Introduction
With today’s modern browsers you can now run alternatives to traditional desktop software within your web browser without the need to download software to your computer. These web apps are browser-based, so they’ll work on just about every operating system including Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and even Chrome OS.
1. Google Office Suite
This office suite from Google offers free alternatives to Microsoft Office. These alternatives are not as fully featured but will be enough for the average user, and the collaboration features are really good. Google’s alternative to Microsoft Word is Google Docs. For Excel, they call it Google Sheets, and for PowerPoint, there’s this called Google Slides.
2. Online Convert
This is a free online file converter that can easily convert just about any media file that you have on your computer. As you can see, it works with audio, video, images, documents, and others. I’ll show you how it works. I have an MP4 video file I want to convert to an AVI file type, so here under file converter, I’ll select convert to AVI. You could either browse your computer for the file or from Dropbox, Google Drive, or enter the URL of a website (by the way, this does not work with the YouTube website), or you could simply drag and drop that file on your computer into the window. It’ll upload it. When it’s done, click on start. After it’s converted the file, you can download it to your computer.
3. Virus Total
This is a free online site that allows you to scan files and URLs to detect viruses, Trojans, worms, and other types of malicious content. It uses dozens of antivirus engines and website scanners including those from security firms like Trend Micro, Bit Defender, Sanch, Sophos, and many others. Here’s how it works: you could choose a file from your computer or drag and drop that file into the window and it says up here no security vendors and no sandboxes flag this file as malicious so it looks like it’s good. Let’s go back and select URL, then enter the URL of a website you want to check, then hit enter, and this one looks good as well. In addition to your normal scanning software on your computer or to detect false positives, Virus Total is a great site to check out to verify if a file or website is malicious.
4. Silx
This is a free and open-source website builder. You can actually create websites directly in the browser without having to write any code. Although you don’t have to write any code, it is best to check out some tutorials to get familiar with it. It also allows for collaboration by using the sharing capabilities within Dropbox. Free creative common templates are available on GitHub, and paid templates are available on Tempomatic. When you launch the web app, you are presented with blank layouts or you can choose from the community templates to get started. So if you don’t know how to write code and you want to create a website without any constraints, check out Silx.
5. PDF Escape
If you’re looking for an online alternative to Adobe Acrobat to create and edit PDF documents, PDF Escape is a solid choice. Included, you get a free PDF editor, reader, form filler, form designer, and annotation tools. The user interface is very user-friendly. PDF Escape is free but it is ad-supported. If you want to get rid of the ads, they do offer plans starting at $2.99 per month.
6. Canva
This one gets suggested a lot in the comments across the various videos on this channel. Canva is a free graphic design tool which is used by both non-designers and professionals. It has drag and drop features and has more than a thousand layouts to create amazing presentations. If you’re needing help, it also has a great tutorial section to get you started. Canva is free, but if you need more storage, folders, and other options, plans start at around $15 per month.
7. Icky
If you’re familiar with Pixlr, PicMonkey, and other image editing sites, Icky is very similar. It contains a photo editor with more than 100 photo effects, a collage maker with four different styles of layouts and at least 12 different choices per layout, and it has a graphic design alternative to Photoshop. The online tools included with Icky are completely free but do contain ads.
8. Microsoft Office Online
Earlier I mentioned the office web apps from Google. The online office apps from Microsoft are also really good with online alternatives to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and others. They’ve increased the number of applications that are available. All that is lacking is some of the advanced features found in the PC software that most users won’t miss, so it’s no big deal. Here’s something I usually never say about a Microsoft product: Office Online is completely free. So if you prefer the layout with the familiar ribbon at the top in Microsoft Office, check out Microsoft Office Online.
9. Onshape
This one’s for you product designers out there. Onshape is a computer-aided design (CAD) software system which allows teams to collaborate on a single shared design. There is a high learning curve to using Onshape. Thankfully, they do include tutorials and videos to get you started. Onshape is free for non-commercial use. For commercial use, it’s not very cheap with pricing starting at $1,500 per user per year.
10. Slide Dog
If you give presentations, you’ll like this one. Slide Dog is a media player especially designed for giving presentations. You create playlists of media that seamlessly play together so you don’t have to switch between different programs during a presentation. It supports various file types including PowerPoint, PDF, image, and video files, plus others. You can use it as often as you want, but the pro features are only available in 15-minute intervals. To completely unlock Slide Dog, plans start at $19 per month.
11. Figma
If you’ve ever used Sketch, I would recommend giving Figma a try. It’s an interface design tool which allows for collaboration with linked user interface components. Layout grids give you more control, and you can reuse elements across your designs. For teams of up to two editors, Figma is free. For larger teams, plans start at $12 per month.
12. Pwon
This is an animation software that allows users to create animated presentations. You can create by using pre-created objects, imported images, provided music, and user-created voiceovers. The pre-made templates make it easy to create powerful presentations in very little time. Pwon does offer a limited free version to get you started. If you want more options, they have plans starting at $19 per month.
13. Weebly
This is a web hosting service which features a drag-and-drop website builder. The great thing about the website builder is you don’t need to learn how to code. You can even sell your own products online, and they have mobile apps so you can track your performance. For creating basic websites, they have free and paid plans. To create an online store for your site, plans start at $10 per month.
14. Trello
This is an outstanding project management tool. Trello uses visual boards to keep you organized. It also works great in team environments to provide all the information about projects the team is working on. When you first sign up, they provide a welcome board that will help you out when you first get started. For many individuals and small teams, the free version may be all that they need. If needing additional features, they have plans starting at just $5 per month.
