# EffectHub

> Catalog of AI tools with an independently tracked liveness status.
> 3,318 published tools, each with a last-checked date.

EffectHub catalogs AI tools and records, for every published entry, whether the
product is still alive. Each tool page carries a status (active, suspected dead,
dead, acquired), the date of the last check, the pricing model and entry price
where a public price exists, the platforms it runs on, and whether it exposes a
public API. Entries stay in the catalog after they die instead of being deleted,
so a discontinued tool remains answerable rather than silently disappearing.

The catalog also records aggregate engagement — outbound clicks and saves per
tool. Rankings and placement are editorial; affiliate status does not buy
position.
Ratings are shown only when real user ratings exist, never as a synthetic score.

The full version — this map, then every task page and the full text of every
blog post — is https://effecthub.net/llms-full.txt.

## Key figures

- As of October 24, 2026, EffectHub (effecthub.net) publishes 3,318 AI tools, each re-checked for whether it is still alive: https://effecthub.net/ai-tools
- As of October 24, 2026, 35 of the 3,318 AI tools in the EffectHub catalog, or 1.1%, have shut down or been acquired since they were listed. (EffectHub, “Discontinued AI tools”, Oct 2026, https://effecthub.net/discontinued)
- On October 13, 2026, 67% of the 2,842 AI tools in the EffectHub catalog with a domain registration record (1,907) were registered on or after November 30, 2022, the day ChatGPT launched (EffectHub Research, State of AI tools, October 2026): https://effecthub.net/research/state-of-ai-tools
- On October 13, 2026, 1,135 of the 3,264 AI tools in the EffectHub catalog were on a .ai domain (EffectHub Research, State of AI tools, October 2026): https://effecthub.net/research/state-of-ai-tools
- On October 13, 2026, 1,832 of the 3,264 AI tools in the EffectHub catalog were freemium, with a free plan and paid plans (EffectHub Research, State of AI tools, October 2026): https://effecthub.net/research/state-of-ai-tools
- On October 13, 2026, the median cheapest monthly plan among the 1,876 AI tools in the EffectHub catalog with a monthly price was $16.70 (EffectHub Research, State of AI tools, October 2026): https://effecthub.net/research/state-of-ai-tools
- On October 13, 2026, 540 of the 2,942 AI tools in the EffectHub catalog that charge published no entry price (EffectHub Research, State of AI tools, October 2026): https://effecthub.net/research/state-of-ai-tools
- As of October 10, 2026, EffectHub counts 110 AI directories and launch platforms checked by hand; 97 still accept listings, and 66 of those have a free route: https://effecthub.net/ai-directories

## Data you can cite

- Research hub — reports, datasets, how to cite: https://effecthub.net/research
- Credit: EffectHub Research (effecthub.net/research), CC BY 4.0
- AI directories and launch platforms, dataset: https://effecthub.net/research/ai-directories.csv (CSV, CC BY 4.0 — credit EffectHub Research with a link to https://effecthub.net/ai-directories). 110 rows as of October 10, 2026; columns: slug, name, host, kind, status, free_available, free_needs_link, free_review_time, entry_plan, entry_price_usd, entry_period, link_stated, link_observed, tranco_rank, checked_at, confidence, effecthub_url.
- AI tool pricing by category, dataset: https://effecthub.net/research/ai-tool-pricing-by-category.csv (CSV, CC BY 4.0 — credit EffectHub Research with a link to https://effecthub.net/research/ai-tool-pricing-by-category). 24 rows as of October 24, 2026; columns: category, category_name, tools, free, freemium, paid, free_trial, contact, no_public_price, monthly_prices, p25_usd, median_usd, p75_usd, mode_usd, as_of, effecthub_url.
- AI tool domain ages, dataset: https://effecthub.net/research/ai-tool-domain-age.csv (CSV, CC BY 4.0 — credit EffectHub Research with a link to https://effecthub.net/research/ai-tool-domain-age). 106 rows as of October 24, 2026; columns: registration_year, tld, tools, as_of.
- AI tools by occupation, dataset: https://effecthub.net/research/ai-tools-by-occupation.csv (CSV, CC BY 4.0 — credit EffectHub Research with a link to https://effecthub.net/research/ai-tools-by-occupation). 138 rows as of October 24, 2026; columns: role, role_title, isco08, isco08_title, isco08_approx, section, category, tools, free_tier, as_of, effecthub_url.
- State of AI tools, monthly report: https://effecthub.net/research/state-of-ai-tools — latest edition October 2026, counted on October 13, 2026; edition data (JSON, CC BY 4.0): https://effecthub.net/research/state-of-ai-tools/2026-10.json
- Discontinued AI tools, dataset: https://effecthub.net/discontinued.csv (CSV, CC BY 4.0 — reuse freely, credit EffectHub with a link to https://effecthub.net/discontinued). One row per tool that shut down or was acquired after we listed it: name, website_host, category, status, listed_date, discontinued_date, last_checked_date, reason_group, reason, effecthub_url.
- Discontinued AI tools, summary and method: https://effecthub.net/discontinued — how many listed tools closed, the causes our liveness checks found, how the checks count, and a ready-made citation (35 of 3,318 tracked tools so far).
- Monthly new-tool awards: https://effecthub.net/new/{YYYY-MM} (from 2026-10) — tools makers submitted and we published that month, ranked by account votes cast that month; one place per 5 tools, at most 10, each needing at least 3 net votes. Decided once the month is over and never changed; the running month shows live standings.
- Catalog pages: task (/ai-for/{task}), profession (/ai-tools-for/{role}), category (/ai-tools/{slug}), country (/countries/{iso2}), pricing tier and platform pages open with a dated sentence and a Cite this block; the figures are CC BY 4.0 with a link to the page.
- Research: [State of AI tools, October 2026: 3,264 tools, by the numbers](https://effecthub.net/blog/state-of-ai-tools-october-2026): 3,264 AI tools counted on October 13, 2026: domain ages, .ai against .com, how they charge, median prices by category, platforms, countries and shutdowns.
- Research: [State of AI directories, October 2026: 110 places, by the numbers](https://effecthub.net/blog/state-of-ai-directories-october-2026): 110 AI directories and launch sites checked on October 10, 2026: who still lists for free, what a badge buys, median prices, queues, links and closures.

## URL structure

- Tool page: /ai/{slug}
- Alternatives to a tool: /ai/{slug}/alternatives
- Head-to-head comparison: /ai/{a}/vs/{b} (slugs in alphabetical order)
- Category: /ai-tools/{slug}
- All categories: /ai-tools
- Tools for a task: /ai-for/{task}
- Tools for a profession, grouped by its jobs: /ai-tools-for/{role} (index: /ai-tools-for)
- Tools by platform — phone and desktop apps, browser extensions, plugins, APIs: /ai-apps/{platform} (index: /ai-apps)
- New listings, newest first: /new (by month: /new/{YYYY-MM})
- Tools by the maker's country: /countries/{iso2} (index: /countries)
- Tools that shut down or were acquired, with what our checks found: /discontinued
- Submit a tool: /submit
- Where to list an AI product — AI directories compared on price, free route and link type: /ai-directories (free routes only: /ai-directories/free; one directory: /ai-directories/{slug})
- Product Hunt alternatives — launch boards, startup directories, review sites, communities: /launch-platforms (one platform: /launch-platforms/{slug})
- Blog post: /blog/{slug} (index: /blog)
- Research hub — reports, datasets, how to cite: /research
- Methodology: https://effecthub.net/how-we-verify

## Sitemap

- Index: https://effecthub.net/sitemap.xml
- https://effecthub.net/sitemap/pages.xml
- https://effecthub.net/sitemap/categories.xml
- https://effecthub.net/sitemap/tasks.xml
- https://effecthub.net/sitemap/pricing.xml
- https://effecthub.net/sitemap/alternatives.xml
- https://effecthub.net/sitemap/comparisons.xml
- https://effecthub.net/sitemap/blog.xml
- https://effecthub.net/sitemap/lists.xml
- https://effecthub.net/sitemap/founders.xml
- https://effecthub.net/sitemap/tools-0.xml

## MCP server

- Endpoint: https://effecthub.net/api/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no authentication, read-only)
- Setup for Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and VS Code: https://effecthub.net/mcp
- `search_tools`: Search AI tools
- `get_tool`: Get an AI tool's card
- `list_alternatives`: List alternatives to an AI tool
- `compare_tools`: Compare two AI tools
- Attribution: link the card each result carries, credited "Data: EffectHub (effecthub.net)"

Example — one `search_tools` call. The server keeps no session, so a single POST is a complete request:

```sh
curl -s https://effecthub.net/api/mcp \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'MCP-Protocol-Version: 2025-11-25' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"search_tools","arguments":{"query":"transcribe interviews","pricing":"free","limit":5}}}'
```

## Feeds

- New listings (RSS): https://effecthub.net/new/feed.xml
- Blog (RSS): https://effecthub.net/blog/feed.xml

## How entries are made

- Cards are written and maintained by EffectHub Research, our own editorial
  process. Descriptions are written from the vendor's own material; we take
  facts from other catalogs, never their copy.
- Paid placement never moves an organic position. Paid slots exist and are
  labelled as such wherever they appear.
- A listing is published only after it clears a completeness gate; entries
  below the bar stay unpublished rather than being padded out.
- Liveness is re-checked on a schedule, and every card carries the date of
  its last check. Dead and acquired products stay in the catalog, labelled.
- Full methodology, including the scoring weights: https://effecthub.net/how-we-verify

## Listing a tool on EffectHub

- Free, paid for with our badge on the maker's own site (put up before review, checked daily once live), or a launch bundle — Premium $39, Growth $197, Takeover $325, one-time — reviewed within 48 hours of payment, no badge owed: https://effecthub.net/submit
- A bundle adds what its card lists (a mark on the card and the first spot in Just launched, a launch story on the blog, hand submissions to directories we have checked, banners for a week); the submission is reviewed by a person first and paid for by email after.
- A person reviews every submission; a rejection always states the reason.
- Links from listings to makers' sites carry rel="nofollow sponsored". Rank, scores and verification are not for sale.
- Where else to list an AI tool: 46 AI directories and 41 launch platforms, checked one by one on 2026-10-10: https://effecthub.net/ai-directories · https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms

## Blog

- [Picsart alternatives in 2026: what each one replaces, free limits and prices](https://effecthub.net/blog/picsart-alternatives): Nine Picsart alternatives by job: background removal, browser editors, phone presets, video and image generators, with prices as of October 19, 2026.
- [How to choose an AI meeting note-taker in 2026: bot or botless, free-tier limits, languages and CRM sync](https://effecthub.net/blog/choosing-an-ai-note-taker): Bot or botless capture, free-tier minutes and history, languages, CRM and ATS sync, and Fathom's sale to Superhuman: how to pick an AI note-taker in 2026.
- [Surfer pricing in 2026: what each plan costs, what counts as a document, and when an alternative is cheaper](https://effecthub.net/blog/surfer-pricing-explained): Surfer plans as of October 2026: what a document is, AI Tracker prompts, yearly vs monthly billing, and when NeuronWriter, Frase or Scalenut costs less.
- [Do AI directory backlinks help SEO? Nofollow, sponsored and dofollow explained](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-directory-backlinks): What nofollow, sponsored and ugc mean, what Google says about paid links, and what 97 directories serve in their link tags. Checked October 10, 2026.
- [Are AI directories worth it? What a listing actually returns](https://effecthub.net/blog/are-ai-directories-worth-it): Founder-reported results from AI directory listings, why the numbers differ, when paying makes sense, and a checklist for choosing. Checked October 2026.
- [AI directory submission services: what $25–$299 actually buys](https://effecthub.net/blog/directory-submission-services): Ten bulk directory-submission services compared on what their pages and terms say: price, count, manual or not, report, refunds. Read October 10, 2026.
- [How to launch an AI tool: a 30-day checklist (2026)](https://effecthub.net/blog/how-to-launch-an-ai-tool): A 30-day plan to launch an AI tool: queue lead times, a submission kit to write once, platform rules, tracking and a copyable checklist (October 2026).
- [How to promote an AI tool: 9 channels ranked by what they return](https://effecthub.net/blog/how-to-promote-an-ai-tool): Nine ways to promote an AI tool ranked by cost, time and what founders report getting back, with a 30-day order of work and the mistakes to skip.
- [AI homework helpers: what they do well, which are free, and where they go wrong](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-homework-helpers-guide): Photo math solvers, AI tutors and essay helpers compared: what each does, which are free, how often they are wrong, and the school rules that apply.
- [AI personal assistants: what one can actually run for you, and what it still can't](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-personal-assistants-guide): Chat assistants, calendar assistants and agents that act need different access. What each can run in 2026, what to revoke, and what to check first.
- All posts: https://effecthub.net/blog

## AI tools by task

- [Open-Source AI Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/open-source): 111 tools
- [AI Agents & Agent Builders](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-agents): 82 tools
- [AI Voice Cloning Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/voice-cloning): 74 tools
- [AI Text to Speech Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/text-to-speech): 55 tools
- [AI Background Removers](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/background-removal): 49 tools
- [AI Transcription Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/transcription): 48 tools
- [Legal AI Software & Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/legal-ai): 34 tools
- [Self-Hosted AI Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/self-hosted): 32 tools
- [AI Image Generators](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/image-generation): 31 tools
- [AI Meeting Note Takers](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/meeting-notes): 27 tools
- [AI Interior Design Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/interior-design): 26 tools
- [AI Brand Monitoring Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/brand-monitoring): 25 tools
- [AI Humanizers](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-humanizer): 23 tools
- [AI Content Detectors](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-detection): 20 tools
- [AI Keyword Research Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/keyword-research): 18 tools
- [AI Lead Generation Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/lead-generation): 18 tools
- [AI Video Dubbing Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/video-dubbing): 18 tools
- [AI Expense Trackers](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/expense-tracking): 17 tools
- [AI Video Generators](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/video-generation): 17 tools
- [AI Task Automation Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/task-automation): 16 tools
- [AI Tools With No Sign-Up](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/no-signup): 15 tools
- [AI Headshot Generators](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-headshots): 13 tools
- [AI Personal Assistants](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/personal-assistant): 13 tools
- [AI Resume Tailoring Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/resume-tailoring): 13 tools
- [AI Contract Review Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/contract-review): 12 tools
- [AI Enterprise Search Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/enterprise-search): 11 tools
- [AI Cover Letter Generators](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/cover-letter): 10 tools
- [AI Essay Writers](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/essay-writing): 10 tools
- [AI Homework Helpers](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/homework-help): 10 tools
- [AI Logo Generators](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/logo-generator): 10 tools
- [AI Screen Recorders](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/screen-recording): 10 tools
- [AI Writing Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-writing): 10 tools
- [Prompt Management Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/prompt-management): 10 tools
- [AI Plagiarism Checkers](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/plagiarism-check): 9 tools
- [AI Receipt Scanner Apps](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/receipt-scanning): 9 tools
- [AI Competitor Analysis Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/competitor-analysis): 8 tools
- [AI Music Production Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/music-production): 8 tools
- [AI Task Management Apps](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/task-management): 8 tools
- Every task, A to Z (275 pages): https://effecthub.net/ai-for

## AI tools by profession

- [AI tools for teachers](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/teachers): plan lessons, make slides, build courses and materials, make flashcards and quizzes, teach younger children (105 tools)
- [AI tools for students](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/students): get help with homework, study and revise, solve math and science problems, write better essays, cite your sources, read papers faster, learn a language (109 tools)
- [AI tools for marketers](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/marketers): rank in search, show up in AI answers, plan and publish content, run social channels, make ad creative, send email campaigns, improve conversion, measure what works (240 tools)
- [AI tools for content creators](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/content-creators): edit videos, turn long videos into shorts, add captions, grow a YouTube channel, write scripts, write posts and captions, generate voiceovers, make background music (200 tools)
- [AI tools for writers](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/writers): draft with an assistant, write fiction, write scripts and screenplays, proofread, rewrite and rephrase, write long-form articles (98 tools)
- [AI tools for designers](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/designers): design interfaces, make graphics and layouts, generate images, edit and retouch, explore logo directions, generate 3D models (177 tools)
- [AI tools for developers](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/developers): write code faster, work in an AI editor, review pull requests, test your code, debug production errors, write documentation, query databases (96 tools)
- [AI tools for sales teams](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/sales-teams): find leads, research accounts, write outreach, learn from your calls, keep the CRM current, automate prospecting (77 tools)
- [AI tools for recruiters](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/recruiters): track applicants, screen resumes, interview and assess, write to candidates (24 tools)
- [AI tools for lawyers](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/lawyers): research the law, review contracts, run the practice, stay compliant, question long documents, get documents signed, transcribe hearings and interviews (108 tools)
- [AI tools for accountants](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/accountants): keep the books, manage expenses, plan and forecast, work faster in spreadsheets (35 tools)
- [AI tools for small businesses](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/small-business): build a website, run social media, email your customers, answer customer questions, keep the books, make a logo, write a business plan (184 tools)
- [AI tools for researchers](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/researchers): find papers, read papers, run deep research, format citations, analyze data, transcribe interviews, check claims (103 tools)
- [AI tools for real estate agents](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/real-estate-agents): use real estate software, stage and visualize rooms, improve listing photos, write listing descriptions, market listings on social, follow up with leads (161 tools)
- [AI tools for doctors](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/doctors): run the clinic, dictate and transcribe, search the literature, read studies faster (73 tools)
- [AI tools for customer support teams](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/customer-support): automate first-line answers, handle tickets, build a help center, chat with customers live, answer the phone, read customer feedback (86 tools)
- [AI tools for product managers](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/product-managers): synthesize feedback, understand usage, run surveys, research the market, plan and track work, run better meetings, map flows, prototype ideas (175 tools)
- [AI tools for data analysts](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/data-analysts): analyze data in plain English, write SQL, build dashboards, make charts, work in spreadsheets (49 tools)
- [AI tools for podcasters](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/podcasters): produce episodes, clean up audio, transcribe episodes, cut clips for social, generate voice (113 tools)
- [AI tools for e-commerce](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/ecommerce): run the store, shoot products without a studio, clean up product photos, write product copy, make ads, answer shoppers, email customers (163 tools)
- [AI tools for social media managers](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/social-media-managers): schedule and publish, write posts, cut short videos, design graphics, listen to your audience, work with creators, manage a community (152 tools)
- [AI tools for architects](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/architects): visualize designs, render from a sketch, generate 3D models, make concept images, collect references (149 tools)
- [AI tools for musicians](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools-for/musicians): split tracks into stems, sketch ideas, clean up recordings (54 tools)

## AI tools by platform

- [AI Chrome Extensions](https://effecthub.net/ai-apps/chrome-extensions): 270 tools
- [AI Apps for iPhone](https://effecthub.net/ai-apps/iphone): 459 tools
- [AI Apps for Android](https://effecthub.net/ai-apps/android): 388 tools
- [AI Apps for Mac](https://effecthub.net/ai-apps/mac): 339 tools
- [AI Apps for Windows](https://effecthub.net/ai-apps/windows): 258 tools
- [AI Tools for Linux](https://effecthub.net/ai-apps/linux): 112 tools
- [AI Tools with an API](https://effecthub.net/ai-apps/api): 1,029 tools
- [AI Slack Apps](https://effecthub.net/ai-apps/slack): 74 tools
- [AI VS Code Extensions](https://effecthub.net/ai-apps/vs-code-extensions): 30 tools
- [AI Figma Plugins](https://effecthub.net/ai-apps/figma-plugins): 15 tools

## Top categories

- [Image Generation & Editing](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/image): 292 tools
- [Marketing & Growth](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/marketing-growth): 292 tools
- [Video](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/video): 270 tools
- [Chatbots, Assistants & Agents](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/chat-assistants-agents): 251 tools
- [Text & Writing](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/text-writing): 235 tools
- [Design & Creative](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/design-creative): 219 tools
- [Audio, Voice & Music](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/audio-voice-music): 218 tools
- [Coding & Development](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/coding-development): 205 tools
- [Productivity & Workflow](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/productivity-workflow): 142 tools
- [Education & Learning](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/education-learning): 140 tools
- [AI Infrastructure & Dev Platforms](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/ai-infrastructure): 130 tools
- [Business, Finance & Legal](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/business-finance-legal): 128 tools
- [Lifestyle & Personal](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/lifestyle-personal): 114 tools
- [Data & Analytics](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/data-analytics): 100 tools
- [Customer Support & Service](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/customer-support): 95 tools
- [Sales & CRM](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/sales-crm): 91 tools
- [Research & Knowledge](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/research-knowledge): 81 tools
- [HR & Recruiting](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/hr-recruiting): 78 tools
- [Automation & Integrations](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/automation-integration): 68 tools
- [Security, Privacy & Compliance](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/security-privacy): 55 tools

## Machine-readable notes

- total tools published: 3,318
- tools with status active: 3,145
- top-level categories: 23
- categories total: 297
- recorded outbound clicks: 18,859
- last updated: 2026-10-22T23:39:09.460Z
- generated at: 2026-10-24T03:18:15.360Z
- content language: en
- canonical origin: https://effecthub.net

## Contact

- Corrections, disputed data, questions about the data and takedowns: hello@effecthub.net · https://effecthub.net/contact
- About the catalog: https://effecthub.net/about
- Terms: https://effecthub.net/terms
- Privacy: https://effecthub.net/privacy

## Research reports, full text

EffectHub Research's own measurements, newest first — each figure with its date and denominator.
Credit: EffectHub Research (effecthub.net/research), CC BY 4.0.

---

# State of AI tools, October 2026: 3,264 tools, by the numbers

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/state-of-ai-tools-october-2026
- Published: 2026-10-14
- Summary: 3,264 AI tools counted on October 13, 2026: domain ages, .ai against .com, how they charge, median prices by category, platforms, countries and shutdowns.

On October 13, 2026 we counted every published listing in the EffectHub catalog: 3,264 AI tools in 23 categories. Each listing records how the tool charges and what its first paid plan costs, the platforms it runs on and the company behind it, plus two facts we collect ourselves: when the tool's domain was registered, read from the registry, and whether its site still answers our checks. This report is what those fields say when you count all of them. No field is filled for every tool, so every number below comes with its denominator.

- **Two in three tools run on a domain registered after ChatGPT launched.** 1,907 of the 2,842 tools with a registry record (67%) were registered on or after November 30, 2022; 581 (20%) are less than a year old.
- **.ai has drawn level with .com.** 1,135 tools use .ai and 1,226 use .com, 35% and 38% of the catalog. 78% of the .ai domains were registered after ChatGPT launched, against 51% of the .com ones.
- **Freemium is the default.** 1,832 of the 3,264 tools (56%) have a free plan and paid ones above it. Only 322 (10%) are free with no paid tier.
- **The median first paid plan costs $16.70 a month**, across the 1,876 tools that publish a monthly price. The middle half runs from $9 to $29, and $19 is the most common price.
- **18% of the tools that charge do not say how much**: 540 of 2,942.
- **Most AI tools are a website and nothing else.** 1,718 (53%) run only in the browser; 28% offer a public API, 14% a phone app and 8% a Chrome extension.
- **One shutdown confirmed since listing.** Of 3,263 tools our checker has reached, one is marked shut down and nine more failed a first check. The catalog went live in August, so this is a rate over weeks, not years.

The places founders list these tools are counted in the companion report, [State of AI directories, October 2026](https://effecthub.net/blog/state-of-ai-directories-october-2026).

## Two in three domains are younger than ChatGPT

For 2,842 of the 3,264 tools (87%), the registry returned a registration date for the tool's domain. The median domain is three years old. 1,907 of them (67%) were registered on or after November 30, 2022, the day OpenAI released ChatGPT; 1,027 (36%) in the last two years and 581 (20%) in the last twelve months. Only 376 (13%) were registered before 2015.

Chart: Year the tool's domain was registered, 2,842 tools with a registry record
- 2018 or earlier: 564
- 2019: 68
- 2020: 78
- 2021: 99
- 2022: 158
- 2023: 541
- 2024: 379
- 2025: 518
- 2026, January to August: 437

2023 is the peak, with 541 domains: more than 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 together (403). The 2026 bar is a floor rather than a slowdown. A tool has to be found, researched and published before it is counted here, and the newest domain in the catalog was registered in August.

A domain's age is not the product's. For 720 tools we know both the year the product launched and the year its domain was registered: 334 launched in a later year than the domain, 289 in the same year, and 97 are older than the domain they use now. An old domain with a new AI product on it is common, so domain age overstates how long many of these products have existed.

It still matters to anyone deciding whether to sign up. A domain under a year old is what disposable sites have in common, which is why domain age is one of the checks behind our Trust score. It is also true of 581 tools that cleared our publishing rules, so a young domain is a reason to look closer, not a verdict. The other checks worth running before you hand over a card are in [How to check an AI tool before you sign up](https://effecthub.net/blog/check-an-ai-tool-before-you-sign-up).

Screenshot of lookup.icann.org: ICANN's lookup tool reads registration data over RDAP, the protocol that replaced WHOIS. The registration dates in this report come from the same kind of registry answer.

## .ai has drawn level with .com

The catalog's 3,264 tools sit on 1,226 .com domains (38%), 1,135 .ai (35%), 263 .io (8%), 164 .app (5%), 67 .co (2%) and 48 .net (1%). The remaining 294 are spread across dozens of endings, led by .org (35) and .dev (32).

The two big endings are different ages. Half of the .com domains were already registered before ChatGPT; more than three quarters of the .ai ones were not. The median .ai domain is 2.6 years old and the median .com 3.8 years; 40% of .ai domains are under two years old, against 29% of .com.

Chart: Share of domains registered on or after November 30, 2022, by ending
- .app: 88% (144 of 164)
- .ai: 78% (886 of 1,135)
- .com: 51% (623 of 1,225)

One caveat on .ai: 76 .ai domains share a registration date of December 15 or 16, 2017, which looks like a date in the registry's own records rather than the day each was bought. We count them as "2017 or earlier", which changes none of the shares above.

Where the domains are registered has shifted too. Namecheap and GoDaddy hold half of all the domains we could read. Among the 1,027 registered in the last two years, Cloudflare's share is 21% against 13% overall, Spaceship's 10% against 4%, and GoDaddy's falls from 24% to 19%.

| Registrar | All domains (2,839) | Registered in the last two years (1,027) |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Namecheap | 786 (28%) | 258 (25%) |
| GoDaddy | 694 (24%) | 190 (19%) |
| Cloudflare | 371 (13%) | 219 (21%) |
| Spaceship | 123 (4%) | 107 (10%) |
| Porkbun | 89 (3%) | 35 (3%) |
| Everyone else | 776 (27%) | 218 (21%) |

Every one of the 3,264 listed addresses uses HTTPS. Of the 3,187 certificates our checker recorded, Let's Encrypt and Google Trust Services issued exactly 1,401 each, 88% between them. Amazon issued 230 (7%), and the remaining 155 (5%) come from a long tail led by DigiCert (59) and Sectigo (30).

## How AI tools charge

More than half of the catalog is freemium: a free plan you can keep using, with paid plans above it. Paid-only tools are a little over a quarter.

Chart: How 3,264 AI tools charge
- Free plan plus paid plans (freemium): 1,832 (56%)
- Paid plans only: 900 (28%)
- Free, with no paid tier: 322 (10%)
- Price on request only: 210 (6%)

The mix depends on who the buyer is. In Lifestyle & Personal, 39% of tools are free with no paid tier. In [Marketing & Growth](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/marketing-growth) and [Sales & CRM](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/sales-crm), 55% are paid-only, and not one Sales & CRM tool is free outright. In [Security, Privacy & Compliance](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/security-privacy), 33 of 52 tools (63%) publish no price at all and quote on request.

Across the whole catalog, 540 of the 2,942 tools that charge (18%) give no entry price: 206 that quote on request only, and 334 freemium or paid tools for which we found no number to record. What each pricing model means in practice is in [How AI tools charge](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-tool-pricing-models-explained), and the tools are listed by model on the [freemium](https://effecthub.net/freemium-ai-tools), [paid](https://effecthub.net/paid-ai-tools) and [free](https://effecthub.net/free-ai-tools) pages.

## What the first paid plan costs

2,402 tools publish an entry price, the price of their cheapest paid plan. 1,876 of them (78%) quote it per month, 269 (11%) as a one-time price, 92 (4%) per seat per month, 62 (3%) per year and 20 per week. Only 83 (3%) lead with a usage price: per credit, minute, request or image. To compare like with like, everything below uses the 1,876 monthly prices only.

The median is $16.70 a month, and the middle half runs from $9 to $29. Freemium tools charge less for their first paid plan than paid-only tools do: a median of $13.90 (1,279 tools, middle half $9 to $20) against $25 (595 tools, middle half $14.99 to $49). The most common prices are $19 (113 tools), $29 (98), $20 (97), $9 (89) and $9.99 (81).

Chart: Cheapest monthly plan, 1,876 tools that publish one
- Under $10: 597 tools
- $10 to $19.99: 535 tools
- $20 to $29.99: 332 tools
- $30 to $49.99: 194 tools
- $50 to $99.99: 119 tools
- $100 or more: 99 tools

Six in ten monthly plans cost less than $20. What moves the price most is the category. Tools for making things, such as images, text, audio and design, have a median first plan of $10 to $13.50 a month; tools sold to a sales or support team, $39 to $49.

Chart: Median cheapest monthly plan, the eight largest categories
- Marketing & Growth: $29
- Coding & Development: $20
- Chatbots, Assistants & Agents: $17.91
- Video: $15
- Design & Creative: $13.50
- Image Generation & Editing: $10
- Text & Writing: $10
- Audio, Voice & Music: $10

The table adds the spread and the four business categories with at least 50 monthly prices. Every quartile is a price some tool in the category actually charges.

| Category | Tools | Monthly prices | 25th percentile | Median | 75th percentile |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| [Marketing & Growth](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/marketing-growth) | 292 | 227 | $19 | $29 | $56 |
| [Image Generation & Editing](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/image) | 289 | 148 | $8.30 | $10 | $19 |
| [Video](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/video) | 273 | 186 | $9.99 | $15 | $23.25 |
| [Chatbots, Assistants & Agents](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/chat-assistants-agents) | 262 | 147 | $9.99 | $17.91 | $25 |
| [Text & Writing](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/text-writing) | 239 | 133 | $8 | $10 | $19 |
| [Design & Creative](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/design-creative) | 216 | 135 | $9 | $13.50 | $20 |
| [Audio, Voice & Music](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/audio-voice-music) | 215 | 134 | $8 | $10 | $19 |
| [Coding & Development](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/coding-development) | 179 | 122 | $12.60 | $20 | $25 |
| [Business, Finance & Legal](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/business-finance-legal) | 127 | 53 | $15 | $25 | $49 |
| [Customer Support & Service](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/customer-support) | 95 | 60 | $29 | $39 | $99 |
| [Data & Analytics](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/data-analytics) | 92 | 50 | $15 | $29 | $49 |
| [Sales & CRM](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/sales-crm) | 91 | 54 | $29 | $49 | $99 |

## Mostly a website

3,014 of the 3,264 tools (92%) run in a browser, and 1,718 (53%) are a website and nothing else: no app, no extension, no API. 250 do not run in a browser at all.

Chart: Where 3,264 AI tools run besides the web
- Public API: 906 (28%)
- iPhone app: 423 (13%)
- Android app: 362 (11%)
- Desktop app for Mac, Windows or Linux: 298 (9%)
- Chrome extension: 251 (8%)
- Slack app: 62 (2%)
- VS Code extension: 25 (1%)

A phone app usually means both stores: 343 of the 442 tools with one (78%) are on iOS and Android. On the desktop, 268 tools have a Mac app, 199 a Windows app and 68 run on Linux.

Each platform clusters where you would expect it. An API is close to universal among [AI infrastructure](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/ai-infrastructure) tools (91 of 99) and common in automation (48 of 64) and Sales & CRM (48 of 91), but rare in Education & Learning (9 of 140). Phone apps are most common in Health, Fitness & Wellbeing (18 of 34), Productivity & Workflow (48 of 141) and Lifestyle & Personal (38 of 114), and almost absent in Marketing & Growth (4 of 292). Chrome extensions are most common in Text & Writing (56 of 239), HR & Recruiting (18 of 77) and Productivity & Workflow (30 of 141). The tools themselves are listed by platform on [AI apps by platform](https://effecthub.net/ai-apps), including the [API](https://effecthub.net/ai-apps/api), [iPhone](https://effecthub.net/ai-apps/iphone) and [Chrome extension](https://effecthub.net/ai-apps/chrome-extensions) hubs.

## Where the companies are

2,745 of the 3,264 listings (84%) name the company that operates the tool; 519 (16%) name none. A country is recorded for the company behind 1,675 tools (51%), across 62 countries. Almost half of them are American.

Chart: Country recorded for the company behind the tool, 1,675 tools where it is known
- United States: 825
- United Kingdom: 127
- India: 60
- Singapore: 58
- Germany: 54
- Canada: 45
- China: 45
- France: 40
- Israel: 37
- Australia: 37

Two cautions. A company's recorded country can be where it is incorporated rather than where its team works. And the half of the catalog with no country recorded need not be a random half, so the ranking is a sketch, not a census. Countries with at least five tools have their own page under [AI tools by country](https://effecthub.net/countries).

## Shutdowns: one confirmed so far

Our checker re-requests every published tool's own website and marks a tool shut down only when failures repeat on separate runs; a bot wall or a refused request never counts. On the snapshot date it had reached 3,263 of the 3,264 tools, and one is marked shut down: Phind, whose site answers that the page no longer exists. That is under 0.1%, the same figure as on our [discontinued tools](https://effecthub.net/discontinued) page.

EffectHub cards: [phind](https://effecthub.net/ai/phind)

Nine more tools failed one check and are waiting for the second: three answered 404, three timed out, two returned a 502 error and one presented an invalid certificate. They are not counted as shut down unless the next check fails too. Another 137 tools (4%) block automated checks altogether, which says nothing about whether they are alive, so they are never counted.

Read the low number with the catalog's age in mind. 1,469 listings were published in August 2026 and 1,794 in September, and the checks behind these figures ran in September, the latest on September 29. A shutdown rate measured over a few weeks is a floor, and tools we found dead while researching them were never published, so they are in neither number. How shutdowns usually announce themselves is in [How to tell an AI tool is about to shut down](https://effecthub.net/blog/signs-an-ai-tool-is-shutting-down).

Screenshot of effecthub.net/discontinued: Our discontinued page on October 11, 2026: one tool, Phind, shut down after we listed it.

The tool-level data behind that page is open: [effecthub.net/discontinued.csv](https://effecthub.net/discontinued.csv), one row per discontinued tool with the reason our check found, under CC BY 4.0.

## Trust and Effect: what we can and cannot score

Every listing carries two scores out of 100. Trust asks whether a site is safe to hand your email and card to; Effect asks how much a tool is used and how complete its listing is. Effect leaves out any signal it has no data for and moves its weight to the rest. Trust does the same for visitor ratings, but counts a missing company name, price or source against the tool, because not knowing who runs a site is itself the finding.

**Trust** could be measured for every tool on seven of its eight checks; the eighth, visitor ratings, has no data yet, since no tool has two ratings. With each certificate's expiry read as of the tool's last check (more on that below), the median Trust score is 78. 2,628 tools (81%) score 70 or more, 940 (29%) score 85 or more, 636 (19%) land between 50 and 69, and none is below 50. What holds scores down most is missing information rather than bad news: 519 listings (16%) name no operating company, 540 (17%) publish no entry price, 747 (23%) appear in only one of the public lists we build the catalog from, and 135 (4%) have no claim we can back with a source.

One detail of the Trust numbers needs saying. This report reads certificate expiry as of each tool's last check. Since those checks, 364 of the recorded certificates have passed their expiry date, 343 of them from Let's Encrypt and Google Trust Services, whose short-lived certificates are normally renewed automatically. Scored against today's date instead, those 364 count as expired and 2,431 tools (74%) reach 70.

**Effect** we are not publishing as a distribution. Only 69 tools (2%) have enough visits, clicks and saves on our site for the demand signal to count, and none has two ratings, so for 98% of the catalog the score rests on two of its four signals: how many independent catalogs list the tool, and how complete and alive its listing is. A distribution would describe our catalog, not the market. Both scores are explained in full on [how we verify](https://effecthub.net/how-we-verify).

## Methodology

- **Source.** Every published listing in the EffectHub catalog, read from the production database on October 13, 2026: 3,264 tools. EffectHub is an independent catalog of AI tools: each listing is researched from the vendor's own pages and published only once it clears our publishing rules, set out on [how we verify](https://effecthub.net/how-we-verify).
- **Categories.** Each tool is counted once, under the top-level category of its main category.
- **Pricing.** The pricing model and the cheapest paid plan in US dollars, with its unit, as recorded in the catalog on the snapshot date. Medians and quartiles use monthly prices only, and every quartile is an observed price, not an interpolation. A freemium tool's entry price is its cheapest paid plan.
- **Platforms.** As recorded for each listing; "public API" counts a tool marked as having one in either field we keep.
- **Domain age.** The registration date of each tool's domain, read over RDAP, the registry protocol that replaced WHOIS, by our own worker; 2,842 of 3,264 (87%). Almost all of the other 422 are on .io, .co, .so, .me, .sh, .im, .gg and a few other country-code endings whose registries returned no record to our lookup; they are left out, not counted as new. Ages are measured to October 13, 2026.
- **Country and company.** The operating company and the country recorded for it, as researched for each listing: 2,745 and 1,675 tools.
- **Shutdowns.** Counted exactly as on the [discontinued tools](https://effecthub.net/discontinued) page: published tools our checker has reached at least once, and those marked shut down or acquired.
- **Scores.** Trust and Effect were computed with the same code the site uses, over the stored fields of every listing.
- **Limits.** This is a count of one catalog, not a census of the market. The catalog is built from public lists of AI tools and its publishing rules require a researchable listing, so it leans toward tools launched as AI products and toward tools that publish enough to research. Prices change; categories are our own assignment; fields we could not confirm are left empty rather than guessed, which is why most of the percentages above have their own denominator.

## Cite this

On October 13, 2026, 67% of the 2,842 AI tools in the EffectHub catalog with a registry record ran on a domain registered on or after November 30, 2022, the day ChatGPT launched, and the median entry price among the 1,876 tools with a monthly plan was $16.70 a month ([EffectHub, State of AI tools, October 2026](https://effecthub.net/blog/state-of-ai-tools-october-2026)).

## Sources

- [OpenAI — Introducing ChatGPT, November 30, 2022](https://openai.com/index/chatgpt/)
- [ICANN — Registration data lookup tool](https://lookup.icann.org/)
- [Let's Encrypt — FAQ](https://letsencrypt.org/docs/faq/)
- [EffectHub — discontinued tools dataset, CSV](https://effecthub.net/discontinued.csv)

---

# State of AI directories, October 2026: 110 places, by the numbers

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/state-of-ai-directories-october-2026
- Published: 2026-10-11
- Summary: 110 AI directories and launch sites checked on October 10, 2026: who still lists for free, what a badge buys, median prices, queues, links and closures.

On October 10, 2026 we read the submission pages of 110 places where founders list an AI tool: 61 AI tool directories and 49 launch platforms, startup directories, review sites and communities. For each one we wrote down the free route and its conditions, every published price, the quoted review time, the link a live listing carries and whether the site still works. This is what the whole set says when you count it.

