The new 2021 iPad line-up is undoubtedly the best tablet range available right now, and if you’re not taking up the advantage that the M1 chip provides, then you’re doing it wrong. You won’t be able to utilize the maximum potential of your iPad without the best apps to support it, and did you know that there are many apps available on the App Store that can help you do just that!
Improving your life, increasing your workflow, helping manage productivity and your day more effectively? It’s all true, and here we are to help you get the best out of your iPad. Nobody wants an average-performing device. Whether you want apps that make use of the Apple Pencil or apps that can deliver an excellent media experience, we’ve got it all.
We’ve spent many hours of our day researching and testing the best free and paid iPad apps that can deliver the best experience in what you use it for. We have also split them into multiple categories below to help you browse for what you need. Oh, and if you’re looking to get something to help you pass your lockdown through something fun, then we’ve also included some of the best iPad games that you can download and play right now.
- Flow – Best Note-Taking Application for Creative Professionals
- Microsoft Office – The Familiar Office Subscription
- IFTTT – Home Automation at your Fingertips
- Adobe Illustrator – The Best Designing Tool
- Procreate – Best Drawing and Editing Tool
- Snapseed – The Perfect Instagram Companion
- LastPass – Never Forget your Password
- Mint – Get hold of your Accounts
- Dropbox – Organize all your Data
- Netflix – Movies at Demand
- Spotify – Take your music anywhere
- Amazon Prime Video – Best TV Series
- YouTube – The Platform for Creative Professionals
1. Flow – Best Note-Taking Application for Creative Professionals
Pricing: Free (in-app purchases)
Jotting down notes and keeping your writings organized is an excellent habit and includes your work and everyday life. Flow provides you the ability to make notes with the help of the Apple Pencil and enables users to draw on a boundless canvas. It also allows you to customize everything from what color pen you’re using to the paper with various colors, sizes and shapes to choose from. Hence, it will enable creative professionals to flex their muscles and give the best with their work.
Flow provides a luxurious experience that ultimately bolsters your productivity all improves iPad interfaces. It comes with a free 7-day trial, and after the trial period ends, it brings in a subscription cost of $1.99 per month, which provides you with a cloud storage option and enables all pro features.
2. Microsoft Office – The Familiar Office Subscription
Pricing: Free (in-app purchases)
Microsoft Office is probably the most used work application on the planet. It can feel a little counter-intuitive as iPads are developed by Apple but hang in as if you’re familiar with Microsoft Office applications, then you’ll know what they can achieve. You must be familiar with the apps such as Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, and Microsoft Office is that but free. Writing down notes or projects or designing a powerpoint slide is one of the most basic tasks that everyone has experience with, and well now you can do all this on your iPad.
If you don’t like the Microsoft interface, great alternatives are present, with Google’s Docs and Sheets and OpenOffice leading the way. However, we feel that Microsoft’s offering is the best, and nothing ever comes close to the stability and performance it delivers. These programs have long been a golden standard for desktop productivity, and the portable versions continue to impress and provide compatibility for newer touchscreen devices.
3. IFTTT – Home Automation at your Fingertips
Pricing: Free
Are you into home automation or IoT devices that can help automate most of your daily tasks? Or are you just into making your home smart? If you answered yes on any of the questions, then “If this, then that” or simply IFTTT is one of the best automation interfaces that we’ve come across on the market, and guess what, it is entirely free. It can take a little time learning the basics and creating your first applet, but once you get the hang of the process, the ideas are limitless.
So, if you are a curious tinkerer and want to automate your basic household tasks through your phone or tablet, then try IFTTT. The pre-built “applets” support custom boards such as the Arduino Uno or Raspberry Pi. The process of automating tasks like having your lights turn on when you get back home or start your morning with a coffee machine that automatically starts the brewing process can amount to a single tap with IFTT. You are also in control of your devices, and with the ever-growing demands of the “Smart” sector, being a step ahead, the rest can be a game-changer.
4. Adobe Illustrator – The Best Designing Tool
Pricing: Free (in-app purchases)
Adobe Illustrator is probably the best vector graphics application that we have tested available for Apple’s iPad. Illustrator brings in many features to make your drawings look and feel fabulous, and with the new M1 chip, it would feel like a breeze in the park to render out any of your creations.
Illustrator on the iPad is a joy to use, and designing graphics or drawing on it would feel very easy depending on your compatibility with the Apple Pencil. Adobe has always been the perfect choice for creative professionals. With the Apple Pencil support on the iPad, you could expect many unique features and an experience that can easily counter desktops. Also, the pencil works brilliantly and allows you to draw and edit freely on the canvas, making your designs feel much more natural and customized.
5. Procreate – Best Drawing and Editing Tool
Pricing: $9.99
Procreate is a revolutionary option for digital artists that want to test themselves and the iPad Pro to the maximum. It also allows Apple Pencil support and provides you with all the necessary tools you might need to create beautiful sketches or illustrations you can imagine. The autosave functionality is always welcomed, and the high-resolution canvas looks gorgeous on all art forms. The brushes are exciting and fully customizable, with an innovative perspective to the design or sketch they create.
We would recommend all iPad Pro users to get Procreate. It is a must-buy for serious designers or artists that need the functionality that Procreate provides. The Apple Pencil would provide you with some valuable feedback and would also feel perfect for writing on.
