Gear & Resources

The battle-tested gear, software & resources we use & recommend.

We use affiliate links for anything we recommend, whenever they're available. Check out our full affiliate policy here.

Favorite tools right now

Descript

Editing, Recording & Transcription Tool

Game-changing tool for editing your content insanely fast.

Descript is a game-changing tool in your belt. Just upload your video files and within minutes Descript will generate a complete written transcript. You can either grab the transcript and go, or you can edit the transcript like a Google doc to edit your video content, allowing you to cut down your content super quickly. There's a ton of AI tools built-in including the Overdub feature which clones your voice and allows you to fix any spoken mistakes within seconds.

VidIQ

YouTube Optimization & Growth

Great tool for video topic ideation & growing a YouTube Channel.

We use VidIQ to help optimize our videos for YouTube. It's got a suite of tools, from keyword and topic analysis, to niche & competitor reviews that help us get our content ranking on YouTube. In particular, the 'related keyword' report gives as an awesome .csv we can dump into our AI tools, automating what used to be a painful manual review process!

Epidemic Sound

Stock Music Library

Awesome library of stock music we use for a ton of projects.

Epidemic Sound is a crowd favorite amongst YouTubers and content creators because of their awesome track library and 'all-you-can-eat' plans. They make it super simple to find new, fresh music you haven't heard 1000 times, so it's one of our go-to resources for YouTube content.

Setapp

Powerful App Library

Huge library of powerful apps for Mac & iOS.

Setapp is an incredible all-in-one subscription service that gives you access to a huge library of tools. Think tools for productivity, creativity, maintenance, writing, and so much more. We love how easy it makes discovering powerful new apps and having the right tool instantly available, whether it's for time tracking or a seamless AI chat app. It saves us a ton of time hunting for solutions and money on individual app licenses.

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Choose a category to see our top tools!

Building a Business

Resources to amplify your brand and grow your revenue.

Video Creation

Gear, software & tools to create better videos faster.

Tools for Building a Business

Email & Marketing Automation

Beginner-Friendly Options

Kit

Email & Basic Marketing Automation

Kit (formerly ConvertKit) is an incredibly simple to use, yet still powerful email marketing platform. It has awesome, easy to use tools like a sequence builder and basic automations. But if you're looking to do advanced automation, be aware its functionality is very limited compared to ActiveCampaign & Bento. We recommend it for beginners and users who don’t want to get super complex with their email marketing.

Try Kit

Kajabi

All-in-one Marketing Platform

Kajabi is an amazing 'all-in-one' marketing tool. It’s a great option for anyone who wants to sell digital products, with everything you need to start creating, marketing and selling. It can also host your entire website, landing pages, email list, memberships, podcasts, coaching, and even packs in marketing automations!

Try Kajabi

Bento

Powerful & Technical Email Marketing Automation

Bento is hands down the most powerful email marketing & automation tool we've come across. It's the tool we're currently using and it's changed how we run our business! It takes a completely new approach to email that allows for next-level flexibility and incredibly streamlined processes to help scale your business. It's quite advanced, so would suit someone who's tech savvy and has felt limited in other email marketing software.

Try Bento

YouTube Growth & Optimization

VidIQ

YouTube Optimization & Growth

Try VidIQ

TubeBuddy

YouTube Optimization & Growth

Tubebuddy completely transformed the way we run our YouTube channel. It streamlines everything from competitor analysis & A/B testing to everyday channel management tasks. There's a free plan to start, but we recommend at least the Pro plan for most people.

Try TubeBuddy

AgoraPulse

YouTube Comment Manager

AgoraPulse is great for social media scheduling, but its YouTube comment management features are what make it a game-changing tool for us! A few favorites: you can assign comments to individual team members without the need to give full channel management rights, and it displays all comments like a 'to-do' list so you can minimize the comments that get missed.

Try AgoraPulse

TubeSpanner

All-In-One Tool For YouTube

TubeSpanner is packed full of tools to help make your YouTube content creation easier and more effective. Design & test thumbnails, write scripts, easily share & schedule your content, and so much more. This is definitely a tool to check out if you want to speed up your processes and streamline your workflows.