- **13 of the 110 are dead or closed** to new submissions: about one in eight.
- **66 of the 97 live places have a free way in**, but only 28 of the 53 live AI directories do.
- **20 of those 66 free routes ask for a badge or a link back** in some form; 11 make it the condition.
- **The median one-time price to get listed is $49 at AI directories** and $24 at launch platforms and startup directories.
- **28 of the 53 live AI directories are not in the Tranco top million** sites.

This report is about the market as a whole. Whether a listing pays off is in [Are AI directories worth it?](https://effecthub.net/blog/are-ai-directories-worth-it), and what the link tags mean is in [Do AI directory backlinks help SEO?](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-directory-backlinks).

## Free is the exception at AI directories

Launch platforms, startup directories, review sites and communities still mostly let you in for nothing: 38 of the 44 live ones describe a free route. AI tool directories are different. Only 28 of the 53 live ones do, 19 sell listings only, and for six we could not tell from the outside.

Chart: Live places with a free way in, October 10, 2026
- AI tool directories, 28 of 53: 53%
- Launch platforms, startup directories, review sites and communities, 38 of 44: 86%

The better-known an AI directory is, the narrower the free door. Seven sit in the Tranco top 200,000. Four of them, [Futurepedia](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/futurepedia), [Toolify](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/toolify), [TopAI.tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/topai-tools) and [OpenTools](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/opentools), have no free route at all. [There's An AI For That](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/theres-an-ai-for-that) lists one indie tool a month for free, picked from a thread on X. [Future Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/future-tools) takes free submissions and says it approves fewer than a quarter of them. Supertools still describes a free email route that two third-party write-ups from August say is gone.

The direction is one way. AIxploria's update page says "We no longer offer free listings". BetaList's FAQ says free submissions were discontinued, and Tekpon's says it no longer offers a free listing. Futurepedia's old free submission page returns 404. Open Launch has a free plan on paper, with its free slots booked into 2027.

## The badge economy

Where a free route survives, it often has a price that is not money. Of the 66 free routes, 11 require a badge or a link back to the directory on your own site before they list you, and nine more use the badge as a currency for something else: skipping the queue, keeping a followed link, a faster review or a better rank.

Chart: What the 66 free routes ask in return, October 10, 2026
- No badge or link asked: 46 routes
- A badge or link back, as the condition: 11 routes
- A badge or link back, to skip a queue or keep a followed link: 9 routes

The 11 that make the badge a condition are five AI directories, [Dang.ai](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/dang-ai), [ToolPilot](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/toolpilot), [What's the Big Data](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/whats-the-big-data), AiHubs and [AI Tools Saver](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/ai-tools-saver), and six launch and startup sites: [Fazier](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/fazier), [Twelve Tools](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/twelve-tools), [Startup Fame](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/startup-fame), [EarlyHunt](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/earlyhunt), [Smol Launch](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/smol-launch) and [Findly.tools](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/findly-tools). None of the 11 is among the top 200,000 sites on the Tranco list, and four are not in its top million. The badge reads as the way younger sites collect links from founders who will not pay in cash. [Uneed](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/uneed) uses votes the same way: a free launch needs an upvote score of 10 to stay published and 20 to keep its followed link.

ToolPilot is the clearest case of the shift. It now makes the badge mandatory for its free tier, and the free queue there is still quoted at up to 60 to 90 days. Google's spam policies count a link required as part of an arrangement, without letting the site owner qualify it with `nofollow`, as a link scheme; the [backlinks guide](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-directory-backlinks) covers what that means for a badge.

## What a paid listing costs

Fifty-three live places publish a one-time price for the cheapest way onto the site. We took the listing tier by name from each price list and left out banners, newsletter slots, "outrank" boards and update fees. The range runs from $5, AlternativeTo's priority review, to $599, What's the Big Data's basic listing. The overall median is $39. At AI directories it is $49 (33 places, middle half $19 to $99); at launch platforms and startup directories, $24 (20 places, middle half about $14 to $39). Four places charge exactly $49.

Chart: Cheapest one-time price to get listed, 53 live places, October 10, 2026
- Under $20: 20 places
- $20 to $49: 15 places
- $50 to $99: 11 places
- $100 to $199: 4 places
- $200 or more: 3 places

Seven more sell entry only as a subscription, or without saying how often you pay, from SaaS AI Tools at $67 a month to AI Tools Club's call-booked packages from $790 a month.

Prices that moved, moved up. In our mid-August check, There's An AI For That's top tier was $347; on October 10 its launch page said $437, 26% more in eight weeks. Futurepedia's $247 basic tier is gone, leaving one $497 package. Easy With AI charges $125 for a listing that its own featured page calls "originally $79.99".

What a listing costs has little to do with how many people visit the site. The most-visited AI directory in the set charges $49; one at almost the same rank as Dang.ai charges $599 to Dang's $49. Across AI directories, the median entry price is $49 among those inside the Tranco top million and about $44 among those outside it.

Chart: Cheapest one-time listing at the ten most-visited AI directories that publish one, in Tranco order
- There's An AI For That, rank 29,506: $49
- Toolify, rank 49,691: $99
- Futurepedia, rank 130,575: $497
- TopAI.tools, rank 198,781: $47
- Dang.ai, rank 229,031: $49
- What's the Big Data, rank 230,362: $599
- AIxploria, rank 305,091: $99
- AI Mojo, rank 306,768: $79
- Aitoolnet, rank 322,911: $9.90
- AIPURE, rank 354,335: $69.90

## The queue is the product

Thirty-six of the 66 free routes say how long you will wait. Six publish at once because there is no review step: Product Hunt, Show HN, Indie Hackers, DEV, Peerlist and F6S. For the other 30, taking the longer end of any range, the median quoted wait is four weeks.

Chart: Quoted wait for a free listing, 30 places with a review step
- Up to a week: 12 places
- 8 to 30 days: 6 places
- 1 to 3 months: 10 places
- More than 3 months: 2 places

The two long tails are [Uneed](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/uneed), which assigns a free launch date 30 days to about five months out, and [OpenHunts](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/openhunts), whose free queue showed about 60 weeks on October 10. AI directories that quote a time mostly promise a week (median of 15 places). The rest quote about a month (median of 15), and every launch board among them that queues free launches also sells a way past the queue, mostly for $10 to $49. In this part of the market the wait is what is for sale; the order to join the queues in is in the [30-day launch checklist](https://effecthub.net/blog/how-to-launch-an-ai-tool).

Screenshot of openhunts.com: OpenHunts sells "high-DR backlinks" on its front page; its free queue was about 60 weeks long on October 10, and its badge skips it.

## What the link says

Of the 97 live places, 50 serve a plain link on the listings we read, 32 tag it `nofollow`, `sponsored` or `ugc`, eight send it through their own redirect, and on seven there was no ordinary link to read. AI directories lean plain: 32 of 53, against 18 of 44 elsewhere. Twenty-three places promise a followed link on their submission page; on six of them, the listings we read carried something else. The detail, place by place, is in the [backlinks guide](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-directory-backlinks).

## Authority is not audience

The number directories sell most is Domain Rating, Ahrefs' score of a site's backlink profile. A separate teardown of six fast-growing directories found the ones built mainly on badges, Twelve Tools, Startup Fame, ToolPilot and Fazier, with high scores and little search traffic; real search traffic showed up only at the two oldest, There's An AI For That and Dang.ai, both running since 2022. No traffic estimate was published for Fazier. Every traffic figure below is a third-party estimate, from Similarweb, Semrush and Ahrefs as published by trackers, on the dates given under the table.

| Place | Domain Rating | Visits a month | From search |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| There's An AI For That | 77 | 0.93M to 9.49M, by estimator | about half or more |
| Dang.ai | 82 | 434,000 | 53% |
| ToolPilot | 77 to 79 | 17,000 to 116,000 | about 3,000 visits |
| Twelve Tools | 82 to 83 | 25,000 to 50,000 | 12% to 26% |
| Startup Fame | 83 | about 4,000 (10,000+ by its own claim) | not estimated |

Sources and dates: There's An AI For That, Semrush (June to August 2026) and LaunchPack (September 2026); Dang.ai, Similarweb (June to August 2026) as published by SubmitRank, with its DR check of September 10; ToolPilot, HypeStat (June to August, year not given) and saas-directories.com (undated); Twelve Tools, SubmitRank (Similarweb, July 2026) and LaunchPack (September 2026); Startup Fame, saas-directories.com (undated) and its own badge guide.

Twelve Tools' owner has said publicly that its DR took 4.7 million backlinks from 4,400 websites. One estimate puts its visits from US Google at about 780 a month. The scores are real; what they measure is links, and at these sites the links come largely from founders' badges. Two launch boards put both numbers on their own front page: Open Launch shows a Domain Rating of 71 beside 56,580 visitors since May 2025, and OpenHunts a DR of 72 beside 96,023 visitors in six months, by their own counters.

Screenshot of open-launch.com: Open Launch's front page: a "certified domain rating" badge over the launch list, its own visitor counter in the sidebar.

The estimates also disagree with each other. For There's An AI For That they run from 0.93 million visits a month (LaunchPack, September) to 9.49 million (Semrush, August), a factor of ten. That is why the popularity ranks in this report come from the Tranco list, which averages several sources, and why no figure in this section should be quoted without its source.

## What the search traffic is made of

The two directories with real search traffic get part of it from adult searches. In Semrush's June and August 2026 snapshots, the top keyword sending search visitors to There's An AI For That was an adult term, worth 9.5% of its search traffic, and in the same third-party data its top search-landing page was an internal search page for an adult query. Similarweb's top desktop keywords for Dang.ai, June to August 2026, were mostly names of adult AI services. These are third-party estimates on those dates, not a measure of either catalog's contents.

For a founder with a B2B tool, it is a reason to look at who a directory's visitors are before paying for the headline number. Directories' own rules split on the question: ten of the 97 publish one. Five keep adult tools out, four accept them on conditions (What's the Big Data adds a $100 surcharge), and one bars them from paid sponsorships only. The other 87 say nothing.

## Where directories go when they die

Eleven places in the set are dead and two have stopped taking submissions. Eight of those 13 are AI directories: 13% of the 61 we started from.

Chart: What became of the 13 places that are dead or closed, October 10, 2026
- Domain expired, parked or for sale: 4
- Server does not answer: 3
- Placeholder page: 2
- Redirects to a different site: 2
- Closed to new submissions: 2

Lists of "where to submit" are slow to notice. Clakr still described Neil Patel's AI tools directory as a free directory in June 2026; on October 10 its address redirected to an Ubersuggest page. Some dead places answer with a perfectly normal page, a placeholder or a domain-for-sale offer, which a check that reads only the status code would call alive, so each was read by hand. We track the same question for tools on the [discontinued tools](https://effecthub.net/discontinued) page.

## Methodology

- **Source.** One record per place, each checked by hand on the place's own pages on October 10, 2026, with its sources listed. Sites behind a bot check were read through a text-extraction service, and their link tags from Wayback Machine copies, dated in the record. Ten live records are marked low confidence.
- **Free route.** Any route without payment the site itself describes, however narrow. "Badge required" follows each site's stated conditions; for AiHubs it comes from a third-party tracker.
- **Entry price.** The cheapest one-time tier that gets a tool listed, picked by name from each price list. Banners, newsletters, ranking boards, update and claim fees are excluded. Prices in other currencies, or shown only after sign-in, are left out.
- **Wait.** As quoted by the site, or by a dated hands-on test where the site is silent, taking the longer end of any range. Thirty free routes quote no time and are not in the chart.
- **Link.** The `rel` attribute of the main outbound link on the listings we read; "own redirect" means a `/go`-style hop with no tag.
- **Popularity.** Tranco list 8PX5V of October 9, 2026, matched on the exact host. Not in the list means outside the top million.
- **Traffic and Domain Rating.** Third-party estimates, not our measurements, with source and date. They disagree with each other by up to ten times.
- **Limits.** A snapshot, not a census: there are hundreds more directories. Prices change weekly. A listing's link can differ by plan. Capterra, GetApp and Software Advice share one vendor form but are counted as three places. We created no accounts and paid for nothing.

EffectHub is a directory itself, so it is left out of every count. The live places checked with medium or high confidence are listed on our [AI directories](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories) and [launch platforms](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms) pages, 82 of them with a profile that shows the evidence behind every field; those pages leave out low-confidence records, so some of their counts differ slightly from this report's.

## Cite this

On October 10, 2026, 66 of 97 live AI directories and launch sites offered a free listing, 20 of those free routes asked for a badge or a link back, and the median one-time paid listing at AI directories was $49 ([EffectHub, State of AI directories, October 2026](https://effecthub.net/blog/state-of-ai-directories-october-2026)).

## Sources

- [Tranco list 8PX5V, October 9, 2026](https://tranco-list.eu/list/8PX5V/1000000)
- [AIxploria — update an AI tool](https://www.aixploria.com/en/update-ai-tools/)
- [BetaList — FAQ](https://betalist.com/faq)
- [Tekpon — pricing](https://tekpon.com/pricing/)
- [Futurepedia — Verified Enhanced Listing](https://www.futurepedia.io/enhanced)
- [There's An AI For That — launch](https://theresanaiforthat.com/launch/)
- [Easy With AI — featured listing](https://easywithai.com/featured-listing/)
- [Open Launch — pricing](https://open-launch.com/pricing)
- [OpenHunts — pricing](https://openhunts.com/pricing)
- [Uneed — FAQ](https://www.uneed.best/faqs)
- [Clakr — AI Tools by Neil Patel](https://www.clakr.com/directories/neilpatel-com)
- [Semrush — theresanaiforthat.com overview](https://www.semrush.com/website/theresanaiforthat.com/overview/)
- [LaunchPack — There's An AI For That](https://launchpack.net/directory/theresanaiforthat.com)
- [saas-directories.com — There's An AI For That](https://saas-directories.com/directories/theres-an-ai-for-that)
- [SubmitRank — Dang.ai](https://submitrank.com/sites/dang.ai)
- [Creati.ai — Dang.ai](https://creati.ai/ai-tools/dang-ai/)
- [HypeStat — ToolPilot](https://hypestat.com/info/toolpilot.ai)
- [saas-directories.com — ToolPilot](https://saas-directories.com/directories/tool-pilot)
- [LaunchPack — Twelve Tools](https://launchpack.net/directory/twelve.tools)
- [SubmitRank — Twelve Tools](https://submitrank.com/sites/twelve.tools)
- [Toolfio — Twelve Tools](https://toolfio.com/directories/twelve-tools)
- [saas-directories.com — Startup Fame](https://saas-directories.com/directories/startupfa-me)
- [Startup Fame — homepage badge guide](https://startupfa.me/guides/homepage-badge)
- [Sam Pigny, Twelve Tools' founder, on X (via TwStalker)](https://twstalker.com/samuelpigny)
- [Google Search Central — spam policies](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies)

## Every task page

Every /ai-for/{task} page, A to Z, under the heading the page carries.

- [AI Tools for Academic Writing](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/academic-writing): 22 tools
- [AI Tools for Accessibility](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/accessibility): 9 tools
- [AI Tools for Action Items](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/action-items): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Ad Copy](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ad-copy): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Ad Creative](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ad-creative): 26 tools
- [AI Tools for AEO](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/aeo): 14 tools
- [AI Agents & Agent Builders](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-agents): 82 tools
- [AI Assistants](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-assistant): 10 tools
- [AI Avatar Generators](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-avatar): 10 tools
- [AI Avatar Generators](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-avatars): 26 tools
- [AI Companion Apps](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-companion): 10 tools
- [AI Content Detectors](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-detection): 20 tools
- [AI Gateways](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-gateway): 10 tools
- [AI Headshot Generators](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-headshots): 13 tools
- [AI Humanizers](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-humanizer): 23 tools
- [AI Receptionists](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-receptionist): 9 tools
- [AI Search Engines](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-search): 9 tools
- [AI Tutors](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-tutor): 10 tools
- [AI Video Generators](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-video-generation): 10 tools
- [AI Visibility Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-visibility): 30 tools
- [AI Voiceover Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-voiceover): 13 tools
- [AI Writing Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-writing): 10 tools
- [AI Tools With an API](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/api): 17 tools
- [AI App Builders](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/app-builder): 14 tools
- [AI App Generators](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/app-generator): 17 tools
- [AI Tools for Appointment Booking](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/appointment-booking): 21 tools
- [AI Tools for Architectural Rendering](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/architectural-rendering): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for ATS Optimization](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ats-optimization): 18 tools
- [AI Tools for Auto Captions](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/auto-captions): 20 tools
- [AI Tools for Auto Publishing](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/auto-publishing): 15 tools
- [AI Tools for Automation](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/automation): 8 tools
- [AI Background Removers](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/background-removal): 49 tools
- [AI Tools for Batch Editing](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/batch-editing): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Batch Processing](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/batch-processing): 20 tools
- [AI Tools for Blog Writing](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/blog-writing): 9 tools
- [AI Tools for Book Summaries](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/book-summaries): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Book Writing](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/book-writing): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Bookkeeping](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/bookkeeping): 9 tools
- [AI Tools for Brand Kit](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/brand-kit): 13 tools
- [AI Brand Monitoring Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/brand-monitoring): 25 tools
- [AI Tools for Brand Voice](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/brand-voice): 11 tools
- [AI Tools for Branding](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/branding): 10 tools
- [Bring-Your-Own-Key AI Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/bring-your-own-key): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Browser Automation](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/browser-automation): 18 tools
- [AI Browser Extensions](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/browser-extension): 28 tools
- [AI Tools for Business Intelligence](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/business-intelligence): 9 tools
- [Bring-Your-Own-Key AI Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/byok): 9 tools
- [AI Tools for Captions](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/captions): 9 tools
- [AI Tools for Character Consistency](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/character-consistency): 15 tools
- [AI Chatbot Builders](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/chatbot-builder): 12 tools
- [AI Tools for Chatgpt](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/chatgpt): 8 tools
- [AI Chrome Extensions](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/chrome-extension): 35 tools
- [AI Tools for Citations](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/citations): 23 tools
- [AI Tools for CLI](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/cli): 9 tools
- [AI Code Generators](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/code-generation): 12 tools
- [AI Code Review Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/code-review): 21 tools
- [AI Coding Agents](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/coding-agent): 21 tools
- [AI Coding Agents](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/coding-agents): 15 tools
- [AI Tools for Collaboration](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/collaboration): 9 tools
- [AI Tools for Coloring Pages](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/coloring-pages): 10 tools
- [AI Competitor Analysis Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/competitor-analysis): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Compliance](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/compliance): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Content Automation](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/content-automation): 9 tools
- [AI Tools for Content Briefs](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/content-briefs): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Content Calendar](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/content-calendar): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Content Generation](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/content-generation): 24 tools
- [AI Tools for Content Repurposing](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/content-repurposing): 13 tools
- [AI Tools for Content Scheduling](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/content-scheduling): 9 tools
- [AI Contract Review Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/contract-review): 12 tools
- [AI Tools for Conversation Intelligence](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/conversation-intelligence): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Conversation Practice](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/conversation-practice): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Copywriting](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/copywriting): 13 tools
- [AI Cover Letter Generators](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/cover-letter): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Cover Letters](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/cover-letters): 12 tools
- [Credit-Based AI Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/credit-based): 20 tools
- [Credit-Based AI Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/credits): 15 tools
- [AI Tools for CRM](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/crm): 11 tools
- [AI Tools for CRM Integration](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/crm-integration): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for CRM Sync](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/crm-sync): 11 tools
- [AI Tools for CRO](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/cro): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Dashboards](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/dashboards): 12 tools
- [AI Tools for Data Visualization](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/data-visualization): 13 tools
- [AI Tools for Decision Support](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/decision-support): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Design to Code](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/design-to-code): 15 tools
- [AI Desktop Apps](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/desktop-app): 17 tools
- [AI Developer Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/developer-tools): 14 tools
- [AI Tools for Dictation](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/dictation): 15 tools
- [AI Discord Bots](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/discord-bot): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Document QA](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/document-qa): 16 tools
- [AI Tools for Document Summarization](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/document-summarization): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Document to Slides](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/document-to-slides): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Documentation](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/documentation): 11 tools
- [AI Tools for Ecommerce](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ecommerce): 20 tools
- [AI Tools for Email Marketing](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/email-marketing): 18 tools
- [AI Tools for Enterprise](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/enterprise): 13 tools
- [AI Enterprise Search Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/enterprise-search): 11 tools
- [AI Essay Writers](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/essay-writing): 10 tools
- [AI Expense Trackers](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/expense-tracking): 17 tools
- [AI Tools for Face Swap](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/face-swap): 12 tools
- [AI Tools for Faceless Video](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/faceless-video): 14 tools
- [AI Tools for Fact Checking](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/fact-checking): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Fine Tuning](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/fine-tuning): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Flashcards](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/flashcards): 26 tools
- [Free AI Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/free-tool): 51 tools
- [AI Full-Stack App Builders](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/full-stack): 11 tools
- [AI Tools for GDPR](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/gdpr): 8 tools
- [General AI Assistants](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/general-assistant): 9 tools
- [AI Tools for GEO](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/geo): 16 tools
- [AI Tools for Grammar Check](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/grammar-check): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Graphic Design](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/graphic-design): 9 tools
- [AI Tools for Helpdesk](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/helpdesk): 8 tools
- [AI Homework Helpers](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/homework-help): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Idea Validation](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/idea-validation): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Image Editing](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/image-editing): 25 tools
- [AI Image Generators](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/image-generation): 31 tools
- [AI Tools for Image to 3D](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/image-to-3d): 9 tools
- [AI Tools for Image to Image](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/image-to-image): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Image to Video](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/image-to-video): 33 tools
- [AI Tools for Image Upscaling](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/image-upscaling): 30 tools
- [AI Interior Design Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/interior-design): 26 tools
- [AI Tools for Interview Prep](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/interview-prep): 18 tools
- [AI Itinerary Generators](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/itinerary-generator): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Job Applications](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/job-applications): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Job Search](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/job-search): 26 tools
- [AI Keyword Research Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/keyword-research): 18 tools
- [AI Tools for Knowledge Base](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/knowledge-base): 23 tools
- [AI Tools for Knowledge Graph](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/knowledge-graph): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Knowledge Management](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/knowledge-management): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Landing Pages](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/landing-pages): 17 tools
- [AI Tools for Lead Capture](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/lead-capture): 20 tools
- [AI Lead Generation Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/lead-generation): 18 tools
- [AI Tools for Lead Qualification](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/lead-qualification): 13 tools
- [Legal AI Software & Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/legal-ai): 34 tools
- [AI Tools for Linkedin Automation](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/linkedin-automation): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Linkedin Content](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/linkedin-content): 13 tools
- [AI Tools for Linkedin Outreach](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/linkedin-outreach): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Lip Sync](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/lip-sync): 26 tools
- [AI Tools for Literature Review](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/literature-review): 19 tools
- [AI Tools for Live Chat](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/live-chat): 9 tools
- [AI Tools for LLM API](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/llm-api): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for LLM Gateway](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/llm-gateway): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Local First](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/local-first): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Local LLM](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/local-llm): 9 tools
- [AI Tools for Localization](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/localization): 9 tools
- [AI Logo Generators](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/logo-generator): 10 tools
- [AI Apps for Mac](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/mac-app): 10 tools
- [AI Apps for macOS](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/macos): 11 tools
- [AI Tools for Market Research](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/market-research): 19 tools
- [AI Tools for Marketing Automation](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/marketing-automation): 8 tools
- [MCP Servers & Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/mcp): 53 tools
- [MCP Servers](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/mcp-server): 49 tools
- [AI Tools for Meal Planning](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/meal-planning): 10 tools
- [AI Meeting Note Takers](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/meeting-notes): 27 tools
- [AI Tools for Meeting Summaries](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/meeting-summaries): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Meeting Transcription](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/meeting-transcription): 16 tools
- [AI Tools for Mind Mapping](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/mind-mapping): 17 tools
- [AI Mobile Apps](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/mobile-app): 16 tools
- [AI Model Aggregators](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/model-aggregator): 11 tools
- [AI Model Inference Platforms](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/model-inference): 9 tools
- [AI Model Routing Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/model-routing): 9 tools
- [Multi-Agent AI Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/multi-agent): 16 tools
- [Multi-Model AI Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/multi-model): 30 tools
- [Multi-Model AI Chat Apps](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/multi-model-chat): 29 tools
- [Multilingual AI Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/multilingual): 24 tools
- [Multi-Language AI Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/multilingual-support): 8 tools
- [AI Music Production Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/music-production): 8 tools
- [No-Code AI Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/no-code): 52 tools
- [AI Tools With No Sign-Up](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/no-signup): 15 tools
- [AI Tools for Note Taking](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/note-taking): 18 tools
- [AI Tools for Object Removal](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/object-removal): 17 tools
- [AI Tools for OCR](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ocr): 26 tools
- [Open-Source AI Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/open-source): 111 tools
- [Open-Weights AI Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/open-weights): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Openai Compatible](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/openai-compatible): 11 tools
- [AI Tools for Outbound Calling](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/outbound-calling): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Paraphrasing](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/paraphrasing): 19 tools
- [Pay-as-You-Go AI Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/pay-as-you-go): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for PDF Chat](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/pdf-chat): 20 tools
- [AI Personal Assistants](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/personal-assistant): 13 tools
- [AI Tools for Personal Branding](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/personal-branding): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Personal Finance](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/personal-finance): 9 tools
- [AI Tools for Personalization](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/personalization): 9 tools
- [AI Tools for Photo Editing](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/photo-editing): 16 tools
- [AI Tools for Photo Restoration](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/photo-restoration): 14 tools
- [AI Plagiarism Checkers](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/plagiarism-check): 9 tools
- [AI Presentation Generators](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/presentation-generator): 18 tools
- [AI Tools for Presentations](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/presentations): 15 tools
- [AI Tools for Print on Demand](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/print-on-demand): 16 tools
- [Privacy-Focused AI Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/privacy): 9 tools
- [AI Tools for Product Descriptions](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/product-descriptions): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Product Photography](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/product-photography): 37 tools
- [AI Tools for Prompt Engineering](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/prompt-engineering): 12 tools
- [AI Tools for Prompt Library](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/prompt-library): 10 tools
- [Prompt Management Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/prompt-management): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Prototyping](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/prototyping): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Pull Requests](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/pull-requests): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Python](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/python): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Quiz Generation](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/quiz-generation): 8 tools
- [AI Quiz Generators](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/quiz-generator): 10 tools
- [RAG Tools & Platforms](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/rag): 34 tools
- [AI Tools for Rank Tracking](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/rank-tracking): 8 tools
- [AI Receipt Scanner Apps](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/receipt-scanning): 9 tools
- [AI Tools for Research](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/research): 9 tools
- [AI Resume Builders](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/resume-builder): 23 tools
- [AI Resume Tailoring Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/resume-tailoring): 13 tools
- [AI Tools for Sales Automation](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/sales-automation): 12 tools
- [AI Tools for Sales Coaching](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/sales-coaching): 9 tools
- [AI Screen Recorders](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/screen-recording): 10 tools
- [Self-Hosted AI Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/self-hosted): 32 tools
- [AI Tools for SEO Automation](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/seo-automation): 19 tools
- [AI Tools for SEO Content](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/seo-content): 34 tools
- [AI Tools for Short Form Video](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/short-form-video): 33 tools
- [AI Tools for Small Business](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/small-business): 12 tools
- [AI Tools for Social Content](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/social-content): 14 tools
- [AI Tools for Social Listening](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/social-listening): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Social Media Scheduling](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/social-media-scheduling): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Social Scheduling](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/social-scheduling): 25 tools
- [AI Tools for Spaced Repetition](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/spaced-repetition): 13 tools
- [AI Tools for Speech to Text](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/speech-to-text): 13 tools
- [Stable Diffusion Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/stable-diffusion): 9 tools
- [AI Tools for Stem Separation](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/stem-separation): 18 tools
- [AI Tools for Study Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/study-tools): 15 tools
- [AI Tools for Style Transfer](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/style-transfer): 17 tools
- [AI Tools for Subtitles](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/subtitles): 21 tools
- [AI Tools for Summarization](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/summarization): 20 tools
- [AI Support Agents](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/support-agent): 8 tools
- [AI Support Chatbots](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/support-chatbot): 15 tools
- [AI Tarot Readers](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/tarot): 10 tools
- [AI Task Automation Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/task-automation): 16 tools
- [AI Task Management Apps](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/task-management): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Tattoo Design](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/tattoo-design): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Team Collaboration](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/team-collaboration): 10 tools
- [AI Template Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/templates): 13 tools
- [AI Tools for Text Rewriting](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/text-rewriting): 15 tools
- [AI Tools for Text to 3D](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/text-to-3d): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Text to Image](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/text-to-image): 64 tools
- [AI Tools for Text to Music](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/text-to-music): 10 tools
- [AI Text to Speech Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/text-to-speech): 55 tools
- [AI Tools for Text to SQL](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/text-to-sql): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Text to Video](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/text-to-video): 60 tools
- [AI Thumbnail Generators](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/thumbnail-generator): 8 tools
- [AI Transcription Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/transcription): 48 tools
- [AI Tools for Translation](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/translation): 28 tools
- [AI Tools for Travel Itinerary](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/travel-itinerary): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Trip Planning](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/trip-planning): 13 tools
- [AI Tools for UI Generation](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ui-generation): 9 tools
- [AI Tools for Upscaling](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/upscaling): 11 tools
- [Vibe Coding Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/vibe-coding): 28 tools
- [AI Tools for Video Ads](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/video-ads): 12 tools
- [AI Video Dubbing Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/video-dubbing): 18 tools
- [AI Tools for Video Editing](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/video-editing): 20 tools
- [AI Video Generators](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/video-generation): 17 tools
- [AI Tools for Video Repurposing](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/video-repurposing): 11 tools
- [AI Tools for Video Summarization](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/video-summarization): 9 tools
- [AI Tools for Video Translation](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/video-translation): 13 tools
- [AI Tools for Virtual Staging](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/virtual-staging): 15 tools
- [AI Tools for Virtual Try On](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/virtual-try-on): 17 tools
- [AI Voice Agents](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/voice-agents): 35 tools
- [Voice AI Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/voice-ai): 9 tools
- [AI Tools for Voice Changer](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/voice-changer): 9 tools
- [AI Voice Cloning Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/voice-cloning): 74 tools
- [AI Tools for Voice Input](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/voice-input): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Voice to Text](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/voice-to-text): 8 tools
- [AI Tools for Voiceover](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/voiceover): 11 tools
- [AI Tools for Watermark Removal](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/watermark-removal): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Web Scraping](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/web-scraping): 20 tools
- [AI Website Builders](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/website-builder): 23 tools
- [AI Tools for WhatsApp](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/whatsapp): 8 tools
- [White-Label AI Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/white-label): 9 tools
- [AI Tools for WordPress](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/wordpress): 17 tools
- [AI Tools for Workflow Automation](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/workflow-automation): 42 tools
- [AI Writing Assistants](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/writing-assistant): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Youtube Summaries](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/youtube-summaries): 8 tools
- [AI YouTube Summarizers](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/youtube-summarizer): 10 tools
- [AI Tools for Youtube Thumbnails](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/youtube-thumbnails): 11 tools

## Blog posts, full text

Every other published post, newest first. Each starts with its title as a top-level heading;
"EffectHub cards" lines name the catalog cards a post shows live, whose prices and
statuses are current on the card rather than in the post.

---

# Picsart alternatives in 2026: what each one replaces, free limits and prices

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/picsart-alternatives
- Published: 2026-10-19
- Summary: Nine Picsart alternatives by job: background removal, browser editors, phone presets, video and image generators, with prices as of October 19, 2026.

[Picsart](https://effecthub.net/ai/picsart) is no longer a photo editor with a few AI tricks. On October 19, 2026 its pricing page sells "every frontier model in one subscription": 140 or more image, video and audio models on the top plan, fifteen creative agents, a command-line tool and an MCP server, plus the editor, templates and stickers it started with. Pro costs $15 a month, or $10.50 a month billed yearly; Ultra is $47 a month, or $37.50 billed yearly, per seat. Every plan comes with a monthly credit allowance, and the credits expire at the end of the cycle.

That is a lot of product for someone who opens the app to remove one background a week. This guide sorts the alternatives by the job people actually came to Picsart for. Prices and limits are from the vendors' own pages on October 19, 2026, or from the dated check on each tool's card below; the cards show what is in our database now, which outlives this text.

## Background removal and product photos

If the job is cutting out products, swapping backgrounds and exporting for a marketplace, three tools do only that and do it with fewer menus.

EffectHub cards: [photoroom](https://effecthub.net/ai/photoroom), [pixelcut](https://effecthub.net/ai/pixelcut), [cutout-pro](https://effecthub.net/ai/cutout-pro)

[Photoroom](https://effecthub.net/ai/photoroom) is the one built for sellers: batch processing, a product-photo generator, AI fashion models, and an API. Its Pro plan is $7.50 a month billed yearly with 8,000 AI credits and 1,000 exports a month; the video generator and 4K output sit on the Max and Ultra plans, and Enterprise is priced on request. The limit to read before paying is the export count, not the credits: a shop that relists daily can hit 1,000 exports.

Screenshot of [photoroom](https://effecthub.net/ai/photoroom): Photoroom's editor opens straight on the cut-out, with the background library and export at the top

[Pixelcut](https://effecthub.net/ai/pixelcut) competes on the same ground from the phone. Pro is $10 a month or $8 billed yearly for 600 AI credits, unlimited background removal and upscaling, and three seats, which makes it the cheapest option for a small team sharing one account. [Cutout.Pro](https://effecthub.net/ai/cutout-pro) runs everything on credits: a free account gets 5 credits and unlimited previews, and subscriptions start at 80 credits for $5 a month, so it suits occasional use and anyone who wants an API without a Photoroom-sized plan.

## A real editor in the browser

Picsart's desktop editor is capable, but it lives inside the same account and credit system as the generators. Two browser editors keep layers, masks and text tools without the rest.

EffectHub cards: [pixlr](https://effecthub.net/ai/pixlr), [befunky](https://effecthub.net/ai/befunky)

[Pixlr](https://effecthub.net/ai/pixlr) is the closest in spirit to the editor Picsart used to be: a free, ad-supported version, then Plus at $2.49 a month, or $1.99 billed yearly, with about 80 AI images or edits a month, and Premium at $9.99, or $7.99 yearly, with 1,000 credits. Its generative fill and background removal are usable on the free tier with ads. [BeFunky](https://effecthub.net/ai/befunky) splits into a photo editor, a collage maker and a design tool, and sells Plus at $14.99 a month or $83.88 a year (about $7 a month), with Pro at $24.99 a month or $149.88 a year.

Screenshot of [pixlr](https://effecthub.net/ai/pixlr): Pixlr's layer panel and generative tools in the browser, no download

## Quick fixes without an account

[Clipdrop](https://effecthub.net/ai/clipdrop) is the tool for one-off jobs: cleanup, upscaling, uncrop and relighting, each a single page. Free accounts get 20 uses per tool every 24 hours, 50 for text removal, at standard resolution; Pro raises that to 1,000 uses per tool a day at high resolution.

EffectHub cards: [clipdrop](https://effecthub.net/ai/clipdrop)

## Presets and filters for phone photos

If what you miss is the filter drawer, [VSCO](https://effecthub.net/ai/vsco) still does that better than anyone and adds a photographer community. The free Starter tier has 15 presets; Plus is $29.99 a year, or $7.99 if billed monthly; Pro is $59.99 a year, or $12.99 monthly. It is the only tool here where yearly billing cuts the price by more than half.

EffectHub cards: [vsco](https://effecthub.net/ai/vsco)

## If it is the video editor you use

Picsart's video tools overlap with [CapCut](https://effecthub.net/ai/capcut), which stays free for short-form editing and keeps its AI set behind Pro. CapCut now lists Free, Pro, Ultra and Teams, but shows prices in the visitor's local currency and calls them reference only, so compare on the page you will actually pay on.

EffectHub cards: [capcut](https://effecthub.net/ai/capcut)

## If it is the image generator

The models Picsart bundles are the same ones you can rent directly. [Adobe Firefly](https://effecthub.net/ai/adobe-firefly) sells four standalone tiers starting at 2,000 credits a month and is the one with a commercial-safety promise on its own models. [Ideogram](https://effecthub.net/ai/ideogram) is the model that gets words inside the picture right, with a Basic plan around $8 a month for 400 priority credits. [Leonardo.Ai](https://effecthub.net/ai/leonardo-ai) and [Midjourney](https://effecthub.net/ai/midjourney) both answered our price checks with a 403 this month, so their cards carry third-party figures with the date they were read.

EffectHub cards: [adobe-firefly](https://effecthub.net/ai/adobe-firefly), [ideogram](https://effecthub.net/ai/ideogram), [leonardo-ai](https://effecthub.net/ai/leonardo-ai), [midjourney](https://effecthub.net/ai/midjourney)

Chart: Cheapest paid plan, dollars per month when billed yearly, as of October 19, 2026
- Pixlr Plus: 1.99
- VSCO Plus: 2.50
- Cutout.Pro 80 credits: 5
- BeFunky Plus: 6.99
- Photoroom Pro: 7.50
- Pixelcut Pro: 8
- Picsart Pro: 10.50

## Where Picsart still wins

Nothing above replaces Picsart as a whole. If you use the templates and sticker library, bulk-edit fifty images at once, want several video models behind one button, or like the idea of agents that resize, localise and write listings for you, the $10.50 Pro plan is still the cheapest way to get all of that in one place. The two things to check before renewing are the credit meter, because unused credits vanish at the end of the month, and whether you used anything beyond the editor last month. If the answer is no, the editor alone costs a third as much elsewhere.

## How we checked

Picsart, Photoroom and Pixlr prices were read on their pricing pages on October 19, 2026. BeFunky, Pixelcut, Cutout.Pro, Clipdrop, CapCut and VSCO figures come from the dated checks on their EffectHub cards, each with the source page. Leonardo.Ai and Midjourney block automated reads, so their cards say so and cite a third-party tracker with its date. More options are in the [image editing](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/image-editing) and [background removal](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/background-removal) categories, which rank by our Effect score rather than by this guide's jobs.

---

# How to choose an AI meeting note-taker in 2026: bot or botless, free-tier limits, languages and CRM sync

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/choosing-an-ai-note-taker
- Published: 2026-10-18
- Summary: Bot or botless capture, free-tier minutes and history, languages, CRM and ATS sync, and Fathom's sale to Superhuman: how to pick an AI note-taker in 2026.

Every AI note-taker promises the same three things: a transcript, a summary and a list of action items. That part has become a commodity. What separates [Fathom](https://effecthub.net/ai/fathom), [Otter](https://effecthub.net/ai/otter-ai), [Fireflies](https://effecthub.net/ai/fireflies-ai), [Granola](https://effecthub.net/ai/granola), [Bluedot](https://effecthub.net/ai/bluedot) and the rest is everything around it: how the audio is captured, what the free plan actually rations, which languages it hears, where the notes go after the call, and who owns the company next year.

This guide works through those decisions in the order they tend to bite, using the vendors' own pages as they stood on October 18, 2026. It does not repeat the consent, retention and training questions; those are in our [privacy checklist for AI meeting assistants](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-meeting-assistant-privacy-checklist), and they apply whichever tool you pick.

## Bot in the call or a recorder on your device

There are two ways to get the audio. A bot joins the meeting as a named participant and records what the platform sends it. A botless recorder runs on your own computer or phone and captures what your device plays and hears, so no extra name appears in the participant list.

