Your website has three seconds to convince visitors to stay. This reality makes every section of your small business website critical to converting casual browsers into paying customers.
Building a website involves more decisions than most new business owners anticipate. The good news is that successful small business websites follow a proven structure. Whether you are launching a free LLC or expanding an established company, these eight sections form the foundation of an effective online presence.
Home Page Essentials
The home page serves as your digital storefront. Visitors should understand what your business offers within seconds of arrival. A clear headline communicates your primary value proposition immediately. Supporting text explains how you solve customer problems.
Your home page needs a prominent call to action that guides visitors toward the next step. This might be scheduling a consultation, requesting a quote, or browsing your products. Include high-quality images that represent your brand professionally. Avoid generic stock photos that could appear on any competitor’s website.
About Your Business
The About section builds trust through transparency. Share your company’s origin story and explain what motivated you to start the business. Customers connect with authentic narratives about real challenges and solutions.
Include information about your team members and their qualifications. Professional headshots and brief biographies humanize your business. Highlight any awards, certifications, or industry recognition your company has received. This section should answer why customers should choose your business over alternatives.
This section requires detailed descriptions of what you sell. Each product or service needs its own dedicated space with specific information. Vague descriptions leave potential customers confused and unlikely to purchase.
Consider these elements for your offerings:
Detailed specifications and dimensions where applicable
These components remove uncertainty from the buying process. Customers appreciate transparency about what they will receive and how much they will pay. Update this section regularly as your inventory or service menu changes.
Contact Information
Make it effortless for customers to reach you. Display your phone number, email address, and physical location prominently. Many businesses lose sales because contact information is buried or difficult to find.
A contact form provides an alternative for customers who prefer written communication. Keep form fields minimal to reduce friction. Your contact page should include these key elements:
Multiple contact methods including phone, email, and physical address
Operating hours clearly stated with time zone specified
Interactive map showing your business location
Expected response time for inquiries.
These details set proper expectations and demonstrate professionalism. Consider adding a live chat feature for immediate assistance during business hours.
Customer Testimonials
Social proof influences purchasing decisions more than most marketing messages. Display authentic reviews from satisfied customers throughout your website. Include full names and photos when possible to increase credibility.
Video testimonials carry even more weight than written reviews. Ask happy customers if they would record a brief statement about their experience. Feature these prominently on your home page and relevant service pages. Regularly update testimonials to show ongoing customer satisfaction.
FAQ Section
Anticipate common questions and provide clear answers. This section saves time for both you and your customers. Address concerns about pricing, shipping, returns, and service processes.
Organize questions into logical categories for easy navigation. Use straightforward language without industry jargon. Update this section based on actual questions you receive from customers. A comprehensive FAQ reduces barriers to purchase and decreases support inquiries.
Blog or Resources
Regular content demonstrates expertise and improves search engine visibility. Share valuable information related to your industry. Educational articles position your business as a trusted authority.
Topics should address customer pain points and common challenges. Effective blog content includes these formats:
How-to guides that solve specific problems
Industry news analysis and trend commentary
Case studies showcasing successful customer projects
Behind-the-scenes looks at your business operations.
Practical advice generates more engagement than promotional content. Aim for consistency in publishing rather than occasional lengthy posts.
Privacy Policy and Terms
Legal pages protect your business and inform customers about data practices. A privacy policy explains how you collect, use, and protect customer information. Terms of service outline the rules for using your website.
These pages seem mundane but are legally necessary. Many payment processors and advertising platforms require them before approving business accounts. Consult with a legal professional to ensure compliance with relevant regulations in your jurisdiction.
Bringing It All Together
Your small business website needs all eight sections working in harmony. Each component serves a specific purpose in the customer journey. Start with these fundamentals and refine based on user behaviour and feedback. Analytics tools reveal which sections perform well and which need improvement. A website is never truly finished but evolves alongside your business.
We’ve all been there. Your screen’s full of tabs, notifications are going off nonstop, and you’re running around all day. But by the end of it, you’re left wondering what you really got done.
We turn to tech to help keep things under control, right? AI helps us write emails, fix grammar, and summarize long articles. But what if your AI could be more than just an assistant, and actually help you think better?
I use ChatGPT every day, and it’s changed the way I interact with it. It’s become a tool that helps me think more clearly, sparks my creativity, and even improves my relationships.
I’m going to share eight ChatGPT prompts I use all the time now. These have completely changed the way I work and live, and made AI way more helpful than I ever expected.
1. Start Your Day with the Motivation Coach
The Prompt:“Tailor my daily schedule to my current mood, energy, and available time.”
We all know how exhausting it can be to just figure out what to do next. That “what should I do now?” decision-making can wear us out before we even get started. This prompt is like having a personal coach who creates a plan that works with your energy, not against it.
Let’s say it’s Monday morning, you’re feeling overwhelmed, and your energy’s low. You’ve got a three-hour block before your first meeting, and you need to tackle a big report, but you’re stuck.
Instead of staring at a blank page, you give ChatGPT the prompt. It might respond with a structured plan like this:
09:00 – 09:10:Ease In – “Grab a coffee or tea, no screens. Let’s honor your low energy. It’s okay to start slow.”
09:10 – 09:30: One Small Task – “Open the report file. Don’t write yet—just read the brief and organize your folders. Small, low-energy stuff to get you moving.”
09:30 – 10:15: Focused Work – “Set a 45-minute timer. Your only goal is to write the executive summary. Don’t worry about anything else.”
10:15 – 10:30: Recharge – “Step away from your desk. Walk, stretch, or listen to a song. You need this break.”
This plan provides the structure your brain craves when it’s feeling scattered. It takes the pressure of planning off your shoulders, so you can focus your energy on actually doing the work. If you’re feeling burnt out, this prompt is a great way to ease back into things.
2. Get a Reality Check with an AI Critic
Credits: FOCA Stock // StockSnap
The Prompt:“Assess my concepts through the lens of a [tech reviewer, literary critic, master cook].”
Honest feedback can be hard to come by. Friends might hold back to spare your feelings, and colleagues could be biased. But an AI? It’s got no agenda and no emotions: it can give you brutally honest, constructive criticism. That’s why I use this prompt every day to test my ideas. It’s a key part of how I stay productive and improve my work.
Let’s say you’ve got an idea for an app: “PlantPal,” which identifies houseplants from a photo and gives you a watering schedule. You ask ChatGPT to evaluate it like a tough venture capitalist.
Here’s the kind of feedback you might get:
Market Saturation: “The plant identification space is already crowded. What’s your unique angle? A slightly better UI isn’t enough.”
Monetization: “Your ‘diagnose my sick plant’ feature is interesting, but how sustainable is the AI behind it? Can competitors copy it quickly?”
Blind Spots:“You haven’t considered community features, which are crucial for engagement in hobbyist apps. Also, who’s training your AI to diagnose plants?”
This kind of no-holds-barred feedback is priceless. It lets you test your ideas in a safe space, without worrying about offending anyone or facing judgment. You can refine your concept privately before it’s ready for the real world.
3. Manifest Success and Beat Imposter Syndrome
Source: iStock
The Prompt:“Rewrite this [email, project plan] like I’ve already succeeded.”
The words we use can totally shift how we see ourselves. If you’re dealing with imposter syndrome, your writing might come off as unsure, lots of “maybe,” “I think,” or “just.” This prompt helps you reframe things from a place of confidence, making you sound like you’ve already succeeded.
And it’s not just about sounding confident; it can actually help you feel more confident too!
Consider this hesitant email draft:
Before: “Hi team, I was hoping we could maybe look into a new marketing strategy for Q4. I think it might be a good idea to explore TikTok. Let me know if you have any thoughts.”
Now, watch what happens when you apply the prompt:
After:“Team, for Q4, we’re pivoting our marketing strategy to target the TikTok demographic. I’ve outlined the first three campaign ideas and will assign roles by EOD Friday. My projections show a 15% increase in lead generation. Let’s make it happen.”
The second version is direct, confident, and clear. It bridges the gap between your inner doubts and the outer competence you need to lead.
By communicating like you’ve already succeeded, you naturally inspire more trust and buy-in from others. Over time, that feedback will help build real, earned confidence.
4. Turn Big Ideas into Actionable Steps
Source: FreepikThe Prompt:“Transform this ambiguous concept into an actionable, prioritized list based on impact versus effort.”
Big goals can feel super overwhelming. Take something like “I want to start a podcast”. it’s exciting but also totally paralyzing. You’re probably wondering, “Where do I even begin?”
This prompt breaks that big idea down into bite-sized tasks and helps you prioritize them by what will make the most impact with the least effort. It’s my go-to move whenever I’m launching something new.
You tell ChatGPT your vague idea, and it gives you a list of concrete steps: like choosing a niche, buying equipment, learning to edit, reaching out to guests, and so on. Then it organizes those tasks into a simple Impact vs. Effort matrix.
Low Effort
High Effort
High Impact
1. Define your niche and target audience. 2. Record your first 3 episodes (using your phone). 3. Choose a name and create simple cover art.
1. Build a promotion and guest outreach strategy. 2. Consistently publish weekly episodes. 3. Secure sponsorships.
Low Impact
1. Spend weeks designing the perfect logo. 2. Agonize over the brand’s color palette.
1. Build a custom website before having any listeners. 2. Purchase expensive, professional-grade audio equipment.
The matrix makes it so clear where to start. You tackle the “High Impact, Low Effort” tasks first. Those quick wins give you the momentum to push through the harder, more time-consuming stuff. Suddenly, that giant mountain of tasks becomes a series of small, manageable hills.
5. Uncover Hidden Patterns with the Habit Detective
Credits: Thought Catalog // Unsplash
The Prompt:“Analyze my calendar and spending from the last week and identify any patterns in what I’m inadvertently prioritizing.”
We often don’t realize what we’re actually prioritizing in life. We might say one thing—like, “I want to write a book”. But when we look at how we actually spend our time, it tells a completely different story.
By giving ChatGPT objective data about your life, like your calendar or spending habits, it acts as a neutral mirror, showing you exactly what’s going on behind the scenes. It’s one of the most eye-opening prompts I’ve used for boosting self-awareness.
For example, you could tell ChatGPT:
“My goal is to write a book. This week, I worked 9-5, went to the gym, and watched Netflix for 3 hours every night. I had brunch with friends on Saturday and did chores on Sunday.”
And the analysis you get might look something like this:
“Looking at your schedule, it’s clear that you’re unintentionally optimizing for stress recovery and low-effort entertainment. You’ve effectively prioritized physical health and social connection. However, your goal of ‘writing a book’ receives 0% of your dedicated time. Your evenings are optimized for passive consumption—Netflix—rather than active creation.”
This kind of data-driven feedback can be a real wake-up call. It forces you to look at your habits without any of the emotional story you tell yourself.
Once you see the truth in black and white, you can make the necessary adjustments to align your actions with your real goals.
6. Sharpen Your Pitch with a ‘Shark Tank’ Drill
Credits: Slidebean // Unsplash
The Prompt:“Imagine pitching this concept as if you were on Shark Tank.”
Whether you’re pitching a new business or just trying to convince your family to try a new dinner idea, you need to be clear, concise, and persuasive. Using the “Shark Tank” approach forces the AI to craft a pitch that’s all about benefits and impact.
As someone who uses ChatGPT every day, this exercise has really helped me get better at communicating ideas quickly and effectively.
Let’s say you’ve got an idea for a subscription box for artisanal coffee beans. You give the prompt to ChatGPT and this is what you get:
“Sharks, 90% of coffee drinkers have never tasted the top 1% of coffee. Why? Access. We’re ‘Global Grind,’ a curated subscription service delivering exclusive, single-origin beans right to your door. We’re not just selling coffee—we’re offering a world tour for your taste buds. For a $100,000 investment, we’re offering 10% of the company and plan to dominate the $80 billion premium coffee market. So, who’s ready to wake up and smell the profit?”
This exercise forces you to stop talking about the details of your product and start focusing on the benefits. Instead of saying “Here’s what I made,” you learn to say, “Here’s what’s in it for you.” It shifts the perspective from creator to audience, and it’s a game-changer for how you present ideas.
7. Level Up with Advice from Your Future Self
Credits: Lala Azizli // Unsplash
The Prompt:“What minor adjustment could I implement today that my future self would appreciate?”
We’re hardwired for short-term rewards, which makes it tough to stick with habits that pay off later. This prompt cleverly sidesteps that by focusing on small, easy changes that add up over time. It’s a simple but powerful way to boost long-term productivity without feeling overwhelmed.
Instead of suggesting something huge like “run a marathon,” ChatGPT will suggest small, actionable tweaks with big impact:
Physical Health: “Place a glass of water by your bed tonight. Drink it first thing tomorrow before checking your phone. This adds up to an extra 18 gallons of hydration each year.”
Mental Health:“Pick one person to say ‘no’ to this week in order to protect your time and energy. This helps you build the habit of setting healthy boundaries.”
