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11 Best Content Creation Tools and Software (Top Picks)

In today’s digital world, content is king. However, competition is rampant, so if you want yours to stand out, you should consider using content creation tools designed to speed up the process.

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We are talking, specifically, about tools that will help you plan, research, write, and even schedule and publish your content online.

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In this article, we will round up the best free content creation tools to help you produce higher-quality blogs, podcasts, videos, and more. Let’s get started, shall we?

Content Creation Tools

TL;DR:

Best writing tools

Jasper

Jasper is an AI content-creation tool that infuses all of its output with recent search data, SEO, grammar optimization, brand voice, and the latest language models.

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You can use it to generate blog posts, marketing copy, product descriptions, and social media captions.

Jasper is an AI-powered writing tool ideal for generating content.

Jasper offers hundreds of different templates you can use to generate content – anything from social media posts to long-form blog articles and scripts. The tool also supports image AI generation, revisions, document sharing, and multi-user login and can integrate with Grammarly and other Chrome extensions.

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Read more: Jasper.ai Review: 3 Steps, 5 Features, and 10 Pros and Cons on the Best AI Copywriting Tool

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Features

Text and image AI generation: You can create content by selecting a format and giving Jasper a title and some sentences.

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Machine learning: The platform won’t just generate the text or image but also learn the more you use it (adjusting to your tone of voice and writing style).

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Plagiarism checker: Jasper includes a built-in plagiarism checker to make sure your content is 100% original and not used somewhere else.

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Pros

  • Efficient: Jasper can generate content in seconds and using just a few simple inputs.
  • Natural-sounding: The output always sounds natural and accurate, matching the tone you request.
  • Innovative: You can use Jasper to plan content and find new and creative angles.

Some of Jasper's templates. Source: https://www.jasper.ai/blog/review-generator

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Cons

  • Requires some editing: Depending on what you are creating, you might need to do some editing, especially for longer-form content.
  • Lacks personalization: As Jasper is an AI tool, you might find the tone of voice lacks the style you might expect from a human writer.
  • Struggles with niches: The platform does better with short content requests but can struggle with more niche topics.

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Pricing

  • Creator Plan ($39/mo): Ideal for freelancers and entrepreneurs, this plan includes one seat, 50+ templates, one brand voice, and 50 knowledge assets.
  • Teams Plan ($99/mo): Better suited for small marketing teams, this plan comes with three seats, three brand voices, 150 knowledge assets, 10 campaigns, and an SEO mode.
  • Business Plan (custom pricing): This personalized plan is recommended for departments and organizations and includes unlimited features, custom templates and workflows, API access, and advanced admin analytics.

beehiiv

Beehiiv is a newsletter platform that allows you to create, monetize, and scale your business. Plus, beehiv integrates with several other tools and has its own API.

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Beehiv is a newsletter platform designed for growth.

Behiiv is a hybrid platform that combines blog and newsletter content in one place.

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This means that you can use the same tool to send newsletters and publish articles – and automate most tasks like SEO, referrals, recommendations, and more.

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Read more: beehiiv Review: The Best Software to Start, Grow, and Monetize an Email List

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Features

Hybrid platform: Beehiiv allows you to create a website, publish articles, and/or send newsletters from the same platform.

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Solid SEO: Beehiiv includes important SEO aspects, such as sitemaps, non-index URLs, schema markup, and custom domains.

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Customization: You will be able to customize your emails and articles with your own theme and design (including fonts, colors, and spacing).

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Pros

  • Monetization: You can charge membership fees for newsletters – but you won’t need to pay Beehiiv for them; they are included in all plans!
  • Online tool: All Beehiiv functionality can be accessed online, so you don’t need to install any programs.
  • Integrations: You can use the platform in combination with tools like WordPress, Wix, Shopify, Zapier, and many more.

