Side by side.

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For slides: Canva is a full design tool with presentations; Gamma generates decks, docs and simple sites from a prompt.

	Canva	Gamma
What it does	An online design tool for social posts, slides and documents, with built-in AI features.	Makes presentations, documents and simple websites from a prompt.
Is it actually free?	Free tier with limits	Free tier with limits
Free plan limits	Free: drag-and-drop editor, 1.6M+ templates, 5GB storage and up to 20 Standard or Premium AI uses.	Free: 400 credits at signup (one time), up to 10 slides per prompt, export to PDF, PPTX and Google Slides.
Pricing	Free; Pro (about 10x Free's AI usage) and Business US$250/year per person; Enterprise custom. Check the page for your region's Pro price.	Free; Plus $9/seat/month billed annually; higher tiers available.
Best for	Small businesses making social posts, flyers and simple slides fast.	Fast first drafts of slide decks.
Not great for	Heavy AI generation on the free plan (20 AI uses).	Pixel-perfect, brand-locked decks.
Last checked	2026-10-13	2026-10-13

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Both are general AI assistants with free plans and $20/month paid tiers. The differences that matter for most people are usage limits, what the free plan includes, and which apps each connects to.

	ChatGPT	Claude
What it does	OpenAI's general-purpose AI chat assistant for questions, writing, files, images and voice.	Anthropic's AI assistant for writing, analysis, long documents and coding help.
Is it actually free?	Free tier with limits	Free tier with limits
Free plan limits	Free plan: unlimited everyday text chats (subject to abuse guardrails), with limited file uploads, image creation, voice chats, deep research, memory and Codex access.	Free plan ($0): chat on web, desktop and mobile, web search, file creation and code execution, memory, connectors and Artifacts. Claude Code is not included on Free.
Pricing	Free; Go $8/month; Plus $20/month; Pro from $100/month; Business and Enterprise plans priced per user.	Free; Pro $20/month ($17/month billed annually); Max from $100/month; Team and Enterprise plans available.
Best for	Everyday questions, drafting, summarizing documents and voice chats on web and phone.	Long documents, careful writing and editing, and analysis you want explained step by step.
Not great for	Anything where a wrong answer is costly without checking sources yourself.	Heavy daily use on the free plan; usage limits apply on every plan.
Last checked	2026-10-13	2026-10-13

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ChatGPT is a standalone assistant; Gemini is Google's assistant and is built into Google's apps. Both have free plans.

	ChatGPT	Gemini
What it does	OpenAI's general-purpose AI chat assistant for questions, writing, files, images and voice.	Google's AI assistant, built into the Gemini app and Google's apps.
Is it actually free?	Free tier with limits	Free tier with limits
Free plan limits	Free plan: unlimited everyday text chats (subject to abuse guardrails), with limited file uploads, image creation, voice chats, deep research, memory and Codex access.	Free ($0 with a Google Account): Gemini app with a Flash-Lite model, image generation and editing, Deep Research, Gemini Live, Canvas and Gems. Paid plans list 2x-4x higher usage limits than Free.
Pricing	Free; Go $8/month; Plus $20/month; Pro from $100/month; Business and Enterprise plans priced per user.	Free; Google AI Plus $4.99/month; Google AI Pro $19.99/month; higher tiers and Workspace business plans available (US prices).
Best for	Everyday questions, drafting, summarizing documents and voice chats on web and phone.	People already in Gmail, Docs and Android who want help where they already work.
Not great for	Anything where a wrong answer is costly without checking sources yourself.	People who want a single, simple price list: features and limits vary by plan and region.
Last checked	2026-10-13	2026-10-13

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ChatGPT (OpenAI) and Grok (xAI) are both general assistants with free access and paid upgrades, and both publish their plan prices.

