SPOTIFY
SPARK
ONYX
From spotify.com
From sparkmailapp.com
From titanium– software.fr
Available on Mac, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS
Available on Mac
MANY OF THE best–loved apps on our devices haven’t cost us a penny. They make our Macs work the way we want them to, make the internet considerably less annoying, protect our privacy, guide us through projects, and help us create all kinds of things. They provide hours of entertainment, help preserve our old home videos and introduce us to people, publications and podcasts from around the world.
Available on Mac, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS If you don’t already have a streaming music subscription, then Spotify offers a very good experience without too many adverts. You don’t get Spotify Connect, Spotify Radio, or the highest quality audio on the free tier so this isn’t one for your AirPods Max, but you can access all the playlists, find music, and share it with others, provided you don’t mind being stuck in Shuffle mode.
The apps that you’ll discover over the next few pages aren’t “freemium”, where the free version of the app isn’t really usable without in–app purchases or subscriptions. Instead, most are free as in genuinely gratis, or are funded by unobtrusive advertising, and the ones that do have paid–for versions are still useful in their own right. So let’s discover the best free apps for all your Apple devices.
Education & reference
Spark is like the standard Mail app with superpowers. It offers a smart inbox and smart search, email snoozing and mail templates, shared composition, email scheduling, follow– up reminders, and excellent notifications. The free version has up to 5GB of shared file storage and five email templates (you’re limited to two active collaborators when working on the same email). An app for email power–users.
Developer tools
OnyX is an excellent app for cleaning up your Mac’s temporary files, caches, and other data, as well as changing how key apps work and getting rid of problematic files. But be cautious: if you’re unsure of what you’re doing or you use a version that isn’t for your specific version of macOS, you could run into problems. There are versions for each version of macOS going back to OS X 10.2.
KHAN ACADEMY
CYBERDUCK
Music, games
& entertainment
From khanacademy.org
From cyberduck.io
The apps that will keep you amused and entertained
Available on iOS, iPadOS
Available on Mac
The Khan Academy is a non–profit organisation dedicated to providing free, world–class education to anybody anywhere, and its app is packed with knowledge. The information here is universal, and it’s particularly strong on maths and science topics.
Cyberduck began as an FTP app but it’s more than that; it’s a cloud browser with support not just for FTP and SFTP but WebDAV, Amazon S3, OpenStack Swift, Backblaze B2, Microsoft Azure and OneDrive, Dropbox, and Google Drive. It’s great for remote file management.
NOTABILITY
From notability.com
BBEDIT
Available on iOS, iPadOS, Mac
From barebones.com
GARAGEBAND
Available on Mac
From
apple.com
Available on Mac, iOS, iPadOS
If you have an Apple Pencil, Notability is one of the best apps for note taking, doodling, and other digital drawing. It used to be a paid app but now it’s freemium. The free version is still great for note taking, but unlimited editing and features such as OCR are IAPs.
GarageBand is an extraordinary app for making all kinds of music and other audio. And for many musicians and podcasters it’s all the software you could ever need. It’s essentially a friendlier, simpler version of the mighty Logic Pro X, and its selection of auto–playing instruments means you don’t have to know how to play in order to make something magical. It also includes some superb artist lessons to help inspire you.
PBS KIDS VIDEO
Although BBEdit is a paid product, its free mode isn’t just a demo; it’s effectively TextWrangler, a code and text editor with multiple undo, multiple clipboards and tons of customization. Its multi–file search–and–replace features are very good and it’s fast.
From pbskids.org
TRANSPORTER
SPOTIFY
From spotify.com
Available on Mac,
iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS If you don’t already have a streaming music subscription, then Spotify offers a very good experience without too many adverts. You don’t get Spotify Connect, Spotify Radio, or the highest quality audio on the free tier so this isn’t one for your AirPods Max, but you can access all the playlists, find music, and share it with others, provided you don’t mind being stuck in Shuffle mode.
Available on Mac, iOS, iPadOS, tvOS
From apple.com
OVERCAST
Available on Mac
From overcast.fm
This is a brilliant app for parents of young children: it provides safe, ad– free access to your kids’ favorite PBS Kids shows, which combine education and entertainment. You can download video for offline playback too, which is great for road trips.
Available on iOS, iPadOS,
watchOS, Mac
SCRATCH