Hi! I'm an English as a Foreign Language Teacher and during my classes I see my students having problems to deliver the assignments for the different subjects they have. In most cases, most of the work can be easily done by working together with their peers (collaboration) or can be fully automatized with an app. In other words, my point as a teacher, is that you are not required to be an expert in Adobe Illustrator to create an attractive and good infography, for instance. However, many students are unaware of the software available nowadays that can be quite helpful.
The following list is an update and curated version of this infography inspired by this list and considering students' needs.
I took the idea from here and it is basically the same principle. I added a ⭐ to some of the apps, which represent my pick for that category. This is based on my opinion so keep that mind. I try to use software that is easy to use and setup. By no means, an app with a "⭐" is going to be the best one there.
- Office Suite
- Note Taking
- Reading
- Citations
- Writing Papers
- Diagrams
- Screen Recorder
- Chat & Study Groups
- Flashcards
- File Management
- Presentations
- Web
- Passwords
- Time Management
- Music
- Video Editing
- Photos & Images
- Audio & Composition
- Design & Animation
- DVD-CD
- Media Player & Video
- Programming and Web Design
- Math
- Social Media
- Security
- Remote Control
- Cloud Storage
- Misc & Utilities
- Contribute
- License
- Google Docs ⭐ - Collaborative editing and styling tools to help you easily format text and paragraphs. You can share the documents and work collaboratively in real time with other people.
- Microsoft Office Online - Online office suite offered by Microsoft, which allows users to create and edit files using lightweight Office web apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote).
- Libre Office - Free office suite, open source, and compatible with .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx files. Updated regularly.
- Zoho - Web-based office suite containing many tools such as wikis, web conferencing, customer relationship management, project management, invoicing, and other applications.
- One Note - Microsoft app to take notes. It's quite useful if you use a pen or a touchpad.
- Google Keep ⭐ - Note-taking service developed by Google.
- Evernote ⭐ - App that keeps your notes organized. Memos are synced so they're accessible anywhere, and searchable so you always find what you need.
- Notable ⭐ - It provides a very powerful Markdown editor, it's the same one VS Code uses in fact, so features like multi-cursors, a minimap and best-in-class syntax highlighting are built-in.
- Jotterpad - A minimalistic writing app for Android.
- Dark Room - A full-screen text editor that makes writing on your computer like using a typewriter: an empty screen with just your words on it. Windows only
- Markdownify - A minimal Markdown editor.
- Etherpad - Customizable open source online editor providing collaborative editing in really real-time.
- ZimWiki - A wiki-style notebook, for Linux and Windows, that uses local file storage.
- Taskade - A realtime organization and collaboration tool for outlining tasks and notes with video chat.
- Adobe Acrobat - The most popular pdf viewer. It allows you to create, manipulate, print and manage pdf files. It used in libraries or public places. It'll do the job just fine, but there are better alternatives.
- Evince - A document viewer for multiple document formats. Originally from gnome, it can also be used in Windows.
- Foxit Reader - Freemium PDF tool that can create, view, edit, digitally sign, and print PDF files.
- SumatraPDF ⭐ - PDF, eBook (ePub, Mobi), XPS, DjVu, CHM, Comic Book (CBZ and CBR) reader for Windows.
- WinDjView - Fast, compact and powerful DjVu viewer for Windows with tabbed interface, continuous scrolling and advanced printing options, based on free DjVuLibre library.
- Calibre - A cross-platform suite for organizing existing e-books into virtual libraries, displaying, editing, creating and converting e-books, as well as syncing e-books with a variety of e-readers.
- Zotero ⭐ - An easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share research.
- Mendeley - A desktop and web program for managing and sharing research papers, discovering research data and collaborating online.
- Overleaf ⭐ - An online LaTeX editor that's easy to use. No installation, real-time collaboration, version control, hundreds of LaTeX templates, and more.
- LaTeX - High-quality typesetting system; it includes features designed for the production of technical and scientific documentation.
- TexMaker - Free cross-platform LaTeX editor.
- Jabref - Open source bibliography reference manager. The native file format used by JabRef is BibTeX, the standard LaTeX bibliography format. JabRef is a desktop application and runs on the Java VM (version 8).
- Lyx - Document processor that encourages an approach to writing based on the structure of your documents and not simply their appearance.
- Draw.io - Free online diagram software for making flowcharts, process diagrams, org charts, UML, ER and network diagrams.
- Xmind - A mind mapping and brainstorming tool.
- Canva - A website to create different kind of resources such as infographies, facebook covers, instagram posts, among others. It uses a drag-and-drop format, so it's quite easy to use.