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Examples of newsletters and page screated with Beehiiv. Source: https://blog.beehiiv.com/p/newsletter-landing-page-examples

Cons

  • Limited blog customization: Beehiiv’s abilities in terms of article personalization are not as good as those available for newsletters.
  • No code injection: You won’t be able to add your own CSS or JavaScript; only HTML.
  • No additional analytics: Beehiiv also cannot integrate with 3rd party analytics outside Google Analytics (such as Plausible or Fathom).

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Pricing

  • Launch Plan (Free): There is a free version that includes web hosting, custom newsletters, and some audience segmentation.
  • Grow Plan ($42/mo): This plan supports premium subscriptions, polls, and multiple team members.
  • Scale Plan ($84/mo): A more thorough plan with referrals, journeys, 3D analytics, and an advanced web builder.
  • Enterprise Plan (Custom): All in the previous plans but white-labeled and unlimited.

Best content research tools

Surfer

Surfer SEO is an out-of-page SEO optimization tool that uses top-ranking pages’ data to show you what’s missing from your content.

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Surfer is a powerful SEO optimization tool and one of our favorite content creation tools.

Surfer SEO has three main features to help you optimize your articles and posts: A great SERP analyzer, an easy-to-use SEO content editor, and a powerful keyword research tool.

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All of them are based on real data, so you can improve your content using efficient ranking factors.

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Read more: SurferSEO Review: Our Favorite Keyword Research and Content Planning Tool Plus 4 Features You Need In Order to Rank Higher

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Features

SERP Analyzer: This tool allows you to explore a niche by providing you with details about the pages your competitors are using.

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SEO Content Editor: You can use Surfer to generate a list of relevant keywords, write an outline, and optimize content.

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Keyword Researcher: Surfer also includes a keyword research tool to explore dozens of relevant topic clusters and words.

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Pros

  • User-friendly: Surfer is very easy to use and offers an interface that makes optimization effortless.
  • 1-click SEO audits: Generate reports for any web page and explore backlinks, density, keywords, and load time, among others.
  • Constant updates: Surfer SEO is constantly upgrading its tools to keep up with market trends and capabilities.

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Surfer's keyword researcher tool. Source: https://surferseo.com/keyword-research/

Cons

  • Price: Surfer is not cheap. Although there are smaller plants, they have equally small caps, too.
  • AI writing is not as good: Compared to other AI writing assistants, this platform’s writing is not as powerful.
  • Cannot pause plans: Small business owners would benefit from this option, which is not supported.

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Pricing

  • Lite Plan ($19/mo): Includes 36 content edit credits (or articles) per year and 120 keyword research items.
  • Essential Plan ($69/mo): Includes 84 articles per year and 100 keyword research items per day, plus 2 organization seats.
  • Advanced Plan ($149/mo): Includes 300 articles, and 5 organizational seats.
  • Max Plan ($249): Includes 600 articles and 10 organization seats.

Google Trends

Google Trends is a Google tool that allows you to research topics and compare search interests by locations and time ranges.

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Google Trend's home page.

The data extracted through Google Trends can show you which topics and terms are (as its name indicates) trending within the search engine.

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In other words, you can identify hot topics in a niche of interest and create timely content to go with it.

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Features

Search volume: You can use Google Trends to measure relative keyword popularity by geography and time range.

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Seasonal trends: Google Trends can help you plan when to start advertising for a holiday or important date (for example, you can compare search trends over several years).

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Google Shopping Ads integration: You can easily connect Trends with your Google Shopping ads to wun them during the most lucrative timeframes.

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Pros

  • Data-driven insights: Google Trends provides valuable data on relevant search trends and patterns.
  • Comparative analysis: You can compare the popularity of different search terms over time or across regions, seeing how topics evolve.
  • Real-time monitoring: Google Trends offers real-time data.

An example of a Google Trend analysis. Source: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=Cormac%20McCarthy&date=now%201-d&geo=US&hl=en

Cons

  • Poor related topics: We’ve noticed that many times, the suggestions Google Trends gives for related topics are pretty inaccurate.
  • Limited comparison options: You can only compare five keywords per comparison chart.
  • Limited industries: Although you can narrow your search by industry, there isn’t always a correct category to pick.

