We’re listing 10 remote work companies that have led the way in their respective industries
Have you ever wondered how a successful company works without a physical office? Or how work gets done without seeing your employees in person?
This is how 100% remote work companies operate. They’re also called fully distributed, virtual, all-remote, and remote first. So, how does that setup work, and how do they succeed?
We'll answer these questions in this guide on the 10 best remote work companies. Some of them are fully remote, while some have a large portion of remote workers. The list covers well-known names in tech, customer experience, marketing, e-commerce, and communications.
If your organization is looking to shift into remote work, we hope this guide offers you some ideas on how to do that.
We did our research online and looked at each of these companies’ About and Career pages. The result is a summary of basic facts about each one, plus a snapshot of what it’s like to work there.
Here are the top remote work companies, listed from A to Z:
Website: automattic.com
Founded: 2005
Total employees: 1,700
Percentage remote: 100% remote workforce
Headquarters: Fully distributed (no physical HQ)
Industry: Technology
Automattic (yes, that’s with a double t) is the company behind well-known names such as WordPress, WooCommerce, Tumblr, Akismet, and Jetpack. They are the first fully remote company, having started long before the pandemic made it mainstream.
The organization has an open vacation policy, pays for a home office set up, and covers any expenses related to development and learning.
As a pioneer among remote work companies, it’s only fitting that they’re first on this list.
Website: concentrix.com
Founded: 2004
Total employees: 440,000
Percentage remote: over 30%
Headquarters: California, USA
Industry: Business services
Concentrix is a Fortune 500 company involved in customer experience and IT services and consulting. They serve 2,000 clients across 500 countries in industries like retail, financial services, and media, to name a few.
The company’s workforce, whom it calls “gamechangers,” is in 70 countries. Most of Concentrix’s remote jobs are in customer support and product management. The company offers these benefits across roles:
Their careers page has a toggle button for “work from home” positions. These are available depending on the role or department. Concentrix also offers a relocation program to select countries.
Website: dropbox.com
Founded: 2007
Total employees: ~2,000
Percentage remote: Operates under a "Virtual First" remote model
Headquarters: California, USA
Industry: File hosting and cloud services
Secure file-sharing company Dropbox has adopted a Virtual First culture since 2020. Their website clarifies that the company is not hybrid; that option may lead to issues around visibility and promotion.
Under their Virtual First set up, a segment of employees’ work hours overlaps across time zones for collaboration with teammates. Meetings are only held for discussion, debate, or decision-making (3Ds). The rest of the day is encouraged for deep work, with the company offering productivity and wellbeing toolkits as support.
Virtual First jobs are available in certain locations (US, Poland, Ireland, Japan) as stated on the Dropbox careers page. It's important to specify the locations where remote work is allowed to avoid potential tax or immigration compliance risks.
For the @McLarenF1 Team, milliseconds matter. That’s why they use top tech to communicate, create and collaborate at top speed. See for yourself: watch ‘The Race Between Races’ and learn more at https://t.co/wNK173diLw
— Dropbox (@Dropbox) October 10, 2024
Website: github.com
Founded: 2008
Total employees: ~2,000
Percentage remote: Remote-first
Headquarters: California, USA
Industry: Software development platform
GitHub is a leading developer platform that allows coders to work together on the same projects. The company hosts over 100 million developers from four million organizations worldwide.
The company is remote-first. Some offerings available to its workforce include:
The careers page on the GitHub website shows where remote jobs are available. Some examples are Australia, India, and Japan, which is one of the best destinations for remote workers.
Website: gitlab.com
Founded: 2011
Total employees: 1,800
Percentage remote: 100% remote workforce
Headquarters: None; fully distributed
Industry: Software Development (DevOps platform)
GitLab (unrelated to GitHub) is a software company that provides a single platform for developers and businesses to collaborate on writing, testing, and deploying code. The company has been fully remote since it was established in 2011. Remote jobs are available in countries where GitLab has an entity.
The company takes a handbook-first approach as the cornerstone of its all-remote culture. They use GitLab (the tool) to build their company handbook. This document is open to everyone for them to review and suggest changes on. It’s also a useful resource for organizations wishing to adopt remote working.
As a founder, if you don't have GitLab's handbook bookmarked, you are doing it wrong.
— Didier Lopes (@didier_lopes) June 20, 2023
Here's @sytses talking about decision making within consensus vs hierarchy organizations and how @gitlab takes the best of both worlds.
