The 9 Best AI Writing Tools I Tried In 2024

Sidra Condron
September 4, 2024
8 min read
Contents

As a content creator, I know the pressure to put out high-quality, engaging material. Add the need to publish consistently, and I get why using AI writing tools has such a strong lure.

See, AI tools make it incredibly easy to fast forward through the most challenging, mind-wrenching tasks that slow us down.

That explains the rise of AI writing tools. We’re seeing them pop up as new solutions for streamlining the content creation process. These are different solutions at all stages, too—helping with ideation, drafting, and even optimization—all while maintaining your unique brand voice.

That got me thinking.

I wanted to test some of these AI writing tools for myself to find the stand-outs and best kept secrets.

And of course, I’ll share the most important takeaways here with you. Continue scrolling to learn more about AI writing tools or pick a tool to jump directly to my review.

  1. Anyword: SEO-Focused and Data-Driven
  2. Claude: Conversational and Intuitive
  3. Copy AI: Affordable and Iterative
  4. Hypotenuse: Ecommerce-Focused
  5. Jasper: Feature-Rich
  6. RivalFlow AI: Continuous Content Optimization
  7. Sudowrite: Fiction and Storytelling
  8. Writer: Transparency and Style Adherence
  9. Writesonic: Flexible GPT-3/GPT-4 Choice

What’s in this guide?

Ahead, this guide looks at nine AI writing tools that can elevate your content workflow, save you time, and unlock new levels of creativity. We'll dive into their key features, pricing, and how they can work alongside your existing processes.

But first, let's address a critical point up front:

AI writing assistants are not meant to replace human writers entirely. Instead, they should be viewed as powerful co-pilots, freeing up your time and mental bandwidth for more strategic and creative tasks.

What is an AI writing tool?

An AI writing tool works with your instructions to put out creative text like articles, blog posts, emails and product descriptions. Unlike with chat-driven AI tools like ChatGPT, the prompts are baked into the tool. You don’t have to include instructions about what you’re hoping to get back.

Many writing tools make those details part of their unique style, like focusing on creativity or marketing-focused text. They also allow for longer outputs like a 2000 word article that might have gotten cut off with another AI tool.

Just like how some AI tools create fun images or amazing deep-fake videos, these writing tools make good copy their specialty. Built on the same AI models like GPT 3.5 or GPT 4, they can elaborate on a topic, turning a simple description into a fully-fleshed out article or opening an email with a strong hook.

What makes a good AI writing tool?

A good AI writing tool generates original, naturally-phrased text responds to your prompts or requests accurately. That’s just table stakes. Its output—the text that it gives you—should offer some dimension to the text. By dimension, I mean that it won’t repeat the same idea three different ways and call it a paragraph.

It should also rise to the occasion. It’s easy to take for granted that businesses put out clear, well-written content and that tools would need to match it. However, AI writing tools are becoming equalizers—giving others a chance to elevate their content in style or depth where they were limited before. In that sense, great tools will often meet your standards, but many times we ask them to take us further than what we’re equipped to reach ourselves.

There’s a bit of subjectivity, too. I want tools that fit with my current workflow. To me, it’s important that I don’t have to reinvent the way I already work.

To recap, a good AI writing tool:

  • Shares original, natural text that matches what you asked it to write
  • Provides varied output, avoiding repetitive ideas.
  • Identifies and mimics a style, voice, or tone that you set
  • Integrates smoothly with existing workflows.

I found some highlights and some passes. Your mileage might vary, so let’s take a look at these AI writing tools, and you can decide what’s worth testing in your own content workflow.

To keep things objective, these tools are listed in alphabetical order.

AI Writing Tool Key Features Pricing Free Access?
Anyword Gives an engagement score to new content, predicting reader interest From $49/month no
Claude Stands out with its creativity, can interpret and work with images From $20/month yes
Copy AI Can redo the output based on the user's feedback and instructions From $36/month yes
Hypotenuse Ecommerce-focused, includes a Social Media and Ads Generator From $56/month no
Jasper Writes new content, Integrates with Grammarly and Surfer From $39/month no
RivalFlow AI Improves existing content for SEO growth, finds gaps in your page content vs SERP competitors From $79/month yes
Sudowrite Specifically aimed at fiction writing From $10/month yes
Writer Real-time writing tips. Good for adhering to strict guidelines From $18/month no
Writesonic Flexible budget-friendly options From $16/month yes

1. Anyword: SEO-Focused and Data-Driven

Anyword is an AI writing assistant designed with SEO in mind. You can feed it specific details like keywords and buyer personas to shape the content it generates for you. I also liked it’s “Brand Rules” in addition to the more common Brand Voice. Other writing tools allow the voice to help set the tone, but brand rules will call out style choices like opting for “AI” over “artificial intelligence.

