Free Software Collection
Free Learning and Science Software
Educational software has a well-developed pricing structure — annual subscriptions, per-student billing, features split into modules — with school procurement and parent payments running as two parallel cash flows. Yet some of the best software in this field happens to be free and open source: the most mature implementation of spaced repetition, the dynamic geometry tool used in maths classrooms worldwide, the children's programming language built at MIT. This list runs by stage, from a first programming language through to managing research literature.
15 curated recommendations
Selection Criteria
- Core features are permanently free, with no per-student or per-hour billing.
- Usable without a school account or institutional licence.
- Data exports, so switching software does not lock in what you built up.
- Offline capability is noted separately — learning often happens without reliable network.
Recommended Tools
Anki
Spaced-repetition flashcards that lock knowledge into long-term memory
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- Offline
Scratch
Build programs from blocks — a first programming language for kids
- No Ads
- Offline
- No Sign-up
- Cross-platform
GeoGebra
Draw the function, drag a point, and the idea clicks
- No Ads
- Offline
- No Sign-up
- Cross-platform
Stellarium
A planetarium on your desktop, showing exactly what your eyes would see
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- Offline
JupyterLab
Code, results and explanation living in one document
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- Offline
GNU Octave
MATLAB's language, without the licence
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- Offline
Radicand
sqrt(12) gives you 2√3, not 3.4641016
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- Offline
QGIS
Professional GIS that replaces a licence costing thousands a year
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- Offline
Kiwix
The whole of Wikipedia on your disk, readable with no network at all
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- Offline
JabRef
A reference manager that edits BibTeX directly — native ground for LaTeX
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- Offline
GCompris
Nearly two hundred learning activities for ages 2 to 10, with no ads and no in-app purchases
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- Offline
Celestia
Leave the ground and fly to any planet, star or galaxy
- Open Source
- No Ads
- Offline
- No Sign-up
Lichess
A chess site where every feature is free — no membership tier, no ads
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
- Cross-platform
Recommended Skills & MCP
Zotero MCP
Let AI search, summarize and annotate your Zotero library
Works with: Claude Desktop · Claude Code · Cursor
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
Scientific Agent Skills
160+ research skills across biology, chemistry and medicine
Works with: Claude Code · Codex · Cursor
- Open Source
- No Ads
- No Tracking
FAQ
- What should I use for memorising?
- Anki. Its spaced repetition schedules each card by how hard it was to recall, so it reappears just as you are about to forget. Decks are yours to build or to download, with images, audio, formulas and cloze deletions. Desktop and Android are free; the iOS app is paid — that is how the project is funded, and it does not affect the other platforms.
- Where does a child start with programming?
- Scratch. Built at MIT, it assembles program logic from blocks with no typing and no syntax to remember, and what you build moves immediately. What it teaches — sequence, loops, conditions, events — survives into any language later. It runs in a browser and has an offline build.
- What ages are GeoGebra and Stellarium for?
- GeoGebra spans a wide range, from drawing shapes in primary school through watching a function change with its parameters in secondary school to visualising calculus at university, and it is used in maths classrooms in many countries. Stellarium turns the computer into a planetarium — enter a time and place and the sky matches what the eye would see, which makes constellations and celestial motion concrete.
- Which of these are for research?
- JupyterLab for analysis, with code, output and prose in one reproducible document. GNU Octave for numerical computing with MATLAB-compatible syntax and no licence to buy. QGIS for geospatial data, replacing commercial GIS that costs thousands a year. JabRef for references, where the library file is BibTeX text that versions in Git alongside the paper.
- What is Kiwix for?
- Downloading the whole of Wikipedia to a disk for offline reading, along with packages such as Project Gutenberg and Stack Exchange. Where the network is unreliable, in the field, or absent entirely, it is how you carry the reference material with you.