Financial Health: “Find one recurring subscription you don’t use anymore and cancel it. It’s a one-time action that’ll save you money every month.”
This prompt reframes positive changes as gifts to your future self, making the long-term benefits feel more immediate and rewarding. It shifts the focus from instant gratification to the bigger picture, helping you make better choices in the now that your future self will be grateful for.
8. Deepen Relationships with Thoughtful Actions
Credits: Surface // Unsplash
The Prompt:“What’s a simple, thoughtful gesture I could make this week to show a friend I appreciate and see them?”
In our busy lives, good intentions often fall through the cracks. This prompt uses AI not to replace human connection, but to facilitate it. It helps bridge the gap between wanting to be a good friend and actually doing something about it. It’s a surprising reason why I use ChatGPT every day.
You can give it some context: “My friend Mark just started a new, stressful job. He loves history podcasts and is trying to eat healthier.”
ChatGPT will offer you a few personalized suggestions, sorted by effort:
Low Effort:“Send him a link to a specific history podcast episode with a message: ‘Heard this and thought of you. Hope the new job is going well!’”
Medium Effort:“Next time you meal prep, make an extra portion of a healthy lunch. Drop it off with a note: ‘One less thing to worry about this week. You got this.’”
This prompt takes the guesswork out of thoughtful gestures. It helps you turn your general feelings of care into specific, easy-to-implement actions, making it more likely that your good intentions will actually become real moments of connection.
Your New Thinking Partner
These eight advanced ChatGPT prompts go far beyond basic tasks. They show that the true power of AI lies in its ability to augment our own humanity.
From my experience, using ChatGPT every day with this kind of intention turns it into something more than just a tool. It helps me break through mental blocks, show up better for the people I care about, and take more intentional action in my life.
How do you use AI to boost your productivity? I’d love to hear your favourite ChatGPT prompts in the comments below, and let me know which of these you’re excited to try first!
Research published in Information Systems Research finds that social media marketing (SMM) does little to help high-quality firms stand apart from competitors. Instead, it often pushes companies of all quality levels toward similar spending and pricing strategies, blurring the very signals firms hope will differentiate them in digital marketplaces.
The INFORMS study, “Signalling Quality to Consumers: The Role of Social Media Marketing,” was authored by Qinquan Cui and Kenan Arifoğlu of University College London and Dongyuan Zhan of the University of Science and Technology of China.
Social media platforms have transformed the way consumers learn about products. Unlike traditional advertising, where firms broadcast one-way messages to increase awareness, SMM allows consumers themselves to generate and share information such as reviews, ratings, comments, and peer recommendations, all of which influence perceived product quality.
As a result, firms increasingly rely on SMM both to expand their customer base and to influence the external information consumers receive.
“Firms often believe that spending more on social media marketing helps signal superior product quality,” said Cui. “However, when we modelled this environment using a game-theoretic approach, we found that high-quality firms cannot reliably use SMM spending to separate themselves from mid- or low-quality competitors.”
Game-theoretic approach is a way of analysing situations where multiple decision-makers (players) interact, and the outcome for each depends not only on their own choices but also on the choices of others. Game theory provides a formal mathematical framework to predict behaviour, identify optimal strategies, and understand incentives in competitive or cooperative environments.
To analyse the strategic interactions in their study, the researchers studied two scenarios: a benchmark case, where SMM only increases product awareness; and an information-revelation case, where SMM also improves the precision of online reviews and other external factors.
In the benchmark case, the researchers found that firms cannot credibly signal their product quality simply through different SMM spending levels. What they found was that two things can happen: first, there can be something called “partial pooling,” where low- and mid-quality firms choose the same level of SMM spending, while at the same time, high-quality firms separate by spending less; second, there can be “full pooling,” where all firms spend the same amount.
“We discovered that higher-quality firms actually limit their SMM spending to maintain a smaller but more profitable customer base,” said Arifoğlu. “Spending more would invite lower-quality firms to mimic them, making separation impossible.”
That said, when SMM does play a specific information-revelation role, meaning it makes online signals like reviews more accurate, the challenge intensifies. The study found that only full pooling or a limited form of partial pooling can occur, and that high-quality firms find it even harder to distinguish themselves from lower-quality firms.
In a sense, when all firms spend at the same level on SMM, a commoditization of messaging and branding can happen.
“In situations where SMM enhances the precision of online reviews, mid- and low-quality firms actually lose some of their incentives to pool with high-quality firms,” Zhan said.
“But high-quality firms also cannot set themselves apart. In the end, the information glut created by SMM spending by mid- to low-quality firms makes it more of a challenge for high-quality firms to differentiate.”
The authors conclude that SMM may not be the most effective quality-signalling tool for firms in competitive environments. Rather, high-quality firms may benefit from moderating their SMM spending rather than increasing it, and being more focused and innovative in their marketing to their highest-value market segments.
Have you noticed it too? That friend who disappeared from Instagram. The family member who stopped posting on Facebook. The colleague who’s nowhere to be found on Twitter.
If you’re wondering whether you’re having this mass exodus, you’re not. The numbers are wild: over 1 million people search “how to delete my Instagram account” every single month. Yet Instagram keeps growing.
Confusing, right?
Here’s what’s happening: We’re witnessing the biggest shift in how people use the internet since smartphones took over. It’s not just about “digital detox” anymore. People are getting smart about how these apps mess with their heads—and they’re finding much better alternatives.
Let me show you exactly what’s going down, who’s leaving, where they’re going, and why this matters way more than you think.
The Delete Button is Getting a Workout
Let’s start with some numbers that’ll blow your mind.
Instagram leads the “get me out of here” searches with 1.02 million monthly queries about deleting accounts. That’s roughly 12,678 searches per 100,000 people worldwide. To put that in perspective, that’s like a small city’s worth of people trying to escape every month.
But here’s where it gets interesting:
Snapchat: 128,500 monthly deletion searches
Facebook: 123,000 monthly searches
Twitter/X: 49,000 monthly searches
The weird part? Most of these platforms are still growing their user numbers. So what gives?
It’s called “digital cognitive dissonance.” People want to leave, but they feel stuck. Sound familiar?
Think about it this way: How many times have you opened Instagram “just for a second” and found yourself scrolling for 30 minutes? Or felt that weird anxiety when you couldn’t check your phone? That’s not an accident—it’s by design.
Who’s Hitting Delete?
The patterns are fascinating. Gen Z is leading the charge, with 44% saying they’ve cut back on social media in 2024. But they’re not going offline—they’re just being way smarter about where they spend their time.
Millennials are doing something different. Instead of mindless scrolling, 53% are moving to creator-focused platforms like Substack. They want to choose what they consume, not have an algorithm decide for them.
Even more surprising? Baby Boomers are the most positive about social media, with 83.9% saying it improves their lives. Turns out, the people who grew up with these platforms are the ones most sceptical of them.
It’s Not Just About Mental Health (Though That’s Part of It)
Here’s what most articles get wrong: This isn’t just about people feeling bad after using social media.
It’s about people getting wise to the manipulation.
Remember when former Facebook VP Chamath Palihapitiya said social media was “ripping apart the social fabric of how society works”? He wasn’t being dramatic. He was describing exactly what he helped build—systems designed to capture and hold your attention at all costs.
The Real Psychology Behind the Exodus
Cal Newport (the guy who’s never had social media and somehow has a successful career) talks about something called “attention residue.”
Here’s how it works: Even when you’re not actively using social media, those apps create “open loops” in your brain. You’re thinking about that notification, wondering who liked your post, or mentally composing your next update.
This constant background noise can cost you up to 40% of your mental capacity. No wonder people feel exhausted!
But there’s something even more interesting happening. People are experiencing what researchers call “identity performance fatigue.”
You know that feeling when you post something and immediately start worrying about how many likes it’ll get? Or when you’re at a restaurant and you’re more focused on getting the perfect shot than enjoying your meal?
That’s your brain telling you something’s off.
The Authenticity Problem
Here’s the catch-22 that’s driving people crazy: Social media platforms tell you to “be authentic,” but their algorithms reward fake, performative content.
The result? Constant psychological tension.
You want to share real moments, but the platform pushes you to create content that’s designed to go viral. You want genuine connection, but you’re stuck in what Dr. Sherry Turkle calls the difference between “connection” and “conversation.”
Social media gives you lots of shallow connections but makes real conversation harder. Ever notice how it’s easier to text someone than call them now? That’s what she’s talking about.
Where Everyone’s Going (And It Might Surprise You)
So if people are leaving the big platforms, where are they going? The alternatives tell a really interesting story about what people want from their online lives.
Discord: The Anti-Social Social Network
Discord hit 200 million monthly users and grew revenue by 1,850% since 2019. But here’s the kicker: 80% of users aren’t even gamers anymore.
Why is Discord winning? Because it’s the opposite of what makes traditional social media toxic:
No algorithm decides what you see
Private servers where you know the people
Voice chat that feels like hanging out
Communities built around shared interests, not follower counts
It’s social media that feels… social.
BeReal: The Instagram Killer?
Remember when Instagram was about sharing real moments? BeReal is trying to bring that back with 25 million daily users and 300% growth in 2022.
The concept is genius: You get a random notification, and you have 2 minutes to post a photo using both your front and back camera. No filters, no planning, no perfect lighting.
80% of users are Gen Z, and they’re loving the authenticity. It’s like social media before everyone became a brand.
The Newsletter Renaissance
Here’s something that would’ve sounded crazy five years ago: Email newsletters are cool again.
Platforms like Substack are exploding because people want to choose what they read instead of having an algorithm shove content at them. It’s intentional consumption instead of mindless scrolling.
Think about it: When’s the last time you wanted to see everything in your Instagram feed? With newsletters, you’re choosing to follow specific creators because you genuinely want their content.
The People Who Built These Apps Are Telling You to Leave
This is where things get interesting. The harshest critics of social media aren’t random activists—they’re the people who built these platforms.
Sean Parker, Facebook’s first president, now calls it a “social-validation feedback loop” designed to exploit human psychology.
Jaron Lanier, who’s been in Silicon Valley since the 1980s, puts it even more bluntly: “Social media isn’t about facilitating social exchanges. It’s about behaviour modification.”
These aren’t outsiders trying to kill the industry. These are insiders who made millions from these platforms and are now telling you they’re harmful.
Even more telling? Many of them don’t use social media at all. Cal Newport is a computer science professor with zero social media presence who has written bestselling books and has a successful career.
If the people who understand technology best aren’t using these platforms, what does that tell you?
Some Big Names Are Walking Away (And Thriving)
Tom Holland, with 67 million Instagram followers, publicly announced he was taking a break for his mental health. He called the platforms “overstimulating” and “overwhelming.”
The result? Massive positive media coverage and support from fans. Leaving social media is becoming a power move, not social suicide.
Even companies are figuring this out. Lush Cosmetics left all major platforms in 2021, saying they were tired of environments that “keep you hyper-tense, engaged and anxious.”
Their sales didn’t tank. They got praised for taking a stand.
Bottega Veneta (the luxury fashion brand) deleted its social media and created its digital magazine instead. Creative Director Daniel Lee said he wanted “something joyful instead” of “playground bullying on social media.”
The Business Case for Leaving
Here’s something that should make every business owner pay attention: Social media marketing budgets have dropped from 17% to 11% of total marketing spend—the lowest in seven years.
Companies are realizing that social media isn’t the marketing goldmine it used to be. Engagement rates are dropping, algorithms are getting harder to crack, and people are getting better at ignoring ads.
Meanwhile, retail media (think Amazon ads) is expected to overtake TV advertising by 2028.
The Economic Earthquake You’re Not Hearing About
The money numbers tell a crazy story about how fast things are changing.
Twitter/X lost 79% of its value after Elon Musk’s takeover—dropping from $44 billion to $9.2 billion. The platform is bleeding advertisers and users while facing $1.2 billion in annual debt payments.
Snapchat’s stock fell 88% in 2024, despite maintaining strong teen engagement. Investors are nervous about the long-term future of social media advertising.
Even Meta (Facebook’s parent company) had its first-ever quarterly revenue decline and lost 500,000 daily active users for the first time in its history.
The platforms know they’re in trouble. That’s why Meta is betting everything on the metaverse (spending $13.7 billion in 2022 alone) and why every platform is desperately copying TikTok’s features.
What This Means for Your Future Online Life
Here’s what I think is coming next, based on all this research:
Platform Fragmentation
The days of one or two platforms dominating everything are ending. We’re moving toward a world of specialized, smaller communities built around specific interests and values.
Think Discord servers, Substack newsletters, and BeReal friend groups instead of trying to maintain one massive social media presence.
Creator Independence
The creator economy is exploding as people realize they don’t need platforms to build audiences. Direct relationships between creators and fans (through platforms like Patreon, Substack, and OnlyFans) are becoming more valuable than viral moments.
