Tools

AI tools, reviewed honestly

Hands-on assessments of the AI tools worth knowing about, grouped by what they do. Open-source options sit next to commercial ones, and the rating never softens because a link pays. See how the money works on our affiliate disclosure page.

21 tools reviewed

Voice & Audio

Best AI voice tools →
🟢 Solid

ElevenLabs

The realistic-voice benchmark: TTS, voice cloning, and dubbing.
⬦ Free open source

Kokoro-82M

A tiny 82M-parameter TTS model with quality above its weight.
🟢 Solid

Murf.ai

AI voiceover built for video, e-learning, and narration.
⬦ Free open source

OpenAI Whisper

The open reference model for speech-to-text.
⬦ Free open source

Piper

Fast, lightweight neural text-to-speech that runs offline.

Writing

Best AI writing tools →
🟡 Mixed

Jasper

Polished B2B marketing and content platform.
🟡 Mixed

Rytr

A cheap, lightweight writing assistant.
🟢 Solid

Writesonic

AI writing plus an SEO and GEO suite.

Coding

Best AI coding assistants →
⬦ Free open source

Aider

A git-native terminal pair-programmer that commits as it works.
⬦ Free open source

Cline

An autonomous in-editor coding agent, fully open and BYO-key.
🟢 Solid

Cursor

The AI-first code editor that set the pace.
🟢 Solid

GitHub Copilot

The default AI pair-programmer, wired into GitHub.
⬦ Free open source

Tabby

A self-hosted coding assistant for air-gapped and privacy-first teams.

Automation & Agents

🟢 Solid open source

Flowise

Visual builder for LLM apps and agents, open source with a paid cloud.
⬦ Free open source

Langflow

A visual, MIT-licensed builder for LangChain-style agent flows.
🟢 Solid

Make (Integromat)

Visual no-code automation in the cloud.
🟢 Solid

n8n

Source-available workflow automation with AI-agent nodes.

Productivity

🟢 Solid

Fireflies.ai

An AI meeting assistant that records, transcribes, and summarizes.
⬦ Free open source

Joplin

Open, end-to-end-encrypted notes and to-dos.
⬦ Free open source

Logseq

A privacy-first, local Markdown outliner for networked notes.
🟢 Solid

Taskade

An AI productivity suite: tasks, docs, mind-maps, and agents.