Final list: Top 6 Work OS in 2022

Lucia Pons

Jul 20, 2022

Have you ever closed all your tabs? If you haven’t, you should do so. You will feel great. A work OS will help you to close your tabs and focus on what's relevant!

Aren't you overwhelmed by the number of tools you need to use to work? In the era of technology, every day a new tool emerges to do a new thing we didn’t even notice we needed. Of course, these tools theoretically help us improve the way we work, boost productivity, and help us be more efficient and do our jobs better. However, these tools can also lead us into a routine full of too much information, excessive tools, and platforms that can be overwhelming and unproductive.

For example, if you are working in a marketing department, you are probably working with more than 20 different tools: the basic ones aligned with the rest of your company, which can be up to 10: email, a calendar linked to that email, data storage, a to-do-list, the holiday application, the feedback app, the instant message channel, the organization map, etc. Additionally, there are the ones for the marketing team, such as social media tracking platforms, SEO, SEM, Google Analytics, Ads, Photo Stock, Photoshop, Canva, etc.

Our digital toolkit doesn't stop growing, and it can be exhausting to manage.

This pain point is the foundation behind a work OS. The objective is to find a better way to manage this situation.

Okay, so what does a work OS do?

A work OS (Work Operating System) compiles all the applications that you are working with to make you stop losing time switching from one to another tab. Instead of accessing each platform individually, a work operating system is a hub that integrates all the information compiled on each platform into a single space, with a smooth design and easy-to-use experience. Sounds great, right?

In these types of systems, your calendar will not only be connected to your to-do list but also to the details of your project and all the documents related to it. With a work OS, you will not have to jump from one platform to another in your browser, and you will finally be able to close your tabs once and for all!

So, what are the main benefits of using a work OS? Here are some of them:

It’s across the company and aligned with your organization.
You can organize into teams to customize the platform according to your needs.
You can integrate external tools, and work within one platform.
You can use their internal applications to be more productive.
You can visualize the work of your team.
Most of them allow you to automate certain tasks.
Some of them include Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help you with managing your information.

Which are the best ones?

Well, it all depends on your needs. We don’t think we can talk about the best system. Every company should analyze its needs and choose the best option based on those specs.

Having said that, we selected the most popular work OS:

Monday.com is a platform to manage your projects, tasks, sales pipelines, and more. Its surface is like a spreadsheet, but its features make it a work OS.

You can automate tasks and formulate new ones easily. Also, set up updates, team reminders, due date alarms, and basic reporting without having to build your own charts.

It also readily integrates with other third-party applications such as Box, DocuSign, Google G-Suite, and Microsoft Office 365.

Pricing: starting price $7 user/month.

With smartsheet, you can create the productive environment needed for your company. Of course, that could be a big drain of time, but it provides you with a variety of templates.

It offers the possibility of creating customized workflows, dashboards, and built-in communication tools for messaging and commenting on tasks. It also helps with tracking progress through different views like calendar view, chart view, files view, Kanban view, map view, timeline view, etc., and also includes dashboards to analyze your data.

It integrates with a lot of tools like Dropbox, Excel, Google Calendar, Gmail, Google Drive, Slack, Trello, Zapier, Jira, Microsoft Office tools, etc., and you can also develop your own integrations through an API.

Pricing: starting price of $17/month for 2 users.

Clickup advertises itself as an all-in-one task management software.

It has a lot of features, including reminders, goal tracking, calendars, and real-time team collaboration to organize, manage, and track tasks.

The solution is highly customizable thanks to the editing features and templates provided. Its table view and multitask technology let you assign and manage multiple tasks easily.

Price: starting price of $5/month, Business plan.

Wrike positions itself as a full work management platform that combines projects, timelines, and conversations, but it works more as a task management tool.

They offer multiple integrations, but only for higher pricing plans, like customizable dashboards to design team sprints, interactive Gantt charts, templates for resource allocation, commenting, tagging images and videos, interactive reports, shareable dashboard widgets, and customizable workflows.

It integrates with applications like Salesforce, GitHub, Google, Box, Microsoft, etc.

The main pain point here is that it’s quite difficult to learn how to use it, and you don't have the opportunity to create your own templates.

Pricing: starting price $9.80/user/month.

Airtable positions itself as part spreadsheet, part database, and entirely flexible.

It is an online platform for creating and sharing relational databases. It can handle a variety of content and attachments, provide multiple views, link records between tables, and integrate with many apps, helping you to organize and share information within your team.

You can quickly build databases with the information needed for your workflows and schedules. It can also be integrated with a number of applications. It doesn't have automation, but it allows you to create form views for individual bases.

Pricing: starting price of $10/user/month.

If you are working with Office 365, you need to consider working with MS Planner and MS Project.

Project managers can use MS Planner to visualize projects using tools like Gantt charts and schedules. For the rest of the company to organize its work, MS Project is a fundamental task management tool. MS Teams is a chat and collaboration app that can help connect the two.

Pricing: $10 user/month.

Remember the importance of choosing the best option based on your needs and be open to testing all the platforms to select the best one for you and your team.

We sum up here the prices, benefits, and free trial period so you can start testing these amazing tools!