Rian Johnson, I owe you an apology. After trashing the first Knives Out movie and reluctantly warming up toGlass Onion (though that was mostly Kathryn Hahn's doing), Wake Up Dead Man has knocked it out of the park, and might just be the best crime caper I've seen in the last few years.
When I was 14, I was a huge fan of the legendary crime author Agatha Christie. I hoovered up her books, watched every TV adaptation known to man and even tried getting into Doctor Who in 2008 when they randomly decided to do an episode on her disappearance.
Ever since those glory days, I've been trying to chase the same feeling Christie's stories once gave me. We're spoilt for choice when it comes to incredible crime dramas, but nothing quite fills her shoes... until now. Wake Up Dead Man takes the likes of The Murder at the Vicarage and elevates it for 2025, and boy is there a lot to like.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is the Agatha Christie classic for 2025
In Upstate New York, a shy and charming young priest (Josh O'Connor) joins a rural community as the assistant pastor of their church. It's run by a totalitarian monsignor who looks a little like a Walmart version of God (Josh Brolin) and instills fear into his flock every week.
In the middle of an Easter week sermon, the monsignor is fatally stabbed in the back, and only Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) has the foresight to solve the case. Local police chief Geraldine (Mila Kunis) is at her wits end, the church's right-hand woman Martha (Glenn Close) is in religious turmoil, and local author Lee (Andrew Scott) wants to make as much money from what's happened as possible.
Every bone in my body said Wake Up Dead Man should be set in England when I watched the trailer (there are a lot of Brits playing Americans here), but its location is actually crucial to the subtext. Being set in 2025's America means the movie can easily poke fun at Western culture and the cultural landscape, particularly given where its politics is at.
The jibes are well-covered, but they're there if you look hard enough. The monsignor's style of preaching with vengeance reflects how we're seeing people communicate with each other in the wider world, weaponizing faith and opinions to use against one another. But it's not all doom and gloom (except for our victims, obviously).
Thanks to a whip-smart script, there's almost a laugh every minute peppered in between Blanc's exceptional monologues we've come to know and love. Netflix, the cast and absurdness of what's happening around them are all in the firing line, and the metaphorical shots fired make for the most enjoyable surprises. Nothing is too scathing or overt, and there's no 'woke brigade' here. It's just smart craft, and that's what we want.
Our A-list cast get in the way of... well, our A-List cast
Josh O'Connor is our breakout star in the Knives Out 3 cast. (Image credit: Netflix)
Not only has director Rian Johnson raised his game when it comes to how Wake Up Dead Man has been visualized, but his casting choices have excelled themselves. Daniel Craig has Blanc down pat and that hasn't lost its shine, but our attention returns to Josh O'Connor time and time again throughout the film.
Struggling with a troubled past and a community that would rather eat a pile of worms rather than embrace him, O'Connor's role as Father Jud is pivotal to the main mystery. He's stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to testing his faith, and it's truly beautiful to see him tested on all fronts thanks to such a nuanced performance.
As for the rest of our suspects, they fall victim to something else entirely. When you have so many names in one place, you inevitably compromise your time with them. As a result, most of them (including Kerry Washington, Daryl McCormack and Jeremy Renner) leave you wanting more, fleetingly presenting us with their intriguing backstories before vanishing into the background.
Still, we can't complain too much. Yes, the runtime is longer than I'd like it to be and my butt went numb watching. Yes, I needed more of Kerry Washington's quietly savage lawyer onscreen. Yes, the story took an oddly supernatural turn I wasn't expecting.
But as a girl who loves her classic crime capers, Wake Up Dead Man is up there with the best. It has a stacked cast who deliver a well-crafted story that's the ideal bridge between old and new, with every element keeping you in the dark.
Most importantly, I didn't guess whodunnit, and that's a rare feat these days. I'm now ready for the Knives Out franchise to continue on for so long that Craig eventually has nobody left to act alongside except for the Muppets. Make it happen, Johnson.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery comes to Netflix on December 12.
The Kiwibit Beako Smart Bird Feeder features many of the characteristics that we have come to expect as standard in our Best Bird Feeder Cameras guide. The Beako arrives as a well-thought-out package that requires minimal assembly. Installation proved straightforward, taking just a few minutes to assemble and mount to a tree using the included strap. Wall and pole mounts were also included – I was ready to connect the camera to the Kiwibit app in under five minutes.
The standout feature is the 4K camera - the first bird feeder camera we have reviewed with the feature, and crucially, this resolution is available without requiring a premium subscription. The difference in image quality is noticeable when there's good light on your feathered visitors, with small details like feather patterns and eye markings coming through. However, there is a catch: the minimum focus distance of the lens seems to be at the very edge of the perch, so the birds aren't always in the focus plane to capture the detail that the 4K sensor is capable of. Also, the sensor is still relatively small, so decent lighting conditions are still needed to get the best images.
The design is thoughtful, with a seed hopper that's genuinely clever in execution. The removable hopper makes filling and cleaning simple, and the adjustable flow control prevents seeds from pouring out should the feeder be shaken by a larger bird or squirrel. The seed tray is also removable, making maintenance and cleaning straightforward; however, it could be slightly deeper to prevent seeds from spilling over when squirrels come to visit.
(Image credit: Future)
Bird identification is impressively accurate, with around nine out of ten identifications being spot on in my experience – the Beako's makers claim it can to detect up to 10,000 species. The AI features come with the more expensive Chestnut Brown roof model or can be added for £3.99 per month.
The Kiwibit app feels familiar and easy to use, featuring responsive notifications, calendar views, and the ability to share images, videos, and access to the camera with friends and family. The Beako includes free 1-day cloud storage, with more extended storage requiring a Kiwibit Plus subscription or a microSD card.
Battery life is excellent, lasting around a week or so between charges during my tests. The battery can be easily inserted and removed from a hatch at the bottom of the camera unit, there's built-in USB-C charging, plus an included solar panel, which if positioned correctly, should mean that you don't need to charge at all. After several months of testing, the feeder still looks like new and has withstood the weather and squirrel attention well.
The alarm feature, designed to deter squirrels, proved completely ineffective in my testing - the squirrels quickly became accustomed to it and continued their behaviour regardless. This is common across all bird feeder cameras I've tested, and I have yet to find one that works even 50% of the time, so it's not a Beako-specific issue. The automatic use of the alarm feature is only available with the Plus subscription anyway.
Both the Forest Green and Chestnut Brown color schemes look natural outdoors, although bolder color options would be welcome for those wanting to make the feeder a more prominent feature.
Overall, the Kiwibit Beako stands out as one of the best smart bird feeders available, with 4K footage without subscription fees, thoughtful design touches, and solid build quality. However, despite the 4K resolution, the image quality isn't significantly different from that of HD models due to the camera's focus distance. At $169 for the non-AI version, it represents fantastic value for anyone seeking high-quality bird footage. The AI-enabled model or subscription adds features that bird enthusiasts will appreciate.
Kiwibit Beako Smart Bird Feeder: price and availability
Available now for $269 with AI recognition or $249 without AI – look out for discounts
Available at Amazon US and Kiwibit.com
Kiwibit Plus subscription (£3.99/month or £9.99/month for unlimited devices) unlocks extended features
The Kiwibit Beako Smart Bird Feeder is currently only available in the US from Kiwibit.com and Amazon US – I will update this review should it land in the UK and / or Australia. It comes at two price points: the Chestnut Brown roof version costs $269 and includes AI bird identification, while the Forest Green roof version costs $249 without AI by default, although the AI feature can be activated. At the time of writing, the Beako is on sale for $239 and $169 respectively at the Kiwibit website.
I tested the Forest Green model with AI added. The feeder comes with a wall mount bracket, a strap, and a pole mount in the box.
The optional Kiwibit Plus subscription (£3.99/month, or £9.99/month for multiple feeders) unlocks 60-day cloud storage, smart notifications identifying bird species, custom alert zones, up to 3-minute recording time, and the squirrel alarm. Without a subscription, you receive free 1-day cloud storage and can utilise a microSD card for local storage. To get the most out of the feeder, the £3.99 monthly subscription is worthwhile if you're serious about bird watching, but the standard version with an SD card is sufficient for casual use.
Kiwibit Beako Smart Bird Feeder: specs
Bird Buddy Smart Bird Feeder Pro specs
Sensor
Unknown
Photo
8MP - 130 degree FOV
Video
4K
Memory
Micro SD or online via subscription
Dimensions
222mm(W) x 280mm(H) x 181mm(D)
Weight
1,450g
Battery
5,200 mAh rechargeable lithium ion
Kiwibit Beako Smart Bird Feeder: design
Compact all-in-one design with dual seed hopper (1.5L capacity)
Removable battery and built-in USB-C charging
Green color blends well with natural surroundings, multiple mounting options included
Setting up the Kiwibit Beako Smart Bird Feeder was straightforward. The instructions are clear, and the whole process - from unpacking to having the feeder mounted and paired with my phone - took less than ten minutes. The app setup follows a familiar pattern similar to that of other smart home devices, so if you've installed a video doorbell or security camera before, you'll feel right at home.
The feeder comes with multiple mounting options in the box - a strap for trees, a wall mount bracket, and a pole mount bracket that allows the feeder to sit on top of a post. This flexibility is welcome, as it means you can position the feeder wherever works best for your garden layout and Wi-Fi coverage. I used the wall mount bracket with the strap to secure it to a tree, which worked perfectly.
The green color is attractive and blends well with the garden surroundings, and the Chestnut Brown roof on the AI-enabled model also looks natural. Both color schemes work well outdoors, though some additional bolder color options would be welcome for those wanting to mount the feeder on a wall or make it a more feature piece.
The feeder itself is made from sturdy plastic and for my tests has weathered several months outdoors without any visible deterioration. The Beako was positioned about 15 metres from my Wi-Fi router with a clear line of sight through a window, and connectivity has been solid throughout.
The seed hopper is one of the Beako's best design features. The removable hopper makes filling and cleaning straightforward, and the adjustable flow control is a particularly neat touch, allowing you to control how quickly the seed dispenses into the tray. This has been genuinely useful for managing seed waste, especially when squirrels are raiding the feeder.
The seed tray is also removable, making cleaning simple without needing to take the feeder down or awkwardly clean it in situ. This is a thoughtful design detail that makes regular maintenance much easier. However, my only criticism is that the seed tray itself could be slightly deeper, as it would help contain seeds better when squirrels are moving around; it would prevent quite so much spillage over the edge.
The included perch is necessary for most garden birds, and those that have visited have appeared to be comfortable using it. However, I think both this and similar feeders would benefit from a slightly larger perch positioned a bit further from the tray, which would allow larger birds to be completely in focus when the camera captures them.
(Image credit: Future)
One of the cleverest design features is the removable battery. Rather than having to take down the entire camera unit for charging, there's a hatch at the bottom of the feeder that allows you to simply pop out the battery. This is far more convenient than systems that require the camera to be removed entirely.
Access to the charging port and SD card slot is well thought out, too, with a silicone cover to maintain the IP65 weather resistance. The solar panel connects easily and, with proper positioning, it provides enough trickle charge even on cloudy days, so you shouldn't need to remove the battery for charging at all.
If you've followed my previous bird feeder reviews, such as the Bird Buddy, you'll know I have ongoing squirrel issues. The Beako includes an alarm feature that can be set to activate automatically when squirrels are detected, but I found it completely ineffective as a deterrent. The squirrels quickly got used to the noise and realised it was just that - noise - with no actual consequences. Given how frequently they visited, I turned the alarm off as it would have started to annoy my neighbours or anyone enjoying their garden nearby, and it also obviously decreases battery life. This isn't solely a Beako issue, but is common to all feeders I've tested that include audible deterrents. The good news is that the housing itself has held up remarkably well despite being scratched and tested by persistent squirrels over several months.
