My Current Tool Stack
Mid August, 2025
This list is not meant to be a “best of” recommendation; there are lots of great tools out there and I can’t use them all. I frequently keep a subscription for just a month for evaluations and move on. Other tools, I’ve been using for over a year because they’ve become essential. My current focus is on image, video, audio, and coding tools for designers. I won’t go into any comparisons of ChatGPT vs. Claude or Gemini, or discuss any serious developer tools. While this list is subject to change, these are the tools I’m using right now, and why I like them. Finally, some of these are standalone tools and some are platforms with many tools. Whenever possible, I have listed the cheapest plan, or pointed out why you should upgrade to a pro plan.
The Image Generators
RunwayML is frequently thought of as a video generation platform, but it actually has more than a dozen other tools within the website. Their image generator is called Frames, it’s designed for cinematic output, and I use it every day. Runway’s cheapest plan is $15/month, but you’ll blow through those credits quickly. Full disclosure, I am a member of Runway’s Creative Partner Program.
I took a three month break from Midjourney because I was focused on other things, but now that I’m back, it’s better than ever. It recently added the ability to generate videos that are so good, I’m addicted. Starts at $10/month.
I took a break from Ideogram as well, but now that I’m using it to generate consistent characters and typographic elements, I find it to be essential. It also has a great community for inspiration. Starts at $8/month
Flux Kontext is a model made by Black Forest Labs and is available on many platforms and is basically a required skill now because you can change the context of your image with a text prompt. You can create an account and preload with your chosen dollar amount over at their playground
The Video Generators
I wanted to be skeptical about Google VEO3, but it’s fast, easy to use, and really impressive. I found a cheap plan where I have a fixed number of credits for $20, but I’m blowing through them quickly. It does have a high failure rate which makes me wince when I think about how much it’s costing me.
Seedance is a video model made by TikTok’s parent company and it is my goto #1 favorite. It’s really fast, it has a really high success rate, it can generate up to 10 seconds, and it allows for a multi shot sequence which makes for delightful surprises.
Available on most of the major platforms, price varies.
Midjourney is also in heavy rotation because it’s so surprising. It’s not great for controlling specific outcomes, but if you want to experiment and brainstorm it’s amazing. I use Runway as a last resort because it has a really long generation time. If all the other tools fail, it will probably come through for me, but it will be a 5-6 minute wait. For both of these tools, a cheap plan will be exhausted quickly. Upgrade to a Pro plan $50+
The Audio Generators
Eleven Labs just added a music generator to it’s excellent line up of sound effect and speech generating tools. While the interface is confusing, the quality is excellent. I’ve been generating music with it every day. $5/month
Google Music FX. Google has a ton of free AI tools here, but the audio generator has a 30 second limit. If I just need something as proof of concept or background to a video, this is great. Free
Google AI Studio is an often overlooked part of Google Gemini because I don’t think it gets any promotion. It’s free and I use when I need to quickly get in and get out for a simple voice over. Not as many options, but easier to use. Free
The Vibe Coding Tools
To be honest, I’m using almost a dozen Vibe Coding tools right now. This is a bit of a popularity contest, because it reflects what I’m reading and seeing on Youtube. Lovable, Bolt, and Replit consistently score high marks for output and ease of use. They have generous free plans, but if you’re ready to take the plunge, expect to pay $25/month.
Platforms
There are a lot of different websites that now offer access to a ton of different AI image and video generation tools. Some of them are crowded, confusing, and hard to use, but Krea is my all-time favorite, with great features and community generated styles to enhance your ideas. $10/month
Wavespeed doesn’t get a lot of press and the interface is confusing, but everything is ala carte and the prices are in real dollars and cents (instead of confusing credits). You preload your account with a designated dollar amount and they have access to all the major image and video models. The prices are shockingly low and you can generate a lot of ideas quickly. Full disclosure, I am a member of Wavespeed’s Creator Program.
And finally, the biggest advantage in my workflow has got to be Weavy. It’s a little confusing at first because it’s a node based interface. This means you have an infinite canvas and you drag different cards onto it. One for a prompt, one for image generation, another for video generation, and so on. You then connect these cards with ‘noodles’ like in Figma. Once I got the hang of it, I was able to 10x my productivity. Full disclosure, I am a member of Weavy’s Artist Collective, but I would absolutely recommend this tool to everyone. $24/month
What does that look like when it comes together? Images from Midjourney, video from Midjourny, Seedance and Veo. Music from Eleven Labs
That’s a wrap! If you like this sort of content, feel free to read my longer articles on Medium, connect with me on LinkedIn, or buy me a coffee ☕️🤎