Free Software That Businesses, Schools And Others Can Use During The COVID-19 Crisis 2020

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With armies of people now working from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations everywhere are scrambling for business software that supports videoconferencing, remote team collaboration, virtual classrooms and other activities.

The scale and speed of the shift has turned this into an unprecedented challenge for all kinds of companies, but especially smaller ones who haven’t yet invested heavily in remote-working technology. Government agencies and hospitals on the frontline of tackling the COVID-19 crisis are also looking for software that can help teams get to grips with the virus, and to share information with one another and with the wider world. And schools and universities are ramping up their ability to deliver teaching remotely as classrooms and campuses close.

In response, business software and services companies are rolling out a growing number of free products and services, as well as free customer upgrades to more advanced tools, to help organizations cope with the consequences of the pandemic. “In times like this, everyone needs to come together and help,” says Chris Bedi, the CIO of ServiceNow, one of the companies that has released a number of free applications.

This is our latest take on some of the products and services already out there. It highlights the technologies involved and provides a quick summary of what’s being offered. Things are changing incredibly fast and we’ll be updating the list regularly, so be sure to check in here again soon.

Adzooma

Focus: Online advertising.

Offer: The whole Adzooma platform. For free

These trying times are tough for all. So we’re giving away our whole award-winning platform for free until June 1st 2020. That’s automated PPC ads, one-click optimisations, and world-class reporting – at zero cost.

No strings attached. No credit card required.

You get $20, they get $20

Refer someone to Adzooma and get a $20 Amazon gift card when they import an advertising account. They get a $20 Amazon gift card too! Use the link below to get started.

Adzooma is making its tools for managing digital ads on Google and Facebook free of charge .

Get Adzooma for free in 3 steps:

1.Click here to go to the sign up page

2.Enter a few personal details

3.Connect your Google, Facebook or Microsoft ads account

Automation

A Google Ads Tool + AI – A Match Made In Heaven

PPC Advertising: The Future Is Automation

PPC

PPC Marketing: How To Perfect Your Campaigns

A PPC Management Company, Agency or Tool?

Google Ads

Google Ads Management: The Easy Way

What Makes A Great Google Ads Manager?

Microsoft Ads

A Microsoft Ads Manager Checklist

What Makes The Perfect Microsoft Ads Tool?

Facebook Ads

Should You Use A Social Media Marketing Agency

Social Media Marketing Services And What To Look

Education

PPC Software in 2019: A Comparison

How To Choose The Best PPC Management Company

Adobe

Focus: Software design tools and webconferencing.

Offer: The company is allowing its educational customers to request free home access for students and teachers to its Creative Cloud suite of tools. This will be available through May 31. Adobe has also made its webconferencing service, Adobe Connect, free for schools, businesses and government agencies on 90-day licenses that can run until July 1. The company has also pulled together a useful collection of content on distance learning here.

Airtable

Focus: Online databases and spreadsheets.

Offer: Any non-political, humanitarian effort tackling COVID-19 can use the company’s Airtable Pro product for free for the next three months. Airtable is also offering all students with a .edu email account a free two-year subscription to it.

Anaplan

Focus: Planning software

Offer: For qualifying nonprofits, government agencies and a range of other organizations, Anaplan is offering its platform for free for 90 days to help them accelerate their response to the crisis. The software can help with things such as staff scheduling and call-center rosters.

Appian

Focus: Low-code application platform.

Offer: The company has made an application that can help manage the health and safety of employees free of charge to its customers and to any organization with over 1,000 employees.

Atlassian

Focus: Workflow and team-collaboration tools.

Offer: The company’s flagship products, such as its Jira issue-and-project-tracking software and Confluence team-collaboration offering, will now be free for teams of up to ten people with no time limit. Atlassian is also offering K-12 schools and higher education institutions free one-year subscriptions to its Trello Business Class service, which can be used by teachers to schedule coursework and other activities.

Avaya

Focus: Team collaboration and communication platform.

Offer: The company is offering its Avaya Spaces collaboration software for free to educational institutions and nonprofits through August 31 in countries where it is available. There is a limit of 200 participants per meeting on the service.

Aware

Focus: Workforce governance and compliance.

Offer: With many workers now operating remotely, Aware is offering its Spotlight product for free through May. The software gives employers insights and analytics on their distributed workers.

Bill.com

Focus: Payments processing

Offer: Businesses that are experiencing a sharp decline in their revenues can get a free, three-month subscription to the service to run payables and receivables remotely.

BlackBerry

Focus: Connectivity for remote work.

