Best Free Online Applications and Services
Online applications (also known as web applications or webware) are getting more popular, particularly when broadband Internet access has become more common and readily available to more users. With online applications and services, you do not need to download and install them into your computer for using them—you just need to open up a browser and access them online.
Not only that you can save harddisk space as they do not need to be installed, but also you can work with files that are saved online from any computer anywhere, without the need to carry a storage device even a USB stick around with you.
Besides, you don't have to worry about different operating systems as these applications and services are cross-platform, running in your browser as a client. Neither do you need to keep updating your software versions, as you will get any new software updates and bug fixes automatically whenever you access them.
Like to use them? Here we have compiled a list for best free online applications and services—click on related links or product logos and you can start using them right away. The list contains items grouped by categories, each of the items has a brief description with a link, where applicable, to a review by our editors.
After clicking a link, use your browser's Back icon to return here.
Items added most recently: Pixlr Express | OneBudget | WebPagetest | Show Slow | TED | Diagram.ly | JayCut | 3DPackage | Isle of Tune | TaxACT
Click a category on this page:
Home and Office
Sub-categoriesImage View & Edit
Sub-categoriesMultimedia
Sub-categoriesDisk and File Tools
Sub-categoriesDesktop and GUI
Sub-categoriesSecurity and Privacy
Sub-categories
Categories on Page 2:Internet and eMail, Website and Server, Programming, Education and The Arts, Games.
Google Docs
offers a suite of Web-based productivity applications including documents, presentation, spreadsheet and form in a simple folder within a file organizational system. It allows for users to easily create, share and edit files in real time online, or upload an existing file into the system. (Review)Zoho Docs
unites Writer, Sheet and Show and supports most file types with 1 GB of free storage. Sporting a useful toolbar menu for editing, it also features tabs for easy access to multiple documents, with various collaboration options available. (Review)Office Web Apps
"offers free online versions of Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft OneNote. Even better they are giving users 25 GB of free online storage to store their documents on Microsoft’s SkyDrive service." (Review 1, Review 2) See also Windows Live SkyDrive.
7-PDF Web Portal
converts a wide range of documents into PDFs. You can set a page range and image compression for the conversion. Just choose a file to upload, click Convert to PDF button and a PDF file is downloaded automatically for you. (Review)PDFescape
, a PDF editor with form filler and designer. You can add text, links and sticky notes, whiteout contents, draw shapes, add form fields or fill up forms. Maximum file size 2 MB or 50 pages per file for free accounts. (Review)PDFHammer
a PDF editor to visually rearrange, reorder and delete pages, merge PDFs, set PDF metadata or protect PDF files with a password. Easy to use—just upload, edit and save the files back to your computer.ILovePDF
, a nice tool to merge or split pdf files easily. You can merge up to 10 PDF files in one, extract or split pages in a PDF, subject to a maximum file size of 8 MB.Nitro PDF offers free online conversion from PDF to Word/Excel via PDF-to-Word Converter
and PDF-to-Excel Converter. Both are helpful and easy to use—choose the file you need, click the Convert button and check your inbox for the converted files. See also Free File Converter.Web2PDF
lets you convert any webpage into a PDF document and save it to your computer with various options such as setting paper size. Simply paste the URL and click the button, or you can drag the bookmarklet to your toolbar so you don’t have to revisit the website. (Review) See also PrintWhatYouLike.CodeBox's PDF to Flash Page Flip
converts your pdf file into a flash file with a smooth turn-page animation effect—upload a pdf up to 10 MB and receive a zip file containing html and swf files for viewing in a browser or a flash player. (Review)DigiSigner
, a useful tool to digitally sign your PDF files and verify signatures, and you can assure that the important PDF documents are not tampered with. (Review)
Scribd
, a great tool to upload and view documents of various formats in full screen, mark them private and accessible by a specific URL, share them with millions of readers, or embed the viewer into a website or blog.SlideShare
, search and download Powerpoint presentations from the web, or upload and share your slides, word or pdf documents publicly or privately. You can also view slides in full screen, or read transcripts and outlines.
