From as far back as high school, I always hated writing – but – whenever I forced myself to do it, it actually came out pretty good!
My problem has always been starting the writing process (yup, chronic case of writer’s block). But I realized that once I got started, the content just flowed.
Fast-forward to the 21st century and the world of artificial intelligence (or AI for short). With the power of AI writers, the content creation process is so much simpler, and we can create content in just a few seconds.
Whether we need to write product descriptions, pen emails, craft blog posts, or generate sales copy, AI writing tools are ready to create high-quality content.
But AI writing tools aren’t limited to just writing content. In addition to content generators, there are also writing assistants for correcting grammar mistakes, search engine optimization, and plagiarism checking.
But with all the different AI writing tools currently available, how can you know which one is best for you?
Here’s a list of my top picks along with their main features and pricing.
Rytr
Best for Small Budgets
Rytr is a beginner-friendly AI content generator that can automatically write unique, original content for a variety of purposes, including blog posts, marketing copy, composing emails, and social media posts.
In fact, the writing tool has over 30 use cases and templates to choose from, as well as over 30 languages in which you can write, making it a well-rounded writing assistant.
And while you may not be able to tell Rytr who to impersonate when it is writing content, it has more than 20 different tones of voice to help you really connect with your intended audience.
Pros
- 30+use cases and templates
- Writes in 30+ languages
- Built-in grammar checker, plagiarism checker, paraphrase, expand and summarize tools
- Provides character count, word count, estimated reading time, and reading difficulty
- Chrome extension allows for writing emails, blog posts, or wherever you need your AI assistant
- Store and manage work in Rytr.me account
- Integrates with SemRush for advanced keyword research features
- Allows for integration with all your other tools using their API
Cons
- Very limited free plan
- Generating long-form content is not as quick as some other apps
Pricing
- Free Plan for up to 5,000 characters/mo
- Saver Plan: $9/mo; $90/year (Get 2 months free!) for up to 50,000 characters/mo
- Unlimited Plan: $29/mo; $290/year (Get 2 months free!) for unlimited characters
Sum-up
Rytr is an easy-to-use AI writing tool that provides quality content at a great cost for a variety of uses.
Its Chrome extension makes it easy to integrate with your workflow. And SemRush users will be more than happy to eliminate a tab while using Rytr.
Jasper
Best for Power Users
Formerly called Conversion AI and Jarvis AI, Jasper has been around for a while and has become a leader in the AI content generator market (and with good reason). Jasper has some great features that make it stand out from the other writing assistants on the market.
Like Rytr, you can use Jasper to write a variety of content in a variety of languages. Jasper has over 25 languages and over 50 templates.
Pros
- Give voice commands to speed up the writing process
- Ability to build workflows to help you create similar types of content faster
- Native Grammarly integration to ensure your content is free of grammatical errors
- SurferSEO integration to help you analyze keywords and optimize your content to rank in search engines
- Copyscape integration to check content for plagiarism
- Access to free, in-depth tutorials from the creators of Jasper
Cons
- Somewhat limited word count for several templates
- Slightly steep learning curve
Pricing
- Starter Mode: Starts at $29/mo for 20,000 words/mo
- Boss Mode: Starts at $59/mo for 50,000 words/mo
Sum-up
Jasper is a powerful AI content generator that makes crafting content easier and faster once you clear the initial hurdle of learning how to use it. If you have the budget for it, you may find that it is well worth every cent.
SurferSEO
Best for SEO
I know what you are thinking – “Hey! This isn’t an AI Writer!” But it is! Many know Surfer as a keyword research tool, but it does a whole lot more than that!
The team at Surfer describes the app as a Content Intelligence tool.
With Surfer, content teams can easily combine content strategy, development, and optimization into one fluid process that will increase their companies’ organic traffic and income by helping you rank higher in search engines.
