20 Productivity Apps for Collaboration, Automation, and Task Management

You came here because you’re looking for the best productivity tools, so you can do more things in less time. I get it. But here’s the truth: there’s no single definition of productivity tools. Any apps that help you work more efficiently can be classified as such. 

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That’s why, when compiling this article, I decided to group those apps into several categories based on different use cases: collaboration, communication, focus, automation, task management, and so on.

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Here’s the full list.

Quick overview of the best productivity apps

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Best collaboration tools

• Miro for brainstorming and planning

• Monday.com for task management and progress tracking

• Google Workspace for multiple productivity tools in one subscription

• Figma for design collaboration

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Best communication tools

• Slack for team chatting

• Google Meet for instant video calls

• Microsoft Outlook for email management

• Calendly for meeting and appointment scheduling

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Best focus apps

• Freedom from distraction blocking

• SaneBox for email inbox decluttering

• Instapaper for content bookmarking

• Pomodor for Pomodoro time management

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Best task management tools

• Todoist for to-do list management

• Notion for note taking

• Sunsama for daily planning

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Best AI assistants

• Fireflies for automated meeting transcription

• Grok 3 for deep research

• Clockwise for AI-assisted meeting scheduling

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Best password manager

• 1Password for storing multiple passwords

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Best automation tool

• Boltic for complex workflow automation

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Best collaboration tools

Part of a large organization? These tools will help you manage tasks, track progress, and collaborate on projects much more efficiently.

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Miro

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Best for: Brainstorming and planning

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If you work from the office, finding a private room for your team meetings isn't an issue. But how about remote teams working from different parts of the world? A digital workspace like Miro will come in handy.

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It gives you an infinite visual board that never runs out of space. So you can host different kinds of collaboration sessions—from quick brainstorming to OKR and roadmap planning—every day, week, or month without creating a new board for each one.

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You can either start from a blank canvas or choose a pre-made template for your specific use case. Either way, interacting with the board is very easy. 

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From the left menu, simply drag a sticky note anywhere on the canvas, write the topic you want to talk about, and invite your team to jump on the conversation. Each person can add comments to your note, or create a new sticky note using a different color for more visibility.

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You can even ask the AI assistant to create a summary of your brainstorming session with a simple prompt. Oh, and there are also options to add stickers, emojis, and GIFs, or even memes you found on the internet to make your workspace feel more alive.

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Pricing: Free for unlimited members and up to 3 editable boards; paid plans cost between $8/month/member and $16/month/member 

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Key features:

• Workspace templates. Start quickly with pre-made board templates for various collaboration needs, including brainstorming, roadmap planning, and customer journey mapping.

• Intelligent canvas. Speed up tasks that used to take hours. Use AI to summarize your meetings or create a custom graph for your next presentation in minutes.

• 160+ app integrations. Miro integrates well with your favorite tools. Add Google Docs to your canvas, track Miro activity from Slack, bring your workspace to your Microsoft Teams meetings, and more. 

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Drawbacks:

Miro offers an infinite canvas, so you can use the free plan forever (in theory). But after using it for several months, all the content and files will pile up, and your board will eventually load much slower. In that case, there’s no other option than to upgrade to the paid plan.

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Monday.com

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Best for: Task management and progress tracking 

After a meeting or team discussion, usually there’s a new list of tasks to do. So, how to make sure each task will be completed in time? A task tracking tool is what you need. I’ve personally used Monday.com for several years, and I think it’s amazing.

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When you sign up for the platform, it will immediately ask you to create a workspace with your preferred layout—Table, Gantt, Kanban, Cards, Calendar, and Timeline. No need to overthink, as you can always add a new board view on top of your main one.

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Once your workspace is ready, you can create tasks, assign the owners for each item, and set the timelines. You can also organize tasks into different groups. In my case, I have a group for planning, another one for to-do lists (like writing, editing, and publishing), and the last one for completed tasks. 

