Everyone likes a good deal. And deals don’t get better than free! The internet is one of the best things to happen to humankind, offering access to a wealth of knowledge that goes beyond the wildest dreams. There are a jaw-dropping 5.35 billion (with a ‘b’!) internet users around the world. But you’d be surprised how many people are not aware of the learning resources, archives, tools, and services that can be accessed by paying absolutely nothing online, with just the help of a phone or computer.
Sometimes, it takes a handful of well-intentioned strangers to open your eyes. One internet user sparked an informative thread on r/AskReddit after asking everyone to share their favorite free online things that everyone should know about. Scroll down for their tips, and make sure to take notes!
Bored Panda reached out to Matt Johnson, PhD, a marketing psychology expert specializing in topics such as consumer psychology and serendipity, for his thoughts on why some people view free things with suspicion and the future of (un)paid internet resources. You'll find our full interview with him below. Be sure not to miss it!
#1
Audacity -A powerful audio editor, ideal for music and podcasts.
Autodesk Fusion 360 -CAD/CAM software.
Bit Warden -Open-source password management service.
Blender - Free and open source 3D creation suite.
Cake Walk - music production software
Dark Table - Open-source photography workflow application and raw developer.
Dashlane -Cross-platform subscription-based password manager and digital wallet application.
DaVinci Resolve -Color correction and non-linear video editing application.
FreeCAD -open-source general-purpose parametric 3D computer-aided design modeler.
GIMP -A powerful open source photo and image editing tool.
Godot Engine -a 2D and 3D, cross-platform, free and open-source game engine released under the MIT license.
Glitch - Build fast, full-stack web apps in your browser.
Glimpse Image Editor - A photo editor for everyone.
Greenshot -A free screenshot tool optimized for productivity.
Handbrake -the open source video transcoder
Honey -a browser extension that aggregates and automatically applies online coupons on eCommerce websites.
Hitfilm-Express -Video editing software with professional-grade VFX tools.
Inkscape - Free and open-source vector graphics editor.
KDEnLive -open-source video editing software based on the MLT Framework, KDE and Qt.
Keepass -free and open-source password manager primarily for Windows.
Krita -Free and open-source raster graphics editor designed primarily for digital painting and 2D animation.
Open Broadcaster Software(OBS) - open-source software for video recording and live streaming.
LibreOffice -Open-source office suite.
LMMS -a digital audio workstation application program.
MagicaVoxel -A free lightweight GPU-based voxel art editor and interactive path tracing renderer.
MediBang Paint Pro -FREE digital painting and comic creation software.
Musescore -Create, play and print beautiful sheet music
Ocenaudio - Easy, fast, and powerful audio editor.
Opentoonz - animation production software.
Paint.NET -a freeware raster graphics editor program for Microsoft Windows developed on the .NET Framework
Photopea -Web-based raster and vector graphics editor.
Pixlr - Feature-packed online photo editor.
QGIS -open-source cross-platform desktop geographic information system application
Radio Garden - Explore live radio by rotating the globe.
RawTherapee - free, cross-platform raw image processing program
Reaper -Digital audio workstation and MIDI sequencer software
ShareX -Screen capture, file sharing and productivity tool.
Shotcut -A slick open source program for advanced video editing.
SlidesGo -Free Google Slides and PowerPoint templates.
Switch -Convert and encode sound files quickly.
The Noun Project - Icons for everything.
TurboTax Sucks A*s - website that makes it easy to file your taxes.
Unity -cross-platform game engine.
Unreal Engine - the most open and advanced real-time 3D creation tool.
Unsplash - Beautiful free images and pictures.
VLC media player -open-source portable cross-platform media player software and streaming media server
VS Code -free source-code editor.
Waveform - fully featured, completely unlimited free DAW for all music creators.
Wavepad -Audio and music editor for Windows and Mac.
Wcostream - anime and animated Tv-show/movie site with dubs and subs.
7-Zip - file archiver with a high compression ratio
Codecademy - free sessions and exercises for any coding language.
Coursera - Online courses & Certifications.( Not all courses/certifications are free, but worth it)
Cybrary - The Cybersecurity and IT Career Development Platform
FreeCodeCamp - Learn to code at home.
Goal Kicker - Free programming books in any language.
Khan Academy -a non-profit educational organization.
Learn with Google - Courses and certifications from Google.
