The Anti-Hype Guide: 3 Tools to Cancel Today
You're likely overpaying for "AI wrappers." Here is the truth.
Founders love speed. And "AI Writer" tools promise speed. But in 2025, paying $50/month for a tool that is just a pretty skin on top of ChatGPT is burning cash.
We audited 50+ popular tools. Here are 3 "Marketing Favorites" I recommend cancelling, and the cheaper (or free) alternatives that actually work better.
1. Stop Paying for "AI Copywriters"
Generic SEO Writers
(e.g., Jasper, Surfer, etc.)
- ❌ Cost: $49 - $99/mo
- ❌ "Templates" are just prompts
- ❌ Often uses older models
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
(Direct Model)
- ✅ Cost: $0 - $20/mo
- ✅ Better writing quality
- ✅ Huge context window
2. Stop Paying for Complex Slide Makers
Enterprise slide AI
(Beautiful.ai Pro, etc.)
- ❌ Cost: $15 - $45/mo
- ❌ Overkill for pitch decks
- ❌ Lock-in formats
Gamma (Free Tier)
(Freemium done right)
- ✅ Cost: $0/mo
- ✅ "One-shot" generation
- ✅ Export to PPT/PDF free
3. Stop Overpaying for "Code Assistants"
This one is controversial. Copilot is great, but for a bootstrapped non-technical founder building an MVP, you often don't need a $20/mo IDE extension.
The Fix: Use Cursor (Free tier) or just paste code into Claude. The reasoning abilities of Claude 3.5 for one-off scripts often beat the inline autocomplete for founders who are "scripting" not "engineering."
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