Don’t you hate when your brain conjures up ideas at the wrong moments?

Like when you’re about to go to sleep.

In the past, when this happened, you either had to forego the idea and go to sleep or get up, look for a book and pen, make a note, and ruin your sleep cycle.

But nowadays, there are apps that simplify things. You can just reach out to the phone that ‘sleeps’ next to you and use an app like OneNote to jot down your idea.

The light from the screen might ruin your sleep (hint: turn on your phone’s night mode), but hey, you will at least have the idea that will make a massive difference in your business.

What is OneNote?

OneNote is a digital notebook app on steroids. You can scribble quick notes, prepare checklists, draw, and even incorporate other items such as photos in it. It also makes it easy to collaborate with your team.

Pros of OneNote

• Take various kinds of notes, in text format, audio notes, drawings, etc.
• Add highlights and ink annotations to get important bits to stand out.
• Notebooks, sections, and pages make it easy to organize your notes and navigate.
• Share notes and collaborate with your team.

Limitations of OneNote

• You can’t buy it individually. You need a Microsoft Office 365 plan, which comes with a suite of all their apps like Skype, Word, OneDrive, and Excel.

Best suited for: Freelancers and businesses already using Microsoft Office 365.

Pricing: You can start with a free one-month trial. After that, you can go with the $6.99 per month plan or the $9.99 per month plan.

OneNote is a great tool with a lot of wonderful features. But it is mainly for people who already have a Microsoft Office 365 plan and want to combine it with the other apps. If you use something else like Google’s apps, there are better OneNote alternatives. I have listed some of them.

The Best OneNote Alternatives

1. Sticky Notes by Ukiv

Sticky Notes by Ukiv is a simple note-taking app with over 1.5 million users. It’s great for saving your ideas and making to-do lists. It’s not as advanced as OneNote, but it’s a good choice if you want something straightforward.

Pros:

• Very fast and easy to use.
• Browser extensions for Chrome and Microsoft Edge.
• Makes it fun to take notes with beautiful themes and fonts.
• Notes get backed up on the cloud automatically.

Limitations:

• Only works on browsers with the extension.
• No mobile version available.
• No collaboration/team features.

Best suited for: Solopreneurs and business owners.

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans are $9.99 a month, $99 a year, or $999 for lifetime access. Discounts for students, schools, and nonprofit organizations. But on AppSumo, you can get it for life for a one-time payment of $49.

2. NoteDex

NoteDex is a notetaking app built to function like a collection of digital notecards. You can create digital index cards and flashcards on your computer. Enjoy multiple colors, text formats (including handwriting), and images to organize your notes, projects, and workflow. It’s an ideal tool for individuals looking to stay organized on the web.

Pros:

• Use stylus to take digital notes by hand
• Easily organize different projects, plans, ideas, meetings, and lessons
• Stay organized with folders and categories
• Easily share cards to view on the web, save as images, or print to PDF

Limitations:

• Doesn’t suit most businesses. Mainly meant for one-person businesses.

Best suited for: Consultants, freelancers, and project managers.

Pricing: 7-day trial. After that, you can choose to pay $2.99 monthly, $24.99 annually, or purchase lifetime access for $49.99. Plus, if you buy on AppSumo, you can get a lifetime deal on NoteDex for just $39.

3. Ideanote

Ideanote is an idea-generation software for businesses. It helps customers, team members, partners, and guests brainstorm ideas and collaborate. It ensures that your company is only working on plausible features that your customers want.

Pros:

• Contains 100+ templates that help create the right idea-collection campaigns for product improvement, boosting productivity, marketing, sales, etc.
• Helps capture the right ideas.
• Collaboration features help you filter the best ideas and set timelines.
• Helps you track ideas, too.

Limitations:

• Doesn’t suit most businesses. Mainly meant for online businesses such as SaaS companies.

Best suited for: SaaS companies.

Pricing: 7-day free trial. Plans range from $249 per month to $2,899 per month.

4. Evernote

Evernote is one of my favorite note-taking apps. It works on multiple devices, you can take many types of notes, and it has several other features.

Pros:

• You can record audio, take notes, prepare checklists, save pages on the web, and more.
• Automatically saves your notes to the web.
• Access them from multiple devices via the web version and the app even when you’re offline.
• Easily search for your notes.

Limitations:

• Notes take time to sync and appear on the other apps.

Best suited for: Individuals to large businesses.

Pricing: Free plan available. 14-day free trial for paid plans. Paid plans are $7.99 per month and $14.99 per user/month.

5. Simplenote

As the name suggests, Simplenote is a simple note-taking tool. It’s free and available on multiple devices.

Pros:

• Completely free to use.
• You can use the web version or an app. It has apps for Android, iPhone, iPad, MacBook, Linux, and Windows operating systems.
• Notes get backed, synced, and shared across all devices.
• Tag notes to make them easy to find.
• Team members can access shared notes.

Limitations:

• Too simple
• Dropbox sync no longer supported.

Best suited for: Freelancers.

Pricing: Free.

6. Nimbus Note

Nimbus Note is a comprehensive platform for organizing notes, documents, and projects from multiple sources into a collaborative digital environment.

Pros:

• Easily manage all workspaces, team members, and notes in a nest structure
• Scan documents with your phone and add them straight to your notes
• Embedded widgets and websites like Google Maps, YouTube, Google Docs, and Google Drive
• Whitelabel capabilities when you’re on a Team plan

Limitations:

• Limited calculation options for tables
• The lack of backlinks (this feature is currently in the roadmap)

Best suited for: Project managers, marketers, and creative teams looking to organize and collaborate on all their documents and info.

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans are $3.99 per month for personal use and $6 per user per month.

7. Encryptic

As the name suggests, Encryptic is a note-taking app with a focus on encryption. The security is so high on this app that only you will know what you type.

Pros:

• The app runs directly on the browser. Your writings are stored in the browser’s cache using encryption. It never leaves your device.
• The markdown formatting syntax makes it easy to take notes.
• You can create to-do lists with progress bars to see how far you are from completing goals.

Limitations:

• Too simple.

Best suited for: Freelancers and solopreneurs.

Pricing: Free.

8. Google Keep

Google Keep is a note-taking tool from Google. You can use it to take a variety of notes on multiple devices. It also integrates with Google docs.

Pros:

• An excellent app for taking notes. You can create checklists, add notes to images, color-code notes, and do so much more.
• Helps you get the most out of Google docs, Drive, and other Google tools.
• You can also set reminders and invite collaborators. It makes it easy for multiple people to work on a project.

Limitations:

• It’s not too simple, but it isn’t as sophisticated as Evernote or OneNote.
• Formatting needs improvement.

Best suited for: Google Docs and Drive users.

Pricing: Free to $10 per user per month. You don’t pay for it separately. You pay for it when you subscribe to Google Workspace.

9. Roam Research 

Roam Research is an excellent note-taking tool, but it has many more purposes. For example, you can use it as a writing tool to write pages of text. It’s good for writing and researching as a team because of its robust collaboration features.

Pros:

• You can either use it as a note-taking tool or a complete writing tool.
• You can use it for various other things like tracking goals, as a personal CRM, and for organizing your research.
• Create several notes and connect them using “networked thought.”
• Useful drag-and-drop features.

Limitations:

• There’s no mobile app.
• Requires a bit of a learning curve to get the most out of it.

Best suited for: Individuals to small teams.

Pricing: 31-day free trial. Plans are $13.75 a month (billed annually) and $8.333 a month ($500; five-year commitment). Discounts for researchers, those under 22, and others.

10. Notion

Notion is more than just a note-taking app. It’s an all-in-one workspace made for teams. Individual teams or the entire company can work on projects together on it. It can actually replace popular project management tools like Trello.

Pros:

• You can use it to execute tasks such as product visualization, running design projects, planning your marketing and sales, etc.
• A team wiki helps organize knowledge into easy to find answers.
• Kanban-style boards help plan and manage projects.
• Create notes and docs and share them with your team.

Limitations:

• The mobile version needs an upgrade.
• Because of the many features, there’s a learning curve to understanding and getting the most out of the software.

Best suited for: Small businesses to enterprises.

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans are $4 and $8 per month, billed annually. Free for first responders and others fighting COVID-19. Custom enterprise plan available.

11. Bear

Bear is the note-taking app for writers, as you can take simple notes and write detailed essays with it. It comes with beautiful themes, typography, and a dark mode that make writing a pleasurable experience.

Pros:

• Has extensions for Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera and apps for iPhone and iPad, making it accessible on multiple devices.
• You can organize notes with hashtags and even link them to each other.
• Focus mode and advanced markup options make it easy to write.
• You can also check word count, read time, paragraphs, and characters if you want to meet a writing goal.
• Very affordable.

Limitations:

• There’s no app for Android
• No collaboration/team features.

Best suited for: Writers and bloggers.

Pricing: Free plan available. Free trial. Paid plans are $1.49 a month and $14.99 a year.

12. Notes

Notes is a simple note-taking app from Apple. There’s nothing special about it. But if you are looking for a OneNote alternative just for taking notes, it will suit you.

Pros:

• Create simple notes and format them with checklists, titles, tables, etc.
• Add photos, maps, and other elements to illustrate your points.
• Collaborate with others.
• All notes get backed up into iCloud.

Limitations:

• Only available for MacOS and iOS users.
• Very simple.

Best suited for: Apple users.

Pricing: Free.

13. WorkFlowy 

WorkFlowy is an app for taking notes, organizing your workflow, and planning simple projects. You can use it on multiple platforms.

Pros:

• Create notes and tag them into groups.
• Create lists and place them in other lists to create a hierarchy.
• Apps for desktop, iOS, and Android.
• Use templates to create complex structures.

Limitations:

• Mobile versions’ user interfaces need upgrades.
• Features are limited.

Best suited for: Small businesses.

Pricing: 15-day free trial. Plans are $5 a month or $49 a year.

14. Notejoy

Notejoy is the note-taking app for teams. 40,000+ professionals around the world use it. It also integrates with many apps and works on several devices. These options make it very convenient to use.

Pros:

• The focus view helps with distraction-free writing.
• Create checklists with action items.
• Team members can offer feedback on each other’s notes.
• Easily organize content to make stuff easy to find. If you still don’t locate something, you can use the search option.

Limitations:

• Requires a learning curve. It can take some work for your entire team to understand how to use it.

Best suited for: Businesses with small teams.

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans are $4, $8, and $12 a month, billed annually.

Which OneNote alternative do you like most?

These are the 12 best OneNote alternatives. They range from extremely simple ones that just let you jot down your ideas to sophisticated apps that let you write essays, plan projects, and more.

So, think about your and your team’s needs and decide which one will suit you best. All of the above apps offer either free trials or free plans. Some are even completely free.

You might also want to give the pen and paper option a go. I use it and am completely happy with it. I reserve apps for when I am on the go and don’t have access to a book. I also use them to set reminders.

If you are on the lookout for note-taking apps and other productivity tools, make sure you check out the AppSumo store. It regularly has lifetime deals that provide access to top-quality tools for a fraction of the price.

We wrote this article (and made a small offering to the taco gods) to help you answer that question. We’ve compiled 16 of the best graphic design software tools available today, so you can compare their features and prices to determine what’s best for you.

Get cozy in your favorite blog reading chair, because we’re revealing the best graphic design software tools in 2023.

Free graphic design software

1. Drawtify

Drawtify is an online graphic editor for creating vector graphics, logos, infographics, and animations. The editor is easy-to-use, and you also get access to icons, shapes, and stock photos that simplify things further.

Key features

• Online SVG creator helps you create vector graphics
• Online animation maker enables you to create attractive animations
• Create a variety of other graphics like infographics, logos, posters, and social media images
• Modify templates to create branded visuals quickly

Limitations

• Basic vector graphics editor compared to tools like Adobe Illustrator or Vectornator

Pricing 

Drawtify has two payment plans.

• Free: $0 per month
• Monthly: $14.99 per month or $99 per year, but you can get it on AppSumo for life for a one-time payment of just $79.90

There’s no free trial, but you can test it with the free plan.

2. Canva

You have probably already heard of Canva. It is a popular online graphic design tool known and used by seasoned designers and amateurs alike. It has drag-and-drop functionality, which makes it easy to learn and use.

Key features

• Very generous free plan with which you can create any type of graphic
• Directly share your creations on social media or schedule them
• Quickly create designs using the 610,000+ templates and 100+ million stock photos, videos, graphics, and audio

Limitations

• Not as advanced as graphic design software like Photoshop

Pricing

Canva has two paid options:

• Pro: $12.99 per month or $119.99 per year
• Enterprise: $30 per month per person

There’s no free trial, but you can take it for a spin with the free plan. You might also want to check out our Canva review and Canva alternatives.

3. Vectornator

Vectornator is an illustration and design app optimized explicitly for iPads and Macs (available on iOS 13, iPadOS 13, and macOS Big Sur and later) to deliver a unique and engaging experience. It’s for artists who love to make vector art, drawings, typography, UI design, and more.

Key features

• Prototype and play with new ideas in a notebook and storyboard-like format
• Export designs to other software
• Scales beautifully to 5K iMac displays and supports the M1 Mac lineup
• Draw custom illustrations and designs from scratch

Limitations

• Only works on Apple devices

Pricing

It is entirely free to use. There are no paid plans.

4. Mega Creator

Mega Creator is an online drag-and-drop editor with built-in graphic assets, like photos, illustrations, icons, and fonts. It also has a large collection of pre-designed social media templates for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and many more.

Key features

• Online in-browser tool
• Free fonts collection
• Customizable social media templates
• Built-in graphic assets

Limitations

• To use built-in graphic assets in your designs, you need to get a paid subscription

Pricing: Mega Creator is free to use, but you need to pay $29/month or $259/year fees for photos, illustrations, and icons

5. VistaCreate

VistaCreate‘s Animation Maker suite is what sets it apart from most cloud-based graphic design software. It gives users animated templates and objects to bring more engaging images and videos to life. You can also create static images with it.

Key features

• Comes with a large template and image library, including illustrations
• Animated templates include formats for vertical and square video, Facebook and Instagram stories, and Facebook cover videos
• Plenty of options for various web content formats and platforms
• Create using the web version or with apps for Apple and Android

Limitations

• No downloadable version for desktops
• Very similar to Canva, but doesn’t have as many templates

Pricing

VistaCreate has two payment plans

• Starter: $0 per month
• Pro: $13 per month or $120 per year

There’s no trial, but you can test it with the free plan.