Try TubeSpanner

Keywords Everywhere

Keyword Research Tool

Keywords Everywhere is our #1 keyword research tool for both YouTube & Google. It helps us decide what topics to create content on, and then allows us to optimize our videos for the best keywords on that topic. This is how we create content that we KNOW people want! It's incredibly easy to use and we've found it more reliable than a lot of other options.

Try Keywords Everywhere

Thumbnails & Design

Canva

Online Graphic Design Tool

A super powerful design tool that allows you to create amazing-looking content quickly & easily. There are tons of templates for everything including YouTube banners, thumbnails, logos and anything else design-related that you could think of. There's even a basic built-in video editor you can use for fast and simple video edits to create YouTube videos or other content.

Try Canva

Snappa

Online Graphic Design Tool

Another awesome design tool that’s a great option for anyone looking for a Canva alternative. You can quickly whip up all your fancy thumbnails, channel art and other designs. Snappa is a great pick due to its ease of use, nice range of features, and because they don't put a pay wall around key export functions like some of their competitors do.

Try Snappa

Adobe Express

Free Online Graphic Design Tool

Adobe Express is Adobe's answer to Snappa & Canva. The platform offers a fun, intuitive interface and some insane AI tools that allow you to get really creative with your YouTube thumbnails & other designs (such as generative fill and text to image, to name a few). You can whip up incredible designs super quickly, without needing to learn pro-level software like PhotoShop.

Try Adobe Express

Website & Landing Pages

LeadPages

Landing Page Builder

Before switching to a more complex WordPress setup, we used Leadpages for most of our landing pages - whether it was an email opt-in, a free workshop registration page, or a quick sales page we wanted to pull together. It's simple to use and has a ton of awesome templates, so you can get up & running to start generating results fast (and you DON'T need to be a developer!).

Try LeadPages

Kajabi

All-in-one Marketing Platform
incl. Landing Pages & Website

Try Kajabi

Wordpress

Advanced Website Platform

WordPress is a powerful tool for building amazing websites. It's super customizable & supports a huge range of 3rd party plugins. That flexibility does come at a cost though, with more moving parts & maintenance (like hosting, themes, plugin updates...), compared to 'all-in-one' platforms like Kajabi. That said, we run PrimalVideo.com on WordPress and absolutely love it. Our suggestion: if Kajabi does what you need, go that route!

Try WordPress

Interested in WordPress?

Here are our recommended hosting & plugins...

Hosting

SiteGround

WordPress Hosting: Best to Start!

Super affordable WordPress hosting platform with 24/7 support and great features! Excellent for getting started & scaling up. We first hosted PrimalVideo.com here, and easily upgraded as we grew.

Try SiteGround

WP Speed Fix

WordPress Hosting: Best to Scale!

WP Speed Fix is where we host primalvideo.com. They're a great premium, full-service host, taking care of way more than most other providers. They're also far better at site speed optimization than any other hosting we've tested.

Try WP Speed Fix

Theme & Page Builder

Elementor

WordPress Page Builder

Incredibly powerful 'drag-and-drop' page builder you can install on almost any WordPress theme.

Try Elementor

Astra

WordPress Theme

Fast, super optimized and packing a ton of features - this is the WordPress Theme we use as a base for PrimalVideo.com (and it works great with Elementor page builder!)

Try Astra

Affiliate Income

Thirsty Affiliates

Affiliate Link Manager (WordPress)

Monetizing through affiliate programs? Thirsty Affiliates is a WordPress plugin that lets you easily create branded redirects. It has a ton of other analytics and features, but the big one is you'll have prettier links to share and only one place to update should any of your affiliate links change in future (it happens more than you'd think!).

Try Thirsty Affiliates

Geniuslink

Affiliate Link Manager

Geniuslink is an affiliate link manager that packs in some extra 'smarts' to help you easily capture potential lost revenue! When a user clicks your link, it automatically detects their location and routes them to their local purchasing page for them, all while keeping the affiliate tracking in-tact. We use it for all our Amazon links, but it also works for other major affiliate programs like iTunes, Microsoft and more.

