With hundreds of tools in the directory, scrolling from the top isn't a good plan. This article covers the ways to narrow things down and a few habits that save you from picking the wrong product.
Start with search
The search box on the tools page looks for your words in tool listings. Use plain descriptions of the job you want done, such as "transcribe meetings" or "remove image background", rather than vague terms like "productivity". If nothing comes back, try a shorter or more general phrase. Searching for "video" will usually find more than "AI video upscaler for old footage".
Browse by category
On the tools page, the sidebar lists categories with the number of tools in each. Click one and the list narrows to that category. Your search words and price filter stay in place when you switch categories, so you can combine them: for example, search "summary" inside a writing category.
The categories page shows every category at once. Some are still small or empty because the directory is growing, so if the exact category you want has few tools, try a neighboring one. See Categories and tags for more.
Use tags to move sideways
Tags are short labels such as "chatbot" or "open source". Click a tag on a tool page and you'll land on a page listing every tool with that tag. Tags are looser than categories, so they're good for finding tools that cross categories.
Filter by price
The price buttons at the top of the list are Any price, Free, Freemium and Paid.
- Free: the tool is free to use. Some free tools have usage limits.
- Freemium: there's a free tier, with paid plans for more features or volume.
- Paid: you pay from the start.
Tool pages may also show Free Trial or Open Source as the pricing type. These labels come from whoever listed the tool, so treat them as a starting point.
Sort the list
By default the newest tools come first. You can switch to A to Z. Featured tools are pinned above everything else in either order, and they carry a "Featured" label, so you can tell them apart from the rest.
Before you commit to a tool
A listing is a pointer, not a review. A few checks take five minutes and can save you a lot of trouble:
- Open the tool's own website and confirm the pricing. Plans change often.
- Look for a privacy policy, especially if you plan to upload documents, customer data or anything confidential. Find out whether your inputs are used to train models.
- Try the free tier or trial with a real task of yours, not the demo example.
- Search for independent opinions from people who use it daily. A tool's own testimonials are marketing.
- Check whether the product looks maintained: recent updates, a working support address, a company behind it.
Can't find what you need?
The directory doesn't have every tool, and new ones appear regularly. If something looks wrong or you know of a tool that's missing, send us a note.
