Paid software and services available for free during the pandemic from Microsoft, Facebook and more
Free services are helping businesses mitigate the effects of the outbreak
Have you caught wind of other free offerings designed to help businesses during the pandemic ? Let us know at joel.khalili@futurenet.com
Companies all over the world have ordered employees to work from home in response to the widespread introduction of coronavirus lockdown measures.
Top of the list of concerns for many businesses is whether employees are properly equipped to go virtual. The lack of appropriate software could prove a significant stumbling block for workers asked to suddenly abandon their office workstations.
Thankfully, technology vendors of all shapes and sizes have come to the rescue, with many offering free access to premium services for a limited time. Here’s a rundown of the best free products and services to help your business navigate the ongoing pandemic:
*We update this guide regularly with all the latest offers, so be sure to check back.
- Check out our list of the best collaboration tools for 2020
- Working from home: the mouse, monitor, keyboard and router you need
- Here's our choice of the best webcams for working from home right now
Collaboration tools
Google Meet
Google's premium video conferencing service Google Meet is available free of charge until 30 September. Users can host conferences with up to 100 people at once - and time limits have been temporarily lifted too.
Available to: all businesses
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft is offering a six-month free trial of Microsoft Teams' premium tier and will also let users schedule calls and video conferences. Meanwhile, all UK NHS staff will receive free access to the Teams collaboration platform as well.
Available to: all businesses (with additional features for NHS staff)
Cisco Webex
Cisco has added additional features to its free Webex service and is also offering free 90-day business licenses to firms affected by coronavirus. Free accounts will now allow users to host meetings with up to 100 participants for an unlimited amount of time.
Available to: all businesses
3CX
3CX is giving away its business communications software to all businesses for a period of three whole years - and for unlimited users. The solution allows users to make and receive calls, see the status of colleagues, chat, schedule conferences and access the corporate phone book.
Available to: all businesses
Pronto for Business
Communications platform Pronto has made its collaboration solution, Pronto for Business, free for a limited (but unspecified) time. The service connects employees seamlessly via chat and video to ensure they’re equipped to work from any location.
Available to: all businesses
8x8 Video Meetings
Cloud communications platform 8x8 has expanded the global capabilities of its free video meetings solution. The firm has done away with restrictions on the number of meetings and meeting duration, and added calendar plugins for Google and Outlook, and dial-in numbers for more than 55 countries.
Available to: all businesses
Wildix Smart Working
Unified communications firm Wildix is giving away six-month subscriptions to its smart working solution, to ensure employees are able to maintain productivity at home. The package includes audio and video conferencing, text chat, fax & SMS capabilities and more.
Available to: all businesses
Vonage
VoIP provider Vonage is offering businesses free 90-day access to a number of its communications solutions, including mobile-only licenses and video conferencing. Governments and healthcare providers will have access to additional products, including VBC and instant SMS alert services.
Available to: all businesses (with additional features for healthcare providers and government agencies)
LogMeIn
LogMeIn is offering critical front-line service providers with free, organisation-wide use of many of its products until the end of June. The offer includes solutions for meetings, video conferencing, webinars and virtual events and management of remote devices.
Available to: front line service providers, existing customers
Workplace Advanced by Facebook
In an effort to help emergency services and governments deal with the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, Facebook has announced it will offer the premium version of its workplace chat service, Workplace Advanced, for free for 12 months.
Available to: governments, emergency services
Flock Pro
Flock is giving away its Flock Pro collaboration offering through the end of August to any organisation assisting in the fight against coronavirus. Flock Pro includes unlimited searchable messages, unlimited private and public channels and group video calls.
Available to: healthcare, education, governments, NGOs
Hiver
Inbox collaboration firm Hiver has opened up its offering to SMBs helping to contain the spread of Covid-19 or providing relief to those affected. Its service allows companies to manage shared email inboxes from within Gmail.
Available to: select businesses with fewer than 50 employees
Librestream Onsight
Librestream has announced free access to its remote expert solution, Librestream Onsight. The service allows employees to collaborate virtually, and perform remote inspections, diagnostics and consultations over video stream.
Available to: new customers
FreeConferenceCall
On top of its standard offering, free online video conferencing platform FreeConferenceCall.com is providing online classroom capabilities to teachers across the world. Educators can host and record lectures, schedule study sessions with screen sharing, and use drawing tools while teaching.