	ChatGPT	Grok
What it does	OpenAI's general-purpose AI chat assistant for questions, writing, files, images and voice.	xAI's AI assistant, available on grok.com, in the Grok apps and in X.
Is it actually free?	Free tier with limits	Free tier with limits
Free plan limits	Free plan: unlimited everyday text chats (subject to abuse guardrails), with limited file uploads, image creation, voice chats, deep research, memory and Codex access.	Free ($0): daily access to Grok, a starter allowance for Cursor's coding agents, and standard X.
Pricing	Free; Go $8/month; Plus $20/month; Pro from $100/month; Business and Enterprise plans priced per user.	Grok is sold through The X Subscription (xAI, Oct 12, 2026): Free $0; Plus $8/month; Premium $30/month; Super $100/month; Ultra $200/month; Teams from $30 per user per month. Paid plans share one Grok usage pool across Grok, Cursor and the Grok tab on X; Premium and up include Grok Bot. Prices exclude taxes. SuperGrok is replaced by Premium for new customers; existing subscribers are getting the option to switch.
Best for	Everyday questions, drafting, summarizing documents and voice chats on web and phone.	Quick answers, image and video generation, and topics being discussed on X.
Not great for	Anything where a wrong answer is costly without checking sources yourself.	—
Last checked	2026-10-13	2026-10-15

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Claude is Anthropic's assistant; Gemini is Google's. Both have free plans and a roughly $20/month paid tier.

	Claude	Gemini
What it does	Anthropic's AI assistant for writing, analysis, long documents and coding help.	Google's AI assistant, built into the Gemini app and Google's apps.
Is it actually free?	Free tier with limits	Free tier with limits
Free plan limits	Free plan ($0): chat on web, desktop and mobile, web search, file creation and code execution, memory, connectors and Artifacts. Claude Code is not included on Free.	Free ($0 with a Google Account): Gemini app with a Flash-Lite model, image generation and editing, Deep Research, Gemini Live, Canvas and Gems. Paid plans list 2x-4x higher usage limits than Free.
Pricing	Free; Pro $20/month ($17/month billed annually); Max from $100/month; Team and Enterprise plans available.	Free; Google AI Plus $4.99/month; Google AI Pro $19.99/month; higher tiers and Workspace business plans available (US prices).
Best for	Long documents, careful writing and editing, and analysis you want explained step by step.	People already in Gmail, Docs and Android who want help where they already work.
Not great for	Heavy daily use on the free plan; usage limits apply on every plan.	People who want a single, simple price list: features and limits vary by plan and region.
Last checked	2026-10-13	2026-10-13

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Cursor is an AI code editor; Claude Code is Anthropic's coding agent that runs in the terminal, IDE and desktop and comes with Claude Pro or Max.

	Cursor	Claude Code
What it does	An AI code editor with agents that write and edit code.	Anthropic's coding agent for the terminal, IDE and desktop.
Is it actually free?	Free tier with limits	Paid
Free plan limits	Free ($0/month): limited agent and chat requests.	Not included on Claude's Free plan; it comes with Pro and Max.
Pricing	Free; Plus $8/month (Grok models only); Premium $30/month; Super $100/month; Teams plans available.	Included with Claude Pro ($20/month, $17 billed annually) and Max (from $100/month); also usable via API billing.
Best for	Developers who want AI built into their editor.	Developers handing off multi-step coding tasks.
Not great for	Non-developers: some coding knowledge helps.	People who do not want to use a terminal or IDE.
Last checked	2026-10-13	2026-10-13

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Both are AI coding tools with free plans. Cursor is its own code editor; GitHub Copilot plugs into editors you already use and into GitHub.

	Cursor	GitHub Copilot
What it does	An AI code editor with agents that write and edit code.	GitHub's AI coding assistant in editors, the CLI and on GitHub.
Is it actually free?	Free tier with limits	Free tier with limits
Free plan limits	Free ($0/month): limited agent and chat requests.	Free ($0): limited chat and agent usage; supports CLI and agent mode.
Pricing	Free; Plus $8/month (Grok models only); Premium $30/month; Super $100/month; Teams plans available.	Free; Pro $10/month; Pro+ $39/month; Max $100/month.
Best for	Developers who want AI built into their editor.	Developers who work in VS Code and GitHub.
Not great for	Non-developers: some coding knowledge helps.	Non-coders building whole apps from a prompt.
Last checked	2026-10-13	2026-10-13

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ElevenLabs makes voiceovers and clones voices; Speechify mainly reads text aloud to you. They solve different problems, so pick by what you need.

