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24 of the best free alternatives to the most popular paid software

Note that these are not all FOSS.

  • Photo Editing:

    • GIMP
    • Krita
    • Paint.NET

  • Video Editing:

    • DaVinci Resolve
    • CapCut
    • Shotcut

  • Audio Editing:

    • Audacity
    • Cakewalk
    • GarageBand

  • 3D Graphics:

    • Blender
    • Spline
    • Rumba

  • Office Software:

    • LibreOffice
    • Microsoft 365 Free Apps
    • WPS Office

  • Antivirus Software:

    • Windows Security
    • Avast Free Antivirus
    • Malwarebytes

  • Productivity Tools:

    • Bitwarden
    • VSCodium
    • PDF-XChange Editor
    • 7-Zip
    • OBS Studio
    • LanguageTool
Iamdanno ,

Needs more CAD

moon ,

I see this is free as in price, definitely not free as in freedom. Should delete the anti virus section and replace it with Linux lol.

masquenox ,

You forgot vector-graphics stuff.

I believe Inkscape is the current leader of the open-source pack in that department.

mal3oon ,

Reminder than Tenacity is an open-source fork of Audacity.

Churbleyimyam ,

Audacity isn't open source? I thought I installed it from the Debian free repo...

zarenki ,

It is open source, but had some controversy. Most prominently the addition of telemetry a few years ago, which was never included in the builds managed by Debian or most other distro maintainers. They also added a Contributor License Agreement which lets the Audacity project change its own license (even to a non-foss one, though they promise they won't) without needing to have the change approved by any individual developers.

Kess8a ,
@Kess8a@lemy.lol avatar

Just to know, how do you disable telemetry, if it isn't off by default?

zarenki ,

I'm not completely sure but I think they removed it at some point after the public backlash (which was 3 years ago now). For the Windows version at least, there apparently used to be an option during the installation wizard for setting whether telemetry is enabled or not. Most Linux distros never had the telemetry at all. I don't know about Mac.

Churbleyimyam ,

Ah, monkey business...

quissberry ,

Audacity is open source, but they had a few controversies recently.

mojofrododojo ,

your paint-dot-net link is... shouldn't be a link lol

AnActOfCreation OP ,
@AnActOfCreation@programming.dev avatar

Lol it's not a link in the markdown so it's just the Lemmy web UI making assumptions. Also it's funny that they don't own that domain.

Karyoplasma ,

paint.NET

escape the dot

BigPotato ,

Take CapCut off because it's more like TikTok editing than video editing.

Divinci has a learning curve but any curve is better than learning solely on a ByteDance owned product.

mojofrododojo ,

also, davinci is industry standard and highly respected

Voroxpete ,

Throw in KDEnlive for video editors.

Freuks ,
@Freuks@lemmy.ml avatar

+1

M4t1cc Bot ,

I would add FreeCAD to 3d editing software.

11111one11111 ,

Dafuq is freecad? It sounds waaaaaay too good to be true. Maybe above hot singles in your area want to fuck lol. I had a software I was using that let you use it free x amount of times but all you had to do was clear your cache/data each time it was triggered to expire and you had a fresh set of uses. Can't remember the name I'll jave to look it up.

M4t1cc Bot ,

It's not as intuitive as other comparable software, and has a fairly steep learning curve especially for beginners, but it is free. No subscription models that's plaguing the 3d modeling software field.

Check it out!
https://www.freecad.org/
https://wiki.freecad.org/

AlphaOmega ,

No WinRAR?

helpImTrappedOnline , (edited )

It is not free (which is the main goal of this list) or open source.

https://alternativeto.net/software/winrar/about/

AlphaOmega , (edited )

Oh yeah. I forget it's not free after using it for almost 3 decades without paying for it...

helpImTrappedOnline , (edited )

I know, it loses on a technicality.

corsicanguppy ,

I know, it looses on a technicality.

Aside from the comma splice, did you mean 'loses' or 'loosens'?

helpImTrappedOnline ,

My bad. It's lose, as in "not win".
In this case, "it does not earn a place on the list due to a technicality". The technicality, being an infinite free trial does not truly count in the spirit of being free.

Lombaxter_Stockman ,

Although not technically free, I would add Reaper to the list for audio editing. It gives you a pop-up asking if you want to buy the program, but it's not required. I know people who have been using it for years without actually purchasing it. (I have since purchased a license because I use it professionally). No features are locked behind the paid license.

autonomoususer ,

WARNING Windows Security, Avast, Malwarebytes, anti-libre software bans us from removing malicous source code. Don't let this malware infect you.

QuadratureSurfer ,
@QuadratureSurfer@lemmy.world avatar

It might be the lack of sleep, but what are you trying to say here?

jabjoe ,
@jabjoe@feddit.uk avatar

Some of us use FOSS because of access to the source and the benefits of an all FOSS system. Not because it's zero cost. This list is just zero cost and some happen to be FOSS.

tal ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Gratis rather than libre.

PM_Your_Nudes_Please ,

They aren’t even free. CapCut, for instance, requires a subscription to access most of the features.

lud ,

Some of us like free stuff though and the post never said that it was supposed to be a list of FOSS projects.

jabjoe ,
@jabjoe@feddit.uk avatar

I guess this is Technology not Linux or FOSS, but feels like the difference is often mixed up and it's not all about cost. Anyway, looks like there is now a added note they aren't all FOSS.

lud ,

looks like there is now a added note they aren't all FOSS.

The post hasn't been edited.

jabjoe ,
@jabjoe@feddit.uk avatar

Well then I missed that the first time.

I'd have put in bracket with each list item if it was FOSS, shareware, free trial, free for non corp use, etc.

lud ,

Yeah that would have been nice but it would be time consuming for the poster.

jabjoe ,
@jabjoe@feddit.uk avatar

Yeh

chraebsli ,
@chraebsli@programming.dev avatar

you forgot linux as an alternative to windows and mac;)

einlander ,

OnlyOffice for office software.

neme ,
@neme@lemm.ee avatar

Avast is virus itself

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Yeah, just use the one built-in to Windows, or don't use Windows.

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