Archives
7-Zip
The best free file archiver: opens RAR, ZIP, 7z, tar, gz, bz2, xz, iso, CAB, MSI, and over 30 others; creates .7z with LZMA2 (typically ~10…
Best free apps
Free programs that do the job of paid software: an office suite, a media player, a password manager, a video editor and more. Each page explains what the app does well, where it falls short, and links to the official download.
Where each app earns its place
Every recommendation is scored against the task it is chosen for, not against marketing claims. Compare honestly, or use the page to pick the app that fits your actual use case.
Media
VLC media player
The best free media player for Windows, Mac and Linux: plays MKV, MP4, DVD (software decoder included), Blu-ray menus, streams over RTP/HTT…
Security
KeePassXC
The best free offline password manager: AES-256/ChaCha20-encrypted .kdbx you own, plus Argon2 memory-hardened unlock, autotype hashed again…
Browser
Firefox
The best free private browser for Windows, Mac and Linux: multi-account containers that isolate work and personal cookies, Enhanced Trackin…
Image editing
GIMP
The best free photo editor for Windows, Mac and Linux: 8/16/32-bit float RGB, layers, layer masks, Python-Fu batch scripting with type-sign…
Office
LibreOffice
The best free Microsoft Office alternative: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw and Base; reads and writes DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, ODF, PDF; ships full f…
Recording
OBS Studio
The best free screen recorder for Windows, Mac and Linux: scenes, sources, NDI, audio routing and hardware (NVENC/AMF/QSV) encoding. Stable…
3D and creative
Blender
The best free 3D modeling software: polygon and NURBS modeling, sculpting with dyntopo and micro-poly, geometry nodes, EEVEE-Next and Cycle…
Media
mpv
A minimal free media player: hardware-decoded playback via mpv-android-lib/FFmpeg, high-quality scalers (ewa_lanczos, spline36), debanding,…
Networking
qBittorrent
The best free torrent client with no ads: built-in RSS reader for downloads, horizontal + vertical mode, sequential download, IP filter lis…
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