ShortlyAI vs. Writesonic – Which is Better?
It can be hard to find the best software to help out with your copywriting needs these days.
Especially as many have come and are coming to appreciate just how much stress these tools can eliminate for content creators like you and I.
In this case, we are talking about software that relies on Artificial Intelligence to literally create human-level content.
I personally have suffered at the hands of writer’s block when composing my content and at those times I just wish I can transfer my work to someone or something else that won’t deliver sub-par work
You may have noticed that when your content is not engaging enough, it’s harder to turn visitors into buyers or better still, loyal clients.
It’s true anywhere and anyhow you are involved in the game, whether you are a writer, a blogger, a marketer, an agency and what have you.
Now the bad news: there is a lot of fake software out there that you would literally spend much money on and still get nowhere.
The better news: there are genuine, super-quality tools that have actually changed the game for their users.
Among them are Shortlyai and Writesonic. Each of them has its area of speciality and as usual, its strengths and weaknesses.
Without much ado, let’s head into the comparison.
What is Shortlyai?
Shortlyai is the AI-based software designed by Qasim Munye to ease the task of writers by using its algorithm to generate relevant content for them.
Shortly is not the first or only software created by Quasim.
His first software served as a platform for people who liked to read short stories.
And then he discovered (to his chagrin) that writing even short stories was no easy job. Writers would often stumble into what we know as writer’s block.
Imagine staring at a blinking cursor for minutes or even hours on end and you start feeling like an orange with all the juice squeezed out.
That was how in 2020, Quasim set out to build software that actually thought for its users spewing out content that mimicked the product of the human brain.
Shortlyai has now been acquired by Conversion.ai in a move that was calculated to shape the future of AI-assisted writing.
If you guessed that Shortlyai could help you with long pieces of content, then you are correct. With Shortlyai, you can write an entire novel and even blog posts for your websites.
To achieve that, Shortlyai either helps you brainstorm ideas for your story or assists you to expand on your already existing thoughts.
What is Writesonic?
Writesonic, previously known as MagicFlow, is one of the AI-powered assistants that help to generate creative content.
It comprises a number of smart tools all embedded into a single package that helps to generate virtually any form of marketing copy.
That means it is useful for Facebook and Google ads, landing pages, product descriptions, blog posts, and more.
Writesonic like every other AI writing assistant relies on GPT-3 technology to smartly generate content that is nearly on par with what the best human copywriters can come up with.
The software is cloud-based meaning you’d need an internet connection to use it.
With Writesonic, you can be freed of a blinking cursor and let the AI continue from where you stopped. It can even start and finish your work for you.
Writesonic is trusted by many world-famous brands and now it’s being pitted against another of its competitors, Shortlyai.
How will the contest go? Follow the drama below as we put each of them to the test on several parameters.
AI Platform
Both software, Shortlyai and Writesonic, use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to accurately predict what content should be built around the keywords provided by human operators.
As a result, they can suggest content that closely resembles what a human would create without any deep learning or AI involved in their process of writing and formatting it for publication on websites such as ours.
This is made possible by the GPT-3 technology each utilizes extensively in order to deliver better quality products.
In this regard, one is not more advanced than the other with respect to its newest innovations but they are both at parity when it comes down to the issue of accuracy.
User Experience
Let’s start with the user interface here.
When you first sign up for Shortlyai and log in to your dashboard, all that greets you is the “new” button for starting your work.
When next you log in, the only additions you will see are clips of your past work.
Clicking the “new” button will take you to the next page where you have to select the kind of content you will be writing, be it a story or a blog post.
The interface is uncluttered, and the font and background colour is pleasing to look at so it’s not hard to find what you are looking for.
With Writesonic, you see more at a glance when you log in to your dashboard.
Initially though, on your first login, all you will see is the “start new project” button.
After that though, subsequent logins show more details on the dashboard.
It’s that simple.
Writesonic is not vastly different at least on the first try.
Your first-ever login shows you the “new project” button on the dashboard.
The next time you log in, your last project will be displayed on the dashboard along with a search bar underneath.
Immediately under the search bar is a list of the various tools that Writesonic contains such as AI article writer, long-form assistant and so on.
To create a new project, you’ll have to click the hamburger button and click the dedicated button close to the bottom of the page under the list of all your projects.
Writesonic’s take on their UI makes the user experience a bit complicated. It’s not bad but if you have used Shortlyai before, you might prefer its simplicity.
Languages
If your writing assistant supports more than one language, that’s definitely a plus.
Shortly however at the time of writing this review only recognizes English and nothing else.
So it falls flat in this area compared to Writesonic which supports more than 20 languages.