6. Lunacy

Lunacy is a powerful graphic design tool. It has several AI features that speed up your design workflow and is available in 21 languages. Lunacy also has an intuitive drag-and-drop editor that even amateur designers will enjoy.

Key features

• Download software for macOS, Windows, and Linux
• Completely free to use
• AI tools such as Image upscaler, Background remover, Avatar generator, and Text generator help save time
• Add up to 100 teammates

Limitations

• To use the designs on their websites, users on the free plan must credit the platform by linking to Lunacy

Pricing

Lunacy is free to use, but you need to pay extra for icons, illustrations, music, and photos.

7. Stencil

Another popular online graphic design tool, Stencil, enables fast graphic creation and photo editing for people on the go. Like Canva, Stencil is a drag-and-drop tool that lets you create stylish designs fast.

If you’re deciding between Stencil and Canva, we wrote a post to help you make up your mind.

Key features

• Create graphics on the website or use Stencil’s plugin to edit photos without leaving your WordPress website
• Access millions of photos, icons, templates, and fonts to beautify your images
• Share your images to social media directly or use the Buffer integration to schedule at the best times

Limitations

• Basic editor withfewer templates than Canva and VistaCreate

Pricing

Stencil has three pricing options:

• Free: $0 per month
• Pro: $15 per month or $108 per year
• Unlimited: $20 per month or $144 per year

There’s no trial available, but you can test it with the free plan.

8. Fotor

This online photo editor and design software gives you tools and templates to achieve professional designs. Fotor lets you touch up images more than Stencil or Canva. It’s good for designers who want a photo editor.

Key features

• Clean up or tweak photos through light exposure and photo reshaping
• Use templates to design collages, social media posts, and logos
• Includes resizing and other graphic/photo editing effects
• Use background remover to remove backgrounds quickly

Limitations

• Software can slow down your computer

Pricing

Fotor has three pricing options:

• Basic: $0 per month
• Pro: $8.99 per month or $39.99 per year
• Pro+: $19.99 per month or $89.99 per year

It doesn’t offer a trial, but you can test it with the free plan.

9. Figma

Unlike other graphic design software, Figma shines with its collaboration capabilities. You can add as many team members as you want as free “viewers” to get stakeholder feedback via comments on your design.

Sketch (more on that below) and Figma share some plugins and integrations, so you can often find that additional functionality—or even build it yourself—if you need it.

Key features

• Includes features like auto layout, asset libraries, and shareable prototyping
• Auto-save automatically saves your progress
• Has a separate tool called FigmaJam for whiteboarding
• Create a design system for your entire team

Limitations

• Requires a bit of a learning curve to get the most out of it
• Monthly payment option unavailable for the Organization plan

Pricing

Figma has three plans:

• Starter: $0 per month
• Professional: $15 per month or $144 per year
• Organization: $540 per year

Figma doesn’t offer a trial, but you can test it with the free plan.

10. AppyPie Design

AppyPie Design is a unique design platform that lets everyone design, irrespective of their design experience levels. The platform enables you to design stunning banners, cards, logos, posters, edit photos, and more for free.

Key features

• Supports team collaboration on projects
• Quickly whip up NFTs with the NFT templates
• Use NFT generator to convert images to NFTs

Limitations

• Very limited free plan free plan

Pricing

AppyPie Design has two plans:

• Free: $0 per month
• Design Pro: $6 per month or $48 per year

You can try it with the free plan, as there’s no free trial for the paid version.

11. Gravit Designer

Gravit Designer is a very accessible graphic design software. You can use it online, on your Mac or Windows, and more. It also offers a simple drag-and-drop graphic design tool suite.

Key features

• Apply multiple fills, textures, gradients, effects, borders, and blending modes to any object
• Use the pen tool to draw original graphics
•  Includes borders and other shaping functions, as well as image upload and editing tools

Limitations

• Not as advanced as Illustrator or Photoshop

Pricing

Gravit Designer has two payment options:

• Free: $0 per month
• PRO: $99 per year

There’s no free trial, but you can test it with the free version.

Paid graphic design software

12. Mojomox

Let’s niche down a bit. If you’re looking for a graphic design tool that’s built specifically for creating logos, then Mojomax may be the tool for you. Mojomax combines a variety of font styles with plug-and-play designs that enable you to design professional logos quickly. It’s ideal for consultants, solopreneurs, and web designers.

Key features

• Simple drag-and-drop logo builder
• Automatically generate a brand kit based on your chosen colors and fonts
• Try a variety of fonts and templated graphics to find the right logo for your business
• Create multiple versions of logos to present options to your team or client

Limitations

Mojomax is a focused design tool that allows you to quickly create logos. It will not be an ideal selection for someone shopping for a more broadly applied design tool.

Pricing

Mojomax has four payment plans.

• Entrepreneur: $10 per month
• Agency: $399 per month
• Growth: $1,799 per month
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

For a limited time, you can get a lifetime deal on Mojomax $79 when you purchase through AppSumo.

13. Adobe Illustrator

The true Adobe graphic design tool, Illustrator, provides comprehensive tools for creating captivating visuals for your brand. Adobe Illustrator lets you design freehand, making your art come alive on the screen.

Key features

• Use the pen tool to draw from point to point or mold shapes together
• Draw free hand on a tablet
• Works well with other Adobe tools like Photoshop
• Choose multiple fonts from the library or create your own

Limitations

• Requires a powerful device for the heavy-duty software to function smoothly
• Monthly fee can get expensive, especially if you subscribe to Creative Cloud

Pricing

Illustrator has two payment options:

• Illustrator only: $20.99 per month
• Creative Cloud: $54.99 per month

You can test it out with the 7-day trial. Feel free to check out the best free and paid Illustrator alternatives for more affordable options.

14. Adobe Photoshop

Another member of the Adobe suite, Adobe Photoshop, provides robust photo and graphic editing. This tool requires a higher learning curve than some of the drag-and-drop tools mentioned above. But it also offers a much more comprehensive range of functions and control.

Key features

• Eyedropper helps you figure out the colors in your images
• Use a wide variety of brushes to create beautiful designs
• Apply advanced photo effects such as filters, blur, and color effects to get your photos to stand out
• Software available for Mac and Windows and Apps available for iOS and Android

Limitations

• Requires an immense learning curve
• Needs high-end devices to function smoothly

Pricing

Adobe Photoshop has two payment options:

• Photoshop only: $20.99 per month
• Creative Cloud: $54.99 per month

You can test it with the 7-day trial. Here’s our list of the best alternatives to Photoshop you can find in the market.

15. Procreate

Procreate is an Illustrator alternative that many users prefer because it has a one-time fee structure instead of a monthly subscription. It has many of the features that Illustrator offers and is probably the best tool for drawing.

Key features

• Includes an enormous brush library to execute various types of strokes. You can also create your own brushes and even sell them
• A very intuitive app with finger gestures to speed up your workflow
• Use powerful features such as StreamLine, ColorDrop, QuickShape, and Drawing Assist
• Create animations with your illustrations

Limitations

• Only works on iPad and iPhone
• No free trial or plan

Pricing

Procreate has a one-time fee of $9.99. There’s no free plan or trial.

16. Affinity Designer

Another top graphic design tool, Affinity, was created for professional designers, putting it in the same camp as Adobe products when it comes to cost and features. While not exclusively a Mac product, Affinity was designed to cater to Mac products. It recently released a version for Windows users as well.

Key features

• Use toolbar to perform everything from image cropping and resizing to text overlay
• Offers a selection of blend modes like normal, screen, divide, multiple, color burn, and overlay that help enhance colors and tones
• Offers users the option to switch from vector to raster workspaces and vice versa

Limitations

• No app for Android devices
• No option for easily creating charts and graphs

Pricing

You can buy the software for Windows or Mac for $54.99, while the iPad version costs $21.99. There’s also a 30-day trial.

17. Sketch

Sketch is a graphic design tool exclusively for Mac users. It’s one of the best graphic design software tools out there, mainly preferred by UX and UI experts. Designers use Sketch to create wireframes and clickable product prototypes.

Key features

• Create a suable mock up model before designing the application or website
• Perform user tests on the clickable designs
• Collaborative workspace makes it easy for designers and developers to work together

(If you’re interested in prototypes, you may also consider learning about Adobe XD.)

Limitations

• No software for Windows and no app for Android

Pricing

Sketch has two pricing options:

• Standard: $9 per editor per month or $99 per editor per year
• Pricing available on contact

There’s also a 30-day free trial.

FAQs about graphic design software

What software do most graphic designers use?

Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop are the graphic design software most professional designers use. Procreate is popular among illustrators who use the iPad.

Which graphic design software is best for beginners?

Canva is the best graphic design software for beginners.

Which mobile app is best for graphic design?

Photoshop and Procreate are the best graphic design mobile apps.

Can I learn graphic design by myself?

Yes, you can. There are a lot of good free and paid video courses that can help you master graphic design and sophisticated software. If you combine this information with a lot of practice, you can get good at graphic design by yourself.

What software is best for logo design?

Photoshop is the best software for creating custom logos.

How to pick the best graphic design software

What is the best graphic design software for your business? Maybe a better question: What does your heart (and wallet) tell you?

Choosing the best graphic design software ultimately comes down to your priorities. Do you prefer speed or creative control? Are you more inclined to save a few bucks or invest in top-of-the-line design tools? Are you team Edward or Jacob? (Okay, okay, I’ll send that joke back to 2008.)

If you’re looking for options that make the most financial sense, you might want to check out the AppSumo store.

We’ve compiled a list of powerful online tools to help you level up your social media presence. We’re talking expert reporting, publishing, management, automation, audience insights, graphic design, and more.

Free vs. freemium (kind of free)

You will find that most social media management tools are freemium and not free. This is where they have a free plan you can use indefinitely. But if you require extra features or need to increase the limits, you must upgrade. Most free plans will suit solopreneurs who don’t have a team to manage their social media presence.

It’s hard to find a good social media management tool that is entirely free as most tools are cloud-based and require high data bandwidth. The paid plans help fund the free plan. Hence why most tools in this post follow a freemium model.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s check out some of the best social media management tools you must not miss.

Top free social media management tools compared

1. Vista Social

• Supports a wide array of networks including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google My Business, letting you manage multiple profiles from one central hub
• Pioneering the future of social media management with advanced AI-powered features
• A versatile tool with comprehensive network integrations across various platforms, enhancing efficiency and adaptability
• Renowned for its exceptional customer support, ready to assist you at any moment
• Provides in-depth analytics, helping you understand your audience and tailor your content accordingly
• Encourages collaboration with a user-friendly interface that’s perfect for team use

• Pro: $15/month
• Pro+: $25/month

2. Postly

Postly is a freemium social media management platform that lets you post to Instagram business accounts, Facebook groups and pages, LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok. It’s got a lot of useful features that help you schedule text, image, and video posts.

Unique features

• Lets you schedule to Reddit, YouTube, and Telegram too
• AI Writer and hashtag generator speed up writing captions and descriptions
• Bulk upload saves time while uploading posts
• Telegram bot helps automate your Telegram marketing

Postly’s free plan

The free plan has almost all the features of the paid plans (the only one missing is recurring posts), but it has usage limits. On the free plan, you only get one workspace, can connect 10 social accounts, and schedule only 20 posts.

The paid plans

When you subscribe to the paid plans, you get access to all features, and you can publish unlimited posts. Depending on the plan, you can add more social accounts and create more workspaces.

Postly offers five payment plans:

• Solo: $9 per month or $84 per year
• Basic: $19 per month or $180 per year
• Starter: $29 per month or $276 per year
• Growth: $99 per month or $948 per year
• Agency: $499 per month or $4,788 per year

But you can get it for life on AppSumo for a one-time payment of just $69.

3. SleekBio

SleekBio is another freemium social media tool. It helps you create a free “link in bio” page for your social media accounts. This page makes it easy to introduce yourself and help people find your website and other social media accounts.

Unique features

• Free to use with a very affordable paid plan
• Add videos, products, blog posts, and links
• Show link previews that entice people to click
• Drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to create your “link in bio” page
• Use analytics to improve design and clicks

SleekBio’s free plan

On the free plan, you can add a maximum of five blocks, and you have access to basic analytics. Unfortunately, you can’t get rid of SleekBio’s prominent branding.

The paid plan

On the Lifetime plan, you can add up to 50 blocks, and the analytics is more advanced. The branding is also reduced.

SleekBio has three paid plans:

• Tier 1: $19 for life
• Tier 2: $29 for life
• Tier 3: $49 for life

4. RADAAR

RADAAR is the perfect social media management platform for small and mid-sized businesses that want to save time while managing multiple profiles.

With features like the scheduler, social media inbox, monitoring & analytics, password manager, and task manager–plus support of all major platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn–RADAAR will supercharge your business’s digital presence by taking care of every step in a single user-friendly dashboard.

Unique features

• Social media analytics to track performance
• Create carousel posts within RADAAAR
• Monitor keywords and competitors to improve social strategy
• Built-in link shortener to easily share articles and videos
• Pull all your social media messages into one dashboard to speed up response times

RADAAR’s free plan

RADAAR does not come with a free version. However, through AppSumo, they are offering a lifetime deal. Instead of paying for a monthly subscription, you can purchase RADAAR today for just $59.

The paid plans 

Once the lifetime Appsumo deal is over, you can choose from three monthly subscription plans:

• Basic: $7.99 (billed annually)
• Premium: $15.99 (billed annually)
• Professional: $47.99 (billed annually)

5. Metricool

How about a data-first approach to social media marketing? We’ve got the tool for you. Metricool is a social media scheduling and marketing tool that relies heavily on data from your own channels.

Complete with easy-to-use analytics tools and custom reports, you can test and invest in the social channels, post types, and trends that work best for your business. It’s a great tool for content creators, marketers, agencies, and solo entrepreneurs trying to get the most out of social media.