Surfer’s Content Planner crawls the web to find content ideas related to your keyword to help you build authority in a certain content area. Select an idea and follow through with it in the Content Editor, and you are well on your way to amazing content.
Pros
- Easily find related content ideas along with search volume, keyword difficulty, and user intent
- Save time by building an article outline in minutes
- Detailed content suggestions to optimize your content for search engines
- Audit existing content to find content gaps and simple solutions to increase organic traffic fast
- Jasper integration to speed up content generation
- Content Editor Chrome extension to optimize content right in WordPress or Google Docs
- Keyword Chrome Extension
- Allows for integration with all your other tools using their API
- Free weekly training with the Surfer co-founder
- SEO writing masterclass available to all subscribers
Cons
- A bit expensive for the number of content pieces per month
Pricing
- Basic: $59/mo; $49/mo annually
- Pro: $119/mo; $99/mo annually
- Business: $239/mo; $199/mo annually
Sum-up
Save time by getting Surfer if you are serious about ranking on the first page of Google and getting quality organic traffic. It takes the headache out of SEO.
Quillbot
Best for Academics
Recently, I was writing a business plan and wanted to paraphrase some related content I had found.
Since AI can create content for you, I figured there must be a tool that can paraphrase for me too. A quick search led me to Quillbot and there began a beautiful relationship.
Quillbot can be used by anyone who needs to generate content but can be especially useful to students and those in academia. It has several writing tools for editing your content but also has a Co-writer from which you can access all the other tools.
Pros
- Easily reword written content
- Quickly correct grammatical errors
- Summarize long-form content
- Check for plagiarism
- Writing assistant to suggest new ideas based on what you’ve written
- Generate perfect citations for your academic work
- Chrome extension
- Microsoft Word extension
- Search for content directly in Co-writer
- Dictate ideas to Co-writer
- Get word count, readability score, etc. in the analysis tab of Co-writer
Cons
- Doesn’t generate content for you but rather assists with completing sentences or ideas
Pricing
- Free Plan
- Premium Plan: Monthly – $19.95/mo; Semi-Annual – $13.33/mo; Annual- $8.33/mo
Sum-up
While Quillbot would be even more useful for academics, its grammar check and paraphrase features can only serve to improve your writing no matter what kind of content you are crafting.
Its free plan, coupled with its extensions, makes it easily accessible wherever you need it.
Grammarly
Best for Grammar
Grammarly is a popular online grammar checker. It helps people with writing skills by checking for spelling and grammatical errors, as well as providing suggestions for how to improve the clarity of your message and avoid embarrassing mistakes.
Pros
- Spelling, grammar, and contextual error checking
- Makes suggestions to improve tone and fluency
- Plagiarism checker
- Easy integration with most business apps
- Chrome extension
Cons
- Gives illogical advice occasionally
Pricing
- Free Plan
- Premium (for individuals): Starts at $12/mo
- Business (for teams): Starts at $15/mo
Sum-up
Grammarly has been a long-standing leader when it comes to polishing written work.
Like Quillbot, its free plan and extension make it easy to harness its power almost wherever and whenever you need it.
Ink for All
Best All-in-One Solution
Ink is an all-in-one AI writing solution. It offers a suite of tools to “help you write better, convert faster and rank higher”.
If you hate switching between different writing tools but need an AI writer, an SEO optimizer, and a grammar and paraphrasing assistant, then Ink might be just what you need! (Just think Jasper, Surfer, and Grammarly all rolled into one!)
Pros
- Beginner-friendly AI content writing tool with simplify, write, expand and rewrite commands
- Over 50 short-form writing tools plus long-form writer
- Detailed content suggestions to boost SEO rankings
- Assists with correct grammar and tone
- Chrome extension
- WordPress plugin
- Very affordable unlimited plan
- Super affordable all-in-one writing solution
Cons
- Content planner not yet available
Pricing
- Free Plan (for individual tools or the bundle)
- AI Writer Pro: $25.00/mo; $20/mo annually
- SEO Optimizer Pro: $25.00/mo; $20/mo annually
- Copy Assistant Pro: $25.00/mo; $10/mo annually
- Content Planner Pro: $10.00/mo; $8/mo annually (To be released soon)
- Ink Content Suite: $60.00/mo; $50/mo annually
Sum-up
I really love the Ink suite. The SEO Optimizer is strikingly similar to the Surfer content editor tool. But instead of just a list of words to include, it gives suggested tasks grouped in various areas.
