Subscribe at wondertools.substack.com for my newsletter updates on the most useful tools. Note: This list was most recently updated in April, 2025

  1. 6 best AI chatbots you can use for free ChatGPT | Claude | Gemini | Copilot | Perplexity | Poe
  2. Transcribe Interviews Automatically | Alice App | Otter (free) | Descript  Temi| | 28+ Tools /int’l  | Subly = vid subtitles
  3. Listen to Podcasts Seamlessly: Snipd | Castro |Overcast | Downcast | NPR | AntennaPod (Android only) 
  4. Create Audio Easily: Riverside|Spotify for podcasters  /Zencastr | Cast | Mixlr | Simplecast
  5. Make a quick data gif: Google Data Gifmaker | Canva Gif Maker | Giphy | Visme Gifs |
  6. Deliver Stories w/ Messages: (free)  Whatsapp | Telegram | Confide | Snapchat | Signal | Kik | Line | Viber | WeChat 
  7. Fun with AR | PhotoMath (free) | Apple Clips (free)
  8. Compose Music Without Knowing How: | Take | Figure | Garageband (free) |
  9. Produce Unique Photo Illustrations Olli | Waterlogue | Prisma | Pikazo | Lucid |
  10. Bring Text to Life w/ Kinetic Typography Hype Type Mojo Slate Text Spark Post Quik’s “Type” theme
  11. Produce Music Vid-Style Algorithmic Video Quik (free) | Google Photos
  12. Accentuate Images with Typography Typorama | Adobe Express (free) | Word Swag 
  13. Design Vertical Stories: Canva (free) | Keynote Template (email JC for access) |
  14. Craft a Digital Scrapbook: Wakelet | Padlet|
  15. Make Visual Cards: Stats, Facts or Quotes Pablo (free) | Stencil | Canva (free)
  16. Share Mobile Text Snapshots: Instapaper Textshot (free) |
  17. Annotate Images on the Go: This by Tinrocket ($2) | 
  18. Create Quizzes: | Free Quiz Creator | Typeform (freemium) Riddle
  19. Make Timelines and StoryMaps: Beedocs 3d |TimelineJS (free) | | Storymap JS (free) | Juxtapose
  20. Create Charts: Flourish | DataWrapper | Easel.ly | Infogr.am | Piktochart | Chartistic mobile (free) |
  21. More ways to make data viz | Tableau | Venngage | Visme | Google Charts | RawGraphs
  22. Let others make appointments with you easily: Cal.com | ZCal (free) | Calendly | WhenIsGood 
  23. Build slick Web pages (freemium): Tilda.cc | OnUniverse | Adobe Spark Suite
  24. Amp Up Your Copy and Paste: Raycast | Paste App | Alfred App
  25. Find free raw material: Unsplash | YouTube Audio | CC Search | Internet Archive | NounProject| Mixkit.co/
  26. Next-Generation Email: Superhuman | Shortwave  MixMax |
  27. Backup Your Images | Google Photos  (free) | Other image backup options
  28. Get Stuff Done | Trello | Trello Inspiration (free) | Airtable | Notion.so | Milanote | Coda
  29. Find what’s next: Producthunt | Betalist | Journalism Tools | Future Today Institute Trend Report (free)  
  30. Bonus Tools:  | Steller.co | Buffer App | LogoMaker | Headliner

bit.ly/makevisuals = do-it-yourself workshop on creating visuals | 15 Journalists’ top 3 productivity tips

Contact: jeremy@jeremycaplan.com to invite me to talk with a group.

Follow @jeremycaplan on Twitter for new tools, resources and updates.

Bonus Resources:

  1. My previous list of basic tools for digital journalists: bit.ly/toolkit18 
  2. My previous list of smartphone apps & resources: bit.ly/smarterphone19 
  3. My list of entrepreneurial journalism links and resources: bit.ly/ejlinks and bit.ly/ejresources

Bonus Tools:

  1. Automate Stuff: IFTTT (free)  | Cool IFTTT Recipes | Zapier(freemium) |Shortcuts(free) | Buffer |
  2. Make Social Audio Clips: SoundCite (free) (NYT Example) | Soundcloud | Spreaker | Headliner
  3. Add Hotspots to Images: Genial.ly/en | ThingLink | 360 Room Tour Example | ThingLink Featured |
  4. Edit video on the Web: Kapwing.com |
  5. Create simple gifs out of images or video: Giphy.com | Synthetic Audio: voice.headliner.app |
  6. Make a site with a Google Sheet (list of places, currencies, etc): Sheet2Site.com |
  7. More simple site-builders for portfolios: My Product Hunt List of Landing Pages ReadyMag | Shorthand.com |
  8. Create useful interactives out of Google Spreadsheets: Awesome Table 
  9. Gather News Recommended from Inside & Outside of Your Contact Circle: | Refind.com 
  10. My fave podcasts | bit.ly/podcastfaves 