Try Geniuslink

Kit.co

Affiliate Marketing Website

Kit.co is an amazing affiliate marketing platform where you can share the gear & products that you recommend with a community of users. You can sort the products into relevant Kits which are then shareable (we've linked to some of ours below under Video Gear!) and searchable on the platform. This is a great way to add an additional revenue stream to your business.

Try Kit.co

Courses & Digital Products

Kajabi

All-in-one Marketing Platform

Kajabi is an amazing 'all-in-one' marketing tool. It’s a great option for anyone who wants to sell digital products, with everything you need to start creating, marketing and selling. It can also host your entire website, course, landing pages, email list, memberships, podcasts, coaching, and even packs in marketing automations!

Try Kajabi

Circle

Course & Community Platform

We use Circle to host our Primal Video Accelerator program, community & other products - and it’s awesome. There are customizable spaces for different topics and courses, making the interface really neat and easy to navigate. The community is a game-changer: you can host live events directly through Circle, tag members, direct message, and so much more. Plus, it means our members are able to access everything in one place.

Try Circle

Payments & Checkout

Stripe

Revenue Management Platform

Stripe is a great, user-friendly payment processing solution. It integrates easily with websites and apps, allowing you to accept online payments quickly and securely. You’ll also find an amazing variety of features to manage subscriptions, invoices and fraud prevention. If you're not using the built-in cart in an all-in-one solution like Kajabi, we recommend Stripe.

Try Stripe

Wise

Global Money Transfers

If you're making or receiving any global transfers you need Wise (formerly TransferWise). They're significantly cheaper than banks, fully transparent with all fees (unlike banks & other platforms with hidden fees), and their exchange rates are amazing. You can also set up local bank details in a bunch of countries. All said and done, Wise saves us thousands every month. #GameChanger

Try Wise

Kajabi

All-in-one Marketing Platform

Try Kajabi

Other Tools

Riverside FM

Video & Podcast Recording Software

Riverside FM is one of our top picks for video and podcast recording software. It’s got a great feature set with things like local recording for you & your guests so you’re guaranteed the highest quality recording and transcript based video editing for much quicker audio and video editing. There’s also a bunch of amazing AI tools, repurposing features and even live streaming capabilities. This is an amazing ‘all-in-one’ solution for podcasting, video creation and live streaming.

Try Riverside

Missive

Email Management App

This is the best tool we've found for email organization and management! Missive is a team inbox & chat app with a ton of collaboration tools such as saved template responses, the ability to assign emails to team members, collaborative email writing and loads of integrations. Since using it, we’ve seen a huge increase in productivity and a huge decrease in wasted time.

Try Missive

Parallels Toolbox

Productivity Tools

One of the first things we install on new computers! An amazing set of add-on tools for Mac and PC that allows you to do some super powerful things really simply. Some of the tools include High Quality Video Downloader, Desktop Icon Hiding (for live streams or screen recording), Timers, Stopwatches, Screen Recording Tools, Flight Mode, DND Mode, GIF Maker, Image Resizer... the list goes on!

Try Parallels Toolbox

Loom

Team Video Messaging Platform

Loom is a powerful video messaging tool that allows you to quickly & clearly communicate with your team without spending hours in meetings! Simply press record to start filming your screen and/or camera, run through the relevant info and then share the link with your team members. There's some great AI tools like automatic titles, chapters & summaries as well as filler word removal! This is an easy way to boost productivity and save a ton of time.

Try Loom

Private Internet Access

VPN

There are tons of different options out there when it comes to VPNs, but this is our number one choice for its simplicity and fast server speeds. Private Internet Access (PIA) works seamlessly on desktop and mobile, making it a great option for anyone who needs a VPN across devices. It also works out to be a cost effective option if you commit to one of their longer term plans!

Try PIA

ClickUp

Project Management Tool

ClickUp is an all-in-one tool to help you manage people, projects and everything in between. It's like no other platform we've tried. It's a tool we actually want to use and it's revolutionized our workflows. We use it for managing our complete video creation process, tracking projects & tasks, documenting processes, personal reminders, and so much more.