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(Image credit: Future)
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Kiwibit Beako Smart Bird Feeder: performance
4K video quality could be improved with a larger perch
8MP photos are heavily cropped
Impressively accurate bird detection
The image quality from the 4K camera should in theory be better than that of the competition, most of which is limited to lower resolution 1080p. That extra detail is particularly noticeable in the background of the video, especially in good lighting conditions. However, it is limited by the minimum focus distance of the lens, which means that any bird closer than the furthest rung of the perch will be slightly out of focus.
There is also some chromatic aberration visible around high-contrast edges in bright sunshine. When birds are in focus and well-lit, the video is of good quality. However, depending on how you view your image, you may not notice much difference compared to an HD camera.
However, it is important to establish realistic expectations. The camera sensor is still relatively small, comparable to that of a smartphone camera, so good lighting remains necessary for optimal results. As light levels drop around dawn and dusk, shadow detail fades away and image quality deteriorates. However, this is common for cameras of this size and type rather than a specific failing of the Beako.
For those who want to make the most of 4K resolution, you can view images on larger screens thanks to the Micro SD card and the ability to connect to Alexa for viewing on a television.
Still images of the birds from the app are cropped to show just the bird in the picture, which means they are far short of the maximum 8MP quality. This is where a portrait-oriented camera comes into play, and why some of the best quality bird images has come from the BirdBuddy Smart Birdfeeder Pro.
The bird identification AI is impressively accurate. Based on my testing, I estimate that around nine out of ten identifications are correct, with the system recognizing up to 10,000 different bird species. There's a helpful link to Wikipedia summaries for each detected bird, and you can track visit frequencies with a calendar view. Images and videos can be shared directly, and you can share camera access via a link, allowing friends and family to watch the live feed remotely.
Notifications arrive promptly - usually fast enough that I could look out the window and still see the bird at the feeder. I did have to disable squirrel notifications as they became overwhelmingly frequent, but it's good that this level of control is available.
Battery life is good, thanks to the large 5200 mAh rechargeable lithium-ion battery, and I found it lasted around a week or more between charges. However, as mentioned, if you find a good spot to mount the solar panel, you may never need to charge your battery, even in the winter months.
After several months of outdoor use, the Beako continues to perform perfectly, having withstood rain, and bright sunshine without any issues.
Video and photo samples
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Should you buy the Kiwibit Beako Smart Bird Feeder?
Buy it if...
You want an automated nuisance animal deterrent
Although our test squirrels quickly got used to the alarm of the Kiwibit Beako, you may have more luck depending on the creatures you are trying to deter. Having the alarm go off automatically could be a great feature if you are far from your neighbors..
You want an easy-to-maintain feeder
The removable battery with built-in USB-C charging, removable seed hopper with flow control, and removable seed tray make the Beako one of the most practical feeders to maintain. If you're looking for a feeder that's genuinely easy to refill, clean, and charge, this is an excellent choice.
You want flexibility
The two-model approach (with and without AI) allows you to start at $169 and add AI identification later if desired, or opt for the AI-enabled version directly. This flexibility makes it accessible whether you're a serious birder or just curious about garden visitors.
Don't buy it if...
You want a statement feeder
Both the Forest Green and Chestnut Brown color schemes are designed to blend naturally into outdoor settings. If you want a feeder that's a vibrant talking point or garden feature, there are more eye-catching options available.
You want the best photos
With the downloadable images being crops that focus tightly on the birds, the images from the Kiwibit Beako don't match the 8MP resolution.
You want to buy accessories
There are currently no optional extras for the Kiwibit Beako. Other feeders have water feeders or fruit holders to attract different types of a birds and animals
How I tested the Kiwibit Beako Smart Bird Feeder
I hung the feeder in a tree for 4 months
It was connected to my home Wi-Fi
I monitored the visiting birds daily via the Kiwibit app
I tested the Kiwkibit Beako bird feeder by hanging it from a tree in my garden that birds (and squirrels) regularly visit. The feeder was strapped to the tree, and the camera was set up using an iPhone and the Kiwibit app.
I live in the UK and left the feeder up there for the warm from June and into stormy weather come October. I didn't test it in freezing conditions. During my time with the feeder, I monitored the birds visiting via the app in real-time and reviewed photos and videos that had been captured.
I have also looked at AI recognition and the various capabilities of the app.
Real-time chat is as important in the business world as it is in our personal lives. It enables information to flow smoothly within organizations, as colleagues can communicate with each other quickly when needed. Save for real-time chat, colleagues can also hold group video and audio calls to share ideas and receive feedback.
Google Chat is a real-time communication platform geared for business use. Its features facilitate effective collaboration among employees, and Google Chat is used by many companies worldwide.
However, what are Google Chat’s key features and what features are missing? How does it compare to its main rivals? I tested Google Chat extensively to help you answer these questions. Read to learn what Google Chat offers and how it compares against competitors, and then you can decide if it’s the best choice for your business.
(Image credit: Google)
Google Chat: Plans and pricing
Google Chat isn’t a standalone solution. Instead, the business version is offered as part of a Google Workspace subscription, which includes Chat and many other business tools.
Google Chat also has a free version for personal use. This version enables real-time communication between individuals but lacks the collaborative features offered in the business version.
There are three Google Workspace plans: Starter, Standard, and Plus. The Starter plan costs $6 per user per month, the Standard plan costs $14 per user per month, and the Plus plan costs $22 per user per month.
There’s not much difference in the three Workspace plans regarding Google Chat’s core functionalities. The differences are pronounced in other areas, including storage space, AI features, and videoconferencing, but Google Chat’s core features remain the same. For example, the Starter plan provides 30 GB of storage per user, while the Standard plan increases this to 2 TB, and the Plus plan increases it to 5 TB.
There’s an Enterprise Plus plan available to large organizations, but it does not have standard pricing. It’s reserved for large companies (usually 500+ employees) who want to negotiate custom deals with Google’s sales team.
Google offers a 14-day free trial for its Workspace plans. You can use this free trial to test the features before making your final decision. Google doesn’t have a precise refund policy, so ensure you’re comfortable with your plan before making a payment. A refund is possible, but it’ll take hectic back-and-forth conversations.
Google Chat: Features
Real-time chat is the core feature of Google Chat, as the name implies. It enables employees to chat and share important information, much like friends and family do through instant messaging apps.
Like typical instant messaging apps, Google Chat supports both individual chats and group chats. Users can create chat rooms called Spaces and collaborate, share files, and assign tasks to each other. Google Chat supports threaded replies, which makes it easy to keep up with a conversation.
By default, your chats are stored for 24 hours, but you can enable chat history to save them for up to 30 days. The storage time can be longer if you’re subscribed to the Plus plan, which unlocks Google Vault, a data retention service. You can set chats to be stored for your desired period on Google Vault, e.g., 180 or 365 days.
You can search through your chat conversations in detail, helped by Google’s powerful search algorithms. Google is best known as a search engine, so it’s no surprise that Google Chat incorporates a powerful search algorithm. In my observation, it’s much easier to search for specific information from your Google Chat history compared to other chat apps.
This feature may seem trivial, but I almost didn’t expect Google Chat to have read receipts, like typical messaging apps. I’m glad I encountered this feature, which let me know when recipients had read my messages.
Many business messaging apps purposely don't have read receipts, with the rationale that it creates pressure to respond immediately and can be a privacy intrusion. I understand this rationale, but I also find read receipts useful sometimes. However, I didn’t like the fact that Google Chat doesn’t allow users to turn off read receipts; I think users who aren’t comfortable with read receipts should have the option to do so.
You’ll be pleased to know that Google Chat offers much more than chat, thanks to its integration with other Google tools.
If your business is subscribed to Google Workspace, employees will have access to various Google tools, including Gmail, Google Meet, Docs, Slides, and more. It’s the integration with these tools that separates Google Chat from the competition.
For instance, I appreciated that I could initiate chat sessions directly from the Gmail dashboard, rather than having to open a separate Google Chat tab every time. An employee could be scrolling through their emails and notice an important piece of information to share with a colleague. In that case, they can quickly open the chat interface on the same Gmail dashboard and message the colleague.
Google Docs is another helpful integration. When employees are editing documents on Google Docs, they can open Google Chat on the same page and communicate with each other. This way, everyone working on the same document can share their ideas and suggest changes. There’s no need to juggle separate dashboards for document editing and real-time chat; Google delivers both on the same dashboard.
(Image credit: Google)
The above integration also applies to Google Sheets, which employees use to create spreadsheets. When multiple people are working on the same spreadsheet, they can use Google Chat to communicate without needing to open a separate tab.
Google Chat can be integrated with Google Calendar, which employees use for scheduling meetings and other events. Thanks to this integration, I could create and share calendar invites right on Google Chat. I also got automatic notifications in Google Chat whenever someone added a new event to the shared calendar.
The Google Drive integration lets users share files directly within chats. If you’ve previously uploaded the file on Google Drive, you can search for it and share it with a colleague, reducing the friction involved in sharing corporate files.
Earlier, when discussing the Spaces (group chat) functionality, I mentioned an example of colleagues assigning tasks to themselves. Google Chat is integrated with Google Tasks, which makes this process seamless. You can create a task directly within the chat menu and assign it to someone; the person will be immediately notified, and the task will be added to their dashboard.
A key feature I haven’t yet touched on is the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into Google Chat. AI is rapidly advancing in the technology industry, and Google is one of the companies leading the charge in the AI race. It operates Gemini, a generative AI chatbot that has been integrated into various Google tools, including Chat.
Gemini helped me compose messages when using Google Chat, and I particularly liked its quick reply suggestions. Whenever someone sent a routine message, Gemini suggested several replies, which I could easily pick from. The chatbot also suggests the next words and phrases as you type a message.
I’m not suggesting depending entirely on Gemini when chatting, as it has some flaws, but it saves significant time you would have spent typing mundane responses and thinking of what to write next.
Notably, Google Chat isn’t only integrated with Google tools. It’s integrated with many third-party apps, and you can access these integrations on the Google Workspace app marketplace.
For example, businesses can integrate Google Chat with Jira, a popular project tracking and management platform. With this integration, employees can receive Google Chat notifications about any changes made on Jira. Suppose the due date for a Jira task changes; the people assigned to that task will be notified via Google Chat. This is just an example of many valuable integrations I tested on Google Chat.
(Image credit: Google)
Google Chat: Interface and in use
I’ve tested many Google tools, and user-friendliness is a criterion where they perform excellently. Google Chat is no exception. It has a simple interface that I think anyone can find easy to navigate. It doesn’t take much to get used to the interface, thanks to its neat arrangement of features and the use of minimal colors that make navigation easy.
Google Chat’s intuitive interface is in contrast to some business messaging apps I’ve reviewed. While these apps offer more functionalities, their interfaces are often cluttered and require more time to get used to. Google Chat stands out by not having a steep learning curve.
Google Chat is accessible from your web browser or mobile app. Employees can access all features conveniently from their web browser or download the mobile app to chat on the go.
A drawback is that Google Chat lacks a desktop app, unlike some of its rivals. For example, Slack offers a desktop app that I enjoyed using even more than the web version.
Google Chat: Support
Google Chat has decent customer support. If you’re on the free, personal tier, there’s no direct support from Google’s team, but you can consult Google’s Help Center to troubleshoot issues. The Help Center contains user guides and manuals to troubleshoot all Google Chat features.
If you’re a paid Google Workspace subscriber, you can get direct help from Google’s support team. The team is available via email, live chat, or telephone and provides help to resolve problems that you can’t solve yourself.
On the bright side, Google Chat has a user-friendly interface that didn’t give me problems to resolve in the first place. The few hiccups I faced were related to learning how to use some features, and I quickly resolved them via the Help Center.
Google Chat: The competition
Slack and Microsoft Teams are the two main competitors to Google Chat that I’d like to highlight.
Slack is a versatile communication tool with many functionalities. It has an interactive and smooth workflow that makes business messaging enjoyable. It’s highly customizable, for example, by allowing users to receive notifications when someone mentions a specific keyword in a group chat. It has advanced search functionalities similar to what’s available on Google Chat.