Regulation Reality
New York City is suing major platforms for “fuelling the youth mental health crisis,” and the U.S. Surgeon General wants warning labels on social media.
Translation: The free-for-all days are ending. Platforms will have to prioritize user well-being over engagement, which fundamentally changes their business models.
The Most Surprising Truth About Social Media Deletion
Here’s the thing that surprised me most in researching this: When researchers actually measure social media usage objectively (instead of asking people to estimate), the mental health effects are tiny or non-existent.
So why are people still leaving?
Because it’s not really about measurable harm. It’s about autonomy and intentionality. People want control over their attention instead of having algorithms decide what they see and when they see it.
It’s about wanting authentic relationships instead of performance metrics.
It’s about choosing quality over quantity in digital interactions.
What You Can Do Right Now
30-Day Digital Transformation Plan
You don’t have to delete everything tomorrow, but here are some moves that can make a huge difference:
Start Small
Turn off all non-essential notifications
Remove social media apps from your home screen
Set specific times for checking platforms instead of constant scrolling
Try Alternatives
Join a Discord server about something you’re genuinely interested in
Subscribe to a few newsletters from creators you actually want to follow
Use BeReal if you want authentic social sharing without the algorithm
Audit Your Digital Diet
Ask yourself: Does this platform make me feel good? Am I learning something valuable? Am I connecting with people I care about?
If the answer is no, why are you there?
Build Real Connections
Instead of broadcasting to everyone, focus on maintaining relationships with people who actually matter to you. Text friends directly. Make actual plans. Have real conversations.
The Bottom Line: You Have More Power Than You Think
Here’s what all this research really shows: You’re not crazy for feeling weird about social media. The platforms are designed to be psychologically manipulative, and more people are recognizing that every day.
The good news? You have way more control than you think. You can choose where to spend your digital time. You can prioritize authentic connection over algorithmic engagement. You can build a digital life that actually enhances your real life.
The great social media migration isn’t about going backward—it’s about moving toward something better.
The question isn’t whether you should delete your social media accounts. The question is: What kind of digital life do you actually want?
Once you figure that out, the rest becomes a lot clearer.
If you’re not already using artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance your digital strategy, fear not. Tug’s Elliot Gray has you covered.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the media industry. It’s opened up a huge range of new possibilities for digital marketers, helping them gain competitive advantages and engage with customers in new and exciting ways.
Here, we cover seven things digital marketers can do with AI to speed up workflows, boost ROI on ad campaigns, and more.
1. Automate repetitive tasks
While the role of the digital marketer is forever changing, there are some repetitive admin tasks we haven’t been able to shake – until now. Sending emails, posting on social media, conducting research. AI can automate all of these, freeing up time for marketers to focus on higher-value work.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software like Zapier can integrate with 5,000 apps and platforms to create automated workflows, automating the process of lead-generation campaigns, for example.
2. Create personalized content
AI can also be used to create more personalized content. Businesses have utilized this for many years. In 2016, Starbucks used predictive analytics to create customized emails by leveraging loyalty card and mobile app data. By analysing data about consumer behaviour, AI can help marketers better understand what kinds of content are most likely to resonate with the audience they’re trying to reach.
3. Conduct audience research
Conducting audience research can be tedious, but AI can speed it up by collecting and analysing data about potential customers. It can also support marketers in identifying new audience segments they might not have considered before.
At Tug, we use ChatGPT to help identify new audience interests to target on Meta when planning a campaign by feeding the platform as much relevant information about the company and its products or services as possible, then asking it to provide around 50 options. Admittedly, it can spit out a lot of nonsense, but by asking for a large list of options, you have a better chance of finding hidden gems.
4. Improve customer service
Digital marketers can’t be on standby for their clients all hours of the day. By using chatbots, businesses can provide their customers with 24/7 assistance, even outside regular business hours.
Chatbots can answer FAQs or give product recommendations. Implementing a chatbot can help reduce the time employees spend answering simple questions. When something more complex comes up that the chatbot can’t answer, it can escalate the issue to an actual human.
5. Analyse data
AI can assist digital marketers with collecting and organizing data from various sources, reducing the time spent on obtaining and arranging the data, as well as making the process more streamlined overall.
If we take something like ‘sentiment analysis’ as an example, a company might use AI tools to gauge customer attitudes toward a specific brand, product, or ad campaign. This can be done by reviewing social media posts, reviews, and other online feedback in order to help understand public perception and adjust accordingly.
6. Analyse performance
Even better, AI can be adopted to analyse the performance of campaigns across multiple channels. By analysing data from multiple sources, marketers can better understand how each channel contributes to overall success and adjust their strategies accordingly.
7. Predictive analytics
AI can predict future trends and consumer behaviour more accurately than manual analysis. Predictive analytics uses machine learning algorithms to analyse large customer datasets and identify patterns that indicate future trends. For example, AI can determine which products or services are likely to soon become more prevalent, or which customers could be more likely to remain loyal customers.
8. Automate media buying processes
Through automation, AI can make the media buying process more efficient. By sifting through consumer behaviour and market trends data, AI can help businesses find the best deals for their media campaigns, preventing them from overspending on ad buys. For example, AI can identify the best times and channels to run ads in order to maximize their reach while saving on costs.
iOS 26.2 is launching soon, and it’s packed with a bunch of new features. Many of those features are additions to Apple’s built-in iPhone apps. Here’s everything new across six Apple apps in iOS 26.2.
Reminders
Reminders used to be a simple list app, but after years of progress Apple has made it into a full-featured task manager. And iOS 26.2 adds a new feature I’ve been wanting for years.
You can now mark a reminder as ‘Urgent’ when it has a set due time. Marking it ‘urgent’ means an alarm will go off on your iPhone when that reminder comes due.
Just like your morning wakeup alarm, the new Reminders alarm can be snoozed for 9 minutes. So if you can’t get to a task right then, you can silence the alarm temporarily without forgetting about the task entirely.
The new alarm feature also uses Live Activities as a further visual prompt so you don’t forget about a task.
Apple Podcasts
Apple Podcasts is just one of many popular podcast apps available on iPhone, alongside YouTube, Spotify, Overcast, and more.
But in iOS 26.2, three new features make Apple’s Podcasts app more compelling than ever:
Automatic chapters
Podcast mentions
’From this episode’
My early favourite of the group is automatic chapters. Apple is using its excellent podcast transcripts feature, feeding that transcript into its Apple Intelligence models, and creating chapters for all podcasts automatically.
Tech-focused podcasts often have creator-generated chapters. But most mainstream podcasts don’t offer chapters. Now in iOS 26.2, they will—at least in Apple Podcasts.
The other additions aim to make it easier for users listening to a show to access links to other podcast episodes that are mentioned by hosts, or recommendations of TV shows, music, books, and other links.
If you’re not familiar with Freeform, it’s Apple’s open canvas whiteboard/playground app where you can create ‘boards’ filled with a mixture of text, images, charts, files, links, and more. It’s especially great for collaboration.
Now Freeform has expanded its available toolset with tables. If you’ve used tables in other Apple apps like Notes, it’s a similar experience in Freeform.
Apple Games
Apple Games is a brand new app that was added in iOS 26. And after gathering initial user feedback, Apple has three enhancements coming in iOS 26.2:
Library Filters: Now you can filter your game library in several new ways, including by titles that offer challenges, or ones your friends are playing.
Controller Support: If you’re doing any serious gaming, there’s a decent chance you might use a Bluetooth controller, so iOS 26.2 makes the Games app easier to navigate via controller.
Real-time challenge updates: Challenge scores now stay current while you’re playing thanks to live, real-time updates.
Whether you’re new to the Games app or a regular user, these changes should hopefully make it a more refined experience overall.
Lyrics debuted years ago and quickly became one of my favourite features in the Music app. But they’ve always required a Wi-Fi or cellular connection.
Now lyrics will be available even when you’re on a flight, underground train, or roaming the wilderness with no connection.
It’s unclear exactly what triggers the Music app downloading a song’s lyrics offline. Hopefully though, all music added to your Library will support the feature.
Apple News
Apple News has some great updates in iOS 26.2 centred around making the app’s expanding feature set easier to access.
iOS 26.2 brings several design changes that surface previously buried features so they are much more prominent.
For example, there are brand new quick links at the top of the Today screen for accessing sections like Puzzles, Sports, Politics, and Food.
Additionally, the navigation tab bar has been updated in two ways.
Following is a new tab containing content that used to be hidden behind the Search tab. And Search adds new quick link recommendations.
Which new iOS 26.2 features are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments.
Below, Judd Kessler shares five key insights from his new book, Lucky by Design: The Hidden Economics You Need to Get More of What You Want.
Judd is an award-winning professor of economics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His research and writing have been featured in leading media, such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, and Harvard Business Review, among others. For his work on organ allocation, Kessler was named one of the “30 under 30” in Law and Policy by Forbes. He has been researching market design for the past 15 years.
What’s the big idea?
Life is full of hidden markets quietly deciding who gets what—and learning their rules is the real competitive edge. See the system, play it strategically, and you can manufacture your own luck.
1. You are constantly playing in hidden markets all around you.
Economists think about the world as a bunch of markets. In each market, people are trying to get something that they want. But we have a problem—scarcity. There is rarely enough of what people want to just give it to everyone. So, we need a way to decide who gets access to the scarce resource and who does not.
We often decide who gets what by letting the price rise. As the price rises, a bunch of people decide that paying such a high price isn’t worth it and they leave the market. (Fewer people wanting something as the price rises is so reliable that economists call it a law of demand.)
I call markets that use prices to decide who gets what visible markets. They’re visible because it’s easy to see them. And playing in them is also easy: you simply decide whether something is worth the price and then buy it (or not).
But scarcity is not always resolved with prices. Some things are doled out by hidden markets that do not rely on prices to decide who gets what. These hidden markets are harder to see and more complicated to play in, but they are all around you.
Sometimes prices exist but are set too low to resolve the scarcity: Taylor Swift sold tickets to her most recent tour, the Eras Tour, for an average of $204, but some tickets were as low as $49 each. At those prices, many people would have happily bought each ticket. Some restaurants are so popular that it’s nearly impossible to get a table. New iPhones used to fly off the shelves the day they were released. Fad toys (most recently the Pop Mart product Labubus) may be incredibly hard to get your hands on.
“Scarcity is not always resolved with prices.”
Other times, we decide not to use prices at all: government benefits like public housing, seats in public schools, and library books are not sold to the highest bidder. We don’t let price decide who gets life-saving donor organs or access to the last hospital bed or ventilator.
In these cases, we still resolve scarcity: some people get the tickets, reservations, products, government benefits, and life-saving medical care while others do not. Those are the hidden markets all around you. They have their own rules, and you need to learn them.
2. You need to learn the market rules.
Every hidden market has its own set of market rules. Your first step toward success in hidden markets is learning them. What are the types of market rules?
One class is based on the principle “first-come, first-served.” With first-come, first-served, whoever gets to a product first gets to claim it. But while this principle might sound simple, the market rules it generates take three very different forms.
For example, first-come, first-served market rules can take the form of a race. If you want a reservation at The French Laundry, a world-renowned restaurant with three Michelin stars in the Napa Valley of California, you need to secure a reservation for one of its 17 tables in a first-come-first-served race. All reservations for a given month are offered online simultaneously—if you want to eat there in November, you need to be ready to click quickly at 10 am on October 1st.
First-come, first-served market rules can also take the form of a waiting list or line. People who need a life-saving kidney transplant can join a multi-year waiting list for a deceased donor organ through their local transplant centre. The longer that they have been waiting, the higher their priority for an organ when it becomes available.
If you want to see a masterpiece like the ceiling frescos of the Sistine Chapel, buy high-end apparel at a clothing drop, or just make your way through airport security, you’ll be standing in a first-come, first-served line. These first-come, first-served market rules all reward arriving early or waiting the longest. But other market rules operate completely differently.
Another class of market rules uses lotteries to decide who gets what. The New York City Summer Youth Employment Program gives 100,000 jobs to youth each summer, but still has to turn away tens of thousands of kids. They use a lottery to decide who gets a job and who does not. Lotteries also provide access to spots in the London Marathon, license plates in Beijing, seats in charter schools, and tags to hunt big game.
“Every hidden market has its own set of market rules.”
Another class of market rules involves centralized clearinghouses, where you must rank your preferences: telling an algorithm your first choice, second choice, and so on. This is how we decide which kids go to which elementary schools in New York City, how doctors are assigned to residency programs, and how college admissions work in China.
Dating markets, labour markets, and private school admissions markets operate with different market rules. I call these markets “choose-me” markets because you are choosing someone, a firm, or an academic institution. But for a match to take place, you must also be chosen.
Every hidden market has its own specific set of market rules. To succeed in a given market, you need to learn them. Once you know how the game is played, you can develop a strategy to win.