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I personally like the Table view, as it allows me to quickly track the status of each task and who’s responsible for it. In case a task gets stuck, I can simply reach out to the owner and offer help to move it forward. 

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Another feature that I really like is workflow automation, which is really a time saver. When enabled, Monday can automatically create an item when an email is received, move a task to the assigned board, notify you of an upcoming due date, and much more.

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Pricing: Free for up to 2 seats and up to 3 boards; paid plans cost between $12/month/seat – $24/month/seat 

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Key features:

• Multiple board layouts. Choose how you want to view your workspace. Options include a table view, a card board, a timeline, and more.

• Workflow automation. Automate repetitive tasks like moving tasks to specific boards and sending Slack notifications for certain activities.

• Time tracking. If you buy the Pro plan, you’ll be able to track the time spent for each task.

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Drawbacks:

Some key features are locked behind the higher-tier plans, including Timeline, Gantt, Chart, and Calendar views, as well as private boards and time tracking. 

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Google Workspace

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Best for: Multiple productivity tools in one subscription

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Subscribing to different tools can be expensive and hard to manage. There are tons of login details you need to remember, and not to mention, bills you have to sort out. This is why Google Workspace is an excellent choice if you want different productivity apps in one place.

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With just one subscription, you’ll get a suite of tools you need to work more effectively. There’s Google Docs for document collaboration, Sheets for task management and reporting, and Slides for presentations. 

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Want to align on meeting schedules? Easily give your team access to your Google Calendar. There’s even an AI assistant that helps you perform deeper research, generate beautiful slide designs, take meeting notes, and the list goes on. 

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By purchasing a Google Workspace plan, you can also bypass the limitations of free Google products you might already use, like Gmail, Google Meet, and Google Drive. In the free version, you can only register a generic email domain (someting@gmail.com), host 60-minute meetings with Meet, and use up to 15 GB of Drive storage.

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With Google Workspace, you’ll get unlimited meeting duration, higher storage for your documents, and a business email (like support@yourbrand.com), which makes your brand appear more professional. 

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Pricing: $5.04/month/user – $26.40/month/user 

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Key features:

• Integrated environment. With one subscription, you can access all the tools and apps you need to work and collaborate better.

• NotebookLM. An AI assistant that helps you do things faster, like preparing onboarding documents for new hires and creating a single source of truth for product information.

• Cloud storage. Give your team members access and collaborate on documents in real time.

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Drawbacks:

As a cloud-based platform, you need a stable and reliable internet connection to access Google Workspace. There were countless times when my work was disrupted by power outage, simply because I couldn’t edit my Docs in the offline mode.

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Figma

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Best for: Design collaboration

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Figma is a web-based design tool. It’s mostly used by designers to create prototypes for websites and apps, before full development kickstarts.

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While it’s made for professional designers, the interface is actually pretty user friendly. There are frame templates for various devices, including phone, desktop, tablet, and even TV. This lets you create a pitch-perfect layout for each different screen size.

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When it comes to the design part, Figma offers robust vector drawing tools, which are pretty similar to Adobe Illustrator. You can create complex shapes and illustrations, as well as maintain the same fonts, color styles, and UI elements (like buttons) across your designs for consistency.

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There are also numerous plugins that allow you to create inclusive designs for users with disabilities, like color blindness. Able is one of those you can use to clone your design into 8 different versions, each representing a type of color vision deficiency.

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Pricing: Free for personal projects, students, and educators; paid plans cost between $5/month and $90/month 

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Key features:

• Prototyping. Create a step-by-step mockup to simulate the user navigation flow from start to finish.

• Accessibility plugins. Design inclusive websites and apps that anyone can access, including those with special needs.

• File sharing. Give access to your team and invite them to collaborate, request feedback, or ask for approvals.

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Drawbacks:

Just like Google Workspace, Figma is a cloud-based tool. So you can’t really use it without an internet connection. It’s also not suitable for more complex projects, like 3D modelling.

