“What Free Thing Is So Good You Can’t Believe It’s Actually Available For Free? (30 Answers)

Some of life's best things are free, just like a borrowed book from the library or a digital map that offers the shortest route to any part of the world. However, we tend to pay little attention to them, often taking them for granted. 

To remind us of them, people in this online thread were listing free-of-charge items they couldn’t believe were available for free. Scroll down to find the most popular ones that are guaranteed to save you some bucks in the future!

While you're noting them down, don't forget to check out a conversation with the person who started this discussion in the first place.

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Bored Panda reached out to redditor who began this discussion, u/EyesKyoob, to learn more about what motivated them to ask such a question online.

They told us, "Like most people, I enjoy free things, and figured the best way to see what free services we should be taking advantage of was to ask the people of Reddit."

For them, the VetTix app has been the most rewarding free resource they have come across so far. "As a veteran, the VetTix app has been the best for me. I have gotten some great free tickets for all kinds of events through them," they said. "It has provided me and the family with many free tickets to baseball, monster truck shows, and football games, so that’s absolutely better than having paid for those tickets."

Redditor is unsure whether the best things in life are truly free, but is glad people shared so many awesome things that cost nothing. "I don’t know that to be true, but there are a lot of services on the Reddit post that I never realized were great free services like parks, libraries, museums, and software we take for granted."

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The main reason why some businesses or organizations offer free services or products is an opportunity to test them. Sometimes, entering a certain market with a paid commodity can be hectic, and offering a free-of-charge item allows companies to test the waters without additional pressure. 

Besides, when people are downloading an eBook or software program at no cost, their expectations are much lower than those of a paid product. Therefore, users will be more glad to test it out and offer their feedback. This information can later be used to create other commodities with a better understanding of the client's needs. 

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It’s also a great marketing strategy that gets businesses’s names out there. Rarely do people refuse free things, which allows them to get familiar with the company on their own. If the product is good, they’ll likely come back for more and might even buy into the brand. 

According to Petra Mayer & Associates Consulting, “Online courses and programs are one of the best resources you can offer, and you can create them in any area you like.”

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Many companies have already done this, allowing people to access a myriad of free online resources. For example, Project Gutenberg, which was a massive lifesaver during my university days, has more than 50,000 free e-books, including many classics. If you ask me, there’s no better deal out there than free education that helps us grow and improve.

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#12

Google Arts & Culture also allows people to explore over 2500 museums and galleries around the world without having to leave their homes and take out their wallets. If you've always wanted to visit Tate Britain, MoMA, or the Rijksmuseum, now’s your chance. They include online exhibits and a street view that lets enthusiasts freely roam the halls of the museums.

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#15

The last freebie we’re mentioning today is the free section of Craigslist, where generous people list items they are willing to part with without any pay (that is, if you’re willing to pick them up). It works for just about any city in America. In busy New York, for example, it’s not uncommon to see hundreds of offers every day. Give it a try, and who knows, you might hit a jackpot like these people did!

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Public Libraries. They do so much good for their communities, providing safe places to work, learn and read and use the internet. Librarians work so incredibly hard to make their local branches welcoming and fun places to explore and people take them for granted. I know they aren't "free" because we pay for them with taxes, but their budgets are usually incredibly small and they do their best. Most have dvds/blue-rays and video games and audio books as well if you didn't know. 10/10 would recommend.VLC player for Pc and mobile. The best encoder and decoder ever. It can literally play every audio and video media and is totally free! Wild. The founder refused 55 million dollars for it to keep it free.Wikipedia!Hiking trails (most of them). Maintained, beautiful paths I can just wander whenever I want? Perfect.Google Maps ! Do you realize we had to pay for maps before ? And it didn't even indicate the shortest path, neither for cars nor for bikes or walks ? And it was only maps of area and not the entire freaking world ? What a great time to get lost.Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.Smithsonian museums - beautiful, educational, amazing and free .The info in photos app that tells what kind of plant/animal/bug you take a pic of.Linux.Adblockers.Our neighborhood parks. Walking my dog around a beautiful park is the highlight of my day.The natural history museum in London. Go there, it’s awesome.GPS. It costs millions of dollars a day to maintain.Hmm YouTube and online education, you can get so much knowledge that would have been damn near impossible throughout history. Honorable mentions: Google maps (said before), ChatGPT, libraries.The radio.YouTube. It’s crazy how much stuff is on there for free. Sure there’s ads but still.WAZE. For those that don’t know it’s a GPS app that has a community of people that allows you to mark the map for hazards (99% cops). It’s saved me many tickets and has gotten increasingly popular over the years and gets more and more reliabl.The internet! We don’t always think of it as free because you have to pay to _connect_ to the internet but you don’t have to pay to access it. It’s just there, for everyone.Blender 3d software.The Libby app. I know it’s through your library but still, it’s such an amazing resource!Canva is a pretty fantastic design program for basic stuff. They have a paid version with more features but even the free version is pretty robust. I am a professional designer and use it sometimes over other “deeper” design programs for its simple UI.Internet Archive.The St. Louis Zoo. Admission is free.I have adrmiration for Craigslist and how Jim kept it free (with exception from job & apt ads).Khan Academy.Archive of our own. Got me through a lot of pain.Poison control.Microsoft defender, it’s the best av software around.Winzip.DaVinci Resolve - video editing software.