I'm gonna preface this post with that this is more of my own opinion. However due to my sheer amount of time I spend with tools like these. Not to mention, how many I added to the database, and keep adding. That I think my opinions are justified.

It may be subject to change, i.e. I used to love Notion, but now I think it has grown into something unmanageable. Which ironically is often what happens to people's dashboards when they over-tweak their LifeOS.

Point is, that I may not always feel this way, and I always look forward to a tool redeeming itself.

Here are my top tools I think are overrated for each category!

💡
This is a post of what I think are NOT the best tools for each category, and that you should NOT use them. To be clear.

Knowledge Management - PKM

Notion.

Hot take I know, but hear me out. They have done not a whole lot for the individual user for a long time. In my experience too the performance has been lacking for the last couple years. From sheer lag in the databases, to slow page loads, and up until the Notion Calendar lack of updates for solo people. Mainly focusing on organizations.

Recently, there has been some cool new features to check out. However I am constantly reminded of how the tool encourages you to treat it like Lego. Which is a great thing, and a deep fault. You always feel like you could improve your dashboard/LifeOS, so you spend all of your time rebuilding it over and over. Instead of actually using it.

Clips Tools

Vidyo.

I've spoken in some places how sleezy the company has been over the years. From blatantly copying the Recast Studio's website nearly WORD FOR WORD (not to mention layout); To stealing features from OpusClip, Munch, and the like. It is normal for competition to copy, but it was so jarringly quick that just seemed so intentional.

Automatic AI Editing

A toss up between VEED and AutoPod.

Both of them have had either some weird elitism, or too much difficulty to access the product. To be fair they both are pretty open now, and the difficulty is more VEED than AutoPod.

However having to have Adobe only, and not Resolve or Logic was really frustrating for those who don't want to pay the adobe tax.

VEED when they started out were completely locked away from any small creator. Only allowing bigger creators use the platform. Maybe that left a sour taste in my mouth, but I'm going to test them out soon. Of course I'll give it a fair shot too.

Podcasting and Podcast Hosts

Libsyn.

It has an archaic interface, the pricing plans aren't ideal at best, and they haven't really innovated for a long time. There are much better modern hosts that can do a lot more.

I hear that they're finally updating their interface soon, but honestly it is probably a decade and half too late.

When I checked them out, the interface was dated to 2006 at the latest. This was probably around 2019 or so.

They've been around for ages, but it just seems like they don't want to update to the times. Unlike Transistor FM or Captivate FM.

Auto-Generated

InVideo.

I'm sorry I know its a good tool, and they even reached out to me about UGC content. However compared to some of the other auto-generated tools, the ones that are more optimized for various platforms.

I just felt that InVideo has a hard time understanding the smaller creators.

💡
I am going to call myself out a little bit, as I wrote this post in two sessions. This section was part of the first writing burst, and since then I think they have been adding more and more to their ai auto video generation suite. Thus I stand by my point, but I anticipate eagerly to be proven wrong.

Content Repurposing

Repurpose.io

Ooooof this one is hard to write, but I think that the path they took is viable. However maybe not the right one.

What I mean is the repurposing world has gone deep into clip focused tools, whether for gaming i.e. crossclip/eklipse, or regular videos Opus. However there are some other tools like Nuelink and Make combined with Airtable, that basically take the place of repurpose. I had a number of problems with RP, and while that might have been due to it being early on. It still happened.

Whereas my automations have hardly failed with other tools.

Technically Repurpose.io fails into both of these categories. However Zapier was an even worse experience.

Do note however that Repurpose partnered up with YouTube themselves, so they must be doing something right!

Automation Tools

Zapier. Speaking of automations.

I can't tell you how many times my Zaps broke, and often for the dumbest reasons too. I never had a time where I could use Zapier without it breaking.

To be honest it is completely overpriced, and there are SO many alternatives now.

YouTube Tools

Tubebuddy.

This tool had once been the best youtuber helper program. It beat out vidIQ and socialblade by a mile. Yet after their acquisition, and their massive layoffs.

The tool forgot what it was, and its place in the creator world. Constantly now shilling upsells, and failing to do its main job well.

AI Tools and Content Creation

ChatGPT.

