As a company, do we all need to be under one roof to deliver amazing results? The answer is a big no. No waste of time commuting to work. Co-workers won’t stop by your desk for the latest office gossip.
The benefits of working remotely aren’t just for the employee. Large companies and startups benefit too, including a reduction in office expenses.
According to a survey by Airtasker, remote employees work three weeks every year more than their office counterparts. Moreover, remote workers lose 27 minutes every day as a result of distractions as compared to 37 minutes for office workers. Put all together, and the answer is right there – remote workers are more productive than their office counterparts.
But what are the best remote companies to work for? And which companies are taking remote work to a whole new level? We bring you 30 of the best places that value remote work and go the extra mile to make the best remote teams.
Ready? Let’s start.
Table of Contents
Automattic
Automattic is to WordPress what Alphabet is to Google. Yes, you might not have heard of this amazing company, but chances are, you’ve used its products or knows someone who does. Automattic is the creator of many digital products, including WordPresss.com, Tumblr, WooCommerce, Akismet, Simplenote, Longreads, Gravatar, Jetpack and more. It has also contributed to open-source projects like WordPress.org, WordCamp US, etc.
This amazing company has mastered the remote work culture. As a distributed team, you choose where you want to work from. According to Automattic, they track about 70% of projects using P2-themed WordPress.com blogs, 25% in their private chat rooms, and the remaining on slack.
MeetEdgar
From day one, Edgar has been a remote company. It is a social media management application that has workers spread across the length and breadth of the world. Through its remote work culture, the company is able to bring in talent from near and far. It also gives employees more flexibility and there’s no waste of time commuting. It’s a 16+ member team, 100% remote, and no headquarters.
RemoteTeam
ReamoteTeam is an HR tool helping remote companies to effectively manage work, tax compliance, time-off, and payroll for their teams. At RemoteTeams, we rely on Slack, Jira, Google Doc, and Zoom among others for communication and collaboration. With teams located in Turkey, the United States, Ghana, and Nigeria, we believe that productivity doesn’t depend on the location of an employee.
InVisionApp
As a digital product design platform, InVision creates products for collaboration, workflow management, and prototyping. Employees can work from anywhere. InVision provides a lot of benefits for its remote workforce, including an allowance for a home office setup and books related to their profession.
Other perks include a wellness reimbursement and a monthly stipend for coffee. The 850+ team uses Zoom, Slack, and email for communicating. Workers also use other tools for file sharing and collaborative working.
Close
Close is a CRM software that started its operations with an on-site team. Today, the company operates a 100% remote team, working from different cities around the world. There are 2 or 3 retreats for workers every year to meet and build connections. The team uses Google Docs mostly for collaborating and have meetings through video to discuss and review work.
X-Team
X-Team is a fully-remote team of developers helping companies with web development talent from around the world. Founded in 2006 in Melbourne, Australia, X-Team has created an environment for developers to work for big companies. Their unique and active lifestyle, freedom, and open culture make them a great place for any developer looking to go remote.
If you’re a company wanting to start a remote team, you can take a cue from X-Team’s success stories. From mobile app development to building large systems for organizations, it gives developers the right attention and guides them in their work. Furthermore, it helps fund developers who want to learn new skills, as well as connect them to developer-friendly working spaces around the world.
Sleeknote
Sleeknote is a SaaS platform that builds on-site engagement tools for online businesses. While it has its headquarters in Denmark, employees can work entirely remote from around the world. Those who work remote also get support for an office setup of their choice. The company also organizes one workation every year for employees to meet physically and build connections.
GitLab
With its headquarters in San Francisco, GibLab has about 800 employees spread across 60 nations globally. As an open-source DevOps platform that champions software development, GitLab has risen to become a great company through its all-remote workforce. Because of its commitment to building teams, it has a great remote work manifesto that guide the activities of its workforce.
Percona
Percona is an open-source database provider helping companies to manage and secure their database to stay relevant. Although its headquarters is in Raleigh, North Carolina, the majority (about 95%) of its workforce are remote workers spread across 29 countries worldwide and 19 states in the US. For Percona’s co-founder and CEO Peter Zaitsev, empowering workers, communication, and establishing a work/life balance are key to building and keeping the best remote talent.
Sylabs
Sylabs builds cloud-based resources for enterprises AI and other performance-based application workloads. The team at Sylabs is spread across the globe, with all employees working remotely. There are periodic face to face meetings that the company organizes with coverage for travel expenses. It also offers bonuses and stock options to its employees.
Basecamp
Basecamp is a team communication and project management software with headquarters in Chicago. In reality, we can call Basecamp’s office a “ghost town”. Why? Because everyone, I mean every employee is allowed to work from their location of choice. Today, the company has about 50 employees who work from 32 cities around the world.
Basecamp isn’t just hiring workers to work remotely. It has actually mastered the remote working industry, which is shown in its New York Times best-selling book “Remote: Office Not Required”.
Zapier
With Dropbox, Google, Sales, and Intuit as partners, Zapier helps people to automate their apps easily. The Zapier team has been working remotely since its inception, with over 200 employees spread across 20 countries. For Zapier, “Team, Tools, and Process” are the three most important ingredients in building a happy remote team.
Buffer
Buffer is a SaaS company that helps individuals and brands manage their social media brands. The company has a team of about 82 employees spread around 15 countries, and work in different time zones. Buffer builds trust in its remote team by being open, communicate, and collaborate well.
Andela
Andela is a distributed team based in Africa. It brings Africa’s talented software engineers together to build distributed teams that startups and companies would love to work with. Software engineers at Andela work from campuses located in Uganda, Kenya, and Lagos. But while they may work from some set locations, they also work as a remote team for some companies.
