The 50 Free Apps We're Most Thankful For

It's the time of year where we all give thanks, and among many other things, we here at Lifehacker are thankful for all the free apps out there that improve our lives (and the developers that make them!). Here are 50 of our favorites.

We asked you which free apps you're most thankful for, you offered hundreds of suggestions both classic and new. Here, we've taken your votes (and added a few of our own) and ranked our 50 apps using those votes as a guide. So without further ado, here are 50 free apps for your downloading feast.

The 50 Free Apps We're Most Thankful For

1. Dropbox

   Category: Cloud Storage
   See also: Top 10 Clever Uses for Dropbox, The Cheapskate's Guide to Getting Free Dropbox Space, How to Get 8GB+ Extra Dropbox Space for Free with Google AdWords, How to Supercharge Your Dropbox with Wappwolf, and more Dropbox coverage

2. Google Chrome

   Category: Web Browsers
   See also: The Always Up-to-Date Power User's Guide to Chrome, How to Really Browse Without Leaving a Trace, Which Browser Should I Use: Firefox or Chrome?, How and Why Chrome Is Overtaking Firefox Among Power Users, and more Chrome coverage

3. Firefox

   Category: Web Browsers
   See also: The Always Up-to-Date Power User's Guide to Firefox, Why I've Switched From Chrome to Firefox 4, Top 10 Must-Have Browser Extensions, Which Browser Should I Use: Firefox or Chrome?, and more Firefox coverage

4. Evernote

   Category: Notes
   See also: Expand Your Brain with Evernote and Clever Uses for Evernote, The Complete Guide to Going Paperless, Turn Your Mess of Ideas Into Something Organized and Useful, and more Evernote coverage
   Alternative: Use Springpad as Your New Personal Assistant

5. Pocket

   Category: Bookmarking
   See also: The Best Way to Save All the Useful Articles You Come Across Online and More Pocket Coverage
   Alternatives: Instapaper and Readability

6. Skype

   Category: VoIP
   See also: Get Better Quality Video Chat, The Five Best Webcams, Phone-ify Your Computer for Considerably Improved At-Home Calls and Texts, and more Skype coverage

7. Google Maps

   Category: Maps
   See also: Make your GPS App Give You Better Directions, Wean Yourself Off Your GPS Dependency, 5 Great Experimental Features You Should Enable from the Google Maps Laboratory, and Our complete Google Maps coverage

8. Gmail

   Category: Email
   See also: Master the New Gmail with These Tips, Shortcuts, and Add-Ons, Top 10 Clever Tricks Built Right Into Gmail, Get Google and iOS Living Together in Perfect Harmony, Fix Gmail's Newest Annoyances with These Userstyles and Userscripts, and more Gmail coverage

9. Google Voice

   Category: Communication
   See also: Phone-ify Your Computer for Considerably Improved At-Home Calls and Texts, The Most Helpful Ways to Use Google Voice that You're Not Using, Top 10 Clever Google Voice Tricks, How to Improve Your Google Voice Experience on the iPhone, Get the Most Out of Google Voice on Your Non-Smartphone, How to Port Your Number to Google Voice Without Paying an Arm and a Leg, and more Google Voice coverage

10. Instagram

    Category: Photos
    See also: Know Which Shots Work Best with Each Instagram Filter, Normalize Turns Instagram'd Photos Back to Normal, and more Instagram coverage

11. Spotify

    Category: Music Streaming
    See also: Spotify Is the Best Desktop Music Player We've Ever Used, The Essential Spotify Tools, How to Automatically Mute Ads on Spotify, How to Stop Spotify from Posting Every Song You Listen to on Facebook, How to Discover New Music in the Post-MP3 Age, and more Spotify coverage

12. Flipboard

    Category: News Readers
    See also: Lifehacker Faceoff: The Best Digital Digests on iPad and iPhone and more Flipboard coverage

13. Google Drive

    Category: Cloud Storage
    See also: File Syncing Faceoff: Dropbox vs. Google Drive, How to Supercharge Your Google Drive with Wappwolf, Instantly Send Any Gmail Attachment to Google Drive, and more Google Drive coverage

14. Google Calendar

    Category: Calendars
    See also: Get Google and iOS Living Together in Perfect Harmony, Manage Your Money with Google Calendar, How to Use Google Calendar as a Project Management Tool, 8 Great Experimental Features to Enable in Google Calendar's Labs, and more Google Calendar coverage

15. Google Play Music

    Category: Music Streaming
    See also: How to Make Google Music Your Secondary Media Player (and Why You Should), Cloud Music Comparison: What's the Best Service for Streaming Your Library Everywhere?, Music Plus Makes Google Music Awesome, and more Google Play Music coverage