I also like how the tasks identify the exact sentence or paragraph that needs to be fixed, so you don’t have to go searching through the entire article.
Once their Content Planner is launched, they will definitely be a force to reckon with!
Frase
Best for Teams
Frase is an SEO-focused content research tool with an AI writer add-on. It’s great to generate articles. You enter the target keyword, have Frase crawl through the top results for the keyword, and quickly generate a content brief from the results.
The briefs can then be shared with other writers or you can work on it yourself side by side in the content editor with the help of the Frase AI Writer.
Frase used to offer a free trial which required a $1 payment once you took the bait. However, while there is no longer a free trial or a free plan, you can get a general feel of how Frase works by using the sandbox on their home page as well as try a number of their free AI tools on their website.
Pros
- Automated content briefs
- Google Search Console integration
- Writers can update project status when complete
- Send editable links to your writers
- Create custom templates
Cons
- The plans only give limited access to the AI Writer.
- No free plan or trial
Pricing
- Basic: $44.99/mo; $39.99/mo annually
- Team: $114.99/mo; $99.99/mo annually
- Enterprise: Custom
- SEO Addon: $35/mo (includes AI Writer)
Sum-up
Frase is best for teams where one person is not responsible for the entire content generation process. The automated content briefs are especially a time saver for those who are outsourcing the actual article writing to other writers.
Writesonic
Best for Beginners
Writesonic is an extremely user-friendly AI writing assistant that is strikingly similar to Jasper (without the recipes and voice commands of course).
Writesonic costs much less though and does a great job at saving time when generating full blog posts.
Pros
- AI article writer generates complete articles in seconds
- Automatic generator for landing pages
- Automatic Blog Image Generator
- Over 60 AI templates
- Over 25 languages
- Includes Grammarly
- Browser Extensions
- Zapier Integration
- Option to Pay-as-you-go as opposed to a recurring subscription
Cons
- AI Article writer not included in Short-form plan
Pricing
- Free Trial
- Short-form: Starts at $15/mo; $10/mo annually
- Long-form: Starts at $19/mo; $13/mo annually
Sum-up
Writesonic is definitely your go-to tool if you want a powerful time-saving AI writing assistant without the Jasper price tag.
Copy AI
Best Free Plan
Copy AI is another really good AI content writing tool. Their mission is to help writers brainstorm and write better content – not to write for you. So don’t expect a lot of automatically generated content like with some of the other AI tools.
Regardless though, their Blog Post Wizard does a really great job of speeding up the trip from topic to the first draft.
Pros
- Over 100 tools and templates
- Over 25 languages
- Generous free plan
- 25 free AI tools that don’t need you to sign in (including email subject line generator, Instagram caption generator, and business name generator)
- Weekly demos
Cons
- No SEO integrations
- No plagiarism checker
Pricing
- Free Plan
- Pro: $49/mo; $35/mo annually
- Enterprise: Custom
Sum-up
Copy AI is a pretty good AI content generator with a whole lot of use cases. The very generous free plan and free tools make it easily accessible for solopreneurs and start-ups.
Scalenut
Best Combination SEO/Writer
Scalenut is an AI writer and SEO tool rolled into one. Think of Jasper with the Surfer integration but for one price.
Research the competition for your chosen keyword just like in Surfer, then use their new Cruise Mode to generate a blog outline and first draft in minutes.
Of course, you can use it to generate lots of short-form content as well.