I wouldn’t say there’s a clear better choice between Slack and Google Chat; it depends more on your needs. Slack is ideal for large companies due to its extensive customizability and third-party integrations. Google Chat is ideal for smaller companies needing a simple solution or for companies already subscribed to Google Workspace that don’t want to pay extra for a communication tool.
Microsoft Teams isn’t a standalone chat app, but rather one that combines Chat and many other functionalities. It’s similar to having a Google Workspace subscription that unlocks access to many features, including chat, document editing, file storage, and videoconferencing.
Microsoft Teams offers more features and has better customizability than Google Workspace. Regarding chat, Google is a streamlined, lightweight option, while Microsoft provides more advanced features for large organizations.
However, Google Workspace beats Microsoft in user-friendliness. I found it far simpler to navigate than Microsoft Teams, which has a steep learning curve. If you choose Microsoft Teams, expect employees to spend more time getting used to its features.
Google Chat: Final verdict
I recommend Google Chat for companies that already use Google services and need a simple chat tool for employees. The seamless integration with other Google apps makes Google Chat a wise choice in this case.
However, I don’t think Google Chat offers much as a standalone alternative against rivals like Slack. If you’re adopting Google Chat, it should be because you’re adopting the whole Google Workspace ecosystem, not just the chat tool.
For a long time, Microsoft Excel has been synonymous with the idea of spreadsheets, owing to its status as the best spreadsheet software. You’d think Microsoft Excel invented spreadsheets, but that’s not the case. The first spreadsheet program was developed several years before Excel.
Excel’s dominance has spawned many competitors seeking to eat into its market share. Google Sheets is one of the leading competitors and, as the name implies, is offered by Google, the company best known for running the most popular search engine.
Google Sheets is a formidable Excel rival designed with a focus on collaboration. It works primarily online, enabling multiple people to collaborate on the same spreadsheet. It has a free tier and paid business plans with advanced features.
I extensively tested Google Sheets so that you don’t have to go through the same stress. This review dives into Google Sheets’ features, pros, cons, and how it fares against Excel and other rivals. Read on to learn what Google Sheets offers and whether it’s the best choice for your business.
(Image credit: Google)
Google Sheets: Plans and pricing
Google Sheets has free and paid plans. The free plan is notably versatile, although the paid Workspace plans come with extra features. On the free plan, you can edit documents together with other users and access all core Google Sheets features. The free tier’s drawback is that the collaborative features are limited, and it lacks the extensive integration with other Google tools.
Google Workspace has three plans: Starter, Standard, and Plus. At $7 per user per month, the Starter plan unlocks 30 GB of storage for each corporate account and Gemini, Google’s advanced artificial intelligence (AI) assistant. However, Gemini isn’t integrated directly with Google Sheets on this plan; you have to use it as a separate app.
At $14 per user per month, the Standard plan unlocks a sizable 2 TB of storage per corporate account and direct integration with Gemini. On this plan, you can use Gemini directly on Google Sheets, for example, by asking it to create visualizations with the data on your spreadsheet. Gemini adds much more resourcefulness to Google Sheets, which we’ll dive into later.
At $22 per user per month, the Plus plan unlocks 5 TB of storage per account and the same integration with Gemini as the Standard plan. The storage allowance is important because spreadsheets can get voluminous, and so can other files from other Google services, such as videos, photos, and text documents, which also share the same storage space.
With 2 TB to 5 TB of storage on the Standard and Plus plans, respectively, there’s ample space to store many spreadsheets and other essential corporate files. The Starter plan has a lower 30 GB storage allocation, but it can work well for small to medium-sized businesses if managed well.
Notably, there’s an Enterprise Plus plan targeted at large organizations, usually 500+ employees. This plan has no standard pricing. If you represent such an organization, you can contact Google’s sales team to directly negotiate a sales deal.
Google offers a 14-day free trial for its Workspace plans. The free version of Google Sheets also lets you test the features before making a payment.
Google Sheets: Features
If you’ve used Microsoft Excel or other spreadsheet tools, you wouldn’t have issues adjusting to Google Sheets. It has similar mathematical functions and advanced formulas for manipulating data. You can visualize data with charts and graphs, and with the help of the Gemini AI assistant if you’re subscribed to the Standard plan or higher.
Before diving deeper into Google Sheets’ features, it’s crucial to point out its competitive edge: collaboration. Google Sheets was late to the spreadsheet software market, having launched in 2006, compared to Microsoft Excel, which launched way back in 1985 and cemented itself as the go-to spreadsheet software provider.
To compete with Excel, Google tuned its focus to collaboration and shared editing. It made the process of collaborative editing as seamless as possible. Many people can collaborate on the same spreadsheet and monitor each other’s changes.
The owner of a spreadsheet document can invite collaborators and control their access to the document (Viewer, Commenter, or Editor). A Viewer can only scroll through and monitor the changes made on a spreadsheet.
A Commenter can’t implement changes, but they can leave comments on specific parts and suggest changes. For example, they can suggest changing a figure, and the suggestion will be highlighted for the document owner. If the document owner agrees with the suggestion, they can click on “Accept” and implement it with a single click.
Alternatively, the document owner can reject a suggestion from a Commenter. The document owner can accept or reject each suggestion individually, or accept or reject all suggestions at once.
Editors have the same rights as a document owner. They can implement changes without the original owner's prior approval. Google Sheets logs the changes made by every user, so collaborators can always know when and which user implemented specific changes.
You might wonder, “What if an editor makes a change I’m not comfortable with? Can I revert?” Yes, you can quickly resolve this issue with the Version History feature.
Google Sheets automatically saves each version of a document at different points in time. Hence, you can view past edits and restore previous versions of a document. For example, if you don’t like the changes someone made yesterday to a shared document, you can revert the document entirely to the version made the day before yesterday.
(Image credit: Google)
The Version History feature maintains the integrity of shared documents. It incentivizes accountability from each collaborator, knowing that any change they make can be traced back to them and reverted if needed.
I’ve discussed the collaborative features, but Google Sheets also offers much more. A noteworthy feature is the integration with Gemini, the Google AI assistant unveiled in 2024.
Gemini is a valuable AI assistant that’s similar to the popular ChatGPT. In this case, Gemini is integrated directly with Google Sheets, so you can ask it to perform tasks on your spreadsheet. For example, if you have a spreadsheet listing the salaries of all employees in your organization, you can tell Gemini to calculate the average and median salary from the data. You can also ask it to visualize the salaries in a chart, enabling you to know which teams or levels the salaries are skewed towards.
Gemini has endless more applications. It can create templates for various spreadsheets, generate summaries of spreadsheet data, write formulas for specific calculations, and extract insights from raw data. Gemini cut down the time I would have spent manually handling tasks, and it made using Google Sheets much more convenient.
In this era, a tool like Gemini might seem common, but it wasn’t the case as recently as five years ago. The AI boom, kick-started by ChatGPT in late 2022, has brought many benefits in a relatively short time. Though Google Sheets has many upsides, Gemini was my main highlight. The drawback is that direct Gemini integration is only available on the Standard plan or upwards.
As mentioned, Google Sheets has similar built-in mathematical functions and advanced formulas as Excel. You can apply these formulas to your spreadsheet data and extract insights. If you have an existing spreadsheet made with Excel, you can upload it to Google Sheets and share it with colleagues for collaborative editing.
However, I noticed a flaw when working with Google Sheets. It often slowed down when working with vast spreadsheets, think thousands of columns and rows. The same also occurred when running complex formulas or third-party add-ons to manipulate the spreadsheet data.
However, “slow” is relative. When working with these large datasets, Google Sheets was still very much usable, but it wasn’t as lightning-fast as when working with smaller datasets.
Google Sheets mainly works online, although it has an offline mode that lets you edit spreadsheets without an internet connection. The dilemma is that you need an internet connection to open the spreadsheet in the first place. Another issue is that the collaborative features can’t work without an internet connection, defeating the main benefit of using Google Sheets. The offline version is very limited; Google Sheets is built for collaborative use with an active internet connection.
(Image credit: Google)
Google Sheets: Interface and in-use
Google Sheets is an intuitive tool that I had no complaints about using. The interface is arranged neatly, making it easy to find the features you need at a specific time. It’s like a typical spreadsheet, with the formatting features at the top and the body below.
When multiple users work on the same tool, you’ll see an icon representing each account currently working on the document. Each account has a unique highlight market, and you can easily monitor every user’s changes.
A slight hiccup is that Google Sheets has a steep learning curve, especially on the keyboard shortcuts, but that’s a general characteristic of spreadsheet tools and not limited to Google.
You can access Google Sheets on your web browser or download the mobile app for Android or iOS. Either way, Google Sheets offers a smooth interface that you can easily familiarize yourself with.
Google Sheets: Support
Google provides sufficient support to Google Sheets users. Its Help Center contains abundant informative resources, including user guides, tips, and tutorials. If you’re new to Google Sheets and need help in familiarizing yourself with its features, this Help Center is the go-to resource because it offers extensive assistance for free.
If you’re a paid Google Workspace subscriber, you can get direct help from Google’s team via email, live chat, or telephone. Support is available 24/7, expectedly for a company as large as Google with global customers.
The good thing is that Google Sheets is a well-designed, user-friendly app, so it wouldn’t give many problems in the first place. The little issues I encountered were in learning how to use key features, but I resolved them via the Help Center. Google Sheets’ numerous features constitute a steep learning curve, so expect some time to get used to its ins and outs.
Google Sheets: The competition
Microsoft Excel is undeniably the main competitor to Google Sheets. Whenever people hear about spreadsheets, Excel is the first platform that comes to mind, and Google Sheets is often an afterthought, but it has some pros compared to Excel.
Google Sheets is cloud-based and highly leans towards collaboration. It’s much easier for multiple people to work on the same document on Google Sheets than on Excel.
Another benefit is that Google provides a completely free version of Google Sheets that includes all core features, unlike the free version of Excel, which has very limited features compared to Excel's full capabilities.
That said, Google Sheets isn’t as advanced as Excel when it comes to analyzing complex, vast datasets. It doesn’t have as many formulas and third-party add-ons to analyze massive datasets. As I mentioned earlier, Google Sheets also often slows down when working with huge datasets, while Microsoft Excel handles these datasets more smoothly.
In summary, Google Sheets excels more (no pun intended) in collaboration and accessibility, while Excel outshines Google Sheets in data analysis and computations.
Google Sheets: Final verdict
Google Sheets has its benefits and drawbacks. If you need a tool that enables seamless collaboration when editing everyday corporate spreadsheets, Google Sheets is a perfect choice. It’s intuitive, easily accessible, and has the typical features you’ll expect in a spreadsheet.
On the other hand, if you need a tool to analyze massive and complex spreadsheets, Google Sheets may not be the best choice. Though advanced, it’s not as sophisticated as Microsoft Excel. Google Sheets’ biggest strength lies in collaborative, real-time editing.
PowerPoint has been the go-to presentation software for decades, but competition has gradually eaten into its market share, although PowerPoint remains dominant.
Google Slides is one of the main competitors that are grabbing some market share from PowerPoint. It’s a cloud-based presentation software whose strengths lie in collaboration, an intuitive interface, and advanced features.
Google Slides is a formidable PowerPoint competitor, but is it the best presentation software for you? I tested the app extensively to help you answer this question. Read on to learn about Google Slides’ features, pros, cons, and how it fares against PowerPoint and other rivals.
(Image credit: Google)
Google Slides: Plans and pricing
Like most Google tools, Slides has a free version available to anyone with a Google account. This free version gives you access to the core presentation creation features. However, storage is limited to 15 GB, and the free plan doesn’t offer advanced collaborative features that the paid plan does.
The paid version of Google Slides isn’t a standalone subscription. Rather, it’s offered as part of a Google Workspace subscription, which includes Slides, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and many other tools. A Google Workspace subscription gives you access to numerous tools that help your business run smoothly; Slides is one of these tools.
