Recommended Software
The tools we install, run, and rely on ourselves — 36 of them. Nearly all are free, we get paid nothing for listing any of them, and every card tells you which platforms it runs on and exactly what it costs.
Pricing and free-tier details verified against each vendor’s own pricing page in September 2026. Vendors change their plans without warning — if you find one that no longer matches, tell us and we will fix it.
Browse by Category
All Recommended Software
Bitwarden
Open-source password manager with end-to-end encryption. Store and autofill passwords, passkeys, secure notes, and payment details across every device. The free plan covers unlimited passwords on unlimited devices.
Windows · macOS · Linux · Android · iOS · Web
Visit WebsiteKeePassXC
Fully offline password manager for people who would rather not trust any cloud. Your vault is a single encrypted file you keep and back up yourself. Free, open source, and a good pairing with a USB stick or your own backup drive.
Windows · macOS · Linux
Visit WebsiteSignal
Privacy-focused messaging app with end-to-end encryption. Secure messages, calls, and video chats without compromising your privacy. Run by a non-profit and funded by donations rather than advertising.
Windows · macOS · Linux · Android · iOS
Visit WebsiteProton VPN
Secure VPN service with a genuinely usable free tier and no data cap. No logs, Swiss-based privacy protection, independently audited, and open-source clients on every platform. The free plan covers one device at a time and ten countries; more devices and server choice are a paid upgrade.
Windows · macOS · Linux · Android · iOS
Visit WebsiteMullvad VPN
Privacy-focused VPN that does not require an email address to sign up — you get an account number and pay a flat €5 a month whether you pay monthly or a year at a time, for up to five devices. Fast, strongly encrypted, and regularly audited by outside security firms.
Windows · macOS · Linux · Android · iOS
Visit WebsiteuBlock Origin
Efficient, low-overhead content blocker that stops ads, trackers, and known malware domains. Works best in Firefox — Google Chrome has ended support for it, so use the lighter uBlock Origin Lite there.
Browser extension — Windows · macOS · Linux
Visit WebsitePi-hole
Network-wide ad blocker that acts as a DNS sinkhole. Blocks ads and trackers at the router level for every device on your home network, including phones, tablets, and smart TVs that cannot run an extension.
Linux · Raspberry Pi · Docker
Visit WebsiteMozilla Firefox
Independent, open-source web browser that is not built on Google's Chromium engine. Strong tracking protection out of the box and full support for uBlock Origin, which Chrome no longer offers.
Windows · macOS · Linux · Android · iOS
Visit WebsiteMalwarebytes
Industry-standard malware and adware removal tool and the scanner we reach for first on an infected machine. The free version scans and cleans on demand; real-time protection is a paid upgrade.
Windows · macOS · Android · iOS
Visit WebsiteMalwarebytes AdwCleaner
Small, no-install cleanup tool aimed squarely at adware, browser hijackers, junk toolbars, and preinstalled bloatware. Run it, scan, reboot, done — it is the fastest fix for a browser full of pop-ups.
Windows
Visit WebsiteHWiNFO
In-depth hardware information and live monitoring. Track temperatures, voltages, clock speeds, and fan behaviour for every component — the fastest way to confirm whether a PC is overheating or throttling. Free for personal, non-commercial use; business use requires a paid Pro licence (from $29/year).
Windows · DOS
Visit WebsiteCrystalDiskInfo
Reads the S.M.A.R.T. health data your hard drive or SSD reports about itself and translates it into a plain Good / Caution / Bad verdict. If a drive is quietly failing, this is usually what tells you first.
Windows
Visit WebsiteCrystalDiskMark
Simple storage benchmark that measures real read and write speeds. Useful for proving whether a sluggish computer is being held back by a worn-out drive or a failing USB enclosure.
Windows
Visit WebsiteMemTest86
Boots from a USB drive and tests your RAM with comprehensive memory patterns. The first stop for diagnosing random crashes, blue screens, and file corruption that no software fix seems to cure.
Bootable USB — any PC
Visit WebsiteOCCT
All-in-one stability and stress testing for CPU, GPU, memory, and power supply, with live temperature and voltage graphs. Excellent for reproducing an intermittent crash on demand or validating a new build.
Windows
Visit WebsiteSysinternals Suite
Microsoft's own advanced toolkit. Autoruns shows every single thing set to launch at startup, and Process Explorer shows what each running process actually is. Indispensable for cleanup and troubleshooting.
Windows
Visit WebsiteRustDesk
Open-source remote desktop tool and a genuine alternative to TeamViewer, with end-to-end encryption. The client is free and the relay server can be self-hosted at no cost, so no third party ever touches your session. Note that RustDesk's own hosted Pro plans are paid and cap how many devices you can manage — self-hosting is the free route.
Windows · macOS · Linux · Android · iOS
Visit WebsiteWinDirStat
Open-source disk usage analyzer that maps every file on a drive as a colour-coded treemap, so you can instantly see what is eating your storage. Actively developed again after a long quiet period.
Windows
Visit WebsiteVentoy
Create one bootable USB drive that holds many ISO files at once — just copy them on and pick from a menu at boot. Note that some of its build components are not fully auditable, so download only from the official site.
Windows · Linux
Visit WebsiteRufus
Small, fast utility for writing a single ISO to a bootable USB drive, with handy options for bypassing Windows 11 hardware and account requirements. The classic companion to Ventoy for install media.
Windows
Visit WebsiteVeeam Agent for Windows FREE
Genuinely free, business-grade backup for a single PC. Takes scheduled full-image backups to an external drive or NAS and can restore the whole machine, a single volume, or one deleted file.