3. You might want to settle for silver.
Once you have figured out the rules of the game, you can develop an optimal strategy to get what you want. Across many hidden markets, one common strategy you might want to play is what I call “settling for silver.” This strategy requires acting like something less desirable—something that is not your real first choice—is at the top of your list.
Why might you want to play this strategy? Imagine you’re in a first-come-first-served race, like for a restaurant reservation at The French Laundry. Say you really want to have dinner there on a Saturday night in November. All the reservations are going to be released on October 1st at 10 am. And when they’re released, you will race to click on a particular reservation time. Which time should you click first?
Your real first choice might be 7:30 pm on Saturday. You might decide to click that time slot first. I call playing that strategy—trying to get the thing you actually want the most—“going for gold.” The problem with going for gold is that it’s risky. What you want is often popular with many other people. So, when you’re racing for that highly desirable reservation slot, you’re likely competing with many other diners who want the same thing as you.
Settling for silver would mean pretending that an earlier dinner reservation, say 5 pm or even 4:30 pm, is your first choice. If you prefer getting a reservation at 4:30 pm to not getting to eat at the restaurant at all, settling for silver might be the right strategy for you. Since many fewer people will be racing for a 4:30 pm reservation, you are much more likely to get it.
The same logic applies in markets with much higher stakes. Many applicants to private colleges in the United States choose to apply early decision, which commits them to attending the school if they’re admitted. Since an early decision application comes with a binding commitment to attend, you can only apply early decision to one school. Colleges like it when you commit to them, so they reward early decision applicants with a higher chance of admission.
“This strategy requires acting like something less desirable—something that is not your real first choice—is at the top of your list.”
So, what school should someone apply to early? They might be tempted to apply to a reach school early decision. This could be the right move. But if the candidate’s chance of admission is exceedingly slim, then even if it’s their top choice, it might be suboptimal to apply there early. Rather than trying to go for gold, they might do better settling for silver by applying to a less selective school early. This way, they can take advantage of their improved admissions chances at their second-, third-, or fourth-choice school.
4. You might want to double dip and multi-list.
Another strategy that comes up regularly in hidden markets is what I call “double dipping.” This strategy involves simultaneously playing in a market multiple times.
Double dipping is a common strategy in markets that use lotteries. The U.S. Diversity Visa Lottery has historically offered visas to those from countries that don’t send many immigrants to the U.S. The program selects applicants by lottery and gives winners a chance to come to the country and get a green card. But the lottery lets you bring your whole family if you win, so a married couple does better if they each submit an entry: if either of them wins, the whole family gets to come to the U.S.
When you enter a theatre ticket lottery, you can usually enter for a chance to win two tickets. If you want to go to the theatre with a friend, then you should double dip. You should both enter the lottery, effectively doubling your chances of seeing a show.
Allowing double dipping can be good for the efficiency of the lottery overall. People who are more motivated are more likely to put in the extra effort needed to play this strategy. Allowing double dipping gives people who care more about winning a higher chance of success.
A related strategy is called “multi-listing.” If there are a limited number of day care slots in your city and lots of families who want them, spots may be offered on a first-come, first-served waiting list. In that case, you might want to add yourself to waiting lists at multiple day care centres to increase the chance that you will have secured a spot for your tot when you need it.
And people in need of life-saving organ transplants may decide to multi-list by adding themselves to organ waiting lists through transplant centres in different regions. Since being affiliated with a transplant centre closer to a deceased donor organ increases the chance you get offered it, being on waiting lists at multiple transplant centres increases the number of organs you get offered. In that case, multi-listing could save your life.
5. You are a market designer!
Many hidden markets are designed by others, and you just have to learn the rules to try to get what you want. But there are also hidden markets that you control, like the hidden market for your time and attention or the hidden markets for household resources.
You get to decide which emails you respond to promptly, which friends to call back and which to ignore. At home, you get to decide how to allocate everything from financial resources to the television remote to desserts for your kids. In these cases, you get to set the market rules.
As a market designer, you can prioritize the three Es in your hidden markets:
Efficiency: Not wasting resources and giving resources to people who value them most.
Equity: Distributing resources as equally as possible to market participants.
Ease: Letting market participants be honest about what they want and not putting them through an ordeal to get it.
Good market rules strive to get as close as possible to achieving all three.
Efficiency might mean prioritizing email responses where your prompt reply will be most helpful to the recipient: perhaps someone who is actively working on a project and will be more productive once they receive your feedback. It could also mean devoting your limited time to whatever your highest-return activity is today, rather than to a recurring meeting you put on your calendar months ago, which can—and probably should—be skipped.
Equity might require giving people whom you want to treat fairly the same amount of time, attention, and resources, rather than (intentionally or unintentionally) favouring the one who is most demanding.
Finally, in some markets, we can make more of a scarce resource by how we prioritize access to it. In some countries, people who register as organ donors receive higher priority for organs if they ever need one. Similarly, during the Covid-19 pandemic, we prioritized medical treatment—like the last hospital bed or ventilator—for medical professionals serving on the front lines. These priority systems help ensure that we allocate more of the scarce resources we have. The same logic applies to your time and attention. Prioritizing some of it for yourself (perhaps for self-care) can also mean there’s also more to go around.
Taking a break from social media is sounding really, really nice right about now.
Earlier this week, YouTube’s Twitter account tweeted an “it’s okay to press pause” message that was pretty much immediately misinterpreted.
Rather than taking it as an invitation to unplug and unwind, Twitter users began freaking out, reading it as in support of YouTube pause-screen ads.
YouTube’s Twitter account is one of the more innocuous things you’ll find on that increasingly distasteful platform, and beyond occasionally sharing news of feature additions or the latest content to arrive, it tweets some pretty harmless messages: “it’s a stay-in-and-watch-videos-with-friends kind of night,” “when your watch history is more accurate than your horoscope 😅,” or “thankful for creators who inspire us every day 🧡.” But earlier this week, the account really stepped in it — in a way that the people running it probably never anticipated.
This all started on Tuesday, when the YouTube account made this seemingly innocent post:
Now, a sane person might read that tweet in the context of everything else the account has shared, and interpret it as exactly the sort of nothing-message it really is: YouTube’s still going to be here later, so take a break now and then and go enjoy the rest of the world.
But then there are the YouTube ad people. No, we don’t mean Google’s advertising sales team, but that very, very vocal contingent of YouTube viewers who obsess over every change to the service’s use of advertisements (and every effort to stymie ad blockers), while utterly dismissing the suggestion that they should maybe actually just pay for Premium.
If you’ve spent any time at all on Reddit’s YouTube sub, you know exactly who we’re talking about — and of course, they are all over this tweet, too. As you can see from the replies to the original tweet, plenty of Twitter users lost their minds over YouTube’s post, and immediately started associating it with last year’s introduction of pause-screen ads.
That is an impressive stretch to make, but such is the singular focus of these YouTube “enthusiasts.” And they were so incredibly vocal in their hopefully-not-wilful misinterpretation of YouTube’s tweet that they’ve now triggered a Community Note to be featured — ironically, only further steering readers away from YouTube’s actual message.
It’s not just okay to press pause on YouTube videos. Maybe also feel free to press pause on the urge to share every thought you have online — at least, before you at least stop to understand what you’re responding to.
YouTube Premium’s annual plan costs under 40 cents a day, and remains one of the single best values in streaming around. And it continues to not have pause-screen ads.
Stephen has been working in tech journalism since 2008, covering everything from video games to medical devices. His focus is on Android and its ecosystem of connected devices, writing for sites like PhoneArena and Android Police. At Android Authority, Stephen leads the team’s US news coverage.
We write a lot of articles here at PCMag, from breaking technology news and commentary to in-depth features and service stories, but in close to 44 years of publishing, it’s our hands-on, lab-tested reviews that matter most. Our team of experts is dedicated to testing, rating, and smartly comparing a wide variety of products and services to help you find the right technology to fit your life. It’s at the heart of what we do.
Since November 2024, we’ve put nearly 1,500 products and services through our rigorous hands-on lab testing. Only about 25% earned the coveted PCMag Editors’ Choice award—our highest honour, reserved exclusively for true top performers. From that elite group, our editorial team distilled the field even further to create this definitive list: 110 standout products across 18 key categories.
Every item here, covered in the past 12 months, has earned four stars or higher, and eight have achieved a perfect five-star rating. These are the best of the best—products we recommend without hesitation, backed by decades of collective testing expertise. Read on to see what the best tech journalists in the business liked most this year.
Did your favourites make our list? Let us—and your fellow PCMag readers—know in the comments below.
Ultraportable Laptop
Apple MacBook Air 13-Inch (2025, M4)
4.0 Excellent
The M4-powered Apple MacBook Air 13-inch is our top pick for the best ultraportable for most people, delivering exceptional value. The starting configuration of this 2025 model saw a price cut, and it features a major boost to 16GB of base memory and the faster M4 chip, showing significant performance margins over the M3 in all tests. The fanless design runs silent and maintains Apple’s thinnest chassis, while the improved Neural Engine provides best-in-class AI performance for on-device tasks. With superb performance in benchmark tests and an outstanding 20-hour battery life, this ultraportable is unbeatable for mainstream buyers, students, and mobile creative professionals.
Dell’s streamlined PC rebrand did nothing to hinder this fantastic big-screen laptop, whose frequently discounted price should entice a wide range of home users. The appeal lies in its lengthy battery life for its size, a sharp and fast screen, and a sturdy aluminium frame that feels plush for the price. Everyone wants a taste of the good life without paying too much, and Dell’s midrange, big-screen 16 Plus laptop delivers on the dream.
The 2025 14-inch MacBook Pro isn’t just the newest MacBook; it’s also the best Apple laptop of the year, transforming a minor refresh into a massive performance leap thanks to the new M5 chip. The monster CPU and GPU upgrade brings vastly enhanced AI muscle and new Neural Accelerators integrated into the GPU cores, while maintaining the same starting price. It retains the superb ProMotion XDR display, now with a brightness adjustment for improved performance in ambient light, and the highly portable 3.4-pound chassis resembles the previous year’s model, down to the port selection. Positioned as the floor-level pro-grade Mac, it’s the ideal choice for power users, creative professionals, and even gamers.
Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 (Intel Core i5 13th Gen, 128GB UFS, 8GB RAM)
4.0 Excellent
The top budget model of the year is easily the Asus Chromebook Plus CX34, which offers an unmatched mix of features and power for its price. At around $499, the CX34 offers seriously competitive performance, featuring an upgraded Intel Core i5 processor that feels fast and smooth, and easily meets the high standards of the Chromebook Plus program. Its attractive, friendly design and comfortable keyboard and touchpad make it an excellent choice for students and budget-conscious shoppers.
The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus sets a new benchmark for top-shelf clamshell-style Chromebooks. It features a stunning 15.6-inch AMOLED screen that elevates the visual experience, housed in an equally dazzling, ultra-premium metal chassis that is both slim and lightweight. Its snappy performance is complemented by new productivity keys and class-leading battery life. (It lasts all day off the plug.) If you’ve never considered a Chromebook, this machine is worth looking at. It’s ideal for buyers of premium laptops, mobile professionals, and everyday shoppers who consume lots of visual content.
Razer’s latest Blade 14 gaming laptop is tops among compact gaming laptops. It’s tough to beat Razer’s materials and design, and this test model houses sizzling AMD Ryzen AI 9 and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 silicon. (It’s not too hot, however, thanks to an updated cooling system.) The Blade line has always been pricey, but that’s to be expected with this level of craftsmanship and attention to detail. Larger laptops can drive more power for less, but no one does it at 14 inches like the Razer Blade.
The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition is the world’s best laptop for business professionals. At just 2.17 pounds and featuring exceptional build quality, it’s a remarkable feat of engineering, making it the best Windows-based travel companion. This laptop glows with a gorgeous 2.8K OLED display, complemented by the fine keyboard and connectivity that the ThinkPad line is renowned for. Plus, it’s competitively priced against lesser-equipped competitors, making it the definitive choice for executives and constant travellers.
The HP ZBook Power 16 G11 A is the cream of the crop for laptop workstations, delivering core professional capabilities without the top-end price tag. It maintains the premium metal design and build quality of HP’s higher-end ZBooks on a spacious 16-inch display, perfect for creative and design work. Crucially for mobile professionals, it achieves best-in-class battery life for a workstation. This is the ideal solution for budget-conscious creators, designers, and startup workers who need solid performance and enterprise management features at a reasonable cost.
If professional content creation is your jam, you know it’s tough finding a laptop that meets your needs and makes the IT department happy. The Asus ProArt PX13 2-in-1, one of our top 2025 picks among high-end convertibles, specifically targets demanding creative professionals. It’s screaming-fast for Adobe software and other demanding applications. The flip-and-fold design is convenient for presenters and is complemented by a superb OLED touch screen and the innovative, creator-specific DialPad touchpad. The PX13 is the best premium convertible for designers and power users who need outstanding raw speed and features that directly boost productivity.