Try ClickUp

Clockify

Time Tracking Software

We used to avoid time tracking, but after deciding to temporarily give it a go we found we actually love it! It's a super powerful way to stay focused, improve efficiencies and find out where your time is actually spent. Clockify makes the whole process quick & seamless. It's as simple as downloading the desktop or mobile app and hitting start.

Try Clockify

OnlineJobs.ph

Remote Job Search Site

OnlineJobs.ph is the platform we use to find qualified remote team members. With a vast talent pool and affordable fees, it's the one hiring site we’ve been using for years. It’s also the platform we’ve had the most consistent success with, helping us find amazing new talent to join the Primal Video team.

Try OnlineJobs.ph

Tools for Creating Videos

Music for Videos

Epidemic Sound

Stock Music Library

Try Epidemic Sound

Lickd

Stock Music Library

Lickd makes it easy to license and use commercial, mainstream, popular music in your YouTube videos, without risk of copyright infringements! They also have a large royalty free music catalog with awesome subscription plans available.

Try Lickd

Artlist

Stock Music Library

One of our go-to resources for music tracks for any project! They have an annual subscription that includes unlimited downloads, and very favorable royalty-free licensing. Great for YouTube, professional production projects, personal videos... you name it!

Try Artlist

Creator Mix

Free Stock Music Library

Creator Mix is an incredible music platform built for creators, by creators. The mind-blowing part? It's completely free. They make it super easy to find high quality music you can use in your YouTube videos, social media content, live streams, online courses - pretty much anywhere. The audio library isn't as big as other options but it's constantly being added to.

Try Creator Mix

Stock Video Libraries

Motion Array

Stock Video Library

Motion Array is an awesome option for stock video footage, motion graphics, royalty free music, effects, plugins & more. It's a monthly or annual subscription that unlocks unlimited downloads, with licensing that covers you for every platform. This is our top pick for an all-in-one subscription!

Try Motion Array

Envato

Stock Video Library

Envato is one of our top recommendations for awesome royalty-free stock footage. But it’s so much more than that! On the monthly subscription you also get unlimited access to amazing animated titles & graphics, video intros, templates, stock music, photos, sound effects and more. Plus they make all the licensing super easy!

Try Envato

Storyblocks

Stock Video Library

Storyblocks is a great resource for stock video footage, with unlimited access to a library of content you can download for a flat fee per month. It has a really comprehensive stock footage library - we use it for a ton of b-roll footage in our YouTube content. It also has an Adobe Premiere Pro plugin that makes it so easy to integrate Storyblocks into your workflow if you’re editing in Premiere.

Try Storyblocks

Artlist Max

Stock Video Library

Artlist has long been one of our go-to platforms for music, but now they offer an incredible stock footage library as well! The quality of footage is amazing, with lots of professionally-shot options that you can use anywhere. The Artlist Max plan gives you access to the complete library of music, SFX, footage, templates, plugins and more.

Try Artlist Max

Video Editing Software

Descript

Recording, Transcription & Editing Tool [Windows & Mac]

Descript is a game-changing tool in your belt. Just upload your video files and within minutes Descript will generate a complete written transcript. You can either grab the transcript and go, if that's all you need. Or you can edit the transcript like a Google doc to edit your video content, allowing you to cut down your content super quickly. You can even fix any spoken mistakes using the Overdub feature, which clones your voice using AI.

Try Descript

CapCut

Video Editing Software [Windows, Mac, iPhone & Android]

CapCut is a powerful & easy-to-use video editing app for desktop and mobile. There are so many incredible features and they're constantly adding more (as well as some next-level AI tools!). You can access the core functionality for free but you'll need to jump on a paid plan for some more advanced features.

Try CapCut

VN Video Editor

Video Editing Software [Mac, iPhone & Android]

An amazing video editing software that's simple, intuitive and powerful. It's great for beginners right up to intermediate users. There's a free version that has everything you need to create awesome, pro-level videos easily.

Try VN Video Editor

Professional Options

DaVinci Resolve

Video Editing Software
[Windows & Mac]

Without question, this is the best & most powerful FREE video editing software out there. It's professional video editing software without the price tag, featuring a full suite of pro features, and the best color grading tools around! Great for anyone at an intermediate to advanced level, or someone looking to invest the time to learn a professional production tool.

