40 Best Free Open Source Software Alternatives to Save $4,000+ Yearly

Libra Office. Microsoft Office costs around $100 a year. Over a decade, that's roughly $1,000 just to write

documents, make spreadsheets, and create presentations. [music] And the weirdest part is that once the

subscription ends, Microsoft suddenly acts like [music] accessing your own files is a privilege, not a basic human

right. And Office isn't even the expensive part [music] anymore. Photoshop, Premiere Pro, cloud storage,

productivity apps. A lot of people are quietly spending over $1,000 every year [music] on software subscriptions

without realizing it. At this point, half the internet runs on monthly payments and [music] forgotten free

trials. But here's the thing. A huge amount of paid software has free open-source alternatives that do almost

the same job without ads, limits, or random upgrade now reminders appearing like jump scares. We track down 40 of

the best ones. Together, they replace well over $4,000 a year in paid software [music] for exactly $0. Grab something

to take notes because you're going to want to install at least a [music] few of these. And the easiest place to start

is Libra Office. Libra Office launched in 2010 as a fork of Open Office and is now maintained by the Document

Foundation. It includes Writer for documents, calc for [music] spreadsheets, impress for presentations,

plus tools for databases, diagrams, and equations. Basically, the entire Microsoft Office lineup, except [music]

nobody's asking for your credit card every 30 days. It opens and saves Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, works fully

offline, needs no account, and doesn't quietly send telemetry data into the void. Entire governments, including

parts of France's military and Italy's [music] defense ministry, have switched to it. And honestly, for 99% of users,

[music] it does everything they actually need. The only real limitation is that advanced Excel macros and complex

PowerPoint animations can sometimes behave a little differently. But for students, freelancers, and small

businesses, Libra Office replaces a yearly subscription bill with exactly $0, [music] which is a very competitive

price. VC media player. Most media players are fine until you try opening one weird file. That's usually the

moment everything falls apart. Windows says the format isn't supported. QuickTime gives up immediately and

suddenly you're downloading something called ultracodc player profile_v7 from a website that looks medically

unsafe. And this is exactly why VC media player exists. VC started in 2001 as a student project at EOL Central and

somehow turned into the media player almost [music] everyone eventually installs after their default one

disappoints them. Its main advantage is simple. It plays basically everything. MP4, MKV, [music]

AVI, FLACk, obscure formats from 2006 that were probably created by one camcorder

company [music] and then abandoned forever. VC opens them without complaining. And somehow it does all of

this while staying incredibly lightweight. The entire program is under 50 megabytes and runs perfectly on

machines that sound like they're fighting for survival every time a browser tab opens. But most people only

use about 10% of what VLC can actually do. It can convert video and audio files, stream media over a network, sync

subtitles frame by frame, record your screen, rip DVDs, and even play YouTube links directly inside [music] the app.

VC isn't just a media player anymore. It's basically a Swiss Army knife for video files. Even the traffic cone logo

has lore behind it. It came from the developers apparently collecting traffic cones during university, which somehow

[music] makes perfect sense for VLC's energy. And honestly, the best description of VC is this. If a file

exists, VC will probably play it. It's the cockroach of media players. Impossible to kill, works everywhere,

and survives every [music] format war humanity invents. Da Vinci Resolve. For years, professional video editing

basically meant paying Adobe every month and pretending the crashes were part of the creative process. Then there's Da

Vinci Resolve. Resolve is made by Blackmagic Design, which is a real profitable company that for some reason

gives away one of the most powerful editing suites on the planet, completely free. And not free trial free, actually

free. What makes Resolve different is that it isn't just one tool. It's basically four professional apps. fused

together into a single program. You get video editing similar to Premiere Pro, Fusion for motion graphics, and visual

effects like After [music] Effects, Fair Light for professional audio work, and the industry's favorite color grading

system. The color tools are the big one here. Entire Hollywood films, including movies like John Wick, La La Land, and

Deadpool were color graded in Resolve. And the wild part is that the free version already includes around 95% of

what most people need. The paid studio version mainly adds advanced noise reduction, some AI features, and a few

higherend export options. So, yes, technically you can download free software today and edit a movie with the

same platform used in actual cinema productions, which feels slightly unfair to everyone still paying monthly

subscriptions. The downside is that Resolve expects your computer to have a decent GPU, and the learning curve is

very real. Opening it for the first time can feel like accidentally entering a NASA control room. But for YouTubers,

students, filmmakers, and content creators, this replaces editing, VFX, audio, and color software that would

otherwise cost hundreds of dollars every year. OBS Studio. If you've ever watched a live stream, gaming video, podcast,

tutorial, or apology video filmed with suspiciously good lighting, there's a very high chance it was running through

OBS Studio. [music] Released in 2012, OBS became the standard tool for streamers because it solved a simple

problem. People needed professional video production without spending television studio money. And somehow the

free open-source option ended up being better than most paid competitors. OBS works through a scene-based system. You

can layer your screen capture, webcam, browser tabs, overlays, alerts, [music] images, audio sources, basically

anything, and switch between them live. It turns your computer into a realtime production studio. Instead of just the

thing with Chrome open, it records in extremely high quality. It streams to almost every platform and has a massive

plug-in ecosystem. Virtual cameras, stream deck integration, NDI support, advanced audio tools. If there's

something you want OBS to do, someone has probably already made a plug-in for it at 3:00 a.m. fueled entirely by

caffeine and Linux [music] enthusiasm. And this isn't niche software either. Pretty much every major streamer has

used OBS at some point. Beyond streaming, people use it for tutorials, gameplay recording, podcasts, online

[music] classes, and even virtual meetings through OBS virtual camera, which means yes, [music]

technically your next Zoom call can have scene transitions for absolutely no reason. The only real downside is the

first 10 minutes. Opening OBS for the first time feels confusing because there are buttons everywhere and none of them

explain themselves. But once it clicks, it becomes incredibly powerful. And compared to tools like XSplit,

Streamlabs Ultra, or Camtasia, OBS saves anywhere from $60 to $300 while somehow still being the better product. [music]

Before subscription-based photo editing became the industry standard, there was short for GNU image

manipulation program. launched in 1996, which means it's older [music] than

Google, YouTube, and probably some people watching this video. At its core, is a full raster graphics editor.