Slim, powerful, and astonishingly light, the LG Gram Pro 2-in-1 16 is our favourite big-screen 2-in-1 laptop. Why? First and foremost, the super-slim magnesium chassis makes this 16-inch convertible feel like an ultraportable. Plus, the laptop features a dazzling OLED touch screen, comes with a stylus, and achieved a stellar near-18-hour battery running time in testing. And its Intel Core H-class processor delivered superior raw CPU performance and high numbers in productivity benchmarks, making the Gram Pro the best choice for multitaskers who need maximum power and longevity in a giant, yet featherweight, convertible.
The entry-level iPad managed a rare feat in 2025: It got a spec update without a price increase. The new version features an Apple A16 chip, representing a significant upgrade from its predecessor, which uses an A14. It’s powerful enough to run all apps, stream movies and TV shows, and browse online. The base iPad might lack Apple Intelligence, but it’s still the most versatile tablet available at such an affordable price.
The Samsung Galaxy S11 Ultra provides everything you need to elevate your productivity to the next level. Huge 14.6-inch display? Check. Powerful MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ processor with at least 12GB of RAM? Yes. Included S-Pen for taking handwritten notes? You betcha. Combine this with Samsung’s One UI software, Galaxy AI capabilities, and its impressive DeX multitasking functions, and you have a workhorse tablet capable of knocking out even your most difficult tasks—provided you can handle the price.
The iPhone 17 is the best entry-level iPhone that Apple has ever made. Its combination of refined hardware, performance, and value makes it easy to recommend. It features the same 6.3-inch ProMotion display as the more expensive iPhone 17 Pro, offering silky smooth animations and an always-on display for less money. The device is a leader in photography, featuring a new front-facing camera that allows for taking wide or tall photos without rotating the device. Plus, it’s powered by Apple’s new A19 processor, which makes short work of demanding apps while offering near-Pro-level power for complex tasks, such as generating AI images and video editing.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, powered by premium hardware, delivers the most powerful and versatile Android experience available. Inside is the top Qualcomm mobile processor (customized for the platform), plenty of RAM, and ultra-capable cameras. Galaxy AI, Samsung’s suite of AI tools, features both utilitarian functions (organizing notes) and amusing capabilities (turning a doodle into a work of art). The S25 Ultra’s included S Pen also gives you greater control to sketch or write things out. Overall, the phone offers a level of versatility not found on many other devices.
The Pixel 9a distils everything great about Google phones into a small, low-cost device that delivers features well beyond its price. It takes beautiful pictures and videos thanks to its combination of cameras and image processing. And its performance puts it on par with the more expensive Pixel 9 line, allowing it to handle AI-enhanced photo editing features like Add Me (add yourself to a group photo) or Best Take (swap facial expressions for a better group photo). Google will support the Pixel 9a with OS and security patches until 2032, making it a sound investment.
SAMSUNG Galaxy A16 5G A Series Cell Phone, Unlocked Android Smartphone, Large AMOLED Display, Durable Design, Super Fast
4.0 Excellent
For just under $200, the Samsung Galaxy A16 5G brings a lot to the table. Its large, 6.7-inch display provides ample room to work and play, while the phone is powerful enough to handle day-to-day tasks, such as browsing the web, sending email, and playing media. Its cameras take pleasant-looking stills up to 50MP. It’s IP54-rated, meaning it can withstand dust and water splashes—a level of protection rare on devices at this price. To top it all off, Samsung backs the phone with six years of operating system upgrades and security updates.
The Apple Watch Series 11 is the top smartwatch for most iPhone users. It offers all of Apple’s best wearable features, with the option of a stylish aluminium or titanium build. The display appears crisp, even at an angle, and both the physical controls and the touch screen offer pristine performance. Upgrades for this generation include a scratch-resistant cover, longer battery life, and optional 5G connectivity. Apple offers an unbeatable selection of wearable apps, and the new watchOS 26 software brings improvements like an AI-powered Workout Buddy, a holistic Sleep Score, hypertension notifications, and a useful wrist flick gesture.
Combining Google’s Gemini with Samsung’s Galaxy AI, the Galaxy Watch 8 boasts the best AI capabilities of any wearable we’ve tested. Gemini is useful for day-to-day tasks; it can respond to voice commands and control your watch, and Galaxy AI offers detailed, personalized exercise and sleep coaching. While battery life isn’t one of its strengths, the Galaxy Watch 8 offers many other useful features, including the ability to measure your antioxidant levels, calculate your body fat percentage, and track your snoring when paired with a Samsung phone.
If you want a personal workstation you can wear on your face, the XReal One Pro glasses are your best choice. These prism display smart glasses project a bright, colourful 1080p picture with a 57-degree field of view from any device that can output video over USB-C. Plus, they can work as an ultra-wide 3,840-by-1,080 screen when connected to a computer. Built-in motion tracking provides a more immersive experience than similar smart glasses. They even feature lenses that can darken, allowing you to block out distractions.
The Samsung Galaxy Fit3 offers simple yet capable health tracking at an affordable price. Its color AMOLED touch screen looks sharp, its heart rate monitoring proved accurate in our tests, and it lets you take blood oxygen saturation readings on demand. While it doesn’t offer access to third-party apps or have many connectivity features, the Fit3 tracks exercise and sleep as well as devices that cost multiple times the price, and its weeklong battery life eclipses that of most smartwatches.
If you’re looking to build muscle at home, the Tonal 2 offers the best and safest AI personal training experience. Upgrades for this generation include a 50-pound increase in maximum resistance (up to 250 pounds) and a built-in movement-tracking camera for helpful form feedback. Like the original, this version takes the guesswork out of lifting, setting the weight for you and increasing it as you become stronger, so you’re always challenged. The Tonal 2 gives you access to a wide range of classes, including heart-pumping Aero (aerobic) workouts that combine cardio and strength training, plus recovery modalities for your rest days.
The SimpliSafe Home Security System makes it easy to safeguard your home without ongoing fees. SimpliSafe offers an ideal balance of performance, high-quality service, ease of use, and value, consistently ranking among the top home security brands in our Readers’ Choice surveys. The brand offers numerous preconfigured kits, while components can be purchased separately to create your own package or expand on one. You can opt for professional monitoring or use the system as a local alarm without incurring any monthly fees.
Arlo’s Essential Pan Tilt Indoor builds on the foundation laid by the Essential Indoor Camera, adding several notable upgrades, including the company’s first mechanical pan-and-tilt system, a 2K-resolution sensor, and AI-driven features such as event captions, fire detection, and facial recognition. As is typical with Arlo products, a subscription is required for video recordings and certain advanced capabilities. Even so, at its low price point, the Essential Pan Tilt Indoor delivers an outstanding blend of value, performance, and functionality.
The Aqara Camera Hub G5 Pro goes beyond the basics of smart home surveillance, offering 2K video, colour night vision, local storage for video clips, and AI-powered smart alerts. It can detect people, animals, packages, and even certain sounds, like a baby crying, and stands out from competing models by doubling as a smart home hub. With built-in Thread and Zigbee antennas, you can use it to connect compatible devices to the cloud. If you’re building an interoperable smart home, the G5 Pro can act as a cornerstone.
The Eufy FamiLock S3 Max is a combination smart lock and video doorbell that excels at both roles. As a smart lock, it’s responsive and allows for flexible entry via a palm scanner, touch screen keypad, mobile app, voice control, or a physical key. As a doorbell, it shoots crisp 2K video and offers intelligent motion alerts, internal video storage, and a battery backup system. It also features a neat interior display that acts like a digital peephole, showing you who’s on your porch.
Video Doorbell
Tapo D225 Video Doorbell
4.0 Excellent
A simple and affordable way to monitor your front porch, the TP-Link Tapo D225 Video Doorbell Camera offers the convenience of either battery or hardwired power, depending on your installation needs. It delivers sharp 2K video with a 180-degree, head-to-toe view and supports local or cloud storage for recorded footage. The Tapo D225 is compatible with several third-party smart home devices and supports Alexa, Google Assistant, and IFTTT. In testing, it consistently delivered quick and accurate notifications.
Lorex 2K Wi-Fi Smart Lightbulb Camera (Cloud-Enabled)
4.0 Excellent
The Lorex 2K Smart Wi-Fi Lightbulb Camera is a 2K outdoor surveillance camera that fits a standard E27/E26 screw-in base lighting fixture, making installation simple. The camera delivers sharp video, responsive motion detection, and colour night vision, plus it supports voice control via Alexa and Google Assistant. The dimmable LED lamp produces 400 lumens at a 6,500K white colour temperature, and the enclosure has an IP65 weatherproof rating, making this camera light perfect for porch fixtures. Thanks to mechanical pan and tilt, this device ensures your entryway doesn’t have any blind spots.
The Ecobee Smart Thermostat Essential brings expandable smarts to your HVAC system for an affordable price. It installs quickly and offers helpful energy-saving options to improve the efficiency of your heating and cooling schedule. You can buy compatible room sensors separately to tailor your settings for each location and ensure consistent temperatures throughout your house. It may not offer all the features you get with more expensive smart thermostats, but it works with all major smart home platforms for seamless integration with third-party devices, offering tremendous value.
Any screen can display photos, but few make them actually look like printed images. The 12-inch Aura Aspen’s anti-glare finish gives images the impression of being well-lit prints as opposed to LCD pixels. It’s simple to use, automatically adjusts the screen brightness based on the room’s ambient light, comes with unlimited cloud storage, and can be preloaded with photos—which is great if you’re giving it as a gift.
The best robot vacuum that you can buy right now, the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni does it all. It vacuums thoroughly with good pickup scores across a variety of surfaces. It mops vigorously with a unique roller design that refreshes itself as it works to limit cross-contamination while increasing scrubbing power compared with traditional pads. An advanced AI-enabled navigation system helps the robot manoeuvre efficiently while deftly avoiding obstacles. Even better, its base station washes and dries the mop and empties the dustbin between runs.
The TP-Link Tapo RV30 Max Plus offers the best value for your money of any robot vacuum we’ve tested. It has premium features like a self-emptying dustbin and LiDAR-powered navigation, both rarities for a budget-priced model. While its suction power doesn’t match that of more expensive vacuums, it performed admirably in our tests on both carpet and hardwood floors and did a fine job of mopping. The surprisingly versatile Tapo RV30 Max Plus will take care of your spot cleaning at an affordable price.
GE 11,000 BTU Smart Heat/Cool With Heat Pump Electronic Window Air Conditioner (AWGP12)
4.5 Outstanding
Most window air conditioners have to be removed and stored for the winter, but not this one. The GE 11,000 BTU Heat/Cool Air Conditioner doubles as a heater, making it ideal for year-round use. It supports Alexa and Google Assistant, works with third-party devices through IFTTT integration, and even offers usage reports, making it easier to harness its automation abilities to reduce energy consumption. Perhaps most importantly, it heats and cools quickly, so you don’t need to leave it running constantly. However, if you need to turn it off (or on) remotely, you can do so from your phone.
A smart ceiling fan is a convenient way to keep a room cool, and this model also functions as an adjustable, app-enabled light. It can emit not only cool and warm white hues, but also colors to help you set the mood. Its five 52-inch blades and 12-speed DC motor deliver maximum airflow of up to 6,040 cubic feet per minute. Meanwhile, built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth make it easy to connect to the Dreo mobile app or to control it with Alexa, Google voice commands, or Siri Shortcuts. There’s even a bedtime light feature that allows you to set a fade-out time for the white lamp. It’s reliable, feature-packed, and reasonably priced.
The Dyson Hot+Cool Formaldehyde HP09 is more than a highly capable air purifier that delivers detailed pollution readings. It’s also a fan and a space heater with 350 degrees of oscillation. The HP09 is full of thoughtful design touches, like the built-in LED that dims at night and a small gold remote that magnetically attaches to the top of the purifier. It also works with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and supports Siri shortcuts. It’s feature-laden and versatile, setting the bar for smart air purifiers.
Mowing the lawn can feel like a Sisyphean task, but it doesn’t have to with the Segway Navimow X390. This deluxe robot lawn mower can cover up to 2.5 acres in a day, thanks to its large battery and speedy navigation of up to 3.3 feet per second. It can also achieve incredible accuracy thanks to the inclusion of 4G cellular connectivity and a centimeter-level accurate RTK antenna for GPS. It self-docks when it’s time to recharge, it’s extremely quiet compared with traditional push mowers, and its software is as polished as its hardware, making it the best robot lawn mower for large yards.
The Dreame Z1 Pro is a cordless robot cleaner that uses multiple sensors to precisely map and navigate your pool. It delivers outstanding cleaning performance and parks at the side of your pool for easy retrieval from the water when its basket needs to be emptied. Two pump motors provide 8,000 gallons per hour of suction, making it one of the most powerful cleaners we’ve come across. Additionally, it features a light-activated underwater remote control, a rare feature among cordless models that makes spot cleaning easy.