[ Related: Best iPad for Procreate ]
6. Snapseed – The Perfect Instagram Companion
Pricing: Free
Have you ever wondered how you edit your photos for social media or Instagram? Don’t fret any longer as Snapseed is an excellent app from Google which will solve all your issues. It provides powerful editing tools for professionals and an outstanding auto mode for beginners. However, the best part is the support for RAW and ProRAW images, which makes editing a lot easier and improves the quality by providing full access to all the variables present in an image.
The user interface is clean and simple for everyday use, and the auto mode produces excellent results with stills and nature shots. If you want, you can also do all the edits yourselves and make an average natural photo turn into a perfect picture with easy editing, resulting in Instagram-ready images.
7. LastPass – Never Forget your Password
Pricing: Free (in-app purchases)
Never waste your precious time again looking for passwords or resetting them if you’ve forgotten them, as LastPass is the best password manager utility tool that we have ever come across. The integration is seamless and works with every webpage and browser that you can think of. It has built-in support for all devices, and the service feels fast with zero delays.
Security is impressive too. All your passwords are securely encrypted and stored over a private server so that users can sync their passwords from various websites and then have LastPass automatically fill in all the login details through Safari, Chrome, or Firefox. It can also help you generate and suggest strong passwords for all platforms and update them over the database. You can also shift from one device to another, and LastPass would still work as it has support for Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, and Android, and the best part is that it is entirely free to use.
8. Mint – Get hold of your Accounts
Pricing: Free
Are you bad with managing your budget? Are you looking for an app that can handle your accounts easily? You’re at the right place as we discovered Mint, an automatic budget tool that helps you manage all your accounts. After you connect your credit and debit cards and your bank accounts, the app automatically assigns a budget for you based on your average spending habits.
You can also increase or decrease the maximum and minimum for your budget and add or remove categories to manage your spending. Income and expenses are also automatically added whenever you make purchases or receive money with your credit or bank accounts. However, all cash transactions must be manually added. After you’re done adding that Mint would factor in all the expenditure and come with various charts and information about your spending habits, you can manage your money better.
9. Dropbox – Organize all your Data
Pricing: Free (costs can increase depending on storage capacity)
Dropbox for iPad is primarily a data storage app that features a simple user interface that is very beginner-friendly for an easy uploading and syncing process across all of your accounts and devices. You can store all the files and folders, and we found that all of the folders were listed in alphabetical order. This is prevalent across any platform you use, and a handy search button is also included for people with multiple files stored.
You can quickly delete or edit several files or folders in a row, and it allows swipe controls for easy navigation. Overall, we would recommend Dropbox to everyone, but as Dropbox is tied to your account, you’re bound to a limited amount of storage which means free accounts are only limited to 2GB of storage. However, this can easily be upgraded if you get the premium plans.
10. Netflix – Movies at Demand
Pricing: Free ($7.99 – $11.99 per month subscription)
You can’t take your big screen TV everywhere, but you can take your media experience anywhere you want. Netflix is a sleek streaming application with some incredible movies and shows that are enjoyable, and with the iPad Pro’s new display, you can be sure that you will be having a great time with streaming media.
With a paid subscription, you can access thousands of titles that range from Sci-Fi to Romance, and you can also sync your watch history, favorites, and more to deliver a seamless experience on all your devices. Oh, and the best thing is that you get a free one-month trial if you’re a new subscriber.
11. Spotify – Take your music anywhere
Pricing: Free (in-app monthly subscription plans)
As Netflix is the king in streaming videos, Spotify is the king in delivering music to your fingertips. The UI is fantastic, and it has a lot of music from all over the world. We had a wonderful time with the free version, but if you’re someone who hates ads, Spotify also comes with a premium version that helps remove all the ads and brings in support for downloading your playlist.
It also has some great Podcasts on the platform, and if you’re looking to organize and improve your music library, Spotify is the way to go.
12. Amazon Prime Video – Best TV Series
Pricing: Free (in-app purchases)
Amazon Prime Video is an excellent alternative to Netflix and can be your primary streaming option. It comes with some great TV series and movies to keep you going for the entire day. The UI can be a little confusing, but the search button can help you get all the files with a simple search.
So, if you’re into shows such as Young Sheldon or The Vampire Diaries, then Amazon Prime Video is the way to go. Also, you get a complete Amazon Prime subscription that means faster deliveries on all your purchases from Amazon’s website and app. You can share the Prime Video account with your family for a complete experience.
13. YouTube – The Platform for Creative Professionals
Pricing: Free (in-app purchases)
To round out the media streaming apps, we have YouTube. It delivers hours of fun and learning from a lot of creators from all over the world. From cat videos to quantum physics, you can find a video on everything, making YouTube go for any reviews.
YouTube is a no-brainer, and if you still don’t have it installed on your iPad, then go ahead and install it asap, because it will change your life for the better. You can also learn to download YouTube to iPad for offline viewing.
So, what should I install for starters?
Well, we would recommend you to get Microsoft Office, Youtube, Netflix, Genshin Impact, Mint, and LastPass for a start as they are instrumental and deliver a great experience all around. After you have downloaded all these, you can move forward trying out the other apps to find out what suits you and delivers on all your expectations.
With this, we have reached the end, and if there’s anything else you would like to know, then comment below so that we can help resolve any issues you might be having trouble with.
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