The once king of AI tools, there are so many alternative options, that there is often no reason to go to the original. Rather than simplicity or sake of habit.

Using something like Perplexity is actually smarter anyways as you get multiple choices of inputs from various AI services.

I put this under the content creation category as well because people keep talking about how you can make content with GPT. No you can't really. If you try to just use it for blog posts or scripts, then you're going just push out crappy content.

I'm sorry it is just true. Now if you use a specialist AI creation tool, then MAYBE, but even then you should add a human touch still.

Audiograms

Wavve.co

Seriously literally basically no innovation in the last six years. I think they added a link tree feature, but that is about it. Whereas Headliner is doing all sorts of stuff, and really audiograms in general have been slowly dying out.

However I could see a usecase for them:

Every blog post on my main site gets an audio version made with ai, and you could use audiogram tools to turn them into video.

Note Taking

Apple/Google Notes.

I don't care what the minimalists tell you, these are not good. You're going to waste so much time trying to find your notes, trying to structure them, all when you could just use a proper note taking tool that does all that for you.

It is just so frustrating that beginners and advanced users alike seem to fall into this trap on the bell curve of wanting the simplicity of the base note taking apps. When you could achieve SO much more with proper note taking apps.

Audio Tools

ElevenLabs

Hear me out! I actually love what they're doing, and I hope that they are taking precautions.

However the risks to rewards ratio I think is something they need to consider more carefully. They're making it almost too easy for anyone to clone anyone's voice.

Other than that, I think this tool is still in a great growth trajectory.

💡
Just calling myself out because while I DO think that this is the most "overrated" tool, as people gush over it a lot. Conversely, I DID rate it the best Audio tool. This is one of those circumstances where I think both are true.

Blogging CMS

Wordpress.

I mean there were a number of choices, but the most prudent should be WP. STOP USING IT. It is terrible, constantly breaking, and you always have to worry about security faults.

Why use such an archaic tool, when there are so so many other choices out there now. Cough, ghost, cough.

Social Media Scheduling Tools

Hootsuite.

For the love all things social. Stop using this glorified cobbled together tech stack.

Not only are there over 100 SMM tools out there, most of which are listed on this site if you want to see (the only ones I left out were broken, sleezy, or downright abandoned).

Hootsuite, and even really Buffer for that matter, are way too expensive for what they offer. Not to mention considering that a lot of tools nowadays even include SMM features like Canva and Opus built in.

Books

I actually don't have a tool for this category really. Honestly there isn't enough tools around books. I mean that both in writing books, and reading books.

The only thing I can think of is Kindle, as they have been doing some shady stuff. Such as not letting you download to your phones anymore, etc. You can use your local library and hoopla/overdrive to get free books. Gutenberg too.

Calendar Apps

Outlook

Why use a more dated tool, when Apple/Moreover Google calendar generally have a lot more to offer.

I would argue it is more of the interface you used the calendar in though, such as Notion Cal, Calendly for scheduling, or even Noteplan/Obsidian Day Planner.

I think there is a need for a top tier calendar app.

Education

Kajabi

Overpriced, and spread too thin on features.

Look as someone who literally creates content around how people misunderstand the "jack of all trades" quote often. It pains me say this, but Kajabi has spread themselves too thin. Most of the features are decent, if not good, but a lot of them do feel half baked.

Then on top of that they charge more than most tools on the market for learning management systems.

Email Tools

Mailchimp.

Used to be the forefront of email marketing for creators. It was the first tool that really simplified the process of email marketing for people like me. I even used it for a time.

However ever since, even Kit has gotten a bit old school, there are so many other tools that took email marketing even more modern. Making it even more simple for a new age of creators.

Gaming Video Highlighters - Gaming Clip Tools

Eklipse.gg

I would have said JoinCombo, but they died out. Same with Clipbot I think too. Meaning there are just a handful left, and really all 3 of the other choices are better than the terrible interface of Eklipse.

The UI/UX is astoundingly bad, I couldn't even get from point a to point b to make a clip without 5-10 interruptions.

Go with Crossclip, Streamladder, or Powder.