Offer: Licenses are being provided free of charge for 60 days to a number of BlackBerry’s services that support remote-working connectivity, including BlackBerry Desktop and BlackBerry 2FA.

BlackLine

Focus: Finance and accounting software.

Offer: All existing BlackLine customers who don’t already have it can get access to the company’s task and reporting software free for the next six months.

BlueJeans

Focus: Videoconferencing service.

Offer: The company is making its service available for free to first responders and NGOs helping communities manage COVID-19 outbreaks. They will get organization-wide access for 90 days and the company says it could extend that term if circumstances warrant doing so.

Boardable

Focus: Online board meetings.

Offer: Nonprofits who sign on before the end of April can use Boardable’s service at no cost for 90 days to manage virtual meetings and committees.

Bonfire

Focus: Supply-chain software.

Offer: Bonfire makes software that helps companies with strategic sourcing—an area of considerable focus right now. It is making its platform free of charge to public-sector organizations in North America through the end of July.

Box

Focus: Cloud content collaboration and storage.

Offer: Box has made the business edition of its service, which offers things such as unlimited storage and data-loss protection, available for free for 90 days according to a tweet by the company’s CEO, Aaron Levie.

Breezy

Focus: Recruitment software and video interviews.

Offer: The company has made its live video interview and assessment capabilities free to all organizations for at least 60 days.

Calendly

Focus: Scheduling software integration with videoconferencing services.

Offer: Calendly used to charge for integrating with some videoconferencing services such as Zoom and GoToMeeting. This integration is now free and the company will also be offering unpaid access to its premium service for teams working on projects to tackle COVID-19.

Carto

Focus: Visualization and spatial-analysis software.

Offer:  The company is making its service free of charge to public and private organizations fighting COVID-19 via its grants program, which has already helped other kinds of public-interest projects.

Cisco

Focus: Videoconferencing service.

Offer: The creator of Webex is boosting the capabilities of the free version of its videoconferencing software in countries where it is available. It’s scrapped time limits on meetings and has expanded the service’s capacity so that it can support up to 100 people on a call. (If you are looking for musical inspiration, the Webex team has curated its own work-from-home playlist here.)

Creatio

Focus: Low-code service for process management and CRM.

Offer: Through October 1, healthcare agencies and hospitals, nonprofits, government agencies and other organizations battling COVID-19 can request free access to the company’s Service Creatio platform, which helps with things such as case management, message handling and call processing.

DataRobot

Focus: Machine learning and data preparation.

Offer: For organizations helping with the COVID-19 response effort, the company is opening up its enterprise AI platform free of charge. This enables users to prepare data for machine-learning models and then to run them.

Dialpad

Focus:  Cloud-based phone system and videoconferencing service.

Offer: Dialpad is giving any business in North America and Japan its cloud-based phone system, Dialpad Talk Pro, for free for the first two months of usage. Customers can cancel without cost at any time during that period, which may be extended. It is also offering its videoconferencing tool, UberConference Business, at no charge for the same amount of time.

Diligent Corporation

Focus: Online board meetings.

Offer: The company is making its software available for free to nonprofits and K-12 school boards who need to conduct remote board meetings during the COVID-19 crisis.

Dropbox

Focus: Cloud content collaboration and storage plus electronic agreements.

Offer: Dropbox Business, which enables people to work remotely, and HelloSign Enterprise, which manages electronic agreements, will be free for six months for nonprofits and NGOs involved in the battle against COVID-19.

Druva

Focus: Cloud data management and data protection.

Offer: Through 30 June, Druva is making its service available for free for 180 days. Each customer can have up to 300 Office 365 users with a maximum of 15 gigabytes (GB) of data per user and up to 300 endpoint protection users with a maximum of 50GB per user.

Enable

Focus: Rebate-management software

Offer: The company’s Essentials package, which lets users do things such as set up deals and create a central repository of them, is being offered free of charge during the pandemic.

EZ Texting

Focus: Text-based messaging.

Offer: The company is offering a free emergency text alert service for municipalities, government agencies and schools with a .gov or .edu email address.

Facebook

Focus: Team collaboration and communication platform.

Offer: A premium version of Workplace Advanced, which provides users with an internal version of Facebook complete with services such as video calling and file sharing, is now available for free to emergency services and governments for 12 months. Organizations have until June 30 to sign up for the offer. When the unpaid period of their contracts expires, they can choose to stay with the premium service or drop down to a more basic free one.

FormAssembly

Focus: Data collection and privacy management

Offer: The company is offering free accounts, along with implementation services and support, to organizations directly involved in the fight against COVID-19. Its service ensures data collection complies with privacy rules in force around the globe.