Windows
Visit WebsiteRescuezilla
Easy-to-use, open-source disk imaging tool for full system backup and bare-metal restore, fully compatible with Clonezilla images. What we use before any risky repair, so there is always a way back.
Bootable USB — Windows, macOS & Linux drives
Visit WebsiteTestDisk & PhotoRec
The free file recovery pair worth trying before you pay anyone. TestDisk rebuilds lost partitions and boot sectors; PhotoRec scavenges deleted photos and documents from a damaged drive. Always recover to a different disk.
Windows · macOS · Linux
Visit WebsiteBackblaze Personal Backup
Unlimited off-site cloud backup for one computer at a flat $99 per year (extended version history costs extra). A local backup drive protects you from a dead disk; off-site backup protects you from theft, fire, flood, and ransomware.
Windows · macOS
Visit Website7-Zip
Free, open-source file archiver with an excellent compression ratio. Handles ZIP, RAR, 7z, and virtually every other archive format you will come across, with no nag screens or trial period.
Windows · macOS · Linux
Visit WebsiteVLC Media Player
Free, open-source media player that plays practically any video or audio file, DVDs, and network streams. No ads, no tracking, and no sketchy codec packs required.
Windows · macOS · Linux · Android · iOS
Visit WebsiteLibreOffice
Complete office suite with word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and database tools. Opens and saves Microsoft Office formats, which makes it a solid answer when an Office subscription lapses.
Windows · macOS · Linux
Visit WebsiteEverything
Instant filename search for Windows. Indexes an entire drive in seconds and finds any file or folder as fast as you can type it — dramatically better than the built-in search.
Windows
Visit WebsiteMozilla Thunderbird
Free, open-source email client that handles multiple accounts, calendars, and contacts in one place. The tool we most often set up when someone wants their mail stored locally instead of only in a browser.
Windows · macOS · Linux · Android
Visit WebsiteVisual Studio Code
Free, extensible code editor with built-in Git support and an enormous extension ecosystem. The de facto standard for web development and the editor we build client sites in.
Windows · macOS · Linux
Visit WebsiteGIMP
Free, open-source image editor for photo retouching, graphic design, and web assets. The 3.x releases brought a major interface and performance overhaul, making it a far more credible Photoshop alternative.
Windows · macOS · Linux
Visit WebsiteShareX
Free, open-source screenshot and screen-recording tool with annotation, scrolling capture, OCR, and automatic upload workflows. Ideal for sending us a clear picture of an error message.
Windows
Visit WebsiteNotion
All-in-one workspace for notes, tasks, wikis, and simple databases. Highly customisable and easy to share with a small team. The free plan is generous enough for personal and one-person business use, with a 5 MB limit per file upload and seven days of page history.
Windows · macOS · Web · Android · iOS
Visit WebsiteOllama
The simplest way to download and run open large language models on your own hardware. One installer, one command, and the model answers entirely offline — nothing you type leaves the machine. Running models locally is free and unlimited; the optional Ollama Cloud service is a paid subscription you never have to touch.
Windows · macOS · Linux
Visit WebsiteOpen WebUI
Self-hosted chat interface for local AI. Pairs with Ollama or any OpenAI-compatible API so you can use hundreds of open models from a familiar browser interface, on your own hardware. Free to run; deployments over 50 users must keep its branding visible or buy an enterprise licence.
Windows · macOS · Linux · Docker
Visit WebsiteComfyUI
Powerful node-based interface for local AI image, video, and audio generation. Actively maintained with support for the latest open diffusion models, running entirely on your own GPU at no cost. The hosted Comfy Cloud service is a separate paid product.
Windows · macOS · Linux
Visit WebsiteSelf-Hosted AI Solutions
Local AI for Business
Keep your data private with on-premises AI solutions
Modern AI tools offer powerful capabilities, but sending sensitive business data to external services presents privacy and security concerns. Our self-hosted AI solutions provide:
- Complete data privacy with no external connections
- Hundreds of open-source models to choose from
- Text generation, image creation, and data analysis
- Beautiful web interfaces for easy use
- Docker-based deployment for security and simplicity
- Custom model training for specialized tasks
We design and implement complete hardware/software solutions tailored to your specific AI needs and security requirements.
Learn MoreRecommended Hardware
For optimal AI performance, we recommend systems with:
Entry Level AI System
- NVIDIA RTX 5060 Ti GPU (16GB VRAM)
- Intel Core Ultra 5/7 or AMD Ryzen 5/7
- 32GB RAM
- 1TB NVMe SSD
- Suitable for smaller models and basic tasks
Performance AI System
- NVIDIA RTX 5080/5090 GPU (16-32GB VRAM)
- Intel Core Ultra 9 or AMD Ryzen 9
- 64GB RAM
- 2TB NVMe SSD
- Handles most models with excellent performance
Enterprise AI System
- Multiple NVIDIA RTX 5090 or RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell GPUs
- Intel/AMD server-grade processors
- 128GB+ ECC RAM
- RAID storage configuration
- For running the largest models and multiple workflows
Our Software Recommendation Policy
We only recommend software that we personally use and trust. Our selections prioritize:
Security
We prioritize software with strong security practices and regular updates.
Privacy
We favor tools that respect user privacy and limit data collection.
Open Source
When possible, we recommend open-source alternatives for transparency.
Performance
We test for efficiency and resource usage before recommending.
Have questions about specific software needs? Contact us for personalized recommendations based on your unique requirements.
Get Custom Recommendations