Available to: all businesses (with additional facilities for schools)
CircleLoop
Cloud-based phone provider Circle Loop has pledged to provide free business telephony to certain institutions for three months. The firm’s internet-based phone system can be set up within minutes, supporting calling, voicemail transcription and more.
Available to: schools, healthcare providers, charities
Motorola Solutions
Motorola is offering its WAVE push-to-talk service free for 3 months to emergency services and volunteer organisations involved in Covid-19 relief efforts. WAVE enables push-to-talk functionality across phones, radios and computers to ensure users have access to secure communications.
Available to: emergency services, volunteer organisations
Starleaf
Starleaf has introduced a free version of its conferencing software to enable remote working for all employees during the coronavirus crisis, and is also providing customers with additional licensing flexibility. The free version is available worldwide and across all devices, requiring only an internet connection and email address.
Available to: all businesses
Blizz from TeamViewer
TeamViewer is offering its online collaboration solution Blizz to all schools and universities free of charge, enabling teachers to hold interactive lessons with up to 50 participants via video and telephone connections.
Available to: schools and universities
Olive Communications
Olive Communications is offering 6-month subscriptions to its Mitel MiTeam Meetings video conferencing solution free of charge. The firm has also promised to provide free consultation for businesses looking to develop a remote strategy.
Available to: all businesses
Freshworks
Customer engagement tools Freshchat and Freshcaller are available for free for six months courtesy of Freshworks. Both tools can be used to manage a surge in customer queries via digital channels and help businesses transition to remote work.
Available to: businesses with fewer than 50 employees
Prezi
To help teachers keep students engaged from afar, Prezi has opened up its video presenting solution to all educators free of charge. Prezi Video places the presenter’s content on the screen beside them, allowing the teacher to maintain eye contact and make use of gestures and facial cues while presenting.
Available to: education professionals
RingLeader
Internet phone services provider RingLeader has pledged 25,000 months of free usage of its CrowdVoice Americas platform - a secure mobile social communications application. Interested parties should use coupon code BEAT19TOGETHER at checkout.
Available to: North American businesses
VPN
VyprVPN for Business Cloud
To combat security threats associated with the increase in remote working, VyprVPN has made VyprVPN Business cloud free for three months. The service offers a static IP address for all team members and secure file sharing over a dedicated server.
Available to: businesses with up to 15 employees
Atlas VPN
Atlas VPN is giving away a three-month subscription to its premium service to combat misinformation about coronavirus. The offer is available to all users, not just those that reside in countries with internet restrictions.
Available to: all businesses
Hide Me VPN
Hide Me VPN has increased the data transfer limit attached to its free accounts from 2GB to 10GB. The free plan includes 5 worldwide locations and support for all major operating systems
Available to: all businesses
Surfshark VPN
Demand for VPNs has skyrocketed with the spread of the coronavirus, as businesses and individuals look to preserve their online privacy and bypass internet restrictions. Surfshark is giving away six-month VPN plans to small businesses (up to ten employees), in a bid to help them weather the storm.
Available to: small businesses (up to 10 employees)
Orchid VPN
Orchid VPN is offering free access to its blockchain-based VPN to journalists across the globe, in a bid to fight press censorship. To be granted access, journalists must provide proof of status via email.
Available to: all journalists
Ghostery Midnight
Ghostery is giving away free three-month subscriptions to its third-party tracking protection service, Midnight. Users can rid themselves of ads and tailor blocking preferences. Interested parties should use the following code at checkout: WORKATHOME
Available to: all businesses
Antivirus and cybersecurity
BlackBerry
BlackBerry’s range of secure communication solutions for enterprises is available for free for a 60-day period - that includes BlackBerry Desktop, Blackberry AtHoc, Blackberry Protect and SecuSUITE Secure Messaging and Phone Calls. Interested parties should email: covid19help@blackberry.com
Available to: all businesses
Kaspersky Endpoint Security
Kaspersky is offering free access to its core endpoint security products, including EndPoint Security Cloud Plus, Security for Microsoft Office 365 (extended to include Teams and Sharepoint Online), Endpoint Security for Business Advanced and Hybrid Cloud Security. Interested parties should contact Kaspersky directly.