Freshworks

Focus: Cloud-based sales and support.

Offer: For small businesses with less than 50 employees, Freshworks is making its customer-engagement tools free of charge for the next six months. These can be used to handle things such as customer queries and some elements of remote work.

Genesys

Focus: Customer-contact software

Offer: Genesys has launched a Rapid Response offer that includes up to 90 days of free access to its platform. Companies using it can launch a secure, cloud-based contact center that lets workers from physical call centers handle calls from home.

Google

Focus: Videoconferencing service and online productivity tools.

Offer: Google Cloud has announced free access to its advanced Hangouts Meet videoconferencing capabilities for all customers of its G-Suite and G-Suite for Education services. This enables calls of up to 250 people and also allows meetings to be recorded and saved on Google Drive.

Hootsuite

Focus: Social media management.

Offer: Through July 1, Hootsuite is offering free access to its professional product for nonprofits and small businesses most impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, who can use it to engage with their audiences and manage crisis communications.

Hyperproof

Focus: Privacy-management software.

Offer: As record amounts of data are being processed in the effort to combat COVID-19, privacy is a key concern. Hyperproof is offering software free of charge that can help organizations stay compliant with privacy regimes in the U.S. and Europe.

IBM

Focus: Cloud-based business productivity and educational services.

Offer: Big Blue is offering free 90-day access to things such as IBM Aspera, its service for high-speed file-sharing and team collaboration, and its IBM Sterling supply-chain management service. The company is also making available for free several educational resources, including its Teacher Advisor with Watson, a curated planning tool and database of K-8 math lessons.

LogMeIn

Focus: Videoconferencing, webinars and device management.

Offer: LogMeIn, which offers the GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar services, has created special bundles of its products to support emergency remote working. As well as supporting virtual meetings, LogMeIn’s software can also help manage remote workers’ devices and apps. It’s offering three-month site-wide licenses for free to organizations such as healthcare providers, educational institutions and municipalities. Existing customers can tap these bundles and get site-wide licenses for additional tools for three months at no extra cost.

Loom

Focus: Videomessaging service.

Offer: Loom is scrapping a limit on the number of videos that a user can access under its free plan through July 1 (previously the limit was 25) and extending the free trial period of its premium Loom Pro service from 14 to 30 days. It’s also making Loom Pro free for students and teachers at K-12 schools, universities and other educational institutions with no time limit.

MailChimp

Focus: Electronic information-sharing.

Offer: MailChimp’s platform is used by marketers to distribute e-mail newsletters and other online promotions. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, the company is offering free accounts for its more feature-rich service to local governments, schools, healthcare providers, nonprofits and other organizations that need to communicate critical health information about the disease. Existing customers who fall into these categories will not be billed during this period and those who are on MailChimp’s free or basic plans will be upgraded to the standard one at no cost.

Microsoft

Focus: Team collaboration and communication platform.

Offer: Microsoft Teams, the company’s collaboration and communication platform, is scrapping the user limit on its free version, which was previously restricted to 300 people. Microsoft has also announced it is making the basic version of its Office 365 enterprise suite of productivity tools such as Word and Excel free for six months to organizations, which gives users access to the premium version of Microsoft Teams.

Northpass

Focus: Online training

Offer: The company is offering its software free for up to six months (with a final cut-off of the end of the year) to a range of organizations involved in COVID-19 response activities, from manufacturers making personal protective equipment to telehealth providers.

Otter.ai

Focus: Voice-transcription service.

Offer: Organizations can get free access for two months to Otter.ai’s enterprise offering, Otter for Teams, which automatically transcribes meetings, distance learning classes and other things. Those who sign up to the service by May 1 will be able to add up to ten of their employees to the service as users.

PandaDoc

Focus: Electronic signatures for documents.

Offer: PandaDoc has created a free e-signature service with no limits to the number of documents that a user can manage via it.

Panopto

Focus: Capture and distribution of video content.

Offer: Panopto Cloud, which can be used by executives, teachers and others to record and distribute video content, is letting new users have the service for free for three months and won’t cap the amount of material that can be captured and streamed.

Pluralsight

Focus: Online training

Offer: The company is extending free access to its Pluralsight Skills platform for the month of April. The platform has over 7,000 courses and can conduct skills assessments too.

Quick Base

Focus: Digital-workflow management.

Offer: Healthcare providers, governments, educational institutions and nonprofits can get free access to Quick Base software that helps them digitize workflows through September 30.

Rackspace

Focus: Cloud hosting service

Offer: For organizations participating in COVID-19 response efforts, the company is offering a total of $10 million of free hosting resources via its OpenStack Public Cloud over the next six months.