Additionally, Anyword provides "engagement scores" for the content it produces, giving you insights into how well it might perform with your target audience. Something I like about this that they don’t tout is that by highlighting certain words on the page as “problem statement” or “target audience,” this AI writing tool keeps you focused on marketing fundamentals.

What I liked: Being able to set brand personas and apply them for different pages I’m working onWhat I didn’t like: If you’re easily distracted while writing, the scores might be more of a hindrance as your writing is gamified.

Pricing: Starter plan from $49/month.

2. Claude: Conversational and Intuitive

Claude has more of a creative slant than some other AI writing tools on the market. Part of that come from its conversational style, but Claude’s output has a bit more flourish than what I saw in other tools. It also would generate a completely different tone when I asked it to take a second pass at a prompt.

By creative, I mean that Claude can also brainstorm ideas and put out phrases that are a bit “sassy” at time—giving clever analogies or unexpected metaphors. To Claude’s credit, it carries those metaphors through a passage, serving up examples that stick to the theme and make sense.

A standout feature of Claude is its ability to understand images like graphs and handwritten notes. Depending on your personal writing style, that could be a useful feature.

What I liked: Claude creates output with lots of personality.

What I didn’t like: That creativity often needs to be reeled in. I had to re-run (or re-write myself) intros that veered from the tone I was trying to set.

Pricing: Higher tier plans include higher-performing AI models. Starts at $20/month for Pro plan.

3. Copy AI: Affordable and Iterative

Copy AI is a marketing-focused writing tool that excels at copywriting tasks like ad copy, product descriptions, and social media captions.

One of its standout features is its ability to take follow-up inputs from users so it can iterate on what it puts out. In fact, Copy AI is active in this, prompting you (as the user) for any changes. This makes it easy to refine and customize the content until it meets your needs.

Copy AI also offers an unlimited plan for high-volume users, making it a cost-effective option for those with significant copywriting demands.

What I liked: Copy AI feels brainy. I like giving it multiple steps to iterate on, so that the final work feels smarter and more crafted.

What I didn’t like: I found that I had to edit out a lot of clichés like “in the world of SEO” or “the digital marketing landscape.”

Pricing: Free plan available (2,000 words/month). Starter plan from $36/month paid annually.

4. Hypotenuse: Ecommerce-Focused

Hypotenuse AI Ecommerce Product Description Generator.

Hypotenuse.ai sets its sights firmly on e-commerce businesses. This writing tool is dedicated to  generating product descriptions, blog content, and even technical writing. Its focus on e-commerce means it aims to create content that drives conversions and pushes online sales.

It integrates with Product Information Management (PIM) systems, which carries more weight in ecommerce. In fact, qualities like that will likely make or break this product for the user. Ecommerce businesses that see the value (and necessity) of ecommerce-specific tasks will welcome features like writing bulk product descriptions. Other businesses that don’t need that kind of functionality might find it to be too bulky for them considering the cost.

What I liked: It offers SEO-optimized product descriptions. It’s also the only tool I saw that specifically has a “Facebook Ads Generator” built on a product name and keywords.

What I didn’t like: The interface of the SEO blog writer is busy and easy to get lost in.

Pricing: Starter plan from $56/month paid annually.

5. Jasper: Feature-Rich

Jasper is one of the more established and recognized AI writing tools on the market. Its interface gives you an idea that perhaps other tools were quick to emulate this one. It has the side bar with the fields for topic, important details to cover, and voice—as you’d expect in an AI writing tool. It generates the output in an editor that you can actively update.

Jasper combines multiple large language models, including GPT-4 and Claude 2, to deliver high-quality outputs.

One of my favorite features is its ability to create custom "Brand Voices" by analyzing your existing content. This ensures the AI's writing style aligns with your brand's unique personality and tone.

Jasper also integrates with tools like Grammarly and Surfer, making it a comprehensive solution for content creators.

What I liked: Consistency of voice and brand phrasing across multiple writing sessions, especially when working on a shared team.

What I didn’t like: The added features are nice, but they also take set-up. That means more up-front work to get going in a new piece.

Pricing: Creator plan from $39/month paid annually.

6. RivalFlow AI: Continuous Content Optimization

RivalFlow AI takes a unique approach to AI writing assistance. Rather than focusing on content creation, it optimizes your existing content to outrank competitors on search engines.

RivalFlow focuses on individual pages from a website. That way it can find the questions to a topic that a SERP competitor answers better than your page does. Then, RivalFlow uses AI to write answers for your page to close those gaps—making it more helpful and thorough. The goal of RivalFlow is to improve your page so that it ranks higher and brings you more traffic.

This AI-driven approach ensures your content stays fresh, comprehensive, and aligned with evolving search intent. And since it’s focused on improving what you have already published, it’s should be an easy addition to your content creation (and optimization) workflow.

