Pollen vs Taplio vs AuthoredUp: Which LinkedIn Tool Is Right for You?

If you’re serious about LinkedIn, you’ve probably come across Pollen, Taplio, and AuthoredUp. All three are popular LinkedIn tools, but they take fundamentally different approaches to helping you create content. This comparison breaks down the features, pricing, strengths, and weaknesses of each so you can make an informed choice.

Quick Overview

Before the deep dive, here’s the high-level picture:

• Pollen — AI content advisor that learns your unique voice. Focuses on generating posts, headlines, and ideas that sound like you wrote them.
• Taplio — All-in-one LinkedIn growth platform with AI writing, scheduling, analytics, and a viral post inspiration library.
• AuthoredUp — Chrome extension for post formatting, drafting, and analytics. Works inside LinkedIn’s native composer.

Feature Comparison

AI Content Generation

This is where the three tools differ most significantly.

Pollen is built around Content DNA — it analyzes your existing posts, profile, and writing patterns to build a model of your unique voice. When it generates content, the output reflects your vocabulary, tone, and typical themes. It’s not just filling in a template; it’s learning what makes your content sound like you.

Taplio offers AI writing that can generate posts from scratch, rewrite existing content, or continue a draft. It uses GPT-based models and provides templates and frameworks. The output is solid but tends toward a more generic LinkedIn style unless you spend time customizing prompts.

AuthoredUp does not offer AI content generation. It focuses on formatting and editing rather than writing from scratch. If you need AI to help you write, AuthoredUp is not the tool for that.

Verdict: Pollen wins for voice-authentic AI writing. Taplio is a solid option if you want AI bundled with other features. AuthoredUp isn’t in this category.

Post Formatting & Editing

AuthoredUp excels here. Its Chrome extension adds rich text formatting to LinkedIn’s composer — bold, italic, bullet points, emojis, hooks, and previews. You can also save drafts and snippets for reuse.

Taplio has a built-in post editor with formatting options, though not as deep as AuthoredUp’s since it works in its own interface rather than inside LinkedIn.

Pollen focuses on content generation rather than post formatting. You copy the generated content to LinkedIn for final formatting.

Verdict: AuthoredUp leads for formatting. Taplio has decent editing. Pollen focuses on the writing itself.

Scheduling & Publishing

Taplio includes a full scheduling system. You can queue posts, set up a content calendar, and publish directly to LinkedIn. This is one of its key differentiators as an all-in-one platform.

AuthoredUp has a scheduling feature that lets you schedule posts directly from LinkedIn using the Chrome extension.

Pollen does not include scheduling. It focuses on content creation and strategy rather than publishing workflow.

Verdict: Taplio leads for scheduling. AuthoredUp offers basic scheduling. Pollen doesn’t compete here.

Analytics

Taplio provides LinkedIn analytics including post performance, follower growth, and engagement tracking. It gives you a dashboard view of your LinkedIn metrics over time.

Pollen tracks your LinkedIn post analytics with trend analysis and uses the data to improve its AI recommendations over time. Your analytics directly inform better content suggestions.

AuthoredUp includes post-level analytics and performance tracking through its Chrome extension.

Verdict: All three offer analytics. Taplio has the most comprehensive dashboard. Pollen uniquely uses analytics to improve its AI output.

Content Inspiration

Taplio has a viral post library with millions of high-performing LinkedIn posts you can browse for inspiration, filter by topic, and adapt to your own style.

Pollen takes a different approach — rather than showing you what others posted, it generates ideas based on your Content DNA, current trends in your niche, and what’s resonated with your audience before.

AuthoredUp doesn’t offer a content inspiration feature beyond its draft/snippet library.

Verdict: Taplio for browsing others’ content; Pollen for personalized ideas based on your voice and data.

Pricing Comparison

• Pollen: Free trial + free tools (headline analyzer, character counter, post preview). Pro plan at $49/month for full AI features and analytics.
• Taplio: Starts at $49/month (Starter), $149/month for the full-featured plan with analytics and CRM features.
• AuthoredUp: $19.95/month. Straightforward single-tier pricing with all features included.

AuthoredUp is the most affordable at roughly $20/month. Pollen and Taplio are similarly priced at $49/month, though Taplio’s advanced plan is significantly more expensive. Pollen offsets its cost with free tools that anyone can use without signing up.

Pros and Cons

Pollen

• Pros: Best voice-matching AI, Content DNA learns your style over time, free tool suite, analytics feed into better AI output
• Cons: No built-in scheduling, focused on LinkedIn only, newer platform

Taplio

• Pros: True all-in-one (writing + scheduling + analytics + inspiration), viral post library, established platform
• Cons: AI output can feel generic without heavy customization, higher price for full features, learning curve for all features

AuthoredUp

• Pros: Best formatting tools, works inside LinkedIn natively, most affordable, simple to use
• Cons: No AI writing, limited to Chrome, less useful if you don’t need formatting features

Which Tool Should You Choose?

The right choice depends on your primary need:

• Choose Pollen if your biggest challenge is creating content that sounds authentically like you. If you’re tired of AI output that sounds generic and want a tool that actually learns your voice, Pollen’s Content DNA approach is unmatched.
• Choose Taplio if you want a single platform that handles everything — writing, scheduling, analytics, and inspiration. It’s the best option if you want to consolidate your LinkedIn workflow into one tool.
• Choose AuthoredUp if your main pain point is post formatting and you prefer working inside LinkedIn’s native interface. It’s also the best pick if budget is a primary concern.
• Combine Pollen + AuthoredUp if you want the best of both worlds: AI-generated content that matches your voice (Pollen) with best-in-class formatting when you publish (AuthoredUp).

Key Takeaways

• Pollen, Taplio, and AuthoredUp solve different problems — compare them on what matters most to your workflow
• For AI writing that sounds like you: Pollen’s Content DNA is the most sophisticated approach
• For all-in-one convenience: Taplio combines the most features in one platform
• For formatting and affordability: AuthoredUp at $19.95/month is hard to beat
• You can combine tools — Pollen for writing + AuthoredUp for formatting is a powerful pairing
• Try before you buy: Pollen offers a free trial and free tools, Taplio has a free trial, and AuthoredUp has a free plan