Being a content creator is fun, but almost all creators can agree that sometimes it gets tricky.
From the conception of creative ideas to the execution of said ideas, considerable time and effort go into consistent content creation.
The least one would expect is that the released content would perform well. Sadly, this is not always the case.
While pushing out content, creators must consider a myriad of factors like keywords, trending hashtags, video stats, SEO rankings and much more.
As the number of YouTube channels increases daily, gaining visibility and driving traffic to your channel is becoming more and more complex.
However, numerous apps have been made available to assist in your success with your YouTube channel.
These apps target specific purposes, some of which include channel growth and management, audio editing, video editing, and graphic designing.
No single app can cater to all your needs as a YouTube creator. Hence, there will be a need to utilize various apps to push out engaging, high-quality content consistently or choose ones that offer the most features in a single package.
Channel Growth and Management Apps
Apps that fall under this category are game-changers for growing your YouTube channel.
They scale up your engagement, give insights into YouTube’s unique ranking methods, and provide actionable suggestions targeted at growing your YouTube channel.
Here's our top-tier selection.
TubeBuddy
TubeBuddy - #1 Extension For YouTube Creators
- Video SEO
- Promotion Tools
- Canner Responses
- Content Scheduling
- Thumbnail Generator & Studio
- Topic Planner
- Bulk Processing Tools
TubeBuddy is a mobile app and web browser extension that syncs with your YouTube dashboard and offers more than 50+ features and data points designed to enhance your content creation efforts.
Most notably, it helps you find a goldmine of keywords with little to no competition and suggests those that would be relevant to your channel.
TubeBuddy helps you discover exciting topics that can potentially generate hundreds of thousands views for your channel.
Aside from keyword research, TubeBuddy monitors your competitors' tags, after which it studies how these tags perform and relays all necessary information back to you.
By having access to these features, you get insights about your competitors’ content production, which will further fuel your content improvements.
TubeBuddy is compatible with Chrome, Safari, and Firefox web browsers. You can also download the app on Android and Apple smartphone devices.
Team at TubeBuddy is also running a YouTube channel dedicated to creators success.
VidIQ
VidIQ - Advanced Growth Tools For YouTube Creators
- Keyword Tools
- Daily Ideas (Supercharged With AI)
- YouTube Stats Scorecard
- Competitor Analysis
- Productivity Tools
- Thumbnail Generator
- Channel Audit
VidIQ is a YouTube-certified analysis tool. It was developed as a web extension created explicitly for SEO purposes, but it now features dozens of other noteworthy tools.
This web extension main focus is on scanning your content and suggesting ways to improve it by offering insights on how to maximize your reach.
It does this by suggesting SEO-centric titles, channel descriptions, and tags that can increase your engagement and drive more impressions and views.
VidIQ also doubles as a video marketing tool. It employs features like the channel audit tool, competitors tool, productivity tools, and a real-time stats bar.
These features help you track your progress and make better decisions.
If you’re looking for an all-in-one app that has a ton of extremely useful and unique features, VidIQ should be at the top of your list (next to TubeBuddy, of course).
Creator ML
Creator ML - Video Ranker & Predictor
- AI Based Ranker & Predictor of Video's Success
- Video Title Generation
- Discord Community Access
- Chrome Extension
Creator ML is a new app on the block that comes at a higher price tag. It is an AI based tool that compares thumbnails and titles to predict YouTube views before content is uploaded.
Aside from the advanced prediction models, it also offers video title generation, designed to help you craft more effective and more engaging video titles.
How many credits you get to spend playing with this tool will depend on the plan you subscribe to. Along with the tool features, you will also get access to a Discord community of like-minded content creators.
YouTube Studio
YouTube Studio is the official channel tracking and management app for YouTube creators. Unlike many on this list, this is not a third-party app. YouTube Studio is completely free and it is part of every YouTube channel.
However, we still feel like it's worth mentioning, because of the importance it provides to content creators on YouTube.
With this app, creators can easily manage and update their channel info, engage with subscribers, and monitor their activities on the platform.
Using YouTube Studio, creators can also efficiently perform simple tasks like responding to comments, scheduling videos, and managing playlists. All they have to do is download the app on their smartphones.
YouTube Studio also provides a detailed analytics of your channel videos and community posts.
These are essential in getting a better understanding of your audience, and how they respond to your content.
Graphic Design Apps for YouTubers
Besides apps that grow and measure the growth of a channel, design apps are a must-have for content creators. These apps can be used to design banners, posters, video covers, and most importantly - thumbnails.
Canva
Canva - Free Design Tool
- 100+ million premium images, graphics and audio tracks
- Video background remover
- Brand kit set-up applicable to any design that helps you ensure brand consistency
- Magic resize that helps you resize one design for all marketing channels
- Content scheduler
- Design and team sharing capabilities
This web-based design and photo-editing app is your one-stop shop for all things graphics.
It has numerous ready-to-use design templates but it also allows you to customize and make your designs from scratch.
Whether you’re just starting out or you are an experienced creator, the free templates and many features will guide you to create some of the best YouTube's thumbnail designs.
You can unlock more of Canva’s unique tools by subscribing to the Canva Pro.
With Canva Pro, you will get access to:
- 100+ million premium images, graphics and audio tracks
- Video background remover
- Brand kit set-up applicable to any design that helps you ensure brand consistency
- Magic resize that helps you resize one design for all marketing channels
- Content scheduler
- Design and team sharing capabilities
Adobe Creative Cloud Express
Adobe Express - Free Online Photo Tool
- Thousands Of Ready-To-Use Templates
- Design Assets
- Royalty-Free Photos
- Background Remover
- Image Resizer
- Image File Converter
Adobe Creative Cloud Express is a collection of three design apps: Spark Page, Spark Post, and Spark Video.
