Be happy to pay for these 6 PC apps because they are really worth it!

When every service wants you to pay, you have to think carefully about what you should spend your money on. And while there are plenty of categories of computer software you shouldn't pay for, there are still tools that are worth it.

 

Many people have paid for a number of desktop apps over time, and will continue to pay for many of them (or apps in general) if necessary. However, the circumstances under which you pay for many of these apps have changed, making recommendations more complicated.

6. Mailbird

Desktop mail

 

Many people never bothered with Outlook after using it in college and their first internship, but are familiar with Mailbird for desktop mail. It's useful to have both your work and personal inboxes in one place, so you don't have to open a browser tab every time.

Mailbird offers a unified inbox tool, which many people don't like, but it's useful if you want to see multiple personal email addresses in one place, for example. The app also lets you access popular web tools like Google Calendar, ChatGPT , Evernote , and more in a sidebar. While you won't use this feature often, it helps reduce the amount of app switching that email processing can require.

5. iA Writer

Markdown Editor

 

Soon after becoming a tech writer, many learned Markdown and it became their preferred way to write. They started with MarkdownPad and were willing to pay for the Pro version. After it left active development (and no dark theme was available), many switched to Caret and paid for a license after trying it out. Since then, they have tried iA Writer and MarkText.

Markdown is portable , so you can use it in any text editor (including free tools like VS Code and Notepad++).

4. Snagit

Screen capture tool

For a beginner, the $50 upfront fee for Snagit may seem like a ridiculous amount when there are so many good free screenshot apps out there. But many people decide to give it a try after gaining more experience and being satisfied with what the app has to offer.

If you take screenshots often, this app has a lot of tools that make it worth the price. Scrolling screenshots for capturing long pages, a Simplify option for quickly blurring using colors already in the image, and a robust library of app-specific screenshots are just a few of the features we love about Snagit.

 

3. 1Password

Password Manager

Many people's first password manager was LastPass, but they discontinued it in 2019 after it suffered a series of security breaches. They then decided to switch to 1Password because they liked the user interface and the reasonable price compared to the alternatives. Many people have used it ever since (even adding families to the plan) and are happy with the premium.

1Password has great apps for every platform, rarely crashes, and adds new features that people love. It makes setting up passwords easy, lets you move logins between vaults to share with family, notifies you when passwords are compromised, and even lets you add 2FA codes right into the app.

2. Google One

Cloud storage

Many people don't want to pay for cloud storage; for a while, some people combined their free cloud storage accounts to avoid upgrading. But eventually, they found that spending a lot of time freeing up cloud storage space wasn't worth it.

Since Google Photos is the primary place to store your photos, many people pay $20 a year for 100GB of storage. Less than $2 a month is a pittance when time is so much more valuable. It's a smart way to balance your time and effort, especially if you don't want to pay for small subscriptions like this.

 

1. Backblaze

Backup software

Many people used to use CrashPlan to back up to an external hard drive, but that service is no longer suitable for home users. Furthermore, backing up to a secondary drive doesn't protect your data in case of theft, natural disasters, or the like. Some people have switched to Backblaze, and while the price has gone up over time, it's still worth paying for.

This is a no-install, setup cloud backup solution that backs up everything important on your computer, plus secondary, offline storage. If you lose your data, including other backups on your cloud storage and secondary drives, you can download them (and their file structure) using Backblaze's web dashboard. The service even has a paid option to send you a hard drive containing your data.