Learn with Microsoft on Edx (Free) - Courses from Microsoft.
MDN Web Docs - Resources for developers, by developers.
MIT courses -MIT's OpenCourseware.
Octave -software featuring a high-level programming language, primarily intended for numerical computations. Basically free MatLab Alternative
R- programming language -free software environment for statistical computing and graphics
Repl.it - Code and collaborate, without friction.
W3Schools - The world's largest Web Development learning site.
Image credits: JackBurtongr
#2
I think we are forgetting the obvious, and it's the non-political or controversial Wikipedia pages.
Image credits: Space_obsessed_Cat
#3
Merlin Bird ID by the Ornithology lab at Cornell University is like Shazam for birds. Just tap the microphone button and it’ll identify the sources of the chirping you hear around you.
Image credits: agentp2319
Bored Panda was interested to find out why some people are suspicious of free things compared to paid options. Marketing psychology expert Johnson shed some light on this. He explained that this happens due to a cognitive bias that's known as 'price-quality heuristic.'
"We instinctively associate higher prices with better quality. This bias is deeply ingrained in consumer psychology because, in many cases, paying more does lead to better materials, services, or experiences. When something is free, it can trigger doubt about its value or legitimacy. People might wonder, 'If it's free, is it really worth my time?'" he explained to us in an email.
"A second factor is the fear of hidden costs. Many of us have been conditioned by experiences where 'free' comes with strings attached, such as hidden fees, low-quality goods, or invasive advertising. Think of a free app that bombards you with ads or sells your data in exchange for the service. Finally, paying for something can give people a sense of control and confidence. By investing money, they feel they've selected a vetted, higher-quality option," Johnson said.
#4
Project Gutenberg- Free ebooks.
Image credits: MoeTheCentaur
#5
The Internet Archive should be regarded as one of the 7 wonders of the information age.
Image credits: 1Estel1
#6
Khan academy! Bless the guy who made it, what a champion.
Image credits: giddy_up3
"For instance, compare a free online course with a paid one from a reputable institution. Even if the free course offers similar content, the paid option feels more trustworthy because it signals investment and value. Thus, people often equate cost with quality, safety, and legitimacy."
Meanwhile, we were curious to get the marketing psychology expert's opinion about what the future of the internet might look like. Namely, whether he sees any currently paid resources becoming free, and vice versa. He noted that both of these scenarios can occur with different services.
"As technology evolves, we may see some paid internet resources and tools become completely free, particularly those driven by economies of scale and open-source development. For example, basic productivity tools—such as document editing, cloud storage, or even video conferencing—might increasingly be offered for free as companies find other ways to monetize, such as through premium features or integrated advertising. Open-source software, like Linux or GIMP, is a model we could see replicated for various paid tools as communities continue to develop robust, free alternatives," Johnson said.
#7
Archive.ph/
It unlocks pay wall articles if you attach it to the beginning of the link.
Image credits: Fernandov2
#8
I built [qrfa.st](https://qrfa.st) which offers free qr codes.
I built it because I heard horror stories about people making qr codes, only to find out later they had a "trial" and now were being forced to pay $30/month to have their codes work.
I am a serial entrepreneur and have the skills so I just got to work building it.
Users get 10 free dynamic codes that they can update even after printing them, and unlimited static codes(which cannot be updated becuase they have fixed data embedded in the code).
Image credits: buymeaburritoese
#9
Ilovepdf and smallpdf.
Seriously. These two have literally saved my skin _soo many_ times. It takes less than a minute to merge pdf files, compress them, split them, convert to and fro to different formats and much more.
Truly amazing websites.
Image credits: vpsj
"On the other hand, we may see previously free services moving behind paywalls as consumer expectations shift. Social media platforms or free content websites could begin charging for ad-free experiences or exclusive content. We already see this with platforms like YouTube, which offers a premium service for those wanting to avoid ads or access special features," he said.
The news isn't immune to this either. "News outlets are another example—many previously free sites now offer paid subscriptions as they move away from ad-supported models. As digital advertising becomes less effective and users demand better, more tailored experiences, companies will likely push more essential features or content into the paid category. This shift reflects a broader trend of consumers paying for control and quality in their online experiences."
You can find more of Johnson's expert insights on his branding and human nature blogs. Meanwhile, you can watch his TEDx talk about serendipity in the age of advanced AI on YouTube.