These three apps work seamlessly together.
While Spark Page impresses the reader with its beautiful magazine-style web stories, Spark Post provides clarity to your designs by adding pictures, special effects, and filters. Spark Video then sums it up by allowing cinematic motion and video creation.
Thumbnail Blaster
Thumbnail Blaster - Ready Pre-Set Solution
- AI Thumbnail Creation
- Optimized for YouTube Creators
- Easy To Use
- 30+ Templates
- 1000+ Design Elements
Thumbnail Blaster is built specifically having YouTube creators in mind. It is a web-based design and editing tool that promises to help you design better thumbnails.
The core selling point of Thumbnail Blaster is the fact it's a niched product targeted at YouTube content creators. That means all of its features are built to help you get more engaging and attractive thumbnails.
It's also a very affordable tool that comes at a low one-time price of $36.86 (at the moment of writing this post).
However, the tool does have plenty of downsides. It only has about 30 thumbnail templates, around 1,000 graphics in the library and less robust editing features than a tool like Canva.
It is only a one-time purchase and it may work perfectly for creators that have less skills in graphic design and need a more complete and pre-set solution.
Vukasin Ilic
YouTube Video Editing Tools
YouTube is a video-based platform, so it is only natural for creators to want their videos to stand out from the crowd. Here are a few of the best tools to enhance your video.
Adobe Premiere Rush
Adobe Premiere Rush - Video Editing For Vloggers
- Free on Mobile
- Color Effects
- Transitions
- Titles
- Audio Editing
Premiere Rush is a video editing app by Adobe with mobile and desktop versions.
This app allows users to import and edit high-definition images from professional cameras.
It also allows you to add special effects and export the finished work in various formats.
ClipChamp
ClipChamp - Free Online Video Editor
- Trimming, resizing, cropping and other editing features
- Camera Recorder
- Screen Recorder
- Text To Speech
- Brand Kit
- Green Screen
- Video Overlay
Clipchamp is another popular video editing app used by beginner YouTube creators. ClipChamp was acquired by Microsoft in September 2021, and is soon to be included in Windows 11 as a standalone tool.
But at the moment, it's a web-based app that comes with a ton of features at a great price. It offers unlimited watermark-free videos with 1080p resolution, ton of editing features and free stock footage - for $0.
A small monthly fee of $15 will get you access to more video filters and effects, along with a larger selection of stock images, audio & video.
Intro Maker
Intro Maker - Intro Video Templates For YouTube
- Ready To Use Templates
- Customizable
- Easy To Use
- Regularly Updated With New Templates
- Niche-Based Template Choices
A good intro is one way to sustain engagement on your page, gain new subscribers, and keep your existing subscribers.
It shows viewers that you are committed to creating valuable content, constantly leaving them excited and harboring high hopes for your channel.
As its name suggests, intro maker is used for making catchy YouTube intros.
Despite having an inexhaustible library of templates for intro videos, it allows you to customize an intro for your channel from scratch.
InShot
InShot - Mobile Based Video Editing App
- Video Trimming
- Merging
- Filters & Effects
- Stickers
- Text Adding Capabilities
InShot is another video editing app for mobile devices. The app’s visual enhancements are pretty advanced and allow you to manipulate your videos uniquely.
Despite its unique features, InShot’s free version has quite several ads.
Once you get acquainted with them, they make little to no difference.
However, if you’re the type that detests having your workflow interrupted by ads, you can subscribe to the $4 monthly plan to bypass this.
Best YouTube Audio Management Tools
It’s one thing to create good content, and it’s another to decide on the best audio for your content.
Choosing the right audio for your content can be nerve-wracking. Sometimes it gets tricky to select a song with the right tempo to convey the feeling(s) you want to project into your videos.
However, there are apps readily available to help you make a decision. Below are some of the best examples:
Soundstripe
Soundstripe - Royalty Free Music Library
- Unlimited Downloads
- 8500+ Songs
- 60,000+ Sound Effects
- Premiere Pro Extension
- Great Filtering & Search Options
- YouTube Connection Options
Soundstripe provides content creators with some of the best royalty-free music for their videos.
These audios could feature as intros and outros and could even be your video’s primary audio. If you don’t want to use an entire song, you can extract any part of it and use it as the audio for your content.
The best part about SoundStripe is that no royalties are attached to the songs and audio available on the app.
Additionally, if your channel is listed with Soundstripe, you could be cleared of copyright claims.
Lexis Audio Editor
Lexis Audio Editor - Free Audio Editing Tool
- Recorder and Player
- Audio Mixing
- Noise Reduction
- Compressor
- Android, iOS & Windows based apps
Video and sound quality are the key features of amazing content. Your content suffers if your video quality is excellent, but the sound is compromised. Similarly, if your sound quality is perfect, but your video quality is not up to par, it ruins the finished work.
Quality mics and audio recorders improve sound quality by a long shot. Lexis Audio Recorder takes things a step further.
It reduces background noise, alters the tempo of audio, and adjusts the speed and pitch. More importantly, it allows any audio to be cut and pasted.
Bottom Line
Though content creation can be difficult, having these apps at your fingertips can make your life much easier.
Once you identify what your video needs are, you can always find an app to cater to those needs. And if you ever feel stuck, feel free to refer back to this article. Good luck!
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