Unique features

• Generate custom social media performance reports
• Plan and assess organic and paid social performance in one tool
• Enjoy real-time analytics across all your favorite social channels
• Monitor competitors’ channels and strategies
• Launch and monitor Google Ads and Facebook Ads

Metricool’s free plan

Metricool offers a free plan that’s great for solopreneurs and freelancers. It includes tools for managing a single account across most social networks, including advertising channels. However, the free version does not include a lot of analytics and reporting tools.

Metricool’s paid plans

After the free version, you can choose from five monthly paid subscription plans. Each number in the title corresponds to the number of brands you can manage in that tier. (For example, “Pro 5” lets you manage five brands.)

• Pro 5: $12 per month (paid annually)
• Pro 10: $19 per month (paid annually)
• Pro 15: $35 per month (paid annually)
• Pro 25: $55 per month (paid annually)
• Enterprise: $119 per month (paid annually)

But you can get it for life on AppSumo for a one-time payment of just $129.

6. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is probably the most popular social media management platform. It’s been around for a long while and has a decent free plan. It integrates with many social networks to allow you to schedule posts.

Unique features

• Proofpoint feature screens and analyzes posts to ensure compliance with your brand and social media policies
• Streams feature makes it easy to monitor your accounts and engage with followers and prospects
• Manage paid ads along with organic posts

Hootsuite’s free plan

On the free plan, you can only connect to two social media accounts and schedule five posts at a time.

The paid plans

To connect more social media accounts, schedule more posts at a time, and run ads, you need a paid plan.

Hootsuite has four paid plans:

• Professional: $49 per month, billed annually
• Team: $129 per month, billed annually
• Business: $739 per month, billed annually
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Hootsuite also offers a 30-day free trial with the paid plans.

7. Buffer

Buffer is another popular social media management software that’s been around for a long while. Users love its simple interface. Also, it was the first software to introduce the slots feature, where you set time slots beforehand and add posts to them.

Unique features

• Pablo tool makes it easy to create visuals that you can later schedule with Buffer
• Calendar and scheduling features make it easy to plan and manage your social media presence
• Offers detailed analytics to improve your social media marketing

Buffer’s free plan

You can connect up to three social channels with the free plan and schedule 10 posts per channel. This is a nice free plan, but it’s missing some features of the paid plans.

The paid plan

To connect more accounts, and schedule 2,000 posts per channel, you need to subscribe to a paid plan. You also get access to extra features such as individual post analytics, Instagram hashtag manager, audience demogaphics, Shopify performance, shop grid, and boosted post insights with the paid plans.

Buffer has three paid plans:

• Essentials: $6 per month per social channel
• Team: $12 per month per social channel
• Agency: $120 per month for 10 channels

8. Beatflyer

Beatflyer helps you make video posts for social networks. You can use animations and effects to make your videos stand out. It is a paid tool with a free plan that lets you create unlimited videos.

Unique features

• Use 2 million stock photos to quickly create videos from scratch or use the templates. You can also import videos made with Figma and Photoshop
• Add music from Beatflyer’s library or the Apple Music catalogue and sync it with the video
• Use 50+ effects to get your videos to stand out

Beatflyer’s free plan

The free plan is pretty generous as you can create unlimited (watermarked) videos. It includes all the other features in the paid plan, except that you can’t save projects to the cloud.

The paid plans

The biggest benefit of subscribing to the paid plans is that there’s no watermark, and if you subscribe to Pro Monthly, you can also save projects to the cloud.

Beatflyer offers two paid plans:

• Day Pass: $3 per day
• Pro Monthly: $10 per month—but you can get it on AppSumo for life for a one-time payment of just $49.

9. SocialBee

SocialBee is a social media management tool that allows you to easily schedule your posts in a calendar view and customize them for each social media platform (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Google My Business, and TikTok).

Unique features

• Use category-based bulk scheduling to create categories for different post types such as blog posts, and case studies and schedule mutiple posts to each category at once
• Make the most of each post by reusing it with the post recycle feature
• Has its own URL shortener and also integrates with shorteners like Butly, Rebrandly, and JotURL

SocialBee’s free plan

SocialBee doesn’t exactly have a free plan. It normally offers a 14-day trial only. But we included it in this list as you get a 30-day trial when you sign up with this special link for Sumolings. During this trial period, you can check out all the features. You also get a 20% discount for two months when you subscribe to a paid plan.

The paid plans

SocialBee has seven paid plans:

• Bootstrap: $19 per month or $189.6 per year
• Accelerate: $39 per month or $390 per year
• Pro: $79 per month or $789.6 per year
• Pro25: $79 per month or $789.6 per year
• Pro50: $149 per month or $1489.2 per year
• Pro100: $279 per month or $2790 per year
• Pro150: $379 per month or $3789.6 per year

10. Agorapulse

Source: Agorapulse

If you’re looking for one tool to easily schedule, engage, and report on social media for all your profiles, Agorapulse is the perfect solution. Agorapulse boasts powerful features to make social media management that much easier.

Unique features

• Manage messages, comments, and reviews from all your social media pages in one place
• Use social listening to discover what people say about your brand and your competitors
• Detailed analytics help measure the performance of your social media accounts and your teams

Agorapulse’s free plan

Agorapule has a limited free plan; it lacks many of the features that the paid plans have. The free plan can only have one user, three social media profiles. and 10 scheduled posts at a time.

The paid plans

With Agorapulse’s paid plans, you can publish unlimited posts, add more users, and connect more social media profiles. The number of users you can add and the number of social media profiles you can connect depends on the plan. You also get many other features when you subscribe to the paid plans.

Agorapulse has three paid options:

• Pro: $99 per month or $948 per year
• Premium: $249 per month or $2,388 per year
• Enterprise: Custom

11. Later

Source: Later

Ready to spruce up your Instagram feed? Later is a tool that helps you customize your feed to create an intentional, powerful presence. It’s a freemium tool with a good free plan that lets you schedule to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

Unique features

• Visual Instagram planner that helps you design an aesthetic Instagram feed
• Publish regular feed posts, stories, and carousel posts on Instagram
• Create a free “link in bio” page
• Save hashtags and captions and use them when scheduling posts

Later’s free plan

You can connect one profile per social channel to the free plan and schedule 10 posts at a time for each social network. But it lacks several features that the paid plans have.

The paid plans

You can schedule more posts with the paid plans, and with some of the bigger paid plans, you can also connect more social media profiles and pages. Along with this, you get many more features like best time to post, hashtag suggestions, and Instagram conversations.

Later has three paid options:

• Starter: $15 per month or $150 per year
• Growth: $40 per month or $399.96 per year
• Advanced: $80 per month or $800 per year

12. Planoly

Source: Planoly

Alternatively to Later, you can use Planoly to plan and schedule your Instagram posts. You can also schedule to Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. It even has some features to help you monetize your services and content.

Unique features

• Built-in planner helps you plan your content calendar and workflow
• Sellit allows you to sell digital products and services, create a tip jar, connect to Stripe, and accept payments directly
• StoriesEdit helps you create beautiful content for your social media accounts

Planoly’s free plan

On the free plan, you can connect to either one Instagram or one Pinterest account, and you can only make 30 uploads per month per profile.

The paid plans

To connect both Instagram and Pinterest accounts and upload more posts, you need to subscribe to a paid plan.

Planoly has three paid plans:

• Starter: $13 per month or $135 per year
• Growth: $23 per month or $234 per year
• Professional: $43 per month or $438 per year

13. SocialOomph

Source: SocialOomph

SocialOoomph is a freemium tool that lets you schedule posts to your favorite social channel. Although its user interface isn’t the best, it’s got a good free plan and affordable paid plans.

Unique features

• Connect RSS feeds and outsource posts to publish
• Post Flood Control feature prevents you from posting too frequently
• Self-destructing posts feature prevents outdated posts from being republished

SocialOomph’s free plan

The free version gives you one profile, unlimited scheduled posts, and up to three posts per hour. However, you only get access to basic posting features.

The paid plans

To connect more social media profiles, post more times in an hour, and get access to all features, you need to subscribe to a paid plan.

SocialOomph has three payment options:

• Advanced Suite: $15 per month or $162 per year
• Professional Suite: $25 per month or $270 per year
• Business Suite: $55 per month or $594 per year

Frequently asked questions (FAQs) about social media management tools

What are the best free social media management tools?

Some of the best free social media management tools are Buffer, Hootsuite, Agorapulse, Later, and SocialOomph. They are not completely free, but they offer a free plan.

Is there a free social media manager?

Some social media management tools are free, with no paid plans, but they usually aren’t good enough. However, there are a lot of tools that offer free plans that suit solopreneurs.

How can I manage all my social media in one place?

You can manage all your social media in one place by using a tool like Agorapulse or Later that integrates with multiple social networks. You can also use project management tools to organize your content plan.

Starting a business is likely the last thing on most people’s minds now. If you’re among the few who want to start one now, most people will think you’re nuts. But fortunately, business in many niches will thrive in a recession and continue to grow when conditions return to normal.

We’re sharing some of the best recession-proof business ideas to ensure you are successful in the challenging years ahead.

1. SaaS companies

Businesses are always looking to automate more tasks—but even more so during a recession when they’ve cut funding for new hires. Automation software makes it easier to completely or partially execute a job.

Consider email marketing, for example. In the past, when a lead signed up on a contact form, a salesperson had to follow up manually. You had to pay a full-time wage to this employee. But now with affordable email service providers like SendFox (available for a one-time fee) or Mailchimp (available for a subscription fee) this process can be automated.

So, think about what you can do to improve the lives of your potential customers and create a product they want. If you can immediately solve a big pain point during this current recession, your business will see quick growth.

Take Zoom, for instance. Its revenue increased by 169% to $328.2 million in the first quarter of 2020. This was because, during the lockdown, businesses needed a tool to communicate remotely with their employees and customers, and Zoom was the ideal solution.

Pros and cons of starting a SaaS company

Pros

• High-profit margins as it is a web-based solution
• Employees can work remotely, as it isn’t always necessary to interact in person
• Highly scalable as the product is digital

Cons

• Takes time to be profitable
• Requires technical skills such as coding and design
• Need to constantly come up with new features to stay ahead of the competition

How to launch a successful SaaS company

1. Do your research

The key to launching a successful SaaS product is to make something to solve a specific problem that will save a company money or time. The only way to figure this out is by researching your target audience. Make a list of all your product ideas and validate them by conducting surveys with tools like SurveySparrow and interviewing some participants. This research will also give you ideas on how to market and position your product.

2. Set up your product and website

Setting up yout  product and website will likely require coding and web design experience. If you don’t have either, you’llll need to figure it out with a course or hire someone. This doesn’t need to cost a lot. AppSumo, for example, outsourced the creation of its product’s first version to a team from Pakistan for just $60.

3. Share a free version

You can get people to test the first version for free. This will help you gather some feedback, which you can build on.

4. Launch the paid version

Once you feel confident about your software, it’s time to launch the paid version. You can start by sharing it with the people who helped test it—perhaps for free or at a significant discount. You could also launch it on AppSumo with a lifetime deal. This will not only help you get several customers and make some startup capital quickly, but will also help you gain feedback.

You can put this money into developing the product and implementing marketing techniques like ads, content marketing, and SEO.

2. Marketing agencies

Businesses won’t just be on the hunt for SaaS products, but also for agencies, especially creative agencies, where they can outsource work to experts for a fraction of full-time hiring costs.

Take media buying. If a company wanted to hire a media buyer full-time, they would need to pay around $60,000 a year and provide additional benefits. They could try using a SaaS product like Smartly to automate ads, but there’s only so much you can automate, and you’ll need some knowledge about ads and conversion rate optimization to use tools like this.

But for about $2,500 a month, you can hire a freelance media buyer or agency. Many businesses will prefer this option. So if you run a marketing agency or a consultancy, you have a high chance of scoring many clients.

It is one of the reasons why Klientboost, a marketing agency, doubled its revenue from $10 to $20 million during the Covid pandemic.

Source: Klientboost

The advantage service businesses have over SaaS products is that you can be profitable from day one, as you deliver a service by using a skill you already have. You don’t need to spend months or years developing a product and fortifying it.

Pros and cons of setting up a marketing agency

Pros

• Easy to start and reach profitability quickly with high ticket offers
• Requires minimal investment to start
• Can be run as a solopreneur or with a remote team

Cons

• Scalability is limited as you need to hire more people
• High competition as the barrier to entry is low
• Harder to convince people to invest in a high-ticket product

How to launch a successful marketing agency

1. Reach out to potential clients

One of the best things about service-based businesses is that you only need one or two clients paying you $2,000 to $5,000 per month to sustain your business. If you already have an engaged email list or social media following, it’s easier to promote your services and get clients quickly.

Alternatively, you can use other techniques like cold outreach if you’re starting from scratch. In this book, the Ultimate Sales Machine, Chet Holmes recommends the 100 strategy method.

This is where you make a list of 100 ideal clients you want to work with and reach out to them with the right sales message. For a shortcut, you can use our services pitch email template and inform them about the problem your service will solve.

Be specific about the solution you offer, as these potential clients are busy and don’t want to spend too much time thinking about how you can help them. If you get your messaging right, you’ll convince your target audience to hire you.

You can also try looking for clients on freelance websites. But remember that there is a lot of competition on these sites, and you might struggle to get clients who pay a good rate.

2. Work your butt off

After they hire you, do an amazing job to get them the result you promised. Always aim to overdeliver. This will help you build a strong reputation from the start. You’llattract more clients through referrals, and you can use the result as a case study.

3. Create a case study and leverage it

The main barrier that prevents clients from outsourcing consultants is the cost. Many people are hesitant to risk spending money on a consultant or agency that might fail. One way to show that you can get results is by sharing a case study. As soon as you get a positive result for your first client, create a case study and leverage it in your outreach strategy. This will help you convert more people.

4. Hire people

There’s a finite number of people you can work with directly. So to grow your agency, you need to constantly hire new people to service your clients. The new hires can just follow the system you already set to service clients. As your company grows, you may need to transition to a more managerial role while your employees service the clients.

3. Online and physical stores selling essential products

Do you remember the frenzy around toilet paper during the pandemic? People will always need products like this, so you can be sure to generate sales if you sell essential products.

Essential products include food, utensils, clothes, cleaning supplies, and pet products. They will never go out of season, and there’s always huge demand.

The main issue with this type of business is that profit margins are slim, around 5-15%. To mitigate this, it’s crucial to get your average order value (AOV) and customer lifetime value (CLV) up.

