If you’re going to get the most out of your iPad, chances are you’re going to end up spending a little money in the App Store. But lurking between the iWork suite and cool apps like Things are a host of free productivity apps that will let you squeeze out the most from your iPad without squeezing your wallet.
These apps include great ways to take notes, whether you want to type them out, record them, or write them by hand. They also provide great ways to enhance your productivity on the iPad, including a free photo editor, a dictionary, and even a way to easily transfer files from your PC to your iPad. You can even use the world’s most popular Office suite on the iPad.
Microsoft Office Apps
While Microsoft offers a subscription plan with more advanced features within Microsoft 365, there’s a lot of key functionality available for free. If you mainly want to do some light editing of Word or Excel documents or adjust a frame in your PowerPoint presentation, you won’t need to pay a dime. For those that need to unlock more features, the price is well worth the features offered in Office for iPad.
Download only the Office apps you need.
Select from 12 apps.
No Microsoft 365 subscription required.
Free apps contain in-app purchases.
Requires a free Microsoft account.
iWork
Apple made the iWork suite of productivity apps free to anyone buying a new iPad or iPhone, which instantly makes them some of the best free apps for getting something done on the iPad. The iWork suite includes Pages, a word processor; Numbers, a spreadsheet program; and Keynote, which is great for creating and viewing presentations. If you would rather skip Microsoft Office, the iWork apps are a great alternative.
Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are free downloads.
Compatible with Apple pencil.
Good real-time collaboration features.
Numbers spreadsheets are difficult to edit on small-screen iPads.
Pages documents export to Word format, but changes occur.
Evernote
Easily the best note-taking app on the app store, Evernote will not only store the notes you tap onto the onscreen keyboard but also the ones you record with your voice. You can even store photos and synchronize your notes with your Mac or Windows-based PC. Evernote will also use your iPad’s GPS functionality to geotag notes to make them location-based.
Robust free Basic plan.
Siri-compatible for voice entries.
Supports David Allen’s GTD system.
Only 60 MB of uploads per month with free plan.
Free plan syncs with only two devices.
Notifications require a paid plan.
Dropbox
If you’re going to be productive with your iPad, you’ll probably need to get some files from your PC or Mac onto your tablet. That’s where Dropbox comes into the picture. Perhaps the easiest way to gain access to your word processor documents and spreadsheets, Dropbox gives you up to 2 GB of free space before you need to upgrade to a premium account.
Time-based comments.
Collaboration through shared folders.
Document scanner to scan and save receipts.
Slow upload speed.
Search feature needs work.
Free account limited to 2 GB of space.
Remember the Milk
Scribbling in a quick note, not enough? If you need a full-fledged task manager capable of creating to-do lists, Remember the Milk is the app for you. The easy-to-use interface makes note-taking simple, and the cloud-based design means you can type up the note on your PC and then view it on your iPad.
Receive notifications by email, text, IM, or Twitter.
Organize by due date, lists, or tags.
Integrate with Gmail, Google Calendar, Twitter, and Evernote.
No support for attachments.
Mobile app reminders and subtasks are not included in the free account.
Use Your Handwriting
Speech-to-text isn’t the only quick and easy way to leave yourself a note on the iPad. You can also go the old fashioned route and write it by hand. Use Your Handwriting lets you scribble in a quick note to yourself instead of typing it out on a keyboard. And with Use Your Handwriting’s ability to note when you are getting close to the edge and moving over to give you more space to write, you’ll actually find yourself getting the word out a lot quicker than you might think.
Write with one finger to produce colorful notes.
Press a note to assign an alert.
Helpful hands-on tutorials.
High-priority To Do items blink.
Loud pop-up ads.
Slow performance and syncing.
Many features require a paid subscription.
Mint Personal Finance
If you want to get a handle on your personal finance, Mint is a great place to start. It grabs financial data from sites like your bank and your credit cards, arranges it into categories, and puts it all in one place. It’s a great way to set a budget for certain activities such as going out to eat. You can also set financial goals like saving a certain amount of money each month. Best of all, the service is free. And as a cloud service, you can log in via the web or via your device, which makes it easy to check your finances from your PC or your tablet.
