Plenty of iPhone apps are worth paying for, but there are plenty of great free ones, too. Here are 50 of the best.
By
Jill Duffy
Jill Duffy
Columnist and Deputy Managing Editor, Software
My Experience
I've been contributing to PCMag since 2011 and am currently the deputy managing editor for the software team. My column, Get Organized, has been running on PCMag since 2012. It gives advice on how to manage all the devices, apps, digital photos, email, and other technology that can make you feel like you're going to have a panic attack.
Not everything in life is free, but many great iPhone apps are. And when you can find good software for free, take it.
This list of the 50 best free iPhone apps highlight apps that we at PCMag think have shown outstanding performance, have been well received by a variety of technology users, and are truly "free." No gimmicks, no membership required or in-app purchase necessary. Free. Period.
Whether you're looking to fill up all that extra screen space with apps on a new iPhone 6 Plus($99.00 at Walmart) , or you just want to get the most out of an older model iPhone, this list will point you toward a variety of apps for personal use, professional work, entertainment, utility, and more.
Since the release of the iPhone 6( at Amazon) and iOS 8, a number of app developers have started taking advantage of the new capabilities. You should, too. Some apps make use of the screen space afforded by the larger phones, as with these 10 gorgeous apps for iPhone 6, while others leverage new possibilities entirely, like custom keyboards.
While there are plenty of best-in-class free apps, many more are duds, and you don't want to waste your time deciding which is which. We at PCMag sort through hundreds of apps a year (thousands if you count those we check out for reference but don't actually review) looking for those special apps that work well or accomplish some feat you didn't even know you needed done, but also don't cost a dime.
Missing from this list are apps and features that come pre-installed on the iPhone, although they are certainly not to be ignored: Music, Health, Mail, Podcasts, and more. The reason they are not included is because you technically paid for them when you bought the phone, so they're not really free, are they?
Games are not heavily featured on this list in part because a lot of the best ones aren't free. For more iPhone game recommendations, including paid apps, see The 30 Best iPhone Games.
We do update this list regularly, and if you have recommendations for more free apps that we at PCMag need to check out, post your suggestions in the comments. We're always on the lookout for the next great app!
Productivity enthusiasts love the free Web app Asana, which has quickly become an invaluable tool for getting teamwork done more efficiently. It's one of the most popular productivity apps on the market. The companion mobile apps, including the free Asana iPhone app, are integral to the Asana experience. If you use Asana to manage your tasks, the iPhone app is an essential addition.
Digital photography editing has, until recently, been a task best suited to desktop and laptop computers. Adobe has proven it can be done in the mobile space with Photoshop Express, a free photo-editing application for the iPhone and other iOS devices. Photoshop Express is a powerhouse of a mobile app and can even handle noise reduction (getting rid of those extraneous particles that show up on photos). All in all, Adobe Photoshop Express is a solid tool for making light photo edits on your iPhone.
The BillGuard app connects you to your online credit card statements and flags merchants who frequently charge consumers for products or services they've either forgotten about or they didn't know they were requesting. If another company is providing this kind of fantastic service as well or better than BillGuard, we haven't heard of it. BillGuard is one personal finance app to keep on your side.
Among cloud-based file-syncing and storage programs, Box is one of my favorites, for collaborative business use in particular. Install the Box program on your home and office computers, and then add the Box iPhone app to the mix. The service will make sure you always have access to the most recent file from any one of your devices. Free Box account holders get a generous 10GB of space for their stuff. What makes it ideal for collaboration? You can add comments to any file, as well as read comments that other people have added, which is an elegant and fast way to work with colleagues when you're on the go.
All-in-one calculation app Converter Plus delivers numbers on nearly everything, from currency conversions to loan-interest figures. It converts metric to imperial measurements for temperature, cooking volumes, length, and more.
The Digg app brings you the all the news and online content you like to read into one convenient place. It contains an RSS feed reader, which is the big selling point of this free app. In addition to all the blogs and news in your custom feed, Digg recommends other content to explore, another reason it's a great free app to put on your iPhone.