The key to success with a physical or online store is to stick to essential products that everyone can afford, as purchases of luxury itemss dwindle during a recession. People mainly want essential products that will help them survive.

Pros and cons of selling essential products

Pros

• Easy to set up an online store
• Can resell products from other manufacturers
• Lot of demand for essential products

Cons

• Low-profit margins
• Lots of competition
• Requires a place to store inventory

How to launch a successful e-commerce store

Running an e-commerce store is better than a physical store as you require more capital to run a physical store. Expenses go up when you rent a store and hire employees. You will need to reimburse these costs by increasing the price of your products, which can negatively affect sales. So, it’s often better to keep costs low with an e-commerce store during a recession and later build a physical presence if you’d like to.

How to launch an e-commerce store

1. Choose a niche

E-commerce is a massive industry where many stores like Amazon, Walmart, and Target have already built a beachhead. If you try to sell everything like them, you’ll need a lot of capital. Instead, we recommend choosing a niche you’re passionate about or something in high demand and establishing yourself as an authority in it.

For example, at the start of the pandemic, sales of vitamins went up as some studies showed that Vitamin D might protect against covid. So, there was a huge demand for them. Some people took advantage of this and launched e-commerce stores that sold vitamins and other health supplements.

This way, you, too, should use tools like Google Trends to figure out what people want, then directly interact with this audience and develop products that will solve an immediate pain.

2. Launch the store

You can build the store by using an e-commerce platform like Shopify or Dukaan.

These tools offer themes, templates, and integrations that make it easy for even non-designers to create beautiful online stores.

3. Promote with ads

There are many techniques to promote your store, but for quick results, you can try ads. Ads are perfect for e-commerce stores as you need to sell huge volumes of products to make a decent profit because of the low-profit margins.

Also, not all e-commerce stores will make a profit from selling that one product. Many will need to sell multiple products from the first sale itself and increase their average order value (AOV). Through ads, you can send a lot of traffic to different funnels and figure out which one generates the highest AOV.

4. Invest in other marketing methods

Once you have a funnel that generates a good amount of profit, you can accompany ads with other techniques like content marketing and SEO.

4. Online entertainment

Britons have canceled over 1 million music subscriptions in the first quarter from sites like Spotify and Apple to save money. People are also canceling subscriptions to other online entertainment services like Netflix and Disney+ as inflation rises, and things get more expensive.

These people will look elsewhere for a free entertainment source. If you can provide it, you will attract a ton of traffic that you can monetize with ads or a very affordable subscription package.

This could range from a music subscription service like Spotify, where people can listen to free music, to social networks like YouTube, where people can watch videos, and online game sites such as Wordle.

Wordle is a perfect example of an online entertainment site that established itself during the recession. Millions of people liked playing it as it was free, creative, entertaining, and provided a mental workout. It got so popular that the New York Times acquired it for a figure estimated to be in the “low-seven figures” within four months after its launch.

Pros and cons of an online entertainment business

Pros

• Easy to set up
• Monetize with ads or by selling subscriptions

Cons

• Lot of competition because of the low barrier to entry

How to set up an online entertainment site

1. Brainstorm ideas

Creating an entertainment website such as Wordle requires some risk-taking. It might be innovative, but you can never be sure people will like it. This is why it is better to create a gaming or entertainment website that’s built around something popular.

For example, if you want to create an online games website, building something around a game like Solitaire would work well as it is a popular game.

There are many online game websites where people can play this game. But if you offer something unique that differentiates you from others—like a better interface, for example—you will stand out and attract more people.

Decide on whether to take the trodden path where the chance of success is higher or do something unique that will help you stand out better, but put you at a bigger risk. Then brainstorm ideas for your entertainment website.

2. Set up the website

The next step is to set up the website. If you have coding and design experience, you can do this by yourself. Otherwise, it might be better to outsource help. You can also buy themes and templates that make it easy for you to set up the website.

Don’t just create a simple website where people can access the entertainment. Instead, make it into a membership website where they can get an incentive for signing up. This will help you keep them coming back for more.

3. Beta-test it

After you set it up, you can invite people to beta-test it. Use the feedback to improve the game and eliminate bugs.

4. Promote with outreach

Once it is ready, you can start promoting it to more people by sharing it on social media and reaching out to influencers and major publications. Put more effort into reaching out to top publications, as it will also improve credibility.

5. Make it easy to share results

One of the reasons Wordle got so popular was that it made it easy for people to share results on social media. People liked that they could use the results emoji.

Well done, Claire!
Your roses are beautiful

— Charm (@Charm47) July 9, 2022

Those who were proud of their results shared it extensively, and this drove more people to the platform.

So think of creative ways you, too, can encourage users to promote your platform to their followers and friends.

5. Digital products and online courses

A recession is usually accompanied by job losses as businesses cut expenses. New job opportunities also become fewer. To compete better for these limited jobs and keep themselves occupied, many people look to upskill themselves.

This is why a recession is an excellent time to launch an info product business. Your products can range from video courses, ebooks, and templates. You can create products both for people who want to learn some skills that will get them a new job and those who want to launch a new business. Lot of people will want to give freelancing or starting a new business a go.

Pros and cons of a digital products business

Pros

• High-profit margins as all the products are digital
• Easy to set up

Cons

• Need to create new products all the time to earn recurring revenue
• Very competitive

How to start an info product business

1. Build thought authority

People will only buy a course from you if they see you as a thought authority on the subject. You can always create a course, a landing page to promote it, and generate sales by attracting cold traffic with ads. But this will cost you more money.

An easier alternative is to post social media updates, publish blog posts, participate in podcasts, and show your expertise. This will help you build authority organically and attract an audience that wants to buy your products.

2. Grown an email list

The quickest way to generate sales for your info product is to share it with your email list. If you have an email list that you constantly nurture with content, they will be more likely to buy your products as you will form a close bond. So, create a newsletter or lead magnet and promote it in your social media updates and on your blog.

Many people won’t just consume the content, but will also engage by replying to your emails. This will help you understand their problems and the content they want to consume. You can use this information to create a course they will buy.

Another great place to build an audience is Facebook groups. They might not be as effective as email lists, but they usually generate more engagement than pages and profiles.

3. Create the course or digital product

By communicating with your subscribers via email, Facebook groups, and interviews, you can figure out your course topic(s). Once you know this, create a course on the subject with the best content.

Courses could range from simple email courses, ebooks series, to detailed video courses with hours of content. You could also simply just sell templates that people can implement instantly.

The type of course you create should depend on what your audience likes to consume, the amount of time you have, and how much you will charge them. Making the content is the longest part. The setup is easier because of course platforms like Teachable and Kajabi.

Along with the course, create an entire funnel with landing pages, thank you pages, and emails.

4. Launch

Once the course is ready, launch it by sharing the link to the landing page with your email list, Facebook group, and social media followers. If the course has a good conversion rate, you can invest in paid methods like ads and renting email lists. You could also launch an affiliate program.

Another option is to list your course or template on the AppSumo marketplace. You will find dozens of people selling ebooks, courses, templates, and other types of digital products.

Which recession-proof business idea suits you best?

A recession might not be the ideal time to launch most businesses. But there are several businesses that thrive during a recession. Depending on your skill and passion, you can try one of the above ideas.

If you’re looking for something mostly digital, you can start a marketing agency or create some digital products. But if you are in the mood for a challenge, you can launch a SaaS product or e-commerce store.

Before you kick start your business, you might want to check out the AppSumo store. We have several SaaS products, courses, and templates that will help you kick start and run a successful business.

But if you feel the path that Gumroad offers is too sticky and bumpy, there are many alternatives you can experiment with. We’re listing 14 similar solutions to launch and sell products.

An overview of Gumroad

Here’s an overview of Gumroad to help you compare it with the alternatives.

Gumroad is a popular e-commerce solution for digital creators and infopreneurs to sell products. With Gumroad, you don’t need a website or hosting service. Simply upload your product onto the platform, add a description, set a price, and share the link with customers.

Key features

• List products and sell them directly or embed the code on your website
• Memberships and subscriptions help you generate recurring revenue
• “Pay what you want” feature gives customers the freedom to choose a price they can afford
• Analytics helps you better understand your audience and product preferences

Limitations

• Charges higher fees for each transaction
• Only minimal customizations are possible

Pricing

Gumroad charges you percentage of your earnings for each sale you make. The fee decreases as you reach earning milestones.

Here are the different fees depending on your lifetime earnings:

• $0 to $1,000: 9% + 30c per transaction
• $1,000 to $10,000: 7% + 30c per transaction
• $10,000 to $100,000: 5% + 30c per transaction
• $100,000 to $1,000,000: 3% + 30c per transaction
• $1,000,000+: 2.9% + 30c per transaction

Top Gumroad alternatives in 2023

1. Soundwise

Soundwise is a unique tool in this list as it exclusively suits podcasters and other audio content creators. You can use it to sell audio programs and premium podcasts and make money or give them away to build an email list you can monetize later.

Key features

• Sell audio programs and premium podcasts for a one-time fee or offer subscriptions and rentals
• Offer free trials and samples to give potential customers a taste
• Create web and mobile-optimized sales pages to promote your programs
• Collect listener feedback and improve products

Limitations

• Directly integrates with very few software

Pricing

Soundwise has four paid plans:

• Starter: $23 per month
• Plus: $59 per month
• Pro: $119 per month
• Platinum: $469 per month

But you can get it for life for a one-time fee of just $59 on AppSumo.

You can even take it for a spin with a 15-day trial.

2. HYPAGE

HYPAGE is a product bio page with a twist. It allows you to monetize your bio link through digital products, memberships, and donations. To make the process smoother, HYPAGE has a built-in payment processor that helps you directly accept payments.

Key features

• Sell digital products such as courses, memberships, and premium gated content
• Accept requests and donations from fans
• Convert visitors to email subscribers

Limitations

• Has very few integrations

Pricing

HYPAGE has three plans:

• Free: $0 per month
• Pro: $19 per month
• Enterprise: $39 per month

You can also get it for life for a one-time payment of just $49 on AppSumo.

HYPAGE doesn’t offer a trial, but you can test it with the free plan.

3. Payhip

Payhip appears very similar to Gumroad, but it focuses on digital products, and has paid plans. Depending on the plan you pick, you can either reduce or eliminate your transaction fee from the start.

Key features

• Sell digital products and online courses that require a one-time fee or memberships that generate recurring revenue
• Invite affiliates and manage them with the affiliate system
• Craft high converting sales pages with the store builder

Limitations

• Limited customization options
• Free plan has a high transaction rate of 5%

Pricing

Payhip offers three plans:

• Free Forever: $0 per month
• Plus: $29 per month
• Pro: $99 per month

It doesn’t offer a trial, but you can try it with the free plan.

4. Easy Digital Downloads

As the name suggests, Easy Digital Downloads simplifies selling digital products from your WordPress website. One of the great features of this plugin is that it offers extensions that you can use to improve the functionality.

Key features

• Transform your WordPress website into a digital products ecommerce store
• Maintain customer records and track KPIs such as customer lifetime value
• Accept payments with credit cards or Paypal

Limitations

• Only works on WordPress websites
• No monthly payment option

Pricing

Easy Digital Downloads offers five payment plans:

• Personal Pass: $199.50 per year
• Extended Pass: $399.50 per year
• Professional Pass: $599.50 per year
• All Access Pass: $999.50 per year

Easy Digital Downloads doesn’t offer a trial, but there’s a free version of the plugin.

5. Samcart

Samcart is a popular tool for selling digital products and services such as coaching. It’s mainly known for features such as the order bump and one-click upsell that improve your average order value.

Key features

• Create aesthetic and high converting check out pages
• One-click upsells, order bumps, A/B split testing, and reports help improve conversion rate and ROI
• Pay what you want feature allows customers to set their price

Limitations

• Features such as upsells and order bumps are only available with the Grow and Scale plans, which are a bit expensive
• There’s no free plan

Pricing

Samcart has three paid plans:

• Launch: $49 per month
• Grow: $99 per month
• Scale: $199 per month

You can test it with the 7-day trial.

6. Sellfy

Sellfy is an ecommerce platform for creators to sell both digital and physical products. It offers features such as email marketing, discount codes, and upsells to help you generate maximum sales.

Key features

• Create a beautiful storefront that displays all your products
• List and sell digital and physical products and subscriptions
• Offers a print-on-demand option for merchandise

Limitations

• Users must get a paid plan to sell digital products and subscriptions

Pricing

Sellfy has four paid options:

• Free: $0 per month
• Starter: $29 per month
• Business: $79 per month
• Premium: $159 per month

You can sample the paid plans with a free 14-day trial.

7. Patreon

Patreon is popular among creators for accepting recurring monetary support from their audience, often in exchange for exclusive content. Many creators offer various membership tiers where they give away premium content and other bonuses.

Key features

• Monetize your creator career with paid monthly memberships from fans
• Nurture relationships with patrons by sharing posts
• Integrates with several tools and platforms

Limitations

• No option to accept one-time payments

Pricing

Patreon offers three plans. You can sign up for all three for free, but they each requires that you pay a different commission.

The three plans are:

• Lite: 5% of what you earn
• Professional: 8% of what you earn
• Premium: 12% of what you earn

If this model appeals to you, you might also want to check out our post on Patreon alternatives.

8. Hyax

You can use Hyax to sell almost anything. This includes digital and physical products, courses, and memberships. You can also create landing pages and funnels to promote your products.

Key features

• Create landing pages to sell products or get people to sign up to your lead magnets
• Create multi-step funnels that include upsells and order bumps
• Accept payments via PayPal or Stripe

Limitations

• No free plan, and all plans are pricey
• Can only remove branding if you subscribe to the Advanced plan or higher

Pricing

Hyax has three paid plans:

• Beginner: $99 per month
• Advanced: $199 per month
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

You can test it with a free trial.

9. SendOwl

SendOwl is an affordable tool for selling digital products such as ebooks, audiobooks, photography, memberships, and online courses. You can integrate it with your website, blog, and even Shopify.