#10
I guess not for everyone, but for anyone interested in orchestral music & composition:
[IMSLP](https://imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page) - International Music Score Library Project
You can find most public domain orchestral compositions (full scores, individual parts, & recordings), with a wide range of search options (composers, time periods, instrumentation, etc.)
Kinda niche, but this was such a crucial tool for my undergrad.
Image credits: Maverrick89
#11
Justin Guitar. If you want to try learning guitar, his lessons are really great and easy to follow, and they're free. Some of the extra stuff costs money, but you don't need any of it to learn.
Image credits: B3ximus
#12
[internet archive ](https://archive.org/)
Libby is also a fantastic resource for borrowing digital books from your local library.
Some have mentioned language learning in this thread too and I want to add that Character AI does a decent job with learning through writing. You can listen to the voice speak it with you. You can ask AI any questions you have about anything pertaining to the language to fill in your knowledge gaps.
Image credits: Beareatsgooeyhoney
Why pay for something if you can legally (!) get the same quality of information and services entirely for free? It’s economical. It’s logical. It’s rational. And it’s what’s going to help you budget better and save costs when money gets tight.
For instance, there’s no doubt that education is important. Vital, even. And a good degree from a quality university is well worth the effort. However, if money is tight and you don’t want to go into debt, you have countless alternatives. For one, there are lots of completely free formal college courses you can do from any corner of the world that has internet access.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of tutorials, guides, and how-to’s on YouTube and Google if you want to learn a specific skill or even just brush up on a topic you care about. Libraries chock full of books are also still a thing! All the information you could ever want is there for the taking. The biggest challenge is putting consistent time, effort, and energy into your studies. No money in the world will buy you discipline, willpower, or passion.
#13
Some museums websites have online walkthroughs so you can simulate seeing at least part of the collection without going there or paying an entry fee.
Image credits: BookLuvr7
#14
Definitely Librivox. They host copyright free books which volunteers read out and record.
Most of the time, it's not exactly the same level as an audible production, but free is free and they have alot on there.
Image credits: FlorianGeyer1524
#15
[Radio Garden](http://radio.garden) is a global map of active radio stations. You can rotate the globe anywhere and listen in. Want to know what's on the radio in Morocco right now? You can find out here.
[Radiooooo](https://radiooooo.com/) is a similar website. It's a world map that allows you to both click on individual countries and also go back to different decades to see what was popular there at the time.
Image credits: NYArtFan1
Generally speaking, people will gladly pay for things they care about, but they also want to save money. For example, if you’re a book lover, you’ll be happy to buy paperbacks and hardcovers and fill up your cozy, little library nook at home. However, if you happen to be a student, college textbooks can be incredibly expensive. Some would argue they’re unfairly overpriced and put students—who usually don’t have much spare cash lying around—in an awkward position. You kind of need them for one semester, but the hefty price tag hurts to look at.
Even the biggest book lover in the world might stop and think about where their money is best spent. They might consider downloading the textbooks they need for such a brief period of time. And though piracy is illegal, there’s the argument to be made that access to knowledge should be easy, free, and universal. (Imagine someone punishing you for reading too much and too widely! ‘1984’ much?)
But even if you don’t download anything, you can still find plenty of guides, summaries, and notes on any topic you’re going to study online. Alternatively, you can always buy pre-loved (i.e. secondhand) textbooks at fairs or get notes from friendly students who took the same classes before.
#16
Temp mail for one, you can make unlimited, free, completely disposable emails just at the click of a button.
Image credits: IPeekedAt9YearsOld
#17
DaVinci Resolve
Best video editing software that you can get for free
EDIT: capcut is also quite awesome if you are a complete noob and just want some stuff for your socials. Great presets.
Image credits: nepheelim
#18
Millions of books and academic articles. An open database of almost all human knowledge.
https://annas-archive.org
https://libgen.rs or https://gen.lib.rus.ec
/r/scholar for article requests which aren't yet archived.
Use a VPN, use with caution and respect local copyright law. Don't reupload these contents to other sites, or it could cause issues and violate T&Cs.
Image credits: Aerothermal
Study.com explains that the primary motivation behind sky-high college textbooks is, of course, profit for the publishers. There’s a lack of competition in this area of publishing, so some companies feel like they can get away with charging more and more for new editions. A lack of competition does, however, hurt the consumer. In this case—the students (and their parents who sometimes finance them).