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Best communication & meeting tools

You may think that communication is distracting, but it’s still an important part of your work. You just need to find the right messaging and meeting apps to make the process smoother.

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Slack

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Best for: Team chatting

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Slack is one of the most-used chatting apps in the market today. We use it at Boltic. I personally use it to communicate with my clients. And if you open your LinkedIn feed, you’ll see plenty of teams that are also using Slack.

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So, what makes Slack such a popular messaging app? I think ease of use plays a big factor here. Somehow, this platform manages to maintain a clean interface, even with all the stuff that’s happening around you.

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You can send personal messages through DMs, or create a public channel for team discussion. Here, each conversation is organized as a thread, which really helps in keeping things clean.

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Instead of having a single, continuous stream of messages where different topics can easily get mixed up and lost, each distinct discussion starts as a main post. Then, all subsequent replies related to that topic are nested under its own dedicated thread.

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When you join multiple channels, things can get messy real quick. Luckily, you can organize those channels into groups and even mute channels you deem irrelevant. There's also Slack AI that helps you summarize discussions without reading the whole thing.

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If something’s not clear, you can jump on a quick huddle (it’s basically an audio or video call) to clarify things and make sure everyone is on the same page.

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And when Slack notifications begin to distract you from work, you can enable the Do Not Disturb feature to mute all incoming chats temporarily.

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Pricing: Free for 1 workspace and 10 app integrations; paid plans cost between $4.38/month/user – $15/month/user 

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Key features:

• Channels. Start a discussion thread for each different topic without spamming the whole chatbox.

• Slack AI. Let AI summarize key points from your most important channels, so you don’t need to read the whole thing to know what’s going on.

• Do Not Disturb. Pause all notifications temporarily to eliminate distractions during deep work sessions.

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Drawbacks:

Slack doesn’t offer end-to-end encryption. It means there’s a chance that third-party actors (like hackers) might be able to read and intercept your messages.

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Google Meet

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Best for: Instant video calls

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Google Meet is the app you need when you’re in a hurry, but there’s something you need to discuss with your peers. Maybe you want to align on things before a big presentation. Or maybe you want to clarify something before working on a task. 

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As long as you’re logged on to your Google account, you can quickly set up a call by visiting the Google Meet landing page, clicking New meeting, and selecting Start an instant meeting. That’s it—no installing an app, no frustrating verification steps, no hassle.

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After that, simply share the meeting link with your teammates (you can invite up to 100 participants in the free version). During the call, you can share your screen and record the meeting, which will be automatically saved to your Drive.

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That said, the free plan only allows you to host 60-minute calls. If you want to host longer meetings (up to 24 hours) with more participants, you’ll need to upgrade to the premium version by buying a Google Workspace plan. 

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Pricing: Free for unlimited meetings, but each one is limited to 60 minutes and 100 participants; paid plans cost between $5.04/month/user – $26.40/month/user (Google Workspace)

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Key features:

• Instant meeting setup. Jumping on a call is as easy as visiting the Google Meet page and clicking a couple of buttons.

• Forever free to use. If you have a personal Google account, you can host as many audio or video calls as you want. Although each meeting is limited to 60 minutes and 100 participants.

• Meeting recorder. No need to take notes during calls. Simply record the whole meeting and play it back in case you miss something.

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Drawbacks:

As a free product, Google Meet lacks some of the more advanced features offered by competitors like Zoom. For example, there’s no waiting room for participants, no built-in whiteboard, and you can only share one screen at a time.

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Microsoft Outlook

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Best for: Email management

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Microsoft Outlook gives you a centralized inbox, so you can connect and manage all your email accounts in one place. Besides the default Outlook account, it also supports third-party email clients like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and iCloud.

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The Focused Inbox is very helpful for organizing important emails. You can create Email Rules to automate your workflow, too. Once enabled, It will automatically do things like flagging emails that contain certain keywords as spam, or marking those that come from particular senders as important.