If your files live all over the place—your office computer, home desktop, laptop—having a dependable syncing program is a must. Dropbox, the service and productivity tool that lets you store your files in the cloud and access them from anywhere you have a signal, fills that role nicely with a Dropbox iPhone app. It has a simple interface, easy uploading, and swift syncing across all accounts.
The free iPhone app EasilyDo works as a personal assistant and automation machine. You connect the app to a variety of online services, such as your email, calendar, Facebook account, and so forth, and EasilyDo looks for things it can help you get easily done. For example, a notification might ask you if you'd like EasilyDo to add the contact details of someone who has recently emailed you to your address book. Or it might spot an upcoming birthday of a friend and let you set up a "happy birthday" post to their timeline in advance. It's an amazing productivity app that helps you take care of a variety of tasks quickly and efficiently.
ESPN's free app lets you check the game quickly, and discreetly when necessary (that is, with your phone under the dinner table), for your favorite teams in more sports than most other apps. It can pull game data from baseball, basketball, American football, the sport the rest of the world calls football (soccer, in the U.S.), ice hockey, cricket, rugby, and more.
Without the Evernote app for iPhone, I'd be a lot less productive while away from my desk. This free, straightforward note-making app outrivals most competing apps thanks to its strong search capabilities and effortless organization. But the real key to its success and popularity is that Evernote synchronizes all your files by saving them to a cloud service, meaning anything you create or alter from your iPhone will be waiting for you when you log into any other version of Evernote. I use Evernote to write, take notes, and even snap pictures of whiteboards and PowerPoint slides in meetings, so I can remember details later.
Feedly is an RSS feed reader that helps you keep an eye out for content online that's important to you. It can include social media feeds, YouTube videos, news sites, blogs, and more. It syncs with the Feedly Web app, so you can keep you with your daily reading from anywhere.
Flipboard curates content from your social networks and websites you like, from magazines to blogs, and turns them into stunning magazine-like digital pages. Flipboard absolutely shines on the iPad, where it first debuted, because it takes full advantage of all the possible swiping gestures with both visual and interactive grace. On the smaller iPhone, it's still quite elegant.
No matter what app you use to book your travel arrangements or manage your frequent flier miles, you'll still want to pack GateGuru on your next trip to the airport. The free app is chock-full of suggestions and reviews pertaining to airports: food, retail, services, and even the amount of time needed to travel between gates and terminals. The next time you're stuck with a long layover and no idea if you can make it to the cleaner bathrooms by Gate B7, just consult GateGuru for some advice.
Speed, better search functions, and color-coded threading make the standalone Gmail iPhone app preferable to the built-in Mail app (where you can access Gmail). Google's Gmail app gives users another choice for managing email. It allows iPhone users to decide what they want in an email app. Do you value search capability over text displayed at readable sizes? Is it more important for your various email accounts to be managed in one app, as Mail arranges them, or would you rather have a dedicated app just for Gmail that looks more like Gmail on the Web, with color-coded threading? The Gmail app searches your entire email so much easier and faster than the pre-installed Mail app.
Travel app Gogobot finds things to do and see around you, whether it's in your own backyard or some international destination. When you set up a free account, you can join "tribes" to find people with similar interests as you, depending whether you like nightlife, are an adventurous eater, or have a family-friendly travel agenda. Gogobot lets you filter results based on other tribe member recommendations. You'll also find a world of excellent photos from all these destinations.
Google Drive Apple users with a Google Drive account cheered earlier this year when a standalone Google Drive app finally arrived for iPhone. Previously, it was a chore to get at your Google documents from the tiny screen of an iPhone, using either third-party apps or a browser app, where functionality was awkward and limited. It's much easier to use via the free, official app from Google, so be sure to download it.
With beautiful, smooth, vector-based map animation, and accurate routing, Google Maps is our favorite map app for the iPhone. It's adept at pedestrian directions, car navigation, and local transit instructions where applicable. Beautiful satellite data and Street Views enhance an already excellent experience. Google Maps will get you where you need to go. If you live in an area serviced by Uber and have the Uber app installed, you can open it right from the Google Maps app when comparing route options.
With more than 30 languages supported and generally impressive accuracy, the Google Translate app is one of the most remarkable programs you can load onto your iPhone. Most people probably won't need it too often, except when traveling or studying a language, but it can be amazingly useful in unexpected circumstances.
