Discover the cream of the crop without having to dig around in the App Store.
The App Store has more than 1.5 million apps and counting. With so many new apps being published every day, it's impossible to track down the best ones without a little help — so that's where we come in. We've gathered all of the best free iPhone apps across nearly all categories just to make your life a little easier.
(You're welcome.)
iMore app
Of course we're biased, but we think everyone should have the iMore app center stage on their Home screen. Maybe even in the Dock. If you love iMore as much as we do, you should download this app.
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Business
Adobe Acrobat Reader
The Adobe Acrobat Reader app is a must-have for working on PDFs on the go. You can annotate, fill in forms, sign documents, and more. When you connect to Dropbox, you can access files in the cloud from anywhere. When you access a PDF, you'll be able to open it to read and edit fields. It's perfect for business because millions of offices support Adobe Acrobat.
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iScanner
When your out at a business luncheon and really wish you could scan that document your new client just signed, iScanner has your back. You can quickly scan any kind of document (even a napkin) and save it as a PDF or JPEG. You can sync files with Dropbox, Evernote, OneDrive, and Google Drive. The image recognition system clears out shadows and noise while adjusting for perspective so your tabletop scan looks like it was made in the office.
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Education
iTunes U
iTunes U is a worldwide online university with more than 1 million free classes covering practically anything you want to learn. Each course includes PDFs, eBooks, videos, lectures, and more. Some courses even provide one-on-one help from instructors. There are even official classes from professors at Oxford, Yale, MIT, and more. It's like you have the entire world's education, literally at your fingertips.
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Google Classroom
Students and educators using Google Apps for Education can access their most important information on their iPhones with Google Classroom. You can check the syllabus to see when homework is due, chat with teachers, and share projects in Google Drive. Teachers can assign homework to the entire class without having to hand out a single sheet of paper. Presentations and notes can be shared with students in Google Drive, as well.
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TED
If you are interested in technology, entertainment, and design, then you have probably already watched a few TED talks in your time. Now, you can take these inspiring snippets of knowledge with you wherever you go. Watch featured videos, browse TED talks relating to a specific topic, and bookmark favorites. Download videos for offline viewing and you can keep up on all the knowledge without using up your data.
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Entertainment
Netflix
The magic of technology means that we can now watch movies in places where we were never intended to watch movies, like parks, restaurants, and in the office. With your streaming Netflix subscription, you can watch thousands of movie and television titles anywhere you bring your iPhone, even the bathroom. Your queue, viewing history, and account information is saved across your devices, so you can pick up where you left off.
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Hulu
Hulu is the destination spot for streaming current seasons of some of your favorite TV shows. With your Hulu subscription, you can take those shows with you in your pocket. Your watching history, show suggestions, and account information is stored and waiting for you on all of your devices. You can start watching on your iPad and finish on your iPhone.
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Finance
Credit Karma
These days, you can't get by in the real world without some form of credit. If you have poor credit, it can be even harder. Credit Karma keeps track of your scores from TransUnion and Equifax so you can see quickly how your credit looks. Your score is based on factors like how often you use your card and how regularly you make payments on time. You can view the status of individual factors and find out what might be causing a low score. It also has advice on how to get an excellent credit rating and offers on new accounts that might suit your needs.
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Mint
If you are trying to save up for a big purchase, stay within your monthly budget, or just want to keep track of your spending habits, Mint is the personal finance app for you. You can enter account information for your various banks and credit cards to develop a personalized budget, create bill payment reminders, and track your investments. If you find yourself struggling to make ends meet, follow real tips and advice for staying within your budget based on your actual spending activity. Your personal finances will make more sense to you then they ever have before.
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Health & Fitness
MyFitnessPal
This app is actually called Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker but everyone knows it as MyFitnessPal. It is a great app for losing (or gaining) weight and keeping an eye on your daily fitness activities. You can report your calorie intake, sync your scale information, and more. Probably the best aspect of MyFitnessPal is that you connect with your friends and use them as a support group. They can hold you accountable to your goals and give you positive reinforcement when you do.
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Runtastic
If running is your bag, you will dig Runtastic. You can track your runs in real time using GPS and see a map of your workout on a daily basis. There is a virtual coach that will motivate you to move faster and go further. You can turn your exercise into a game by competing against your own previous runs. It's sort of like playing a racing game against a ghost drive of yourself. You can also playback music from within the app so you can listen to tunes, but still hear all of the coaching features. Runtastic also has a social feature to provide you with a support group of friends to keep you on track.
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Fitbit
Fitbit is first and foremost a step tracker. But, it is so much more. It will track your daily steps and log your data so that you can see how far you walk each day. You can log your calorie intake and water consumption, and even monitor your sleep. If you are trying to lose weight, the in-app tracker will help you see how your fitness and food combine to help you meet your goals. If you purchase one of the company's many wearable fitness trackers, you can get even more benefits out of the app.