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Outlook also provides other productivity tools you can access from your dashboard. There’s a To Do feature for managing tasks, a Calendar for staying on top of meetings, and OneNote for taking notes.

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Pricing: Free for one person and 15 GB of mailbox storage; the Home plans cost between $19.99/year and $104.99/year, while the Business plans cost between $6/month/user – $12.50/month/user billed annually

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Key features:

• Unified inbox. Connect your Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo!, and iCloud email accounts, and manage all messages in one dashboard. 

• Email rules. Automatically delete, mark, or move emails to specific folders based on predetermined conditions.

• Productivity tools. Get access to email management, calendar, to-do list manager, and note taking features in one account.

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Drawbacks:

Outlook users constantly experience issues like emails not sending and new messages not appearing due to a server error or a full mailbox.

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Calendly

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Best for: Meeting and appointment scheduling

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Calendly is a must-have tool if you constantly struggle with scheduling meetings and appointments. It’s easy to use on both ends: the event organizer and the participant.

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After you sign up to the platform, all you have to do is set up a booking page with your preferred working hours and meeting location—Calendly has native integrations with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams.

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When someone wants to jump on a call with you, simply share your booking page link and let them choose the perfect date and time based on your availability. As simple as that.

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The free plan doesn’t have limitations on the number of meetings you can schedule. Although you’re limited to just one-on-one calls. If you want to schedule group meetings with multiple participants, you’ll have to upgrade to the paid plans.

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Pro users can also schedule automated reminders before events start to reduce no-shows, as well as send thank you emails after calls.

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Pricing: Free for 1 event type and 1 calendar integration; paid plans cost between $12/month/seat – $20/month/seat, and the Enterprise plan starts at $15,000/year

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Key features:

• Generous free plan. You can schedule as many one-on-one calls as you want for free.

• Easy to use on both ends. Set up your booking page, share your unique link, and let the invitee choose a time slot that works for both of you. 

• Email automation. Pro users have the privilege to automate reminders before events, and thank you emails after calls.

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Drawbacks:

The free plan only allows you to invite one participant. Group meetings with multiple hosts and attendees are available in the premium plans.

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Best focus apps

Need to catch a deadline? Then you’ll find the following apps useful for blocking distractions and getting things done in time.

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Freedom

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Best for: Distraction blocking

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If your work requires you to spend a lot of time online, then you should install Freedom to block sites and apps that are taking away your focus.

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You can either create blocklists of websites and apps you find distracting, or use the Website Exceptions feature to block all web pages except the ones you need, like your company’s website or CRM app. It’s even possible to block the whole internet if you want.

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Freedom also allows you to add as many devices as you’d like—it supports Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS. This prevents you from accessing a blocked site or app from another device.

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And if you’re the type of person who can’t resist scrolling TikTok dances every now and then, you can force yourself to focus with the Locked Mode feature. Once enabled, you won’t be able to end a Freedom session no matter what you do.

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The only downside is that Freedom has no free version. But no worries. If you don’t want to spend money on the paid plans, you can install its free Chrome extensions:

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• Pause for pausing blocked pages before they open

• Limit for setting daily time limits on certain websites

• Insight for tracking the time spent online

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Pricing: $3.33/month billed yearly – $8.99/month billed monthly; $99.50 billed once for lifetime use  

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Key features:

• Custom blocklists. Start with a preset list, or create custom blocklists by adding every website and app you find distracting.

• Advanced scheduling. Create recurring productivity sessions that start automatically based on the schedule you’ve set before.

• Locked Mode. Breaking a habit isn’t easy. With this feature, you can force yourself to focus on work by running a Freedom session you can’t end.

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Drawbacks:

Freedom doesn’t have a free version, only a free trial. And it has no monthly plan, so you can either pay yearly or buy the lifetime plan.