RingCentral

Focus: Cloud-communications service.

Offer: RingCentral Office, which includes call-management, videoconferencing and other tools, is now free for K-12 schools, healthcare providers and nonprofits.

Salesforce

Focus: Cloud-based health system and data plus team collaboration platform.

Offer: The cloud giant is providing free access to its Health Cloud service for response teams, call centers and care-management groups for health systems impacted by COVID-19. It is also making the basic service of its Quip team collaboration software available for any Salesforce customer or nonprofit through September 30. The company’s Tableau unit has also made available a free hub of coronavirus-related data resources.

SAP

Focus: Cloud-based productivity and learning services.

Offer: SAP has made a range of its services available for free. They include its SAP Ariba Discovery supply-chain software and its Qualtrics Remote Work Pulse service, which lets organizations connect with—and get feedback from—remote workers. SAP is also offering some free courses through its SAP University Alliances program.

ServiceNow

Focus: Emergency-response applications.

Offer: ServiceNow, whose software helps organizations digitize workflows, has rolled out several new applications. One that was developed in conjunction with the state of Washington State’s Department of Health manages incident-response workflows and is being made free to other agencies. The other applications, which are free for ServiceNow customers and can be accessed by non-customers too, include ones that help businesses deal with workflows associated with sharing COVID-19-related information and situations in which employees have to self-quarantine.

Slack

Focus: Team collaboration and communication platform.

Offer: Slack is offering free upgrades to paid plans for organizations working on coronavirus research, response or mitigation, as well as to local media organizations and scientific publications covering these areas. The company has also removed the 250-user cap on its Standard Plan service for all nonprofits for three months.

Smartsheet

Focus: Collaboration and work-tracking service.

Offer: Any U.S. government agency tackling the coronavirus crisis can use the company’s Smartsheet Gov product free of charge to help plan, track and communicate response plans. Smartsheet is also offering free templates for COVID-19 planning to its licensed users and others who sign up for a free trial.

Talkdesk

Focus: Cloud-based call centers and business-continuity planning.

Offer: The company has made its business-continuity service free for 90 days for organizations that sign up before May 1.

TechSmith

Focus: Recording and distribution of video content.

Offer: The company is making its screen recording tool, TechSmith Snagit, and its collaboration platform, TechSmith Video Review free to use through the end of June. It’s also allowing existing customers to increase their usage of TechSmith’s digital-learning platform and online video-collaboration environment for no extra cost over the same time period.

Threads

Focus: Team collaboration and communication platform.

Offer: Another software firm whose tools enable remote work, Threads is making its Pro offering, which can support up to 100 members, free through July 1.

Vidyard

Focus: Videomessaging service.

Offer: As COVID-19 spread, Vidyard accelerated work on a service it was developing to help employees communicate with one another and to allow employers to share video messages with their workforces. Vidyard for Internal Communications will be available at no cost through June 30.

Vonage

Focus: Cloud-communications and videoconferencing service.

Offer: The company is offering free licenses to its cloud-communications service for 90 days that will support up to 250 users. It is also making its standalone videoconferencing service available for free through the end of the year and is letting healthcare companies, educational institutions and nonprofits use its more advanced business communications package without charge for 90 days.

Workhuman

Focus: Employee recognition and performance management

Offer: To help employees stay in touch and get feedback, Workhuman is making special editions of its Life Events and Conversations products free until March 2021.

Zoho

Focus: Cloud-based productivity tools.

Offer: To help small businesses, which are a big part of its customer base, Zoho has launched a program that will waive the cost of the applications being used by up to 20,000 companies for three months. Customers must apply for assistance and Sridhar Vembu, the company’s co-founder and CEO, has said Zoho will prioritize the ones most in need. The company has also launched a new set of free applications to support remote working.  

Zoom

Focus: Videoconferencing service.

Offer: As Forbes was the first to report, Zoom has removed a 40-minute meeting limit on its free Basic accounts for students and teachers at K-12 schools in America. The company has partnered with Clever, the most widely used single sign-on service used by U.S. school districts, so that schools who don’t have access to its service can get it quickly. It has also scrapped time limits on meetings for K-12 schools in a growing list of other countries impacted by COVID-19.

That’s all of the entries we have for now. In addition to the list above, we’re also tracking free cybersecurity software that’s available in this article and you can find a collection of stories on technology and remote work from Forbes here. We also have a useful tracker of sources for small businesses looking for emergency funding and relief to get them through these challenging times plus a COVID-19 timeline that shows how the crisis has evolved.

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