I audited my monthly subscriptions last year and found I was paying for six different software services that had perfectly good free alternatives. Eighty-three dollars a month. That’s a thousand dollars a year on things I could have been using for free.

Here are the replacements that actually work — not the “technically free but unusable” kind, but tools I switched to and have used daily for over a year.

Microsoft Office → Google Docs / LibreOffice

For most people, Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides do everything Microsoft Office does. They’re free with a Google account, they autosave, and collaboration is actually easier than with Office. If you need offline access or advanced spreadsheet features, LibreOffice is a free, open-source desktop suite that opens and saves Office formats.

I used to pay for Office 365. I haven’t opened a Microsoft product in two years and I write documents, build spreadsheets, and make presentations regularly.

Adobe Photoshop → Photopea / GIMP

Photopea.com runs in your browser. It looks and works almost exactly like Photoshop — same tools, same layers, same keyboard shortcuts. It opens and saves PSD files. It’s free. For most photo editing needs, it’s overkill in the best way.

If you want a desktop app, GIMP is the standard open-source image editor. It’s powerful but the interface is… let’s say “quirky.” Photopea is the smoother experience for former Photoshop users.

Paid VPN → Proton VPN (free tier)

Most free VPNs are data-harvesting operations. Proton VPN’s free tier is an exception — it has no data caps and no ads, and Proton’s business model is built on their paid products, not selling your data. The free tier limits you to servers in three countries and one device, but for occasional use it’s plenty.

Adobe Acrobat → built-in PDF tools

Your browser can fill out PDF forms. Your operating system can merge and split PDFs. For anything beyond that, free online tools like ILovePDF or Smallpdf handle combining, compressing, and converting without installing anything.

Spotify Premium → Spotify Free

The free tier has ads and shuffle-only on mobile, but on desktop you can play any song in any order. If you mostly listen at your computer, the free tier might be enough. I switched to the free tier and the ads are about as annoying as radio commercials were — which is to say, mildly, but I adjusted in about a week.

The thousand dollars I saved went straight into my emergency fund. Canceling subscriptions is boring financial advice that actually works.