The best small business communication solutions should simplify how your team collaborates and shares knowledge, not complicate how they work. But the proliferation of communication tools, many with overlapping features (and they all “do AI” now), can make it difficult to choose the right stack for your team.

Growing businesses face a common problem in tech adoption, which isn’t specific to communication tools: struggling to anticipate long-term needs. 

If you adopt a tool to fulfil an immediate pain point (e.g., one for video conferencing), without considering how its pricing structure scales, or its team management features, you might run into trouble later. That’s why it’s important to scrutinise any tool – including ones for business communication – to gauge how well they’ll scale with your team’s evolving needs. 

Consider their pricing plans, feature sets, team management capabilities, and how well they complement your team’s existing workflows and expected future needs.

In this guide, we list the different categories of small business communication tools to help you find the right ones for your tech stack. For each category, we discuss leading players and suggest when you might want to consider a particular tool over the others. We also cover the essential considerations for building your communications tech stack.

Caflou is an all-in-one solution for small businesses looking to manage communications, cash flow, client relationships, projects, and teams in one place. Caflou’s communication capabilities include video-conferencing features, a Slack-like chat, 1:1 messaging, comments and tagging, a unified email inbox, and customisable notifications. 

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What types of small business communication tools are there?

The main categories for the best software for small business are:

  • Fully integrated business management solutions. These platforms centralise your small business’s core functions, so all your communications live in one place. Customer, vendor, and third-party interactions are recorded in the platform’s customer relationship management (CRM) module, discussions around projects or campaigns take place in the project management module, etc.
     
  • Video conferencing tools, which includes tools for live remote meetings—like Zoom or Google Meet—and software for asynchronous video communication, like Loom.
     
  • Project management software that lets teams manage their projects and related communications in a single place. You can assign responsibilities, leave feedback on cards, set up milestones and notifications, share documentation, share comments, and more.
     
  • Customer relationship management software. You can use these to store contact information and share it with team members, correspond with customers and centralise interactions with a unified inbox, set up automated alerts, etc.
     
  • Messaging platforms, including simple tools like WhatsApp business and more advanced ones like Teams or Slack (which lets you build “channels” for discussions, supports group “huddles,” have 1:1 voice chats, etc). 
     
  • VoIP communications tools. The most recognised VoIP tool used to be Skype. It’s fallen from grace in recent years, but still serves its purpose. You’ll find many VoIP platforms today, including ones that offer broader functionalities—e.g., VoIP tools designed to centralise contact centre communications.

The 17 best communication solutions for small businesses

The best video conferencing tools for small businesses

  • Zoom rose to fame during the global pandemic, and it remains one of the most well-known video conferencing tools. It’s a reliable, easy-to-use platform with high video and audio quality and collaboration features.

    Zoom has expanded the platform’s feature set without complicating the interface; it’s got one of the best whiteboards, real-time transcriptions, and an AI assistant that can generate meeting summaries and extract information from a transcript. Zoom also integrates with all major calendars (Outlook, Google Calendar, Calendly, etc.) and team collaboration tools. 

    Pricing: Zoom’s free plan lets you host 40-minute meetings with up to 100 participants. The monthly Pro plan, which starts at $15.99/month/host, offers 30-hour meetings, AI features, document features, and reporting. The baseline is still for 100 participants, but you can pay to increase this limit.

    When to consider it: If you need a standalone video conferencing tool.
     
  • Google Meet’s deep integrations with Google products make it a natural choice for Google power users, especially teams using Google Workspace. It has (arguably) the best live captions in English of all the major conferencing tools, and it offers fun visual effects, including virtual green screens, 3D filters, and blurs.

    Meet is a web-only app and you don’t need to register to join a session, making it easily accessible. The downside is that you’re likely to experience lag for sessions with a large number of participants.

    Google Meet comes bundled with Google Workspace plans, and its standalone free plan lets you host meetings for up to 60 minutes with 100 participants.

    When to consider it: If your team is using Google Workspace or plans to, or if you need a lightweight, web-based video conferencing tool with a generous free plan.
     
  • Microsoft Teams. Just like Google Meet comes bundled with Google Workspace, Teams is offered free to Microsoft 365 subscribers. However, Teams is much more than a conferencing tool. 

    It includes several powerful – and customisable – collaboration features. You can create channels and teams for different projects, integrate other tools from Microsoft 365 – like Planner – to manage projects and tasks, share and edit documents, and more.

    Pricing: You can purchase Teams separately from Microsoft 365, starting at $4 per user per month for the Essentials plan. It’s otherwise included in Microsoft 365 subscriptions. 

