40 free websites that feel illegal to be free
Paid software has a free twin for almost everything, and the best ones are here: editors, converters, design resources, whole university courses and libraries of free books.
Every entry is free, open source or donation-funded. No trial that runs out, no card on file.
Updated · 40 sites · hand-checked
-
1. TinyWow
Hundreds of single-purpose PDF, image and video tools behind one search box, free and without an account.
- Everyday Tools
- Free
- tinywow.com
-
2. Squoosh
Compress images with a side-by-side slider so you can see exactly what quality you are trading away.
- Design & Type
- Open source
- squoosh.app
-
3. Excalidraw
A hand-drawn-feeling virtual whiteboard. Diagrams that look deliberately rough, shareable in one link.
- Design & Type
- Open source
- excalidraw.com
-
4. tldraw
An infinite canvas that feels impossibly smooth, with a genuinely delightful set of drawing primitives.
- Design & Type
- Open source
- tldraw.com
-
5. Kleki
A painting app in a browser tab with natural brushes, layers and filters, and an interface uncluttered enough to just start drawing.
- Design & Type
- Open source
- kleki.com
-
6. Piskel
A pixel-art and sprite-animation editor that runs in the tab, with onion skinning and GIF export. Everything you need to make a walk cycle and nothing you do not.
- Design & Type
- Open source
- piskelapp.com
-
7. cobalt
Paste a link from YouTube, TikTok, SoundCloud and many others and save the video or audio. No ads, no tracking, nothing else on the page.
- Everyday Tools
- Open source
- cobalt.tools
-
8. PairDrop
AirDrop for every device. Open the page on two phones or laptops on the same network and send files peer to peer, nothing stored on a server.
- Everyday Tools
- Open source
- pairdrop.net
-
11. Google Fonts
Hundreds of open source families with fast previews, variable axes and a self-hosting download.
- Design & Type
- Free
- fonts.google.com
-
12. Fontshare
Distinctive typefaces from the Indian Type Foundry, free for personal and commercial use, with a type tester and web embed for each one.
- Design & Type
- Free
- fontshare.com
-
13. Unsplash
High resolution photography under a permissive licence, with a search that mostly understands moods.
- Design & Type
- Free
- unsplash.com
-
14. unDraw
A big library of flat illustrations for any idea. Set your brand colour before downloading and every one of them matches it. No attribution required.
- Design & Type
- Free
- undraw.co
-
15. SVG Repo
Half a million free SVG icons and vectors, searchable, editable in the browser and downloadable without an account.
- Design & Type
- Free
- svgrepo.com
-
16. Khan Academy
Free, structured courses from arithmetic to art history, with practice that adapts to you.
- Learn
- Free
- khanacademy.org
-
17. MIT OpenCourseWare
Lecture notes, problem sets, exams and videos from thousands of real MIT courses, free to everyone and openly licensed.
- Learn
- Free
- ocw.mit.edu
-
18. freeCodeCamp
Thousands of hours of coding curriculum, entirely free, with certifications and real projects.
- Learn
- Open source
- freecodecamp.org
-
19. The Odin Project
A full-stack curriculum that makes you build things rather than watch someone else build them.
- Learn
- Open source
- theodinproject.com
-
20. Project Gutenberg
Seventy thousand public domain books, carefully proofread, in every format you would want.
- Read & Archive
- Donation
- gutenberg.org
-
22. Internet Archive
Books, films, software, music and the web itself, preserved and free to access forever.
- Read & Archive
- Donation
- archive.org
-
23. Haikei
Generate layered waves, blobs, blurred gradients and low-poly backgrounds as SVG. Every shape has sliders and a randomise button.
- Design & Type
- Free
- haikei.app
-
24. Ninite
Tick the Windows apps you want and get one installer that sets them all up silently, declining every toolbar. The first thing to run on a new PC.
- Everyday Tools
- Free
- ninite.com
-
25. Wormhole
Share files up to 10 GB with end-to-end encryption and a link that expires on its own after a day. No account.
- Everyday Tools
- Free
- wormhole.app
-
26. SwissTransfer
Send files up to 50 GB without an account, kept for thirty days, run by a Swiss cloud company.
- Everyday Tools
- Free
- swisstransfer.com
-
27. Reactive Resume
A free résumé builder with no ads or tracking. Pick a template, fill it in and export to PDF, or host it yourself.
- Everyday Tools
- Open source
- rxresu.me
-
28. delphitools
Small everyday tools for images, text and colour that run entirely in your browser. No logins and no data collection.
- Everyday Tools
- Free
- delphi.tools
-
30. Crafting Apps
Free, open-source stand-ins for Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Lightroom, Acrobat, After Effects, InDesign, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, AutoCAD and Pro Tools, built natively in Rust.
- Design & Type
- Open source
- getartcraft.com
-
31. Angle Ref
Find portrait photo references by dragging a 3D head to the exact angle you need to draw.
- Design & Type
- Free
- angleref.com
-
32. Artkit Baby Track
Upload a video or open your camera and get the trendy blob-tracking look: boxes and lines that follow moving objects.
- Design & Type
- Free
- artkit.cc
-
34. Book of Shapes
A gallery of algorithmic patterns you can tweak with sliders and download as SVG or PNG.
- Design & Type
- Free
- bookofshapes.com
-
35. Can You Run It
Pick a game and it checks your PC against the minimum and recommended specs, then tells you what to upgrade.
- Everyday Tools
- Free
- systemrequirementslab.com
-
36. Car Anatomy
An interactive 3D car you can take apart: engine, gearbox, brakes and suspension, each explained in plain English as it moves.
- Learn
- Free
- underthehood.online
-
37. Cheatography
Thousands of community-made cheat sheets for programming languages, tools and shortcuts, all printable.
- Developer
- Free
- cheatography.com
-
38. Chemical Equations Online
Type the reactants and it predicts the products and balances the equation, with the steps shown.
- Learn
- Free
- chemequations.com
-
40. DIY Printable Generators
Make printable word searches, crosswords, bingo cards and tartan patterns from your own words and colours.
- Everyday Tools
- Free
- printablecreative.com
Want more than 40?
This list is one slice of a directory of 479 websites. Search, filter by category or tag, or shuffle the lot.
Explore the full directoryQuestions
What is the best free alternative to Photoshop?
Photopea runs in a browser and opens PSD files. Kleki is a lighter free option for painting and sketching.
Are these really free, or free trials?
Really free. Everything on this list is labelled free, open source or donation-funded, and none of it needs a card.
More lists like this
- Websites to cure boredom 40
- Powerful websites you should know 50
- Useful websites you should know 40
- Websites that feel illegal to know 40
- Cool websites you didn't know existed 37
- Mind-blowing interactive websites 40
- AI websites worth using 16
- Websites for students 40
- Websites for designers 40
- Websites for developers 40
- Free browser games 40
- Websites for music lovers 40
- Websites for artists 40
- Nostalgic retro websites 29
- Websites to explore the world 40
- Relaxing websites 19