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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

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/

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.

variants ,

What would one use for something like editing photos into gifs. I would edit a lot of still images in photoshop using the puppet warp and the animation but haven't really found anything to do that

Xatolos ,
@Xatolos@reddthat.com avatar

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vgzdj1xGw8

variants ,

Oh that's perfect thank you!

EarthShipTechIntern ,

Krita & gimp both can handle that

11111one11111 ,

I love Gimp. I was even using it as a sort of workaround free pdf editor for image/graphics h3avy pdf edits.

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.

asbestos ,
@asbestos@lemmy.world avatar

Avast? Bruh

NateNate60 ,

I always recommend Windows Defender and a good sense of Internet security to anyone who uses a computer.

If you're dumb, no antivirus can protect you. If you're reasonably intelligent, any antivirus will protect you.

airglow ,

Avast should not be recommended.

In late 2019, Avast browser extensions were found to collect user data, including browsing behavior and history, and send it to a remote server. The discovery led to the extensions of the Avast and AVG brands being temporarily removed from the Google Chrome, Firefox and Opera extension stores, however, they returned a short time later as there was no concrete evidence that demonstrated a breach of private data of the users.

In January 2020, a joint investigation by Motherboard and PCMag found that the Avast Antivirus and AVG AntiVirus Free version were collecting user data, which was being resold to personalize advertising through a subsidiary, Jumpshot. The leaked documents showed that Jumpshot offered to provide its customers with "Every search. Every click. On every site." from more than 100 million compromised devices. In response, Avast announced on January 30, 2020, that it would immediately shut down Jumpshot and cease all operations due to the backlash of its users' data privacy.

On the basis of the information revealed, on 11 February 2020 the Czech Office for Personal Data Protection announced that it had initiated a preliminary investigation.

In February 2024, the Federal Trade Commission fined Avast $16.5 million for collecting user data and reselling that data. The collection was done under their program to ensure that such collection of user data was not happening.

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

masquenox ,

You forgot vector-graphics stuff.

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

jeena ,
@jeena@jemmy.jeena.net avatar

I'd like to add KdenLive to the Video Editing point.

jabathekek ,
@jabathekek@sopuli.xyz avatar

I successfully edited a video with it having never done so before, which I think speaks to how well it's designed. There's definitely a tiny learning curve, but it's a kiddy coaster.

xenspidey ,

KDEnlive is way easier then divinci

theonyltruemupf ,

I love KdenLive!

auzas_1337 ,
@auzas_1337@lemmy.zip avatar

How’s the performance, size and features compared to Premiere?

I find Premiere to be a bit of a pain in the ass sometimes and pretty slow, but I didn’t like Davinci + I’m paying for Adobe anyway.

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

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.

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?

Voroxpete ,

Throw in KDEnlive for video editors.

Freuks ,
@Freuks@lemmy.ml avatar

+1

ThePowerOfGeek ,
@ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world avatar

I only discovered Krita recently, but holy shit does it fill the Photoshop void very well. The UI isn't the same as PS, obviously. But I find it much easier to navigate than Gimp's UI. And Krita is surprisingly feature-rich.

variants ,

I've just found out about kitra right now but from the site it says it's mostly focused are drawing and stuff like that so would photo editing be netter with something like rawtherapee?

KISSmyOSFeddit ,

If you're working with RAW files, neither Gimp nor Krita are the tool for you.
I use Darktable to adjust global things like brightness, contrast, white balance and so on, then export to Krita or Gimp for more granular local modifications.

altima_neo , (edited )
@altima_neo@lemmy.zip avatar

Yeah it's definitely more of a souped up Paint app than photo editor.

altima_neo , (edited )
@altima_neo@lemmy.zip avatar

If you don't mind paid, Affinity is pretty nice too.

tobbue ,

Desperately needs Linux support though.

AnActOfCreation OP ,
@AnActOfCreation@programming.dev avatar

Didn't they recently get bought by Canva? Not saying that's a good or bad thing, but it's something to keep in mind.

altima_neo ,
@altima_neo@lemmy.zip avatar

Yeah but it's also a one time purchase

Plopp ,

...for now.

Adderbox76 ,

I like Krita. But to be honest, after years and years of using GIMP, I ironically have nothing but trouble trying to rewire my brain to do things any other way. The same problem that many people have when moving from Photoshop to GIMP.

Also, i fundamentally need DDS files, which Krita (AFAIK) doesn't handle.

morriscox ,

Maybe https://krita-artists.org/t/python-plugin-dds-support-windows-only/73488

Adderbox76 ,

Windows only sadly. I'm on Linux

Churbleyimyam ,

You should totally get on some PS forums and start bitching about its UI being 'backward and unusable' compared to GIMP :)

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

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