesses out.

Best for: businesses looking for a communication tool that helps them to facilitate easy collaboration while building out a feeling of community and culture.

WorkVivo

Price:

You have to get in touch directly with them for pricing information:

• Business Plan for companies with 100 to 2000 employees
• Enterprise Plan for 2000+ employees

Compatibility: Mobile and browser-based

WorkVivo is an employee communication app that also functions well as a livestream and podcasting platform. It is created by Zoom and calls itself “The digital heart of your company.”

Alongside communication, WorkVivo supports you in creating a sense of community with its social feed and collaboration space tools. Essentially, it pitches itself as a communication tool that understands and elevates employee experience.  

Key Features:

• Works in multiple languages for multilingual businesses and work environments.
• Spaces are perfect for teams, projects or departments to communicate and collaborate.
• Analytics to give you an overview of what’s going on in your organization.
• Live-streaming for live company-wide broadcasts and announcements.
• Share news, articles, and newsletters with your employees.
• Knowledge base for easy access to all your key company information and resources.
• Create custom landing pages for important announcements.
• Add on instant messaging chat to cover all your communication needs.
• Enterprise level security with single sign-on and ISO27001 and SOC2 compliance.
• Easy integration with Zoom for video calling to cover all your communication channels.  

Pros of WorkVivo:

• Mix of instant and direct communications channels.
• Video call integration with Zoom.  

Cons of WorkVivo:

• Can only brand your interface with Enterprise plan.
• Though you can share podcasts with your employees, it doesn’t appear you can actually record them in the platform.  

Best for: businesses who are seeking a communications app that extends into other channels such as newsletters and podcasts.

Flock

Price:

• Starter - Free
• Pro - $4.50/user/month
• Enterprise - Get a quote

Compatibility: Online

Flock is a communication and collaboration platform that is all about streamlining decision-making and problem-solving across your company. Its major focus is facilitating communications that complement wider productivity and project management.

Key Features:

• Various communication formats including video conferencing and calls, plus direct messaging and channels.
• Searchable messages for easy access to key information.
• Enterprise-level security with SOC 2 compliance.
• Private and public channels so you can control who has access.
• File sharing and other effective productivity and collaboration tools such as Polls, team notes, reminders and to-dos.
• Project management with reminders, tagging feature to notify relevant colleagues, to-dos and more.
• Integrations with other popular apps such as Sales and Marketing CRMs, calendars, and developer apps and tools.

Pros of Flock:

• Productivity combined with communication.
• Direct communication slots into overall project management workflows.

Cons of Flock:

• Maximum 10GB of storage per team member with the Pro subscription.  
• Some users report issues with the quality of video and audio calls.

Best for: Businesses looking for a productivity, project management, and communication tool all-in-one.

FirstUp

Price:

• Essential - Get in touch for pricing
• Professional - Get in touch for pricing
• Premier - Get in touch for pricing
• Add-ons for an additional fee

Compatibility: Mac and Windows

FirstUp is a customizable internal communications solution. With FirstUp, you can create a branded and custom-designed employee communication platform.

This tool is all about one-way communication – employer to employee. You can share key resources with your workers, and take them through essential training, on-boarding and up-skilling courses.

Key features:

• Real-time data on your employees’ activities.
• Campaign-based communications with real-time insights.
• Generative AI to support your content creation.
• First up creator studio which helps you to build out communication campaigns. You can create newsletters, videos, polls and more.
• Data-driven and smart delivery for maximum engagement with your campaigns.
• Employees can also create their own posts.

Best for: Businesses looking for a solution that helps them communicate with and deliver content to their workers at every stage of the employee life-cycle.

Connecteam

Pricing:

• The Small Business Plan - Up to 10 employeesAbove 10 users, there is a monthly per user fee depending on which plan you go for:
  • • Basic - $0.5 per month per additional user
    • Advanced - $1.5 per month per additional user
    • Expert - $3 per month per additional user
• Enterprise - you can get in touch about their enterprise offering

Compatibility: Browser based with an app for Apple & Android

Connecteam is an enterprise communications hub. It offers a single app through which you and your employees can instant message, share information publicly on feeds, and share files.  With Connecteam, you can create an internal “intranet” or company social media communication network.

Key features:

• Direct and instant chat for one-on-one conversations or company wide announcements.
• Live company-wide feed for public announcements and interactions.
• Acts as a company contact book or directory - anyone can message anybody else.
• Knowledge base lets you keep all your company knowledge in one place.
• Surveys and live polls for engaging your employees.
• Other operations and HR apps that you can opt into.

Pros of Connecteam:

• Social-media style communication which still delineates between professional and personal communication.

Cons of Connecteam:

• No video calling capability.
• Might be too social-media-like for some business owners.  

Best for: Small businesses with fewer than 10 employees that want a solid communication app that won’t break the bank.

How to choose the right business communication software

There are so many different types and iterations of business communication software out there. Here’s what to keep in mind when you’re comparing your options:

Goals

Thinking about what kind of communication solution you’re looking for will direct your search. You might want an instant chat platform, a software that helps you deliver key resources or training courses, host webinars and live streams, or simply to hop on video meetings.

Scalability

Your communication software should be able to grow and scale with your business. This means accommodating more employees but also expanded needs and potentially even forms of communication.

Usability

Your communication software is quite literally at the heart of your business. That’s why it’s imperative that it’s easy to use and that it slots in seamlessly to your existing tech stack.  

Customizability

All businesses are different – both in terms of needs and branding. You should be able to customize your user experience and workflows to match your specific needs.

FAQs on Business Communication Software

What is digital business communication?

Digital business communication refers to any and all enterprise messaging, conversation exchanges, collaboration, and interactions that take place on digital platforms. These could be internal instant messages, conference calls, emails and more.