	ElevenLabs	Speechify
What it does	AI text-to-speech, voice cloning, dubbing and sound effects.	Reads text, PDFs and web pages aloud; also offers voice typing.
Is it actually free?	Free tier with limits	Free tier with limits
Free plan limits	Free ($0): 10,000 credits a month (about 10 minutes of text to speech), 3 Studio projects. No commercial license and no voice cloning.	Free: listen at up to 1.5x speed with 10 basic ('robotic sounding') voices; text-to-speech only.
Pricing	Free; Starter $6/month; Creator $22/month; Pro $99/month; Scale $299; Business $990.	Free; Premium $29/month billed monthly (cheaper yearly).
Best for	Natural-sounding voiceovers and narration.	Listening to articles and documents, including for reading difficulties.
Not great for	Commercial projects on the free plan (no commercial license).	Producing commercial voiceovers.
Last checked	2026-10-13	2026-10-13

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Fathom and Otter are both AI meeting recorders with free plans.

	Fathom	Otter.ai
What it does	A free AI meeting recorder with instant summaries.	Records and transcribes meetings and writes AI summaries.
Is it actually free?	Free tier with limits	Free tier with limits
Free plan limits	Free forever: unlimited recordings and transcriptions, instant AI call summaries, bot-free (beta) or bot capture.	Basic (free): 300 transcription minutes a month, Zoom/Teams/Meet notes, live transcription, and only 3 audio/video file imports for the lifetime of the account.
Pricing	Free; Team $15-19/user/month (2-user minimum); Business $25-34/user/month.	Free; Pro $16.99/user/month ($8.49 billed annually); Business $30/user/month; Enterprise custom.
Best for	Individuals who want unlimited free meeting recordings.	Transcribing meetings and calls.
Not great for	Team features without paying.	Transcribing many uploaded recordings on the free plan (3 imports, ever).
Last checked	2026-10-13	2026-10-13

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Grammarly focuses on correcting and polishing your writing; QuillBot is best known for paraphrasing.

	Grammarly	QuillBot
What it does	Checks spelling, grammar and tone, and rewrites text with AI.	Paraphrasing, grammar checking, summarizing and other writing tools.
Is it actually free?	Free tier with limits	Free tier with limits
Free plan limits	Free ($0): spelling and grammar fixes, tone detection, and 100 AI prompts.	Free ($0): basic writing tools; Premium removes limits (see page for exact free limits).
Pricing	Free; Pro $12/month (7-day free trial); Enterprise custom.	Free; Premium $8.33/month billed annually.
Best for	Catching mistakes in emails and documents.	Rewording sentences and quick grammar fixes.
Not great for	Writing whole documents for you.	Original long-form writing.
Last checked	2026-10-13	2026-10-13

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Both build web apps from a chat description and both have free plans.

	Lovable	Bolt
What it does	Builds web apps from a chat description.	StackBlitz's AI app builder that writes, runs and deploys web apps in the browser.
Is it actually free?	Free tier with limits	Free tier with limits
Free plan limits	Free: 5 build credits a day (up to 30 a month) plus 20 Cloud credits a month.	Free: 300K tokens a day and 1M a month, Bolt branding on sites, 10MB uploads, hosting.
Pricing	Free; Pro $25/month (100 monthly credits); Business $50/month.	Free; Pro $25/month; Teams $30/member/month; Enterprise custom.
Best for	Non-coders making a first working prototype.	Quick web app prototypes.
Not great for	Complex production apps without a developer review.	Big projects on the free token limit.
Last checked	2026-10-13	2026-10-13

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Microsoft Copilot is free to chat with and is built into Microsoft 365 apps on paid plans; ChatGPT is a standalone assistant.