Over the years, the company has helped startups and big firms to build engineering solutions. Its approach to work makes it a great place for Africans who want to work for companies in different countries within and outside the continent.
Auth0
Auth0 builds authentication and digital identity tools for mobile, web, and legacy appliances. The company has three headquarters located in Seattle, London, and Argentina. However, employees can choose to work remotely from any location of their choice. Today, the company has more than 600 employees working from over 30 cities around the world.
Modern Tribe
Modern Tribe prides itself as a digital agency that builds and designs tools for Fortune 500 companies, governments, and educational institutions. It is a distributed agency that allows employees to work from wherever they prefer (100% remote). Modern Tribe offers employees the environment to grow and create a balance between work and life.
Articulate
For the last 10 years, Articulate has received over 60 awards for building some of the best e-learning apps on the internet. Employees work from their homes, coffee shops, a coworking space, or any location of their choice. The company has never had an office since founder and CEO Adam Schwartz launched back in 2002 from his one-bedroom apartment in New York City. Today, it’s still office-less and run by a 100% remote team.
ODEM
Odem is a digital educations provider helping companies, individuals, and educators to create a seamless path for growth. The company operates a 100% remote team spread around 13 cities worldwide.
Aha
Aha prides itself as the number one roadmap software that helps firms build and scale customer-oriented products. Aha was founded in 2013 and has since been an advocate of remote work. The company has over 100 workers spread across 80+ cities in six countries worldwide. There are no headquarters and employees use various collaboration and communication tools to stay productive. The team meets face-to-face twice a year to build deeper connections.
Airtable
Airtable offers products and services for firms to build databases, manage teams, plan projects, and do customer-relationship management the right way. Since it’s a tool that most remote teams love, it’s no surprise that the company allows employees to work remotely. Of course, Airtable isn’t entirely remote – some work from either the New York or San Francisco offices. Others choose to be remote – and it’s a great place for any remote worker looking to join a curious, vibrant team.
HackerOne
HackerOne is a security company that specializes in vulnerability hunting and bug bounty programs by connecting world-class cybersecurity research professionals and penetration testers to companies. The company has about 250 employees spread across its offices in London, San Francisco, Singapore, Paris, New York, and Groningen. 30 percent of employees work remotely and those who work in-house have options to work from wherever they want. Beyond this, the company has more than 600,000 ethical hackers spread around the world, finding bugs and doing cybersecurity research for Fortune 500 companies.
TeamWeek
TeamWeek is a project planning platform headquartered in Talinn, Estonia. However, the company believes that employees can be productive no matter their location. As such, TeamWeek operates a complete remote workforce that comes from different parts of the world. 10 different time zones, 10 cities, from Brazil to Kenya. The team also meets face-to-face every year.
TopTal
Toptal helps firms to scale their operations through its global network of design, finance, and engineering talent. The company operates a 100% remote team, spread across the world, from Argentina to Hungary. TopTal achieves its goals through hard work, collaboration, and communication – making sure the team is on the same mission to the top.
10Up
10Up is made up of engineers, designers, salespeople, and managers building web services for content creators. The company doesn’t have an office – the 120+ team is spread around the world. With employees spread across the US and Europe, 10UP describes its team as one that “works when and where they’re most inspired, available when our clients need them”.
Partner Centric
A WBE Certified agency, PartnerCentric is a woman-oriented agency that helps companies with performance marketing. The company operates a 100% remote team working from the US and Europe. With about 9 paid holidays for workers, a 3% match in Cell phone bills, and health, vision, and dental insurance benefits, there’s no doubt PartnerCentric is a great place to be a remote worker.
FlexJobs
You’ve probably heard of FlexJobs if you’re in the remote working circles. Yes, it’s a job board where listings of the best freelance, remote, and flexible job positions are listed. Its entire team works remotely. There’s a great remote work culture at FlexJobs and the company provides the tools and the environment for workers to excel wherever they find themselves.
Help Scout
Help Scout is an all-in-one tool for companies to acquire, support, and convert their customers. The company has an office in Boston, but the whole team can work from anywhere in the world. From London to the New York City, Help Scout’s team is spread around 75 cities across the globe. The team leverages video conferencing for collaboration and builds trust by being transparent.
Hubstaff
Hubstaff was founded in 2012 with a mission of building timesheets, location tracking, task monitoring, and other products and services for remote teams to work better. today, Hubstaff’s team comprises of 50 employees working 100% remote from 18 countries around the world. The company combines transparency, communication, freedom, and accountability to build its remote team.
DuckDuckGo
We all might think that working at a search engine company is being at a certain location or at a data center. But the situation is different with DuckDuckGo, a search engine that focuses on giving users the best search results devoid of advertising. The company’s team works fully remote, with flexible time-offs and travel opportunities.
XWP
XWP is an engineering team that provides cutting-edge WordPress solutions for technology and media firms. XWP’s team is entirely remote, with workers spread around the world. The company has a great remote work culture, focusing on results, work-life balance, and communication to keep teams focused. It’s headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and the team behind X-team and X-Five.
Envato
Envato is a digital assets and services platform with offices in the United States, Mexico, and Australia. It provides a market for buying and selling digital products, including web templates, graphics, stock photos, videos, and more.
When it comes to allowing employees to work remotely, Envato’s style is very good and different. Employees usually work from their offices spread around the world. However, they can also choose to work from anywhere, a café or a park without necessarily going to the office. Employees also have three months of work and travel around the world. Also, Envato doesn’t have strict working times. If you want to work around pick-ups, you can do so. If you have to work in 3 sprints because you need to send kids to school and back, you have the freedom to. Not wanting to work in the morning? You have it. While these perks are great for anyone looking to go remote, they are also great lessons for companies who want to start a remote team.
Further Reading:
Companies Building Tools For Remote Teams
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