- OBS - Free and open source software for video recording and live streaming.
- Streamlabs OBS ⭐ - A popular fork of OBS.
- SimpleScreenRecorder - Highly customisable screencasting program for Linux.
- Jitsi ⭐ - Secure video conferencing and desktop sharing using WebRTC.
- Jami - Similar to Jitsi, this is an open source alternative for video conferences that respects your privacy and data.
- Ring - Telephone, teleconferencing, and media sharing through a distributed service.
- Appearin - A video collaboration tool that lets you have video conversations effortlessly without requiring any downloads. PRO supports up to 12 people simultaneously.
- Slack - It's a cloud-based set of proprietary team collaboration tools and services. Very popular among different workspaces. Video conference is paid though.
- Hangout - Communication platform which includes messaging, video chat, SMS and VOIP features. Very easy and useful among Google users to setup a video conference.
- Discord - Freeware VoIP application and digital distribution platform. Formally, it was intended to the videogaming community however there are many groups in different servers to learn or practice many subjects.
- Telegram - Cloud-based instant messaging and voice over IP service. It has many characteristics that other clients lack of of.
- Signal ⭐ - Private messaging and calling for desktop, Android, and iOS.
- Whatsapp - Freeware and cross-platform messaging and Voice over IP service owned by Facebook.
- Quizlet ⭐ - A mobile and web-based study application that allows students to study information using flashcards (audio and images) and games, which are optional and automatically generated.
- Anki - A cross plataform software with spaced repetition system.
- 7-Zip - Compress and decompress heavy files.
- Peazip ⭐ - A free file archiver utility, based on Open Source technologies of 7-Zip, p7zip, FreeArc, PAQ, and PEA projects.
- Space Sniffer - Free application that lets you understand how folders and files are structured on your disks. By using a Treemap visualization layout, you have immediate perception of where big folders and files are placed on your device.
- FileZilla ⭐ - Cross-platform FTP, SFTP, and FTPS client with a vast list of features, which supports Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and more.
- PuTTY ⭐ - a very popular an easy to use SSH and telnet client.
- WinSCP - A SFTP, FTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3 and SCP client for Microsoft Windows.
- Sway ⭐ - A presentation program, which is part of the Microsoft Office family of products.
- Prezi - Web-based app to make presentations.
- Google Slides - Similar to Power Point but with the added element of collaboration.
- Firefox ⭐ - Web browser with a large collection of add-ons available. It is backed by Mozilla, a non-profit organization that supports innovation, freedom, and an open Web.
- Vivaldi - From the same team that developed Opera (so many features remain the same), this browser started as some users disgruntled the transition of Opera from the Presto layout engine to a Chromium-based browser.
- Brave - An open-source web browser developed by Brave Software Inc. based on the Chromium web browser. The browser blocks ads and website trackers.
- Thunderbird ⭐ - A free email application that's easy to set up and fully customizable.
- eMClient - A fully-featured email client with a modern and easy-to-use interface. eM Client also offers calendar, tasks, contacts and chat.
- Mailbird - Mailbird is a desktop email client for Windows 7, 8 and 10, inspired by the Sparrow email client for OS X.
- Keepass - A free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file.
- Bitwarden ⭐ - A free and open source password management solution for individuals, teams, and business organizations. It allows you to host your own server with your passwords.
- Buttercup - A beautifully-simple password manager designed to help manage your credentials.
- Todoist ⭐ - Cross platafom tool for managing tasks.
- Trello - Visual collaboration tool for planning tasks and projects.
- Google Keep - It can be used for easy to setup to-do lists.
- Evernote - Same as Google Keep.
- ColdTurkey - Block digital distractions so you can be more productive and focus on what's most important to you.
- Aimp ⭐ - A full-featured free music player designed with sound quality and wide, customizable functionality in mind. Over twenty audio formats are supported.
- Foobar2000 - An advanced freeware audio player for the Windows platform.
- Media Monkey - A digital media player and media library application. For windows only.
- MusicBee - A freeware media player for playback and organization of audio files on Microsoft Windows.
- Clementine - A multiplatform music player. It is inspired by Amarok 1.4, focusing on a fast and easy-to-use interface for searching and playing your music.
- HitFilm Express ⭐ - Video editing and VFX. Perfect for students, YouTubers, and beginner filmmakers.
- Davinci Resolve - A cross-platform software editing video.
- OpenShots - A free and open-source video editor for Linux, Mac, and Windows.
- GIMP - A cross-platform image editor available for GNU/Linux, OS X, Windows and more operating systems.