	Microsoft Copilot	ChatGPT
What it does	Microsoft's AI assistant, free on the web and phone, and built into Microsoft 365 apps on paid plans.	OpenAI's general-purpose AI chat assistant for questions, writing, files, images and voice.
Is it actually free?	Free tier with limits	Free tier with limits
Free plan limits	A free Copilot chat exists; Microsoft's plan page describes paid plans as having 'higher usage than free' but does not list exact free limits.	Free plan: unlimited everyday text chats (subject to abuse guardrails), with limited file uploads, image creation, voice chats, deep research, memory and Codex access.
Pricing	Free chat; Microsoft 365 Personal with Copilot $9.99/month; business plans such as Microsoft 365 Copilot Business from $18/user/month paid yearly (promotional; regular $21).	Free; Go $8/month; Plus $20/month; Pro from $100/month; Business and Enterprise plans priced per user.
Best for	People who live in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.	Everyday questions, drafting, summarizing documents and voice chats on web and phone.
Not great for	People outside the Microsoft ecosystem who just want a chat assistant.	Anything where a wrong answer is costly without checking sources yourself.
Last checked	2026-10-13	2026-10-13

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Midjourney is a standalone image generator; Adobe Firefly is Adobe's generative AI and is linked to Photoshop and other Adobe apps.

	Midjourney	Adobe Firefly
What it does	An AI image (and short video) generator known for stylized, high-quality images.	Adobe's generative AI for images, video and audio, linked to Photoshop and other Adobe apps.
Is it actually free?	Paid	Free trial only
Free plan limits	No free plan is listed on the plan comparison page; all four plans are paid.	Paid plans offer a free trial; we did not see an ongoing free plan on the plans page.
Pricing	Basic $10/month; Standard $30; Pro $60; Mega $120 (annual billing about 20% less). Companies with over $1M revenue need Pro or Mega.	Firefly Standard US$9.99/month; Pro US$19.99/month; Pro Plus and Premium higher (time-limited first-year discounts shown in Oct 2026).
Best for	Artistic, stylized images and concept art.	People already using Adobe apps who want AI edits like Generative Fill.
Not great for	Free use, or images with exact readable text.	People who want a free, standalone image tool.
Last checked	2026-10-13	2026-10-13

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Midjourney is known for stylized, artistic images; Ideogram is known for putting readable text into images.

	Midjourney	Ideogram
What it does	An AI image (and short video) generator known for stylized, high-quality images.	An AI image generator that is good at putting readable text into images.
Is it actually free?	Paid	Free tier with limits
Free plan limits	No free plan is listed on the plan comparison page; all four plans are paid.	Free plan ($0): weekly slow credits for eligible accounts; generations are public.
Pricing	Basic $10/month; Standard $30; Pro $60; Mega $120 (annual billing about 20% less). Companies with over $1M revenue need Pro or Mega.	Free; Plus $20/month ($15/month billed annually); Pro $60/month ($42 annually); Team $20-30/user/month.
Best for	Artistic, stylized images and concept art.	Posters, logos and social graphics that need words in the image.
Not great for	Free use, or images with exact readable text.	Private work on the free plan.
Last checked	2026-10-13	2026-10-13

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Both record, transcribe and summarize meetings, and both have free plans with different limits.

	Otter.ai	Fireflies.ai
What it does	Records and transcribes meetings and writes AI summaries.	An AI notetaker that joins meetings, transcribes and summarizes them.
Is it actually free?	Free tier with limits	Free tier with limits
Free plan limits	Basic (free): 300 transcription minutes a month, Zoom/Teams/Meet notes, live transcription, and only 3 audio/video file imports for the lifetime of the account.	Free forever: unlimited transcription (with fair-use limits), limited AI summaries, 400 minutes of storage.
Pricing	Free; Pro $16.99/user/month ($8.49 billed annually); Business $30/user/month; Enterprise custom.	Free; Pro $10/seat/month billed annually; Business $19/seat/month billed annually ($29 monthly); Enterprise custom.
Best for	Transcribing meetings and calls.	Teams that want searchable transcripts of many meetings.
Not great for	Transcribing many uploaded recordings on the free plan (3 imports, ever).	Keeping lots of recordings on the free plan (400 minutes storage).
Last checked	2026-10-13	2026-10-13

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Perplexity is built around web search with cited sources; ChatGPT is a general assistant that can also search.

