There’s nothing more pleasing than using free services and getting free products, including free downloadable files. You don’t have to pay anything or mind monthly subscriptions. Whether you want to create presentations or just get the job done, these free productivity sources can save you money and time. Here we lay the non-exhaustive list of free sites. 

PHOTOS/VIDEOS

It’s tempting to use any high-quality photos or videos but using them without permission or giving at least a proper credit can land you into legal trouble. Fortunately, you can find free photos from photo sharing sites - also called stock images sites. Some of them don't require attribution while others do.

Pixabay.com - This site was originally a German-owned site and now under the Australian design platform Canva. It offers free downloadable photos, vector graphics, illustrations, as well as videos for either personal or commercial projects. This site is very useful for adding images to your blogs and websites. Their stock video footage and clips are of very good quality as well. Attribution isn’t required but referring back to the author and Pixabay is a way of thanking them.
 

Unsplash.com - This site offers stock photos or free images for commercial and non-commercial purposes. The site categorizes and filters the images into animals, architecture, business & work, current events, experimental, fashion, film, food & drink, health & wellness, history, interiors, nature, people, and many more. You can create an account and submit your photos as well.
 

Pexels.com - This is another good source of free high-quality stock photos and videos which does not even require attribution.
 

AUDIO

You can use audios for your videos as sound effects or background music. Getting audio clips or music is easy on the internet, although not all of them are safe to use because of their copyright. Luckily, there are royalty-free audio sites. 

Freesound.org - This site is a collaborative database of free (creative commons), downloadable and shared sounds. On their landing page, you can find tabs for sounds, forums, people and help. Their blog occupies a big part of their body content. Clicking their search bar reveals a filter for the duration, relevance, downloads and rating. 
 

Mixkit.co is geared toward providing music and sound effects. Their sound effects are categorized into animals, human, nature, technology and other miscellaneous types. Their free music can be filtered based on genre or mood. Attribution is appreciated but not required.
 

Viberary.com offers high-quality free music for commercial and personal use. It can be filtered by genre, mood, and tempo, as well other categories such as vlog/travel, corporate and wedding. Each track has a short and long version that can be downloaded. Attribution is not required but linking back is a nice gesture.
 

JOB POSTING SITES

Paid job posting sites can cost you a hundred to thousands of pesos depending on the plan or subscription type. Good thing that many job boards still offer free job posting. 

Ohjobs.ph offers companies to post unlimited job postings for free (at the moment) - no strings attached. The job board presents a green theme and an array of job categories from accounting to information technology to travel and tourism. Employers can even send messages to qualified applicants for free. The duration of job ads currently has no limit, that's why you can advertise your vacancy here for more than a month.
 

Jora is a free job search engine that sources job ads from different partners. You can also post up to 10 job vacancies here per month at no cost. Job posts can be active for up to 28 days.
 

TEMPLATES

Writing is hard, that's why writing from scratch can be quite intimidating. Templates are a time saver when you write business documents without dealing with writer’s block. You can copy or modify templates appropriate for your purposes - job application, memos, request and policies. 

Molly.com combines the powers of project management tools, intranet and HR software, including payroll. One of the free perks of using Molly is their free templates. From business letters to forms, you can just download the templates and use them as your guide for your business and personal documents. 
 

JotForm reveals links to a myriad of free form templates. They can be filtered based on type, industry and category, and can be sorted by trend, popularity and date created. The type selection consists of order forms, registration forms, application forms, booking forms, request forms and many more.
 

EMAILS

Aside from Gmail and Yahoo, free email sites abound. Some of them are free; others are paid. 

GMX Mail is one of the top free email providers in terms of numbers. It supports both IMAP and POP. It offers 65 GB of email storage, 1 GB of file storage and 50 MB limit for attachment. It has drag-and-drop functionality to help you manage your schedule. It provides spam filtering and file sharing capabilities as well. 
 

Zoho Mail a member of Zoho’s cloud-based office suite. The email features modules that let you organise your tasks, contacts, notes and calendar. Being a part of the Zoho suite, Zoho Mail lets you connect with other Zoho apps such as Docs, Zoho CRM Creator, projects and Zapier. You can start their ad-free email by choosing either business or personal email. You can enjoy 5 GB of email storage space for up to 5 mailboxes with their free plan.
 

CLOUD SERVICES

Cloud services do the magic. You can access your files even without your hard drive or flash drive - just like a cloud that hovers above you wherever you go. With just an internet and your email and password, you can change, edit and update your files. Cloud-based apps automatically save your files as long as there is an internet connection. This way your work is saved without having to worry about forgetting to save the changes from time to time.

Here are 2 of the best cloud services that are free.

Google Drive - If you have a Gmail account, you’ve got access to a trove of Google Workspace apps, including Google Drive. Free users get 15 GB of storage and access to productivity tools such as Docs, Sheets, Slides and Forms. The cloud service lets you organise your files by creating, deleting and renaming folders. You can share your file through links and change its access privilege to participants.

Microsoft OneDrive - OneDrive lets you access free 5 GB storage and use of iconic document apps such as Access, Excel, PowerPoint and Word. Like Google’s, Microsoft’s cloud storage provides folder creation, file deletion, file archive and file synchronization functions. The clients include computer (Windows, Mac), mobile (Android, iOS), and web.