You get what you pay for no longer stands true because there are plenty of free resources online that replace what you may have been paying for outright or by subscription. If saving money is a priority, consider the following apps that could save you a bundle.

Microsoft Office is the dominant force in office productivity software, accounting for a much larger percentage of market share compared with Google’s office suite even though it’s free. (A Microsoft 365 subscription runs about $99 a year for up to five users.) There are two big differences between these products.

First, Microsoft Office can be run on your computer and online while Google programs are solely run online. In today’s world with devices continuously connected to the internet, this isn’t the advantage it once was when connections were unreliable. Second, I find the differences between Microsoft online and Microsoft desktop to be frustrating. The desktop versions of all of its Office products have more features than the online version, but you don’t know that until you’re trying to use a feature online, only to find it’s not available and you have to switch to the desktop version. For instance, you can’t do a mail merge in Word online, and chart options in Excel have been stripped down to the basics. There’s no argument that Microsoft’s desktop versions are more powerful than Google’s, but there’s a fix for that.

Google has an open system that allows add-ons. Developers have created task-specific add-ons that can significantly enhance the basic programs, and many of these are free. But you will have to turn on access. Click on the Add-On option in the top menu bar and then select Get Add-ons. You’ll see a new screen with all of the available add-ons that are listed by number of downloads — from highest to lowest — along with number of ratings and average rating. Select one to learn more or download directly from this window.

Moving on from the basic office suite, let’s turn to creativity products. The leader in this category is Adobe Creative Cloud, which runs $64 a month (that’s close to $800 a year) for a subscription and includes Photoshop used primarily for editing photos, Premiere for videos, Illustrator for drawing, AfterEffects for computer graphics and special effects, InDesign for print materials production and a host of specialized products that work with the main applications. These are all sophisticated and challenging to learn programs, which means they can be overkill for most non-professionals who are looking to modify photos or put together a simple video. Creative Cloud is a lot like subscribing to a top tier cable service when all you watch are a few channels.

Free or low-cost online services that do one specific thing can save you money, but you’ll have to have a way to organize them for easy access. I recommend bookmarking your favorites so you can see them at the top of your browser. Put the websites you use most at the top of your bookmarks list. You can manage your bookmarks in Chrome by opening your settings (three dots icon in upper right), choosing Bookmarks and then Bookmarks Manager. Drag a bookmark up or down. The number of bookmarks you’ll see on the top bar will depend on the width of your screen. Here are two to try.

Removing a background from an image can be an extremely time-consuming process even for experienced Photoshop users. Instead, try removebg (https://www.remove.bg). It does a pretty good job of isolating tricky things like hair and pet fur. You may pay by the image ($1.99 for one download), buy multiple credits (one credit equals one image), which will bring the unit cost down to $0.90 when you buy 10, or set up a subscription plan where unit prices drop by volume, so a 40-credit-per-month plan at $9 brings your cost per image down to $0.23.

Video editing in Premiere is a skill that will take time to master. If you use a Mac, iMovie is a great free substitute, but if you’re using a PC, you don’t have that option. The built-in video editor in Windows is extremely limited to nothing much beyond trimming the beginning and end to your videos. OpenShot is a great alternative. The free app lets you stack an unlimited number of video and audio tracks on top of each other and add titles, image overlays and subtitles. It also offers Photoshop-like edits by allowing adjustments to brightness and contrast.

I encourage you to discover more, and do share your favorites with me.

Leslie Meredith has been writing about technology for more than a decade. As a mom of four, value, usefulness and online safety take priority. Have a question? Email Leslie at asklesliemeredith@gmail.com.

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