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SaneBox

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Best for: Email inbox decluttering

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In all honesty, how many unopened emails do you have in your inbox? I bet there are thousands of them. All those brand promotions and newsletters you no longer need can clutter your inbox, and before you know it, important client messages get buried underneath the noise.

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If that’s the case, SaneBox is the tool you need to keep your inbox clean and your sanity in check. Upon signing up, there are several folders you need to configure:

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• SaneBlackHole – for annoying and spam emails from salespeople and businesses

• SaneReceipts – for invoices, receipts, coupons, and payment notifications

• SaneNews – for email newsletters

• SaneLater – for unimportant emails, you can open them later

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Once you set up these folders, SaneBox will learn over time which emails belong to which folders, keeping your inbox only for important messages.

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Moreover, this app keeps copies of emails you haven’t replied yet inside the SaneNoReplies folder. You can also set a reminder, in case you want to reply to an email at a specific date.

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And for days when you need total focus, or if you don’t want to receive emails on weekends, you can enable the Do Not Disturb feature. All new emails will be moved to a special folder you can check out later.

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Pricing: $3.49/month for 1 email account; $5.99/month for 2 email accounts; $16.99/month for 4 email accounts 

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Key features:

• Habit learning. SaneBox picks up on your habit to understand which emails should be moved to which folders.

• Do Not Disturb. Direct all incoming emails to the Do Not Disturb folder when you want to focus on work, or during weekends.

• Reminders. This tool will send you regular reminders for every email you haven’t replied yet, so you can avoid missed opportunities.

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Drawbacks:

SaneBox is a premium tool with no free plan. Although it offers a 14-day trial, so you can test everything out before committing to a paid plan.

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Instapaper

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Best for: Content bookmarking 

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When surfing the web, have you ever found a totally unrelated article and ended up reading the whole thing? I have. And it's pretty distracting. Until I learned that I could save interesting blog posts to read later with Instapaper.

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It has a browser extension for Google Chrome, Safari, and Firefox. If the extension doesn’t work, drag the bookmarklet to your bookmarks bar instead. Every time you find an article you like, click Save to Instapaper to add it to your reading list. You can also organize your saved content with folders and tags.

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The Notes feature allows you to save snippets of blog posts (like a sentence or paragraph) instead of the whole content. Simply highlight any text, right-click it, and choose Save and Create Highlight. Keep in mind that you can only save five highlights with a free account.

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Instapaper has a mobile app for both iOS and Android. So you can read your saved articles to fill time while commuting to work, or waiting for someone.

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Pricing: Free; paid plan costs $5.99/month or $59.99/year

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Key features:

• Generous free plan. Save unlimited articles and up to five highlights, and sync your content across devices.

• Simple to use. Install the browser extension or simply drag the bookmarklet to your bookmarks bar, and start saving content.

• Notes. Instead of the whole article, you can highlight and save words, sentences, and paragraphs you find fascinating.

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Drawbacks:

During my testing, some web pages and blog posts don’t load properly when added to my Instapaper account.

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Pomodor

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Best for: Pomodoro time management

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Pomodoro is a time management technique. It breaks your work into 25-minute intervals followed by 5-minute short breaks. The idea is that humans can only maintain a full focus for 25 minutes straight, before fatigue and boredom start to kick in.

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Pomodor is an app that helps you perform this technique (it even borrows the name!). And you can use it for free without creating an account—simply visit the homepage and start the timer. When you leave the site and go to other tabs, the page title bar will show you a countdown, so you’ll know for sure how much time is left.

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If the Pomodoro Technique isn’t suitable for you, Pomodor gives you the freedom to set your own work intervals (from 5 to 60 minutes), short or long break duration (from 1 to 45 minutes), and rounds per day (from 2 to 15).

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Pricing: Free

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Key features:

• Totally free to use. Get started instantly without creating an account and spending a penny.

• Timer in title. Easily track how much time is left when working on other tabs.