Layers, masks, filters, brushes, selections, photo retouching, digital painting. All the core image editing

tools are here with plugins. It can even handle raw photo files, and even Photoshop PSD projects. So, for things

like thumbnails, social media graphics, web assets, or general photo editing, covers most of what people actually

need. Over the years, the community has added extra filters, tools, [music] interface improvements, and workflow

upgrades that push it much further than the default install. Now, is it as polished as Photoshop? Not exactly. The

interface can feel a little dated. Some Photoshop shortcuts and habits don't transfer cleanly, and the lack of native

CMK support is still annoying for print designers. sometimes feels like software designed by extremely talented

people who slightly underestimated the importance of looking normal. [music] Honestly, I think gets unfairly

hated. Yes, the interface looks like it was designed in a Linux forum from 2004. But once you stop expecting it to be

Photoshop and start treating it as its own thing, it does the job. And that's the important part because Photoshop now

costs around $260 a year [music] while costs nothing. No subscription, no login, no cloud integration trying to

become your personality. Audacity. If your video looks bad, people might forgive it. If your audio sounds bad,

they're gone immediately. And that's why Audacity has survived for over 25 years. Released in 2000, Audacity became the

default free audio editor for basically the entire internet. Podcasts, [music] YouTube voiceovers, music demos, school

projects, random microphone disasters. [music] If audio needed fixing, chances are Audacity was involved somewhere.

[music] At its core, it's a multi-track audio editor and recorder. You can cut clips, remove background noise,

normalize volume, apply EQ and compression, add effects, [music] and clean up recordings that sounded

terrible 5 minutes earlier. It also exports to pretty much every format people actually use, including [music]

MP3, Wave, Flack, and OG. And despite looking simple, there's a surprising amount of power underneath. Audacity

supports VST and LV2 plugins, meaning you can expand it with professional audio tools used in actual music

production workflow. For creators, this matters [music] a lot. A decent microphone helps, but good audio editing

helps even more. Now, to be fair, Audacity did hit controversy in 2021 after concerns about telemetry and data

collection updates. The backlash was immediate and most of the concerns were later clarified or scaled back, but it's

still part of the software's history worth mentioning honestly. And compared to tools like Adobe Audition or

Hindenburg Pro, Audacity replaces software that can cost anywhere from $95 [music] to $240 without putting basic

audio cleanup behind a payw wall. Blender. [music] For a long time, professional 3D software was locked

behind absurd pricing. [music] If you wanted to work in animation, VFX, or game development, you were expected to

pay thousands of dollars for tools like Maya, Cinema 4D, or ZBrush before you even made your first cube [music] spin

dramatically in empty space. Then there's Blender. Blender started in 1994 at a Dutch animation studio. And in

2002, it became open source after the community literally crowdfunded €100,000 to free the software, [music] which is

still one of the most dramatic save the app moments in tech history. Today, Blender is a complete 3D production

pipeline. Modeling, sculpting, rigging, [music] animation, simulations, rendering, video editing, even 2D

animation through grease [music] pencil. It's all built into one application. And this isn't hobby software anymore.

[music] Blender has been used in real productions, including shots in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,

while Netflix's NextG was made entirely in Blender. It also includes two powerful render engines, Cycles for

realistic rendering and EV for fast real-time previews. The catch [music] is the learning curve. Blender is

absolutely the hardest program on this list to learn. Opening it for the first time feels like someone handed you the

cockpit of a 747 and walked away. There are buttons inside of buttons. Menus that lead to menus. It's genuinely

overwhelming, but the people who push through end up making things that look like Pixar shorts. Blender replaces

software suites that can [music] cost thousands every year. And somehow the free part still surprises people.

Obsidian. Most note-taking apps today want your notes in the cloud, connected to an account, synced through a

subscription, and somehow also integrated with AI for reasons nobody asked for. Obsidian goes [music] in the

opposite direction. Released in 2020 during the whole second brain productivity movement, Obsidian became

popular because it treats your notes like actual files instead of content trapped inside a service. Everything is

stored locally on your computer using simple markdown text files. No account required, no internet needed, no loading

spinner just to open grocery lists. The feature that made people obsessed with it is birectional linking. You can

connect notes to other nodes like a personal knowledge web. And Obsidian visualizes those relationships through a

graph view that makes your brain look either incredibly organized or mildly concerning. [music] And because the

community is huge, the plug-in ecosystem exploded. There are now over 1,500 plugins for things like calendars,

flashcards, task management, AI tools, writing [music] workflows, and basically every productivity system humans have

invented to avoid actually doing work. The main downside is syncing. Obsidian Sync costs [music] extra. Otherwise,

you'll need to manually set up Dropbox, iCloud, or another workaround. But for students, researchers, writers, and

people tired of apps getting slower every update, Obsidian replaces services like Notion, Evernote, [music] and Rome

research while keeping your notes fully under your control, which honestly feels weirdly refreshing in 2026 when even

calculator apps want you to make an account. [music] Scratch. Most programming languages start by throwing

a wall of symbols at you and hoping you don't panic. Scratch takes a very different approach. [music] Developed by

the MIT Media Lab and launched in 2007, Scratch teaches programming through visual blocks instead of typed code. You

drag pieces together like digital Lego. And those blocks control animations, games, stories, [music] and interactive

projects. And even though it looks simple, the logic underneath is real programming. Loops, variables,

conditions, events, functions. The same concepts professional developers use are all here, just [music] without the part

where one missing semicolon destroys your entire afternoon [music] because it runs directly in the browser. Schools