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Kids
Epic!
Epic is sort of like a library filled with nothing but books for kids. For $4.99 per month, parents can build a digital bookshelf for their little ones from more than 10,000 titles. Kids can read any of the books at any time. Save them in your favorites collection to reread them in the future. If your little one will be reading in the backseat on the way to Grandma's house, you can download books for offline reading, too. Kids get recommendations based on their interests and age. For one monthly price, you can have up to four different profiles and everything is stored in the cloud so you can start reading on one device and finish on another.
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Club Penguin
Club Penguin is a social game for kids. Your youngling can chat with others using preprogramed phrases (so no inappropriate language can be used), buy styling clothes for their avatar, and deck out their igloo. There are fun mini games they can play to earn coins and prizes and there are always plenty of events they can participate in on a regular basis. It is free to play, but for a monthly subscription, kids get access to a bunch of cool items and parties that non-subscribers don't.
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YouTube Kids
YouTube can truly be the cesspool of humanity at times. But, it is also a place where kids can discover amazing new things. Google made this app specifically to make it safer for kids to explore content on YouTube without fear of seeing or reading something not age-appropriate. The discovery page has suggestions for kid-friendly music videos, educational clips, cartoons, and more. And there isn't even a comment section in sight. Parents have control over what features their kids have access to, like searching and channels. The user-interface is designed with little ones in mind. It is easy to navigate, and even has pleasant background music that plays while you are browsing for content.
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Lifestyle
Instructables
If you've ever wanted to learn how to build a coffee table from scratch... out of old plastic bags and a PVC pipe, Instructables has you covered (probably). It's filled with user-created instructions for all manner of do-it-yourself projects to pass the time and make your life a little brighter. This app is a mobile-friendly version of the website that includes access to your personal account so you can quickly look up your favorite projects, add your own Instructable, and see who follows you. You can search for a specific project, or explore categories like technology, food, costumes, and more. It's a one-stop shop for all your DIY desires.
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Craftsy
Craftsy is a website dedicated to all things craft-related, like knitting, sewing, quilting, painting, drawing, and more. Each category has dozens of online courses with video lessons, instruction materials, and one-on-one help from instructors. Courses cover beginners to advanced crafters and range in price from about $14.99 to $29.99. This app provides complete access to all of your courses and you can sign up for new ones at any time. Download videos for offline viewing so you can complete your lessons anywhere in the world.
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Reddit: The Official App
Reddit is the biggest time destroyer on the internet and having a mobile version makes it even worse. Before you know it, your children will be grown and you'll wonder what happened to your life. On the iPhone, you can browse all feeds, or select one sub-Reddit to spend your time in. Log in to your account to view your subscriptions, browsing history, saved posts, upvotes, and more. You can even sit in on awesome AMAs from anywhere, including, you know, the toilet.
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Medical
Mayo Clinic
The Mayo Clinic app is the best mobile access for patients of the world-renowned medical facility. You have access to your appointment schedule, test results, and x-rays. When you connect with the Health app, your daily activities are synced to your profile so you can share the information with your doctor without having to see someone directly. Even if you aren't a patient, you can read up on useful information on health and wellness in the Daily section, which produces a handful of articles every day relating to such topics as stress reduction, nutrition, medication safety, and more.
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WebMD
Feeling a little funny and want to see if your symptoms are something you should see a doctor about? Ask the virtual doctor in WebMD. Tap the area of the model body where you're having issues, select your symptoms, and WebMD will generate a list of possible conditions. When you select a condition, you can view causes and treatments, risk factors, and whether you should see a doctor. You can also search for information on specific conditions, prescription drugs, where to find a doctor, hospital, or pharmacy in your area, general first aid information, medical terms, and more. WebMD won't make you a doctor, but it's kind of like having a medical book in your pocket without having to go to medical school.
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Music
Spotify
Listening to Spotify is like having a giant music store at your fingertips. You can rock out to full albums, individual tracks, playlists, and radio style streams. You can build your personal library by favoriting tracks, following artists, and connecting with friends, and even get suggestions based on your listening activities. With a monthly subscription, you can listen to albums in order, remove ads, and download music for offline listening.
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Google Play Music
With Google Play Music, you can upload as many as 50,000 songs to cloud storage and listen to tracks anywhere at any time. You can also stream free radio stations based on what you are doing or feeling at the moment (like exercising, or feeling moody). You can search for a particular artist or album and start a station based on your selection or browse new and trending content and start a station based on that. With a Google Play Music All Access subscription, you can playback full albums and tracks on-demand with an ad-free experience and download tunes for offline listening.