Key features

• Sell products on multiple platforms, including social media
• Features such as promo codes, cart abandonments, one-click upsell, and pay-what-you-want pricing help boost conversions
• Set download limits to prevent sharing of products

Limitations

• Limited customization options

Pricing

SendOwl has four payment options:

• Just the basics: $9 per month
• Standard: $15 per month
• Premium: $24 per month
• Business: $39 per month

You can also take it for a spin with the 30-day trial.

10. E-junkie

E-junkie is another website for selling digital and physical products. It’s very affordable and lets you accept payments with various payment gateways.

Key features

• Inexpensive pricing plans starting at just $5 per month
• Stamp buyer’s name, transaction ID, and email on ebooks to prevent them from distributing
• Use download codes to sell them offline

Limitations

• Not the best interface for your storefront and check-out pages

Pricing

E-junkie offers four payment plans:

• $5/month
• $10/month
• $20/month
• $40/month

You can also sign up for a 30-day trial.

11. ThriveCart

ThriveCart is a Samcart alternative that many people prefer as you get lifetime access to it with a one-time fee. It has many exciting features such as joint venture contracts, business projections, and subscription saver functionality.

Key features

• Automatic sales tax calculation feature helps you charge the right amount
• Create checkout pages and funnels with bumps and upsells to boost average order value
• Affiliate center helps you manage affiliates and grow your revenue

Limitations

• No free plan or trial, and you need to pay a hefty one-time fee to get access

Pricing

ThriveCart has two paid plans:

• ThriveCart Lifetime Account: $1,995
• ThriveCart Pro: $2,995

There’s no free plan or trial.

12. Shopify

Everybody knows that Shopify is one of the best ecommerce store builders. But many don’t know that it offers apps that make it easy to sell digital products such as ebooks and video courses.

Key features

• Shopify’s Digital Download App and other third-party apps such as Thinkific allow you to sell downloadable products and online courses
• Offers many other apps and integrations
• Offers free email marketing software to capture and nurture subscribers

Limitations

• Subscribing to Shopify and its premium apps can get expensive

Pricing

Shopify has three paid plans:

• Basic: $29 per month
• Shopify: $79 per month
• Advanced: $299 per month

13. PayKickstart

PayKickstart is mainly known for its subscription billing system to accept recurring payments, but you can also accept one-time payments. You can use it to sell courses, software, ebooks, and services.

Key features

• Accept payment via credit cards, wallets, PayPal, and even bank transfers
• Subscription management feature helps increase customer lifetime value and minimize churn
• Affiliate Management helps run and track affiliate programs

Limitations

• No free plan, and prices are on the higher side

Pricing

PayKickstart has three paid plans:

• Starter: $99 per month
• Growth: $199
• Scale: $299

14. WooCommerce

WooComerce is an open-source ecommerce platform for WordPress sites. It is also free to use and helps you create beautiful storefronts and landing pages.

Key features

• Easily add ecommerce functionality to your WordPress website
• Themes and Extensions help you quickly set up a store and start accepting payments
• Customize stores with builders like Elementor or with a professional designer

Limitations

• Only works on websites built with WordPress

Pricing

WooCommerce is free to use, but you need to pay extra for premium extensions and themes.

Did you find a suitable Gumroad alternative?

Gumroad is a great tool that is free to use. But those high commission rates can eat into your profits and limit the funds you can invest back into your business. This is why it is better to use an alternative where you pay a monthly fee and get back a higher percentage of your profits.

Depending on your budget and the type of products you sell, there are many options. For example, Soundwise would be ideal for promoting premium podcasts, while Samcart is better for online courses.

To save even more money, check out the AppSumo store. We regularly have deals for software such as Soundwise and HYPAGE. You can simply pay a one-time fee and get these products for life.

Gumroad FAQs

Is it easy to sell on Gumroad?

Yes, it is pretty easy to use. Upload your products, set the price, and share the product links with prospective buyers.

What’s the best alternative to Gumroad?

Payhip is the best alternative to Gumroad. It offers many similar features, and it also has paid options that lower or eliminate commision fees.

Is Gumroad like Patreon?

Although both tools are popular among digital creators, they are very different. Patreon’s features are focused on accepting recurring membership payments and nurturing your supporters, while Gumroad is all about selling digital products.

In this post, you will find some of the best iMovie alternatives. First, we will provide a primer on iMovie and then dive into the alternatives to help you compare the options.

A bit about iMovie

iMovie is a simple video editing alternative to Apple’s Final Cut Pro. There’s an app for both Macbooks and iOS devices. Anyone, even amateur editors, can use it to create professional-looking videos quickly, and it is entirely free.

Pros

• Seamlessly edit a video on the Macbook, iPad, and iPhone using features such as iCloud and AirDrop
• Tools for trimming, splitting, and deleting help you make simple edits to videos
• Use templates, storyboards, styles, and special effects to create eye-catching videos quickly
• Use the green screen feature to replace backgrounds

Limitations

• Only works on Apple devices
• Lacks advanced features that editors like Adobe Premiere offer

Best suited for: Influencers and video creators looking for an easy-to-use tool.

Pricing: Free.

iMovie alternatives for Windows and Mac

You can compare the above summary of iMovie against the iMovie alternatives we shared below to find the best option for you.

1. InVideo

InVideo is a popular online video maker and editor. You can access the browser version on Windows, iOS, macOS, or Android devices. InVideo also has an app called Filmr for both iOS and Android devices.

Pros

• Easy-to-use editor for people new to video editing and creation
• Includes 5,000+ templates, music library, filters, and assets from iStock media
• Either upload your footage and music or use the library with 8+ million photos, videos, and music tracks
• Easily trim, crop, and delete clips. You can also add transitions, text, and stickers.
• Allows you to add unlimited team members for collaborative video editing

Limitations

• Free verson adds a watermark to videos
• You can’t remove video backgrounds on the free version.

Best suited for: Amateur video editors and social media managers.

Pricing: It starts with a free version. Business and Unlimited plans cost $15 and $30 per month. But you can get its annual deal for $99 on AppSumo.

2. FlexClip

Flexclip is a video maker for creating slideshows, simple videos, and movies. You can either start from scratch or use its library of templates. You can select one and quickly create your videos.

Pros

• Free to use with affordable paid plans
• Access to thousands of templates, 4+ million stock assets, and 3+ million animated text and elements
• Helps you easily trim, cut, and customize your videos
• Screen recorder recording feature is great for creating explainer videos and recording meetings and games

Limitations

• You can only create videos up to one minute long with the free plan.
• You can only download 480p SD videos with the free plan.

Best suited for: YouTubers, media buyers, and social media managers.

Pricing: It starts with a free plan. The Basic, Plus, and Business plans cost $9.99, $19.99, and $29.99 per month. You can also get it for life for a one-time payment of just $49 on AppSumo.

3. Movavi Video Editor

If you’re looking for a more advanced video editing software, Movavi Video Editor is the perfect choice. It allows you to add music, titles, and videos to your project. Plus, you can apply a chroma key effect (green screen) on your footage.

Pros

• The intuitive interface makes it easy for beginners to get started
• Features like slideshow maker, sound effects library, and video stabilizer to improve your footage
• Can apply special effects, transitions, text overlay, and filters on videos
• Can add animated titles to your project

Limitations

• No free version is available
• No 360-degree editing

Best suited for: Beginner editors looking for advanced iMovie for Windows that is still easy to use

Pricing: It costs $54.95 for a 1-year subscription and $74.95 for a lifetime license.

4. WeVideo

WeVideo is a cloud-based video editing tool. You can use the online version or its apps to edit videos. It’s also got some extra features such as a meme maker and screen recorder that help you create various videos.

Pros

• Offers a free plan and a wide variety of affordable paid plans
• Create videos from scratch with your footage or use its library of 1 million music tracks, videos, and images
• Stores all your creations in the cloud for easy access
• Features such as GIF creator, screen recorder, meme maker, and green screens help you make diverse video types
• Lets you record with the webcam and screen simultaneously

Limitations

• You can only create five minutes of video with the free plan every month.
• Adds a watermark to videos made with the free plan

Best suited for: Businesses and schools that want to make educative videos.

Pricing: There’s a free plan and Power, Unlimited, Professional, and Business plans that cost $9.99, $15.99, $39.99, and $73.99 per month.

5. Animoto

Animoto is a popular video maker and editor with over six million users. You can create slideshow videos, promo videos, and social media videos with this one tool. It also has a straightforward editor that lets you customize your videos.

Pros

• Use templates, stock videos, photos, and music tracks to assemble engaging videos quickly
• Has templates for creating formal videos and those for casual occasions such as birthdays
• Add text effects and use different fonts to make your videos more appealing
• Allows you to upload voice-overs or  record them directly on Animoto
• Quickly share videos to YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media

Limitations

• No Android app
• Adds Animoto branding to videos made with the Free and Basic plans

Best suited for: Businesses looking for a simple cloud-based video editor.

Pricing: The Basic, Professional, and Professional Plus plans cost $16, $29, and $79 per month. There’s also a free plan.

6. Kapwing

Kapwing is a collaborative video creation and editing platform. It’s perfect for teams who want to create and edit videos together. It also integrates with tools like Google Drive, Unsplash, Pexels, and many more sites to make it easy to import images.

Pros

• No watermarked videos with the free plan, but you can only export three videos a month
• Upload multiple videos and rearrange, delete, and trim them with the editor
• Automatically generates subtitles that you can quickly add to your videos
• Resize, crop, convert, and reverse videos

Limitations

• No iOS app
• Stores content for only two days on the free plan

Best suited for: YouTubers, content creators, and social media managers.

Pricing: It starts with a free plan. The pro plan costs $24, and the For Teams plan costs $24 per user.

7. Windows Movie Maker

The Windows Movie Maker is the Windows answer to Apple’s iMovie. You can install it on PCs with Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating systems. It’s great for creating a wide range of videos.

Pros

• Make basic video edits such as cutting, trimming, and joining; and also add music, text, and transition effects
• Create time-lapse videos with the time-lapse quick tool
• Add visual effects like bubbles, confetti, fireworks, and snowflakes
• Available in multiple languages like English, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese

Limitations

• Only works on PCs with Windows operating systems
• No apps for mobile devices

Best suited for: Windows users looking for a basic, freemium video editing software.

Pricing: There’s a free version and a PRO version that costs $14.99.

8. Shotcut

Shotcut is a free and open-source video editor. It works on Windows, Mac, and Linux, but it doesn’t have mobile versions. It offers many features that most top editors only offer with paid plans.

Pros

• Completely free to use
• Lets you trim, cut, copy, and paste
• Upload videos to edit or capture footage with the webcam and record audio
• Available in various languages, including English, Finnish, Polish, and Swedish
• Supports multiple formats like GIF,  SVG, JPEG, PNG, and BMP

Limitations

• No mobile or web version
• Not the best interface, and it takes some time to get used to it

Best suited for: Businesses and students looking for a free video editor.

Pricing: Free, but you can donate.

9. Vegas Pro

Vegas Pro is another video editing software that exclusively works on Windows devices. It’s an advanced software for professionals, but even amateur editors will find it easy to use.

Pros

• Hundreds of effects, filters, and transitions help you create stand-out videos
• Built-in AI helps with colorization, style transfer, and content upscaling
• Converts text to speech so that you can add it as a voiceover
• Access to royalty-free stock content

Limitations

• No free version
• Doesn’t work on macOS and mobile devices

Best suited for: Professional video editors looking for an affordable editor for Windows.

Pricing: It costs $34.99 per month. But you can get it for $143.88 when you pay annually.

10. Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe Premiere is among the best video editing software available. If you’re looking for a tool for making simple clips to detailed movies and don’t mind investing time to master it, this is the software for you.

Pros

• Presets, color matching, and templates help you create attractive videos quickly
• Works well with other Adobe tools such as Adobe Stock, Photoshop, and After Effects
• Automatically converts speech to subtitles that you can easily overlay on videos
• Auto ducking and auto-match ensure that the audio flows smoothly

Limitations

• Steep learning curve
• Requires a high-end computer to function smoothly

Best suited for: Professional editors who want an advanced video editor.

Pricing: It costs $20.99 per month, with a seven-day free trial. Creative Cloud, which includes Adobe Premiere Pro and several other Adobe software such as Adobe Illustrator, costs $52.99 per month.

11. Camtasia

Camtasia is popular for its screen recording capabilities, but it also has a powerful video editor. You can either edit the videos you record with its screen recorder or import footage you recorded with another device.

Pros

• Lets you record any part of your computer screen
• Drag-and-drop video editor makes it easy to edit videos and add effects
• Directly upload videos to hosting platforms like Vimeo, YouTube, and Screencast.com
• PowerPoint integration helps you create professional presentations

Limitations

• Requires a high-end computer to run without crashing
• Pricey; requires a one-time purchase fee and recurring payments for upgrades

Best suited for: Business and infopreneurs who want to create courses and tutorials.

Pricing: It costs $299 with a 30-day trial. Upgrades cost $139, but you can get free upgrades by subscribing to Camtasia Maintenance for $50 per year.

12. DaVinci Resolve

DaVinci Resolve is an advanced freemium video editing software. It doesn’t just offer software, but also hardware such as speed editors, editor keyboards, and micro panels that work well with the software.

Pros

• The drag-and-drop video editor is easy to navigate for trimming, splitting and deleting clips.
• Library with hundreds of effects and transitions makes it easy to create eye-catching videos
• Advanced color corrector lets you adjust the temperature, contrast, and saturation
• Collaborative features make it possible for your entire to edit together

Limitations

• Might take a while to figure out
• Can get expensive if you purchase all the hardware with the software

Best suited for: Professionals such as video editors, VFX artists, colorists, and sound engineers.

Pricing: There’s a free version and a paid version that costs $295. Hardware costs extra.

13. Filmora

Filmora is a powerful video editor from Wondershare that works on multiple devices. You can download software for Windows and Mac and the FilmoraGo app for iOS and Android. It also has online tools like the Meme Maker and Video Trimmer.

Pros

• Quickly create videos with smart templates, visual effects, plugins, and stock media
• Auto Beat Sync ensures that the music and video gel
• Use split-screen to combine multiple clips
• Color match and correction ensure your video is aesthetically pleasing

Limitations

• Adds a watermark to videos made with the trial version
• Requires separate licenses for Windows and Mac

Best suited for: Content creators who want to make professional videos.

Pricing: It costs $68.98 per year, with a 30-day free trial. There’s also a Perpetual plan with a one-time fee of $146.95.

