Play - Inspire - Innovate:  100s of tools

​Photo Credit: Peter Hellberg

​Photo Credit: Peter Hellberg

Goforth's List of Tech Tools

​Photo Credit: Mitya Ku

​Photo Credit: Mitya Ku

Everything

5-0 Radio
Police scanner, emergency frequencies. Free.

1Checker
Mac app that checks your grammar and spelling. Free.

10-Minute Mail
Throwaway email addresses that expire in 10 minutes. Allows you to sign up for things without using your real email address. 

1Password*
This popular password manager stores them in your Web browser, allowing users to only have one master password to access them all. Makes good use of the cloud to keep it in sync with all your devices. No emergency option. Starts at $36 with plans for individual sand families. 14 day free trial option.

100 Types
A gathering of information on specific typefaces.

123rf
Royalty-free stock photos.

360Verse
360 panoramas.

500px
Photography community. Share photos and ideas on this free app (IOS, Android, Windows).

750 Words
Tracks your progress toward writing 750 words each day. Keeps up with your writing speed, and how often you get distracted. Free.

8mm Vintage Camera
Add retro colors, flickering, and light leaks for a vintage look to your movie. A variety of filters (like 1920, Noir) and a sound projector option. $2.99.

AAA (American Anthropological Association) Style Guide)

AAJA Guide to Covering Asian America

ABBYY FineReader
Turn scans of paper documents, PDF files, and digital photographs into searchable and editable formats. $169.99.

Ableton Live
Specifically geared toward live recordings, so it will especially appeal to performers, recording artists and home musicians. Fun to use and innovative but there’s a steep learning curve. Prices range from $99 to $749. Since it is a lifetime license, there’s no string of endless subscription fees. You can try the full version for 90 days.

About Me
Quickly create an attractive profile page. A digital card/personal description site that is highly searchable and smartly designed. Sort of a social media business card. Video introduction here.

Academic Earth
More than 1,500 video lectures by professors from Harvard, Yale, broken down into single classes on topics like art, architecture, and astronomy. Free.

Academic OneFile
This Cengage database, often available through public libraries, has access to thousands of journals. Not all articles are available in full text. Subscription required.

Academic Search Premier*
This database provides access to the latest research published in thousands of scholarly journals. Subscription required.

Acast (formally Pippa)
A podcasting platform focused on ease of use. Doesn’t include some of the extras of other sites but low learning curve. Monthly fees from $12-50,

Account Killer
Shows how to completely close any social media account, not just disable them.

Acoustica
Audio editing program. Basic version is free and includes MP4 and AAC import and export filters.

ACS (American Chemical Society) Style Guide)

Adobe After Effects
Create animations, charts, etc. Works seamlessly within the Adobe Suite but has a high learning curve and price. Read about making interactive graphics with AfterEffects here.

Adobe Audition*
Once known as Cool Edit Pro, Adobe Audition is perhaps probably the best overall option. Audition is a powerful suite that makes audio editing, splicing, remixing, and restoration easy. Adobe Audition is $21 a month or available as a part of a Creative Cloud membership for $30. The user-friendly interface makes Audition is easy to pick up, but it is difficult to master completely because of the depth of its features. You can use the tool's built-in effects to add flair to your recordings.

Adobe Audio Enhance Tool*
This tool removes background noice and makes audio of voices sound remarkably better. Free with an Adobe Account.

Adobe Connect
Video conferencing.

Adobe Color (formally Adobe Kuler)
Find complementary color palettes using a color wheel.

Adobe Express*
A single template-focused app (replacing Adobe Spark) that combines some of the best features from the Creative Cloud Suite for mobile and web. Quickly create everything from social media posts to promotional posters and videos with the easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface. Drag all sorts of elements into your composition, from text, icons, shapes, free photos and fonts, music and other design elements. Assets from Photoshop and Illustrator can be utilized. Convert videos to GIFs and documents to PDFs. Great for non-professionals with little video editing experience, but not if you’re a pro looking for a full-featured video editor. Free version, three-month trial or $9.99 a month ($99.99 a year) for more templates, photos and fonts. Included in many Creative Cloud subscriptions. More info on plans here.

Adobe Export
Convert PDF files to Word or Excel documents.  $1.99 a month.

Adobe Firefly*
An all-in-one solution for video production, Adobe’s AI-driven multimedia production tool is easy to use. It can do AI video editing, 3D modeling, text-to-image and text-to-video generation, photo editing, AI-enhanced scene transitions, auto-resizing and color correction. Of course, it has a smooth integration with Adobe Creative Cloud. Because it was trained on Adobe Stock images, there are no copyright issues. All the generated images safe for commercial use. The downside: it doesn’t do well with complex queries. Free version provides 25 monthly generative credits or $4.99 a month.

Adobe Indesign
Adobe product that is the industry standard for page layouts and design (posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspapers and books). For professionals and high end projects but for personal or smaller projects, there are other programs with a lower learning curve.

Adobe Lightroom
A photography app with manual controls and the ability to shoot in RAW. The powerful editor includes retouching, color adjustments, perspective adjustments, etc. Links to tutorials here. Starts at $9.99 a month.

Adobe Pagemaker
While not on the level of Adobe InDesign, it is an effective page layout program for the non-professional. Includes predesigned templates that can be modified.

Adobe Portfolio
Although it requires a Creative Cloud subscription to be used, it’s an add-on that is a powerful option: simple and straightforward set-up, slick interface. However, not as many customization and layout options as some of the other site builders. Ideal if you are already in the CC.odified.

Adobe Premiere Pro*
An Adobe professional-level product that has become the industry standard. Easy-to-use interface. Support for 360 VR and other features, but some techniques require additional applications (such as After Effects). $19.99 a month. 

Adobe Premiere Rush
Video editing app using a range of Adobe’s editing software from cropping to creative overlays with animation overlay options. Works with multiple videos. Set the aspect ratio for your video so you can post on any platform. Add thumbnails, schedule postings. Free versions for for Android and iOS. Extra features with paid version.

Adobe Spark*
See Adobe Express.

Adaptive Insights (Now Workday Adaptive Planning)

Aeon Timeline
A desktop timeline creation tool especially for creative writers. $50 per license.

Afterlight 2
Similar to Darkroom, Lots of filters, textures, and unique frames.

After Deadline  (no longer available)
A New York Times blog about writing. 

After the Deadline*
Checks your story for grammar, spelling and style. Works as a plugin for WordPress blogs, an add-on for the Firefox browser, etc.

Agorapulse
Twitter and Facebook AND Instagram management tool. Receive instant email notification every time one of your automated moderation rules applies to a post or comment. Discover your most engaged fans based on interaction with your page. Coordinates contests and promotions. Accounts start at $29 a month.

AhaSlides
Create polls, live charts, Q&A sessions, quizzes and games. Most features are free with no limit on the questions you can ask in a presentation.

Aiko
AI app for transcriptions. Works offline. Free.

AIP (The American Institute of Physics) Style Guide)

Airtable
Manages projects and processes-weddings, movie shoots, companies, etc. Allows you to log entries in spreadsheets which can be turned into sets of data stored in the cloud. Some limitations you won’t find in tools like Trello. There’s a video explanation here.

Al Gahaku
Turn your photos into old-style paintings. Free.

Alchemer (formally SurveyGizzmo)
Supports the creation of forms, including payment forms, quizzes, and surveys. Users can include text, or other media. Can import questions from Word docs. Includes a bulk-edit mode. A free option with unlimited survey questions but otherwise limited. $25 per month for the Explorer plan.

Alice
Designed for journalists doing interviews, it records audio and you get a transcript emailed to you afterward or access the recording transcript online. Take a picture or jot down notes on the phone while it keeps recording. note down without stopping the recording. Two hours free. $3 an hour.

Alight Motion
A motion graphics, video compositing and animation app. YouTube channel here.

Alternion (no longer available)
Aggregation of your social media feeds (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr) as well as email into one scrollable dashboard.  Free.

Alitu
Edit podcasts. Automates things like editing out mistakes and silence, adding and fading music, etc. This also means there is a lack of control over some details of the process. Does not record the audio so your file must be uploaded. Online, no phone app. For those who want to focus on content rather than editing. Free trial then $28 a month.

AMA (American Management Assoc.) Style Guide for Business Writing

AMA (American Medical Association)
Dentistry uses the National Library of Medicine style, or the American Medical Association style.

Amadeus Pro
Multi-track recorder. Can pull audio off of videos. Includes options for cleaning up noisy audio. No mobile option but easy to use. $40.

Amcharts
Creates charts and maps. Aimed at the needs of businesses. Free version or more options with a paid for a one-time fee of $90.

Amnesty International YouTube DataViewer*
Takes a URL for a video and provides background info.

AMS (American Mathematical Society) Style Guide

Animaker
Tool for making infographic videos with animated characters. Easy to use for beginners. Limited free version or accounts starting at $144 a year.

Animated GIFs in Photoshop
A tutorial for creating Animated GIFs in Photoshop.

Animatron
Many video clips to use to create animations along with your own voice. Create animated banner ads, white board videos, and more. Used by some major companies.

Animoto
Combine your phone photos or video clips to Canva templates. Add captions, text slides or even a song from the built-in music library (or upload your own). Like Adobe Spark, works well for people making social media videos fast and not in need of advanced functions. No preview of videos. YouTube Tutorials. Free with a fee for more flexibility and access to some Getty images.

AP v Chicago Stylebooks

APA (American Psychological Association) Style Guide

Apple Voice Control
Pre-installed with macOS, iOS, and iPadOS, so this dictation software is free if you have an Apple device. The New York Times picked it the best dictation software tool for Apple products in Oct. 2023, saying it scored better than options from Google and Microsoft.

APSA (American Political Science Association) Style Guide

Archive Today
Retrieves snapshots of webpages, even when the original page has been taken down. Free.

Archive.org
See “Wayback Machine”

ArgyleSocial (no longer available)
A social media platform for B2B marketing--merge social data with sales and numbers to identify best prospects. A single dashboard to monitor both Facebook and Twitter as well as reports on ROI.

ArtBreeder
Create portraits and landscape images with this AI-based creation tool. Free. An introduction and review here.

Artvee
Tens of thousands of high-resolution, public domain artworks that are downloadable. Search by artist, category, or keyword. Free.

ASA (American Sociological Association) Style Guide

ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) style guide
Civil Engineers often use the style set by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) or the IEEE.

ASG (Assoc of American Geographers’) style guide
A citation style based on the Chicago Manual of Style.

Ashampoo Musić Studio*
Especially useful to edit, mix and organize music files. Great for beginners though it only works on Windows. $30 with no on-going subscription.

Associated Press Stylebook*
The most used reference guide to writing news stories, the AP stylebook is available both in print and online for a small fee.  It can improve general writing as well, especially for its alphabetically organized guide to the use of common and proper nouns.

Audacity*
Audacity is the most popular audio editing option that makes it simple and easy. It supports several different file types, including mp3 and WAV. It can even record live audio for editing and export later. There’s a massive library of plugins. Best of all, it’s free.

Audio Hijack*
Record video conferences on your Mac with this long-time favorite. It can record from designated applications, or simply record any system sound coming through your computer. Total Recorder does the same thing for Windows.

Audioboom
Podcast hosting service with monetization options. Starts at 9.99 a month.

AudioCraft
This open-source generative AI from Meta creates audio and music from text prompts. It has three models: MusicGen for composing music, AudioGen for creating sound effects, and EnCodec, which is an audio compression tool to rival the MP3 format. To avoid copyright issues, it was trained on Meta-owned and licensed music.

AudioEvolution Mobile Station
The closest Android has to offer like Ferrite (which is iOS only). Aimed at musicians more than media creators or journalists. There is an iOS version as well. Tutorials here. $8.99.

AudioNote*
Searching for a section of audio corresponding to a note is easy to find.  The recording time is inserted at the beginning of each line of text. $9.99.

AudioTrimmer
A no frills audio trimming tool that can handle dozens of file formats. Basic clipping and adjusting the volume but not enough tools for the podcaster or musician. Works with limited file types. Can’t edit individlal tracks. Video explanation here. Free.

Authory
Automatically backs up a journalist’s articles regardless as to which  site they’re published on.  Lets readers “subscribe” to journalists, so that they can receive email notifications when one of them publishes something new. Two week free trial. After that the service is $7 a month or $70 a year.

Aurasma
Augmented reality sharing site.

AutoCrit
Scans your writing and highlights flaws such as repetitive words, overuse of adverbs and use of passive voice. $30 a month.

Avid Pro Tools*
The standard for studios, Pro Tools is the professional option. It’s the music industry’s standard that creates studio quality recordings, since it works seamlessly with studio equipment and offers many plug-ins. However, there’s a steep learning curve. Since GarageBand is essentially a stripped-down version of Pro Tools, you can upgrade to it if you already have GarageBand. After a 90-day free trial of Logic Pro, you can buy it for $199.99.

AwesomeGIFs (no longer available)
Animated GIF maker. 

Awesome Screenshot
This Chrome extension is a screen recorder with no extra features that will save up to :30. Free

Axure
For UX design. A wireframing prototyping software tool. No coding needed. Aimed at web and desktop applications.

Balsamiq
Design software for rapid wireframing tool.

Banjo (no longer available)
Search your location for social media trends in real time. 

Bard AI
Google’s conversational AI is now Gemini.

Batchgeo
Map creator that generally easy-to-use and straightforward. Can be embedded into a site. Video explanation here. Free trial then $99 a month.

BeastCam
Video and photography capture app for iPhone users. Adjust focus, exposure, zoom, and white balance within the app. It recognizes external microphones.. More info here. $4.99.

BEEDOCS Timesline 3D
Build family trees, and other timelines. iOS only. Free with certain in-app purchases.

Beautiful.ai
Quickly make beautiful slides with these graphic tools. Slightly different workflow than PowerPoint so it takes a little time getting used to but more fun. Free.

Better PR Writer   (no longer available)
An automated Web tool that scores the writing of your PR press release.  Designed to measure the readability of your press release. There is a less than enthusiastic review here.

BibMe
The free version lets you create citations in MLA, APA, and Chicago formats. It also offers some writing suggestions. Similar to Citation Machine. A paid account for $9.95 a month you get more writing suggestions and a plagiarism checker.

Big Ass Data Broker Opt-Out List
Investigative tech reporter Yael Grauer has created a list of data brokers (such as Spokeo, PeekYou, PeopleSmart, Pipl, etc.) and how to opt out of each one. Free.

BigVU
Besides a teleprompter, this app includes auto-captions, music background, social media integration, some editing tools, and a video landing page. Free with a watermark. Plans starting at $19 a month.

Bing AI
This feature in Microsoft’s search engine (Bing) is powered by OpenAI’s DALL-E for images and ChatGPT for text. Free.

Bitcasa (no longer available)
An American cloud storage company.

Bit.ly
URL shortening and bookmarking service that also offers real time-analytics as well as click tracking. Works with Twitter and Facebook. Free.

Biteable
Animated video maker for social media or making an explainer video. Interface is easy to use and the product looks professional. Prices start at $15 a month.

Bitwarden*
The free version of this open source password manager is one of the best but it bare bones so if you want more and are willing to pay you’ll find better. User experience not as intuitive as other options. $10 a year for more options though storage is limited.

Bobler
App for creating shareable audio packages of up to two minutes in length. Ad text, images and geo-tags. Use the app to search for audio uploads from a specific location. Not embeddable (as is audio uploaded on Soundcloud or Audioboom).  Watch a video explanation here.

Bottle Nose
Track news and trends across social networks.

Botometer
Checks the activity of a Twitter account and gives it a score based on how likely the account is to be a bot. A high score suggests the account is probably automated. Accounts rated above 48% are flagged as potential bots—anything over 60% rates as a “likely” bot. It's a free product out of Indiana University. 

Blogger
Free blog platform with gentle learning curve for beginners Run by Google, so it integrates with Google products well. Lacks many plugins to improve functionality. Limited design options.

BlogTalkRadio
Using phones, you can interview someone and it both streams and records downloadable MP3 of the interview.

Blottr (no longer available)
Residents can use to report on breaking news events in their own neighborhoods.

The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation
Used in the legal profession.

BlueHost
This WordPress website builder has over 300 templates. Drag and drop editing, Paid accounts start at $2.95 a month with a 30 days money back guarantee.

Blur Photo
An easy-to-use iPhone app that will give you a very opaque blur anywhere on your photo. Read how to use it here. Free.

Boomerang (formally Baydin)
Schedule Gmail or Outlook email for a later send date.  Add-on for Firefox and Chrome. Free.

Bot Check (no longer available)
A Chrome extension that allows users to see which accounts in their Twitter timelines are most likely bots.

Box
Digital storage focused on business solutions.

Brainshark
Convert existing PowerPoints into an online video. Fee for some options.

Brand24
Social media analytics site focused on small business. Clean interface. Costly if you exceed quotas and data storage limits. From $49 to $399 a month.

BrandYourself
Manage and take ownership of your search results. Helps to make sure search engines find the real you and put your relevant results at the top.

Brookings
A non-profit think tank, Brookings has a large network of scholars who produce reports and papers on a wide variety of important news topics.

Browse.aI
A browser extension that lets you build “robots” and set them up to complete tasks of your choosing such as tracking product prices, gathering bulk data on competitors, and even academic research. There’s a limited free version and paid accounts starting at $39.

Browsershots
Cross-browser testing tool. Check out how your design looks on different browsers before going live. Free.

BrowserStack
Cross-browser testing tool. Check out how your design looks on different browsers before going live.

Bubbl
Create flow-charts for brainstorming and visualization. Limited options. Video explanation here.

Buffer*
Popular social media scheduling service for posting to multiple sites at one time or later, including: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+. Provides analytics. Free, but $10 (and up) a month gives you unlimited scheduling so you can plan your content well ahead of time.

Bunkr
Collects visual content and organize it into slides. Like Evernote for formatting presentations. Built for speedy, easy assembly though not as flexible as Prezi. The HTML5 presentation works on computers, phones and tablets.  Allows for multiple users to work on the same presentation (like Google Docs). Free unless you want to space to store more than two presentations, though you can download them in PDF or PPT.

Butterick's Practical Typography
Everything font-related including kerning, spacing, formatting, and more.

BuzzFeed Style Guide

BuzzSumo
Dashboard showing hot social media topics from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+.  A few free searches each day or unlimited if you sign up for an account with an email address. Alternative to Uprise.io.

BypassGPT
Claims to be an undetectable AI writer. Free or paid version.

Calculate Duration between Dates
Find out exactly how many much time has passed between two dates (or will pass).

Calibre
Convert e-books from one format to another. Create, edit, and read e-books. Free. 

Camel Camel Camel
Shows the price history of anything on Amazon and alerts you when the price drops.

Camera FV-5
An app to control camera functions including shutter speed, exposure, focus, and white balance. (Android only)

Camera+*
Photo app with lots of filters and strong HDR mode. Sets the standard when it comes to third party iPhone cameras.  $2.99.

CameraT (no longer available)
Photo app. IOS only.

CamFind
A reverse image search tool. Gets quite a few low ratings from users.

Camo
Customize your appearance in video meetings: zoom in or out, crop, hide your background or blur it, change the lighting, and adjust skin tone. Free version or paid plans starting at $39.99 a year.

Camtasia
This TechSmith product offers many controls and works with Windows and macOS. Includes a screen recording option. Easy-to-use though the preset media is limited. There are many YouTube tutorials for users. 30-day trial though an expensive $299 for a lifetime license.

Canva*
The graphic design platform has integrated generative AI into all its products including: image, and text creation, photos, audio, and video editing. Use Canvas drag-and-drop to create social media graphics, headers, slides, flyers, photo collages, posters, infographics, even mind maps for concepts. Share to social media straght from the app or download for posting. Limited editing tools so it’s more for beginners. Free. $12 a month gets you more options.

CapCut*
A strong alternative to iMovie, developed by ByteDance, the company that gave you TikTok (which it integrates with very well). While iMovie is more intuitive, CapCut has plenty of advanced features: sound effects, filters, music, and transitions. Available for both Android and iOS devices. Limited export options. Free.

Carbon Dating
See when a webpage was first created.

Carousel Camera
Record a single video that fits both vertical and horizontal orientations for use on multiple social media platforms. Export in various aspect ratios. Free but some features require a 99 cent purchase.

Carto*
Perhaps the best interactive mapmaker but a high learning curve though more of a time investment than a technical-background requirement. No coding needed to look impressive. Used for location intelligence and and journalism alike. Free with paid plans. Video examples here.

Capzles
Create flexible timelines.

Cargo
A variety of unconventional, eye-catching templates, A variety of fonts and some animation tools. Build a site without paying until you publish. $8.25 a month.

Carma
Analytic insights for PR. Paid.

Caspio
Creates databases, charts.

Cast
All-in-one podcast solution: Record, edit, and publish. Great interfaces. No free account. Only works in Chrome. Starts at $10 per month.

Canva Docs
A Google Docs competitor that includes tools produces text related to a topic. It’s good for breaking writer’s block. Free with more options for paid accounts starting at $128 a year.

Character AI
Chat with artificially constructed simulations of famous TV and movie characters as well as real public figures and celebrities. When tested, some characters were only vaguely like what might be expected. Fun but not necessary accurate. Free.

Chartbeat
Tracks reader engagement and uses dashboards, reporting systems, headline testing, and other optimization tools to show what keeps them engaged. Used by many media sites. Three tier pricing plan.

Chart Maker
Quickly make charts, graphs, etc.

Charted
Build by Medium. Just plug in a CSV file or a link to a Google Spreadsheet and the tool does all the graphing work for you. There's an explanation here.

Chartist.js
Simple responsive charts. Will change the way the data is displayed based on the size screen it's being viewed on.

ChatGPT*
This OpenAI chatbot remembers what you've written or said, so the interaction has a dynamic conversational feel. GPT-4 can use both images and text as inputs, process up to 25K words. It can write and explain code. It doesn’t do sourcing and does not pull from the most recent info. Can browse the internet with Bing. Performed faster than other chatbots in tests. offering more-thorough answers, and answers more-difficult, complex questions There is a limited free version or pay $20 a month for ChatGPT Plus.  

ChatSonic*
Created by WriteSonic built on top of the same technology that powers ChatGPT. Can assume personas such as a philosopher or stand-up comic. Create up to 100 AI-generated images each month for free. Connected to the internet, so it can provide real-time, up-to-date answers, which ChatGPT cannot do. Free.

Chat Step
Private chatrooms.

Check-Plagiarism
Free plagiarism checker.

The Chicago Manual of Style’s official website*

Chinchilla AI
The name of DeepMind’s most advanced AI tool, developed by Alphabet. Not available to the public—yet.

Cinemagram  (no longer available)
App for iPhone users, which creates GIFs that feel more like mini-movies. Free.

Cision
Large public relations software firm that merged with Vocus. Focused on executing and measuring influencer-oriented media campaigns. Large media and blogger database, distributes press releases, manages influencer outreach, and measure social media activities.

Citation Machine
Popular, user-friendly citations generator. Chicago, MLA, APA, and 13 other styles. Free version, $9.95 gives you grammar and plagiarism checkers.

Cite This For Me
Simple layout. Create citations and bibliographies in APA, MLA, and Harvard formats for over 30 types of sources. Premium account for $15 a month gives you a plagiarism checker and Chrome extension.

ClassQuestions
Conduct class polls and sent students questions: multiple choice, etc. Free. Watch a video introduction here.

Classtime
Intended for teachers needing to give quizzes, take polls, or supplement a classroom Q&A. There’s a free version though more options with a plan starting at $8. Video introduction here.

Claude*
This AI is from Anthropic, a startup co-founded by ex-OpenAI execs with funding from Google. It is especially designed to be inoffensive. Like ChatGPT, it can act on text or uploaded files. Useful for summarizing long transcripts, clarifying complex writings, and generating lists of ideas and questions. Can analyze huge documents, up to 75K words at a time. Can perform computing tasks including filling out forms, planning an outing and building a website. In tests, it is more conversational, gives direct answers, sometimes links to sources, and offers better creative writing suggestions than other chatbots but can be slower. Free.

Clear
App that finds and flags your potentially inappropriate past social media posts and tweets.

Clear Slide
Alternative to Power Point.

Cliche Finder
Just what the title suggests. Free.

Clickable Map
Creates a map that opens a link when users click a region. Easy to use. Free.

Clicky
A simple interface for this tool that helps you keep up with activity on your website. Weeds out bots and spam. Free option with more info on the paid version.

Clideo
A limited video tool. $9 a month.

Clipchimp*
Makes simple video with a multi-track timeline. Works within a Chrome browser—which provides some privacy protection. A flexible product for both personal and professional users with many templates, stock audio and video, and sound effects. Not as difficult to learn as professional editing software but there is still a learning curve. It could work as first step toward programs like Adobe Premiere. Extras like picture-in-picture video a plus for educational videos. Free version or $9 a month for more options.

Clip Safari
Free, easy-to-find and use clip art.

Clippings Me
Showcase your work as a journalist, blogger or writer.  Add online and print clippings, link to your social media sites, and customize your portfolio. Free.  Demo. 

Clips*
This Apple app lets you quickly create social videos.
Easily add text, filters, emojis, music, speech-to-text captions, and opaque transition cards to your photos or videos. Intended to be fun, though the menu layout is not entirely intuitive and it does take some time to create. User’s guide here. Free.

CloudConvert
Converts file types. More than 200 formats for audio, video, documents, images, etc. Free usage up to 25 conversions per day.

Cloud Flare
Designed to increase website's performance (through routing and switching--helping computers connect over the Internet) and security (using cloud cyber-security and encrypted HTTPS connections.).  Some services free, while paid plans range from $20 per month to thousands of dollars for clients with intricate websites.

Clue
Memory test for your site.

Code Cademy
Learn coding for free. Formal. Good reviews.

The Code Player
Learn to code through videos demonstrating actual typing of code to create items from scratch.

Cody*
This AI allows users to create (without coding) a chatbot that can answer questions limited to a specific knowledge base to reduce the likelihood of incorrect information. Free up to 100 interactions. Paid accounts start at $29 a month.

Cogi*
Mobile app to record meetings, interviews. Records and sincs audio (from news conferences, for instance) with typing so you can find quotes easier. Allows for tags and annotations. Always recording so picks up the 15 secs before you turn on recording.  Enables recording calls, highlighting key parts of the conversation, and transcription.  Free. $5 for more features.

Colaboratory
An online code editor that exists right within Google Drive. Basically, its Google Docs for code. Write and execute code right in the browser. Only handles Python at the moment. Share files and have multiple people people edit them. Free.

Collect by WeTransfer
Save and organize diverse media in one place. Similar to Pinterest (with less functionality) users place photos, playlists, or links onto sharable boards (that work like folders). Comes as an app or Chrome extension. The free plan provides 5GB.

Colibri
A transcription tool that works in real time. Hit a button to mark a spot. Works in Zoom. Free version with paid accounts starting at $16.

Color Me
Visualize hex colors.

Consensus
Type questions into a search bar and the AI provides a consensus from decades of scientific research.

Commarts
"Inspiration for graphic designers, art directors, design firms, corporate design departments, advertising agencies, interactive designers, illustrators and photographers—everyone involved in visual communication."

Common Knowledge
A Google tool that quickly makes interactive charts from data which are embeddable. Free.

Comparea
See a visual comparison of two states, cities, countries or continents. Move them around.  It will also tell how many times bigger a geographic area is to another.

Compressor*
Compress image files less than 10 MB so they will download quicker. A slider allows you to compare the look of the original and the optimized version side by side. Free.

The Conscious Style Guide
Resources, articles, and newsletters on topics like age, gender, race, appearance, and religion.

Consensus
Users type questions into a search bar and the AI provides a consensus from decades of scientific research. Free.

Contact Out
A plugin that surfaces email addresses and phone numbers for LinkedIn users. Free plan allows 100 search credits. Paid plans starting from $39 a month.

Content Gems
Monitor blogs, social media, etc Filter content based on keywords. Dends you links. Limited free account or paid accounts (starting at $10) based on the number of researched keywords.

Contently
Tools for creating and showcasing storytelling content of writers. Connects publishers (both news organizations and PR folks at businesses with journalists, then takes a 15% transition fee. Designed to help freelancers find work. Takes care of the paperwork aspect (invoicing and payments) for businesses hiring freelancers. Free.

Contxts
A tech alternative to business cards.

CoPilot
Released by Microsoft-owned GitHub built on OpenAI technology that can translate basic human instructions into functional computer code. Intended for developers, better at tasks than other models.

Copy.ai
AI text-generation tool for copy writing. Lots of features. Some instability, slowness, lack of sourcing and possible plagiarism issues. 2,000 words: Free after that paid accounts start at $49 a month.

CopyLeaks
AI detection tool.Available as a Chrome extension. Free with paid version for more options.

Copyscape
Check for online plagiarism.

Corpus of Contemporary American English
This BYU site includes transcripts of spoken language from radio and television programs and comprises academic writing from a range of disciplines allowing comparison of styles--spoken language vs.written academic language.

Coschedule Headline Analyzer
Analyze your headlines for SEO and share value. Free. 

Coursera
Learn to code through classes from accredited universities or develop yourself professionally. The courses are made up of lessons with multiple video lectures, along with readings, practice exercises, homework quizzes, and assignments. Most are free but have a cost if you want a certification. Limited help options.

Cover it Live* (no longer available)
Live blogging. Free.

Craft.do
Document-creation tool with AI features. Summarizes text, can create an outline, and make suggestions as to what to write next. There’s a free plan with limitations or subscriptions starting at $6 a month.

Crazy Egg
A leading visualization software that gives website administrators popular heatmap reports showing how visitors are using pages. Designed to improve UX and ultimately increase ROI and conversion rates through A/B testing. Open to integration with other platforms. Thirty day free trial then plans starting at $24 a month.

CreateAGraph
Kid friendly. Very simple. 

CreateHERStock
Stock images that showcase racial diversity.

Creative Cloud Express
See Adobe Express

Creative Commons
Royalty free stock photos.

Crimson Hexagon
In-depth sentiment metrics for planning social strategies. No mobile app. Paid.

Cross Browser Testing
Cross-browser testing tool. Check out how your design looks on different browsers before going live.

Crowdfire
(Formerly JustUnfollow) This app shows you who has stopped following you on Twitter, who are the inactive users, nearby followers, people who don't follow back. Works with Instagram as well.

Crowd Booster*
Pulls together your Facebook and Twitter info (time most people look at your images or video uploads, your total reach, engagement, etc.). Helpful for devising a social media strategy. At a glance analytics recommendations on timing as well as audience insights. Starting at $9 a month.

Crowd Map (no longer available)
Crowdsourced data, mapped.

Crowdtangle*
A "social listening device" that locates well-performing Facebook posts in a given area of content and shows them in a dashboard. If applicable to a client then users are able to either re-post the trending post or take that concept and make it useful to the specific audience. Called the secret behind UpWorthy’s success.  Formally a monthly subscription cost but purchased by Facebook in 2016 and now free though there is a vetting process.

Crystal
Analyzes data from social media and such to put people into 64 personality types in order to help users craft email that empathizes with the preferred approach of recipients. Starts at $19 a month for individuals. $99 for companies.

CSE (Council of Scientific Editors) Stylebook 
Used by those researching. May also be called the CBE style (Council of Biology Editors).

CuePrompter
Turns your browser into a television teleprompter.

Cute Cut*
Easy-to-use and powerful video editor. Add text, voiceover, music and logo. Their YouTube tutorials here. Free.

D3.js
A Javascript library to create data visualizations. Requires some developer skills to utilize since it requires coding. Very versatile. Examples. Free.

Daily Infographic
A new data visualization sample each day. Great way to get ideas.

Daily Page
Start a daily writing routine with daily writing prompts. Pricing from $3.99 a month. A new data visualization sample each day. Great way to get ideas.

DALL-E*
OpenAI’s tool that turns written text into images using AI. Named after painter Salvador Dali and Disney Pixar’s WALL-E. Understands long, complex queries. A limited number of images are free. $20 per month for ChatGPT Plus.

Darkroom*
iPhone app with filters (or create your own filters), a curves tool for RGB channels, and an infinite history remembers all your edits so undo is easy. Edit photos without having to import them. Link your account to your Instagram account for easy upload. Free. $3 upgrade for curves.

Dart Center Style Guide for Trauma-Informed Journalism

Dashline
A solid password manager with VPN service. Strong interface. $60 a year.

Data Journalism
Examples, steps and video of how to create data visualizations.

Data Camp
Practice coding. See progress as you go. Free sign up.

Data.gov
US government data sets.

Dataminr
Tool for catching what's news on Twitter before it trends.

DataVault
Password manager to protect your data. Can sync through Dropbox. $10 for any operating system.

Data Wrapper*
Tool for journalists looking to create fast, easily-to-understand visualizations but useful for anyone. Easy to embed. Free version allows creation of 10k charts.

Data Remixed
Blog about data visualizations by Ben Jones, an engineer in LA.

Data to Viz
A site that helps you find the right chart for your data.

Data Visual
Charts and graphs. Templates or start from scratch.  A short video introduction here.

Data Wrangler
A tool created by Stanford University's Visualization Group for cleaning and rearranging data for other tools to use (such as a spreadsheet).  Does not actually visualizes your data, but preps it for use. This includes extracting, filling, dropping, merging and wrapping data points among other things. There's a learning curve, but it's free.

Date to Date Calculator
Find out exactly how many much time has passed between two dates (or will pass).

DaVinci Resolve
Video editing software with remote collaboration tools and cloud-based workflows. Features like a depth map effect, color corrector, and more. Free but the paid version, offers more effects and templates. One-time fee of $305.

Day One
Great journaling app for IOS and Mac. Clean look, syncing, photo imports, passcode, reminders, public publish option. Very organized and easy to navigate. $34.99 annually.

Death to Stock Photo
10 free, hi-resolution photos each month (for your email address). Access to entire library of hi-resolution photos is $10 a month.

DeBot
Like the Botometer, this s a bot detection system for Twitter accounts. The information is archived so it can be searched. It's free tool from the University of New Mexico.

Deepgram
Transcrption service uses artificial intelligence to transcribe large audio files and allow users to search them using keywords. Free.

delivr
Creates QR codes. Privacy focused.

DesignLab (no longer available)
Basic video editing tool for social media posts with many templates. Three-day free trial then $9.49 a month.

Design Thinking
Blog by Tim Brown about Design issues. Brown is author of Change by Design. 

DesignEvo 
Create logos. Easy to use but the free version allows only limited sizes and only paid accounts get trademark options. The paid accounts are a bit expensive.  

DeviantArt
A wide range of different Creative Commons. A bit difficult to navigate. Basically Unsplash for graphical artists. Free.

Dextro (no longer available)
App to search for particular feeds on Periscope (a video streaming service).

D-ID Creative Reality Studio
This AI brings chatbots to life enabling real-time conversation with digital humans. Users can upload a single image and text to generate video. Free trial then paid accounts, offering more humanlike expressions, starting at $6 a month. Video explanation here.

Dipity
Embeddable timeline generator w/photos and text. Sample.

Directory of Open Access Journals
A growing database that covers only journals that are free and open to the public.

Directory of Open Access Repositories
This free site is operated by the University of Nottingham in the UK. It aggregates databases from around the world, locating open access research across disciplines.

Disability Language Style Guide
Created by The National Center for Disability and Journalism, includes page of resources for a writers and editors.

Disco Videos
A way to add cool effects like music and filters to your videos. $3.99.

Diversity Style Guide
Resource to help media writers nagivate through a "multicultural world with accuracy, authority and sensitivity" from San Francisco State University’s journalism department.

DivShare
Post your audio here link to it from your blog or embed it into your blog.

Down for everyone (or just me)?
Find out if Google, Twitter, and other services are down for just you or other people as well.

Domestika
Mostly high quality online courses covering creative topics such as drawing, fine art, graphic design, arts and crafts, photography, etc. and some courses in business and design. No deadlines, learn at your own pace. Each course lasts from a couple of hours to 10+ hours and is divided into short lessons Certifications available. Most courses have a low fee ($10-$40) but some are free. Some courses are only available in Spanish with English subtitles.

Domo
Business tool for creating visualizations. Fully mobile. Good collaboration capabilities. High learning curve. Not for beginners. Starting at $83 a month. Free trial available.

Doodle
Create polls; can’t be embedded, but can be linked.

DoubleTake
Built by the same folks who created Filmic Pro, this app lets you shoot video using two iPhones at the same time. An option lets you easily create a single video using multiple lenses with a split-screen effect. Pick the frame rate, resolution, focus, and exposure. $3.99

Dragon Anywhere
Voice to text app for iOS. Have to finish dictation before seeing the text. Free. 

Dragon Professional
Speech-recognition tool, best quality for people with PCs. A learning curve but robust tools. Expensive at $700.

DreamsTime
Royalty-free stock photos. Some for low prices. Requires registration.

Dropbox*
Online file storage for backups. Syncs folders automatically on several devices. In 2023, it added an AI-powered summary of documents or videos and a search to locate relevant information by asking a question. 2 GB free. 100 GB for $10 a month.

DropVox
Records audio and sends it directly to your Dropbox account. $1.99.

DSCO
Pronounced ‘disco’, this app is for GIF creation. Animations up to 2.5 seconds long. Free. Video example.

Duda
Customizable website builder with nice analytics, multilanguage support and e-commerce. A little more expensive than the more well-known options but offers more flexibility.

Dundas
Interactive visualizations. Lots of options. No 3-D charts or predictive analysis. Free trial but cost is on a case by case basis

Easely.ly*
Create infographics. Video sample here.

Easybib
Auto-formatting of citations for research papers but MLA is the only available format from the free version. $4.99 a month for the paid version to get more styles, in-text citations, etc.

Ecamm
App that records Skype and Facetime. It lets you convert your calls into MP3 files for podcasting or easily move the video to YouTube and Vimeo. Split the audio tracks after a call for easy editing. $39.95.

EchoWave
Create an audiogram (audio with images) for social media to promote a podcast. Short video intro here. Free with more options for paid accounts starting at $18 a month.