around the world adopted it quickly. No installation, no setup nightmares, no it works on my computer situations. Today,

the platform has over 100 million shared projects, which means Scratch accidentally became one of the largest

programming communities on Earth. [music] It looks like a toy. It isn't. And honestly, a huge number of younger

developers started here. It's not trying to turn kids into software engineers overnight. It's teaching computational

thinking in a way that actually feels approachable. So while paid coding platforms charge yearly subscriptions

for beginner programming lessons, Scratch gives people a real first step into coding completely free. And for a

lot of developers, this is where the entire rabbit hole started. Godo. For years, indie game development was

dominated by Unity and Unreal Engine. Then Unity made one very impressive business decision in 2023. It united the

entire game industry against Unity. That controversy pushed massive attention toward GDAU, an open- source game engine

that had quietly been growing for years. GDAU uses the MIT license, which basically means you can build and sell

games with it and pay absolutely nothing in royalties. [music] No revenue cuts, no surprise fees, no executives suddenly

inventing new pricing rules at 2 a.m. The engine supports both 2D and 3D development and uses a scene and node

system [music] that makes projects surprisingly organized once it clicks. Developers can use GDScript which feels

similar to Python or switch to C if they prefer. And this isn't just experimental indie software anymore. Games like

Cassette Beasts, Broat, and Dome Keeper shipped successfully using GDAU. Now, to be fair, GDAU's 3D tools still lag

behind Unreal Engine in some areas, and its ecosystem is smaller than Unities. But for indie developers, hobbyists, and

smaller studios, the trade-off is worth it because Unity Pro costs thousands per year. Unreal takes royalties after a

revenue threshold. GDAU takes nothing ever, which suddenly became a very attractive feature after 2023. GDAU is

the most quietly important project on this entire list. Not because it's the best at everything. [music] It isn't,

but because it's the only major engine where the people making games actually own what they make. That used to be

normal. It isn't [music] anymore. Creda Creda began in 1999 as part of the KDE project under the name Kagemage Shop. It

wasn't originally a dedicated art program, but in 2009, the project pivoted heavily toward digital painting.

That decision turned Creda into one of the most respected free creative apps on the internet. Here's the key thing.

Creda isn't trying to be Photoshop. Photoshop edits everything. Creda was built for the person who opened their

laptop and immediately wanted to draw dragons, spaceships, or anime characters. The star is the brush

engine. Dozens of customizable [music] brushes, stabilizers for smooth line work, seamless texture modes, even

built-in animation tools. Whether you're sketching characters, drawing comics, or designing an entire fantasy world

instead of answering emails, Creda has you covered. It's used by professional illustrators and concept [music] artists

worldwide. This isn't one of those apps that's impressive for being free. It's impressive, period. The savings are

sustainable, too. Coral Painter costs over $400 bucks, while Photoshop subscriptions can easily exceed $250 a

year. Creta costs absolutely nothing. [music] Its one limitation is that it's a painting tool, not a photo editing

workflow tool. If you're organizing thousands of raw photos from a vacation you'll never sort through, look

elsewhere. Photoshop was never really built for painting. It tolerates it. Credo was built for it by artists for

artists and somehow still costs less than a cup of coffee, which is probably why people wouldn't stop recommending

it. Photoia. The idea behind Photoia sounds fake until you use it. It's Photoshop running in a browser tab. No

installation, no launcher, no account creation, no mysterious background process eating RAM while you're asleep.

You just open the website and start editing. And surprisingly, it isn't some stripped down knockoff. Photopia

supports Photoshop's own PSD files, layer masks, blend modes, most of what people actually open Photoshop for. If

you're on a school Chromebook, an old laptop, or a work computer where installing software is about as easy as

getting a meeting approved, [music] Photoia still works. I've genuinely opened Photoia on a locked down work

laptop just to crop one image, fully expecting it to get blocked, and it just opened. No install, no permission box,

nothing. What's even crazier is that it was created by a single developer, Ivan Cutsker, and [music] is mostly funded

through ads. Not the annoying kind that cover half your screen either. There's also an inexpensive premium option if

you want an ad-ree experience. For most people, Photopia can replace a Photoshop subscription entirely, potentially

saving around 260 bucks a year. The catch, it's browserbased, [music] so huge multi-layer projects lean hard

on your RAM. And pros on massive commercial work will hit its limits. But for everyday editing, thumbnails, school

projects, even surprisingly advanced work, it's absurdly good. It's basically Photoshop cosplaying as a website. And

the first time you use it, you'll keep expecting a free trial expired message that never shows up. Inkscape. If

Photoshop, and Photoia [music] work with pixels, Inkscape works with vectors. Instead of storing an image as

millions of tiny colored squares, it stores mathematical paths and shapes. The result is almost [music] unfair. You

can make a logo the size of a business card, then scale it up to a billboard without it turning into a blurry mess

that [music] looks like it was downloaded from Google images in 2007. That's why logos, icons, and branding

are almost always a vector. [music] Anything that might get resized later. Inkscape is a free open-source

alternative to Adobe Illustrator that's been around since 2003. Over two decades of development have turned it into a

genuinely [music] capable design tool. Node editing, path operations, layers, live filters, and full support for the

web's standard vector format. It fits into [music] most professional workflows without much drama. For students,

freelancers, and small businesses, Inkscape can replace Illustrator entirely, potentially saving around $276

a year. The downside is that it occasionally reminds you it's an open- source project. The interface feels a

little dated. Topography still trails Illustrator, and very complex files make it think about its life choices for a

few seconds, but for most people, it's more than enough. Pixels panic when you start scaling them. Vectors just shrug

and Inkscape gives you that infinite resolution power for absolutely nothing. LMMS. If you've ever watched a music

producer click random squares for 5 minutes and somehow emerge with a beat that gets 50 million Spotify streams,

you've probably wondered how expensive that software is. Usually, the answer is more than you'd like. That's where LMMS