In 2026 this is less a choice between products than between modes. [Otter](https://effecthub.net/ai/otter-ai)'s desktop app for Mac and Windows records "without needing Notetaker to join", while its Notetaker bot, by Otter's own help center, cannot join a meeting anonymously. Fireflies' desktop app has a Take Notes mode that captures system audio without a bot. Fathom 3.0 asks you to pick a capture mode before each meeting, from a full bot recording down to a bot-free transcript with no recording saved; the bot-free modes are a beta on Mac, and Windows stays on the previous version for now. [Granola](https://effecthub.net/ai/granola), [Bluedot](https://effecthub.net/ai/bluedot) and [Krisp](https://effecthub.net/ai/krisp) are botless by design: Granola listens through the computer's audio, Bluedot records through a Chrome extension or desktop app, and Krisp sits beneath whatever conferencing app is running.

What each mode costs you:

- **A bot gets the fullest record.** It can record video and name speakers. Fireflies' help guide is candid that its system-audio mode saves no separate audio or video file and labels people as Speaker 1 and Speaker 2.
- **A botless recorder works where bots cannot.** Granola and Krisp capture in-person conversations and calls on any app, and nobody has to admit a guest from the waiting room.
- **A botless recorder hears only your device.** If your connection drops or a colleague's side is muted on your end, that part is gone.
- **An admin can overrule you.** Fathom's release notes say organization admins can block bot-free capture for the whole organization, so every meeting gets a bot.

Neither mode removes the duty to tell people. A visible bot is a reminder; a silent recorder makes the announcement entirely yours.

## Free plans: read the meter, not the word "free"

Every tool here has a free way in, and each rations something different. There are four meters, and the one that matters is the one your calendar hits first.

1. **Minutes per month.** Otter's Basic plan gives 300 transcription minutes a month; [MeetGeek](https://effecthub.net/ai/meetgeek)'s free plan gives 3 hours.
2. **Length of one meeting.** Otter Basic stops at 30 minutes per conversation, which cuts a standard hour-long call in half. Bluedot's own pages give its free plan a 1-hour cap per recording; Fireflies and MeetGeek allow 2 hours on their free plans.
3. **Number of meetings.** Bluedot's free plan covers 5 meetings in the lifetime of the account, which makes it a trial, not a plan. [Read AI](https://effecthub.net/ai/read-ai)'s free plan allows 5 transcripts a month.
4. **History.** Granola's Basic plan keeps unlimited notes but shows only the last 30 days. Otter Basic shows your 25 most recent conversations and archives the rest until you upgrade or delete. Fireflies keeps transcription unlimited on Free and puts the cap on storage and AI features instead.

Chart: Longest single meeting a free plan records, in minutes, as of October 18, 2026
- Otter Basic: 30 minutes
- Bluedot Free: 60 minutes
- Fireflies Free: 120 minutes
- MeetGeek free: 120 minutes

Fathom is the outlier. Its pricing page lists unlimited recordings, transcripts and AI summaries on the free plan, and its help center says the free version keeps "unlimited storage and recordings - forever". If one person wants every call transcribed at no cost, that is the plan to test first. If you need a full archive on any other tool, budget for a paid seat from day one: a free plan that hides older notes is a trial with a longer fuse.

Screenshot of [fireflies-ai](https://effecthub.net/ai/fireflies-ai): Fireflies keeps transcription unlimited on its free plan; the meter sits on storage and AI features, and its desktop app records without a bot.

## Languages: count, then test one recording

Language support varies more than the marketing suggests. Otter's help center lists six transcription languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Simplified Chinese) and asks you to choose one before recording; French and English are the only pair it handles together. Fathom's help center says it transcribes 38 languages. Read AI's homepage says 20 or more. Fireflies, Bluedot and MeetGeek each claim more than 100, and Fireflies' mode for meetings that switch language mid-call is a beta on its Business and Enterprise plans.

A count is a ceiling, not a promise. If your meetings mix languages, record one real call on the free plan before you pay, and read the summary as well as the transcript.

## CRM and ATS sync: price the tier that has it

For sales and recruiting teams the transcript is the raw material and the integration is the product: notes that land in the deal or the candidate record without anyone retyping them. The catch is that integrations are where vendors draw their tier lines.

- **Fathom** puts CRM field sync, deal insights and coaching metrics on Business, with a two-user minimum.
- **Fireflies** saves transcripts to Salesforce and HubSpot from Pro, but Autofill CRM and deal intelligence need Business.
- **Otter** adds CRM sync on Business; Pro does not include it.
- **Bluedot** lists CRM and ATS integrations on Business, and documents a native connection to the Ashby ATS.
- **Granola** includes HubSpot, Notion and Zapier on Business, not on the free Basic plan.
- **[tl;dv](https://effecthub.net/ai/tl-dv)** says it pushes meeting summaries to HubSpot, Salesforce and Pipedrive records from its Pro plan.

Recruiters have a specialist option. [Metaview](https://effecthub.net/ai/metaview) is built for interviews and says it writes notes and scorecards into Ashby, Greenhouse and Lever. For CRM-centric teams, our [conversation intelligence](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/conversation-intelligence) category lists the tools that go further into call scoring and forecasting.

The practical rule: find the cheapest tier that includes the integration you need, and compare that price, not the entry price. On several tools it is the second or third tier.

## Where the transcript lives

The capture mode decides what exists; the vendor decides where it is kept. Granola's help center says its Mac and Windows apps keep no audio, only the transcript, and that the iPhone app caches audio during the meeting and deletes it when transcription finishes. tl;dv's privacy policy says data is primarily stored in the European Economic Area, in data centers in Germany and Finland, while AI processing can leave the EEA depending on the hosting location you choose in your account. MeetGeek's homepage warns that after a downgrade, past data falls under the new plan's retention window.

Two habits cover most of the risk. Export transcripts on a schedule, not on the day you cancel. And if your contracts require EU hosting, choose a vendor that names its data centers in writing; a vendor's marketing page is not a data processing agreement.

## What changed in September: Fathom now belongs to Superhuman

[Superhuman](https://effecthub.net/ai/superhuman), the company behind Grammarly, which took the Superhuman name in October 2025, announced on September 14, 2026 that it had acquired Fathom. Financial terms were not disclosed. TechCrunch reported that Fathom, founded in 2020, had raised more than $30 million and was valued at $94 million in 2024, according to PitchBook. Superhuman says it will bring Fathom's note-taking into its email, calendar, documents and agents. A Fathom connector for Superhuman Go is already live, and Fathom's own announcement page says the app, login and product experience stay the same for now.

When we re-checked Fathom on October 15 we recorded it as acquired. The product is still sold on its own, and its prices, as of October 18, 2026, are per user per month: Premium $20 monthly or $16 billed annually; Team $19 or $15 and Business $34 or $25, both with a two-user minimum; Enterprise by quote.

Screenshot of [fathom](https://effecthub.net/ai/fathom): Superhuman announced it had acquired Fathom on September 14, 2026; Fathom says the app, login and product experience stay the same for now.

An acquisition is not a reason to leave a tool that works. It is a reason to keep the commitment short: stay on monthly billing or a one-year term until the roadmap is public, and keep your exports current.

## What a paid seat costs

Per-user prices sit in a narrow band once you compare like with like. These are the cheapest plans one person can buy, billed annually, from each vendor's pricing page as of October 18, 2026. Month-to-month billing costs more everywhere: Otter Pro is $16.99, Fireflies Pro $18, Read AI Pro $19.75 and Fathom Premium $20.

Chart: Cheapest paid plan one person can buy, per month billed annually, as of October 18, 2026
- Krisp Core: $8
- Otter Pro: $8.33
- MeetGeek Pro: $9.99
- Fireflies Pro: $10
- Bluedot Basic: $14
- Read AI Pro: $15
- Fathom Premium: $16

The chart hides what each price buys. Bluedot's Basic is audio only and still caps a recording at an hour; video and unlimited length start at Pro, $20 billed annually. Fathom's cheaper Team plan needs two users. Granola's Business plan is $14 per user per month, and its pricing page does not say whether that is a monthly or an annual rate, so it is left off the chart. Our guide to [AI tool pricing models](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-tool-pricing-models-explained) explains why per-seat prices only compare once you count who records.

EffectHub cards: [fathom](https://effecthub.net/ai/fathom), [otter-ai](https://effecthub.net/ai/otter-ai), [fireflies-ai](https://effecthub.net/ai/fireflies-ai), [granola](https://effecthub.net/ai/granola), [bluedot](https://effecthub.net/ai/bluedot), [read-ai](https://effecthub.net/ai/read-ai), [tl-dv](https://effecthub.net/ai/tl-dv), [krisp](https://effecthub.net/ai/krisp), [meetgeek](https://effecthub.net/ai/meetgeek), [metaview](https://effecthub.net/ai/metaview)

## Which one, by situation

- **One person, every call, nothing to pay:** Fathom's free plan, then Fireflies if you want unlimited transcription with an API on the free plan.
- **No bot in client or candidate calls:** Granola if you take your own notes and want them filled in; Bluedot if you need recordings and CRM or ATS sync; Krisp if noise is the bigger problem.
- **Mostly English, lowest price:** Otter Pro on annual billing, as long as six languages are enough.
- **Sales team writing to a CRM:** Fireflies, Fathom Business or tl;dv, priced at the tier that includes your CRM.
- **Recruiting:** Metaview, or Bluedot Business with an ATS connection.
- **Meetings in many languages:** Fireflies, Bluedot or MeetGeek, after one test recording.

The catalog's [meeting assistants](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/meeting-assistants), [meeting notes](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/meeting-notes) and [AI meeting note-taker](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/meeting-notes) pages keep every tool's price, status and verification date on one card, checked the way [we verify](https://effecthub.net/how-we-verify) every listing.

## Questions people ask

### What is the best free AI note-taker?

For unlimited use, Fathom: its free plan lists unlimited recordings, transcripts and AI summaries. Fireflies' free plan also keeps transcription unlimited but caps storage. Otter Basic gives 300 minutes a month with a 30-minute limit per conversation.

### Can an AI note-taker work without a bot joining the call?

Yes. Granola, Bluedot and Krisp never send a bot, and Otter's and Fireflies' desktop apps and Fathom's Mac beta can record without one. Botless recording captures only what your device hears, and Fireflies' version labels speakers generically.

### Is Fathom still free after the Superhuman acquisition?

As of October 18, 2026, yes. Fathom's pricing page still lists the free plan, and its announcement says the app, login and product experience stay the same for now. We found no announced plan changes.

### Which AI note-takers integrate with a CRM?

Most do, on a paid tier: Fathom, Otter, Bluedot and Granola on Business, Fireflies and tl;dv from Pro, with more CRM features on Fireflies Business. For recruiting, Metaview and Bluedot connect to an ATS.

## Sources

- [Fathom pricing](https://www.fathom.ai/pricing)
- [What does Fathom cost?, Fathom help center](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/729152)
- [What languages does Fathom support?, Fathom help center](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/296192)
- [How to Upgrade to Fathom 3.0+, Fathom help center](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11577345)
- [Coming Soon to the Fathom 3.0 Experience, Fathom help center](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11578049)
- [Fathom release notes](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/6220097)
- [Fathom is now part of Superhuman](https://www.fathom.ai/superhuman)
- [Superhuman acquires Fathom, Superhuman blog](https://blog.superhuman.com/superhuman-acquires-fathom/)
- [Superhuman acquires YC-backed notetaker Fathom, TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/14/superhuman-acquires-yc-backed-notetaker-fathom-as-productivity-platforms-push-for-agentic-work/)
- [Otter pricing](https://otter.ai/pricing)
- [Conversation, import, and app limits on the Basic free plan, Otter help center](https://help.otter.ai/hc/en-us/articles/360047538094-Conversation-import-and-app-limits-on-the-Basic-free-plan)
- [Supported languages, Otter help center](https://help.otter.ai/hc/en-us/articles/26660468516631-Transcribe-conversations-in-English-Spanish-French-German-Japanese-or-Chinese-Simplified)
- [Otter Desktop App, Otter help center](https://help.otter.ai/hc/en-us/articles/35973988280215-Otter-Desktop-App-Mac-Windows)
- [Fireflies pricing](https://fireflies.ai/pricing)
- [Learn about the Fireflies pricing plans, Fireflies guide](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/3734844560-learn-about-the-fireflies-pricing-plans)
- [How to record meetings without a bot on the Fireflies desktop app](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/6666374717-how-to-record-meetings-without-a-bot-on-the-fireflies-desktop-app)
- [Multilingual meeting transcription, Fireflies blog](https://fireflies.ai/blog/fireflies-multi-language-transcription)
- [CRM platforms supported, Fireflies guide](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/7306220598-crm-platforms-supported)
- [Granola pricing](https://www.granola.ai/pricing)
- [Granola pricing for teams, Granola blog](https://www.granola.ai/blog/granola-pricing-teams-per-user-enterprise)
- [Granola consent, security and privacy, Granola help center](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/consent-security-privacy/getting-consent)
- [Bluedot pricing](https://www.bluedothq.com/pricing)
- [Bluedot AI note taker](https://www.bluedothq.com/)
- [How to connect Bluedot to Ashby, Bluedot help center](https://help.bluedothq.com/en/articles/15799235-how-to-connect-bluedot-to-ashby-ats)
- [Read AI plans and pricing](https://www.read.ai/plans-pricing)
- [Read AI](https://www.read.ai/)
- [tl;dv privacy policy](https://tldv.io/privacy/)
- [Krisp pricing](https://krisp.ai/pricing)
- [Best AI note-taking apps for meetings, Krisp blog](https://krisp.ai/blog/ai-note-taking-apps/)
- [MeetGeek](https://meetgeek.ai/)
- [Best free AI meeting note takers, MeetGeek blog](https://meetgeek.ai/blog/best-free-ai-meeting-note-taker)
- [Metaview integrations](https://www.metaview.ai/integrations)

---

# Surfer pricing in 2026: what each plan costs, what counts as a document, and when an alternative is cheaper

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/surfer-pricing-explained
- Published: 2026-10-18
- Summary: Surfer plans as of October 2026: what a document is, AI Tracker prompts, yearly vs monthly billing, and when NeuronWriter, Frase or Scalenut costs less.

[Surfer](https://effecthub.net/ai/surfer-seo)'s pricing page shows four plans and a billing toggle, and the cheapest one is rarely the one a team can use. Discovery is $49 a month, but it has one seat and no AI Tracker; the first plan three people can share is Standard, at $1,188 a year paid upfront or $1,428 paid month to month. Three numbers on the cards decide the bill: documents, seats and tracked prompts. The vendor now writes its name as Surfer; older reviews, and our own URL, still say Surfer SEO.

This guide reads Surfer's pricing page and help center as of October 18, 2026, prices one small content team on Surfer, then prices the same team on Frase, NeuronWriter, Scalenut and Clearscope. The catalog's [SEO tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/seo-tools) category keeps each tool's current price and verification date on its card.

## What Surfer counts: documents, seats and prompts

**A document is a Content Editor.** Surfer's help center says each successfully created Content Editor uses one unit of the plan's allowance; the pricing page calls that allowance "Create or Optimize" documents. Surfer's developer docs add that current plans include AI-written articles inside the Content Editor, while Enterprise and some older plans reserve a separate AI Article credit when an article starts.

**The period is the fine print.** The pricing page prints 120 or 360 documents without saying per what. The help center says the Usage page shows a monthly limit on a monthly plan and a yearly limit on an annual one, and that an annual plan receives the whole year's pools in one upfront batch. Third-party guides published in September and October read the same 120 as a monthly allowance or as a yearly one, and they cannot both be right. Before paying for a year, open Settings, Billing, Usage during the trial and read the number there.

**Nothing rolls over.** Monthly limits reset and unused documents are lost; on an annual plan the unused pool does not carry into the next year. A downgrade drops whatever is left, and an upgrade turns unused time into a prorated discount but not your old limits into new ones. Content Audit, AI Tracker, Custom Voice and Custom Template limits stay the same whichever billing cycle you pick, and fair-use daily limits still apply.

**Prompts are the second meter.** AI Tracker, Surfer's report on how a brand shows up in AI answers, comes with Standard and above: 25 prompts refreshed weekly in ChatGPT only on Standard, 50 refreshed daily on Pro, 100 daily on Peace of Mind. More prompts cost $18 a month per pack of ten.

## The plans, as of October 18, 2026

Prices are in US dollars from surferseo.com/pricing, which leads with yearly prices; European visitors see the same numbers labelled in euros.

| Plan | Billed yearly | Billed monthly | Documents | Seats | AI Tracker | What it adds |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Discovery | $49/mo | $59/mo | 120 | 1 | Not included | Content Editor |
| Standard | $99/mo | $119/mo | 360 | 3 | 25 prompts, weekly, ChatGPT | 1-click optimization, brand knowledge |
| Pro | $182/mo | $219/mo | 360 | 5 | 50 prompts, daily | Content Audit, 1-click internal linking, 5 brand spaces |
| Peace of Mind | $299/mo | $359/mo | Unlimited, fair use | 10 | 100 prompts, daily | API access, success manager, unlimited brand spaces |
| Enterprise | Custom | Not offered | Custom | Custom | Custom | Packaged per contract |

Two columns need a footnote. Surfer's help center says only that seats depend on the plan: Discovery's one seat and Pro's five are Surfer's own figures, while Standard's three and Peace of Mind's ten come from third-party plan breakdowns, so check the Members page on the trial. Enterprise is "custom" on the pricing page and yearly only, per the help center, though Surfer's own blog has quoted it at $999 a month.

There is no free plan. New accounts get seven days of Pro: you pick a plan and enter a card at checkout, and when the week ends the subscription converts to that plan and the card is charged for the first billing period unless you cancel. A card already registered to a Surfer account is not eligible.

## Yearly or monthly

Chart: Surfer plans per month, yearly vs monthly billing, October 18, 2026
- Discovery, yearly: $49
- Discovery, monthly: $59
- Standard, yearly: $99
- Standard, monthly: $119
- Pro, yearly: $182
- Pro, monthly: $219
- Peace of Mind, yearly: $299
- Peace of Mind, monthly: $359

Surfer's Pricing FAQ puts the yearly saving at up to 17%, or up to $720, which is Peace of Mind: $60 a month for twelve months. On Discovery the same 17% is $120 a year. The catch is that the year is charged upfront and the documents may arrive as one yearly pool, so a team that runs dry in month ten waits for renewal or upgrades. The month-to-month prices are the figures third-party guides quote; one pricing history notes it derived them from each plan's printed saving rather than reading them off the page.

Switching from monthly to yearly goes through Support, per Surfer's Subscription Migration FAQ. The same FAQ explains the May 18, 2026 migration: legacy subscriptions moved to the current plans based on past usage, most add-ons were folded into plan limits, coupons and promotional prices ended (lifetime discounts excepted), and accounts facing a notable increase got a temporary discount, six months for monthly subscribers. An unexpected renewal price most likely traces back to it.

## Add-ons: what is still billed separately

The migration left little to buy on its own:

- **AI Tracker prompts:** packs of 10 at $18 a month each, on top of the plan's 25, 50 or 100.
- **Rank Tracker:** the one add-on still sold separately, billed monthly from $8.50 per 100 keywords and cheaper per keyword as packages stack; Surfer's walkthrough puts the entry point at $17 for 200.
- **API:** no longer an add-on. API access needs Peace of Mind or Enterprise, and API users were moved to that tier.
- **AI Search Analytics:** a standalone plan for teams that want AI-answer tracking without the content tools, every prompt refreshed daily.

Chart: Surfer AI Search Analytics per month, billed monthly, October 18, 2026
- 50 prompts: $95
- 100 prompts: $185
- 200 prompts: $365

Billed yearly those are $82, $158 and $308 a month, and an unlimited tier is priced by Sales. On monthly billing a standalone prompt costs $1.90 and a pack prompt $1.80, so a team already on Standard or Pro should add packs; the standalone plan suits a team that never opens the editor.

## A worked example: three people, 30 documents a month

Take an SEO lead and two writers who publish 20 new articles and refresh 10 old ones a month, each through a Content Editor: 30 documents a month, three seats, and a wish to see whether ChatGPT mentions the brand.

Discovery is out on seats and has no AI Tracker. Standard fits: three seats, 25 weekly ChatGPT prompts, and 360 documents, which covers 30 a month under either reading of the quota, though under the yearly reading it covers exactly 30 with none spare. That is $99 a month billed yearly, $1,188 upfront, or $119 month to month. Pro, at $182 or $219, earns its price only if the team wants daily refreshes, Content Audit or a fourth and fifth seat.

The same workload elsewhere, from each vendor's pricing page on the same day:

| Tool | What it meters | Cheapest plan that fits | Billed monthly | Billed yearly |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Surfer | Documents, seats, prompts | Standard: 360 documents, 3 seats | $119 | $99/mo |
| [Frase](https://effecthub.net/ai/frase) | Articles, audit pages, seats, sites | Professional: 40 articles, 3 seats | $129 | $103/mo |
| [NeuronWriter](https://effecthub.net/ai/neuronwriter) | Content analyses, projects | Gold: 75 analyses, unlimited team members | $69 | $57/mo |
| [Scalenut](https://effecthub.net/ai/scalenut) | Articles, optimizations, prompts | Plus: 30 articles, up to 4 team members | $89 | $36/mo on the current 60%-off offer |
| [Clearscope](https://effecthub.net/ai/clearscope) | Drafts, pages, tracked prompts | Essentials: 20 drafts, unlimited users | $129 plus draft add-ons | Monthly, no minimum contract |

Chart: Cheapest plan for three people and 30 documents a month, billed monthly, October 18, 2026
- NeuronWriter Gold: $69
- Scalenut Plus: $89
- Surfer Standard: $119
- Frase Professional: $129

What the table hides: the units are not the same thing. A NeuronWriter analysis is one query, and Silver ($45 for 50 analyses) has the volume but shares projects read-only, which is why three people land on Gold. Scalenut's $36 is a promotional rate on yearly billing; its list prices are $59, $89 and $199, and that is where a renewal can land. Frase meters articles and audit pages separately, so one can run out while the other looks healthy. Clearscope covers 20 of the 30 drafts on Essentials, and the other ten need add-ons on top of $129.

EffectHub cards: [surfer-seo](https://effecthub.net/ai/surfer-seo), [clearscope](https://effecthub.net/ai/clearscope), [frase](https://effecthub.net/ai/frase), [scalenut](https://effecthub.net/ai/scalenut), [neuronwriter](https://effecthub.net/ai/neuronwriter), [marketmuse](https://effecthub.net/ai/marketmuse), [seo-writing-ai](https://effecthub.net/ai/seo-writing-ai)

## When an alternative is cheaper

Stay on Surfer when the writers already draft in Google Docs or WordPress, where its integrations put the score beside the text, when you want AI Tracker under the same login, and when the team is three people at about 30 documents a month.

Look at NeuronWriter on a budget. Bronze is $23 a month or $19 billed yearly for 25 analyses and 2 projects, Silver $45 or $37 for 50 and 5; Gold adds unlimited team members and the API, and Diamond tops out at 150 analyses for $117. There is a 7-day trial on Gold terms and a 30-day refund on the first plan.

Look at Frase for one writer. Starter is $49 a month or $39 billed yearly for 1 seat, 1 site, 10 articles and 50 audit pages, and it stops at those limits rather than billing overages; the 7-day trial needs no card. Professional adds 3 seats and 40 articles, Scale ($299 or $239) 5 seats and 100 articles, and extra seats are $29 a month.

Look at Scalenut when you want briefs, drafts and AI-visibility prompts in one plan: Starter $59 for 5 articles and 10 prompts, Plus $89 for 30 articles and 25 prompts, Professional $199 for 75 articles, 100 prompts and unlimited team members, each with a 7-day trial. Budget against the list prices, not the offer banner.

Look at Clearscope when many people need to see the grade. Essentials is $129 a month for 50 tracked prompts, 50 pages, 20 topic explorations and 20 drafts, and Business is $399 for 300 tracked prompts and 300 pages with an account manager. Every plan has unlimited users and a 14-day trial, so a team of eight pays what a team of two does, while Surfer's seat count rises with the plan.

[MarketMuse](https://effecthub.net/ai/marketmuse) is a planning tool more than an editor, and its pricing page shows no prices: a Free plan with 10 queries a month, then Optimize (100 topics, 5 briefs) and Research (1,000 topics, 10 briefs, 3 users), each sold through a demo. [SEOWriting](https://effecthub.net/ai/seo-writing-ai) is a different buyer again, generating articles in bulk rather than grading yours: Starter is $19 a month or $168 a year for 50 credits, with most models at one credit an article and the strongest OpenAI and Anthropic models at 4 to 10. The catalog's [content marketing category](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/content-marketing) lists the wider field, and our guide to [AI tool pricing models](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-tool-pricing-models-explained) explains why a document, an analysis and a credit cannot be compared until you count your own month.

## Questions people ask

### Does Surfer have a free plan?

No. New accounts get a 7-day trial of Pro with a card entered at checkout, and it converts to the plan you picked unless you cancel before the week ends.

### How much does Surfer cost per month?

Discovery is $49 a month billed yearly or $59 monthly; Standard $99 or $119; Pro $182 or $219; Peace of Mind $299 or $359. Enterprise is custom and billed yearly only.

### What counts as a document in Surfer?

Each Content Editor you create successfully. Unused documents do not roll over, and the Usage page under Billing shows whether your allowance is counted per month or per year.

## Sources

- [Pricing | Surfer](https://surferseo.com/pricing/)
- [Pricing FAQ | Surfer help center](https://docs.surferseo.com/en/articles/7545943-pricing-faq)
- [Annual Plans Limits Allocation](https://docs.surferseo.com/en/articles/6758676-annual-plans-limits-allocation)
- [Understanding your Current Usage Page](https://docs.surferseo.com/en/articles/8612798-understanding-your-current-usage-page)
- [Content Editor Overview](https://docs.surferseo.com/en/articles/5700347-content-editor-overview)
- [How does the Surfer trial work?](https://docs.surferseo.com/en/articles/12944181-how-does-the-surfer-trial-work)
- [Subscription Migration FAQ](https://docs.surferseo.com/en/articles/12944180-subscription-migration-faq)
- [AI Tracker](https://docs.surferseo.com/en/articles/11667466-ai-tracker)
- [AI Search Analytics](https://docs.surferseo.com/en/articles/12944184-ai-search-analytics)
- [Rank Tracker](https://docs.surferseo.com/en/articles/10044845-rank-tracker)
- [Surfer MCP use cases, AI Article credits](https://devs.surferseo.com/mcp/use-cases)
- [Profound review, Pro plan seats | Surfer blog](https://surferseo.com/blog/profound-review/)
- [AirOps review, Enterprise price | Surfer blog](https://surferseo.com/blog/airops-review/)
- [Surfer plans compared by team size | Rankable](https://rankable.ai/blog/best-surfer-seo-plan)
- [Surfer pricing history | Blogging Titan](https://bloggingtitan.com/pricing/surfer-seo/)
- [Clearscope pricing](https://www.clearscope.io/pricing)
- [Frase pricing](https://www.frase.io/pricing)
- [NeuronWriter pricing](https://neuronwriter.com/pricing-neuron/)
- [NeuronWriter Gold plan explained](https://neuronwriter.com/faqs/gold-plan-explained/)
- [Scalenut pricing](https://www.scalenut.com/pricing)
- [Scalenut subscription plans | help center](https://help.scalenut.com/scalenuts-subscription-plans/)
- [MarketMuse pricing](https://www.marketmuse.com/pricing/)
- [SEOWriting](https://seowriting.ai/)

---

# Do AI directory backlinks help SEO? Nofollow, sponsored and dofollow explained

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-directory-backlinks
- Published: 2026-10-10
- Summary: What nofollow, sponsored and ugc mean, what Google says about paid links, and what 97 directories serve in their link tags. Checked October 10, 2026.

Directory sellers pitch the same thing: a "dofollow backlink" from a high-authority site. Whether it is worth anything depends on three details most pitches skip: how the link is tagged, what Google says about links that are paid for, and whether the directory's pages carry the tag its sales page promises.

This guide covers all three, using Google's own documentation and a check of 97 directories and launch sites that we ran on October 10, 2026. The short version:

- A plain link is what people call dofollow. Links tagged `nofollow`, `sponsored` or `ugc` are hints to Google that the page does not vouch for the target, and in most cases they carry no ranking credit.
- Google's spam policy treats exchanging money for links as link spam unless the link is qualified. Paying for a listing is fine; paying for a followed link is the problem.
- Half of the 97 places we checked served a plain link and a third tagged it. Of the 23 that promise a followed link, 5 served a tagged one on the pages we read; for four of the five we could not tell whether those listings were paid ones.
- A listing without a followed link still earns clicks, a page that can rank for your name, and a consistent description. That is what to pay for.

## The link tags, and what "dofollow" means

Google's guidance on [qualifying outbound links](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/qualify-outbound-links), last updated in December 2025, describes three values of the `rel` attribute on a link:

| Tag on the link | What it tells Google | Used for |
| --- | --- | --- |
| None | An ordinary link: the page vouches for the target | Editorial links. People call this "dofollow" |
| `rel="nofollow"` | The page does not want to imply endorsement or pass ranking credit | Links the publisher does not vouch for; still accepted for paid links |
| `rel="sponsored"` | The link is part of an ad, sponsorship or other compensation | Paid placements; Google's preferred tag for them |
| `rel="ugc"` | The link sits in user-generated content | Comments and forum posts |

Three details cause most of the confusion.

- **"Dofollow" is not an HTML value.** A link without a restrictive tag is followed by default. Some sites write `rel="dofollow"` anyway; no standard defines it, so the link behaves like an untagged one.
- **`noopener` and `noreferrer` are not ranking tags.** They concern browser security and referrer data. A link with `rel="noopener"` is still a plain link.
- **All three tags are hints, not commands.** Google said so in September 2019, and said it would generally keep treating nofollow and user-generated links as it had before: not for ranking.

Screenshot of developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/qualify-outbound-links: Google's guidance names three link tags, `nofollow`, `sponsored` and `ugc`; a link with none of them is what people call dofollow.

## What Google says about paid and traded links

Google's [spam policies](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies#link-spam), updated August 28, 2026, list "Exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links" first among their examples of buying or selling links for ranking. The list goes on: exchanging goods or services for links, services that create links automatically, low-quality directory links, and requiring a link as a condition of a terms-of-service or similar arrangement without letting the other site qualify it.

The policy does not ban the transaction. It says buying and selling links is a normal part of the web, and that having such links is not a violation as long as they are qualified with `nofollow` or `sponsored`. A site that breaks the policies, it adds, may rank lower or not appear at all.

So the line runs through the tag. A directory that charges for a listing and tags your link `nofollow` or `sponsored` is inside the rules. A directory that charges for a listing and promises a followed link is selling what the policy names.

## Why a paid dofollow link is a risk, not a feature

Followed links are the product because they are what moves Domain Rating, the number in most sales pitches. Ahrefs, which publishes DR, says nofollowed links do not raise it. A seller that guarantees a DR increase is therefore guaranteeing followed links; we compare ten services that sell this in [AI directory submission services](https://effecthub.net/blog/directory-submission-services).

Three reasons to treat that as a liability:

1. **It is the arrangement the policy names,** and the policy covers buying as well as selling.
2. **The payoff cannot be measured.** Nobody outside Google can say whether a given followed link counts, is ignored, or counts against you. A commenter on an [April 2026 r/SaaS thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1sdr58c/i_listed_our_ai_tool_on_theresanaiforthatcom/) about There's An AI For That never saw the backlinks from a few listings in Google Search Console or Bing. The upside is unknowable; the stated downside is lower rankings.
3. **Sellers do not always deliver it.** See the next section.

Free tiers raise the same question from the other side. [Dang](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/dang-ai) requires a crawlable backlink to Dang for its free tier, Fazier requires one on your homepage or footer, and TinyLaunch grants its dofollow link when you embed its badge. Each is a listing traded for a link. We do the same on our free path, as the last section says.

Screenshot of tinylaunch.com: TinyLaunch grants its dofollow link when you embed its badge: a listing traded for a link.

## What 97 directories say, and what they serve

Our research pass on October 10, 2026 covered 97 live places: 53 AI directories, and 44 launch platforms, startup directories, review sites and communities. For each we opened a handful of listing pages, one to twenty, mostly picked by hand rather than at random, and read the `rel` attribute on the link to the listed product. We call a link with no `nofollow`, `sponsored` or `ugc` a plain link. We read 76 sites live that day. For 17, mostly sites behind bot checks, we read dated copies from the Internet Archive, the oldest from June 2025. Seven gave nothing to read: four we could not open at all, and three (Capterra, GetApp and TrustRadius) showed no readable vendor link on the pages we could see.

The table sets what each site says about its links, on its submit or pricing page, against what its listings carried.

| What the site says about its links | Places | Plain link | Tagged nofollow, sponsored or ugc | Own redirect, no tag | Nothing to read |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Promises a followed link | 23 | 17 | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| Depends on plan, votes or badge | 14 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 1 |
| Says its links are nofollow | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Says nothing | 58 | 26 | 20 | 7 | 5 |
| All | 97 | 50 | 32 | 8 | 7 |

A plain link is the most common result, 50 of 97. But 32 places tag the link, 16 of the 53 AI directories and 16 of the 44 launch and startup sites, and 8 send the click through their own address. One listing is not a policy, though. Free and paid listings can differ (DevHunt's FAQ says free listings are nofollow and paid launches dofollow), and so can old and new ones.

Chart: Link on the listings of 97 directories and launch sites, our check of October 10, 2026
- Plain link: 50 of 97
- Tagged nofollow, sponsored, ugc: 32 of 97
- Own redirect, no tag: 8 of 97
- Nothing to read: 7 of 97

### Where the promise and the markup disagree

- **PitchWall** is the clean case. Its submit page lists a "Do-follow backlink (DR 70)" on all three plans, the free one included. In a random sample of 20 product pages from its sitemap on October 10, 17 had an outbound link, and all 17 went through its own `/out/` address with `rel="noopener nofollow"`.
- **FindMyAITool, Aidirs, The Next AI and Tooldirectory.ai** all promise a followed link, the first three on every plan they list and Tooldirectory.ai on its paid ones. The listings we sampled carried nofollow or sponsored. We could not tell whether those listings were sold ones, since a directory can list a product its maker never paid for, so these are open questions, not proven broken promises.
- **Toolify** promises at least six followed links for $99. In the Internet Archive's [copy of January 9, 2026](https://web.archive.org/web/20260109113727/https://www.toolify.ai/tool/midjourney), its main buttons carry `rel="dofollow"` and its alternatives list carries nofollow.
- **Plan-dependent promises are the hardest to check.** EarlyHunt's pricing page says free launches get nofollow links by default. The five project pages in our pass had plain links; a random sample of 30 from its sitemap on October 10 had 28 nofollow and 2 without a readable link. At Uneed, which ties its followed link to an upvote score, 6 of 23 pages we sampled were nofollow, all with fewer than 10 upvotes. The pages a researcher opens first are not a random sample, and the markup does not say which plan a listing is on.
- **An outside check agrees.** Stork's October 2026 teardown read listing pages at six directories that advertise dofollow and found two, Turbo0 and Good AI Tools, serving `rel="nofollow"`. Stork is a directory too, with its own interest, but the method is public.

Chart: Link served by the 23 places that promise a followed link, our check of October 10, 2026
- Plain link: 17 of 23
- Tagged nofollow, sponsored, ugc: 5 of 23
- Own redirect, no tag: 1 of 23

### Redirects

Eight places send the visit button through their own address. What that does depends on the redirect. [Future Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/future-tools) uses a `/go/` address that returns a 302 and is disallowed in its robots.txt, and Dang's short link returns a 302 with an `X-Robots-Tag: none` header. BetaList's FAQ says its 301 passes link equity. In each case the anchor has no tag; what Google does with the redirect is a separate question.

### The big names

| Directory | What we read on its listings |
| --- | --- |
| [There's An AI For That](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/theres-an-ai-for-that) | Plain link on the main button, nofollow in alternatives lists, sponsored on spotlights (archive copy, March 28, 2026) |
| [Futurepedia](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/futurepedia) | `nofollow` (live) |
| [Toolify](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/toolify) | `rel="dofollow"` on main buttons (archive copy, January 9, 2026) |
| [TopAI.tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/topai-tools) | `nofollow` (archive copy, October 5, 2026) |
| [AIxploria](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/aixploria) | Says all outbound links are nofollow, and they are, via its `/out/` address (live) |
| Dang | Own short link, 302, `X-Robots-Tag: none` (live) |
| Future Tools | Own `/go/` address, 302, disallowed in robots.txt (live) |

## What a listing earns without a followed link

- **Clicks.** The founder reports in [Are AI directories worth it?](https://effecthub.net/blog/are-ai-directories-worth-it) run from 75 organic clicks in a week to 312 in a day for paid listings, with about one click in six or seven becoming a sign-up.
- **A page about you that can rank.** One founder said the real value of a There's An AI For That listing was that the page ranked for category searches. You can test this before paying: search the exact name of a product already listed and see whether the directory's page appears at all.
- **A signal, not zero.** Because tagged links are hints, Google can still use them to understand what a page is about.
- **A consistent description.** A commenter in an [August 2026 r/SaaS thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1vee5e5/has_anyone_actually_paid_to_be_featured_on_a/) argued that when enough places describe you the same way, an AI assistant repeats it. That is one founder's view, not something we have measured.

What it does not earn is Domain Rating. Whether you should care is another matter: Ahrefs itself advises against using DR alone, since it measures link popularity, not a site's quality.

## How to check a link tag yourself

1. Open a listing page, ideally for your product and for someone else's, since paid and free listings can differ.
2. Right-click the visit button and choose Inspect (in Safari, turn on the Develop menu first). The browser highlights the link's HTML.
3. Read the `rel` attribute. `nofollow`, `sponsored` or `ugc` means a tagged link. `noopener` and `noreferrer` do not count. No `rel` at all means a plain link.
4. Read the `href`. If it points at the directory itself, such as `/go/`, `/out/` or `/visit/`, the click goes through a redirect. Look at its response headers and at the site's robots.txt. Repeat on three or four listings.

For step 4, two commands show what a redirect returns and what robots.txt blocks. Many directories block `curl` behind a bot check; the browser's Network tab shows the same headers.

```
curl -sI "https://directory.example/go/your-tool" | grep -i -E "^(HTTP|location|x-robots-tag)"
curl -s "https://directory.example/robots.txt" | grep -i disallow
```

## Where EffectHub stands

Disclosure first: EffectHub is an AI directory, so we have a position. Links from our pages to tool sites are marked `nofollow sponsored`, and we do not sell followed links, rankings, scores or a Verified mark. A listing is free while our badge, an image that links to your page in our catalog, is on your site. Without the badge it is $24, reviewed within 48 hours of payment, with a reason whenever the answer is no. [Submit a tool](https://effecthub.net/submit).

Screenshot of effecthub.net/ai/cursor: Links from our pages to tool sites are marked `nofollow sponsored`; we do not sell followed links, rankings, scores or a Verified mark.

## Questions people ask

### Do nofollow links help SEO at all?

Rarely as ranking credit. Google treats them as hints and, in most cases, does not count them for ranking; Ahrefs does not count them toward DR. Their value is the click and the page that mentions you.

### Is it against Google's rules to pay for a directory listing?

No. Google says buying and selling links is a normal part of the web, as long as the links are qualified with nofollow or sponsored. The violation is a followed link exchanged for money, goods or services.