Smart bird feeders transitioned from an emerging product category to a commodity item relatively quickly. There are dozens of cheap feeder cams on Amazon, all of which qualify as “meh” when it comes to picture quality. The Bird Buddy Smart Feeder Pro costs more, but justifies its price with a camera that snaps sharp 5MP photos and 1440p video, allowing you to capture the colourful plumage of your backyard flock with rich texture in a social-friendly vertical aspect. Its app is cool too; it identifies visitors by species and sends them to your phone as virtual postcards, saving your favourites in a digital bird book.
Apple’s latest earphones are quite simply the best we’ve reviewed this year. The company redesigned the buds to better fit in your ears and added a new silicone-and-foam eartip to create a strong seal, ensuring they stay in place comfortably while blocking sound more effectively. Apple also improved the audio, enhanced noise cancellation, extended battery life, and added advanced features like heart rate detection and in-call language translation—all while maintaining the same $249 price as the previous model.
With the Soundcore Liberty 5, Anker has brought solid active noise cancellation (ANC) to one of its most affordable true wireless earphones. These low-cost buds have crisp sound, long battery life, and surprisingly good ANC for the price. They are comfortable to wear, resistant to sweat and rain, include easy controls, and have a powerful companion app for managing the sound and features. All this, plus support for high-quality Bluetooth codecs, makes for a winning combination at a great price.
Sony didn’t reinvent the wheel with its WH-1000XM6 noise-cancelling headphones, but it made nearly everything about them better. Most importantly, Sony beats Bose at reducing unwanted noise while offering a more natural sound profile with support for high-resolution audio. Battery life is slightly longer, the controls are intuitive, and the companion app features a 10-band EQ for fine-tuning. Sony also reintroduced several fan-requested features, including a folding design for improved portability, additional padding on the headband, and a more compact travel case. Simply put, these are the best noise-cancelling headphones on the market.
The Marshall Middleton II takes a step forward by combining improved stereo audio, longer battery life, and additional features into a speaker that strikes a pleasing balance between presence and portability. It bears Marshall’s signature design language in a water-resistant package that’s small enough to toss in a bag but large enough to push great sound across your backyard. The speaker features simple and versatile joystick control, easy-to-use bass and treble knobs, and a 3.5mm aux input. Additionally, it works in conjunction with a powerful companion app to further refine your music. It’s on the pricey side, but totally worth it.
The standard Amazon Echo is no longer available, but the Echo Dot Max is a worthy replacement for the role of the Goldilocks Alexa smart speaker. It’s much more powerful than the Echo Dot and less than half the price of the Echo Studio, with big, balanced sound for its small size. It’s also packed with smarts, including Wi-Fi 6E, three home hub standards (Matter, Thread, and Zigbee), and immediate access to the new AI-enhanced Alexa+ voice assistant, making it the best value in the Echo lineup.
LG’s C-series has long been one of the best choices in OLED TVs, offering a fantastic picture at a great value. The C5 lives up to that legacy, boasting a bright panel that offers wide, accurate colours. It’s also thin, sleek, and loaded with features, including Apple AirPlay, Google Cast, and hands-free Amazon Alexa support. Don’t be intimidated by the official retail price, either; we’ve consistently seen the 65-inch C5 available for at least $1,000 less since July.
When shopping for a budget-friendly TV, you should usually be prepared for a dimmer-than-ideal panel. But not with the Hisense U65QF. It’s the first TV in this price range we’ve seen that can output more than 1,000 nits of light, an important benchmark that does justice to high dynamic range content. Its colour performance is similarly excellent, and its 144Hz refresh rate and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro make it great for gaming. It also supports Apple AirPlay, which isn’t common on the Fire TV platform it uses. Although it doesn’t offer hands-free voice control, you can still interact with Alexa through the remote.
Google left a big hole in the media hub market when it discontinued the Chromecast. Its replacement, the Google TV Streamer, is twice as expensive and offers little additional value. Fortunately, Walmart’s Onn brand has filled that niche nicely with the Onn 4K Pro. It’s by far the best-equipped $50 media hub we’ve tested, with 4K output supporting Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. Other features include Wi-Fi 6, an Ethernet port, a handy remote finder, and hands-free Google Assistant with Gemini AI support.
The Hisense C2 Ultra is an excellent projector for all-around home entertainment, brimming with high-brightness output, top-tier image quality, and a Designed for Xbox certification. The C2 Ultra’s picture shines by supporting every current variation of HDR, as well as Filmmaker and IMAX Enhanced modes, and handling each one effectively. It’s our top pick for a high-end room-to-room portable projector, and it should please movie watchers just as well as it will thrill gamers.
Pros and shutterbugs love full-frame cameras, which have image sensors as large as an old-school 35mm film frame, and the Z5II is just about the best value in this arena. It boasts an impressive spec list, highlighted by in-body stabilization, 24MP snapshots, and 4K N-RAW video, and is complemented by a robust set of lenses and accessories. If you want to get started with full-frame photography today, the Z5II is the way to go.
The Nikon Z50II brings upmarket features like weather sealing, autofocus with intelligent subject tracking, and 10-bit 4K video to an entry-level APS-C sensor model. It’s surprisingly small and remains affordable at a time when costs are rising across the photo industry. We’re especially pleased with the Nikon Z lens library, which includes basic options like the DX 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 (available in a kit with the camera) and high-end glass like the recent DX 16-50mm F2.8 VR. The Z50II is a camera that will please both beginners and experienced photographers.
The Camp Snap Digital is proof that you don’t have to spend a lot to get a fun digital camera. The $70 snapshot maker was initially marketed to summer camp kids who aren’t allowed to use devices with LCD screens (hence the name), but artistic photographers who appreciate lo-fi images should pick one up, too. It’s as simple as a digital camera gets—there’s just one button, an optical viewfinder, and a fixed focus lens. Picture quality isn’t professional, but it is enhanced by the option to create and load your own filters, adding a personal touch.
This has been a great year for lenses, with a few standout contenders in the category. The Sigma 135mm F1.4 DG Art emerges as a sublime choice for photographers seeking to capture portraits with backgrounds that blur into the distance. You simply won’t find a better medium telephoto prime. Lightning-fast focus, sturdy construction, and excellent flare resistance seal the deal. The only problem? The 135mm F1.4 Art is only available for Sony and L-Mount cameras, so Canon and Nikon owners are out of luck.
If you want to experience what it was like to take instant pictures in the ’70s and ’80s, then you’ll want a Polaroid camera. The Flip captures large 3.1-inch square photos on colour or black-and-white film, the same size as SX-70 and 600 cameras of yesteryear. Film is expensive ($2.50 per frame) and requires special handling, so Polaroid isn’t for the faint of heart (or tight of wallet). However, the Flip’s sonar autofocus system and four-zone lens help curb the number of bad photos you’ll take. Go with Fuji Instax models if ease of use is a priority, but photographers can create magic with Polaroid film on the Flip if they’re willing to accept a bit of a learning curve.
The Insta360 X5 comes out on top of new 360-degree action cameras this year, boasting great video quality and durability. It surpasses the GoPro Max2 and DJI Osmo 360 as a camera for videographers and adventure seekers, as it makes it incredibly easy to creatively reframe its spherical video. The footage is crisp too, with 8K resolution and HDR colour. You can take the X5 anywhere—even underwater—and easily replace its lens guards if you destroy them in your pursuit of the perfect shot.
DJI makes the best camera drones, and the Flip is the top entry-level model it’s ever made. Its 249g weight means you can fly it without having to register with the FAA, which is convenient. It can be purchased with either the RC-N3 remote, which works with your phone, or the RC-2, which features a built-in touch display. Built-in propeller guards and forward obstacle sensors help you avoid accidents, and the camera records smooth 4K60 video with HDR colour. This may be the last year we see a DJI drone in our winner’s list, as the China-based company skipped the US market for its last couple of drone releases; it faces a potential legislative ban by the end of the year.
The best have-it-all desktop for most people this year is Lenovo’s premier all-in-one PC, one of its premium Yoga products with a sharp screen and a stand that incorporates wireless phone charging. Lenovo also includes a wireless keyboard and mouse in the box, making the Yoga AIO 27 a truly complete computing package. The speedy performance, simple port access, and sharp webcam round out this whole-home PC hub. It’s the mainstream desktop of the year.
GEEKOM A6 Mini PC, AMD Ryzen 7 6800H(8C/16T, up to 4.7GHz), 32GB DDR5 1TB SSD, Radeon 680M, Compact Aluminium Design Win
4.0 Excellent
Geekom’s excellent, affordable mini desktop does a top-notch Mac mini impression for a little less cash, bringing more ports, memory, and storage (but a little less when it comes to top speed). Any computer with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD would be a steal at this price, but Geekom makes good on the deal with decently competitive performance from a midrange AMD mobile processor. The whole package amounts to a top-notch cheap computer and one of the best deals in desktop PCs today.
Small PCs are generally expected to be short on power, but Falcon Northwest pushes and arguably breaks the limits of that concept with its FragBox line of built-to-order desktops. This year’s model manages to cram in a full Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 with a top-end AMD Ryzen X3D processor, producing some of the fastest frame rates we’ve seen this year in games testing. Naturally, this level of performance at this size requires extreme craftsmanship. In our minds, it’s well worth paying for.
HP’s top-end all-in-one PC delivers a premium experience unlike any other AIO we’ve tested this year, and proved itself competitive in performance with Apple’s iMac. The desktop’s large and super-sharp 4K display, coupled with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 laptop GPU inside, makes for slick media editing, as well as workable mainstream PC gaming if you dial things down to 1080p. Topped off with conveniences like ports within the display stand and a hide-away webcam, the OmniStudio is the AIO to beat.
Velocity Micro is a boutique system builder, but it somehow beats many big-box retail PC vendors on price for the same parts. The Raptor Z55a is what we like to call a “stealth” gaming PC: It looks like a buttoned-up office workstation, yet it hides a mega-powerful 4K-ready GPU paired with other top-end components. While some might enjoy the bombast of modern glass-enclosed gaming PCs with oodles of RGB lights, the Z55a delivers the best gaming performance for the price, all in a sleek custom case that saves space.
Some offices require more out of their all-in-ones, and this ThinkCentre rises to the occasion with full desktop-grade processing inside. It’s a 24-inch system with a no-nonsense 1080p screen. This PC is an all-in-one work-crunching system for offices with moderate computing needs, potent enough for all general professional tasks and even some media production or other intense projects. The desktop can even function as a standalone monitor via the HDMI 1.4-in/HDMI 2.1-out combo port, allowing the AIO to live on when the PC portion is obsolete.
The Mac Studio’s M4 Max processor offers ceiling-shattering performance in reverse proportion to this whisper-quiet desktop’s size. (Indeed, the Mac Studio’s testing results challenge what we’ve seen from many much larger desktops.) This edition of the Mac Studio introduces cutting-edge Thunderbolt 5 connectivity for ever-faster data transfers. For AI-assisted data crunching and multi-core graphics rendering in a small box, the Mac Studio simply can’t be beat this year.
Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 5080 is among the most powerful graphics cards available today, and the one we’d recommend most among the high-end options. Both the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 4090 offer better performance, but those are priced at $1,999 and $1,599, respectively. The RTX 5080 will be more than enough to satisfy gamers, anyway, as it’s easily able to run modern games at 4K with topped-out settings. Plus, you can always flip on DLSS 4 for an extra boost if needed.
One of the most potent midrange graphics cards of this generation is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti. Featuring 16GB of GDDR7 memory, it delivers a substantial performance upgrade over its predecessor and dominates the graphics card market in its price range. While not ideal for gaming at 4K, the RTX 5060 Ti is highly capable of gaming at 1080p and 2K. A lesser model with 8GB of RAM is also available if you want to save a few bucks, but opt for the 16GB so you’re assured enough graphics memory.
The Intel Arc B580 displays a truly impressive leap in performance over Intel’s previous generation of graphics cards. Though you can get more performance by opting for something like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 for a bit more cash, you won’t find anything quite as capable as the Arc B580 at this price. It remains the fastest graphics cardin its range. It’s arguably best suited for gaming at 1080p, but depending on the settings you use and the age of the game, playing at resolutions up to 4K is also possible. Just don’t expect that while running the latest titles.
We’ve been critical of AMD’s 3D V-Cache technology in the past, but with the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, it finally got the tech right. When it comes to gaming, this CPU offers a clear performance advantage over all other processors currently on the market. Meanwhile, it offers similar or slightly better performance than the Ryzen 9 9950X in terms of non-gaming tasks. Best of all, AMD doesn’t set a heavy premium on this technology. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D costs only slightly more than the 9950X, making it unquestionably the best high-end processor for gaming PCs in 2025.