More info here: https://t.co/L5TBr94bJw pic.twitter.com/thT5cdhcs8
If hiring digital nomads is part of your remote work strategy, here’s how you can best support them.
Website: hubspot.com
Founded: 2006
Total employees: 8,000
Percentage remote: In-person, fully remote, or a mix
Headquarters: Massachusetts, USA
Industry: Marketing and sales software
HubSpot is a global CRM platform that helps businesses with their marketing, sales, and customer service needs. It serves 238,000 customers across 135 countries.
The company operates in 14 countries where employees have the choice to work onsite, at home (remote), or flex. Their remote workforce receives:
Some benefits that HubSpotters receive are unlimited vacation time, a month-long paid sabbatical after five years with the company, and a robust health care policy for them and their dependents.
Website: shopify.com
Founded: 2006
Total employees: ~8,000
Percentage remote: Majority remote under Digital by Design (DxD) model
Headquarters: Ottawa, Canada
Industry: E-commerce platform
What started out as a plan to sell snowboards online has now become one of the top 3 e-commerce platforms in the world. The founders couldn’t find the solutions they needed for their online store, so they came up with Shopify. The team has since helped businesses all over the world earn $1 trillion in sales.
There’s not much on their website about employee perks or benefits – that might be intentional. Shopify prefers to hire independent thinkers - those who choose mastery and craft over climbing the corporate ladder.
If you want to try hiring some remote contractors, find out what your options are. Consult a recruitment agency for remote work.
Website: slack.com
Founded: 2013
Total employees: Part of Salesforce’s ~56,000 workforce
Percentage remote: Flexible and remote-friendly roles
Headquarters: California, USA
Industry: Business communication platform
Slack is a messaging app for businesses that saw massive growth during the pandemic. It now has over 90 offices around the world and was acquired by Salesforce in 2021.
The company offers benefits under Salesforce, customized according to country. US employees can enjoy:
Slack’s careers portal states which positions are available as on-site, flexi, or remote roles.
Website: ttec.com
Founded: 1982
Total employees: 54,000
Percentage remote: Substantial remote workforce in customer experience roles
Headquarters: Colorado, USA
Industry: Business process outsourcing
TTEC is one of the world’s largest customer experience providers. A good fraction of its job vacancies is work from home, such as the remote contact center associate roles. Their website has a section on other remote roles available around the world.
Some employee benefits include:
TTEC was named one of the top remote work companies to watch in 2023 and is certified as a Great Place to Work.
We've earned the Great Place to Work Certification™ in 14 countries! (🇦🇺🇧🇷🇧🇬🇨🇦🇨🇴🇨🇷🇬🇷🇮🇪🇲🇽🇵ðŸ‡ðŸ‡µðŸ‡±ðŸ‡¬ðŸ‡§ðŸ‡ºðŸ‡¸ðŸ‡®ðŸ‡³) #GreatPlaceToWork Explore careers: https://t.co/PIcrsoOUpv. Check out the full press release: https://t.co/DczkYe5zdw pic.twitter.com/tVz9le2LwA
— TTEClife (@tteclife) March 12, 2024
Check out our guide on how to create a remote work policy as a starting point for hiring remote talent.
Website: twilio.com
Founded: 2008
Total employees: ~4,500
Percentage remote: Remote first
Headquarters: California, USA
Industry: Cloud communications
Twilio is a customer engagement platform that made waves in 2022. It announced that it was shifting to a remote-first model, a decision based on the results of a 2021 employee survey. In it, 99% of Twilions said that they didn’t want to return to the office. This was the first step toward Twilio’s shift to a remote work company.
As part of their culture called Open Work, Twilio organizes purposeful gatherings for employees to meet in person. They also continue to invest in technology to support this new way of working. While it downsized its San Francisco office, the company hires talent in specific locations all over the world.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), these industries have the highest percentage of remote workers:
These figures show that these are the best industries for remote work. More than half of the top three industries have accepted remote work as the norm.
For some examples of industry-specific roles, read our article on work from home positions that companies should consider.
Remote roles in tech are in high demand, especially software engineers, data scientists, and AI consultants. Jobs for software engineers are predicted to grow 17% from 2023 to 2033.
As we have seen, the best remote work companies on our list are trailblazers in their fields. Some of these organizations have given us a blueprint on going remote:
Use these as inspiration when making changes at your workplace. Whether that’s taking small steps towards hybrid work or going all in as fully remote.
Did we miss any remote work companies worth adding to this list? Let us know in the comments