“In many cases, professors are often unaware of (or indifferent to) the cost of the books they assign. Rather than choosing the most cost-effective books, they simply choose the ones they prefer to use when teaching. In other cases, you might take a course taught by a professor who assigns his or her own book as reading material, either out of vanity or a desire to bump up personal sales,” Study.com warns.
Decent, empathetic professors will provide you with all the study resources you need free of charge. They understand that it’s impractical to spend so much of your hard-earned cash on books when all of that information can be so easily shared and reshared digitally. And if you do genuinely care about the author, you’ll find a way to buy their books or support them in other ways in the future!
#19
I try and post this every time it comes up, but if you're in the USA and you earn less than a certain amount of money -- currently $79,000 -- you can use the same software you might otherwise do to file your federal taxes [for free](https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free).
The system is called [Free File](https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free), and companies that sell you tax software [are trying very hard to make it difficult to find](https://www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-deliberately-hides-its-free-file-page-from-search-engines). Thankfully, it seems to be coming a lot better known, to the extent that the US [is inviting all states to use a similar system in 2025](https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2385).
Image credits: Portarossa
#20
Coursera free courses, khan academy, scishow, CS50 course.
There is alot.
Image credits: justfak446
#21
Https://asoftmurmur.com
I use it every day to fall asleep.
Image credits: ilikepix
What are the best free online resources and tools that you personally know and use, dear Pandas? Which of the things mentioned in this list do you think you’d find the most useful?
What paid things do you hope will become completely free in the very near future? We genuinely can’t wait to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Do you have a spare moment? Let us know what you think in the comments section at the bottom of this post.
#22
If you Google “dog with a hat on” you will be astounded at how many different dogs and different hats you’ll find.
Image credits: vongolezio
#23
Sunny Classroom if you want to learn computer networking. Super bright professor who has some underappreciated tricks for things like memorizing subnets.
Humor is a bit dry but if you want an Asian guy who out of the blue hits you with things like "Thank you for being patient with my strong... CHINGLISH" you'll love him.
Definitely recommend!
Image credits: Dreadphaze
#24
Many libraries allow you to borrow eBooks and audiobooks digitally using apps such as Libby. It's a free and simple way to read or listen to books.
Image credits: Intelligent711
#25
If you’re in the US, your state’s “unclaimed property” website.
https://unclaimed.org/
Companies often owe people money but they either have bad address information (or they just get lazy) so instead of sending you a check, they turn it over to the state. You can look up your name, family members’ names, or company name and see if the state is holding cash in your name.
I’ve never found money for me but I *have* found a hundred or so for my parents, 4 figures worth for my in-laws, and *five figures* worth for the company I was working for at the time.
Image credits: hibryd
#26
Linux.
With Windows going apeshit a lot of us are evacuating, but i never expected it to feel like such a big upgrade.
Sure, it's a though transition for a couple days, having to google how to install video codecs on Fedora, and how to auto mount harddrives on boot. But then you see how helpful the community is, and you keep running into all these clever solutions that they've implemented on problems you always assumed you'll have to live with.
We've seen Facebook and Amazon succesfully monopolize and now live in the awkward aftermath with no cheap stores and awkward social structures. But Microsofts "Embrace, extend , extinguish" has not yet won, and this is a piece of paradise we can all keep alive together.
Image credits: LordPoopyIV
#27
There are free harvard courses you can attend.
Image credits: beepbop-I-am-a-bot
#28
Removepaywall. It really helps when you want to read an article from an online publication, but don't want to subscribe to it at all or already reached a limit of free articles.
Image credits: Upbeat_Tension_8077
#29
Duolingo isn't perfect and won't make you fluent in a language without outside practice and study too but It's a great start and encourages you to keep up with vocabulary every day.
Image credits: leonprimrose
#30
Library Genesis.
PDF drive online
Youtube.
Image credits: A_Baudelaire_fan
#31
For university students: Zotero is a great, no-b******t reference manager. Also, SciHub for accessing paywalled journal articles.
Image credits: XxDiCaprioxX
#32
The Organic Chemistry Tutor on YouTube… has amazing videos on almost any math/science videos. There are probably so many degrees that can be thanked to him lol.
Image credits: Miserable_Physics_80
#33
Free Microsoft office replacements. Screw 365 subscriptions.