• Customizable intervals. Set your own work intervals, break duration, and Pomodoro rounds per day.

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Drawbacks:

Pomodoro isn’t the right time management technique for everyone. Some feel that it’s too rigid and restricting, and they prefer more freedom in their work.

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Best task management tools

Constantly miss deadlines? Then don’t miss out on these apps. Organize your tasks better, so you’ll get everything done in time, every time.

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Todoist

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Best for: To-do list management

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It’s Sunday morning, and you suddenly remember a task you were supposed to finish on Monday. You start panicking, open your laptop, and forget entirely about your well-deserved rest.

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Todoist helps you prevent stuff like this from happening. It gives you the space to jot down everything you have to complete, so you can manage tasks better. 

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The dashboard is pretty straightforward. You can create a new task by simply clicking the + Add task button. After that, the app will ask you to configure details like the task’s deadline and the priority score (from the scale of 1 to 4). If you’re a paid user, you can also set a reminder for important events, so you won't miss a thing. 

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Want to separate personal routines (like going to the gym) from work-related tasks? Simply create different projects for each category. There's a Google Calendar integration, too. So you’ll be able to sync all tasks and events on both platforms to avoid conflicting schedules.

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Once all set, you can quickly monitor tasks that are due today, tomorrow, or next week from the main dashboard. You can also change the view layout (list, board, or calendar) to match your preference and needs.

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Pricing: Free for 5 personal projects; paid plans cost between $5/month/user – $8/month/user 

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Key features:

• Simple dashboard. Easily find everything you need to add and manage tasks.

• Multiple to-do list views. Monitor your tasks in a list, board, or calendar view.

• Google Calendar integration. Avoid conflicting tasks and meetings by syncing all events in a single, unified place.

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Drawbacks:

Todoist is free for personal use. If you want to add your team, you will have to purchase one of Todoist’s paid plans.

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Notion

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Best for: Note taking

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Ideas can pop up at any moment. And more often than not, they appear when you least expect them. Like when you take your dog for a morning walk, take a shower, or even before you go to sleep at night.

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When it happens, a note-taking app like Notion will surely come in handy. But why Notion? Can’t I simply use my phone’s native app? Yes you can, but Notion isn’t your typical note-taking platform.

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Every Notion page is essentially a blank canvas. You can start typing anywhere, embed different types of content (images, videos, web bookmarks), and structure your notes exactly how you want using blocks. This is great for visual thinkers or those who want to connect ideas in non-linear ways.

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Notion also allows you to share your random thoughts with your team. In the free version, you can invite up to 10 teammates to your Notion page to give you some input and fresh perspectives. 

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Moreover, it has a task management system similar to Monday.com and Asana. So after the initial ideation, you can turn your half-baked ideas into to-do lists. 

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Pricing: Free to invite 10 guests; paid plans cost between $12/month/seat – $18/month/seat 

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Key features:

• Note collaboration. Share your notes with others and collaborate in real-time. This is fantastic for getting feedback on your personal ideas.

• Cross-platform access. Write and share ideas from your browser, mobile app, or desktop app.

• 147 app integrations. Connect Notion with other productivity apps in your tech stack, like Slack, Trello, and Calendly.

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Drawbacks:

Notion gives you so many features, but does a poor job at explaining how they work.

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Sunsama

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Best for: Daily planning

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Planning your day ahead can make a world of difference. It brings structure and control to your time, so you don’t waste any second for things that won’t help achieve your goals.

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Sunsama is a tool that makes daily planning a bit easier. Once you create an account, you'll be immediately asked to plan your day. What tasks do you want to finish today? And how long will it take?

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If, for some reason, you use multiple task management apps (like Trello, Asana, and Todoist), you can connect them all in one place. Sunsama also gives you the ability to integrate your calendar and email to your workspace. This gives you a bird’s eye view of all your tasks, events, and meetings.