    When to consider it: If your team has a Microsoft 365 subscription or plans to get one, or if you need complementary tools like Microsoft Teams Phone.
     
  • Loom. If you haven’t heard of Loom before, the simplest way to explain it is a video and screen recording tool designed for busy teams. Loom facilitates asynchronous communication – where people communicate outside of real-time meetings – which is especially helpful for remote, hybrid, and distributed teams.

    Loom lets you record and edit videos, add captions, comments, and chapters, generate AI-based transcriptions, and more. The Business AI plan unlocks more productivity features, including AI titles, auto-summaries and chapters, filter word removals, and more.

    Pricing: Loom has a free plan that lets you store up to 25 videos, with a recording limit of 5 minutes for each. It supports transcriptions in over 50 languages. The Business plan unlocks unlimited videos and recording time, along with editing features and upload and download options, while the Business AI plan gives you access to Loom’s AI features and workflows.

    When to consider it: If you need a lightweight, intuitive tool for asynchronous communication.

The best messaging communication platforms for small business

  • Slack. Slack quickly became the most well-known messaging platform for businesses. Its simple, intuitive user interface (UI), diverse integrations library, and customisations have made it a powerful productivity tool for remote and hybrid teams.

    Slack lets you create channels and message threads, set up alerts, message people one-on-one, and start “huddles” for real-time talking and screen sharing. Slack also lets you add “apps” – through integrations – to integrate your workflows from other productivity tools, like Google Drive, Trello, Zoom, and calendar apps.

    Pricing: Slack’s free plan gives you access to essential features like channels, messaging, huddles, sharing audio and video clips, adding team members, and 90 days of message and file history. Paid plans start with the Pro tier, which costs €6.75 per person per month when billed annually and €8.25 per person per month when billed monthly. 

    When to consider it: If you need a standalone messaging tool that’s intuitive, easy to set up, and comes with a generous free plan.
     
  • Mattermost. Mattermost is a highly customisable communications platform with a similar interface to Slack. However, unlike Slack, you can self-host Mattermost on a private cloud, making it highly secure. It includes channel-based messaging, 1:1 direct messages, audio calls, and screen sharing. The platform is available in 20 languages and supports various integrations.

    Pricing: Mattermost’s simplest plan, which is self-hosted and offers its core messaging features, is completely free to access, meaning you’ll only need to cover the hosting costs. The Professional plan, which is self-hosted but offers more collaboration features, costs $10/user/month.

    When to consider it: If you need a standalone messaging tool that’s highly secure, and your team is equipped to set the tool up.
     
  • WhatsApp. Some might argue that the various features WhatsApp has added over the years have compromised its simplicity. While there’s truth to that, these features give business users more options to collaborate – for free.

    WhatsApp lets you create groups, start conference calls, create “communities,” and even share your screen from the WhatsApp desktop app. Then there’s WhatsApp Business, which helps companies provide support to their customers.

    When to consider it: If you need a simple, free messaging tool. 

The best VoIP communication tools

  • Microsoft Teams Phone is Microsoft’s VoIP phone offering. It lets you call other Teams users and people with public switched telephone network (PSTN) numbers. The tool also offers additional call and productivity features like AI-generated summaries, AI-based speech enhancement that isolates background noise, advanced call handling and forwarding, and more.

    Pricing: The standard plan for Microsoft Teams Phone costs $8/user/month, although you’ll require a separate license for Microsoft Teams. This means Teams Phone is best for people who already use/plan to use Microsoft Teams for broader business communications.
     
  • Zoom Phone. Zoom Phone is a simple, affordable VoIP phone solution with essential features like call recording, forwarding, and transfers. If you’re using other Zoom tools, like Zoom video, you’ll be pleased to know that Zoom Phone seamlessly integrates with them.

    Zoom Phone is a good standalone option, because unlike Teams, you don’t have to purchase a separate license for the same platform. Zoom Phone can be purchased and used on its own.

    Pricing: Zoom Phone’s plans start at $10/user/month, although the standard plan only includes inbound calling features. You’ll need to purchase pay-as-you-go credits separately for outbound calls.
     
  • OpenPhone. OpenPhone is a mature, feature-rich VoIP software designed for the U.S. and Canada. An OpenPhone subscription gives you unlimited free calls to any U.S. or Canadian numbers, and the platform supports over 7,000 integrations, offers AI features (like transcriptions and summaries), and lets you make international calls (although rates apply).