comes in. Originally short for Linux Multimedia Studio, LMMS is a free open-source digital audio workstation

that now runs on Windows and Mac, too. Think of it as the door into music production minus the price tag. The

workflow will feel familiar to anyone who's seen FL Studio. You've got a piano roll for writing melodies, a

pattern-based system for building songs, a beat and baseline editor, and a collection of built-in synths,

instruments, and samples to get started immediately. It also supports VST plugins, which means you can expand it

with thousands of additional sounds and effects once [music] you start taking music production more seriously. It's

especially good for electronic music, hip-hop beats, and anyone learning the fundamentals. It's the kind of software

that lets you go from, I wonder how songs are made, to I accidentally spent 6 hours making a drum loop surprisingly

quickly. [music] The biggest limitation, it's built around MIDI and patterns. Unlike professional audio workstations,

it won't natively record vocals or live instruments, and the workflow can feel intimidating at first. Small trade-off

when the alternative costs money upfront. FL Studio starts at around $99 and jumps to about $199 for the producer

edition. LMMS lets you find out whether music production is your next passion or your next abandoned hobby without

spending a scent. [music] And honestly, that's probably the safest way to discover you're terrible at making beats

[music] or surprisingly good at it. Caden Live Shotcut. So, if Da Vinci Resolve feels like a professional movie

studio, Shotcut and Caden Live are the editors for people who just want to make videos without earning a film degree

first. Let's start with Shotcut. It's the simpler option. The interface is cleaner, the learning curve is gentler,

and most beginners can figure out the basics within an hour. Cut clips, add transitions, throw in some text, adjust

audio, export video. Done. It focuses on the 90% of editing that most people actually do. Kaden Live sits one step

higher on the ladder. It's still free and open- source, but it offers more advanced features, better multitrack

editing, additional effects, and more control over complex projects. It's especially popular among Linux users,

though it runs perfectly fine on Windows, too. The easiest way to think about them is Shotcut if you're

starting, Kaden Live when you want more control, Da Vinci Resolve when you suddenly start saying things like

cinematic color grading. Neither matches Resolve's professional color tools, or Adobe Premiere's massive plug-in [music]

ecosystem. If you're editing a Netflix documentary, you'll probably outgrow them eventually. But for YouTube videos,

school [music] projects, tutorials, gaming clips, family videos, and social media content, both are more than

capable. And unlike Premium Pro, they don't send you a monthly reminder that your video editor costs more than

[music] some streaming subscriptions combined. KeyPass XC. This is the one I'd actually trust with my own passwords

over everything else here. And I don't say that lightly. KeyPass XC is a free open-source password manager. If your

current password strategy is some variation of your pet's name followed by 1 2 3, [music] this section is for you.

The basic idea is simple. Instead of remembering dozens of passwords, you remember one master password. KeyPass XC

stores everything else in an encrypted vault locked with the same militarygrade encryption banks use. The kind experts

describe as [music] this would take centuries to crack. What makes KeyPass XC different from services like one

password or last password is ownership. Your password vault isn't stored on somebody else's servers by default. It's

a file, a file you own. You can keep it entirely offline, store it on a USB drive, sync it through your own cloud

storage, or back it up however you want. No subscription required, no account creation, no company deciding next month

that a feature now costs extra. Despite being free, it still does browser integration, password generation,

autotype, and flags weak or reused [music] passwords. The downside is convenience. Since your vault belongs to

you, backups and syncing are also your responsibility. >> [music]

>> Cloud-based password managers handle that automatically. KeyPass XC gives you more control, but asks you to be

slightly more organized. Still, when alternatives cost around $36 a year, the savings add up. Every few months, a

password company gets hacked, changes its pricing, or announces a new premium tier. Keypass XC can't increase your

subscription fee because it doesn't have one. Your vault is your vault. Thunderbird. [music]

Most people never think about their email app. They open Gmail or Outlook, answer a few messages, move on. But

spread your inbox across multiple accounts, and it gets messy fast. That's where Thunderbird comes in. Thunderbird

is a free open-source email [music] client from the same organization behind Firefox. Instead of bouncing between

Gmail, Outlook, Work email, and that one ancient account you refuse to delete [music] because it's connected to

everything, Thunderbird pulls them all into one place. One inbox, one app. No ads squeezed between emails pretending

to be important messages from your bank. [music] It's packed with things people don't realize they're missing. Unified

inboxes, advanced filters, calendar integration, built-in email encryption, and a huge library of add-ons.

Thunderbird is one of the oldest survivors of the early open source internet. It looked like it might

quietly fade out. Instead, it got revived, [music] modernized, and in late 2024, finally launched on Android after

nearly two decades stuck [music] on desktop. The downside is that Thunderbird values function over style.

Setting everything up takes a little more effort than simply opening the Gmail app, and the interface won't win

any design awards. But once it's [music] configured, it's incredibly powerful. For people paying for Outlook through

Microsoft 365 primarily for email features, Thunderbird can eliminate that cost entirely [music] while keeping your

inbox out of another advertising ecosystem. 20 years on, Thunderbird's still the best way to run your email

without renting it from an ad company. Calibbre. If you read ebooks regularly, Calibbre is one of those tools that

quietly becomes impossible to live without. At its core, Calibbre is a free open-source ebook library manager. Think

of it as iTunes for books, back when iTunes actually organized things properly. EPUB, MOI, AW, PDF, dozens

more. That might not sound exciting until you've tried moving a book from one device to another and discovered

that every ebook company has its own favorite way of making simple tasks complicated. And in 2025, this became

even more relevant. Amazon removed its download and transfer via USB option for Kindle purchases, tightening control

over how users access their libraries. It was a reminder that digital ownership often isn't as straightforward as people

assume. [music] That's where Calibbre shines. It organizes books you legally own, moves them between compatible

devices, and builds a library that isn't chained to one storefront. The downside is obvious the moment you open it.