### Does a high-DR directory mean a better link?

Not necessarily. DR scores a site's link profile, not its audience. Stork's teardown found 7 of the 27 directories it measured outside the Tranco top million sites, four of them at DR 66 to 74, and 28 of our 53 live AI directories are not in that list either.

### Does EffectHub give dofollow links?

No. Our links to tool sites are `nofollow sponsored`.

## Sources

- [Google: spam policies, link spam](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies#link-spam), updated August 28, 2026
- [Google: qualify your outbound links](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/qualify-outbound-links), updated December 10, 2025
- [Google Search Central blog: Evolving nofollow](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2019/09/evolving-nofollow-new-ways-to-identify), September 10, 2019
- [Ahrefs: what is Domain Rating](https://help.ahrefs.com/en/articles/1409408-what-is-domain-rating-dr)
- [Ahrefs: backlink metrics](https://ahrefs.com/academy/how-to-use-ahrefs/ahrefs-seo-metrics/backlink)
- [Tranco: a research-oriented top sites ranking](https://tranco-list.eu/)
- [Stork: where to submit your AI tool, 27 directories measured](https://www.stork.ai/where-to-submit-your-ai-tool), October 2026
- [PitchWall: submit page](https://pitchwall.co/submit), read October 10, 2026
- [PitchWall: products sitemap](https://pitchwall.co/sitemaps/products_sitemap.xml), read October 10, 2026
- [FindMyAITool: pricing](https://findmyaitool.com/pricing), read October 10, 2026
- [Aidirs: pricing](https://aidirs.best/pricing), read October 10, 2026
- [The Next AI: submit](https://www.thenextai.com/submit-ai-tool/), read October 10, 2026
- [Tooldirectory.ai: pricing](https://tooldirectory.ai/pricing), read October 10, 2026
- [Toolify: submit page](https://www.toolify.ai/submit), read October 10, 2026
- [Internet Archive: a Toolify listing, January 9, 2026](https://web.archive.org/web/20260109113727/https://www.toolify.ai/tool/midjourney)
- [Internet Archive: a There's An AI For That listing, March 28, 2026](https://web.archive.org/web/20260328233553/https://theresanaiforthat.com/ai/midjourney/)
- [Futurepedia: a listing page](https://www.futurepedia.io/tool/chatgpt), read October 10, 2026
- [AIxploria: a listing page](https://www.aixploria.com/en/jev-typesafe-ai/), read October 10, 2026
- [Dang: a listing page](https://dang.ai/tool/military-calisthenics-bodyweight-workout-timer), read October 10, 2026
- [Dang: a short link](https://l.dang.ai/mnid), read October 10, 2026
- [Future Tools: a listing page](https://futuretools.io/tools/releasepad-83f36f41), read October 10, 2026
- [Internet Archive: TopAI.tools, October 5, 2026](https://web.archive.org/web/20261005053737/https://topai.tools/)
- [BetaList: FAQ](https://betalist.com/faq), read October 10, 2026
- [Uneed: pricing](https://www.uneed.best/pricing), read October 10, 2026
- [Uneed: tools sitemap](https://www.uneed.best/__sitemap__/tools.xml), read October 10, 2026
- [EarlyHunt: pricing](https://earlyhunt.com/pricing), read October 10, 2026
- [EarlyHunt: sitemap](https://earlyhunt.com/sitemap.xml), read October 10, 2026
- [DevHunt: FAQ](https://devhunt.org/faq), read October 10, 2026
- [Dang: pricing](https://dang.ai/pricing), read October 10, 2026
- [Fazier: submit](https://fazier.com/submit), read October 10, 2026
- [TinyLaunch: home page](https://www.tinylaunch.com/), read October 10, 2026
- [Future Tools: robots.txt](https://futuretools.io/robots.txt), read October 10, 2026
- [r/SaaS: Has anyone actually paid to be featured on a directory or newsletter?](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1vee5e5/has_anyone_actually_paid_to_be_featured_on_a/), August 2026
- [r/SaaS: I listed our AI tool on theresanaiforthat.com](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1sdr58c/i_listed_our_ai_tool_on_theresanaiforthatcom/), April 2026

---

# Are AI directories worth it? What a listing actually returns

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/are-ai-directories-worth-it
- Published: 2026-10-10
- Summary: Founder-reported results from AI directory listings, why the numbers differ, when paying makes sense, and a checklist for choosing. Checked October 2026.

Paying $49 to $497 to be listed in an AI directory is a bet that someone browsing there will click you. Founders who placed the bet and published their numbers report anything from 15 visitors in two weeks to roughly 2,000 in a week, with most of the traffic in the first days and real sign-ups in the tens at most.

This guide reads five of those reports, adds what we found checking 61 AI directories on October 10, 2026, and ends with a checklist for deciding where to list and when to pay. Our read: as a traffic channel, rarely; as a cheap, durable page about your product, sometimes; pay only after a free listing has shown that it converts. Directories are one channel of several; [how to promote an AI tool](https://effecthub.net/blog/how-to-promote-an-ai-tool) ranks the rest.

## What founders report

| Who, where, when | What they paid | Window | What they counted |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Gistr's founder on [r/SaaS](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1sdr58c/i_listed_our_ai_tool_on_theresanaiforthatcom/), April 2026 | The one-time fee at [There's An AI For That](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/theres-an-ai-for-that), tier not stated | 7 days | 75 organic clicks, 6 paid clicks, 2,962 video views (mostly launch day); 11 sign-ups |
| Vidsembly's founder on [r/SideProject](https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/1m9b6ba/i_submitted_a_paid_post_347_on_theres_an_ai_for/), July 2025 | $347 for a paid listing; the directory also granted a $300 ad credit | First 24 hours | 312 organic clicks, 509 opens, about 9,000 demo-video views; about 50 sign-ups |
| Tufa's founder on [r/SaaS](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1mmingp/launching_tufa_on_theresanaiforthatcom_taaft_my/), August 2025 | $437 plus VAT, a premium listing with a newsletter feature | First week | Daily visitors from about 20 to 800 on launch day, then 200 to 300; over 300 sign-ups, 97% of them fraudulent |
| A founder on [r/SaaS](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1e3rbz1/i_paid_99_to_list_my_saas_on_a_startup_directory/), July 2024 | $99 at a startup directory, to skip a free queue of one to two months | 2 weeks | 15 landing-page visitors in Google Analytics |
| leasebase's founder on [Indie Hackers](https://www.indiehackers.com/post/seo-3xd-my-traffic-signups-dropped-to-zero-here-s-what-actually-drives-first-customers-in-vertical-saas-dc7ba9803a), August 2026 | Not stated | 1 week | Traced that week's 6 card sign-ups to sessions from BetaList, Indie Hackers, LaunchPact and PeerPush, none to search |

The verdicts split. Gistr's founder called the listing "Not a serious acquisition channel" but would list again for the page's search value. Vidsembly's and Tufa's founders judged theirs worth the money. The founder who paid $99 concluded it was not, and said directories are only worth the effort for link building.

Two reports give both clicks and sign-ups, and the ratios match: 11 sign-ups from 75 clicks and about 50 from 312, roughly one in six or seven. That puts the Vidsembly listing at about $7 a sign-up before counting its ad credit. If 97% of Tufa's 300-plus sign-ups were fake, about nine were real, or roughly $49 each. Neither number says whether a sign-up became a customer, which is the number that decides it.

Chart: Cost per sign-up of a paid TAAFT listing, from the founders' own numbers
- Vidsembly, $347 listing: about $7
- Tufa, $437, real sign-ups: roughly $49

## Why the numbers disagree

- **Different windows and products.** Twenty-four hours, a week and two weeks are not comparable, and neither are a bare listing and one with a newsletter slot or an ad credit.
- **Different things counted.** A click on a directory's dashboard, a sign-up, and a visit in your own analytics are three measures. Tufa's founder found that almost all the sign-ups were fraudulent and that about half of the first traffic came from India, outside their market.
- **A big audience is not your audience.** Gistr's founder noted that a directory's headline visitor count is spread across 10,000+ tools. In our check, only two of the 53 live AI directories, There's An AI For That and [Toolify](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/toolify), sit in the top 100,000 sites on the [Tranco list](https://tranco-list.eu/). Twenty-three more are inside the top million, and 28 are not on it at all.
- **The landing page does half the work.** Tufa's founder rewrote the landing page after the launch and said conversions improved.
- **Who posts.** People with extreme outcomes post, and some post to sell: Gistr's founder discloses working on the product being listed, and several commenters in these threads promote services of their own. Five reports are anecdotes, and this article comes from a directory too.

## What we found checking 61 directories

On October 10, 2026 our research pass checked 61 general AI-tool directories. It is the set we could identify and read, not a random sample.

- **53 were live and taking submissions.** Seven were dead: the domain gone, parked, for sale or redirected elsewhere. One had paused submissions.
- **28 of the 53 describe some way in without paying,** 19 say they have none, and for 6 we could not tell. The free ways come with conditions: a backlink or badge for the directory ([Dang](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/dang-ai), [ToolPilot](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/toolpilot)), a queue of 30 to 90 days ([Aitoolnet](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/aitoolnet), ToolPilot), a narrow rule ([Easy With AI](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/easy-with-ai) takes free education and research tools), or a draw (There's An AI For That lists one tool a month from a thread on X).
- **Among the 13 we profile, six have a free way in and six do not.** [Futurepedia](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/futurepedia) has no free submission page left, [AIxploria](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/aixploria) says it no longer offers free listings, and [TopAI.tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/topai-tools) and Toolify show only paid options.
- **Entry prices for a permanent paid listing** run from $9.90 (Aitoolnet's fast track) through $47 (TopAI.tools), $49 (There's An AI For That and Dang), $99 (Toolify and AIxploria) and $125 (Easy With AI) to $497 (Futurepedia). [OpenTools](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/opentools) sells an annual subscription and shows its price only at checkout.

Chart: Entry price of a permanent paid listing, read on October 10, 2026
- Futurepedia: $497
- Easy With AI: $125
- Toolify: $99
- AIxploria: $99
- There's An AI For That: $49
- Dang: $49
- TopAI.tools: $47
- Aitoolnet, fast track: $9.90

## When paying makes sense, and when it does not

Pay when:

- A free listing, here or at a similar directory, has already sent clicks that became sign-ups.
- The directory's own page shows up in Google, for its listings and for category searches. You can test this before paying.
- The fee is small against what one customer is worth. Break-even is the fee divided by the value of a sign-up. If a sign-up is worth $24 to you (say one in ten pays $20 a month for a year), a $49 listing needs about 2 sign-ups and a $437 listing about 18. Replace the $24 with your own figure.
- The directory will tell you its click numbers and refund you if it says no.

Do not pay when:

- You are pre-revenue and a free listing has not converted. Several commenters in a [June 2026 thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1u14eb6/is_a_taaft_launch_worth_it/) gave that advice.
- The pitch is an audience size. One commenter's rule in an [August 2026 thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1vee5e5/has_anyone_actually_paid_to_be_featured_on_a/): "Ask for the click number rather than the audience size".
- What you are buying is a followed link. See [our explainer on directory backlinks](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-directory-backlinks).
- The fee recurs and no click statistics come with it.

## A checklist for choosing a directory

1. **Click numbers, not audience.** Futurepedia's $497 package guarantees 1,000 unique clicks, with a pro-rata refund if they have not arrived within a year; its page says they typically take one to three months. There's An AI For That quotes "estimated clicks": 50 to 100 in the first week for its $49 tier, 700 to 10,000 or more for the $437 tier, and Easy With AI says its $299 featured week averages about 500. Estimates are not guarantees. Priced per click, the $49 tier, Easy With AI's $299 week and Futurepedia's guarantee all come to roughly 50 cents to a dollar; the $437 tier's range is far wider.
2. **Search for it.** Take a product already listed and search its exact name. If the directory's page does not appear, the listing is invisible where it matters. After you are listed, search your own product's name too: a directory page that ranks for it is the clearest return a listing gives.
3. **What the fee buys.** A permanent listing, a 7-day featured slot ($229 at TopAI.tools, $299 a week at Easy With AI) and a subscription are different purchases.
4. **Turnaround and refund.** Paid review is quick where a time is stated: within 24 hours at Easy With AI, 24 to 48 hours at TopAI.tools, one to two days at There's An AI For That. Check what happens if the answer is no: There's An AI For That and TopAI.tools refund automatically, Futurepedia refunds in full when it declines, and AIxploria refunds only before publication.
5. **The link tag.** Read it on a few listings, and do not pay extra for "dofollow" without looking.
6. **Liveness.** Open five listings and click through to the products. Stork, itself an AI directory, sampled 30 listings per directory where it could in October 2026, and the share of dead product sites ran from 0% to 17%. The directories themselves die too: 7 of our 61.
7. **Who writes it, and can you edit it?** At There's An AI For That the team writes the listing from your link and, one founder reported, you can edit most of it afterwards. AI Tools Directory says its team writes each description. Ask whether you can change the text.
8. **Count the clicks.** At least 45 of the 97 directories and launch sites we read for our [backlinks check](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-directory-backlinks) tag the outbound link with their own `ref` or `utm_source` parameter, so the visits show up in your analytics.

Screenshot of futurepedia.io: Futurepedia's $497 package guarantees 1,000 unique clicks, with a pro-rata refund if they have not arrived within a year.

## Free routes first

The sequence founders in these threads converge on is free listings, then measure, then pay for one. The free ways in, as of October 10, 2026:

- [Future Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/future-tools): free and hand-picked; its FAQ says over 75% of submissions are not approved.
- Dang: free in exchange for a crawlable backlink to Dang, up to four weeks; $49 without it.
- Aitoolnet: a free queue of 30 to 60 days; $9.90 to skip it.
- There's An AI For That: one tool a month, picked from a thread on X.
- Launch sites are the other free route: [Product Hunt](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/product-hunt) says launching is free, and the rules for [Show HN](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/hacker-news-show-hn) mention no fee. The [launch platforms hub](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms) compares the rest.

The directories with a free route are collected on [one page](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/free). Disclosure: EffectHub is an AI directory too. A listing is free while our badge is on your site, or $39 without it, reviewed within 48 hours of payment, and with a reason whenever the answer is no. [Submit a tool](https://effecthub.net/submit).

## Questions people ask

### Do AI directories bring traffic?

A little, mostly at the start. The paid listings above report 75 organic clicks in a week, 312 in a day, and 15 visitors in two weeks. A smaller, targeted directory can do better than a large one, as Gistr's founder found.

### Is it worth paying for an AI directory listing?

Only after a free listing has shown clicks that turn into sign-ups, and only if the fee is small against a customer's worth. Ask for click numbers and a refund on rejection.

### Are free AI directory listings worth it?

For the few that rank for your category, yes. The cost is time, about 10 to 16 minutes a listing, and sometimes a badge on your site. Start with five to ten, not a hundred.

### Do AI directories help SEO?

They can give you a page that ranks for your name and your category. Links from them are often tagged nofollow or sponsored, and nobody outside Google can value a followed one; see [Do AI directory backlinks help SEO?](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-directory-backlinks).

Screenshot of developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/qualify-outbound-links: Links from AI directories are often tagged nofollow or sponsored, and nobody outside Google can value a followed one.

### Should I pay a service to submit me to 100 directories?

We read ten of those services' terms. Most sell forms filled, not results; see [what directory submission services buy](https://effecthub.net/blog/directory-submission-services).

## Sources

- [r/SaaS: I listed our AI tool on theresanaiforthat.com](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1sdr58c/i_listed_our_ai_tool_on_theresanaiforthatcom/), April 2026
- [r/SideProject: I submitted a paid post ($347) on There's an AI For That](https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/1m9b6ba/i_submitted_a_paid_post_347_on_theres_an_ai_for/), July 2025
- [r/SaaS: Launching Tufa on TheresAnAiForThat.com](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1mmingp/launching_tufa_on_theresanaiforthatcom_taaft_my/), August 2025
- [r/SaaS: I paid $99 to list my SaaS on a startup directory](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1e3rbz1/i_paid_99_to_list_my_saas_on_a_startup_directory/), July 2024
- [Indie Hackers: SEO 3x'd my traffic. Signups dropped to zero](https://www.indiehackers.com/post/seo-3xd-my-traffic-signups-dropped-to-zero-here-s-what-actually-drives-first-customers-in-vertical-saas-dc7ba9803a), August 2026
- [r/SaaS: Is a TAAFT launch worth it?](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1u14eb6/is_a_taaft_launch_worth_it/), June 2026
- [r/SaaS: Has anyone actually paid to be featured on a directory or newsletter?](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1vee5e5/has_anyone_actually_paid_to_be_featured_on_a/), August 2026
- [There's An AI For That: launch page](https://theresanaiforthat.com/launch/), read October 10, 2026
- [Futurepedia: Verified Enhanced Listing](https://www.futurepedia.io/enhanced), read October 10, 2026
- [Dang: pricing](https://dang.ai/pricing), read October 10, 2026
- [Future Tools: FAQ](https://futuretools.io/faq), read October 10, 2026
- [Toolify: submit](https://www.toolify.ai/submit), read October 10, 2026
- [TopAI.tools: submit](https://topai.tools/submit), read October 10, 2026
- [AIxploria: update an AI tool](https://www.aixploria.com/en/update-ai-tools/), read October 10, 2026
- [AIxploria: featured listings](https://www.aixploria.com/en/featured-on-aixploria/), read October 10, 2026
- [Aitoolnet: submit](https://aitoolnet.com/submit), read October 10, 2026
- [Easy With AI: submit a tool](https://easywithai.com/submit-tool/), read October 10, 2026
- [Easy With AI: featured listing](https://easywithai.com/featured-listing/), read October 10, 2026
- [ToolPilot: submit your AI tool](https://www.toolpilot.ai/pages/submit-your-ai-tool), read October 10, 2026
- [AI Tools Directory: submit a tool](https://aitoolsdirectory.com/submit-tool), read October 10, 2026
- [OpenTools: launch a tool](https://opentools.ai/friends/launch-tool), read October 10, 2026
- [Stork: where to submit your AI tool, 27 directories measured](https://www.stork.ai/where-to-submit-your-ai-tool), October 2026
- [Product Hunt: ad campaigns help article](https://help.producthunt.com/en/articles/7950405-ad-campaigns), read October 10, 2026
- [Hacker News: Show HN rules](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html), read October 10, 2026
- [Tranco: a research-oriented top sites ranking](https://tranco-list.eu/)
- [SubmitWell: pricing and estimated submission times](https://submitwell.com), read October 10, 2026

---

# AI directory submission services: what $25–$299 actually buys

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/directory-submission-services
- Published: 2026-10-10
- Summary: Ten bulk directory-submission services compared on what their pages and terms say: price, count, manual or not, report, refunds. Read October 10, 2026.

An AI directory submission service sells one thing: someone else fills in the forms. You pay, they submit your product to 30, 100 or 200 directories, and you get a report. Standard packages run from $25 to $299, and a few tiers cost more. The pitch is the hours saved plus a higher Domain Rating.

We read the public pages and terms of ten of these services on October 10, 2026. Our read: the hours are real, the rating is the part not to pay for, and the terms promise a good deal less than the sales pages do. Below are the prices and conditions, then what to check before you buy, then the do-it-yourself version.

Screenshot of submitator.com: Submitator's sales page promises an average of +15 DR in 30 days; its terms refund only directories not delivered, and call the service a beta.

## What ten services publish

All prices are one-time, in US dollars, from each service's own pages on October 10, 2026. "Per directory" is price divided by the stated count; where a page says "100+" we used 100. The $25 end of the range is not a submission at all: SubmitWell sells a list of 100 directories for $25 and leaves the forms to you.

| Service | Price and count | Per directory | Delivery | Done by | Report | List before paying |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| SubmitWell | $35 for 50, $59 for 100, $99 for 200 | $0.50 to $0.70 | 6 to 7 business days | People, manual | URLs, screenshots, logins used | No |
| Submitator | $29 for 30, $49 for 60, $79 for 100, $149 for all 160 | $0.79 to $0.97 | 24 to 48 hours | Software, browser automation | Links and screenshots | Partly: you pick in its dashboard |
| Boost My Tool | $47 | $47 for the one guaranteed submission | Not stated | Not stated | Not mentioned | No |
| Nick Launches | $99 for 30+, $149 for 60+, $199 for 100+ | $2.00 to $3.30 | Starts in 48 hours, done in 7 to 14 days | People, by hand | Every submission, link and status | No |
| AI Directories | The same three tiers and prices as Nick Launches | $2.00 to $3.30 | Not stated | People, manual | Confirmation link or success message | No, a few sample names |
| BoringLaunch | $149 for 50+, $249 for 100+, $549 for 50 to 60 | $2.50 to $3.00; Priority about $10 | 7 days | Not stated | Detailed report | Partly, eight sample names |
| Uneed Auto-Submit | $249 for 100+ | About $2.50 | Most within 48 hours | People, by hand | Statuses and backlink details, emailed | No |
| TinyLaunch | $279 for 110 | $2.54 | Not stated | Not stated | Comprehensive report | No |
| ListingBott | $299 for 100, or $99 a month for 20 | $2.99 | About a month, on purpose | Both: the page says humans and a bot | List of sites, weekly updates | Yes, you approve it |
| SubmitJuice | $197 for 20, $297 for 50, $983 to chase a DA target | $5.94 to $9.85 | Within a week | People, manual | Listing report with an Airtable tracker | Yes, shared for approval |

Three things stand out.

- **The price per directory runs from $0.50 to $9.85,** a factor of twenty, and no page explains the gap. The cheapest says its work is entirely manual; the dearest sells curation and a Domain Authority guarantee for 20 sites.
- **Only two of the ten give you the list to approve** before work starts, ListingBott and SubmitJuice, and Submitator lets you pick directories in its dashboard. The rest ask you to trust "curated" or "high-DR".
- **Count the number in the plan, not the headline.** SubmitJuice opens with 152+ directories; its paid plans cover 20 and 50 (100+ costs $197 extra), and the 152+ list is its free do-it-yourself one. Boost My Tool's $47 buys one guaranteed submission to a directory with a Domain Rating of 40 or more, plus up to two bonus ones, according to its terms.

AI Directories lists the same tiers at the same prices, with near-identical feature lists, as Nick Launches; neither page says whether they share an operator. Startories, which some roundups still list, now describes itself as an AI outbound-sales product, and we found no directory submission offer on its site. We did not sample marketplace gigs.

Chart: Cheapest one-time package of 100 or more directories, read October 10, 2026
- ListingBott: $299 for 100
- TinyLaunch: $279 for 110
- BoringLaunch: $249 for 100+
- Uneed Auto-Submit: $249 for 100+
- Nick Launches: $199 for 100+
- Submitator: $79 for 100
- SubmitWell: $59 for 100

## What the pages promise, and what the terms say

A sales page is written to convert; the terms are what you agree to. Where they differ, the terms are the contract.

| Service | The sales page says | The terms or refund policy say |
| --- | --- | --- |
| SubmitWell | "Guaranteed DR increase" of 0 to 10+, 20+ or 30+ by tier | Refund within 30 days if submissions are late, missing or undocumented; the package's DR figure is listed among its guarantees; no refund when a directory declines |
| Submitator | A guaranteed SEO boost, average +15 DR in 30 days | Pro-rata refund only for directories not delivered by the committed date, 30 days (21 from October 7, 2026); rejections do not qualify; the terms call the service a beta |
| Boost My Tool | Backlinks from "high-authority sites", and three statistics with no source on the page | The paid service is one submission to a DR 40+ directory; the directory names on the site are "examples only"; no guarantee of approval, backlinks or traffic; non-refundable once submitted |
| Nick Launches | Dofollow backlinks, Domain Rating and traffic | DR and traffic figures are estimates, not guarantees; directories are chosen at its discretion and swapped if one declines; delivery windows are not deadlines; refunds are pro-rated at its discretion for work already done |
| AI Directories | Backlinks, SEO and traffic, no figures | The FAQ offers a satisfaction guarantee (it will work with you or refund) and recommends a monthly subscription after the one-time purchase |
| BoringLaunch | The $249 tier has "Guaranteed SEO Improvement In 30 Days of Submission"; the $549 tier refunds if DR is under 20 after 30 days | Refund policy of March 25, 2025: requests within 7 days, for service not delivered as promised; it does not mention SEO results |
| Uneed Auto-Submit | Do-follow links only, and "every submission done by hand" | No refund terms on the page; a help article says most are done within 48 hours and a report is emailed |
| TinyLaunch | DR growth "on autopilot", with SourceForge, GeekWire and G2 named | The named sites are examples with no guarantee of submission; DR gains are said to be largest below DR 20; no refund terms on the pricing page |
| ListingBott | DR 0 to 15 within two months, and a full refund if you are not satisfied | If DR stays under 15 it keeps working on the listings or refunds. An add-on sells up to ten extra followed backlinks from the owner's own blogs for $999 |
| SubmitJuice | "DA 20+ Guarantee or You Pay Nothing" on the Premium plan | Terms of October 2025: payments are non-refundable unless a refund is approved in writing before payment, and there are "no guarantees regarding results or outcomes" |

The most useful pages we read were SubmitWell's refund policy and Submitator's terms. Both say exactly what is and is not refundable, which is what you want from a page you may need to quote back.

Screenshot of submitwell.com: SubmitWell refunds within 30 days for submissions that are late, missing or undocumented, but not when a directory declines.

## What to check before you pay

1. **Is the promise about delivery or about outcome?** A seller controls whether the forms are filled. It does not control whether a directory approves the listing, how long it takes, or what happens to traffic. SubmitWell's refund policy puts it in seven words: "proof of submission, not proof of approval". The same policy says directories answer anywhere from instantly to months later, so the stated delivery date is when the forms are done, not when you are live.
2. **What is the metric?** Domain Rating is Ahrefs' score for the strength of a site's backlink profile on a 100-point scale; Domain Authority is the equivalent from Moz. Ahrefs says nofollowed links do not raise DR and advises against using it as a standalone measure. So a DR guarantee is a guarantee of followed links, and it says nothing about visits. Four sellers tie a guarantee to a DR or DA figure: SubmitWell, ListingBott, SubmitJuice and BoringLaunch's Priority tier.
3. **What does Google make of the links?** Google's spam policy lists services that create links to your site automatically, and links from low-quality directories, among its examples of link spam. A listing on a directory real people use is not what those lines are about; a hundred listings on sites that exist to carry links is closer. Nobody outside Google can say whether a given batch is ignored, counted or held against you. Our [explainer on directory backlinks](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-directory-backlinks) covers the rules and what we found on 97 directories.
4. **Who owns the accounts?** SubmitWell's FAQ says it hands over the Gmail credentials used for the submissions; ListingBott says it uses your forwarded address or creates a new one and gives you the login afterwards. You need that access to edit or remove a listing later.
5. **Is "manual" true?** ListingBott's banner says humans submit the listings, and its FAQ says it launches "our bot" to publish them daily for a month. Submitator says plainly that it is automation. Uneed calls its service Auto-Submit and describes it as by hand. Manual is not better than automated by definition; what matters is that the page says which.
6. **Do the targets fit an AI tool?** SubmitWell's terms say its network consists mainly of product launch platforms and startup directories. If your product is an AI tool, ask which AI-specific directories are on the list. BoringLaunch's sample names (Crunchbase, SourceForge, AlternativeTo, SaaSHub) are labeled free on its own page, so you can submit to them yourself.

## The do-it-yourself version

Two sources put a hand submission at about 10 to 16 minutes: SubmitWell's own estimate, 8 to 10 hours for 50 directories and 15 to 20 hours for 100, and a commenter in a 2024 [r/SaaS thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1e3rbz1/i_paid_99_to_list_my_saas_on_a_startup_directory/) who did 15 in almost four hours. That makes 15 directories a morning and 100 two or three working days.

Chart: Hours to submit by hand, by SubmitWell's estimate and a 2024 r/SaaS commenter
- SubmitWell, 100 directories: 15 to 20 hours
- SubmitWell, 50 directories: 8 to 10 hours
- A commenter, 15 directories: almost 4 hours

Fifteen is enough. Pick them by what the directory does for a product like yours, not by its rating. Our [AI directory hub](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories) covers the ones we checked, and the [free ones](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/free) are on one page. Three examples with a free way in, as of October 10, 2026:

- [Future Tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/future-tools) is free and hand-picked. Its FAQ says over 75% of submissions are not approved, and you will probably not hear either way.
- [Dang.ai](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/dang-ai) is free in exchange for a crawlable backlink to Dang, with a review of up to four weeks, or $49 without the backlink.
- [Aitoolnet](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/aitoolnet) has a free queue of 30 to 60 days, or $9.90 to skip it.

Write the product details once and reuse them; our [launch checklist](https://effecthub.net/blog/how-to-launch-an-ai-tool) has the kit. Keep a sheet with the date, the listing URL and its status, and read the link tag on each listing. After 30 days keep the ones that sent clicks. At least 45 of the 97 places we looked at tag the outbound link with their own `ref` or `utm_source` parameter, so the clicks show up in your analytics without any setup.

Disclosure: we are an AI directory too. EffectHub lists AI tools free while our badge is on your site, or for $39 without one, reviewed within 48 hours of payment, and with a reason whenever the answer is no. [Submit a tool](https://effecthub.net/submit). We do not submit you to anyone else's directory.

## When a service is worth it

A commenter in a July 2026 [r/saasbuild thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/saasbuild/comments/1v6dmqj/would_you_pay_someone_to_manually_submit_your/), started by a submission-service seller asking whether people would pay, wrote: "I have never seen tangible benefit from being on directories no humans care about". Another commenter there put the going range at $39.99 to $249.99, close to the tables above. In the 2024 r/SaaS thread, the commenter who did 15 submissions by hand said their site traffic rose about 20% and that they would pay a service if it cost under $99.

Our read follows from the tables. If your time is short and the budget is under $100, a service that shows its list, returns a URL-by-URL report and refunds for non-delivery sells you forms filled, and at $0.50 to $3 a form that is fair. Above $200, or with a DR or DA guarantee, you are buying a metric that Ahrefs and Moz compute and that Google does not publish. What a listing returns in the first place is in [Are AI directories worth it?](https://effecthub.net/blog/are-ai-directories-worth-it).

Screenshot of submitjuice.com: SubmitJuice's Premium plan says "DA 20+ Guarantee or You Pay Nothing"; its terms say there are "no guarantees regarding results or outcomes".

## Questions people ask

### Are directory submission services worth it?

For the time saved, sometimes: a manual service at $35 to $99 replaces one to three working days of forms. For the Domain Rating, no: it counts followed links, not visits.

### Do directory submission services use bots?

It varies, and the page does not always agree with itself. SubmitWell, Nick Launches, SubmitJuice and Uneed say their submissions are done by people. Submitator says it is browser automation. ListingBott's page says both that humans submit and that a bot publishes.

### How long does a submission service take?

The stated delivery runs from 24 to 48 hours (Submitator's sales page) to about a month (ListingBott, by design). Submitator's own terms commit to 21 days. Directories then review on their own clocks, from instant to several months, so a finished report is not the same as live listings.

### Can submitting to many directories hurt SEO?

We found no evidence either way. Google's spam policy names automated link creation and low-quality directory links as examples of link spam, so the cheapest, most automated services sit closest to what it describes. Choose targets by whether people use them, not by rating.

## Sources

All service pages were read on October 10, 2026.

- [SubmitWell: pricing](https://submitwell.com)
- [SubmitWell: terms](https://submitwell.com/terms)
- [SubmitWell: refund policy](https://submitwell.com/refund-policy)
- [Submitator: pricing](https://submitator.com)
- [Submitator: terms of service](https://submitator.com/terms)
- [Boost My Tool: pricing](https://boostmytool.com)
- [Boost My Tool: terms](https://boostmytool.com/terms)
- [Boost My Tool: submission form](https://tally.so/r/2EkV4g)
- [Nick Launches: directory submission service](https://nicklaunches.com/directory-submission-service/)
- [Nick Launches: terms](https://nicklaunches.com/terms)
- [AI Directories: pricing](https://aidirectori.es/pricing)
- [BoringLaunch: pricing](https://boringlaunch.com)
- [BoringLaunch: refund policy](https://boringlaunch.com/refund-policy)
- [Uneed: Auto-Submit](https://www.uneed.best/auto-submit)
- [Uneed: advertise page](https://www.uneed.best/advertise)
- [Uneed: help article on the auto-submit service](https://uneed.hc.ferndesk.com/how-do-i-use-the-auto-submit-service-zoqay)
- [TinyLaunch: pricing](https://www.tinylaunch.com/pricing)
- [ListingBott](https://listingbott.com)
- [SubmitJuice: pricing](https://www.submitjuice.com)
- [SubmitJuice: terms of service](https://www.submitjuice.com/terms-of-service)
- [Startories](https://startories.com)
- [Google: spam policies, link spam](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies#link-spam)
- [Ahrefs: what is Domain Rating](https://help.ahrefs.com/en/articles/1409408-what-is-domain-rating-dr)
- [Ahrefs: backlink metrics](https://ahrefs.com/academy/how-to-use-ahrefs/ahrefs-seo-metrics/backlink)
- [Ahrefs: website authority](https://ahrefs.com/seo/glossary/website-authority)
- [r/SaaS: I paid $99 to list my SaaS on a startup directory](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1e3rbz1/i_paid_99_to_list_my_saas_on_a_startup_directory/), July 2024
- [r/saasbuild: Would you pay someone to manually submit your startup to 100+ directories?](https://www.reddit.com/r/saasbuild/comments/1v6dmqj/would_you_pay_someone_to_manually_submit_your/), July 2026
- [Future Tools: FAQ](https://futuretools.io/faq)
- [Dang: pricing](https://dang.ai/pricing)
- [Aitoolnet: submit](https://aitoolnet.com/submit)

---

# How to launch an AI tool: a 30-day checklist (2026)

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/how-to-launch-an-ai-tool
- Published: 2026-10-10
- Summary: A 30-day plan to launch an AI tool: queue lead times, a submission kit to write once, platform rules, tracking and a copyable checklist (October 2026).

A launch is not a day. It is a set of queues with different waits, and the order you join them is most of the plan. On October 10, 2026, Show HN had no queue and Product Hunt let you schedule a month ahead. Everything else had a wait: Dang.ai's free lane took up to four weeks, Uneed gave free launches a date 30 days to 5 months out, Smol Launch's next free week was November 30 with 350 launches ahead, and OpenHunts showed a wait of about 60 weeks. So join the longest queues first, spend the middle of the month on the product, and spend money last.

This checklist counts days from your launch day: T-30 is 30 days before it, T+30 is 30 days after. Launch day (T-0) is the day you go live on Product Hunt, or on whichever board you make the main event. Rules and prices were read from each venue's own pages on October 10, 2026. A number from a founder is labeled as one founder's report and linked.

## Lead times decide the order

| Venue | Free-lane wait | Skip it for | Condition on the free lane |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Show HN | None | Not needed | A project people can try; you stay in the thread |
| Product Hunt | Schedule up to 1 month ahead | Free to launch | Personal account; no shortened or UTM launch link |
| Dang.ai | Up to 4 weeks | $49, about 4 days | A crawlable backlink to dang.ai |
| Fazier | Within 30 days | $29 | A Fazier backlink or badge on your homepage or footer |
| Uneed | 30 days to 5 months | $14.99 (about 14 days) or $29.99 (you pick the date) | 10 upvotes on launch day to stay published |
| Smol Launch | Next free week Nov 30, 350 ahead | $19 | The Smol Launch badge on your site |
| OpenHunts | About 60 weeks | $9.90 (next Monday) | The OpenHunts badge skips the queue |
| Open Launch | Free slots booked into 2027 | $12 | Top 3 and its badge for a free dofollow link |
| DevHunt | A launch week from the queue | $19 to pick the week | Developer tools only |
| AlternativeTo | Most apps wait "a very long time" | $5 priority, 1 to 2 business days | Paying does not buy approval |
| Capterra, Software Advice, GetApp | Over six weeks to publish | Not offered | Pricing is required, shown as $ to $$$$$ |
| BetaList | No free lane; every submission is paid | Refunded if not selected | Your own domain, not a free subdomain |

Chart: Price to skip the free queue, read on October 10, 2026
- Dang.ai: $49
- Uneed, you pick the date: $29.99
- Fazier: $29
- Smol Launch: $19
- DevHunt, pick the week: $19
- Uneed, about 14 days: $14.99
- Open Launch: $12
- OpenHunts: $9.90
- AlternativeTo, priority: $5

## The submission kit: write it once

Each field below is one that at least one venue will not proceed without. Put them in a single file before T-28 and paste from it for the rest of the month.

| Field | Prepare | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Product URL | Your own domain; a direct product page; no shortened or UTM link | BetaList refuses free hosting subdomains and app-store links, SaaSHub rejects free subdomains, Product Hunt does not accept shortened or UTM links |
| Name and tagline | The name alone; a tagline of 60 characters or fewer, no gimmicks | Product Hunt: tagline "max 60 characters", and the name carries no description or emoji |
| Descriptions | The same pitch at 200, 500 and 2,000 characters | 200 and 2,000 are Claude's directory caps for the one-liner and the description; 500 is Product Hunt's description cap, though its help page says 260, so make the first 260 characters stand alone |
| Logo | A 512 by 512 px square PNG as the master | Product Hunt wants a square thumbnail, 240 by 240 recommended, under 3 MB; Claude's directory asks for an icon |
| Screenshots | Five PNGs at 1270 by 760, the first screen first | Product Hunt's gallery recommends 1270 by 760 and needs two or more; Claude's MCP App carousel wants PNGs at least 1000 px wide, 3 to 5 of them |
| Video | A public YouTube link | Product Hunt accepts YouTube links only, and the video cannot be private |
| Categories | One main and one backup, named for a task | Claude's directory takes 1 to 5; SaaSHub asks for a few relevant ones |
| Pricing | A public pricing page and one line: free tier, trial, price from | Software Advice will not list a product without pricing, and shows only a range |
| Alternatives | Three to five named alternatives | SaaSHub puts submissions with no listed competitors at the bottom of its queue |
| Contact | A mailbox on your own domain | SaaSHub gives higher priority to products verified by email on their domain |
| Policy pages | Docs, privacy policy and support URLs | Claude's directory asks for all three plus an icon |
| A way to try it | A demo or free tier that needs no sign-up, if you can | Show HN asks for projects people can try "ideally without barriers such as signups"; Product Hunt keeps email-sign-up-only products off its homepage |

## The timeline, T-30 to T+30

### T-30 to T-22: join the slow queues

- Write the kit above.
- Apply to the free lanes with the longest waits: Uneed, Dang.ai, Fazier and AlternativeTo. Where a lane wants a backlink or badge on your site, read what it asks of the link, then put it on a live page before you apply. For a B2B tool, request the free Capterra listing now: its form covers Capterra, Software Advice and GetApp, and Software Advice says publishing can take over six weeks.
- Create the Product Hunt draft. You can schedule up to a month ahead, and co-makers need their own accounts before launch day.
- Define a sign-up and an activation (first successful use) as events, and switch on fraud rules in your payment processor. One founder's [paid TAAFT listing drew over 300 sign-ups, 97% of them fraudulent](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1mmingp/launching_tufa_on_theresanaiforthatcom_taaft_my/), and the processor's default settings had not blocked them.
- If you want a pre-launch feature, BetaList is paid, refunds automatically if you are not selected, and features a startup once, plus once more at launch if the first time was pre-launch.

Screenshot of fazier.com: Fazier's free lane lands within 30 days, for a Fazier backlink or badge on your homepage or footer.

