30 Free Alternatives to

Popular Software Titles

30 Free Alternatives to
Popular Software Titles
Most computer users need a variety of software to handle tasks such as word processing, crunching
numbers in a spreadsheet, handling their email, or managing their personal finances. Other common
activities include editing digital photos, creating presenations, updating a website, or installing security
software.
In this report, Ive listed 30 of the most popular commercial software packages, along with the retail
price of each. If you were to purchase all of them, it would cost over $5000. But many people dont
know the valuable secret youre about to learn there are excellent, FREE alternatives to ALL of these
commonly used programs!
Read on and youll find each program listed with a description of what it does, along with a free
alternative, and a link to download it. I hope youll find it informative, enjoyable and profitable to read
through this report. If you have comments, questions or suggestions, drop me a line!
-- Bob Rankin (bob@rankin.org)

Acronis Disk Director

$49

Add, delete or resize partitions on your hard drive. If you want to add a second operating system
to your hard drive to create a dual-boot system, or just create partitions for different types of
data, a partition manager is a handy tool.
Free Alternative: EASEUS Partition Master

Acronis TrueImage

$49

Automatically back up your hard drive (or just selected files) to CD, DVD, an external hard drive
or a network location.
Free Alternative: FileFort Backup

Adobe Acrobat

$449

Create PDFs from any Windows program that has a print function. PDFs are commonly used to
create ebooks, reports and forms. PDF files retain the formatting and fonts specified by the
author, unlike web pages which are displayed at the whim of the browser.
Free Alternative: PDF Creator
Copyright 2011, Bob Rankin All Rights Reserved

30 Free Alternatives to
Popular Software Titles

Adobe Audition

$349

Record or import audio files. Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together, with multiple tracks.
Convert audio files to and from a wide variety of format, including MP3, AU, and WAV.
Free Alternative: Audacity

Adobe Photoshop

$649

Image creation and editing. Photo enhancing and digital retouching. Convert almost any
graphics file to another format.
Free Alternative: GIMP

Adobe Reader

Free Alternative: IrfanView

$0

View PDF files. Yes, Adobe Reader is free, but its also a huge download, a resource hog, and
not as fast as the free alternative below.
Free Alternative: Foxit Reader

CoffeeCup HTML Editor

$49

Create your own web pages with an HTML editor, saving you the tedious work of coding with
HTML and CSS in a plain text editor.
Free Alternative: Mozilla SeaMonkey

Crystal Reports

$495

Create business reports from databases such as Oracle, MySQL and Microsoft Access, or text
files. Design reports using a drag-and-drop interface, and output in HTML, XML, PDF, Excel,
PostScript, or tab-delimited text files.
DataVision

CuteFTP

$59

File transfer program for webmasters . Makes it easy to securely transfer web pages and image
files to your web host, with resume and transfer of large files. Remote file editing and
synchronization of files between remote and local sources.
Free Alternative: FileZilla

Free Alternative: WinSCP

Copyright 2011, Bob Rankin All Rights Reserved

30 Free Alternatives to
Popular Software Titles

Adobe DreamWeaver

$399

A complete web authoring system that combines web file management and easy-to-use
WYSIWYG web page editing. Ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an
attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding.
Free Alternative: Komposer

GotoMyPC

$99

Remote control of your PC or Mac from any other computer with an Internet connection. Share
your screen securely with another user, for remote support or access to files and applications.
Free Alternative: Crossloop

Microsoft Access

Free Alternative: LogMeIn

$139

Create and manipulate databases with a friendly graphical interface. Create tables, forms,
queries, and reports with Wizards for beginners. Advanced users can use a variety of powerful
design and SQL tools.
Free Alternative: OpenOffice Base

Microsoft Excel

$139

Create and manipulate spreadsheets. Powerful number crunching and data mining features
including formulas, and advanced spreadsheet functions, styles and formatting options.
Free Alternative: OpenOffice Calc

Microsoft Outlook

Free Alternative: Google Docs Spreadsheet

$139

Desktop email client to send and receive email. Includes an address book, powerful search
features, message filtering, and phishing protection.
Free Alternative: Thunderbird

Microsoft Powerpoint

$139

Create multimedia presentations with 2D and 3D clip art, fonts, special effects, animation, and
high-impact drawing tools.
Free Alternative: OpenOffice Impress

