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https://github.com/leemcd56/awesome-subscription-free

A list of great subscription-free alternatives to common software
https://github.com/leemcd56/awesome-subscription-free

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A list of great subscription-free alternatives to common software

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# Awesome Subscription-Free Software [![Awesome](https://cdn.rawgit.com/sindresorhus/awesome/d7305f38d29fed78fa85652e3a63e154dd8e8829/media/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sindresorhus/awesome)



A list of great subscription-free alternatives to common software. After all, maintaining a lot of subscriptions is like [death by a thousand cuts](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lingchi) and a good way to stay broke, but that's my opinion (and lived experience).



All prices listed are USD (United States Dollar).



## Table of Contents



- [Subscription-Free Software](#subscription-free-software)

  - [1Password](#1password)

  - [Adobe Acrobat Pro](#adobe-acrobat-pro)

  - [Adobe Audition](#adobe-audition)

  - [Adobe Illustrator](#adobe-illustrator)

  - [Adobe InDesign](#adobe-indesign)

  - [Adobe Lightroom](#adobe-lightroom)

  - [Adobe Photoshop](#adobe-photoshop)

  - [Adobe Premiere](#adobe-premiere)

  - [Airmail](#airmail)

  - [AutoCAD](#autocad)

  - [Avid Pro Tools](#avid-pro-tools)

  - [Avid Sibelius](#avid-sibelius)

  - [CelAction](#celaction)

  - [EasyWorship](#easyworship)

  - [Figma](#figma)

  - [Maya](#maya)

  - [Microsoft 365](#microsoft-365)

  - [Reason](#reason)

  - [Restream](#restream)

  - [Spark](#spark)

  - [SketchUp](#sketchup)

  - [Unity](#unity)

- [Sass/Pass Alternatives](#saaspaas-alternatives)

  - [ERPs](#erps)

  - [Firebase](#firebase)

  - [Heroku](#heroku)

  - [JIRA](#jira)

  - [Lucidchart](#lucidchart)

  - [Vercel](#vercel)

- [Relevant XKCD](#relevant-xkcd)

- [Honorable Mentions](#honorable-mentions-)

  - [Downloaders](#downloaders)

  - [PCB Design](#pcb-design)

  - [Programming](#programming)

  - [Sprite Editors](#sprite-editors)

  - [Transcoding](#transcoding)

- [Sources](#sources)



## Subscription-Free Software



### 1Password



- [KeePass](https://keepass.info/index.html) (Free)



### Adobe Acrobat Pro



- [CutePDF](https://www.cutepdf.com) ($49.95)

- [uPDF](https://updf.com/) ($99.99)



### Adobe Audition



- [Audacity](https://www.audacityteam.org/) (Free)

- [SOUND FORGE Pro](https://www.magix.com/us/music-editing/sound-forge/sound-forge-pro/) ($349 base)



### Adobe Illustrator



- [Affinity Designer](https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/designer/) ($69.99)

- [CorelDRAW](https://www.coreldraw.com/en/product/coreldraw/) ($549)

- [InkScape](https://inkscape.org/) (Free)



### Adobe InDesign



- [Affinity Publisher](https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/publisher/) ($69.99)



### Adobe Lightroom



- [Capture One](https://www.captureone.com/en) ($299)

- [darktable](https://www.darktable.org/) (Free)

- [Luminar Neo](https://skylum.com/checkout/luminar-neo) ($299)

- [PhotoLab 7 Elite](https://shop.dxo.com/en/dxo-photolab7-elite.html) ($229, w/o free upgrades)

- [PhotoLab 7 Essential](https://shop.dxo.com/en/dxo-photolab7-essential.html) ($139, w/o free upgrades) 



### Adobe Photoshop



- [Affinity Photo](https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/) ($69.99)

- [ArtRage](https://www.artrage.com/artrage/) ($80)

- [GIMP](https://www.gimp.org/) (Free)

- [Krita](https://krita.org) (Free)

- [Luminar](https://skylum.com/luminar) ($199, "Lifetime")

- [Pixelmator Pro](https://www.pixelmator.com/pro/) ($49.99, macOS/iPadOS only)

- [Procreate](https://procreate.com/ipad) ($12.99, iPadOS only)

- [Rebelle](https://www.escapemotions.com/products/rebelle/about) ($89.99, "Pro" for $149.99)



### Adobe Premiere



- [DaVinci Resolve](https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve) (Free)

- [DaVinci Resolve Studio](https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/studio) ($295)

- [Final Cut Pro](https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/) ($299.99, macOS Only)

- [Olive](https://www.olivevideoeditor.org/) (Free)

- [Shotcut](https://shotcut.org) (Free)

- [VEGAS Pro](https://www.vegascreativesoftware.com/us/vegas-pro/) ($399, "New License")

- [Wondershare Filmora](https://filmora.wondershare.com/) ($79.99, "Perpetual Plan" w/o free upgrade)



### Airmail



- [Thunderbird](https://www.thunderbird.net/) (Free)



### Airtable



- [nocodb](https://github.com/nocodb/nocodb) (Free)



### AutoCAD



- [BricsCAD](https://www.bricsys.com/) ($708 base for "Perpetual")

- [FreeCAD](https://www.freecad.org/) (Free)

- [LibreCAD](https://librecad.org/) (Free)



### Avid Pro Tools



- [Ableton Live](https://www.ableton.com/en/live/) ($99.99 base)

- [Ardour](https://ardour.org/) (Free)

- [Cubase](https://www.steinberg.net/cubase/) ($99.99 base)

- [FL Studio](https://www.image-line.com/) ($99.99 base)

- [LMMS](https://lmms.io/) (Free)

- [Logic Pro](https://www.apple.com/logic-pro/) ($199.99)

- [PreSonus Studio One](https://www.presonus.com/en-US/studio-one.html) ($99.95 base)

- [Zrythm](https://www.zrythm.org/en/) (Free base, paid for additional features)



### Avid Sibelius



This software does have a perpetual license but encourages you to purchase a subscription license.



