Best Freebie Apps of 2013

George is Cheap

All tools on this list are 100% free! I use all of them daily. I highly recommend them to you too. (Some have paid options for more features, but everything on this list has an amazing free plan)

Genius Scan

Genius Scan

Take a pic on your phone, turn it into a PDF. Boom, done! Perfect for stuff you have to sign. Check it out or tweet it.

Trello

Trello To Do List Screen Shot

You can do a million things with it, but I use it as a collaborative To-Do list with my team. Super easy to use on the web and their iPhone app is super slick! Check it out or tweet it.

Refresh.io

refresh app screen

Sweet iPhone app that syncs with your LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google Calendar. It sends you a little reminder of your next meeting with information about the person like where they worked, their life milestones, and who you have in common. It helps me “Small Talk”. Check it out or tweet it.

Skitch

Yes, Skitch made the list again! It is awesome. However, don’t download the newest version. Get the older version. Evernote recently purchased Skitch and made it worse. Check it out or tweet it.

Buffer

Buffer Screenshot

Schedules your tweets automatically. It helps you not be “That Guy” that takes over your followers newsfeed. Also, an easy way to post updates on multiple social networks at once. I use it to auto-post to my LinkedIn Group and personal Twitter account. Check it out or tweet it.

Newsblur

NewsBlur Screen Shot

Awesome Google Reader replacement. I subscribe to over 300 feeds and their iPhone app rocks too! What is crazy is that I think it is all built by one dude. Check it out or tweet it.

Signals

Signals by HubSpot Screen Shot

Email stalking tool. Lets you know if your recipient has opened your email. Works with Gmail and their chrome app rocks da house. This helps me out because I always wonder if they actually read my email. Check it out or tweet it.

Lastpass

LastPass

After Adobe got broken into, I decided to get on top of my password security. LastPass remembers your passwords for you. This way I can use 11 digit passwords that contain uppers, lowers, numbers, and special characters. Check it out or tweet it.

GAget

GAget screen shot

Google Analytics on your iPhone. All I really want to know on a daily basis is how many visitors I got, this little app does it automatically for you with one swipe. Their mac widget is free, but their iPhone app is $2.99. Check it out or tweet it.

Dwolla

Dwolla feature

I’ve been using Dwolla for payroll (perfect for small teams), because it is free (actually $0.25 per transaction) and you can do direct bank deposits. Way cheaper than most payroll solutions which charge monthly fees. Check it out or tweet it.

Hipchat

Team Chat

Awesome private instant messaging tool for my team. Their desktop client works really well. Saves links and images automatically. We use to use Google Chat, but that only allows 1-to-1, hipchat is from team chats. Check it out or tweet it.

Paper Karma

paper karma screen shot

Love this app! It is an “Unsubscribe button” for physical mail. Take a pic of some credit card offer that you get and these guys automatically make sure you never get it again. Check it out or tweet it.

Flightcar

flightcar

  • Round trip to SFO airport via cab is $120
  • Round trip to SFO airport BART is $18
  • … or I can drive to SFO and park with Flightcar for $FREE! No brainer move here. You can’t beat free airport parking.

Check it out or tweet it.

Alexa chrome plugin

Alexa Internet - Chrome Extension Download

I like to know if the website I’m looking at is a popular one. Alexa’s Chrome plugin does that for me with 1-click. People complain about Alexa’s data being a little off, but it is still a good measure of website popularity. Check it out or tweet it.

What free apps are missing from this list? Let me know in the comments and I will add to this list if it is awesome.

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More Free Tool Suggestions from the comments!

Dharmesh’s Suggestions:

  • Flowdock – What Google Wave should have been, chat + Inbox for teams

Nitin’s Suggestions:

  • Asana – Project Management Tool
  • awesome screenshots – Chrome plugin for taking screen shots
  • Pandora – Awesome app for music radio, suggests new music based on your listening habits
  • Mint – AMAZING personal finance app, put in all your bank and credit card accounts and it automatically categorizes your finances, I love the budgeting feature because it lets you know when you are spending more in a certain area.
  • Apple Podcasts – podcast app 

Anand’s Suggestions:

  • RescueTime – shows you how you spend time your time on the web.

8 Comments

  1. You totally forgot Flowdock (basically what Google Wave should have been). It’s badass cause it connects up to millions of different things.

  2. Awesome post. I use a lot of them.

    My favorite ones that you didn’t have:
    asana
    awesome screenshots (chrome plugin)
    pandora
    mint
    turboscan
    yahoo weather
    apple podcasts

    • didn’t know about Awesome Screenshots.

      I love asana, I used it for wedding planning (LOL!) – I still like Trello over Asana for to-do lists.

      Mint is my all time favorite app for personal finance – good rec!

  3. Very useful post, Rishi! Thank you! My top favorites are already on it. 🙂 I have been using the free version of RescueTime on my laptop and I find it quite useful as well.

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