Life as a student can be difficult. School is more expensive than ever and for many students funds can be tight. So, saving money wherever you can is essential. Thankfully, as a student, you have an abundance of great deals and free trials at your fingertips: from productivity apps to music streaming services to savings on food delivery.
Many of the biggest shopping websites and tech brands also have great back-to-school promotions for students, allowing you to save on the important things you'll need to get you through the school year. Check out our roundups below for the best free trials, discounts, and deals for students.
Free Trials and Discounts on Services for Students
Regardless of what you're going to school for, you're likely going to need a Microsoft Office 365 subscription. Some schools provide keys to students for free, but if you need to purchase your own you can score a monthly subscription through Microsoft for just $5 a month after a three-month free trial.
For students requiring Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, or any of the other Adobe creative apps, you can get a great deal on Creative Cloud Pro for $30 a month which gives you unlimited access to more than 20 apps with automatic cloud backup and syncing across all of your devices.
An Amazon Prime subscription is ubiquitous these days as you can literally buy just about anything you could possibly need for college with free two-day shipping. If you don't already have a membership, you can take advantage of the Prime Student subscription which includes a 6-month free trial and 50% off the standard price. This subscription will also get you access to Prime Video, so it doubles as a streaming service free trial as well.
While it may not technically be essential to your college studies, having a music subscription is extremely important. Apple Music, Spotify, and Tidal all have free trials and great student deals to save you some cash. If you're looking to stream TV and movies, check out our roundup of the best streaming discounts for students.
Shopping for Students
If you're heading to college, you're going to need a laptop or tablet for completing assignments, research, and taking tests, at the very least. All the major tech shopping websites and brands have great back-to-school deals for students right now to ensure you can get what you need at the best possible price. Some of these websites even feature year-round deals for students to take advantage of, so it's worth bookmarking these pages for later use. If you're into gaming, you might consider a gaming laptop for school as these generally have the power needed for demanding games and schoolwork.
If you need help with recommendations on what to buy, check out the following links:
- Best Laptops for Students
- Best iPads for Students
- Best Prebuilt PCs for Students
- Best Chromebooks for Students
Do you need to be a student to get discounts?
Generally, yes, you need to be a college or university-enrolled student to take advantage of these promotions. Many websites require you to go through a verification process to validate that you have an active .edu email address before you can activate the deal.
That being said, if you have a family member or friend in college, you may be able to use their school email address to score a discount on certain items. Some websites don't require any verification at all, allowing just about anyone to take advantage of special student pricing year-round.
Matthew Adler has written for IGN since 2019 covering all things gaming, tech, tabletop games, and more. You can follow him on the site formerly known as Twitter @MatthewAdler and watch him stream on Twitch.
