2022 has seen a cost of living crisis like no other for many decades – we can all see it in rising energy costs or just a humble visit to the local supermarket.
Here at IT Services at CAS, we’ve put together a pack together of free or low cost IT resources (software, hardware etc) that you can access – whether it’s as an individual or as a charity or small business even.
These tools are free or discounted at the time of writing this article and were active at the time too.
We can’t be responsible for the quality or safety of these applications, however all of the applications listed below have either been used by ourselves or come strongly recommended by others.
Software
Charity Digital Exchange – Discounted software for charities – up to 80% on some major applications.
Open Office – Free, open source Microsoft Office equivalant if you can’t afford the Office suite of applications.
Libre Office – Free, open source Microsoft Office equivalant if you can’t afford the Office suite of applications.
Canva – Free way of creating graphics and images for individuals or charities
Pexels – Copyright free, royalty free image bank of good quality stock images
Pixabay – Copyright, royalty free stock images
G-Suite – An alternative to Office 365 is Google G Suite, again free for charities, offering similar capabilities for collaboration, openness and increase productivity.
PDF 24 Creator – Free PDF software editing
Small PDF – Free online PDF conversion software (to Word etc). Some limitations on volumes.
GIMP – Free image editing software
Dropbox – Free Cloud Storage of up to 2.5GB
Onedrive – Free Cloud Storage of up to 5GB
Bit Defender – Free anti-virus solution to offer you some protection if you can’t afford any
AVG Free – Free anti-virus solution to offer you some protection if you can’t afford any
Slack – Free communication cool that offers instant messages, project management capabilities with colleagues
Asana – Free project management tool that manages your team’s work
Trello – Free project management tool that helps manages projects
Basecamp – Free task management software
Mailchimp – Free mass mailing and campaign managment software
Survey Monkey – Free survey creation software
Buffer – Free social media scheduling tool
Zoom – Free video meeting and communication tool
Teams – Free video meeting and communication tool
Grammarly – Improve your copywriting with this handy tool
Jotform – Free online form creator
Donorbox – Discounted online donation platform for charities
LastPass – Free secure password management platform
Audacity – Free, open source audio recording software
We Transfer – Free large file sending application
Shotcut – Free, open source video editing software
7 Zip – Free Zipping and compression software for your PC
VLC Media Player – Free video playing software designed to play those films or videos you can’t get your desktop or laptop to play
Hardware
Computer Aid – Discounted hardware for charities including computers
Accessibility
Ability Net – Offering free & low cost information and webinars for charities to assist with IT Accessibility
General
Charity Digital – Not just discounted software but Charity Digital offers a wide variety of largely free advice to charities on a number of digital matters and non digital matters.
IT Support
IT Services at CAS – Great value IT Support packages especially designed for charities, small businesses and community groups.
If you have any queries about these or anything else around IT then please don’t hesitate to contact us on 01473 345305 or email us at [email protected]. Whilst we can’t profess to have used all of the above we have tried the vast majority.