Pricing

Google Trends is free to use.

Best visual content creation tools

Figma

Figma is a cloud-based design and prototyping tool used by designers, developers, and teams to create user interfaces (UI) and collaborate on design projects in real time.

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Figma is a cloud-based graphic design tool used by developers and designers.

Figma provides a comprehensive platform for the entire design process, from ideation and wireframing to prototyping and handoff.

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Users can see each other’s changes in real time and leave comments directly on the designs, streamlining the feedback and iteration process.

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Features

Real-time collaboration: Figma allows multiple team members to work simultaneously on the same design file.

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Design systems and components: You can create reusable components, define design guidelines, and maintain a centralized library of assets.

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Easy handoffs: Figma simplifies the prototyping process, enabling designers to create interactive and animated prototypes directly within the tool.

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Pros

  • Cross-platform accessibility: Figma is cloud-based, which means it can be accessed from any operating system or device with a web browser.
  • Version control: The tool supports real-time collaboration and versions to avoid conflicts and support smoother workflows.
  • Extensive design capabilities: Figma offers a wide range of design and prototyping tools, such as vector editing, animations, and advanced interactions.

Guide to prototyping in Figma. Source: https://help.figma.com/hc/en-us/articles/360040314193-Guide-to-prototyping-in-Figma

Cons

  • Internet dependency: Figma relies on an internet connection for both editing and accessing design files.
  • Steeper learning curve: While Figma is generally user-friendly, it still has a learning curve, especially for those new to design tools.
  • Pricing structure: For larger teams or organizations requiring additional functionality, subscription pricing may be a consideration.

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Pricing

  • Free Plan (Free): Free forever, this plan supports 3 Figma and 3 FigJam files.
  • Professional Plan ($11/editor/mo): This plan adds sharing permissions, team libraries, and audio conversations.
  • Organization Plan ($40/editor/mo): Everything above plus organization-wide libraries, design system analytics, branching, and more.

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Unsplash

Unsplash is an online platform that offers a vast collection of high-quality, royalty-free images and photographs.

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The free tool Unsplash's home page.

Unsplash serves as a valuable resource for designers, content creators, and anyone in need of visually appealing visuals for personal or commercial use.

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There is a free plan with thousands of pictures and a Pro plan if you want enhanced legal protections.

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Features

Extensive image library: Unsplash provides a vast collection of images contributed by a global community of photographers.

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Free high-resolution downloads: All images on Unsplash are available for free, as high-resolution downloads and without the need for attribution.

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User-driven curation: Unsplash allows users to curate their own collections of images and follow specific photographers.

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Pros

  • Quality and variety:ย Unsplash has a diverse range of subjects, styles, and themes, ensuring there’s something for everyone.
  • Free and easy licensing: Users can freely download and use the images for personal or commercial purposes without attribution.
  • Community-driven platform: Unsplash fosters a vibrant community of photographers, designers, and creatives.

An example of an image search in Unsplash.

Cons

  • Limited exclusivity: Since Unsplash is a popular platform, some of the images may be widely used by other sites.
  • Limited control over editing: Unsplash images are provided as-is, and users have limited control over editing or modifying the images.
  • Lack of model releases: The platform doesn’t require photographers to submit model releases for images featuring recognizable individuals.

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Pricing

  • Free Plan (Free): You can explore, download, and use images.
  • Unsplash+ Plan ($12/mo): You can access additional and exclusive members-only content.

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Midjourney

Midjourney is a generative artificial intelligence service that can create images using natural language descriptions.

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Midjourney's documentation page. Source: https://docs.midjourney.com/v1/en

Midjourney is currently in open beta and releases new versions every few months.

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You can access its bot through Discord or invite it to another server. When you type the command “/image” you receive four images that you can then upscale.

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Features

Generative AI: Midjourney can convert natural language prompts into attractive images using machine learning and diffusion.

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Realistic images: Depending on the prompt, you can generate realistic-looking pictures that might even fool photographers.