EditFlow
Content management system for WordPress providing a snapshot of content with a calendar feature. Advanced draft and pending review feature. User groups to keep writing teams organized. Useful for multi-author websites.  

EditTeach
Resources for editing professors, students and working professionals to help strengthen the craft of editing and support the work of editors.

Editorial
Powerful writing program for iPad and iPhone. High learning curves but valuable once you find workflows that suit your purposes. Beautiful inline preview. $4.99.

Editorially  
A stripped-down a text editor. Allows for collaborators. Tracks changes. Not a publishing platform.

Elementor*
This popular WordPress plugin offers many templates and widgets for free. See how it looks as you go. Though it doesn’t require coding skills, it could be a little confusing for beginners. Does have a drop and drag setup. Paid accounts starting at $49 a year.

Email Spam Test
Check to ensure that your email isn't going to be flagged as spam before you send it.

ePhoto Clamp*
ePhoto Portable Swivel Flash Clamp with Hot Shoe Mount Flash Adapter. Holds your phone to many different surfaces. $15. 

Evernote*
Access notes on any computer, tablet or phone. Search function lets you find a note in either text or audio format. Free for iOS and Android. For more options there is Evernote Plus $2.99 a month, while Premium is $5.80 per month.

Everviz (formerly Highcharts Cloud)
One of the easiest to use data visualizations tools. Not much customization. Free.

EveryPost
Post to Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr, all at one time. Free.

Every Stock Photo
More than 21 million free stock photos (under the Creative Commons license).

ExactMetrics*
A Google Analytics plugin for WordPress with advanced tracking options. No coding skills needed. There’s a free version but a pro plan is needed to get access to the advanced features starting at $99.

Expresso*
An app that analyzes your writing, breaking down everything from which words you are using frequently to the number of times parts of speech come up in your writing. See what percentage of sentences are extra-long and which words are filler and which verbs are weak. Free.

Exif Data
Extract Exif (Exchangeable Image File) data from photos. EXIF is a standard for embedding data within an image or audio file. This may include date, time, camera settings, etc.

eWallet
Password manager to protect your data. Nice look, customizable. The Windows version is $20, others $10.

Facetune
Airbrushing for the face. Digital makeup that works on IOS and Android. 40m daily active users. Monthly subscription required for special tools (such as simulated studio lighting). $4.

Fact Check
A political fact checking site run by The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

Fact Checker
A political fact checking site run by The Washington Post.

Fade In
Script-writing software with similar features to Final Draft without the price tag. Not as many of the extras that come with Final Draft but only $50.  Windows, Mac, Linux.

Fake Name Generator
Free new identity.

Fargo  (no longer available)
An outlining application that runs in your browser but stores your files in Dropbox.

Feedient
Aggregation of social media feeds (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr) into one scrollable dashboard.  Free.

Feedly
Web-based and largest RSS feed. Subscribe to get new posts from a site. Uses upvotes and downvotes to learn which new articles is most relevant to the user. Useful to academic researchers looking to stay on top of new papers but also for those who want to monitor news, RSS feeds, Reddit, Twitter and podcasts. Free, but a paid account offers more features such as the ability to follow more than 100 sources and hide adverts. $6 or more a month. Compare to Inoreader.

Ferrite
Record audio and edit it including trim, add fades, import audio clips from other apps, etc. Can add cover art, show notes, and lyrics, allows users to turn audio into a podcast and file it to iCloud. The pro version gives you access to eight-channel recording, an 8-band EQ, noise gating and dynamic range compression, plus the ability to create templates, automatic ducking, silence removal and an “auto-leveling” tool. iOS only. Tutorials on YouTube here.. Free or pro version $29.99.

Fetching.io (no longer available)
Captures every site you visit automatically, so you can more easily find websites and articles you need now but didn't know at the time you would need them.

FillAnyPDF
Upload PDFs, PNGs, JPGs, or GIFs to the site (no software required) and then email a link to the file. The receiver can open the form and fill out the required information without having to download the file, then print, scan and fax it back to you. The site promises security for uploaded files. Free trial. Costs start at $12 a year.

Filmic pro*
Powerful app for videography and photography. Lots of bells and whistles such as in-app stabilization. Quickly switch between color profiles, resolutions, etc. Possibly too much for the average person but great for someone serious about shooting video on a phone. Video explanation here. $14.99.

Filmmaker Pro - Video Editor*
Video editing program for filmmakers. 19 transition options and 30 filters. Many fonts and animation stickers. Sound effects and a robust number of tools. Free.

FilterStorm*
Advanced mobile photo editing that can be sent by email, FTP, Dropbox, SFTP or export into social media. $3.99.

Final Cut Pro
Apple’s desktop video editing program for Macs. A big step up from iMovie (which is similar) but not the industry standard for professionals that Adobe Premiere has become but still used by many pros. Not compatible with Windows. $300.

Final Draft*
Industry standard for writing screenplays on both Windows and Mac. Notes section for keeping track of characters, special scene view to get an overview, index card system for summaries, etc. $170.

Find Exif (no longer available)
Extract Exif (Exchangeable Image File) data from photos, which can include date, time, camera settings, etc.

FindMyShadow
This free site helps you to "calculate the position and height of the sun anywhere in the world on any date and plot the shadow cast by the sun at different times of the day." A helpful tool for photo verification.

Finteza
A cloud-based analytics solution that spots bots and potential scammers and hackers. Does not do data sampling, so the results are more accurate. Thirty-day free trial then paid plans.

FL Studio
Digital audio workstation formally known as FruityLoops. Create multi-track music projects. Can be used for vocal projects as well. Bit of a learning curve. Starting at $99.

Flair
Build audio and video with text effects Flash-based presentations without knowing coding for Flash. Not free.

FlexClip
Simple but well-designed presentation-style social media video editor. Good for making quickly produced marketing. A lot like PowerPoint or Movie Maker in design. Stock audio and video with some editing options (like splitting video into two clips) not found in similar apps though videos are limited to 5 minutes. Free. More options with a $9.99 plan.

Flickr
Easy to navigate, though not the best app for shooting and editing photos. But the free terabyte of storage makes it a good place to dump everything. The Creative Commons licensing section has free stock photos. Owned by SmugMug.

FlipAnim
Make animated videos easily. Nice interface.

Flipboard*
RSS feed for phone (no desktop alternative). Subscribe to the posts of a site. Attractive display that looks like a magazine. Lots of content options. Free.

Flipsnack (formally SlideSnack)
Record your PDFs as an audio-visual slidecast. Basic features are free, more options for purchase.

Flip Text
Flip text upside-down.  Use it on Facebook or Twitter. Free.

Florish*
A data visualization tool that makes it easy to create both standard charts and a mobile-friendly animated charts. Some customization available. Examples.

FlowGPT
Community members can share and comment on the prompts in this dataset. subscriptions starting at $5 a month.

Flowing Data
Blog about how statisticians, designers, data scientists, and others use analysis, visualization, and exploration to understand data and ourselves.

FocusWriter
App for distraction-free writing. A blank canvas to write on--and nothing else. Includes timers, stats, alarms, goals setting, etc. Free.

FollowerWonk
Find people to follow on Twitter through search, shows you when your Twitter follower are online so you can plan accordingly. Analysis by region. Reports can take a while to build. Free but more metrics with a paid account.

Font Feed (no longer available)
A "daily dispatch of recommended fonts, typography techniques, and inspirational examples of digital type at work in the real world."

Font dragr (no longer available)
Browser based tool that checks for web-friendly fonts. Just drag and drop.

FontJoy
This site will generates font pairings for your design project whether you are aiming to create balance, tension or set off content. Free.

FontPair
Helps you pick font combinations for your resume, website, poster, etc. so your creation stands out from the typical Times New Roman on other material.

Font Shop
This link takes you to the design section of the website where you can "improve your design skills with typography tips and tutorials. FontShop Education docs are formatted for easy downloading and printing, perfect for the classroom or studio." There's also a healthy glossary section, among other things.

Foto Forensics
Helps you verify the authenticity of digital images.

Foursquare
Geolocation search.

Folier.me
Insights into any public Twitter profile. Free.

FreeCodeCamp*
Founded by a schoolteacher turned programmer. Free, user-friendly hands-on online courses for beginners. Most courses run 300 hours. Positive reviews.

Free Digital Photos
Free stock photos but you must give credit to the image creator. 

Free Images
Free stock photos with details on restrictions.

Free Pix
Lots of nice free stock photos of travel, people, etc. Other photos fall under the Creative Commons.

Free Range
Quality free stock photos. Must register.

Free Stock Photos
More than 14,000 free stock photos and clipart. A variety of licenses from commercial to public domain.

Free Twitter Designer (no longer available)
Easy-to-use image editor to help you create a professional-looking theme on your Twitter account.

FreezePage
Save a copy of what a web address looked like at a specific date and time.

Freshbooks
A cloud-based accounting app that helps you manage clients and projects, send invoices, and track time, expenses, and estimates right from your iPhone. Best for running a business in which you have specific projects for different clients that involve billable hours. The first three clients are free; then $20 for up to 25 clients or $30 for unlimited clients per month.

Friend or Follow (no longer available)
Find out who's not following you back on Instagram, Twitter, or Tumblr.

Full Text Reports
A site that aggregates research-related studies and reports from across the universe of information. The materials are hand-picked.

FusionCharts
Chart making Javascript library that requires developer skills. Lots of customization. Starts at $199 a year.

FX
A browser-based effect generator for flash.

GarageBand
Intended for music editing. Only 5 minutes of audio can be edited.

Gender Guesser
Cut and paste some of your writing into the the Gender Guesser and it will tell you whether you are male or female based on the writing tendencies of each.

Geograph
More than 3 million free stock photos for travel and geography under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license.

Getty Images
The most prestigious and the highest quality stock photography agency, Getty also offers video, music, and multimedia elements. Some of its images can be expensive to use and known to be protective of its property.

Gemini* (formally Bard)
Google claims this large language model is better at math, coding and other tasks than many other programs. Besides text, it can take commands that come as videos, images, voice and code. It has access to more timely and updated information than ChatGPT. Gemini Advanced costs $20 a month after the trial period ends.

GeoFeedia* 
Search social media in real-time by location. Find photos, tweets, and other user generated content. For a cost, GeoFeedia will set up a geofence for a particular place.  Draw a circle around any area on a map to see all the content being posted by users within that area in real-time. Around a store so management can see what people are saying while browsing or a news organization can build a fence around a place where news is happening. $1,450 a month for up to five users.

Gephi
Social networking analysis tool to create interactive visualization. Impressive looking but has a steep learning curve. For anything complex you might need some specialist help. Free.

Ghost (formerly Roon)
Open source, free blogging platform. Simple to use, custom domains. Focused on making beautiful content rather than options like plug-ins and SEO tools.

Giant Squid Audio Lab Omnidirectional Mic
Great quality sound but requires an adapter for it to work with a phone. $47.

Gickr*
Create animated GIFs. Free but a small watermark is placed in the corner.

GifBoom  (no longer available)
GIF-making app for iPhone and Android that allows you to sidestep clunky web-based GIF creators. Free.

GifHound
GIFs about news.

Gif Me
App with control options such as speed, filters, adding text, stickers, etc.

GifSoup
Find animated GIFs.

Gifbin
Find and create animated GIFs.

GIMP
An alternative to Photoshop. GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. Lots of features including cropping tools and the ability to adjust brightness and contrast. However, no RAW photo editing. A low learning curve. Free.

Ginger
Writing tool that works as grammar checker, sentence rephraser, translator, dictionary and text reader. Free.

Giphy
GIF search engine owned by Facebook.

Glisser
Glisser "makes presentations social"  by making slides sharableto audience phones and laptops. Live polling, Twitter feeds and other audience interaction. Free but a paid subscription offers more options.

Global Press Style Guide
Includes information on people more than 20 developing countries where the Global Press Journal reporters work.

GoToMeeting
Video conferencing. 14-day free trial. $14-$39 a month subscription.

GoldWave
Audio editing program.

Good Free Photos
Thousands of free stock photos under the Free Public Domain licensing.

Google Advanced Search
Under “usage rights” and pick one such as “free to use, share or modify, even commercially” to narrow down your search for usable photographs. Google recommends checking the license to make sure it is legitimate.

Google Alerts
Monitor the Web. Get an email notice when Google finds a phrase or name. Free.

Google Analytics*
Detailed statistics about website performance and traffic sources and measures conversions. The most robust and largest platform. Free though there is a paid plan (Google Analytics 360) for larger enterprises.

Google Autodraw
AI drawing tool that will search for rights-free icons related to something you draw.

Google Code Playground
An advanced educational tool of Google’s Javascript APIs (application programming interfaces that simplify software implementing). Available for anyone to try out and tweak the code. Free but not for beginners.

Google Currents
RSS feed. Subscribe to the posts of a site. Similar to Flipboard for its magazine-style interface. Free.

Google Docs Presentations  
Create presentations inside Google Docs. Free with collaborative editing but more limited than PowerPoint. 

Google Docs Voice Typing*
This free Google Docs tool under the drop-down menu for 'tools', (the 'voice typing’ icon) will transcribe your dictation or the audio you are playing in real time.

Google Drive*
Document storage. Open and edit files from within browser windows. 5 GM free. 200 GB for $10 month.

Google Fusion Tables
Publish data tables online. Samples.

Google Goggles (no longer available)
Instead of words, take a picture to do a search. A similar tool was launch a few years later as Google Lens.

Google Hangouts On Air* (no longer available)
Live streaming platform and automatic HD video capture.

Google Keyword Planner
Allows users to find and use words that are more likely to be used in searches for the content we are writing. Free.

Google Pinpoint
This tool uses AI to analyze PDFs, strip text from images and transcribe audio.

Google Public Data Explorer
Makes large datasets easy to explore, visualize and communicate. As the charts and maps animate over time, the changes in the world become easier to understand.

Google Maps*
A powerful tool but with a bit a of learning curve. Useful for creating custom routes (for driving, biking or walking) between these markers. Will do distance calculations and measurements. Limited styling options: you can’t change the markers size or shape. You also can’t edit the modal. Free.

Google Now
Tracks your online behavior and uses this data to predict the information that you will need, such as local traffic or weather updates.

Google Reverse Image Search* 
Drag and drop or upload an image into this search engine to find where images originated from. Video explains it here.

Google Scholar*
The dominant tool in the field of research, users can set alerts for publication of new scholarly papers on particular research topics, authors, or keywords. Sometimes picks up useful preprints, theses, and dissertations. Access to the studies could be restricted. If you can’t get a particular study itself through a university/library affiliation, be sure to click “All Versions” at the bottom of the search result. Widely acknowledged as the biggest corpus in existence, one estimate puts the volume at close to 400 million articles.

Google Trends
Real time search info that can be broken down by day or region. Pulls data from YouTube and Google News as well. Insights on what people want to know right now.

Google Voice
Your own phone number. Can be used to record incoming interviews. Free.

Google's Me on the Web
Notifications when your personal data (email address, phone number, etc) gets published online.

GoPro Hero 11
This action camera comes with HyperSmooth, software-stabilization now in its fifth iteration from Hero 7 to the present. The iPhone 14 Pro is getting close to being as good—but not yet, when it comes to intense action and extra features. $399 with a subscription.

GoPro Quik*
Video editor by GoPro. Easy-to-use. Templated themes, useful filters, royalty-free music, and the ability to add titles and captions. Add up to 200 photos and video clips. Includes square, portrait and landscape settings. Users’ guide here and a dedicated YouTube channel here. Free but some features added with premium account.

GorillaPod tripod*
Joby GripTight PRO. Flexible legs wrap around objects for unlimited angles. From .7 - 11 pounds. Rubber foot grips provide stability on any surface.

GPT-2 Detector
OpenAI’s GPT-2 Detector (Hugging Face) is a tool that helps to identify AI generated text.

GPTZero
Detects whether an essay was written by ChatGPT to help educators to combat AI-based plagiarism. Built by a computer science student at Princeton who was a former data journalist with the BBC. It has various settings for AI and human + AI.

the Grading Game*
App for practicing your editing skills and win points. Avail at the App Store.

Graphiq
Data vizualization tools. Formally FindTheBest. Not only are there design tools, there are many data sets available to work with.

Grammar Girl
Writing Tips from a grammarian.

Grammarly*
Automated proofreader and personal grammar coach. Free version though the premium option has more features ($29.95).

GrammarlyGo
Grammarly’s AI tool that can write content in your personal writing style. Based on situational context, it will offer prompts to adjust the message's tone for different scenarios while adhering to you or your company’s voice. Available in April 2023.

Gratisography
Free hi-resolution stock photos.

Grid (no longer available)
Spreadsheet table app that's much simpler than Excel.

GrowthBar
AI to generate SEO-friendly text. Analyze competing websites.

Hackpad
Edit, organize and share documents. Merged with Dropbox in 2014.

Halide Mark II
This app is intended for serious photographers. It gives iPhone users finer control over various photo settings such as exposure control and focus gestures. Here is a tutorial. One week free trial then $36 or $12 a year.

Hands on Programming with R (free book)

Harvard's DASH repository
A central, open-access repository of research by members of the Harvard community.

Harvard's Open Access Project
Aimed at expanding open access to research.

Hashtagify
Search for trending hashtags that will be most relevant to your audience. Free trial. $9.99 a month.

Hashtags
A real-time tracker of Twitter hashtags (like a tag for tweets, describing the content or nature of the tweet).  

HaveIBeenPwned
TheCheck to see if your email address was part of a data breach. The site tells you whether your personal information has been compromised.

Headliner.app
A simple interface for combing audio with images. Great for social media posts or for visual podcasts posted to YouTube. Video explanation here. Free with a paid version offering more flexibility.

Hemingway App
The Hemingway app is designed to make you a better writer by highlighting problems in your writing. Goal is to make more direct and active--more Hemingway-ey, as the Washington Post proclaims. Just paste your text into the app and it will highlight hard to read sentences, adverbs, complex phrases, and passive voice.  Color coordinated highlighting. Click on these words to see the suggested alternatives.  Word count, readability grade, etc. $6.99.

HeyGen
Allows users to generate deepfake videos of real people “saying” almost anything based on a single picture of their face and a script. Can be translated into more than 40 languages. There are free plans with limited options. Paid accounts start at a hefty $29 a month.

Heyocart
Share a status update on your Facebook business page and your fans can enter the word "buy" in order to purchase the product. Free trial.

High Charts
interactive JavaScript charts

HighWire
A library and database project from Stanford University that provides full access to a huge collection of research. It is mostly science-related, but there is significant social science scholarship, as well.

Hindenburg Journalist*
A multitrack audio editor designed for podcasters, audio producers and radio journalists. The design and features are tailored spoken-word productions. Set markers and add notes as you record interviews with uncompressed sound to give you the best audio quality. Drag any audio file into Hindenburg and start editing. There are some great features. However, there are also some limitations (read more here) which makes other options more attractive. Overpriced at $95 and $375 for the pro version.

Hippo Video
This Chrome extension is a screen recorder with some advanced features such as changing the resolution, aspect ratio, etc. Free.

Hipstamatic*
Fact-checking photo editor. Can pick films, lenses, and flashes before taking your photos. Set shutter speed, shoot multi-exposed photos. $2.99 for the app but HipstaPacks for up to $4.99.

Hitfilm
Video editing software aimed at providing a professional editing experience. Change the color balance of video, trim clips, and export in different formats. Steep learning curve for beginners but a familiar feel for those who have used pro editing software. Needs a strong computer processor. Free.

Hive
Spots AI-generated text and photos. Claims its service is more accurate than others on the market. Use the demo tool for free without even signing up but you have to contact the for full-access.

Hoax-Slayer
Fact-checking for internet rumors.

Hoaxy
Visualizes the spread of articles across social media. Designed to help spot online misinformation and its related fact-checking efforts. Developed at Indiana University, Free.

Hokusai
iOS audio editing app for interviews, podcasts, or voiceovers. Can import clips from other applications and export directly to Dropbox and iTunes. Video tutorial here. Free.

HootSuite*
Probably the most popular social media dashboard. Manage multiple accounts across multiple social networks: execute campaigns, schedule messages, track mentions and traffic.  Monitor your data in scrollable columns from up to five social networks for free.  Pro versions (starting at $8.99 per month).

Hoppala Augmentation
Platform for augmented reality applications. Sample video.

Horrorli
Background horror noise generator.

HostGator
A website hosting services that offers limited website building choices. No free option. However, the plans start as low as $4.99 a month.

Hotjar
A relatively new web analytics tool using polls, surveys, heatmaps and visitor recordings to paint a picture of visitors to websites. Free plan or more functionality with a monthly subscription of $39 or $99.

HouseParty formally Meerkat (No longer available)
Group video chat app where users get a notice that friends are online. Snap Stories are integrated. 

How Cast
Free learning site divided into categories like environment, first aid, and parenting. Experts share their knowledge in videos that cover everything from surviving heart attacks to playing charades.

How Design
This site seeks to meet the "business, creativity and technology needs of graphic designers."

HubSpot's Blog Topic Generator
Just write three nouns related to the topic that you'd like to blog about and this site will offer ideas.

Hugging Face
This open source data science and machine learning platform operates like a GitHub for AI. You can host your own AI models, train them, collaborate with a team, and test your projects. Use models created by others. There are also datasets to use.

Hunter
Searches for contact information by employer. 100 searches free. Paid plans range from $49 – $399.

Hyperlapse (no longer available)
Instagram’s timelapse video. No audio option.

HyperMac
An external battery for any USB-driven device — your iPad, your iPhone, your laptop.

Hypernatural*
Make short videos of text, audio, a link, etc. with AI. No editing skills needed. The results are less generic than other AI-video makers, partly because the user makes stylistic choices along the way, narration, color palette, transitions, video orientation, or use your own photos. Make 10 free 30 second videos (no longer) and after than paid accounts start at $12 a month.

Hyposthesis
Make annotations on live webpages and it create a custom link, that can be sent to collaborators. Free.

I am CC (no longer available)
A service that automatically releases your Instagram photos under Creative Commons license.

iAudition (no longer available)
Record high quality audio using external mic for better quality. Includes easy-to-use single-track audio editor. Export audio file as as MP3 or WAV. Free.

IBM Cloud Video* (formerly Ustream)
Desktop broadcasting of live video to the world from a computer or iPhone (or watch thousands of shows).  30 day free trial, then monthly plans from $99 to $999 for pros, top subscription $2k and up.

Iconosquare*
Metrics for Instagram including top photos, which filters you use the most, most engaged followers, etc. Many different types of data nicely displayed with visualizations. Free.

iCharts
Data Visualization aimed at businesses--especially those looking to brand themselves. There's a free option (which allows for data interactivity, public sharing, and unlimited standard data sets) and a business plan that starts at $25 (offering features like private charts, custom templates, upload images and logos, download high-res images, large data sets, chartbooks, etc.

Idea-Mag
Japanese design magazine.

Ideogram*
An excellent AI image generator that can also create text. While MidJourney produces higher quality images, this one is easier to use for beginners. It has a simple to use interface and is free.

IEEE (The Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers) Style Guide
Civil Engineers often use this guide or the ASCE.

IFTTT*
Stands for "If This Then That." Power tool for setting up automatic responses to Tweets, FB posts etc. Creates what programmers call conditional expressions. Such as sending a Tweet each time you make a blog post. Integrates well with HootSuit and Buffer. Samples.

IM Creator
For advanced website creators though you don’t need to know any code to get started. Wide choice of templates but detailed editing options. Includes commerce and domain name support. $8 a month.

iMovie*
One of the best video-making apps with an intuitive interface but fewer advanced features than CapCut. Still, its basic features should be enough for most beginners. No option for Android devises. Exports at 30fps only. There is a tutorial here. Free.

InDesign
See: Adobe InDesign

Infogram*
infographic tool especially useful when working with complex data. No coding skills needed. Works with Google Sheets or Dropbox. Create interactive illustrations. 35 types of charts and 200 types of maps. Includes a built-in spreadsheet tool for data editing. Basic version is free but requires the Infogram logo. Upgrades run from $19 to $67 a month.

Indigenous Peoples: Language Guidelines
From the University of British Columbia.

Inkrypt
An app that allows journalists to save their content on many servers, (instead of one) that can be accessed anywhere, at any time and can't be traced, so that government and other entities cannot block it.

Inkscape
A Photoshop-free alternative using vectors instead of pixels. A high learning curve but great flexibility.  Video tutorial here.

Inoreader
Web-based RSS feed. Subscribe to get new posts from a site. Offers some features not free in Feedly.

Inshot
Video & image editing app. Simple-to-use & all-in-one with basic functions: Crop, trim, change the speed, rotate your videos 360°, add filters and music, and more. Free version with intrusive ads $2.99 to remove them and the watermark.

Inspectlet
Records video sessions of website users’ behavior. Heatmaps show what users find interesting on your site.

Instagram*
The photo and video sharing app owned by Facebook is also a polling tool. Will accommodate single question polls with two answers (yes no) and a guessing game type of polls with up to four answers. While it has limited options, it’s free and can reach a large audience.

Instapaper
Save articles to read later. Free.

Instatrack
App that tells you about your Instagram followers.

InVID
A free Firefox plugin to debunk fake video news and verify videos and images.

Import io
Scraps data from any url and turns the webpage into data.

iOgrapher case*
Light and simple to use, this camera platform turns your phone into a filmmaking device by providing stability anda place to put additional filmmaking accessories such as a microphone and lighting. $60.

iPhone Shutter Grip
This iPhone accessory helps you hold it more steady and have a button to push. $40.

iRig Handheld Mic*
A handheld microphone with a built-in headphone socket allowing users to monitor audio and control levels when paired with the iRig Recorder app. $69.99.

iRig Mic Studio*
Professional studio mic that comes with many adaptors including a lightning port plug so it will work with the iPhone 7 (which is it smaller than). Includes gain control, level indicator, and headphone output (with its own level control).  Tripod stand included. $129.99.

iRig Pre*
A preamp which allows you to plug your quality mic into an your iOS device. It takes an XLR input and turns it into a 3.5mm jack. A built in headphone socket allowing users to monitor audio when paired with the iRig Recorder app, which also gives audio control levels. Very simple to use. Uses 9-volt battery. $39. If you want better sound quality, and control, try the iRig Pro at $129 or even better the or iRig Pro Duo.

iRig Pro Duo*
User can plug two XLR microphones into an iPhone through the lightning port. You and the person you are interviewing can be mic’ed with separate gains. A headphone port allows you to monitor the audio. Uses two AA batteries so it does not draw power from your iPhone. $199.95

iStock photo
Royalty-free stock photos.

iStock video editor*
A Getty Image company, iStock offers not just stock photos but a video editor. There are customizable templates, users can upload their own video, images, music. The video can be downloaded and shared on virtually any platform. Free but a paid account offers royalty-free videos, images, and sound effects.

International Longevity Center Style Guide
A style guide for members of the media writing about aging.

iTimeLapse Pro
Time lapse and stop motion videos on iPhone or iPad. Options include selecting how often to snap photos and how long the video should be. Only works with images taken through app. $2.99. 

iTranslate
Speech translation. Spoken English to spoken foreign language (or back)  for phrases and words. Iphone, Ipad, Apple Watch. Free.

iTunes U
More than 350,000 free video lectures.

Izatru (no longer available)
Photo verification site.

Jasper AI
AI story writing tool for fiction and nonfiction. Pick a tone of voice for style. Pre-built templates available. A more business-focused AI that is particularly helpful for advertising and marketing. Remembers past queries, However, no sources are provided and limited to pre-2022 information. Short free trial. $29 month.

jQuery
Build coding projects to include in your portfolio, and collaborate with other members. A 4 question quiz matches you with the best course for you and your goals. Free 7 day trial if you enter a credit card number. $40 per month for unlimited courses.

Jay Mantri
Free stock photos under public domain. Seven new photos each Friday.

Jimpl
Extract Exif (Exchangeable Image File) data from photos, which can include date, time, camera settings, etc.

Joomla
Lots of possible complexity.  Deep level navigation, sections in sections, categories etc.

A Journalist’s Guide to Reporting on Islam and Muslims
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)

JSTOR*
This non-profit database covers more than a thousand academic journals, and a university or library affiliation provides access to the full text of articles. Good for background research, but lags the academic publishing world by several years.

JustDeleteMe
Want to delete your account from a site?  Here's a long list of "direct links to delete your account from web services" that might have data on you.

Jux
Photo-oriented with great layouts and fonts. Custom domains. Writing tool weak.

Kaggle Data Sets
A database of some 29k data sets for learning data science. There are more than a dozen free micro-courses for learning Python, machine learning, data viz, etc. Share/collaborate with others on the site.

Kapwing
A browser-based AI video editor (online only-primarily for social media editing) that gives users the tools to splice combine, trim and cut video clips. Add text, images, subtitles, etc. Missing some basic options like transitions. Easy to get started but some basic features are hard to find or missing (like transitions). Download quality good for online, not broadcast. Best for repurposing a long Zoom video of an interview, panel discussion, or any meeting. Free for basic editing of online videos up to 4 minutes with watermarks. $16 per month annually for higher-quality videos up to 120 minutes.

Kartograph
Simple to use data visualization tool if you know some Python or Javascript. Free.

Kaywa
5 dynamic codes for free, then $13.75 and up a month for analytics, etc.

Keep Vid
Post your audio here and then link to it from your blog or embed it into your blog.

KeePassXC
Open source password manager. Purposely no cloud option. All passwords are stored locally. Free.

Keeper
Password manager. Well-designed interface. Free plan is limited. Paid starts at $34.99 a year.

Keynote
For Mac users, compatible with iPhone and iPad.

Keynotopia
Design software. 

Khan Academy
Tools for kids and adults in single, short lessons on a neon blackboard. More than 20,000 free videos. Free coding lessons with reputable content.

KineMaster
Multi-track video editing app for iOS and Android. Lots of powerful tools: Add captions, titles, logos, edit audio, etc. Easy to get started. Free account with watermark. More info here. $4.99 a month.

Kizoa
A video editing app with outdated looks and design. One-time fee for the features you want. Free version or paid with more features starting about $30.

Knowem
Allows you to check for the use of your name, brand, product, or username in more than 500 social media websites to see if it already taken and to secure it if it is not.

Klout (no longer available)
Measure your social media impact. Free.

Krisp
App that reduces noise on both ends of a phone call on your phone or when recording audio. There’s a free version.

Krita
Photographers like this alternative to Photoshop, as it shares a similar look and feel. It supports rulers and grids, comes with pre-installed templates, and many features. However, there is no history option and the text feature is limited. Free.

Krop
Both a job site and a portfolio builder. Layouts are straightforward and easy-to-use. Free trial. $8.25 a month.

Kurrently
Search engine for Facebook and Twitter.

LAIKA
An AI writing tool, WriteWithLaika is especially focused on fiction and drama. Free.

Lapse It
A time lapse video capture apps. Up to 1080p on the Pro version. Free or $3.99 for the Pro version.

Lastpass
Generates and saves passwords. Strong cross-platform experience. The company has had some past security issues. Free version is limited. Paid is $36 a year.

Later*
Social media scheduler especially for Instagram posts but also handles Twitter, Facebook, etc. Requires an image to post so the focus is on the visual. Lets you store your graphic images in a Media Library. There is a free version that is useful (though it limits certain dimensions or file sizes) while the paid option (starting at $9 a month) gives you manage comments and such.

Launchpad
This Novation creation allows users to make and remix music on the go. Simple enough for non-musicians to use. The Launchpad Mini is a smaller and much less expensive version and the Launchpad Pro is more sophisticated. $299.

Layar
Augmented reality tool. 

Learn Python the Hard Way
A book that introduces readers to Python.

Leave Me Alone
Unsubscribe from several email accounts at the same time. See all your newsletters in one place. Free trial then $9 a month.

Lensa
Create digital self-portraits, made with AI technology through the open source Stable Diffusion model that renders selfies into artwork. Developed by Prisma Labs, locataed in California by Russian developers. One week free trial then $30 a month. The avatar tool costs a separate $3.99 for 50 images.

Leonard
A good choice for AI image creation for the budget minded. Generous free option.

Lex
AI text-generation tool that’s simple and efficient. Not open to the public but you can get on a wait list.

Lexicon Valley
Slate's grammar podcasts.

Library of Congress Photos
Stock photos. Free.

Libsyn*
Podcast Hosting Services. Starting at $5 a month.

Lightning Headphone Jack Adapter* 
The Lightning to 3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter (that comes with the iPhone 7) allows you to plug your standard headphones into an iPhone 7. $9.

Lightworks
Lots of tools for editing videos in the free version, which should satisfy most casual users. No HD option. Paid option starts at $49.99 a year.

Limpert's About Editing and Writing Blog
A blog about how editors and writers do their work by Jack Limert was editor of the The Washingtonian for more than 40 years.

Listen Notes
Podcast search engine.

Litmus
Cross-browser testing tool. Check out how your design looks on different browsers before going live.

Little Visuals
Hi-resolution images of buildings, travel, landscapes, under the Public Domain Dedication. Seven images in your inbox every 7 days.

LiveJournal
Blogging platform owned by Russians (where the servers are located). Lost subscribers after banning political posts and other topics. Ads are shown except for paid accounts.

Live Blog
Live Blog is a liveblogging platform for journalists for posting from a phone or tablet.

LiveShare (no longer available)
Photo and file sharing.

LLaMA 2
Meta’s AI that’s open source so that anyone can build commercial products on top of it. The company is not revealing what data it was trained on and says it can’t assume users it doesn’t include copyrighted works. Like other large language models, it can produce falsehoods and offensive language. Free.

Local Angle
A free platform that journalists can use to find local angles on national stories. Local Angle identifies any names mentioned in recent national news stories, and then uses this data to categorize stories by city.

Logic Pro
Audio editing program, especially music.

Loom
This Chrome extension is a screen recorder with some advanced options. No limit on the number of videos you can make. Free.

Loopback
Rogue Amoeba’s Loopback 2 will rout any audio on your computer from one application to another. For instance, take the output from audio playing in Safari and record it with QuickTime. Or on a podcast, you can play background music or snippets so everyone (or only you) hears it. And many more options. Easy-to-use but only for Macs. The Windows alternative would be VoiceMeeter. Pricey but meant for professionals. $99.

Ludus
Presentation app focused on simple formatting. Turns PDFs into flipbooks. Add text, photos, videos. $14.99 a month.

LumaFusion*
Advanced multi-track video editor that mimics professional desktop software with 3 video/audio tracks for photos, videos, titles, and graphics. Key-framing, colour adjustment, and support for branded fonts and graphics. iOS only. Tutorials on the YouTube channel. $29.99.

Lumen5
An easy-to-use video creation platform that attempts to turn a limited number of photos and text into video for you. Free.

MailDrop.cc
Create a disappearing email address when signing up for a one-time deal or for other temporary situations. Gone in 24 hours.

Mailstrom 
Unsubscribe from lots of lists, or quickly delete many email. Works with Outlook, Gmail and Yahoo. Free trial then yearly accounts starting at $60.

Majestic SEO
Find out how all the websites on the internet link to each other. Information about how the fabric of the web is knitted together--and what is connected to yours.

ManageFlitter (no longer available)
Finds relevant people for you to follow. Schedule tweets based on when most of your followers are online. Find out who has unfollowed you. Some features are free but to get the most out of it you need a subscription of $12 a month.

Manual
An app to control camera functions on your phone you can't manipulate with the IPhone camera app including shutter speed, exposure, focus, and white balance. (iOS only)

Make Adverbs Great Again
Helps Twitter users determine if an account is a bot. Offers a rating of 1-10 as to whether an account is likely to be an artificial troll. Free.

Many Eyes  (no longer available)
Multiple data visualization tool for bar charts, graphs, tag clouds, word trees, scatterplots, block historgrams, etc.

Mapbox
This Photoshop for maps—and just as difficult to learn. However, it has some of the most powerful style editing of any map maker. Not for beginners. Instead of using Google Maps, Mapbox uses Open Street Maps. An impressive example of how Vox has used it here. There is a free version with paid accounts starting at $50.

MapChart
Color code countries and regions on a world map. Click the country and choose a color. Create a legend then download your map. Free.

Mapcreator
This toll will create printable maps that can be exported and can save as an image. Used by newsrooms, real estate, government and tourism companies. Good for creating maps that need to be exported as an image. Free.

Mapline
Upload spreadsheets and display them as markers and shapes and categorize them within territory boundaries to a map. It includes route planning and other powerful feature. There is a free option with paid accounts starting at $695 a year.

MapMe
A embeddable basic custom interactive map creator. Especially for real estate and travel. Free for up to five maps with limited features. Requires an account. Paid accounts starting at $24 a month.

Marked 2
Tools for writers including word counts, document stats, highlights repeated words.  Mac only.  $9.99.

MarketMe Suite (no longer available)
Social media platform that lets you connect with multiple platforms.

Marq (formally Lucid Press)
Page layouts for the non-professional to design flyers, newsletters, etc.

Marquee (no longer available)
Publishing platform focused on presentation. 

Markup Wand (no longer available)
Photoshop to HTML/CSS converter. Strip down Photoshop files (.psd) and convert them to embeddable HTML or CSS code.

Marshall Project guide to writing about incarceration

Matomo (formerly Piwik)
An open-source web-analytics platform that gives you insights into you website's visitors. Doesn’t offer anything that Google Analytics cannot provide—except the user gets full control of the data and retains ownership of it. Free but also offers a pro account.

Media Fire
Free cloud storage service.

Medium
Created by Twitter co-founders to support good writing. Clean design and easy-to-use interface. For those who want to write but don’t want to maintain a blog or website.

Meetways
Find a halfway point between two locations. Great for setting up meetings between people.

MeFoto BackPacker Air Tripod* 
Lightweight and compact, the legs on this 2-pound tripod extend up to 60 inches. Converts into a selfie stick. $125.

Meltwater (formally Sysomos)
Social media tracking analysis creating by capturing social media mentions. Reports are not detailed or indepth as rivals Salesforce Marketing Cloud (Radian6) or Crimson Hexagon. Best when only skimming mentions is your goal. Video explanation here. Easy to use for quick monitoring a company's brand. No mobile app. Paid.