16. Waze

    Category: Maps
    See also: Make your GPS App Give You Better Directions, Wean Yourself Off Your GPS Dependency, and more Waze coverage

17. Dolphin

    Category: Web Browsers
    See also: Dolphin Jetpack Supercharges Dolphin Browser, Makes Mobile Surfing Stupid Fast, Lifehacker Faceoff: The Best Web Browsers for iPhone and iPad, and more Dolphin coverage

18. Wunderlist

    Category: To-Do Lists
    See also: Wunderlist Is a Simple, Elegant, and Free To-Do App that Synchronizes Across Your Machines, Back to Basics: How to Simplify Your To-Do List and Make It Useful Again and more Wunderlist coverage

19. Pandora

    Category: Music Streaming
    See also: How to Discover New Music in the Post-MP3 Age, Five Best Internet Radio Services, and more Pandora coverage

20. Google Reader

    Category: News Readers
    See also: Supercharge Google Reader with Styles and Extensions, Organize My RSS Feeds So They're More Manageable, How to Turn Google Reader into a Customizable Read-It-Later Service, and more Google Reader coverage

21. LastPass

    Category: Password Managers
    See also: The Intermediate Guide to Mastering Passwords with LastPass, How to Build a (Nearly) Hack-Proof Password System with LastPass and a Thumb DriveHow to Automatically Fill in Repetitive Web Forms (and Avoid Tons of Tedious Typing), and more LastPass coverage

22. XBMC

    Category: Media Center S
    See also: http://lifehacker.com/5900626/create-a-kickass-seamless-play+everything-media-center-the-complete-guide, How I Built the Media Center of My Dreams for Under $500, How to Make XBMC Easier to Use (Especially for Non-Geeks), OpenELEC Is a Fast-Booting, Self-Updating Version of XBMC for Home Theater PCs, Top 10 Ways to Power Up Your Home Theater PC, and more XBMC coverage
    Alternative: How to Stream Your Media from Home to Your Phone Anywhere You Go with Plex

23. VLC

    Category: Media Players
    See also: Master Your Digital Media with VLC, Set a Video as Your Wallpaper with VLC, How to Fix Movies that Are Really Quiet, then REALLY LOUD, and more VLC coverage

24. Mint.com

    Category: Personal Finance
    See also: Is Mint Ready for Your Money?, How to Create (and Stick to) a Realistic Budget with Mint, and more Mint coverage

25. TeamViewer

    Category: Remote Access
    See also: Use Your Home Computer from Anywhere: A Comprehensive Guide to Remote Controlling Your PCHow Do I Troubleshoot My Parents' PC Remotely? and more TeamViewer coverage

26. AirDroid

    Category: Remote Access
    See also: AirDroid Controls Your Android Phone or Tablet from Any Modern Web Browser

27. FoxFi

    Category: Tethering
    See also: Use Your Android Phone as a Wi-Fi Hotspot for Free, No Rooting Required

28. Ubuntu(and other Linux Distros)

    Category: Operating System
    See also: Getting Started with Linux: The Complete Guide, How to Find the Perfect Linux Distribution for You, Five Best Linux Distributions, Build a Killer Customized Arch Linux Installation (and Learn All About Linux in the Process), Turn an Old Computer into a Networked Backup, Streaming, or Torrenting Machine with Ubuntu, and more Linux coverage

29. Microsoft Security Essentials

    Category: Antivirus
    See also: Stop Paying for Windows Security; Microsoft's Security Tools Are Good Enough, Nine Common Myths and Misconceptions About Viruses, Examined and Debunked, Change Microsoft Security Essential's Update Frequency, and more Security Essentials coverage

30. uTorrent

    Category: BitTorrent Client
    See also: How to Add Automatic Virus Scanning, Video Conversion, and Remote Downloading to uTorrent for Free, How to Monitor Your BitTorrent Downloads from Any Computer or Mobile Device, How Do I Torrent Safely Now That Demonoid Is Down?, and more uTorrent coverage
    Alternative: Transmission

31. CCleaner

    Category: Utilities
    See also: The Maintenance You Need to Do on a Windows PC, Run CCleaner on a Schedule to Keep Your PC Crap-Free, CCleaner Enhancer Makes CCleaner Even Better, Now Cleans 270 New Apps, and more CCleaner coverage

32. HandBrake

    Category: Video Conversion
    See also: How to Rip a DVD to Your Computer, The Hassle-Free Guide to Ripping Your Blu-Ray Collection, Calculate the Perfect HandBrake Video Encoding Settings for Your Device, and more Handbrake coverage