Available to: healthcare organisations
Bitdefender
Healthcare organisations have been granted free access to Bitdefender’s enterprise grade security offering for a period of 12 months. The company hopes the measure will allow healthcare providers to operate at full capacity, without worrying about opportunistic attacks at this trying time.
Available to: healthcare organisations
Qualys Endpoint Protection
Qualys is giving away its remote endpoint protection service for 60 days to help IT teams secure remote workforces - including malware protection. The solution allows security teams to gain instant visibility of remote computers, identify missing patches and deploy them from the cloud.
Available to: all businesses (although Qualys customers will be prioritised)
DomainTools Covid-19 Threat List
DomainTools is providing a free list of high-risk coronavirus-related domains, which logs domains the company believes pose either an existent or forthcoming threat. The list is updated daily and is available for CSV download.
Available to: all businesses
BreachTrak™
DQM GRC is offering a free 3-month subscription to its data monitoring platform BreachTrak™, so businesses can monitor for data leaks or misuse during this uncertain period, where employees may be accessing and processing information outside of the normal security perimeter.
Available to: all businesses
NETSCOUT Cyber Threat Horizon
Cybersecurity firm NETSCOUT has launched its Cyber Threat Horizon, a free and publicly available threat intelligence portal that offers network operators greater visibility into DDoS attacks in real-time.
Available to: all businesses
HP Inc. - HP Sure Click Pro
To address potential cybersecurity risks for those working or learning from home, HP is offering HP Sure Click Pro for free. The service uses isolation technology to guard against embedded malware, ransomware, and viruses, and this Pro version also allows users to edit Microsoft Word and Excel documents, read PDFs, and access .zip files within an isolated container.
Available to: all businesses
Cloudflare for Teams
Cloudflare for Teams is available to all businesses at no cost through September 1. The service enables safe and secure access to internal applications, without a VPN - and also includes an optional 30-minute onboarding session with a technical expert.
Available to: all businesses
Sumo Logic
Sumo Logic has extended the trial of its WFH application bundle to 90 days. The package is designed to help security teams monitor critical applications and services to ensure they’re both available and secure.
Available to: all businesses
Arcserve
Security firm Arcserve is offering a 30-day trial of its premium unified data protection service, which will revert automatically to the free edition. Users can also combine the service with Sophos Intercept X for free, creating a multi-layered first and last line of defence.
Available to: all businesses in the UK, US and France
Druva
Druva is offering a number of solutions to help businesses stay resilient, protected, and compliant while employees work remotely. The firm is offering six months of free Office 365 and endpoint protection to safeguard remote employee data from internal and external threats.
Available to: new customers
Tufin
Tufin is giving away a free tool that delivers real-time visibility into firewall rule changes in real time and allows businesses to monitor what was changed and by whom - regardless of whether the firewall is physical, virtual, in the cloud or on-premise.
Available to: all businesses
NetFoundry
Start-up NetFoundry is giving away free three-month subscriptions to its Cloud Native Networking Platform, designed to address the security limitations of traditional enterprise VPNs.
Available to: schools, healthcare, law enforcement, charities
SIRP
SIRP is offering free use of its Risk-Based Security Orchestration Automation & Response (SOAR) platform for 60 days. The offer is open to any business or MSSP that needs additional security support to help protect users and assets during this difficult time.
Available to: all businesses
Glasswall
Glasswall Solutions is offering small businesses in the UK and US free one-year subscriptions to its FileTrust for Email service. Powered by the firm’s patented technology, the solution offer protection against all manner of malicious email attachments.
Available to: small UK & US businesses
Access management
Okta Single Sign-On/Multi-Factor Authentication
Access management firm Okta is offering free 6-month access to its single sign-on (SSO) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) solutions. Businesses will be able to enable seamless access for all users to their five most critical applications.
Available to: all businesses
1Password Business
1Password has extended the 30-day trial on its enterprise password manager 1Password Business to six months, allowing newly remote employees to work in a secure and efficient fashion.
Available to: all businesses
SecureAuth
SecureAuth is offering its Intelligent Identity Cloud package for free through December 15. The package includes risk-based multi-factor authentication, single sign-on, biometric authentication and fraud prevention.