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There’s a nice Slack integration as well, so you can share your daily tasks and obstacles with your team.

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Pricing:  $16/month billed yearly – $20/month billed monthly

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Key features:

• Daily highlights. Review tasks you’ve completed, emails you’ve sent, and meetings you’ve attended today.

• Weekly review. Get a breakdown of how you spent your time in the past week.

• Task manager integrations. Using Trello, Asana, and Monday at the same time? Easily connect them all in one place.

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Drawbacks:

The only downside to Sunsama is that there’s no free plan. But, there’s a 14-day free trial if you want to explore this app.

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Best AI assistants

Want to get more things done without hiring more employees? Turn to your robot friends for help.

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Fireflies

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Best for: Automated meeting transcription

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Imagine having a reliable assistant that will jot down all key points during meetings, and share the summary with everyone involved once the call is over. That’s exactly what you’ll get with Fireflies.

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It will automatically join all calendar events with a URL (on platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams), then record and transcribe the entire conversation with high accuracy. This means you can focus fully on the discussion and contribute more effectively.

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After each call ends, Fireflies will give you a meeting recap along with timestamps and speaker identification. This helps you track what each person said during the meeting, and rewind certain discussions that interest you.

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But how about past meetings? You can simply upload the file and AI will transcribe it for you. The app supports MP3, MP4, WAV, and M4A, but it has size limits for both video files (100 MB) and audio files (200 MB).

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Topic Tracker is another feature I really like. It filters your meeting recordings for certain topics, helping you pinpoint discussions that are important to you without having to listen through the entire thing.

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Pricing: Free for 800 minutes of storage; paid plans cost between $18/month/seat (billed monthly) – $39/month/seat (the Enterprise plan is billed annually)

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Key features:

• Auto transcription. Simply invite the AI assistant to your meetings. It will record everything and share the recaps with all attendees.

• Topic Tracker. Add topics you want to track, and monitor relevant discussions about said topics in past and future meetings.

• Works with any app. Integrate Fireflies with any conferencing apps, including Aircall, Dialpad, Google Meet, Zoom, Teams, and more. 

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Drawbacks:

The user interface isn’t the best. Some sections are crammed with so many things, it’s hard to find what you’re really looking for.

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Grok

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Best for: Deep research

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I’ve used plenty of AI chatbots, and I think Grok’s deep research capabilities are among the best in the business. 

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It’s a real time saver when you want to learn about something quickly. Simply feed Grok a topic you want to know, and it will then search the entire web, cross check facts and references, and give you accurate responses based on your prompt.

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Beyond research, you can also ask Grok to assist you with coding tasks, generate images, summarize your documents, and even become your brainstorming partners.

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That said, the free version has certain limits. You can only ask 20 general questions every 2 hours and perform 10 deep searches per day.

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Pricing: Free for 10 deep search interactions per day; the SuperGrok plan costs $30/month

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Key features:

• Deep research. Ask Grok anything, and it will scan the entire web and come back with an accurate response in minutes.

• Image generator. Describe what image you want in detail, and Grok will bring it to life.

• Context memory. Grok will remember everything you’ve ever said to give you more personalized answers.

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Drawbacks:

Besides having deep research limits, the free model is also much slower than the paid (SuperGrok) version.

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Clockwise

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Best for: Meeting scheduling

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Clockwise is an AI-powered tool that helps you schedule meetings without sacrificing your productivity. 

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All you gotta do is integrate your Google Calendar (or Outlook) and tell AI about your work routine and meeting preference. AI will then work its magic to optimize your meeting schedule.

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For example, say you prefer to meet in the morning. In such cases, AI will only schedule meetings between 9AM to 12PM. Clockwise can also analyze your team’s schedules and intelligently move meetings to the least disruptive times for everyone.

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Other than that, Clockwise also has some nice features that will help you work more productively. Focus Time is one of them. It lets you block some time for deep work, which is especially useful for tasks requiring concentration, like writing or strategizing.