33. VirtualBox

    Category: Virtualization
    See also: The Beginner's Guide to Creating Virtual Machines with VirtualBox, Should I Run a Second Operating System in a Virtual Machine or Dual Boot?, How to Run Mac OS X Inside Windows Using VirtualBox, and more VirtualBox coverage

34. CyanogenMod

    Category: Android ROMs
    See also: The Always Up-To-Date Guide to Rooting the Most Popular Android Phones, How to Choose the Right Android ROM for You, and more CyanogenMod coverage

35. Flux

    Category: CATEGORY
    See also: Flux Changes Your Screen Brightness by Time of Day, Make Your Computer and More Friendly to Use at Night, Prevent Eyestrain at Your Computer, and more Flux coverage

36. GIMP

    Category: Image Editing
    See also: Top 10 Photoshop Tricks You Can Use Without Buying Photoshop, Is GIMP better than Photoshop?, Tweak GIMP to be More Like Photoshop, and more GIMP coverage

37. LibreOffice

    Category: Office Suite
    See also: Am I Missing Out by Using Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office? and more LibreOffice coverage

38. Thunderbird

    Category: Email
    See also: Backing up Gmail with Thunderbird, Eight Killer Thunderbird Extensions, How to Sync Your Desktop Email Client (Outlook or Thunderbird) Across Multiple Computers, Thunderbird to Slow Down Development, Focus on "Security and Stability" Only, and more Thunderbird coverage

39. Picasa

    Category: Photo Manager
    See also: How to Upload and Share Photos on Flickr, Picasa, or Facebook, Picasa 3.5 Organizes Your Photos with Facial Recognition, Picasa Now Offering Virtually Unlimited Photo Storage, Brings Google+ Tagging, and more Picasa coverage

40. Twitter

    Category: Social Networking
    See also: Top 10 Uses for Twitter (That Aren't Self-Indulgent), Navigate the New Twitter Like a Pro with Keyboard Shortcuts, Why's Everybody So Pissed About Twitter, and Should I Care?, How to Deal with Your Biggest Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ Annoyances, and more Twitter coverage

41. AutoHotkey

    Category: Utilities
    See also: Turn Any Action into a Keyboard Shortcut, The Best Time-Saving AutoHotkey Tricks You Should Be Using, Put Your Keyboard's Unused Keys to Use (by Turning Them into Awesome Shortcuts), and more AutoHotkey coverage

42. Launchy

    Category: Utilities
    See also: Integrate Everything Search Tool and Launchy, Take Launchy beyond application launching, Screenshot Tour: Tweaking Launchy, and more Launchy coverage

43. Quicksilver

    Category: Utilities
    See also: Hack Attack: A beginner's guide to Quicksilver, Top 10 Quicksilver Plug-ins, Turn Any Action Into a Keyboard Shortcut on Your Mac, and more Quicksilver coverage

44. Simplenote

    Category: Note Taking
    See also: The Holy Grail of Ubiquitous Plain-Text Capture, The Best Ways to Keep Your Notes in Sync Across All Your Devices, and more Simplenote coverage

45. Titanium Backup

    Category: Utilities
    See also: How to Set Up a Fully Automated App and Settings Backup on Android, How to Upgrade to a New Android Phone and Take Everything with You, and How to Speed Up Your Old or Sluggish Android Device

46. Winamp

    Category: Media Players
    See also: Manage your music with Winamp, Control Winamp Remotely from Any Browser, Music Player Showdown: Which Desktop Player Is Best for Syncing to Android?, and more Winamp coverage

47. Google Tasks

    Category: To-Do Lists
    See also: Google Tasks Extension Brings Super-Fast Task Management to Chrome, To-Do Manager Any.DO Comes to the Web, Launches New iOS App, and more Tasks coverage

48. Opera

    Category: Web Browsers
    See also: How (and Why) to Set Up a Secondary Browser Optimized for Slow Internet Connections, Top 10 Must-Have Browser Extensions, and more Opera coverage

49. Notepad++

    Category: Text editors
    See also: Five Best Text Editors, AutoSave Adds Reassurance to Notepad++ Editing, and How to Get More Plus out of Notepad++

50. 7-Zip

    Category: File Compression
    See also: What's the Best Way to Compress a Bunch of Files? and From Saucy Pics to Passwords: How to Share Sensitive Information Over the Internet

Title image illustrated by Dominick Rabrun. You can find his illustrations on his personal web site, or works in progress on his blog.