Calibbre looks like it was built in 2009. It's powerful, but it can feel overwhelming at first. Still, once you

learn it, it's incredibly useful. Calibbre is the difference between having a pile of ebooks scattered across

devices and having an actual digital library. Joplain. [music] Part one's note-taking recommendation was Obsidian.

A lot of people agreed with that choice. A lot of other people basically replied with, "Cool. Now show me the encrypted

version." [music] That's where Joplin comes in. Joplain is a free open-source notetaking app built around a much more

traditional approach. Instead of graphs, backlinks, [music] and knowledge management systems that make you feel

like you're building a conspiracy board, Joplain uses notebooks and tags. You know, like an actual notebook. It

supports markdown, syncs across devices, and adds end to-end encryption so your notes stay private. Best feature, a web

clipper that drops articles, recipes, [music] or whole web pages straight into your notes in one click. If you're

coming from Evernote, the transition is even easier because Joplain can import Evernote files [music] directly. The app

stays free either way, and the notes are yours. The trade-off? Joplain isn't chasing the second brain dream. less of

the interconnected magic Obsidian fans love. For people paying around 130 bucks a year for Evernote, Joplain can replace

it completely. Obsidian is great for connecting ideas. Joplin is great for writing them down, keeping them

organized, encrypting them, and never worrying whether next year's subscription increase is about to lock

half your notebook behind a payw wall. MPV. Full transparency, I'm a VLC guy. I've tried switching to MPV three

separate times and crawled back every time. But I get the [music] obsession. MPV is a free open-source media player,

but unlike VLC, it takes a very different approach. VLC tries to be everything. Media player, converter,

network streamer, [music] DVD player, file repair tool, and occasionally a miracle worker. MPV mostly just wants to

play video and do it extremely well. The first thing you'll notice is how minimal it is. Open a video and it's basically

just the video. No giant menus, no settings panels, no buttons you'll never touch. Under the hood, it's incredibly

powerful, lighter than VC, easier on resources, and a favorite among people who watch a lot of highresolution

content. HEVC, 4K, HDR, advanced color management, high-quality scaling. That's MPV's home turf. The catch is that MPV

expects you to meet it halfway, and a lot of customization happens through configuration [music]

files rather than friendly menus. If VLC feels like an appliance, MPV feels like something built by people who genuinely

enjoy editing text files. So, [music] here's the honest verdict. For most people, VC is still the right answer. It

plays almost anything, requires zero setup, and just works. But if you notice video quality differences, care about

HDR, watch a lot of HEVC, or just enjoy tweaking software to perfection, MPV is probably your player. Affinity. [music]

For years, Affinity was already Adobe's biggest challenger. Instead of paying every month for Photoshop, [music]

Illustrator, and Inesign, you bought Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher once and own them forever. Then in 2024,

Canva bought Serif, the company behind Affinity. Normally, that's the exact moment a subscription appears and

everyone collectively size. Instead, in 2025, Canva merged the three apps into one program simply called Affinity and

made it completely free on Windows and Mac with an iPad version coming later. [music] Not a free trial, not a stripped

down version, the actual professional software. Inside one app, you switch between photo editing, vector design,

and page layout. The jobs normally handled by Photoshop, Illustrator, and Inesign. [music] for designers,

freelancers, students, and small businesses. That's software worth roughly $660 a year, or nearly 780 if

you were paying for the full Creative Cloud suite. There are a couple of caveats. A paid Canva Pro account

unlocks the newest AI features, and a few highly specialized Adobe plug-in workflows still favor Adobe, but for

almost everyone else, this is one of the biggest shakeups in creative software in years. Adobe spent a decade convincing

people that renting creative tools every month was normal. Affinity looked at that idea and dropped the price to zero.

ProtonVPN public Wi-Fi is one of those things everyone uses and nobody really trusts. Airports, coffee shops, hotels.

You're connecting to a network shared with hundreds of strangers and your traffic is passing through something you

don't control. That's why VPNs got popular. Unfortunately, [music] it's also why the internet is full of free

VPNs that promise privacy while quietly making money from the exact thing they're supposed to protect, your data.

That's what makes ProtonVPN different. It's built by the same privacy focused team behind Proton Mail, follows a

strict no logs policy, and operates under Switzerland's strong privacy laws. In other words, it isn't secretly

keeping a diary of everything you do online. The real surprise is the free plan. Most free VPNs give you a few

gigabytes a month before informing you that privacy now costs extra. ProtonVPN gives you unlimited data free forever.

No cap, no trial countdown. No feeling that your privacy expires after three YouTube videos. Free users can connect

through servers in around 10 countries, including the US, Canada, Japan, [music] the Netherlands, Switzerland, and

Singapore. More than enough for everyday browsing and staying [music] protected on public Wi-Fi. The free plan does have

limits. One device at a time. It autopicks the fastest server and premium perks like streaming unlocks and top

speed are paywalled. But for everyday privacy, it's a small compromise. Considering NordVPN and ExpressVPN can

run $60 to over $100 a year, ProtonVPN replaces one of the internet's most heavily advertised subscriptions without

charging a scent. Most free VPNs sell the data they promise to protect. ProtonVPN chose the much stranger

business model of [music] actually protecting it. Bit warden. If your current system involves using the same

password everywhere, adding an exclamation point when a site demands something stronger, or keeping

everything in a notes file called passwords, definitely don't open. We need to talk. Bit Warden is a free

open-source password manager that stores unlimited passwords and syncs them across unlimited devices. No

subscription. That's the exact feature most competitors put behind a payw wall. And here it's included from day one. It

also supports pass keys, stores payment cards and addresses, autofills login, and includes two-step login. Its code is

publicly auditable, and it uses zero knowledge encryption. Your vault is locked before it ever reaches Bit Warden

servers, so even the company can't read what's inside. There's one trade-off. Because it's clouds synced, you're still

trusting Bit Warden to host it. If you want complete offline ownership, KeyPass XC is still the better pick. But for

everyone else, Bit Warden is hard to beat. One Password offers no free plan at all, and Last Pass has grown more

restrictive while carrying the baggage of multiple high-profile breaches. PDF 24 Creator. PDFs are supposed to make

documents easier to share. Instead, they've become one of the internet's greatest sources of unnecessary

frustration. Merge two files, pay. Split a document. Pay. Compress one so it fits in an email. Somehow also pay. Adobe

looked at one of the world's most common file formats and found about 30 ways to put basic buttons behind a subscription.

