These days there are hundreds if not thousands of free tools available to help us accomplish our goals. Whether you’re a small business owner, student, blogger or just someone that likes to tinker with new things, then you’ll love these amazing free tools. Some have really caught my attention lately. So I’ve decided to share them with you.
With so many free tools available on the Internet, it can be hard to choose which one you should use. And even harder to know what type of business or student you are. That’s why I invite you to check out this collection of free tools for different types of users.
Boomerang for Gmail
If you’re like me and you do your best work from about 10pm onwards, you’ve probably also been in one of my pickles: How do you send an email at 2am without looking seriously unprofessional?
That’s where Boomerang comes in. This handy little tool allows you to write and schedule your emails for a more “appropriate” sending time. Want to look like you’re an early morning riser? Write your 2am email, schedule it for 7am, and sleep right through as it sends!
Streak
Want an affordable CRM tool to manage your contacts, deals, projects, and messages? Streak does it all from within your inbox so that you can forget having to log into a separate app to do it. I’ve only been using this tool for a short time but it has great potential to help me organize my messages based on the projects I’m working on.
This tool will suit a wide variety of businesses. Use it to manage the hiring process, to keep track of investment and fundraising projects, to manage deals, and much more. It will even let you schedule emails to be sent later and tell you when someone has read your email.
Trello
Easily my favorite project management tool, this is also one that I know a number of larger businesses use. It’s my preferred alternative to Basecamp, which for for me is really only good at allowing you to converse with others related to a specific project. Trello also maintains a super creative blog that will show you how you might use their product: to stay organized, to take the stress out of the holiday season, to plan an office party, to search for a job, and to plan a meal.
At Palo Alto Software, we use it to manage our editorial calendar and the web development queue. I think it’s a great tool for listing out stock you need to buy, for prioritizing tasks with your team, and for playing around with ideas, thanks to the super easy drag-and-drop functionality built into the app. I don’t know how people function without this tool.
Asana
This is essentially the free alternative to Basecamp. I’ve used it on and off for the past couple of years and although I’ve never raved about it as I have Trello, it’s still a useful tool that is taking strides to become ever more elegant and relevant! The interface is also a lot more in line with how my brain works which is something Basecamp has never been. If you’re looking for software that will allow you to work with your team, without needing to do it all from within your inbox, this is a good option.
Nimbus
This tool offers note, screen capture, and picture clipping to record important information or inspiration you find on the web. Its suite of tools allows you to record and share content from sites through web browser extension. The clipping tools offer lots of versatility to capture page view, different parts of the page, and even entire web page scrolls.
Nimbus is a useful tool for inserting screenshots into content to illustrate a point, like a quick on-page how-to, web page comparisons, and much more.
ColorPick Eyedropper
ColorPick is a quick and easy browser extension tool for detecting color values on web pages by hovering over a graphic. It can be helpful to maintain uniform visual branding across, for example, social media posts and online graphics, in the absence of a formal style guide with specified color values.
Nearpod
The first app that proves ideal for livening up lessons, and made especially for teachers, is the one called Nearpod. This application allows teachers to present multimedia lessons that students can upload to their mobile devices. The Nearpod app is completely free and offers different layouts, which make it suitable for various teaching activities.
Viper (Windows)
The second app worth mentioning and proving suitable for teachers is the one called Viper. It is in fact a valid Windows application that contains ready-made themes which allow teachers to present them directly to pupils. In this app, students are also able to compare their work to understand how to write better by avoiding grammatical errors, paying more attention to syntax and typos.
LastPass Password Manager
I’ll be honest, the idea of this site really didn’t appeal to me before I started working at Palo Alto Software, but since then, I’ve come to love it. In fact, I’d go so far as to say I don’t know what I’d do without it (I’d have to remember my passwords again?!). I love that you can also create folders and share them with other LastPass users—giving access to only those passwords you want to share, and keeping the important stuff private.
Plus, when the Heartbleed Bug hit earlier this year, this site wasn’t affected thanks to the multiple layers of encryption used. So if security is a worry for you, this one has your back. In fact, it even has a tool that will help you assess sites that may have security vulnerabilities.
Google Dictionary extension
If you’re working on important documents and don’t want to get spelling wrong (especially if you’re working in the cloud), this handy extension is for you. Need to check spelling? Need to define a word? Need a synonym? Need to know what part of speech that word is, or perhaps how to use it? Just tap the extension you’ve installed in your chrome browser and away you go.
AdBlock extension
Our in-house eCommerce manager would probably shoot me for recommending this, but it truly is another of my favorite extensions. Online, it’s pretty easy to get distracted and advertisements on-page make that even more likely.
AdBlock gets rid of everything—Google ads, banner ads on websites, YouTube video ads, you name it. Of course, if you’re operating a business, it’s not always a good idea to work in a bubble. After all, how do you know what your competition is doing? How do you get good ideas for ads for your business if you block them off? I have it installed but pause it when I think I need a bit of the real world…
Google Keep
You’ve probably seen this one on other lists; I know I have. But, I’m putting it here because it really is one of the best apps for “general note-taking.” When I say best, I mean fastest to use and easiest to read.
It probably works best on your mobile device but, if you have a smartwatch (in my case, the Moto 360), you can even use it on that, recording notes by voice, or just swiping through your saved notes! It’s simple, colorful, adaptive and therefore—in today’s flat design, utility driven world—sexy!
Conclusion:
The Internet offers a variety of tools and software for free – to use and to download. This is especially noticeable in the corporate and business environment, where business entities need various softwares to fulfill their demands.