Mendeley
A database that crowd-sources selected studies from participating scholars around the world. Some studies are not open access, but the abstracts and titles are all there.

Mentimeter*
Allows you to pose a question to your audience and get instant feedback by phones. Fewer  features than Socrative or Poll Everywhere, but it is free and easy to use.

Mention
Tracks social media mentions of key words you selection.block URLs out of searches and other features. 14 day free trial. Then accounts starting at $29 a month.

Meograph*
3D animation of people from 2D video of people. Video explanation.

Metapicz
Extract Exif (Exchangeable Image File) data from photos. EXIF is a standard for additional data embedded within an image or audio files, which can include date, time, camera settings, etc.

Microsoft Academic Search
This evolving database has tools for seeing connections between researchers and their work. It provides a “profile” of many academics and charts how their findings have been cited. Free.

Microsoft Designer's Image Creator
One of the best image creators, it is powered by DALL-E 3. Accessible in the same place that you access Microsoft's AI chatbot Copilot. Free (though you must create a Microsoft account).

Microsoft Skydrive
Document storage. Access from anywhere. 7 GB free. 20 GB for $10 a year.

Microsoft Teams
An all-in-one tool with video conferencing, chat and other productivity features, intended to do more than Zoom. The best choice if you are already using Microsoft 365 and focused on internal, productivity meetings, There’s a free option.

Microsoft Writing Style Guide
Used for technical publications, especially in the field of computer science.

MidJourney*
One of the best AI image generators, it uses machine learning to create high-quality pictures based on text. The interface has been improved since it first launched. There is a limited free version but paying the monthly cost will avoid annoying ads. You’ll find a good prompt book here and a guide to get started here.

Miro audio
Post your audio here and then link to it from your blog or embed it into your blog.

Miro (for writing)
An online interactive whiteboard for writers who want to see the overview of their project. Create visual outlines including photos, documents, etc. Good for collaboration. There is a free version with paid versions (more options) starting at $8 a month.

MIT OpenCourseWare
For beginners. Textbook.

MixCraft
Audio editing program, especially music. $75.

Mixlr*
Live internet audio app. Share in social media, text with listeners, embed player on your website. Free.

Mixpanel
Measures user experience on websites and product interactions to help websites to identify trends and with customer retention. Free version and plans starting at $89 a month.

MLA (Modern Language Association) Style Guide
Documentation style is used in scholarship throughout the humanities.

Mmhmm
Makes video presentations for video conference meetings. Easily superimpose a resizable version of yourself over photos, videos and slides and share a live feed. Fun tools like laser pointers and filters. There is an educational discount. $12 a month.

Mobile Mouse
Use Your phone to Give a presentation. Phone app will control computer. Free version with limited features. MobileMouse Pro, $2.99 for iPad or Android or iOS $1.99.

Mobile Reporting Field Guide
Developed by UC Berkley Graduate School of Journalism, this free PDF or iBook promises to be everything a reporter needs to know when reporting from their iPhone. Search Mobile Reporting Guide in the app store.

Mocha Stock
Stock images that showcase racial diversity.

Mohiomap (no longer available)
Access several Cloud platforms at the same time, it's a visual overview of Dropbo,

Mojo*
A great easy-to-use app for making professional vertical social stories to go on Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories, and Snapchat. Templates and fonts. More info here. Free. Pro version $9.99 a month.

Moment App
Shows how long you are on your phone and how often you pick it up.

Moment*
Cases, lens, batteries, lights, gimbals, etc. to enhance photos and videos taken with a phone.

Montabe (no longer available)
Processes photos sent in via email and upload forms.

Moovly
Drag and drop to create video animations. Directly uploads to YouTube. Integrated with Shutterstock. Interface could be better.

Morguefile
More than 300,000 free stock images with a wide range of categories. The site asks that you credit the photographer.

Movavi
Video editing for casual users. Easy-to-use interface. Limited effects. $39.95.

Movie Maker Online
A poorly designed video editor with a confusing layout and intrusive advertising. Works in browsers, no registration required. Free but still not worth it.

MoviePro*
Video recording app that lets you listen live to your sound, includes manual controls for exposure, focus, and white balance. Shoot stills while recording. Has a built-in single-track video editor. Includes a wide range of video resolutions and aspect ratios, adjustable video quality, $9.99.

Mozilla Developer Network
Beginner friendly. Have to sign up to see. Positive reviews.

Mp3DirectCut
Audio editing program.

MP3Gain
Audio editing program designed to normalise MP3 files so that they all have the same loudness in a more effective way than other programs.

MP3 Quailty Modifier
Audio editing program to adjust the quality of your MP3 files so you can save disk space.

MusicML
Google’s tool that can text descriptions into music. Users can specify “vibe, mood, or emotion” and styles like “electronic” or “classical.” It won’t generate music with specific artists or vocals.

Music Editor Free
Free audio editing program. You'll need a converter since it can only save WAV files.

MyTweetSpace (no longer available)
With minimal effort, create a Twitter background, badges, add graphics, play with text. Log in with your Twitter account and it will automatically update your background.

n-Track
Android-only audio editing app. Tutorials here.

NABJ Style Guide
National Association of Black Journalists.

NAHJ Cultural Competence Handbook
National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

NAJA (Native American Journalists Association) Style Guide

NameChk (no longer available)
Find out if your name or user name is available on a social network.

Nappy
Stock images that showcase racial diversity.

Narrative
Wearable camera that takes a photo every 30 seconds and creates a video at the end of the day (without using the repetitive shots). No work for the wearer. $199. Video explanation.

NASA images
Free use of images.

NatGeo MapMaker
This National Geographic tool will overlay climate and political data layers on a map. There are simple tools for adding text and shapes. Free.

National Bureau of Economic Research
A nonprofit research organization that publishes top scholarship in the economics discipline. Free.

National Eating Disorders Association writing guidelines

NativeStock Pictures (no longer available)
Stock images that showcase racial diversity.

Naymz (no longer available)
Measure and manage your social media reputation. Similar to Klout (which was shut down), it gives you a score based on your social media influence.

New Old Stock
Free stock website with vintage photos under the Creative Commons or “The Commons” license from Flickr.

New Oxford Style Manual
Writing guidelines for those editing in British English.

New/s/leak
This “NetWork of Searchable Leaks” uses AI to review large amounts of text in a dataset to help journalists find connections for story research. Free.

Newsbound (no longer available)
Visual-storytelling platform that can combine photos, graphics, animations and text into a slideshow.

Newspapers.com
Online newspaper archive. Free trial for one week. Paid accounts start at $8 a month.

NightCafe
Create art with the help of Artificial Intelligence.

Night Moves (no longer available)
For low light photo shooting.

Nimbus
This Chrome extension is a screen recorder which also allows users to shoot a video with a webcam or take screenshots. Free.

Ninja Outreach
Automated social media outreach to find influencers. Free.

The NLGJA Stylebook
The Association of LGBTQ Journalists Stylebook on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Terminology.

NordPass
This password manager has an intuitive interface but the free and paid versions have limitations—such as the free version allows users to stay logged in on only one device at a time. $17.88. There’s also a free strength of password checker here.

NovelAI
AI story creator. Easy-to-use but fantasy fiction only. Starts at $10 a month.

Nozbe
Task management system. Organizes according to the context in which they are done (online, at the office, at home, etc.) . Designed with teams in mind-which could be as simple as sharing a shopping list. Available for most devices. Works with Google Calender.  Monthly fee: $8 for a single user, $16 for a family, $40 for a team.

NumberPicture
Create simple charts from your data using templates. Introductory video here.

Nuzzle (no longer available)
Pulls info from your social networks into an easy to read news stream.

Ocenaudio
Simple audio editor made for users who do not need all the options offered by Audacity free.

Octopus.do
A sitemap builder and website planner. Starting at $8 a month.

oDesk
Hire an experienced proofreader based on an hourly rate (typically one hour for every 5000 words).

Office Timeline
A free PowerPoint add-on that helps you create charts and timelines.

Offset (now part of Shutterstock)
High-end images. $250 for a 3MB file or $500 for 40+ MB file and unlimted use.

The Old Reader
Web-based RSS feed. Subscribe to get new posts from a site.

Olloclip (no longer available)
Small lens attachment.

OmniGraffle
Design software.

OmniOutliner
Mac program that keeps lists and organizes outlines. Low learning curve to create rich, multi-column, collapsible outlines in many styles. Add embedded notes, images, links, etc. $40 to buy the standard version, $70 for the pro model. An educational discount of $25 and $50 is available here.

One Place Field
Intended for software developers and programmers, this map maker is mobile-friendly. Simple interface, cloud-based. Users can overlay shapes, drawings, measurements, asset information, and field data onto satellite imagery. Works as a collaborative toll for teams in the field. There’s a 14-day free trial with full functionality, then paid accounts starting at $49 a month.

One True Media  (no longer available)
Templates for videos of slideshows. 

OneDrive (formally Skydrive)
Microsoft provides 15 GB free backup to the cloud for storage. OneDrive includes a nice interface for scrolling through material (particularly photos). 

Online Etymology Dictionary
Gives you the history and derivation of any word. Free.

Online Video Cutter
Video editing tool that can trim videos, crop them, and rotate them. And nothing else. But what it does, it does well. Free or $5 a month for more features.

Open Attribute
Plug in that makes it easier to use Creative Commons.

Open Book (no longer available)
Search Facebook public timeline outside Facebook.

Open Camera
Android app that combines photography and video with control over focus and white balance.. Includes in-app stabilization. Makes the phone recognize an external microphone. Video explanation here. Free.

Open Clip Art (no longer available)
Free and easy to use clip art.

Open CRS
The Congressional Research Service reviews available research on issues. Open CRS aggregates these government reports as they come into the public domain.

Open Knowledge Map
A visual-mapping tool that creates maps based on keywords to arrange 100s of scholarly papers, data sets, and software that are related into bubbles. Users can change and update them. It can group papers into themes you may not have considered to find subfields of research.

Open Web Analytics

OpenAI Playground
A ChatGPT alternative that acts similar (and is limited to pre-2022 info) but the interface isn’t as friendly. However, it is more customizable. Free.

Opendemia
Stores notes on sources, helps to create works cited pages and in-text citations as well as auto-generate citations in various formats. There is a free version. $10 a year for no ads and more citations allowed per project.

Optimizely
Automated A/B testing to help startups tweak their offerings.

Opus Clip
A generative AI video tool that repurposes long videos into shorts especially suitable for social media.

Osmo Mobile 6
A handheld stabilizer that works for smartphones and works in concert with the iPhone 14's Action Mode—a software feature that stabilizes videos. $159.

oTranscribe
Transcribe recorded interviews.

Otter*
Automated transcription app that can join online meetings — with you or without you — and transcribe and summarize them in real time. Sister app Otter Chat can then answer questions based on what people said in the meeting. A favorite among journalists. Turns a couple hours of audio into a reasonable written transcript often in a matter of minutes. Includes features like calendar integration, collaborative meeting notes. Users can insert images into the transcript and highlight sentences. 600 transcription minutes per month is free (limited to 30 per conversation). Subscriptions run from $8-$20 per month.

OttoBib
Chrome extension for citing books using an ISBN. Formats include MLA, APA, AMA, and Chicago. Free.

Overview
Developed at the Associated Press, Overview analyzes the complete text of every document, extracting keywords and sorting documents into categories and sub-categories.

Pacemaker
A word count planner and tracker. Customize it to your routine. Set a goal and it will keep up with your progress. There is a free version lacking some of the best tools and a paid versions (more options) starting at $8 a month.

PagePlus (no longer available)
Page layouts for Mac.

Page Stream
Page layouts for the non-professional to design flyers, newsletters, etc.

Paint.Net
Originally intended as a more advanced version of MS Paint, this is feature heavy and easy-to-use. Offers a strong history tool so it would be a good place for beginners. However, it lacks some features that the pros will want: there is no slice, patch or spot healing tool. There is no RAW editing. Free.

PaperRater
Grammar, plagiarism, and spell checker. Mostly free but $7.50 per month for all features.

Parature  (no longer available)
Microsoft-owned SalesForce competitor that provides social media insights and reports. Helps route customer comments to the appropriate departments.

Parrot*
A teleprompter app for a phone allows the user to read scripts while looking directly into the camera to avoid looking to one side or having to memorize a script. Change the background and the font color. Free.

Parse.ly*
A great tool for real-time traffic tracking on a website. $995 a month for their most basic package.

Paste
A product of WeTransfer to quickly create slide decks. Limited options compared to PowerPoint or Keynote but inexpensive. $9.99 a year.

Pattern Library
Free stock photos of patterns you can use in your own designs (useful for backgrounds too).

pCloud Transfer
Like WeTransfer, quickly transfer files up to 5GB. No account required. Free.

PDF24 Tools
Edit PDFs and do other work with PDFs for free.

Perfect365
Kardashian-approved photo-editing app. Adjust the intensity of each effect using a slider. Includes celebrity-inspired templates.

Periscope (no longer available)
Live-streaming video app from Twitter. Stores video for 24 hours. Will tweet followers that you are living streaming.

Perplexity AI*
A good research option among the generative AI tools, it acts like a search engine but includes results from the web (unlike ChatGPT). Automatically shows where the information came from, so it’s more reliable than ChatGPT. Users can specify where they want the information to be drawn from among a few categories such as academic sources or YouTube. Users can also upload documents as sources and ask it to rewrite prompts. It suggests follow-up questions you might not have considered. Less useful for creative writing. In tests, it was better at summarizing passages, providing information on current events and do coding better than other chatbots. Unmatched speed and accuracy in processing millions of data makes it very useful to data scientists for advanced predictive models. Free. Video tutorial here.

Pexels*
Vast and well-organized, it is one of the best free stock images and video sites. High-quality images under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. 

Pew Research Center*
Survey and research organization that not only does polling on salient issues in the news but provides deep, analytical reports around the issues.

PhotoDNA
An image-identification Microsoft tool to identify illegal images, including Child Sexual Abuse Material. It can only look for pre-identified pictures.)

Photo Everywhere
More than 3000 free stock photos under the Creative Commons Attribution focused on travel.

Photo Peach
Slideshows with audio and text. Sample.

Photo Pin (now Vecteezy)
Millions of free stock photos culled from Flickr with the Creative Commons license.

Photo Pos Pros
Offers layers and mask support. Customise the interface around your preferences. However, while it mimics Photoshop, the size of file exports is limited. Extensions and plugins available. Free.

Photo Synth
Virtual reality.

PhotoFeeler
Feedback on how you are being perceived in your profile photos. Add a photo in one of three categories – Business, Social or Dating. Vote on photos of other people to get credits or purchase credits with real money. Each credit allows one person to vote on your photo.

Photogene (no longer available)
Edits still images.

The Photographer’s Guide to Inclusive Photography
Addresses issues related to photographing race, gender, the Global South, Indigenous communities, and LGBTQ+ communities.

Photopea
A Photoshop alternative for users needing only some basic photo editing options. No download needed but can be slow. Free.

PhotoRoom
Removes the background from a selected photo and lets you select another background. Free.

Phraseology  (no longer available)
iPad writing ap. Like Hemingway, it includes syntax highlighting, statistical tools, readability scores, and root word breakdowns. 

PI
Pi stands for “personal intelligence” and is the creation of Inflection AI. The company says it has a strong ethical framework around the AI and is committed to providing accurate and comprehensive information. More focused on the user than many of the other apps.

Picasion 
Create animated GIFs. Free but a watermark is placed in the corner.

PicPlayPost (Mixcord)
Video editor that lets users create slideshows, split screens, video collages, etc. adding music, voice, gifs. Best for short videos. Free but the best features come with a subscription such as playing two videos side by side. $6.99 a month.

PicMonkey
Free photo-editing alternative to Photoshop. No software download or learning curve. Some more advanced options for $4.99 a month.

Pic Fog (no longer available)
Real time photo searches.

Pic Jumbo
Free stock photos in many categories. Attribution is not required though suggested.

Pika
This generative AI company offers a tool that can create or edit videos. Users can submit text prompts, images, or videos to create new content, modify existing videos, or apply various styles, including 3D animation, cartoon, and cinematic.

PiktoChart*
Flat but beautiful interactive graphics. Easy-to-use. Video explanation.

PinBoard
Bookmark things you find in social media. One time $9.94 cost.

Pitch*
Embed pre-recorded videos inside of presentations. Customize video sizes, shapes, and positioning for each slide. Free $8 a month for more options.

Pixabay
Creative Commons Public Domain photos so you do not need permission or have to pay any attribution when you use the photo.

Pixlr*
Browser-based editing, this is an option for making small changes when Photoshop is overkill. For more professional use (such as curves, blur, sharpen, noise level tools, etc.) there is Pixlr Editor and Pixlr Pro. On the down side, limited file compatibility, no pen tool, rulers or guidelines. Free for basic tools, $5/month Pixlr Pro.

Placeit
Easy-to-use video editing tool with pre-designed video templates. Add music, graphics, animations. There is a cost to downloading the final design. Pay as you go ($9.95) or subscription ($14.95 a month).

Plotly
A good general-use data visualization tool offering many customizations and interactivity. Charts can be exported as images or embedded. A bit of a learning curve. Free with some paid plans.

Plume
App for Twitter users. Customizable options. Free for Android, $3 for iOS.

Poe* (Platform for Open Exploration)
Created by Quora, this AI lets users create a personalized chatbot using one of 70 bots (such as OpenAI or Anthropic). Poe lets you compare and contrast models to find the right fit for your specific need in any given moment. (Poe doesn't have its own large language model.) Free.

Pocket*
Save articles to read later. Free.

Podio
Social work platform for basic project management tasks — calendar, contacts, activity stream — that helps teams collaborate and communicate. Both free and paid versions.

Podomatic
Podcasting made easy. Some users have said it rather clunky.

Points Mentioned
Automatically generates maps for local news articles.

Politifact
A political fact checking site run by the Tampa Bay Times.

PollDaddy
Poll creator.

Poll Everywhere*
Instant audience feedback through texting.

Pollmo
Simple polling.

Polotno Studio
Make graphic designs with no ads and no required sign up. Promoted as a Canva alternative. Easy-to-use with plenty of templates and photos to work with. Free.

Positionly
Improves SEO by tracking your keywords and how well they are performing on the search engine result pages. 14 day free trial. Starting at $19 month.

Postach.io
Publishing platform limited to Evernote (popular note-taking platform). Custom domains, but limited themes. Pulls your thoughts from Evernote into the blog.  Free for basic service, $4.99 a month for advanced options.

Postagon (no longer available)
Blogging platform. Custom domains, writing-oriented, comfortable setup. Limited customization.

PostPlanner
Web post management tool for Facebook and Twitter.  You can indicate which type of content (photos, text, etc) you want shared at what times. Allows you to re-send content multiple times.  Includes a search tool to find more content related to your niche.  $7 a month.

PowerDirector 365* 
Perhaps the best Android video editor app similar to iMovie in ease of use. There is a choice of interfaces. A YouTube channel here. Free but $69.99 a year or $4.08 a month accesses pro features such as custom transitions, titles, special effects, and to remove the watermark.

PowerPoint
The ubiquitous Microsoft presentation program that’s still easy to use (although often poorly used) for creating slides. $159.99, less with Microsoft 360.

Power Thesaurus 
Crowdsourced thesaurus. 

Powtoon 
Animated infographics web tool for creating videos. Best for presentations. User-friendly basic cartoon software with plenty of templates and social integrations. No 3D or keyframing. The free version has company branding on it while the expensive pro plans start at $19 a month. 

PPPalette
Color palettes generator. Free.

Preceden (formally Time Glider)
Create web-based timelines using images & videos.

Premiere Pro*
An Adobe professional-level product that has become the industry standard. Easy-to-use interface. Support for 360 VR and other features, but some techniques require additional applications (such as After Effects). $19.99 a month.

Pressfolios*
Especially designed for highlighting the kinds of things a journalist would want to highlight in order to show what they've done. The links to past content are prominent. There’s also an area for listing skills and a detailed biography. Instead of just linking to your stories (which can be taken down) Pressfolios creates a backup version. Lacks social media integration. Free but $12 each month for a pro version. Samples: One: The Atlantic, GQ freelancer, Two: NY Times freelancer, Three: Rolling Stone contributor

Prezi
Slide creator. Alternative to Power Point. Also offers a replacement for your default camera when you are in a video meeting. Add text, images or other slides to your camera but no options to alter your own image. There’s a free version or $15 for a paid plan with more options.

Principle
Popular UI prototyping tools for designing mobile apps. Especially useful for creating animation. No coding skill needed. $129.

Print Mag
Design tips, education, resources from Print Magazine, a bimonthly magazine about visual culture and design.

Privnote
Share a confidential note via a web link that will self-destruct after it is read by your intended recipient.

ProCamera*
A great iPhone app for capturing, editing, and sharing high quality photos. Control over focus, exposure, white balance, and lighting. Compose shots or shoot HD and SD video. Tools can clutter the screen. The website offers a user manual and video tutorials. $14.99.

Process Street
Document, manage, and track your workflows and business processes. Records tasks in templates – lists which show what tasks to do and what order to do them in. A video explanation here.

Projector (no longer available)
A Canva alternative design resource for non-designers.

Promo
Resize photos for various social media platforms. Free.

PromptwarePlus (no longer available)
Turns your iOS device into a professional teleprompter. Free.

Proofread Bot
Shows your mistakes and what areas of your writing that could be strengthened. The more words reviewed, the greater the cost starting at $5 for 20,000 words.    

Proporti.oni
Can give you a gender breakdown of your followers and the people you are following, categorizing them as male, female, nonbinary or unknown.

ProShot
Photo App that offers a high level of control of exposure, grid overlay, custom aspect ratios, ISO, shutter speed and white balance. Andriod or iOS. Here is a complete list of all features and a video tutorial. $5.99.

Public Domain Archive
All images are public domain, free to use. Includes a large collection of vintage images.

Public Library of Science 
The flagship journal of this open-access academic project, PLoS One, features original peer-reviewed research on science and medical topics; many studies have policy implications.

PubMed Central
From the US National Institutes of Health, this database has more than 2 million open access, full-text studies that relate to public health and policy issues. Free.

Pulse
RSS feed. Subscribe to the posts of a site. Allows for interface with touch screens. Free.

PulsePoint
Police scanner, emergency frequencies. Free.

Purdue Writing Lab
Writing and formatting help.

QGIS
Powerful mapmaking software with a high learning curve. The ‘GIS’ stands for geographical information system. Free.

QR Explore
Offers a bulk QR code generator and label generator.

QR Stuff
QR code generator for both static and dynamic QR codes. Must sign up for an account first. Especially for small businesses. Free.

QRicket
Free QR code generator for static QR codes. Works especially with bit.ly and Google analytics. Free.

QRTIGER
A reliable QR Code generator that can integrate with 1000s of apps. Both for business and personal projects. Generate a static QR code for free if the content needs no editing.

QuarkXpress
Page layouts for Mac or PC. An alternative to Adobe InDesign.

Quik (see “GoPro Quik”)

QuikMaps
Draw lines and place markers on a Google map using only your mouse cursor. Can be embedded. Free.

Quicktime
Use to record video from your webcam and Skype interviews.

Quik maps
Google maps for your website.

QuillBot
An AI-driven writing tool that paraphrases and checks for grammar as well as plagiarism. It will rephrase blocks of text and comes with a AI thesaurus. It can also convert text into bullet points. Compatible with Word and available on Google Docs and has a Chrome extensions. The free version is limited with a 700-character limit per check. There’s a yearly fee of $80 for more tools.

Quizlet*
Create study tools like flash cards and quizzes or make use of those created by others. Useful for rote learning. Easy to use but limited functionality. It will link to Google Classroom, but not connect to academic LMS (learning management systems like Blackboard). The company added Q-Chat in 2023. This AI feature tailors material to each user’s needs. The app adjusts the difficulty of the questions according to how well students know the material they’re studying and how they prefer to learn. Free version for most features. $1.99 to make it ad free. $19.99 for more options.

Quora
Crowdsourced questions and answers.

R
This statistical computing language is geared toward data work and thus is the choice of many data scientists for data visualizations. High learning curve so you’ll need to work with a developer. Lots of tutorials and plugins. Very versatile. Free.

R for Data Science
Free Book. Good reviews for beginners.

Race and Gender Hotline
A free consultation service to help reporters on deadline address questions about race and gender in their stories from The Society of Professional Journalists and the Trans Journalists Association.

The Radical Copy Editor’s Style Guide for Writing about Transgender People

RAND Corporation
Non-partisan think tank that produces a wealth of information on social science topics.

the Rasterbator
Make a printable poster out of an image.

Raw Graphs
Built on D3.js but doesn’t require knowing code. Most of the charts are for obscure purposes. You’ll need a developer. An option when you want a unique visualizations for a big project and can spend a decent amount of time on it.

Reaction Gifs  (no longer available)
Find and create animated GIFs.

Readable
Scores text based on how long or complicated your sentences are and level of accessibility. Free.

Readability Score
Cut and paste your text into a dialogue box to see the writing's grade level. Free, but for any contribution you get access to more advanced tools like readability alerts, PDF and Word doc processing and bulk uploads. TextEvaluator offers more feedback.

Realtime
What’s trending on the Internet based on bitly, the URL shortening and bookmarking service.

Reaper
Flexible with deep features, there are customization options and plugins to make it more useful. Non-professional users can pick it up quickly. Only $60 for individual, non-profit, or small business use. The full commercial license is $225.

RebelMouse
Platform for curating and aggregating social media content. It pulls from user's Twitter and Facebook feeds (among others) to create a page that showcases social content or organizes content around a single topic or user. Can be hosted by RebelMouse or integrated with a site built with WordPress. Here's a sample.

RecordiaPro
Record your incoming and outgoing phone conversations on any phone without needing equipment.  Works for interviews.

RecordIT
Simple screen record and save for creating GIFs.

Reddit*
What’s new and what’s popular online. Submit your own links, or vote on others to drive what’s appearing on the front page.

Reddit User & Lookup History
A search tool to find posts by a particular poster.

RedNotebook
Journaling app. Simple, quick to start. Easily search through old journals. Calendar navigation, customizable templates, export functionality. Free.

Reduct
Edit the video by editing the text. For instance, you can upload a long interview and the site (using machine learning) will transcribe the speech and tag each word to a visual frame allowing you to quickly generate a highlight reel or other edited videos.

Reel Director
Creates movies and lets you edit on phone similar to iMovie. $2.99.

Refe
A Tumblr site of free stock mobile photos.

Regex (no longer available)
Helps to verify the authenticity of digital images through its Metadata.

Religion Stylebook

RenderForest
An online animation maker with many templates. Easy to get started. Aimed at small businesses. Limited control. While you can add your own text, photos, and video clips, you can’t easily add clips with just text, No start from scratch option. A video explanation here. Free or paid accounts with more options starting at $9.99.

Reportedly (no longer available)
News service that lives in social media.

Reporters Committee First Aid
Mobile app Free guide gives reporters in the field immediate access to legal resources, particularly in situations where access or news gathering may be stymied. Search “reporters committee” in App Store.

Reppler (no longer available)
Helps you manage your social media reputation. Looks for privacy and security risks as well as inappropriate content (drugs, adult content, and potentially offensive language). Free.

Research Rabbit
Launched in 2021, it describes itself as “Spotify for papers”. Users save relevant papers to a collection. A list of recommended articles updates based on the collection. Alerts are more personalized than Google Scholar. Free.

Research Gate
Sends email recommendations of scholarly papers and offers a feed of them. Users can also see a chronological newsfeed of papers posted by their ResearchGate contacts. Around 150 million publication pages and 20 million users. Free.

Resilio Sync (formally Bittorrent Sync)
A widely used cloud storage format.

RevEye
A Chrome browser extension for checking whether an image has been published before, where it was published, or even what’s in it. RevEye will check several search engines all with a single right-click. Free. Video explanation.

Rev Voice Recorder*
Quality voice recorder and editor for both iPhone and Android. Includes Dropbox and Evernote integration. Free but voice-to-text human transcriptions in 12-hours for $1 a minute.

Ringr
App to record conversations on your phone for podcasts and interviews. Will work with both iOS & Android phones alone, making it one of the few options not requiring a computer. Guests receive an email and click a link to join the call. Uploads separate files to the cloud, then syncs them to avoid long distance glitches. Unlimited calls, storage. Interface not as nice as Riverside or Squadcast nor is the audio quality as good. 30-day free trial. The $8 basic plan. Premium plan includes conference calling, better sound quality, and split tracks.

Riverside*
An audio recorder (aimed at podcasters) that saves audio as you go—no loss if the connection is lost. Create and share highlight clips. Can do video as well on a separate track so podcasters can release a video component as well. Clean, easy to figure out dashboard. Supports up to 8 people on a recording. Can record uncompressed audio. A video introduction here. Basic plan for $9 a month gets you two hours of recording so most podcasters would need the $19 or $29 a month version.

Rocketium Online Video Creation Suite
Multiple video-related tools including a video editor designed to prep material for social media distribution: Upload clips, add text export. Lots of templates, stock images, fonts, and motion graphics. Easy to import articles and make videos based on the images, headlines, and subheadings. Limited functionality in the free version and videos are limited to three minutes. Paid version starts at $9 and includes transitions and animations but videos limited to 10 minutes. Discounts for students and teachers. 

Rode i-XLR*
A broadcast quality XLR adaptor that lets you connect it to the lightning port of the iPhone. The cable is about 10 feet long in order to reach an interview subject. You can adjust the headphone volume but there is no preamp or gain control. $149.

Roon (see Ghost)
Blogging platform.

Russell Sage Foundation
An organization that is tied into a large network of social science scholars across the US focusing   inequality, social mobility, race, class and related issues. 

Rhymer
Free rhyming dictionary.

Rock Content (formally Scribble Live)
Live-streaming. Create, curate and publish content to provide real time coverage and storytelling. Fee.

Runway AI
A multimodal AI system that can generate 5 or 10 second videos with text, images or video clips. Options include specifying a camera’s movement, angle, lighting, and more. Limited options once it is created. Easy to get started, but hard to use well. Prompting guide here. Expensive at $15 a month.

SavvyRoo
Place to create and share visual data. Watch a video explanation here.

SalesForce Marketing Cloud
Formally Radian6, it provides social media insights and reports. Relatively easy to use, and empowers companies to clearly understand their place in social. Paid.

SassMe
Colum vizualize color functions by inserting Hex codes.

SauceLabs
Cross-browser testing tool. Check out how your design looks on different browsers before going live.

Save My News
Lets journalists save links to the Internet Archive and WebCite. Clips and archived links can be downloaded in Excel.

Sensity
This tool is designed to spot fake human faces in pictures and videos. Engineers say they trained detectors using 100s of thousands of deepfake videos and GAN-generated images. Free.

Scout
Free service that provides daily insight to how our laws and regulations are shaped in Washington, DC and our state capitols. See a video here.

Scratch
MIT-developed site tilted for children (but adults too) to learn coding basics focused on helping people create interactive stories, games, and animations. Free.

Screencast-O-Matic
Screencasts can be shared on YouTube, embedded in websites, and accessed online. Runs as a java applet. Free.

Screencastify*
Chrome extension that records a computer screen. Videos are saved on your Google Drive account. Allows the user to record the desktop or record audio. Free.

Screenr (no longer available)
Makes screencasts that can be share in social media and seen on computers as well as mobile devices. No downloads. Free.

Screen to Gif
Select a portion of your screen and record anything that happens in that specific area.

Scribble Maps
A map-maker with API capabilities to use on outside websites. Create a map, publish online, embed in a document, or print as a hard copy. High-resolution imagery makes it possible to create high-quality prints and posters.Free for as many as five maps. Despite the technical tools for pros, novice map makers can make good use of it as well. More features with paid accounts starting at $14.

Scribus
Page layouts. Alternative to Adobe InDesign.

Scrivener*
App that gives you a single place to dump all your ideas. Especially helpful for creating and managing complex writing projects: writing a novel, play, TV show, magazine feature, etc. Write in fragments and then shuffle scenes/chapters in a "bulletin board" mode.. throw in research notes, multimedia files, and character sketches.  Allows you to slowly "grow” books, scripts, and articles. Easy to convert the document to an e-book, web page, a PDF, or Word doc. Works with Mac and Windows.  Free 30-use trial. $45 for the latest version. Many writers swear it's worth it. Doesn't work on iPads though.

Scroll Kit  (no longer available)
No coding knowledge needed to use this intuitive website development app that allows anyone to build online experiences.

SecureDrop
An open-source whistleblower platform using the Tor web browser to leak documents and communicate securely with journalists. A project of Freedom of the Press Foundation.

Security.org
This company offers home security, digital privacy and identity theft products. It also offers a free tool called “How Secure Is My Password.” See how difficult it would be for a computer to crack a particular password. It will tell you how long it would take for a computer to churn through the possibilities to figure it out.

Seesmic (no longer available)
Android apps to manage your social networks in one place.

Seelio (no longer available)
The portfolio network for student builders and doers.

Send Anywhere*
A free file transfer app (iOS and Android) for images, video, audio and text. Share up to 10GB per transfer, Your recipient uses an URL to access and download the files from the cloud.

SEOmov
SEO writing tips.

Sejda
A PDF editor that also can add images, drawings, and annotations, etc. There is a free version but you'll need to pay if you need to use it a lot.

Shopify
Offers a static QR code generator.

Shorthand*
A visual storytelling tool used by major news outlets that allows users to combine text, images, and video. See exactly how a story will look as it is built. See examples created by the BBC here and here. Free trial then pricing starts at $150 a month.

Shortwave AI
Draft editable responses in your style, based on hundreds of your prior replies. Free for basic use, or $7 to $14/monthly depending on features.

Shoulderpod S2*
A handle grip for your smartphone to steady your shots. Works with tripods and comes with a wrist strap. Additional accessories available. $50.

Shotcut
Most processes are simple but not everything and it has an odd-looking interface. However, it has gained a following thanks to a large selection of audio and video filters so it has become a favorite of editors who want effects. No preview on the filters. Free.

Shotgun Mic*
RodeVMGO Video Mic GO Lightweight On-Camera Microphone SuperCardiod. Lightweight directional microphone. Adaptor and extension cord needed as well for it to work with a iPhone 7.  $99.

Shure Mic for iOS*
Shure MV88 Digital Stereo Condenser Microphone for iOS. Stereo and mono options. Small and portable, it plugs directly into the iPhone’s Lightning Port. A 90-degree hinge allows you to adjust it to different angles to capture the best sound. Comes with an app that controls the gain, EQ, and stereo width. $149.

Shutterstock*
Royalty-free stock photos. With reverse image search, you can use drag a photo or illustration into search in order to find other images with a similar look and feel.

Signal 
Free, end-to-end encryption which is open source (that’s how you know it really is encrypted). Popular for journalists protecting themselves and sources. However, it does require a telephone to sign up.

Silk (no longer available)
A free data publishing and visualization platform for making visualizations from spreadsheets.

Silvrback
Blogging platform. Establish your own brand with a custom domain. Nice archive and bio pages. $29.99 a year special. 14 day free trial.

SimiliarWeb
Understand website metrics for a site; like how many visitors a website gets, and where they get their traffic from.

Sisense’s  
Graphically represent your large data sets clearly and efficiently. Nice interface, limited type of visualizations. Free trial. Cost based on case by case basis.

the Site Wizard
Cross-browser testing tool. Check out how your design looks on different browsers before going live.

Sitey
A do-it-yourself publishing platform, sames as WebsiteBuilder.com, SiteBuilder.com and Sitelio.com. Some reviewers, such as this one,  say there are many consumer complaints related to billing.

SimiliarWeb
Understand website metrics for a site; like how many visitors a website gets, and where it get its traffic from. Free plan though the paid accounts get more options.

SimpleWash  (formally FaceWash) (no longer available)
Designed to help you locate and remove potentially offensive comments and photos on Facebook and Twitter so you present yourself as more professional.

Slickwrite
Writing app that checks grammar along with flow, structure, word frequency, and overused phrases.

SlideShare*
Popular presentation tool owned by LinkedIn. Use documents, PDFs and video to create webinars, audio presentations, for online lectures etc. Solid analytics for free. Watch a slide show about SlideShare here.

Sodaphonic
A simple audio recording and trimming tool. The interface has a retro stereo feel. Free.

Skype
An advantage to using Skype for video conferencing is the ability to record video interviews. Afterward, you open Skype on a desktop and download your video as an .MP4 file. If you just want the audio you can extract it by importing the file into software like Adobe Premiere Pro or the free editing program Audacity.

Skyflow
A professional time-lapse video camera app for iOS that lets you pick the playback speed. Choose video resolution and format, motion blur, light trail effects, HDR, etc. Here is a tutorial. Free.

Slido
Q&A and polling platform focused on business needs. Video explanation here.

Slow Shutter Cam
Capture beautiful light trails, improves low light photos. 99 cents.

Smart Voice Recorder
Android recording app. Good for memos and group meetings. Decent audio quality. Allows users to skip silences, test the mic, determine where recordings are saved, etc. Free.

Smithsonian Open Access
Nearly 3 million high-resolution two- and three-dimensional public domain images from the Smithsonian. Not only images but data is available as well. You’ll find it in a GitHub repository here.

SMOVE
This smartphone video stabilizer that doubles as a charger. Portable, fits in your pocket. $200. 

Snapchat Stories
Collections of daily moments from users in cities around the world.

Snapseed*
Google's Snapseed is a powerful mobile photo tool. Both auto edit and editing controls. Lots of filters and effects including text for adding captions. Both IOS and Android. Tips for using it are here. Free.

Snopes*
Fact-checking site for internet rumors.  

Social Blade 
Shows YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, & Twitter account rankings. 

Social Flow*
Designed to makes sure your message goes out at the most optimum time by letting watch real-time conversations and expand audience engagement. Analyzes data to determine when money should be spent on Promoted Tweets, Sponsored Stories and Promoted Posts. Used by some major publishers like The Washington Post and Mashable. Starting at $99 a month.