You can choose from one of three Google Workspace plans: Starter, Standard, and Plus. The Starter plan costs $7 per user per month and unlocks 30 GB of storage for each account. It also unlocks access to Gemini, Google’s artificial intelligence chatbot, which assists you in creating the best presentations on Google Slides. However, you can only use Gemini as a separate app on this plan; it’s not directly integrated with Google Slides.
The Standard plan costs $7 per user per month. It provides a sizable 2 TB of storage for each corporate account, enough to store a massive volume of presentations made on Google Slides. The Standard plan unlocks direct Gemini integration with Google Slides. Instead of using Gemini as a separate app, you can interact with it directly on your Google Slides dashboard, which is more convenient than constantly switching between Slides and Gemini tabs.
The Plus plan costs $22 per user per month. It unlocks a whopping 5 TB of storage per account, which covers presentations and other files created with Google apps. Like the Standard plan, it includes Gemini integration, which enables you to ask the AI assistant for direct help when creating presentations. For example, you can ask Gemini to create a presentation template or give you ideas for what to include in your presentation.
There’s also an Enterprise Plus plan, albeit reserved for large corporations. This plan has no standard pricing, so interested companies have to contact Google’s sales team to negotiate a deal. It has the most advanced security features, making it ideal for large corporations (think 500+ employees) with high security needs.
Each Google Workspace plan includes a 14-day free trial, which you can leverage to test the features before making your final decision. The free version of Google Slides, which includes access to the core features, also gives you a hint of what to expect on a paid plan.
Google Slides: Features
Google Slides offers tools that enable you to create visually appealing, informative presentations. If you’ve used PowerPoint, the interface feels very similar. You have access to dozens of pre-built templates covering various topics, which you can edit to create your presentations. Otherwise, you can start from scratch and add different elements (shapes, images, videos, text boxes, etc.) to create your presentation.
Collaboration is Google Slides’ main competitive edge. It makes it easy for multiple people to work together on the same presentation. Under Google Workspace, team members have access to Google Chat, so they can hold real-time conversations on the same dashboard as they create presentations.
Team members can leave comments on specific parts of a presentation, for example, to recommend new information to add. They can also directly suggest changes, and the document owner can decide whether to accept or reject their suggestions. If a suggestion is accepted, it’ll be automatically implemented.
When multiple people work on the same presentation, each person will have a unique icon displayed at the top. These icons let others know who is currently on the same presentation document. Each person will also have a live pointer indicating where their cursor is positioned on the presentation.
You might be wondering who controls access to a presentation during collaborative editing. The answer is you, or the person who created the presentation originally. As a document owner, you decide how to share a document and what others can do with it. When sharing a presentation, you can set one of three permissions for other users: Viewer, Commenter, or Editor.
As the name implies, a Viewer can only view a presentation and monitor the editing process, but they can’t comment or suggest their own edits. A Commenter can leave comments or suggestions for the document owner; it’s up to the owner to accept or reject the suggestions.
In contrast, an Editor has the same permissions as the document owner. They can directly make changes without the owner’s prior approval. These precise permission levels let you assign different roles to people working on the same presentation. For example, you can assign a colleague as an Editor and your supervisor as a Commenter. The colleague can make direct changes, and the Supervisor can suggest ideas without making direct changes.
I liked the Version History feature, which let users restore previous versions of a document if the current one isn’t ideal. For example, when someone edited a presentation in a way I didn’t like, I quickly reverted to a previous version that existed before their edits.
As collaborators edit a document, Google stores each version at different time instants. On the Version History menu, you can view all the previously stored versions and restore any of them. With the Version History feature, you’re confident that any accidental mistakes can be undone. This feature also fosters accountability among collaborators, as everyone knows their changes can be tracked and undone if needed.
(Image credit: Google)
Gemini integration was a major highlight when using Google Slides. I used Gemini in many ways that made creating presentations more fun and convenient. For example, I used Gemini to generate images for presentations. The images weren’t always the best (some looked too unnatural), but they were suitable for use in real presentations.
I instructed Gemini to provide ideas for new presentation slides, and it excelled at this task. It gave valuable ideas and helped me rewrite or generate new text when needed. However, Gemini isn’t perfect. Its text often sounded robotic, requiring further editing to make it sound human-like.
Other ways you can use Gemini include asking it to summarize existing presentations or creating templates for a unique topic you’re about to present. The drawback is that direct Gemini integration is only available on the Standard plan or above. If you’re subscribed to the Starter plan, you can use Gemini as a separate app but not directly in Google Slides, which is less convenient. Gemini isn’t available on the free Google Slides plan.
Google Slides has a wide range of pre-made templates. You can use these templates as the foundation of your presentations instead of creating them from scratch. The pre-built templates cover everything from status reports to case studies, project wireframes, book reports, and many more.
If you don’t find a suitable template in Google’s pre-built library, you can create your own and reuse it many times. As I mentioned earlier, Gemini provides valuable help in creating your templates.
I liked Google Slides’ versatility regarding presentation files. You can upload files created on rival platforms, such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Canva, and edit them on Google Slides.
For example, you may have created a presentation with PowerPoint but need others to help you refine it. In that case, you can upload the PowerPoint file to Google Slides, then take advantage of the collaborative features to edit it together with your colleagues. Note that you may observe some formatting inconsistencies after importing presentations from other apps, but you can easily correct them.
Although it’s primarily built for online use, Google Slides has an offline mode where you can edit a presentation without an internet connection. Once your internet connection returns, every change made offline automatically syncs online.
Google Slides has a network of third-party add-ons that provide extra functionality, from translation to custom fonts, stock images, icons, and more. All in, Google Slides is a reliable presentation platform with many valuable features. If you need a tool for employees to collaboratively create and edit presentations, it’s the go-to choice. Google Slides outshines most competitors in collaborativeness and intuitiveness.
(Image credit: Google)
Google Slides: Interface and in use
It may just be my personal observation, but Google tools usually excel in user-friendliness. Google Slides is one of the most intuitive tools I’ve used. Its interface is easy to grasp even for first-time users.
If you’ve used any presentation software before, Google Slides feels very similar. The homepage displays some templates and a button to begin a new presentation, as well as previews of the presentations you’ve previously created. When you tap the button to create a presentation, you’ll be taken to the main page where you can begin working on it.
With formatting options and other features arranged neatly at the top and the main body below, Google Slides is as easy to grasp as it gets. However, some complex features may require time to get used to.
Google Slides: Support
Google Slides users have access to significant support resources. When facing issues, the first place to consult is the Slides section of the Google Workspace Learning Center. This section includes detailed user guides, cheat sheets, and manuals for troubleshooting issues. It also includes tips for creating and sharing the best presentations.
The Learning Center has extensive details and is sufficient to solve most issues. But if you need further help as a Google Workspace subscriber, you can contact Google’s support team via email, live chat, or telephone. Free-tier users don’t have direct access to the support team, but the Learning Center provides ample resources to resolve issues.
Google Slides: The competition
PowerPoint and Canva are the two main Google Slides competitors I’d like to highlight. PowerPoint is the most widely used presentation software, and Google created the Slides app to grab a slice of PowerPoint’s market share.
Google Slides outshines PowerPoint in collaboration and accessibility. It’s a cloud-based tool that enables many people to work on the same presentation seamlessly. PowerPoint also has a cloud-based version that enables collaboration, but it doesn’t feel as seamless as using Google Slides.
However, PowerPoint outshines Google Slides with its advanced features and offline capabilities. If you want to create the most complex presentations full of rich visual elements, PowerPoint is a better choice. It has a broader collection of templates, visual elements, and add-ons that provide functionalities not natively available on PowerPoint.
Canva is similar to Google Slides as it emphasizes seamless collaboration and the ability to create visually appealing presentations. It’s a decent tool for creating presentations, but the drawback is the relative cost.
A Canva Teams subscription isn’t as economical as a Google Workspace subscription, considering that the latter gives you access to not just Slides but many other tools like Google Docs, Sheets, Meet, and more. In contrast, you’ll be paying only for a design tool with a Canva subscription, unlike Google Workspace that kills multiple birds with one stone.
Google Slides: Final verdict
Google Slides has its unique strengths and drawbacks, but it’s a presentation tool I’d recommend to anyone. It’s cost-effective, considering the other tools a Google Workspace subscription also unlocks, and enables seamless collaboration to create presentations. Google Slides might not be a PowerPoint killer, but it’s a reliable alternative for personal and business use.
Pineapple Builder is an AI-powered website creator that promises to generate professional business websites in minutes rather than hours. Founded by solopreneur Peter Kowalczyk, this platform targets small business owners, entrepreneurs, and freelancers who need an online presence but don't have the coding expertise.
TechRadar reviewers have spent hundreds of hours testing more than 80 website builders, from our best website builder pick Wix to niche solutions like Framer and Webflow.
Pineapple Builder stands apart for its AI-first approach, which carries on past the initial results. Once the AI is done building your site, you can rely on it again for design, content generation, and SEO. We don't think it's groundbreaking, but perhaps it's the modern equivalent of straightforward entry-level tools like Google Sites.
Pineapple Builder: 2-minute review
Pineapple Builder keeps it simple, delivering on its core promise of rapid website creation, generating functional business sites in under 5 minutes through its AI platform. It combines automated design with practical business features like SEO optimization, analytics, and mobile-responsive templates. You simply describe your business and its target audience, then watch as the platform creates a customized website complete with content and styling.
In many ways, Pineapple Builder feels like the AI-powered iteration of simple no-code builders like Google Sites and Weebly. While it doesn't match the template variety of established players like Wix or Squarespace, it can potentially carve out a niche as a fast website builder for busy professionals. Its pricing starts competitively at $15/month, with features like unlimited pages, custom domains, and widget integrations.
What is Pineapple Builder?
Pineapple Builder is an AI-powered website creation platform designed for businesses, freelancers, and professionals who need to establish an online presence quickly. Think of it as having a personal web designer, copywriter, and developer all rolled into one AI assistant that works at lightning speed.
Instead of spending weeks learning the ropes of an advanced no-code platform like Bubble or Webflow, you can simply tell the platform about your business so it automatically generates a complete website tailored to your industry and goals.
Pineapple eliminates the traditional complexities of website building by using AI to handle all the technical aspects automatically. You don't need to understand coding, web hosting, or search engine optimization. What you get is a professional-looking website that includes everything from branded design elements to search-optimized content, even if some of the customization choices are pretty barebones.
Features
(Image credit: Pineapple Builder)
Pineapple Builder offers a suite of AI-powered features to simplify the website creation and management process. It creates customized business sites from simple descriptions, offering access to over 10 million template variations across 7 design styles. Beyond basic site creation, you also get built-in SEO optimization, AI-powered copywriting assistance, mobile-responsive designs, SSL certificates, and integrated hosting.
The AI SEO assistant automatically optimizes site structure, content, and metadata for search engines, while the drag-and-drop editor with AI assistance makes customization intuitive. Integration capabilities include popular tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and various payment processors, plus support for widgets, forms, and newsletter subscriptions.
Plus, the platform also includes multilingual support for 99+ languages and a built-in blogging system with AI-powered content generation. It will appeal to small business owners, startups, and freelancers, but has limited scalability for growing organizations or high-end professionals.
Pricing appears reasonable given the feature set, with plans starting at $15/month. You get unlimited pages, custom domain, and core business features. For users prioritizing speed and simplicity over extensive customization options, we think the feature-to-price ratio represents solid value overall.
Tools
(Image credit: Pineapple Builder)
Pineapple Builder provides an integrated suite of AI-powered tools designed to handle every aspect of website creation and management from a single platform. These tools work together to eliminate the need for multiple separate services or technical expertise.
AI website generator
Pineapple's core AI website generation tool creates complete business websites from simple text descriptions, analyzing your input to select appropriate templates, colors, layouts, and content structure. It draws from over 10 million template variations to ensure each generated site feels unique and tailored to your industry and audience.
Copywriting assistant
The built-in AI copywriter generates website content, blog posts, and marketing copy that aligns with your business goals and brand voice. This tool helps users who struggle with writing by automatically creating SEO-optimized text that speaks directly to their target customers without any copywriting expertise.