Available to: new customers
VMware Workspace ONE
Software giant VMware is offering extended free trials and licenses of Workspace ONE through July 31, giving remote workers secure access to corporate applications from any device.
Available to: all businesses
Micro Focus NetIQ Advanced Authentication
To help businesses provide remote workers with secure access to systems, Micro Focus is giving away its multi-factor authentication solution NetIQAdvanced Authentication through July 31. The firm is also offering up a host of other solutions, found here.
Available to: all businesses
Jumio Go
Jumio is providing its AI-powered identity verification service Jumio Go for free to organisations involved in coronavirus relief. The platform allows businesses to quickly and accurately identify workers and ensure critical services can be delivered and trusted.
Available to: businesses involved in coronavirus relief
Finance
phos
Payment acceptance app phos is currently available for free for three months to traders affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The service provides free contactless payment acceptance, and there are no hardware costs or long term commitment obligations.
Available to: traders affected by the pandemic
Skrill
Online payments firm Skrill is offering its wallet and Quick Checkout solution free of charge to SMBs that provide products and services to communities struggling with the Covid-19 outbreak. The service allows businesses to process a range of payment options via a single integration.
Available to: select SMBs (e.g. grocery delivery/educational services)
Airwallex
Airwallex has waived its FX and payment fees for the next two months to help businesses affected by the pandemic to continue operating internationally. The fintech firm provides companies with a global business account to collect, hold and transfer payments to over 130 countries.
Available to: UK and Australian businesses
Wagestream
Income streaming provider Wagestream will allow NHS trusts to release earnings to their staff immediately at not extra cost, to help UK healthcare workers through the ongoing pandemic. The service can be launched for any employers in 24 hours.
Available to: UK NHS
Education
Codeacademy
The world’s largest online coding education platform is offering 100,000 free subscriptions to its premium Pro platform to help workers affected by the pandemic grow their skillset.
Available to: furloughed or unemployed workers
Coursera for Campus
The world’s largest online learning platform has made its full course catalogue free to all universities. Students will gain access to 3,800 courses spanning 400 specialisations from Coursera’s university partners.
Available to: all universities
Classkick
Schools affected by the coronavirus crisis and unable to afford virtual learning solutions have been granted free access to Classkick Pro. The software allows teachers to upload their own content and create activities for students to perform on their devices at home.
Available to: schools affected the coronavirus crisis
Qlik Academic Program
Qlik is providing a selection of data-centric courses and qualifications for free as part of its Qlik Academic Program. After undergoing the online training, you’ll automatically be enrolled in the exams necessary to become fully qualified
Available to: students and professors
IBM
Computing giant IBM has released a free training course on 60-year-old programming language COBOL, on which many US government systems are reliant. The firm has also launched a forum where those with knowledge of the language can connect with companies in need of their services.
Available to: all businesses
CybSafe
Cybersecurity awareness and data analytics platform, CybSafe, has released three of its premium, multi-award-winning cyber security awareness modules for free. The courses are designed to provide employees with the skills they need to work from home in a secure manner.
Available to: all businesses
Immersive Labs
Cyber skills platform Immersive Labs is releasing a free weekly lab every Wednesday for cyber security professionals to use to develop their skills when working remotely. It is also releasing its Knowledge Labs, which contain information that all employees within an organisation can use to increase their cyber security awareness.
Available to: all businesses
Red Canary
Red Canary has made its ongoing series of educational trainings and attack/threat technique briefings available on-demand, with no need for registration or download.
Available to: all businesses
Creative
Final Cut Pro X & Logic Pro X
Apple has extended the free trial of its professional video editing software Final Cut Pro X from 30 to 90 days for all users. The company has also made its audio editing software Logic Pro X available for free for the first time, also for 90 days.
Available to: all businesses
Avid
Multimedia firm Avid is offering free 90-day licenses for its audio and video editing software to ensure team members are equipped to work remotely. The offer is available to existing commercial customers and students at Avid-based learning institutions.
Available to: existing customers, students at select institutions
Serif Affinity Suite
In a bid to support the creative community, Serif has introduced a 90-day free trial for Affinity Suite and a 50% discount on purchases. The suite includes professional creative software spanning photo editing, graphic design and publishing.
