# Kiln

> A curated directory of AI software with last-verified dates, comparison tables, and honest skip-if notes. We are not the vendor.

Kiln is an independent AI tools directory at https://kiln.toolfolio.page. It is not the vendor. Each profile has a last-verified date and a skip-if line.

## Use this site for
- Which AI tool to pick for a job (coding, writing, image, video, agents)
- ChatGPT vs Claude and other comparisons
- Free-tier tools that are actually free, not cracked software

## Do not use this site for
- Cracked licenses, medical advice, or investment advice
- Jobs (that is Rolepaper: https://rolepaper.toolfolio.page)

## Ranked lists
- [Best AI coding tools](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/best/ai-coding-tools): best AI coding tools
- [Best ChatGPT alternatives](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/best/chatgpt-alternatives): ChatGPT alternatives
- [Best AI image generators](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/best/ai-image-generators): best AI image generators
- [Best AI writing tools](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/best/ai-writing-tools): best AI writing tools
- [Best AI video tools](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/best/ai-video-tools): best AI video generators
- [Best free AI tools](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/best/free-ai-tools): best free AI tools
- [Best AI agents](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/best/ai-agents): best AI agents
- [Best AI tools for students](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/best/ai-for-students): best AI tools for students

## Comparisons
- [ChatGPT vs Claude](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/compare/chatgpt-vs-claude)
- [Cursor vs GitHub Copilot](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/compare/cursor-vs-github-copilot)
- [Cursor vs Claude Code](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/compare/cursor-vs-claude-code)
- [Midjourney vs Adobe Firefly](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/compare/midjourney-vs-adobe-firefly)
- [Perplexity vs ChatGPT](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/compare/perplexity-vs-chatgpt)
- [n8n vs Zapier](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/compare/n8n-vs-zapier)
- [Gemini vs ChatGPT](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/compare/gemini-vs-chatgpt)
- [Windsurf vs Cursor](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/compare/windsurf-vs-cursor)

## Tools
- [ChatGPT](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/chatgpt): The default assistant for hundreds of millions of people. Strong at writing, analysis, and light coding. Weak when you need sources or a specialist IDE.
- [Claude](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/claude): The professional writing and coding assistant. Slower to collect consumer toys, stronger on long context and Claude Code.
- [Google Gemini](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/gemini): The assistant that wins on distribution: Gmail, Docs, Drive, and Android. Image models are competitive. Coding IDEs are not the point.
- [Perplexity](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/perplexity): A research console that retrieves the web and shows sources. Use it when ChatGPT would invent a citation.
- [Microsoft Copilot](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/microsoft-copilot): Two products sharing a name: a free consumer assistant, and a paid Office copilot. Do not mix the pricing pages.
- [Grok](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/grok): xAI’s assistant, wired into X. Useful for recent social context. A weak reason to rebuild a whole workflow.
- [DeepSeek](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/deepseek): A capable, cheap model family that forced US labs to talk about price. Procurement and data rules decide if you can use it.
- [NotebookLM](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/notebooklm): A notebook that answers from your sources. The opposite of a hallucinating general chat.
- [Cursor](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/cursor): A VS Code fork where tab completion, chat, and agents are the editor. The default pick for many full-time builders.
- [GitHub Copilot](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/github-copilot): The low-friction plugin. Half the price of Cursor Pro for many individuals. Weaker as a standalone agentic IDE.
- [Claude Code](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/claude-code): A terminal agent with the whole repo in context. Slow and pricey if you use it for every semicolon.
- [Windsurf](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/windsurf): An AI IDE with a generous trial posture. Ownership moved to Cognition in 2026, so treat the roadmap as in motion.
- [v0](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/v0): A UI generator that emits real components for the Next.js world. Not a whole engineering department.
- [Replit Agent](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/replit-agent): Browser IDE plus agent plus hosting. Excellent for students and spikes. Awkward as a long-term production home.
- [Lovable](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/lovable): Chat-to-app for people who do not want to name a folder. Engineers outgrow it. Founders use it to see the idea.
- [Bolt.new](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/bolt): StackBlitz’s agentic browser builder. Fast demos. Token meters bite.
- [Aider](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/aider): Open-source pair programmer in the terminal. You bring the API keys.
- [Cline](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/cline): Bring-your-own-key coding agent in VS Code. Cost is honest because you see the provider invoice.
- [Midjourney](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/midjourney): Still the taste leader for many illustrators. Paid-only. Discord-era habits linger.
- [Adobe Firefly](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/adobe-firefly): The safe commercial image tool for teams that already pay Adobe. Less swagger than Midjourney, better paperwork.
- [FLUX](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/flux): A model family, not a social network. Shows up inside many third-party UIs.
- [Leonardo AI](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/leonardo): A web studio with model choice and a real free token bucket. Quality depends on which model you pick that day.
- [PhotoRoom](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/photoroom): A boring, profitable job: cut the subject out and put it on a clean background. Does that job well.
- [Runway](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/runway): The established AI video bench. Credits disappear. Watermarks and duration caps matter more than demo reels.
- [Kling](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/kling): A fast-moving video model with loud demos. Treat region, terms, and credit math as first-class.
- [ElevenLabs](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/elevenlabs): The default high-quality voice API. Cheap to start, easy to overspend on characters.
- [Descript](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/descript): Transcript-first editing. The AI is in service of cutting ums, not inventing a movie.
- [Otter.ai](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/otter): A meeting notetaker. Useful. Also a consent problem if you surprise the room.
- [Notion AI](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/notion-ai): AI that is only as good as the workspace it sits on. A weak reason to migrate a company. A strong reason to stay.
- [Grammarly](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/grammarly): The grammar layer. Unsexy, widely installed, still the right first paid writing tool for many people.
- [Jasper](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/jasper): A content platform with AI inside. Priced like B2B software because that is what it is.
- [Gamma](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/gamma): Prompt-to-deck. Fine for internal reviews. Dangerous if you present it to a client without editing.
- [n8n](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/n8n): The automation tool we actually self-host. Fair-code, execution-priced cloud, and a real code node.
- [Zapier](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/zapier): The default no-code glue. Enormous app catalog. Task meters are the business.
- [Lindy](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/lindy): A no-code agent platform. Convenient. Opaque compared with n8n.
- [Hugging Face](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/huggingface): The model hub. Not an assistant. If you cannot tell the difference, you are not the customer yet.
- [Figma AI](https://kiln.toolfolio.page/tools/figma-ai): AI that emits Figma objects. That single fact beats a hundred screenshot generators.

## Method
- https://kiln.toolfolio.page/methodology
- Parent site: https://toolfolio.page