Social Mention (no longer available)
Social media search and analysis. Sends you alerts based on your keywords in blogs, comments, videos, etc. which basically makes it a social media search engine. Free.

Social Science Research Network
Hundreds of thousands of important, current papers, many of which are available for free download as PDFs. Many of the articles are “working papers,” meaning they are in process toward a final, published form. Free. 

SocialBro*
Helps businesses manage and monitor their Twitter accounts, discover key influencers, schedule Tweets at the best times, track engagement, and analyze competitors. Free Trial with pricing starting at $13.95. Video explanation.

SocialOomph*
App that schedules tweets (and other social media), auto-follow new followers, tracking keywords, and monitor social media activity (such as mentions and retweets).  Free version and pro version.

Society for News Design
Columns and tips on design, workshop schedule, membership database and more.

Society of Publication Designers

SocMetrics (no longer available)
Allows you to identify influencers in a specific industry, interact with them and monitor your social media campaign. 

SoloLearn*
Free lessons on coding but with ads.

SoundCite
A project of Northwestern University's Knight Lab, it lets users embed audio into posts. So, for instance if you write "..thick, one-note guitar riffs shuffle and stomp with a heavy beat" you can make it so that when someone clicks on "thick, one-note guitar riffs" they will hear a short example. Watch a video explanation here.

SoundCloud*
Post your audio here and then link to it from your blog or embed it into your blog. Limited space free, more for a fee.

SoundForge
Free. Audio editing program, especially music.

SoundGecko (no longer available)
Convert text story into an MP3 audio file.

Sound Slides (no longer available)
Creates audio slideshows. Basic $40, Plus $70. There's a free version but it will display "demo" at the beginning. resizes your images for you, can reorder them, etc. but doesn't edit photos. Sample.

SocialOomph
App that schedules tweets (and other social media), auto-follow new followers, and monitor social media activity.  Free version and pro version.

Spark Camera*
Video filming and editing app. Add captions, titles, music and a voiceover. Easy to get started. Aimed at social media influencers. More info here and user guide here. iPhone only. Free.

Sparq code (formally Maestro) no longer available

Speaking Photo
Audio note-taking to go with photos. Take a picture of a scene then speak notes on the phone. Free.

Spinnakr
Real-time web traffic response tool. Lets you post a targeted response on your website.

SpliceApp (no longer available)
A video editing app that works with music, photos, text or video clips. $3.99.

Spredfast
Measures data from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr, such as reach and target audience success. Easy-to-digest graphs.

Spotify for Podcasters* (formerly Anchor)
An app for recording and editing audio. Record up to four guests on a single call, trim and edit tracks, and add music, all within the app. Video tutorial here. Free.

SproutSocial*
A popular social media management tool in which you can schedule social media posts, get snapshot metrics, and monitor messages. A single stream inbox with monitoring tools and robust analytics. Not free or as cheap as HootSuite, but can be customized in ways that HootSuite cannot be customized. Free trial, Packages from $39, $59 or $99 per month. 

Spundge
Read, save, filter and annotate content from the web — Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube included. (Free and paid versions).

SquadCast
Records a remote conversation for podcasts or an audio news report. Easy to use like Riverside. A built-in echo-cancellation feature. Records up to 4 people. Audio files are saved as you go and not after you are done (as often is the case). Records video for putting the podcast on YouTube as well. Makes the interview easier when you can see the person. Free one-week trial then paid plans starting at $10 a month.

SquareSpace
Inexpensive and easy way to build a website or blog. WordPress has more flexible design and functionality (no plugins with Square Space), but not everyone will want so many extras. More focused on content than coding. Nice templates and tools for businesses. 14-day free trial. $8--$24 a month includes hosting.

Stable Diffusion*
See Stability AI’s DreamStudio

Stability AI's DreamStudio*
A more accessible version of Stable Diffusion, which requires some technical skills.Users can create images through AI with many customizations, such as telling it what to avoid. An account must be created sign in with Google or Discord accounts. $1 for 100 credits, one image costs two credits.

Stack Overflow
A popular programming problem-solving sites despite a number of negative reviews. Ask your coding questions as you learn or find chunks of code. Low as $5 a month.

Steadicam Smoothee (no longer available)
The Smoothee gives you a steady, gliding shot by a balanced weight system that holds your phone on a frictionless ball joint.

Steller*
Create photo and video stories on an iPhone with an emphasis on mobile design. Create collections and share on social networks. Free. Sample.

Strip Creator
Create your own comic strip.

Stock Free Images
Nearly a million images donated by the Dreamstime contributors to download for free with registration. Credit must accompany the photo. There are some other restriction options.

Stockimg.AI
Uses AI to generate images, stock photos and wallpapers. Free trial then paid accounts start at $19 a month.

StockSnap.io
Large collection of free stock photos and high res images. The photos are under the creative commons public domain (no attribution required).

Stock Vault
More than 46,000 free stock photos. A variety of photographs and various licensing options.

Stock.xchng (no longer available)
Free stock photo site.

Storehouse (no longer available)
Group photos together to tell a story with this IOS app. Add text. Free.

Storify (no longer available)
Social media aggregate. Publish elements - photos, tweets, videos together. Free. 

StoryBench
Not hands on, more of a explanation of projects. Positive reviews.

Story Maps 
A cutsom mapping visualization tool based on ArcGIS with more mapping options than StroyMap JS in the paid version. With simple to use templates, you can  “walk” your viewers through a map-based story.  Example.

Story Planet (no longer available)
mix videos, photos texts and graphs with timelines, etc. 

StoryMap JS 
A simple mapping visualization tool produced by the Knight Lab at Northwestern for creating interactive maps and timelines. Based on Google's map software from OpenStreetMap. Does not require technical experience. Create slides and connect them on a map that can be embedded or upload your own basemap. Example. 

Storyful Multisearch
Chrome browser extension that searches multiple social networking platforms at the same time. Free.

Storyluxe
This iOS app will help to create Instagram Stories with many free options. More info here.

Stroome  (no longer available)
Browser-based video editing.

Stubborn Generator 
Construct characters and background objects with this free illustrator.

SudoWrite
A popular AI writing tool for novelists with options to start writing where you left off, “describe” a highlighted noun, or “brainstorm” ideas based on a situation you describe.

SugarSync
File backups accessible on all operating systems and platforms. 5 GB free. 60 GB for $10 a month. 

SuperFamous (no longer available)
Hi-res free stock photos under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.

SuperSummary Academic Citation Resources 
Links to style guides, FAQs, tutorials, quizzes, sample papers, and tools to help students' citation and research processes.

SunCaic
Allows you to see in any given area, on any given date, the direction of the sunrise and sunset.

Superhuman AI
Lets you press M to get an instant bulleted summary of any long email. $30 a month. Read more here.

Superimpose
This app allows you to erase the background of photos to fix a boring sky and so on. Easy to use. 99 cents or more features with Superimpose X for $4.99.

Survey Monkey*
Easy simple surveys. Inexpensive.

Sutori
A tool for teachers and students to craft historical timelines combining graphics, video, audio, text, quizzes, and more. Drag and drop little boxes of content. Built for collaborative efforts. Basic accounts are free or paid account with more features $49 a year.

Svbtle
Writing platform. Minimalist interface. Encourages reader response. Must apply for membership.

Sync.in (no longer available)
Collaborative writing tool. 

Tableau Public
Data visualization tools that are interactive. Maps, graphics, etc. Powerful but learning curve is high. Free. Samples.

Tableau Software
Easy to use, great capabilities. Popular but expensive. $70 each month.

Tailwind*
A Pinterest scheduler with analytics and features like a draft mode. Free trial then $119 a year.

TalkShoe
For call-in podcasts. Samples.

Talkwalker Alert
Like Google alerts, tracks keyword mentions on the web--such as your own name, your family, friends, company, etc. Get email notices when the phrase or name comes up on the Web. Free.

TapeACall*
Record cell phone calls and export the audio for editing, to email or upload to Google Drive or Dropbox. IoS and Android. Dial the TapeACall line, then dial the person you want to talk to, and merge the two calls into a conference. The recording is saved on the app. $24.99 a year. Watch a video here.

Taptu
RSS feed as a visual interface. Subscribe to the posts of a site. Free.

Teams
See Microsoft Teams.

TeamTreehouse
Tuturals on web design, coding, business, etc.  Students sign up for annual subscriptions.

TechSmith (formally Jing)
A free, easy-to-use screen capture application. Snap a screenshot or record a video, save and share. capture a presentation, lecture, or event.

Video Teleprompter Lite
Video recording teleprompter app using either the front-facing or rear-facing camera. Works on iPhones and iPads as well as Android phones. Free.

Temi*
Speech to text transcription in 5 minutes Advanced speech recognition software. 10 cents a minute.lism.

Test My Site
This Google tool will show how long it takes to load a site on a phone. It provides a score of Fast, Average or Slow and can generate a report.

TextEvaluator
Like Readability Score, it will tell you what grade level a piece of text is written on, the average length of sentences, etc.  But TextEvaluator goes further, including grammatical complexity, insights on vocabulary, etc.

TextExpander
Mac typing shortcut. Takes snippets of text and turns them into longer ones. Ideas for how to use it here.  $44.95.

TextGrabber*
Extracts text from a variety of printed sources (PDF, books, etc.) by using the iPhone camera. Can translate text from many languages. $4.99.

Thinglink*
Create hot-spot graphics. Make images interactive by adding music, a voice over, and text. free for testing, professional account for starting at $20 a month. Sample.

Tiki-Toki
Web-based data-focused timeline maker. Easy-to-use. Free to students while paid accounts run from $5-24 a month with more options.

TikTok video to GIF

TiltShift Video
Create the tilt-shift effect for photos and video. No in-app camera to shoot video and no sharing options. $3.99.

Time Line (no longer available)
Attractive timeline presentations.

TimelineJS
Knight Lab’s free tools to build visually-rich interactive timelines. It can pull in media from different sources such as Twitter, Flickr, Google Maps, YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud, etc. The process for making one involves filling out a supplied spreadsheet template.

Timeline Maker
Lots of options but a bit of a learning curve. Not cheap: Starts at $49 for a single-user edu license.

TimeMapper
Timelines and maps. Sample video here.

TimeToast
Nice visualization for historical timelines but no customization. Good for teachers and students. Free version or more templates starting at $5.99 a month.

Tineye
This reverse image search engine connects images to their creators. Helps in image verification.

Tiny URL*
Web address shortening service.

TinyVox (no longer available)
Allows users to record, store, listen and share MP3 audio files in social media. Can be used to record interviews as well.

TinyWow
Online file conversion site for various types including PDFs, JPGs, etc. While the site says it deletes files after 15 minutes and does not sell user data, there are a number of posts questioning whether the site is legitimate. Free.

TK8
Sophisticated option for the IT-types more than the general public. Templates for credit cards and bank accounts but PC only and no search field.  Basic: $20 standard version. $30 pro option withmultiple user option.

TLDR
A scientific search engine that generates one-sentence summaries of research papers.

ToffeeShare*
Share files. No limit in size or online storage. No cost.

Tome
An AI-powered tool for telling stories and sharing ideas. Users can ask for automatically generated text, images, and other content based on a prompt. Allows teams to collaborate in real-time to create slides and presentations. $10 a month.

Tone Analyzer (no longer available)
Linguistic analysis detects the emotional tone of your writing. Detect the levels of particular emotions it triggers and language style. Free.

Tonl
Stock images that showcase racial diversity.

Topsy (no longer available)
Search content published on Twitter and the web, and sort it by date or relevance. Use it to find influencers in a certain subject area.

Total Recorder
Record video conferences on your PC with this long-time favorite. It can record from designated applications, or simply record any system sound coming through your computer. Audio Hijack does the same thing for Mac.

Traackr
Find and follow people who are influential in your industry. See how social media leaders are responding and contributing to your content. Target authorities to help your social media campaigns get off the ground and track the results. 

Skyword (formally TrackMaven)
Audience insights in real-time which are compared against peers. Focused on big brands and enterprise marketers. Paid.

Trackur
Social media monitoring tools and measurements.

Transcriptive
Digital Anarchy’s plugin to create automated transcriptions of video in Premiere Pro. Free Trial. $299.

Transom*
All things audio. A performance space, editorial session, an audition stage, a library, and a hangout.  How to guides for podcast beginners.

Trans Journalists Association Style Guide 

Trelby
Free script-writing alternative to Final Draft and Fade In. Enough features to get you started.

Trello
Organizational tool that integrations with many other apps. Tasks or projects are stored in cards which are then arranged into columns.

Tribal Nations Media Guide

TripIt
Organize all your travel plans into mobile itineraries.

TripWow (no longer available)
Quick way to create a slideshow. Sponsored by TripAdvisor.

Truth or Fiction
A fact-checking site for urban rumors.

TubeMogul
Upload your video and TubeMogul will send it to many social media sites at one time-though you'll have to set up accounts with all the sites on your own.  Tracks viewership. A part of Adobe's Marketing Cloud.

Tumblr
This social platform allows users to see posts from all of the blogs they follow in a single stream. Sort of Twitter, but with full text and more images. You can populate your stream with content by others simply by clicking the "like" and "reblog" buttons. Easy to use. Limited customization. Best for photography, art. Free.

Turabian
Based on The Chicago Manual of Style. Chicago focuses on publishing, while Turabian focuses on academic writing and editing.

TV Tropes
Fiction writing help through examination of storytelling devices in creative works.

Tweepi
Cleans up your Tweeter feed--removing inactive followers in bulk and offers other Twitter management chores. From $7.49 a month.

Tweet Beep
Get email alerts whenever somebody tweets about something you're interested in--even keep track of who’s tweeting your website or blog, even if they use a shortened URL. Free account available or paid account at $20 a month for more options.  Video explanation here.

Tweetbot
Mac app with customizable options. View threads showing co-worker tweets only, for example or retweet from multiple accounts. $3. 

Tweet Chart
Allows you to generate a report of custom data for anything you can search Twitter for: hashtags, words, phrases, usernames or URLs. A reporter could determine which hastags were used most frequently in the past week, deciding to, for instance, report on a recent crime spree or a particular local event. Free.

TweetDeck*
Look at multiple Twitter feeds on your desktop. Powerful filters help you focus on what interests you. Schedule Tweets, set up notification alerts for new tweets. Option to have it ask for confirmation before a tweet goes out--giving you another chance to avoid sending something inappropriate or not well-crafted. Bought by Twitter in 2011.

Tweet Keeper (no longer available)
Save tweets (yours or someone else's) starting with the most recent 3200 tweet, then adds new tweets. Up to eight accounts. $7.99

Tweet Level (no longer available)
Allows specific searches for hashtags to determine trends by watching a topic's buzz level or to evaluate the user's social influence. You can also evaluate the buzz around a certain topic to determine if it’s a trend worth paying attention to.

Twitter iOS App
Using to create GIFs.

Twitter Lists 
Tweet list manager (similar to TweetDeck)

Tweet Reach (no longer available)
Lets you see how far your tweets travel and determine the effectiveness of your social media campaign. How many people your messages reach, how many tweets it took to reach them, how many times your tweets have been shared by retweets.

Twellow
A directory of Twitter users. Lets you search for people based on their name and the information they put into their bios. Find people with similar interests to follow. 

Twine
An open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories. Users can create their own adventure stories and games. High learning curve for beginners. Requires the ability to write basic HTML and CSS. Free.

TwistedWave
Audio editing program (Mac only). $80.

Twitonomy
Detailed and visual analytics on anyone's tweets, retweets, replies, mentions, hashtags. Easily backup and export tweets, retweets, etc. Monitor particular user tweets. Find out those you follow but don't follow you back. Download your followers and following lists to Excel. Free trial. Paid accounts start at $19 a month.

TwitPic (no longer available)
Trending photos and videos on Twitter.

Twit Scoop (no longer available)
Realtime tag cloud of what is hot on Twitter right now. See what the leading subjects of conversation are on Twitter. Especially helpful whenever there is some big news event taking place.

TwitterBioGenerator
A canned description of you is a mere click away!

Twitter Feed (no longer available)
TwitterFeed to automatically fetch the latest entries from an RSS feed of your blog or website and send them as tweets through your Twitter account.

Twitter moments
Bundled experiences of Twitter content.

Twitter Search
See what people are saying about your competitors by to:competitor replacing competitor with Twitter handle.

TwXplorer
Explore what’s trending on Twitter. Filter for the 500 most recent uses of a word (or phrase). The app will list of users tweeting about that phrase and hashtags being used in relation to that word or phrase. A product of Northwestern University’s Knight Lab. Free.

Type Studio
Turns audio into text and allows users to edit video by editing the transcribed text. Easy to use the text for adding subtitles as well. The free version only gives users 10 minutes of upload time per month. Pro accounts starting at $12.

Typito
While not for assembling video clips into a movie (such as a pro video editor or asocial media video) it can be useful to add effects to your video such as text effects, animated titles, captions, etc. Library of free photos. Easy to use design. Free limited plan and expensive monthly plans starting at $15.

Typora
Minimalist interface markdown text editors that lets you focus on the words instead of the interface. $15 one-time cost.

Udacity
User-friendly online school. Users very positive. $79 a month.

Ulysses
Writing app for Mac. Uses plain text or Markdown for writing, but also includes notes, exporting, organization and more. $44.99.

Unbound 
App for simple and pretty viewing experience of your Dropbox photos. Fast with lots of features. $2.99 a month. Mac version $9.99/ a month.

Unfold*
App for iOS or Android for creating vertical montages of videos and photos. 25 free templates, dozens more as in-app purchases. A product of SquareSpace. More info here.

Unitag QR
EU company offering a QR code generator and a QR code reader. Must create an account first. Especially for small companies that conduct transactions in Euros.

Unsplash
Used by many professional photographers, offers hi-res photos featuring many random shots. Use their photos however you want under the Public Domain dedication license. Subscribe and get 10 new photos every 10 days. Owned by Getty Images.

Untools
Hand-picked tools for problem-solving.

Uprise.io (no longer available)
Discover blogs that are sharing content that your users are interested in or enter your competitor's website address and get detailed listings of their content and shares of that content.  Alternative to Buzzsumo.

Urban institute data visualization Style Guide 

User Testing
Pays people to try out new websites or smartphone apps and take video while they do so, showing our people use products (or misunderstand them). 

UXPin
Prototyping tool for Mobile app design. Simple setup with drop and drag.

VALL-E
Microsoft's AI-powered can replicate someone’s voice with just 3-second sample. The voice synthesis machine learning model is not yet available to the public.

VanceAI
A collection of a dozen photo-editing tools powered by AI to remove blurriness, noise, add anime visuals, etc. Easy-to-use. Three free images each month. Paid accounts start at $6.

Vecteezy
Millions of free stock photos culled from Flickr with the Creative Commons license.

Veed.io
Creates AI generated videos. Type in an idea and it will create a video based on the prompt including a script, subtitles, and stock video. Especially designed for making social media posts. Users can clone their own voice for voiceovers. There is a free watermarked version available or $20 monthly for more features and no watermark.

Veracity
A reverse image search tool. Gets quite a few low ratings from users.

VideoMic ME*
Compact and lightweight, directional microphone for smartphones. Adaptor and extension cord needed.

Video Scribe
Create animated videos, replicating the popular whiteboard-style tutorial.  7 day free trial. $16.50 a month.

Videolicious (aquired by SquareSpace)
App for easy photo and video editing on your iPhone.

VideoShop
Excellent for making simple edits, add music and subtitles. More info here. Free.

Video Toolbox
Make quick edits to videos. Convert video formats, make thumbnails, add subtitles, add audio, a watermark, or merge video files. Outdated interface and not user-friendly. Lacking preview options. Other apps are likely better options.

Video to GIF
This GIF-making app is tailored to iPhone users. Easily convert GIFs from videos in your iCloud library and add moving text. Free.

Vidi (no longer available)
Drupal-based embeddable modules.

Vimeo
Video hosting and editing. In 2023, it added AI-powered tools to generate scripts from text prompts, display scripts while filming, and allow search for words in video transcripts.

Vine (no longer available)
A mobile service that lets you capture and share short looping videos.

Visage
Create infographics and interactive charts for websites and social media graphics. The free account allows for three images a month.

Visme
Create graphics and maps just for a particular platform for social-specific content. Free for up to five maps with limited features. Paid accounts starting at $15 month. Also has a QR code generator for static codes.

Visual Editors
A visual editor promotes visual journalism literacy in graphics, photo, video and design. 

Visualead
Integrate QR codes seamlessly into branded packaging. Good for marketers, small businesses, and professionals with limited graphic design skills.

Visual.ly
Create infographics and data visualizations. 

Visualize Free
Upload a data set from a spreadsheet (or cut and paste) for charts, maps, diagrams, etc with a drag and drop designer. Registration needed for an account, but it is free). Lots of public-available data to work with (like data.gov). Uploads are private, so that other users cannot gain access to your data.

VivaVideo Pro
Lots of features for video editing. Music, filters, etc.

Vizualize.me (now a part of Parchment)
Create your infographic resume for free.

Vlogit
Editing two-track video, add voiceover. More info here. Free.

Voice Record Pro*
Professional voice recorder that saves high quality WAV files. Available for both iOS and Android but more features in the iOS version including an automatic transcription tool. Record audio from events, voice memos and on-site sounds at unlimited length, add markers, share or upload. While it is not an audio editing app, you can trim the beginning and end of your recordings. Short tutorial here.An explanation for journalists here. Free though the paid version ($6.99) has no ads.

VoiceBase*
Transcribes audio to text.s

VoiceMeeter
Rout any audio on your Windows computer from one application to another. The Macs alterntive is Loopback.

Vokle (no longer available)
Broadcast townhall-style meetings.

Voddio (no longer available)
Formally 1st video, this editor app gives you two tracks of video and up to four tracks of audio. No lower-thirds option.  Free.

VSCO*
Great start-to-finish photo/video app. Easy to use filters and helpful tutorials. Manual controls like focus lock, exposure lock, and white balance. Edit images and share them on social media. IOS. Here is a tutorial. Free version or $19.99 a year for 170 presets.

Vuvox (no longer available)
Multimedia collage tool.

Vyclone (no longer available)
Record a video at the same time and place as another person records it. This app automatically synchs the videos into a single, multi-angle masterpiece. Free in app store.

Vyond (formally GoAnimate)
Make animated videos. Free 14-day trial. Subscription plans: $39 a month or $299 each year.

W3Schools Online Web Tutorials*
Learn HTML, CSS, etc. Easy-to-use. Navigate.

WatchFramebyFrame
Can also be used to play YouTube and Vimeo videos frame by frame, to see any inconsistencies in content.

WavePad 
Free audio editing program.

Wavosaur
Free Audio editing program.

WaveShop
Free audio editing program.  Bit-perfect, minimizing the loss of quality by altering files only when absolutely necessary.

Wave.Video
Basic video editor for social media posts with many templates including free music, stock photos, and video extras. Intuitive interface and easy to move into social media. Limited text options. Free version doesn’t allow downloads and videos of no more than 15 seconds. To get more than one minute it’s a whopping $48 a month.

Wavve.co
A good audiogram-builder tool. Similar to headliner.app. Free with paid versions starting at $12.99 a month. Short video explanation here.

Wayback Machine*
This internet archive saves snapshots of websites even if the site has been taken down. Free.

Web.com
Easy to use interface to build websites using templates and stock photography. However, it doesn’t let you switch templates and there is no free option but the paid versions are inexpensive.

Webex
Cisco’s video conferencing software. Easy-to-use, nothing to download. Several pricing plans-but not cheap.

Webflow*
Aimed at website designers but does not require coding skills. More flexibility than SquareSpace, Wix, etc. and more intuitive than WordPress but still has a steeper learning curve. Offers hosting options. A free account is available with more options starting at $12 a month.

Website Planet
Find out if a website you are trying to reach is down for everyone or just you.

Weebly
Simple website creation. Possibly the most easy-to-use with a useful drop and drag function. Limited customization. Free (with footer ad) but more options with paid subscription from $8-$38 monthly.

WeTransfer*
A file transfer service, Dropbox has more options for the price. WeTransfer is free for individual users, but $12 for companies needing more.

WeVideo*
Semi-professional video editing with a real timeline with precise controls. A great app to help you learn simple video editing. Lots of templates, stock audio and video as well as text-based motion graphics templates. Record your webcam, or screen—or both at the same time (helpful for making tutorial videos). Both iOS and Android. A learning curve that’s not too steep. The free plan is really a demo with a watermark. Best options is unlimited plan ($6.39 a month).

What the Font
Figures out what font you are looking at.

WhoPostedWhat
Intended for investigative journalists, this site will provide a keyword search on specific dates for Facebook posts. Free.

Who's Talkin'? (no longer available)
Social media search tool. Alerts you to mentions. Helps you to search for particular conversations.

Who.is
Look information about who owns a website.

Wickr Signal
Send encrypted messages, set how long those messages last before they self-destruct. Attachment support. Free. 

Wideo
Will do some editing for social media video but its primarily for making keyframe-based animations and using premade animations. Simple, user-friendly, so it works for beginners and semi-pros alike though there is a learning curve. Templates, transitions, and illustrations. Storyboard creator and text-to-speech generator. One week trial then $59 a month.

Widgetbox
A collection of widgets.

Wildcard (no longer available)
IOS App that curates bits of breaking stories based on your preferences while taking into account what your Twitter friends share. Good-looking interface, easy to use on your phone.

Wikimedia Commons
Offers free stock photos under all different licenses as well as sounds and videos.  The link to the CC Creative Common license will tell you how you can use that image.

WinstonAI
AI detection tool with a Google Chrome plug-in that lets you detect AI written material on a web page. Free with a paid version for more options.

Wix*
Drag and drop website builder using visually impressive layouts. Active customer support but hard to move away. Student example here. Free but a paid account is needed to unlock some features you would expect to be free. Paid accounts start at $8.50 a month.

Wolfram Alpha
Computational knowledge engine. Enter a search string and have immediate display of various pieces of information regarding that string. The Pro subscription allows users to input their own data and quickly converted into dynamic and interactive charts. The price tag is $4.99 a month and limited to twenty uploads each month.

Wombo Dream
An image generator for your phone. Pick various design styles, like abstract, realistic, comic, etc. There’s a free version, but more options with a paid account: $90 per year or $10 per month.

Wondershare
Video editing app. Easy-to-use with standard effects though not the more advanced effects. $59.99.

Woopra
A way to understanding website visitors from the moment they “set foot” on your site. People Profiles offer details on individual customers. There is a free plan but you have to pay to get tools like behavioral segmentation.

Word Counter
Cut and paste your document (or just type) to see how many words, characters, and sentences you are using. It shows what words are overused, the average number of words in your sentences, and the reading level you are writing at. Free.

Word Frequency Counter
See how often you use (and overuse) words and phrases in your writing.

Word Lens
Free real-time translation app. Purchased by Google. iOS version.

Wordle 
Generate word clouds for free. Save to public gallery and then you can get the embed code. Samples.

WordPress.com* 
WP-dot-com is free and easy to use. The dot-org version is not.  WP-dot-com includes hosting and a domain name (yourdomain.wordpress.com) butyour own domain name is only $15 more. Basic customization available (themes, colors, layout and fonts).  Limited monetization and plugin options. An AI-powered writing assistant has been added that can write blogs. Jetpack AI can mimic the site’s tone, edit posts, and translate content into 12 languages.

WordPress.org
The most often used software for publishing on line. Pick your own domain name, host whereever you like, and add plugins as you like. Steeper learning curve that WP-dot-com.

WordStream
Upload your comma-delimited file with time and text columns and you get a chart. Adjust sizes and the metrics. Free.

WordTune
It will rewrite a users material—an entire piece or specific sentences in order to make it more casual or formal or just to make it clearer. The grammar check and other features are weak compared to Grammarly and other options. $120 a year or $24.99 monthly.

WordTune Read
An easy-to-use browser extension that gives users summaries of articles or books up to 300 pages using AI technology. The summary can be based on a single word. Better at locating small bits of important information rather than a thorough understanding of a topic. The free version includes three articles each month.

Workday Adaptive Planning
Formally Adaptive Insight, this business software focuses on planning and reporting with data visualization tools. High learning curve.

WorkFlowy
Digital note taking app. Excellent design, but lacks due dates, reminders of upcoming deadlines and calendar view. Free version limits you to 500 lists or "items" per month.  Pro accounts can be backed up to Dropbox. Individual pro accounts ($4.99 per month or $49 per year) and Team ($3.99 per month per user, or $39 per year per user, with a two user minimum) A short video introduction here.

WowSlider
An image slider with wide compatibility and easy embed.

WPbeginner
A free WordPress resource site for beginners. Tutorials for non-techy users including reviews of plugins.

Writable
Uses ChatGPT to help grade student writing assignments. It is being offered widely to teachers in grades 3-12.

Writefull
Checks your text against a huge database of correct language. Use it to find language you might not have considered. A desktop app that works with emails, Word docs, etc. Free. 

WriteSonic
AI content writing tool that includes a paraphrasing tool and SEO-optimizing. Free trial for about 6000 words. Paid subscribtions start at $12 a month.

WTFViz
Visualizations that make no sense.

Xtimeline
Creates timelines.

Xtranormal
Create animated movies.

Yandex
Search the internet from an image. Free.

Yasni
Search tool for a phone number, email address, profession or location of any person.

Yoast SEO
A WordPress plugin to work SEO into your writing,

YouChat
Offers similar answers to ChatGPT with the added feature of providing links to webpages related to your query. No sign up required. Free.

YouSendit
Sending large files. Receipts and download tracking. 2 GB free. 5 GB for $10 a month.

YouTube Creator Hub
Resources to help create better video content and bigger audiences. An online community for serious YouTube creators.

Zamzar
Video and audio file converter.

Zapier
Tools for connecting over 1,000 web services (such as Evernote, Gmail, and Dropbox). Works like IFTTT. So you can create recipes like “if I receive an email with an attachment, automatically save the attachment to Google Drive”. Automated Twitter posts, archived Twitter posts, easy analysis.  Up to 100 tasks each month for free.  More of paid subscription starting at $15 per month.

Zebra QR
Create QR menus in a PDF or a landing page. Especially for dining places (cafes, restaurants, etc.)

Zeega (no longer available)
Create interactive videos. Free.

ZeeMaps
Create interactive maps, even for large datasets. Does not require an account. Free for up to five maps. Import spreadsheets and render them as the base layer of a map. More features and no branding for paid accounts starting at $19.99.

Zencastr
For recording podcasts. Good quality. The interviewee doesn’t need to download and install an app, they can just click on a link, and run it in a browser. No editing, hosting, and publishing, however. Nice dashboard. Video record options for posting to YouTube. Limited free version or $20 a month for the pro version.

Zero Height
Put your online style guide in order with this easy-to-build style guide maker.

Zoho Reports
Analytics tool to design intuitive dashboards and data visualizations. Easy to learn. Beautiful graphics but limited customization. from $22 to $444 a month. Free trial.

Zoho Survey
Online or offline surveys. Easy to use but limited question options. Has a mobile app to check survey progress. Great reporting features. Comparable to SurveyPlanet but with more features and options. Limited free option. Many features are available for the $20 a month option. $60 per month for the Enterprise plan.

Zoom
Thanks to the pandemic it has become the go-to video conferencing option. The focus on being a video tool (rather than all the features Teams offers) means it’s likely the best choice if that’s what you want to do. Reliable and better than Teams with a large number of participants (and external meetings in general) where the goal is face-to-face rather than productivity There is a free plan.

Zoom iQ7 Mic*
This compact condenser mic is portable. Can be set to record a source from the front with or without the surrounding ambiance from the sides. $99.

Zotero 
Cite sources directly in a Word or Google document in thousands of formats. Organize your research by tagging sources with keywords and saving them to collections. Free.

Zxing Project
QR code generator.  

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​Photo Credit: dimnikolov

​Photo Credit: dimnikolov

AI Tools

(best options are starred)

Adobe Firefly*
An all-in-one solution for video production, Adobe’s AI-driven multimedia production tool is easy to use. It can do AI video editing, 3D modeling, text-to-image and text-to-video generation, photo editing, AI-enhanced scene transitions, auto-resizing and color correction. Of course, it has a smooth integration with Adobe Creative Cloud. Because it was trained on Adobe Stock images, there are no copyright issues. All the generated images safe for commercial use. The downside: it doesn’t do well with complex queries. Free version provides 25 monthly generative credits or $4.99 a month.

ArtBreeder
Create portraits and landscape images with this AI-based creation tool. Free. An introduction and review here.

AudioCraft
This open-source generative AI from Meta creates audio and music from text prompts. It has three models: MusicGen for composing music, AudioGen for creating sound effects, and EnCodec, which is an audio compression tool to rival the MP3 format. To avoid copyright issues, it was trained on Meta-owned and licensed music.

Bard AI*
Google’s conversational AI is now Gemini.

Bing AI
This feature in Microsoft’s search engine (Bing) is powered by OpenAI’s DALL-E for images and ChatGPT for text. Free.

Browse.aI
A browser extension that lets you build “robots” and set them up to complete tasks of your choosing such as tracking product prices, gathering bulk data on competitors, and even academic research. There’s a limited free version and paid accounts starting at $39.

BypassGPT
Claims to be an undetectable AI writer. Free or paid version.

Canva*
The graphic design platform has integrated generative AI into all its products including: image, and text creation, photos, audio, and video editing. Use Canvas drag-and-drop to create social media graphics, headers, slides, flyers, photo collages, posters, infographics, even mind maps for concepts. Share to social media straght from the app or download for posting. Free. $12 a month gets you more options.

Character AI
Chat with artificially constructed simulations of famous TV and movie characters as well as real public figures and celebrities. When tested, some characters were only vaguely like what might be expected. Fun but not necessary accurate. Free.

ChatGPT*
This OpenAI chatbot remembers what you've written or said, so the interaction has a dynamic conversational feel. GPT-4 can use both images and text as inputs, process up to 25K words. It can write and explain code. It doesn’t do sourcing and does not pull from the most recent info. Can browse the internet with Bing. Performed faster than other chatbots in tests. offering more-thorough answers, and answers more-difficult, complex questions There is a limited free version or pay $20 a month for ChatGPT Plus.  

ChatSonic*
Created by WriteSonic built on top of the same technology that powers ChatGPT. Can assume personas such as a philosopher or stand-up comic. Create up to 100 AI-generated images each month for free. Connected to the internet, so it can provide real-time, up-to-date answers, which ChatGPT cannot do. Free.

Chinchilla AI
The name of DeepMind’s most advanced AI tool, developed by Alphabet. Not available to the public—yet.

Claude*
This AI is from Anthropic, a startup co-founded by ex-OpenAI execs with funding from Google. It is especially designed to be inoffensive. Like ChatGPT, it can act on text or uploaded files. Useful for summarizing long transcripts, clarifying complex writings, and generating lists of ideas and questions. Can analyze huge documents, up to 75K words at a time. Can perform computing tasks including filling out forms, planning an outing and building a website. In tests, it is more conversational, gives direct answers, sometimes links to sources, and offers better creative writing suggestions than other chatbots but can be slower. Free.

Cody*
This AI allows users to create (without coding) a chatbot that can answer questions limited to a specific knowledge base to reduce the likelihood of incorrect information. Free up to 100 interactions. Paid accounts start at $29 a month.

CoPilot
Released by Microsoft-owned GitHub built on OpenAI technology and integrates with services like Bing and Microsoft 365. It can translate basic human instructions into functional computer code. Intended for developers, better at tasks than other models. In tests it was weak writing for business but strong on creative writing.

Copy.ai
AI text-generation tool for copy writing. Lots of features. Some instability, slowness, lack of sourcing and possible plagiarism issues. 2,000 words: Free after that paid accounts start at $49 a month.

CopyLeaks
AI detection tool.Available as a Chrome extension. Free with paid version for more options.

Craft.do
Document-creation tool with AI features. Summarizes text, can create an outline, and make suggestions as to what to write next. There’s a free plan with limitations or subscriptions starting at $6 a month.

DALL-E*
OpenAI’s tool that turns written text into images using AI. Named after painter Salvador Dali and Disney Pixar’s WALL-E. Understands long, complex queries. A limited number of images are free. $20 per month for ChatGPT Plus.

D-ID Creative Reality Studio
This AI brings chatbots to life enabling real-time conversation with digital humans. Users can upload a single image and text to generate video. Free trial then paid accounts, offering more humanlike expressions, starting at $6 a month. Video explanation here.

FlowGPT
Community members can share and comment on the prompts in this dataset. subscriptions starting at $5 a month.

Gemini* (formally Bard)
Google claims this large language model is better at math, coding and other tasks than many other programs. It provides real time responses with the help of Google’s search engine. Besides text, it can take commands that come as videos, images, voice and code. It has access to more timely and updated information than ChatGPT. Gemini Advanced costs $20 a month after the trial period ends.

Google Pinpoint
This tool uses AI to analyze PDFs, strip text from images and transcribe audio.

GPT-2 Detector
OpenAI’s GPT-2 Detector (Hugging Face) is a tool that helps to identify AI generated text.

GPTZero
Detects whether an essay was written by ChatGPT to help educators to combat AI-based plagiarism. Built by a computer science student at Princeton who was a former data journalist with the BBC. It has various settings for AI and human + AI.

GrammarlyGo
Grammarly’s AI tool that can write content in your personal writing style. Based on situational context, it will offer prompts to adjust the message's tone for different scenarios while adhering to you or your company’s voice. Available in April 2023.

GrowthBar
AI to generate SEO-friendly text. Analyze competing websites.

HeyGen
Allows users to generate deepfake videos of real people “saying” almost anything based on a single picture of their face and a script. Can be translated into more than 40 languages. There are free plans with limited options. Paid accounts start at a hefty $29 a month.

Hive
Spots AI-generated text and photos. Claims its service is more accurate than others on the market. Use the demo tool for free without even signing up but you have to contact the for full-access.

Hugging Face
This open source data science and machine learning platform operates like a GitHub for AI. You can host your own AI models, train them, collaborate with a team, and test your projects. Use models created by others. There are also datasets to use.