Did you find an iMovie alternative?

If you are an Apple user and want a free video editor, iMovie is a great tool. But if you are unsatisfied with the limited features or are a Windows or Linux user, give the above alternatives a try.

Check out the AppSumo store for deals on video editors and video marketing software. You can get several top software for a fraction of the price, for life.

People care about grammar, whether you’re writing social media profiles, social media updates, blog posts, or emails.

This is why you should proofread several times. An even better solution would be to get a fresh set of eyes or an A-Eye to look over it. An AI tool that’ll automatically find some of the mistakes and suggest ways to fix them.

The most popular grammar fixing tool is Grammarly, but it isn’t the only one.

We’ve listed the 12 best Grammarly alternatives to help you decide which one will best suit your needs.

A quick primer on Grammarly

Grammarly is one of  the most popular grammar checkers and writing tools. The Chrome extension alone has over 10 million users. Along with this, you can download software and apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. There’s also an add-in for Microsoft Word and a Grammarly keyboard for mobile devices.

Key features of Grammarly

• Goes beyond grammatical errors and identifies writing tone and style
• Provides suggestions to help fix mistakes with a single click
• Plagiarism checker identifies duplicate content and helps prevent Google penalization
• Analytics dashboard tracks writing activity of teams to help improve writing and workflow

Limitations of Grammarly

• Not 100% accurate (though no tool is, and even editors disagree among themselves). It will occasionally mess up and ask you to fix mistakes that don’t exist
• The paid options are on the expensive side
• Malfunctions when articles get too long

Best suited for: Students and entrepreneurs

Pricing

Grammarly offers three payment options:

• Free: $0 per month
• Premium: $30 per month, $60 per quarter, or $144 per year.
• Business: $25 per member/month and the annual plans start at $180 per year.

There’s no free trial, but you can use the free version with limited features.

Top Grammarly alternatives in 2023

1. Linguix

Linguix is an AI-powered writing assistant. You can use it to check and fix grammar and punctuation and to write clear sentences. It’s probably the perfect alternative to Grammarly, but at a lower price.

Key features of Linguix:

• Can help fix 9 million typos. Performs 2,700 checks for grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure
• Paraphrasing engine makes writing more native, clear, and compelling
• Low-cost and free plans
• Templates and one-word shortcuts to speed the writing process

Limitations of Linguix:

• No plagiarism checker tool

Best suited for: Marketers, solopreneurs, and large businesses.

Pricing

Linguix has three payment options:

• Free: $0 per month
• Premium: $14.99 per month or $96 per year, but you can get it on AppSumo for just $49 per year
• Team: Price available on contact

There’s no free trial, but you can try it out with the free plan.

2. Ginger

This freemium tool from Ginger Software is another writing app that works on multiple devices. It has extensions for Chrome and Safari, a downloadable app for Windows users, and an Android keyboard app.

Key features of Ginger

• Write smoother-flowing sentences with the sentence rephraser tool
• Double click on a word to find synonyms to replace frequently used words
• Personal trainer feature analyzes your writing weaknesses and provides custom lessons to improve your English
• Text-to-Speech feature that lets you listen to your writing as a native speaker would say it
• Translate feature that enables you to translate your text between 40 languages

Limitations of Ginger

• No app for Mac users.
• Not the most user-friendly tool.

Best Suited for: Non-native English speakers.

Pricing

Ginger only has two payment plans:

• Free: $0 per month
• Premium: $19.99 per month, $33.57 per quarter, or 89.88 per year

There’s no free trial, but there’s a free plan

3. Writer

Writer is an AI writing assistant suitable for all sizes of teams.

You can use Writer to define your style guide via a series of simple questions. The tool will then analyze your content against your guidelines to ensure consistent, on-brand content. Writer will also catch spelling and grammatical errors and writing mistakes, helping to make your writing stronger.

Key features of Writer

• A variety of vocabulary suggestions help to keep your readers engaged
• Style guide portal that publishes your company content guidelines
• Chrome, Word, and Google Docs extensions with all packages
• Clarity, delivery, inclusivity, and plagiarism checks in all packages
• Ability to add company terminology and boilerplate messaging (200 in the free package, unlimited in Enterprise package)

Limitations of Writer

• No downloadable versions for PC, Mac, and mobile devices

Best suited for: Content marketers, customer support teams, corporate marketing, and any large teams needing to apply consistent content and editorial guidelines.

Pricing

Writer has four plans:

• Free: $0 per month
• Pro: $11 per month or $99 per year
• Team: $18 per user per month or $162 per user/year
• Enterprise: Pricing available on contact

There’s no free trial, but you can take it for a spin with the free plan.

4. Wordtune

Wordtune is a popular AI-writing assistant with over 1 million users. This AI-powered assistant doesn’t just focus just on Grammar and spelling. Every time you finish writing a sentence, it suggests several alternative rephrases based on advanced language models and artificial intelligence. Wordtune improves your fluency of expression without you having to perform any special changes in your writing workflow.

Key features of Wordtune

• Works wherever you write. Including Gmail, Google Docs, Outlook (web version), Facebook, and Whatsapp (web version)
• Translate and Rewrite simultaneously
• Translation from any language to English, including a variety of sentences
• Write in various styles and tones
• Rewrite helps you convey your message with the phrasing you like the most
• Expand your English vocabulary

Limitations of Wordtune

• No plagiarism checker tool

Best suited for: Writers, marketers, students, academics, and business professionals.

Pricing

Wordtune has three payment options:

• Free: $0 per month
• Premium: $9.99 per month
• Team: Price available on contact

There’s no free trial, but there’s a free plan.

5. WhiteSmoke

WhiteSmoke is another tool that you can use for writing. It will analyze your work and help with improving grammar, spelling, and writing style. It can also help with translation.

Key features of WhiteSmoke

• Very affordable pricing plans
• Translate to and from 55 languages, including English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish
• Provides usage example of every word it translates
• Dictionary and thesaurus

Limitations of WhiteSmoke

• Poorer accuracy when finding mistakes
• No free plan and no monthly payment option

Best suited for: Nonnative English speakers and writers.

Pricing

WhiteSmoke has three pricing options:

• Web: $59.95 per year
• Premium: $79.95 per year
• Business: $137.95 per year

You can also sign up for a free trial.

6. Hemingway Editor

Hemingway App is the odd one out of the list. It is a writing tool like the others, but it doesn’t help fix mistakes. All it does is help you simplify your writing.

You copy and paste your text into it, and it will highlight the bits that you should fix with more straightforward writing.

Key features of Hemingway

• Choose between writer and editor mode. Writer mode helps you focus on writing, while editor mode finds complex sentences and suggests ways to fix them
• Highlights lengthy sentences, tricky words, and passive voice, making them easy to find and change
• Provides details such as reading level, reading time, paragraphs, etc
• Integrations with WordPress and Medium lets you directly publish articles

Limitations of Hemingway

• Does not find grammatical errors.
• Only the web version is free.

Best suited for: Marketers and bloggers.

Pricing

Hemingway Editor has two pricing options:

• Free: $0 per month
• App: $19.99

There’s no free trial, but the web version is completely free.

7. ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid is another popular proofreading tool. You can use it to fix writing errors and improve your writing style.

Key features of ProWritingAid

• Offers writing reports that highlight elements such as cliches, vague wording, repetitiveness, complicated sentence structures, etc.
• Suggestions and explanations help improve your writing
• Integrates with tools such as Microsoft Word, Scrivener, and Open Office
• Create your own writing styles and dictionaries to reflect your personal brand

Limitations of ProWritingAid

• No additional features such as a translator and plagiarism checker

Best suited for: Entrepreneurs.

Pricing

ProWritingAid has three payment options:

• Free: $0 per month
• Premium: $20 per month, $79 per year, or $399 for life
• Premium+: $24 per month, $89 per year, or $499 for life

There’s no free trial, but there’s a free plan.

8. PaperRater

PaperRater is a straightforward proofreading software. You can also use it to detect plagiarism. It doesn’t come with any downloadable software or an extension. You need to copy and paste your text or upload a file, and it will analyze it for you.

Key features of PaperRater

• Checks for plagiarism and provides an originality score by comparing your text with over 10 billion documents
• AI engine, Grendel, offers feedback on your writing
• Scores your writing level based on your vocabulary

Limitations of PaperRater

• Free version has ads
• Not very accurate
• No mobile version

Best suited for: Students and teachers.

Pricing

PaperRater has two payment plans:

• Free: $0 per month
• Premium: $14.95 per month or $95.40 per year

There’s no trial version, but you can test it with the free plan.

Free Grammarly alternatives you should check out

9. Slick Write

Slick Write is a simple grammar checker. There are extensions, and you can use the web version without even logging in. You can just type it in or upload a document, and it will check it for grammar mistakes.

Key features of Slick Write

• Completely free to use, you don’t even need to sign up
• Adjust the settings to only allow it to suggest grammar changes you want to make
• Dictionary, thesaurus, and rhyming dictionary available

Limitations of Slick Write

• It has ads.
• It’s too simple.

Best suited for: Students, bloggers, and SEO professionals.

10. Reverso

Reverso is chiefly a translation tool. You can paste your text into it, and it can translate between 15 different languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Arabic, etc. It can also check spelling and grammar.

Key features of Reverso

• Check grammar and spelling in both French and English
• Choose between UK and US spelling for English
• Translate and check for errors with one tool
• Free to use. You don’t even need to sign up

Limitations of Reverso

• The website has ads
• Very basic

Best suited for: Non-native English speakers and writers.

11. 1Checker

1Checker is a proofreading tool that can help you detect and correct grammar, spelling, and style errors. It provides detailed explanations for each mistake, which will help you avoid repeating them in the future.

Key features of 1Checker

• Support for multiple platforms. Online version, apps for Windows and Mac, and Word and Outlook plugins
• Free to use

Limitations of 1Checker

• It isn’t accurate.
• The user interface needs an upgrade.

Best suited for: Students.

12. Online Correction

As the name suggests, Online Correction is an online writing correction tool. It appears very similar to the free version of Hemingway. You need to type in the text or copy and paste it in, and it will highlight the mistakes you should rectify.

Key features of Online Correction

• Completely free to use
• Automatically correct errors and save time
• American, British, Australian, New Zealand, and South African English dialects available

Limitations of Online Correction

• Ads on the website
• Not very user-friendly

Best suited for: Marketers and bloggers.

13. Grammar Check

Grammar Check is a very basic writing tool. You simply type in your text in the editor and click the Free Check button. It will then analyze it and find grammar and spelling errors.

Key features of Grammar Check

• Free to use. There’s no need to sign up
• Very straightforward and easy-to-use

Limitations of Grammar Check

• The deep check button is an ad in disguise that sends you to Grammarly

Best suited for: Students.

Did you find the best Grammarly alternative?

As you can see above, there are several alternatives to Grammarly. Many of them are more or less similar to Grammarly, finding the same errors and offering identical changes.

The main difference is in the accuracy of corrections, and, as you might have noticed, some of them have additional features such as a translator. The only one that is very different is Hemingway.

The perfect alternatives for me are Linguix, Ginger, and ProWritingAid. I recommend that you pick one of these and combine it with Hemingway as it is free to use.

If you are looking for more writing tools, check out the AppSumo store. We regularly offer deals on proofreading tools and tools that help with other forms of writing, such as search engine optimization.

To help you find the right software, we have listed some of the best TikTok video editors below. We have also shared some TikTok video editing tips to help you get the most out of these tools. Let’s check out the editing apps first.

1. iMovie

iMovie is a free video editing tool from Apple. There’s both a Mac and iOS version. So, you should be able to edit your videos directly on your iPhone or iPad. You can also use Airdrop and iCloud to transfer your videos to your Mac and edit it there with iMovie or Final Cut Pro.

Pros

• Styles, storyboards, and templates make it easy for anyone to create top-quality videos from scratch
• Cinematic Mode helps you create professional-looking and artistic scenes
• Lets you trim clips, add photos, videos, filters, and transitions
• Green-screen effects allow you to change the background

Limitations

• Only works on Apple devices
• It is a simple editor and doesn’t have advanced features like Final Cut Pro

Pricing: Free

2. InVideo

InVideo is a popular online video editor with a video editing app for both Android and iOS devices called Filmr. It’s got several portrait templates that help you create TikTok videos.

Pros

• Free to use
• Use 5,000+ templates to create videos quickly
• Includes access to a standard media library with 3 million+ assets, an iStock media library with 8 million+ assets, and a premium media library with 1 million+ assets
• You can import media, trim and split clips, add transitions, play videos backward, and add audio
• You can also add captions to the clips

Limitations

• Adds a watermark to videos made with the free plan
• Simple video editor that works best for quick videos

Pricing: Starts with a free plan. The Business and Unlimited plans cost $23 and $45 per month.

3. InShot

InShot is a popular freemium video editor among social media influencers. It is one of the best tools for creating video content for TikTok and Instagram and has apps for both Android and iOS devices.

Pros

• Clean and straightforward interface is easy to navigate—even for newbies
• You can split, trim, merge, and delete clips—you can also adjust video speed
• Allows you to quickly add filters and effects to create videos that stand out
• Lets you easily add sound effects, voice-overs, music, animated stickers, and text overlays

Limitations

• Not as advanced as professional editing apps like Adobe Premiere
• Adds a watermark to videos made with the free version
• No web or desktop version

Pricing: Starts with a free plan. There’s also a Pro plan that you can get for $2.99 per month, $14.99 per year, or 34.99 for life.

4. Funimate

The Funimate video editor and maker doesn’t just have a catchy name, but also several happy users on both Android and iOS devices. Many use it to create fun looping videos.

Pros

• Crop, merge, cut, trim, slow down, and reverse videos with a tap.
• Lets you add masks and up to 100 advanced AI video effects and change videos backgrounds
• Add intro and outro effects to glue viewers till the end
• Add text effects to get your overlay text to stand out

Limitations

• The free version has ads
• No web or desktop version

Pricing: There’s a free version and a Pro version that costs $2.99 per week. You also get a seven-day trial with the Pro version.

5. Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe Premiere Pro is a robust video editing software popular among professional video editors. It’s a sophisticated tool that takes time to master. There’s an alternative version called Adobe Premiere Rush that is easier to use.