Copyright 2011, Bob Rankin All Rights Reserved

30 Free Alternatives to
Popular Software Titles

Microsoft Publisher

$139

A professional page layout tool with a combination of press-ready output tools. A user-friendly
interface, supporting professional publishing features, such as color separations, CMYK and
Spot Color support, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation.
Free Alternative: Scribus

Microsoft Word

$139

A fully equipped word processor with powerful features like Spellcheck, AutoCorrect,
AutoComplete, AutoFormat, Styles and Formatting, Text Frames and Linking, Tables of
Contents, Indexing, Bibliographical References, Illustrations, and Tables.
Free Alternative: OpenOffice Writer
Free Alternative: AbiWord

Microsoft Flight Simulator $49

Flight simulator with a graphical user interface for flying, and different types of flight models
available, from hang-gliders to jumbo jets. Includes real-world 3D scenery, and airport layouts.
Free Alternative: FlightGear

Nero Burning/Roxio

$49

CD/DVD burning and authoring tool. Allows you to burn files and folders on data
CD/DVD/Blu-ray discs; burn Audio CDs from WAV, MP3, FLAC, WMA and Ogg Vorbis files;
burn MP3-CDs from your MP3 files; burn Video DVD and Blu-ray disc images.
Free Alternative: Ashampoo Burning Studio

Norton Ghost

$69

Create a backup image of a hard drive, which can be restored to the same drive, or a new drive,
in the event of a hard drive failure.
Free Alternative: Clonezilla
Free Alternative: Macrium Reflect

Copyright 2011, Bob Rankin All Rights Reserved

30 Free Alternatives to
Popular Software Titles

Norton Internet Security

$69

Internet security suite. Real-time protection for your PC to protect against viruses, spyware, and
other malicious software. Automatic updates keep your computer safe from the latest threats.
Free Alternative: Microsoft Security Essentials

Oracle Database

Free Alternative: Avira AntiVir Free

$950

A high performance SQL database system, enabling online transaction processing, and
embedded database applications.
Free Alternative: MySQL

PGP Disk Encryption

Free Alternative: PostgreSQL

$149

A hard disk encryption utility that can encrypt an entire partition or storage device such as a hard
drive or USB flash drive.
Free Alternative: TrueCrypt

Quicken/MS Money

$59

Personal and small-business financial accounting software that allows you to track bank
accounts, stocks, income and expenses. Operates similar to a checkbook register, and is based
on professional accounting principles to ensure balanced books and accurate reports.
Free Alternative: Mint

Roboform

Free Alternative: GnuCash

$29

A password manager which helps you manage your passwords in a secure way. Keep all your
passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key, so you only have to remember
one master password. Enables the use of strong passwords and eliminates the need to remember
passwords for your e-mail account, website membership passwords, etc.
Free Alternative: KeePass

Copyright 2011, Bob Rankin All Rights Reserved

30 Free Alternatives to
Popular Software Titles

SecureCRT

$99

A secure telnet client, and terminal emulator. Lets you connect to a computer running
Unix/Linux from a Windows computer; useful for logging into a shell account to manage web
admin tasks.
Free Alternative: PuTTY

SUPERAntiSpyware

$39

Anti-spyware protection that can identify and remove malicious software (malware) from your
computer. If malware is discovered on your computer, it can provide assistance in removing the
infection.
Free Alternative: MalwareBytes AntiMalware

Windows 7

$119

An operating system is a collection of programs that acts as an intermediary between application

programs and the computer hardware. It provides functions such as input, output, memory
allocation, and a graphical user interface. Most computers run on either a Windows-based
system (such as Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7) or a Unix-based system (such as Ubuntu,
RedHat, Solaris or BSD).
Free Alternative: Ubuntu Linux

WinZip

$29

File compression utility with graphical interface. Allows you to package multiple files into a
compressed archive file, for space saving and ease of distribution.
Free Alternative: 7-Zip

ZoneAlarm Pro Firewall

$39

Firewall protection that provides both inbound and outbound protection from hackers, spyware
and viruses. Warns if you attempt to download anything potentially harmful, and prevents
malicious software from stealing your personal data and sending it out to the Internet.
Free Alternative: ZoneAlarm Free

Free Alternative: Comodo Firewall

Copyright 2011, Bob Rankin All Rights Reserved

30 Free Alternatives to
Popular Software Titles

Are You Ready to Maximize

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And to say thanks for the purchase of this ebook, Im

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Copyright 2011, Bob Rankin All Rights Reserved