Now to be fair, this tool stays adding features, and has some clipping aspects. Not to mention keeps adding more types of content that you can choose to clip from. Almost competing with OpusClip for that matter.

However where they lost all points, is their just truly unusable interface. I kept trying over and over, and not to mention use their cool features like auto-edit a clip. However it was slow, too many pages from point a to point b, and so so much going on the dashboard all at once.

Habit Tracking

Those minimalist apps on Android, that include habit tracking features

This is sort of a deep cut, but for those who know, know. There are a lot of minimalism launchers on Android that change how your phone looks and works. They're great, and they can help you avoid bad habits like with TikTok.

However, they always try to implement a habit baked habit tracking feature.

Networking

Matchmaker.fm

When this tool first came out it was great. I mean it was how I started doing interviews in the first place. However due to negligence from the parent company, and even the app itself. No staff, no updates worth a damn, and really no reason to still use it half of the time.

It is almost dead in the water.

Notion Tools

Super.so

One of the main tools out there people use for Notion, as it helps you turn it into a website. I looked into actually for this site itself too, as Rundown uses it for their tools site. Now in retrospect I'm glad I didn't because this site looks so much better visually.

However between the costs, the confusing process of installing a theme, and limitations of the builder. I found it to be not worth the trouble. Now that Notion has a website feature then perhaps it is unnecessary to use this tool altogether now.

Project Management

Asana.

I can hear the cheers and jeers from here. You either love it or hate it, and usually people are in the latter camp.

The interface is stifling, boring, and you are so limited on what you can do compared to similar tools. That you might as well just use Monday or Clickup, if you want even a fraction of more useability.

Recording

Riverside.fm

I used to partner with them, and I explained in another post why I dropped them. However due to the way they treat their smaller creators, and their lack of respect. I lost interest in using them.

Then it made me realize just how much I had overlooked. So many issues and bugs, that basically I'd get gaslit for when I contacted support. "Oh here is a help article", goodbye. I'll list them:

  • One hour long interview the guest's side stretched to 3 hours, .33x speed.
  • One guest with better internet than me had to wait over 56 hours to upload her half due to an issue. (This was after resetting the upload).
  • I give the right link to a guest, and they end up in a "waiting room" that doesn't exist on my side, there is no way for me to let them in.
  • A few interview got split into multiple projects each, all because of a microphone connection issue.

I could go on, but Riverside used to be the best. However ONLY because it was the ONLY tool that had video. Zoom and skype compress the hell out of the quality. Zencaster and Squadcast took ages to catch up. So really the only options now are Podcastle and Descript Rooms.

Social Media

Metricool.

It made all the waves when it first came out, but I've heard nothing but bad things about the tool and the company.

Firstly, some extreme cases were that people accounts were getting banned. That there is spyware type tracking in the tool. Regardless if it is hearsay, that is not something you hear about most tools. I would argue some of it, if not a lot of it is true.

They're also just not the best platform, as there are other tools that can do a lot more.

Streaming

OBS...

Yes you heard it here folks. I think OBS is technically overrated. The reason why? Well mainly because it will crap out on you for sometimes the smallest things, or an update they push themselves will break it.

I couldn't ever get source record to even work, and it even wouldn't uninstall which was terrifying. As if it was some sort of malware.

OBS is a great tool don't get me wrong, and there are some things you can only currently set up in it. I still use it even from time to time. HOWEVER, there are just so many better tools on the market right now.

Quick shout out to Meld Studio, and even to Streamlabs (despite their controversy), which both are better for multistreaming at the time of this writing. Either locally or cloud syndicated respectively.

Streaming Platform

Twitch.

Sure even though it is still around today, there have been so many issues with how the platform treats their streamers. No discoverability, and a lack of real substantial updates that help users for years.

Please please don't get me started on discoverability.

They also keep shooting themselves in the foot, whether it is on viewbotting, multistreaming, or their CEO just saying things that are inaccurate.

Task Management

Sticky Notes

Okay hear me out, not a tool like the rest on this list, and a lot of you probably really like them actually.

However they are always subject to getting lost, and degraded over time. Not to mention they can spiral out of control quickly.

Digital sticky notes are not much better, but they at least don't take up physical space.

Website Building

Framer...