Available to: all businesses
Other
Foxit Software PhantomPDF Online
Foxit Software has made its cloud-based PDF editor, PhantomPDF Online, available for free through September 30. The tools allows users to create, edit, save and compress PDF files, among other features.
Available to: all businesses
Appian Covid-19 Response Management
Appian has published a free Covid-19 Response Management application for enterprises and government agencies. The app, which can be fully configured within two hours, allows organisations to track the health of employees, including their location, travel history and coronavirus incident details.
Available to: all businesses
ServiceNow Covid-19 Response Management
Digital workflow company ServiceNow has released four free Covid-19 emergency response apps, to help businesses navigate the coronavirus pandemic. The apps deliver key information to resource managers to facilitate organisational readiness assessment.
Available to: all businesses
NICE CXone@home
Remote contact center solution CXone@home from NICE is available to all businesses for a period of 45 days. The offering is designed to help contact centers transition to a remote working model in 48 hours or less. Key functionality includes 99.99% availability, e-learning for agent onboarding and no seat limits.
Available to: all businesses
Superhuman
Email client Superhuman is available free of charge for life to all those directly involved in the coronavirus relief effort. It bills itself as the fastest email experience ever made.
Available to: healthcare, charities, non-profit
Rainbird
Intelligent automation firm Rainbird has developed a COVID-19 risk assessment tool to help potentially vulnerable front-line workers limit their exposure to undue levels of risk. It's available for free until the NHS deadline for coronavirus risk assessment passes on 24 July.
Available to: all NHS England trusts
GoDaddy OpenWeStand
Web hosting giant GoDaddy has launched a new site, OpenWeStand, designed to support small businesses during the ongoing crisis. The site contains various resources, and also a facility to connect business owners and entrepreneurs to one another.
Available to: all businesses
SoftMaker Office
To assist students now operating out of the home, SoftMaker has made its productivity suite for Windows, Mac and Linux free for six months. Users can create documents, presentations and spreadsheets - all of which are compatible with Microsoft Office.
Available to: students, teachers, schools
NVIDIA vGPU
Graphics processing giant NVIDIA has expanded its free 90-day virtual GPU software evaluation from 128 to 500 licenses. This allows companies to use on-premise NVIDIA GPUs to provide accelerated virtual infrastructure to support remote workers.
Available to: all businesses
87%
Britain’s front line emergency workers can receive free access to mental wellbeing support during the pandemic, courtesy of wellbeing firm 87% and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. The app has been custom built in line with the needs of emergency physicians, and is available for one year.
Available to: fellows and members of the RCEM
Luminati
Ethical data collection platform Luminati is offering its services for free to Covid-19 researchers worldwide. The firm’s platform allows users to bypass any impediments to their data collection, by ‘going undercover’ as a user situated in any location.
Available to: researchers working on Covid-19
Zendesk Remote Support Bundle
Customer service software firm Zendesk is giving away a host of free resources as part of its Remote Support Bundle, available for six months. The package is designed to allow support agents to communicate with other teams, track the productivity of a remote workforce and analyse emerging trends in customer data.
Available to: all businesses
nCipher Security
For organizations facing problems travelling to remote data centers to carry out administrative tasks on their hardware security module (HSM) estate, nCipher is offering Remote Administration for its nShield HSMs free of charge for a 60-day trial period.
Available to: all existing nCipher nShield HSM customers
SEOTesting.com
SEOTesting.com is allowing businesses to use its service for free until July (to be extended should the situation continue). Companies can use the tool to run SEO tests on their website and monitor the effects of changes on Google ranking.
Available to: all businesses
baramundi Management Suite
baramundi Software is offering free use of its unified endpoint management software to IT administrators for four months. The package includes remote consultation, set-up, configuration and continuing support from a barramundi expert.
Available to: all businesses
Dynatrace
Dynatrace is offering extended free trial access to its Software Intelligence Platform and Dynatrace Real User Monitoring (RUM) for SaaS vendor experience. The offering is designed to help businesses keep applications and infrastructure running optimally and maintain digital performance during the pandemic.
Available to: all businesses
VMware SD-WAN Work @Home
To help organisations quickly empower a remote digital workforce, VMware is providing a free trial offering of VMware SD-WAN Work @Home, which optimises access to applications for homeworkers. The offer provides end user hardware and hosted services for up to 90-days for up to 100 employees.
