Find some great software for your Macs and mobile gear without spending a single penny!

Written by Ian Osborne

Software can be expensive. The Mac’s 3D modelling tool ViaCAD Pro 12, for example, sets you back £700 on the Mac App Store, and on the iPhone and iPad, professional piano-tuning app Verituner costs £600. But you don’t have to break the bank to bag an app. There’s a huge range of software available for your Apple gear that’s entirely free of charge.

‘Free’ doesn’t mean ‘poor’ either. Some of the best apps in their class are freebies. Handbrake, for example, has long been the Mac’s go-to app for video conversion, and it’s completely free to download and use. If you’re struggling to play a video file, the free VLC app can probably do it and The Unarchiver is the only tool you need for decompressing archived files.

In this feature, we take a look at the Mac’s best free apps, and also fantastic freebies for the iPhone and iPad too. So what are you waiting for? Put your wallet away and check out some great software.

Free apps for your Mac

Sensational software that doesn’t cost a thing

Numbers, Pages and Keynote

FROM apple.com/uk

ALSO ON iPhone, iPad and iCloud

Where else could we start but with the Mac’s sensational suite of productivity apps? Previously commercial products, the Pages word processor, Numbers spreadsheet app and Keynote presenter are completely free. Pages is a fantastic word processor that is just at home with images as it is with text. As well as writing a quick letter to your bank manager, you can also use it to lay out newsletters or leaflets, make posters, print business cards and more. You don’t need Microsoft Excel to make a spreadsheet. The excellent Numbers has all the formula and function features you need for an informative spreadsheet, and can include shapes, pictures and even videos too. And with Keynote, making great presentations is easy.

Thunderbird

FROM thunderbird.net

ALSO ON Windows, Linux, Android

Looking for a multi-platform email client that has mail, calendar, contact and task features? Try Thunderbird. It’s ad-free, supports multiple accounts and is secure. It also supports add-ons, third party extensions that add functionality. There isn’t currently a version for iPhone or iPad, although developer Mozilla says a version for iOS and iPadOS is being worked on. Apple’s Mail app is great for cross-platform compatibility within the ecosystem, but if you need compatibility with other operating systems, get Thunderbird.

Handbrake

FROM handbrake.fr

ALSO ON Windows, Linux If you want to process a piece of video footage to upload to social media, watch on a specific piece of hardware or reduce its resolution so it takes up less space on your computer, Handbrake is for you. It’s a comprehensive conversion tool that lets you delve deeply into the settings, but is as simple as picking a preset if you prefer not to. You can queue conversions too; if you have a lot to do, just set them up and let them run. When you get used to the ins and outs of the app and customise the output to best suit your needs, you can save your settings as personal presets too.

Amphetamine

FROM iffy.freshdesk.com

ALSO ON Mac only There are times when you need to stop your Mac going into Sleep Mode. That’s what Amphetamine is for. Install the app and a pill-shaped menu bar item appears. Click on this for a menu that lets you keep your Mac awake indefinitely, for a set number of hours or minutes, while a specified app is running or while a file is downloading. It’s a really useful utility that’s great when you need to leave a process running.

Speedtest by Ookla

FROM speedtest.net

ALSO ON iPhone, iPad, iPod, Vision Pro, Apple TV, Windows Is your internet connection running flawlessly? Is it performing as advertised, or are you getting a slower service than you’re paying for? If you suspect any issue, install Speedtest by Ookla for Mac, iPhone and iPad. At the click of a button, it contacts a nearby server and assesses both your download and upload speeds, and preserves your results history so you can see if there’s a sudden change.