Try DaVinci Resolve

Animated Titles, Intros & Effects

Placeit

Video Titles & Animations

Quickly and easily generate custom video intros, motion graphics, logo animations, social media posts and so much more in this amazing tool. No need to manually customize up a video template in After Effects - just select a template you like, add your text, logo, images, etc. and Placeit will do the rest.

Try Placeit

Adobe After Effects

Template Customization

If you're going the VideoHive route, you'll need some software! Grab a free trial of Adobe After Effects to get the job done.

Try After Effects

VideoHive

Video Title & Animation Templates

VideoHive is an awesome resource for customizable templates. It takes a few extra steps, but you get more flexibility to create something matching your style & branding. Whether it's animated video intros, lower thirds or titles, transitions, or custom end cards - they have a huge range of options you can purchase, and customize up in a matter of minutes.

Try VideoHive

Envato

Stock Asset Library

Envato isn’t just a stock music library. They offer a massive library of digital assets that are royalty-free! It’s a valuable platform for anyone who needs high-quality digital assets for their creative projects. From animated titles to video intros, you’ll find some amazing resources.

Try Envato

Webinars & Live Streaming

Prism Live Studio

Free All-in-one Live Streaming Platform

An awesome free live streaming platform with some incredible tools built-in. There’s multi-streaming functionality which allows you to stream to multiple platforms at once and the ability to record your videos & screens as if you were live. But the standout Prism Live feature for us is the ability to monitor your comments within the app and showcase them to viewers while you’re live.

Try Prism Live

Ecamm Live

Live Streaming & Screen Recording Software

This is our favorite live streaming tool right now. It’s a very intuitive platform with professional-grade features: multistreaming, isolated voice & video recording, guest functionality, video & screen recording, and so much more. We love how customizable the interface is, its combined multi-platform comments list, and the built-in virtual camera (which Justin uses almost every day!). They have great customer support as well.

Try Ecamm Live

OBS

Free Live Streaming Platform

OBS is a free, open source live streaming platform that’s super popular. It’s quite complex, so we recommend it for intermediate to advanced users who want lots of customization and the ability to get really granular with their live streaming setup. There’s a huge community of users and developers with a large number of community-created plugins and add-ons that you can use. It’s like Prism Live Studio - but on steroids!

Try OBS

StreamYard

Web-based Live Streaming & Webinar Software

StreamYard is our go-to tool for running live trainings and webinars. It’s an awesome, web-based platform with a simple and intuitive interface as well as some great live streaming features. It’s super easy to use, making it a great option for beginners, while still giving you a decent amount of customization options.

Try StreamYard

AI Video Tools

Opus Clip

Long-to-Short Form Content Tool

OpusClip is a super powerful tool for repurposing long form content into short form content. It uses AI to identify certain parts of your videos and compiles these to create short, engaging clips that can be used as YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, TikTok videos and any other type of short form content. This saves you a ton of time editing and helps you create content that resonates with your audience.

Try Opus Clip

InVideo AI

Text-to-Video AI Generator Tool

This tool helps you create engaging videos insanely quickly and easily! Just provide a short text prompt and InVideo will generate a script, voiceover, visuals, and even tweak the video based on your feedback. It's a great time-saver for busy content creators, marketers, and business owners.

Try InVideo AI

Runway ML

AI Video Generator

Runway ML offers a suite of crazy AI video & image tools. Its video generation capabilities are next level! As well as the usual text to video tools, you also have the ability to turn still frame images into video content. They provide some example prompt structures which are really useful for anyone new to AI prompt writing. If you’re looking for an AI tool to help you generate b-roll and overlay footage, we'd definitely recommend checking this out.

Try Runway ML

Screen Recording

Ecamm Live

Live Streaming & Screen Recording Software

Try Ecamm Live

Descript

Recording, Transcription & Editing Tool [Windows & Mac]

Descript is a game-changing tool in your belt. Just upload your video files and within minutes Descript will generate a complete written transcript. You can either grab the transcript and go, if that's all you need. Or you can edit the transcript like a Google doc to edit your video content, allowing you to cut down your content super quickly. You can even fix any spoken mistakes using the Overdub feature, which clones your voice using AI.