10 Tools for Mobile Visuals and Audio

  1. Unsplash.com: Beautiful free images. Web site and iOS app.
  2. YouTube Audio Library Browse and download free music
  3. Creative Commons Search Search and download free music
  4. The Internet Archive Free Creative Commons material
  5. Free Music Archive Download free music
  6. Collection of Free Audio Resources Free audio resources
  7. The Noun Project Free icons
  8. JournalistToolbox.com Useful collection of resources
  9. JournalismTools on Pinterest | Video Category Tools for video
  10. JC Mobile Journalism Zeef Board Mobile journalism tools

Bonus Social Vid Resources

  1. Micro: Gifs: Giphy.com | Kapwing for gifs/memes etc.
  2. Texty: Instagramy w/ large, bold on-video captions | BBC | NowThis | AJ+ | Insider |
    AJ+     Slides on Social Video | Insider Slides | SocialVideo Cheat Sheet #1 | #2 
  3. “Fragments of a Life” NYTimes Fbook Live Story 
    Social Stories:     Rainbow Bagels | | NBC Left Field: Japan Nuclear Prep Bball Vid 
  4. 1-Min “Hooks” Insider Compilation | Holoplayer video
  5. Social Vs. TV story: AJ+: Lawn Painter vs TV news of same story

Learning Resource: http://bit.ly/AEJmojo via Kim Fox | Gear & Kit Used by Ivan Lajara 
Journalism.co.uk: How to Make the Most of the “Stories” Format

Tool Collections:

  1. Great Tool Kits: Playbuzz | Knight Lab | Matt MacVey MR 1-page resource
  2. Other tool lists: JournalismTools | JournalistsToolbox (incl Podcast tools) | 38 DataViz Tools |Try This - Poynter|
  3. Shared Tools: CardKit | VoxCards | NPR’s DailyGraphics | about | Qz Chartbuilder | ProPublica Nerds

Learning about Data

  1. Guardian Infographics Guide | Free Data Journ Handbook | Data & Design 300-pg PDF
  2. Syllabus and Lesson Outlines for Learning Data Reporting with Derek Willis
  3. Data Culture: Activity Guide
  4. Read Chapter 5 of verificationhandbook.com and read the case studies
  5. Read A Pocket Guide to Verification

Data Sources:

  1. Data.worldbank.org | data.un.org | freebase.com | https://apir.wisc.edu/ | quora.com
  2. Getthedata.org | kdnuggets.com | lib.stat.cmu.edu/DASL/ | google.com/publicdata/directory
  3. Roundup of recent data reports and research | Scraping Data | Search Google for filetype:.xls

Data Visualization Best Practices:

  1. Matching Chart to Purpose by Dr. Andrew Abela | 100+ Diagram Types by Duarte
  2. Flowingdata: Chart Rules to Follow | Data Viz 101, via Hubspot
  3. Selecting the Right Chart, via FusionCharts | Picking the Right Chart Type by Jānis Gulbis
  4. 8 Million Ways to Present a Story by Sara Quinn
  5. How NOT to Dataviz: viz.wtf/ | Ugly Visualizations | Junk Charts | Worst 27 Charts | Misleading Charts

Participant Contributions:
Public, editable spreadsheet of participant tool contributions. If you use it, please add a tool to the list! 

From Mike Reilley, JournalistsToolbox.org

  1. Venngage for Infogr.am-type graphics. Great templates, many controls over text and colors.
  2. For social graphics (text over images): Over, Ripl (animated text)
  3. Timelapse: Hyperlapse by Instagram. Great stabilization software in it.
  4. And check out JournalistsToolbox.org!

From Daniel Schuman:

  1. ChangeDetection.com — sends you an alert when a site changes (& tells you the change)
  2. Feed43.com— you can turn a website into an RSS feed (semi-automated scraper)
  3. EveryCRSReport.com — list of all current Congressional Research Service Reports
    https://knightlab.northwestern.edu/projects/