Crocodoc
, a convenient tool to collaborate on PDFs, Word and Powerpoint documents. You can highlight, add or strike out text, and add a note to a document shared by an URL. Adding password protection is limited to paid-for accounts.
Google Calendar
lets you quickly schedule events and keep track of appointments. You can share your schedule with your co-workers, family and friends, sync to your mobile phone's built-in calendar, get notified by email or have a text message sent right to your mobile phone.
TimeAndDate.com
"is the most versatile I have found from the many sites available. It allows you to see the time and date of virtually any city in every country and set for a custom clock with all the time zones you care about." (Review)Time Zone Genius
displays up-to-date time zone information for cities in the world. You can check current times for cities you choose, or find out offset from GMT, daylight savings time adjustments, sunrise and sunset times of a city.
Time Online
"offers Time Sheet recording, reporting and invoicing with no restrictions on the number of projects or users. Invoicing is built in so there's no need to have Excel installed." (Review)SlimTimer
makes time tracking easier on your tasks or sharing them with your co-workers. You can print reports with selected report type, date range and other options, or save reports to your computer in csv format.Online-Stopwatch
, a simple yet powerful timer for stopping watch and counting down, featuring full screen, split lap timer, egg timer, and even Custom Countdown to make your own countdown timer.Kuku Klok
, a well designed alarm clock to wake you up with the sound of Classic Clock, Cockerel or other choices. Once loaded, it will work even if the Internet connection goes down.Klokoo
waits you up at the alarm time you set for today or tomorrow. Easy to set up—just select a time, click set or stop the alarm clock with a selectable sound.
SimpleText.ws
, a notepad for you to write, save and sync snippets of text easily and quickly in a clean and simple interface. This service uses Google Accounts for signing in.Zoho Notebook
does an amazing amount of things—you can save text, image, audio and video objects, aggregate them in one place, keep track of changes and share a whole book, page or just an object on a page by granting read/write permissions.Evernote
"is an outstanding product that provides you with an excellent solution to manage notes and snippets of information. You can create notes or cut-and-paste them with text and images." Desktop software is for syncing notes across computers if needed. (Review)Springpad
, quickly and easily save and organize notes, tasks, bookmarks, clippings, media or anything you want to remember in one place. You can also share your stuff, set reminders and sync them with your mobile device.
Remember The Milk
lets you organize tasks into various lists, set due dates, postpone or repeat tasks, add notes, print lists and so on. It integrates with Gmail and other services with add-ons.Toodledo
allows you to add and organize your tasks by folders, contexts, due dates and priorities, share your tasks with coworkers, friends or family. You can add multiple and repeated tasks, notes and tags, import and export your data or customize the service to suit your needs.TeuxDeux
gives you a week overview of what needs to do in a clean user interface. It's easy to use—type in a box to add a task, move it to another day by drag and drop, or click to check off a done one or remove it.
Postica
, a sticky note which is clean in design and easy to use, with a quick layout, filter, printer-friendly view, and allows you to attach files to your sticky notes, send notes to yourself by email or via twitter, and even add notes to friends' whiteboards too. (Review)Listhings
, clean interface and ample space for your notes, flipping between screens made easier with tabs, and there's even a handy option which downloads the current canvas as an HTML file for a backup in case the web site ever fails. (Review)
Doodle
, a brilliant way to organize a meeting that suits everyone to get together to celebrate a birthday, anniversary or new job with a group of close friends and family, or to get together with a few colleagues. (Review)Needtomeet
, use a simple calendar and schedule a meeting time that works for everyone in three simple steps, no more emailing back and forth or wasting time to call everyone couple of times in a day.ScheduleOnce
, mark with green to propose times for your meeting for a fixed duration and send a link to your invitees for feedback. Better still, it allows for checking out your free time and scheduling a meeting in your Google Calendar after connecting to it.
ReqMan
is a good choice for businesses and organizations that need a project management tool. It's extremely flexible and configurable. You can view it as a bunch of “legos” that can be put together to fit your specific needs. (Review)ClockingIT
, manage your projects with timelines and assigning tasks, view the overall progress with an interactive gantt chart and scheduling, run flexible reports or get notifications via email and more.
