10 Best Collaboration Software for Designers in 2023

Why is Collaboration Software Important 

Designers often need to work with other designers, engineers, and construction personnel on projects. 

To do this effectively, they need to be able to 

• Share ideas and work collaboratively

• Stay on the same page

• Use features like chat rooms and sharing. 

Unfortunately, this can be difficult when everyone works with different software programs. This is where collaboration software for designers comes in.

Collaboration software for designers allows users to share their work with others in real-time, regardless of what software program they use.

Therefore, it is much easier for team members to make sure that everyone is working towards the same goal. 

In a nutshel, collaboration software further facilitates communication and collaboration and it has become increasingly popular among designers. 

It allows them to work more efficiently with other team members and ultimately produce better results.

What Features To Look For In Collaboration Software

Reliable collaboration software for designers must have a few key features in order to be effective:

1. It should allow for real-time collaboration so that designers can work together on projects in real-time. 

2. It should have a robust commenting system so that designers, stakeholders, and clients can leave feedback for each other on designs. 

3. Lastly, it should have an easy-to-use interface so that designers can quickly start using the software.

And now, without further ado, let’s check the best collaboration software for designers.

10 Best Collaboration Software for Designers

1. Glorify 

Glorify is primarily a graphic design tool, but thanks to its infinite canvas feature, it definitely found its place on our list of collaboration tools.

This limitless canvas enables you and your team to:

• Ideate and brainstorm

• Do strategic planning

• Prepare marketing materials

• Organize your assets, etc.

But there is much more to Glorify. This multi-functional marketing and graphic design tool enables you to:

• Create professional product images and mockups

• Boost your marketing efforts with BrandKit

• Create logos

• Create professionally-looking diagrams and charts

• Highlight the most prominent product’s features

• Share and export your design in multiple formats

• And many more.

Furthermore, Glorify has an intuitive, user-friendly dashboard, which is great for newbies and beginners. 

In addition, Glorify has hundreds of templates for product images, mockups, banners, ads, covers, social media visuals, etc.

When it comes to collaboration, the whole process is smooth. 

Instead of emailing tons of designs back and forth to your team, storing them on different locations, now you can simply send them an invite link. 

It enables your team to work on the project in real-time, add their comments, ideas and feedback. Thus, you can share, organize and collaborate on a single platform. 

Glorify Pricing

Glorify offers one Free and two Premium plans.

2. InVision

InVision, a digital product design platform, offers vector and raster editing capabilities as well as built-in animation and prototyping tools. 

Therefore, you can create interactive prototypes.

It is a good solution for creating mobile app screens and user interfaces, but it lacks traditional vector graphics editor features. 

Despite this, it provides an all-in-one solution for crafting high-quality screen designs with easy collaboration and developer handoff. 

Thus, to get the most out of InVision Studio,  it’s optimal to combine it with other vector editors

When it comes to collaboration, InVision allows you or your teammates or clients to leave comments and feedback. 

What’s more, you can also update them on your progress in real-time. 

So what are InVision’s key features?

• A collaborative canvas

• Purpose-built templates for wireframing, brainstorming, project planning, etc.

• Integrations with Jira, Slack, Asana, etc.

InVision Pricing

InVision offers three plans, one Free and two Premium ones.

3. Balsamiq

Balsamiq is a low-fidelity UI wireframing tool helping you create wireframes for websites and web, desktop, and mobile apps. 

The software focuses on the speed of getting things done by emphasizing structure and content, leaving colors and details for later in the process.

Balsamiq’s aim is to create a platform where users can quickly sketch their designs, just like they would do with pen and paper.

When it comes to features, Balsamiq offers:

• Collaborative editing in real-time

• UI Components & Icons

• Reusable symbols

• Interactive prototypes

• Export to PNG or PDF formats, etc.

Balsamiq Pricing

Balsamiq has three different pricing plans, depending on whether you use a cloud or desktop version, or a version with integrations. The price also depends on the number of editors.

Therefore, the prices range from $9 to $ 8000.

3. Mockplus

Mockplus is a design tool with multiple functionalities: prototyping, collaboration and design systems.

These three categories are covered by three design tools:

• Mockplus RP helps create functional prototypes with components, icons, and interactions.

• Mockup Cloud offers collaboration tools, share and comment functions, handoff options, etc. to create a more connected product design workflow.

• Mockplus DS provides an all-in-one library so you can create and manage design systems. In addition, you can also share and sync your files.

Mockplus Pricing

Mockplus has two different pricing plans, for Cloud and RP, but since Cloud covers collaboration tools, let’s check its pricing.

There are one Free and two Premium plans.

4. Red Pen

Red Pen is a collaboration tool made by designers for other designers. 

The main aim is to be maximally efficient in getting feedback and comments and store them all in one place, thus avoiding multiple channels.

And what are the features to help you achieve that?

• A drag-and-drop function that allows you to simply drag your designs on a dashboard and invite your team or clients to leave comments and feedback in real-time. 

• A keep-track-of-your-project feature lets you access all the previous versions and iterations of your design and edit them.