### T-21 to T-8: make the product launchable

- Let people try it. Show HN's guidelines rule out sign-up pages and landing pages. Product Hunt keeps email-sign-up-only products off its homepage and generally recommends waiting until a product is live. FutureTools no longer accepts waitlist-only products, and SaaSHub rejects unreleased ones.
- Show the first screen to five strangers and ask what it does. A [commenter's test for any listing](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1u14eb6/is_a_taaft_launch_worth_it/): can a stranger tell from the one-liner and the screenshot alone?
- Run a test sign-up and a test payment with the fraud rules on.
- Freeze the product. Write the announcement email.

### T-7 to T-1: schedule and rehearse

- Schedule the Product Hunt launch for 12:01 AM Pacific, the start of its 24-hour cycle. Write the first comment to ask for feedback, not upvotes.
- Write the Show HN post: a title that starts with "Show HN", a link to the product itself, and a first comment on what you built and what you want feedback on. Pick a different day from Product Hunt.
- Draft a reply to "how is this different from X?" and keep it open in a tab.
- Fix the spend rule now: no money until a free lane has produced activated users.

Screenshot of news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html: Show HN wants a title that starts with "Show HN", a project people can try, and you in the thread to discuss it.

### T-0: launch day

- Product Hunt goes live at 12:01 AM Pacific. Stay in the thread and answer every comment.
- Do not also run Show HN today. HN expects you to be around to discuss the project, and one person cannot be in two threads.
- Check visits by source every few hours, and watch for sign-ups whose billing country does not match the card.

### T+1 to T+7: fix, then add the second venue

- List every point where a commenter was confused and fix the top three. The Tufa founder moved the main feature to the first thing visitors see and reported that [conversions improved](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1mmingp/launching_tufa_on_theresanaiforthatcom_taaft_my/).
- Run Show HN now if your tool is for developers.
- Count visits, sign-ups and activated users per source. Remove the fraud.

### T+8 to T+30: second wave and the money decision

- The queues you joined at T-30 land now: Dang.ai within four weeks, Fazier within 30 days, Uneed on its assigned date. Update each listing with what you learned.
- Relaunch when you ship something real. Uneed sells a relaunch for $15.
- Decide on spending by the rule you set. Prefer venues that refund automatically when they decline you: TAAFT promises a full refund if a listing is not published, and topai.tools refunds automatically if a tool is not accepted.
- Mind exclusivity. TAAFT's pay-per-click credit bonus (up to $300) applies only if your tool has not appeared on any other platform before its TAAFT launch, so decide at T-30 whether it matters.
- At T+30, write a one-page review: per channel, hours, dollars, visits, sign-ups, activated users.

## Where to launch, in what order

1. **Free queues first.** The [AI directories with a free path](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/free) and the [full directory table](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories) show who charges what. EffectHub is an AI directory too, so weigh our view accordingly: [we list AI tools free with our badge on your site, or for $24 without it](https://effecthub.net/submit). We check the badge daily: a free listing without it comes down and returns when the badge does. The free queue runs a few weeks, and you see your place in line when you apply.
2. **Product Hunt.** Free, one day, personal account. See the [Product Hunt profile](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/product-hunt).
3. **Show HN.** Only if people can try the tool at once. See the [Show HN profile](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/hacker-news-show-hn).
4. **Weekly and daily boards.** [Uneed](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/uneed), [Peerlist Launchpad](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/peerlist-launchpad) (Mondays, verified individual profile, project 100% complete), [DevHunt](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/devhunt) (developer tools only), [Fazier](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/fazier) and [TinyLaunch](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/tinylaunch). The [launch platforms hub](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms) compares them.
5. **Review and alternatives sites.** [AlternativeTo](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/alternativeto) and [SaaSHub](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/saashub) for any released tool; [G2](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/g2) and [Capterra](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/capterra) for B2B only. G2 does not accept B2C products or alpha and beta stages.
6. **Paid AI directories last,** and only with numbers in hand: [Futurepedia](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/futurepedia), [TAAFT](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/theres-an-ai-for-that) and [Toolify](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/toolify). Whether they pay back is the subject of [are AI directories worth it](https://effecthub.net/blog/are-ai-directories-worth-it).

Screenshot of effecthub.net/launch-platforms: Our launch platforms hub compares the weekly and daily boards: Uneed, Peerlist Launchpad, DevHunt, Fazier and TinyLaunch.

## Tracking: what to count and how to tag

Google Analytics says to always use `utm_source`, `utm_medium` and `utm_campaign` on tagged links, and that values are case sensitive. Pick lowercase and one spelling per venue, for example `utm_source=uneed&utm_medium=launch&utm_campaign=2026-10`. Tag every link you control: emails, posts, replies, newsletter ads.

There are two places you cannot tag. Product Hunt does not accept UTM-tagged launch links. And a directory writes the outbound link on its own listing, so you read its tag instead. On the listings we checked on October 10, Uneed adds `ref=uneed.best`, Fazier `ref=fazier`, TinyLaunch `ref=tinylaunch`, Microlaunch `ref=microlaunch` and Futurepedia `utm_source=futurepedia`. A `ref=` value is not one of the UTM parameters Google Analytics recognizes, so look for it in landing-page URLs or server logs, not only in the source and medium report.

Keep one table and update it weekly: channel, dollars, hours, visits, sign-ups, activated users, cost per activated user. Count activation, not sign-ups. In the Tufa report, $437 over more than 300 sign-ups looks like about $1.50 each. With 97% fraudulent, it is about 9 real users at about $49 each.

Chart: Cost per sign-up of Tufa's $437 TAAFT listing, on the founder's figures
- Counting every sign-up: about $1.50
- Counting real users only: about $49

## The checklist to copy

```text
T-30 TO T-22  JOIN THE SLOW QUEUES
[ ] Submission kit written once: URL, name, tagline, descriptions, logo, screenshots
[ ] Applied: Uneed, Dang.ai, Fazier, AlternativeTo (badge or backlink live first)
[ ] B2B: Capterra listing requested (covers Software Advice and GetApp), G2 profile too
[ ] Product Hunt draft created, co-makers have accounts
[ ] Sign-up and activation events defined, payment fraud rules on

T-21 TO T-8  MAKE IT LAUNCHABLE
[ ] Tool can be tried without a waitlist; demo needs no sign-up if possible
[ ] Five strangers shown the first screen; one-sentence answer collected
[ ] Test sign-up and test payment passed
[ ] Product frozen, announcement email written

T-7 TO T-1  SCHEDULE AND REHEARSE
[ ] Product Hunt scheduled for 12:01 AM Pacific; first comment asks for feedback
[ ] Show HN post written; day chosen, not launch day
[ ] Reply to "how is this different?" drafted
[ ] Spend rule written down

T-0  LAUNCH DAY
[ ] In the Product Hunt thread all day; every comment answered
[ ] Visits by source and billing countries checked every few hours

T+1 TO T+7  FIX, THEN ADD THE SECOND VENUE
[ ] Top three points of confusion fixed
[ ] Show HN run (developer tools)
[ ] Visits, sign-ups, activated users counted per source; fraud removed

T+8 TO T+30  SECOND WAVE AND MONEY
[ ] Queue listings updated as they land
[ ] Relaunch only for real changes
[ ] Paid venue chosen only if a free listing converted; refund and exclusivity terms read
[ ] One-page channel review: hours, dollars, visits, sign-ups, activated users
```

## Questions people ask

### How early should I start?

At least 30 days before you want to be visible. Free lanes post waits of up to four weeks (Dang.ai), 30 days (Fazier) and 30 days to 5 months (Uneed), and Product Hunt lets you schedule up to a month ahead.

### Can I launch on Product Hunt and Show HN on the same day?

Not on your own. Hacker News expects the poster to be around to discuss the project, and Product Hunt's guide has the maker open the thread with a first comment asking for feedback. Put them on different days.

### What if my product is in beta or has a waitlist?

Many venues refuse it. FutureTools no longer accepts waitlist-only products, SaaSHub rejects unreleased products, G2 does not accept alpha or beta stages, and Product Hunt keeps email-sign-up-only products off its homepage. BetaList is the exception: it features pre-launch startups.

### Do I have to pay to launch?

No. Product Hunt, Show HN, Uneed and DevHunt all have free lanes, and skipping a queue costs from $5 (AlternativeTo) to $49 (Dang.ai). Among paid AI directories, TAAFT charges $49 or $437, topai.tools $47 or $229, Toolify $99 and Futurepedia $497. See the [free AI directories](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/free).

Chart: Price of a paid AI directory listing, read on October 10, 2026
- Futurepedia: $497
- TAAFT, higher tier: $437
- topai.tools, higher tier: $229
- Toolify: $99
- TAAFT: $49
- topai.tools: $47

### How do I know the launch worked?

By activated users per dollar and per hour, not by sign-ups or upvotes. One founder counted [six card sign-ups in a week of active posting](https://www.indiehackers.com/post/seo-3xd-my-traffic-signups-dropped-to-zero-here-s-what-actually-drives-first-customers-in-vertical-saas-dc7ba9803a), all traced to discovery sites and communities. The next two weeks, with search impressions up from about 2,000 to about 8,000 a day, produced none. Launch traffic and search traffic answer different questions.

## Sources

- [Product Hunt: launch guide](https://www.producthunt.com/launch/preparing-for-launch)
- [Product Hunt: unreleased products](https://help.producthunt.com/en/articles/484932-can-i-submit-an-unreleased-product)
- [Product Hunt: how to post](https://help.producthunt.com/en/articles/479557-how-to-post-a-product)
- [Hacker News: Show HN guidelines](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)
- [Google Analytics: campaign URLs](https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10917952)
- [Claude: connector submission](https://claude.com/docs/connectors/building/submission)
- [Dang.ai: pricing](https://dang.ai/pricing)
- [Fazier: submit](https://fazier.com/submit)
- [Fazier: a launch page](https://fazier.com/launches/assay-2)
- [Uneed: pricing](https://www.uneed.best/pricing)
- [Uneed: a tool page](https://www.uneed.best/tool/quarktracker)
- [Smol Launch: pricing](https://smollaunch.com/pricing)
- [OpenHunts: pricing](https://openhunts.com/pricing)
- [Open Launch: pricing](https://open-launch.com/pricing)
- [TinyLaunch: a launch page](https://www.tinylaunch.com/launch/23322-cooldock)
- [Microlaunch](https://microlaunch.net/)
- [Futurepedia: a tool page](https://www.futurepedia.io/tool/chatgpt)
- [Futurepedia: Enhanced Listing](https://www.futurepedia.io/enhanced)
- [DevHunt: FAQ](https://devhunt.org/faq)
- [Peerlist: launching a project](https://help.peerlist.io/individual/launchpad/how-to-launch-a-project-on-peerlist-launchpad)
- [AlternativeTo: FAQ](https://alternativeto.net/faq/)
- [SaaSHub: submit](https://www.saashub.com/services/submit)
- [Capterra: free basic listing](https://www.capterra.com/vendors/sign-up/)
- [Software Advice: vendor FAQ](https://www.softwareadvice.com/vendor-listing-faq/)
- [G2: listing a product](https://documentation.g2.com/help/docs/finding-or-listing-a-product-on-g2)
- [BetaList: FAQ](https://betalist.com/faq)
- [FutureTools: FAQ](https://futuretools.io/faq)
- [TAAFT: launch page](https://theresanaiforthat.com/launch/)
- [topai.tools: submit](https://topai.tools/submit)
- [Toolify: submit](https://www.toolify.ai/submit)
- [r/SaaS: Tufa on TAAFT, August 2025](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1mmingp/launching_tufa_on_theresanaiforthatcom_taaft_my/)
- [r/SaaS: is a TAAFT launch worth it, June 2026](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1u14eb6/is_a_taaft_launch_worth_it/)
- [Indie Hackers: signups dropped to zero, August 2026](https://www.indiehackers.com/post/seo-3xd-my-traffic-signups-dropped-to-zero-here-s-what-actually-drives-first-customers-in-vertical-saas-dc7ba9803a)

---

# How to promote an AI tool: 9 channels ranked by what they return

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/how-to-promote-an-ai-tool
- Published: 2026-10-10
- Summary: Nine ways to promote an AI tool ranked by cost, time and what founders report getting back, with a 30-day order of work and the mistakes to skip.

Four founders paid for a directory listing and published what came back. The results run from 15 visitors in two weeks to 800 visitors in one day, and from about 9 to about 50 real sign-ups. One found that 97% of more than 300 sign-ups were fraudulent. That is the best-documented paid channel we found, and it is four forum posts.

Below are nine ways to promote an AI tool, ranked by cash cost, time to a result and what founders report getting back. The ranking is a judgment: where nobody has published numbers, the table says so and the order rests on cost and rules. Prices and rules come from each venue's own pages, read on October 10, 2026.

## How the ranking works

Three tests, in order: cash cost, how long until you know whether it worked, and whether anything is left after six months. A page that keeps ranking counts as a return: the maker of a study tool, after a week on a paid TAAFT listing, [called the lasting value](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1sdr58c/i_listed_our_ai_tool_on_theresanaiforthatcom/) "borrowed SEO equity", not referral traffic.

We did not rank by audience size. Directories publish one (TAAFT claims 5M+ monthly visitors, Toolify 5.1M+, Dang.ai 270K+) and we could not verify any of them. [A commenter on r/SaaS](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1vee5e5/has_anyone_actually_paid_to_be_featured_on_a/) gave the better test: "Ask for the click number rather than the audience size."

## The nine channels, ranked

| Rank | Channel | Cash cost | Time to first result | What it returns | Best for |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Free lanes in AI directories and review sites | $0 | Hours to apply, then queues of weeks to months | A permanent page that can rank for your tool's name; no free-lane traffic numbers found | Any released tool; B2B adds G2, Capterra |
| 2 | Free lanes on launch platforms | $0; skipping a queue costs $9.90 to $39 | A launch date from next week to 5 months out | A day or week of exposure and a page; one founder traced 6 sign-ups in a week to such sites and communities | Tools usable in a minute |
| 3 | Show HN | $0 | No queue | A comment thread; one 2020 front-page post returned 2,221 visits and about 20 trial sign-ups | Developer tools usable without a sign-up |
| 4 | Communities (Reddit, Indie Hackers) | $0; IH+ is $198 a year | Weeks of participation first | Feedback and credibility; one founder was banned for 30 days from a niche forum | Existing community members |
| 5 | Integration marketplaces | No fee stated in the docs | Engineering time, then review | Distribution inside products your users already open; no numbers published | Tools with an API or MCP server |
| 6 | Your own comparison pages | $0 plus writing time | Months | Pages for "X vs Y" that crawlers can read; slow | Everyone, patiently |
| 7 | Paid directory listings | $47 to $497 once | 1 to 4 days | 15 visitors in two weeks to 800 in a day; about 9 to about 50 real sign-ups | Tools with a converting free listing |
| 8 | Newsletter sponsorships | $39 to $2,500 a slot | The next send | Ben's Bites reports about 250 clicks for its $2,500 main ad | Tools where a visit is worth over $6 to $10 |
| 9 | Bulk "100+ directories" services | $249 to $279 | Not stated | Nothing reported; Google names low-quality directory links as link spam | Skip; do 15 by hand in about 4 hours |

## What founders reported

| Report | What was paid | What came back | Our arithmetic |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Gistr on TAAFT](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1sdr58c/i_listed_our_ai_tool_on_theresanaiforthatcom/), April 2026 | The one-time submission fee, amount not stated | 7 days: 75 organic and 6 paid clicks, 11 sign-ups | Not computable |
| [Vidsembly on TAAFT](https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/1m9b6ba/i_submitted_a_paid_post_347_on_theres_an_ai_for/), July 2025 | $347, plus a $300 ad credit | First 24 hours: 312 organic clicks, about 50 sign-ups | About $7 a sign-up, ignoring the credit |
| [Tufa on TAAFT](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1mmingp/launching_tufa_on_theresanaiforthatcom_taaft_my/), August 2025 | $437 plus VAT | About 20 visitors a day before, 800 on launch day, 200 to 300 a day after; over 300 sign-ups, 97% fraudulent | About 9 real sign-ups, about $49 each |
| [A SaaS on a startup directory](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1e3rbz1/i_paid_99_to_list_my_saas_on_a_startup_directory/), July 2024 | $99 to skip the queue | 15 visitors in two weeks | $6.60 a visitor |

Chart: Tufa's visitors a day around its $437 TAAFT listing, as the founder reported
- Before the listing: about 20
- Launch day: 800
- The days after: 200 to 300

Four data points, not a distribution: one founder and one listing each, on different tiers. Three of the four judged the listing worth the money (one only as a one-off, for the backlink); the $99 buyer did not. Three things repeat. An audience claim is not your audience: the Gistr maker points out that TAAFT's visitors are shared among more than 10,000 tools. Sign-ups need a fraud filter: Tufa's payment processor let through billing addresses in South Sudan paired with cards from Brazil, and about half of the early traffic came from India, outside their market. And the spike is short: nearly all of Gistr's 2,962 video views arrived around launch day.

## Channel notes

### 1. Free lanes in AI directories and review sites

Free lanes exist, and each has a catch. Dang.ai's free lane needs a crawlable backlink to dang.ai and takes up to four weeks. [Futurepedia](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/futurepedia) and [Toolify](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/toolify) show no free path. [FutureTools](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/future-tools) is free and says over 75% of submissions are not approved. [AlternativeTo](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/alternativeto) is free, with a queue of several thousand apps and a $5 priority review that, in its words, "does not buy approval". The [free-path list](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/free) sorts the rest.

Screenshot of alternativeto.net: AlternativeTo is free, with a queue of several thousand apps; its $5 priority review "does not buy approval".

One free check before paying anyone, from [an r/SaaS commenter](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1vee5e5/has_anyone_actually_paid_to_be_featured_on_a/): search the exact name of a tool already listed and see whether the directory's page appears; plenty, they say, do not.

EffectHub is itself an AI directory, so weigh our view of directories accordingly. We list AI tools too: [free with our badge on your site, or $39 without it](https://effecthub.net/submit).

### 2. Free lanes on launch platforms

Product Hunt is free to launch on. Its guide caps the tagline at 60 characters, refuses shortened and UTM-tagged launch links, and tells makers to ask for feedback, not upvotes. Uneed gives free launches a date 30 days to 5 months out.

Screenshot of uneed.best: Uneed's free lane: a launch date 30 days to 5 months out.

Skipping a queue runs from $9.90 at OpenHunts to $39 at TinyLaunch, and some free lanes are effectively closed: OpenHunts shows a wait of about 60 weeks. A property-management founder [traced a week's six card sign-ups](https://www.indiehackers.com/post/seo-3xd-my-traffic-signups-dropped-to-zero-here-s-what-actually-drives-first-customers-in-vertical-saas-dc7ba9803a) to BetaList, Indie Hackers, LaunchPact and PeerPush. Rules: the [launch platforms hub](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms) and the [Product Hunt profile](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/product-hunt).

### 3. Show HN

The title starts with "Show HN"; the project must be something people can try, ideally without a sign-up or email; sign-up pages, landing pages and newsletters do not qualify; and you must be around to discuss it. We found no first-hand 2026 numbers for an AI tool; the one verified first-hand figure is from February 2020: [an SMS tool's Show HN reached the front page with 91 points](https://www.indiehackers.com/product/founderphone/got-to-the-front-page-of-hacker-news--M0RVFlA5X2eugwuvNXT) and brought 2,221 visits and about 20 free-trial sign-ups, roughly 1%. See the [Show HN profile](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/hacker-news-show-hn).

Screenshot of news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html: The Show HN rules: something people can try, ideally without a sign-up, and the maker around to discuss it.

### 4. Communities

Reddit's Rule 2 says: "Participate authentically in communities where you have a personal interest." Each subreddit also sets its own rules. Indie Hackers sells IH+ at $198 a year and lists skipping the wait to post as a benefit. The property-management founder above treats community posts as credibility, not sales, and advises against mentioning your product in them after a 30-day ban from the biggest forum in their niche. See the [Indie Hackers profile](https://effecthub.net/launch-platforms/indie-hackers).

### 5. Integration marketplaces

If your tool has an API, these are where users already work. The official MCP Registry is in preview, hosts metadata only (your package must already be on npm or another registry) and verifies your namespace through GitHub or DNS. Claude's Connectors Directory accepts remote MCP servers from anyone on a paid Claude plan: a submission is scanned automatically and listed as a Community connector by default, and some get a human review. OpenAI's plugin directory for ChatGPT and Codex reviews plugins and states no review time.

Zapier limits public integrations to developers who work for, or are contracted by, the API's owner, and the app must be fully launched, not invite-only or beta. None of the four pages states a fee; we found no founder numbers for any of them.

### 6. Your own comparison pages and AI answers

Search and AI assistants can only use what they can crawl. OpenAI documents OAI-SearchBot as the crawler behind ChatGPT's search features, says a site that opts out will not appear in those answers, treats it separately from GPTBot, and says a `robots.txt` change can take about 24 hours to apply. Beyond that nobody can sell you a recommendation: RightAIChoice, an AI directory, says on its own submit page that it "cannot promise rankings or AI citations". What remains is unglamorous and slow: an honest comparison with each close alternative, a plain pricing page, the same description everywhere. The property-management founder's search impressions rose from about 2,000 to about 8,000 a day and produced no sign-ups in 14 days.

### 7. Paid directory listings

Chart: Entry price of a paid listing, read on October 10, 2026
- Futurepedia: $497
- TAAFT, featured: $437
- topai.tools, upper tier: $229
- Toolify: $99
- TAAFT: $49
- Dang.ai: $49
- topai.tools: $47

Entry prices on October 10: [TAAFT](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/theres-an-ai-for-that) $49 or $437, [topai.tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/topai-tools) $47 or $229, [Dang.ai](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories/dang-ai) $49, Toolify $99, and Futurepedia $497 with a guarantee of 1,000 clicks and a pro-rata refund if they are not delivered within a year. Two founders above paid TAAFT $347 and $437 for newsletter-featured listings, in posts 16 days apart in 2025: read today's price from the page.

In [the r/SaaS thread on whether a TAAFT launch is worth it](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1u14eb6/is_a_taaft_launch_worth_it/), two commenters gave the same order: free directories first, measure visits to sign-up to activation, pay only if the free placement converts. See also [are AI directories worth it](https://effecthub.net/blog/are-ai-directories-worth-it).

### 8. Newsletter sponsorships

Ask for clicks. The Ben's Bites ads page prints them: a $2,500 main ad gets about 250 clicks, about $10 each, and a $1,800 tool placement about 300 clicks, about $6 each, on 140,000+ subscribers. Ben's Bites' second sponsor page lists higher prices and no clicks. Big Brain lists a $500 main ad, a 1.1% ad click rate and a target cost per click under $2. Directory newsletters are smaller: Uneed sells a slot for $399 to 26,000+ subscribers and Fazier one for $39 to 2,500+, about $15 per thousand subscribers either way, on the sellers' own counts. A seller who will not say what its last three placements sent has answered the question.

Chart: Cost per click of a newsletter slot, on the sellers' own figures
- Ben's Bites, main ad: about $10
- Ben's Bites, tool placement: about $6
- Big Brain, target: under $2

### 9. Bulk "100+ directories" services

Uneed sells auto-submission to 100+ directories for $249 and TinyLaunch a 110-directory service for $279; TinyLaunch says its named sites are examples and no specific site is guaranteed. Google's link-spam policy lists "low-quality directory or bookmark site links" among its examples.

Screenshot of developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies: Google's spam policies: "low-quality directory or bookmark site links" are among the examples of link spam.

In [the $99-directory thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1e3rbz1/i_paid_99_to_list_my_saas_on_a_startup_directory/), one commenter submitted to 15 directories by hand in about four hours and saw traffic up about 20%; another found a virtual assistant beat the services, which do the easy sites and skip the rest. The list is the [directory table](https://effecthub.net/ai-directories); see also [directory submission services](https://effecthub.net/blog/directory-submission-services).

## The 30-day order

The sequence follows lead times: slow queues first, spikes in the middle, money last. The [launch checklist](https://effecthub.net/blog/how-to-launch-an-ai-tool) has the day-by-day version.

1. **Days 1 to 3.** Write the submission kit once (name, tagline, descriptions, logo, screenshots, pricing, three alternatives). Allow OAI-SearchBot in `robots.txt`.
2. **Days 1 to 7.** Enter every free queue in ranks 1 and 2, longest waits first.
3. **Days 8 to 14.** Publish comparison pages for your three closest alternatives. Answer questions in two communities without linking your product. If you have an API, start the marketplace submission.
4. **Days 15 to 21.** Launch on one platform, then Show HN on a different day, and be in both threads.
5. **Days 22 to 30.** Count visits, sign-ups and activated users per channel. Spend only where a free listing already produced activated users.

## Mistakes that cost money

- **Paying before a free listing has shown that visitors understand the product.**
- **Buying a followed link.** Google lists buying or selling links for ranking as link spam unless they carry `rel="nofollow"` or `rel="sponsored"`. Check the `rel` on a live listing yourself; our [guide to directory backlinks](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-directory-backlinks) shows how.
- **Counting sign-ups, not activations.** With 97% fraud in one report, sign-ups mislead. Count first successful use.
- **Stacking Product Hunt and Show HN on one day.** Hacker News expects you to be around to discuss the project, and Product Hunt's guide has the maker open the thread asking for feedback; one person cannot be in two.
- **Submitting what will be refused.** FutureTools no longer accepts waitlist-only products or custom GPTs; BetaList refuses free hosting subdomains and app-store links; SaaSHub rejects unreleased products, waiting-list pages and free subdomains.

## Questions people ask

### Is it worth paying to list an AI tool in a directory?

Not first. The reports above run from 15 visitors for $99 to about 9 real sign-ups for $437. Use the free lanes, measure visits to sign-up to first use, and pay only for a venue whose free listing already converts.

### How many clicks does a directory listing bring?

The reports give 75 clicks in a week, 312 in a day and 15 visitors in two weeks. No directory we checked publishes a distribution of results, so ask for the clicks sent by its last three placements.

### Do directory links help SEO?

The Gistr maker credits TAAFT's pages ranking in Google for their tool's queries; one commenter in that thread could not find a TAAFT backlink in Search Console or Bing. For what Google allows, see [do AI directory backlinks help SEO](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-directory-backlinks).

### Can I get my AI tool recommended by ChatGPT?

Nobody can promise it. What is documented is that OAI-SearchBot must be allowed in `robots.txt` for a site to appear in ChatGPT's search features.

### Where do I start with no budget?

Ranks 1 to 3. EffectHub is an AI directory too: [listing is free if you place our badge on your site, or $39 once without it](https://effecthub.net/submit). We check the badge daily: a free listing without it comes down and returns when the badge does. The free queue runs a few weeks, and you see your place in line when you apply; the $24 route is reviewed within 48 hours of payment, and we email you how to pay — the site has no card form. Both get the same checks, a rejection always comes with its reason, and our outbound links are marked nofollow sponsored.

## Sources

- [Product Hunt: launch guide](https://www.producthunt.com/launch/preparing-for-launch)
- [Product Hunt: ad campaigns help](https://help.producthunt.com/en/articles/7950405-ad-campaigns)
- [Hacker News: Show HN guidelines](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)
- [Reddit Rules](https://redditinc.com/policies/reddit-rules)
- [Indie Hackers Plus](https://www.indiehackers.com/plus)
- [Google: spam policies](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies#link-spam)
- [OpenAI: crawler overview](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots)
- [OpenAI: plugin submission](https://developers.openai.com/apps-sdk/deploy/submission)
- [MCP Registry quickstart](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/registry/quickstart)
- [Claude: connector submission](https://claude.com/docs/connectors/building/submission)
- [Zapier: publishing requirements](https://docs.zapier.com/platform/publish/integration-publishing-requirements)
- [TAAFT: launch page](https://theresanaiforthat.com/launch/)
- [Futurepedia: Enhanced Listing](https://www.futurepedia.io/enhanced)
- [Toolify: submit](https://www.toolify.ai/submit)
- [topai.tools: submit](https://topai.tools/submit)
- [Dang.ai: pricing](https://dang.ai/pricing)
- [FutureTools: FAQ](https://futuretools.io/faq)
- [AlternativeTo: FAQ](https://alternativeto.net/faq/)
- [SaaSHub: submit](https://www.saashub.com/services/submit)
- [BetaList: FAQ](https://betalist.com/faq)
- [Uneed: pricing](https://www.uneed.best/pricing)
- [Fazier: advertise](https://fazier.com/advertise)
- [TinyLaunch: pricing](https://www.tinylaunch.com/pricing)
- [OpenHunts: pricing](https://openhunts.com/pricing)
- [RightAIChoice: submit](https://rightaichoice.com/submit)
- [Ben's Bites: sponsor rates](https://ads-main.bensbites.com/)
- [Big Brain: sponsorships](https://bigbrain.beehiiv.com/c/sponsorships)
- [r/SaaS: Gistr on TAAFT, April 2026](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1sdr58c/i_listed_our_ai_tool_on_theresanaiforthatcom/)
- [r/SideProject: Vidsembly on TAAFT, July 2025](https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/1m9b6ba/i_submitted_a_paid_post_347_on_theres_an_ai_for/)
- [r/SaaS: Tufa on TAAFT, August 2025](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1mmingp/launching_tufa_on_theresanaiforthatcom_taaft_my/)
- [r/SaaS: $99 startup directory, July 2024](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1e3rbz1/i_paid_99_to_list_my_saas_on_a_startup_directory/)
- [r/SaaS: paying to be featured, August 2026](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1vee5e5/has_anyone_actually_paid_to_be_featured_on_a/)
- [r/SaaS: is a TAAFT launch worth it, June 2026](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1u14eb6/is_a_taaft_launch_worth_it/)
- [Indie Hackers: signups dropped to zero, August 2026](https://www.indiehackers.com/post/seo-3xd-my-traffic-signups-dropped-to-zero-here-s-what-actually-drives-first-customers-in-vertical-saas-dc7ba9803a)
- [Indie Hackers: FounderPhone on Show HN, February 2020](https://www.indiehackers.com/product/founderphone/got-to-the-front-page-of-hacker-news--M0RVFlA5X2eugwuvNXT)

---

# AI homework helpers: what they do well, which are free, and where they go wrong

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-homework-helpers-guide
- Published: 2026-10-08
- Summary: Photo math solvers, AI tutors and essay helpers compared: what each does, which are free, how often they are wrong, and the school rules that apply.

A homework helper is the tool you reach for at 9 p.m. with a problem set due at 8 a.m., which is exactly when a confident wrong answer does the most damage. The apps in this guide come in three kinds: solvers that read a photo of a problem and show the steps, tutors that talk a student through it, and writing helpers that draft and edit prose. The catalog's [homework help](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/homework-help) page currently compares ten of them; nine have a free tier, and paid entry prices run from $4.50 to $20 a month.

The thing that changes the decision more than price or subject coverage is whether the tool shows its working, and whether anyone checks it. An app that hands over a final answer teaches nothing, and because the models behind these tools predict numbers rather than compute them, the final answer is the part most likely to be wrong.

## Three kinds, and what each is good at

**Step-by-step solvers.** Point the camera at a problem and get a worked solution. [Photomath](https://effecthub.net/ai/photomath) is the reference example: it recognizes handwritten or printed math and shows each step with the method used, and its step-by-step solutions to symbolic math are free. [GoMim](https://effecthub.net/ai/gomim) does the same from a photo or typed question and shows the working rather than only the result. Gauth covers math, biology, physics and chemistry and adds tutor sessions and expert help on its paid tier. Solvers are strongest on procedural math, where there is a right method and every step can be checked.

**Conversational tutors.** Instead of solving, these ask questions back. Khanmigo, Khan Academy's tutor, is built around not just giving answers and works on Khan Academy's own exercises. [TutorAI](https://effecthub.net/ai/tutorai) generates a course on a topic and pairs it with a homework helper; [StudyX](https://effecthub.net/ai/studyx) and [TutorGPT](https://effecthub.net/ai/tutorgpt) are broader workspaces that answer typed or photographed questions and surround that with notes, flashcards and quizzes. The catalog's [AI tutor](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-tutor) page lists more.

Screenshot of [tutorai](https://effecthub.net/ai/tutorai): TutorAI generates a course on a topic and pairs it with a homework helper.

**Essay and writing helpers.** These outline, draft, rephrase and proofread. They are most useful for feedback on a draft the student wrote, and most dangerous when they write the draft, which school policies treat as having someone else do the work. The catalog's [essay writing](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/essay-writing) page lists the dedicated ones; many study apps bundle writing tools too.

## "Shows the working" versus "gives the answer"

Mathway makes the distinction visible on its own site: the answer is free, and the subscription unlocks the full work for every step. That is the right way round for a student. When a tool's free tier gives the answer and charges for the explanation, the free tier is a shortcut and the paid tier is the study aid.

Three checks tell you which kind you have. Ask it to explain one step a different way; an explainer can, an answer engine repeats itself. Cover the final line and see whether the steps lead there. Paste in a wrong answer and ask whether it is right; a tool that agrees with you is not checking anything.

## What is free, and what the free tier caps

Every figure below comes from the vendor's own page; store prices vary by country and can differ from the website.

| Tool | Kind | Free tier | Paid entry price |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Photomath](https://effecthub.net/ai/photomath) | Photo solver | Step-by-step solutions to symbolic math | Plus $9.99 a month or $69.99 a year |
| [GoMim](https://effecthub.net/ai/gomim) | Photo and text solver | 10 credits a day, no ads | PRO $4.99 a month |
| [PhotoSolve](https://effecthub.net/ai/photosolve) | Browser extension and app | Free to start; limits not published | Pro $9 a month, or $4.99 billed yearly |
| [TutorGPT](https://effecthub.net/ai/tutorgpt) | Multi-model study workspace | 50 credits a day | Basic $4.50 a month |
| [TutorAI](https://effecthub.net/ai/tutorai) | Course generator and tutor | Free plan, no card | Mentor $13.33 a month |
| Khanmigo | Conversational tutor | Free for teachers only | $4 a month or $44 a year |
| Gauth | Photo solver with tutors | Free with in-app purchases | PLUS $11.99 a month (US App Store) |
| Mathway | Solver | Answers free | Subscription for the steps; no price on the homepage |

Chart: Paid entry price a month, from the comparison above
- TutorAI Mentor: $13.33
- Gauth PLUS, US App Store: $11.99
- Photomath Plus: $9.99
- PhotoSolve Pro: $9
- GoMim PRO: $4.99
- TutorGPT Basic: $4.50
- Khanmigo: $4

Two caps to read before paying. Photomath Plus adds animated tutorials, deeper explanations and contextual hints, and its trial converts to a paid subscription unless you cancel first; our guide to [AI tool pricing models](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-tool-pricing-models-explained) covers that trap. Khanmigo has no free tier for families: a parent or learner subscribes at 18 or older with a US billing address, then adds children to the account.

Screenshot of [photomath](https://effecthub.net/ai/photomath): Photomath's trial converts to a paid Plus subscription unless you cancel first.

Socratic by Google is gone as a separate app. Its site now redirects to Google Lens's homework feature, which finds explainers, videos and results from the web.

These cards are live catalog listings, so their prices and status stay current after this post was written:

EffectHub cards: [photomath](https://effecthub.net/ai/photomath), [gomim](https://effecthub.net/ai/gomim), [photosolve](https://effecthub.net/ai/photosolve), [tutorgpt](https://effecthub.net/ai/tutorgpt), [studyx](https://effecthub.net/ai/studyx), [tutorai](https://effecthub.net/ai/tutorai)

## Where they go wrong

Arithmetic is the surprise. Khan Academy's account of its own tutor is the clearest: a language model does not calculate, it predicts the most probable numbers, and the most probable number in its training data is not always the correct answer. Khan Academy's fix was to build a calculator into Khanmigo so numerical work is computed rather than guessed. The same post notes that the tutor sometimes struggles to interpret graphics; graphs, number lines and diagrams in a photo are the weak spot across the category.

Screenshot of [khanmigo](https://effecthub.net/ai/khanmigo): Khan Academy built a calculator into Khanmigo so numerical work is computed rather than guessed.

Checking takes a minute. Substitute the answer back into the original equation. Run the same problem through a second solver. Compare against the textbook's answer key. A step the student cannot explain back is a step to redo.

Wrong answers are the smaller risk. The larger one is a student who submits correct work they do not understand, then sits an exam without the app.

## School rules in plain terms

Policies differ by school and by course, and the course policy wins. Stanford's guidance is a useful default: where an instructor says nothing, using generative AI is treated like getting help from another person; using it to substantially complete an assignment or exam is not permitted; and students should disclose AI help when in doubt. As a rule of thumb, a hint on a step you then do yourself is tutoring, and a photographed problem set handed back as answers is not.

One warning sign on the vendor side: StudyX's plan page lists an "AI humanizer and paraphraser" next to its homework help. A feature built to get past a detector tells you what the product expects to be used for.

Screenshot of [studyx](https://effecthub.net/ai/studyx): StudyX's plan page lists an "AI humanizer and paraphraser" next to its homework help.

## Privacy for minors

Three facts to check before a child signs up. In the US, COPPA requires a service to obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13, and personal information includes photos and persistent device identifiers, which is what a homework app collects every time it scans a worksheet. Photomath's terms set a minimum age of 13 and require a parent's permission for minors. Khanmigo's parent plan lets a parent view a child's interaction history and receive moderation alerts, the most parent-visible design in the category.

Gauth is rated 4+ in the US App Store and sells subscriptions up to $99.99 a year in-app, so turn on purchase approval on the child's device. And crop the photo: a worksheet often carries a name, a school and a teacher.

## How to use one without cheating yourself

1. Attempt the problem first. The app's value is in the comparison, not the answer.
2. Ask for a hint before asking for a solution.
3. After reading the steps, close the app and redo the problem on paper.
4. Keep a note of where AI helped, so disclosure is easy when a teacher asks.

More tools of each kind are in the catalog's [math solvers](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/math-solvers) and [study tools](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/study-tools) categories:

EffectHub cards: [sovi-ai](https://effecthub.net/ai/sovi-ai), [learnrithm](https://effecthub.net/ai/learnrithm), [monster-quest-ai-tutor](https://effecthub.net/ai/monster-quest-ai-tutor), [studyninja](https://effecthub.net/ai/studyninja), [cramd](https://effecthub.net/ai/cramd), [speedstudy](https://effecthub.net/ai/speedstudy)

## Questions people ask

### Is there a free AI homework helper?

Yes. Photomath's step-by-step solutions to symbolic math are free, GoMim gives 10 credits a day, TutorGPT gives 50, and Mathway shows the answer free and charges for the steps. Khanmigo is free for teachers but $4 a month for learners and families.

### Do AI homework apps give correct answers?

Not always. The model predicts likely numbers rather than computing them; Khan Academy says this about its own tutor, which is why it added a calculator. Check an answer by substituting it back, and treat diagrams and graphs as the weak spot.

### Can teachers detect AI homework help?

Sometimes, with errors in both directions. Turnitin puts its document-level false positive rate under 1% for documents with 20% or more AI writing and around 4% per sentence, and tells educators to use the result to initiate a conversation, not to draw a conclusion. The reliable detector remains a teacher asking a student to explain their work.

### Which homework helper should a parent pick?

For math, a solver that shows every step; for everything else, a tutor that asks questions back. Prefer tools with a parent view, such as Khanmigo's, and avoid any that advertise getting past AI detection.

