Everyone likes a good deal. And deals don’t get better than free! The internet is one of the best things to happen to humankind, offering access to a wealth of knowledge that goes beyond the wildest dreams. There are a jaw-dropping 5.35 billion (with a ‘b’!) internet users around the world. But you’d be surprised how many people are not aware of the learning resources, archives, tools, and services that can be accessed by paying absolutely nothing online, with just the help of a phone or computer.
Sometimes, it takes a handful of well-intentioned strangers to open your eyes. One internet user sparked an informative thread on r/AskReddit after asking everyone to share their favorite free online things that everyone should know about. Scroll down for their tips, and make sure to take notes!
Bored Panda reached out to Matt Johnson, PhD, a marketing psychology expert specializing in topics such as consumer psychology and serendipity, for his thoughts on why some people view free things with suspicion and the future of (un)paid internet resources. You'll find our full interview with him below. Be sure not to miss it!
#1
Audacity -A powerful audio editor, ideal for music and podcasts.
Autodesk Fusion 360 -CAD/CAM software.
Bit Warden -Open-source password management service.
Blender - Free and open source 3D creation suite.
Cake Walk - music production software
Dark Table - Open-source photography workflow application and raw developer.
Dashlane -Cross-platform subscription-based password manager and digital wallet application.
DaVinci Resolve -Color correction and non-linear video editing application.
FreeCAD -open-source general-purpose parametric 3D computer-aided design modeler.
GIMP -A powerful open source photo and image editing tool.
Godot Engine -a 2D and 3D, cross-platform, free and open-source game engine released under the MIT license.
Glitch - Build fast, full-stack web apps in your browser.
Glimpse Image Editor - A photo editor for everyone.
Greenshot -A free screenshot tool optimized for productivity.
Handbrake -the open source video transcoder
Honey -a browser extension that aggregates and automatically applies online coupons on eCommerce websites.
Hitfilm-Express -Video editing software with professional-grade VFX tools.
Inkscape - Free and open-source vector graphics editor.
KDEnLive -open-source video editing software based on the MLT Framework, KDE and Qt.
Keepass -free and open-source password manager primarily for Windows.
Krita -Free and open-source raster graphics editor designed primarily for digital painting and 2D animation.
Open Broadcaster Software(OBS) - open-source software for video recording and live streaming.
LibreOffice -Open-source office suite.
LMMS -a digital audio workstation application program.
MagicaVoxel -A free lightweight GPU-based voxel art editor and interactive path tracing renderer.
MediBang Paint Pro -FREE digital painting and comic creation software.
Musescore -Create, play and print beautiful sheet music
Ocenaudio - Easy, fast, and powerful audio editor.
Opentoonz - animation production software.
Paint.NET -a freeware raster graphics editor program for Microsoft Windows developed on the .NET Framework
Photopea -Web-based raster and vector graphics editor.
Pixlr - Feature-packed online photo editor.
QGIS -open-source cross-platform desktop geographic information system application
Radio Garden - Explore live radio by rotating the globe.
RawTherapee - free, cross-platform raw image processing program
Reaper -Digital audio workstation and MIDI sequencer software
ShareX -Screen capture, file sharing and productivity tool.
Shotcut -A slick open source program for advanced video editing.
SlidesGo -Free Google Slides and PowerPoint templates.
Switch -Convert and encode sound files quickly.
The Noun Project - Icons for everything.
TurboTax Sucks A*s - website that makes it easy to file your taxes.
Unity -cross-platform game engine.
Unreal Engine - the most open and advanced real-time 3D creation tool.
Unsplash - Beautiful free images and pictures.
VLC media player -open-source portable cross-platform media player software and streaming media server
VS Code -free source-code editor.
Waveform - fully featured, completely unlimited free DAW for all music creators.
Wavepad -Audio and music editor for Windows and Mac.
Wcostream - anime and animated Tv-show/movie site with dubs and subs.
7-Zip - file archiver with a high compression ratio
Codecademy - free sessions and exercises for any coding language.
Coursera - Online courses & Certifications.( Not all courses/certifications are free, but worth it)
Cybrary - The Cybersecurity and IT Career Development Platform
FreeCodeCamp - Learn to code at home.
Goal Kicker - Free programming books in any language.
Khan Academy -a non-profit educational organization.
Learn with Google - Courses and certifications from Google.
Learn with Microsoft on Edx (Free) - Courses from Microsoft.
MDN Web Docs - Resources for developers, by developers.
MIT courses -MIT's OpenCourseware.
Octave -software featuring a high-level programming language, primarily intended for numerical computations. Basically free MatLab Alternative
R- programming language -free software environment for statistical computing and graphics
Repl.it - Code and collaborate, without friction.
W3Schools - The world's largest Web Development learning site.
