ChatGPT review: the free tier is the story, not the $20 one
A ChatGPT review from a year on the free tier plus one month of Plus. Five rungs from $0 to $200, and ads now run on both the Free and $8 Go tiers.
Perplexity AI review: the free tier is a showroom
A Perplexity AI review from the free tier: ten models in the picker and every one padlocked, $17 a month to unlock them, and six publishers now suing.
Perplexity vs ChatGPT: we asked both the same question
Same question, same day, both free tiers. One got the facts right and cited them; the other was confidently wrong. Plus the price nobody compares properly.
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.
ChatGPT Plus vs Pro: there are now three prices, not two
ChatGPT Plus costs $20; Pro is $100 or $200. OpenAI publishes the 5x and 20x multipliers but never the base they multiply, and only one tier is a discount.
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.
ChatGPT vs Gemini: the free tier decides this one
ChatGPT vs Gemini, both tested on free accounts. One hands a non-paying user its advanced reasoning model; the other will not let you pick a model at all.