    Pricing: OpenPhone’s entry-level plan is the Starter tier, which costs$15 per user per month for shared phone numbers (up to 10 teammates). It includes free calls and texts to U.S. and Canadian numbers, supports voicemail transcriptions, and more. 

The best project management tools for small business

We’ve written extensively about the best project management tools for small businesses in our guides: 

Here’s a quick rundown of tools you might want to consider:

  • If you need an integrated business management tool, consider Caflou. Caflou centralises the management of core business functions, including projects, customer relationships, cash flow, resources, and business communication in a single platform.
     
  • If you need an easy-to-use, standalone project management tool with a generous free plan, consider Trello. Trello is the pioneer of Kanban board SaaS, although it’s since evolved into a comprehensive project management tool with advanced customisations and automations. 

    Trello’s free plan includes unlimited cards, built-in automations, templates, and more. 
     
  • If you need a project management tool that’s highly customisable and doubles as a knowledge base, consider Notion. Notion is a powerful knowledge management and productivity tool that’s highly customisable. You can use it to manage projects, documentation, invoices, timelines, budgets, and more.

    Notion offers a free personal plan with a 5MB file upload limit, and for teams, paid plans start at $15/14€/user/month for annual billing.

The best customer relationship management tools for small business

You can learn more about How to choose the best CRM for your small business in this guide. Here’s a quick overview of the tools we recommend:

  • If you need a CRM that also supports core business functions like project management and business economics, consider Caflou. Caflou centralises your business data in a single platform, giving you deep, actionable analytics. For example, you can see which customers bring in the most revenue and automatically share project updates with clients.
     
  • If you’re looking for a CRM specifically designed for sales teams, consider PipeDrive. PipeDrive is a simple, intuitive CRM designed by sales professionals to help you track pipeline and identify opportunities to close deals. 
     
  • If you need a reliable, lightweight CRM, consider Bigin. Bigin is Zoho’s CRM designed specifically for small businesses. It has all the essential features of a CRM (pipeline management, meeting scheduling, basic automations) and none of the additional business modules.
     
  • If you’re looking for a scalable CRM for mid-size businesses, consider HubSpot. HubSpot is one of the most recognised names in the CRM business, with a generous free plan. However, once your team outgrows HubSpot’s free plan, the costs add up quickly. 

Choosing the right business communication software for your small business: Key considerations

When companies look for business communication tools, they’re often motivated by an immediate need – maybe they need a VoIP phone number for inbound and outbound calls, a video conferencing software for meetings, or a tool for managing customer relationships. 

Before you commit to one or more communication tools, though, it’s important to think long-term. This means considering questions such as:

  • How much will my team(s) grow? What will their future needs be? Communications software scales differently, both in terms of pricing and capabilities. 

    Some tools get more expensive as you use them, while others offer discounts for larger teams. Additionally, some tools lack the people and workflow management features that larger teams might need. Don’t underestimate the importance of considering your team’s long-term needs.
     
  • Can my team communicate in a better way? Adopting new software opens up the opportunity to change how your team works – for the better. For example, a tool like Loom could help your team cut down on meetings, a Slack-like chat can help you organise internal comms better, and a tool like Caflou offers more visibility into key business functions.
     
  • How can I complement my tech stack? This might mean adopting communications tools that complement your existing stack – e.g., Microsoft Teams Phone if you have a 365 subscription. Or, it could mean reevaluating your existing tech stack to simplify the way you work – e.g., by replacing multiple tools (project management software, CRM, conferencing tools, invoicing and cash flow management software) with Caflou.
     
  • How will I ensure my team benefits from this tool/these solutions? It’s a good idea to evaluate each tool’s support options, check their help centres and documentation, and outline a plan for training your team on the platform and collecting feedback from them once it's deployed.

    Many business communications tools offer free trials or plans. You can involve your team in taking them for a test drive and making sure they’re convinced of the tool’s usefulness before committing.

Caflou — a fully integrated business communication tool

Caflou is designed for small businesses that want to manage core business functions – such as cash flow, contracts, customer and vendor relationships, projects and campaigns, people and workflows – in a single place. 

Caflou’s built-in communication features across its modules are designed to help teams share knowledge simply and effectively. You can set up video calls, manage email communications from a centralised email inbox, share comments in projects, assign tasks, and more. 

Here’s a closer look at how teams manage their day-to-day communications with Caflou:

Caflou Meet – for video conferencing

Meet is Caflou’s custom video conferencing tool, with all the standard conferencing capabilities you’d expect — inviting participants, screen sharing, in-chat messaging, video and audio toggling, etc. 