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Based on real art: Midjourney is trained on real art from various sources.

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Pros

  • Easy to use: Anyone can use this tool to generate real-looking images in minutes.
  • High-quality images: This program’s output tends to be well-structured and provided in high resolution.
  • Freemium model: You can test-ride the tool for free before you commit to a paid plan.

Rupert Breheny's mechanical dove, created with the V5 iteration of the algorithm. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rupert_Breheny_mechanical_dove_eca144e7-476d-4976-821d-a49c408e4f36.png

Cons

  • Subscription only: You will have to buy a plan before you can generate any images this way.
  • Works as a bot: You can only use Midjourney through Discord or as a bot.
  • Takes a few minutes: Each image generation might take a minute or two to complete.

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Pricing

  • Free Trial Plan (Free): Includes 0.4 hours of GPU time.
  • Basic Plan ($10/mo): Includes 3.3 hours of GPU time per month.
  • Standard Plan ($30/mo): Includes 15 hours of GPU time per month.
  • Pro Plan ($60/mo): Includes 30 hours of GPU time per month.

Best audio content creation tools and video content creation tools

Descript

Descript is a powerful audio and video editing software that utilizes advanced transcription and text-based editing capabilities.

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Descript allows you to edit video and audio files as if they were text.

Descript provides a unique approach to editing media content by allowing users to edit the text transcript of an audio or video file as if it were a text file.

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This, in turn, can result in simultaneous changes to the corresponding media.

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Features

Transcription and text-based editing: Descript automatically transcribes audio and video files, creating a text-based representation of the content.

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Multi-track editing: You can edit multiple tracks of audio or video simultaneously.

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Collaboration: Descript offers collaboration features that allow multiple users to work on the same project at the same time.

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Pros

  • Text-based editing workflow: You can edit a text transcript, remove filler words, make cuts, and apply changes instantly.
  • Transcription accuracy: Descript utilizes advanced transcription algorithms to provide accurate and reliable transcriptions.
  • Version control: Version control helps maintain project history and allows for easy access to previous versions when needed.

Transcribing and editing a script in Descript. Source: https://www.descript.com/transcription

Cons

  • Learning curve: The unique text-based editing workflow may take some time to master.
  • Limited advanced editing features: Descript lacks some advanced features commonly found in traditional audio or video editing software.
  • Dependence on transcription quality: If the transcription accuracy is compromised due to poor audio quality or difficult accents, it can impact the overall editing effectiveness.

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Pricing

  • Free Plan (Free): Includes 1/hr per month and 720p video export.
  • Creator Plan ($12/user/mo): Includes 10/hr per month and 4K video export.
  • Pro Plan ($24/user/mo): Includes 30/hr per month and 4K video export.
  • Enterprise Plan (Custom): Can be personalized to fit your needs.

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Loom

Loom is a video messaging and screen recording tool that allows users to capture and share videos quickly and easily.

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Loom is a recording tool to capture and share videos easily.

Loom is designed for communication, collaboration, and knowledge sharing, offering a convenient way to record and send video messages.

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Features

Video recording and sharing: Loom enables users to record their screens, webcam, or both simultaneously to create videos and share them instantly.

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Video messaging and commenting: You can record, time-stamp, and send video messages directly to individuals or teams.

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Integration and organization: Loom integrates with various platforms, including popular communication and project management tools.

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Pros

  • Easy video creation: Loom simplifies the process of creating videos with its user-friendly interface and straightforward recording options.
  • Enhanced collaboration: Users can convey their thoughts and ideas more clearly through video.
  • Versatile applications: Loom has a wide range of applications across various industries and use cases.

Editing a video in the Loom app. Source: https://www.loom.com/screen-recorder

Cons

  • Limited editing capabilities: If you’re looking for more comprehensive video editing options may need to rely on additional software.
  • Internet-dependent: Loom requires a stable internet connection for recording, sharing, and accessing videos.
  • Pricing tiers: While Loom offers a free plan with basic features, advanced functionality, and storage options are available through paid plans.