Let me be perfectly frank: The Hotwire brand feels very dated, but I gave this travel booking app and website another shot recently, and wow! The deals have been too good to pass up. It's changed my mind about this app entirely. The hitch with Hotwire is that when you're booking a bargain-rate hotel room or rental car, you won't always know the name of the provider until after you pay (though for more average-priced reservations, you will see the name). But—and here's why it's still worthwhile—you often get a short list of possible candidates, so if you're fine with one of the possible providers, the deal's in the bag.
Hyperlapse from Instagram is an app that works in tandem with the Facebook-owned photo-sharing app to give you the power to make time-lapsed (i.e., sped-up) videos. The app makes creating time-lapse videos simpler than ever, although it also works as a video stabilizer, which is pretty neat, too. Hyperlapse is currently only available for iOS, and it's designed for both iPhone and iPad. It does only one thing, but it's impressive and fun to use.
IFTTT IFTTT stands for "if this, then that." It's a wonderfully simple way to program your life to be more automatic without having to learn a lick of programming. IFTTT uses a straightforward selection menu so you make sure certain tasks get done, like "If I post a photo on Facebook, then also save a copy to my Dropbox account." The possibilities with IFTTT are endless (though Eric Griffith has some suggestions).
Social photo app Instagram remains fabulously popular (despite the fact that it's now owned by Facebook). An ever-evolving toolset helps keep it relevant and fun. You can snap photos (or shoot short videos), edit them, and share them with the community; or just be a lurker and watch as others share slices of life from their day.
The Johnson & Johnson Official 7 Minute Workout App helps you squeeze some exercise into your day at an intensity level that's right for you. All you need is seven minutes (or about 11 if you add a warm-up and cool down) and a chair. Despite its name, the 7 Minute Workout App includes more workout options than just the seven-minute quickie. It has other premade routines, such as a Beginner 9 Minute Workout, The 21 Minute Cardio Blast, and a Core Workout. You can also create custom workouts by patching together any number of exercises the app contains, or you can complete a Smart Workout, which is built on the exercises that you've liked from previous workouts.
Much like the full website Kayak.com, the Kayak iPhone app is one of the best travel search and booking apps you'll find. Formerly, Kayak only performed searches without letting you pre-pay for flight, hotel, and car reservations—but no more. Now, you can book through Kayak (or occasionally a partner, but still without leaving the Kayak app), to get the best deals on airfare and many other travel arrangements. For complex travel needs in particular, Kayak is aces.
LevelUp is an iPhone and Android app that lets you make purchases using your credit card via QR codes that the app displays. Participating merchants simply scan the QR code on your screen, which initiates a credit card transaction, and you're on your way.
In this fast-paced, high-pressure world where business blends with the personal all too often, an app like LinkedIn's turns out to be pretty useful to have at your fingertips. If you've ever found yourself wanting to suggest a new potential connection to a friend, associate, or colleague, the LinkedIn app is the one you want. It's the central place where you can find all those "loose ties," the acquaintances that turn out to be the most valuable to your career advancement and overall success.
The free app and website MenuPages keeps a database of restaurant menus, with prices included. If you've ever gritted your teeth at online restaurant menus that omit prices, try MenuPages for unbiased information. Admittedly, MenuPages is not a great for every locale, but, in major U.S. cities, it's awesome—especially when Yelp's recommendations seem skewed by college students who give five-star ratings to fast-food burgers and less-than-fresh sushi. With MenuPages, you can make your own decisions about a restaurant's dishes and prices. The app and website won't give you much insight into quality, but it will help you quickly weed out places that are too pricey or don't serve the kind of food you have in mind. It's also useful for ordering take-out.
The website and service Mint.com helps you keep detailed accounts of your finances by connecting to all your financial accounts (and then some) and tracking all the money you earn and spend. The Mint.com iPhone app extends the experience so users can keep an eye on their spending better while on the go. The app gives you deep insight into how you're spending your money and whether you're sticking to the budget you've created in Mint. It's one of the best personal finance apps you'll find.
