In this article
Most "best tools for students" lists are padded with tools the author hasn't actually used, or include things your university already provides. This list is different — it's limited to genuinely useful free tools, each with an honest description of what it's actually good for and where it falls short.
Essay checking and writing tools
SafeGradeFree tier available
Pre-submission essay checker built specifically for UK university students. Analyses writing quality across six dimensions, checks Harvard and APA citations, estimates your UK grade band, and flags AI-risk patterns before you submit.
Why it's useful: It's the only tool that checks the same things Turnitin checks — but gives the results to you, privately, before you submit. The citation checker alone saves most students marks every submission.
Try free → safegrade.co.uk
GrammarlyFreemium
Grammar, spelling, and style checker. The free version covers the basics well. The paid version adds more advanced suggestions but is less useful for academic writing than it is for general English.
Why it's useful: Catches typos and clear grammar errors in real time as you write. Use it selectively in academic essays — some suggestions will lower your academic register.
Hemingway EditorFree (web)
Highlights complex sentences, passive voice, and adverb overuse. No login required — just paste your text. Best used for identifying where your writing is unnecessarily complex.
Why it's useful: Good for spotting sentences that are too long or convoluted. Not calibrated for academic writing conventions, so don't accept all suggestions blindly.
The most important pre-submission check is free.
SafeGrade's Writing Analysis, citation check, and grade estimator run on every scan — no account needed for the first one.
Research and source management
Google ScholarFree
Search engine for academic papers, journals, and books. Links through to your university library for full-text access. Tracks citation counts so you can see how influential a paper is.
Why it's useful: The fastest way to find academic sources on any topic. Set your library links in Settings so it routes to your uni's subscriptions automatically.
ZoteroFree
Reference management tool that saves sources from websites and databases with one click, stores PDFs, and generates citations in Harvard, APA, or any other style automatically.
Why it's useful: Eliminates the manual work of building a reference list. The browser extension captures source information instantly. Invaluable for dissertations and long essays with many sources.
Unpaywall / Open Access ButtonFree
Browser extensions that find legal free versions of paywalled academic papers. Scans institutional repositories and preprint servers to find the same paper available without a paywall.
Why it's useful: Your university library won't subscribe to every journal. These tools find free legal copies of papers you'd otherwise have to pay for or go without.
Organisation and productivity
NotionFree for students
All-in-one workspace for notes, databases, and project planning. The student tier is free. Good for tracking deadlines, organising reading notes, and planning essay structures.
Why it's useful: Replaces scattered notes across multiple apps. The database view is particularly useful for tracking sources and essay plans across multiple modules.
CanvaFree (edu discount)
Design tool for presentations, posters, and visual materials. Most useful for students who regularly need to produce visual content for seminars, presentations, or society work.
Why it's useful: The student version is free and significantly better than PowerPoint's built-in design tools. Templates save time for presentation-heavy modules.
Revision and note-taking
AnkiFree
Flashcard app using spaced repetition — shows you cards more often when you're struggling with them and less often when you know them well. Most effective for memorisation-heavy content.
Why it's useful: For any module that requires memorising terminology, cases, theories, or formulas. The algorithm is more efficient than random revision and significantly better than cramming.
YouTube (academic channels)Free
Underused as a study tool. Channels like Crash Course, Khan Academy, and subject-specific academic channels explain complex concepts more clearly than most textbooks.
Why it's useful: If a concept isn't clicking from the reading, a 10-minute video explanation often works better. Particularly useful before seminars when you need a quick conceptual overview.
One thing this list doesn't include
AI essay writers — tools that generate essay content. These are excluded because submitting AI-generated content as your own is academic misconduct at virtually every UK university, and the risk-to-reward ratio is not favourable. SafeGrade is designed to help you submit better work you've written yourself — not to write it for you.
Add SafeGrade to your
pre-submission toolkit.
pre-submission toolkit.
Writing Analysis, AI Risk Check, Harvard and APA citations, UK grade estimation. Free to start — no account needed for the first scan.
Try it free →