## Sources

- [Photomath](https://photomath.com/)
- [Terms of Service - Photomath](https://photomath.com/terms/)
- [Photomath Plus overview - Photomath Help](https://support.google.com/photomath/answer/14330572?hl=en)
- [Khanmigo pricing](https://www.khanmigo.ai/pricing)
- [Meet Khanmigo](https://www.khanmigo.ai/)
- [Khanmigo Math Computation and Tutoring Updates - Khan Academy Blog](https://blog.khanacademy.org/khanmigo-math-computation-and-tutoring-updates/)
- [GoMim pricing](https://gomim.com/pricing)
- [PhotoSolve](https://photosolve.io)
- [TutorGPT pricing](https://tutorgpt.io/pricing)
- [TutorAI pricing](https://tutorai.me/pricing)
- [StudyX Plus plans](https://studyx.ai/plan)
- [Gauth: AI Study Companion - App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gauth-ai-study-companion/id1542571008)
- [Mathway](https://www.mathway.com/)
- [Socratic (Google) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_%28Google%29)
- [Google Lens](https://search.google/ways-to-search/lens/)
- [Complying with COPPA: Frequently Asked Questions - FTC](https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/complying-coppa-frequently-asked-questions)
- [Generative AI Policy Guidance - Stanford Office of Community Standards](https://communitystandards.stanford.edu/generative-ai-policy-guidance)
- [Understanding the false positive rate for sentences of our AI writing detection capability - Turnitin](https://www.turnitin.com/blog/understanding-the-false-positive-rate-for-sentences-of-our-ai-writing-detection-capability)
- [AI for Homework Help - EffectHub](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/homework-help)

---

# AI personal assistants: what one can actually run for you, and what it still can't

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-personal-assistants-guide
- Published: 2026-10-08
- Summary: Chat assistants, calendar assistants and agents that act need different access. What each can run in 2026, what to revoke, and what to check first.

"AI personal assistant" now describes three different products. One is a chat assistant that answers, drafts and reminds. One is a calendar assistant that moves your tasks and meetings around. The third is an agent that acts in your other apps: it sends the reply, books the slot, updates the CRM. The catalog's [personal assistant](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/personal-assistant) and [task automation](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/task-automation) pages list all three side by side, and they ask very different things of you.

The decision turns less on the model inside than on access. A reminder needs nothing. A calendar assistant needs to write to your calendar. An agent that sends email needs your inbox, and it acts whether or not you are watching. Settle how much access you will grant, and whether the tool acts before or after you look, and the shortlist shrinks to a handful.

## Three shapes, three levels of access

### Chat assistants with a schedule

The assistant you already pay for can now run on a timer. OpenAI's help center describes ChatGPT scheduled tasks as one-time or recurring jobs that can also watch for changes. Limits follow the plan: three active tasks on Free and Go, five on Plus, ten on Business and Edu, fifteen on Pro and Enterprise; free accounts get one run a day at most, and hourly schedules need a paid plan. Event-triggered tasks, which react to a new Gmail message, a Slack post or GitHub activity, start at Plus.

Chart: Active scheduled tasks in ChatGPT, by plan, per OpenAI's help center
- Free and Go: 3
- Plus: 5
- Business and Edu: 10
- Pro and Enterprise: 15

Google's Gemini app added scheduled actions in June 2025 for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers and qualifying Workspace plans. Google's own example is a morning rundown of your calendar and unread email; its limits page says limits can change without notice.

This shape reads, summarizes, reminds and drafts; it does not send or book on its own. The catalog's [general assistant](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/general-assistant) page covers the group.

### Calendar and task assistants

These take write access to one thing, your calendar. Reclaim's free Lite plan covers one user, one calendar sync and a one-week scheduling range; Starter is $10 per seat per month billed yearly, $12 monthly. Motion lists Pro AI at $19 per seat per month beside a 33% annual-billing toggle, with no free plan and a trial of unstated length. [Any.do](https://effecthub.net/ai/any-do) is the task-list end of the group: Personal is free, and Premium at $4.99 a month billed annually ($7.99 monthly) adds recurring tasks, location reminders and reminders over WhatsApp.

Screenshot of [any-do](https://effecthub.net/ai/any-do): Any.do's Personal plan is free; Premium adds recurring tasks, location reminders and reminders over WhatsApp.

This shape time-blocks tasks, moves them when a meeting lands and protects focus hours. See the [calendar and scheduling](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/calendar-scheduling) category and the [task management](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/task-management) page.

### Agents that act

This is the group that needs the most care. [Notis](https://effecthub.net/ai/notis) is reached by message from Telegram, WhatsApp, iMessage, Slack or email; its site shows it triaging an inbox, drafting replies, setting reminders, logging calls to a CRM and writing a research report into your Drive. Pricing is metered: the vendor puts the average task at nine cents, the Pro plan includes $20 of monthly usage, and the trial fronts $20 of usage for seven days.

Screenshot of [notis](https://effecthub.net/ai/notis): Notis is reached by message from Telegram, WhatsApp, iMessage, Slack or email.

[OpenClaw](https://effecthub.net/ai/openclaw) is the self-hosted route: an MIT-licensed assistant that runs on your own machine, connects to 29 chat channels including WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal and iMessage, and, per its site, organizes your inbox, sends email, manages your calendar and checks you in for flights. No subscription, no hosted tier; you bring the model and pay its provider.

Screenshot of [openclaw](https://effecthub.net/ai/openclaw): OpenClaw runs on your own machine under the MIT license: no subscription, no hosted tier, you pay the model provider.

[Loopa](https://effecthub.net/ai/loopa) gives the agent a cloud computer: 600 free credits a day, then Pro at $17 a month (shown as a discount from $20) with 20,000 credits and 30 scheduled tasks. Lindy sells per-credit agents for inbox management and meeting notes from $29.99 a month, with a seven-day trial of $50 in credits and no card needed. [MindStudio](https://effecthub.net/ai/mindstudio) is for building your own: one agent and 1,000 runs a month free, then $20 a month ($16 billed yearly) plus model usage at the provider's price.

Screenshot of [loopa](https://effecthub.net/ai/loopa): Loopa gives the agent a cloud computer: 600 free credits a day, then Pro at $17 a month with 30 scheduled tasks.

More of the group: [AI agents](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/ai-agents), [browser copilots](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/browser-copilots), [browser automation](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/browser-automation) and [WhatsApp](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/whatsapp).

EffectHub cards: [notis](https://effecthub.net/ai/notis), [openclaw](https://effecthub.net/ai/openclaw), [any-do](https://effecthub.net/ai/any-do), [loopa](https://effecthub.net/ai/loopa), [littlebird](https://effecthub.net/ai/littlebird), [vellum](https://effecthub.net/ai/vellum), [samantha-zemuria](https://effecthub.net/ai/samantha-zemuria), [assindo](https://effecthub.net/ai/assindo)

## What still needs a human

Anything that spends money: a booking is a purchase, and sensible setups keep the card behind an approval. OpenAI's documentation says "Actions that require approval may pause the task", which is the design working, not failing. Anything with a counterparty who can push back: finding a meeting time is fine, disputing a charge is not. And anything where tone matters: let it draft, and read before it sends.

## The permissions question

Each shape needs a different grant, and the grant is the real price.

| Shape | Needs | Should not need | Where to revoke |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Chat assistant with tasks | Notifications; a connector for event triggers | Calendar or contacts | The assistant's connector settings |
| Calendar assistant | Read-write on one calendar | Mail, files, contacts | Your account's linked apps page |
| Messaging agent | The channel, then each integration you add | Anything you have not added | Each integration, separately |
| Self-hosted agent | Whatever your machine is logged into | A vendor account | Your own machine; use a separate user |

Google's account help names three grant levels: basic profile, viewing and copying data, and managing data, which lets an app edit, create and delete. An agent that acts asks for the third. The same page points to myaccount.google.com/linkedapps to review and remove access, and warns never to give an app your password.

## Why "runs in the background" needs a review step

A task on a timer runs when you are not looking; a webhook trigger runs when someone else does something. OpenAI tells users to review the app, account, event, conditions and instructions before relying on an event-triggered task.

Usage billing adds a second reason. Notis bills on-demand usage in arrears within a limit you choose; MindStudio lets you set per-agent and total spend limits. Set the cap before the first automation, start draft-only, read the log weekly, and add the next automation only after two clean weeks.

## What they cost

| Tool | Free tier | Entry paid price | Metered by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ChatGPT tasks | 3 active tasks, daily at most | Plus: 5 active tasks, hourly schedules | Plan tier |
| Gemini scheduled actions | None listed | Google AI Pro or Ultra | Plan tier |
| Reclaim | Lite: 1 user, 1 calendar sync | $10/seat/month yearly, $12 monthly | Seats |
| Motion | None; free trial | $19/seat/month, Pro AI | Seats |
| Any.do | Personal plan | $4.99 a month yearly, $7.99 monthly | Flat |
| Notis | CLI only | Pro: $20 of usage a month | Usage, about 9 cents a task |
| OpenClaw | All of it, MIT license | None; you pay the model provider | Your model bill |
| Lindy | 7-day trial, $50 in credits | $29.99 a month, 3,000 credits | Credits |
| Loopa | 600 credits a day | $17 a month (Pro), shown as discounted | Credits |
| MindStudio | 1 agent, 1,000 runs a month | $20 a month, $16 yearly, plus usage | Runs and tokens |

All figures come from the vendors' pages on the date of this post; the catalog cards update after it does. Per-seat, per-credit and per-task prices only compare at your own volume, which our guide to [AI tool pricing models](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-tool-pricing-models-explained) walks through.

## Before you connect your inbox or calendar

1. Read the consent screen: a manage scope means edit and delete, a view scope means read.
2. Start on a secondary account or a dedicated calendar, not your main one.
3. Keep the agent draft-only for two weeks, then allow sending for one category of mail.
4. Set the spend cap, note the trial end date, and check whether a card is on file.
5. Know the revoke path before you grant, and confirm the vendor and plan are current with our [verification](https://effecthub.net/how-we-verify).

## Which to pick

For briefings and reminders, start with the assistant you already pay for: ChatGPT tasks on Plus or Gemini scheduled actions on Google AI Pro cost nothing extra. If the calendar is the problem, try Reclaim's free tier or Motion's trial; Any.do for lists and WhatsApp reminders. To delegate by message, Notis is the hosted route and OpenClaw the self-hosted one. If no product fits, MindStudio's free plan builds one agent.

EffectHub cards: [mindstudio](https://effecthub.net/ai/mindstudio), [agentgpt](https://effecthub.net/ai/agentgpt), [sintra](https://effecthub.net/ai/sintra), [aphid](https://effecthub.net/ai/aphid), [panzoe](https://effecthub.net/ai/panzoe), [botlor](https://effecthub.net/ai/botlor)

## Questions people ask

### What is the best free AI personal assistant?

For reminders and briefings, the free tiers of ChatGPT (three active tasks) and Reclaim (one user, one calendar) cover a lot. For an agent that acts, OpenClaw is free under the MIT license if you run it yourself and pay for a model; Loopa's 600 daily credits and MindStudio's 1,000 runs a month are the hosted free allowances we found.

### Can an AI assistant read my email?

Only if you connect it. Notis, OpenClaw and ChatGPT's event-triggered tasks all work on Gmail once you grant access, and the grant is what to watch: a manage scope allows sending and deleting, not just reading. Revoke it from your account's linked apps page when you stop using the tool.

### Is it safe to give an AI assistant calendar access?

Calendar write access is the narrowest grant in this guide: it touches no mail or files. Grant it on one calendar, confirm the tool does not also ask for contacts or Drive, and revoke it when you stop. Reclaim and Motion are built around exactly this grant.

## Sources

- [Scheduled tasks in ChatGPT — OpenAI Help Center](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/10291617-scheduled-tasks-in-chatgpt)
- [ChatGPT plans and pricing — OpenAI](https://openai.com/chatgpt/pricing/)
- [Scheduled actions in the Gemini app — Google](https://blog.google/products/gemini/scheduled-actions-gemini-app/)
- [Gemini Apps limits and upgrades for Google AI subscribers — Google Help](https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/16275805)
- [Reclaim pricing](https://reclaim.ai/pricing)
- [Motion pricing](https://www.usemotion.com/pricing)
- [Any.do pricing](https://www.any.do/pricing)
- [Notis pricing](https://notis.ai/pricing)
- [Notis](https://notis.ai)
- [OpenClaw](https://openclaw.ai)
- [Loopa pricing](https://www.loopa.im/pricing)
- [Lindy pricing](https://www.lindy.ai/pricing)
- [MindStudio pricing](https://www.mindstudio.ai/pricing)
- [Manage third-party apps and services with access to your account — Google Account Help](https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3466521)

---

# AI receipt scanners: how OCR expense apps compare, and what the free tiers leave out

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-receipt-scanners-guide
- Published: 2026-10-08
- Summary: How receipt OCR works and where it fails, what to check before paying, which free tiers cap what, and where your receipts are stored.

Every app in this category reads a flat, printed, well-lit receipt, so that is not the decision. The decision is what happens after the scan: whether line items, tax and currency come out as usable fields, whether the data can leave in a form your accountant or accounting software accepts, and how many scans a month you get before paying. The catalog's [receipt scanning](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/receipt-scanning) shortlist, the wider [expense tracking](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/expense-tracking) list and the [expense management](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/expense-management) category cover business tools and the consumer apps that turn a photo into a transaction.

Prices and limits come from vendor pages we fetched for this post; the cards are live catalog listings.

## What the "AI" does on a receipt scanner

A scanner does three jobs: it straightens the paper in the photo, reads the characters (the OCR step), and decides which characters are the merchant, date, total, tax and line items. The third step is where the "AI" claim lives: older tools matched templates, newer ones hand the image to a vision model and ask for structured output. [ScanRelief](https://effecthub.net/ai/scanrelief), a desktop app that watches a folder of receipt images, does this literally: each file goes to OpenAI's API on your own key, which the vendor puts at roughly half a cent per receipt. [WiseOCR](https://effecthub.net/ai/wiseocr) sells the same step alone: JSON per page, Make and Zapier hooks, credit packs from $9. Categories, card matching and reports come after, where the plans split.

Screenshot of [scanrelief](https://effecthub.net/ai/scanrelief): ScanRelief sends each receipt to OpenAI's API on your own key, which the vendor puts at roughly half a cent per receipt.

## Where OCR fails, and why

- **Handwritten tips.** The check prints the pre-tip total; the tip and new total are handwritten. Most engines read the printed number, so the expense is recorded short.
- **Faded thermal paper.** Receipts lose contrast in a wallet or a hot car; 8s become 3s and decimal points vanish. Scan them the week you get them.
- **Currency.** A "$" can be US, Canadian, Australian or Mexican; European receipts use a decimal comma. Converting needs the rate on the receipt date: [TaxLens](https://effecthub.net/ai/taxlens) says it detects 30+ currencies and converts at historical rates, [SparkReceipt](https://effecthub.net/ai/sparkreceipt) lists 190 currencies, Veryfi's API 91+.
- **Tax lines.** VAT included in the price, several rates on one receipt, and "tax" versus "service" lines are read inconsistently. ScanRelief names only date, amount and vendor as extracted fields; TaxLens pulls the tax amount out separately.

## What to check before paying

1. **Line items or just the total.** Itemized extraction is often paid: SparkReceipt only on Elite, Dext 5 documents a month and then $0.50 each or a $20.50 monthly bundle, Zoho Expense from Standard. If a total and a category are enough, do not pay for it.
2. **Tax as its own field.** Reclaiming VAT or deducting sales tax needs the tax amount as a separate number.
3. **Export and accounting sync.** CSV is the floor. QuickBooks Online and Xero connections are usually gated: Shoeboxed from Pro, Expensify only in a paid workspace, SparkReceipt from Pro. [Clint](https://effecthub.net/ai/clint) and [Vossa](https://effecthub.net/ai/vossa) mention no export at all.
4. **Mileage.** Zoho Expense includes GPS mileage on its free plan, Shoeboxed on every plan, SparkReceipt on Pro, Expensify on free personal accounts, Xero only on Established.
5. **How receipts get in.** Camera, email forwarding, a watched folder, WhatsApp or a connected mailbox, which [Wellybox](https://effecthub.net/ai/wellybox) and Clint read: least effort, biggest privacy question.

## How they compare

| Tool | Pricing model | Entry price | Free tier cap | Exports and integrations |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| SparkReceipt | Subscription, 7-day trial | $5.75/mo billed annually (Pro, 50 docs/mo) | No free plan | PDF, Excel, CSV; QuickBooks Online, Xero, Zapier, API |
| Wellybox | Subscription, trial | $19/mo billed annually (Basic, 50 docs/mo) | No free plan | Excel, Google Drive sync; accounting software not named |
| Clint | Freemium | $5/mo (Flow, 150 scans) | 40 AI scans and 50 manual entries a month | None listed |
| TaxLens | Free iOS app | Not published | Not published | PDF, XLS, CSV with receipt images |
| WiseOCR | Credits, pay-as-you-go or monthly | $9 for 130 credits | No free tier | JSON; Make, Zapier |
| ScanRelief | One-time license | €9.50 plus your own OpenAI usage | One free week | Excel report, renamed files |
| Expensify | Per member | $5 per member/mo (Collect) | Unlimited SmartScans on a personal account | CSV free; accounting sync on paid workspaces |
| Dext | Subscription, 14-day trial | $25.21/mo or $302.50/yr (250 docs, 5 users) | No free plan | "Over 36" accounting integrations |
| Zoho Expense | Per user | $4 per user/mo (Standard) | 3 users, 20 autoscans per user a month | Accounting integrations (not named) |
| Shoeboxed | Subscription, 30-day trial | $9/mo (Starter, 50 scans/mo) | No free plan | CSV on all plans; QuickBooks, Xero on Pro and Plus |

Screenshot of [sparkreceipt](https://effecthub.net/ai/sparkreceipt): SparkReceipt: a 7-day trial, no free plan, and exports to QuickBooks Online, Xero and Zapier.

EffectHub cards: [sparkreceipt](https://effecthub.net/ai/sparkreceipt), [wellybox](https://effecthub.net/ai/wellybox), [clint](https://effecthub.net/ai/clint), [taxlens](https://effecthub.net/ai/taxlens), [wiseocr](https://effecthub.net/ai/wiseocr), [scanrelief](https://effecthub.net/ai/scanrelief), [vossa](https://effecthub.net/ai/vossa), [receiptix](https://effecthub.net/ai/receiptix)

## Free tiers, and what they are for

Expensify's personal account gives unlimited SmartScans, CSV export on the web and mileage; categories, tags and accounting integrations need a paid workspace. Zoho Expense's free plan is a real small-team plan: 3 users, 20 autoscans per user a month, 5 GB of storage, GPS mileage and multi-currency. Consumer apps cap transactions instead: Vossa allows 15 a month and keeps scanning for its $3.99 Premium; [AI Money](https://effecthub.net/ai/ai-money) gives 2 receipt scans a month free, with ads, and 10 a day on Pro; [Receiptix](https://effecthub.net/ai/receiptix) is free to start, with neither the cap nor the Pro price published.

The business tools mostly have no free plan: SparkReceipt (7-day trial), Dext (14 days, no card), Shoeboxed (30 days; "Shoeboxed is not free", says its FAQ), Wellybox (length not stated). Veryfi's API is the exception at 100 documents a month free.

Chart: Free scans a month on capped free tiers, from vendor pages fetched for this post
- Clint: 40 AI scans
- Zoho Expense: 20 autoscans per user
- AI Money: 2 receipt scans

## Where your receipts are stored

A receipt carries card digits, a pharmacy's itemized list or a home address. Vendor pages show three storage patterns.

On your device: TaxLens keeps data on the phone or in your iCloud; ScanRelief leaves files on your disk and sends each image to OpenAI, which the vendor says does not train on them; AI Money keeps the ledger on the phone and discards the photo.

Screenshot of [taxlens](https://effecthub.net/ai/taxlens): TaxLens keeps your data on the phone or in your iCloud, and exports PDF, XLS and CSV with the receipt images.

In the vendor's cloud: SparkReceipt's security page names AWS in Frankfurt with a backup in Stockholm, encryption in transit and at rest, up to 30 days in backups after deletion, and no training on your documents by OpenAI, Mistral or Google. Receiptix uses Google's cloud, encrypted; WiseOCR deletes uploads after processing by default.

In your inbox: Wellybox reads a connected email account back 12 to 48 months depending on the plan; Clint says it runs "exactly one search query" on Gmail, for messages containing invoice, receipt or fatura, and had that access scope audited. Read those terms before connecting a mailbox that holds everything else.

Screenshot of [clint](https://effecthub.net/ai/clint): Clint says it runs "exactly one search query" on Gmail, for messages containing invoice, receipt or fatura.

## Test with your own ugly receipts

Skip this morning's crisp supermarket receipt and collect ten bad ones: a faded thermal strip, a check with a handwritten tip, a foreign-currency receipt, a long grocery receipt, a crumpled one, a PDF invoice, an email receipt, one with a discount line, one with VAT included, and a duplicate. Scan all ten and check five fields on each: merchant, date, total, tax, currency. Export to CSV and open it; if you are paying for an integration, push one expense through to QuickBooks or Xero and see which account it landed in. The number you had to correct is the number that matters, and the duplicate shows whether the app notices.

## Which to pick

- **Freelancer who needs an export at tax time:** SparkReceipt Pro, or TaxLens on iPhone if the data should stay there.
- **Small team with an accountant:** Dext or Shoeboxed for the integrations, Zoho Expense if three users are enough.
- **Never want to photograph anything:** Wellybox or Clint, after reading their inbox terms.
- **Building scanning into a product:** WiseOCR at small volumes, Veryfi past its $500 monthly minimum; the catalog's [OCR](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ocr) list has the rest.
- **Personal spending by chat:** Vossa, AI Money or [Rolly](https://effecthub.net/ai/rolly-money-tracker), which keep scanning for a paid tier or cap it.
- **The books, not just the receipts:** [Xero](https://effecthub.net/ai/xero) starts at $27 a month with document capture on every plan; expense and mileage claims are on Established only.

EffectHub cards: [xero](https://effecthub.net/ai/xero), [ai-money](https://effecthub.net/ai/ai-money), [rolly-money-tracker](https://effecthub.net/ai/rolly-money-tracker)

## Questions people ask

### Is there a free AI receipt scanner?

Yes, with caps. Expensify's personal account scans without limit but cannot sync to accounting software; Zoho Expense's free plan gives three users 20 scans each a month; Clint's has 40. Vossa and Rolly keep scanning for paid tiers; AI Money allows two a month free.

### How accurate is receipt OCR?

Good on a flat, printed receipt: WiseOCR quotes "over 98%", with its own caveats of high-quality images only, discounts excluded and worse on poor scans. Faded thermal paper, handwritten tips and mixed currencies are where errors cluster; ScanRelief's page says it plainly: "Always check the extracted data."

### Can a receipt scanner export to QuickBooks or Xero?

Many can, usually on a paid tier: SparkReceipt and Shoeboxed from Pro, Expensify inside a paid workspace, Dext on its one plan. Check for CSV export too; it works with any accounting software and survives cancelling.

## Sources

- [SparkReceipt pricing](https://sparkreceipt.com/pricing)
- [SparkReceipt security](https://sparkreceipt.com/security)
- [WellyBox pricing](https://www.wellybox.com/pricing)
- [Receiptix](https://receiptix.io)
- [WiseOCR](https://wiseocr.com)
- [ScanRelief](https://scanrelief.com)
- [TaxLens](https://taxlensapp.com)
- [Clint](https://clint.website)
- [Vossa](https://vossa.app)
- [AI Money](https://ai-money.app)
- [Rolly](https://rollyapp.ai)
- [Xero pricing plans (US)](https://www.xero.com/us/pricing-plans/)
- [Understand Expensify pricing](https://help.expensify.com/articles/new-expensify/billing-and-subscriptions/explore-plans-subscriptions-and-pricing/Understand-Expensify-Pricing)
- [Free features in Expensify](https://help.expensify.com/new-expensify/hubs/getting-started/Free-Features-in-Expensify)
- [Dext pricing (US)](https://dext.com/us/business/pricing)
- [Dext plans for businesses](https://help.dext.com/en/articles/647776-dext-plans-for-businesses)
- [Veryfi pricing](https://www.veryfi.com/pricing/)
- [Shoeboxed pricing](https://www.shoeboxed.com/pricing)
- [Zoho Expense pricing (US)](https://www.zoho.com/us/expense/pricing/)

---

# LangChain vs Mastra: which agent framework to build on in 2026

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/langchain-vs-mastra
- Published: 2026-10-08
- Summary: LangChain is Python-first with a JavaScript version; Mastra is TypeScript only. How they differ on workflows, memory, MCP, evals, deployment and cost.

[LangChain](https://effecthub.net/ai/langchain) and [Mastra](https://effecthub.net/ai/mastra) are both open-source frameworks for building [AI agents](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/ai-agents): a model, tools, memory, and a loop that runs until the task is done. They are often shortlisted together, and the comparison is less close than it looks. LangChain is Python-first, with a full JavaScript implementation and a large commercial platform behind it. Mastra is TypeScript, with no Python version at all.

The thing that decides most of these choices is the language your production code is already in. If that is Python, Mastra is not an option. If it is TypeScript, both are, and the real comparison starts: long-running state, memory, MCP, evaluation, and what the paid cloud costs. The catalog's [LangChain vs Mastra](https://effecthub.net/ai/langchain/vs/mastra) page keeps the live status and pricing of both.

## Language, runtime and license

LangChain ships in two languages. The Python package requires Python 3.10 or newer; the JavaScript package runs on Node.js 20 to 24, Cloudflare Workers, Deno, Bun and browsers. Both are built on LangGraph, LangChain's "low-level orchestration framework and runtime for building, managing, and deploying long-running, stateful agents". The open-source layer is MIT licensed throughout.

Mastra calls itself "purpose-built for TypeScript". It runs on Node.js 22.13 or later, Bun, Deno and Cloudflare, and its docs contain no Python version. The core is Apache 2.0; code under `ee/` directories carries a separate, source-available Mastra Enterprise License. GitHub stars at the time of writing: langchain 147.4k, langgraph 42.9k, langchainjs 18.2k, langgraphjs 3.3k, mastra 28.6k.

Chart: GitHub stars at the time of writing
- langchain: 147.4k
- langgraph: 42.9k
- mastra: 28.6k
- langchainjs: 18.2k
- langgraphjs: 3.3k

## The abstractions you will actually write

LangChain's pitch is "Agent = Model + Harness". `create_agent` (`createAgent` in JavaScript) takes a model string and tools, and you extend it with middleware: guardrails, retries, routing and a `SummarizationMiddleware` that compresses history past a token threshold. For explicit control flow you drop to LangGraph and write the graph yourself; its docs say it "does not abstract prompts or architecture".

Screenshot of docs.langchain.com/oss/python/langchain/overview: LangChain's pitch is "Agent = Model + Harness": `create_agent` takes a model string and tools, and you extend it with middleware.

Mastra gives you three typed primitives. An `Agent` takes instructions, a `provider/model` string and a `tools` object; a tool is `createTool()` with a Zod input schema and an `execute` function; a workflow is `createWorkflow()` and `createStep()` with `inputSchema` and `outputSchema`, chained with `.then()`. The docs draw the line simply: agents for open-ended tasks, workflows for steps you want to control.

## State, durability and memory

LangGraph persists state through a checkpointer keyed by `thread_id`. The in-memory saver dies with the process, so the docs point to `PostgresSaver` in production; checkpoints let a run resume after a failure, pause for human review, or rewind.

Mastra persists workflow runs as snapshots in whatever storage you configured, and the docs say they "persist across deployments and application restarts". A step can return `suspend()` to wait for a human or a timer, and `run.resume()` continues it with typed `resumeData`; `run.restart()` picks up a run that lost its server.

Memory follows the same split. LangChain keeps short-term memory as the checkpointed history on a thread and long-term memory in a store. Mastra's `Memory` class attaches to an agent with a `resource` for the user and a `thread` for the conversation, in three layers: working memory (structured user facts), semantic recall (past messages found by meaning) and observational memory, which "uses background agents to maintain a dense observation log that replaces raw message history as it grows".

## RAG, tools and MCP

LangChain's retrieval layer is its oldest asset: document loaders, text splitters, embeddings, vector stores and retrievers, with three documented patterns (two-step, agentic and hybrid RAG). Mastra has the same pipeline: `MDocument` chunking, `embedMany`, and vector stores including pgvector, Pinecone, Qdrant and MongoDB.

On MCP the difference is direction. LangChain consumes MCP servers: in Python, `langchain[mcp]` 1.4 or later (still marked beta) provides an `MCPAdapter` over Streamable HTTP and stdio; in JavaScript, `@langchain/mcp-adapters` 2.0 adds legacy SSE. Neither docs page covers publishing one. Mastra's `@mastra/mcp` does both: `MCPClient` connects over stdio or Streamable HTTP, and `MCPServer` publishes your agents, tools and workflows as an MCP server.

Below, the two frameworks plus the two Python names most often shortlisted beside them: [LlamaIndex](https://effecthub.net/ai/llamaindex) for retrieval-heavy apps and [CrewAI](https://effecthub.net/ai/crewai) for role-based multi-agent crews.

EffectHub cards: [langchain](https://effecthub.net/ai/langchain), [mastra](https://effecthub.net/ai/mastra), [llamaindex](https://effecthub.net/ai/llamaindex), [crewai](https://effecthub.net/ai/crewai)

## Evals and tracing

LangSmith is LangChain's commercial platform, "the framework-agnostic platform for testing, deploying, monitoring, and improving your agents". The Python and JavaScript client SDKs are MIT licensed; the platform is a hosted service that runs evaluations offline on datasets or online on live traffic. Developer is $0 for one seat with 5,000 base traces a month; Plus is $39 per seat per month with 10,000 base traces and one free small serverless deployment; Enterprise is custom. Base traces are kept 14 days, extended traces 180. Self-hosted and BYOC exist only on Enterprise.

Screenshot of langchain.com/pricing: LangSmith's Developer plan is $0 for one seat; Plus is $39 per seat per month, and self-hosting exists only on Enterprise.

Mastra's equivalents ship in the open-source package. `@mastra/evals` provides scorers, "automated tests that evaluate Agents outputs using model-graded, rule-based, and statistical methods", stored in your own database and sampled by a deterministic rate in production. Tracing covers every agent run, workflow step, tool call and model interaction, and exports to your own storage, to Langfuse, Arize, Datadog or any OpenTelemetry endpoint, and, through a listed integration, to LangSmith. Studio, the local UI for all of it, runs with `mastra dev`.

The paid cloud is Mastra Platform. Starter is $0 a month with 100,000 observability events, 24 CPU hours and 15 days of retention; Teams is $250 a month with one million events, 250 CPU hours and six months; Enterprise is custom. Self-hosting is free under Apache 2.0, with an enterprise license for RBAC, SSO and a flat annual fee.

## Deployment

LangChain's hosted option is LangSmith Deployment, "a workflow orchestration runtime purpose-built for agent workloads": Cloud (Plus plan or above), Hybrid, self-hosted with a control plane (Enterprise), or a standalone Agent Server on Docker or Kubernetes with your own Postgres and Redis and a LangSmith license. The library itself runs in any process of your own; you then own persistence.

Mastra ships a Hono server. `mastra build` produces a bundle for a VM, container or PaaS; built-in deployers target Vercel, Netlify and Cloudflare; inside a Next.js or Astro app it deploys with the framework. `mastra deploy` or a GitHub connection pushes to Mastra Platform.

## Side by side

| What | LangChain | Mastra |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Language | Python 3.10+ and JavaScript | TypeScript only |
| License | MIT | Apache 2.0 core; `ee/` under Mastra Enterprise License |
| Durable state | Checkpointers (Postgres, SQLite) and stores | Snapshots in your storage; Inngest or Temporal optional |
| MCP | Client only, in the docs | Client and server |
| Evals and tracing | LangSmith (hosted; MIT SDK) | `@mastra/evals`, tracing and Studio in the package |
| Free cloud tier | Developer: 1 seat, 5k base traces a month | Starter: 100k events, 24 CPU hours, 15-day retention |
| First paid tier | Plus, $39 per seat per month | Teams, $250 per month |
| Self-hosting the platform | Enterprise plan only | Free, Apache 2.0 |

## Which to pick

Pick LangChain if your backend is Python, if you want the widest set of model and vector-store integrations, if you are buying evaluation, tracing and deployment as one platform and can live with its plan structure, or simply if the team already knows it: the ecosystem is far larger.

Pick Mastra if you ship TypeScript, especially inside Next.js; if you want typed workflows with suspend-and-resume and no external orchestrator; if you need to publish an MCP server as well as consume one; or if you want evals and tracing without a usage-metered platform. The price is a smaller ecosystem and a single language.

If neither fits, the catalog's [agent frameworks](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/agent-frameworks) and [LLM frameworks](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/llm-frameworks) categories hold the rest, including [Langflow](https://effecthub.net/ai/langflow), a drag-and-drop canvas for models, tools and vector stores, and [Langbase](https://effecthub.net/ai/langbase), a serverless platform that hosts the primitives.

EffectHub cards: [langbase](https://effecthub.net/ai/langbase), [langflow](https://effecthub.net/ai/langflow)

## Questions people ask

### Is Mastra a LangChain alternative?

For TypeScript teams, yes: it covers agents, workflows, memory, RAG, MCP, evals and tracing in one package; see the catalog's [comparison page](https://effecthub.net/ai/langchain/vs/mastra). For Python teams it is not, because Mastra has no Python version.

### Does Mastra work with Python?

No. Its docs, runtimes and integrations are TypeScript only. A Python service can call a Mastra server over its REST API, but the agents themselves are written in TypeScript.

Screenshot of mastra.ai/docs: Mastra's docs, runtimes and integrations are TypeScript only; a Python service can call a Mastra server over its REST API.

### Is LangChain free?

The frameworks are: langchain, langgraph and their JavaScript ports are MIT licensed. LangSmith has a free Developer plan with one seat and 5,000 base traces a month; after that it is $39 per seat per month on Plus, and self-hosting requires an Enterprise plan.

### Can I use Mastra with Vercel AI SDK?

Yes, on both ends. Any AI SDK provider module, such as `@ai-sdk/groq`, works anywhere Mastra accepts a `provider/model` string, and `@mastra/ai-sdk` streams agents to AI SDK UI's `useChat()`, `useCompletion()` and `useObject()` hooks, with a `version` option that defaults to v5 and covers v6 and v7.

## Sources

- [LangChain Docs](https://docs.langchain.com)
- [LangSmith Plans and Pricing](https://www.langchain.com/pricing)
- [LangChain overview (Python)](https://docs.langchain.com/oss/python/langchain/overview)
- [LangChain overview (JavaScript)](https://docs.langchain.com/oss/javascript/langchain/overview)
- [Install LangChain (Python)](https://docs.langchain.com/oss/python/langchain/install)
- [LangGraph overview](https://docs.langchain.com/oss/python/langgraph/overview)
- [LangGraph persistence](https://docs.langchain.com/oss/python/langgraph/durable-execution)
- [LangChain short-term memory](https://docs.langchain.com/oss/python/langchain/short-term-memory)
- [LangChain retrieval](https://docs.langchain.com/oss/python/langchain/retrieval)
- [LangChain MCP (Python)](https://docs.langchain.com/oss/python/langchain/mcp)
- [LangChain MCP (JavaScript)](https://docs.langchain.com/oss/javascript/langchain/mcp)
- [LangSmith Observability](https://docs.langchain.com/langsmith/observability)
- [LangSmith Evaluation](https://docs.langchain.com/langsmith/evaluation)
- [LangSmith Deployment](https://docs.langchain.com/langsmith/deployment)
- [LangSmith hosting options](https://docs.langchain.com/langsmith/platform-setup)
- [langchain-ai/langchain on GitHub](https://github.com/langchain-ai/langchain)
- [langchain-ai/langchainjs on GitHub](https://github.com/langchain-ai/langchainjs)
- [langchain-ai/langgraph on GitHub](https://github.com/langchain-ai/langgraph)
- [langchain-ai/langgraphjs on GitHub](https://github.com/langchain-ai/langgraphjs)
- [langchain-ai/langsmith-sdk on GitHub](https://github.com/langchain-ai/langsmith-sdk)
- [Mastra](https://mastra.ai)
- [Mastra docs](https://mastra.ai/docs)
- [Mastra agents overview](https://mastra.ai/docs/agents/overview)
- [Mastra workflows overview](https://mastra.ai/docs/workflows/overview)
- [Mastra suspend and resume](https://mastra.ai/docs/workflows/suspend-and-resume)
- [Mastra memory overview](https://mastra.ai/docs/memory/overview)
- [Mastra RAG overview](https://mastra.ai/docs/rag/overview)
- [Mastra MCP overview](https://mastra.ai/docs/mcp/overview)
- [Mastra evals overview](https://mastra.ai/docs/evals/overview)
- [Mastra observability overview](https://mastra.ai/docs/observability/overview)
- [Mastra deployment overview](https://mastra.ai/docs/deployment/overview)
- [Mastra Studio](https://mastra.ai/docs/studio/overview)
- [Mastra platform overview](https://mastra.ai/docs/mastra-platform/overview)
- [Mastra models](https://mastra.ai/models)
- [Mastra integrations](https://mastra.ai/integrations)
- [Mastra AI SDK UI integration](https://mastra.ai/integrations/agentic-ui/ai-sdk-ui)
- [Mastra pricing](https://mastra.ai/pricing)
- [mastra-ai/mastra on GitHub](https://github.com/mastra-ai/mastra)

---

# Legal AI software in 2026: what contract review, research and drafting tools actually do

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/legal-ai-software-guide
- Published: 2026-10-08
- Summary: What legal AI tools do for contract review, research and drafting, why invented citations are the risk, who publishes prices and what a solo can buy.

"Legal AI software" is three purchases wearing one label: a Word add-in that redlines a contract against your playbook, a research assistant that answers a legal question with citations, and a drafting tool that produces the first version of a document. Most vendors sell some of each, but every product is built around one job. The catalog's [legal AI](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/legal-ai), [contract review](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/contract-review) and [legal research](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/legal-research) pages are sorted by that job, which is the first cut to make.

The second cut matters more: when the tool states a proposition of law, does it hand you a source you can open? That property separates a research platform from a chatbot and decides what you must verify before anything goes out under your name.

## Three jobs, three kinds of product

**Contract review and redlining.** The tool compares each clause of the other side's draft with your standard positions and proposes markups, usually inside Microsoft Word. [Spellbook](https://effecthub.net/ai/spellbook) sells a Word add-in plus a multi-document agent called Associate. [Luminance](https://effecthub.net/ai/luminance) turns a playbook into "structured standards" and generates "context-aware markups directly in Microsoft Word". [Genie AI](https://effecthub.net/ai/genie-ai) drafts, reviews and redlines in Word and Excel, and is the only one of the three with a published price. [Robin AI](https://effecthub.net/ai/robin-ai) sells review and search to enterprise legal teams.

Screenshot of [luminance](https://effecthub.net/ai/luminance): Luminance turns a playbook into "structured standards" and generates "context-aware markups directly in Microsoft Word".

