Software Students Should Use

Best note-taking apps

Effective lecture notes require software that handles text, audio, and images together and syncs across your phone, tablet and laptop.

Microsoft OneNote

OneNote organises modules into notebooks, sections and pages. It syncs across devices, accepts pasted lecture slides for annotation, and records audio that links back to your typed notes (so you can replay what the lecturer said when you wrote a specific line). Free with the university Microsoft 365 A1 plan.

Notion

Notion's free Education Plus plan for verified students includes unlimited blocks, 30-day version history and unlimited file uploads. Better than OneNote for project planning and database-driven workflows; weaker for handwritten notes.

Goodnotes

If you have an iPad and Apple Pencil, Goodnotes is the strongest handwriting app available. Search recognises your handwriting, templates cover Cornell notes, weekly planners and grid paper, and PDF export is clean. Free version covers up to 3 notebooks; the paid plans are mostly annual subscriptions.

Word processing for coursework

Microsoft 365 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

The default for academic submissions in the UK; most coursework upload portals expect .docx files. According to Microsoft Education, eligible UK university students get Microsoft 365 A1 free using their .ac.uk email, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Teams and OneDrive storage (up to 100GB on A1, with your university setting the limit). Many institutions also pay for the higher A3 or A5 tier, which adds the desktop apps; check your university IT portal.

Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Slides)

Best for collaborative drafting. Multiple students can edit the same document simultaneously without version conflicts. Save autosaves with every keystroke. Most universities also issue Google Workspace accounts; check before paying for personal storage upgrades.

AI and proofreading software

AI tools are now mainstream in UK higher education. The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) publishes an annual student AI survey; recent editions have shown that the majority of UK undergraduates use generative AI tools to support their study. Used as a brainstorm partner or proofreader, that's fine. Used to generate text you submit, it's academic misconduct at UK universities.

Grammarly

Grammarly catches spelling, grammar and punctuation errors and flags long sentences and passive voice. The free tier handles all the basics; the paid Pro plan (£10 a month) adds vocabulary and structural suggestions. Useful especially if English is your second language.

ChatGPT, Claude and Microsoft Copilot

Generative AI is a strong study aid for explaining hard concepts, generating essay outlines, building flashcards and stress-testing your understanding before an exam. University Microsoft 365 accounts include free access to Copilot Chat, but the full Copilot inside Word, Excel and Teams is a paid add-on your university has to buy separately.

Reference management for dissertations

Manual referencing is a waste of dissertation time. A reference manager builds your bibliography automatically and switches citation style (Harvard, APA, Chicago, OSCOLA, Vancouver) with one click.

Zotero

Open-source, completely free at the desktop level. Zotero's browser extension grabs citation metadata directly from journal pages and Google Scholar in one click, and the Word and Google Docs plugins insert citations and update bibliographies automatically. Free cloud sync up to 300MB; paid storage tiers above that.

Mendeley

Owned by Elsevier. Doubles as a PDF reader so you can highlight and annotate articles inside the app. 2GB free cloud storage. Stronger than Zotero for managing large PDF libraries; some students prefer Zotero on principle because Elsevier owns most of the academic publishing scene.

Software for managing student finances

Maintenance loan instalments arrive once per term; managing them across rent, bills, food and social spend means picking a banking app that does the heavy lifting.

Monzo and Starling

Monzo and Starling both categorise spending automatically, support instant bill splits, and let you ring-fence rent into "Pots" (Monzo) or "Spaces" (Starling). Both are app-only UK banks, both regulated by the FCA and PRA, both covered by the FSCS scheme up to £120,000.

Splitwise

For shared house bills, Splitwise eliminates the "who paid for the toilet roll" arguments. Add expenses, mark who owes what, settle up by bank transfer at the end of the month. The free tier limits how many expenses you can add each day.

Student discount platforms for software deals

Before buying any productivity, design or developer software, check whether it's free for verified students.

UNiDAYS

The biggest UK student discount platform. Apple Education, Microsoft Store Education and most other major hardware brands use it to verify students.

Student Beans

The main alternative to UNiDAYS. Holds different exclusive partnerships, so install both.

GitHub Student Developer Pack

Free if you study computer science, data science or anything code-adjacent. Includes the free GitHub Copilot Student plan, free JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ, PyCharm, WebStorm), USD 100 in Microsoft Azure credit, free Namecheap .me domain, and dozens of other partner offers. Verified by your .ac.uk email.

To keep your monthly outgoings under control while paying for any premium subscriptions, our student budget calculator maps out your finances. For more general money guidance, see our student money hub.