Similar to Google Meet, you can run Caflou Meet directly from your browser – and participants don’t need to install the platform or register to use it. Mobile users, however, will need to install our mobile application (which they’ll be prompted to do when they follow a conference link) to join a conference call. 

You can get a shareable link for your conference call from Caflou’s chat, “messages,” which you can share with anyone, including people outside your organisation. Here’s a snapshot of how it works:

Caflou’s unified email inbox

To build a truly integrated business communications platform, we knew that we’d have to bring one of the most important communication channels – inside the Caflou platform. And that’s what we did. You can connect your email inbox – such as Gmail (including Google Workspace emails), Outlook 365 (including Business account mailboxes), and any mailbox that supports IMAP – to Caflou.

After connecting your mailbox to Caflou (via direct API), you can now send and receive emails directly from your unified Caflou inbox. You can also assign emails to specific companies, projects, and tasks. Here’s a snapshot of Caflou’s email inbox:

Chat and message features

Caflou features a chat-like Slack, that lets you create new “channels” for discussions:

Just like with Slack, you can message in these channels and create threads under a specific message:

Need to have a 1:1 conversation? No problem. Caflou’s “messages” feature lets you open 1:1 chats, from where you can text individuals, share images and videos, and drop audio messages. 

Manage customer, vendor, and third-party relationships

Caflou’s built-in CRM lets you manage all your contacts in a single place and keep track of their information and your interactions with them as a business. 

Once you’ve added your contacts and their information, Caflou’s Kanban board lets you instantly see the business status of each customer’s account (e.g., if they’re active or not), your team member assigned to the account, and information about the company like its location and contract value:

Since Caflou’s CRM module is built into its integrated platform, you can easily communicate with contacts in various ways – such as via email through Caflou’s unified inbox or by scheduling a meeting with Caflou’s shared calendar and hosting it on Caflou Meet. 

Manage projects and project-related communications

Caflou’s project management module includes all the essential features needed to manage projects and communicate within them. After setting up your first project, you can easily see progress, timelines, and status updates in your preferred view (such as Kanban or Gantt):

Caflou makes it easy for teams to share feedback, updates, and issues with each other and clients. You can assign responsibilities for specific tasks, add approval workflows, tag people in comments, chat, and set up automated alerts (e.g. when milestones are achieved). Here’s a closer look at your commenting options:

Additionally, Caflou’s project management module also puts important data at your fingertips – including the time, cost, and status of individual projects – helping you communicate updates with clients and manage expectations. Here’s what our customers have to say:

“With Caflou, we are able to assign revenues, expenses and time to individual projects, thanks to which we are able to accurately evaluate profitability and other economic indicators.” Pavel Schiller, CEO. 

“Managing even several projects at once is now much easier. When I click on a project, I find everything I need to know and can react quickly to changes. We add a budget to every task so I can easily track what my co-workers are doing.” Miroslav Adamec, Project Manager, coalsoft

Notifications and automated alerts

Once you’ve got your core business functions on Caflou, you can set up automated alerts to notify you about important tasks or business updates – such as a new milestone achieved on a project, an approval request you need to approve, or a new deal that’s been closed. 

However, getting notified about everything can harm your team’s productivity, which is why Caflou lets you decide when and how to be notified. 

Caflou’s notifications revolve around the concept of “objects.” An object is an element in Caflou you create within a module for a specific purpose — e.g., a new contact, timesheet, invoice, or project entry. By default, the creator of an object receives notifications about changes to the object, comments, mentions, or the creation of a new object:

You can also manually choose to "follow" an object (meaning you’ll be notified about changes to it or comments on it) or stop following an object you already are. You can also enable or disable notifications for a category of objects by default:

You can learn more about customising notifications on Caflou here.

Pricing

Caflou has a simple pay-as-you-need pricing model, with four main plans and costs that scale to the number of users you add. Teams with a large number of users benefit from reduced per-user pricing. Here’s a closer look at our plans:

You can see how much Caflou will cost for your team by selecting the number of users here. We also offer custom plans for larger companies. 

Interested in seeing how Caflou can simplify your workflows and improve team communication? Activate your free 14-day trial for any of our paid plans. 

Caflou’s free Turtle plan gives you access to all Caflou modules. You’ll also get a 100MB file limit, the option to build an automation workflow for one process, and 10 API requests per month. 

Improve your team’s productivity, communication, and access to knowledge with Caflou. Caflou helps small businesses manage their cash flow, customer relationships, internal comms, projects, and teams in a single, unified platform. 
Discover how Caflou simplifies workflows and communication with a 14-day trial.

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