Is your whole paycheck going to overage fees for your iPhone? Or do you pay for an unlimited plan and worry that you don't use enough data to make it worthwhile? Then you need to manage your iPhone data usage with the free app My Data Manager. All you need to know is how much data your current phone plan allows and what date the billing cycle ends, and this app will do the rest, including alert you when you're nearing the limit. If you have an unlimited plan, it will help you track usage to see whether you're taking advantage of your data.
The free fitness app MyFitnessPal is one of the best all-in-one calorie counter and exercise trackers for the iPhone. A simple design and interface make using the app a quick task rather than a fatiguing chore, which is essential when trying to reach a long-term fitness or weight goal. The main selling feature of this app is its exhaustive food and nutrition database, which trounces every competitor's that we've seen.
OpenTable has long been a choice service for making dinner reservations without picking up the phone, and with iOS 8, the iPhone app now has a whole bunch of new features. You can not only make a restaurant reservation, but also pay for your meal at the end of it using Apple Pay, even if you don't have a device with the Touch ID fingerprint sensor. A redesigned interface of the OpenTable app makes use of the iPhone 6 Plus' extra-large size, too.
Pinterest is a virtual pinboard that lets you organize and share all pictures of anything you find online or in your life. With the app on your iPhone, it's easy to snap photos in the real world and upload them to your boards. You can watch what others are pinning on Pinterest, and sometimes, the items are for sale and can be purchased by following a link out to the retailer's site. It's a great tool for collecting and browsing images of things you like or that inspire you.
Now that long-form journalism is being appreciated again (yay!), Pocket has found its way back onto my iPhone, computer, and other devices where I read. When you set up a free Pocket account and install the app, you can save articles and videos to read or watch later. Pocket also strips out the ads and other junk so you're left with a reading experience that's free of distractions. This app helps you keep track of what you want to read, too.
QuizUp (free) is a social iPhone trivia game with an impress array of more than 250 quiz topics that amount to 150,000 questions. You can play against strangers or challenge a friend, and games are fast, wrapping up in about a minute or so.
Runtastic, despite its name, is a comprehensive activity-tracking app. You can use it for not only running, but also cycling, walking, hiking, kayaking, and a whole bunch of other activities. I love the data it outputs as well as the interface. While I do recommend dedicated runners and fitness enthusiasts pony up the $4.99 for the paid version of this app, Runtastic PRO, the free one is actually pretty awesome. Sure, you'll miss out on a few features, such as auto-pause (for when you're running on streets with stoplights), but the free app delivers all the basics and then some.
If you use Slack on your computer or the Web, then you'll definitely want the Slack iPhone app as well. Slack is a communication tool—and to some, a productivity tool—that keeps team members in touch with one another through conversations, sharing links and files, and flagging important issues. When Slack becomes intertwined with your life's work (as it has for many programmers), the iPhone app keeps you on point through notifications so you'll never miss when a teammate something important for you.
Music-streaming service Spotify formerly had a lot of locked-down features in its iPhone app for people who were not paying subscribers to the service. Not so any more. A recent update to Spotify's iPhone app now allows anyone to listen to an artists, playlist, or album in shuffle mode (and with intermittent audio ads).
If, like me, you are not happy with the way Apple broke out podcast functionality from its Music and iTunes apps and into its own Podcast app, the Stitcher Radio is the app for you. It's a great alternative for keeping up with all your audio shows. You can stream your shows or download them for offline listening. You'll hear the occasional advertisement and see small ads on some screens, but not too often.
Runners and cyclists who thrive on competition love Strava. After a major overhaul and release, this free app is better than ever, pitting you against other users to see who can complete various segments fastest. If the thrill of getting into the top ten on isn't your thing, this is not the app for you. But athletes looking for a competitive boost may find their Strava addiction hard to kick.
With the release of iOS 8, Apple iPhone users can finally install custom keyboards. One of our favorites is SwiftKey. It lets you type with swiping gestures—you drag your finger around to or near the keys you want, and it figures out what you're trying to say. Typing this way is faster and easier than doing individual key presses. You'll lose the dictation microphone with this keyboard, but it's easy enough to swap back to the stock Apple keyboard by tapping the globe icon in the lower left.
