Thesis-Writing Apps: Best Applications & Software for Graduate Students

The process of writing a thesis requires a lot of time and patience. To make this task easier for you, our Custom-Writing.org experts have compiled a list of the best thesis-writing apps and software. These tools will help you with each aspect of crafting a dissertation:

• taking notes
• planning and managing time
• improving your productivity
• checking work for correctness
• analyzing various types of data, and more.

Read on to learn more about the top 43 free research paper writing apps!

1. 📑 Word Processors and Note-Taking Apps

This should be a no-brainer, but writing is one of the essential parts of creating a thesis. So it’s evident that you need to have the best thesis apps to deal with this task effectively.

Here are some apps that you might want to check out.

1. Google docs. This is probably the first app that comes to mind when you think of alternative free word processors. It has all the functionality and capabilities you’ll need to write and format your thesis. It also allows users to work together on the same document in real-time. It’s available for Android, iOS, or as a web app.
2. WPS Office. This multi-platform solution includes not only a word processor. It’s also a full-fledged office suite that allows you to create and work with spreadsheets, presentations, and PDF documents. What else could you need to create a perfect thesis?
3. Office Online. This one is for those who want to get the most out of Microsoft Office for free. This one is as good as it can get — an online version of Office. Enough said.
4. Jarte. This is a free word processor based on the WordPad engine. It has all the necessary functions and provides a comfortable way to work with text—and it’s free. This app also can export your documents to PDF and HTML files.
5. Evernote, Google Keep, and OneNote. The reason why we put these three together? They’re all note-taking apps. Do we know that there are many other similar apps too? Yes, we do. But there’s a reason why these three are so popular. They all offer the same thing – a way to keep all your notes in one place. The difference between them is how it’s all organized, along with some extra features. All of these thesis writing apps are free, too.

2. ⏰ Time-Managing Thesis Apps

With all the steps you need to complete to write a good thesis, it’s not hard to get lost. You can quickly get stuck in one place without knowing what to do and end up making no progress at all.

Or you can use one of the dissertation apps in this category to build a plan and organize your workflow!

6. Pocket. Pocket brings order to the chaos of posts and articles you want to read or use to write your thesis. You can easily save them all in one place and look through them later. Then you can decide whether or not you’ll need a particular piece of information.
7. Todoist. This one is a free time manager (though it also has paid plans with extra features). With this app, you can set deadlines for each stage of your thesis creation process, and it will remind you of them beforehand. This app will help you stay on track of what plans are waiting for you next.

3. 🚀 Thesis Apps to Improve Productivity

We all have days when things don’t work, and everything is a distraction. So how can you deal with this all-too-common problem?

There’s a good selection of productivity apps that can help you out. With one of these, you’ll finish writing your thesis in no time.

8. Any.do. This one is a task manager that’ll help you stay on track of whatever your current tasks are. It will help you build a habit of reviewing your tasks and make sure that you know which assignments you need to pay the most attention to at the moment. With this app, you won’t miss deadlines or find yourself wondering what to do next.
9. IFTTT. This tool allows you to create short automation sequences without any coding skills. It will remember every little thing that you tend to forget. On the one hand, you’ll get those things done; on the other—you won’t get distracted by those tasks and will be able to concentrate on what’s important right now. The app supports plenty of services and is easy to use.
10. RescueTime. This app will track the time you spend completing tasks. It will also report all the websites you visit, the apps you use, and breaks you take during the day. By doing so, it helps you create greater self-awareness. As a result, you’ll immediately see whether something is going wrong and keeping you from following your plan.
11. StayFocusd. This Chrome extension helps you stay focused on your current task (which, of course, explains its name). It will block all those distracting sites that tend to get in your way while you’re working. You can set a specific time for blocking or choosing a time limit for a certain time during the day.
12. Write or Die. This one is a web-based tool. It is also available for iOS, with an Android version coming soon. The tool helps you eliminate writer’s block. Within the app, you can set a specific period and the word count you need to reach within this time. It also features stimuli and rewarding images.

4. 🎓 Vocabulary Boosters and Dictionaries

At this stage, dictionaries and vocabulary boosters come into play.

13. Merriam-Webster Dictionary. This is one of the most well-known dictionaries out there. Apart from listing definitions and offering a thesaurus, it also features word games. These word games aim to increase your vocabulary, which will come in handy when writing a thesis. Apart from having a web-based version, there are also apps available for Android and iOS.
14. Cambridge Dictionary. This is another famous dictionary listing almost every aspect and sphere imaginable. In long-term perspective, it’s even more useful than the best thesis statement generator, as it can potentially provide you with knowledge you’ll keep forever. All of the resources are available from the site, widget, or official mobile apps. A wide selection of available dictionaries and thesauruses will surely meet all of your writing needs.
15. The Free Dictionary. There are many things to discover under this simple name. This web service provides dictionaries on a variety of topics. It also features a thesaurus, idioms, acronyms, a grammar book, and encyclopedia articles. What else can you ask for?

5. 🔬 Tools for Conducting Research

Another essential part of writing a thesis is research. Without properly researched sources and data, everything that’s written in your thesis will be highly questionable.

To avoid poorly supported arguments, and to be able to conduct outstanding research, consider using one of the following tools.

16. Mendeley. Once you try this tool, you won’t believe that you ever researched without it. It will help you complete any type of research, come up with a topic for your paper, organize your literature review, make annotations, and manage your research materials. This multi-platform tool also allows syncing across all your devices.
17. Mindmup, Bubbl.us. Both of these apps are great tools for mind mapping. They’ll help you get all of your thoughts and ideas in order. This organization will significantly help your research, as everything will be neatly organized and accessible. Both of these tools have free plans and web versions. They only differ with their extra features.
18. WolframAlpha. This is a go-to source of expert knowledge on a wide variety of disciplines. This answer engine is also available on mobile platforms. Instead of just giving a list of documents or web pages that may or may not answer your question, it comes up with results from a curated knowledge base in response to your query.