SEO optimization suite
Pineapple Builder's AI SEO tools automatically optimize website structure, meta descriptions, headers, and content for search engine visibility. It handles technical SEO elements like site speed optimization, mobile responsiveness, and schema markup, ensuring your website meets modern search engine requirements without manual intervention.
Drag-and-drop editor
Their visual editor combines traditional drag-and-drop functionality with AI assistance, allowing users to customize layouts, add sections, and modify design elements intuitively. The AI provides real-time suggestions for improvements while maintaining design consistency and mobile compatibility across all changes.
Analytics and integration hub
Pineapple includes built-in analytics tools and seamless integrations with popular services like Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, payment processors, and email marketing platforms. This eliminates the complexity of managing multiple third-party connections while providing insights into website performance and visitor behavior.
Blogging platform
AI-powered blogging helps users create and manage content marketing efforts through automated blog post generation, SEO optimization, and content scheduling. While more basic than dedicated CMS platforms, it provides sufficient functionality for small businesses looking to establish thought leadership and improve search rankings.
Ease of use
(Image credit: Pineapple Builder)
Pineapple’s AI-powered website generation tool requires only basic business information to create fully functional sites, eliminating the traditional learning curve associated with website building. But while it gets the basics right, Pineapple does show several limitations in advanced customization compared to more established competitors like Wix or Squarespace.
Those searching for deep design control or complex functionality may find it very restrictive. And the AI blogging features remain basic compared to dedicated CMS tools, while some marketing integrations are only available on higher-tier plans.
Pricing
(Image credit: Pineapple Builder pricing)
Pineapple Builder offers a straightforward three-tier pricing structure designed to accommodate businesses at different stages of growth.
The platform starts with a free Starter plan that includes up to 3 pages and a Pineapple subdomain, making it perfect for testing the waters. The Basic plan costs $12 per month ($15 when billed monthly) for unlocking unlimited pages, custom domain support, badge removal, widgets, and code embeds—ideal for small businesses establishing their online presence.
The top-tier Grow plan at $24 per month adds blogging, advanced analytics, and enhanced membership features for up to 1,000 members.
This pricing structure represents solid value in the AI website builder market, particularly when considering the comprehensive feature set and AI automation capabilities included at each tier. While the Basic plan at $12/month is comparable to other business-focused builders, the inclusion of unlimited pages, AI copywriting tools, and SEO optimization makes it a compelling option despite the limited feature-set.
The free Starter plan offers genuine functionality rather than just a trial, allowing you to build and publish basic websites without any upfront investment. For businesses requiring features like blogging and detailed analytics, the Grow plan provides substantial value compared to paying for separate services for CMS functionality and SEO optimization.
Security
(Image credit: Pineapple Builder)
Pineapple Builder prioritizes website security through comprehensive protection measures built into every plan. All websites created on the platform automatically receive SSL certificates that ensure encrypted connections between users and websites, protecting sensitive data during transmission.
Also, the platform implements regular security updates and monitoring to safeguard against emerging threats, with automatic backup features that protect user content against data loss and allow restoration of previous site versions when needed.
Beyond basic security protocols, Pineapple Builder also maintains a secure hosting infrastructure and pushes out regular system updates that keep websites protected without user intervention.
Support
(Image credit: Pineapple Builder)
Pineapple Builder provides 24/7 customer support across all plans, including the free Starter tier, so users can access assistance whenever needed during their website building process. It includes multiple channels such as email, live chat, and a knowledge base designed to address both technical issues and general website building questions.
Support quality appears consistently high based on user feedback, with the team providing personalized guidance tailored to specific website needs and challenges rather than generic responses. The support extends beyond basic troubleshooting to include custom advice on design decisions, SEO optimization, and platform feature utilization, effectively serving as an extension of users' technical teams. Notably, even free plan users receive the same level of support access as paid subscribers, which is uncommon in the website builder space and demonstrates the company's commitment to user success regardless of plan tier.
However, users should note that while support is available 24/7, response times may vary depending on query complexity and current support volume. The platform's emphasis on AI automation means that many common issues are resolved automatically, but more complex customization requests may require escalation to technical specialists, potentially extending resolution timeframes.
Alternatives
Pineapple Builder competes with the best AI website builders rather than traditional drag-and-drop systems, positioning itself as an alternative to manual website creation for time-constrained entrepreneurs and small business owners.
Its main competitors include Squarespace as the overall market leader, Wix AI for AI-assisted building, Durable for comprehensive AI business solutions, and emerging players like Gamma, 10Web, and Butternut AI that focus on different aspects of automated website creation.
Pineapple Builder: Summary
Pineapple Builder delivers on its promise of rapid AI-powered website creation for business users, combining intelligent automation with practical features at competitive pricing. While it lacks the customization options of established competitors like Wix or Squarespace, its generous free plan with round-the-clock support is sure to be a draw for many users.
FAQs
How quickly can I build a website with Pineapple Builder?
Pineapple Builder can generate a complete business website in under 5 minutes using its AI technology. You simply provide a business description and target audience information. The AI creates a customized website with appropriate design, content, and SEO optimization.
Do I need coding experience to use Pineapple Builder?
Pineapple Builder is specifically designed for users without any coding background. It handles all technical aspects automatically, from hosting and SSL certificates to SEO optimization and mobile responsiveness.
Can I use my own custom domain with Pineapple Builder?
Yes, custom domains are supported on both the Basic ($12/month) and Grow ($24/month) plans, allowing you to use your own branded web address rather than a Pineapple subdomain. The free Starter plan includes only a Pineapple-branded subdomain (yoursite.pineapplebuilder.com), but upgrading to any paid plan enables custom domains.
What happens to my website if I cancel my subscription?
While the specific details of cancellation policies aren't explicitly covered on the website, you can contact Pineapple Builder's support team 24/7 for detailed information about data retention, export options, and grace periods before making any subscription changes.
How does Pineapple Builder compare to other AI website builders?
While platforms like Wix AI website builder offer broader customization options, Pineapple Builder specifically targets business users who need functional websites quickly rather than extensive design flexibility. It's also very competitively priced, with a generous free plan that offers quality support to reflect their commitment.
The OM-5 II is an affordable enthusiast camera that can turn its hand to just about any genre of photography. (Image credit: Rod Lawton)
What the OM System OM-5 II lacks in sensor and video specifications it makes up for with photographic features. If you want to go full-frame, or get a more powerful APS-C hybrid, then go for it; if you need these things, you need them. But if what you need is a small, affordable and supremely versatile camera that can follow you anywhere, then this is it.
What do you want to shoot? Landscapes? Nature? If you’re okay with 20MP, then the OM-5 II will do perfectly, thanks to its lightweight, hike-friendly size, weather sealing and rock-steady IBIS. Will you need to use any ND filters? The camera’s in-built Live ND can give you up to four stops longer exposures – perhaps not always enough, but it helps.
If you're into nature photography, and particularly macro work, you can use the in-built focus-stacking mode to keep your whole subject sharp, or focus bracketing if you want to merge the frames later in software.
Is the OM-5 II's high-res mode just a gimmick? I'm not convinced the 50MP handheld mode delivers a lot more detail, but I set this shot up to check the 80MP tripod mode... (Image credit: Rod Lawton)
Here's a zoomed-in comparison that shows the 80MP tripod mode (left) does offer significantly more detail than the regular 20MP version (right). (Image credit: Rod Lawton)
Fancy some night photography? Experts will insist you need the low noise of a full-frame sensor, but the OM-5 II does pretty well with a fast prime and its Starry Sky AF. While you’re at it, you can use the Live Bulb mode to see long exposures build on the screen in front of your eyes, or use the Live Composite mode to capture bonfires, fireworks or urban light trails, recording only ‘new light’ so that the image isn’t overexposed.
What about sports and wildlife? The OM-5 II is not a dedicated action camera, but it does pretty well, shooting at up to 10fps with AF and up to 30fps with focus locked on the first frame. It also has a Pro Capture mode, which offers a rolling buffer of 14 frames with the shutter button half pressed so you don’t miss the moment the action starts.
The OM-5 II has a 20MP Micro Four Thirds sensor that's really not far behind the quality of APS-C and full-frame sensors, and features excellent image stabilization. It's a generation behind the stacked sensors in the OM-1 II and OM-3, though (Image credit: Rod Lawton)
There are limits. The OM-5 II does not have the newer stacked sensor that's in the OM-3 and OM-1 II, and it uses an older 121-point AF system rather than OM Systems’ new subject-tracking quad-pixel AF. But at this price something’s got to give, and the OM-5 II’s AF is still quick and effective, and fine for everyday use.
Video isn’t a strong point either. The OM-5 II peaks at 4K 30p, and while it can do the slightly wider C4K format, that’s only at 24p. You do get Flat, OM-Log400, OM-Cinema1 and OM-Cinema2 profiles, but since this camera shoots only 8-bit video there’s a limit to how far you’ll want to push any color grading later.
There’s one more thing to mention: the OM Art Filters. Fujifilm fans make a huge fuss over Fujifilm Film simulations, but that’s nothing. From gritty black-and-white (with borders, if you like!) to super-saturated pop-art to HDR-like dramatic tone effects to vintage, bleach bypass and instant camera looks, OM System Art Filters are a fantastic playground for creative photographers. Yes, you can shoot a raw file at the same time as a backup – heck, you can even bracket Art Filter effects to get multiple alternatives for each image.
Can the OM-5 II handle high ISOs? I would probably stop at ISO 6,400, but you can get good results beyond that, especially with today's AI denoising tools (Image credit: Rod Lawton)
Beware of Lightroom's default noise settings for raw files! If you shoot raw you might be dismayed by the noise at ISO 25,600 (right), but the OM-5 II's in-camera JPEGs (left) show how it should be done (Image credit: Rod Lawton)
The OM-5 II does have limitations – of course it does. You’ll want to stay away from sky-high ISOs, its AF can’t match the latest AI subject-recognition tech in rival cameras, and its video features are basic.
And no, it’s not a huge advance on the old camera, the OM-5; but as I've said, it doesn't need to be. If you stand back and look at what this camera can do, at this price (unchanged from the Mark I version, by the way), it’s an absolute pocket rocket, even today. In my book, the OM-5 II is the best affordable travel camera going.
OM System OM-5 II: price
(Image credit: Rod Lawton)
You can buy the OM-5 II for around $1,199 / £1,099 body-only or $1,599 / £1,499 with the 12-45mm f/4 kit lens. Don’t underestimate this lens; it’s small, portable and offers excellent image quality well beyond the typical kit lens. OM System calls it a Pro lens, and it is. And, like the OM-5 II, the camera is weather sealed. You can get cheaper ‘starter’ cameras than this, but none which approach the OM-5 II’s feature set.
OM System OM-5 II: specs
Sensor
4/3-inch Live MOS sensor, 20.4MP
Lens mount
Micro Four Thirds
ISO range
200-6,400 (64-25,600 exp)
Autofocus
121-point phase/contrast AF
Burst shooting
6fps mechanical with C-AF, 10fps electronic with C-AF, up to 30fps electronic with S-AF, Pro Capture mode with S-AF
Video
C4K 24p, 4K UHD 30p, FHD up to 120p
EVF
2.36m-dot OLED
Rear screen
3-inch 1.037m-dot vari-angle touchscreen
Storage
1x SD UHS II
Battery
BLS-50, 310 shots
Size (body only)
125.3 x 49.7 x 85.2mm, 418g
OM System OM-5 II: design
This gives you an idea of just how compact the E-M5 II and 12-45mm lens combo actually is – remember, this lens is equivalent to a 24-90mm in full-frame terms (Image credit: Rod Lawton)
Reshaped grip for better handling
Excellent top-mounted twin control dials
Weather sealed (as are OM Pro lenses)
The OM-5 II is a small camera with remarkably good ergonomics. The grip has been reshaped so it handles larger lenses better (just as well, because the old add-on grip no longer fits), and the top-mounted control dials are easy to reach with your thumb and forefinger and have a precise, quality feel with just the right amount of weight.