- [Finale](https://www.finalemusic.com/) ($299)

- [FORTE](https://www.fortenotation.com/en/products/writing-scores/forte-home/) ($99, Windows only)

- [Guitar Pro](https://www.guitar-pro.com/) ($69.95)

- [LilyPond](https://lilypond.org/) (Free)

- [MagicScore SongWriter](https://www.musicaleditor.com/magicscore-songwriter.html) ($29.95)

- [MuseScore](https://musescore.org/en) (Free)

- [PreSonus Notion](https://legacy.presonus.com/products/Notion) ($149.95)

- [StaffPad](https://www.staffpad.net/) ($89.99, Windows/iPadOS only)



### CelAction



- [OpenToonz](https://opentoonz.github.io/) (Free)

- [Procreate Dreams](https://procreate.com/dreams) ($19.99, iPadOS only)

- [ToonBoom Harmony](https://www.toonboom.com/products/harmony) ($442.50 base)

- [TVPaint](https://www.tvpaint.com/) ($292.75 base \[approx. from EUR\])



### EasyWorship



- [FreeWorship](http://www.freeworship.org.uk/) (Free)

- [OpenLP](https://openlp.org/) (Free)

- [OpenSong](https://opensong.org/) (Free)

- [ProPresenter](https://renewedvision.com/propresenter/) ($399 base)

- [VideoPsalm](https://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/) (Free)



### Figma



(see _Adobe Illustrator_)



### Maya



- [Blender](https://www.blender.org/) (Free)

- [Cinema4D](https://www.maxon.net/en/buy/perpetual) ($3,495, "Perpetual Plan" w/o free upgrade)



### Microsoft 365



- [LibreOffice](https://www.libreoffice.org/) (Free)

- [OpenOffice](https://www.openoffice.org/) (Free)



### Reason



(see _Avid Pro Tools_)



### Restream



- [OBS Studio](https://obsproject.com/) (Free)



### Slack



- [Mattermost](https://github.com/mattermost/mattermost) (Free)



### Spark



(see _Airmail_)



### SketchUp



(see _Maya_)



### Unity



- [GameMaker](https://gamemaker.io/en) (Free)

- [Godot](https://godotengine.org/) (Free)

- [MonoGame](https://www.monogame.net/) (Free)

- [OGRE](https://www.ogre3d.org/) (Free)

- [Panda3D](https://www.panda3d.org/) (Free)

- [Ren'Py](https://www.renpy.org/) (Free)

- [Stencyl](https://www.stencyl.com/) (Free)



### Zoom



- [Jitsi](https://github.com/jitsi) (Free)



## SaaS/PaaS Alternatives



Are you looking for some great self-hosted alternatives to common online software? Shoutout to [Fireship.io](https://fireship.io/) for recommending these!



### ERPs



- [ERPNext](https://github.com/frappe/erpnext) (Free if self-hosted)



### Firebase



- [InstantDB, a Firebase alternative](https://github.com/instantdb/instant) (Free)



### Heroku



- [Dokku](https://github.com/dokku/dokku) (Free)



### JIRA



- [Plane](https://github.com/makeplane/plane) (Free)

- [Redmine](https://www.redmine.org/) (Free)

- [WeKan](https://wekan.github.io/) (Free)



### Lucidchart



- [Dia](https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Dia) (Free)

- [Draw.io](https://www.drawio.com/)



### Vercel



- [Coolify](https://github.com/coollabsio/coolify) (Free)



## Relevant XKCD



![Universal Price Tiers](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/universe_price_tiers_2x.png)



## Honorable Mentions 🏆



Here is some awesome software you should check out that doesn't necessarily fit into the categories above but doesn't require a subscription.



### Downloaders



- [µTorrent](https://www.utorrent.com/) (Free, native build not supported by macOS)

- [qBittorrent](https://www.qbittorrent.org/) (Free)

- [Transmission](https://transmissionbt.com/) (Free)

- [yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp) (Free, CLI-only)



### PCB Design



- [CircuitMaker](https://circuitmaker.com/) (Free)

- [KiCAD](https://www.kicad.org/) (Free)



### Programming



- [GNU Emacs](https://www.gnu.org/savannah-checkouts/gnu/emacs/emacs.html) (Free)

- [Notepad++](https://notepad-plus-plus.org/) (Free)

- [Vim](https://www.vim.org/) (Free)

- [Visual Studio Code](https://code.visualstudio.com/) (Free)



### Sprite Editors



- [Aseprite](https://www.aseprite.org/) ($19.99)

- [PixelMash](https://nevercenter.com/pixelmash/) ($29)



### Transcoding



- [FFmpeg](https://ffmpeg.org/) (Free, CLI-only)

- [Handbrake](https://handbrake.fr/) (Free)

- [MediaHuman Audio Converter](https://www.mediahuman.com/audio-converter/) (Free)

- [MediaHuman Video Converter](https://www.mediahuman.com/video-converter/5/) ($14.99)



---



## Sources



- [AlternativeTo](https://alternativeto.net/)

- [Princeton University](https://mcgrawdll.princeton.edu/news/free-low-cost-software-alternatives/)

- [TechLog360](https://techlog360.com/best-open-source-alternatives/)

- [Don't Waste Your Money](https://www.dontwasteyourmoney.com/free-alternatives-expensive-computer-software/)

- [Fstoppers](https://fstoppers.com/originals/list-free-or-one-time-payment-alternatives-adobe-subscription-programs-501629)