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1. Scribe
Best for anyone who has to create step-by-step instructions and wants to save time editing screenshots and writing out steps.
Scribe is a popular new Chrome extension that instantly saves time for anyone creating step-by-step guides. It captures your screen while you complete the process, then creates highlighted screenshots and written instructions for you. No more writing out steps in Word.
Individual Scribes can be shared with anyone via a link, embedded within an existing knowledge base or another tool, or accessed by teammates with permission.
Features:
- Instant document creation
- Highlighted screenshots
- Screenshot editor
- Embeddable guides
- Recommended guides
- Integrations with CMS, project management, knowledge base, and more.
Verdict: Scribe is an easy-to-use tool that will increase productivity for any business when creating documentation or instructions.
Price:
Free: Chrome extension for web-based capture with unlimited guides and users.
Pro: $29/month per user, including desktop recorder and screenshot editing.
2. Grammarly
Grammarly has a Chrome extension you can install for free. The caveat is that you need to create an account with the grammar checker. This is also free, of course.
Once the Chrome extension is installed, Grammarly will constantly analyze most text fields on the Internet to make sure you’re writing legible material.
The tool will provide suggestions, and synonyms, automatically fix obvious spelling errors, and a great deal more. And it works great when you’re commenting on social media from your desktop computer.
3. LastPass
LastPass has multiple layers of security, comes with more additional features than most competitors, and is pretty cheap. To ensure the safety of all user data, LastPass uses military-grade encryption (256-bit AES), has a zero-knowledge policy, and provides multiple two-factor authentication options (2FA) as well as biometric logins.
LastPass also offers many additional features, including:
- Secure password sharing — share passwords with one other user (free plan), or with multiple users (paid plan).
- Security dashboard — analyze password vault for old, weak, and duplicate passwords, and monitor the dark web for leaked accounts.
- Multiple account recovery options — access password vault even if you lose your master password.
- Emergency access — provide trusted contacts with access to the vault in case of an emergency.
- Country restriction — select from which countries you can access your vault.
- Credit monitoring (US only) — monitor credit reports for suspicious activity and prevent identity theft.
All of LastPass’s features are very easy to understand and use — during my tests, I had no problems adding items to my vault, auto-saving, and auto-filling logins, setting up two-factor authentication, or using any of LastPass’s extra tools.
However, I’d like to see LastPass improve a couple of features. Importing passwords to the LastPass vault isn’t very intuitive, and contacting LastPass’s customer support should be much easier.
LastPass offers a really good free plan — it includes unlimited password storage across unlimited mobile devices or computers, as well as one-to-one password sharing. And LastPass Premium and LastPass Families are both excellent value, adding many extra features that make LastPass one of the best password managers out there.
LastPass provides a 30-day free trial for its paid plans, so you can give it a try risk-free and see if it’s the best choice for you.
LastPass is one of the most user-friendly and feature-rich password managers around.
All of LastPass’s packages come with a wide range of easy-to-use security features — from basic password management features like auto-save and auto-fill to extra tools such as password auditing and emergency access.
LastPass’s Free plan is one of the best free plans on the market. Its paid plans come with more features than most password managers, and at a great price, too.
LastPass Security Features
LastPass has all of the essential security features needed to keep your data secure, including 256-bit AES encryption.
Zero-knowledge architecture.
Multiple 2FA (two-factor authentication) options.
256-bit AES encryption is used by high-security establishments like banks and militaries, as this type of encryption has never been broken. Additionally, all of LastPass’s user data is encrypted and decrypted on the device level, and a user’s master password (which is used for encrypting and decrypting data) isn’t stored on LastPass’s servers.
Because LastPass uses local encryption, not even company employees can access your password vault — which makes LastPass a “zero-knowledge” password manager. Finally, two-factor authentication uses a second factor to verify your identity, which prevents anyone from accessing your data on a different device (even if they somehow got a hold of your master password).
LastPass also has some additional security tools, such as
- Password security auditing.
- Secure password sharing.
- Multiple account recovery options.
- Emergency access.
While the top password managers on the market offer password security auditing and password sharing, not a lot of competitors have account recovery options or emergency access. Account recovery enables you to access your LastPass password vault if you forget your master password — many password managers, like Sticky Password, don’t offer account recovery, so if you lose your master password, there’s no way to get access to your passwords and other data.
LastPass offers the most recovery options out of all top competitors — including SMS recovery and a recovery one-time password. LastPass’s emergency access is another useful feature that enables you to set up a trusted contact who can enter your LastPass vault in case of an emergency.
Overall, LastPass is one of the most secure and feature-rich password managers on the market. It has all of the essential features to protect user data, and it also provides several extra tools that allow you to securely share passwords, check the strength of your passwords, and regain access to your vault in case of a lost master password.
4. Awesome Screenshot
What is an Awesome Screenshot?