PlanningWiz3
, a useful tool to partition rooms and arrange furniture in them easily, with good example plans and allowing you to save, print or export a layout plan to an image file.Autodesk Homestyler
allows you to create your home in 2D and see it in 3D. Along with the generic items, you can include branded pieces from manufacturers, save your masterpiece or export it in jpg, dwg or rvt format.ExhibitCore Floor Planner
, plan your home, garden, office, room, or any other layout just by dragging, dropping and rotating, you can then export your finished design to a PDF file. (Review)
OneBudget
, set up your budgets, manage income, expenses and other financial accounts, assess your net worth and cash flow, and track outstanding bills all in one place. Useful features include adding your own accounts manually in addition to a list of supported banks.Mint
"an attractive personal finance on-line service helps budgeting and keeping track of your finances. Users need to create a Mint account before adding bank, credit card, home loan and investment accounts." (Review)Yahoo Finance
offers up-to-date information and basic tools for personal finance management. It also allows for setting up your portfolios and getting quotes for your stocks with interactive, basic and technical analysis charts for the period you choose.TaxACT
allows you to prepare, print and e-file your tax returns to IRS of the US Department of Treasury. It's fast and easy to use and you can add mini-schedules to most fields. See also other free online tax filings suggested in this Review.
PayPal
offers a secure and convenient way to pay when you shop online, send money to friends and family, or receive online payments from your clients. It's free to open an account but fees are chargeable on certain conditions for sending or receiving money.
Thinklinkr
, a great tool to organize ideas and information in outlines, and allow for multiple users to edit them in real time, with useful features including auto save, drag and drop, import and export, and a lot more.Knowcase
, a distraction-free outliner to organize your ideas, notes, todos and other information by topics, and share them or collaborate with your team, friends or customers.
Mind42
(Mind For Two), a neat and useful collaborative mind mapping tool for brainstorming and managing ideas in a tree-like diagram with node attributes, easy for publishing and distribution.
Wikipedia
allows users to type a word or phrase to search for useful information from millions of articles written collaboratively online by volunteers around the world. It's a good and handy encyclopedic reference and a frequently updated news resource for you.LDOCE
, an online version of the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, provides a quick search for a word or phrase, with widgets available for adding to your browser search bar, blog or personal website.Wordnik
, "you don't get just a definition when you look up a word. You get example sentences, related words, charts, images from Flickr, pronunciations, etymologies, tags, Twitter segments and more." (Review)Thesaurus.com
, a popular site to search for word definitions, synonyms and antonyms with filtering by parts of speech or word classes and suggestions for nearby words.Google Translate
, enter text, a webpage address, or upload a document for translation from one language into another with auto detection of the source language. The translated result from an uploaded document is presented without preserving the layout or embeded images though.Bing Translator
, translate texts or entire web pages from one language into another, with auto detecting the source language and other features such as synchronized highlights and bilingual viewing layouts for a webpage translation.
Wolfram Alpha
answers your queries submitted in a text box by doing computations from its own knowledge base. See what you get from, for example, New York and London, Microsoft and Apple.
Instacalc
gives you instant answers as you type and allows you to embed a live calc in your website. It also has other modules to calculate home loan, hourly pay, unit conversions and more.
PaperRater
checks your document for grammar and spelling errors. On top of that, it helps you to improve the document's readability, word choice and style by an in-depth analysis.
Digital Dutch Unit Converter
"comes with a cleaner web page, instant response and ease of use, with commonly used units available and divided into 16 categories." (Review)OANDA Currency Converter
, "one of the popular web tools for currency conversion with daily and historical rates for over 164 currencies, available in multi languages." (Review)
Free-OCR
, upload an image up to 2 MB in pdf, jpg, gif, tiff or bmp format for optical character recognition and get the real text result right on your screen. No registration or email address is required. (Review)Document Conversion
converts your images into editable and searchable pdf, text, Word or HTML files, with multi-page support and limited to 20 MB and 20 conversions per hour for this free service provided by Ricoh Innovations.
Goformat
, a simple utility for you to convert any text to either lower, upper, proper or sentence case with just one click without refreshing your screen, and remove unwanted characters or replace them with what you enter. See also Text Fixer.