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Pricing

  • Starter Plan (Free): Supports up to 50 creators and 25 5-minute videos per person.
  • Business Plan ($12.50/mo): Supports unlimited creators, videos, and recording length.
  • Enterprise Plan (Custom): Everything else plus custom privacy, data retention policies, and integrations.

Best community building tools

Memberspace

Memberspace is a membership management platform that enables website owners to create and manage paid areas or subscription-based content on their websites.

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Memberspace's home page.

Memberspace provides tools and features to control access, monetize content, and engage with members – ensuring that only paying ones can view and interact with premium or exclusive posts or videos.

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Features

Membership access control: You can restrict access to specific content or areas of their website based on membership status.

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Payment management: Memberspace offers built-in payment integration, allowing you to set up and manage subscription plans, accept payments, and handle member billing.

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Member engagement and communication: The tool includes member directories, discussion forums, and email notifications.

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Pros

  • Easy integration and setup: Memberspace integrates with popular website builders and content management systems and requires minimal technical knowledge.
  • Branded membership experience: You can customize the look and feel of your membership areas to align with your brand identity.
  • Monetization: Memberspace provides the necessary tools to handle payment processing.
The backend of a Memberspace WordPress installation. Source: https://es-ec.wordpress.org/plugins/memberspace/

Cons

  • Platform dependency: As a user, you might be tied to specific platforms compatible with memberships.
  • Limited scalability: There are some limitations in terms of scalability for larger membership-based businesses or enterprises with complex requirements.
  • Customization limitations: The extent of personalization is limited compared to building a fully custom membership solution.

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Pricing

  • Free Plan (Free): Includes unlimited members and one website.
  • Professional Plan ($49/mo): Includes unlimited websites, all membership features, and white labeling.

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Slack

Slack is a widely-used cloud-based messaging and collaboration platform designed for teams and organizations.

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Slack's is a free cloud-based messaging platform for teams.

Slack offers real-time communication, file sharing, and integrations with various tools, streamlining teamwork and enhancing productivity.

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The platform supports various file types and integrates with popular file storage services, making it easy to collaborate on documents, provide feedback, and access shared resources.

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Features

Channels and direct messaging: Slack includes channels for teams and direct messaging for one-on-one or small group conversations.

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File Sharing and collaboration: You can share files, documents, and media within conversations.

App integrations: Slack integrates with a wide range of third-party apps and services, allowing users to bring their favorite tools directly into their workspace.

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Pros

  • Improved team communication: You can use real-time messaging and notifications to ensure quick responses and reduce communication barriers.
  • Centralized information and searchability: Slack serves as a centralized hub for team communication and shared files.
  • Extensive integrations: You can use Slack to streamline workflows, reduce context-switching, and perform actions directly from the platform.
Screenshot of the Slack app. Source: https://slack.com/downloads/windows

Cons

  • Potential for information overload: Slack can sometimes lead to information overload and distractions due to the constant stream of notifications and conversations.
  • Learning curve: While the tool has a user-friendly interface, new users may still need time to adapt to its features and understand best practices.
  • Cost for advanced features: Organizations with larger teams or specific requirements may need to upgrade to a paid plan.

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Pricing

  • Free Plan (Free): Includes 90-day access for message and file history and 10 integrations.
  • Pro Plan ($7.25/mo): Includes unlimited access, history, and integrations, plus customizable sections and workflow builder.
  • Business+ Plan ($12.50/mo): Everything else plus 99.99% guaranteed uptime, single sign-on, and data exports.
  • Enterprise Grid Plan (Custom): All of the previous plus unlimited workspaces and HIPAA-compliant messages and files.

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Bottom line: Which content creation tools are right for you?

Selecting the right content creation tools for your needs can significantly impact the success and efficiency of your content creation process.

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In this article, we’ve covered some of our favorite platforms (both free and paid versions) to make the job easier. From Jasper and Memberspace to Figma and Slack, by leveraging the power of content creator tools, you’ll be able to create truly compelling posts and videos that resonate with your audience.

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