The ASRock Z890 Taichi motherboard is among the best we’ve reviewed to support Intel’s newest desktop processors, the “Arrow Lake” 200S family. The overclocking properties are excellent (anchored by a robust power-delivery system), and the ATX-format Z890 Taichi has top-tier connectivity bits that include built-in Wi-Fi 7, a 5GbE port, and two Thunderbolt 4/USB4 ports. A generous six M.2 slots and top-notch audio hardware complement this luxurious board.
Corsair’s Air 5400 features an airflow design we’ve never seen before. PC cases are typically divided into two main compartments, with the power supply cordoned off from the motherboard and expansion cards. The Air 5400, in contrast, features a third compartment that’s specially designed to enhance the case’s thermal performance. This front-panel airflow chamber isolates the heat generated by the CPU’s liquid cooler, pushing it out of the system through a gap in the case’s right side and keeping that hot air from heating up other components. Beyond that, the Air 5400 is a well-crafted modern PC case featuring high-quality air intake fans, three USB-C ports on the top I/O panel, and hinged side panels that facilitate easy component access.
With its WD Black SN8100, Sandisk shows that you can have great performance in a PCI Express 5 SSD. It blew away most of our benchmark records, including tallying the fastest raw (sequential read and write) speeds we’ve ever seen in an SSD—without requiring massive heat-dissipation gear. It ships barebones, but we do recommend a compact heatsink for it. Acronis True Image software and TCG/Opal serve to sweeten the deal when you purchase.
Gaming routers are typically more expensive than general-purpose Wi-Fi routers and mesh systems, but in return, you’re rewarded with premium performance. With the TP-Link Archer GE650, you get outstanding Wi-Fi 7 connections and robust features without having to spend a bundle. The GE650 offers several gamer-centric options, including optimized acceleration settings, a dedicated game control panel, and an edgy design. It also offers six multi-gig networking ports. At a price under $300, it’s an excellent value.
The eero 7 Pro is an excellent, reasonably priced Wi-Fi 7 mesh system that uses 5GbE jacks and 6GHz transmissions to deliver strong wireless performance to every corner of your home. The Pro 7 is also a solid performer, delivering a strong Wi-Fi signal to all corners of our test house. It’s easy to set up and offers robust home automation features, including support for Thread, Matter, and Zigbee. If you’re looking for a whole-home mesh solution that offers impressive Wi-Fi 7 performance, look no further than the eero Pro 7.
Equipped with four multi-gig LAN ports, five high-speed USB ports, and a powerful AMD Ryzen CPU, the AS6804T delivers excellent performance. We appreciate that Asustor’s app store features more than 200 apps for backing up data, setting up the NAS as a cloud or media server, storing and organizing photos, and much more. At $1,299, it’s one of the most expensive four-bay NAS devices we’ve tested, but its performance and high-end, high-speed components make it easy to recommend if you need real NAS muscle.
Available in capacities up to 8TB, Micron’s Crucial X10 matches the highest capacity available in external SSDs sold through consumer retailers—and at a surprisingly affordable price. Although the X10’s lack of hardware-based encryption limits its corporate use, this voluminous, mildly ruggedized SSD is ideal for storing a media or game library, or serving as a scratch disk for videographers or photographers.
The Epson EcoTank ET-3950 stands out for its fast simplex (one-sided) printing and its automatic duplex scanning, making it the all-in-one inkjet printer to beat for micro or home offices. For scanning and copying, the printer offers both a letter-size flatbed and a 30-sheet page-reversing document feeder. It’s highly suitable for moderate to heavy-duty use by micro and home office standards. If you need to scan or copy double-sided, multipage documents, even just once in a while, this is the printer you need.
The Brother MFC-L2900DW XL mono laser all-in-one printer delivers every feature a small office needs, including the convenience of single-pass duplexing for copying, scanning, and faxing. It’s expensive compared with some older, larger models that offer similar capabilities. However, the MFC-L2900DW’s standout feature is its ability to scan in duplex while remaining a relatively compact printer. It’s ideal for use in micro to small offices, or as a personal desktop printer.
High-quality photo output, plus the ability to scan and copy, makes the Epson XP-8800 an excellent choice for home use. Built around a six-colour ink system that helps boost photo quality, it offers a flatbed for scanning and copying, supports mobile printing, and can even print directly on appropriately surfaced discs. We appreciate its well-thought-out convenience features, such as a 4.3-inch colour touch screen for commands and its ability to automatically extend the output tray from its closed position when you start a print job.
The Bambu Lab P2S delivers professional-level output in a desktop 3D printer that doesn’t require constant adjustments. For newcomers, the P2S offers a remarkably gentle learning curve thanks to automatic calibration, guided maintenance, and built-in error detection. For experienced users, the printer’s speed and reliability translate into faster iteration and less downtime. Plus, the P2S Combo we reviewed, which includes Bambu’s four-filament-spool material management system, is reasonably priced compared with similar 3D printing systems.
Ricoh’s top-of-the-line ScanSnap iX2500, available in white or black, combines fast scan speeds with a large paper capacity (100 sheets), an effective skew-detection system, and a receipt-scanning attachment. Given its jam-packed lineup of features, the iX2500 is fully competitive with models that cost considerably more. It’s a superior desktop document scanner for homes and small offices at a very reasonable price, and it’s also a bit smaller than much of its direct competition.
Logitech has done the impossible, improving on a near-perfect mouse (the MX Master 3) with the MX Master 4. The newest MX Master is packed with new features, including haptic feedback and an Action Ring digital overlay, which streamlines workflows with app-specific shortcuts. It updates the mouse’s design with smart revisions and enhancements, but it doesn’t lose what made the previous mouse such a star. It feels good in your hands; it’s quiet, fast, and responsive; and it’s packed with productivity features via the Logi Options software. Trust us: It won’t take you long to see why the Master MX 4 is a cut above all other computer mice.
Satechi SM3 Slim Mechanical Backlit Bluetooth Keyboard
4.0 Excellent
The SM3 Slim Mechanical Backlit Bluetooth Keyboard is not the flashiest keyboard in the world, but it doesn’t have to be. It more than lives up to Satechi’s reputation for stylish, top-notch Mac keyboards. (And it works on Windows, too!) Under its handsome façade, the keyboard is a dependable daily driver, with plenty of wireless connectivity options and a quiet, low-profile design that’s perfect for shared office spaces. It’s an easy recommendation, especially for Mac users who don’t want to pay a premium for Apple’s Magic Keyboard.
HP Series 7 Pro 34 inch WQHD Conferencing Monitor (734pm)
4.0 Excellent
HP’s ultrawide Series 7 Pro 34-inch WQHD Conferencing Monitor (734pm) packs a massive set of features, anchored by a super-sharp webcam for online meetings and a beautiful screen suitable for occasional creative visual work, such as photo or video editing. At a price that targets high-level employees, the 734pm is a good choice for managers whose schedules are packed with online meetings and who are involved in approving art concepts. Its relatively low pixel density makes it less than ideal as a dedicated creator-centric monitor, but it’s the best panel for relentless online collaborators we’ve seen all year.
The Asus ROG Swift PG27UCDM is equipped with the latest premium features, including a 4K resolution OLED screen, a 240Hz peak refresh rate, and DisplayPort 2.1 technology to fully leverage the capabilities of the latest GPUs. The QD-OLED screen delivers an exceptionally vivid color range and high brightness. The high pixel density of 166 pixels per inch contributes to clear text and enhanced detail. Add low input lag to the equation, and the PG27UCDM proves to be a supremely capable high-end gaming monitor.
The Razer Blackshark V3 Pro wireless gaming headset is $50 more than the already excellent Blackshark V2 Pro it replaces, but that higher price is justified by a big addition: active noise cancellation. The ANC can effectively block out any distractions while you’re playing, while providing clear and detailed sound with spatial audio for an immersive gaming experience. Its mic provides clear voice chat, and integrated Bluetooth means you can use the headset to listen to music on the go.
Gaming Chair
AndaSeat Novis
4.0 Excellent
You don’t have to spend a lot for a well-made gaming chair. The AndaSeat Novis is comfortable and sturdy, stuffed with dense foam where cheap gaming chairs often leave hollow spaces. It also has a better-than-average three-year warranty (which you can increase to five years if you share a picture of your chair on social media). It’s otherwise a no-frills chair, but that doesn’t detract from it being the best thing gamers can sit in this year.
The original Nintendo Switch was an incredible gaming system that allowed you to play it at home on your TV or on the go in your hands. Nintendo simply made the Switch 2 even better. The new edition is significantly more powerful and can run games at 4K resolution on a TV. Its integrated 7.9-inch 1080p screen is larger and sharper, featuring a 120Hz refresh rate for smooth action. The new Joy-Con controllers feature a mouse mode, providing an additional control option for games that support it. Oh, and there’s a second USB-C port on the top, which is really useful. Simply put, we’ll be playing this console well into 2026 and beyond.
The ROG Xbox Ally X is a significant partnership between Asus and Microsoft, and it largely succeeds. The Ally X reimagines the original Asus ROG Ally handheld’s design, now featuring controller grips that resemble those of an Xbox gamepad. (It’s easily one of the most comfortable handhelds we’ve reviewed to date.) The new Xbox full-screen experience is also a significant improvement, enabling you to download and play your games across multiple platforms. While we’d prefer that the Ally X not run the resource-intensive Windows 11, games nevertheless look good and perform extremely well on it.
South of the Midnight is a testament to the power of specificity. As a game, it’s a pleasant throwback to an earlier era of action-adventure, with its blend of nimble platforming and straightforward combat. However, a stunning presentation and emotional storytelling elevate the experience, transporting us to a mythological version of the American Deep South that we rarely see in games. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll…fight a giant alligator.
Although the Nintendo Switch 2 launched with Mario Kart, the flagship single-player adventure for the new system’s debut is Donkey Kong Bananza. In dropping the cheery cheery plumber for the wild gorilla, the game is far more action-packed than your typical first-party Nintendo title. Gameplay mostly involves much smashing of enemies and the environment around you, but even amidst the carnage, Bananza features creative abilities, brilliant crafted levels, and sophisticated interlocking systems that encourage player experimentation. And don’t forget the bananas—so many bananas.
Last year’s Silent Hill 2 remake gave new life to the long-dormant series, but the release of Silent Hill f proved it doesn’t have to rely on nostalgia to stay relevant. This new, original entry shifts the setting from the US to 1960s Japan, introducing a young female protagonist and a new combat system. From its haunting soundtrack to its nerve-wracking story to its drop-dead gorgeous visuals, Silent Hill f reinvigorates the franchise into something fresh and original.
We’ve been slaying demons in Doom games on every device imaginable since the early ’90s. So how do you keep this first-person franchise fresh? In Doom: The Dark Ages, the answer is to go back in time. This prequel sees the Doom Slayer in a vaguely medieval fantasy world where monsters still blast lasers, but you can bash them with a mace when not shooting them with guns. The setting inspires other novel mechanics, including piloting a giant mech, flying a dragon, and parrying with a shield. A more open, improvisational gameplay style makes this a terrific Doom for newcomers.
When Netflix ditched mail-order DVDs for online video streaming, it kicked off a revolution in how we consume entertainment. Years later, Netflix is still a top choice for watching movies and TV shows. Its originals dominate the zeitgeist, with returning hits like Love Is Blind and Stranger Things making waves this year. It’s packed with innovative features, including a library of high-quality mobile games. Like its rivals, Netflix continues to raise prices, but at least the limited ad-based tier offers a more affordable way to get started.
With traditional streaming services creeping up in price every year, maybe you should just take the plunge with a full-fledged live TV streaming service that mimics what you get from cable. If you’re ready to cut the cord, our top pick is YouTube TV. It features an excellent lineup of familiar TV channels from across all genres, accompanied by a modern interface that you’d expect from an online-focused company. Its add-ons, including YouTube’s exclusive NFL Sunday games, let you create your own perfect entertainment streaming package.
Spotify’s strength lies in its impressive personalization and broad availability. Its algorithm delivers fantastic, tailored recommendations through features like Discover Weekly and Daylist, making new music discovery easy and intuitive. Spotify’s AI-powered DJ also provides a fresh, curated musical selection based on your listening preferences, which you can further customize via requests. Moreover, Spotify Connect enables seamless streaming across numerous compatible devices, including game consoles and smart TVs, providing a robust and accessible listening ecosystem that solidifies it as our top choice for streaming music.
Apple’s macOS Tahoe isn’t just about a shiny new Liquid Glass transparent design. The desktop OS supercharges Spotlight search with options for actions (such as “create an email”), applications, your clipboard history, and files. Although Apple Intelligence is still not as full-fledged as Copilot on Windows, it benefits from improved image creation, live translation, and shortcut integration features. Meanwhile, the new Phone app in Tahoe offers voice calling and call screening, and Mac gamers get the new Apple Games app. Plus, you can finally change the folder colour from that ghastly blue we’ve suffered with for years.
