Daily standups sound great in theory. In practice? They turn into calendar clutter. Half the team is still waking up, someone's in a different timezone, and by the time you're done, 15 minutes have vanished and nobody remembers what was said.
Async standups fix this. Instead of synchronizing schedules, team members drop their updates whenever it works for them. No more "sorry I'm late" or awkward silences while someone unmutes.
Here are the best tools for making the switch.
Why Async Standups Work Better
Quick context before the list:
- Timezone-friendly: Distributed teams don't need to find that impossible overlapping hour
- Respects deep work: No interrupting flow states for a meeting
- Written record: Everything's documented automatically
- Thoughtful updates: People can actually think before they type
The trade-off is you lose some spontaneous conversation. But let's be honest—most standup chatter is just "still working on the thing I mentioned yesterday."
1. Kollabe
Kollabe stands out for its AI-powered approach to async standups. Instead of manually reading through every team member's update, managers get an auto-generated summary highlighting key wins, blockers, and focus areas.
Key features:
- AI summaries generated daily, weekly, or fortnightly
- Per-group summaries for larger orgs (engineering gets engineering context, design gets design context)
- Persistent daily rooms—no meeting creation required, just show up and post
- Rich media support with image and video uploads
- Customizable questions with color coding and emoji prefixes
- Comments and reactions on updates
- Bulk export to CSV, JSON, or PDF
Free plan:
| Included | Limit |
|---|---|
| Team size | 15 users |
| AI summaries | Full access |
| Media uploads | Images + video |
| History | 7 days |
Best for: Teams who want intelligent insights without manual effort. The AI summaries are genuinely useful for managers juggling multiple projects.
2. Geekbot
Geekbot lives entirely inside Slack and Microsoft Teams. It DMs team members at scheduled times, collects responses, and posts them to a channel. Zero context switching if your team already lives in chat.
Key features:
- Native Slack and Teams integration
- Conversational AI queries ("what did Sarah work on last week?")
- Timezone-aware scheduling
- Pre-built templates
- Anonymous reporting option
- Participation analytics
Free plan:
| Included | Limit |
|---|---|
| Team size | 10 users |
| Features | Everything |
| Platforms | Slack + Teams |
Best for: Teams deeply embedded in Slack or Teams who don't want another tool in the stack.
3. Standuply
Standuply's differentiator is video and voice standups. Instead of typing, team members record short clips—up to 5 minutes. Adds a human element that text-only tools miss.
Key features:
- Video and voice standup submissions
- Text standups also supported
- Deep integrations with Jira, Trello, GitHub
- Built-in retrospective tools
- Agile workflow templates
- Acts as a virtual scrum master
Free plan:
| Included | Limit |
|---|---|
| Team size | 3 users |
| Features | Basic only |
| Trial | 30 days full access |
Best for: Teams who want face-to-face energy in async format, or need tight PM tool integration. Note the free tier is very limited—it's essentially a trial.
4. DailyBot
DailyBot goes beyond standups into full team engagement—kudos, mood tracking, icebreakers, wellness checks. Standups are one piece of a larger platform.
Key features:
- Async check-ins and standups
- Peer recognition (kudos)
- Team mood tracking over time
- Icebreakers and watercooler prompts
- Works on Slack, Teams, Discord, and Google Chat
- SOC2 Type II compliant
Free plan:
| Included | Limit |
|---|---|
| Features | Basic check-ins + kudos |
| Platforms | All supported |
Paid: $1.60/user/month (very affordable)
Best for: Teams who want culture-building features bundled with standups. Can feel like overkill if you just want simple status updates.
5. Range
Range positions itself as a complete team sync platform. Check-ins sit alongside meeting management, goal tracking, and team directories.
Key features:
- Async check-ins with mood sharing
- Daily icebreaker prompts
- Meeting agendas and notes
- Goal and OKR tracking
- Team directory
- Integrations with Asana, GitHub, Jira
Free plan:
| Included | Limit |
|---|---|
| Users | 12 |
| Teams | 2 |
| Trial | 14 days Pro |
Best for: Teams wanting standups plus goals plus meetings in one place. Private check-ins (manager-only visibility) require paid plan.
Quick Comparison
| Tool | Best For | Free Users | Standout Feature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kollabe | AI-powered insights | 15 | Auto-generated summaries |
| Geekbot | Slack/Teams natives | 10 | Conversational queries |
| Standuply | Video/voice updates | 3 | Recorded standups |
| DailyBot | Team engagement | Limited | Kudos + mood tracking |
| Range | Full team sync | 12 | Goals + meetings |
How to Choose
Feature lists aside, here's what actually matters:
Where does your team already work? If everyone's in Slack, a Slack-native bot reduces friction. If people use multiple tools, a standalone web app might be cleaner.
How big is your team? Free tiers vary wildly. Check the limits before you commit.
Do you need insights or just collection? Some tools just gather updates. Others surface patterns and blockers automatically. Managers with multiple teams benefit most from AI summaries.
What's your async maturity? Teams new to async might want simpler tools. Veteran remote teams can handle more sophisticated features.
Bottom Line
Async standups aren't about abandoning team connection—they're about respecting that connection doesn't require everyone being online simultaneously.
Any of these tools beats the calendar invite that half the team skips anyway.
Top comments (1)
We recently switched from DailyBot to Kollabe. The daily summaries are super useful. You can even add custom instructions to really tailor the summary to your liking!