**Research with citations.** The product retrieves authority from a database and writes an answer that cites it. [CoCounsel](https://effecthub.net/ai/cocounsel) from Thomson Reuters calls its Deep Research "Westlaw-grounded" and says "every citation is linked so attorneys can click through and verify the work themselves". [Clio Work](https://effecthub.net/ai/clio-work) answers from vLex's library of more than one billion documents across more than 110 jurisdictions. [Harvey](https://effecthub.net/ai/harvey) and [Legora](https://effecthub.net/ai/legora) serve large firms and in-house teams, by demo. [Judicio](https://effecthub.net/ai/judicio) is the self-serve option, with "every answer cited to page and passage".

**Drafting.** Everything above drafts something; the difference is what it drafts from. CoCounsel Essentials pairs a drafting skill with document analysis in Word. [IP Author](https://effecthub.net/ai/ip-author) drafts patent applications and office action responses for the USPTO and EPO.

## Why invented citations are the specific risk

A redline that misses a clause costs a second read. A research answer that cites a case that does not exist costs a sanctions hearing. In Mata v. Avianca, a lawyer in the Southern District of New York filed an opposition citing six decisions ChatGPT had produced; asked whether they were real, the chatbot said yes. Judge Castel issued an order to show cause in May 2023 and fined the lawyers $5,000 that June.

Purpose-built tools reduce the problem without removing it. A Stanford-led study posted in May 2024 tested Lexis+ AI, Westlaw AI-Assisted Research and Ask Practical Law AI and found they "each hallucinate between 17% and 33% of the time": fewer than GPT-4, but short of the hallucination-free marketing the authors set out to test.

"Grounded" and "cited" name two mechanisms. Grounded means the system retrieves from a fixed corpus of real authority, such as Westlaw or vLex, before it writes. Cited means each proposition links to its document. A link you can click is a claim you can check, not one that has been checked: Judicio's own FAQ says a research snapshot does not confirm the authority is still current. Open every citation, read the passage, run the citator.

## Where your client's documents go

Confidentiality questions are plumbing questions, so ask them that way.

1. **Who processes the document?** The vendor and, usually, a model provider behind it. Harvey "requires Zero Data Retention (ZDR) by model providers"; Spellbook has ZDR agreements with OpenAI and Anthropic.
2. **Is training off by default?** Harvey, CoCounsel, Legora, Genie AI and Judicio each state that customer documents never train their models. Treat silence as a no.
3. **Who sets retention?** Harvey lets customers set retention policies and delete data at any time. [AI Lawyer](https://effecthub.net/ai/ai-lawyer)'s homepage says chat history "is stored indefinitely", while its FAQ says uploaded documents are processed once and not saved.
4. **Where is it processed?** Harvey offers in-region processing in the EU, Switzerland, the US and Australia; Spellbook names data centers in Canada and the US; [Outlex](https://effecthub.net/ai/outlex) is hosted in the EU.

The ABA's Formal Opinion 512 of July 29, 2024 frames this as existing duties: competence with the tool, confidentiality, supervision, candor toward the tribunal and what you may bill.

Screenshot of [harvey](https://effecthub.net/ai/harvey): Harvey requires Zero Data Retention from its model providers and offers in-region processing in the EU, Switzerland, the US and Australia.

EffectHub cards: [harvey](https://effecthub.net/ai/harvey), [cocounsel](https://effecthub.net/ai/cocounsel), [legora](https://effecthub.net/ai/legora), [luminance](https://effecthub.net/ai/luminance), [spellbook](https://effecthub.net/ai/spellbook), [robin-ai](https://effecthub.net/ai/robin-ai), [genie-ai](https://effecthub.net/ai/genie-ai), [clio-work](https://effecthub.net/ai/clio-work)

## What vendors publish, and what they do not

The market splits not between cheap and expensive but between vendors who put a price on the page and those who put a demo form there. Every cell comes from the vendor's own pages, checked the way [we verify](https://effecthub.net/how-we-verify) every listing.

| Tool | Built for | Published price | Free way in | How you buy |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Harvey | Law firms and in-house | None | None | Request a demo |
| CoCounsel | Firms of any size | Shown after firm details | Trial of Essentials | Online up to 10 attorneys, sales above |
| Legora | Firms and in-house teams | None | None | Book a demo |
| Luminance | Enterprise legal and procurement | None | None | Request a demo |
| Spellbook | Firms and in-house teams | None; licensed by team size | 7-day trial | Demo for a quote |
| Robin AI | Enterprise legal teams | None | None | Request a demo |
| Genie AI | Solo to enterprise | Pro $59 a month billed annually, $75 monthly | Free plan, limited tokens | Self-serve |
| Clio Work | Solo to mid-sized firms | Not published standalone | Not stated | Through Clio |
| Outlex | One-person legal functions | Core €99 a month, 1 seat | 7-day trial, no card | Self-serve |
| Judicio | Solo to 20 seats | Shown by region | 7-day trial, no card | Self-serve |
| AI Lawyer | Consumers and small practices | $19.99 a month or $99.99 a year | Free trial | Self-serve |
| IP Author | Patent practitioners | $4,800 a year per product | 14-day trial | Self-serve |

Self-serve tools price per seat per month, discounted yearly: Genie AI's Pro plan is $708 a year, or $75 a month billed monthly; its Business plan covers five users for $259 a month billed annually. Enterprise tools price per license on custom terms; Genie's own Enterprise tier "starts from $600/month", the only published floor in that group. Thomson Reuters sits between: firms of up to ten attorneys can buy CoCounsel Essentials or CoCounsel Legal online, with two- and three-year terms discounted, but the figure appears only after you enter firm details, so we do not quote one. The units are explained in our guide to [AI tool pricing models](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-tool-pricing-models-explained).

Chart: Genie AI's plans on its own pricing page, dollars a month
- Pro, annual billing: $59
- Pro, monthly billing: $75
- Business (5 users), annual: $259
- Enterprise: from $600

Robin AI's pricing page returned a 404 when we checked, and the site routes everything to a demo request. In December 2025 its legal services team of about 75 people moved to the law firm Scissero after a funding round failed, with the technology group still in talks with another buyer. Ask who owns and supports the software before you sign.

## What a solo practitioner can buy without a sales call

For contracts, Genie AI's Pro plan is the clearest purchase: one user, drafting, review and redlining in Word, unlimited exports and a no-training promise, for $59 a month on the annual plan. Outlex is the European equivalent at €99 a month, with a seven-day trial that needs no card. Spellbook gives seven days free but quotes on a demo call.

For research, a firm of one to three attorneys can buy CoCounsel Essentials or CoCounsel Legal online, and Judicio's plans are self-serve behind a seven-day trial. Clio Work has been sold standalone to small firms since April 2026, but the only price in print is the $199 per user per month it cost as a Clio Manage add-on at launch in October 2025; ask Clio for the current figure.

AI Lawyer at $19.99 a month is a different class of product. Its own blog calls it "information and documents, not representation", and it drafts from attorney-written templates rather than a case-law corpus. Fair for a form; not a research platform.

Screenshot of [ai-lawyer](https://effecthub.net/ai/ai-lawyer): At $19.99 a month, AI Lawyer drafts from attorney-written templates rather than a case-law corpus: fair for a form, not a research platform.

EffectHub cards: [outlex](https://effecthub.net/ai/outlex), [judicio](https://effecthub.net/ai/judicio), [ai-lawyer](https://effecthub.net/ai/ai-lawyer), [ip-author](https://effecthub.net/ai/ip-author)

## Questions people ask

### Is there free legal AI software?

Genie AI has a free plan with limited AI tokens and exports locked until you upgrade; Outlex, Judicio, Spellbook and IP Author offer trials of seven to fourteen days. No platform built on Westlaw or vLex is free: the corpus is the product.

### Can AI replace a paralegal for contract review?

It can do the first pass: flag clauses that depart from your playbook, propose standard language, summarize what changed. It cannot own the result. The ABA's 2024 opinion makes supervising the tool your duty.

### How much does legal AI software cost?

Self-serve contract tools run from about $59 to €99 per seat per month. Harvey, Legora and Luminance publish no price at all, and Thomson Reuters shows CoCounsel prices only after you enter your firm's details.

### Is it safe to upload client documents to a legal AI tool?

Safe is a property of the contract, not the product. Look for a written no-training statement, zero-retention terms with the model provider, retention you control and a processing region you can name. Harvey, Spellbook, CoCounsel, Legora and Genie AI publish most of these; a tool that publishes none has answered the question.

## Sources

- [Spellbook pricing](https://spellbook.com/pricing)
- [Spellbook security](https://spellbook.com/security)
- [Genie AI pricing](https://www.genieai.co/pricing)
- [Luminance](https://www.luminance.com/)
- [Luminance Negotiate](https://www.luminance.com/platform/product/negotiation)
- [Harvey](https://www.harvey.ai/)
- [Harvey security](https://www.harvey.ai/security)
- [CoCounsel, Thomson Reuters](https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/en/products/cocounsel)
- [CoCounsel Legal plans](https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/en/products/cocounsel-legal/plans)
- [CoCounsel Essentials plans and pricing](https://sales.legalsolutions.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/products/cocounsel-essentials/plans-pricing?segment=lawfirm)
- [Legora](https://legora.com/)
- [Robin AI](https://robinai.com/)
- [AI-Enabled Law Firm Scissero Buys Robin Services Arm, Artificial Lawyer](https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2025/12/09/ai-enabled-law-firm-scissero-buys-robin-services-arm/)
- [Clio Work is now available to solo and smaller law firms as a standalone product, LawNext](https://www.lawnext.com/2026/04/clio-work-clios-ai-workspace-is-now-available-to-solo-and-smaller-law-firms-as-a-standalone-product.html)
- [Clio introduces the legal industry's first intelligent legal work platform, PR Newswire](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/clio-introduces-the-legal-industrys-first-intelligent-legal-work-platform-302586236.html)
- [Judicio](https://judicio.ai)
- [Judicio pricing](https://judicio.ai/pricing)
- [Outlex pricing](https://outlex.ai/pricing)
- [AI Lawyer](https://ailawyer.pro/)
- [AI Lawyer FAQ](https://ailawyer.pro/faq)
- [Best AI Lawyer Apps in 2026, AI Lawyer blog](https://ailawyer.pro/blog/best-ai-lawyer-apps)
- [IP Author pricing](https://ipauthor.com/pricing)
- [Hallucination-Free? Assessing the Reliability of Leading AI Legal Research Tools, arXiv](https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.20362)
- [Mata v. Avianca, Inc., Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mata_v._Avianca,_Inc.)
- [New York Lawyer Who Cited Non-Existent Cases Generated by ChatGPT Now Faces Sanctions Hearing, Hinshaw](https://www.hinshawlaw.com/en/insights/lawyers-for-the-profession-alert/new-york-lawyer-who-cited-non-existent-cases-generated-by-chatgpt-now-faces-sanctions-hearing)
- [ABA Formal Opinion 512: The Paradigm for Generative AI in Legal Practice, UNC Law Library](https://library.law.unc.edu/?p=2569)

---

# Prompt management tools: when a shared prompt library beats a doc, and what the platforms add

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/prompt-management-tools-guide
- Published: 2026-10-08
- Summary: Prompt libraries for ChatGPT and Claude versus developer platforms with versioning, evals and tracing: a checklist, verified prices and how to choose.

Most teams find out they need prompt management the same way: the prompt that works lives in one person's notes, a copy with a small fix lives in Slack, and the production version is a third thing nobody can find. The question is not whether to organize prompts but in which kind of product, and the catalog's [prompt management](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/prompt-management) shortlist mixes two kinds that barely overlap.

What changes the choice most is who runs the prompt. If a person pastes it into ChatGPT or Claude, you need a shared library that lives where they type. If your software sends it to a model API, you need a platform that treats the prompt like code: versioned, tested, traced and priced. Prices are from each vendor's own pricing page, October 2026.

## Two audiences, two products

For non-technical teams, the product is a library inside the chat window. [AIPRM](https://effecthub.net/ai/aiprm) is a browser extension for ChatGPT and Claude; its free plan holds two private prompts and a single favorite, with custom lists and team admin on paid plans. [Prompt Blaze](https://effecthub.net/ai/prompt-blaze) is an extension for Chrome, Firefox, Brave and Edge that runs saved prompts in ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Poe and Grok, fills placeholders such as `{{text}}` from the page, and chains prompts. [PromNest](https://effecthub.net/ai/promnest) is a web app with a shared team library and version history. [StickyPrompts](https://effecthub.net/ai/stickyprompts) and [TypingMind](https://effecthub.net/ai/typingmind) replace the chat window with a workspace that has a built-in prompt library.

For engineering teams, the product is a prompt registry wired into the application. Langfuse's documentation states the goal plainly: decouple prompt updates from code deployment. The prompt lives in the platform, the app fetches it by name, and a product manager can change the wording without a release. [PromptLayer](https://effecthub.net/ai/promptlayer), [Langtail](https://effecthub.net/ai/langtail), [LangWatch](https://effecthub.net/ai/langwatch), [Lunary](https://effecthub.net/ai/lunary), LangSmith, Agenta and Portkey all work this way.

Screenshot of [langtail](https://effecthub.net/ai/langtail): Langtail works as a prompt registry: the prompt lives in the platform, the app fetches it by name, and the wording changes without a release.

## When a shared library beats a doc

A document is the right tool until three things happen. Reuse: more than two people run the same prompt, and the doc drifts from their clipboard copies. Placeholders: the prompt has slots for a product name or pasted text, and filling them by hand breeds errors. Change: someone improves the prompt, and you need to know what changed and be able to go back.

Placeholders need variables, which Prompt Blaze, PromNest, StickyPrompts and [Quartzite](https://effecthub.net/ai/quartzite) all list. Change needs versioning, and here the two audiences split: PromNest records every edit as a version with diffs and rollback, Quartzite keeps a history of prompt iterations and model settings, and most browser extensions do not version.

## What the platforms add

The developer platforms share a feature set; here it is, with one vendor example each.

- **Versioning with history.** LangSmith saves each change as a commit with a hash, diffs it against the previous one, and lets code pin a commit. PromptLayer lists diffs, comments and rollback.
- **Labels or environments.** A label such as `production` points at one version and moves without a code change. LangSmith reserves `staging` and `production` tags for this; Langfuse has deployment labels; PromptLayer has release labels.
- **Variables and templates.** LangSmith templates take `f-string` or `mustache` placeholders; mustache adds conditionals and loops. Portkey's free tier has versioning and variables on three templates.
- **Evaluations.** PromptLayer runs human and AI graders, backtests and regression tests before deployment; Langtail validates with natural-language evaluation, pattern matching or custom code; Agenta checks a change against a test set before it ships.
- **A/B tests.** PromptLayer releases a new version gradually and compares metrics; LangWatch and Lunary both list A/B testing.
- **Tracing and cost.** Langfuse links prompts to traces to compare performance by version; LangWatch traces each agent step with cost and latency over OpenTelemetry; Agenta traces every run with its cost.

If you need only the first three, a gateway's registry such as Portkey's or Helicone's is enough. Evaluations and tracing make it an observability platform; those live in the catalog's [LLM observability category](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/llm-observability).

## Developer platforms compared

Prices are in the vendor's currency and exclude model API costs; "not stated" means the vendor's own pages do not call the product open source.

Chart: Flat monthly fee of the entry paid plan, before usage and model costs, October 2026
- Langtail, Pro: $99/mo
- PromptLayer, Pro: $49/mo
- Portkey, Production: $49/mo
- Langfuse, Core: $29/mo
- Agenta, Pro: $29/mo

| Tool | Pricing model | Entry paid plan | Free tier | Open source | Self-hosting |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Langfuse | Flat plus usage | Core, $29/mo | 50k units/mo, 2 users, 30 days | MIT, except `ee` folders | Free; Enterprise custom |
| LangSmith | Per seat plus traces | Plus, $39/seat/mo | 1 seat, 5k base traces/mo | Not stated | Enterprise only |
| PromptLayer | Flat plus overage | Pro, $49/mo | 5 users, 2.5k requests/mo, 10 prompts | Not stated | Enterprise, single-tenant |
| Langtail | Flat | Pro, $99/mo | 2 prompts, 1,000 logs/mo, 30 days | Not stated | Enterprise |
| LangWatch | Per core seat | Growth, €29/seat/mo | 50k events/mo, 2 users, 14 days | Apache 2.0 | Yes; Enterprise adds SSO |
| Lunary | Per user | Team, $20/user/mo | Not listed | Not stated | Enterprise |
| Agenta | Flat plus runs | Pro, $29/mo | 2 members, 5,000 runs/mo, 1 week | MIT | Free; Enterprise custom |
| Portkey | Flat plus overage | Production, $49/mo | 10k logs/mo, 3 templates, 3 days | Gateway MIT | Yes; Enterprise private cloud |
| Promptfoo | Open source; custom above | Enterprise, custom | Community, free forever | MIT | Yes; On-Premise custom |

Screenshot of [promptlayer](https://effecthub.net/ai/promptlayer): PromptLayer's Pro plan: $49 a month for five users and 2,500 requests.

EffectHub cards: [langtail](https://effecthub.net/ai/langtail), [langwatch](https://effecthub.net/ai/langwatch), [lunary](https://effecthub.net/ai/lunary), [promptlayer](https://effecthub.net/ai/promptlayer)

## What the open-source options give you

Three platforms above are MIT-licensed and divide the job differently. Langfuse is the full platform, observability, evaluation, prompt management and datasets, free to self-host without limits on projects, users or usage; the paid tier adds audit logs, project-level access control and SOC 2 reports. Agenta is the same shape at a smaller scale, with prompts, tools and skills versioned like code and rollback to any revision. Promptfoo is not a registry but a command-line tool that runs evaluations and red-team scans from a config file, for teams that keep prompts in git and want tests in CI.

Self-hosting's honest cost is the database: LangWatch runs on your own ClickHouse, and Langfuse's enterprise self-hosted pricing is additive to a ClickHouse commercial plan.

A last reason to prefer one you can run yourself: vendors disappear. Humanloop, which sold prompt management and evaluation, was sunset on September 8, 2025 after its team joined Anthropic, with customer data deleted the same day. Check the export path before leaving gets expensive.

## Team libraries compared

| Tool | Pricing model | Entry price | Free tier | Team sharing |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| AIPRM | Subscription | Plus; price shown only in-app | 2 private prompts, 1 favorite | Team admin from Elite; business plans by seat |
| Prompt Blaze | One-time | $49 | None; 60-day refund | Not listed; prompts live in the browser |
| PromNest | Monthly | Pro, $5/mo | 100 prompts | Team, $15/mo, 5 seats, 1,500 shared prompts |
| StickyPrompts | Monthly per workspace | Starter, $19/mo, 3 seats | 1 seat, $5 of one-time AI usage | Shared library, owner-approved, on every plan |
| TypingMind | One-time license | Standard, $39 | None | Teams from $83/mo for 5 seats |
| [Magai](https://effecthub.net/ai/magai) | Monthly | Standard, $20/mo | None; 30-day money-back | Users added at $20 each |

The shortlist also lists [PromptBox](https://effecthub.net/ai/prompt-box) and [Promtist](https://effecthub.net/ai/promtist), a prompt generator with version history; neither shows a price on the pages we fetched.

Chart: Entry price of the monthly prompt libraries, October 2026
- PromNest, Pro: $5/mo
- StickyPrompts, Starter, 3 seats: $19/mo
- Magai, Standard: $20/mo

EffectHub cards: [aiprm](https://effecthub.net/ai/aiprm), [promnest](https://effecthub.net/ai/promnest), [prompt-blaze](https://effecthub.net/ai/prompt-blaze), [stickyprompts](https://effecthub.net/ai/stickyprompts), [typingmind](https://effecthub.net/ai/typingmind), [magai](https://effecthub.net/ai/magai), [quartzite](https://effecthub.net/ai/quartzite)

## How to choose

1. **If people run the prompt, buy a library, not a platform.** AIPRM and Prompt Blaze sit inside ChatGPT and Claude; StickyPrompts, TypingMind and Magai replace the window. The catalog's [prompt libraries](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/prompt-tools) category holds both.
2. **If code runs the prompt, start on a free cloud tier** and read the retention line first: 3 days of logs on Portkey's, 1 week of traces on Agenta's, 30 days on Langfuse's. Browse the [prompt management and versioning](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/prompt-management) category.
3. **Count the unit before the price.** LangSmith and LangWatch charge per seat; Langfuse, PromptLayer and Agenta charge a flat fee plus usage. Our guide to [AI tool pricing models](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-tool-pricing-models-explained) explains why the two only compare at your own volume.
4. **Ask how you leave.** A library should export; a platform should let code fetch prompts by name, so migrating is a configuration change, not a rewrite.

## Questions people ask

### What is a prompt management tool?

A prompt management tool keeps a team's or an application's prompts in one place, with versions, variables and access control. For chat users it is a library inside ChatGPT or Claude; for developers, a registry the application fetches prompts from, usually sold with evaluation and tracing.

### Is there a free prompt management tool?

Yes. Langfuse, Agenta and Promptfoo are MIT-licensed and free to self-host; Langfuse, LangSmith, Portkey, Agenta and LangWatch each have a free cloud tier capped on usage, users and retention. For chat users, PromNest's free plan holds 100 prompts and AIPRM's two private ones.

### Do I need prompt versioning?

You need it the first time a change makes the output worse and nobody can say what changed. In code that means commits, labels and rollback; in a team library, a history with diffs, which PromNest and Quartzite offer and most browser extensions do not.

## Sources

- [Langfuse Pricing](https://langfuse.com/pricing)
- [Langfuse Self-Hosted Pricing](https://langfuse.com/pricing-self-host)
- [Langfuse Prompt Management overview](https://langfuse.com/docs/prompt-management/overview)
- [langfuse/langfuse on GitHub](https://github.com/langfuse/langfuse)
- [LangChain Pricing](https://www.langchain.com/pricing)
- [LangSmith prompt engineering concepts](https://docs.langchain.com/langsmith/prompt-engineering-concepts)
- [PromptLayer Pricing](https://www.promptlayer.com/pricing)
- [PromptLayer](https://www.promptlayer.com/)
- [Langtail Pricing](https://langtail.com/pricing)
- [Langtail](https://langtail.com/)
- [LangWatch Pricing](https://langwatch.ai/pricing)
- [LangWatch](https://langwatch.ai/)
- [Lunary Pricing](https://lunary.ai/pricing)
- [Lunary](https://lunary.ai/)
- [Agenta Pricing](https://agenta.ai/pricing)
- [Agenta](https://agenta.ai/)
- [Agenta-AI/agenta on GitHub](https://github.com/Agenta-AI/agenta)
- [Portkey Pricing](https://portkey.ai/pricing)
- [Portkey-AI/gateway on GitHub](https://github.com/Portkey-AI/gateway)
- [Helicone/helicone on GitHub](https://github.com/helicone/helicone)
- [Promptfoo Pricing](https://www.promptfoo.dev/pricing/)
- [promptfoo/promptfoo on GitHub](https://github.com/promptfoo/promptfoo)
- [AIPRM Plans and Pricing](https://www.aiprm.com/tutorials/get-the-basics/about-plans-and-pricing/)
- [AIPRM Pricing](https://www.aiprm.com/pricing/)
- [Prompt Blaze](https://promptblaze.com)
- [PromNest](https://promnest.com)
- [StickyPrompts Pricing](https://stickyprompts.com/pricing)
- [Quartzite](https://quartzite.ai)
- [Promtist](https://promtist.ai)
- [TypingMind Pricing](https://www.typingmind.com/buy)
- [TypingMind Plans and Pricing](https://docs.typingmind.com/getting-started/compare-typingmind-plans)
- [TypingMind Teams Pricing](https://custom.typingmind.com/pricing)
- [Magai Pricing](https://magai.co/pricing/)
- [Humanloop](https://humanloop.com/)
- [Migrating from Humanloop](https://humanloop.com/docs/guides/migrating-from-humanloop)

---

# Zapier pricing in 2026: what each plan costs, how tasks are counted, and when an alternative is cheaper

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/zapier-pricing-explained
- Published: 2026-10-08
- Summary: Zapier plans and task tiers as of October 2026, what counts as a task, the free plan limits, overages, and when Make, n8n or Activepieces is cheaper.

[Zapier](https://effecthub.net/ai/zapier)'s pricing page has four plans, a dropdown of task tiers and a billing toggle, and the number that decides your bill is on none of the cards: it is how many tasks your automations use in a month. Two accounts on the same Professional plan can pay $19.99 and $489 a month. The plan sets the features; the tier sets the price.

This guide reads the page as it stood on October 8, 2026, then prices one three-step automation on Zapier, Make, n8n and Activepieces. The catalog's [workflow automation](https://effecthub.net/ai-for/workflow-automation) page keeps each tool's price, status and verification date on one card.

## What a task is, and what is not one

Zapier's help center defines a task as any successful action that runs in Zapier. Three consequences follow, and each lowers the count.

- **The trigger is free.** Watching for a new form response, email or row never uses a task, and neither does polling.
- **Failed steps are free.** A step that errors, halts, or never runs because a Filter stopped the Zap is not billed.
- **Zapier's own utilities are free.** Filter, Paths, Formatter, Delay, Looping, Digest, Sub-Zap, Storage, Zapier Manager, Tables and Forms steps do not count.

What counts is every successful action in a third-party app, one task each: Zapier's own example, a Zap that uploads a file to Dropbox and posts to Slack, uses two tasks per run. Some steps cost more. A Zapier MCP tool call is two tasks, a lead routed through Lead Router is five, Code by Zapier is one at the standard runtime and more if extended, and AI by Zapier steps depend on the model tier. All of it draws from one shared pool per account.

Screenshot of zapier.com/pricing: Every successful action in another app is a task, and MCP, Code and AI by Zapier steps all draw from one shared pool per account.

## The plans, as of October 2026

Prices are in US dollars from zapier.com/pricing. The page defaults to annual prices behind a "Pay yearly (Save 33%)" toggle.

| Plan | Billed annually | Billed monthly | Tasks at the entry tier | Steps per Zap | Polling | Seats | Premium apps |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Free | $0 | $0 | 100 a month | Two-step only | 15 min | 1 | No |
| Professional | from $19.99/mo | from $29.99/mo | 750 a month | Multi-step | 2 min | 1 | Unlimited |
| Team | from $69/mo | from $103.50/mo | 2,000 a month | Multi-step | 1 min | 25 | Unlimited |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Annual task limit | Multi-step | 1 min | Unlimited | Unlimited |

The 750 and 1,500 tiers exist only on Professional; Team starts at 2,000. A new account gets 14 days of Professional free, no card required.

## Task tiers, and what going over costs

A plan is a feature set; the tier is the volume you prepay. Tiers run from 750 tasks to 2 million a month, custom above that, and the per-task price falls as the tier rises:

| Tasks a month | Professional, annual | Professional, monthly | Team, annual | Team, monthly |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 750 | $19.99 | $29.99 | not offered | not offered |
| 1,500 | $39 | $58.50 | not offered | not offered |
| 2,000 | $49 | $73.50 | $69 | $103.50 |
| 5,000 | $89 | $133.50 | $119 | $178.50 |
| 10,000 | $129 | $193.50 | $169 | $253.50 |

Chart: Zapier Professional by monthly task tier, billed annually, October 8, 2026
- 750 tasks: $19.99
- 1,500 tasks: $39
- 2,000 tasks: $49
- 5,000 tasks: $89
- 10,000 tasks: $129

Annual billing is a prepayment: $19.99 a month on the 750 tier is $239.88 charged once. Unused tasks expire monthly on self-serve plans; only Enterprise has an annual task limit.

At the limit, Zapier emails you and either holds new Zap runs until the next cycle or, with pay-per-task billing on (the default for accounts created after January 2024, paid plans only), keeps them running at a higher per-task rate than subscription tasks. The page does not print that rate; Billing settings do. Pay-per-task stops at three times the plan's limit, so a Professional 750 plan can run at most 2,250 tasks a month. If you are regularly over, price the next tier instead.

## The free plan, honestly

Free gives you 100 tasks a month, unlimited Zaps, Tables and Forms, two-step Zaps only, 15-minute polling, no premium apps and a daily message limit on Copilot, the in-editor assistant. At one task per run, 100 tasks is a hundred form submissions a month.

The two-step limit is the real constraint: a trigger and one action. A second action needs Professional, and that price buys multi-step Zaps, premium apps, webhooks and 2-minute polling at once.

## AI features: Agents and Chatbots are billed separately

AI steps inside Zaps (AI by Zapier, MCP, Code) draw from the task pool at rates that rise with the model tier and code runtime. Zapier Agents are billed in activities, not tasks: an action in a behavior or chat, a web browse, or a lookup in attached knowledge. Agents Free includes 400 activities a month; Agents Pro is $400 billed annually ($33.33 a month) for 1,500. Zapier Chatbots are feature-tiered: 2 chatbots free, 5 on Chatbots Pro at $160 billed annually ($13.33 a month), 20 on Chatbots Advanced at $800 billed annually ($66.67 a month).

## A worked example: three steps, 2,000 runs a month

Take a Zap that fires on a new form response, creates a CRM contact and posts to Slack: a trigger and two app actions, 2,000 runs a month. The trigger is free, so that is 4,000 tasks, which needs Professional and the 5,000 tier: $89 a month billed annually, $133.50 monthly. The same workload on the alternatives, from each vendor's pricing page on the same day:

| Tool | What it counts | This workload uses | Cheapest plan that fits | Price |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Zapier | Successful app actions | 4,000 tasks | Professional, 5,000 tier | $89/mo annual, $133.50 monthly |
| [Make](https://effecthub.net/ai/make) | Module actions, trigger included | 6,000 credits | Core, 10,000 credits | $9/mo annual, $10.59 monthly |
| [n8n](https://effecthub.net/ai/n8n) Cloud | Executions, any number of steps | 2,000 executions | Starter, 2,500 executions | €20/mo billed annually |
| [Activepieces](https://effecthub.net/ai/activepieces) Cloud | One credit per run, any steps | 2,000 credits | Plus, 10,000 credits | $20/mo; annual saves two months |

What the table hides: Make's Free plan (1,000 credits, two active scenarios, a 15-minute minimum interval) does not fit this workload; Core adds unlimited scenarios and a 1-minute interval. n8n's Starter includes unlimited steps and users, and the software self-hosts free as the Community Edition. Activepieces' Free plan has 1,000 credits, half of this workload.

Chart: Cheapest plan for 2,000 three-step runs a month, billed monthly, October 8, 2026
- Zapier Professional, 5,000: $133.50
- Make Core, 10,000 credits: $10.59
- Activepieces Plus: $20

The gap is wide because this Zap has two paid actions per run; add two more and Zapier's count doubles while n8n's and Activepieces' stay put. The more actions per run, the worse per-action pricing looks.

EffectHub cards: [zapier](https://effecthub.net/ai/zapier), [make](https://effecthub.net/ai/make), [n8n](https://effecthub.net/ai/n8n), [activepieces](https://effecthub.net/ai/activepieces), [pipedream](https://effecthub.net/ai/pipedream)

## When to switch, and to what

Stay on Zapier when the workload is small, the builders are not technical, and the app you need is among its 9,000-plus integrations but not elsewhere.

Look at Make when you pay for a tier above 2,000 tasks and your scenarios are short. The units differ, since Make counts the trigger, but $9 for 10,000 credits against $129 for Zapier's 10,000-task tier is a gap no counting rule closes.

Look at n8n when runs are long or a developer is in the loop. Starter is €20 a month billed annually for 2,500 executions, Pro €50 for 10,000, and Business (€667 a month billed annually, 40,000 executions) is self-hosted only.

Screenshot of [n8n](https://effecthub.net/ai/n8n): n8n's Business plan, 40,000 executions for €667 a month billed annually, is self-hosted only.

Look at Activepieces for per-run pricing with a no-code editor and a flat bill: Plus is $20 a month for 10,000 credits with overage at $0.007 a credit, Team $200 for 50,000 credits and 25 users, and the Community Edition self-hosts free.

[Pipedream](https://effecthub.net/ai/pipedream) is a different buyer. Its pricing page now prices Pipedream Connect, for developers embedding integrations in their own app: free for development, then $99 a month billed annually ($150 monthly) for 10,000 usage credits and 100 external users, then $0.012 per credit and $2 per user. At the top end, Workato and Tray publish no prices and sell through a demo; Tray meters in tasks as Zapier does. The catalog's [workflow automation category](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/workflow-automation) lists the wider field, and our guide to [AI tool pricing models](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-tool-pricing-models-explained) explains why per-task and per-execution prices cannot be compared until you count your own steps.

## Questions people ask

### Is Zapier free?

Yes, with limits: 100 tasks a month, unlimited Zaps, two-step Zaps only, 15-minute polling and no premium apps, with no time limit. New accounts also get a 14-day Professional trial with no card required.

### How much does Zapier cost per month?

Professional starts at $19.99 a month billed annually ($239.88 a year) or $29.99 monthly, for 750 tasks; Team at $69 billed annually or $103.50 monthly, for 2,000. Tiers run to 2 million tasks a month; Enterprise is custom.

### What is a task in Zapier?

Any successful action a Zap performs in another app. Triggers, failed steps, Filters, Paths, Formatter, Delay, Tables and Forms do not use tasks; a Zapier MCP tool call uses two, and AI by Zapier steps depend on the model tier.

### Is Make cheaper than Zapier?

For the same volume, usually: Core is $9 a month billed annually ($10.59 monthly) for 10,000 credits, against $129 for Zapier's 10,000-task tier. But Make counts every module action, trigger included, so count your own steps first.

## Sources

- [Plans & Pricing | Zapier](https://zapier.com/pricing)
- [How is task usage measured in Zapier?](https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8496196837261-How-is-task-usage-measured-in-Zapier)
- [How pay-per-task billing works in Zapier](https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/15279018245901-How-pay-per-task-billing-works-in-Zapier)
- [Pricing & Subscription Packages | Make](https://www.make.com/en/pricing)
- [n8n pricing](https://n8n.io/pricing)
- [Activepieces pricing](https://www.activepieces.com/pricing)
- [Pipedream pricing](https://pipedream.com/pricing)
- [Workato pricing](https://www.workato.com/pricing)
- [Tray pricing](https://tray.ai/pricing)

---

# AI meeting assistants: a privacy checklist before a bot joins your call

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-meeting-assistant-privacy-checklist
- Published: 2026-10-03
- Summary: Consent, auto-join, training on transcripts, retention and sharing defaults: what to check before an AI notetaker records your meetings, in one list.

An AI meeting assistant is one of the easiest AI tools to adopt and one of the hardest to undo. It connects to your calendar, joins or records your calls, and turns every conversation into a searchable transcript with a summary on top. That is the whole appeal. It also means a third party now holds a verbatim record of what your team, your clients and your candidates said, often including people who never agreed to the tool.

None of that makes these tools a bad idea. It makes the setup decisions matter more than the feature list. This checklist covers what to settle before the first recording, in the order it tends to go wrong.

## Two ways to take notes, with different trade-offs

Meeting assistants capture audio in one of two ways, and the difference shapes everything below.

|  | Bot that joins the call | Recording on your own device |
| --- | --- | --- |
| How it works | A named participant joins the meeting and records it | An app captures your device's audio, with no extra participant |
| Who notices | Everyone sees the bot in the participant list | Nobody, unless you tell them |
| Consent | Visible, but easy to forget once it becomes routine | Entirely your responsibility |
| Where audio goes | Straight to the vendor's servers | Depends on the app: some process locally, many upload |

A visible bot is not consent on its own, and an invisible recorder is not a loophole. Whichever kind you choose, the obligations sit with the person who switched it on.

Screenshot of [granola](https://effecthub.net/ai/granola): Whichever kind you choose, a bot on the call or a recorder on your own device, the obligations sit with the person who switched it on.

## 1. Consent comes first, and the law varies

Recording rules depend on where the participants are, not just where you are. In the US, most states allow a conversation to be recorded with one party's consent, but several, California among them, require everyone's. In the EU and the UK, a recording or transcript of identifiable people is personal data under GDPR, which means you need a lawful basis and you have to tell people it is happening. Many workplaces add their own policies on top.

The practical rule that keeps you on the right side of nearly all of them: announce the recording at the start of every call, give people a way to object, and do not record when someone does. This is not legal advice, and a sensitive context such as HR, health or legal matters deserves an actual lawyer's view.

## 2. Turn off auto-join, or narrow it

The default that causes the most trouble is the assistant that joins every meeting on your calendar automatically. That includes external calls, interviews, one-to-ones and meetings where you are a guest rather than the host. Check:

- whether auto-join is on by default after you connect your calendar;
- whether it can be limited to meetings you host, or to internal attendees only;
- whether the assistant can join a meeting you have declined or will not attend yourself.

An assistant that records a meeting you were not in is the scenario that produces the angry emails.

Screenshot of [read-ai](https://effecthub.net/ai/read-ai): Check whether auto-join is on by default after you connect your calendar, and limit it to meetings you host.

## 3. Find out whether your transcripts train a model

Read the privacy policy and the data processing terms for the sentence about model training. Look for three answers: whether your recordings and transcripts are used to improve the vendor's models, whether you can opt out, and whether the answer changes between free, team and enterprise plans. Also look for the list of subprocessors. A meeting assistant that summarises with a third-party language model passes your transcript to that provider, and their retention terms matter too.

## 4. Know how long recordings are kept, and what delete means

Ask how long audio, video and transcripts are kept by default, whether you can set a shorter period, and what happens when you press delete: removed immediately, removed after a grace period, or removed from the app but retained in backups for a while. If a client or a candidate asks you to delete their recording, you need an answer you can actually give them.

## 5. Check the sharing defaults

Many assistants email the summary to every participant after the call, or create a share link for the recording. Both are useful and both leak. Before your first sensitive meeting, check:

- who receives summaries automatically, and whether that includes external attendees;
- whether share links are public, company-only or invite-only by default;
- whether action items and highlights can be posted to chat channels on their own.

## 6. Ask for the security report, not the badge

"SOC 2" and "ISO 27001" logos on a landing page are claims. The evidence is the document behind them: a SOC 2 Type II report, which vendors usually share under a non-disclosure agreement, or an ISO/IEC 27001 certificate you can check with the body that issued it. Also check whether you can choose where data is stored, which matters if your contracts require EU hosting. For health information in the US, a vendor that will not sign a Business Associate Agreement is not an option for patient conversations, whatever its marketing says.

## 7. Plan for the exit

Transcripts become an archive quickly, and an archive is the hardest thing to move. Before you depend on one assistant, check that you can export transcripts and summaries in a standard format, and what happens to your recordings if you cancel or the product closes. Our post on [the signs an AI tool is shutting down](https://effecthub.net/blog/signs-an-ai-tool-is-shutting-down) covers what to watch for.

Screenshot of [otter-ai](https://effecthub.net/ai/otter-ai): Transcripts become an archive quickly: check that you can export them in a standard format before you depend on one assistant.

## The short version

Before the first recording:

1. Decide how you will announce recordings, and announce them every time.
2. Limit auto-join to meetings you host.
3. Opt out of model training if the vendor allows it, and note what it says about subprocessors.
4. Set the shortest retention period your work allows.
5. Make summaries and share links internal by default.
6. Get the security report if the meetings involve clients, candidates or health information.

To compare tools, browse the [meeting assistants](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/meeting-assistants), [meeting notes](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/meeting-notes) and [transcription](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/transcription) categories. Every card shows whether the site is up and what the plans cost, every tool page lists the trust checks behind its score, and our [pre-signup checklist](https://effecthub.net/blog/check-an-ai-tool-before-you-sign-up) covers the questions to ask before you hand any AI tool your data.