Pros
- Built-in SEO Hub to help you rank on Google
- Over 40 use cases
- Chrome extension
- Talent network with top creators to assist with your content cheating needs
Cons
- No Cruise Mode in the Individual plan
- No SERP facts and paraphrasing feature on the Individual plan
Pricing
- 7-day Free Trial
- Individual: $29.00/mo; $12/mo annually
- Growth: $79.00/mo; $32/mo annually
- Pro: $149.00/mo; $60/mo annually
Sum-up
If you don’t want to pay for an AI writer and an SEO tool, then Scalenut might be the tool for you. While it isn’t as flashy as other AI tools, the tool itself is very robust and at a reasonable cost.
SmartWriter
Best for Cold Emails
SmartWriter is another AI writing tool that you can use to generate a variety of short-form content as well as full blog posts. However, if you need to send lots of cold emails, that’s where SmartWriter really stands out.
SmartWriter can save you loads of time and dramatically improve your email open and reply rates.
It scrapes LinkedIn profiles, Google and Facebook reviews, websites, Medium articles, and even podcasts and webinars, to generate key points for generating personalized messages for your intended recipient.
Whether you’re sending a backlink request or selling a product, SmartWriter can automatically give you multiple current ice-breakers that are guaranteed to do the trick.
Pros
- Finds and verifies emails
- References real-time data
- Generate personalized backlink requests
- Includes Blog writing and copywriting tools
- Free Chrome extension
- Free email quality checker
Cons
- Not very easy to generate long-form content
Pricing
- 7-day Free Trial
- Basic: $59.00/mo; $49/mo annually
- Popular: $149.00/mo; $124/mo annually
- Pro: $359.00/mo; $299/mo annually
Sum-up
If you need an AI writer that can write a variety of content but is especially good at generating personalized content, then SmartWriter is definitely the tool for you. The ease with which you can generate 1000s of leads and super-personalized messages is absolutely astounding.
What is an AI Writing Assistant and How Does it Actually Work?
AI writing assistants are computer programs that use machine learning in creating content for different purposes with minimal input.
Some companies use AI writing assistants when they need to create articles for a specific topic or niche. They are able to produce high-quality texts that are relevant and engaging in a short amount of time.
Meanwhile, digital agencies use these assistants as tools to generate all kinds of content for their clients – from blog posts and articles, to social media posts and web copy. This tool is beneficial because it saves the agency’s employees time so they can focus on more complicated tasks, including lateral thinking and marketing.
AI writing assistants are getting increasingly popular in the workplace.
AI Writing Assistant as the Future of Content Creation
AI assistants are a new type of digital writing assistant. They are used for content generation at scale. Digital assistants are an excellent way to help with your writing workload. They can generate content ideas, edit your work, and provide feedback on what you should do next.
Digital assistants offer companies the opportunity to focus on their core business objectives while outsourcing their content creation needs to AI assistants.
How to Choose Which AI Writer Fits Your Content Generation needs?
There are a wide variety of AI writing tools available on the market. They range from chatbots to full-fledged content generation tools. You should always think about what you need and what your budget is before choosing which one to use.
The first thing you should do is identify your needs and requirements for the content generation software. What type of content do you need? What essential features do you require? How much time do you have to generate it? What does your budget look like? Once you know that, then it becomes easier to find the best AI writer that fits your needs.
Overall Thoughts
AI writing software is definitely a game changer in creating quality content within tight deadlines. Save yourself hours of work and loads of dollars by getting one of these digital assistants.
If you are on a small budget, definitely try Ryter. If you need a whole lot of automation to churn out quality content super fast, then you might want to try Jasper. If you are a student and need help with grammar, research, and citations, then Quillbot is a lifesaver.
And everyone can benefit from Grammarly! (Yes, even if you already have Quillbot. I use them both!)
Have you taken any of these tools for a spin? Are there others you would like me to add to the list? Let me know what you think in the comments.
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