Software subscriptions have multiplied, and for anyone paying in naira for dollar-priced products, the cost adds up quickly. The useful thing to know is that for most common tasks there is a free option that is not a compromised trial version but a genuinely capable piece of software, frequently open source and frequently better than the paid alternative.
This is organised by need rather than by ranking, because “best” depends on what you are doing. It covers what to install, what each is genuinely good at, and where the free option does fall short.
Office and documents
LibreOffice is a full office suite — word processor, spreadsheet, presentations, database — that opens and saves Microsoft formats. Free, no account required, works offline.
Where it falls short: complex Word documents with heavy formatting can shift slightly when opened, and advanced Excel features, particularly macros and some newer functions, are not fully matched. For most document work it is entirely sufficient.
The web versions of Microsoft Office are also free with a Microsoft account and handle formatting perfectly, since they are the real thing. They require a connection, which is the trade-off.
PDF handling: most browsers now read, annotate and fill PDF forms. For more, PDF24 and similar free tools merge, split, compress and convert without uploading anything.
Web browsers
Firefox for independence from the Chrome engine and strong privacy defaults. Brave for built-in ad and tracker blocking, which also reduces data consumption noticeably — a genuine benefit where data is metered.
Whichever you choose, an ad blocker such as uBlock Origin meaningfully reduces page weight and therefore data use, alongside the obvious benefits.
Security
Windows Security is built in, competent, and sufficient for most people. The paid antivirus industry relies on people not knowing this.
Malwarebytes free version is a useful second opinion for on-demand scanning when something seems wrong.
Bitwarden for password management — free tier, syncs across devices, open source. This is one of the most valuable free tools available, because reused passwords are the most common cause of account compromise.
Media
VLC plays essentially any video or audio file without needing codec packs. Universally recommended, and deservedly.
HandBrake converts and compresses video. Useful for reducing file sizes before sharing, which matters when data costs money.
Audacity for audio recording and editing.
OBS Studio for screen recording and streaming. Free, professional-grade, and it does considerably more than the paid alternatives it competes with.
Images and design
GIMP for photo editing. Capable but with an interface that takes adjustment if you are used to Photoshop.
Krita for digital painting and illustration, and genuinely excellent at it.
Inkscape for vector graphics — logos, illustrations, anything that needs to scale.
Paint.NET as a middle ground: far more capable than Paint, far simpler than GIMP.
Canva free tier for quick design work where a template is faster than starting from nothing.
Video editing
DaVinci Resolve free version is a professional editing and colour grading application at no cost. The free version is not crippled — it is used on commercial work. The learning curve is real and it demands capable hardware.
Shotcut and Kdenlive are lighter, simpler and free.
Compression and files
7-Zip handles every archive format, compresses better than the built-in tool, and provides AES-256 encryption for password-protecting files. Small, free, no advertising.
Everything is a search tool that finds files on your drives instantly — far faster than Windows search. One of those utilities that seems minor and becomes indispensable.
Communication and productivity
Thunderbird for desktop email across multiple accounts.
Notepad++ for text and code editing.
VS Code for programming — free, and the most widely used editor there is.
System maintenance
CrystalDiskInfo reports the health of your drives, which gives you warning before a failure rather than after.
HWiNFO for temperatures and detailed hardware information — useful for diagnosing throttling.
Windows’ own Disk Cleanup and Storage Sense handle most cleaning. Be sceptical of third-party “PC cleaner” and “registry cleaner” software, which ranges from useless to actively harmful and is a common vector for unwanted software.
Where free genuinely falls short
Being honest, because the answer is not always “use the free one”.
Complex Office compatibility. If you exchange heavily formatted documents with people using Microsoft Office, LibreOffice will occasionally cause problems.
Professional design workflows. Adobe’s tools remain the industry standard, and if you work with clients who expect those file formats, the alternatives create friction.
Support. Free software has community support rather than someone to call.
Polish. Open-source alternatives are frequently more capable and less refined.
Practical notes
Download from official sources. Search results and download aggregator sites frequently bundle unwanted software with the installer. Go to the project’s own site.
Read the installer. Even legitimate free software occasionally offers optional extras. Decline them.
Be sceptical of “free” that requires an account and a card. That is a trial, not free software.
Check whether it works offline, which matters where connectivity is intermittent.
Keep installers. Where data is metered, saving the installer file means you do not download it again for a reinstall.
Free software that is genuinely better than the paid alternative
Worth calling out specifically, because in these cases “free” is not a compromise.
VLC plays more formats more reliably than any paid media player.
7-Zip compresses better than the built-in tool and offers AES-256 encryption, which most paid archive utilities charge for.
OBS Studio is used professionally for streaming and recording, and competes with software costing a great deal.
DaVinci Resolve free version is used on commercial productions.
Bitwarden free tier does what most paid password managers do.
Windows Security is sufficient for most people, and the paid antivirus industry depends on that not being widely known.
In each case the free option is not a limited version of a paid product — it is a genuinely competitive piece of software.
Software to be careful with
A category worth naming, because it causes real harm.
Registry cleaners and “PC optimiser” software. These range from useless to actively damaging. Windows does not benefit from registry cleaning, and some of these products create problems while claiming to fix them. Several are also vehicles for unwanted software.
Driver updater utilities. Windows Update and the manufacturer’s own site handle drivers. Third-party driver updaters frequently install wrong or outdated drivers.
Free VPNs. The service costs money to run, so a free one is monetising you — typically through logging and selling browsing data.
Cracked software. Beyond the legal question, pirated installers are one of the most common malware vectors, and the risk falls on a machine holding your documents and saved passwords.
Software bundled with downloads. Even legitimate free software installers sometimes offer extras. Read each screen rather than clicking through.
Where to download safely
The project’s own website, always. Search results frequently place download aggregator sites above the official one, and those sites commonly wrap the installer in additional software.
The Microsoft Store for what is available there.
Package managers. Windows now includes `winget`, which installs software from a curated source with a single command and avoids the download-site problem entirely. Worth learning if you set up machines regularly.
The short version
For most tasks the free option is genuinely good: LibreOffice for documents, VLC for media, 7-Zip for archives and encryption, Bitwarden for passwords, Windows Security for antivirus, DaVinci Resolve for video, OBS for recording, and GIMP or Krita for images.
The exceptions where paid still wins are complex Office document exchange and professional design workflows where file format compatibility with clients matters.
Download from official sites rather than aggregators, decline the bundled extras, and avoid registry cleaners entirely. And install Bitwarden and an ad blocker first — those two do more for your security and your data bill than everything else on this list.
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