BEST BUDGET APPS & TOOLS

Affordable alternatives to the big hitters

WE’VE ALL BEEN THERE. You finish your PC build, it POSTs first time, you install Windows, then what? You use Edge to download Chrome, install some drivers and RGB lighting apps, but you can’t do much without software, and apps can be expensive.

There is free software, of course, and some of it is excellent, but there’s also a thriving ecosystem of budget apps that are supported on more than a whim, and can be relied on for updates, bug fixes, and extra features. Even the paid-for versions of free apps are worth checking out, as they often offer premium features.

Being budget, they may not have all the bells, whistles, and advanced doodads of the big-name apps, but less expensive software has its advantages. First, you don’t feel like you’ve lost so much if it sits there unused once the initial enthusiasm wears off. Second, it gives you the chance to experiment with something outside your comfort zone without too much of a financial risk. And thirdly, some budget software providers are branching out on their own, adding features that make them competitors to the big boys.

Take Serif. Serif Software was once the purveyor of cheap creative software that was at least functional, aimed at beginners, and sold under the Plus brand. Thus you had PagePlus for page layout and DTP, PhotoPlus for image editing, DrawPlus for illustration, WebPlus for web design, and a couple of others, too.

All this was swept away in 2014, when Serif released Affinity Designer, a vector drawing app that rivals Adobe’s finest. It has gone on to make a name for itself in the world of pro apps, all the while keeping the price low.

Elsewhere, there are budget alternatives to big-name applications in the personal finance, music production, and system tool sectors, and loads more beside. The Windows ecosystem is so wide that, even discarding free software, you don’t have to be held hostage by expensive market leaders. Unless you’re working for a big publishing company that insists on using InDesign, that is….