Timeful is a free iPhone app that intelligently helps you find time to do the things you want to do, without interfering with the things you already have to do. It has a superbly simple and clear interface, and it uses machine learning on the back end to become smarter about how it helps you manage your time. Timeful also prompts you to think about new habits you want to develop, like going to the gym regularly or studying a new language each day. It's a great app for busy people.
Travel-confirmation emails always contain way more information than you actually need to get out the door and to the airport on time. One app that can help you get organized is TripCase. It does 90 percent of the work of culling and collating travel confirmations into one itinerary, resulting in a clear overview of your trip in chronological order, with flight details, hotel addresses, car rental reservation numbers, and more.
If you tweet, download the free Twitter app. If you don't tweet and have been on the fence about joining the masses, the iPhone app makes it easy and convenient to get on board the 140-character social network, or to be a silent lurker. It's true that since iOS 5, a lot of Twitter functionality is now directly integrated into the iPhone so you more easily can tweet photos or links that you want to share. But you still need the Twitter app (or another Twitter client) to read tweets, learn when other people mention you, and fully participate in the social experience.
Beer enthusiasts have flocked to Untappd to keep track of the brews they drink and their tasting notes. The app also lets you save beers you'd like to try, see reviews from other beer fans, look up nearby watering holes, and more. The app itself could use some improvement, but the community and database of brews is fantastic and make it one of the best apps a hobbyist beer-drinking can have.
Weather Underground is a simple and informative iPhone app, but it packs enough bells and whistles (and weather data) to keep the most info-hungry meteorology geek satisfied. If you want hyper-local weather stats, get Weather Underground.
WebMD is much more than a diagnosis app, although you certainly can use it to input symptoms you are experiencing and find some clues as to what's ailing you. It also contains listings for healthcare professionals and pharmacies in your area, as well as first-aid guides—simple instructions for dealing with an emergency that everyone should have accessible to them at any time. This free reference app is one you hope you don't need, but the moment you do, you'll be glad you downloaded it.
Wickr is a secure messaging app that destroys messages after a set period of time. The app compares cryptographic hashes of phone numbers and email addresses in order to find other users. Neither your phone number nor email address is ever in Wickr's hands, neatly side-stepping the problem of messaging services amassing huge amounts of personal information by copying your contact list in order to find other users. Though the app rightly puts security first, Wickr is easy enough to use for your everyday messaging.
Half the fun of having a smartphone is looking things up when you're in the middle of a bar bet—and hopefully proving yourself right. Wikipedia is the go-to source for fact-checking in the mobile age, and the Wikipedia app usually returns results faster than a mobile search engine.
The most comprehensive review app, Yelp turns out to be an invaluable tool for finding businesses nearby, especially when you're in a town you don't know well. Yelp's mobile app has helped me find a hairdresser when I was in a pinch in Washington DC, and a suitable lunch while driving through Ohio (shout-out to Moreland Hills!). Need to find an acupuncturist in Austin? Or the most popular coffee shop in Charlotte (emphasis on "popular" and not necessarily "best," by the way)? Yelp's the app to do it.
Formerly, YouTube came preinstalled on iPhones, but that's no longer the case. If you buy a new iPhone 5 , you'll want to install the YouTube app so that you can get quick access to all kinds of videos, from movie trailers to tutorials. I've relied on YouTube on my iPhone to figure out so many things in life that I am too embarrassed to ask someone else to teach me, from how to install additional RAM on my laptop to how to knit in the round. I thank my lucky stars it's free.
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I've been contributing to PCMag since 2011 and am currently the deputy managing editor for the software team. My column, Get Organized, has been running on PCMag since 2012. It gives advice on how to manage all the devices, apps, digital photos, email, and other technology that can make you feel like you're going to have a panic attack.
My latest book is The Everything Guide to Remote Work, which goes into great detail about a subject that I've been covering as a writer and participating in personally since well before the COVID-19 pandemic.
I specialize in apps for productivity and collaboration, including project management software. I also test and analyze online learning services, particularly for learning languages.
Prior to working for PCMag, I was the managing editor of Game Developer magazine. I've also worked at the Association for Computing Machinery, The Examiner newspaper in San Francisco, and The American Institute of Physics. I was once profiled in an article in Vogue India alongside Marie Kondo.