Screen sharing platform that helps businesses record videos, annotate images, share screenshots, send feedback, and more.
Best For
Designed for businesses of all sizes, a screen-sharing solution that helps with recording screen & camera, annotating screenshots, accessing cloud videos, generating sharable links, and more.
5. Checker Plus for Gmail
Checker Plus for Gmail notifies you of new emails with pop-up windows in the lower-right corner of your computer’s desktop. Each pop-up shows a preview of the email’s first few lines. Click the Checker Plus icon on the Chrome extensions toolbar to open a panel from the top of your Chrome window that lists your unread emails.
You can read them from this panel (or have Checker Plus read them aloud to you), delete them, or perform other actions on them without going to your Gmail main page. You can even compose a new email from the panel.
You can monitor multiple Gmail accounts using this extension. According to the developer, Checker Plus doesn’t restrict the number of Google user accounts you can add to it, but the Gmail servers appear to allow only about 10 accounts to be simultaneously accessed by one computer.
Howard Wen / IDG
If you don’t need all the features of Checker Plus for Gmail, then Notifier for Gmail, shown above, gets the job done. It uses a lot less of your computer’s memory than Checker Plus, so it might run faster if you’re using Chrome on an older, slower computer.
Like Checker Plus, Notifier for Gmail pops up a notification window in the lower-right corner of your desktop for every incoming email, showing the first snippet of text in it. And as with Checker Plus, you can click the Notifier for Gmail icon on the Chrome extension toolbar to open a panel where you can read an unread email. From the panel window, you can also delete the message, mark it as read/unread, or mark it as spam. You can add up to five Gmail accounts to this extension, and switch among them.
6. Buffer
Who is Buffer for?
Buffer will have the maximum positive impact on small social media teams and small businesses. Anyone that is looking for an accessible, effective platform to create and post more successful social media content will find a lot to like here. Everything you need to get started is contained within one screen.
Moreover, Buffer has continued to build on its core strengths and has added tools such as Pablo to make it even easier to create unique content within the platform.
The free account connects with three social accounts and permits ten scheduled posts, so it is a genuine option for independent business owners.
The lower-end packages are reasonably priced too if you need to upgrade from the free account for more flexibility.
Larger teams will need to shell out for the Business packages on Buffer, as the entry-level packages cover only one user.
At this end of the pricing spectrum, there are more comprehensive solutions available. For example, Buffer lacks cloud integration with the likes of Google Drive to import content for social media posts. It also lacks the conversion tracking and paid social features found on Hootsuite or Sprout Social.
As such, larger businesses may wish to use Buffer for its fantastic publishing tools but may feel the need to complement this subscription with other tools for content management and social listening.
For some, Buffer will be a refreshingly streamlined experience. For others, it will seem a little lightweight when stacked alongside the feature-packed competition.
Buffer’s features
As mentioned above, Buffer is split into three products: Publish, Reply, and Analyze.
This is suitably aligned with three of the main actions a social media professional needs to undertake every day.
Therefore, our feature review will follow that structure, highlighting the key features found within each of the three products.
Buffer Publish
Buffer Publish is fantastic for planning and posting content. The layout is clean and navigable, with plenty of options for link shortening.
The process for posting new content is straightforward but still contains some convenient extra features.
For example, when you enter a link you would like to share, Buffer will show you a preview of how it will look when posted on each of your chosen social networks. For Instagram, you can include a first comment along with your post, should you wish to add more hashtags to extend the content’s reach.
7. Honey
What Is The Honey App?
Honey, recently renamed “PayPal Honey” after being acquired by Paypal in 2020, is a free browser extension and mobile app that helps you save money by searching for the best coupon deals available for online purchases. This includes buying clothes, ordering food, or booking travel.
Honey Browser Extension
The Honey browser extension is compatible with over 30,000 shopping platforms in total. Honey will search for and apply coupons instantly.
The Honey extension will also notify you if there is a price drop on any of the items in your Droplist from different online stores. Honey will also compare the items you wish to buy with all Amazon sellers and find you the best deal possible.
Honey App
The Honey app is available for use on smartphones. You can find the Honey app for iOS in the Apple App Store and for Android in the Google Play Store. It will automatically search for coupons on 4,000+ sites while you shop on your phone!
Honey Gold
Honey Gold is their rewards program that allows you to collect Gold with each purchase, which can be later redeemed as free gift cards from popular stores. It is fully integrated with Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google so you can use those platforms or your email to log in.
You can also earn Honey Gold by referring your friends. Once you create an account you can unlock your unique code, share it with your friends and family, and for each person that signs up using your link and makes their first purchase, you will get 500 Gold (or $5).
Once you have 1,000 Gold, you can redeem them for gift cards from major retailers such as Apple, Walmart, Booking.com, Lowes, and Home Depot.