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Posted on 25-10-2011

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I've paid for precisely two Apple iPhone apps out of my own pocket… and one was a fat-finger mistake (my pudgy paws slipped on the "buy" button, and I entered my password without realizing what I was doing). "Free" is the magic word for me. When I hear about a fantastic app for the iPhone, I always check to see if I can find a free alternative that's just as good. Every so often, I'll even find a free one that beats the tar out of the paid app.

Apps are what transform the iPhone from mobile phone to pocket PC. Without them, you might as well be carrying around that old flip phone you had in 2004 that could play an 8-bit knock off version of Tetris. Okay, it would still be better in many ways, but you get the point. We at PCMag spend thousands of hours each year scouring iTunes, speaking with developers, reviewing the best apps we find, and hunting for hidden gems. If there's an app that makes owning the iPhone more worthwhile, we find out about it. And if they're free—hey, even better.

The 35 apps that made the cut for this list are the ones that have shown outstanding performance, have been well received by a variety of technology users, and are free. And "free" means free. No gimmicks, no "membership required." Free. Period.

Missing from this list are apps and features (like Siri) that come pre-installed on the iPhone, although they are certainly not to be overlooked. The YouTube, Maps, and Clocks apps in particular should not be ignored, while the iTunes, Music (formerly called iPod app), and App Store apps typically see a fair share of well-deserved usage, but I suppose you technically paid for them because you bought the phone, so they're not really free. In any case, you don't need to choose to download them, so we're not listing them here.

If you have more recommendations for more free apps that we at PCMag need to check out, post your suggestions in the comments.

Apps 1 - 10 below:

Adobe Photoshop Express
Digital photography editing, until very recently, has been a task best suited for desktop and laptop computers, but Adobe proved that it could be done in the mobile space with Photoshop Express, a free photo editing application for the iPhone and other iOS devices. It's a powerhouse of a mobile app, and can even handle noise reduction (extraneous particles that show up on photos). All in all, Adobe Photoshop Express is a solid tool for making light photo edits on your iPhone.

Amazon Mobile
Amazon.com sells practically anything you might need, from toilet paper to dog food to magazine subscriptions. The mobile shopping app makes sure you can buy it anytime. The app contains a barcode scanner and photo tool, so if you're in a store deliberating the cost of an item, you can snap a picture or scan the barcode and see if Amazon has it for less.

BBC News
Among news apps, The BBC's has one of the best interfaces—clean, with relevant headlines, good photos, and no advertisements. (Whether you agree with its angles and choice of coverage is another matter.) As far as international news organizations go, though, the BBC really does have correspondents in every corner of the globe, as well as varied and widespread topics. Another perk is that you can elect to view some news in other languages, such as Urdu, Arabic, and two kinds of Chinese.

Bing

PCMag proclaimed Bing for iPhone "the best general search app" in the iTunes App Store when it debuted in 2009. Since then, Microsoft has expanded the functionality of its Bing app to include voice, barcode, and photo-based search to give users a variety of ways to gather information. The iPhone app sports a simple yet elegant black-and-white interface, highlighted by a large wallpaper image. The Vision Search feature needs more time to mature, but Bing delivers consistently good search results on the iPhone.

Converter Plus
This all-in-one calculation app, Converter Plus, delivers numbers on nearly everything, from currency conversions to loan interest figures. It converts metric to imperial measurements for temperature, cooking volumes, length, and more.

Dragon Go!

You can already search by voice on your iPhone with Bing and Google apps, but Dragon Go! lets you do more with the results, taking advantage of other apps and a nifty sliding tab "carousel" interface. Dragon Go! was created by speech-recognition software company Nuance, which has long been in the game of enabling voice commands for computers. The big difference with this app compared to other voice command systems is it integrates with other apps and yields results in a more useful way. While another speech-recognition program, Siri, has gotten a lot of attention recently for speaking back to users (which Dragon Go! doesn't do), you can't get it unless you own an iPhone 4S. For all other iPhone and iPod Touch owners, Dragon Go! is the next best thing.

Dropbox
If your files live all over the place—your office computer, home desktop, laptop—having a dependable syncing program is a must. Dropbox, the service and productivity tool that lets you store your files in the cloud and access them from anywhere you have a signal, fills that role nicely with a Dropbox iPhone app. It has a simple interface, easy uploading, and swift syncing across all accounts.

Epicurious
Epicurious is a recipe app, and I'll openly admit that it's not my favorite (I'm a fan of Cook's Illustrated, which requires a paid membership, and the $2.99 AllRecipes.com Dinner Spinner Pro), but among the free options, it's the best. This app from Condé Nast pulls recipes from a huge catalog, including the archives of Bon Appétit and the now closed Gourmet magazine. You can search by ingredient or by the type of dish you want to make, such as appetizers and "weeknight dinners."

ESPN Score Center
ESPN's free app lets you check the game quickly, and discreetly when necessary (that is, with your phone under the dinner table), for your favorite teams in more sports than most other apps. It can pull game data from baseball, basketball, American football, the sport the rest of the world calls football (soccer, in the U.S.), ice hockey, cricket, rugby, and more.

Evernote

Without the Evernote app for iPhone, I'd be a lot less productive while I'm away from my desk. This free, straightforward note-making app outrivals most competing apps thanks to its strong search capabilities and effortless organization. But the real key to its success and popularity is that Evernote synchronizes all your files by saving them to a cloud service, meaning anything you create or alter from your iPhone will be there waiting for you when you log into any other version of Evernote. I use Evernote to write, take notes, and even snap pictures of whiteboards and PowerPoint slides in meetings, so I can remember details later.—

Next: Apps 11-20 >

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