- Pixlr - A cloud-based set of image tools and utilities, including a number of photo editors, a screen recorder browser extension, and a photo sharing service.
- Shutter - A feature-rich screenshot program for Linux based operating systems such as Ubuntu.
- ShareX ⭐ - A free and open-source screenshot and screencast utility for Windows.
- Greenshot - A tool for making screenshots for Windows.
- Inkscape - Professional vector graphics editor for all platforms.
- Krita - Painting program made by artists.
- Pinta - Gtk# clone of Paint.NET.
- Piskel - Online sprite editor.
- Audacity ⭐ - An easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems.
- LMMS - A free, cross-platform tool to create music.
- Exact Audio Copy: CD-Ripper popular among audiophiles for its accuracy and ability to rip slightly damaged audio compact discs.Tutorial.
- Musescore - A free and freemium scorewriter for Windows, macOS, and Linux, comparable to Finale and Sibelius, supporting a wide variety of file formats and input methods.
- Blender - A free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, even video editing and game creation. The program is optimized for productivity, and it doesn’t consider user experience, thus the learning curve is quite steep.
- FreeCAD - A free cross-platform open-source general-purpose parametric 3D CAD modeler and a building information modeling software.
- LibreCAD - A free cross-platform open source CAD application.
- Dynamobim - Open source graphical programming for design.
- ImgBurn ⭐ - Burning images to discs, it can write files to discs, as well as create images from discs or files.
- CDBurnerXP - Burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISO files.
- VLC ⭐ - Media Player with built-in codecs.
- MPV - A free, open source, and cross-platform media player.
- SMPlayer - Media Player with built-in codecs. It supports Chromecast.
- MPCHC - An extremely light-weight, open source media player for Windows®. It supports all common video and audio file formats available for playback.
- FFmpeg - A free software project consisting of a vast software suite of libraries and programs for handling video, audio, and other multimedia files and streams.
- Handbrake - aA tool for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs.
- Scratch - A free programming language and online community where you can create your own interactive stories, games, and animations. Its main focus is on children or people new to programming.
- Notepad++ - Source code editor which supports several programming languages running under the MS Windows environment.
- Atom - Free and open-source text and source code editor for macOS, Linux, and Microsoft Windows with support for plug-ins written in Node.js, and embedded Git Control, developed by GitHub.
- Visual Studio ⭐ - An integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft. It is used to develop computer programs, as well as websites, web apps, web services and mobile apps.
- Sublime Text - A cross-platform source code editor it supports many programming languages and functions can be added by users with plugins, typically community-built and maintained under free-software licenses.
- KidCAD EDA - a free software suite for electronic design automation. It facilitates the design of schematics for electronic circuits and their conversion to PCB designs.
- Arduino - Open-source electronic prototyping platform enabling users to create interactive electronic objects.
- CodeBlocks - a free C, C++ and Fortran IDE. It is designed to be very extensible and fully configurable.
- NetBeans - an integrated development environment for Java.
- PostMan - An API development environment.
- FreeXML Editor - A free XML editor for Windows that can load big files fast and lets you format XML and edit HTML and any loosely formed XML.
- Vim - An editor to program.
- Geany - A lightweight GUI text editor using Scintilla and GTK+, including basic IDE feature
- Sagemath - An open-source mathematics software system licensed under the GPL.
- Desmos - A free calculator, graph functions, plot data, evaluate equations, explore transformations, among other functions.
- Microsoft Mathematics 4.0 - A graphing calculator that plots in 2D and 3D, step-by-step equation solving, and useful tools to help students with math and science studies.
- R Project - A programming language and free software environment for statistical computing and graphics supported by the R Foundation.
- Powerbi - A business analytics service by Microsoft. It provides interactive visualizations od data.
- QGIS - A free and open source Geographic Information System.
- Stata - A general-purpose statistical software package. Stata's capabilities include data management, statistical analysis, graphics, simulations, regression, and custom programming. It also has a system to disseminate user-written programs that lets it grow continuously.
- Buffer - A software application for the web and mobile, designed to manage accounts in social networks.
- Malwarebytes ⭐ - Find and remove malware from your computer. Although, you can pay for the PRO edition, the free version should be enough.
- Windows Defender - On Windows 10, you already have this tool which is able to replace most of of previous popular antivirus softwares as far as you take care of your behavious online.
- Teamviewer - A proprietary cross-platform software for remote control, desktop sharing, online meetings, web conferencing and file transfer between computers.
- RealVNC - A remote access software similar to the Teamviewer.