Mobile Operating System
Apple iOS 26
4.0 Excellent
Apple’s iOS 26 is an outstanding mobile operating system that finally delivers some of that impressive AI tech teased over a year ago. Apple Intelligence powers compelling features like Live Translation and Hold Assist for phone calls. It also includes streamlined app designs, such as a more intuitive Photos app, and other intelligent additions, including call screening and depth-altering Spatial Scenes for photos, which provide an exceptional user experience. This dense OS update is gussied up with the sleek new Liquid Glass design, delivering a translucent and fluid interface that you can further customize on the Lock and Home screens.
ChatGPT is the premier AI chatbot, thanks to its peerless accuracy and detail in responses, along with its best-in-class deep research and media generation capabilities. Sourcing across both web search and research reports is the clearest and easiest to understand among all mainstream chatbots. From creative writing to file processing and everything in between, the quality of ChatGPT’s underlying 5-series of large language models shines. Luxury additions, including an AI agent, the Atlas AI web browser, and an AI shopping component, among others, round out its generous package.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, PCMag’s parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
You have plenty of options for designing marketing and social media graphics, but Canva is both the easiest to use and offers the most powerful creative possibilities. Like most modern software, the graphic design app is also now replete with AI tools, which you can use to generate voiceovers for your video projects, turn a text prompt into a full-fledged presentation, and generate both images and videos. Not a great writer? Canva can even create on-brand copy for your marketing campaign. And, of course, real-time collaboration is seamless.
Yes, you have to pay a hefty monthly fee to Adobe for the privilege of using the best photo editing software in the world, but it boasts the deepest and most advanced set of image correction, creation, and enhancement tools of any software available. Despite already having a massive set of tools for photography, drawing, and typography, Adobe continues to make them increasingly usable. If you want to automatically select and mask multiple objects in your photo, Photoshop is your best bet.
Although you can find other great options in the pro video editing software space, such as DaVinci Resolve and Final Cut Pro, Adobe’s Premiere Pro stands out for its continual adoption of whiz-bang AI features and focus on ease of use. We especially like its Generative Extend tool, which adds convincingly natural AI-generated frames to clips that are just a tad short for your project. With its Frame.io integration, Premiere Pro is also the best choice for teams of editors.
DreamHost delivers excellent performance across a wide range of feature-rich plans, making it one of the best web hosting services around. Its intuitive control panel and robust cloud hosting packages are ideal for beginners and businesses. For WordPress users, DreamHost has one-click installations and specialized, managed WordPress services to ensure smooth operation. 24/7 live chat and email support, a comprehensive knowledge base, and a generous 97-day money-back guarantee for new shared hosting customers round out this excellent service.
Wix reigns supreme among overall website builders. With hundreds of templates, you’re bound to find one perfect for your site’s theme. Wix’s robust yet intuitive editing tools, featuring powerful image editing and numerous widgets, allow you to customize your site even further. Thanks to its free tier, there’s no excuse not to at least check it out. And if you’re willing to invest, Wix’s commerce options can power your online business.
If you are new to customer relationship management (CRM), Bigin by Zoho is a fine place to start. It makes onboarding simple and prioritizes ease of use with a straightforward interface. The service doesn’t offer any AI features, but it does support numerous integrations, allowing you to easily build CRM into your existing workflows with minimal effort. Decent reporting capabilities and VoIP functionality enhance the overall experience. Finally, we appreciate that individuals can use Bigin by Zoho for free, with no ongoing costs; meanwhile, the price rates for teams are extremely reasonable.
Asana is our favourite work management app, but it’s versatile enough to also handle task and project management (depending on the complexity of the job at hand). With an elegant interface and an incredibly robust free version, Asana is a good fit for anyone who wants to be more organized, regardless of their budget or technical skills. However, it also allows you to delve deep, thanks to comprehensive progress tracking features, numerous automations and integrations, and extensive AI functionality. Asana is the best all-around solution for work management we’ve tested, with clear applications for both your personal and professional lives.
Zoho Projects makes managing complex projects simple, and perhaps most importantly, affordable for SMBs. Thanks to its plethora of features, including an AI assistant and time-tracking tools, Zoho Projects is quite versatile and works effortlessly with other Zoho apps, such as Books and Meetings. Getting up and running won’t take too long, as many premade (and customizable) templates are available. For capabilities it doesn’t cover, such as billing and invoicing, you can connect third-party services. Whether you’re new to the scene or a seasoned project manager, Zoho Projects is a great first option.
Webex by Cisco is more than ready to handle your team’s video conferencing needs with AI-based summarization, asynchronous video recording, flexible captioning, and rich collaboration tools (breakout rooms, chat, screen-sharing, and whiteboards). Other cool features include Reactions (give a thumbs up to your camera, and it appears as an emoji on-screen), sign language interpretation, and Step Away From Meeting (informs team members that you will be briefly unavailable). Webex’s free tier is fairly generous, and its premium tiers unlock extras, such as live polling.
Zoom Phone is a smart VoIP solution that keeps costs low. To unlock unlimited calling for Canada and the US, you need to upgrade beyond the starter plan. However, a subscription also includes basic faxing, messaging, and video conferencing features. Zoom Phone’s user experience is quite intuitive, and we appreciate the powerful AI assistant that extracts key information from calls and summarizes message threads. The service performed reliably in testing as well. You can bundle Zoom Phone with Workplace Pro if you need advanced video conferencing capabilities.
Norton’s antivirus technology routinely earns maximum scores from independent testing labs, and the standalone antivirus boasts many suite-level features, including a firewall, online backup, and a vulnerability scan. Norton 360 Deluxe builds on that impressive foundation and adds a full-powered VPN, dark web monitoring, a parental control system, and even a small-scale personal data removal service. With Norton 360 Deluxe, you get just about everything anyone could want in a security suite.
There’s a reason for the Plus in this app’s name. Yes, it consistently achieves top scores in our tests and third-party antivirus tests, but it goes far beyond basic antivirus protection. Bitdefender adds multiple layers of protection against ransomware attacks, to start. Its Safepay system isolates the browser to protect financial transactions, it can find and apply missing security patches, it includes a secure deletion file shredder, and more. In Autopilot mode, it operates in the background with minimal interaction. However, if you want to take control, you can do so remotely through Bitdefender Central.
Proton VPN is proof that privacy doesn’t need to be paywalled. Its free service is the best in the industry, offering unlimited data and connections to servers in five countries. Upgrading to the premium version unlocks access to a leading-class server network, advanced VPN features such as SecureCore, and a stellar ad blocker. Proton’s privacy-first focus, consistent year-over-year quality, and competitive pricing make it an easy pick for anyone looking to strengthen their online security.
If you’re looking for customizable security settings, email aliases, emergency access, or the ability to quickly share files, passwords, photos, and more with family and friends, NordPass is our top recommendation. The app’s new storage options upgrade it from a mere password manager to an “everything manager” that you can access on any device. NordPass is reasonably priced at $2.99 per month, but be sure to take advantage of the 30-day NordPass Premium trial.
Oxylabs can scale to fit any business need with pay-as-you-go pricing and an impressive suite of proxy options. They include dedicated and shared data centre proxies, ISP proxies, mobile proxies, and ethically sourced residential proxies. New users can get a one-time free trial for any of Oxylab’s proxies, making it easy to try the service out before you purchase a premium plan. With a transparent privacy policy and reliable spoofing capabilities, Oxylab’s proxies are an excellent option for businesses of all sizes.
The fourth-generation Amazon Echo Show 8 has a fresh look, improved audio hardware, and—most importantly—a faster chip designed to take advantage of Alexa+. Amazon’s upgraded AI assistant comes built in and responds in a smooth, natural-sounding way. The display itself is bright, crisp, and responsive, while the speakers produce sufficient volume and depth to comfortably fill a room. For anyone purchasing their first smart display, the Echo Show 8 offers an ideal mix of cost, size, and performance.
As prices rise faster than most paychecks, finding ways to increase your income has become more important than ever — especially if you’re looking to boost your bank account. Fortunately, you don’t need a long program or expensive training to increase your earning potential. With free tutorials and short online courses, you can learn high-demand skills in a matter of weeks, helping you build a reliable side income.
Below are 10 practical, fast-track skills you can learn in under a month to earn more.
1. Data analysis
Estimated cost: Free to $500
Learning basic data analysis helps you organize, clean, and interpret information to make informed business decisions. In under a month, you can learn spreadsheet formulas, data visualization, and simple SQL queries through platforms like Coursera, DataCamp, or YouTube.
These foundational skills are valuable across industries, from marketing to finance, where employers value data-driven decision-making.
There are free courses available on different platforms while more structured programs can cost a bit more.
2. Basic web development
Estimated cost: Free to $49
A month of consistent learning can help you master the fundamentals of website creation, including HTML structure and CSS styling. FreeCodeCamp and Codecademy offer beginner-friendly lessons that cover how to build responsive web pages from scratch. With these skills, you can pursue freelance work, build your portfolio website, or strengthen your digital literacy for other tech roles.
3. Digital marketing
Estimated cost: Free to $1,000
Understanding how to reach and engage audiences online can immediately boost your career prospects. In a few weeks, you can learn SEO, analytics, and ad basics from Google Digital Garage or HubSpot Academy. These skills are in high demand among businesses seeking to enhance visibility, attract leads, and grow their customer base organically.
Costs vary depending on what you’re looking for, but it’s more than possible to learn a few tricks at no cost.
4. Graphic design
Estimated cost: Free to $2,400
You don’t need an art background to learn the foundations of visual communication. With beginner-friendly platforms like Canva, Adobe Express, and free tutorials on YouTube or Coursera, you can pick up layout principles, typography, and simple branding techniques.
Within a month, you’ll be equipped to create professional social media graphics, marketing materials, and polished presentations that translate directly into freelance income or higher-paying opportunities.
In terms of what you might pay, there are some more expensive options available. The trade-off is that you’ll have full access to the course materials forever once enrolled.
5. Copywriting
Estimated cost: Free to $1,499
Strong writing remains in demand, no matter the industry. Short courses on Skillshare, HubSpot, and YouTube can teach you the basics of copywriting, storytelling, and brand tone in just a few weeks. While there are free courses available, you can also invest in some like the Copy Cure for $1,499.
Once you’ve learned the fundamentals, you can start offering web copy, social captions, and blog posts, services that often pay an average of $71,224 per year, depending on your experience.
6. Project management
Estimated cost: Free to $799
With tools like Trello, Asana, and Notion, you can quickly learn how to organize tasks, manage timelines, and apply simple Agile or waterfall methods. Short courses on Coursera and LinkedIn Learning cover the essentials and can even prepare you for entry-level certifications. Within a month, you’ll be ready to support small projects or coordinate workflows, a skillset that often leads to higher-paying roles or freelance opportunities.
Cost-wise, you have the opportunity to become certified as a project management professional, for instance. In this case, you could spend up to $799 to prep for the exam (along with the cost of taking the exam).
7. Chatbot development
Estimated cost: Free to $100
Chatbots are now widely used in customer service, marketing, and sales. Within a month, you can learn to build simple automated assistants using platforms like Dialogflow, ManyChat, or ChatGPT-based tools. Free YouTube tutorials and introductory courses on Udemy or Coursera walk you through conversation design, flow building, and integrations.
With these fundamentals, you can create functional bots for businesses or freelancers, opening the door to gigs and higher-paying digital roles.
8. Data visualization
Estimated cost: Free to $249
With business decisions now guided by data, strong visualization skills help teams understand trends, interpret performance, and communicate findings clearly. You can learn this skill through beginner-friendly platforms like Tableau Public, Power BI, and Google Data Studio, supported by free YouTube tutorials or short, structured courses on Coursera, Udemy, or Kaggle.
While a lot of courses are free, some platforms also offer you a certificate if you pay.
9. Video editing
Estimated cost: Free to $2,250
Short-form video now drives most online engagement, yet many brands still struggle to consistently produce clean, professional content. Learning video editing allows you to shape stories, improve pacing, and elevate visuals across social media, ads, and YouTube. You can pick up essential skills using DaVinci Resolve or CapCut, then sharpen your techniques through free YouTube tutorials or beginner courses on Skillshare.
There are a ton of courses available online. And while some courses cost money, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will take you longer: you can complete many in 30 days or less.
10. UX/UI design
Estimated cost: Free to $159
Customers today expect seamless experiences with every website or app they interact with. UX/UI design teaches you how to understand user behavior, map journeys, and create intuitive interfaces that boost engagement. You can learn through Google’s UX certificate, Coursera, and YouTube tutorials, and foundational skills already open doors to roles paying around $90,930 annually.
Bottom line
Investing a few weeks to learn high-demand skills can immediately boost your earning potential and help you move beyond living paycheck to paycheck. From data analysis to UX/UI design, these skills equip you to stay competitive in a rapidly changing job market.
The World Economic Forum predicts that around 170 million new jobs will emerge this decade, driven by technology, sustainability, and demographic shifts, making now the perfect time to skill up for the careers of tomorrow.