Pros

• Has all the features for editing basic social media videos and lengthy films
• Access to templates, creative assets, and third-party extensions helps speed up video creation
• Works well with other popular Adobe apps such as Photoshop and Illustrator
• Automatically create and add captions with the speech-to-text tool

Limitations

• Sophisticated tool with a big learning curve
• Costs more than simple video editor apps

Pricing: It costs $20.99 per month, with a free seven-day trial. The Creative Cloud plan costs $52.99 per month.

6. Zoomerang

Zoomerang is a music video editor that many influencers use for creating short dance videos for networks like TikTok and Instagram. It’s easy to use and provides tutorials to help you recreate trending social media videos.

Pros

• Free to use—no sign up needed
• Offers hundreds of transitions and effects to help you quickly create videos
• Lets you easily assemble videos and create slideshows.
• Add music, filters, text, and stickers to your videos

Limitations

• No web or desktop version
• The free version has ads

Pricing: There’s a free version and a paid version that costs $19.99 per year.

7. Magisto

Magisto is a smart online video editor, with apps for both Android and iOS, that’s owned by video hosting platform Vimeo. It’s perfect for TikTok users who like to edit their videos on multiple devices.

Pros

• Easy-to-use editor with premium editing styles that helps you create videos quickly
• Access to 3+ million iStock HD videos and photos
• Fee access to Vimeo Pro or Vimeo Business plans depending on your subscription
• Built-in analytics to measure video performance

Limitations

• Free version has minimal features
• You can only create videos that are up to 10 minutes long

Pricing: It starts with a free plan. The Premium, Professional, and Business plans cost $9.99, $19.99, and $69.99 per month.

8. CapCut

CapCut is an app for Android and iOS devices with over 250 million installs. Bytedance, the same company that owns TikTok, owns CapCut. It has many features that TikTok video creators will adore.

Pros

• Split, reverse, trim, speed up, and rotate videos easily
• Completely free to use
• Use filters such as Winter, Umber, Foodie, and Summer to create standout videos
• Access a good selection of tracks from the music library

Limitations

• Very simple video editing tool with basic features.
• 15-minute video length limit

Pricing:  Free.

9. Vizmato

Vizmato is another video maker and editor. You can use it not just to edit videos, but also to record them. It has apps for both Android and Apple mobile devices and offers a free version and an affordable paid version.

Pros

• Record videos and apply filters, effects, and themes while you record
• Change speed, trim videos, and add customized text and stickers. You can also use the slideshow maker to put pictures together and make a video.
• Voice changer effects let you change your voice to sound like a baby, ghost, or different animals
• Access to theViztunes library with 140+ free music tracks

Limitations

• Free version has ads
• Free version also adds a watermark to videos

Pricing: Vizmato has a free version and a Pro version that costs $11.99 a year, with a seven-day free trial.

10. GoPro Quik

As the name suggests, this is a video editing app from GoPro. You can use it to either edit videos you recorded with GoPro itself or import photos and videos you caught with other devices.

Pros

• Backs up all the videos and photos posted to your mural at 100% quality
• Lets you trim, crop, and add transitions and effects to your videos
• Allows you to transform your phone into a remote control for your GoPro
• Automatically syncs clips to the music

Limitations

• Basic video editor can’t handle complex editing tasks.
• Better suited for GoPro camera owners

Pricing: It has a free plan. You can get the paid version for $9.99 per year or by getting a GoPro subscription for $49.99 per year.

11. Lomotif

Lomotif is a popular social video platform with over 225 million downloads. It’s perfect for creating short videos for networks like TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat.

Pros

• Lets you crop, duplicate, cut, trim, and delete clips
• Search and add gifs and millions of songs to your videos with ease
• Add animated stickers, filters, and flash effects to get your videos to stand out
• Create a montage with photos or videos from TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram stories

Limitations

• Mainly suited for creating short videos

Pricing: Free.

Our top 5 tips for editing TikTok videos

Here are some tips for editing videos on TikTok or one of the above apps.

Cut videos

For a while, you could only post TikTok videos up to three minutes long, but recently TikTok extended the length to 10 minutes. However, this doesn’t mean that you should always take advantage of this real estate and post long videos. A study from Quintly actually found that videos around nine seconds long generate the highest engagement.

So, don’t be afraid to cut as much footage as you can. Your videos should be to the point. TikTok’s video editor lets you cut videos, but any of the above editors can also do the job.

Add filters

People are constantly publishing videos on TikTok. You have a lot of competition on this network. So, why should people watch your videos over your competitors?

There are many things you can do such as creating better content to attract more attention, but one simple tactic you might also want to mix in is using filters. Most users like to stick to trends, challenges, and filters that other people use. But if you steer clear of this and create unique-looking videos with filters, you will stand out in the feed and drive more views.

For example, if you find that most people use color filters, you can add something black and white. TikTok organizes filters as Portrait, Landscape, Food, and Vibe. You can browse through and pick your favorite. Try to stay consistent with filters as they can represent your brand identity.

Add music and sound effects

While you record your video on TikTok, you can add sounds simultaneously to ensure they sync better together. But you can also add sounds separately. After you upload or record your video to TikTok, you can tap on “Sounds” and add a track. You can browse tracks and even search for them. After you add the music, you can adjust the volume.

You can also play around with the apps we mentioned above to see if they offer a better selection of music. Tools like CapCut and Zoomerang have excellent tracks.

Add text

Many people will view your videos with the sound on and enjoy the music, but 92% of people use mobile devices with the sound turned off. If you are speaking in your videos and what you are saying is essential, overlay it as captions on the video.

You can directly type the captions into the TikTok video editor while editing. You can also choose a font and change the alignment and color. But it might be better for you to use a tool like Adobe Premiere as it automatically turns the speech into text and places them as captions.

Place stickers

Like with Instagram stories, you can also place stickers on your TikTok videos to boost engagement. You have stickers for hashtags, mentions, polls, timestamps, and many other things.

Which TikTok editing apps do you like most?

TikTok was all about creating short videos for a long time. Initially, you could only post 15-second long videos, then it increased the limit to a minute and then to three minutes. Now, you can post videos that are up to 10 minutes long. It might be a good idea to experiment with long-form videos to see if they fare better.

Most of the top TikTok editors work well for creating short videos. If you tend to make longer videos, you could start by using two video editors. For example, you can use iMovie or Funimate for making short videos and InVideo or Adobe Premiere for longer ones.

To find the best tools to manage your TikTok account, check out the AppSumo store. We have deals on video creators and other tools and templates you will find helpful.

Launching a product isn’t as sophisticated as launching a spaceship, but it’s not easy. A successful product launch requires many steps. One small mistake and you will not just generate fewer sales, but also hurt your brand reputation.

To ensure you get each element right, we’ve created a product launch checklist to guide you before, during, and after your launch. We also created a free downloadable checklist you can quickly refer to.

Get your 12-step product launch checklist today

Here’s the product launch checklist where we explain each step in detail.

1. Conduct audience research

Understanding the audience is the most crucial part of your product launch. So, start doing audience research before launching your product to ensure you create a product people actually want to buy. Audience research includes quantitative and qualitative research.

Quantitative research: This involves research through website analytics. You will be analyzing how your audience interacts with your site using data such as website traffic, page views per visit, bounce rate, link clicks, and scroll percentage. This helps you understand their interests and preferences better. You can use Google Analytics and a heat map tool like Plerdy (it also records the number of visitors) to collect this data.

You can also go through data from benchmark reports created by competitors and research organizations in your niche. For example, if you were analyzing your email marketing, you can go through reports such as this one from GetResponse.

Studies like this will help you gather a lot more information as they include data from several websites. You can use this data to compare your results against your competitors and see where you stand.

It is known as quantitative research as you study hard facts, as opposed to qualitative research where you focus on the opinions and feelings of the target audience..

Qualitative research: This is the data you get by analyzing a smaller set of audiences through surveys, polls, and interviews.

Qualitative audience research provides audience feedback about what’s working for your product and what’s not. Users can share their opinions and feelings (not measured by data) about your product.

While doing the research, you might also want to note down industry benchmarks as they will make it easier to set realistic goals for your launch.

2. Position your product with the right offer

By offers, we don’t mean discounts or a buy-one-get-one-free promotion. We’re referring to how you use the research to position your product to appeal to its target audience.

This is one of the critical aspects of a product launch that many people forget. Positioning your product as a solution to your audience’s pain point will help you drive more sales.

Amazon’s marketing strategy for their Amazon Fire Tablets is a great example of positioning. Around the time Amazon launched its tablet, other companies, such as Samsung, launched tablets that struggled to compete with the Apple iPad.

So, instead of marketing it as an iPad alternative, Amazon positioned the Fire Tablets as a different type of affordable tablet they could get for just $199 and drove a ton of sales.

Apple and its competitors position their tablets as advanced hardware with powerful batteries, cameras, storage space and promote its various functionalities and slap a hefty price tag. While Amazon positioned its tablet as a basic option for reading books, watching movies, and listening to music.

Amazon released the Amazon Fire (formerly Kindle Fire) in late 2011, and by October 2012, it became the second-best-selling tablet with 7 million sales (right behind the iPad).

3. Choose a goal

Of course, the goal of the launch is to generate more sales. But how many sales do you want and in what time period?

You need to choose a particular outcome here. You can figure this out by analyzing your past launches to see how many sales you generated. If this is your first launch, refer to the industry benchmark and calculate yours. You can use studies like the above mentioned one from GetResponse or this one from Unbounce. You can look for more through Google search.

Choosing a goal simplifies formulating a strategy and gives your team something to focus on. It will also make it easy to measure results during and after the launch. This will help you determine if the launch was a success or a failure. Tracking the goal constantly through the launch can also help you pivot a failing campaign towards success by making modifications.

4. Come up with a plan and time frame

Your plan should detail your path to the goal. Write down every step you will take including the time frame of the launch. Be as detailed as possible with the steps in your plan.

Include the dates on which you will go through a specific process. You can use project planning software to break down the plan into tasks and assign it to the different teams involved in the launch.

After you create the plan and assign tasks, you can have a Q&A session where members can ask questions. You can modify your strategy based on these questions and make things clearer.

5. Create a minimum viable funnel

If you are creating a funnel for the first time, avoid complicated funnels with dozens of steps. Instead, create a minimum viable funnel (MVF). An MVF is a basic funnel that will help you get the desired sales.

Your MVF will vary depending on the product you are promoting.

For example, if you sell a course or another product that costs more than $100, you can create a webinar funnel like this one from Amy Porterfield.

This funnel includes a webinar, webinar landing page, reminder emails, follow-up emails, and a sales page. In this funnel, people will sign up and watch the webinar. You can then pitch the product at the end of the webinar and in the follow-up emails and send them to a sales page where they can buy the product.

If you are promoting an ecommerce product that costs less than $100, you could use a much simpler funnel. This could include the product page, thank you page, and follow-up emails like this one from Chewy.

Allow some time to test out the MVF. If it generates sufficient sales, you can build on it with upsells, cross-sells, and other elements. But if the funnel tanks, you can create a new MVF from scratch.

6. Set up tracking

You will only know if your funnel is working if you track results from the start. So, install the tracking code as soon as you set up the MVF. For tracking webpages, you can use a tool like Google Analytics. If you add its tracking code to your website, you can check out the number of visits and details such as visitors’ demographics.

Google Analytics also has a Goals feature that helps you track the sales and leads you generate from your launch campaign.

If you are sending traffic using paid methods, you might also want to add the pixel provided by the platform. It will help you check if the traffic converts to leads and sales. The pixel will even help you retarget people who visited your website from the ad.

You might also want to use a heat map and screen recording software to gather even more data.

Along with tracking webpages, you should track your email opens and clicks. Most email service providers like Mailchimp allow you to do this.

7. Have an organized customer support plan

Customer support should be an essential part of your product launch. During the launch, customers will have questions about the product. So, add the chat widget or contact button to your landing page as Marie Forleo did here for her B-School course.

People can either browse through the FAQs and find the answer or contact support.

You can also let people contact you via other methods such as phone and email. Tools like Intercom make it easy to offer excellent customer support.

A good customer support system will also help you improve your funnel as customers can point out issues that prevent them from buying. This could be a slow-loading website or a button not working.

8. Start with organic methods

You can announce the launch of your product through organic methods such as social media, press releases, and email and start sending traffic after the MVF and customer support system are up. Marketers usually face a dilemma at this stage of the launch as they’re unsure if they should start with organic or paid methods.

Paid methods can help you send an unlimited amount of traffic and quickly figure out if your funnel works. But if the funnel performs poorly with paid traffic, it could lead to considerable loss.

This is why it is best to start with organic methods. Organic methods won’t lead to a loss, but you can expect limited traffic. If you decide to go the organic route, you can start by sharing your landing pages with your email list like Todd Brown did here.

You could also share the landing page on social media and place ads for your products on your blog.

Another organic method you can try is to list your product on the AppSumo Marketplace. It’s a great place to reach over one million customers for free.

You can list software, online courses, templates, ebooks, and WordPress plugins.

9. Optimize funnel with data

Organic traffic sources will help you gather some data about the effectiveness of your MVF. If it generates optimum sales, you can simply add other elements such as upsells and cross-sells to it and drive more organic traffic to see how well they convert. But if the funnel generates few sales, consider creating a new one from scratch.

You can also split test landing pages, sales pages, checkout pages, and emails in your funnel to see which one works best. Don’t just look at sales while split testing. Also, pay attention to other KPIs such as bounce rate, page views, and time spent.

10. Scale with paid methods

After you have a funnel that works, you can implement paid methods to scale traffic. But take baby steps here too. Just because you have a funnel that generates sales, it doesn’t mean that you can go all out and spend thousands of dollars from the start.

Running ads is like a science experiment. You must create several versions of your ad and split test them simultaneously to see which one generates the most traffic and sales. Here’s a simple process and some tips for creating an ad:

1. Start by getting tools like Canva and BeatFflyer to make your creatives.
2. Try to use more videos in your ads, as they have a 7.5X higher click-through rate than images. Video ads can seem complicated to make, but tools like Beatflyer will make your job easy. You can create a simple one like this ad from SlideQuest.
3. After that, you can write the copy and publish the ads.