6. 💡 Reference Management Apps for Thesis Writing

Managing all your references and organizing them properly is challenging, especially with lengthy and complex academic works. Reference management tools come in handy by offering an all-in-one solution for the storage, retrieval, and organization of all materials collected for this project.

Here are the referencing tools we recommend:

19. StudyCorgi’s citation machine. This tool formats in-text citations as well as bibliography lists. You can also save lists related to different projects.
20. Custom-Writing’s reference generator. Our proprietary tool does a great job formatting all kinds of sources in APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, and other styles.
21. Citation Machine. This advanced tool has many additional features, such as grammar check and AI writing assistance. It also has a paid version with even more extra options.

Such tools have numerous benefits:

These benefits make resource management tools valuable research companions. They improve the efficiency of your data organization and make all aspects of resource use far more manageable.

7. 📊 Data Management Tools and Apps

Qualitative and quantitative data management tools can be hugely helpful to a researcher of any competence and experience level. The following options are ideal for academic projects:

Tools suitable for qualitative and quantitative data

22. SurveyMonkey helps you create and send surveys. It also has built-in analysis instruments to help you make sense of the collected data.
23. Qualtrics is another helpful tool that combines survey generation, dissemination, and analysis features. It also simplifies survey structuring.

Qualitative data analysis tools

24. NVivo offers a rich toolkit for qualitative data organization, coding, and analysis across all data types. It suits researchers who want to present in-depth, nuanced insights.
25. MAXQDA is perfect for newbies. It offers a simple, user-friendly interface for complex dataset analysis.
26. ATLAS.ti is ideal for organizing and analyzing large datasets. Its robust coding and data visualization capabilities will be valuable for researchers approaching mixed-format data, such as text, video, and graphics.
27. Delve is another tool with an intuitive interface that can make any qualitative analysis simpler.

Quantitative data analysis tools

28. Julius uses AI to analyze data, present the output in a visually clear format, and perform accurate forecasting.
29. IBM SPSS is the golden standard of quantitative analysis, suitable for complex data testing and its graphical representation.
30. R Studio has a steep learning curve, but those who master it can perform advanced statistical computing and analysis.
31. Stata is optimal for handling large datasets and detailed data analysis.

Each of these tools can become your valuable assistant in the process of data collection and analysis.

8. 📚 Thesis Tools & Apps for Literature Review Writing

Your literature reviews will benefit from automated solutions for data organization and analysis. Here are a couple of handy suggestions:

32. Scite AI enhances source analysis by enabling their broader assessment in context. You will see who mentioned the source in their studies and who opposed or confirmed it, helping you decide whether to integrate it into your review.
33. Petal is a chat-based tool that can give you a quick evaluative summary of the content of the chosen source to aid your content analysis efforts.
34. Consensus is a tool that simplifies and speeds up academic research across its database of 200+ million articles. The search results come with user-friendly summaries that aid your evaluation.
35. Litmaps provides a simple visual mapping tool for your sources to help you understand data connections and build a coherent review.
36. Connected Papers is an invaluable tool for researchers who need to find relevant studies to build a coherent review. It will help you map the existing body of evidence and identify research gaps.
37. Elicit is an all-in-one AI-powered assistant that automates all aspects of literature search, extraction, and organization. Its in-depth data insights make it very helpful for systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

9. 🔊 Transcription Tools & Apps

Many students who do research store data in an audiovisual format and record their ideas as audio. If that’s your case, transcription tools and software will come in handy in the process of turning fragmented data into coherent sets.

AI assistants can help in the process by turning audio into text in real-time, thus giving you instant transcription output. Though the quality can hardly be called flawless, many AI products have reached 85%+ accuracy, which is quite impressive.

Among the most popular transcription apps are:

38. Otter.ai. This software is widely used for real-time transcription and speaker identification. It’s especially great for recording lectures.
39. Rev. This tool offers both AI-generated and human transcription services. Rev is known for high accuracy and is often used for business, legal, and academic purposes.
40. Descript. This app combines transcription with audio editing functions. It automatically transcribes recordings and lets you improve them via editing the text.

The advantages of relying on automated transcription software include:

Keep in mind that the output should be manually double-checked, as transcription may contain incorrect words. You should also remember about data privacy and use only secure software, especially when you’re dealing with sensitive or confidential research data.

10. 🔤 Grammar Checkers

Everyone makes mistakes. But it’s not a bad idea to make sure that there’s none in your thesis. The apps described below can help you with that.

41. Hemingway Editor. This tool aims to improve your writing style and make it as straightforward as possible. It makes colored highlights to indicate long or very complicated sentences. As a result, you get a clean piece of content that’s understandable and easy to digest.
42. Ginger. This multi-platform solution helps you find and correct all types of grammar mistakes. It also makes it easier to edit text, which improves your overall productivity, as you’ll spend less time correcting errors.
43. Grammarly. This tool has gained so much popularity that it probably doesn’t even require an introduction. It finds and corrects mistakes that no word processor can spot. The tool has a browser extension, offline software, and a premium version with extra features.

Hopefully, you’ll get some thesis help by using these free tools. With these apps at your disposal, you’ll be able to craft a fantastic thesis easily.

Did we miss something? Are there any free thesis apps that you like to use that aren’t on this list? Tell us about them in the comments!