Hypernatural*
Make short videos of text, audio, a link, etc. with AI. No editing skills needed. The results are less generic than other AI-video makers, partly because the user makes stylistic choices along the way, narration, color palette, transitions, video orientation, or use your own photos. Make 10 free 30 second videos (no longer) and after than paid accounts start at $12 a month.

Ideogram*
An excellent AI image generator that can also create text. While MidJourney produces higher quality images, this one is easier to use for beginners. It has a simple to use interface and is free.

Jasper AI*
AI story writing tool for fiction and nonfiction. Pick a tone of voice for style. Pre-built templates available. A more business-focused AI that is particularly helpful for advertising and marketing. Remembers past queries, However, no sources are provided and limited to pre-2022 information. Short free trial. $29 month.

LAIKA
An AI writing tool, WriteWithLaika is especially focused on fiction and drama. Free.

Lensa
Create digital self-portraits, made with AI technology through the open source Stable Diffusion model that renders selfies into artwork. Developed by Prisma Labs, locataed in California by Russian developers. One week free trial then $30 a month. The avatar tool costs a separate $3.99 for 50 images.

Leonard
A good choice for AI image creation for the budget minded. Generous free option.

Lex
AI text-generation tool that’s simple and efficient. Not open to the public but you can get on a wait list.

LLaMA 2
Meta’s AI that’s open source so that anyone can build commercial products on top of it. The company is not revealing what data it was trained on and says it can’t assume users it doesn’t include copyrighted works. Like other large language models, it can produce falsehoods and offensive language. Free.

Maker
Generates written and visual content. Free trial then $25 a month.

Microsoft Designer's Image Creator
One of the best image creators, it is powered by DALL-E 3. Accessible in the same place that you access Microsoft's AI chatbot Copilot. Free (though you must create a Microsoft account).

MidJourney*
One of the best AI image generators, it uses machine learning to create high-quality pictures based on text. The interface has been improved since it first launched. There is a limited free version but paying the monthly cost will avoid annoying ads. You’ll find a good prompt book here and a guide to get started here.

Munch
Uses AI to repurpose video content for social channels and more.

MusicML
Google’s tool that can text descriptions into music. Users can specify “vibe, mood, or emotion” and styles like “electronic” or “classical.” It won’t generate music with specific artists or vocals.

New/s/leak
This “NetWork of Searchable Leaks” uses AI to review large amounts of text in a dataset to help journalists find connections for story research. Free.

NightCafe
Create art with the help of Artificial Intelligence.

NovelAI
AI story creator. Easy-to-use but fantasy fiction only. Starts at $10 a month.

OpenAI Playground
A ChatGPT alternative that acts similar (and is limited to pre-2022 info) but the interface isn’t as friendly. However, it is more customizable. Free.

Opus Clip
A generative AI video tool that repurposes long videos into shorts especially suitable for social media.

Perplexity AI*
A good research option among the generative AI tools, it acts like a search engine but includes results from the web (unlike ChatGPT). Automatically shows where the information came from, so it’s more reliable than ChatGPT. Users can specify where they want the information to be drawn from among a few categories such as academic sources or YouTube. Users can also upload documents as sources and ask it to rewrite prompts. It suggests follow-up questions you might not have considered. Less useful for creative writing. In tests, it was better at summarizing passages, providing information on current events and do coding better than other chatbots. Unmatched speed and accuracy in processing millions of data makes it very useful to data scientists for advanced predictive models. Free. Video tutorial here.

PI
Pi stands for “personal intelligence” and is the creation of Inflection AI. The company says it has a strong ethical framework around the AI and is committed to providing accurate and comprehensive information. More focused on the user than many of the other apps.

Pika
This generative AI company offers a tool that can create or edit videos. Users can submit text prompts, images, or videos to create new content, modify existing videos, or apply various styles, including 3D animation, cartoon, and cinematic.

Poe* (Platform for Open Exploration)
Created by Quora, this AI lets users create a personalized chatbot using one of 70 bots (such as OpenAI or Anthropic). Poe lets you compare and contrast models to find the right fit for your specific need in any given moment. (Poe doesn't have its own large language model.) Free.

Postwise.ai
AI-driven Twitter writing tool.

QuillBot
An AI-driven writing tool that paraphrases and checks for grammar as well as plagiarism. It will rephrase blocks of text and comes with a AI thesaurus. It can also convert text into bullet points. Compatible with Word and available on Google Docs and has a Chrome extensions. The free version is limited with a 700-character limit per check. There’s a yearly fee of $80 for more tools.

Quizlet*
Create study tools like flash cards and quizzes or make use of those created by others. Useful for rote learning. Easy to use but limited functionality. It will link to Google Classroom, but not connect to academic LMS (learning management systems like Blackboard). The company added Q-Chat in 2023. This AI feature tailors material to each user’s needs. The app adjusts the difficulty of the questions according to how well students know the material they’re studying and how they prefer to learn. Free version for most features. $1.99 to make it ad free. $19.99 for more options.

Runway AI
A multimodal AI system that can generate 5 or 10 second videos with text, images or video clips. Options include specifying a camera’s movement, angle, lighting, and more. Limited options once it is created. Easy to get started, but hard to use well. Prompting guide here. Expensive at $15 a month.

Shortwave AI
Draft editable responses in your style, based on hundreds of your prior replies. Free for basic use, or $7 to $14/monthly depending on features.

Stable Diffusion
See Stability AI’s DreamStudio

Stability AI's DreamStudio*
A more accessible version of Stable Diffusion, which requires some technical skills.Users can create images through AI with many customizations, such as telling it what to avoid. An account must be created sign in with Google or Discord accounts. $1 for 100 credits, one image costs two credits.

Stockimg.AI
Uses AI to generate images, stock photos and wallpapers. Free trial then paid accounts start at $19 a month.

SudoWrite
A popular AI writing tool for novelists with options to start writing where you left off, “describe” a highlighted noun, or “brainstorm” ideas based on a situation you describe.

Tome
An AI-powered tool for telling stories and sharing ideas. Users can ask for automatically generated text, images, and other content based on a prompt. Allows teams to collaborate in real-time to create slides and presentations. $10 a month.

VanceAI
A collection of a dozen photo-editing tools powered by AI to remove blurriness, noise, add anime visuals, etc. Easy-to-use. Three free images each month. Paid accounts start at $6.

VALL-E
Microsoft's AI-powered can replicate someone’s voice with just 3-second sample. The voice synthesis machine learning model is not yet available to the public.

Veed.io
Creates AI generated videos. Type in an idea and it will create a video based on the prompt including a script, subtitles, and stock video. Especially designed for making social media posts. Users can clone their own voice for voiceovers. There is a free watermarked version available or $20 monthly for more features and no watermark.

WinstonAI
AI detection tool with a Google Chrome plug-in that lets you detect AI written material on a web page. Free with a paid version for more options.

WriteSonic
AI content writing tool that includes a paraphrasing tool and SEO-optimizing. Free trial for about 6000 words. Paid subscribtions start at $12 a month.

WordTune Read
An easy-to-use browser extension that gives users summaries of articles or books up to 300 pages using AI technology. The summary can be based on a single word. Better at locating small bits of important information rather than a thorough understanding of a topic. The free version includes three articles each month.

Wombo Dream
An image generator for your phone. Pick various design styles, like abstract, realistic, comic, etc. There’s a free version, but more options with a paid account: $90 per year or $10 per month.

Writable
Uses ChatGPT to help grade student writing assignments. It is being offered widely to teachers in grades 3-12.

YouChat
Offers similar answers to ChatGPT with the added feature of providing links to webpages related to your query. No sign up required. Free.

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Analytics for Websites

Chartbeat
Tracks reader engagement and uses dashboards, reporting systems, headline testing, and other optimization tools to show what keeps them engaged. Used by many media sites. Three tier pricing plan.

Clicky
A simple interface for this tool that helps you keep up with activity on your website. Weeds out bots and spam. Free option with more info on the paid version.

Crazy Egg
A leading visualization software that gives website administrators popular heatmap reports showing how visitors are using pages. Designed to improve UX and ultimately increase ROI and conversion rates through A/B testing. Open to integration with other platforms. Thirty day free trial then plans starting at $24 a month.

ExactMetrics*
A Google Analytics plugin for WordPress with advanced tracking options. No coding skills needed. There’s a free version but a pro plan is needed to get access to the advanced features starting at $99.

Finteza
A cloud-based analytics solution that spots bots and potential scammers and hackers. Does not do data sampling, so the results are more accurate. Thirty-day free trial then paid plans.

Google Analytics*
Detailed statistics about website performance and traffic sources and measures conversions. The most robust and largest platform. Free though there is a paid plan (Google Analytics 360) for larger enterprises.

Hotjar
A relatively new web analytics tool using polls, surveys, heatmaps and visitor recordings to paint a picture of visitors to websites. Free plan or more functionality with a monthly subscription of $39 or $99.

Inspectlet
Records video sessions of website users’ behavior. Heatmaps show what users find interesting on your site.

Majestic SEO
Find out how all the websites on the internet link to each other. Information about how the fabric of the web is knitted together--and what is connected to yours.

Mixpanel
Measures user experience on websites and product interactions to help websites to identify trends and with customer retention. Free version and plans starting at $89 a month.

Open Web Analytics

Matomo (formerly Piwik)
An open-source web-analytics platform that gives you insights into you website's visitors. Doesn’t offer anything that Google Analytics cannot provide—except the user gets full control of the data and retains ownership of it. Free but also offers a pro account.
 
Parse.ly*
A great tool for real-time traffic tracking on a website. $995 a month for their most basic package.
 
Positionly
Improves SEO by tracking your keywords and how well they are performing on the search engine result pages. 14 day free trial. Starting at $19 month.
 
SimiliarWeb
Understand website metrics for a site; like how many visitors a website gets, and where it get its traffic from. Free plan though the paid accounts get more options.

Spinnakr
Real-time web traffic response tool. Lets you post a targeted response on your website.

Woopra
A way to understanding website visitors from the moment they “set foot” on your site. People Profiles offer details on individual customers. There is a free plan but you have to pay to get tools like behavioral segmentation.

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Audio

Ableton Live
Specifically geared toward live recordings, so it will especially appeal to performers, recording artists and home musicians. Fun to use and innovative but there’s a steep learning curve. Prices range from $99 to $749. Since it is a lifetime license, there’s no string of endless subscription fees. You can try the full version for 90 days.

Acast (formally Pippa)
A podcasting platform focused on ease of use. Doesn’t include some of the extras of other sites but low learning curve. Monthly fees from $12-50,

Acoustica
Audio editing program. Basic version is free and includes MP4 and AAC import and export filters.

Adobe Audio Enhance Tool*
This tool removes background noice and makes audio of voices sound remarkably better. Free with an Adobe Account.

Aiko
AI app for transcriptions. Works offline. Free.

Alice
Designed for journalists doing interviews, it records audio and you get a transcript emailed to you afterward or access the recording transcript online. Take a picture or jot down notes on the phone while it keeps recording. note down without stopping the recording. Two hours free. $3 an hour.

Alitu
Edit podcasts. Automates things like editing out mistakes and silence, adding and fading music, etc. This also means there is a lack of control over some details of the process. Does not record the audio so your file must be uploaded. Online, no phone app. For those who want to focus on content rather than editing. Free trial then $28 a month.

Amadeus Pro
Multi-track recorder. Can pull audio off of videos. Includes options for cleaning up noisy audio. No mobile option but easy to use. $59.99.

Apple Voice Control
Pre-installed with macOS, iOS, and iPadOS, so this dictation software is free if you have an Apple device. The New York Times picked it the best dictation software tool for Apple products in Oct. 2023, saying it scored better than options from Google and Microsoft.

Ashampoo Musić Studio*
Especially useful to edit, mix and organize music files. Great for beginners though it only works on Windows. $30 with no on-going subscription.

Audacity*
Audacity is the most popular audio editing option that makes it simple and easy. It supports several different file types, including mp3 and WAV. It can even record live audio for editing and export later. There’s a massive library of plugins. Best of all, it’s free.

Audio Hijack*
Record video conferences on your Mac with this long-time favorite. It can record from designated applications, or simply record any system sound coming through your computer. Total Recorder does the same thing for Windows.

Audioboom
Podcast hosting service with monetization options. Starts at 9.99 a month.

AudioCraft
This open-source generative AI from Meta creates audio and music from text prompts. It has three models: MusicGen for composing music, AudioGen for creating sound effects, and EnCodec, which is an audio compression tool to rival the MP3 format. To avoid copyright issues, it was trained on Meta-owned and licensed music.

AudioEvolution Mobile Station
The closest Android has to offer like Ferrite (which is iOS only). Aimed at musicians more than media creators or journalists. There is an iOS version as well. Tutorials here. $8.99.

AudioNote*
Searching for a section of audio corresponding to a note is easy to find.  The recording time is insertedat the beginning of each line oftext. $9.99.

AudioTrimmer
A no frills audio trimming tool that can handle dozens of file formats. Basic clipping and adjusting the volume but not enough tools for the podcaster or musician. Works with limited file types. Can’t edit individlal tracks. Video explanation here. Free.

Adobe Audition*
Once known as Cool Edit Pro, Adobe Audition is perhaps probably the best overall option. Audition is a powerful suite that makes audio editing, splicing, remixing, and restoration easy. Adobe Audition is $21 a month or available as a part of a Creative Cloud membership for $30. The user-friendly interface makes Audition is easy to pick up, but it is difficult to master completely because of the depth of its features. You can use the tool's built-in effects to add flair to your recordings.

Avid Pro Tools*
The standard for studios, Pro Tools is the professional option. It’s the music industry’s standard that creates studio quality recordings, since it works seamlessly with studio equipment and offers many plug-ins. However, there’s a steep learning curve. Since GarageBand is essentially a stripped-down version of Pro Tools, you can upgrade to it if you already have GarageBand. After a 90-day free trial of Logic Pro, you can buy it for $199.99.

BlogTalkRadio
Using phones, you can interview someone and it both streams and records downloadable MP3 of the interview.

Bobler (no longer available)
App for creating shareable audio packages of up to two minutes in length. Ad text, images and geo-tags. Use the app to search for audio uploads from a specific location. Not embeddable (as is audio uploaded on Soundcloud or Audioboo). 

Cast
All-in-one podcast solution: Record, edit, and publish. Great interfaces. No free account. Only works in Chrome. Starts at $10 per month.

CloudConvert
Converts file types. More than 200 formats for audio, video, documents, images, etc. Free usage up to 25 conversions per day.

Cogi*
Mobile app to record meetings, interviews. Records and sincs audio (from news conferences, for instance) with typing so you can find quotes easier. Allows for tags and annotations. Always recording so picks up the 15 secs before you turn on recording.  Enables recording calls, highlighting key parts of the conversation, and transcription.  Free. $5 for more features.

Colibri
A transcription tool that works in real time. Hit a button to mark a spot. Works in Zoom. Free version with paid accounts starting at $16.

Deepgram
Transcrption service uses artificial intelligence to transcribe large audio files and allow users to search them using keywords. Free.

DivShare
Post your audio here link to it from your blog or embed it into your blog.

Dragon Anywhere
Voice to text app for iOS. Have to finish dictation before seeing the text. Free.

Dragon Professional
Speech-recognition tool, best quality for people with PCs. A learning curve but robust tools. Expensive at $700.

Ecamm
App that records Skype and Facetime. It lets you convert your calls into MP3 files for podcasting or easily move the video to YouTube and Vimeo. Split the audio tracks after a call for easy editing. $39.95.

EchoWave
Create an audiogram (audio with images) for social media to promote a podcast. Short video intro here. Free with more options for paid accounts starting at $18 a month.

Evernote*
Access notes on any computer, tablet or phone. Search function lets you find a note in either text or audio format. Free for iOS and Android. For more options there is Evernote Plus $2.99 a month, while Premium is $5.80 per month.

Ferrite
Record audio and edit it including trim, add fades, import audio clips from other apps, etc. Can add cover art, show notes, and lyrics, allows users to turn audio into a podcast and file it to iCloud. The pro version gives you access to eight-channel recording, an 8-band EQ, noise gating and dynamic range compression, plus the ability to create templates, automatic ducking, silence removal and an “auto-leveling” tool. iOS only. Tutorials on YouTube here.. Free or pro version $29.99.

Final Cut Pro
Apple’s desktop video editing program for Macs from which you can rip the audio.

FL Studio
Digital audio workstation formally known as FruityLoops. Create multi-track music projects. Can be used for vocal projects as well. Bit of a learning curve. Starting at $99.

GarageBand
Intended for music editing. Only 5 minutes of audio can be edited.

Giant Squid Audio Lab Omnidirectional Mic*
Great quality sound but requires an adapter for it to work with a phone. $49.99.

Google Docs Voice Typing*
This free Google Docs tool under the drop-down menu for 'tools', (the 'voice typing’ icon) will transcribe your dictation or the audio you are playing in real time.

Google Voice
Your own phone number. Can be used to record incoming interviews. Free.

Headliner.app
A simple interface for combing audio with images. Great for social media posts or for visual podcasts posted to YouTube. Video explanation here. Free with a paid version offering more flexibility.

Hindenburg Journalist*
A multitrack audio editor designed for podcasters, audio producers and radio journalists. The design and features are tailored spoken-word productions. Set markers and add notes as you record interviews with uncompressed sound to give you the best audio quality. Drag any audio file into Hindenburg and start editing. There are some great features. However, there are also some limitations (read more here) which makes other options more attractive. Overpriced at $95 and $375 for the pro version.

Horrorli
Background horror noise generator.

Hokusai
iOS audio editing app for interviews, podcasts, or voiceovers. Can import clips from other applications and export directly to Dropbox and iTunes. Video tutorial here. Free.

iAudition (no longer available)
Record high quality audio using external mic for better quality. Includes easy-to-use single-track audio editor. Export audio file as as MP3 or WAV. Free.

iRig Handheld Mic*
A handheld microphone with a built-in headphone socket allowing users to monitor audio and control levels when paired with the iRig Recorder app. $69.99.

iRig Mic Studio*
Professional studio mic that comes with many adaptors including a lightning port plug so it will work with the iPhone 7 (which is it smaller than). Includes gain control, level indicator, and headphone output (with its own level control).  Tripod stand included. $129.99.

iRig Pre*
A preamp which allows you to plug your quality mic into an your iOS device. It takes an XLR input and turns it into a 3.5mm jack. A built in headphone socket allowing users to monitor audio when paired with the iRig Recorder app, which also gives audio control levels. Very simple to use. Uses 9-volt battery. $39.99. If you want better sound quality, and control, try the iRig Pro or even better theiRig Pro Duo.

iRig Pro Duo*
User can plug two XLR microphones into an iPhone through the lightning port. You and the person you are interviewing can be mic’ed with separate gains. A headphone port allows you to monitor the audio. Uses two AA batteries so it does not draw power from your iPhone. $199.95

Keep Vid (no longer available)
Post your audio here and then link to it from your blog or embed it into your blog.

Krisp
App that reduces noise on both ends of a phone call on your phone or when recording audio. There’s a free version.

Launchpad
This Novation creation allows users to make and remix music on the go. Simple enough for non-musicians to use. The Launchpad Mini is a smaller and much less expensive version and the Launchpad Pro is more sophisticated. $299.

Libsyn*
Podcast Hosting Services. Starting at $5 a month.

Listen Notes
Podcast search engine.

Logic Pro
Audio editing program, especially music.

Loopback
Rogue Amoeba’s Loopback 2 will rout any audio on your computer from one application to another. For instance, take the output from audio playing in Safari and record it with QuickTime. Or on a podcast, you can play background music or snippets so everyone (or only you) hears it. And many more options. Easy-to-use but only for Macs. The Windows alternative would be VoiceMeeter. Pricey but meant for professionals. $99.

Miro audio
Post your audio here and then link to it from your blog or embed it into your blog.ls.

Microsoft Designer
While it offers similar features to Adobe Express, but isn’t in the same class and sometimes offers odd results. Part of the Microsoft 365 suite, users can import data from Microsoft Excel to create charts and graphs

MixCraft
Audio editing program, especially music. $75.

Mixlr*
Live internet audio app. Share in social media, text with listeners, embed player on your website. Free.

Mp3DirectCut
Audio editing program.

MP3Gain
Audio editing program designed to normalise MP3 files so that they all have the same loudness in a more effective way than other programs.

MP3 Quailty Modifier
Audio editing program to adjust the quality of your MP3 files so you can save disk space.

Music Editor Free
Free audio editing program. You'll need a converter since it can only save WAV files.

n-Track
Android-only audio editing app. Tutorials here.

Ocenaudio
Simple audio editor made for users who do not need all the options offered by Audacity free. 

Otter*
Automated transcription app that can join online meetings — with you or without you — and transcribe and summarize them in real time. Sister app Otter Chat can then answer questions based on what people said in the meeting. A favorite among journalists. Turns a couple hours of audio into a reasonable written transcript often in a matter of minutes. Includes features like calendar integration, collaborative meeting notes. Users can insert images into the transcript and highlight sentences. 600 transcription minutes per month is free (limited to 30 per conversation). Subscriptions run from $8-$20 per month.

oTranscribe
Transcribe recorded interviews.

pCloud Transfer
Like WeTransfer, quickly transfer files up to 5GB. No account required. Free.

Podomatic
Podcasting made easy. Some users have said it rather clunky.

Reaper
Flexible with deep features, there are customization options and plugins to make it more useful. Non-professional users can pick it up quickly. Only $60 for individual, non-profit, or small business use. The full commercial license is $225.

RecordiaPro
Record your incoming and outgoing phone conversations on any phone without needing equipment.  Works for interviews.

Recup (formally DropVox)
Records audio and sends it directly to your Dropbox account. $1.99.

Rev Voice Recorder*
Quality voice recorder and editor for both iPhone and Android. Includes Dropbox and Evernote integration. Free but voice-to-text human transcriptions in 12-hours for $1 a minute.

Ringr
App to record conversations on your phone for podcasts and interviews. Will work with both iOS & Android phones alone, making it one of the few options not requiring a computer. Guests receive an email and click a link to join the call. Uploads separate files to the cloud, then syncs them to avoid long distance glitches. Unlimited calls, storage. Interface not as nice as Riverside or Squadcast nor is the audio quality as good. 30-day free trial. The $8 basic plan. Premium plan includes conference calling, better sound quality, and split tracks. 

Riverside*
An audio recorder (aimed at podcasters) that saves audio as you go—no loss if the connection is lost. Create and share highlight clips. Can do video as well on a separate track so podcasters can release a video component as well. Clean, easy to figure out dashboard. Supports up to 8 people on a recording. Can record uncompressed audio. A video introduction here. Basic plan for $9 a month gets you two hours of recording so most podcasters would need the $19 or $29 a month version.

Rode i-XLR*
A broadcast quality XLR adaptor that lets you connect it to the lightning port of the iPhone. The cable is about 10 feet long in order to reach an interview subject. You can adjust the headphone volume but there is no preamp or gain control. $149.

Send Anywhere*
A free file transfer app (iOS and Android) for images, video, audio and text. Share up to 10GB per transfer, Your recipient uses an URL to access and download the files from the cloud.

Skype
An advantage to using Skype for video conferencing is the ability to record video interviews. Afterward, you open Skype on a desktop and download your video as an .MP4 file. If you just want the audio you can extract it by importing the file into software like Adobe Premiere Pro or the free editing program Audacity.

SlideShare*
Popular resentation tool owned by LinkedIn. Use documents, PDFs and video to create webinars, audio presentations, for online lectures etc. Solid analytics for free. Watch a slide show about SlideShare here.

Smart Voice Recorder
Android recording app. Good for memos and group meetings. Decent audio quality. Allows users to skip silences, test the mic, determine where recordings are saved, etc. Free.

SoundCite
A project of Northwestern University's Knight Lab, it lets users embed audio into posts. So, for instance if you write "..thick, one-note guitar riffs shuffle and stomp with a heavy beat" you can make it so that when someone clicks on "thick, one-note guitar riffs" they will hear a short example. Watch a video explanation here.

SoundCloud*
Post your audio here and then link to it from your blog or embed it into your blog. Limited space free, more for a fee.

SoundForge
Free. Audio editing program. Especially for music.

SoundGecko (no longer available)
Convert text story into an MP3 audio file.

SoundSlides (no longer available)
Creates audio slideshows. Basic $40, Plus $70. There's a free version but it will display "demo" at the beginning. resizes your images for you, can reorder them, etc. but doesn't edit photos.

Spotify for Podcasters* (formerly Anchor)
An app for recording and editing audio. Record up to four guests on a single call, trim and edit tracks, and add music, all within the app. Video tutorial here. Free.

SquadCast
Records a remote conversation for podcasts or an audio news report. Easy to use like Riverside. A built-in echo-cancellation feature. Records up to 4 people. Audio files are saved as you go and not after you are done (as often is the case). Records video for putting the podcast on YouTube as well. Makes the interview easier when you can see the person. Free one-week trial then paid plans starting at $10 a month.

Steller*
Create photo and video stories on an iPhone with an emphasis on mobile design. Create collections and share on social networks. Free. Sample.

Sodaphonic
A simple audio recording and trimming tool. The interface has a retro stereo feel. Free.

Superhuman AI
Lets you press M to get an instant bulleted summary of any long email. $30 a month. Read more here.

TapeACall*
Record cell phone calls and export the audio for editing, to email or upload to Google Drive or Dropbox. IoS and Android. Dial the TapeACall line, then dial the person you want to talk to, and merge the two calls into a conference. The recording is saved on the app. $24.99 a year. Watch a video here.

TalkShoe
For call-in podcasts. Samples.

Temi*
Speech to text transcription in 5 minutes Advanced speech recognition software. 10 cents a minute.

TinyVox (no longer available)
Allows users to record, store, listen and share MP3 audio files in social media. Can be used to record interviews as well.

Total Recorder
Record video conferences on your PC with this long-time favorite. It can record from designated applications, or simply record any system sound coming through your computer. Audio Hijack does the same thing for Mac.

Transom*
All things audio. A performance space, editorial session, an audition stage, a library, and a hangout. How to guides for podcast beginners.

TwistedWave
Audio editing program (Mac only). $80.

Type Studio
Turns audio into text and allows users to edit video by editing the transcribed text. Easy to use the text for adding subtitles as well. The free version only gives users 10 minutes of upload time per month. Pro accounts starting at $12.

VideoMic ME*
Compact and lightweight, directional microphone for smartphones. Adaptor and extension cord needed.

VideoMic*
Popular RodeVMGO Video Mic GO Lightweight On-Camera Microphone SuperCardiod. Lightweight directional microphone. Adaptor and extension cord needed as well for it to work with a iPhone 7.  $149.

VoiceBase*
Transcribes audio to text.

VoiceMeeter
Rout any audio on your Windows computer from one application to another. The Macs alterntive is Loopback.

VideoLeap
An iPhone app with a wide range of high-end functions (such as masking and blending, key framing and chroma key compositing) for creating videos from images, video and text. Tutorials here.

Voice Record Pro*
Professional voice recorder that saves high quality WAV files. Available for both iOS and Android but more features in the iOS version including an automatic transcription tool. Record audio from events, voice memos and on-site sounds at unlimited length, add markers, share or upload. While it is not an audio editing app, you can trim the beginning and end of your recordings. Short tutorial here. An explanation for journalists here. Free though the paid version ($6.99) has no ads.

WavePad 
Free audio editing program.

WaveShop
Free audio editing program.  Bit-perfect, minimizing the loss of quality by altering files only when absolutely necessary.

Wavosaur
Free Audio editing program.

Wavve.co
A good audiogram-builder tool. Similar to headliner.app. Free with paid versions starting at $12.99 a month. Short video explanation here.

WeTransfer*
A file transfer service, Dropbox has more options for the price. WeTransfer is free for individual users, but $12 for companies needing more.

Zamzar
Video and audio file converter.

Zencastr
For recording podcasts. Good quality. The interviewee doesn’t need to download and install an app, they can just click on a link, and run it in a browser. No editing, hosting, and publishing, however. Nice dashboard. Video record options for posting to YouTube. Limited free version or $20 a month for the pro version.

Zoom iQ7 Mic*
This compact condenser mic is portable. Can be set to record a source from the front with or without the surrounding ambiance from the sides. $99.

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Augmented Reality

Aurasma
Augmented reality sharing site.

Hoppala Augmentation
Platform for augmented reality applications. Sample video.

Layar
Augmented reality tool.

PhotoSynth
Virtual reality.

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Coding

Code Cademy
Learn to code for free. Formal. Good reviews.

The Code Player
Learn to code through videos demonstrating actual typing of code to create items from scratch.

Colaboratory
An online code editor that exists right within Google Drive. Basically, its Google Docs for code. Write and execute code right in the browser. Only handles Python at the moment. Share files and have multiple people people edit them. Free.

Coursera
Learn to code through classes from accredited universities or develop yourself professionally. The courses are made up of lessons with multiple video lectures, along with readings, practice exercises, homework quizzes, and assignments. Most are free but have a cost if you want a certification. Limited help options.

Data Camp
Practice coding. See progress as you go. Free sign up.

FreeCodeCamp*
Founded by a schoolteacher turned programmer. Free, user-friendly hands-on online courses for beginners. Most courses run 300 hours. Positive reviews.

FurtureLearn
UK-based online learning platform. Earn a certificate with 3 or 4 classes (in 10 to 12 week blocks of learning). Mostly novice level content for job education. No phone apps and limited support. Some free tracks.

Google Code Playground
An advanced educational tool of Google’s Javascript APIs (application programming interfaces that simplify software implementing). Available for anyone to try out and tweak the code. Free but not for beginners.

Hands on Programming with R (free book)

jQuery
Build coding projects to include in your portfolio, and collaborate with other members. A 4 question quiz matches you with the best course for you and your goals. Free 7 day trial if you enter a credit card number. $40 per month for unlimited courses.

Kaggle Data Sets
A database of some 29k data sets for learning data science. There are more than a dozen free micro-courses for learning Python, machine learning, data viz, etc. Share/collaborate with others on the site.

Khan Academy
Tools for kids and adults in single, short lessons on a neon blackboard. More than 20,000 free videos. Free coding lessons with reputable content.

Learn Python the Hard Way
A book that introduces readers to Python.

MIT OpenCourseWare
For beginners. Textbook.

Mozilla Developer Network
Beginner friendly. Have to sign up to see. Positive reviews.

R for Data Science
Free Book. Good reviews for beginners.

Scratch
MIT-developed site tilted for children (but adults too) to learn coding basics focused on helping people create interactive stories, games, and animations. Free.

SoloLearn*
Free lessons on coding but with ads.

Stack Overflow
A popular programming problem-solving sites despite a number of negative reviews. Ask your coding questions as you learn or find chunks of code. Low as $5 a month.

StoryBench
Not hands on, more of a explanation of projects. Positive reviews.

TeamTreehouse
Tuturals on web design, coding, business, etc.  Students sign up for annual subscriptions.

Udacity
User-friendly online school focusing on job-related skills. Users very positive but expensive. $79 a month.

W3Schools Online Web Tutorials*
Learn HTML, CSS, etc. Easy-to-use. Navigate.

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Cross-Broswer Testing

BrowserStack
Cross-browser testing tool. Check out how your design looks on different browsers before going live.

Browsershots
Cross-browser testing tool. Check out how your design looks on different browsers before going live. Free.

Cross Browser Testing
Cross-browser testing tool. Check out how your design looks on different browsers before going live.

Litmus
Cross-browser testing tool. Check out how your design looks on different browsers before going live.

The Site Wizard
Cross-browser testing tool. Check out how your design looks on different browsers before going live.

SauceLabs
Cross-browser testing tool. Check out how your design looks on different browsers before going live.

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Data Visualization and Infographics

Also see Map Makers and Timelines

D3.js
A Javascript library to create data visualizations. Requires some developer skills to utilize since it requires coding. Very versatile. Examples. Free.

Adobe After Effects
Create animations, charts, etc. Works seamlessly within the Adobe Suite but has a high learning curve and price. Read about making interactive graphics with AfterEffects here.

Adaptive Insights (Now Workday Adaptive Planning)

Animaker
Tool for making infographic videos with animated characters. Limited free version or accounts starting at $144 a year.

Bubbl
Create flow-charts for brainstorming and visualization. Limited options. Video explanation here.

Carto*
Perhaps the best interactive mapmaker but a high learning curve though more of a time investment than a technical-background requirement. No coding needed to look impressive. Used for location intelligence and and journalism alike. Free with paid plans. Video examples here.

Canva*
The graphic design platform has integrated generative AI into all its products including: image, and text creation, photos, audio, and video editing. Use Canvas drag-and-drop to create social media graphics, headers, slides, flyers, photo collages, posters, infographics, even mind maps for concepts. Share to social media straght from the app or download for posting. Limited editing tools so it’s more for beginners. Free. $12 a month gets you more options.

Chart Maker
Quickly make charts, graphs, etc.

Charted (no longer available)
Build by Medium. Just plug in a CSV file or a link to a Google Spreadsheet and the tool does all the graphing work for you.

Chartist.js
Simple responsive charts. Will change the way the data is displayed based on the size screen it's being viewed on.

Common Knowledge
A Google tool that quickly makes interactive charts from data which are embeddable. Free.

Comparea
See a visual comparison of two states, cities, countries or continents. Move them around.  It will also tell how many times bigger a geographic area is to another.

Daily Infographic
A new data visualization sample each day. Great way to get ideas.

Data Journalism
Examples, steps and video of how to create data visualizations.

Data Remixed
Blog about data visualizations by Ben Jones, an engineer in LA.

Data to Viz
A site that helps you find the right chart for your data.

Data Visual
Charts and graphs.  Templates or start from scratch.  A short video introduction here.

Data Wrangler
A tool created by Stanford University's Visualization Group for cleaning and rearranging data for other tools to use (such as a spreadsheet).  Does not actually visualizes your data, but preps it for use. This includes extracting, filling, dropping, merging and wrapping data points among other things. There's a learning curve, but it's free.

Data Wrapper*
Tool for journalists looking to create fast, easily-to-understand visualizations but useful for anyone. Easy to embed. Free version allows creation of 10k charts.

Domo
Business tool for creating visualizations. Fully mobile. Good collaboration capabilities. High learning curve. Not for beginners. Starting at $83 a month. Free trial available.

Dundas
Interactive visualizations. Lots of options. No 3-D charts or predictive analysis. Free trial but cost is on a case by case basis.

Easely.ly*
Create infographics. Video sample here.

Everviz (formerly Highcharts Cloud)
One of the easiest to use data visualizations tools. Not much customization. Free.

Florish*
A data visualization tool that makes it easy to create both standard charts and a mobile-friendly animated charts. Some customization available. Examples.

Flowing Data
Blog about how statisticians, designers, data scientists, and others use analysis, visualization, and exploration to understand data and ourselves.

FusionCharts
Chart making Javascript library that requires developer skills. Lots of customization. Starts at $199 a year.

Gephi
Social networking analysis tool to create interactive visualization. Impressive looking but has a steep learning curve. For anything complex you might need some specialist help. Free.

Google Fusion Tables (no longer available)
Publish data tables online.

Google Public Data Explorer
Makes large datasets easy to explore, visualize and communicate. As the charts and maps animate over time, the changes in the world become easier to understand.

Graphiq
Data visualization tools. Formally FindTheBest. Not only are there design tools, there are many data sets available to work with.

High Charts
interactive JavaScript charts. Free.

iCharts
Data Visualization aimed at businesses--especially those looking to brand themselves. There's a free option (which allows for data interactivity, public sharing, and unlimited standard data sets) and a business plan that starts at $25 (offering features like private charts, custom templates, upload images and logos, download high-res images, large data sets, chartbooks, etc.

Infogram*
Infographic tool especially useful when working with complex data. No coding skills needed. Works with Google Sheets or Dropbox. Create interactive illustrations. 35 types of charts and 200 types of maps. Includes a built-in spreadsheet tool for data editing. Basic version is free but requires the Infogram logo. Upgrades run from $19 to $67 a month.

Many Eyes (no longer available)
Multiple data visualization tool for bar charts, graphs, tag clouds, word trees, scatterplots, block historgrams, etc.

Markup Wand (no longer available)
Photoshop to HTML/CSS converter. Strip down Photoshop files (.psd) and convert them to embeddable HTML or CSS code.

Meograph*
3D animation of people from 2D video of people. Video explanation.

NumberPicture
Create simple charts from your data using templates. Introductory video here.

PiktoChart*
Flat but beautiful interactive graphics. Easy-to-use. Video explanation.

Plotly
A good general-use data visualization tool offering many customizations and interactivity. Charts can be exported as images or embedded. A bit of a learning curve. Free with some paid plans.

Powtoon 
Animated infographics web tool for creating videos. Best for presentations. User-friendly basic cartoon software with plenty of templates and social integrations. No 3D or keyframing. The free version has company branding on it while the expensive pro plans start at $19 a month. 

Projector (no longer available)
A Canva alternative design resource for non-designers.

QGIS
Powerful mapmaking software with a high learning curve. The ‘GIS’ stands for geographical information system. Free.

R
This statistical computing language is geared toward data work and thus is the choice of many data scientists for data visualizations. High learning curve so you’ll need to work with a developer. Lots of tutorials and plugins. Very versatile. Free.

Raw Graphs
Built on D3.js but doesn’t require knowing code. Most of the charts are for obscure purposes. You’ll need a developer. An option when you want a unique visualizations for a big project and can spend a decent amount of time on it.

SavvyRoo
Place to create and share visual data. Watch a video explanation here.

Scroll Kit (no longer available)
No coding knowledge needed to use this intuitive website development app that allows anyone to build online experiences.

Silk (no longer available)
A free data publishing and visualization platform for making visualizations from spreadsheets.

Sisense’s  
Graphically represent your large data sets clearly and efficiently. Nice interface, limited type of visualizations. Free trial. Cost based on case by case basis.

Strip Creator
Create your own comic strip.