This also applies to the main mode dial, which has a central locking button to prevent accidental adjustments. The buttons are a little less impressive, and seem a bit on the small side for anyone with big hands, but they work fine, and they’re clearly labelled and well spaced. There’s a new CP (computational photography) button on the top to make it easier to access the camera’s clever computational features, though you still have to turn a dial to select the one you want.
I’ll admit the button placement here did annoy me. The CP button and the video Record button are just too close together, and too hard to tell apart by touch. Hitting CP instead of Record was endlessly annoying during my video tests.
I think the OM-5 II is actually pretty good for casual video work, but the placement of the Record button is annoying, and it's too easy to press the CP button by mistake. Those twin control dials, however, are superb (Image credit: Rod Lawton)
I'm not a big fan of power switches away from the shutter release, but I do like the drive mode and display mode buttons on the top (Image credit: Rod Lawton)
The ‘OK’ button on the back activates the camera’s ’Super Control Panel’ where you can make practically all of your day-to-day settings adjustments, and one of the key improvements in this camera over the old one is the redesigned menu system. That doesn’t sound like much of a thing, right? In fact, it transforms the experience of using this camera – if you’ve used the ‘old’ menus, you’ll know this was long overdue.
The EVF is not the highest-resolution, but it’s clear, contrasty and crisp, and it’s fine, especially at this price. The vari-angle rear screen is great too – and if you have the touch-shutter mode enabled, you can tap to focus and shoot in a single action and the response is practically instantanous.
For its size, this is an exceptionally well designed camera. Yes, if you’re new to it you will have to learn where things are, as with any camera. But once you’re past that phase you’ll find this camera fast and intuitive to operate, with fewer button presses and less lag than many of its rivals. What the OM-5 II lacks in state of the art specs, it makes up for as a pure shooting tool.
OM System OM-5 II: performance
Only 121 AF points, but fast
Excellent detail
ISO best kept to 6,400 or below
The 12-45mm f/4 kit lens is great for travel photography. This was taken at its 24mm equivalent widest setting (Image credit: Rod Lawton)
At the opposite end of the zoom range, the 90mm equivalent focal length gives you a much flatter perspective for tighter cropping and fewer distractions (Image credit: Rod Lawton)
The color rendition is great and there's plenty of detail from this 20MP sensor (Image credit: Rod Lawton)
The OM-5 II is an extremely responsive camera. It starts up fast, it switches between the EVF and the rear screen in a fraction of a second as you move your eye to and from the viewfinder, and the autofocus is extremely fast too, especially using the tap shutter option on the rear screen. The only respect in which the AF system is starting to show its age is the relatively modest 121 AF points on offer, and the fact that the individual AF boxes/targets are fairly large, though you can swap to a more precise Single-S (small) option.
Detail rendition is excellent with OM Pro lenses like the 12-45mm f/4 pro and OM primes like the 17mm f/1.8, 25mm f/1.8 and (especially) the 45mm f/1.8. All optical corrections are carried out in-camera, applied automatically, and embedded in the raw files as ‘manufacturer’ correction profiles. Dynamic range is really good too, though you can’t drag up really deep shadows more than 2-3EV before they start to get a little noisy – this is where a larger-sensor camera will often do a little better (though not always).
The IBIS on this smaller sensor verges on the uncanny. I shot this handheld at 1/2 sec to blur the windblown grasses in the foreground. (Image credit: Rod Lawton)
This was taken handheld with the Computational Photography 4-stop ND option to slow the shutter speed right down to 1/2 sec. I'm not quite convinced by the movement in the leaves and the grass, but it's great if you don't like carrying filters
The OM-5 II's raw files process very nicely, with similar highlight recover to larger sensor cameras, though you might not want to bring up the shadows quite as far (Image credit: Rod Lawton)
What I especially like about the OM system is the consistent quality of the Pro lenses. With the 12-45mm f/4 you don't have to worry about edge detail or longer focal lengths – it's great at every zoom setting and every lens aperture (Image credit: Rod Lawton)
The maximum standard sensitivity on this camera is ISO 6,400, but it does offer an expanded ISO range up to 25,600 – personally I’d stick at ISO 6,400. At this setting the OM-5 II still produces very good results, though if you shoot raw files and use Adobe Camera Raw/Lightroom you might see a little more noise than you bargained for. That’s Adobe’s raw engine, not the camera. Of course, these days you can get some terrific AI noise reduction tools – I’ve used them on OM camera raw files and the high-ISO image quality is transformed.
As for video, check out the sample below. The conditions were pretty wild, but the OM-5 II did a great job under the circumstances
If you do use the OM-5 II for video you’ll get decent results. It won’t track you as effectively as some other hybrid cameras as you move around the frame, but if you keep reasonably still you should be fine. The OM-5 II is not designed for video in the same way that many hybrid mirrorless cameras are, but if you typically use video straight from the camera without any fancy grading effects, it’s fine, especially for social media use.
Should you buy the OM System OM-5 II?
Buy it if…
You need a go-anywhere camera The OM-5 II is a rugged, affordable travel camera that can tackle just about anything, from landscapes to travel to night photographyView Deal
You're fine with 20MP Most full-frame alternatives are only 24MP anyway. 20MP is fine for even larger wall art, and for online/social use you'll be downsizing your images anyway.View Deal
You don't want a cotton-wool camera You don't need to baby the OM-5 II. It will shrug off rain and sea spray, it won't care about dust, and it's inexpensive enough not to make you anxious about it.View Deal
Don't buy it if...
Your main interest is sports and wildlife The OM-5 II's burst mode is nippy enough for casual shooting, but for any serious work you should look for a camera with subject-tracking AF and faster burst speeds.View Deal
You're a serious/pro filmmaker The OM-5 II shoots decent 4K video with excellent stabilization, but you have to drop to full HD for faster frame rates, and its 8-bit video is not ideal for heavy color grading later.View Deal
You already have an OM-5! The updates in the Mark II version are useful but probably not enough to make you swap. The OM-5 II is probably aimed more at new users rather than OM-5 upgraders.View Deal
How I tested the OM System OM-5 II
I tested the camera for two weeks
I used it with OM System's 12-45mm f/4 kit lens
I shot both stills and video in a variety of conditions
(Image credit: Rod Lawton)
I’ve owned several Olympus and OM System cameras in the past, so I’m very familiar with their strengths and weaknesses and exactly what they're capable of. I spent some time with the OM-5 Mark II, comparing its improved handling and menu system with the original OM-5 which I've also reviewed, and also with the E-M5 III before that.
I used the OM-5 II and its 12-45mm f/4 kit lens for a variety of projects including landscapes, street/travel shots, and video in wet and wild weather conditions. I wanted to compare the detail rendition with my full-frame cameras, the image quality at higher ISOs, and the effectiveness of the IBIS in order to explore the compromises and advantages of this smaller format.
Freshworks is a multiproduct, scalable software solution that offers total support for commercial businesses. Its five products provide customer relationship management (CRM) support for customer service, sales and marketing, as well as software support for IT and HR.
With this Freshworks review, we go over every aspect of the Freshworks product suite, compare its products with the competition, and tell you everything you need to know to decide if Freshworks is the best CRM software solution for your business.
Freshworks review: Snapshot
The Freshworks software suite offers a comprehensive CRM solution for commercial businesses. There are five products available to users: customer support, sales, marketing, HR, and IT.
Budget-sensitive users can benefit from Freshworks’ generous free offering, which provides enough functionality to meet the needs of a solopreneur or small business. Freshworks also boasts a very short setup time—around 48 hours. Conversely, most competitor products can take weeks or months to set up.
On the other hand, Freshworks has a smaller range of customization options relative to its competitors. Some users, especially larger organizations, may need to make major changes to the UI or create very specific custom fields, and might be better served by Salesforce (US-only link) or HubSpot in this regard.
Despite the limited amount of customization, though, we consider Freshworks to be a well-rounded software suite that is best suited for small business users.
Score: 4.5/5
Read on for the full review.
Freshworks: Key features
Freshworks offers five products, each with four levels of pricing depending on your needs and the size of your organization. Each product is a fully functional platform that provides support for a specific business need: customer service, sales, marketing, human resources, or IT.
Freshdesk
Freshdesk is a CRM focused on customer service across all channels. Its core function is to provide a ticketing system that converts customer inquiries from all channels into one inbox. From there, tickets are automatically processed and forwarded to the relevant agent. Users can customize which agent receives each type of ticket and which tickets are considered a priority. Read our full Freshdesk CRM review for more.
Freshsales
Freshsales is a CRM designed to maximize the effectiveness of users’ sales teams. Its key features include a visual sales pipeline and a system for automatically prioritizing and qualifying leads. It also has configurable automation settings for repetitive tasks, such as sending follow-up emails to clients. To learn more, read our Freshsales CRM review.
Image 1 of 5
Freshdesk is Freshworks’ full featured customer service CRM (Image credit: Freshworks)
Image 2 of 5
Freshsales is a CRM designed to maximize the efficiency of sales teams (Image credit: Freshworks)
Image 3 of 5
Freshmarketer is a CRM that facilitates robust email marketing campaigns (Image credit: Freshworks)
Image 4 of 5
Freshservice is a total IT support solution for businesses (Image credit: Freshworks)
Image 5 of 5
Freshteam is an HR management service provided by Freshworks (Image credit: Freshworks)
Freshmarketer
Freshmarketer is a CRM for streamlining and automating marketing activities. You can use Freshmarketer to run email marketing campaigns, optimize your website for maximum conversion, and communicate directly with customers via email and chat. Find out more in our detailed Freshmarketer CRM review.
Freshservice
Freshservice is Freshworks’ IT support CRM. It’s functionally similar to Freshdesk, in that it is primarily a CRM for optimizing support tickets. It contains the same basic features, such as aggregating inquiries from multiple channels into a single ticket inbox. However, unlike Freshdesk, it is ITIL compliant and therefore suitable for IT support. It also adds IT-specific functions for incident management handling, change, problem and release management, and asset management. For more, take a look at our Freshservice review.
Freshteam
Freshteam is an HR management service that provides paperless onboarding, automation for repetitive tasks like resume screening and follow-up emails, and a system for tracking employee time off. It also aggregates staff information into one employee database. Employees can access the system to request time off, browse internal job openings, and connect with other members of the organization easily within the CRM.
Freshworks: What’s new?
Freshworks continues to update its total business CRM suite on a monthly basis, and 2021 saw numerous changes. A particularly noteworthy feature is CRM migration. It is now possible to migrate CRM data from competitors, such as HubSpot, directly into the Freshworks suite with just a few clicks.
In terms of cross-platform features, Freshworks has implemented full Slack integration in its sales CRM, Freshsales. Users can create a private chat channel specific to a particular deal, and chat directly from an integrated window in the Freshsales web app.
Another change is the ability to reorder sections of the page in Freshworks. The Freshworks UI features multiple sections. For instance, in Freshsales, some sections show recent conversations, recent activities, and related accounts. These sections can be hidden or unhidden, and rearranged as needed. Although customization still remains limited, this change gives users more options than they had before.
Freshworks pricing
Freshsales' pricing plans
Plan type/feature
Free
Growth*
Pro*
Enterprise*
HubSpot* Sales Starter
Salesforce Essentials*
Cost per month
$0
$15
$39
$69
$22.50
$25
Cost per year
$0
$180
$468
$828
$270
$300
Customer database
✓
✓
✓
✓
X
✓
Mobile app
✓
✓
✓
✓
X
✓
24x5 support
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
X
Limited pipelines
X
✓
X
X
X
✓
Unlimited pipelines
X
X
✓
✓
✓
X
Custom modules
X
X
X
✓
X
✓
Freshworks offers four different pricing tiers across each of its five products: Free, Growth, Pro, and Enterprise. Overall, we find its pricing to be quite competitive, especially for the lower-end plan options.