What I liked: RivalFlow adds to my existing page, so I love that it cuts out some steps by showing me the best place to fit the new text into my article.

What I didn’t like: Since RivalFlow only works for existing content, I still need another AI writing tool to create new pieces from scratch.

Pricing: Free account available. Paid plans start at $79/month billed annually.

7. Sudowrite: Fiction and Storytelling

I had no idea this one existed; it was a nice twist on what I was seeing. While most AI writing tools cater to non-fiction content like marketing copy and blog posts, Sudowrite specializes in writing fiction.

How cool is that?

I could have skipped this in the mostly B2B guide, but many business writers extend their talent into creative outlets, too. And though we wouldn’t usually think of AI for fiction, imagine how helpful it is to have a head start on a prompt. You can jump off from there.

This AI writing tool helps to generate plot ideas, character descriptions, and narrative passages. Its Canvas tool offers a way to keep notes on where the story is going, details about your characters, and even alternate plot points.

If you're a novelist, screenwriter, or simply enjoy creative writing, Sudowrite can be a powerful tool for sparking your imagination and overcoming writer's block.

What I liked: Storytelling relies on heightening the reader’s senses, and this tool includes easy buttons to add descriptions like smells, sensations, and sounds that can enhance the story.

What I didn’t like: It’s hard to find what’s missing from this tool, because it’s dense with writing solutions. If anything, it might be overwhelming for those already stuck on a fence. But truly, I’m stretching here.

Pricing: Hobby & Student plan from $10/month paid annually.

8. Writer: Transparency and Style Adherence

Writer gave me a blank page that acted like an editor, so I just started writing. It started grading my clarity and word choice as I wrote, and I found suggestions tucked away on the side. It's a bit like Grammarly that way. And where Jasper integrates with Grammarly, Writer offers its over proof-reading option built-in.

I can load snippets to my brand library and pull them into the pages I'm writing. That's helpful for company descriptions and legal disclaimers that teams use on repeat.

So how does AI play a role? You can highlight a phrase and ask Writer to work with it. It might simplify the phrase or change the tone. I've certainly asked ChatGPT to simplify phrases for me that have gotten overcomplicated thanks to tiresome reworks, so it's nice to have this option built into the page.

Writer excels as an Enterprise option, so you can outfit departments beyond the traditional marketing copy into support, operations, and sales too.

What I liked: Excellent UI to just highlight a phrase and have actions like “simplify” ready to go.

What I didn’t like: Similar to the on-page scores that Anyword has, it's a blessing and a curse. Having reminders on the page is great, but it's very easy to get distracted by them. (Writer keeps them at a minimal size, but mentally they're still there.)

Pricing: Team plan from $18/month per user, up to 5. Enterprise pricing is custom.

9. Writesonic: Flexible GPT-3/GPT-4 Choice

Writesonic is an AI writing tool that gives you the choice between using OpenAI's GPT-3.5 or the more advanced GPT-4 model for generating content.

This flexibility can be valuable depending on your budget and exactly what you’re hoping to get from the tool. GPT-4 generally produces higher-quality output but at a higher cost.

Its interface seemed easy to use. You give it a topic and any reference material like links to a few of your pages or a document. The tool offers you language options which I didn’t see in many other tools, and I like that it offers you a set of titles to choose from instead of a “take it or leave it” idea. Writesonic plans to deliver your article—targeting a keyword of your choice—in just under 2 minutes. You can edit it from there.

Writesonic also promotes accuracy and real-time data. In light of some AI hallucination stories, it addresses an important point for some users.

What I liked: The title suggestions are a nice touch. Even if you don’t take any, they can get your ideas churning.What I didn’t like: I noticed repetitive filler phrases that detract from the writing.

Pricing: Free plan available (25 generations/month). Individual plan from $16/month paid annually.

What I Learned

As AI writing tools continue to grow, we reap the benefits. Tools gives content creators a chance to enhance productivity at a fairly inexpensive cost. The small set that I tested is just a part of what’s available, so be intentional in finding the right tool for your workflow.

Consider your specific needs, SEO goals, and budget constraints to find the best solutions to fit the way you work.

Remember, AI writing assistants are powerful tools to help you stretch your resources, but human oversight and creativity are still key to creating truly exceptional, authentic content that resonates with your audience.

No matter which tools you adopt, remember the long game. Good content strategy is a cycle. You need to nurture your pages over time, continuously optimizing your content for better search rankings and audience engagement. AI writing tools can help you sail through parts of that cycle, but stay on top of constant improvement to lift your website across the board.

Ready to take your content to new heights? Try RivalFlow AI today and experience how seamlessly it integrates with your AI writing workflow, continuously optimizing your content for better search rankings and audience engagement.