Top Ten Commercial Services and Software Available to Students for Free

Last Updated on February 18, 2013

If you are a student (or just have an active .edu email address), you are eligible for a huge number of deals and specials. Here is a list of active deals. Feel free to add your own.

If you have a .edu email address, you are eligible for a lot of free commercial software and services. Some of them will require validation, and others you will have to research to see if your school has established an account to use. Using these specials, you can save a lot of those precious student dollars.

Many of these are targeted toward college students; however, typically any student is eligible. Feel free to add more in the comment section below. Please only list free, non-crippled, non-discounted software.

1. The Fetch OS X FTP client is free to students.

2. Most of the Microsoft developer tools and server software can be obtained through DreamSpark as well. What software is available is largely depending on your institution’s relationship with Microsoft. Frequently accessed software includes Windows Server, Visual Studio, Visio, .NET Enterprise Servers, MSDN Library, Windows 7, Microsoft Project, Expression, SQL Server, Exchange Server and others.

3. Free web designing, wireframing, and prototyping suite Axure RP for students “studying HCI, information architecture, web design or a related field.”

4. Dropbox will double your referral credits if you have an edu email account. (You’ll have to login to see the link.)

5. Free Amazon Prime for six months.

6. and 7. Autodesk and Vectorworks each have CAD programs available for free.

8. Many schools offer ad-free versions of google apps.

9. Maxon provides a high-powered student version of CINEMA 4D for budding 3d artists and designers. Alternatively, Blender is available to everyone for free. Don’t forget that 3ds Max is available through Autodesk’s student section.

10. Many schools provide access to VMware software through the VMware Academic Program. This provides free licenses to VMware Fusion for Mac, Workstation for Windows/Linux, and more.

11. For a bonus, the essential version of the popular epocrates mobile application is available to medical students in iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry flavors.