	Perplexity	ChatGPT
What it does	An AI answer engine that searches the web and cites its sources.	OpenAI's general-purpose AI chat assistant for questions, writing, files, images and voice.
Is it actually free?	Free tier with limits	Free tier with limits
Free plan limits	Free plan: use the automatic 'Best' model in Search plus a limited number of Pro Searches; you cannot pick advanced models manually.	Free plan: unlimited everyday text chats (subject to abuse guardrails), with limited file uploads, image creation, voice chats, deep research, memory and Codex access.
Pricing	Free; Pro $17/month billed annually; Max $167/month billed annually.	Free; Go $8/month; Plus $20/month; Pro from $100/month; Business and Enterprise plans priced per user.
Best for	Research questions where you want to click through to the sources.	Everyday questions, drafting, summarizing documents and voice chats on web and phone.
Not great for	Long creative writing or work that does not need web search.	Anything where a wrong answer is costly without checking sources yourself.
Last checked	2026-10-13	2026-10-13

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Both generate short AI video clips.

	Runway	Pika
What it does	An AI video generation and editing platform.	An AI video generator for short clips and effects.
Is it actually free?	Free tier with limits	Paid
Free plan limits	Free: 125 one-time credits (they do not renew) and 5GB storage.	The Free plan includes 0 monthly credits ('packs only'): you have to buy credit packs to generate. No commercial license on Free.
Pricing	Free; Standard $15/month ($12 billed annually, 625 credits); Pro $35/month ($28 annually, 2,250 credits); Team and Enterprise available.	Starter $10/month (900 credits); Creator $35/month; Fancy $95/month.
Best for	Short AI video clips and editing experiments.	Short, playful video clips and effects.
Not great for	Long videos on a small budget: credits run out fast (625 credits = about 52s of Gen-4.5).	Free use: the free plan has no monthly credits.
Last checked	2026-10-13	2026-10-13

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Both generate songs from text prompts and both have free plans with daily credits.

	Suno	Udio
What it does	Generates full songs with vocals from a text prompt.	Generates songs and music from text prompts.
Is it actually free?	Free tier with limits	Free tier with limits
Free plan limits	Free ($0): 50 credits per day on Suno's free models; no song downloads, no commercial rights, no add-on credits.	Free ($0): 10 credits per day and 100 per month (no rollover), up to 3 full-length song generations a day.
Pricing	Free; Pro $8/month billed yearly; Premier $24/month billed yearly.	Free; Standard $10/month ($8 billed annually); Pro $30/month ($24 billed annually).
Best for	Fun songs, jingles and drafts of musical ideas.	Experimenting with AI music and editing parts of a song.
Not great for	Commercial use on the free plan.	Heavy daily generation on the free plan.
Last checked	2026-10-13	2026-10-13

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Both turn a script into a video with an AI avatar and both have free plans.

	Synthesia	HeyGen
What it does	Makes presenter-style videos with AI avatars from a script.	Makes AI avatar videos and video translations.
Is it actually free?	Free tier with limits	Free tier with limits
Free plan limits	Basic ($0): 500 credits a month, about 10 minutes of video creation or dubbing; videos carry a Synthesia watermark.	Free ($0/month): 3 videos per month, up to 1 minute each, 1 custom video avatar.
Pricing	Free; Starter $29/month; Pro $89/month (billed monthly); Enterprise custom.	Free; Creator $29/month; Pro $49/month; business plans available.
Best for	Training and explainer videos without filming.	Short avatar videos and translating videos into other languages.
Not great for	Videos where a real person on camera matters.	Longer videos on the free plan (1-minute cap).
Last checked	2026-10-13	2026-10-13

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Both connect apps to automate tasks and both have free plans.

	Zapier	Make
What it does	Connects thousands of apps to automate tasks, including with AI steps.	A visual automation builder for connecting apps.
Is it actually free?	Free tier with limits	Free tier with limits
Free plan limits	Free forever: 100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps, Tables and Forms.	Free plan: 1,000 credits a month (from Make's pricing FAQ).
Pricing	Free; Professional from $19.99/month; Team and Enterprise higher.	Check pricing: paid tiers (Core, Pro, Teams) depend on how many credits you buy.
Best for	Small businesses automating simple app-to-app tasks.	Visual, multi-step automations at a lower cost per task.
Not great for	High-volume automations on the free plan.	Total beginners: the builder has a learning curve.
Last checked	2026-10-13	2026-10-13