The best free apps

For Mac, iPhone, iPad and Watch

Many of the best-loved apps on our devices haven’t cost us a penny. They make our Macs work the way we want them to, make the internet considerably less annoying, protect our privacy, guide us through projects, and help us create all kinds of things. They provide hours of entertainment, help preserve our old home videos and introduce us to people, publications and podcasts from around the world. The apps that you’ll discover over the next few pages aren’t ‘freemium’, where the free version of the app isn’t really usable without in-app purchases or subscriptions. Instead, most are free as in free as in genuinely gratis, or are funded by unobtrusive advertising, and the ones that do have paid-for versions are still useful in their own right.

So let’s discover the best free apps for all your Apple devices from your desktop to your wrist.