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Navigation
Google Maps
If you're not married to Apple Maps, there's a worthy alternative in Google Maps. With it you can get step-by-step instructions, find nearby places, and look up transit options in a lot more places. If you sign in with your Google account, you can look up saved addresses and view recent searches. You can also check out business info and read reviews. Street View shows pictures from, well, the street, so you can have an idea of what things should look like on your arrival. When you hit the road, Google Maps will offer to reroute you based on current road conditions so you can get where you are going in the least amount of time.
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Waze
Waze is the most social mapping service around. While driving with the app open, you will be sharing real-time traffic conditions to help others around you know what to expect. You can report accidents and get alerts while you are en route. Community members also update content with cheapest gas prices, road conditions and construction, and even active police speed traps. If you and your buddies are all traveling separately to the same destination, you can track their ETA and send them your current location. To make your travel even more interesting, you can earn points for contributing road information and become a top-ranking Waze community member.
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News
BuzzFeed
Get all of your favorite daily lists delivered to your iPhone so you can read up on the latest news and gossip. Find out which Disney princess you are. See which cartoon character you are based on your Zodiac sign. Scroll through all of the cutest cat pictures on the web. And dig into some deep original reporting too, while you're at it. You can bookmark posts to refer back to them later, comment on articles and pictures, and share stories with various social networking services. If you read BuzzFeed on a regular basis, you'll want to keep this one on your home screen.
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Flipboard
Flipboard is a news aggregator that brings together interesting information with a nice looking interface. You can select your personal interests from hundreds of topics that range from broad categories like science fiction to specifics like George Lucas.You can create your own personal magazines by adding them to specific boards. You can share magazines with specific friends, make it public so anyone can see it, or keep it private. The Daily edition features handpicked articles about current events so you can stay informed. Flipboard also lets you select sites that you are following to control content and like posts to better customize the stories that are delivered to you.
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Photo & Video
Snapseed
Snapseed is a simple-to-use photo editing app that has great tools for fine tuning your pictures. You can adjust brightness, contrast, highlights, ambience, and more. Crop photos, skew perspectives, remove unwanted debris, and add a vignette. Or use one of the 11 filters and adjust the effect. Or one of 23 different frames. You can even selectively adjust a section of the photo to enhance the most important object in the image.
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VidLab
With VidLab, you can turn 15-second videos into mini movies to share on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. You can add text and adjust how long it appears on screen. Add voice recording to narrate your story. You can also add tracks from your music library, or select from any song in iTunes to purchase and add as the soundtrack to your clip. There are dozens of sound effects that you can include to add a bit of extra flare, as well as retro overlays to make your video look like an 8mm film, stickers for specific locations, and more. VidLab's a fun way to make mini video clips that are easily shared on social networking sites.
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Productivity
1Password
If you keep a list of your passwords on a sheet of paper that you always seem to misplace, or if you use the same three passwords for every account, you're doing it wrong. 1Password makes it possible for you to use complex, multi-character passwords that you don't have to memorize. You'll only have to remember the one you use to log into the app. You can store credit card information, profile form filling data, and private notes. And on the iPhone 5s and newer, you can use your fingerprint with Touch ID to log in. It might be the most important app you have on your iPhone.
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Outlook
Outlook for iOS is a one-stop app for productivity. It is connected to Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, Dropbox, and more. You don't even have to have a Microsoft or Outlook account to use the Outlook app — it supports Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and iCloud too. You can connect your calendar and contact information to view everything in one place. You can open Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents from emails and edit them before resending them again. Your emails are divided by "Focused" and "Other" so you can quickly respond to the most important messages and leave the rest for later.
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Shopping
Amazon
If you shop at the largest online retail store in the world, then you'll love the convenience of being able to access your account using the Amazon app. You can browse items, compare products, look up wish lists, check your purchases, and more. It features everything you would use while shopping in a web browser, but is formatted specifically for mobile use. Sign in to one-click shopping and you'll be able to purchase items with just a couple of taps.
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eBay
When it comes to finding everything you've ever wanted, auction hub eBay probably has what you are looking for, even if it went out of style 30 years ago. When logged in, you'll be able to view recent histories, items you are bidding on, and auctions you are watching. You'll also be closely connected to your seller account, where you'll be able to see how an auction is going, get alerts when an item sells, and create new auctions, all from your iPhone.
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Social Networking
SnapChat
Social networking these days is all about short and sweet. With SnapChat, you can share pictures and videos that only last a few seconds at a time. Send a SnapChat to specific recipients, or share it publicly on your timeline. You can also create stories, which allow you to add to a photo or video throughout the day. Add filters and fun real-time stickers to give your friends something to smile about. You can also follow news outfits on SnapChat for the latest and some peeks behind-the-scenes, like CNN or mobilenations (you should totally follow us!).