Image credits: MadOliveGaming
#34
Education via YouTube. Seriously, I got into music production to complement my songwriting/guitar playing and it is ridiculous how many top-tier producers are just putting stuff out there.
It's a huge teaching tool. I used it to learn saxophone (slowing down songs to transcribe), how to code in Python and SQL, what to lookout for on a car I'm interested in buying, air crash incidents (as explained by an actual commercial pilot).
Image credits: FloggingTheHorses
#35
(For U.S. residents) Informed Delivery at usps.com. Emails you daily images of the mailpieces you should be receiving along with tracking numbers for any packages.
Image credits: esherm99
#36
Free online courses like Websites such as Coursera, edX, and Khan Academy provide a wealth of knowledge for free. It's an excellent approach to acquiring new talents without spending any money.
Image credits: Daniblond
#37
For me, one of the best free things online is educational content from platforms like Khan Academy, Coursera, and edX. You can learn almost anything for free, from coding to art history, at your own pace. Also, check out free audiobooks and eBooks from Project Gutenberg and LibriVox. If you’re into fitness, there are tons of high-quality workout routines on YouTube, like Yoga with Adriene or Fitness Blender. And don’t forget about the endless amount of free entertainment on platforms like Spotify, where you can find podcasts on virtually any topic.
Image credits: Correct-Bar9930
#38
[Abandonware games.](https://www.myabandonware.com)
There is an entire library of absolute gem games you have never played that are not available on online platforms, completely for free. Some of them are not downloadable, but will link you to places where you can buy them, so no piracy is present here.
EDIT: You absolutely have to give a try to **SAW** and **You Are Empty**. **SAW** is a spinoff game that takes place after SAW 1's ending in an alternative universe where detective Tapp had survived. The controls are weird and the gameplay loop is repetitive, but I think that it's still really cool. **You Are Empty** is practically Half-Life clone, and might be too long for some gamers, but it is absolutely fun and really dynamic, as you never stay too long in one place.
Image credits: BandicootSVK
#39
UBlock Origin and VLC.
Image credits: _i-o
#40
Epic Games weekly free games - it's just nice to try out some games you normally wouldn't try, and you discover cool games this way.
Image credits: andreasbeer1981
#41
A basic “get started” class with Microsoft excel. Such a useful tool that most people don’t know how to properly use.
Image credits: corgihandler
#42
Free cartoons from the late 80s - 90s uploaded on YouTube. Examples - Street Sharks, Mighty Max, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers: Beast Wars... The list of cartoons available for you or your children is huge. YouTube isn't just for Minecraft videos. It has an amazing selection of Saturday Morning Cartoons.
Image credits: peacefighter
#43
Https://www.desmos.com/calculator
I was never that good with graphing calculators, also they're expensive.
Image credits: PenguinBallZ
#44
Not sure if it's been posted, but [Flashpoint Archive](https://flashpointarchive.org) includes thousands of archived flash games from your childhood (if, like me, you grew up in the early 2000s).
Image credits: promking2005
#45
Bandcamp
You can listen to music for free. Support your favourite artists.
Image credits: ambernewt
#46
/askreddit is a pretty cool place, ran into some smart, some funny and some weird people over here.
Image credits: Jetro177
#47
Remove.bg
It has a very simple interface for removing the background of pictures. It does a pretty decent job of identifying the background. It also includes a magic brush so you can restore parts of the background or the picture, or erase just specific parts of the picture. It also has a canva integration so you can edit your picture appropriately and then dump it right into a Canva project.
All the AI tools I have tried, it was not the one I would have picked for one I would use everyday. Amateur photographer and children's book author (also a surprise by the way) here. I literally use this website a few times a week on average and daily sometimes when projects are being put together and finalized.
Image credits: RemoteWorkWarrior
#48
Kaggle. It's a site with great free data analytics lessons and data sets. It is a great skillset to have.
Image credits: PropunKla
#49
Education, there are plenty of videos on YouTube about different topics.
Image credits: JulianMcC
#50
Ffmpeg
It's a free command-line tool that can cut/merge/re-encode mp3/mp4/any other video/audio format you can think of. Instead of finding some random website to convert .mp3 to .wav, spending an hour uploading a huge a*s file, you can cut out the middle man and just use what they use under the hood on your local machine. Requires a bit of technical knowledge but you can normally google "how to _ ffmpeg" and you'll find a command you can copy paste.
Image credits: CorneliusClay