Pixlr Editor
, an excellent set of tools that rival many image editors, including drawing, retouching, cropping, resizing, warping, adding text, basic and advanced lighting and color adjustments, numerous filters and layers with blending. Better still, use Pixlr Express for a quick fix or one-click effects. (Review)Sumo Paint
, a powerful tool for creating and editing images with more painting tools than other paint-oriented online image editing programs, supports for layers, blending modes, special filter effects, opacity levels, handy adjustment tools, etc. (Review)FotoFlexer
creates dazzling photo effects in a simple interface with optional fullscreen editing. Supported features include one-click auto fix, red eye removal, resizing and cropping, rotating and flipping, 20 over filtering effects, decorations, animations, layers and more.AnyMaking Photo Editor
helps you edit an image easily in a few seconds with a set of tools for you to choose: crop or resize image, flip or rotate, add frame, filters, drop shadow, reflection and round corners.
FixPicture
converts all popular picture file formats and camera raw formats to jpg, png, gif, tiff, bmp or pdf formats, and resizes them by a percentage or a specific pixel value with optional rotation and effects.
CutMyPic
, 3 simple steps that allow you to quickly upload a picture, cut and customize it, and mail it to a friend or save it to your computer. Image customizing includes rounding corners and adding a shadow with thickness of your choice.
Dermandar
offers an easy way to stitch a series of your scenic photographs into one picture—just browse for pictures from your folder, then save a panoramic image back to your disk, or upload and share it in the gallery.
Kwout
, grab a web page and crop an area, post it anywhere or right-click the cropped image to save into your computer. You can resize, add a border or shadow to the image, work easily with a bookmarklet on any browsers with no need to install anything.Thumbalizr
, capture a top screen or full scrolling webpage in seconds—just enter an URL, click thumb it, and download the image in width of your choice. Free sign up for even better quality.
Cacoo
, a user-friendly drawing tool to create a variety of diagrams, save or export your file in PNG format. A useful stencil is available for easily creating basic shapes, office layout, equipment, network, flowchart and more.
- JGraph's
Diagram.ly
allows you to easily draw diagrams with a range of drag-and-drop stencils, load, save or export them in JPG, PNG or SVG format, and share editing with other users in real time.
Google Image Chart Editor
, select the type of charts, enter chart title, data and other specifications, dynamically the chart image is created for you to right click and save to your PC in png format. An image link is provided for you to share, or import for editing.
Dabbleboard
, write down ideas or draw diagrams freehand like using any traditional whiteboard, or allow the system to turn them into correct shapes. Easy to collaborate but protection is limited to a paid-for account. (Review)
Flickr
a popular web service for users to upload their photos, edit and organize their collections and share them with groups and privacy controls. Uploading video is an added feature.Dropico
, an exciting service that allows you to manage and organize your photo collection across social networks, including Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and more, or edit a photo with Pixlr or other editors, all in one place. (Review)Minus
, the easiest photo-sharing site ever, incredibly quick and easy to use, looks fantastic, and makes a superb job of allowing a group of people to upload and view images. (Review)
Photovisi
, a useful tool to create photo collages, quick and easy—just select a template, add photos, then click save and download.
3DPackage
, a 3d-box graphic creator—just find some photos on your PC to use for the front and sides of the box shot, upload them and in a couple of seconds you'll have your box ready for download in JPG, GIF or PNG format. (Review)FunPhotoBox
generates funny pictures from your photos with useful tools, either photo effects, animations, cards, magazine covers or face in hole, choose one then upload your photo, see the result and save it.Says-It.com
, create your own funny photos and graphics in seals, badges, posters, tickets and other various signs—simply choose a design, type in some text, change colors or outlines, insert your own image, then click Go to get one.Cool Text
, an easy way to generate cool and impressive text logos or buttons without a lot of design work—choose a style, fill up the form with text and adjust the settings, then click the Render button.Barcoding
allows you to create an optical machine-readable barcode image by giving barcode data, encoding type and output file format. This is an example of Gizmo's Freeware encoded in Code 128.ZXing QR Code Generator
creates a Quick Response code in various sizes for your contact info, URL, SMS, geo location or other text data. For instance, the QR Code of this page's URL is this, readable by a scanner such as ZXing BarcodeScanner on a mobile device, or using ZXing Decoder Online.