Story Maps 
A cutsom mapping visualization tool based on ArcGIS with more mapping options than StroyMap JS in the paid version. With simple to use templates, you can  “walk” your viewers through a map-based story.  Example.

StoryMap JS 
A simple mapping visualization tool produced by the Knight Lab at Northwestern for creating interactive maps and timelines. Based on Google's map software from OpenStreetMap. Does not require technical experience. Create slides and connect them on a map that can be embedded or upload your own basemap. Example. 

Tableau Public
Data visualization tools that are interactive. Maps, graphics, etc. Free. Samples.

Tableau Software
Easy to use, great capabilities. Popular but expensive. $70 each month.

Thinglink*
Create hot-spot graphics. Make images interactive by adding music, a voice over, and text.  Free . Sample.

TimeMapper
Timeslines and maps. Sample video here.

Vidi (no longer available)
Drupal-based embeddable modules.

Visage
Create infographics and interactive charts for websites and social media graphics. The free account allows for three images a month.

Visme
Create graphics and maps just for a particular platform for social-specific content. Free for up to five maps with limited features. Paid accounts starting at $15 month. Also has a QR code generator for static codes.

Visual Editors
A visual editor promotes visual journalism literacy in graphics, photo, video and design.

Visual.ly
Create infographics and data visualizations.

Visualize Free
Upload a data set from a spreadsheet (or cut and paste) for charts, maps, diagrams, etc with a drag and drop designer. Registration needed for an account, but it is free). Lots of public-available data to work with (like data.gov). Uploads are private, so that other users cannot gain access to your data.

Vizualize.me (now a part of Parchment)
Create your infographic resume for free.

Voddio (no longer available)
Formally 1st video, this editor app gives you two tracks of video and up to four tracks of audio.

Workday Adaptive Planning
Formally Adaptive Insight, this business software focuses on planning and reporting with data visualization tools. High learning curve.

Wolfram Alpha
Computational knowledge engine. Enter a search string and have immediate display of various pieces of information regarding that string. The Pro subscription allows users to input their own data and quickly converted into dynamic and interactive charts. The price tag is $4.99 a month and limited to twenty uploads each month.on. 

WTFViz
Visualizations that make no sense.

Zoho Reports
Analytics tool to design intuitive dashboards and data visualizations. Easy to learn. Beautiful graphics but limited customization. from $22 to $444 a month. Free trial.

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Design: Graphic & UX

Adobe Indesign
Adobe product that is the industry standard for page layouts and design (posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspapers and books). For professionals and high end projects but for personal or smaller projects, there are other programs with a lower learning curve.

Adobe Pagemaker
While not on the level of Adobe InDesign, it is an effective page layout program for the non-professional. Includes predesigned templates that can be modified.

Adobe Color (formally Adobe Kuler)
Find complementary color palettes using a color wheel.

Axure
For UX design. A wireframing prototyping software tool. No coding needed. Aimed at web and desktop applications.

Balsamiq
Design software, a quick starter for wireframing tool. 

Beautiful.ai
Quickly make beautful slides with these graphic tools. Slightly different workflow than PowerPoint so it takes a little time getting used to but more fun. Free.

Butterick's Practical Typography
Everything font-related including kerning, spacing, formatting, and more.

Color Me
Visualize hex colors.

Commarts
"Inspiration for graphic designers, art directors, design firms, corporate design departments, advertising agencies, interactive designers, illustrators and photographers—everyone involved in visual communication."

Design Thinking
Blog by Tim Brown about Design issues. Brown is author of Change by Design.

DesignEvo 
Create logos. Easy to use but the free version allows only limited sizes and only paid accounts get trademark options. The paid accounts are somewhat expensive.  

Florish*
A data visualization tool that makes it easy to create both standard charts and a mobile-friendly animated charts. Some customization available. Examples.

Font Feed (no longer available)
A "daily dispatch of recommended fonts, typography techniques, and inspirational examples of digital type at work in the real world."

Font dragr (no longer available)
Browser based tool that checks for web-friendly fonts. Just drag and drop.

FontJoy
This site will generates font pairings for your design project whether you are aiming to create balance, tension or set off content. Free.

FontPair
Helps you pick font combinations for your resume, website, poster, etc. so your creation stands out from the typical Times New Roman on other material.

Font Shop
This link takes you to the design section of the website where you can "improve your design skills with typography tips and tutorials. FontShop Education docs are formatted for easy downloading and printing, perfect for the classroom or studio."  There's also a healthy glossary section, among other things.  

How Design
This site seeks to meet the "business, creativity and technology needs of graphic designers."

Idea Mag
Japanese design magazine.

Indesign
See Adobe Indesign.

Kartograph
Simple to use data visualization tool if you know some Python or Javascript. Free.

Keynotopia
UI design templates.

QuarkXpress
Page layouts for Mac or PC.Alternative to Adobe InDesign.

Markup Wand (no longer available)
Photoshop to HTML/CSS converter. Strip down Photoshop files (.psd) and convert them to embeddable HTML or CSS code.

Marq (formally Lucid Press)
Page layouts for the non-professional to design flyers, newsletters, etc.

MockPlus
Prototyping tool for Mobile app design. Drop and drag. No coding needed.

MyFonts
Large selection of professional fonts.

OmniGraffle
Design software. Industry standard.

PagePlus (no longer available)
Page layouts for Mac.

Page Stream
Page layouts for the non-professional to design flyers, newsletters, etc.

Principle
Popular UI prototyping tools for designing mobile apps. Especially useful for creating animation. No coding skill needed. $129.

Print Mag
Design tips, education, resources from Print Magazine, a bimonthly magazine about visual culture and design.

SassMe
Colum vizualize color functions by inserting Hex codes.

Society for News Design
Columns and tips on design, workshop schedule, membership database and more.

Society of Publication Designers

Scribus
Page layouts. Alternative to Adobe InDesign.

UXPin
Prototyping tool for Mobile app design. Simple setup with drop and drag.

What the Font
Figures out what font you are looking at. 

WordStream
Upload your comma-delimited file with time and text columns and you get a chart. Adjust sizes and the metrics. Free.

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GIFs

Animated GIFs in Photoshop
A tutorial for creating Animated GIFs in Photoshop.

AwesomeGIFs (no longer available)
Animated GIF maker. 

Cinemagram  (no longer available)
App for iPhone users, which creates GIFs that feel more like mini-movies. Free.

EzGif.com
”Animated GIFs made easy.” Includes many images that could be turned into GIFs or use your own saved files. Adjust the speed, resize, etc.

Gickr*
Create animated GIFs. Free but a small watermark is placed in the corner.

Gif Boom  (no longer available)
GIF-making app for iPhone and Android that allows you to sidestep clunky web-based GIF creators. Free.

Gif Me
App with control options such as speed, filters, adding text, stickers, etc.

GifSoup
Find animated GIFs.

Gifbin
Find and create animated GIFs.

Giphy
GIF search engine owned by Facebook.

Picasion
Create animated GIFs. Free but a watermark is placed in the corner.

Reaction Gifs (no longer available)
Find and create animated GIFs.

RecordIT
Simple screen record and save for creating GIFs.

Screen to Gif
Select a portion of your screen and record anything that happens in that specific area.

TikTok video to GIF

Twitter iOS App
Using to create GIFs.

Video to GIF
This GIF-making app is tailored to iPhone users. Easily convert GIFs from videos in your iCloud library and add moving text. Free.

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Images

360Verse
360 panoramas.

123rf
Royalty-free stock photos.

500px
Photography community. Share photos and ideas on this free app (IOS, Android, Windows).

Adobe Express*
A single template-focused app (replacing Adobe Spark) that combines some of the best features from the Creative Cloud Suite for mobile and web. Quickly create everything from social media posts to promotional posters and videos with the easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface. Drag all sorts of elements into your composition, from text, icons, shapes, free photos and fonts, music and other design elements. Assets from Photoshop and Illustrator can be utilized. Convert videos to GIFs and documents to PDFs. Great for non-professionals with little video editing experience, but not if you’re a pro looking for a full-featured video editor. Free version, three-month trial or $9.99 a month ($99.99 a year) for more templates, photos and fonts. Included in many Creative Cloud subscriptions. More info on plans here.

Adobe Lightroom
A photography app with manual controls and the ability to shoot in RAW. The powerful editor includes retouching, color adjustments, perspective adjustments, etc. Links to tutorials here. Starts at $9.99 a month.nth.

Afterlight 2
Similar to Darkroom, Lots of filters, textures, and unique frames. 

Al Gahaku
Turn your photos into old-style paintings. Free.

Animoto
Combine your phone photos or video clips to Canva templates. Add captions, text slides or even a song from the built-in music library (or upload your own). Like Adobe Spark, works well for people making social media videos fast and not in need of advanced functions. No preview of videos. YouTube Tutorials. Free with a fee for more flexibility and access to some Getty images.

Artvee
Tens of thousands of high-resolution, public domain artworks that are downloadable. Search by artist, category, or keyword. Free.

BeastCam
Video and photography capture app for iPhone users. Adjust focus, exposure, zoom, and white balance within the app. It recognizes external microphones.. More info here. $4.99.

Blur Photo
An easy-to-use iPhone app that will give you a very opaque blur anywhere on your photo. Read how to use it here. Free.

Camera FV-5
An app to control camera functions including shutter speed, exposure, focus, and white balance. (Android only)

Camera+*
Photo app with lots of filters and strong HDR mode. Sets the standard when it comes to third party iPhone cameras.  $2.99.

CameraT (no longer available)
Photo app. IOS only.

CamFind
A reverse image search tool. Gets quite a few low ratings from users.

Canva*
The graphic design platform has integrated generative AI into all its products including: image, and text creation, photos, audio, and video editing. Use Canvas drag-and-drop to create social media graphics, headers, slides, flyers, photo collages, posters, infographics, even mind maps for concepts. Share to social media straght from the app or download for posting. Free. $12 a month gets you more options.

Clip Safari
Free, easy-to-find and use clip art.

Compressor*
Compress image files less than 10 MB so they will download quicker. A slider allows you to compare the look of the original and the optimized version side by side. Free.

CreateHERStock
Stock images that showcase racial diversity.

Creative Commons
Royalty free stock photos.

Creative Cloud Express
See Adobe Express

Darkroom*
Iphone app with filters (or create your own filters), a curves tool for RGB channels, and an infinite history remembers all your edits so undo is easy. Edit photos without having to import them. Link your account to your Instagram account for easy upload. Free. $3 upgrade for curves.

Death to Stock Photo
10 free, hi-resolution photos each month (for your email address). Access to entire library of hi-resolution photos is $10 a month.

DeviantArt
A wide range of different Creative Commons. A bit difficult to navigate. Free.

DreamsTime
Royalty-free stock photos. Some for low prices. Requires registration.

Every Stock Photo
More than 21 million free stock photos (under the Creative Commons license).

Exif Data
Extract Exif (Exchangeable Image File) data from photos. EXIF is a standard for embedding data within an image or audio file. This may include date, time, camera settings, etc.

Facetune
Airbrushing for the face. Digital makeup that works on IOS and Android. 40m daily active users. Monthly subscription required for special tools (such as simulated studio lighting). $4.

FindMyShadow
This free site helps you to "calculate the position and height of the sun anywhere in the world on any date and plot the shadow cast by the sun at different times of the day." A helpful tool for photo verification.

Filmic pro*
Powerful app for videography and photography. Lots of bells and whistles such as in-app stabilization. Quickly switch between color profiles, resolutions, etc. Possibly too much for the average person but great for someone serious about shooting video on a phone. Video explanation here. $14.99.

FilterStorm*
Advanced mobile photo editing that can be sent by email, FTP, Dropbox, SFTP or export into social media. $3.99.

Find Exif (no longer available)
Extract Exif (Exchangeable Image File) data from photos, which can include date, time, camera settings, etc.

Flickr
Easy to navigate, though not the best app for shooting and editing photos. But the free terabyte of storage makes it a good place to dump everything. The Creative Commons licensing section has free stock photos. Owned by SmugMug.

Foto Forensics
Helps you verify the authenticity of digital images.

Free Digital Photos
Free stock photos but you must give credit to the image creator. 

Free Images
Free stock photos with details on restrictions.

Free Pix
Lots of nice free stock photos of travel, people, etc. Other photos fall under the Creative Commons.

Free Range
Quality free stock photos. Must register.

Free Stock Photos
More than 14,000 free stock photos and clipart. A variety of licenses from commercial to public domain.

Geograph
More than 3 million free stock photos for travel and geography under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license.

Getty Images
The most prestigious and the highest quality stock photography agency, Getty also offers video, music, and multimedia elements. Some of its images can be expensive to use and known to be protective of its property.

GIMP
An alternative to Photoshop. GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. Lots of features including cropping tools and the ability to adjust brightness and contrast. However, no RAW photo editing. A low learning curve. Free.

Google Autodraw
AI drawing tool that will search for rights-free icons related to something you draw.

Good Free Photos
Thousands of free stock photos under the Free Public Domain licensing.

Google Advanced Search
Under “usage rights” and pick one such as “free to use, share or modify, even commercially” to narrow down your search for usable photographs. Google recommends checking the license to make sure it is legitimate.

Google Goggles (no longer available)
Instead of words, take a picture to do a search. A similar tool was launch a few years later as Google Lens.

Google Reverse Image Search* 
Drag and drop or upload an image into this search engine to find where images originated from. Video explains it here.

Gratisography
Free hi-resolution stock photos.

Halide Mark II
This app is intended for serious photographers. It gives iPhone users finer control over various photo settings such as exposure control and focus gestures. Here is a tutorial. One week free trial then $36 or $12 a year.

Hipstamatic*
Fact-checking photo editor. Can pick films, lenses, and flashes before taking your photos. Set shutter speed, shoot multi-exposed photos. $2.99 for the app but HipstaPacks for up to $4.99.

Hyperlapse (no longer available)
Instagram’s timelapse video. No audio option.

I am CC (no longer available)
A service that automatically releases your Instagram photos under Creative Commons license.

Ideogram*
An excellent AI image generator that can also create text. While MidJourney produces higher quality images, this one is easier to use for beginners. It has a simple to use interface and is free.

Inkscape
A Photoshop-free alternative using vectors instead of pixels. A high learning curve but great flexibility.  Video tutorial here.

Inshot
Video & image editing app. Simple-to-use & all-in-one with basic functions: Crop, trim, change the speed, rotate your videos 360°, add filters and music, and more. Free version with intrusive ads $2.99 to remove them and the watermark.

Instagram*
The photo and video sharing app owned by Facebook is also a polling tool. Will accommodate single question polls with two answers (yes no) and a guessing game type of polls with up to four answers. While it has limited options, it’s free and can reach a large audience.

InVID
A free Firefox plugin to debunk fake video news and verify videos and images.

iPhone Shutter Grip
This iPhone accessory helps you hold it more steady and have a button to push. $40.

iStockphoto
Royalty-free stock photos.

Izatru (no longer available)
Photo verification site.

Jay Mantri
Free stock photos under public domain. Seven new photos each Friday.

Jimpl
Extract Exif (Exchangeable Image File) data from photos, which can include date, time, camera settings, etc.

Krita

Kizoa
A video editing app with outdated looks and design. One-time fee for the features you want. Free version or paid with more features starting about $30. 

Krita
Photographers like this alternative to Photoshop, as it shares a similar look and feel. It supports rulers and grids, comes with pre-installed templates, and many features. However, there is no history option and the text feature is limited. Free.

Library of Congress Photos
Stock photos. Free.

Little Visuals
Hi-resolution images of buildings, travel, landscapes, under the Public Domain Dedication. Seven images in your inbox every 7 days.

LiveShare (no longer available)
Photo and file sharing.

Magisto
Load your video clips or images, pick a style, then the AI software automatically edits them into a video. Not a video editor that you control (except for a paid plan) but great if you have a bunch of clips you don’t want to edit yourself. You give up editing control for speed. It really depends on whether you like their templates. There’s a free version but $60 a year gets you everything though there is no free trial for the paid version—which it needs.

Manual
An app to control camera functions on your phone you can't manipulate with the IPhone camera app including shutter speed, exposure, focus, and white balance. (iOS only)

Metapicz
Extract Exif (Exchangeable Image File) data from photos. EXIF is a standard for additional data embedded within an image or audio files, which can include date, time, camera settings, etc.

MidJourney*
Probably the best AI image generator, it uses machine learning to create pictures based on text. However, it is hard for a beginner because the user interface is poor. You’ll find a good prompt book here.

Mocha Stock
Stock images that showcase racial diversity.

Mojo*
A great easy-to-use app for making professional vertical social stories to go on Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories, and Snapchat. Templates and fonts. More info here. Free. Pro version $9.99 a month.

Moment*
Cases, lens, batteries, lights, gimbals, etc. to enhance photos and videos taken with a phone.

Montabe (no longer available)
Processes photos sent in via email and upload forms.

Morguefile
More than 300,000 free stock images with a wide range of categories. The site asks that you credit the photographer.

Nappy
Stock images that showcase racial diversity.

Narrative
Wearable camera that takes a photo every 30 seconds and creates a video at the end of the day (without using the repetitive shots). No work for the wearer. $199. Video explanation.

NASA images
Free use of images.

NativeStock Pictures (no longer available)
Stock images that showcase racial diversity.

New Old Stock
Free stock website with vintage photos under the Creative Commons or “The Commons” license from Flickr.

Night Moves (no longer available)
For low light photo shooting.

Offset (now part of Shutterstock)
High-end images. $250 for a 3MB file or $500 for 40+ MB file and unlimted use.

Olloclip (no longer available)
Small lens attachment.

One True Media (no longer available)
Templates for videos of slideshows.

Open Attribute
Plug in that makes it easier to use Creative Commons.

Open Camera
Android app that combines photography and video with control over focus and white balance.. Includes in-app stabilization. Makes the phone recognize an external microphone. Video explanation here. Free.

Open Clip Art (no longer available)
Free and easy to use clip art.

Paint.Net
Originally intended as a more advanced version of MS Paint, this is feature heavy and easy-to-use. Offers a strong history tool so it would be a good place for beginners. However, it lacks some features that the pros will want: there is no slice, patch or spot healing tool. There is no RAW editing. Free.

Pattern Library
Free stock photos of patterns you can use in your own designs (useful for backgrounds too). 

Perfect365
Kardashian-approved photo-editing app. Adjust the intensity of each effect using a slider. Includes celebrity-inspired templates.

Pexels*
Vast and well-organized, it is one of the best free stock images and video sites. High-quality images under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. 

PPPalette
Color palettes generator. Free.

Promo
Resize photos for various social media platforms. Free.

PhotoDNA
An image-identification Microsoft tool to identify illegal images, including Child Sexual Abuse Material. It can only look for pre-identified pictures.)

Photo Everywhere
More than 3000 free stock photos under the Creative Commons Attribution focused on travel.

Photo Peach
Slideshows with audio and text. Sample.

Photogene (no longer available)
Edits still images.

Photopea
A Photoshop alternative for users needing only some basic photo editing options. No download needed but can be slow. Free.

PhotoRoom
Removes the background from a selected photo and lets you select another background. Free.

ProShot
Photo App that offers a high level of control of exposure, grid overlay, custom aspect ratios, ISO, shutter speed and white balance. Andriod or iOS. Here is a complete list of all features and a video tutorial. $5.99.

Photo Pin (now Vecteezy)
Millions of free stock photos culled from Flickr with the Creative Commons license.
 
Photo Pos Pros
Offers layers and mask support. Customise the interface around your preferences. However, while it mimics Photoshop, the size of file exports is limited. Extensions and plugins available. Free.
 
PhotoFeeler
Feedback on how you are being perceived in your profile photos. Add a photo in one of three categories – Business, Social or Dating. Vote on photos of other people to get credits or purchase credits with real money. Each credit allows one person to vote on your photo.

Pic Fog (no longer available)
Real time photo searches.

Pic Jumbo
Free stock photos in many categories. Attribution is not required though suggested.

PicMonkey
Free photo-editing alternative to Photoshop. No software download or learning curve. Some more advanced options for $4.99 a month.

Pixabay
Creative Commons Public Domain photos so you do not need permission or have to pay any attribution when you use the photo.

Pixels in Colour
Stock images that showcase racial diversity.

Pixlr*
Browser-based editing, this is an option for making small changes when Photoshop is overkill. For more professional use (such as curves, blur, sharpen, noise level tools, etc.) there is Pixlr Editor and Pixlr Pro. On the down side, limited file compatibility, no pen tool, rulers or guidelines. Free for basic tools, $5/month Pixlr Pro.

Polotno Studio
Make graphic designs with no ads and no required sign up. Promoted as a Canva alternative. Easy-to-use with plenty of templates and photos to work with. Free.

Preceden (formally Time Glider)
Create web-based timelines using images & videos. Easy-to-use.

ProCamera*
A great iPhone app for capturing, editing, and sharing high quality photos. Control over focus, exposure, white balance, and lighting. Compose shots or shoot HD and SD video. Tools can clutter the screen. The website offers a user manual and video tutorials. $14.99.

Public Domain Archive
All images are public domain, free to use. Includes a large collection of vintage images.

the Rasterbator
Make a printable poster out of an image.

Refe
A Tumblr site of free stock mobile photos.

Regex (no longer available)
Helps to verify the authenticity of digital images through its Metadata.

RevEye
A Chrome browser extension for checking whether an image has been published before, where it was published, or even what’s in it. RevEye will check several search engines all with a single right-click. Free. Video explanation.

Sensity
This tool is designed to spot fake human faces in pictures and videos. Engineers say they trained detectors using 100s of thousands of deepfake videos and GAN-generated images. Free.

Shorthand*
A visual storytelling tool used by major news outlets that allows users to combine text, images, and video. See exactly how a story will look as it is built. See examples created by the BBC here and here. Free trial then pricing starts at $150 a month.

Shutterstock*
Royalty-free stock photos. With reverse image search, you can use drag a photo or illustration into search in order to find other images with a similar look and feel.

Slow Shutter Cam
Capture beautiful light trails, improves low light photos. 99 cents.

Smithsonian Open Access
Nearly 3 million high-resolution two- and three-dimensional public domain images from the Smithsonian. Not only images but data is available as well. You’ll find it in a GitHub repository here.

Snapseed*
Google's Snapseed is a powerful mobile photo tool. Both auto edit and editing controls. Lots of filters and effects including text for adding captions. Both IOS and Android. Tips for using it are here. Free.

Speaking Photo
Audio note-taking to go with photos. Take a picture of a scene then speak notes on the phone. Free.

Stock Free Images
Nearly a million images donated by the Dreamstime contributors to download for free with registration. Credit must accompany the photo. There are some other restriction options.

StockSnap.io
Large collection of free stock photos and high res images. The photos are under the creative commons public domain (no attribution required).

Stock.xchng (no longer available)
Free stock photo site.

Stock Vault
More than 46,000 free stock photos. A variety of photographs and various licensing options.

Storehouse (no longer available)
Group photos together to tell a story with this IOS app. Add text. Free.

Storyluxe
This iOS app will help to create Instagram Stories with many free options. More info here.

SunCaic
Allows you to see in any given area, on any given date, the direction of the sunrise and sunset.

SuperFamous (no longer available)
Hi-res free stock photos under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.

Superimpose
This app allows you to erase the background of photos to fix a boring sky and so on. Easy to use. 99 cents or more features with Superimpose X for $4.99.

TechSmith (formally Jing)
A free, easy-to-use screen capture application. Snap a screenshot or record a video, save and share. capture a presentation, lecture, or event.

Thnk Link
Make images interactive. Sample.

TiltShift Video
Create the tilt-shift effect for photos and video. No in-app camera to shoot video and no sharing options. $3.99.

Tineye
This reverse image search engine connects images to their creators. Helps in image verification.

TripWow (no longer available)
Quick way to create a slideshow. Sponsored by TripAdvisor.

Tonl
Stock images that showcase racial diversity.

Unbound 
App for simple and pretty viewing experience of your Dropbox photos. Fast with lots of features. $2.99 a month. Mac version $9.99/ a month.

Unfold*
App for iOS or Android for creating vertical montages of videos and photos. 25 free templates, dozens more as in-app purchases. A product of SquareSpace. More info here.

Unsplash
Used by many professional photographers, offers hi-res photos featuring many random shots. Use their photos however you want under the Public Domain dedication license. Subscribe and get 10 new photos every 10 days. Owned by Getty Images.

Vecteezy
Millions of free stock photos culled from Flickr with the Creative Commons license.

Veracity
A reverse image search tool. Gets quite a few low ratings from users.

Videolicious (aquired by SquareSpace)
App for easy photo and video editing on your iPhone.

VivaVideo Pro
Lots of features for video editing. Music, filters, etc.

VSCO*
Great start-to-finish photo/video app. Easy to use filters and helpful tutorials. Manual controls like focus lock, exposure lock, and white balance. Edit images and share them on social media. IOS. Here is a tutorial. Free version or $19.99 a year for 170 presets.

Vuvox (no longer available)
Multimedia collage tool.

Wikimedia Commons
Offers free stock photos under all different licenses as well as sounds and videos.  The link to the CC Creative Common license will tell you how you can use that image.

WowSlider
An image slider with wide compatibility and easy embed.

Yandex
Search the internet from an image. Free.

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Learning (also see "coding")

Academic Earth
More than 1,500 video lectures by professors from Harvard, Yale, broken down into single classes on topics like art, architecture, and astronomy. Free.

Domestika
Mostly high quality online courses covering creative topics such as drawing, fine art, graphic design, arts and crafts, photography, etc. and some courses in business and design. No deadlines, learn at your own pace. Each course lasts from a couple of hours to 10+ hours and is divided into short lessons Certifications available. Most courses have a low fee ($10-$40) but some are free. Some courses are only available in Spanish with English subtitles.

How Cast
Free learning site divided into categories like environment, first aid, and parenting. Experts share their knowledge in videos that cover everything from surviving heart attacks to playing charades.

iTunes U
More than 350,000 free video lectures.

Khan Academy
Tools for kids and adults in single, short lessons on a neon blackboard. More than 20,000 free videos. Free coding lessons with reputable content.

Lynda Software Training*
Software training & tutorial video library. 

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Map Makers

Amcharts
Creates charts and maps. Aimed at the needs of businesses. Free version or more options with a paid for a one-time fee of $90.

Atlist
Create custom Google Map with multiple markers that are embeddable. Add markers manually or by importing address data from an Excel spreadsheet or CSV. Example. Add directions, photos, etc. to modals (modals are the info windows that pop up when you click a marker).

Batchgeo
Map creator that generally easy-to-use and straightforward. Can be embedded into a site. Video explanation here. Free trial then $99 a month.

Canva*
The graphic design platform has integrated generative AI into all its products including: image, and text creation, photos, audio, and video editing. Use Canvas drag-and-drop to create social media graphics, headers, slides, flyers, photo collages, posters, infographics, even mind maps for concepts. Share to social media straght from the app or download for posting. Free. $12 a month gets you more options.

Clickable Map
Creates a map that opens a link when users click a region. Easy to use. Free.

Crowd Map (no longer available)
Crowdsourced data, mapped.

Google Maps*
A powerful tool but with a bit a of learning curve. Useful for creating custom routes (for driving, biking or walking) between these markers. Will do distance calculations and measurements. Limited styling options: you can’t change the markers size or shape. You also can’t edit the modal. Free.

MapChart
Color code countries and regions on a world map. Click the country and choose a color. Create a legend then download your map. Free.

Mapcreator
This toll will create printable maps that can be exported and can save as an image. Used by newsrooms, real estate, government and tourism companies. Good for creating maps that need to be exported as an image. Free.

Mapline
Upload spreadsheets and display them as markers and shapes and categorize them within territory boundaries to a map. It includes route planning and other powerful feature. There is a free option with paid accounts starting at $695 a year.

MapMe
A embeddable basic custom interactive map creator. Especially for real estate and travel. Free for up to five maps with limited features. Requires an account. Paid accounts starting at $24 a month.

NatGeo MapMaker
This National Geographic tool will overlay climate and political data layers on a map. There are simple tools for adding text and shapes. Free.

One Place Field
Intended for software developers and programmers, this map maker is mobile-friendly. Simple interface, cloud-based. Users can overlay shapes, drawings, measurements, asset information, and field data onto satellite imagery. Works as a collaborative toll for teams in the field. There’s a 14-day free trial with full functionality, then paid accounts starting at $49 a month.

Points Mentioned (no longer available)
Automatically generates maps for local news articles.

QuikMaps
Draw lines and place markers on a Google map using only your mouse cursor. Can be embedded. Free.

Scribble Maps
A map-maker with API capabilities to use on outside websites. Create a map, publish online, embed in a document, or print as a hard copy. High-resolution imagery makes it possible to create high-quality prints and posters.Free for as many as five maps. Despite the technical tools for pros, novice map makers can make good use of it as well. More features with paid accounts starting at $14.

Visme
Create graphics and maps just for a particular platform for social-specific content. Free for up to five maps with limited features. Paid accounts starting at $15 month. Also has a QR code generator for static codes.

ZeeMaps
Create interactive maps, even for large datasets. Does not require an account. Free for up to five maps. Import spreadsheets and render them as the base layer of a map. More features and no branding for paid accounts starting at $19.99.

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Organization

Airtable
Manages projects and processes-weddings, movie shoots, companies, etc. Allows you to log entries in spreadsheets which can be turned into sets of data stored in the cloud. Some limitations you won’t find in tools like Trello. There’s a video explanation here.

Boomerang (formally Baydin)
Schedule Gmail or Outlook email for a later send date.  Add-on for Firefox and Chrome. Free.

Buffer*
Popular social media scheduling service for posting to multiple sites at one time or later, including: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+. Provides analytics. Free, but $10 (and up) a month gives you unlimited scheduling so you can plan your content well ahead of time.

Clean Email
Remove yourself from email accounts and bundle newsletters. Free trial then $30 a year.

Evernote*
Access notes on any computer, tablet or phone. Search function lets you find a note in either text or audio format. Free for iOS and Android. For more options there is Evernote Plus $2.99 a month, while Premium is $5.80 per month.

Fargo  (no longer available)
An outlining application that runs in your browser but stores your files in Dropbox.

Freshbooks
A cloud-based accounting app that helps you manage clients and projects, send invoices, and track time, expenses, and estimates right from your iPhone. Best for running a business in which you have specific projects for different clients that involve billable hours. The first three clients are free; then $20 for up to 25 clients or $30 for unlimited clients per month. 

Grid (no longer available)
Spreadsheet table app that's much simpler than Excel.

Leave Me Alone
Unsubscribe from several email accounts at the same time. See all your newsletters in one place. Free trial then $9 a month.

Mailstrom 
Unsubscribe from lots of lists, or quickly delete many email. Works with Outlook, Gmail and Yahoo. Free trial then yearly accounts starting at $60.

Meetways
Find a halfway point between two locations. Great for setting up meetings between people.

Mohiomap (no longer available)
Access several Cloud platforms at the same time, it's a visual overview of Dropbo, Evernote, and Google Drive. 

Nozbe
Task management system. Organizes according to the context in which they are done (online, at the office, at home, etc.) . Designed with teams in mind-which could be as simple as sharing a shopping list. Available for most devices. Works with Google Calender.  Monthly fee: $8 for a single user, $16 for a family, $40 for a team.

Octopus.do
A sitemap builder and website planner. Starting at $8 a month.

OmniOutliner
Mac program that keeps lists and organizes outlines. Low learning curve to create rich, multi-column, collapsible outlines in many styles. Add embedded notes, images, links, etc. $40 to buy the standard version, $70 for the pro model. An educational discount of $25 and $50 is available here.

Google Now
Tracks your online behavior and uses this data to predict the information that you will need, such as local traffic or weather updates.

PinBoard
Bookmark things you find in social media. One time $9.94 cost.

Podio
Social work platform for basic project management tasks — calendar, contacts, activity stream — that helps teams collaborate and communicate. Both free and paid versions.

Process Street
Document, manage, and track your workflows and business processes. Records tasks in templates – lists which show what tasks to do and what order to do them in. A video explanation here.

Scrivener*
App that gives you a single place to dump all your ideas. Especially helpful for creating and managing complex writing projects: writing a novel, play, TV show, magazine feature, etc. Write in fragments and then shuffle scenes/chapters in a "bulletin board" mode.. throw in research notes, multimedia files, and character sketches.  Allows you to slowly "grow” books, scripts, and articles. Easy to convert the document to an e-book, web page, a PDF, or Word doc. Works with Mac and Windows.  Free 30-use trial. $45 for the latest version. Many writers swear it's worth it. Doesn't work on iPads though.

Trello
Organizational tool that integrations with many other apps. Tasks or projects are stored in cards which are then arranged into columns.

TripIt
Organize all your travel plans into mobile itineraries.

Ulysses
Writing app for Mac. Uses plain text or Markdown for writing, but also includes notes, exporting, organization and more. $44.99.

Untools
Hand-picked tools for problem-solving.

WorkFlowy
Digital note taking app. Excellent design, but lacks due dates, reminders of upcoming deadlines and calendar view. Free version limits you to 500 lists or "items" per month.  Pro accounts can be backed up to Dropbox. Individual pro accounts ($4.99 per month or $49 per year) and Team ($3.99 per month per user, or $39 per year per user, with a two user minimum) A short video introduction here.

Also see Writing: Organizers

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Other Cool Tools

5-0 Radio
Police scanner, emergency frequencies. Free.

10-Minute Mail
Throwaway email addresses that expire in 10 minutes. Allows you to sign up for things without using your real email address.  

Archive Today
Retrieves snapshots of webpages, even when the original page has been taken down. Free.

Archive.org
See “Wayback Machine”

ABBYY FineReader
Turn scans of paper documents, PDF files, and digital photographs into searchable and editable formats. $169.99.

Adobe Export
Convert PDF files to Word or Excel documents.  $1.99 a month.

Big Ass Data Broker Opt-Out List
Investigative tech reporter Yael Grauer has created a list of data brokers (such as Spokeo, PeekYou, PeopleSmart, Pipl, etc.) and how to opt out of each one. Free.

BrandYourself
Manage and take ownership of your search results. Helps to make sure search engines find the real you and put your relevant results at the top. 

Calculate Duration between Dates
Find out exactly how many much time has passed between two dates (or will pass).

Calibre
Convert e-books from one format to another. Create, edit, and read e-books. Free. 

Camel Camel Camel
Shows the price history of anything on Amazon and alerts you when the price drops.

Carbon Dating
See when a webpage was first created.

Caspio
Creates databases, charts.

Chat Step
Private chatrooms.

Cloud Flare
Designed to increase website's performance (through routing and switching--helping computers connect over the Internet) and security (using cloud cyber-security and encrypted HTTPS connections.).  Some services free, while paid plans range from $20 per month to thousands of dollars for clients with intricate websites.

Clue
Memory test for your site.

Contxts
A tech alternative to business cards.

CreateAGraph
Kid friendly. Very simple.

Crystal
Analyzes data from social media and such to put people into 64 personality types in order to help users craft email that empathizes with the preferred approach of recepiants. Starts at $19 a month for individuals. $99 for companies.

Date to Date Calculator
Find out exactly how many much time has passed between two dates (or will pass).

Down for everyone (or just me)?
Find out if Google, Twitter, and other services are down for just you or other people as well.

Email Spam Test
Check to ensure that your email isn't going to be flagged as spam before you send it.

ePhoto Clamp*
ePhoto Portable Swivel Flash Clamp with Hot Shoe Mount Flash Adapter. Holds your phone to many different surfaces. $15.

Fake Name Generator
Free new identity.

FillAnyPDF
Upload PDFs, PNGs, JPGs, or GIFs to the site (no software required) and then email a link to the file. The receiver can open the form and fill out the required information without having to download the file, then print, scan and fax it back to you. The site promises security for uploaded files. Free trial. Costs start at $12 a year.

FreezePage
Save a copy of what a web address looked like at a specific date and time.

FX
A browser-based effect generator for flash.

HaveIBeenPwned
TheCheck to see if your email address was part of a data breach. The site tells you whether your personal information has been compromised.

Hoaxy
Visualizes the spread of articles across social media. Designed to help spot online misinformation and its related fact-checking efforts. Developed at Indiana University, Free.

HyperMac
An external battery for any USB-driven device — your iPad, your iPhone, your laptop.

Hyposthesis
Make annotations on live webpages and it create a custom link, that can be sent to collaborators. Free.

Import io
Scraps data from any url and turns the webpage into data.

Inoreader
Web-based RSS feed. Subscribe to get new posts from a site. Offers some features not free in Feedly.

iOgrapher case*
Light and simple to use, this camera platform turns your phone into a filmmaking device by providing stability anda place to put additional filmmaking accessories such as a microphone and lighting. $60.

iTranslate
Speech translation. Spoken English to spoken foreign language (or back)  for phrases and words. Iphone, Ipad, Apple Watch. Free.

JustDeleteMe
Want to delete your account from a site?  Here's a long list of "direct links to delete your account from web services" that might have data on you.

Lightning Headphone Jack Adapter* 
The Lightning to 3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter (that comes with the iPhone 7) allows you to plug your standard headphones into an iPhone 7. $9.

Local Angle
A free platform that journalists can use to find local angles on national stories. Local Angle identifies any names mentioned in recent national news stories, and then uses this data to categorize stories by city.

MailDrop.cc
Create a disappearing email address when signing up for a one-time deal or for other temporary situations. Gone in 24 hours.

MeFoto BackPacker Air Tripod*
Lightweight and compact, the legs on this 2-pound tripod extend up to 60 inches. Converts into a selfie stick. $125.

Mobile Reporting Field Guide
Developed by UC Berkley Graduate School of Journalism, this free PDF or iBook promises to be everything a reporter needs to know when reporting from their iPhone. Search Mobile Reporting Guide in the app store.

Moment App
Shows how long you are on your phone and how often you pick it up.

The Old Reader
Web-based RSS feed. Subscribe to get new posts from a site. Not many bells and whistles. Compare to Feedly.

Optimizely
Automated A/B testing to help startups tweak their offerings.

Privnote
Share a confidential note via a web link that will self-destruct after it is read by your intended recipient.