• A project-organization feature allows you to combine all screens, alternatives, etc. into one project.

• A share-your-design feature that enables you to share your design and ask for comments and feedback via a private link or email. What’s great is that the number of collaborators isn’t limited.

Red Pen Pricing

Red Pen has four Premium plans depending on the number of projects you run. There is a 10-day free trial for each plan.

5. Miro

Miro is a collaborative whiteboard for designers to collaborate and create together.

It offers a versatile infinite canvas that has multiple purposes. You can use it for:

• Brainstorming and ideating

• Planning and doing strategy

• Teaching

• Designing, etc.

Besides an infinite canvas, Miro also provides lots of templates for various use cases. For example, here you can find:

• Research and design templates

• Brainstorming and ideation templates

• Strategy and planning templates

• Mapping and diagramming templates

• And many more.

In addition, Miro has more than 100 integrations with platforms like Google Docs, Jira, Zoom, etc.

Miro Pricing

Miro offers four plans, three Premium and one Free.

6. Moqups

Moqups is a design collaboration tool offering whiteboard, diagram, and wireframing features. 

In other words, with Moqups you can design, plan, create prototypes and collaborate.

Naturally, Moqups offers tools that reflect its main features. Thus, you can find:

• Wireframe Tool

• Flowchart and Graph Maker

• Online Whiteboard

• UML Diagram Tool.

In addition, there are a number of templates that correspond to the features and tools, too, such are:

• Wireframes & Mockups

• Admin Dashboard

• Ecommerce Website

• Landing Page

• Charts & Graphs

• User Story Mapping, etc.

Moqups Pricing

Moqups has three Premium plans. There is also a Free plan limited to 400 projects and 25MB of storage.

7. Filestage

Filestage is a collaboration platform focused on review, feedback, and approval management. 

With Filestage you can:

• Invite an unlimited number of reviewers to add feedback and collaborate

• Create different review steps and stages for different reviewers

• Edit and share your content

• Add due dates that work as automatic reminders

• Convert comments into to-do lists

• Add attachments and annotations, etc.

Furthermore, you can also keep track of your whole review process and check all the comments and feedback. 

In addition, you can compare two versions of the same document side by side.

Filestage Pricing

Filestage has three Premium plans, each with a 7-day free trial.

8. Figma

Figma is a design tool primarily used for collaborating on designs and prototypes.

Figma’s whiteboard provides a space to brainstorm and ideate. 

To make it more visually engaging, you can use sticky notes, dot vote, stamp, emote or draw. 

Furthermore, you can use markers and shapes to connect and organize your thoughts.

What else can you do with Figma?

You can map user flows and processes, synthesize and organize user data, etc.

Figma also stores your design assets in one place.

Figma Pricing

Figma’s pricing plans depend on whether you use Figma for design and prototyping or FigJam for whiteboarding. 

Hence, the prices range from $3 to $75 per month. Both pricing plans have a Free version.

9. Mural

Mural is an intuitive online whiteboard with infinite and resizable canvases.

In addition, Mural offers icons, GIFs and images, as well as sticky notes.

An interesting feature that Mural offers is anonymous voting sessions where users can anonymously leave their feedback. 

Furthermore, you can do mapping and diagraming, and create and publish custom templates.

Speaking of templates, Mural offers hundreds of templates divided into categories:

• Evaluate

• Agile

• Brainstorm

• Understand

• Icebreaker

• Empathize, etc.

What’s more, Mural has integrations with Adobe, Airtable, Asana, and Azure AD, just to name a few.

Mural Pricing

Mural offers three Premium and one Free plan, which allows up to 3 murals.

10. Asana

Asana is a digital collaboration platform that enables teams to organize, track, and manage their work.

Asana is a good choice for bigger teams and enterprises considering the great number of features and tools it has. 

It is also this aspect that makes Asana one of the most popular project management tools.

Asana’s features are versatile and they include tools such as:

• Reporting and forms

• Automation tools

• Boards

• Various tracking tools

• Integrations

• Gantt charts

• Workflow builder, etc.

Asana also provides more than 50 templates for marketing, design, product, sales, etc.

In terms of collaboration, you can keep track of tasks via boards, you can set deadline reminders, comment and provide feedback on posts, and send requests to colleagues.

Asana Pricing

Asana has two Premium plans and one Free plan.

Final Thoughts

Collaboration tools come in many shapes and sizes.

Some are more focused on mere collaboration, some also focus on prototypes and wireframing, and some add a bit of a marketing touch.

We hope that this list of the 10 best collaboration software for designers will help you in your search for the perfect tool to help you streamline and manage your projects.

Whether you are looking for something simple or more complex, there is surely an option here that will suit your needs perfectly.

And if we can give you a suggestion, we’d say go for Glorify.

Why?

It is the most versatile and robust out of the above tools and helps you not only with collaboration but also with creating stunning visuals for eCommerce, social media and marketing. 

Ready to give it a try?

Sign up for free today to see how working together as a team and designing has never been easier!