Block Posters
, create a large-size poster from a small-size image for printing in three simple steps: upload an image, slice it and download the pdf file. You can then print and assemble the pages into a big poster. (Review)
TinEye
, submit an image to discover the source of the image, where it is being used and check out its modified or higher resolution versions if they exist on the web.GazoPa
, a useful search engine to look for images similar in color, shape or other optional parameters, to the one you submitted. Search results are viewable in two layouts.RGBStock.com
, a good place to search for high quality and royalty-free photos and choose the ones you like to download. Type a keyword to search for the photos or check out what are the most downloaded photos.
Aviary
, a web alternative to Adobe Creative Suite, has a suite of various editors and tools to allow designers to create images and audio. This suite includes Phoenix Image Editor, Toucan Color Palettes, Peacock Visual Laboratory, Raven Vector Editor, Myna Audio Editor, Falcon Image Markup and more.
YouTube
"offers 16:9 aspect ratio, high quality video playback, support for nearly every video format, a large audience for your videos, the ability to embed videos on a blog or website, video reply feature, customizable personal video page and the ability to limit video access." (Review) See also KeepVid for download and Bender Converter for convert and download.
JayCut
allows you to remix or trim videos and images, add music, transitions and effects, put on captions and subtitles, and publish to YouTube or download to your PC with automated transcoding.
Grooveshark
operates in a similar way like YouTube but allows you to upload, search and share music, instead of videos, with others. Features such as library, playlists, favorites and fans are available to users after signing in.
BeeMP3
helps you locate an mp3 audio file over the Internet. With more than 800,000 mp3 files now in the database, the crawler searches and adds more files for you daily, subject to its terms of service.
Streema
offers an easy way to search radio stations by station name and country, add them to your Favorites, listen to the stations right away on the web platform or share them with your friends.
TOMA - Internet TV
, a browser-based version of JLC's internet TV viewer, lets you watch TV programs from a large database of over 3,000 TV channels maintained and updated by the community every day in the world. (Review)
AudioBox.fm
lets you upload and organize your media files from anywhere at anytime in a desktop-like music player and organizer. You can play tracks, create playlists or edit simple tags of your music files with free storage up to 1GB, but not all these features are guaranteed to be available in future under the free plan.
- Redirected here.
CutMP3.net
works lightning fast with no need to upload the Mp3 file and no file size limit either—a cut above the rest! (Review)
LyricWiki
, a community based and huge resource for finding lyrics in multi languages—enter keywords such as a song title, artist or album into the search box to find lyrics, press edit this page button to copy lyrics for editing, or help add lyrics in a new page.
AudioTag.info
helps you to identify an unknown piece of music easily—upload an audio fragment and get the tag info such as the track title, artist name and album title of the song based on its audio fingerprint.Midomi
, "a new revolutionary way to find that lost tune you don't know the title of—sing, hum, or whistle into your microphone and let Midomi find your music for you." (Review)
Yakitome
"requires you to set up an account and the site is free to use. If the only thing that counts is the voice quality regardless of time delays, Yakitome wins hands-down." (Review)vozMe
, "simple to use and requires no registration, just type or paste some text into the box, choose a male or female voice, then click the Create mp3 button. The conversion takes just seconds." (Review)
Chord House
, a sharp music tool and useful resource for finding chords, scales and guidance if you play guitar, piano or use a sequencer. Sounds can be heard or played "live" and downloaded for future use.
123-slideshow
allows you to create a flash slideshow in just a few steps—select a slideshow layout and effect, upload 4 to 8 images to the server and save the resulting swf file to your computer easily.
Dropbox
allows you to back up files and access them online, or share folders with several people to work together easily. Its desktop program is only needed for syncing files across computers. (Review)Windows Live SkyDrive
offers an amazing 25 GB of online storage as part of the Microsoft Windows Live suite of services. It requires a Microsoft Live ID to sign in and begin using. (Review)
ezyZip
, add files to create a zip file, or unzip a file to a target folder in your computer, quick and easy. Uploading or downloading your files is not necessary as both zipping and unzipping run locally as a Java applet in your browser.WebZipr
is powered by phpAce Web Zipper. You'd need to upload files to create a zip file for download to your computer, or upload a zip file from your computer to view and download the files inside it, allowing for a file size up to 2 MB.