PulsePoint
Police scanner, emergency frequencies. Free.

Reporters Committee First Aid
Mobile app Free guide gives reporters in the field immediate access to legal resources, particularly in situations where access or news gathering may be stymied. Search “reporters committee” in App Store.

SecureDrop
An open-source whistleblower platform using the Tor web browser to leak documents and communicate securely with journalists. A project of Freedom of the Press Foundation.

Signal 
Free, end-to-end encryption which is open source (that’s how you know it really is encrypted). Popular for journalists protecting themselves and sources. However, it does require a telephone to sign up.

SocMetrics
Allows you to ID influencers; the competitive influence feature allows drill down on brands.

Stubborn Generator 
Construct characters and background objects with this free illustrator.

Test My Site
This Google tool will show how long it takes to load a site on a phone. It provides a score of Fast, Average or Slow and can generate a report.

Tiny URL*
Web address shortening service.

TinyWow
Online file conversion site for various types including PDFs, JPGs, etc. While the site says it deletes files after 15 minutes and does not sell user data, there are a number of posts questioning whether the site is legitimate. Free.

User Testing
Pays people to try out new websites or smartphone apps and take video while they do so, showing our people use products (or misunderstand them).

Wayback Machine*
This internet archive saves snapshots of websites even if the site has been taken down. Free.

Website Planet
Find out if a website you are trying to reach is down for everyone or just you.

Who.is
Look information about who owns a website.

Wickr Signal
Send encrypted messages, set how long those messages last before they self-destruct. Attachment support. Free. 

Widgetbox
A collection of widgets.

Word Lens
Free real-time translation app. Purchased by Google. iOS version.

Wordle 
Generate word clouds for free. Save to public gallery and then you can get the embed code. Samples.

YouSendit
Sending large files. Receipts and download tracking. 2 GB free. 5 GB for $10 a month.

Zamzar
Convert files without downloading software. Audio, video, image and docs.

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Password Management

1Password*
This popular password manager stores them in your Web browser, allowing users to only have one master password to access them all. Makes good use of the cloud to keep it in sync with all your devices. Starts at $36. 14 day free trial option.

Bitwarden*
The free version of this open source password manager is one of the best but it bare bones so if you want more and are willing to pay you’ll find better. User experience not as intuitive as other options. $10 a year for more options though storage is limited.

Dashline
A solid password manager with VPN service. Strong interface. $60 a year.

DataVault
Password manager to protect your data. Can sync through Dropbox. $10 for any operating system.

eWallet
Password manager to protect your data. Nice look, customizable. The Windows version is $20, others $10.

KeePassXC
Open source password manager. Purposely no cloud option. All passwords are stored locally. Free.

Keeper
Password manager. Well-designed interface. Free plan is limited. Paid starts at $34.99 a year.

Lastpass
Generates and saves passwords. Strong cross-platform experience. The company has had some past security issues. Free version is limited. Paid is $36 a year.

NordPass
This password manager has an intuitive interface but the free and paid versions have limitations—such as the free version allows users to stay logged in on only one device at a time. $17.88. There’s also a free strength of password checker here.

Security.org
This company offers home security, digital privacy and identity theft products. It also offers a free tool called “How Secure Is My Password.” See how difficult it would be for a computer to crack a particular password. It will tell you how long it would take for a computer to churn through the possibilities to figure it out.

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Polls/Quizzes

AhaSlides
Create polls, live charts, Q&A sessions, quizzes and games. Most features are free with no limit on the questions you can ask in a presentation.

Alchemer (formally SurveyGizzmo)
Supports the creation of forms, including payment forms, quizzes, and surveys. Users can include text, or other media. Can import questions from Word docs. Includes a bulk-edit mode. A free option with unlimited survey questions but otherwise limited. $25 per month for the Explorer plan.

Checkbox Survey
Flexible question design but weak interface and results reports. Has multiple levels of access. Lots of mixing and matching of radio buttons and checkbox responses. Weak reporting options-just static displays. Expensive: no free version and it’s $37 a month for just the basic plan, up to $287 a month.

ClassQuestions
Conduct class polls and sent students questions: multiple choice, etc. Free. Watch a video introduction here.

Classtime
Intended for teachers needing to give quizzes, take polls, or supplement a classroom Q&A. There’s a free version though more options with a plan starting at $8. Video introduction here.

CrowdSignal (formally PollDaddy)
Create surveys, polls, and quizzes. Works well with WordPress sites. Free version offers unlimited polls. The $29 a month account for more options such as customization and export options.

Doodle
Create polls. Great for finding a meeting time among people. Cuts down on email exchanges. Can’t be embedded, but can be linked. It’s a PCMag Editors' Choice productivity app. Everything you need for polling is free. The $39 a year Private account takes away ads and gives you the ability to see who hasn't answered a poll yet and encryption options. Business account for $69 a year.

eSurveyPro
Interface could be better. Multiple reports. More options than SurveyPlanet and some design advantages over Toluna QuickSurveys. Features not as strong as Checkbox Survey and SoGoSurvey. Free options includes unlimited surveys, questions, and respondents. Basic plan includes data exporting, email support. $40 per month for the Premium plan.

Instagram*
The photo and video sharing app owned by Facebook is also a polling tool. Will accommodate single question polls with two answers (yes no) and a guessing game type of polls with up to four answers. While it has limited options, it’s free and can reach a large audience.

KeySurvey
Sometimes confusing interface. Can import questions from Word docs. Works best with straightforward a survey structure. Includes a collaborative task manager, administrative controls, and various reporting options. No direct social media integration. Customized pricing, so who knows how much it cost.

Mentimeter*
Allows you to pose a question to your audience and get instant feedback by phones. Fewer  features than Socrative or Poll Everywhere, but it is free and easy to use.

Poll Everywhere*
Instant audience feedback through texting. Embed in PowerPoint, Keynote, or Google Slides for live surveys. Can replace clickers in classrooms. Free version for up to 25 responses per poll. $19 a month for more options.

Poll Junkie
Unlimited polls and responses with more features than social media polls. Share the link or embed the code. Only free with no sign up.

Qualtrics
Expensive but winner of PC mag’s Editors' Choice award for creating surveys. Interface is powerful and thoughtful organization but has a learning curve. Create shared reports. Really meant for professionals.

Quizlet*
Create study tools like flash cards and quizzes or make use of those created by others. Useful for rote learning. Easy to use but limited functionality. It will link to Google Classroom, but not connect to academic LMS (learning management systems like Blackboard). The company added Q-Chat in 2023. This AI feature tailors material to each user’s needs. The app adjusts the difficulty of the questions according to how well students know the material they’re studying and how they prefer to learn. Free version for most features. $1.99 to make it ad free. $19.99 for more options.

Slido
Q&A and polling platform focused on business needs. Video explanation here.

SoGoSurvey
Create online surveys. Nice interface with lots of starter templates. An option to merge surveys. Limited flexibility in question ordering. Tracks email invitations and responses. Strong reporting functions including a helpful calendar. Stacks up decently against SurveyGizmo and SurveyMonkey. Pro accounts from $12 to $40 a month.

SurveyMonkey*
Popular option for easily creating simple surveys. Designed to be accessable. Free option allows for up to 10 questions and an unlimited number of surveys that can be sent to up to 100 respondents. Has a mobile app to check survey progress. $32 per month for the Advantage plan. $99 a month for the Premier tier.

SurveyPlanet
Easy step up from Google forms to create surveys with a very clean interface but very basic. Limited question choices and limited options for surveys requiring more complex questions. The free version is generous: unlimited surveys of unlimited length to unlimited respondents. $15 a month for the Pro plan.

Toluna QuickSurveys
An online survey tool with nice reporting options, including the ability to create shared reports. Limited options for more complex questioning. Works best with straightforward a survey structure. $85 per month for the Premium option. A hefty $85 a month for access to Toluna analytics.

Zoho Survey
Online or offline surveys. Easy to use but limited question options. Has a mobile app to check survey progress. Great reporting features. Comparable to SurveyPlanet but with more features and options. Limited free option. Many features are available for the $20 a month option. $60 per month for the Enterprise plan.

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Presentations

Beautiful.ai
Quickly make beautiful slides with these graphic tools. Slightly different workflow than PowerPoint so it takes a little time getting used to but more fun. Free.

Brainshark
Convert existing PowerPoints slide presentations into an online video. Easy to use. fee for some options.

Bunkr
Collects visual content and organize it into slides. Like Evernote for formatting presentations. Built for speedy, easy assembly though not as flexible as Prezi. The HTML5 presentation works on computers, phones and tablets.  Allows for multiple users to work on the same presentation (like Google Docs). Free unless you want to space to store more than two presentations, though you can download them in PDF or PPT.

Flipsnack (formally SlideSnack)
Record your PDFs as an audio-visual slidecast. Basic features are free, more options for purchase.

Google Docs Presentations  
Create presentations inside Google Docs. Free with collaborative editing but more limited than PowerPoint.

Keynote
For Mac users, compatible with iPhone and iPad.

Ludus
Presentation app focused on simple formatting. Turns PDFs into flipbooks. Add text, photos, videos. $14.99 a month.

Mmhmm
Makes video presentations for video conference meetings. Easily superimpose a resizable version of yourself over photos, videos and slides and share a live feed. Fun tools like laser pointers and filters. There is an educational discount. $12 a month.

Mobile Mouse
Use Your phone to Give a presentation. Phone app will control computer. Free version with limited features. MobileMouse Pro, $2.99 for iPad or Android or iOS $1.99.

Paste
A product of WeTransfer to quickly create slide decks. Limited options compared to PowerPoint or Keynote but inexpensive. $9.99 a year.

Pitch*
Embed pre-recorded videos inside of presentations. Customize video sizes, shapes, and positioning for each slide. Free $8 a month for more options.

PowerPoint
The ubiquitous Microsoft presentation program that’s still easy to use (although often poorly used) for creating slides. $159.99, less with Microsoft 360.

Prezi*
Slide creator. Alternative to PowerPoint. Use 3-D zoom and turn your slides into a cinematic experience.

Screencast-O-Matic
Screencasts can be shared on YouTube, embedded in websites, and accessed online.

Screencastify*
Chrome extension that records a computer screen. Videos are saved on your Google Drive account. Allows the user to record the desktop or record audio. Free.

SlideShare*
Popular resentation tool owned by LinkedIn. Use documents, PDFs and video to create webinars, audio presentations, for online lectures etc. Solid analytics for free. Watch a slide show about SlideShare here.

Sutori
A tool for teachers and students to craft historical timelines combining graphics, video, audio, text, quizzes, and more. Drag and drop little boxes of content. Built for collaborative efforts. Basic accounts are free or paid account with more features $49 a year.

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Publishing Platforms

About Me
Quickly create an attractive profile page. A digital card/personal description site that is highly searchable and smartly designed. Sort of a social media business card. Free. Video introduction here.

Adobe Portfolio
Although it requires a Creative Cloud subscription to be used, it’s an add-on that is a powerful option: simple and straightforward set-up, slick interface. However, not as many customization and layout options as some of the other site builders. Ideal if you are already in the CC.

Authory
Automatically backs up a journalist’s articles regardless as to which site they’re published on. Lets readers “subscribe” to journalists, so that they can receive email notifications when one of them publishes something new. Two week free trial. After that the service is $7 a month or $70 a year.

BlueHost
This WordPress website builder has over 300 templates. Drag and drop editing, Paid accounts start at $2.95 a month with a 30 days money back guarantee.

Blogger
Free blog platform with gentle learning curve for beginners Run by Google, so it integrates with Google products well. Lacks many plugins to improve functionality. Limited design options. Google hasn’t done much updating to it over the years.

Cargo
A variety of unconventional, eye-catching templates, A variety of fonts and some animation tools. Build a site without paying until you publish. $8.25 a month.

Clippings Me
Showcase your work as a journalist, blogger or writer.  Add online and print clippings, link to your social media sites, and customize your portfolio. Free. Demo.

Contently
Tools for creating and showcasing storytelling content of writers. Connects publishers (both news organizations and PR folks at businesses with journalists, then takes a 15% transition fee. Designed to help freelancers find work. Takes care of the paperwork aspect (invoicing and payments) for businesses hiring freelancers. Free.

Duda
Customizable website builder with nice analytics, multilanguage support and e-commerce. A little more expensive than the more well-known options but offers more flexibility.

Editorially  (no longer available)
A stripped-down a text editor. Allows for collaborators. Tracks changes. Not a publishing platform.

Elementor*
This popular WordPress plugin offers many templates and widgets for free. See how it looks as you go. Though it doesn’t require coding skills, it could be a little confusing for beginners. Does have a drop and drag setup. Paid accounts starting at $49 a year.

Ghost (formerly Roon)
Open source, free blogging platform. Simple to use, custom domains. Focused on making beautiful content rather than options like plug-ins and SEO tools.

HostGator
A website hosting services that offers limited website building choices. No free option. However, the plans start as low as $4.99 a month.

IM Creator
For advanced website creators though you don’t need to know any code to get started. Wide choice of templates but detailed editing options. Includes commerce and domain name support. $8 a month.

Joomla
Lots of possible complexity.  Deep level navigation, sections in sections, categories etc.

Jux (no longer available)
Photo-oriented with great layouts and fonts. Custom domains. Writing tool weak.

Krop
Both a job site and a portfolio builder. Layouts are straightforward and easy-to-use. Free trial. $8.25 a month.

Live Blog
Live Blog is a liveblogging platform for journalists for posting from a phone or tablet.

LiveJournal
Blogging platform owned by Russians (where the servers are located). Lost subscribers after banning political posts and other topics. Ads are shown except for paid accounts.

Marquee (no longer available)
Publishing platform focused on presentation.

Medium
Created by Twitter co-founders to support good writing. Clean design and easy-to-use interface. For those who want to write but don’t want to maintain a blog or website.

Newsbound (no longer available)
Visual-storytelling platform that can combine photos, graphics, animations and text into a slideshow.

Octopus.do
A sitemap builder and website planner. Starting at $8 a month.

Postach.io
Publishing platform limited to Evernote (popular note-taking platform). Custom domains, but limited themes. Pulls your thoughts from Evernote into the blog.  Free for basic service, $4.99 a month for advanced options.

Postagon (no longer available)
Blogging platform. Custom domains, writing-oriented, comfortable setup. Limited customization.

Posthaven
Custom domains, tagging. Weak on themes.$5 a month.

Pressfolios*
Especially designed for highlighting the kinds of things a journalist would want to highlight in order to show what they've done. The links to past content are prominent. There’s also an area for listing skills and a detailed biography. Instead of just linking to your stories (which can be taken down) Pressfolios creates a backup version. Lacks social media integration. Free but $12 each month for a pro version. Samples: One: The Atlantic, GQ freelancer, Two: NY Times freelancer, Three: Rolling Stone contributor

Roon (see Ghost)
Blogging platform.

Seelio (no longer available)
The portfolio network for student builders and doers.

Silvrback
Blogging platform. Establish your own brand with a custom domain. Nice archive and bio pages. $29.99 a year special. 14 day free trial.

Sitey
A do-it-yourself publishing platform, sames as WebsiteBuilder.com, SiteBuilder.com and Sitelio.com. Some reviewers, such as this one,  say there are many consumer complaints related to billing.

SquareSpace
Inexpensive and easy way to build a website or blog. WordPress has more flexible design and functionality (no plugins with Square Space), but not everyone will want so many extras. More focused on content than coding. Nice templates and tools for businesses. 14-day free trial. $8--$24 a month includes hosting.

Storify (no longer available)
Social media aggregate. Publish elements - photos, tweets, videos together. Free.

Svbtle
Writing platform. Minimalist interface. Encourages reader response. Must apply for membership.

Tumblr
This social platform allows users to see posts from all of the blogs they follow in a single stream. Sort of Twitter, but with full text and more images. You can populate your stream with content by others simply by clicking the "like" and "reblog" buttons. Easy to use. Limited customization. Best for photography, art. Free.

Web.com
Easy to use interface to build websites using templates and stock photography. However, it doesn’t let you switch templates and there is no free option but the paid versions are inexpensive.

Webflow*
Aimed at website designers but does not require coding skills. More flexibility than SquareSpace, Wix, etc. and more intuitive than WordPress but still has a steeper learning curve. Offers hosting options. A free account is available with more options starting at $12 a month.

Weebly
Simple website creation. Possibly the most easy-to-use with a useful drop and drag function. Limited customization. Free (with footer ad) but more options with paid subscription from $8-$38 monthly.

Wix*
Drag and drop website builder using visually impressive layouts. Active customer support but hard to move away. Student example here. Free but a paid account is needed to unlock some features you would expect to be free. Paid accounts start at $8.50 a month.

WordPress.com* 
WP-dot-com is free and easy to use. The dot-org version is not.  WP-dot-com includes hosting and a domain name (yourdomain.wordpress.com) butyour own domain name is only $15 more. Basic customization available (themes, colors, layout and fonts).  Limited monetization and plugin options. An AI-powered writing assistant has been added that can write blogs. Jetpack AI can mimic the site’s tone, edit posts, and translate content into 12 languages.

WordPress.org*
The most often used software for publishing on line.  Pick your own domain name, host wherever you like, and add plugins as you like. Steeper learning curve that WP-dot-com.

WPbeginner
A free WordPress resource site for beginners. Tutorials for non-techy users including reviews of plugins.

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QR Code Generators

Legit QR generators will have SSL certification along with positive reviews from notable companies.

delivr
Creates QR codes. Privacy focused.

Kaywa
5 dynamic codes for free, then $13.75 and up a month for analytics, etc.

Mashable
Article on how to create a QR code.

QR Explore
Offers a bulk QR code generator and label generator.

QR Stuff
QR code generator for both static and dynamic QR codes. Must sign up for an account first. Especially for small businesses. Free.

QRicket
Free QR code generator for static QR codes. Works especially with bit.ly and Google analytics. Free.

QRTIGER
A reliable QR Code generator that can integrate with 1000s of apps. Both for business and personal projects. Generate a static QR code for free if the content needs no editing.

Shopify
Offers a static QR code generator.

Sparq code (formally Maestro) no longer available

Unitag QR
EU company offering a QR code generator and a QR code reader. Must create an account first. Especially for small companies that conduct transactions in Euros.

Visme
Create graphics and maps just for a particular platform for social-specific content. Free for up to five maps with limited features. Paid accounts starting at $15 month. Also has a QR code generator for static codes.

Visualead
Integrate QR codes seamlessly into branded packaging. Good for marketers, small businesses, and professionals with limited graphic design skills.

Zebra QR
Create QR menus in a PDF or a landing page. Especially for dining places (cafes, restaurants, etc.)

Zxing Project

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Research

Academic OneFile
This Cengage database, often available through public libraries, has access to thousands of journals. Not all articles are available in full text. Subscription required.

Academic Search Premier*
This database provides access to the latest research published in thousands of scholarly journals. Subscription required.

Brookings
A non-profit think tank, Brookings has a large network of scholars who produce reports and papers on a wide variety of important news topics.

Comparea
See a visual comparison of two states, cities, countries or continents. Move them around.  It will also tell how many times bigger a geographic area is to another.

Connected Papers
A visual literature-mapping and recommendation tool that finds publicly available scholarly papers. Around 200 million articles, including preprints. The articlle alert system builds a list of recommended papers that users can train by liking or disliking the articles.

Consensus
Users type questions into a search bar and the AI provides a consensus from decades of scientific research. Free.

Contact Out
A plugin that surfaces email addresses and phone numbers for LinkedIn users. Free plan allows 100 search credits. Paid plans starting from $19 a month.

Content Gems
Monitor blogs, social media, etc Filter content based on keywords. Dends you links. Limited free account or paid accounts (starting at $10) based on the number of researched keywords.

Data.gov
US government data sets.

Directory of Open Access Journals
A growing database that covers only journals that are free and open to the public.

Directory of Open Access Repositories
This free site is operated by the University of Nottingham in the UK. It aggregates databases from around the world, locating open access research across disciplines.

Fact Check
A political fact checking site run by The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

Feedly
Web-based and largest RSS feed. Subscribe to get new posts from a site. Uses upvotes and downvotes to learn which new articles is most relevant to the user. Useful to academic researchers looking to stay on top of new papers but also for those who want to monitor news, RSS feeds, Reddit, Twitter and podcasts. Free, but a paid account offers more features such as the ability to follow more than 100 sources and hide adverts. $6 or more a month. Compare to Inoreader.

Fetching.io (no longer available)
Captures every site you visit automatically, so you can more easily find websites and articles you need now but didn't know at the time you would need them.

Google Scholar*
The dominant tool in the field of research, users can set alerts for publication of new scholarly papers on particular research topics, authors, or keywords. Sometimes picks up useful preprints, theses, and dissertations. Access to the studies could be restricted. If you can’t get a particular study itself through a university/library affiliation, be sure to click “All Versions” at the bottom of the search result. Widely acknowledged as the biggest corpus in existence, one estimate puts the volume at close to 400 million articles.

Google Trends
Real time search info that can be broken down by day or region. Pulls data from YouTube and Google News as well. Insights on what people want to know right now.

Hunter
Searches for contact information by employer. 100 searches free. Paid plans range from $49 – $399.

Newspapers.com
Online newspaper archive. Free trial for one week. Paid accounts start at $8 a month.

Open Knowledge Map
A visual-mapping tool that creates maps based on keywords to arrange 100s of scholarly papers, data sets, and software that are related into bubbles. Users can change and update them. It can group papers into themes you may not have considered to find subfields of research.

Research Rabbit
Launched in 2021, it describes itself as “Spotify for papers”. Users save relevant papers to a collection. A list of recommended articles updates based on the collection. Alerts are more personalized than Google Scholar. Free.

Research Gate
Sends email recommendations of scholarly papers and offers a feed of them. Users can also see a chronological newsfeed of papers posted by their ResearchGate contacts. Around 150 million publication pages and 20 million users. Free.

TLDR
A scientific search engine that generates one-sentence summaries of research papers.

Storyful Multisearch
Chrome browser extension that searches multiple social networking platforms at the same time. Free.

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Social Media

Also see Twitter

Account Killer
Shows how to completely close any social media account, not just disable them.

Agorapulse
Twitter and Facebook AND Instagram management tool. Receive instant email notification every time one of your automated moderation rules applies to a post or comment. Discover your most engaged fans based on interaction with your page. Coordinates contests and promotions. Accounts start at $29 a month.

Alternion (no longer available)
Aggregation of your social media feeds (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr) as well as email into one scrollable dashboard.  Free.

ArgyleSocial (no longer available)
A social media platform for B2B marketing--merge social data with sales and numbers to identify best prospects. A single dashboard to monitor both Facebook and Twitter as well as reports on ROI.

Banjo (no longer available)
Search your location for social media trends in real time. 

Bit.ly
URL shortening and bookmarking service that also offers real time-analytics as well as click tracking. Works with Twitter and Facebook. Free.

Bottle Nose
Track news and trends across social networks.

Blottr (no longer available)
Residents can use to report on breaking news events in their own neighborhoods.

Brand24
Social media analytics site focused on small business. Clean interface. Costly if you exceed quotas and data storage limits. From $49 to $399 a month.

BrandYourself
Manage and take ownership of your search results. Helps to make sure search engines find the real you and put your relevant results at the top.

Buffer*
Popular social media scheduling service for posting to multiple sites at one time: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+. Can schedule for later. Analytics. providedFree, however, $10 (and up) a month gives you unlimited scheduling so you can plan your content ahead of time.

BuzzSumo
Dashboard showing hot social media topics from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+.  A few free searches each day or unlimited if you sign up for an account with an email address. Alternative to Uprise.io.

Carma
Analytic insights for PR. Paid.

Cision
Large public relations software firm that merged with Vocus. Focused on executing and measuring influencer-oriented media campaigns. Large media and blogger database, distributes press releases, manages influencer outreach, and measure social media activities.

Clear
App that finds and flags your potentially inappropriate past social media posts and tweets.

Cover it Live (no longer available)
Live blogging. Free.

Crimson Hexagon
In-depth sentiment metrics for planning social strategies. No mobile app. Paid.

Crowdfire
(Formerly JustUnfollow) This app shows your Twitter followers, unfollowers, inactive users, nearby followers, people who don't follow back and people and more all at one time--works with Instagram as well.

Crowd Booster*
Pulls together your Facebook and Twitter info (time most people look at your images or video uploads, your total reach, engagement, etc.). Helpful for devising a social media strategy. At a glance analytics recommendations on timing as well as audience insights. Starting at $9 a month.

Crowdtangle*
A "social listening device" that locates well-performing Facebook posts in a given area of content and shows them in a dashboard. If applicable to a client then users are able to either re-post the trending post or take that concept and make it useful to the specific audience. Called the secret behind UpWorthy’s success.  Formally a monthly subscription cost but purchased by Facebook in 2016 and now free though there is a vetting process.

Dataminr
Tool for catching what's news on Twitter before it trends.

EveryPost
Post to Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr, all at one time. Free.

Feedient
Aggregation of social media feeds (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr) into one scrollable dashboard.  Free.

Foursquare
Geolocation search.

Friend or Follow (no longer available)
Find out who's not following you back on Instagram, Twitter, or Tumblr.

GeoFeedia* 
Search social media in real-time by location. Find photos, tweets, and other user generated content. For a cost, GeoFeedia will set up a geofence for a particular place.  Draw a circle around any area on a map to see all the content being posted by users within that area in real-time. Around a store so management can see what people are saying while browsing or a news organization can build a fence around a place where news is happening. $1,450 a month for up to five users.

Gephi
Popular social networking analysis tool. Interactive visualization and exploration platform for all kinds of networks and complex systems, dynamic and hierarchical Graphs. steep learning curve. Watch a video introduction to an older version here.

Glisser
Glisser "makes presentations social"  by making slides sharableto audience phones and laptops. Live polling, Twitter feeds and other audience interaction. Free but a paid subscription offers more options.

Google Trends
Info on what people are searching for in google, find trends, etc.

Hashtags
A real-time tracker of Twitter hashtags (like a tag for tweets, describing the content or nature of the tweet).

HootSuite*
Probably the most popular social media dashboard. Manage multiple accounts across multiple social networks: execute campaigns, schedule messages, track mentions and traffic.  Monitor your data in scrollable columns from up to five social networks for free.  Pro versions (starting at $8.99 per month).

Hyperlapse (no longer available)
Instagram’s timelapse video. No audio option.

Iconosquare*
Metrics for Instagram including top photos, which filters you use the most, most engaged followers, etc. Many different types of data nicely displayed with visualizations. Free.

IFTTT*
Stands for "If This Then That." Power tool for setting up automatic responses to Tweets, FB posts etc. Creates what programmers call conditional expressions. Such as sending a Tweet each time you make a blog post. Integrates well with HootSuit and Buffer. Samples.

Instagram*
The photo and video sharing app owned by Facebook is also a polling tool. Will accommodate single question polls with two answers (yes no) and a guessing game type of polls with up to four answers. While it has limited options, it’s free and can reach a large audience.

Instatrack
App that tells you about your Instagram followers.

Klout (no longer available)
Measure your social media impact. Free.

Knowem
Allows you to check for the use of your name, brand, product, or username in more than 500 social media websites to see if it already taken and to secure it if it is not.

Kurrently
Search engine for Facebook and Twitter.

Later*
Social media scheduler especially for Instagram posts but also handles Twitter, Facebook, etc. Requires an image to post so the focus is on the visual. Lets you store your graphic images in a Media Library. There is a free version that is useful (though it limits certain dimensions or file sizes) while the paid option (starting at $9 a month) gives you manage comments and such.

LiveBlog Pro
Liveblog Pro is a liveblogging platform built by journalists, for journalists. Free to use for individuals, with a paid-for service offering multiple users.

MarketMe Suite (no longer available)
Social media platform that lets you connect with multiple platforms.

Mention
Tracks social media mentions of key words you selection.block URLs out of searches and other features. 14 day free trial. Then accounts starting at $29 a month.

NameChk (no longer available)
Find out if your name or user name is available on a social network.

Naymz (no longer available)
Measure and manage your social media reputation. Similar to Klout (now shut down), it gives you a score based on your social media influence.

Nuzzle (no longer available)
Pulls info from your social networks into an easy to read news stream.

Open Book (no longer available)
Search Facebook public timeline outside Facebook.

Parature (no longer available)
Microsoft-owned SalesForce competitor that provides social media insights and reports. Helps route customer comments to the appropriate departments.

PhotoFeeler
Feedback on how you are being perceived in your profile photos. Add a photo in one of three categories – Business, Social or Dating. Vote on photos of other people to get credits or purchase credits with real money. Each credit allows one person to vote on your photo.

PostPlanner
Web post management tool for Facebook and Twitter.  You can indicate which type of content (photos, text, etc) you want shared at what times. Allows you to re-send content multiple times.  Includes a search tool to find more content related to your niche.  $7 a month.

Quora
Crowdsourced questions and answers.

RebelMouse
Platform for curating and aggregating social media content. It pulls from user's Twitter and Facebook feeds (among others) to create a page that showcases social content or organizes content around a single topic or user. Can be hosted by RebelMouse or integrated with a site built with WordPress. Here's a sample.

Reddit User & Lookup History
A search tool to find posts by a particular poster.

Reportedly (no longer available)
News service that lives in social media.

Reppler (no longer available)
Helps you manage your social media reputation. Looks for privacy and security risks as well as inappropriate content (drugs, adult content, and potentially offensive language). Free.

SalesForce Marketing Cloud
Formally Radian6, it provides social media insights and reports. Relatively easy to use, and empowers companies to clearly understand their place in social. Paid.

Scribble Live (now Rock Content)
Live-streaming. Create, curate and publish content to provide real time coverage and storytelling. Fee.

Seesmic (no longer available)
Android apps to manage your social networks in one place.

SimpleWash (formally FaceWash) (no longer available)
Designed to help you locate and remove potentially offensive comments and photos on Facebook and Twitter so you present yourself as more professional.

Snapchat Stories
Collections of daily moments from users in cities around the world.

Social Flow*
Designed to makes sure your message goes out at the most optimum time by letting watch real-time conversations and expand audience engagement. Analyzes data to determine when money should be spent on Promoted Tweets, Sponsored Stories and Promoted Posts. Used by some major publishers like The Washington Post and Mashable. Starting at $99 a month.

Social Mention (no longer available)
Social media search and analysis. Sends you alerts based on your keywords in blogs, comments, videos, etc. which basically makes it a social media search engine. Free.

SocialOomph*
App that schedules tweets (and other social media), auto-follow new followers, tracking keywords, and monitor social media activity (such as mentions and retweets).  Free version and pro version.

SocMetrics (no longer available)
Allows you to identify influencers in a specific industry, interact with them and monitor your social media campaign. 

Spredfast
Measures data from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr, such as reach and target audience success. Easy-to-digest graphs.

SproutSocial*
A popular social media management tool in which you can schedule social media posts, get snapshot metrics, and monitor messages. A single stream inbox with monitoring tools and robust analytics. Not free or as cheap as HootSuite, but can be customized in ways that HootSuite cannot be customized. Free trial, Packages from $39, $59 or $99 per month. 

Storyluxe
This iOS app will help to create Instagram Stories with many free options. More info here.

Meltwater (formally Sysomos)
Social media tracking analysis creating by capturing social media mentions. Reports are not detailed or indepth as rivals Salesforce Marketing Cloud (Radian6) or Crimson Hexagon. Best when only skimming mentions is your goal. Video explanation here. Easy to use for quick monitoring a company's brand. No mobile app. Paid.

Tailwind*
A Pinterest scheduler with analytics and features like a draft mode. Free trial then $119 a year.

Talkwalker Alert
Like Google alerts, tracks keyword mentions on the web--such as your own name, your family, friends, company, etc. Get email notices when the phrase or name comes up on the Web. Free.

Traackr
Find and follow people who are influential in your industry. See how social media leaders are responding and contributing to your content. Target authorities to help your social media campaigns get off the ground and track the results.

Skyword (formally TrackMaven)
Audience insights in real-time which are compared against peers. Focused on big brands and enterprise marketers. Paid.

Trackur
Social media monitoring tools and measurements.

Uprise.io (no longer available)
Discover blogs that are sharing content that your users are interested in or enter your competitor's website address and get detailed listings of their content and shares of that content.  Alternative to Buzzsumo.

WhoPostedWhat
Intended for investigative journalists, this site will provide a keyword search on specific dates for Facebook posts. Free.

Who's Talkin'? (no longer available)
Social media search tool. Alerts you to mentions. Helps you to search for particular conversations.

Wildcard (no longer available)
IOS App that curates bits of breaking stories based on your preferences while taking into account what your Twitter friends share. Good-looking interface, easy to use on your phone.

Zapier
Tools for connecting over 1,000 web services (such as Evernote, Gmail, and Dropbox). Works like IFTTT. So you can create recipes like “if I receive an email with an attachment, automatically save the attachment to Google Drive”. Automated Twitter posts, archived Twitter posts, easy analysis.  Up to 100 tasks each month for free.  More of paid subscription starting at $15 per month.

Also see Twitter

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Storage and Sync

Authory
Automatically backs up a journalist’s articles regardless as to which  site they’re published on.  Lets readers “subscribe” to journalists, so that they can receive email notifications when one of them publishes something new. Two week free trial. After that the service is $7 a month or $70 a year.

Bitcasa (no longer available)
An American cloud storage company.

Box
Digital storage focused on business solutions.

Dropbox*
Online file storage for backups. Syncs folders automatically on several devices. In 2023, it added an AI-powered summary of documents or videos and a search to locate relevant information by asking a question. 2 GB free. 100 GB for $10 a month.

Collect by WeTransfer
Save and organize diverse media in one place. Similar to Pinterest (with less functionality) users place photos, playlists, or links onto sharable boards (that work like folders). Comes as an app or Chrome extension. The free plan provides 5GB.

Flickr
Easy to navigate, though not the best app for shooting and editing photos. But the free terabyte of storage makes a a good place to dump everything. The Creative Commons licensing section has free stock photos.

Google Drive*
Document storage. Open and edit files from within browser windows. 5 GM free. 200 GB for $10 month.

Inkrypt
An app that allows journalists to save their content on many servers, (instead of one) that can be accessed anywhere, at any time and can't be traced, so that government and other entities cannot block it.

Instapaper
Save articles to read later. Free.

Media Fire
Free cloud storage service.

OneDrive (formally Skydrive)
Microsoft provides 15 GB free backup to the cloud for storage. OneDrive includes a nice interface for scrolling through material (particularly photos). 

Pocket*
Save articles to read later. Free.

Resilio Sync (formally Bittorrent Sync)
A widely used cloud storage format.

Save My News
Lets journalists save links to the Internet Archive and WebCite. Clips and archived links can be downloaded in Excel.

Social Blade 
Shows YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, & Twitter account rankings

Spundge
Read, save, filter and annotate content from the web — Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube included. (Free and paid versions)

SugarSync
File backups accessible on all operating systems and platforms. 5 GB free. 60 GB for $10 a month. 

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Timelines

Aeon Timeline
A desktop timeline creation tool especially for creative writers. $50 per license.

BEEDOCS Timesline 3D
Build family trees, and other timelines. iOS only. Free with certain in-app purchases.

Dipity
Embeddable timeline generator w/photos and text. Sample.

Office Timeline
A free PowerPoint add-on that helps you create charts and timelines.

Preceden (formally Time Glider)
Create web-based timelines using images & videos. Easy-to-use.

Sutori
A tool for teachers and students to craft historical timelines combining graphics, video, audio, text, quizzes, and more. Drag and drop little boxes of content. Built for collaborative efforts. Basic accounts are free or paid account with more features $49 a year.

Tiki-Toki
Web-based data-focused timeline maker. Easy-to-use. Free to students while paid accounts run from $5-24 a month with more options.

Time Line (no longer available)
Attractive timeline presentations.

Timeline Maker
Lots of options but a bit of a learning curve. Not cheap: Starts at $49 for a single-user edu license.

TimelineJS
Knight Lab’s free tools to build visually-rich interactive timelines. It can pull in media from different sources such as Twitter, Flickr, Google Maps, YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud, etc. The process for making one involves filling out a supplied spreadsheet template.

TimeMapper
Timelines and maps. Sample video here.

TimeToast
Nice visualization for historical timelines but no customization. Good for teachers and students. Free version or more templates starting at $5.99 a month.

Xtimeline
Creates timelines.

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Twitter

Also see Social Media

Bot Check (no longer available)
A Chrome extension that allows users to see which accounts in their Twitter timelines are most likely bots.

Botometer
Checks the activity of a Twitter account and gives it a score based on how likely the account is to be a bot. A high score suggests the account is probably automated. Accounts rated above 48% are flagged as potential bots—anything over 60% rates as a “likely” bot. It's a free product out of Indiana University. 

DeBot
Like the Botometer, this is a bot detection system for Twitter accounts. The information is archived so it can be searched. It's free tool from the University of New Mexico.

Folier.me
Insights into any public Twitter profile. Free.

FollowerWonk
Find people to follow on Twitter through search, shows you when your Twitter follower are online so you can plan accordingly. Analysis by region. Reports can take a while to build. Free but more metrics with a paid account.

Free Twitter Designer (no longer available)
Easy-to-use image editor to help you create a professional-looking theme on your Twitter account.

Friend or Follow (no longer available)
Find out who's not following you back on Instagram, Twitter, or Tumblr.

Glisser
Glisser "makes presentations social"  by making slides sharableto audience phones and laptops. Live polling, Twitter feeds and other audience interaction. Free but a paid subscription offers more options.

Hashtagify
Search for trending hashtags that will be most relevant to your audience. Free trial. $9.99 a month.

Kurrently
Search engine for Facebook and Twitter.

Lapse It
A time lapse video capture apps. Up to 1080p on the Pro version. Free or $3.99 for the Pro version.

Make Adverbs Great Again
Helps Twitter users determine if an account is a bot. Offers a rating of 1-10 as to whether an account is likely to be an artificial troll. Free.

