Free apps that install from the browser

Short answer

Progressive web apps skip the app stores entirely, so there is no 30% platform cut pushing developers toward paid tiers — and a lot of the best ones are free. Lichess, DevDocs, Excalidraw, PROXX, Squoosh, GeoGebra and Organic Maps are all free to use, and several are open source. Install from the browser: no store account, no payment method on file, nothing to download.

Why so many are free

An app in a store pays the store. That cut has to come from somewhere, which is why store apps trend toward subscriptions, ads or an upgrade prompt on the third launch.

A progressive web app is distributed by its own URL. There is no intermediary and no cut, so the economics that force monetisation are simply absent. It does not make developers generous — it removes a tax that made generosity expensive.

Mentioned here: ♟️ Lichess, 📚 DevDocs, 🗜️ Squoosh

Free and open source

Lichess is the strongest example in the whole catalogue: a complete chess platform with analysis, puzzles and tournaments, free with no tier above it, funded by donations. Excalidraw, Penpot and AppFlowy are open source too.

DevDocs aggregates API documentation and is free and open; PROXX was built by Google's own team and released the same way.

Free tools that do one job

Squoosh compresses images entirely in your browser — the file never leaves your device, which is a privacy property as much as a free one. SVGOMG does the same for SVG.

regex101, crontab.guru and jwt.io each answer one question well and charge nothing for it.

Learning, free

GeoGebra covers geometry, algebra and calculus and is used in classrooms worldwide. Flexbox Froggy teaches CSS layout as a game. Duolingo has a free tier that is genuinely usable.

Frequently asked

Is there a catch with free progressive web apps?

Sometimes: some are free because they are a shopfront for a paid service. The ones named here are not — they are either open source, donation-funded, or single-purpose tools with no upgrade path.

Do I need an account?

For most of these, no. That is worth checking before you install: a tool that demands a signup before it will do anything is not really free to try.