Alerts for late fees and going over budget.
Weekly summaries via email.
Two-factor authentication for security.
No longer includes bill payment.
Can’t import data from Quicken.
Doesn’t generate reports.
Kalkulilo (Calculator)
Whether you need a little bit of multiplication and simple division, or you are trying to turn 248 into a binary number, Kalkulilo has you covered. This simple productivity app can be a lifesaver if you need access to scientific functions, and programmers will like the different logical operators like AND, OR, XOR, and other features. Kalkulilo even has a statistics mode that will calculate mean, median, variance, standard deviation, and range.
Powerful scientific calculator.
Statistics, trig, integer, base/radix, and time modes.
Color-coded keys.
Simple calculator included.
Ad-supported.
Steep learning curve.
Microsoft Outlook
Outlook users on the desktop have been shortchanged on the iPad, where Microsoft’s mail program had a very limited feature set. But that recently changed, and Outlook has gone through a big makeover, with the end result making it one of the better email apps on the App Store. And best of all, it is free. If you love Outlook on your PC, you’ll want to check it out on your iPad.
No Office 365 subscription required.
Supports most email accounts.
Customizable swipe gestures.
Integrates with Dropbox.
Cluttered interface.
Can’t attached iCloud files.
Wikipanion
If your job entails doing research, you probably get a lot of mileage out of Wikipedia. But as great of a quick resource as Wikipedia can be, it’s not always easy to find the information. That’s where Wikipanion can help. A great search tool for Wikipedia, this app lets you quickly navigate the page to get the information you need.
Intuitive user interface.
Reliable, easy-to-use app.
Plays audio files.
No ads.
Lengthy load time for some pages.
No night mode.
No in-page search capability.
Dictionary.com
How many people can brag about carrying around two million words in their tote bag? That’s the type of ability the Dictionary.com app will give you. The Dictionary.com app doesn’t require an internet connection to check out words, so you’ll always have quick access to check your spelling, find the meaning of an unfamiliar term, or just look up synonyms in the thesaurus. You can even tap the microphone and speak the word you are looking up.
Modern-looking interface.
Includes audible pronunciations.
Word of the Day.
Many in-app purchases.
Intrusive ads.
Not optimized for iPad.
Ever come across an interesting article or website but didn’t have time to really enjoy it? Pocket is the best way to save these websites for later because with Pocket, you don’t need an internet connection to read a website. When you pocket an article or video, it saves it across all of your devices, making it easy to find again no matter where you are or which device you have on you.
Save articles for offline access.
Highlight feature is useful for research.
Listen feature that reads articles.
One big list with no sub-lists.
No reminders.
Can’t share your list with other Pocket users.
Mindjet Maps
This neat little app handles simple flow charts and organizing tasks, and the easy interface makes mapping out the chart a breeze. Type the task into the hierarchy and then swipe in the direction where you want a related task to appear. You can even synchronize your flowcharts and visual maps through Dropbox.
Visual maps for organizing and prioritizing.
Handles huge mind maps with lots of images.
Night mode.
No longer compatible with Dropbox.
Developer is slow to respond to support requests.
No longer receives regular updates.
Photoshop Express
The iPad’s camera has come a long way, with the newest Pro model sporting a camera that could rival most smartphones. But even with a great camera, you may need a little editing to get the best picture. Photoshop Express gives you a number of cool tools to boost the quality of your photos and features a collage tool to help layout your photos.
Loaded with photo-editing features.
Compatible with other Adobe products.
Supports multi-touch gestures.
No way to add text or make selections.
Monthly fee for extra features.
LiquidText
You can use LiquidText to view documents from PDFs and PowerPoint presentations to web pages and then pull out bits and pieces to form a unique document. This functionality makes it great for working on presentations or research projects on the go. You can also save your work in a variety of cloud-based storage options like Dropbox or iCloud Drive. The pro version allows you to work on multiple documents at a time.
Collect, retain, and create new information.
Animations and chats provide helpful hints.
Good way to understand related documents.
In-app purchase for multiple documents in one project.
Workspace becomes crowded.
Designed for right-handers.
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