this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2026
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For me, that would be Secure CRT. I have yet to find a terminal emulator that matches its feature set. If you regularly manage hundreds of machines using various connection protocols (serial and ssh mostly in my case) It's worth the $$$, and so far there hasn't been any subscription nonsense. I liked using it at work so much I forked over the dough to have it at home.

None of the free alternatives do everything I need.

I'll also mention a few iOS apps. One is Sun Surveyor. It's an AR app that shows you the position of the sun, moon, and galactic center at any given time. The other would have to be Radarscope. It's a weather radar app, but it's a really good weather radar app.

EDIT:

This one's debatable, but I use it all the time. Plasticity is 3D modelling software that attempts to bridge the gap between practical CAD programs and software meant for 3D artists like Blender. It's not cheap considering Blender is free, but it's buy once use forever, and at (I think) $150 it's within reach of an individual hobbyist who knows what they want and is willing to pay for it.

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[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 42 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Immich https://immich.app/

Absolutely amazing and it's technically free, but please donate if you can, they fucking deserve it.

Being able to host your own photos and have ai to help identify faces WITHOUT internet or giving your private photos to the tech giants is worth every penny.

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[–] AstralPath@lemmy.ca 19 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] logjam_tizzy@sopuli.xyz 6 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Yes. This. 100%.

Even if it wasn’t the most reasonable to license, it’d still be the most flexible and “hackable”.

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[–] uhmbah@lemmy.ca 37 points 5 days ago

mullvad vpn

[–] boletus@sh.itjust.works 53 points 5 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (11 children)

Bitwarden. It's free and open source, but you can pay for a subscription ~~if you don't want to self host for synchronisation between devices. It's very cheap and no doubt worth it.~~

Also Aseprite, for pixel art and custom format exports.

Edit: looks like both these programs are just straight up fully featured and freely available now.

[–] Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago

Sync between devices doesnt require a subscription?

I use it on my desktop, laptop and phone, no issue

Never paid a dime

[–] ClamDrinker@lemmy.world 14 points 5 days ago (1 children)

For real, I had been using Bitwarden for a couple of years for free and it never once had to show an ad to ask me to buy it's subscription. I just realized that it was giving me tons of value, and that prompted me to buy the (fairly priced) subscription. That's a gold standard imo.

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[–] W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 14 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Kagi search. It made cutting Google out of my life easy. I’d rather not pay for search but none of the free alternatives really worked like I needed. I tried out Kagi on a whim and haven’t looked back.

[–] Scrollone@feddit.it 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I just wish I could disable the Google search box on my Google Pixel home page and replace it with a Kagi search bar (that opens in my default browser though; not like Qwant does, that forces you to use their own browser).

[–] jonflipzooza@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

now i just went to try it out, and I will, but the AI and pricing tiers screams "business and profit first" to me

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[–] BanaramaClamcrotch@lemmy.zip 20 points 4 days ago

Balatro on me iPhone

[–] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Gimp.

Tap for spoilerP.S. This is a joke and I am very proud of it.

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[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Linux, KDE, Firefox, etc... we are ALL supposed to "pay" somehow for it, whatever our means and however we can.

When we consider free and open source software NOT paid software, we are sabotaging the very things we love.

[–] adminofoz@lemmy.cafe 5 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Hard disagree. Please tell me where Linus said he expects normal users to "pay" (or whatver you meant with the quotes.) The thing that makes these revolutionary is that they are free in a world where everyone is always trying to get something from you.

There is literally no expectation of money or commits or anything. Don't shame people for using FOSS the way FOSS was intended. If you are well off and want to support them do it! Authors will appreciate it, but dont try to turn FOSS into yet another guilt trip.

[–] Katzimir@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 4 days ago (2 children)

just adding: foss is what is supposed to happen in a world where the increased productivity through automation benefits everyone vs the 'bottom line'. foss has always been my tiny island of space communism :)

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[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 67 points 6 days ago (5 children)

In the world of music production Reaper is an insanely good deal with a fantastically refreshing licensing system.

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[–] baggachipz@sh.itjust.works 53 points 6 days ago (12 children)

Kagi. Search that actually works, with no ads. Worth every penny.

[–] Tiger@sh.itjust.works 20 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (5 children)

Another happy Kagi user here, and I also hate sounding like a shill but I’m really so glad I use their product. Not having to parse through ads and AI slop when I’m busy and looking for info is so helpful when I’m trying to work.

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[–] thermal_shock@lemmy.world 52 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (4 children)

TeraCopy if you move lots of data around.

However, even with a pro license, I still got an ad notification in my task area recently pushing their other software. Fucking hate advertisements that go out of their way to interrupt you.

[–] 11111one11111@lemmy.world 27 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Fucking hate advertisements ~~that go out of their way to interrupt you.~~

The rest of that sentence literally defines the procedure of advertising.