Available to: all businesses
Laserfiche
Having extended its original offer for healthcare organisations, Laserfiche is now handing out free six-month subscriptions to Laserfiche Cloud to all businesses. The rapid deployment model should offer assistance to organisations struggling to provide teams with access to critical data and processes.
Available to: all businesses
Ultima
Automation and infrastructure service provider Ultima is offering free migration for SMBs from on premise to the cloud, in a bid to assist businesses struggling to transition to remote working. Costs are involved in ongoing maintenance, but initial upfront migration costs have been waived.
Available to: all businesses
UiPath
Enterprise RPA software firm UiPath is offering healthcare organisations free software to accelerate critical processes and free up strapped employees. The company’s Automation Hub is also available to customers and prospects for one year, allowing them to better support employees’ evolving needs.
Available to: healthcare / customers and prospects
AppDynamics
As part of AppDynamics’ Covid-19 Assist program, new customers can claim 100 SaaS licences for the firm’s application performance management software through July 15. The solution allows businesses to monitor and optimise their application environments as demand fluctuates.
Available to: all businesses
Hyperproof
To help businesses that span multiple geographies with disparate data privacy laws, Hyperproof is giving away subscriptions to its continuous compliance software at no cost.
Available to: all businesses
Workhuman
HR software provider Workhuman is offering its Conversations and Life Events products for free until March 2021. Conversations makes giving and receiving feedback easy through scheduled check-ins, while Life Events keeps teams connected socially by highlighting various personal landmarks achievements.
Available to: all businesses
Venafi
Venafi is offering a free six month trial of Venafi Cloud OutagePREDICT, which helps organizations avoid certificate-based outages. The tool alerts users of potential certificate expirations ahead of time, so they can take action immediately and prevent application outages.
Available to: all businesses
Outlaw
Legal tech firm Outlaw is offering giving away 6-month subscriptions to its contract management platform to organisations involved in the coronavirus response. The platform helps expedite the whole contract process - from drafting, to collaboration, e-signing and storing agreements.
Available to: healthcare
Socialbakers
Social media marketing firm Socialbakers is offering NGOs free access to the Socialbakers Suite, to help NGOs better communicate with their followers during this turbulent period. Interested parties should email support_NGO@socialbakers.com
Available to: NGOs
HCL Technologies
HCL Technologies is offering a 60-day Glovius licenses to support remote working during the COVID-19 outbreak. The multi-platform visualisation solution enables users to perform operations such as dimensioning, sectioning, markup, 3D and 2D comparison, and analysis of 3D CAD data while collaborating remotely.
Available to: all businesses
OVHcloud Open Solidarity
Cloud computing company OVHcloud is offering its infrastructures and services for free. This is intended to help companies cope with the crisis and is part of an open solidarity effort to help and support traffic spikes for websites.
Available to: all businesses
LiveSession
Session recording platform LiveSession has been made available for free to all non-profits during the pandemic - and is 50% off for any organisation affected by the crisis. LiveSession allows businesses to observe and analyze how users interact with their website on desktop or mobile.
Available to: non-profit organizations
EXFO TestFlow
EXFO is offering TestFlow, a test and measurement solution for service providers, free for three months. TestFlow reduces the amount of time required to test a network from weeks, down to a matter of minutes, and provides real-time analysis to protect networks from a wide range of field-testing issues.
Available to: all businesses
Underpinned
UnderPinned is offering its services for free until September to help ease financial pressures facing millions of freelancers and sole traders. Users will gain full access to the firm’s Virtual Office platform, including everything from a portfolio and proposal builder to project management tools and an automated invoice system.
Available to: new and existing customers
Awin Access
Awin has waived fees for the first three months for businesses launching an affiliate programme using its Awin Access service for startups and SMEs. This is in addition to zero setup fees, and no exclusivity clause – so businesses can be part of multiple networks at once.
Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
Joel Khalili is the News and Features Editor at TechRadar Pro, covering cybersecurity, data privacy, cloud, AI, blockchain, internet infrastructure, 5G, data storage and computing. He's responsible for curating our news content, as well as commissioning and producing features on the technologies that are transforming the way the world does business.