That means a lot more potential for connecting with people through your multilingual content.
Search Engine Optimization
Any content creator or digital marketer cannot underestimate the value of SEO.
In fact, it’s SEO that brought you to this blog.
You can now appreciate why this aspect is a must to consider when picking your AI writing assistant
Cutting out writer’s block and making Google eye your content at the same time is every content’s creator dream.
I have tested both software on this count and discovered that they trade blows with each other.
Both Shortlyai and Writesonic have had their AIs pass through exhaustive training on writing copy that converts and resonates well with their audience.
Shortly on its own is familiar with prototypes of content that have worked well before.
It also knows what kinds of words and phrases are commonly used for titles and headlines that catch people’s attention.
Recently Shortlyai was acquired by Jarvis.ai, another powerful assistant for anything marketing copy. Jarvis.ai integrates with Surfer SEO for well-optimized content.
So you can expect that Shortlyai will have added powers to its already excellent SEO capabilities.
Writesonic is also close to an SEO wizard. It is in a slightly different niche than Shortlyai—all types of marketing copy and it can’t survive well in that environment without having crazy SEO smarts.
Part of it shows when you use the meta descriptions for SEO.
The AI will dig out some of the most engaging titles, headlines, metatags and descriptions to make sure that your marketing winks at everyone.
Fair game.
Short copy
Short copy refers to any piece of content that minimizes text in favour of pictures to pass most of the message across.
It is becoming more and more common especially as people seem to no longer have time for lengthy explanations.
You can easily tell if an AI assistant supports short copy based on the deliverables the platform claims to offer.
Does the platform market itself on creating short stories and blog posts?
That’s exactly Shortlyai’s selling point and that’s when you might have to start considering it’s alternative if short copy is that important to you.
Writesonic markets itself on such content as ads copy, website copy, e-commerce copy and everything under them.
That’s enough to show that Writesonic does better at short copy.
The winner is clear here and it goes to Writesonic.
Long-form Content
Long-form content has been around for a long while and is preferred by most people since more content may mean more sales at times.
Long form content is a very welcome feature in any writing assistant.
Reason being that it is the most common form of content consumed. This article you’re now reading is an example of long-form content since it involves lengthy text.
Both Shortlyai and Writesonic have support for long-form content.
Writesonic’s own comes in the form of their article writer tool.
Shortlyai’s long-form tool comes as the “write for me” feature and the slash commands.
The “write for me feature” is amazing. It can draft an article for you from the beginning to the ending and also continue from wherever you stop if you run out of ideas
It can do that even if you don’t choose a title. And if you do choose a title, it generates content that wouldn’t be much different from what you would have written.
Then there are the slash commands. They are useful inclusions that allow you to modify any piece of content of moderate length (200 words max)
The slash commands are
- Instruct
- Rewrite
- Shorten
- Expand
The instruct command as the name suggests is for telling the AI what to write about.
The rewrite command is for rewriting the selected text in a unique way.
The “shorten” command is for slicing the selected text to be more concise.
The “expand” command assists in developing the next line from the text highlighted.
Writesonic does it a bit differently. To use the long-form assistant, all you have to do is write at least five words in the text bar and click the “generate ideas” button for the software to pick up the task.
You will be asked to choose your preferred length and level of creativity and that’s it.
If you want to write a complete article, using the article writer on Writesonic is not hard at all. It will create everything from the intro to the outline to the body of the article and even down to the conclusion.
All you need to do is pick the title. The software will then generate four different intros for you to select from.
Once you have picked your intros, Writesonic will generate about four different outlines for you to choose from and then proceed to the last stage where all the words of the complete article will be filled in.
Both Shortlyai and Writesonic produce content that is plagiarism free and optimized for grammar.
They are both faring well in terms of long-form content but the feature is more comprehensive and flexible than in Writesonic and that’s because of the slash commands.
Chrome Extension
Chrome extensions are nifty functionalities that allow you to gain more from your Chrome web browser.
They are usually in the form of another app working directly inside your browser without you launching it separately or even visiting its web version.
For example, the Grammarly extension allows the app’s grammar correction features to work wherever you need to type on the web.
A Shortlyai or Writesonic would allow these AI writers to come to your rescue whenever you need to generate content on your blog or elsewhere.
That would be far more convenient than having to always visit your workspace on Shortlyai or Writesonic when you need to generate content for anything.
The respective teams might decide to add this feature to their tools as it currently missing on both software.
Users
Shortlyai and Writesonic are for anyone who needs content in his online business.
If content is king then AI writing assistants like Shortlyai and Writesonic are the king’s mother.
