Navigating the iTunes or Android app stores can be a little overwhelming. If you’ve ever thought, “there should be an app for that,” there probably is an app for that. With a variety of different ride sharing, budgeting, money sharing, and recipe apps, how do you know which ones are credible or useful? We’ve come up with a list of 15 free and 5 paid applications that you’ve probably never heard of, but you will definitely find useful!
FREE:

This app is ideal for all of the frequent movie-goers out there. This app tells you the perfect time to go to the bathroom during every movie – just select the movie you’re seeing and it will tell you what you missed when you get back. Now you can get your large drink at the movies and not worry about missing the best parts!

Defined as your “smart cooking sidekick,” this app provides you with personalized recipe recommendations, helpful tools, and in-depth guidance along the way. You can also add recipes to your shopping list directly on the app! Yummly will help you improve your cooking skills in no time.

ChefsFeed provides you with recommendations for dining out that come straight from the food and beverage professionals themselves. This app features videos and stories, city guides that allow you to plan the perfect date, happy hour, or weekend trip, venue hours and directions, and maps that show the best dishes, cocktails, coffee, and beer near you.

The perfect app for the beer connoisseur. Share great beers, your favorite breweries, and the best venues with your friends while earning badges. On Untappd, you can create a list of your favorite beers, get alerts when your favorite venue adds more beers to their menu, and discover nearby venues, events , nd beers that suit your tastes!

A simple way to split the bill among friends. Take a picture of the receipt and select your items to claim them. Tax and tip are calculated for you in the app and even connects to popular money sending apps for easy payment!

The easiest money sending app there is. Money goes directly from bank account to bank account, no manually transferring from the app to your bank account or debit card. Zelle is much easier and safer than some of the other apps that offer the same services.

Sweat Deck is a workout app that changes it up for Apple users. This deck of cards allows you to mix up your workout routine with endless combinations of workouts. Assign an exercise to each suit and perform the cards as they’re drawn from the deck. This app is probably not for workout fanatics, but definitely for those who want to make a trip to the gym part of their daily routine or even just change up their workout regimen.  

A simple way to reframe your stress. Headspace offers guided meditations and mindfulness techniques to bring wellness, calm, and balance to your everyday life. This app will teach you the fundamental techniques of mindfulness and meditation.

Guides is packed with offline maps, must-see destinations, audio phrasebooks, and neighborhood guides, making this app the ultimate city guide to wherever your heart leads you. This app also includes a currency converter, transportation information, and a “near me” function. Bring Guides along on all your upcoming excursions!

Find travel adventures and new places, access vacation home rentals, even begin earning money as a host! Airbnb is widely known, but this app is a must-have. You can book unforgettable travel experiences right on the app, short or long-term.

The first real travel social community. With Holiday Swap, you and another person swap homes for the duration of your vacation. This allows you to save money for other expenses for your trip. You look through properties and locations and match with people based on your personal preferences.

Another more well-known app, Waze allows you to always know what’s happening on the road ahead. Keep up with traffic, construction, police, crashes, and more. Waze will change your route to keep you out of traffic and alert you when something happens on your route. Waze is definitely useful in bigger cities with more traffic or when you’re looking for the quickest route.

HUJI Cam gives your photographs a vibrant filter and keeps your memories alive by dating them. This app is very simple. You open the app and it looks like a disposable camera. After you snap a few pictures, you can look through them in the gallery. The best feature is the date; it makes the photo look like an authentic printed photograph on your phone.

The ultimate goal and habit tracking app. This app tracks any habits or goals you desire. Strides is a SMART goal tracker, sending reminders to hold you accountable and charts to keep you motivated. Strides has been called “the most comprehensive, user-friendly, beautifully designed goal-tracking app available.”

For all the fashionistas out there. Rent the Runway allows you to choose from a wide selection of designer items and rent them. The app offers one-time rentals, unlimited rental access, and monthly shipments. This app gives you the wardrobe flexibility you’ve always dreamed of.
PAID:

A photo editing experience. Afterlight 2 offers advanced photo editing tools, artwork, text, filter collections, filter editing, double exposure and much, much more. This is the ultimate photo editing app, with constant updates and a one-time payment.

Known as the most intuitive and delightful calendar app you’ll ever use. This app allows very easy event creation, weather updates, travel time estimations to meetings and events, and helpful hints. This app is free to download, but requires a subscription to access the full application.

Streaks is a to-do list app that allows you to form good habits. You can track up to 12 tasks you complete each day with easy, advanced customization. Streaks links to your health app and reminds you when things need to be completed.

The ultimate budget and expense app for Apple users. Pennies allows you to keep track of your spending habits an expenses while gearing you towards saving money. Pennies is simple and easy to use, unlike some of the other budgeting apps. It helps you know how much money you can spend and how much you should save, and can create multiple budgets.

This app basically converts your iPhone into a portable scanner. Scanner Pro allows you to scan and save paper documents on your iPhone. Scan anything from photographs, multiple page documents to receipts. Scanner Pro detects borders and corrects distortion and geometry.
– Molly Little, Summer Marketing Intern