Alternatives
Free alternatives to paid software
What to use instead of the subscriptions people pay for most, job by job: our free tools where they fit, free apps from their own developers, and plain advice on when paying is still worth it. Prices and facts are checked on each company's own pages and dated.
- Instead of Adobe AcrobatMost people only need Acrobat for reading, signing and page jobs, and those are free: Adobe's own Acrobat Reader fills in and signs forms, and our free PDF tools sign, merge, split, reorder and rotate pages in your browser. Keep paying if you edit the text in PDFs often, redact documents that matter, or collect signatures from other people.
- Instead of Adobe PhotoshopFor everyday photo jobs, use the photo editor already on your computer, free apps such as GIMP, Paint.NET and Krita, and our free browser tools for resizing photos and removing location data. Photoshop is still worth paying for if you retouch heavily, work in Camera Raw, or swap layered PSD files with clients and printers.
- Instead of Microsoft 365Microsoft's own free Word, Excel and PowerPoint for the web, the free desktop suite LibreOffice, and Google Docs, Sheets and Slides all open and edit Office files without a subscription. What you give up is the full desktop apps, some advanced features, and the 1 TB of cloud storage that Microsoft 365 Personal includes.
- Instead of CanvaIf you make the occasional post, flyer or invitation, Canva's own free plan may be all you need, and Adobe Express has a free plan too. For logos, the free Inkscape draws graphics that stay sharp at any size, and our free tools make QR codes and favicons without an account.
- Instead of SmallpdfFor merging, splitting and rotating PDFs, our free Merge PDFs and related tools work in your browser with no daily count and no upload, and the free PDF24 Creator app compresses and converts PDFs offline on Windows. Smallpdf Pro is still worth paying for if you need OCR on a Mac or phone, batch conversion, or its mobile app regularly.
- Instead of Rocket MoneyTo keep track of subscriptions for free, use Rocket Money's own free plan, check what your bank's app already shows, or type them into our free Subscription tracker, which needs no bank login. Rocket Money's paid plans are mainly worth it if you want someone else to cancel subscriptions or negotiate bills for you.
Paying for something not listed here? Ask for a quote to replace it.