[music] That's where PDF24 Creator comes in. Made by a German company with a strong privacy focus. It's [music]

completely free. No feature limits, no premium tier, no countdown expiring right before your deadline. And it does

far more than its name suggests. You can merge, split, and compress PDFs, convert to and from PDF, run OCR and scan pages,

add signatures, [music] password protect files, remove passwords from documents you own, add watermarks,

rearrange pages, and edit, all from one toolkit. Best part, the desktop version works entirely offline, so your files

stay on your computer instead of being uploaded to some random server. It won't match [music] every enterprise workflow

in Adobe Acrobat Pro. Adobe charges around $155 to $240 a year for Acrobat Pro. PDF24 does what 95% of people

actually need for the incredibly competitive price of absolutely nothing. Local send. For some reason, moving a

file between two devices is still harder than it should be. iPhone to iPhone, easy. Android to Android, fine. [music]

But the second you involve Windows, a Mac, or anything outside the same ecosystem, people start emailing files

to themselves or digging out a USB drive to move one photo. That's exactly why Local Send exists. The easiest way to

describe it, imagine AirDrop, except it doesn't care what devices you're using. Local Send is a free open-source app

that works on Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Android, and iPhone. As long as both devices are on the same Wi-Fi, they

discover each other automatically and send files, photos, videos, everything transfers device to device over your

local network using encrypted HTTPS with optional PIN verification. One limitation, both devices generally need

to be on the same network. So, it won't replace Google Drive or Dropbox for sending files across the internet. But

that's not what it's for. Apple built AirDrop and mostly [music] kept it inside Apple's walls. Local send looked

at that and said, "What if everybody else got invited, too?" Virtual Box. Ever wanted [music] to try another

operating system without risking your actual computer? Maybe you're curious about Linux. Need an old version of

Windows for a program that refuses to evolve or downloaded [music] a file suspicious enough to make you question

your life choices. That's exactly what Virtual Box is for. The easiest way to describe it, it's a computer inside your

computer. [music] It runs an entirely separate operating system inside a window completely isolated from your

main PC. Experiment with Linux, run legacy Windows, test software, or intentionally break an OS just to see

what happens. If everything catches fire, you delete the virtual machine and move on. Your real computer never

notices. [music] For years, virtualization software was pricey. One of Virtual Box's biggest rivals, VMware

[music] Workstation Pro, only became free in 2025. The trade-offs: virtual machines carry performance overhead, so

they won't feel as fast as native. Gaming and Heavy 3D are limited, and you'll want a decent amount of RAM since

you're asking your computer to pretend it's two computers at once. Notepad++, Windows Notepad is perfectly fine right

up until you need it to do literally anything beyond plain text. Open a giant log file, edit a config, clean up messy

data, or write a few lines of code, and Notepad suddenly feels like a butter knife at a construction site. That's

where Notepad++ comes in. Created by Dan Ho and actively developed for nearly two decades. It's written in C++. Despite

its size, it's loaded. Syntax highlighting makes code readable. Code folding keeps big files organized.

Tabbed editing handles multiple documents at once, and its search and regular expression tools can clean up

thousands of lines in seconds. For programmers, system admins, and anyone constantly editing text files, it

replaces editors like Sublime Text, saving around $99 while doing everything most people need. The limitation is

simple. It's Windows only, and it isn't trying to be a full development environment like VS Code. Windows

Notepad is where text goes to be barely [music] edited. Notepad++ is what happens when someone actually cared. 20

years later, still free, still fast, and still one of the first apps many developers install. FreeCAD. For years,

FreeCAD had a frustrating reputation. People loved the idea. Then they'd spend hours building a model, change one small

dimension, and watch half the design implode because of something called the topological naming problem. It was the

bug every FreeCAD user eventually met. Then came FreCAD 1.0. Released in late [music] 2024 after years of development,

it was the biggest milestone in the project's history. That infamous topological naming issue was finally

fixed, making parametric models far more reliable for real engineering work. [music] Version 1.0 also added a proper

integrated assembly workbench for multi-art assemblies with joints, [music] motion, and exploded views.

Alongside its sketcher, part design, and unified BIM tools with native IFC support for architecture, the learning

curve is real. It still isn't as polished as Solid Works, and its interface reminds you that engineers

prioritize function over design awards, [music] but what it does now is remarkable. Solid Works can cost well

over $4,000 a year, and Fusion [music] 360 runs around 680. Frecad costs absolutely nothing. Ardor Ardor is a

free open- source digital audio workstation [music] for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. Built for serious recording,

editing, and mixing where LMMS focused on MIDI and beat production, Ardor is designed for real instruments, vocals,

[music] podcasts, and full studio projects. It includes unlimited audio tracks and buses, non-destructive

editing, unlimited undo, full automation, [music] and broad plug-in support, including VST effects and

instruments. One thing worth explaining is the download model. The source code is completely free and open- source. The

developers ask for a small optional payment if you'd like the ready-made installers directly from them. It's how

they fund development, not a subscription, not a payw wall. The downside, Ardor expects you to know or

be willing to learn how professional audio software works, but considering ProTools, Logic Pro, and Ableton Live

run anywhere from $200 to over $700, it's an incredible value. Winar. At this point, Winar is less of a program and

more of an internet legend. For nearly 30 years, it's technically been a trial version. The trial expires and then

politely keeps working forever while occasionally suggesting that a $29 license would be a lovely idea. Somehow

almost nobody ever pays. Its job is simple. Open RAR files, compress folders, and quietly exist on millions

of Windows computers. But 2025 was a reminder that software doesn't become safe just because it's familiar. A

critical vulnerability known as CVE 202588 let specifically crafted archive files

drop malicious software into Windows startup folders the moment someone extracted them. It was actively

exploited by the romcom hacking group against targets in Europe and Canada before it was patched in WinRAR 7.13.

