ChatGPT review
The all-rounder with the widest feature set and the largest ecosystem.
Editorial verdict: The best starting point for anyone who does not yet know what they need AI for, and for many the only assistant they will need.
ChatGPT brought generative AI to a wide audience in 2022 and remains the yardstick every other assistant is measured against. The reason is less a single outstanding feature than sheer breadth: web research, analysis of uploaded spreadsheets, image generation, voice conversation and your own reusable assistants all sit in the same interface.
In practice that breadth pays off as soon as tasks interlock: a quarterly report can be uploaded, analysed, turned into a summary and then into a chart without switching tools. If you only have a single task, though, a specialist gets you there faster: DeepL translates better, Cursor codes more thoroughly, Perplexity researches with better evidence.
Data handling remains the sticking point. For private users, conversations are used to improve the models by default unless you object; the team and enterprise plans are governed differently. If you work with personal data professionally, check the settings before your first input and put a data processing agreement in place.
Strengths and weaknesses
What speaks for it
- Very broad feature set: web search, data analysis, image generation and voice mode in one interface
- A large choice of models for different tasks and speeds
- Extensive ecosystem of apps, extensions and APIs
- Very good mobile apps with a mature voice conversation mode
What speaks against it
- The sheer number of models and options overwhelms newcomers
- Privacy settings have to be changed actively
- Heavy users hit the limits of the free tier quickly
Scores in detail
- Output quality4.7
- Usability4.6
- Feature set4.9
- Value for money4.3
- Data protection3.6
All criteria carry equal weight. How we test is described in our test methodology.
Who is ChatGPT worth it for?
Anyone looking for one tool that covers as many tasks as possible. If that describes your situation, ChatGPT is a sound choice. If not, the alternatives are worth a look, the AI assistants & chatbots category holds 5 tools with different priorities, and the full overview compares all 17 tools we have tested.