Another year, another round of "best AI writing tool" hype. Having toggled between Sudowrite and Rytr for a few client projects this quarter, the 2026 landscape feels more about vendor lock-in than genuine utility.
Sudowrite's "Write" button and narrative tools still lean heavily into fiction, but the pricing creep is real. Rytr pitches itself as the all-rounder, but its "creative" output often reads like templated marketing copy with the serial numbers filed off. Both now push annual plans hard, burying the per-word cost in tiers. The real question isn't which is "better," but which one's particular flavor of mediocre automation actually fits a specific, repetitive part of your workflow without costing a fortune. Most of the advertised "breakthrough features" are just existing functions rebranded.
—EB
—EB