The problem is that WinRAR doesn't automatically update. So if you installed it years ago and forgot it

existed, you could still be running a vulnerable version right now. The fix is thankfully simple. Update WinRAR

immediately. WinRAR is the app everyone has used and almost nobody [music] has paid for. And 2025 was a good reminder

that free forever doesn't always mean safe forever. Everything. If you've ever searched for a file you know exists only

to watch Windows search spin for ages before [music] giving you completely unrelated results, everything fixes that

problem almost [music] instantly. The app is completely free, has no ads, no subscription, and is incredibly

lightweight, using very little CPU or RAM, even while it's running. The moment you open it, it indexes every file and

folder on your computer. Then, as you type, the results update in real time. Even on drives with millions of files,

searches are usually nearly instant. The reason it's so fast is because it doesn't rely on Windows slow search

index. Instead, it reads your drive's master file table, a built-in database on NTFS drives that already contains

information about every file. Everything builds its own index in just a few seconds if you're a Power user. It also

supports wild cards, regular expressions, and advanced [music] search filters, making it easy to find exactly

what you're looking for. There are a couple of limitations, though. It searches file and folder names, [music]

not the text inside documents. So, it's designed to help you locate files rather than search their contents. [music] It's

also Windows only. Once you start using everything, Windows Search doesn't just feel slow. It feels broken. Sync Thing.

What if Dropbox didn't have a monthly subscription? Better yet, what if there wasn't even a company storing your

files? That's exactly what Sync Thing does. It's a completely free open-source app with no paid tiers, no premium

version, and no subscription ever. Instead of uploading your files to someone else's servers, Sync Thing

creates an encrypted peer-to-peer connection that syncs files directly between your own devices over your local

network or the internet. Since there's no company server sitting in the middle, your data never leaves your control.

[music] It works across Windows, MacOSS, Linux, and Android, making it easy to keep files synchronized no matter which

devices you use. Unlike traditional cloud storage services, there are no storage caps or per gigabyte fees

because [music] Sync Thing simply uses the storage already available on your own devices, while Dropbox's free plan

gives you around 2 GB before asking you to upgrade. Sync Thing is only limited by the size of your own hard drives.

There is a trade-off, though, since there's no always on cloud copy. Both devices generally need to be online at

the same time for files to sync. Some power users solve this by leaving a networkattached storage device or even a

$5 a month virtual private server running 24/7, but for most people that's completely optional. If you were paying

for Dropbox's 2 TBTE plan, switching to Sync Thing could save you around 120 bucks every year. Penpot [music] design

software has become surprisingly expensive and that's exactly why so many designers have started looking at

PenPot. Penpot is a free open- source design and prototyping tool that's quickly become one of the strongest

alternatives to Figma. Unlike most competitors, its self-hosted version is completely free with unlimited users and

unlimited projects. Even its cloud version has a generous free plan offering unlimited files and projects,

support for up to eight [music] team members, and around 10 GB of storage, more than enough for most individuals

and small teams. What really makes PenPot [music] different is that it's built on SVG, an open web standard. That

means designers and developers are working with the same underlying format, making it much easier to hand designs

over for development without dealing with messy [music] exports or compatibility issues. The timing

couldn't have been better. After Figma restructured its pricing, many designers started looking for alternatives.

Depending on the plan, a single Figma seat can cost anywhere from around 15 to 75 [music] bucks per month. While PenPot

gives most people everything they need for free, there are a few trade-offs. Its plug-in ecosystem is much smaller

than Figma's, and some of Figma's new AI powered features still don't have direct equivalents. Penpot is the door that

opened just as people started looking for one. Proton Pass. Proton Pass comes from the same privacy focused team

behind ProtonVPN and Proton Mail. And like the rest of Proton services, it's built under Switzerland's strong privacy

laws. The free version is surprisingly generous. You get unlimited passwords, unlimited secure notes, unlimited saved

credit cards, and unlimited devices, plus 10 hide my email aliases to keep your real email address private when

signing up for websites. Best of all, you don't even need a credit card to get started. Everything is protected with

end-to-end zero knowledge encryption, meaning your password vault is encrypted before it ever reaches Proton [music]

servers. Even Proton can't see what's inside. If you need more email aliases and a few extra features, [music] there

is a Pass Plus plan for around $2.99 a month when build annually, but for most people, the free version is more than

enough. It's perfect if you're already using Proton's ecosystem and want all of your passwords, emails, [music] and

privacy tools under one account. Switching to Proton Pass can easily save you around $36 a year compared to many

paid password managers. Proton keeps showing up in the series for one simple reason. They keep giving away the

features everyone else puts behind a payw wall. KDE Connect. Your phone and your computer can be sitting 6 in apart

and somehow they still refuse to talk to each other. That's exactly the problem KDE Connect solves. It's a free

open-source app that connects your phone and computer over the same Wi-Fi network. There are no accounts to

create, no servers in the middle, and no company handling your data. Your devices communicate directly with each other.

Once connected, your phone starts feeling like an extension of your computer. Copy something on your phone

and paste it straight onto your computer with a shared clipboard and instantly send files or links between the two. It

also lets you browse your phone's storage directly from your computer using [music] SFTP. Turn your phone into

a wireless trackpad or presentation remote. It works with Android phones and Windows, MacOSS, or Linux computers,

making it one of the easiest ways to bridge the gap between your devices. The biggest limitation is that it's best on

Android. iPhone support exists, but Apple's restrictions mean some features are more limited. It's also much more

popular in the Linux community than on Windows, even though it works well there, too. Parseac. Most remote desktop

apps work until you actually try to do something with them. That's where Parseek is different. Originally built

for cloud gaming, Parseek was designed around one thing, ultra low latency. It lets you access your PC from anywhere.