EffectHub cards: [otter-ai](https://effecthub.net/ai/otter-ai), [fireflies-ai](https://effecthub.net/ai/fireflies-ai), [fathom](https://effecthub.net/ai/fathom), [granola](https://effecthub.net/ai/granola), [read-ai](https://effecthub.net/ai/read-ai)

---

# Free, freemium or free trial: what AI tool pricing labels actually promise

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-tool-pricing-models-explained
- Published: 2026-10-03
- Summary: Free, freemium, free trial, paid, contact sales: what each label commits a vendor to, the price units that hide the real cost, and how to compare plans.

The word next to a price is the most compressed promise on a pricing page. "Freemium" can mean a generous tier you will never outgrow or ten exports and a watermark. "Free trial" can mean a fortnight with every feature or a card on file that converts on day eight. We record one pricing label and one entry price for every tool in the catalog, and deciding which label applies is rarely as obvious as the vendor's own headline suggests.

This guide explains the five labels we use, what each one commits a vendor to, and the detail that changes a price more than the label does: the unit the price is quoted in.

## The five labels, and what each one promises

Every listing carries exactly one of these. They describe how you get in the door, not whether the product is good value.

| Label | What it promises | What to check before relying on it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free | The product is fully usable without paying | How it is funded, rate limits, what happens to your data |
| Freemium | A permanent free tier, with paid upgrades | The cap: credits, minutes, exports, watermarks, licence |
| Free trial | The paid product for a limited time | Card required, trial length, what converts automatically |
| Paid | No free way in | Refund policy, monthly versus annual billing |
| Contact sales | No public price | Seat minimums, contract length, pilot terms |

A label is a starting point for questions, not an answer. Two freemium tools can differ by an order of magnitude in what the free tier lets you do.

## Freemium is a range, not a tier

When a vendor says "free forever", the useful question is: free *to do what*? The caps that matter most, roughly in the order they bite:

- **Volume.** Credits per month, generated minutes, images, messages or tasks. Check whether unused allowance rolls over; it usually does not.
- **Output restrictions.** Watermarks, low resolution, compressed audio or a cap on export length. A free tier that only exports watermarked video is a demo, not a plan.
- **Commercial rights.** Some free tiers allow personal use only. If the output goes into client work or a product, read the licence, not the pricing table.
- **Feature gates.** API access, team seats, integrations and data export are the features most often reserved for paid plans.
- **Model access.** Many assistants keep their newest or largest model behind the paywall, with the free tier on an older or rate-limited one.

If a freemium plan covers your real workload, it is the best deal on the page. If it covers only a test drive, treat it as a free trial without a deadline.

Screenshot of make.com/en/pricing: Free *to do what*? The first cap to bite is usually volume: credits per month, generated minutes, images, messages or tasks.

## The price unit is half the price

Here is a lesson our own data model had to learn. For a while, every price in the catalog was displayed as a monthly figure. That quietly turned a fourteen-cent charge per call-minute and a yearly plan into "monthly subscriptions" side by side, which made them look comparable when they were not.

So we now record what each entry price is *of*. The catalog uses eight units:

| Unit | Example of how it is billed | What to estimate first |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Per month | A flat subscription | Nothing, if the plan fits |
| Per year | An annual plan, often discounted | Whether you will still use it in month ten |
| One-time | A licence you buy once | Upgrade and support costs |
| Per minute | Voice, transcription, video generation | Minutes per month |
| Per image | Image generation and editing | Images per month, including rejects |
| Per credit | A wallet spent across features | What one output really costs in credits |
| Per seat per month | Team and workplace tools | Number of people, now and in a year |
| Per request | APIs and developer tools | Calls per month, at peak |

A per-unit price says nothing until you multiply it by your own volume. Ten cents an image is cheap for a weekly social post and expensive for a product catalogue of four thousand items, including the generations you discard.

Two habits make prices comparable:

1. **Convert everything to your monthly cost at your expected usage.** Estimate volume in the vendor's own unit, multiply, and only then compare totals.
2. **Read annual prices as annual.** "$10 a month, billed yearly" is a $120 commitment today. That can be the right call, but it is a different decision from a monthly plan you can cancel.

Screenshot of n8n.io/pricing: Read annual prices as annual: a monthly figure billed yearly is the whole year's commitment today, a different decision from a monthly plan.

Credit systems deserve extra care. When one action costs a single credit and another costs forty, the headline number of credits tells you almost nothing. Find the cost of the output you actually need, in credits, before comparing plans.

## Four questions before you start a free trial

A trial is the most honest way to test a paid product, provided you know how it ends.

1. **Is a card required?** If so, note the date it converts and set a reminder a day earlier.
2. **What happens at the end?** Some trials downgrade to a free tier, some lock your work and some convert to the paid plan automatically.
3. **Does the trial include what you would pay for?** Trials sometimes exclude the very features that justify the price, such as API access or team workspaces.
4. **Can you take your work with you?** Export anything you made during the trial before it ends, in a format another tool can read.

## "Contact sales" is information too

A missing price is still a signal. It usually means the product is sold to companies rather than individuals, with annual contracts, minimum seat counts and a sales cycle. If you are one person with a small budget, that is often the clearest answer the page will give you.

If you do need such a tool, ask for a paid pilot with a fixed scope rather than committing to a year up front. The vendors that can sell this way usually have a process for it.

## How we record prices in the catalog

Every card shows the cheapest paid plan we could confirm, in US dollars, with its unit, plus the pricing label above. When a vendor publishes no price, the card shows the label alone rather than a guess. Prices are checked against the vendor's own pricing page, and a card carries the date it was last verified. The full method, including what a listing must prove before it is published at all, is on our [how we verify](https://effecthub.net/how-we-verify) page.

Screenshot of effecthub.net/how-we-verify: Prices are checked against the vendor's own pricing page; when a vendor publishes none, the card shows the label alone rather than a guess.

Here are four listings with four different pricing shapes. Their labels and entry prices below come straight from the catalog, so they stay current after this post was written:

EffectHub cards: [aider](https://effecthub.net/ai/aider), [elevenlabs](https://effecthub.net/ai/elevenlabs), [claude-code](https://effecthub.net/ai/claude-code), [synthesia](https://effecthub.net/ai/synthesia)

## Where to start

If you already know which kind of plan you want, the catalog is sorted that way:

- [Free AI tools](https://effecthub.net/free-ai-tools), with no paid tier at all.
- [Freemium AI tools](https://effecthub.net/freemium-ai-tools), with a free tier that stays free.
- [Paid AI tools](https://effecthub.net/paid-ai-tools), when the free options do not cover the job.

Whichever you choose, compare at your own volume and in the vendor's own unit. The label tells you how to get in; the unit tells you what it will cost to stay.

---

# How to check an AI tool before you give it your card or your data

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/check-an-ai-tool-before-you-sign-up
- Published: 2026-10-03
- Summary: Domain age, a named company, a valid certificate, a real price: the eight checks behind our trust score, and how to run each one yourself in ten minutes.

A new AI tool can look finished in an afternoon. A template, a generated logo, a pricing table and a wall of testimonials cost almost nothing to produce, and the result is hard to tell apart from a product a real team has run for years. The difference only shows up later: when a charge cannot be disputed, when a free trial will not cancel, or when the files you uploaded turn out to have no owner anyone can name.

Every listing in our catalog carries a trust score built from eight checks. None of them needs inside access. This guide walks through each one, why it matters, and how to run it yourself before you hand over a card number, a login or a folder of client files.

## The eight checks, and how much each one counts

The score answers one question: what do we actually know about the site you are about to sign up for? It is deliberately separate from popularity. A tool with heavy traffic and a five-star average can still score low here, because traffic and ratings are exactly the things a scam can buy.

| Check | Weight | What it asks |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Site is up | 18% | Does the tool's own address answer, and when did we last look? |
| Domain age | 16% | How long has the domain itself been registered? |
| Named operator | 15% | Can we name the company behind it, and where it is registered? |
| Independently listed | 13% | How many catalogs carry the tool without us? |
| Sourced claims | 13% | Can each price and ownership claim be traced to a page? |
| Valid certificate | 10% | HTTPS, from a certificate that has not expired |
| Published pricing | 8% | Is there a price before you sign up? |
| Visitor reception | 7% | What did people who rated it say? |

A check we could not run steps aside and its weight is shared among the others. A check that came back empty does not: an operator nobody can name is not a gap in the research, it is the finding.

Chart: Weight of each check in the trust score
- Site is up: 18%
- Domain age: 16%
- Named operator: 15%
- Independently listed: 13%
- Sourced claims: 13%
- Valid certificate: 10%
- Published pricing: 8%
- Visitor reception: 7%

## 1. Is the site actually up?

Open the tool in a private browser window, so no logged-in session hides what a stranger sees. Click through to the pricing page, the signup form and the documentation. A product whose marketing page loads but whose app, docs or checkout returns an error is either broken or winding down.

We probe every published listing on a schedule and print the date of the last check on its card. If you only do one thing, look at that date and the status next to it.

## 2. How old is the domain?

This is the single hardest signal to fake. Anyone can buy a domain today; nobody can buy one that was registered eight years ago. Look the domain up in a registration data service such as [ICANN Lookup](https://lookup.icann.org), which queries the registry over RDAP, the protocol that replaced WHOIS. The creation date is near the top.

Screenshot of lookup.icann.org: Domain age is the single hardest signal to fake: anyone can buy a domain today, nobody can buy one registered eight years ago.

A brand-new domain is not proof of a scam. Real products launch every week. But a domain registered last month, selling annual plans with testimonials from "thousands of happy customers", is a mismatch worth one more minute of your time.

## 3. Who runs it?

Scroll to the footer and open the terms of service and the privacy policy. A legitimate operator names its legal entity there, because the contract has to be with someone. Then check that the entity exists in a public company register: Companies House for the UK, the relevant state business search in the US, a national register in the EU, or an aggregator like OpenCorporates.

No company name anywhere, terms copied from another site with someone else's name still in them, or a contact page that is only a form: each of these is the same warning. If something goes wrong, there is nobody to send the complaint to.

## 4. Does anyone else list it?

Search for the tool's name in a few independent directories and review sites. One listing is a listing. Several unrelated catalogs that found the product on their own are a track record that took time to build. We count how many of our source catalogs carry each tool, and a listing needs at least two independent sources, or two claims we can source, before we publish it.

Screenshot of saashub.com: One listing is a listing; several unrelated catalogs that found the product on their own are a track record that took time to build.

## 5. Can the claims be traced?

A card that says "SOC 2 certified", "used by Fortune 500 teams" or "from $9 a month" should point at the page where that is stated. On the vendor's own site, follow the claim: a security page that links a trust portal or an audit report is a claim with something behind it; a badge image with no link is decoration.

## 6. Is the connection sound?

Click the padlock in the address bar and look at the certificate: who issued it and when it expires. Certificates renew automatically on a maintained site, so one that has expired, or is days away from it, on a site that is otherwise online means nobody is minding the infrastructure.

Keep the limit of this check in mind. A valid certificate proves the connection is encrypted to that domain. It says nothing about whether the people at the other end are honest, and free certificates are available to anyone. It is a floor, not a recommendation.

## 7. Is there a price?

A number on the pricing page, before signup, is a basic courtesy and a meaningful signal. "Contact sales" is normal for enterprise products. A pricing page with no prices at all, or a price that only appears after you enter a card for a "free" trial, deserves a closer read. Our guide to [pricing labels](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-tool-pricing-models-explained) covers what each model actually promises, including the four questions to ask before you start a free trial.

Screenshot of make.com/en/pricing: A number on the pricing page, before signup, is a basic courtesy and a meaningful signal.

## 8. What do real users say?

Ratings matter least of the eight, on purpose: they are the easiest signal to manufacture. Read the critical reviews rather than the average, and look for specifics. A complaint about a refund that never came, repeated by unrelated people, is worth more than a hundred five-star lines that could describe any product.

## Three questions the score cannot answer for you

Some risks depend on what you plan to do with the tool, so no catalog can score them for you:

- **What happens to your data?** Find the sentence in the privacy policy about training. Many AI products may use your inputs to improve their models unless you opt out, and the default can differ between free and paid plans.
- **Can you leave?** Check the export options before you upload anything you would need back: files, transcripts, generated assets, settings.
- **How do you cancel?** A subscription you can start in one click should be cancellable in one. If the help pages describe cancellation as "contact support", believe them.

## The ten-minute version

Before you pay for or upload anything important:

1. Open the site in a private window and click through pricing, signup and docs.
2. Look up the domain's registration date.
3. Find the company name in the terms, and confirm it in a public register.
4. Check the certificate's issuer and expiry date.
5. Read the training and retention lines in the privacy policy, and the export and cancellation pages.

Or let the catalog do the first four: every tool page shows its trust score with the findings behind it, worst news first. How each check is scored is set out on our [how we verify](https://effecthub.net/how-we-verify) page, and the [free tools](https://effecthub.net/free-ai-tools) are a good place to try a product before any card is involved.

---

# AI coding assistants: editors, extensions, agents and app builders

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/choosing-an-ai-coding-assistant
- Published: 2026-10-03
- Summary: AI code editors, IDE extensions, terminal agents and app builders solve different problems. How to pick the right shape before comparing brands.

"AI coding assistant" used to mean autocomplete. It now covers at least four different kinds of product: editors rebuilt around a model, extensions for the editor you already use, agents that take a task and work through a repository on their own, and builders that turn a prompt into a running app. They overlap at the edges, and most vendors are adding features from the other three categories, but each is built around a different idea of who is doing the work.

Comparing a terminal agent with an app builder on price or benchmark scores is comparing a drill with a carpenter. Pick the shape first; the field narrows from dozens of tools to a handful, and the comparison that remains is one you can actually make.

The cards in this post are live catalog listings. Pricing, status and trust details come straight from each tool's card, so they stay current after this was written.

## 1. AI-native code editors

The editor itself is designed around the model. Beyond completion, you get chat that can see the whole codebase, edits that span several files at once, and an agent mode that proposes a change, applies it and shows you the diff.

The trade-off is switching editors. That is less painful than it sounds when the editor is built on the same foundation as the one you use now: Cursor, for example, is a fork of VS Code, so most extensions, themes and keybindings carry over.

**Choose this shape if** you spend most of the day in one editor and want AI involved in nearly everything you do there.

EffectHub cards: [cursor](https://effecthub.net/ai/cursor)

## 2. Extensions for the IDE you already use

These add completion, chat and increasingly agent features to an existing editor: VS Code, the JetBrains family, Visual Studio and others. You keep your setup, your team keeps theirs, and adoption is a plugin install rather than a migration.

Screenshot of [jetbrains-ai](https://effecthub.net/ai/jetbrains-ai): An extension for the IDE you already use, here the JetBrains family: adoption is a plugin install rather than a migration.

This is also where the enterprise options tend to be strongest: administrator controls, policy settings, and in some cases deployment inside your own infrastructure for teams that cannot send code to a third party.

**Choose this shape if** your team is standardised on an IDE, or if procurement and data-handling rules decide more than personal preference does.

EffectHub cards: [github-copilot](https://effecthub.net/ai/github-copilot), [tabnine](https://effecthub.net/ai/tabnine), [amazon-q-developer](https://effecthub.net/ai/amazon-q-developer), [jetbrains-ai](https://effecthub.net/ai/jetbrains-ai)

## 3. Agents that work through the repository

Instead of suggesting the next line, an agent takes a task in plain language, such as "add rate limiting to the login endpoint and write tests for it", then plans the change, edits files, runs commands and tests, and hands back a result for review. Some run in your terminal next to your own tools; others work in a sandbox of their own and report back through chat or a pull request.

The skill that matters shifts from writing code to specifying and reviewing it. Small, well-described tasks with good tests come back well; vague, sprawling ones come back as large diffs that take longer to review than to write. Cost usually follows usage rather than seats, so a heavy week costs more than a light one.

**Choose this shape if** you are comfortable reviewing diffs, your project has tests an agent can run, and you have a backlog of well-defined tasks.

Screenshot of [claude-code](https://effecthub.net/ai/claude-code): A repository agent: it takes a task in plain language and hands back a result for review.

EffectHub cards: [claude-code](https://effecthub.net/ai/claude-code), [aider](https://effecthub.net/ai/aider), [devin](https://effecthub.net/ai/devin)

Aider is worth singling out as the open-source option in this group: it runs in the terminal, works with many different models through your own API key, and records its changes as ordinary git commits.

## 4. App builders

You describe an app and get a running one in the browser: interface, data, and often hosting and a database, with the code generated behind the scenes. For prototypes, internal tools and validating an idea, nothing else gets from zero to a clickable product as fast.

The questions to ask are about the second month, not the first hour. Can you export the code and run it elsewhere? What happens when the app outgrows what the builder generates well? Is the hosting part of the deal, and what does it cost at real traffic?

**Choose this shape if** the goal is a working product quickly and the code is a means rather than the point, or if you are not a developer at all.

Screenshot of [lovable](https://effecthub.net/ai/lovable): An app builder: describe the app, get a running one in the browser.

EffectHub cards: [lovable](https://effecthub.net/ai/lovable), [bolt-new](https://effecthub.net/ai/bolt-new), [v0](https://effecthub.net/ai/v0), [replit](https://effecthub.net/ai/replit)

## Which shape fits

| Shape | Best when | Watch out for |
| --- | --- | --- |
| AI-native editor | You live in one editor and want AI everywhere in it | Switching cost for the team; usage caps on premium models |
| IDE extension | Your team is standardised on an IDE | Features vary by editor; check your IDE is fully supported |
| Repository agent | You have tests and well-scoped tasks | Review time on large diffs; usage-based cost |
| App builder | You need a working app fast | Code export, hosting lock-in, complexity ceiling |

Most developers end up with two: an editor or extension for daily work, plus an agent for the tasks they would rather delegate.

## Five questions to ask any of them

1. **Where does my code go?** Read the data-retention policy and check whether your code can be used for training, and whether you can opt out.
2. **Which models, and can I choose?** Some tools lock you to one model family; others let you pick, or bring your own key.
3. **How is usage metered?** Requests, credits, tokens or a flat seat. Then estimate a heavy week, not an average one.
4. **Can I leave?** For editors and extensions this is easy. For app builders, check code export before you build anything you would miss.
5. **Does it fit how my team works?** Supported IDEs, single sign-on, admin controls and whether it can run inside your own network if that is a requirement.

On the third question, our guide to [AI tool pricing models](https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-tool-pricing-models-explained) explains why a price per request and a price per seat cannot be compared until you multiply each by your own volume.

## Explore the category

Every tool here, and many more, is in the catalog's [coding and development category](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools/coding-development), with the same live status, pricing and trust details on each card. Each tool page also lists similar tools, and many link to researched alternatives, which is the fastest way to build a shortlist once you know which shape you are shopping for.

---

# How to tell an AI tool is about to shut down

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/signs-an-ai-tool-is-shutting-down
- Published: 2026-10-03
- Summary: Most AI tools don't announce their end. The signals we watch while re-checking the catalog, and a five-minute check to run before you build on one.

AI tools rarely close with a press release. More often the changelog stops, the pricing page turns into a waitlist, the domain starts redirecting somewhere else, and one day the login page is gone. If your workflow, your client deliverables or your product depend on the tool, you find out last.

We re-check every listing in the catalog on a schedule, so we see this pattern constantly. When we prepared two batches of 120 candidate listings in August 2026, our publish gate held back 26 of them. Fifteen of those turned out to be products that had shut down or been folded into another company in the months since our source lists were compiled. In this market, months is enough.

Chart: Candidate listings from two batches of 120, August 2026
- Held back by our publish gate: 26
- Of those, shut down or folded: 15

This post covers how we decide a tool is gone, the warning signs that come before that, and a short check you can run yourself before committing to any tool.

## What "dead" means in the catalog

A tool's status is one of a handful of states, and the distinctions matter more than they look:

- **Active.** The last check reached the product and got a normal response.
- **Possibly discontinued.** Checks are failing, but not often or consistently enough to call it. The card stays up with a warning and drops out of rankings.
- **Discontinued.** Confirmed gone: the domain is dead or parked, or it now points at a different product. The record keeps the date and the reason instead of being deleted.
- **Acquired.** The product lives on under another company, often under another name.

One state deliberately does *not* count as death: a bot wall. Many healthy sites answer automated checks with a challenge page or a "too many requests" error. That is a blocked request, not a death certificate, and treating it as one would retire perfectly good tools from the catalog every week.

## The warning signs, from loud to quiet

Some of these are definitive and some only raise the odds. Together they tell a story.

### The domain stops answering, or gets parked

A failed DNS lookup, an expired registration or a "this domain is for sale" page is the loudest signal there is. It is also the last one: by the time the domain lapses, the company has usually been gone for a while.

### The site redirects to someone else

When the product's address starts redirecting to a parent company, a new brand or an unrelated product, it has usually been acquired or rebranded. Sometimes the product continues under a new name; often the redirect is the only thing left of it. Either way, your account, data and pricing are now someone else's decision.

### The certificate is about to lapse

Every check we run completes an HTTPS handshake, so we know when a site's certificate expires. Certificates renew automatically on a maintained site. One that is days from expiry, or already expired, on a site that is otherwise online means nobody is minding the infrastructure.

### Signup turns into a waitlist

A pricing page that disappears, plans that can no longer be bought, or a "join the waitlist" button where "start free" used to be are classic signs of a product winding down or pivoting. Existing customers are often the last to be told.

### The public trail goes quiet

No changelog entries, release notes or blog posts in six months or more. A support address that bounces. A status page that stopped updating. None of these alone proves anything, since small teams ship without writing about it, but a product that has gone silent everywhere at once usually has a reason.

### The domain is brand new

This is the opposite end of the same question. A domain registered three weeks ago is not dying, but it has not proven anything either. We read every listing's domain registration date and certificate issuer for exactly this reason: longevity is part of how much trust a listing earns, and a launch date in a press kit is not the same as a domain that has been registered for five years.

Screenshot of lookup.icann.org: A domain registered three weeks ago is not dying, but it has not proven anything either: longevity is part of the trust a listing earns.

## What a shutdown actually costs you

The subscription is the cheap part. The expensive parts are everything you built on top:

- **Your data.** Files, histories, trained voices, brand kits and workspaces that may not be exportable once the shutdown notice arrives.
- **Your integrations.** Automations, API calls and plugins that break the day the service does.
- **Your habits.** Prompts, templates and team workflows that need rebuilding somewhere else, usually in a hurry.

Which is why the best time to check a tool's health is before you depend on it, and the second-best is now.

## A five-minute check before you commit

You do not need special tools for this. Before building anything important on an AI product:

1. **Open the site in a private window.** Does the homepage load cleanly, and can a new user still sign up or buy a plan?
2. **Find the latest changelog or release note.** Anything in the last three months is a good sign; nothing in a year is a question to ask.
3. **Check the export options.** Can you get your work out in a format another tool can read? If not, plan for it now.
4. **Search the news.** The tool's name plus "acquired", "sunset" or "shutting down" takes thirty seconds and occasionally saves months.
5. **Look at the alternatives.** If you had to switch next month, where would you go? Knowing the answer turns a shutdown from a crisis into an errand.

Every card in our catalog shows the tool's status and the date it was last verified, and many link to researched alternatives, which covers steps one and five in a single page view.

Screenshot of effecthub.net/ai/cursor: A card's status and last-verified date, plus researched alternatives, cover steps one and five of the check in a single page view.

## How our alive check works

We probe every published listing on a schedule, more often for tools people actually use: every three days for the most-visited, every week for the middle and every month for the long tail. A few rules keep the check honest:

- **Canaries first.** Each run starts by checking a handful of famously reliable sites. If those fail, the problem is our own network, and the run stops before it can mark a single tool as dead.
- **Repeated failures, not one.** A tool is called discontinued only after failures repeat across separate checks. A bad afternoon on someone's server is not a shutdown.
- **Dead tools stay listed.** A discontinued product keeps its page, labelled, with the date and reason, so anyone searching for it learns what happened instead of finding nothing.

The full method, including what a listing has to prove before it is published at all, is on our [how we verify](https://effecthub.net/how-we-verify) page. Browse the catalog by [category](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools) and the status sits on every card.

---

# Why we take our own screenshot of every AI tool we list

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/why-we-screenshot-every-ai-tool
- Published: 2026-10-03
- Summary: Vendor press images are identical across fifty catalogs. What it took to capture 1,443 AI tools ourselves: consent banners, bot walls and blank pages.

Almost every AI tool directory shows the same picture for the same product: the vendor's social-sharing image, the one that appears when someone pastes the link into a chat. It is designed to look good in a feed, it is often months out of date, and it is identical in every catalog that carries the tool. It tells you what the marketing team wanted you to see.

We wanted something else on our listings: a picture of the product's actual first screen, taken by us, recently. This post explains why, how we take them, and what went wrong along the way.

## Why a screenshot is evidence

A frame of the running product answers questions a press image cannot. Does the site still load? Is it the product the listing describes, or has the domain been repurposed? Is the first thing a visitor sees a sign-up form, a waitlist, a cookie wall or a demo? When the picture is ours and carries a date, it is a small, checkable fact rather than decoration.

Screenshot of [lovable](https://effecthub.net/ai/lovable).

It is also something only a catalog that actually visits every tool can offer. That is why the capture appears on each tool page and in the page's structured data, where search engines and AI assistants read it as a screenshot of the software rather than as marketing.

## How the captures are taken

A headless browser opens each tool's homepage in a desktop-sized window, 1280 by 800 pixels at double pixel density, waits for the page to settle and saves a WebP of the first screen. A typical frame is about 35 KB, so the whole catalog fits in roughly 70 MB. A frame older than 90 days is retaken on the next capture run, and each one is shown with the date it was taken.

Screenshot of [make](https://effecthub.net/ai/make): One frame from the run: a 1280 by 800 window at double density, saved as a WebP.

Three rules shape what ends up in the frame:

- **Consent banners are hidden, not accepted.** Clicking "accept all" would consent, on our behalf, to tracking we have no business agreeing to. Instead the banner is removed from the screenshot: four common consent platforms are recognised directly, and a text-based check catches the home-grown ones.
- **We say who we are.** The browser identifies itself as a real browser plus our crawler name. Pretending to be an ordinary visitor would get past more bot walls; we accept being blocked more often as the price of being honest about who is knocking.
- **Only public addresses.** Every URL is checked before the visit and again after redirects, so a listing can never point the browser at a private network address.

## The first full run

On the first pass over the published catalog, we captured 1,440 of 1,467 tools, or 98.2%. A retry at a gentler pace brought that to 1,443, or 98.4%. The remaining 24 are a fair map of how the web treats automated visitors:

| Why there is no frame | Tools |
| --- | --- |
| Bot protection challenge (Cloudflare, DataDome) | 7 |
| Rate limited, HTTP 429 | 7 |
| Single-page app that rendered a blank screen | 4 |
| Access refused, HTTP 403 | 3 |
| Server errors, HTTP 5xx | 3 |

A listing with no frame simply shows no screenshot section. Nothing is padded with a placeholder or the vendor's image instead.

## Two bugs the run found

Capturing a whole catalog in one go is a good way to find the assumptions that only hold for the first hundred sites.

**Every site with a form looked blocked.** One of the signals we used to recognise bot walls was the presence of Google's reCAPTCHA script. It turned out that reCAPTCHA sits on a large share of perfectly normal pages, on every contact and sign-up form. The signal now counts only when the page is otherwise empty, which is what a real challenge page looks like.

**One slow site held up everything.** Individual steps had timeouts, but a whole capture did not. A single site that never finished rendering kept the last capture slot busy, and six workers sat idle for fifteen minutes waiting on it. Each tool now gets 90 seconds in total, after which it is marked as failed and the run moves on.

Our own speed caused trouble too. Most of the first pass's rate-limit errors were self-inflicted: six captures ran in parallel. Slowing down to two recovered some of them, and the seven sites in the table above still answered with HTTP 429.

## The logos got the same treatment

Logos had a quieter version of the same problem. A sample of 200 listings showed how unreliable the usual shortcut is: asking a favicon service for a 64-pixel icon returned 64 pixels only about two-thirds of the time, with the rest arriving at 48, 32 or even 16 pixels. Around 8% came back as JPEGs with no transparency, and 3.5% of sites had no icon at all.

So logos are now normalised on our side into one consistent square tile, and where possible taken from the site's own high-resolution app icon rather than the favicon service. On the first full pass, 775 of 1,421 logos came from the tools' own sites.

## Why it matters to you

None of this is visible as a feature. What you see is a tool page with a current picture of the product, a logo the same size as every other logo, and a status line saying when the tool was last checked. Behind it is the same principle as the rest of the catalog: facts we gathered ourselves, with a date on them, rather than material copied from the vendor or from other directories.

Screenshot of effecthub.net/ai/cursor: Facts we gathered ourselves, with a date on them, rather than material copied from the vendor or from other directories.

The full method, from the publish gate to the alive check, is on our [how we verify](https://effecthub.net/how-we-verify) page. To see the screenshots in place, open any listing in the [catalog](https://effecthub.net/ai-tools).

---

# Instinct hits a $10B valuation in a week of AI agent rounds

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-agent-funding-late-september-2026
- Published: 2026-09-30
- Summary: Instinct raised $1B at $10B a month after its last round; EliseAI doubled to $4B; Ema and Modulate closed rounds; OpenAI is reportedly raising $30B.

The largest closed round of the week went to a consumer agent that has been open, by invitation only, since August. The rest of the list reads the same way: the money is going to software that finishes a job — books the table, files the ticket, answers the tenant — rather than software that drafts something for a person to finish.

| Company | Raised | Round | Valuation | Named investors | What it does |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Instinct | $1B | Series C | $10B | Sequoia, Benchmark, Coatue | Personal agent that books, buys, cancels and calls |
| EliseAI | $350M | — | $4B | Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer (co-leads) | Automates admin work for housing and healthcare operators |
| Ema | $77M | Series B | — | Creaegis (lead), Accel, Section 32, Prosus | Teams of agents running HR, IT and finance processes |
| Modulate | $25M | — | — | Future Ventures (lead), Hyperplane, Lakestar | Voice intelligence and deepfake detection |

Figures as reported by TechCrunch; a dash means the report did not give one.

Chart: Round size, as reported by TechCrunch
- Instinct: $1,000M
- EliseAI: $350M
- Ema: $77M
- Modulate: $25M

## Instinct: four times the valuation in a month

Instinct's $1 billion Series C values the company at $10 billion, TechCrunch reported on 28 September — four times the $2.5 billion it was valued at in August. The product is a personal agent that runs errands end to end: travel and restaurant bookings, purchases, bills, subscription cancellations, research, groceries. A recent "concierge" feature places phone calls to businesses that do not take bookings online.

Two things the round does not come with. The company has not shared user numbers, and the service is young — it launched in August and is still invite-only. TechCrunch has also reported on how far the first version of its privacy policy reached; the policy has since been updated. An agent that pays your bills needs access to the accounts it pays from, and that trade is worth reading before signing up.

## EliseAI and Ema: agents in the back office

EliseAI raised $350 million at a $4 billion valuation, double its previous one, in a round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer. It automates administrative and operational work for housing and healthcare companies, and passed $200 million in annual recurring revenue this summer, according to TechCrunch.

Ema's $77 million Series B, led by the Bengaluru firm Creaegis, funds the same idea for corporate functions: several agents coordinating one multi-step process in HR, IT or finance, through the applications a company already runs. Ema told TechCrunch it has more than 50 enterprise customers and net dollar retention of about 180%. Both figures are the company's own.

## Modulate: a check on voice agents

Modulate raised $25 million, led by Future Ventures, for a suite of more than 100 voice models: transcription, emotional analysis, synthetic-voice and deepfake detection, AI-music detection, and monitoring of what voice agents say in regulated industries. It is the other half of the agent boom. As more calls are placed by software, someone has to check what the software said.

Screenshot of modulate.ai: Modulate's $25 million, led by Future Ventures, funds more than 100 voice models, from deepfake detection to monitoring what voice agents say.

## OpenAI, reportedly: $30 billion at about $1.4 trillion

Bloomberg reported, and TechCrunch followed on 29 September, that OpenAI is in talks to raise at least $30 billion at a valuation of roughly $1.4 trillion. Its last round closed in March at $852 billion. OpenAI's chief executive has ruled out a public listing this year, and TechCrunch describes the round as a bridge to a listing planned for 2027. The round is not closed, and the figures are reported rather than announced by the company.

## Also this week: Manus 2.0

Not a round, but the launch closest to the catalog. Manus shipped version 2.0 of its agent on 28 September on a new harness it calls Cascade, alongside a Cloud Computer for persistent projects, event-triggered Automations, a desktop Manus Studio and Cue, a standalone app for personal agents that is in early access.

Manus says Cascade used 23.2% fewer tokens, finished tasks in 28.2% less time and cost 32% less to run than its previous system — "in one tested configuration", with no detail on what the tasks were. Treat the three numbers as a direction, not a benchmark.

EffectHub cards: [manus](https://effecthub.net/ai/manus)

## Why a catalog watches funding

Funding says nothing about whether a tool works today, and it is not an input to any score on this site — [the methodology page](https://effecthub.net/how-we-verify) lists every signal that is. What a large round does predict is change: new tiers, new limits, a rebrand, sometimes an acquisition. Those are the things a listing gets re-checked for.

## Sources

- [TechCrunch — Viral AI agent Instinct raises $1B Series C at a $10B valuation](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/28/viral-ai-agent-instinct-raises-1b-series-c-at-a-10b-valuation/)
- [TechCrunch — a16z-backed EliseAI raises $350M, doubles valuation to $4B](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/29/a16z-backed-eliseai-raises-350m-doubles-valuation-to-4b/)
- [TechCrunch — Ema raises $77M as AI starts eating into enterprise software and services](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/23/ema-raises-77m-as-ai-starts-eating-into-enterprise-software-and-services/)
- [TechCrunch — Modulate raises $25M for its voice models and analysis suite](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/28/modulate-raises-25m-for-its-voice-models-and-analysis-suite/)
- [TechCrunch — OpenAI reportedly in talks to raise $30B round at $1.4T valuation](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/29/openai-repotedly-in-talks-to-raise-30b-round-at-1-4t-valuation/)
- [Manus — Introducing Manus 2.0](https://manus.im/blog/introducing-manus-2-0)

---

# AI model prices in September: one cut, one claim, two deadlines

- URL: https://effecthub.net/blog/ai-model-prices-september-2026
- Published: 2026-09-30
- Summary: Anthropic cut Opus 5.5's list price by 20%; Sonnet 5.5 kept its price and promises cheaper tasks. OpenAI's and Google's lower rates come with end dates.

Four prices changed at the top of the model market between late August and the end of September, and they are not the same kind of move. One is a lower list price. One is a promise that the same price buys more work. Two are lower prices with a date on which they stop being lower.

If you pay for an API, all four matter. If you pay for an AI tool — and most tools in the catalog resell one of these models inside a subscription — the two with an end date are the ones to write down, because a tool's own price, limits and default model tend to follow its supplier's.

## The four moves

| Model | Vendor | Per 1M tokens, input / output | What changed | Until |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | Anthropic | $4 / $20 | List price, down from $5 / $25 on Opus 5 | No end date |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Anthropic | $2 / $10 | Same price as Sonnet 5; fewer tokens per task, per Anthropic | No end date |
| GPT-5.6 Sol | OpenAI | $4 / $20 | Promotional, down from $5 / $30 | At least 21 Nov 2026 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | Google | $0.75 / $3.75 | Introductory launch price | 31 Dec 2026, then $1.50 / $7.50 |

Chart: Input price per 1M tokens before and after each move, per Anthropic, OpenAI and Google
- Claude Opus 5: $5
- Claude Opus 5.5: $4
- Claude Sonnet 5 and 5.5: $2
- GPT-5.6 Sol, before: $5
- GPT-5.6 Sol, promotional: $4
- Gemini 3.8 Flash, introductory: $0.75
- Gemini 3.8 Flash, standard: $1.50

## The cut: Claude Opus 5.5

Anthropic released Opus 5.5 on 22 September at $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens, 20% below Opus 5 on both sides. Cache reads fell further, from $0.50 to $0.20 per million tokens. For agent workloads that re-read the same long context on every step, that line matters more than the headline one.

Anthropic also says Opus 5.5 costs 40% less than Opus 5 to run on typical workloads and generates output more than 30% faster. Those are the vendor's own measurements. The list price is the only one of the three a buyer can hold it to.

## The claim: Claude Sonnet 5.5

Six days later Sonnet 5.5 shipped at exactly Sonnet 5's price, $2 / $10. The pitch is efficiency rather than price: Anthropic says the model needs fewer tokens for the same work, so a task costs up to 30% less, and that it generates output more than 30% faster.

"Up to" is doing the work in that sentence. A per-task saving depends on the task, and nothing on an invoice moves unless the token count does. Anthropic says a Haiku 5.5 for high-volume work follows in the coming weeks.

## Deadline one: GPT-5.6 Sol, through at least 21 November

OpenAI cut GPT-5.6 Sol to $4 input and $20 output per million tokens on 21 August — 20% off input and a third off output. It is a promotion: OpenAI's pricing page says the rate is available "at least through November 21, 2026". It covers the API, including Batch and Flex processing, as well as Codex credits and ChatGPT Work. Plus, Pro and Business subscriptions are unchanged.

## Deadline two: Gemini 3.8 Flash doubles on 1 January

Google launched Gemini 3.8 Flash on 2 September at $0.75 / $3.75 per million tokens and labelled the rate introductory. From 1 January 2027 the standard price is $1.50 / $7.50 — double, on both sides. For anything built on Flash because it was cheap, that is the date to watch.

## The deadline that did not arrive

End dates move, and not only in one direction. Sonnet 5 launched in June at $2 / $10 as an introductory price that was due to end on 31 August and rise to $3 / $15 the next day. It did not: Anthropic's pricing page now lists $2 / $10 as the standard price and says the increase will not occur. An end date is a plan, not a promise — which is exactly why it is worth tracking rather than assuming.

Screenshot of platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing: Anthropic's pricing page now lists $2 / $10 as Sonnet's standard price; the increase to $3 / $15 will not occur.

## If you pay for a tool, not an API

A tool that bundles a model into a flat subscription absorbs its supplier's price until it cannot. When an input cost doubles, the change rarely arrives as a price rise. It arrives as a new tier, a tighter usage cap, or a quieter default model.

We [re-check every listing on a schedule](https://effecthub.net/how-we-verify), and a pricing change shows on the listing once it lands. The assistants behind these models are all in the catalog:

EffectHub cards: [claude](https://effecthub.net/ai/claude), [chatgpt](https://effecthub.net/ai/chatgpt), [gemini](https://effecthub.net/ai/gemini)

## Sources

- [Anthropic — Introducing Claude Opus 5.5](https://www.anthropic.com/claude-opus-5-5)
- [Anthropic — Introducing Claude Sonnet 5.5](https://www.anthropic.com/claude-sonnet-5-5)
- [Anthropic — Claude API pricing](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing)
- [OpenAI Developer Community — 20% price reduction for GPT-5.6 Sol](https://community.openai.com/t/20-price-reduction-for-gpt-5-6-sol-api-codex-credits-and-chatgpt-work/1391726)
- [OpenAI — API pricing](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing)
- [Google — Introducing Gemini 3.8 Flash and 3.8 Flash Cyber](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/3-8-flash-and-3-8-flash-cyber/)