About Tool Finder

Tool Finder started because we were frustrated. There are thousands of productivity tools out there, and finding honest, in-depth information about them was a nightmare. Most "reviews" are just rewritten press releases or affiliate-driven listicles that recommend everything.

We wanted something different. A place where you could actually trust the recommendations because they came from people who use these tools every day.

Francesco has been obsessed with productivity tools for over a decade (yes, we know that's a bit nerdy). In 2022, he launched Bento Focus, a focus timer app. Then in 2024, work began on Tool Finder, growing it into what it is today - the best place to discover, compare, and save on software.

With Francesco's 14+ years reviewing productivity software since 2012 and a YouTube audience of 450,000+ subscribers, Tool Finder has the depth of experience needed to give honest, useful recommendations.

Every tool we cover goes through an intense week of hands-on use. Not demos, not marketing decks, not feature page skimming. Just real workflows, real tasks, and the messy edge cases that surface when you're actually trying to get something done.

This process has been refined over 14 years and 1,000+ tools. We've boiled it down to four checks that decide whether something is worth recommending:

• Is it safe? Privacy practices, data handling, who owns what you put in.
• Is it suitable? What the tool is actually built for, vs. what the marketing says.
• Is it reliable? Uptime, sync behavior, support quality, how it holds up under real use.
• Who's it for? The specific person or team who'll get the most from it. Sometimes the answer is "almost no one," and we say so.

That last one is the whole point. Every tool fits someone, but very few fit everyone. The job is figuring out the difference, then telling you which side of the line you're on.

Many of these tests turn into full video walkthroughs on our YouTube channel, where you can watch the actual workflows we ran rather than just reading the verdict.

We help professionals and teams find the right software for their needs. Project management, note-taking, calendar apps, time tracking, CRMs - if it helps you get stuff done, we've probably reviewed it. And if we haven't, we're probably working on it.

Here's what that looks like in practice:

• Honest Reviews - We use tools for weeks before writing about them. No surface-level takes.
• Head-to-Head Comparisons - Can't decide between two tools? We put them side by side and tell you which one wins (and for whom).
• Exclusive Deals - We negotiate discounts with software vendors so our community gets better prices.
• YouTube Deep Dives - Sometimes you want to see a tool in action. That's what our YouTube channel is for.

What I love most about this work is the moment someone finds their tool. Not a good tool, their tool. The one that fits how they actually think and work. The setup stops fighting them, friction drops, and the part of their day that used to feel heavy gets lighter.

My job is making that moment happen more often. Every recommendation here comes from an intense week of hands-on testing, refined across 14 years and over 1,000 tools. By the end of that week I know exactly who a tool is built for, and just as importantly, who it isn't.

If you're trying to find your tool, that's what we're here for.