Whether that's your gaming desktop [music] from a laptop, your work computer from the couch. The secret is

its hardware accelerated video encoding and game streaming technology. For personal use, Parseek is completely

free. If you're using it for business, you'll need one of its paid plans, [music] but unless you're using it

commercially, you'll probably never need to pay. Tools like Team Viewer reserve most businessfriendly features for paid

plans that start at around 25 bucks a month, while Parseek gives personal users a genuinely free experience. VS

Codium. Millions of developers use Visual Studio Code every day. But what most people don't realize is there's an

even more private version of it. It's called VS Codium. VS Codium is a free open-source build of Microsoft's Visual

Studio Code. It's compiled from the exact same open- source source code, but with Microsoft's branding, telemetry,

and proprietary license removed. That means you get the same editor, the same debugging tools, and the same

programming language support that made VS Code so popular, just without the software quietly sending usage data back

to Microsoft. For developers who care about privacy or prefer fully open-source software, it's an easy swap.

There is one small trade-off. Since Microsoft isn't involved, the official Visual Studio Code extension marketplace

isn't included by default. Instead, VS Codium uses an open-source marketplace, and a handful of Microsoft's own

extensions aren't available. For most developers, it's a minor inconvenience rather than a dealbreaker. Unlike most

apps in this series, this one won't save you money because VS Code is already free. Instead, it's about something else

entirely, your data. Scribbus. Scribbus is a free open-source [music] desktop publishing program that's widely

considered the best free alternative to Adobe Inesign. Scribbus is built specifically for creating books,

magazines, brochures, flyers, newspapers, posters, and other professional print layouts. It even

supports features that actually matter for commercial printing, [music] including CMK color, spot colors, and

press ready PDF exports. It works on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. And unlike many free alternatives, it's completely

free even for commercial work. There are a few downsides. It can't open native Inesign files. The interface definitely

feels dated and there's a real learning curve if you've never [music] used desktop publishing software before. If

you currently pay for Adobe Inesign, switching to Screbus could save you [music] around 260 bucks every year.

Screbus is the deep cut of this list. Most people will never need it, but if you ever have to design something that's

actually going to be printed, it's surprisingly capable for a piece of software that costs absolutely nothing.

Handbreak. If you've ever recorded a video and somehow ended up with a 10 GB file for 3 minutes of footage, you

already understand why Handbreak exists. Handbreak is a free video converter and compressor that takes massive files and

shrinks them down dramatically while keeping quality surprisingly intact. It supports batch processing, device

presets, codec [music] conversion. This is the tool people use before uploading to YouTube. Instead of paying for

converters like MoAve or Wondershare Uni Converter, Handbreak does the same job for free. 7zip. At this point, 7zip is

less of an app and more of a survival requirement for using Windows. It's a file compression tool that opens

basically every archive format. zip, raar, tar, ISO, and its own 7z format, which usually compresses files even

better than normal zip folders. It also supports encryption and password protected archives. So whether you're

extracting downloads, compressing folders, or opening random files from the internet that look slightly

suspicious, 7zip is the tool quietly doing the work in the background. And unlike Winraar, 7zip is actually free.

not free if you ignore the pop-up for the next 14 [music] years. Shareax. It's a free open-source screenshot and screen

capture tool that quietly replaces a bunch of paid software without ever asking for attention. Standard

screenshots, region captures, scrolling screenshots for long web pages, even screen recording and GIFs. But [music]

the real reason people stick with it is what happens after you capture something. Shareax has a huge automation

system built in. Annotate, blur sensitive info, upload to the cloud, [music] and copy the link to your

clipboard all in one click. It's perfect for tutorials, bug reports, documentation, or anyone tired of

juggling five different apps. And yes, it replaces tools like Snagit, which costs around $60 or more. Shareex costs

nothing. [music] Q Bit Torrent. Q Bit Torrent is the answer to what if Utorrrent didn't get weird? free, adree,

lightweight, [music] no bundled software, no pop-ups, no premium speed boost buttons that do nothing except

exist. You still get built-in search, bandwidth scheduling, sequential downloads, and RSS support without the

[music] interface turning into a billboard. Used responsibly, it's the standard for legal content like Linux

distributions and public domain media [music] where torrent are actually one of the most efficient ways to move large

files on the internet. Honorable mentions. Free download manager. Downloading a large file shouldn't feel

like negotiating with your browser. FDM is a free open-source download manager for Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and Android.

[music] Instead of one stream, it splits files into multiple segments to boost speeds when the server allows. And it

supports pause and resume, browser integration, scheduling, and a built-in Bit Torrent client. [music] If you've

used Internet Download Manager, it'll feel familiar, except IDM gives you 30 days before asking for money, and FDM

just keeps [music] working. Total Commander, Windows File Explorer, is fine until you need to organize hundreds

of files without losing your sanity. Total Commander is a dualpane file manager that makes copying, moving,

[music] comparing, and renaming large batches dramatically faster with built-in archive support, batch

renaming, file comparison, FTP, and enough keyboard shortcuts [music] to make you feel like you're piloting a

spaceship. And yes, like Winraar, it's been trial software for so long that some people forget it even has a

license. Every launch greets you with the legendary one 123 button. And somehow that tradition has survived for

[music] decades. And that's the complete list. 40 apps replacing well over $4,000 a year in paid software for absolutely

nothing. If you watched this whole thing straight through, genuinely thank you. That's a lot of time to give a video,

and I don't take it for granted. Drop a comment and let me know which app surprised you the most or which one

you're installing first. [music] And if this saved you money, subscribe. And the video on screen right now was picked

based on what you just watched. Click it and I'll see you there.