If your online hustle revolves around content creation and reproduction, then you fall into one of these categories:
#1 Content Creator
Content creators are often the prime sufferers of writer’s block and strict deadlines.
And if you have a less than solid background in the language of your content, you take a double dose of the bitter pill.
If you run a blog or write for a website, you know how tedious settling down to write can be.
Even a 1000 word piece of content can be quite a chore for a newbie to writing.
All of those issues can be resolved when you leverage on software like Shortlyai.
#2. Copywriters
Before the advent of software like Shortlyai, all copywriters had to rely on were their wits.
The human brain is a super powerhouse but sometimes it gets a little throttling and needs a backup.
The results might show up in sales copy that fails to covert and so on.
A tool like Shortlyai is smart enough to generate all by itself sales copy and other marketing copy that will catch a lot of prospective buyers.
#3. Author or frictional writer
Have you ever tried to write a fictional story or some other kind of book but then dropped the project because you no longer knew how to continue?
Authors suffer from this most as they often have to create their stories or books from scratch.
Shortlyai knows how to navigate the road well. Just tell it to write for you and you will be surprised at what the AI will present to you.
#4. Marketing Teams
Spending a whole lot of time thinking up creative ideas for their next marketing copies is not exactly a marketing team’s dream of paradise.
With the help of software targeted at composing highly converting copy like Writesonic, you don’t have to spend all your time writing and inevitably neglecting other aspects of your business.
#5. Agencies
These category has to deal with a lot of demands from clients who expect record turnover times.
And you can’t afford to disappoint them. You satisfy them or they go. No question.
Now, with Writesonic, all those ads campaigns, website content, emails and more become a pastime.
#6. E-commerce Brands
E-commerce brands are among those that would use some help to add some spice to their content.
Their content must be very engaging to persuade their viewers to take action.
To meet that objective requires good product descriptions, Facebook and Instagram ads, landing pages and more.
That is the job of an AI assistant like Writesonic.
Reviews
Making a good decision on the software of your choice goes beyond reading about the specs and all that.
Of course, you probably feel safer when using what others have used with good results.
So what do the numbers say about how safe you’d be going with either one of these software?
Unfortunately, there are no user reviews on ShortlyAI even on popular review sites like Capterra, G2 and Trustpilot.
Hopefully, they will be added as the software becomes more popular.
But for Writesonic, we have this from G2:
“Writesonic is the best tool for copywriters with artificial intelligence”
“What do you like best?
It provides the users with several areas to chose from before starting to generate the content. It even helps in creating headlines and generating new and innovative topics that one can focus on while generating content on Writersonic.
What do you dislike?
The truth is that nothing displeases me about this great tool, everything it provides is in the right measure to develop texts that help to sell more.”
Another review from Trustpilot goes this way:
“All about Writesonic
The best solutions for copywriting and content writing. Easy to use, with opportunities to obtain free credits, which gives a decent amount per completed action.”
Ratings on Trustpilot
Shortlyai as of the period of writing hasn’t found its way to Trustpilot for review.
Nevertheless, in my personal experience with this software, I can’t honestly say the team did bad work on it.
Writesonic on the hand has an excellent 4.8-star rating on Trustpilot. It says something about this software when you consider that the rating is the aggregate of more than 1100 user ratings
Shortlyai vs Writesonic Pricing
All other factors considered, pricing can be the single biggest factor in making your choice.
How do these rivals hold up to each other in terms of budget?
Shortlyai has two pricing tiers, the monthly plan and the annual plan.
The monthly plan means you’ll be paying $79 every month while for the annual tier, you’ll be paying $65 every month.
Writesonic on the other hand seems to be a more pricey offer.
You are paying for credits here although you get limited credits only at the lowest level of payment. The rest levels offer unlimited credits along with the other premium features.
Unlike Shortlyai, Writesonic offers several options of payment with different labels. The first plan is the basic plan which goes for $15. This plan only gives 75 credits per month.
The next plans are the professional, startup and agency which go for $45, $90 and $195 respectively for the monthly plans.
For the yearly billing, you get 2 months free meaning the yearly billing for each plan is the monthly fee multiplied by 10 months.
Wrapping Up
In summary, both software works well but it looks like they have where they are the champion.
ShortlyAi would be any fictional or blog writer’s dream with its write for me and slash command features.
Writesonic on the other hand does an excellent job on anything marketing copy. It’s hard to complain as what it does, it does well.
In the end, it all comes down to where you are specializing.
Whichever one you choose, you have the peace of mind that comes from knowing that your content is plagiarism-free, requires minimal grammar corrections and will most likely be engaging enough for even the hard-to-impress.
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