- Anydesk ⭐ - A proprietary cross-platform remote desktop.
- Chrome Remote Desktop - Access other computers or allow another user to access your computer securely over the Internet. The options are very basic in contrast with the software previously mentioned.
- Google Drive - 15 GB shared between Google Photos, Gmail and Google Drive. These elements count towards your quota, while these others don't. Plans here (*).
- One Drive - 5GB storage. Plans here (*).
- Dropbox - 2GB storage. Plans here.
- Mega - 15GB Storage. Plans here.
- Sync ⭐ - For users concerned about privacy, Sync offers 5GB of free end-to-end encrypted storage (only you can access your data in the cloud). They have paid plans as well.
- Resilio ⭐ - Fast p2p file sync software for enterprises and individuals that performs on any machine, data, scale, or network.
- Syncthing - An open-source peer-to-peer file synchronization.
- Wetransfer ⭐- Webpage to share files up to 2GB.
- Firefox Send ⭐ - Encrypt and send files with a link that automatically expires to ensure your important documents don’t stay online forever. If you sign in, you can send files up to 2.5GB.
- FilePizza - Peer-to-peer file transfers but in your browser.
- Blaze - Share files using just a web browser via p2p protocol.
- Sharedrop ⭐ - P2P file sharing webpage.
- Envelop - The service runs on runs on blockstack. You decide where your files are stored. You can use the default storage or setup your own storage. With no file limits and no tracking.
- OnionShare 2 - An open source tool that lets you securely and anonymously share a file of any size via the Tor network. Keep in mind that the recipient doesn't need OnionShare, just the Tor Browser to download the file.
- Swisstransfer - Services from Switzerland. You can send up to 25 GB (no registration required) and keep your transfers for up to 30 d.
(*): If your school/college provides you with an educational account (@nameofmyschool.com) to have unlimited storage in Google Drive or 1TB in Onedrive keep in mind that the account could be deleted if you drop out/graduate.
- Space Engine - A realistic virtual Universe you can explore on your computer. You can travel from star to star, from galaxy to galaxy, landing on any planet, moon, or asteroid with the ability to explore its alien landscape.
- Focus - A Chrome extension with a few simple tactics to help prevent procrastination.
- LeechBlock - A Firefox extension designed to block those time-wasting sites.
- VirtualBox ⭐ - Feature rich virtualization tools with support for many operating systems.
- Ninite ⭐ - Install and update many programs at once. Many of the apps listed here are included in Ninite. It is quite useful after a clean installation of Windows.
- Privacy Badger - Automatically learns to block invisible trackers to protect your privacy.
- HTTPS Everywhere - A Firefox, Chrome, and Opera extension that encrypts your communications with many major websites, making your browsing more secure.
- Pihole - Network-wide ad blocking via Linux. If you have a Raspberry laying around it might come handy for this project.
- Recuva - Recover files from your Windows computer, recycle bin, digital camera card, or MP3 player.
- Linux OS - A list of popular Linux Operating Systems.
- NewPipe - A free and open-source media player app that is most well-known as a YouTube client.
- GNU Cash - Multiplatform personal and small-business financial-accounting software.
- Vlex - A comprehensive legal data spanning 100+ countries on an intelligent & intuitive platform that delivers the most relevant results fast.
- HEC-RAS - A program to perform one-dimensional steady flow, one and two-dimensional unsteady flow calculations, sediment transport/mobile bed computations, and water temperature/water quality modeling
- SWMM - A program for planning, analysis, and design related to stormwater runoff, combined and sanitary sewers, and other drainage systems.
- HeidiSQL - A tool to see and edit data and structures from computers running one of the database systems MySQL, MariaDB, Microsoft SQL or PostgreSQL.
- Etcher ⭐ - Flash OS images to SD cards & USB drives, safely and easily.
- Schoology - A management system with assessment management to improve student performance, foster collaboration, and personalize learning.
- MoodleCloud - Free version of moodle in the cloud.
- RawTherapee - A cross-platform raw image processing program.
- Tropy - An open-source software that allows you to organize and describe photographs of research material.
- DarkTable - A program that manages your digital negatives and enables you to develop raw images and enhance them.
- ImageJ - An image processing program designed for scientific multidimensional images.
- Aegisub - A tool for creating and modifying subtitles.
- AnySoftKeyboard ⭐ - An Android keyboard, similar to Gboard, but without the part that collects your typing to "improve your experience"
- Alternativeto - A community that allows to search for alternatives to different apps. It's people-oriented, so you have some feedback related to the alternatives.
Contributions welcome! Read the contribution guidelines first.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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