Billing is flexible, with monthly and annual options available. Compared to the monthly option, the annual pricing is discounted 17% across the board for all of Freshworks’ pricing plans. Below is a comparison of one of Freshworks’ most popular offerings, Freshsales, against comparable offers by key competitors.
*Prices are per user. HubSpot pricing is $45 for a minimum of two users, so one user is priced at $22.50.
Freshworks competitors
How does Freshworks compare to the competition?
Freshworks
HubSpot
Salesforce
Score
4.5/5
4.5/5
5/5
Pros
- Wide range of products - Robust free offering - Quick setup
Decent free offering - Over 300 customizable apps
Very wide range of tools - Large community with active peer support
Cons
Less customization than competitors - Premium plans are expensive if all five products are purchased
Free plan lacks telephone support - Setup takes eight to 12 weeks
No free plan - Can be expensive compared to competitors
Verdict
Freshworks is great for small businesses seeking a CRM at an affordable price, with a quick and easy setup.
HubSpot is powerful CRM software, with many customization options that are relatively easy to use.
Salesforce offers unparalleled customization options for mid- to large-sized businesses with the time and capital to implement it effectively.
Salesforce and HubSpot are Freshworks’ closest competitors in the CRM market.
Salesforce is an established total CRM solution. At its core, it functions similarly to Freshworks, providing CRM products to fit specific business needs. The difference is in the scope: where Freshworks offers five products, Salesforce offers 14. It also offers near total customization to the user.
Implementation is a two-to-eight week process, during which the user works with the Salesforce development team to create a CRM experience that is uniquely tailored to their needs. The software is priced accordingly, being significantly more expensive than a Freshworks subscription.
Salesforce is most suitable for an organization with a large budget and CRM needs that go beyond what a basic product package can provide. Read our Salesforce review to find out more.
HubSpot is also a total CRM solution, offering products for sales, customer service, and marketing. Unlike Freshworks, HubSpot does not offer HR and IT support. Also, we found that HubSpot is a bit more expensive than Freshworks at each pricing tier.
On the other hand, all fields in the HubSpot CRM, as well as most of the UI, can be modified, rearranged, or removed as the user requires. Additionally, HubSpot’s app marketplace is larger than Freshworks’, with 900 apps to Freshworks’ 650. This means that overall, HubSpot provides more customization options than Freshworks. Read our HubSpot CRM review to learn more.
Freshworks is less expensive, offers IT and HR products, and is faster to set up. So unless the user places a huge amount of importance on customization, we consider Freshworks to be the best option for small commercial businesses.
For mid- to large-sized enterprises, it comes down to how much they want to tailor the software to their specific needs. If a default product that is ready to go quickly is sufficient, then Freshworks is again the best option. Otherwise, Salesforce is probably the best CRM solution.
Let’s see just how Freshworks compares to its primary competitors.
Getting started with Freshworkds
Getting Freshmarketer up and running was easy, and took less than five minutes (Image credit: Freshworks)
We tested setup time by downloading Freshmarketer, the marketing CRM, which was very easy to implement. After we input our login information, the system was ready to use in-browser, leading to a total setup time of fewer than five minutes.
With the help of Freshmarketer’s tutorial, it took another 10 minutes or so to import some contacts and create a basic marketing "journey". Journeys are Freshmarker's marketing campaigns. Our journey mapped out our cold email campaign and set follow-up dates.
Freshworks’ website features testimonials describing setup in less than 48 hours. Based on our own testing experience, this timeframe is realistic. It can be even shorter, depending on the user’s customization needs.
Some users will want customization beyond the default offering, so we decided to test just how much customization Freshworks offers.
Freshworks customizations
Freshworks features limited customization, allowing users to edit and move some fields while keeping most of the UI static (Image credit: Freshworks)
Customization is an important part of any CRM software. Every user has their own unique needs, and some tailoring of the software will inevitably be required. With this in mind, we tested exactly how much customization Freshworks offers to users.
The major features of the program UI, like sidebar layout and navbar position, are fixed, but there is a large amount of useful customization within the existing fields. For example, contacts in the database can be edited with up to 27 pre-set fields such as name, address, annual revenue, and territory. If none of those 27 options suit you, it is easy to create your own custom field in just a few clicks.
Moreover, Freshworks features one-click import from other CRMs and easy integration of apps from the Freshworks marketplace. Although Freshworks may not have the same level of customization as some of its competitors, the available options are more than sufficient for a client looking to make tweaks to the basic package.
How we test CRMs
Since Freshworks features five separate products, we chose to test features that are common across all of them: namely, setup time and customization. These features are particularly important to small business owners and solopreneurs, who may not be able to accept weeks of downtime while setting up a CRM service.
Freshworks: Final verdict
Freshworks is a powerful platform offered at a reasonable price. It offers comprehensive HR and IT support, something that is missing from many CRMs. It's great for empowering collaboration and boosting employee productivity.
It is also extremely straightforward to install. Many features, such as the Freshmarketer product, are ready to use almost immediately. Most CRMs can take several weeks to get up and running, while Freshworks can be online in less than 48 hours.
Its customization options are decent, with a growing marketplace of over 650 apps. But CRMs with a larger customization offering, like Salesforce or HubSpot, might be more suitable for companies with high customization needs.
Customer support is present 24/5 by live chat, phone, and email on all product tiers. At the highest pricing tier, Enterprise, users receive a dedicated support person for their account. This means that Freshworks support improves for premium users, but is still highly accessible for free and growth tier users.
Overall, thanks to its broad umbrella of software, Freshworks offers something for everyone. Its products are quick to get up and running, and are easy to use. They cover a wide range of use cases and offer limited but sufficient customization. Moreover, Freshworks is highly scalable and offers a robust free plan for all its products.
For these reasons, we consider it to be the perfect solution for budget-conscious users, or businesses that prioritize a quick launch and ease-of-use over extensive customization.
Freshworks FAQ
What sort of tools can Freshworks integrate with?
Freshworks CRM offers a number of native integrations with popular platforms, including Google Calendar, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp. It also provides an API for custom integrations.
What are Freshworks AI capabilities?
Freshworks' AI functionalities revolve around its AI tool, Freddy. Freshworks' AI assistant Freddy provides smart deal insights and a built-in AI chatbot, as well as email and sales sequences. IT can also score contacts based on historical data and engagement.
What features are not included in the Freshworks basic plan?
They say nothing in this life comes for free and certainly there are some Freshworks features that only become available the higher you move up the pay scale. Some essential features, for example, like custom reports, sales forecasting, and certain AI capabilities may not be included in the entry-level plans. If, say, you want multiple sales pipelines or access to Freddy AI, you'll need the Pro plan. However, it's worth bearing in mind that there is a 21-day free trial if you want to check out a pricing tier without committing.
Freshworks is a multiproduct, scalable software solution that offers total support for commercial businesses. Its five products provide customer relationship management (CRM) support for customer service, sales and marketing, as well as software support for IT and HR.
With this Freshworks review, we go over every aspect of the Freshworks product suite, compare its products with the competition, and tell you everything you need to know to decide if Freshworks is the best CRM software solution for your business.
Freshworks review: Snapshot
The Freshworks software suite offers a comprehensive CRM solution for commercial businesses. There are five products available to users: customer support, sales, marketing, HR, and IT.
Budget-sensitive users can benefit from Freshworks’ generous free offering, which provides enough functionality to meet the needs of a solopreneur or small business. Freshworks also boasts a very short setup time—around 48 hours. Conversely, most competitor products can take weeks or months to set up.
On the other hand, Freshworks has a smaller range of customization options relative to its competitors. Some users, especially larger organizations, may need to make major changes to the UI or create very specific custom fields, and might be better served by Salesforce (US-only link) or HubSpot in this regard.
Despite the limited amount of customization, though, we consider Freshworks to be a well-rounded software suite that is best suited for small business users.
Score: 4.5/5
Read on for the full review.
Freshworks: Key features
Freshworks offers five products, each with four levels of pricing depending on your needs and the size of your organization. Each product is a fully functional platform that provides support for a specific business need: customer service, sales, marketing, human resources, or IT.
Freshdesk
Freshdesk is a CRM focused on customer service across all channels. Its core function is to provide a ticketing system that converts customer inquiries from all channels into one inbox. From there, tickets are automatically processed and forwarded to the relevant agent. Users can customize which agent receives each type of ticket and which tickets are considered a priority. Read our full Freshdesk CRM review for more.
Freshsales
Freshsales is a CRM designed to maximize the effectiveness of users’ sales teams. Its key features include a visual sales pipeline and a system for automatically prioritizing and qualifying leads. It also has configurable automation settings for repetitive tasks, such as sending follow-up emails to clients. To learn more, read our Freshsales CRM review.
Image 1 of 5
Freshdesk is Freshworks’ full featured customer service CRM (Image credit: Freshworks)
Image 2 of 5
Freshsales is a CRM designed to maximize the efficiency of sales teams (Image credit: Freshworks)
Image 3 of 5
Freshmarketer is a CRM that facilitates robust email marketing campaigns (Image credit: Freshworks)
Image 4 of 5
Freshservice is a total IT support solution for businesses (Image credit: Freshworks)
Image 5 of 5
Freshteam is an HR management service provided by Freshworks (Image credit: Freshworks)
Freshmarketer
Freshmarketer is a CRM for streamlining and automating marketing activities. You can use Freshmarketer to run email marketing campaigns, optimize your website for maximum conversion, and communicate directly with customers via email and chat. Find out more in our detailed Freshmarketer CRM review.
Freshservice
Freshservice is Freshworks’ IT support CRM. It’s functionally similar to Freshdesk, in that it is primarily a CRM for optimizing support tickets. It contains the same basic features, such as aggregating inquiries from multiple channels into a single ticket inbox. However, unlike Freshdesk, it is ITIL compliant and therefore suitable for IT support. It also adds IT-specific functions for incident management handling, change, problem and release management, and asset management. For more, take a look at our Freshservice review.
Freshteam
Freshteam is an HR management service that provides paperless onboarding, automation for repetitive tasks like resume screening and follow-up emails, and a system for tracking employee time off. It also aggregates staff information into one employee database. Employees can access the system to request time off, browse internal job openings, and connect with other members of the organization easily within the CRM.
Freshworks: What’s new?
Freshworks continues to update its total business CRM suite on a monthly basis, and 2021 saw numerous changes. A particularly noteworthy feature is CRM migration. It is now possible to migrate CRM data from competitors, such as HubSpot, directly into the Freshworks suite with just a few clicks.
In terms of cross-platform features, Freshworks has implemented full Slack integration in its sales CRM, Freshsales. Users can create a private chat channel specific to a particular deal, and chat directly from an integrated window in the Freshsales web app.
Another change is the ability to reorder sections of the page in Freshworks. The Freshworks UI features multiple sections. For instance, in Freshsales, some sections show recent conversations, recent activities, and related accounts. These sections can be hidden or unhidden, and rearranged as needed. Although customization still remains limited, this change gives users more options than they had before.
Freshworks pricing
Freshsales' pricing plans
Plan type/feature
Free
Growth*
Pro*
Enterprise*
HubSpot* Sales Starter
Salesforce Essentials*
Cost per month
$0
$15
$39
$69
$22.50
$25
Cost per year
$0
$180
$468
$828
$270
$300
Customer database
✓
✓
✓
✓
X
✓
Mobile app
✓
✓
✓
✓
X
✓
24x5 support
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
X
Limited pipelines
X
✓
X
X
X
✓
Unlimited pipelines
X
X
✓
✓
✓
X
Custom modules
X
X
X
✓
X
✓
Freshworks offers four different pricing tiers across each of its five products: Free, Growth, Pro, and Enterprise. Overall, we find its pricing to be quite competitive, especially for the lower-end plan options.
Billing is flexible, with monthly and annual options available. Compared to the monthly option, the annual pricing is discounted 17% across the board for all of Freshworks’ pricing plans. Below is a comparison of one of Freshworks’ most popular offerings, Freshsales, against comparable offers by key competitors.
