for Mac, iPhone and iPad

We take a look at some of the best downloadable software that won’t cost you a penny

WRITTEN BY IAN OSBORNE

Image rights: Apple Inc.

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There are some great free apps available for all your Apple gear. They’re not just handy utilities or simple games either. There are some surprisingly powerful software suites available at no cost, with a quality that rivals — or even surpasses — their professional equivalents.

These apps are often produced by programmers in their spare time, people who put in many hours of work. They’re a labor of love, intended for everyone to get more out of their Apple kit for zero outlay.

Whether you’re looking for an office suite, a picture editor, a video converter, a game or just about anything else, there’ll be a free app for you to try out.

Let’s take a look at some of the best free software available on the Mac, iPhone and iPad.

Must–have freebies for Mac

Boost your Mac’s toolset without busting your bank account

OpenOffice is a surprisingly comprehensive office suite that’s available for free.

Image rights: The Apache Software Foundation.

Apache OpenOffice

FROM openoffice.org

NEEDS OS X 10.7 or later If you’re having compatibility problems when passing on files or need a feature that no other free option offers, it’s worth taking a look at OpenOffice. It offers a range of apps, namely Writer (word processor), Calc (spreadsheet), Impress (presentation app), Draw (vector graphics), Math (equation editor) and Base (database management). Cross– platform and inter–app operability is strong, making it a good option for sharing files or if you use different computers and software. Admittedly, if you’re looking more for free productivity tools, Apache OpenOffice isn’t the best of the bunch. It’s not as accessible as Bean for word processing, nor as friendly as Apple’s own Pages, Numbers and Keynote. But for multi–doc type collaboration it could be for you.

Writer is OpenOffice’s answer to Pages or Word.

Spreadsheet app Calc is surprisingly powerful.

Impress enables multimedia presentations.

GIMP

FROM gimp.org NEEDS macOS