Free Alternatives to Expensive Software, Part 2

Yesterday, we started looking at free alternatives for paid software.  Today, we continue our list.

Microsoft Publisher - Microsoft's Publisher provides greater control over your document than a simple word-processing program.  However, if you are going to go with LibreOffice (or another free office suite) instead of Microsoft Office, you may need to find a replacement for Publisher.  Scribus is a great alternative for creating professional-looking pages.

Adobe Illustrator - Part of Adobe's suite of programs, Illustrator is a vector graphics program that creates items like logos and signs that need to be scalable to a variety of sizes.  (Vector graphic images won't pixelate when enlarged like other image formats.)  Inkscape is a free alternative to Illustrator for creating vector graphics.

Photoshop - Another Adobe program that I'm sure you have heard about is Photoshop.  This software allows you to do image editing.  Professionals will probably want to stick with Photoshop (despite its $19.99/month price tag), but amateur photo editors will likely find that GIMP meets all their needs.  While it may not contain all of the features of Photoshop, it does contain most of the major ones, and there are many more available through third-party plugins.

Adobe Acrobat - Most of us use the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view PDF files, but the full Adobe Acrobat software allows you to create PDFs.  However, you can use doPDF to create PDF files from any program.  This software installs like a printer.  Simply create a file in any program, go to print, and then select the PDF Creator printer.  The software will then walk you through the process to create your PDF file.

Quicken - Intuit's personal finance management software is great, but it is also expensive, especially if you want advanced features like rental properties or business income/expense tracking.  For most users, KMyMoney will do the job.  It is user-friendly and it still syncs with your online banking like Quicken.  The only reason I use Quicken instead of KMyMoney to track my business expenses is that Quicken allows me to scan my receipts and attach them to a transaction.

If you want income and expense tracking that can go with you anywhere, consider using Mint.com.  Mint is an online program that will sync across all of your devices to keep track of your spending and help you set financial goals.  Mint also has Android, iOS, and Windows Phone apps to track spending on the go.  Mint was independent when it started out, but it became so popular that Intuit (the makers of Quicken and QuickBooks) bought it in 2009.

QuickBooks - Unless you are a business owner, you probably don't need QuickBooks or a replacement for it.  However, if you have your own business and find that Quicken isn't powerful enough for you, check out Front Accounting ERP.  It does not currently handle payroll, but there are payroll add-ons available.

Obviously, no one could write a complete list of paid software and available free counterparts.  If you are looking for an alternative to a particular program, consider searching for "Open Source alternative for [Program]" and see what results you get.  If there is an open-source program available, chances are good that it will show up on the first pages.