Pricing: Free for personal use; paid plans cost between $6.75/month/user – $11.50/month/user billed annually

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Key features:

• AI scheduler. Easily and quickly find the best meeting time that works for everyone in your team.

• Focus Time. Let Clockwise shift meetings around, so you can have plenty of time for deep work.

• Slack integration. Sync your events and status (e.g. in a meeting) in your Slack workspace.

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Drawbacks:

You can only sign up using a business email account like name@brand.com.

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Best password manager

1Password

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Best for: Storing multiple passwords

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I use several tools for my work. But the problem is, I don’t have the memory capacity to remember the login credentials of each app (or where I store all those passwords). If you’re like me, then you need a password manager. 

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1Password acts as a digital vault where you can store all your usernames and passwords, along with other sensitive information like credit card details, secure notes, and software licenses. All protected by a single master password that you only need to remember.

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You no longer need to manually type in your username and password every time you access a website or app. 1Password can automatically fill them in for you with a single click or tap. 

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The best part? It works with almost every major browser. There’s also a mobile app version you can download, so you can sync your website logins across devices.

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Pricing: $3.99/month – $24.95/month; the Business plan costs $9.99/user/month

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Key features:

• Master vault. Save your login details and sensitive information in one safe place, and access them with a single master password.

• Auto fill in. 1Password will automatically fill in your credentials when you try to log in to a website or app.

• Robust security. Your passwords are protected by an end-to-end encryption. You’ll also get a secret key that only you can access in case you forget about your master password.

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Drawbacks:

If you have more than 10 team members, its per-user pricing is quite expensive. 

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Best automation tool

Boltic

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Best for: Complex workflow automation

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Have you ever wondered if there’s a way to connect all your favorite productivity apps, and automate your entire workflow? This is what Boltic is all about. 

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Boltic integrates well with Google Workspace products—Gmail, Meet, Calendar, and Sheets—and popular platforms like Slack, Monday.com, and Notion. You can also connect with various AI models, including Grok, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

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With such a rich app library, Boltic makes it easy to build your own productivity system around apps and tools you already use.

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For example, you can trigger an automated Slack notification every time a new message is sent to your Gmail inbox. Or schedule a meeting in Google Meet for every email you mark as Starred. After each call, you can automatically create a new task on Monday.com to follow up on leads.

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And you know what's crazy? The example I've mentioned is just a glimpse of what Boltic is really capable of. If you want to learn more about how Boltic can help you become even more productive, book a free demo with one of our experts.

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Pricing: Free for 90 days and 1,000 basic workflow automations; Paid plans cost between $69/month for 2 team members – $199/month for 5 team members

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Key features:

• 100+ app integrations. Connect your favorite project management tools, CRM software, communication apps, and AI assistant together.

• Workflow automation. Automate repetitive tasks and free up your time for work that actually matters.

• Data management. Sync data from various applications, so any change will be automatically updated across all systems.

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Drawbacks:

There’s no free plan. Although you can use Boltic for free during the first 3 months. It should give you enough time to decide whether Boltic is the right choice for you.

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Great Chrome extensions to boost productivity

If you’re a Chrome user, here are some free extensions that make your life a tad easier:

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• Grammarly. A writing assistant that flags typos, grammatical errors, and sentences that don’t make sense as you write your content.

• Loom. A tool for recording screens. It’s very helpful when you want to create videos explaining something to your colleagues.

• Stayfocusd. An extension for blocking distracting websites, pages, and certain content types (like videos, images, and forms).

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Choose productivity apps that work for you

Which productivity apps are the best? The answer will depend on your unique case and needs. What is best for me might not be the best for you, and vice versa.

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So, here's my final piece of advice: go ahead and test every tool in this article yourself. Take your time to really explore their functions and see how they fit into your daily routine. Ultimately, the "best" productivity apps are the ones that help you work smarter, not just harder.