Free File Converter
supports conversion between a wide range of file formats including document, image, audio, video and compression formats. Upload a file, choose a conversion type and download the converted file to your computer. Check here for a full list of conversion types.Media-Convert
helps convert your files from one format to another up to a maximum file size of 200 MB. You can rename file and apply other advanced settings in response to the output format. See supported file formats.Bender Converter
, an easy-to-use online application to convert videos directly from YouTube and other services in 3 steps—choose a format to convert to, give a video page link, then click Convert and download the converted file you need.
Ebook Converter
provided by online-ConVert supports a variety of input formats like PDF, ePub, mobi, HTML, LIT, LRF and more—choose the target format you need for your eBook reader and start converting.
File Encryptor
allows you to encrypt or decrypt a file online upto a maximum file size of 20MB. The encrypted file is saved with the extension of .FE3.
Glide
"looks to be the best developed to date, with 30GB free online storage and a selection of basic applications such as simple word processor, presentations, image editor, website creator, collaboration, file sharing and more."
Desktop Wallpaper Tool
allows you to quickly create desktop wallpapers auto-adapted to your screen resolution by cropping or scaling images from your collection or from Art Galleries, with supports for modern HTML5 capabilities.
ScreenToaster
records your screen session in full desktop or fixed rectangular area with audio input from a microphone or auxiliary device, then upload to ScreenToaster, YouTube, or save it in mov or swf format.
iConvert
converts an image into an icon for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux in one step, or converts Windows icons to Mac OS X icons, svg icons to Windows icons, png icons to Mac OS X icons and so on.
FFonts
, a useful resource to search for new or top fonts by category, download and unzip them for installing and adding more fonts to your system.Identifont
, "one of the best resources on the internet for identifying fonts and typefaces—just answer a handful of questions about the appearance of certain characters, and the site will tell you the name of the font." (Review)FontStruct
, create your own True-Type fonts with a graphic tool in a grid base and save them, or search by tag for the fonts built by others and download them to your computer easily. (Review)FreeFontConverter
, a handy tool to convert fonts between ttf, otf, pfa, pfb, ttc, svg, pt3, sfd, otb, t42, cef, cff, gsf, ik, mf, dfont, bin, suit and bdf for their suitable uses in Windows, Mac and Linux.
Virustotal
, an online independent service to analyse suspicious files and detect viruses, worms, trojans and other malware by multiple antivirus engines. Detailed results from each antivirus engine are listed after it has scanned the file uploaded.Anubis
, a service for analyzing malware. Submit your Windows executable file and receive an analysis report about what it does, or submit a suspicious URL to find out the activities of the Internet Explorer process when visiting that URL. For analyzing Javascript, Flash and PDF files, try Wepawet.
WOT
(Web of Trust) "provides fastest ratings, uses green / yellow / red ratings and 'people' reliability icons, multiple rating categories to help you evaluate websites, fantastic warning screen to empower users to avoid potentially bad websites before interacting with them." (Review)Online Link Scan
helps you scan links for harmful threats such as viruses, spyware, trojans or other malware. It also shows you the host IP, any threat name and the overall result if the site is secure.OpenDNS
, "a web based service that in conjunction with your own system's network configuration redirects all your browsing through OpenDNS servers where it is filtered for content." (Review)
Privnote
allows you to write a confidential note and send a link to someone for reading it. The note is destroyed after reading once, no more worrying about your message being forwarded to and read by others.
GishPuppy
, with a bookmarklet Gish It!, helps register an email address used for forwarding emails to your normal email account to avoid spams. When you decide not to receive any further emails to this address, just cancel it.Spamgourmet
forwards only a limited number of mails to your protected email address and eats the rest. Just register your username and protected email address, then give out any disposable email addresses in this form someword.username@spamgourmet.com. Adding trusted senders and more settings are available.
Scrim
converts your email address into a short and safe link (for instance http://scr.im/joe) so that you can share it on the web to avoid spam robots and get less spam.
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