You can run each ad at a $5 a day budget for a week or two. This should be sufficient time for you to find a winner that generates the highest ROAS (return on ad spend). Once you find it, you can simply pause the others and scale the budget for the winner.

11. Accompany with influencer marketing

Another paid tactic you can use with ads is influencer marketing. This can sometimes achieve better results than any of the above methods because people trust recommendations from people who don’t directly work at your company more than what you say about yourself.

Some influencers (especially micro-influencers) will promote your product for free if you give it for free. In contrast, those with large followings will charge you upfront.

If you don’t want to risk paying an influencer upfront, you can try affiliate marketing. This is where influencers promote your product using a special link, and they get a percentage of the sale for everyone who purchases it after visiting through that link.

For some affiliate marketing ideas, check out Adam Preiser’s WPCrafter.com’ YouTube channel.

He regularly publishes videos like this one and shares affiliate links to tools he mentions in the video, in the description.

12. Get customer feedback

At the end of the launch, you should use a survey to get customer feedback. There should be two surveys—one for people who purchased the product and one for those who didn’t. Use these surveys to figure out what helped you generate the sale and what other products the customers are interested in so that you can create them.

And through the survey for people who didn’t buy, you can figure out if they didn’t purchase because your promotion didn’t work or if they just weren’t interested in the product. If they aren’t interested in the product, find out what they want. This could be something you can make.

Now use the product launch checklist to get maximum sales

There are so many steps to a product launch, but these are the crucial ones. To help you quickly recollect these steps, we have created a product launch checklist you can download for free.

Get your 12-step product launch checklist today

You might also want to check out the AppSumo store. We have deals on software, templates, and ebooks that will help you generate maximum sales.

Why should people choose to consume your content over others?

To attract a bigger audience, you need to create better content than the competition—and having the right equipment goes a long way. To simplify the content creation process, we created this list of the best content creator kits for vloggers, podcasters, and bloggers. You will find kits for creators with varying experience levels and budgets.

Content creator kit for video creators

Video creators face the hardest challenge churning out content. You need to record both video and audio and then spend a lot of time editing. It’s a time-consuming task that can be made easier with better equipment.

So, here’s a list of cameras, tripods, lighting, and other video tools for creating vlogs and other video content that will generate maximum views.

• Camera. You need a good camera to record quality footage. This could be your smartphone camera or a video camera.
• Tripod. A tripod is an absolute necessity for vloggers who will record videos by themselves.
• Lighting. During the day you can make do with natural light, but you will require good lighting for the nighttime.
• Video editing software. A powerful editing software will save you time and help you pump out quality content.

1. Your phone’s camera

If you’re new to creating video content and don’t have hundreds of dollars to spend on a high-end camera, you can simply use your phone.

Most phones these days have cameras that record high-resolution videos. They are more portable than hefty cameras and work with selfie sticks and smartphone tripods that make things easier. Once you start earning from your content, you can buy a quality camera or rent one.

2. Canon EOS Rebel T7 DSLR Camera

The Canon EOS Rebel is a powerful camera for taking photos and videos. It has a 24.1 megapixel CMOS (APS-C) sensor, NFC technology, and built-in Wi-Fi. The EOS utility webcam beta software lets you convert your camera into a high-quality webcam.

The Canon EOS Rebel camera has more powerful features such as AI servo AF, a 9-point AF system, and an optical ViewFinder. It is the perfect camera for anyone starting out with videography.

3. Logitech BRIO 4k Webcam

If you don’t want a traditional camera but a better webcam as you’re creating more virtual interviews, or you want to record yourself while playing video games, the Logitech BRIO is perfect. Its resolution is four times more powerful than a regular HD webcam’s. It has other features like auto light adjustment, noise-canceling, and a three-field view to help you record the best video and audio.

4. SwitchPod

SwitchPod is a Tripod “made for creators by creators”. It was founded by Pat Flynn who runs the Smart Passive Income blog and podcast.

The SwitchPod is lightweight, robust, and compact. It’s perfect for vloggers as you can switch to the handheld mode in seconds. It works with any camera—from DSLR to phones. You can also improve the functionality of the tripod by buying attachments such as SwitchPod ball head, Phone Tripod Adapter 2.0, and Quick Release Plate and Adapter.

If this is too high for your budget, you can check out the Torjim phone tripod ($22.99) and the Amazon Basics Camera Mount Tripod ($13.59).

5. Lume Cube – Bi-Color LED Panel

The Lume Cude – Bi-Color LED Panel is a very portable lighting option. It’s just 5.95 inches wide and 3.15 inches tall, and it weighs 0.4 pounds. You can adjust the brightness depending on the shot. Along with the light, you get a cold shoe mount, softening diffuser, carrying pouch, and a micro USB charging cable.

6. Aputure Light Storm C300d Mark

If price isn’t an issue, get the Apture Light Storm c300d Mark. It offers a 5500K color temperature. Along with that, it has other features like quiet fan cooling, step-less dimming, a hyper reflector, and wireless remote control. You can also control it with the Sidius Link App. It is perfect for low-light environments and even overpowering sunlight.

7. Adobe Premiere Pro

Source: Adobe Premiere

Adobe Premiere Pro is among the best video editing software. It has a big learning curve, but once you grasp it, you will edit videos faster. You also have templates that simplify video editing.

For creators who don’t want to handle such an advanced software, there’s an alternative called Adobe Premiere Elements. Premiere Elements is also cheaper as you just need to pay a one-time fee.

8. Camtasia

Camtasia isn’t as advanced as Adobe Premiere Pro, but it is still a pretty advanced software. Along with the video editor, you also get access to a screen recorder. You will prefer it if you want to create explainer videos or video courses. It’s also cheaper and easier to use.

You can check out more video editing software here.

9. Video tools with special use cases

Here are a few more video tools that help you execute tasks other than editing.

• Beatflyer. Beatflyer is an easy-to-use social media video maker. You can either upload your videos and edit them or build videos from scratch with two million stock photos from Beatflyer’s library. Beatflyer also has templates and music clips you can add to your videos.

• Klappz. Klappz is an AI text-to-video converter that turns your text into videos. If you aren’t comfortable with speaking on camera or if you already have a lot of written content like blog posts, you can use Klappz to quickly convert it to video.

• Pinreel. Pinreel is an app for creating animated videos on your Android or iOS device. It has animated cartoon characters, shapes, stickers, backgrounds, and transitions to help you create engaging videos.

Content creator kit for podcasters

Podcasting is a very time-consuming profession. You need to invite guests, prepare for the interviews, record the audio, edit, and publish it. The process requires several hardware, software, and hosting services to do things right. These are some of the best tools for creating and running a podcast.

• Microphones. You can always use your phone or computer to record audio, but a quality mic makes a massive difference.
• Headphones. It is essential to accompany your microphone with a pair of headphones. You will need them while recording and editing.
• Podcasting recording and editing tools. There are several good sound recording and editing software for computers and mobile devices.
• Podcast hosting. Good podcast hosting will ensure your audio plays smoothly online. Some platforms even make it easy to distribute your podcast to other podcasting platforms.

1. Maono AU-A04

The Maono AU-A04 is a nice and affordable plug-and-play USB mic. You simply connect it to your computer and use it without driver software or an external sound card. The condenser mic has a professional sound chipset that helps you record high-resolution audio. The pop filter and foam windscreen ensure your voice is clear.

2. Rode Procaster Broadcast Dynamic Vocal Microphone

The Rode Procaster Broadcaster is a good mid-range microphone for podcasters. It has a tailored-for-voice frequency response and a tight polar pattern. To help reduce plosives, it also has an internal pop-filter. Its made entirely of metal, which makes it quite sturdy. You can buy it with or without a USB Audio Interface.

3. Shure SM7B Vocal Microphone

Shure is a top-quality microphone for recording broadcasts like podcasts, and it isn’t too costly. You can use it whether you are creating pre-recorded or live podcasts. It’s got a dynamic cartridge with a smooth, flat, wide-range frequency response that helps capture clear speech and music. The advanced electromagnetic shielding helps reduce hums from the computer and other studio equipment.

4. OneOdio Wired Over-Ear Headphones

The OneOdio Wired Over-Ear Headphone is a popular and affordable choice for amateur podcasters. It has large 50-millimeter speaker unit drivers and neodymium magnets that deliver clear speech and music. The soft padded cushions thwart noise and ensure you stay comfortable for hours while recording your podcast. It works with devices with a 3.5mm or 6.35mm audio jack.

5. Sony MDR7506

This is a headphone with a large diaphragm. It has 40-millimeter drivers and neodymium magnets that supply a detailed and powerful sound. The closed-ear design reduces noise and offers long-lasting comfort. It’s also great for recording podcasts on the go as you can fold and carry it with you.

6. Sennheiser HD-280 Pro

The Sennheiser HD-280 Pro is another closed-ear lightweight headphone. The extended frequency response helps produce warm and natural sounds. Its ergonomic design with earpads and headband padding also makes it highly comfortable to use during long podcasting sessions.

7. Spreaker

Spreaker is a recording software for podcasters. It has apps for both iOS and Android to help you record podcasts on the go. It even integrates with Skype, so you can invite guests and record your prodcasts virtually. Along with recording, it also has editing features.

You can trim recordings, import files, and merge them. Spreaker also lets you distribute your podcasts to platforms like Spotify, iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon.

You might also want to check out BounceCast, a podcast recording software that helps edit and optimize your podcasts with its AI audio processing. Want more? Read our post on the best podcast recording software.

8. Audacity

Audacity is a free and open-source audio editing software with 100 million downloads. It works on Mac, Linux, and Windows. Features like seeking and scrubbing will help you quickly locate spots to edit. You can copy, paste, cut, and delete audio. But it still has a bit of a  learning curve. Also, there’s no direct support and some users complain about bugs.

You can also check out NoteTrackers Pro, an audio collaboration platform that makes it easy for different team members working on your podcast to enhance the audio. Want more? Read our post on the best audio editing software.

9. Buzzsprout

Buzzsprout is a more traditional podcast hosting service. It allows you to upload your podcast to its hosting service and list it on sites like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Stitcher. Along with this, you have tools such as podcast scheduling, episode optimization, analytics, transcriptions, and the ability to monetize your podcasts.

10. Podbean

Podbean is another popular podcast hosting service that lets you host and monetize your podcasts. You can use the hosting to either deliver pre-recorded podcasts or livestream them. You can even host videos on it. Just like Buzzsprout, it allows you to distribute your podcast on other platforms and check performance with analytics. You can monetize your podcasts with ads or by selling premium content. Listeners can also donate to your podcast.

If you’re looking for a podcast hosting platform that lets you monetize your audio content, check out Soundwise. It’s the perfect solution for podcasters, coaches, and infopreneurs who want to create and sell digital audio products.

Content creator kit for bloggers

Blogging is an easier way to create content than podcasting or making videos. If you are good at writing, this is a form of content creation you can excel at.

At the most basic level, you’ll need a content management system (CMS) and a hosting service. You can also purchase several additional tools that will help you with writing and lead generation.

• Blogging platforms. There are so many free and paid platforms out there. You can pick one based on your budget and technical expertise.
• Writing and SEO tools. Nowadays, you have access to tools that can help you write and edit content.
• Email and lead-gen software. These tools will help you grow an email list you can monetize.

1. WordPress

WordPress is the most popular blogging platform. It powers 43% of all websites and 65% of content management systems. Over 455 million websites run on WordPress. People use this CMS to not just run their blogs, but also to build websites. It’s popular because the platform is easy to use even if you have no experience with design or coding. You can also install plugins on your site and boost its functionality.

WordPress is free to use. But if you want a self-hosted WordPress site, you’ll need to pay for hosting. You can purchase this directly from WordPress itself or through third-party WordPress managed hosting services.

2. Medium

You must have come across Medium articles. The site has over 60 million active users. This platform is a good alternative for people who don’t want to go through the trouble of building and monetizing their own site.

You can publish articles on the platform and Medium will pay you based on the number of views you generate. You can also use Medium simultaneously with your own blog, to help promote content.

3. Ghost

Ghost is a free and open-source blogging platform. Many people choose it over WordPress as it has more advanced features. You don’t need to install plugins separately. Also, unlike WordPress, you can install it in the sub-folder of your website. But it doesn’t offer as many integrations as WordPress.

4. Bramework

Bramework is an SEO keyword research and AI writing tool that will help you speed up the content writing process. You can use it to find keywords that your audience is searching for. After finding keywords, you can directly get Bramework to use its AI writing assistant to write the content. It can also generate different headlines for your blog post.

The Basic, Starter, Professional, and Agency plans cost $9, $29, $59, and $119 per month, with a free 7-day trial. But you can get it for a one-time payment of just $79 on AppSumo.

5. Linguix

Whether you write the post by yourself or with an AI writer, you need to edit it to eliminate grammatical errors and simplify the writing. A tool like Grammarly or Linguix can help quicken the process. It will highlight spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors and offer suggestions for fixing them. You can simply install the browser extension and use it on Google docs.

The premium plan costs $14.99 per month. But you can get the annual plan on AppSumo for $49 per year. There are also free and team plans.

6. SendFox

SendFox is a highly affordable email service provider. You can create forms, landing pages, autoresponders, and broadcasts with it. It’s a powerful tool for building your email list and sending simple emails with the WYSIWYG editor. You can use it to create smart pages that display content from your social media accounts and podcasts.

You can get SendFox for life with a one-time payment of $49 on AppSumo.

7. Sumo

Sumo is an advanced lead generation tool. It allows you to create customized opt-in forms like welcome mats, popups, and sticky bars to generate maximum leads from your blog or ecommerce store.

You can use Sumo to send emails, but it also integrates with many popular email service providers. Add Sumo to any website by copying and pasting a code or using the WordPress plugin or Shopify app.

The best time to be a content creator

There’s a lot of content out there, and people are creating even more. You can see it every time you log in to your email inbox or social media accounts.

Many of these content creators have already established a brand and audience. If you want people to choose your content over the competition’s, you need to create better content.

The most straightforward way to do this is to purchase the best equipment and software and churn out high-quality content. The tools we’ve shared will give you the edge you need. Go through the list again and buy the ones you like most.

You might also want to check out the AppSumo store to find the best software and templates. We have several lifetime deals that will save you hundreds of dollars.