*Prices are per user. HubSpot pricing is $45 for a minimum of two users, so one user is priced at $22.50.
Freshworks competitors
How does Freshworks compare to the competition?
Freshworks
HubSpot
Salesforce
Score
4.5/5
4.5/5
5/5
Pros
- Wide range of products - Robust free offering - Quick setup
Decent free offering - Over 300 customizable apps
Very wide range of tools - Large community with active peer support
Cons
Less customization than competitors - Premium plans are expensive if all five products are purchased
Free plan lacks telephone support - Setup takes eight to 12 weeks
No free plan - Can be expensive compared to competitors
Verdict
Freshworks is great for small businesses seeking a CRM at an affordable price, with a quick and easy setup.
HubSpot is powerful CRM software, with many customization options that are relatively easy to use.
Salesforce offers unparalleled customization options for mid- to large-sized businesses with the time and capital to implement it effectively.
Salesforce and HubSpot are Freshworks’ closest competitors in the CRM market.
Salesforce is an established total CRM solution. At its core, it functions similarly to Freshworks, providing CRM products to fit specific business needs. The difference is in the scope: where Freshworks offers five products, Salesforce offers 14. It also offers near total customization to the user.
Implementation is a two-to-eight week process, during which the user works with the Salesforce development team to create a CRM experience that is uniquely tailored to their needs. The software is priced accordingly, being significantly more expensive than a Freshworks subscription.
Salesforce is most suitable for an organization with a large budget and CRM needs that go beyond what a basic product package can provide. Read our Salesforce review to find out more.
HubSpot is also a total CRM solution, offering products for sales, customer service, and marketing. Unlike Freshworks, HubSpot does not offer HR and IT support. Also, we found that HubSpot is a bit more expensive than Freshworks at each pricing tier.
On the other hand, all fields in the HubSpot CRM, as well as most of the UI, can be modified, rearranged, or removed as the user requires. Additionally, HubSpot’s app marketplace is larger than Freshworks’, with 900 apps to Freshworks’ 650. This means that overall, HubSpot provides more customization options than Freshworks. Read our HubSpot CRM review to learn more.
Freshworks is less expensive, offers IT and HR products, and is faster to set up. So unless the user places a huge amount of importance on customization, we consider Freshworks to be the best option for small commercial businesses.
For mid- to large-sized enterprises, it comes down to how much they want to tailor the software to their specific needs. If a default product that is ready to go quickly is sufficient, then Freshworks is again the best option. Otherwise, Salesforce is probably the best CRM solution.
Let’s see just how Freshworks compares to its primary competitors.
Getting started with Freshworkds
Getting Freshmarketer up and running was easy, and took less than five minutes (Image credit: Freshworks)
We tested setup time by downloading Freshmarketer, the marketing CRM, which was very easy to implement. After we input our login information, the system was ready to use in-browser, leading to a total setup time of fewer than five minutes.
With the help of Freshmarketer’s tutorial, it took another 10 minutes or so to import some contacts and create a basic marketing "journey". Journeys are Freshmarker's marketing campaigns. Our journey mapped out our cold email campaign and set follow-up dates.
Freshworks’ website features testimonials describing setup in less than 48 hours. Based on our own testing experience, this timeframe is realistic. It can be even shorter, depending on the user’s customization needs.
Some users will want customization beyond the default offering, so we decided to test just how much customization Freshworks offers.
Freshworks customizations
Freshworks features limited customization, allowing users to edit and move some fields while keeping most of the UI static (Image credit: Freshworks)
Customization is an important part of any CRM software. Every user has their own unique needs, and some tailoring of the software will inevitably be required. With this in mind, we tested exactly how much customization Freshworks offers to users.
The major features of the program UI, like sidebar layout and navbar position, are fixed, but there is a large amount of useful customization within the existing fields. For example, contacts in the database can be edited with up to 27 pre-set fields such as name, address, annual revenue, and territory. If none of those 27 options suit you, it is easy to create your own custom field in just a few clicks.
Moreover, Freshworks features one-click import from other CRMs and easy integration of apps from the Freshworks marketplace. Although Freshworks may not have the same level of customization as some of its competitors, the available options are more than sufficient for a client looking to make tweaks to the basic package.
How we test CRMs
Since Freshworks features five separate products, we chose to test features that are common across all of them: namely, setup time and customization. These features are particularly important to small business owners and solopreneurs, who may not be able to accept weeks of downtime while setting up a CRM service.
Freshworks: Final verdict
Freshworks is a powerful platform offered at a reasonable price. It offers comprehensive HR and IT support, something that is missing from many CRMs. It's great for empowering collaboration and boosting employee productivity.
It is also extremely straightforward to install. Many features, such as the Freshmarketer product, are ready to use almost immediately. Most CRMs can take several weeks to get up and running, while Freshworks can be online in less than 48 hours.
Its customization options are decent, with a growing marketplace of over 650 apps. But CRMs with a larger customization offering, like Salesforce or HubSpot, might be more suitable for companies with high customization needs.
Customer support is present 24/5 by live chat, phone, and email on all product tiers. At the highest pricing tier, Enterprise, users receive a dedicated support person for their account. This means that Freshworks support improves for premium users, but is still highly accessible for free and growth tier users.
Overall, thanks to its broad umbrella of software, Freshworks offers something for everyone. Its products are quick to get up and running, and are easy to use. They cover a wide range of use cases and offer limited but sufficient customization. Moreover, Freshworks is highly scalable and offers a robust free plan for all its products.
For these reasons, we consider it to be the perfect solution for budget-conscious users, or businesses that prioritize a quick launch and ease-of-use over extensive customization.
Freshworks FAQ
What sort of tools can Freshworks integrate with?
Freshworks CRM offers a number of native integrations with popular platforms, including Google Calendar, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp. It also provides an API for custom integrations.
What are Freshworks AI capabilities?
Freshworks' AI functionalities revolve around its AI tool, Freddy. Freshworks' AI assistant Freddy provides smart deal insights and a built-in AI chatbot, as well as email and sales sequences. IT can also score contacts based on historical data and engagement.
What features are not included in the Freshworks basic plan?
They say nothing in this life comes for free and certainly there are some Freshworks features that only become available the higher you move up the pay scale. Some essential features, for example, like custom reports, sales forecasting, and certain AI capabilities may not be included in the entry-level plans. If, say, you want multiple sales pipelines or access to Freddy AI, you'll need the Pro plan. However, it's worth bearing in mind that there is a 21-day free trial if you want to check out a pricing tier without committing.
Steven Lisberger’s dormant digital mecca is finally being rebooted for the big screen, with director Joachim Rønning (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales; Kon-Tiki) crafting a sequel that takes us back inside the neon-washed virtual world known as the Grid. Picking up the baton from Joseph Kosinski’s Tron: Legacy more than a decade after that film’s release, Tron: Ares moves the action out of the Grid and into the real world.
This ambitious shift takes the franchise in a new direction, which Rønning manages to do while honoring the film series’ style and tone, peppering the movie with numerous references that eagle-eyed fans will pick up on. Just like the second installment, Tron: Ares opens with a quick flash of newsreels that establish a futuristic setting where two tech titans, ENCOM and Dillinger Systems, are competing to find the long lost ‘Permanence Code’, a technology that could enable digital life to exist in the real world.
From the beginning, it’s clear that Tron: Ares is setting out a bold new direction for the franchise. It flips the original premise, so rather than a human entering the Grid, a program enters the real world, raising timely questions about AI’s next advancements and the nature of human morality.
Jared Leto’s (Requiem for a Dream; Dallas Buyers Club) titular Ares is a self-learning AI known as the Master Control Program. Like his mythological namesake, Ares is built as a security protocol, so it’s fitting when we’re introduced to him during a combat training montage inside the Dillinger Grid. Keeping in line with the original movie, Dillinger is the same corporate antagonist in this latest chapter.
In the original movie Dillinger Systems was owned by the nefarious Ed Dillinger, who was played by David Warner. Dillinger’s son now calls the shots, with Evan Peters (X-Men: Days of Future Past; Monster) replacing Cliian Murphy who previously took on the role in Tron: Legacy. Dillinger Junior has his sights set on retrieving the code, and in his desperation to beat ENCOM to the punch he invents a technology that can make the programs he’s coded in the Grid temporarily exist in the real world – except that’s not what he tells investors, much to the annoyance of his mother Elisabeth Dillinger, who’s played by Gillian Anderson (The Last King of Scotland; The X-Files).
Tron: Ares revisits the same neon-soaked sci-fi setting of the original 80s movie. (Image credit: Disney )
The limitations of the technology mean that when Ares is finally transmitted into the real world, he can only survive in a temporary physical state for 29 minutes before his new form completely destabilizes, sending him back to the Dillinger Grid. This digital resurrection echoes the story of Frankenstein’s monster, as we watch Ares grapple with what it means to be human throughout the film. Anchoring this moral struggle is a quote from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein that’s referenced more than once in the dialogue: “Beware, I am fearless and therefore powerful”. But, unlike Frankenstein’s monster, Ares is less a cautionary tale about the perils of unchecked experimentation than a mirror for human morality.
Jodie Turner-Smith’s (After Yang; The Agency) Athena, a fellow digital soldier who works for Dillinger, sharpens the movie’s thematic point around humanity. Her robotic obedience stands in stark contrast to Ares’ existential curiosity, and it’s a smart dynamic that works to set them apart when Ares and Athena are sent on a mission to hack into the ENCOM grid. They’re ordered to spy on CEO Eve Kim, who’s played by Greta Lee (Past Lives; The Studio), to see if she’s any closer to getting the ‘Permanence Code’, but the story takes a sharp turn when Ares starts to explore what existing in a permanent physical form could mean for him.
Ares breaks free from the Grid, taking a Light Cycle for a spin on a real-life highway. (Image credit: Disney)
Created by the genius programmer Kevin Flynn, who’s played by Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski; The Old Man), the code is rumored to contain the key to bridging the gap between digital and human realities. It’s this search that also underpins Ares’ desire to understand his new feelings, which becomes the emotional core of the film.
Honoring the original movie’s groundbreaking use of CGI, Tron: Ares uses a mix of physical sets and visual effects (VFX) to give it an edge over Tron: Legacy, which had more of a CGI-heavy video game feel. I found this added another layer of immersion to the ambitious action sequences throughout, as you see Light Cycles cutting across freeways and streets. Visually, it felt like a fever dream in which characters and vehicles from a 1980s arcade game escape into a real-world setting.
Adding to that immersion is an industrial electronic score composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. The digital synthesizer-heavy soundtrack also features music from Nine Inch Nails, building on Daft Punk’s signature sound in Tron: Legacy and creating a new futuristic beat that the movie matches its rhythm to.
Seeing Tron's futuristic vehicles in the real world was a highlight of the movie. (Image credit: Disney )
Not everything ties together as seamlessly though. The symbolic references can be heavy-handed, with the dialogue often over explaining (the unnecessary repetition of the Frankenstein story hints at the obvious). The chemistry between Eve and Ares is also nonexistent, often coming across more like the relationship between a scientist and her creation, which given that the themes of the movie are centered around AI and moral evolution would have been absolutely fine, but instead the movie tries to imply a deeper relationship with a throwaway comment at the end of the film. This hints at a budding romance between them that didn’t feel entirely fitting for a sentient AI that’s only just beginning to recognize emotions.
By the time the credits have finished rolling, Rønning sets up a new direction for the sci-fi franchise in a mid-credits cut scene that suggests this won’t be the last of the disgraced tech CEO we see. TRON: Ares may not rewrite the film series’ code the way its predecessor did, but it has an emotional heft and depth, as it does explore some of the biggest questions we have today around our relationship with technology. It by no means answers any of these questions – and to be clear it doesn’t pretend that it’s setting out to do so – making Rønning’s spin at the Tron wheel less about machines being AI gods and more about the flaws within our own creations. It’s ambitious, occasionally obvious, but unmistakably Tron.
