Tools for Students That Are Free
These are tools we'd recommend to someone starting a degree or doing serious self-directed study. All are free at the level most students need. We've noted where paid tiers exist but they're not required.
Anki
Spaced repetition flashcards — the most evidence-backed memorisation method available, implemented in a free app. Essential for any subject requiring recall of large amounts of information. The shared deck library at AnkiWeb has pre-made decks for medicine, law, languages, history, and many other subjects. Start with an existing deck rather than making your own.
Obsidian
Free note-taking app that stores notes as local Markdown files. The linking system — connecting notes to each other — becomes genuinely useful for research-heavy work after a month or two of consistent use. More setup than most apps, but the payoff for serious study is real. Full review: Obsidian for Note-Taking.
Claude (free tier)
Useful for a wide range of student tasks: explaining concepts you're struggling with, drafting essay outlines, proofreading, summarising dense texts, and testing your own understanding via Socratic conversation. 'Here's my understanding of X — what am I missing?' is one of the best ways to use it. The free tier is sufficient for regular academic use.
Zotero
Free reference manager for academic writing. Collects citations from the web or databases with a browser extension, organises them in a library, and generates bibliographies in any citation format. Essential for anyone writing research papers or essays with citations. Syncs across devices via free cloud storage up to 300MB.
Perplexity
Research questions with cited answers. For initial research on a topic, Perplexity synthesises sources faster than manually reading multiple articles and shows you which sources it drew from. Good for getting oriented on a topic before going deeper with primary sources. Full pick: Perplexity vs Google.
Forest (Focus Timer)
Pomodoro-style focus timer available as a browser extension or mobile app. Plant a virtual tree when you start a session; it dies if you leave the page. Sounds gimmicky, it actually works. The visual commitment helps with the starting problem. Free tier covers the core functionality.
Hemingway Editor
A web-based writing tool that highlights sentences that are too long, overly complex, or use passive voice excessively. Useful for academic writing where clarity matters and overlong sentences are a common problem. Paste your draft in, fix the highlighted sentences, paste it back. Free in the browser, paid for the desktop app.