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[–] ieGod@lemmy.zip 10 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Photoshop used to be worth the money. The move to subscription based comes at a time when alternatives are starting to catch up though, so that time (of being worth it) may be coming to an end.

[–] Scrollone@feddit.it 5 points 4 days ago

There's no reason to pay for Photoshop now if you're just starting. Affinity is free (as in beer) and full-featured.

[–] ace_garp@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

Wip3out 2097

[–] the16bitgamer@programming.dev 25 points 5 days ago (1 children)

DaVinci Resolve.

The software is free but not FOSS and on Linux paying for the h.264 support is nice.

Keen live is a good alternative but it feels like an advanced form of movie maker to me and lacks polish. If you learn it KDEN Live can be powerful.

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[–] ohlaph@lemmy.world 37 points 6 days ago (32 children)

Jetbrains Intellij IDEA Ultimate. 100% worth the price.

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[–] smh@slrpnk.net 22 points 5 days ago (3 children)

BeyondCompare. I've used it for all my Windows text comparison needs for decades. It also handles comparing spreadsheets and directory structures.

[–] binom@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I'm sure BeyondCompare is much more powerful, but have a look at WinMerge if you don't know it yet. I keep being impressed by it for being free and OSS.

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[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 31 points 6 days ago (4 children)

I paid for a copy of the Torque app on android. It lets you use bluetooth OBD2 adapters to connect to your car's ECU for reading live engine data and trouble codes. The pro paid version unlocks a lot more customization for data logging screens, allows you to save live data logs to your phone, and enables a wider range of readable codes... Makes a huge difference diagnosing weird engine issues in cars 1996 and newer.

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[–] the16bitgamer@programming.dev 17 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It’s FOSS software but I use it so much I donate to support it. FreeCAD. Yeah its interface isn’t the best. But compared to Fusion for my workflow it’s so much bettwr

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[–] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 8 points 5 days ago (8 children)

The only software I would buy again instantly is Tasker (Android).

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[–] MuttMutt@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Divemate, better than keeping logs in different apps if you change computers. Android only, sorry. If you chew the fruit you gotta find something else.

Plex Media Sever used to be great and well worth the lifetime pass. With the recent UI changes I would drop kick it if I could. Sadly the other options just don't work right with large libraries.

Torque pro is nice especially if you have a turbo charged vehicle. Free is fine if you just need to check codes.

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[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago (5 children)

BuzzKill for Android.

PocketCasts used to be, before they went subscription.

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[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

nzb360 that I got a perpetual license for at 10eur. It's so easy and convenient to torrent stuff for my Jellyfin.

Niagara launcher is free but I paid for the perpetual license. It's a third party launcher that I really like.

I'm also a Jetbrains fan depending on the language, they have so much support for everything just out of the box and are on Linux.

Also games, but I guess people don't want to hear those here. Factorio was definitely worth.

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[–] SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 10 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

Total Commander on Windows. It can be used for free with the nag dialog, but I paid for it since I was using it every day.

Automate on Android: it's an automation tool with its own programming ‘language’ like Tasker, except visual. Tasker has some weird and cumbersome idioms, while Automate is mostly regular programming mapped onto its visual blocks. Plus it doesn't require buying more apps for additional functionality like Tasker. Alas, it can't do custom dialogs or onscreen buttons, so I might still need Tasker for that.

Unified Remote on Android: nice remote control for the desktop machine, with the ability to add custom controls programmed in Lua (iirc).

Magic Dosbox on Android: it allows adding custom onscreen controls tailored to each game.

Functional Ear Trainer and Perfect Ear on Android: nice training for hearing notes and rhythm, though I can't say they did much for my lazy ass.

Sunvox on Android: a music tracker with modular synths. Seems to be the only full-blown tracker on Android. Alas, doesn't seem to be very good with samples, the workflow is a bit cumbersome, but I need to properly try that yet. The app has been around for ages, I've seen it twenty years ago for Palm and Windows CE. There are also desktop versions, which are free iirc. (Also, the author can't currently receive payments from Google Play since he's in Russia. It's better to write to him and arrange payment via bitcoin or such, afaik he's happy to provide the full app that way.)

On Mac, there are many open-source utils for tweaking the interface, but paid Bartender and Hazeover are better than alternatives. One hides extra menu icons, the other dims background windows.

Alfred on Mac, a launcher: you call it up with a hotkey, and type a few letters to run an app or, crucially, a custom action. It's unmatched by alternatives, especially on Windows and Linux. Typing a couple letters into Alfred is often quicker than cmd-tabbing to an app. And it's way better for frequent actions than mousing around.

I'm also planning to buy Renoise, the cross-platform music tracker. It does about everything the big DAWs do, but with the keyboard-centric workflow. Pretty cheap too.

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