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Miitomo
Nintendo has turned traditional social networking into a game. With your customized Mii avatar, you can learn all about your friends and tell them all about you. Miitomo asked you specific questions, like what your favorite food is, or your earliest memory. Your friends can hear and respond to your answers, and you can do the same with them. You'll earn coins, tickets, and candy for listening and responding to answers, which you can use to get new outfits in the Mii store. It's a new way to communicate with your friends.
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Instagram
Pictures, pictures, pictures. With Instagram, you can show off all the pictures. Take a picture of your food, feet, or feline. Then, add a filter and tag your friends. People who follow you can comment and like your photos. You can follow famous celebrities, browse through trending topics, or search for specific terms and people. You can spend your days living vicariously through #vanlife, or follow @Starwars to get the latest news.
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Sports
ESPN
If you follow local or national teams in a variety of sports, ESPN gives you up-to-the-minute news right in your pocket. You can quickly check scores for your favorite teams across all categories, including the big ones like NBA, NFL, and MLB, as well as niche favorites like the Little League World Series and the World Series of Poker. When you save your favorite teams, you'll be able to read news reports and watch game highlights in a convenient feed. You can get a broader scope of sports news by selecting a specific category, like NCAA Football or FIFA World Cup. When you create an account, you'll be able to listen to popular sports podcasts. If you have a cable subscription, you can watch your favorite ESPN shows, like SportsCenter and Mike & Mike.
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MLB.com at Bat
Major League Baseball fans get all the up-to-date information about their favorite teams with season schedules, current news, player stats, and more with MLB at Bat. You can purchase tickets to upcoming games, bid on memorabilia auctions, and watch game highlights. For a monthly or yearly subscription, you can watch out-of-market games, catch replay highlights of important moments in history, and listen to live programming. When you log in with your cable provider information, you'll have access to real-time games throughout the season.
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Travel
Hotel Tonight
If you don't mind planning a weekend trip at the last minute, or just need someplace to stay on short notice, then Hotel Tonight is your best friend. It aggregates discount deals for hotels based on last-minute price drops. When rooms don't get booked, hotels are willing to drop the price in order to fill the void. So, that fantastic hotel you want to stay at could drop in price by 50 percent if you are willing to wait until the last minute to book your stay. Even if you aren't the type of person to wait until the last minute, you can get some great discounts on hotels a week ahead of time. You can browse hotels in specific cities or see what kind of amazing weekend deals are available within a few hours drive.
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Uber
Whenever you take a trip, you can always count on Uber to give you a ride. Whether you are going to the airport, driving into the city, or just need to get some groceries, you can call on a nearby Uber driver to pick you up and take you where you need to go. When traffic is slow, you can expect to pay half of what traditional cabs charge. But, be aware that Uber does practice surge pricing. Just because it only cost $10 to get into the city, doesn't mean it will be so cheap on the way out.
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TripIt
If you are the type of person that likes to have their travel plans meticulously organized, TripIt is your best friend. Whenever you book a flight, purchase event tickets, make dinner reservations, or anything itinerary related, you can forward the confirmation email to TripIt and it will be added to your schedule. You can also sync your itinerary with Outlook, Google Calendar, and Apple's Calendar app. If you have a Google account, your emails will automatically be sent to the app. You can get directions, find nearby activities, and plan a whole vacation around your travel plans.
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Utilities
Calcbot
Calcbot is oh, so much more than just a digital calculator, and I'm not just talking about scientific notation. Sure, you can calculate sines, cosines, and tangents with no problem, but you can also convert 500 units across a variety of categories, like liquid measurements, currencies, electricity, and more. Your equation history is saved for future reference, and you can even select it again and add to the equation. And with iCloud sync, you can access your history from any device.
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DeskConnect
If you can't seem to get Handoff to be stable, or you don't have a Mac to connect to your iPhone, DeskConnect is the next best thing. You can copy any text or URL and send it to any other connected device, including your PC or Mac. Share photos, videos, and full documents from apps like Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. All you have to do is select DeskConnect from your app extensions to send files, texts, and URLs.
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Weather
The Weather Channel
Get your daily weather conditions delivered to you every morning with info from The Weather Channel. You can also get details on hourly changes over the next 48 hours, and predictions across the next 10 days. It features information on road conditions, allergy and virus alerts, and uses-uploaded pictures of nearby locations. You can watch video clips and news reports from The Weather Channel's morning show.
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Weather Underground
With data from the Weather Underground, you'll be able to pinpoint your current temperature to within a few blocks of your location. Thanks to user suggestions for temperature adjustments, you can let others know exactly what the conditions are in your area. Plus, you can get an idea of the week ahead with a 10-day forecast. Check the radar map to see what the weather is like a few blocks away. This is one of the few apps around that shows you what the temperature was for the previous 48-hours, too. I don't know about you, but I'm always interested in how warm or cold it is in comparison to yesterday.
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NOAA Weather Radar
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