ManageFlitter (no longer available)
Finds relevant people for you to follow. Schedule tweets based on when most of your followers are online. Find out who has unfollowed you. Some features are free but to get the most out of it you need a subscription of $12 a month.

Mapbox
This Photoshop for maps—and just as difficult to learn. However, it has some of the most powerful style editing of any map maker. Not for beginners. Instead of using Google Maps, Mapbox uses Open Street Maps. An impressive example of how Vox has used it here. There is a free version with paid accounts starting at $50.

MyTweetSpace (no longer available)
With minimal effort, create a Twitter background, badges, add graphics, play with text. Log in with your Twitter account and it will automatically update your background.

Ninja Outreach
Automated social media outreach to find influencers. 

Plume
App for Twitter users. Customizable options. Free for Android, $3 for iOS.

Proporti.oni
Can give you a gender breakdown of your followers and the people you are following, categorizing them as male, female, nonbinary or unknown.

SocialBro*
Helps businesses manage and monitor their Twitter accounts, discover key influencers, schedule Tweets at the best times, track engagement, and analyze competitors. Free Trial with pricing starting at $13.95. Video explanation.

Topsy (no longer available)
Search content published on Twitter and the web, and sort it by date or relevance. Use it to find influencers in a certain subject area.

Tweet Beep
Get email alerts whenever somebody tweets about something you're interested in--even keep track of who’s tweeting your website or blog, even if they use a shortened URL. Free account available or paid account at $20 a month for more options.  Video explanation here.

Tweet Chart
Allows you to generate a report of custom data for anything you can search Twitter for: hashtags, words, phrases, usernames or URLs. A reporter could determine which hastags were used most frequently in the past week, deciding to, for instance, report on a recent crime spree or a particular local event. Free.

Tweetbot
Mac app with customizable options. View threads showing co-worker tweets only, for example or retweet from multiple accounts. $3.

TweetDeck*
Look at multiple Twitter feeds on your desktop. Powerful filters help you focus on what interests you. Schedule Tweets, set up notification alerts for new tweets. Option to have it ask for confirmation before a tweet goes out--giving you another chance to avoid sending something inappropriate or not well-crafted. Bought by Twitter in 2011.

Tweet Keeper (no longer available)
Save tweets (yours or someone else's) starting with the most recent 3200 tweet, then adds new tweets. Up to eight accounts. $7.99

Tweepi
Cleans up your Tweeter feed--removing inactive followers in bulk and offers other Twitter management chores. From $7.49 a month.

Tweet Level (no longer available)
Allows specific searches for hashtags to determine trends by watching a topic's buzz level or to evaluate the user's social influence. You can also evaluate the buzz around a certain topic to determine if it’s a trend worth paying attention to.

Tweet Reach (no longer available)
Lets you see how far your tweets travel and determine the effectiveness of your social media campaign. How many people your messages reach, how many tweets it took to reach them, how many times your tweets have been shared by retweets. 

Twellow
A directory of Twitter users. Lets you search for people based on their name and the information they put into their bios. Find people with similar interests to follow.

Twitonomy
Detailed and visual analytics on anyone's tweets, retweets, replies, mentions, hashtags. Easily backup and export tweets, retweets, etc. Monitor particular user tweets. Find out those you follow but don't follow you back. Download your followers and following lists to Excel. Free trial. Paid accounts start at $19 a month.

TwitPic (no longer available)
Trending photos and videos on Twitter.

Twit Scoop (no longer available)
Realtime tag cloud of what is hot on Twitter right now. See what the leading subjects of conversation are on Twitter. Especially helpful whenever there is some big news event taking place.

TwitterBioGenerator
A canned description of you is a mere click away!

Twitter Feed (no longer available)
TwitterFeed to automatically fetch the latest entries from an RSS feed of your blog or website and send them as tweets through your Twitter account.

Twitter Lists 
Tweet list manager (similar to TweetDeck)

Twitter moments
Bundled experiences of Twitter content.

Twitter Search
The search engine for Twitter. See what people are saying about your competitors by to:competitor replacing competitor with Twitter handle.

TwXplorer
Explore what’s trending on Twitter. Filter for the 500 most recent uses of a word (or phrase). The app will list of users tweeting about that phrase and hashtags being used in relation to that word or phrase. A product of Northwestern University’s Knight Lab. Free.

Also see Social Media

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Video: Animation

Also see animated GIFs

Animaker
Tool for making infographic videos with animated characters. Easy to use for beginners. Limited free version or accounts starting at $144 a year.

Animatron
Many video clips to use to create animations along with your own voice. Create animated banner ads, white board videos, and more. Used by some major companies.

Biteable
Animated video maker for social media or making an explainer video. Interface is easy to use and the product looks professional. Prices start at $15 a month.

FlipAnim
Make animated videos easily. Nice interface.

Meograph
3D animation of people from 2D video of people. Video explanation. 

Moovly
Drag and drop to create video animations. Directly uploads to YouTube. Integrated with Shutterstock. Interface could be better.

Powtoon 
Animated infographics web tool for creating videos. Best for presentations. User-friendly basic cartoon software with plenty of templates and social integrations. No 3D or keyframing. The free version has company branding on it while the expensive pro plans start at $19 a month. 

RenderForest
An online animation maker with many templates. Easy to get started. Aimed at small businesses. Limited control. While you can add your own text, photos, and video clips, you can’t easily add clips with just text, No start from scratch option. A video explanation here. Free or paid accounts with more options starting at $9.99.

Video Scribe
Create animated videos, replicating the popular whiteboard-style tutorial.  7 day free trial. $16.50 a month.

Vyond (formally GoAnimate)
Make animated videos. Many images and videos to use. Free 14-day trial. Subscription plans: $39 a month or $299 each year.

Wideo
Will do some editing for social media video but its primarily for making keyframe-based animations and using premade animations. Simple, user-friendly, so it works for beginners and semi-pros alike though there is a learning curve. Templates, transitions, and illustrations. Storyboard creator and text-to-speech generator. One week trial then $59 a month.

Xtranormal
Create animated movies.

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Video: Conferencing

Adobe Connect
Video conferencing.

GoToMeeting
Video conferencing. 14-day free trial. $14-$39 a month subscription. 

Microsoft Teams
An all-in-one tool with video conferencing, chat and other productivity features, intended to do more than Zoom. The best choice if you are already using Microsoft 365 and focused on internal, productivity meetings, There’s a free option.

Mmhmm
Makes video presentations for video conference meetings. Easily superimpose a resizable version of yourself over photos, videos and slides and share a live feed. Fun tools like laser pointers and filters. There is an educational discount. $12 a month.

Zoom
Thanks to the pandemic it has become the go-to video conferencing option. The focus on being a video tool (rather than all the features Teams offers) means it’s likely the best choice if that’s what you want to do. Reliable and better than Teams with a large number of participants (and external meetings in general) where the goal is face-to-face rather than productivity There is a free plan.

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Video: Editing

8mm Vintage Camera
Add retro colors, flickering, and light leaks for a vintage look to your movie. A variety of filters (like 1920, Noir) and a sound projector option. $2.99.

Adobe Express*
A single template-focused app (replacing Adobe Spark) that combines some of the best features from the Creative Cloud Suite for mobile and web. Quickly create everything from social media posts to promotional posters and videos with the easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface. Drag all sorts of elements into your composition, from text, icons, shapes, free photos and fonts, music and other design elements. Assets from Photoshop and Illustrator can be utilized. Convert videos to GIFs and documents to PDFs. Great for non-professionals with little video editing experience, but not if you’re a pro looking for a full-featured video editor. Free version, three-month trial or $9.99 a month ($99.99 a year) for more templates, photos and fonts. Included in many Creative Cloud subscriptions. More info on plans here.

Adobe Premiere Pro*
An Adobe professional-level product that has become the industry standard. Easy-to-use interface. Support for 360 VR and other features, but some techniques require additional applications (such as After Effects). $19.99 a month. 

Adobe Premiere Rush
Video editing app using a range of Adobe’s editing software from cropping to creative overlays with animation overlay options. Works with multiple videos. Set the aspect ratio for your video so you can post on any platform. Add thumbnails, schedule postings. Free versions for for Android and iOS. Extra features with paid version. 

Adobe Spark*
See Adobe Express. 

Alight Motion
A motion graphics, video compositing and animation app. YouTube channel here.

Camtasia
This TechSmith product offers many controls and works with Windows and macOS. Includes a screen recording option. Easy-to-use though the preset media is limited. There are many YouTube tutorials for users. 30-day trial though an expensive $299 for a lifetime license.

CapCut*
A strong alternative to iMovie, developed by ByteDance, the company that gave you TikTok (which it integrates with very well). While iMovie is more intuitive, CapCut has plenty of advanced features: sound effects, filters, music, and transitions. Available for both Android and iOS devices. Limited export options. Free.

Clideo
A limited video tool. $9 a month.

Clipchimp*
Makes simple video with a multi-track timeline. Works within a Chrome browser—which provides some privacy protection. A flexible product for both personal and professional users with many templates, stock audio and video, and sound effects. Not as difficult to learn as professional editing software but there is still a learning curve. It could work as first step toward programs like Adobe Premiere. Extras like picture-in-picture video a plus for educational videos. Free version or $9 a month for more options.

Clips*
This Apple app lets you quickly create social videos. Easily add text, filters, emojis, music, speech-to-text captions, and opaque transition cards to your photos or videos. Intended to be fun, though the menu layout is not entirely intuitive and it does take some time to create. User’s guidehere. Free.

CloudConvert
Converts file types. More than 200 formats for audio, video, documents, images, etc. Free usage up to 25 conversions per day.

Cute Cut*
Easy-to-use and powerful video editor. Add text, voiceover, music and logo. Their YouTube tutorials here. Free.

DaVinci Resolve
Video editing software with remote collaboration tools and cloud-based workflows. Features like a depth map effect, color corrector, and more. Free but the paid version, offers more effects and templates. One-time fee of $305.

Disco Videos 
A way to add cool effects like music and filters to your videos. $3.99. 

DesignLab (no longer available)
Basic video editing tool for social media posts with many templates. Three-day free trial then $9.49 a month. 

Filmmaker Pro - Video Editor*
Video editing program for filmmakers. 19 transition options and 30 filters. Many fonts and animation stickers. Sound effects and a robust number of tools. Free. 

FlexClip
Simple but well-designed presentation-style social media video editor. Good for making quickly produced marketing. A lot like PowerPoint or Movie Maker in design. Stock audio and video with some editing options (like splitting video into two clips) not found in similar apps though videos are limited to 5 minutes. Free. More options with a $9.99 plan.

Final Cut Pro
Apple’s desktop video editing program for Macs. A big step up from iMovie (which is similar) but not the industry standard for professionals that Adobe Premiere has become but still used by many pros. Not compatible with Windows. $300. 

Flixtime (no longer available)
Upload video, pictures and audio for a quick video.

GoPro Quik*
Video editor by GoPro. Easy-to-use. Templated themes, useful filters, royalty-free music, and the ability to add titles and captions. Add up to 200 photos and video clips. Includes square, portrait and landscape settings. Users’ guide here and a dedicated YouTube channel here. Free but some features added with premium account.

Hitfilm
Video editing software aimed at providing a professional editing experience. Change the color balance of video, trim clips, and export in different formats. Steep learning curve for beginners but a familiar feel for those who have used pro editing software. Needs a strong computer processor. Free.

Hyperlapse (no longer available)
Instagram’s timelapse video. No audio option.

iMovie*
One of the best video-making apps with an intuitive interface but fewer advanced features than CapCut. Still, its basic features should be enough for most beginners. No option for Android devises. Exports at 30fps only. There is a tutorial here. Free.

iStock video editor*
A Getty Image company, iStock offers not just stock photos but a video editor. There are customizable templates, users can upload their own video, images, music. The video can be downloaded and shared on virtually any platform. Free but a paid account offers royalty-free videos, images, and sound effects.

Inshot
Video & image editing app. Simple-to-use & all-in-one with basic functions: Crop, trim, change the speed, rotate your videos 360°, add filters and music, and more. Free version with intrusive ads $2.99 to remove them and the watermark. 

Kapwing
A browser-based AI video editor (online only-primarily for social media editing) that gives users the tools to splice combine, trim and cut video clips. Add text, images, subtitles, etc. Missing some basic options like transitions. Easy to get started but some basic features are hard to find or missing (like transitions). Download quality good for online, not broadcast. Best for repurposing a long Zoom video of an interview, panel discussion, or any meeting. Free for basic editing of online videos up to 4 minutes with watermarks. $16 per month annually for higher-quality videos up to 120 minutes.

KineMaster 
Multi-track video editing app for iOS and Android. Lots of powerful tools: Add captions, titles, logos, edit audio and record audio to add video, filters, etc. Easy to get started with a simple interface. Free account with watermark. More info here. $4.99 a month.

Kizoa
A video editing app with outdated looks and design. One-time fee for the features you want. Free version or paid with more features starting about $30. 

Lightworks
Lots of tools for editing videos in the free version, which should satisfy most casual users. No HD option. Paid option starts at $49.99 a year.

LumaFusion*
Advanced multi-track video editor that mimics professional desktop software with 3 video/audio tracks for photos, videos, titles, and graphics. Key-framing, colour adjustment, and support for branded fonts and graphics. iOS only. Tutorials on the YouTube channel. $29.99.

Lumen5
An easy-to-use video creation platform that attempts to turn a limited number of photos and text into video for you. Free.

Magisto
Load your video clips or images, pick a style, then the AI software automatically edits them into a video. Not a video editor that you control (except for a paid plan) but great if you have a bunch of clips you don’t want to edit yourself. You give up editing control for speed. It really depends on whether you like their templates. There’s a free version but $60 a year gets you everything though there is no free trial for the paid version—which it needs. 

Mojo*
A great easy-to-use app for making professional vertical social stories to go on Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories, and Snapchat. Templates and fonts. More info here. Free. Pro version $9.99 a month.

Make-A-Video
Meta’s AI system that turns text into video. Not yet available to the public.

Movavi
Video editing for casual users. Easy-to-use interface. Limited effects. $39.95.

Movie Maker Online
A poorly designed video editor with a confusing layout and intrusive advertising. Works in browsers, no registration required. Free but still not worth it.

MoviePro*
Video recording app that lets you listen live to your sound, includes manual controls for exposure, focus, and white balance. Shoot stills while recording. Has a built-in single-track video editor. Includes a wide range of video resolutions and aspect ratios, adjustable video quality, $9.99.

Online Video Cutter
Video editing tool that can trim videos, crop them, and rotate them. And nothing else. But what it does, it does well. Free or $5 a month for more features. 

PowerDirector 365 
Perhaps the best Android video editor app with special effects. Similar to iMovie in ease of use. Free but $4.33 a month to get professional features such as custom transitions and to remove the watermark. There is a YouTube channel here.

Placeit
Easy-to-use video editing tool with pre-designed video templates. Add music, graphics, animations. There is a cost to downloading the final design. Pay as you go ($9.95) or subscription ($14.95 a month). 

PicPlayPost (Mixcord) 
Video editor that lets users create slideshows, split screens, video collages, etc. adding music, voice, gifs. Best for short videos. Free but the best features come with a subscription such as playing two videos side by side. $6.99 a month.

Preceden (formally Time Glider)
Create web-based timelines using images & videos.

Quik (see GoPro Quick)

Renderforest
A suite of products with many templates. Limited functionality and control. While you can add your own text, photos, and video clips, you can’t easily add clips with just text, No start from scratch option. Free version or $6.99 a month. 

Reduct
Edit the video by editing the text. For instance, you can upload a long interview and the site (using machine learning) will transcribe the speech and tag each word to a visual frame allowing you to quickly generate a highlight reel or other edited videos.

Reel Director
Creates movies and lets you edit on phone similar to iMovie. $2.99.

Rocketium Online Video Creation Suite
Multiple video-related tools including a video editor designed to prep material for social media distribution: Upload clips, add text export. Lots of templates, stock images, fonts, and motion graphics. Easy to import articles and make videos based on the images, headlines, and subheadings. Limited functionality in the free version and videos are limited to three minutes. Paid version starts at $9 and includes transitions and animations but videos limited to 10 minutes. Discounts for students and teachers. 

Shotcut
Most processes are simple but not everything and it has an odd-looking interface. However, it has gained a following thanks to a large selection of audio and video filters so it has become a favorite of editors who want effects. No preview on the filters. Free.

Spark Camera*
Video filming and editing app. Add captions, titles, music and a voiceover. Easy to get started. Aimed at social media influencers. More info here and user guide here. iPhone only. Free.

SpliceApp (no longer available)
A video editing app that works with music, photos, text or video clips. $3.99.

Steller*
Create photo and video stories on an iPhone with an emphasis on mobile design. Create collections and share on social networks. Free. Sample.

Storyluxe
This iOS app will help to create Instagram Stories with many free options. More info here.

Stroome (no longer available)
Browser-based video editing. 

Typito
While not for assembling video clips into a movie (such as a pro video editor or asocial media video) it can be useful to add effects to your video such as text effects, animated titles, captions, etc. Library of free photos. Easy to use design. Free limited plan and expensive monthly plans starting at $15. 

Unfold*
App for iOS or Android for creating vertical montages of videos and photos. 25 free templates, dozens more as in-app purchases. A product of SquareSpace. More info here. 

Veed
Easy to use templated video editing options for creating social media posts. Use to add captions. Free watermarked version available. $20 monthly.

Videolicious (acquired by SquareSpace)

VideoLeap 
An iPhone app with a wide range of high-end functions (such as masking and blending, key framing and chroma key compositing) for creating videos from images, video and text. Tutorials here.

Video Toolbox
Make quick edits to videos. Convert video formats, make thumbnails, add subtitles, add audio, a watermark, or merge video files. Outdated interface and not user-friendly. Lacking preview options. Other apps are likely better options. 

VideoShop 
Excellent for making simple edits, add music and subtitles. More info here. Free. 

Vimeo
Video hosting and editing. In 2023, it added AI-powered tools to generate scripts from text prompts, display scripts while filming, and allow search for words in video transcripts.

Vlogit
Editing two-track video, add voiceover. More info here. Free.

Voddio (no longer available) 
Formally 1st video, this editor app gives you two tracks of video and up to four tracks of audio. No lower-thirds option. Free.

VSCO*
Great start-to-finish photo/video app. Easy to use filters and helpful tutorials. Manual controls like focus lock, exposure lock, and white balance. Edit images and share them on social media. IOS. Here is a tutorial. Free version or $19.99 a year for 170 presets. 

Wave.Video
Basic video editor for social media posts with many templates including free music, stock photos, and video extras. Intuitive interface and easy to move into social media. Limited text options. Free version doesn’t allow downloads and videos of no more than 15 seconds. To get more than one minute it’s a whopping $48 a month.

WeVideo*
Semi-professional video editing with a real timeline with precise controls. A great app to help you learn simple video editing. Lots of templates, stock audio and video as well as text-based motion graphics templates. Record your webcam, or screen—or both at the same time (helpful for making tutorial videos). Both iOS and Android. A learning curve that’s not too steep. The free plan is really a demo with a watermark. Best options is unlimited plan ($6.39 a month).

Wondershare
Video editing app. Easy-to-use with standard effects though not the more advanced effects. $59.99.

Zeega (no longer available)
Create interactive videos. Free.

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Video: File Transfer

pCloud Transfer
Like WeTransfer, quickly transfer files up to 5GB. No account required. Free.

Send Anywhere*
A free file transfer app (iOS and Android) for images, video, audio and text. Share up to 10GB per transfer, Your recipient uses an URL to access and download the files from the cloud.

ToffeeShare*
Share files. No limit in size or online storage. No cost.

WeTransfer*
A file transfer service, though Dropbox has more options for the price. WeTransfer is free for individual users, but $12 for companies needing more.

Zamzar
Video and audio file converter.

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Video: Other Video Tools

Amnesty International YouTube DataViewer*
Takes a URL for a video and provides background info.

Awesome Screenshot
This Chrome extension is a screen recorder with no extra features that will save up to :30. Free.

Cover it Live (no longer available)
Live blogging. Free.

DSCO
Pronounced ‘disco’, this app is for GIF creation. Animations up to 2.5 seconds long. Free. Video example.

Dextro (no longer available)
App to search for particular feeds on Periscope (a video streaming service).

Ecamm
App that records Skype and Facetime. It lets you convert your calls into MP3 files for podcasting or easily move the video to YouTube and Vimeo. Split the audio tracks after a call for easy editing. $39.95.

InVID
A free Firefox plugin to debunk fake video news and verify videos and images.

Screenr (no longer available)
Chrome screen capture and annotation tool.   

Transcriptive
Digital Anarchy’s plugin to create automated transcriptions of video in Premiere Pro. Free Trial. $299.

TubeMogul
Upload your video and TubeMogul will send it to many social media sites at one time-though you'll have to set up accounts with all the sites on your own. Tracks viewership. A part of Adobe's Marketing Cloud.

YouTube Creator Hub
Resources to help create better video content and bigger audiences. An online community for serious YouTube creators.

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Video: Recording/Streaming

BeastCam
Video and photography capture app for iPhone users. Adjust focus, exposure, zoom, and white balance within the app. It recognizes external microphones.. More info here. $4.99.

Camo
Customize your appearance in video meetings: zoom in or out, crop, hide your background or blur it, change the lighting, and adjust skin tone. Free version or paid plans starting at $39.99 a year.

Camtasia
Screen-recording application that’s adequate for its intended purpose: eLearning videos. Easy to use for quick videos but limited. Can be used for podcasting. Mac & PC. $249.  

Carousel Camera
Record a single video that fits both vertical and horizontal orientations for use on multiple social media platforms. Export in various aspect ratios. Free but some features require a 99 cent purchase.

DoubleTake
Built by the same folks who created Filmic Pro, this app lets you shoot video using two iPhones at the same time. An option lets you easily create a single video using multiple lenses with a split-screen effect. Pick the frame rate, resolution, focus, and exposure. $3.99

Filmic Pro*
Powerful app for videography and photography. Lots of bells and whistles such as in-app stabilization. Quickly switch between color profiles, resolutions, etc. Possibly too much for the average person but great for someone serious about shooting video on a phone. Video explanation here. $14.99.

Hippo Video 
This Chrome extension is a screen recorder with some advanced features such as changing the resolution, aspect ratio, etc. Free.

HouseParty (formally Meerkat)
Group video chat app where users get a notice that friends are online. Snap Stories are integrated. 

IBM Cloud Video* (formerly Ustream) 
Desktop broadcasting of live video to the world from a computer or iPhone (or watch thousands of shows).  30 day free trial, then monthly plans from $99 to $999 for pros, top subscription $2k and up.

Loom
This Chrome extension is a screen recorder with some advanced options. No limit on the number of videos you can make. Free. 

Narrative
Wearable camera that takes a photo or video every minute and creates a video at the end of the day (without using the repetitive shots). No work for the wearer. $199.

Nimbus
This Chrome extension is a screen recorder which also allows users to shoot a video with a webcam or take screenshots. Free. 

Prezi
Slide creator. Alternative to Power Point. Also offers a replacement for your default camera when you are in a video meeting. Add text, images or other slides to your camera but no options to alter your own image. There’s a free version or $15 for a paid plan with more options.

Quicktime
Use to record video from your webcam and Skype interviews. 

Rock Content (formally Scribble Live)
Live-streaming. Create, curate and publish content to provide real time coverage and storytelling. Fee.

Skyflow
A professional time-lapse video camera app for iOS that lets you pick the playback speed. Choose video resolution and format, motion blur, light trail effects, HDR, etc. Here is a tutorial. Free. 

Skype 
An advantage to using Skype for video conferencing is the ability to record video interviews. Afterward, you open Skype on a desktop and download your video as an .MP4 file. If you just want the audio you can extract it by importing the file into software like Adobe Premiere Pro or the free editing program Audacity.

TechSmith (formally Jing)
A free, easy-to-use screen capture application. Snap a screenshot or record a video, save and share. capture a presentation, lecture, or event. 

TiltShift Video 
Create the tilt-shift effect for photos and video. No in-app camera to shoot video and no sharing options. $3.99.

Vine (no longer available)
A mobile service that lets you capture and share short looping videos.

Webex
Cisco’s video conferencing software. Easy-to-use, nothing to download. Several pricing plans-but not cheap.

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Video: Stabilization

GoPro Hero 11
This action camera comes with HyperSmooth, software-stabilization now in its fifth iteration from Hero 7 to the present. The iPhone 14 Pro is getting close to being as good—but not yet, when it comes to intense action and extra features. $399 with a subscription.

GorillaPod tripod* 
Joby GripTight PRO. Flexible legs wrap around objects for unlimited angles. From .7 - 11 pounds. Rubber foot grips provide stability on any surface. 

Moment*
Cases, lens, batteries, lights, gimbals, etc. to enhance photos and videos taken with a phone. 

Osmo Mobile 6
A handheld stabilizer that works for smartphones and works in concert with the iPhone 14's Action Mode—a software feature that stabilizes videos. $159.

Shoulderpod S2*
A handle grip for your smartphone to steady your shots. Works with tripods and comes with a wrist strap. Additional accessories available. $50.

SMOVE
This smartphone video stabilizer that doubles as a charger. Portable, fits in your pocket. $200. 

Steadicam Smoothee (no longer available)
The Smoothee gives you a steady, gliding shot by a balanced weight system that holds your phone on a frictionless ball joint.

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Video: Teleprompters

BigVU
Besides a teleprompter, this app includes auto-captions, music background, social media integration, some editing tools, and a video landing page. Free with a watermark. Plans starting at $19 a month.

CuePrompter
Turns your browser into a television telepromoter.

Parrot*
A teleprompter app for a phone allows the user to read scripts while looking directly into the camera to avoid looking to one side or having to memorize a script. Change the background and the font color. Free.

PromptwarePlus (no longer available)
Turns your iOS device into a professional teleprompter. Free.

Video Teleprompter Lite
Video recording teleprompter app using either the front-facing or rear-facing camera. Works on iPhones and iPads as well as Android phones. Free. 

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Writing: Academic Papers

BibMe
The free version lets you create citations in MLA, APA, and Chicago formats. It also offers some writing suggestions. Similar to Citation Machine. A paid account for $9.95 a month you get more writing suggestions and a plagiarism checker.

Citation Machine
Popular, user-friendly citations generator. Chicago, MLA, APA, and 13 other styles. Free version, $9.95 gives you grammar and plagiarism checkers. ations, etc.

Cite This For Me
Simple layout. Create citations and bibliographies in APA, MLA, and Harvard formats for over 30 types of sources. Premium account for $15 a month gives you a plagiarism checker and Chrome extension.

Consensus
Type questions into a search bar and the AI provides a consensus from decades of scientific research.

Easybib
Auto-formatting of citations for research papers but MLA is the only available format from the free version. $4.99 a month for the paid version to get more styles, in-text citations, etc.

EditTeach
Resources for editing professors, students and working professionals to help strengthen the craft of editing and support the work of editors.

Opendemia
Stores notes on sources, helps to create works cited pages and in-text citations as well as auto-generate citations in various formats. There is a free version. $10 a year for no ads and more citations allowed per project.

OttoBib (no longer available)
Chrome extension for citing books using an ISBN. Formats include MLA, APA, AMA, and Chicago. Free.

Perplexity AI*
A good research option among the generative AI tools, it acts like a search engine but includes results from the web (unlike ChatGPT). Automatically shows where the information came from, so it’s more reliable than ChatGPT. Users can specify where they want the information to be drawn from among a few categories such as academic sources or YouTube. Users can also upload documents as sources and ask it to rewrite prompts. It suggests follow-up questions you might not have considered. Less useful for creative writing. In tests, it was better at summarizing passages, providing information on current events and do coding better than other chatbots. Unmatched speed and accuracy in processing millions of data makes it very useful to data scientists for advanced predictive models. Free. Video tutorial here.

Purdue Writing Lab
Writing and formatting help.

SuperSummary Academic Citation Resources 
Links to style guides, FAQs, tutorials, quizzes, sample papers, and tools to help students' citation and research processes.

Zotero 
Cite sources directly in a Word or Google document in thousands of formats. Organize your research by tagging sources with keywords and saving them to collections. Free.

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Writing: Editing

1Checker
Mac app that checks your grammar and spelling. Free.

After the Deadline*
Checks your story for grammar, spelling and style. Works as a plugin for WordPress blogs, an add-on for the Firefox browser, etc.

AutoCrit
Scans your writing and highlights flaws such as repetitive words, overuse of adverbs and use of passive voice. $30 a month.

GPT-2 Detector
OpenAI’s GPT-2 Detector is a tool that help to identify whether text is likely AI generated.

Check-Plagiarism
Free plagiarism checker.

Expresso*
An app that analyzes your writing, breaking down everything from which words you are using frequently to the number of times parts of speech come up in your writing. See what percentage of sentences are extra-long and which words are filler and which verbs are weak. Free.

Ginger
Writing tool that works as grammar checker, sentence rephraser, translator, dictionary and text reader. Free.

Grammarly*
Automated proofreader and personal grammar coach. Free version though the premium option has more features ($29.95).

Hemingway App
The Hemingway app is designed to make you a better writer by highlighting problems in your writing. Goal is to make more direct and active--more Hemingway-ey, as the Washington Post proclaims. Just paste your text into the app and it will highlight hard to read sentences, adverbs, complex phrases, and passive voice.  Color coordinated highlighting. Click on these words to see the suggested alternatives.  Word count, readability grade, etc.  $6.99.

Marked 2
Tools for writers including word counts, document stats, highlights repeated words.  Mac only.  $9.99.

oDesk
Hire an experienced proofreader based on an hourly rate (typically one hour for every 5000 words).

PaperRater
Grammar, plagiarism, and spell checker. Mostly free but $7.50 per month for all features.

Proofread Bot
Shows your mistakes and what areas of your writing that could be strengthened. The more words reviewed, the greater the cost starting at $5 for 20,000 words.  

QuillBot
An AI-driven writing tool that paraphrases and checks for grammar as well as plagiarism. It will rephrase blocks of text and comes with a AI thesaurus. It can also convert text into bullet points. Compatible with Word and available on Google Docs and has a Chrome extensions. The free version is limited with a 700-character limit per check. There’s a yearly fee of $80 for more tools.

Readable
Scores text based on how long or complicated your sentences are and level of accessibility. Free.

Readability Score
Cut and paste your text into a dialogue box to see the writing's grade level. Free, but for any contribution you get access to more advanced tools like readability alerts, PDF and Word doc processing and bulk uploads. TextEvaluator offers more feedback on the text.

Slickwrite
Writing app that checks grammar along with flow, structure, word frequency, and overused phrases.

TextEvaluator
Like Readability Score, it will tell you what grade level a piece of text is written on, the average length of sentences, etc.  But TextEvaluator goes further, including grammatical complexity, insights on vocabulary, etc.

Word Counter
Cut and paste your document (or just type) to see how many words, characters, and sentences you are using. It shows what words are overused, the average number of words in your sentences, and the reading level you are writing at. Free.

Word Frequency Counter
See how often you use (and overuse) words and phrases in your writing.

WordTune
It will rewrite a users material—an entire piece or specific sentences in order to make it more casual or formal or just to make it clearer. The grammar check and other features are weak compared to Grammarly and other options. $120 a year or $24.99 monthly.

WordTune Read
An easy-to-use browser extension that gives users summaries of articles or books up to 300 pages using AI technology. The summary can be based on a single word. Better at locating small bits of important information rather than a thorough understanding of a topic. The free version includes three articles each month.

Writefull
Checks your text against a huge database of correct language. Use it to find language you might not have considered. A desktop app that works with emails, Word docs, etc. Free.

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Writing: Organizers

750 Words
Tracks your progress toward writing 750 words each day. Keeps up with your writing speed, and how often you get distracted. Free.

Daily Page
Start a daily writing routine with daily writing prompts. $5 a month or $4 annually.

Day One
Great journaling app for IOS and Mac.  Clean look, syncing, photo imports, passcode, reminders, public publish option. Very organized and easy to navigate.  $4.99.  

EditFlow
Content management system for WordPress providing a snapshot of content with a calendar feature. Advanced draft and pending review feature. User groups to keep writing teams organized. Useful for multi-author websites.

Editorial
Powerful writing program for iPad and iPhone. High learning curves but valuable once you find workflows that suit your purposes. Beautiful inline preview. $4.99.

Evernote*
Access notes on any computer, tablet or phone. Search function lets you find a note in either text or audio format. Free for iOS and Android. For more options there is Evernote Plus $3.99 a month, while Premium is $7.99 per month.

FocusWriter
App for distraction-free writing. A blank canvas to write on--and nothing else. Includes timers, stats, alarms, goals setting, etc. Free.

Miro (for writing)
An online interactive whiteboard for writers who want to see the overview of their project. Create visual outlines including photos, documents, etc. Good for collaboration. There is a free version with paid versions (more options) starting at $8 a month.

Pacemaker
A word count planner and tracker. Customize it to your routine. Set a goal and it will keep up with your progress. There is a free version lacking some of the best tools and a paid versions (more options) starting at $8 a month.

RedNotebook
Journaling app. Simple, quick to start. Easily search through old journals. Calendar navigation, customizable templates, export functionality. Free. 

Scrivener*
App that gives you a single place to dump all your ideas. Especially helpful for creating and managing complex writing projects: writing a novel, play, TV show, magazine feature, etc. Write in fragments and then shuffle scenes/chapters in a "bulletin board" mode.. throw in research notes, multimedia files, and character sketches.  Allows you to slowly "grow” books, scripts, and articles. Easy to convert the document to an e-book, web page, a PDF, or Word doc. Works with Mac and Windows.  Free 30-use trial. $45 for the latest version. Many writers swear it's worth it. Doesn't work on iPads though.

ToffeeShare*
Share files. No limit in size or online storage. No cost.

Typora
Minimalist interface markdown text editors that lets you focus on the words instead of the interface. $15 one-time cost.

Ulysses
Writing app for Mac. Uses plain text or Markdown for writing, but also includes notes, exporting, organization and more. $44.99.

Zero Height
Put your online style guide in order with this easy-to-build style guide maker.

Also see Organization

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Writing: Scripts

Fade In
Script-writing software with similar features toFinal Draft without the price tag. Not as many of the extras that come withFinal Draft but only $50. Windows, Mac, Linux.

Final Draft*
Industry standard for writing screenplays on both Windows and Mac. Notes section for keeping track of characters, special scene view to get an overview, index card system for summaries, etc. $170.

Trelby
Free script-writing alternative to Final Draft and Fade In. Enough features to get you started.

TV Tropes
Fiction writing help through examination of storytelling devices in creative works.

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Writing: Style Guides

Writing: Various Tools

Canva Docs
A Google Docs competitor that includes tools produces text related to a topic. It’s good for breaking writer’s block. Free with more options for paid accounts starting at $128 a year.

Cliche Finder
Just what the title suggests. Free.

Copyscape
Check for online plagiarism.

Corpus of Contemporary American English
This BYU site includes transcripts of spoken language from radio and television programs and comprises academic writing from a range of disciplines allowing comparison of styles--spoken language vs.written academic language.

Coschedule Headline Analyzer
Analyze your headlines for SEO and share value. Free. 

Dragon Anywhere
Voice to text app for iOS. Have to finish dictation before seeing the text. Free.

Flip Text
Flip text upside-down.  Use it on Facebook or Twitter. Free.

FontPair
Helps you pick font combinations for your resume, website, poster, etc. so your creation stands out from the typical Times New Roman on other material.

Gender Guesser
Cut and paste some of your writing into the the Gender Guesser and it will tell you whether you are male or female based on the writing tendencies of each.

Google Keyword Planner
Allows users to find and use words that are more likely to be used in searches for the content we are writing. Free.

the Grading Game*
App for practicing your editing skills and win points. Avail at the App Store.

Grammar Girl
Writing Tips from a grammarian.

Hackpad
Edit, organize and share documents. Merged with Dropbox in 2014.

HubSpot's Blog Topic Generator
Just write three nouns related to the topic that you'd like to blog about and this site will offer ideas.  

Lexicon Valley
Slate's grammar podcasts.

Limpert's About Editing and Writing Blog
A blog about how editors and writers do their work by Jack Limert was editor of the The Washingtonian for more than 40 years.

Medium
Created by Twitter co-founders to support good writing. Clean design and easy-to-use interface. For those who want to write but don’t want to maintain a blog or website. Intended to be a place where smart people plant their thoughts.  Share a draft of a post with friends who can make comments as marginal notes (rather than at the end of a post). Free, but Twitter account is required. No custom domains or customization.

Moz Blog
SEO writing tips.

Online Etymology Dictionary
Gives you the history and derivation of any word. Free.

Overview (no longer available)
Developed at the Associated Press, Overview analyzes the complete text of every document, extracting keywords and sorting documents into categories and sub-categories.

Power Thesaurus 
Crowdsourced thesaurus. 

PDF24 Tools
Edit PDFs and do other work with PDFs for free.

Rhymer
Free rhyming dictionary.

Sejda
A PDF editor that also can add images, drawings, and annotations, etc. There is a free version but you'll need to pay if you need to use it a lot.

Svbtle
Writing platform. Minimalist interface. Encourages reader response. Must apply for membership.

Sync.in (no longer available)
Collaborative writing tool. 

TextExpander
Mac typing shortcut. Takes snippets of text and turns them into longer ones. Ideas for how to use it here. $44.95.

TextGrabber*
Extracts text from a variety of printed sources (PDF, books, etc.) by using the iPhone camera. Can translate text from many languages. $4.99.

Tone Analyzer (no longer available)
Linguistic analysis detects the emotional tone of your writing. Detect the levels of particular emotions it triggers and language style. Free.

Twine
An open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories. Users can create their own adventure stories and games. High learning curve for beginners. Requires the ability to write basic HTML and CSS. Free.

WatchFramebyFrame
Can also be used to play YouTube and Vimeo videos frame by frame, to see any inconsistencies in content.

Writable
Uses ChatGPT to help grade student writing assignments. It is being offered widely to teachers in grades 3-12.

Yoast SEO
A WordPress plugin to work SEO into your writing,

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