The blog.
Deep dives, comparisons, and roundups on the AI tools worth paying for. Only what we'd actually buy — no SEO sludge, no influencer demos.
Best Claude skills: the 8 I kept out of 162 installed
The best Claude skills, ranked from 162 sitting on one machine. What each pack does, what it costs you in context tokens, and the four I stopped firing.
Claude skills marketplace: what it is and which to add
A Claude skills marketplace is just a git repo with a manifest. Anthropic's official one lists 291 plugins; 23 say Anthropic wrote them. How to read one.
ChatGPT alternatives: 6 worth switching to, 3 tested
The best ChatGPT alternatives, with the three I use daily scored from real accounts: Claude 4.4 for writing, Gemini 4.3 free, Perplexity 4.4 for citations.
Best AI assistant: the free tiers decide it, not the $20 ones
The best AI assistant depends on whether you pay. Five tested on real accounts: at $20 they are close, on the free tier the gap runs opposite to the ranks.
Claude alternatives: which Claude are you replacing?
Anthropic sells the chat assistant plus five named products called Claude, and page one answers four different questions. Work out which you mean first.
ChatGPT vs Grok: 4 prompts, both free tiers, a clear tie
I ran four prompts through ChatGPT free and Grok free. They tied on all four. The real gaps: Plus $20 vs SuperGrok $30, and five free models against none.
Claude vs Grok: I ran both on a question Google gets wrong
Claude vs Grok, both run on the same two prompts. Both got the hard question right, but Grok opened 3 vendor pages while Claude cited 9 third-party posts.
Gemini alternatives: the two reasons people actually leave
The best Gemini alternatives, sorted by why you are leaving. Privacy points one way, escaping Google's ecosystem points another, and they are different tools.
Best AI search engine: one question, three engines
The best AI search engines, tested with one identical question. All three agreed on the facts. One cited EUR-Lex, another a consultancy blog and YouTube.
Claude Max plan: the 5x is per session, not per month
The Claude Max plan costs $100 or $200 a month. The multiplier everyone quotes describes a five-hour window, and the limit that actually stops you is weekly.
ChatGPT vs Claude: one writes, one does everything else
ChatGPT vs Claude, from a paid Claude account and a year on ChatGPT free. Both $20, but the free tiers differ far more — and only one generates images.
Claude vs ChatGPT vs Gemini: they don't all cost $20
Claude vs ChatGPT vs Gemini, after reviewing all three separately. Two cost $20, one is a storage plan — and the free tiers differ far more than the paid.