Software alternatives that won’t cost you a penny.

Our IT guru Geoff Gibbs has compiled a list of some free software solutions. From word processing to image editing, these offerings are not only free but also robust options to some of the premium alternatives.

Libre Office

Libre Office

Office Suite

LibreOffice is a powerful and free office suite, used by millions of people around the world. Its clean interface and feature-rich tools help you unleash your creativity and enhance your productivity. LibreOffice includes : Writer (word processing), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw (vector graphics and flowcharts), Base (databases), and Math (formula editing).

Thunderbird

Email

Mozilla Thunderbird is a cross-platform, open source e-mail client that competes with the likes of Microsoft Outlook. Mozilla Thunderbird originated as an offshoot of the Mozilla Firefox Web browser project and was developed by the same team until Mozilla Corporation released development to an independent organization in order to focus efforts on Firefox.

Avast

Anti Virus Software

Our 400 million users are the 400 million reasons why Avast lead the digital security pack. Each Avast-loaded device is a source of real-time intelligence about new and current threats. That’s how they stop over 66 million of them every day. By joining Avast, you help to make that network even stronger.

GIMP

GIMP

Image Editor

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free and open-source graphics editor used for image retouching and editing, free-form drawing, converting between different image formats, and more specialized tasks.

Audacity

Audacity

Audio Editor

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. The interface is translated into many languages. You can use Audacity to: record live audio, convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs, edit sound files and much more.

VLC Media Player

Media Player

VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files (movies, images and music) as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. Almost guaranteed to play any media file you throw at it.

Blender

Blender

3D Editor

Possibly the most complex piece of software on this list – Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports just about everything you would need in creating 3D pieces of art. Great for teens and young adults getting into digital design without the cost. A great free alternative to software that premium versions charge thousands for.