I spent so many hours working on this website via the Framer tool. Yet in the end it was a hot pile of garbage. No matter what I did, I could never get the page speed up, and I did so many optimizations.

The CMS was just terrible, and had very limited scope. Couldn't have a tool in more than one category for example, and anytime I wanted to add more categories I had to make them in at least four different places.

Not to mention no ability to have a search function if you site had too many pages. Which included CMS items, so you're screwed if say you had a tools site?

Time Management

Time Trackers

No specific tool in mind, but if you are monitoring your time down to the minute you're doing something wrong.

The point of a tool is to make you MORE productive, but if you are wasting time keeping track of your time. Then you are losing precious time that could be going towards projects.

Now I know for some jobs it is required, especially remote, but it can be a real drain on your overall time spent.

Tool Sites

I want to say FutureTools or Futurepedia at this point, but to be honest both of the founders really do put effort into their sites. Could they have better user interface? Sure. At least Matt Wolfe FINALLY added a dark mode! haha

Really I would say the real entry is Product Hunt, as they continuously let in half-coded AI generated tools, or AI skins, that just don't do anything. Letting all of that in clogs up the feeds, and it prevents you from actually seeing the real new tools.

Video Tools

AI Enhancers

Again not tool specific, but in a lot of cases these enhancers just make your faces look overtly smooth. They add details where there wasn't before, and they can often charge a lot too. Such as with Runway.

There are some use cases where this might come in handy. However I'm scared of the day where your video gets auto enhanced by say YouTube, and it messes up the quality of the video because of shotty AI.

Writing Tools

Grammarly

Look I get it, you might need it for editing your manuscript, and in that instance I can see you using it.

However in most other cases it is just redundant over the basic feedback that most word processors will give you. Ignore the grammar errors in this post. haha

Most people aren't going to need it for their writing, even for college papers. It is often overkill, and if you're using it to scan for plagiarism; Then something is wrong with your writing.

Transcription

Otter AI

One of the OG tools on the market. However I feel like it hasn't truly kept up with the space. Something of a common theme in this post. Some companies get really used to being on top, that they forget they need to innovate. Sure the tool is completely useable, and I honestly could be just picky in this case.

However when you look at some of the other tools on the market, with either being free, adding GPT, or both. It really starts to beg the question.

Web Browsers

Google Chrome AND Arc browser

The once heralded king of browsers, and was known for being slim/fast/new. Is now the bloated mess that Internet Explorer once was, and worse is uber tracking of your data and privacy.

Nowadays you can find a lot better browsers, even built on Chromium so you get all the benefits too. I'm currently using ARC for example.

Scratch that, again with the change of writing bursts, I am no longer using ARC. It kept crashing on me, losing tabs when my PC went to sleep/hibernate, and the bookmark system is abysmal.

Translation

YouTube Dubbing.

Now hear me out. Yes it is going to change how the platform works, and it is a massive step in the right direction.

However... I think that they are going to have the same issues as they do with the captions tool. Where there are a lot of mistakes, and its only for some use cases. Not for everyone, like they have advertised.

I think that the responsibility is still going to fall onto the creator to find better tools for translocalizing content. Rather than just translating.

Unique-Other

To be honest there isn't just one tool I can call out for this tag.

Really this category is just that, all in one, rather than being one topic. It is the collection of any tool that I found didn't fit into any ONE category.

That right there might be the issue. The sites failed to market themselves to a niche, and they aren't able to grow because of it. Or I just couldn't think of a tag for them. haha.

Now some of these I got a little spicy in my attitude, but that is due to some of the terrible experiences I had with these tools.

I don't want you to make the same mistakes. Most of the time I try to be kind about my trials of tools. However in some cases it is best for you if I just tell it how it is.

Take this post with a grain a salt, maybe two grains, but remember these things when you are digging into each category. These tools are the most famous generally, but that isn't always a good thing.

Find the right tool for YOU:

The PolyTools Database
The Polymath’s Toolkit for all things Digital Renaissance. From content repurposing to automation and personal knowledge management! This is the database for the PolyTools brand.
Official Website for Dustin Miller PolyInnovator [LLC]Dustin Miller | PolyInnovator