You do not need a $97/month stack to create good content. You need a few solid tools that don’t get in your way. These are the free ones I actually recommend and why they matter.
Sections
7
✍️ Writing & Content Creation
🎨 Design & Visuals
🎥 Video & Audio
📅 Planning, Organization & Workflow
📊 Analytics & Optimization
🤖 AI (Used Carefully)
✍️ Writing & Content Creation
The boring answer. Also the correct one.
Auto-save, collaboration, comments, zero friction. If your writing tool needs onboarding, you’ve already lost.
Google Docs
Highlights fluff, passive voice, and sentences that ran a marathon.
Perfect for tightening blog posts, captions, and newsletters.
Hemingway Editor
Catches obvious grammar issues before the internet does.
The free version is enough for most creators.
The MVP of creator tools.
Social graphics, carousels, thumbnails, PDFs, all without being a designer. The free tier goes way further than people admit.
Canva
High-quality, free photos that don’t scream “stock photo.”
Great for blogs, backgrounds, and social posts.
Unsplash
Free photos and short video clips.
Perfect for reels, Shorts, and background visuals.
Pexels
🎥 Video & Audio
Shockingly powerful for a free video editor.
Great for Shorts, Reels, TikToks, and basic edits without pain.
Free Online Video Editor | Easy to Create Videos Online
Free audio recording and editing.
It’s not pretty, but it gets the job done for podcasts and voiceovers.
Audacity
Free music and sound effects you can actually use.
No copyright roulette. Huge win.
Audio Library
📅 Planning, Organization & Workflow
Content planning, idea dumping, light project management.
You don’t need a “second brain.” You need one place to put ideas.
Notion
Simple visual boards for tracking content ideas and progress.
Great if Notion feels like too much.
Trello
Fast notes. No setup. Syncs everywhere.
Perfect for capturing ideas before they disappear forever.
Google Keep
📊 Analytics & Optimization
Understand what content people actually read.
Creators guess too much. This removes guessing.
Google Analytics
Free SEO insight straight from Google.
Tells you what’s getting impressions and what deserves more love.
Google Search Console
🤖 AI (Used Carefully)
Brainstorming, outlines, rewrites, idea expansion.
Not a replacement for thinking. A multiplier when used right.
ChatGPT
Great for long-form drafts and cleaner writing.
Feels more “editor” than “robot.”
Claude
🔗 Bonus: Distribution & Visibility
One link for everything you’re building.
Clean, simple, and still effective.
Linktree
Schedule posts across platforms without juggling apps.
Limited, but enough for consistency.
