The Best Free Back to School Software 2019

Photo illustration: Desk with earbuds, agenda, "Never settle" notebook

(Image credit: TechRadar)

Back to school can be an expensive time – whether you're in college yourself, or getting your kids ready for the new term. 

Even if you've had to pay for a new laptop and textbooks, there's no need to spend even more money on software – everything you need for the new school year is available to download free if you know where to look.

Students can often get discounts on premium apps, but all these programs are totally free to download and use, and easily rival their paid-for counterparts.

(Image credit: TechRadar)

WPS Office Free

A full office software suite that's yours to download and use free

An office suite may not be the most exciting sort of software, but it's an essential addition to any student's computer. With WPS Office Free, you get everything you'd expect from an office suite: a word processor, a spreadsheet app and a presentation tool, all of which are comparable to Microsoft's offerings. In addition, you get a PDF tool and access to 1GB of cloud storage. This can be shared between the desktop software and the iOS and Android versions of the suite. 

There are some thoughtful touches that help make WPS Office Free stand out from the competition. Not only can files be saved as PDFs, but existing PDFs can also be converted Word-compatible files. Performance is pleasingly fast, and the interface is similar enough to Microsoft Office to make it easy to switch from one to the other.

The suite is fully Microsoft Office compatible, and perhaps the only downside worth mentioning is the fact that there are some advertisements (as is becoming increasingly common in free software).

For more of the best free back to school software of 2019, including links and reviews, visit techradar.com.