The Best Apps for Digital Nomads
Life as a digital nomad is a blessing 99.9999% of the time, but let’s be honest – some parts can really test your patience. Staying connected with your team, staying fit while constantly on the move, or protecting your data on questionable public WiFi while working remotely can get tricky fast.
Luckily there’s always an app for everything. Actually, there are several.
In this post, we’ll share 50+ of our top apps for digital nomads to make your life that little bit – or sometimes a whole lot – easier.
Best Digital Nomad Apps for Travel
Travel is our bread and butter as digital nomads. We use all sorts of apps to plan our trips, navigate new areas, and deal with travel logistics like endless different currencies, and below you’ll find some of our favorites.
Nomads.com (previously Nomad List)
Nomads.com is an incredible resource for scouting out potential digital nomad destinations. For a one-time fee of $100, you get access to their extensive database of towns and cities including real reviews and rankings for things like safety, happiness, and WiFi.
Skyscanner
Every traveler knows Skyscanner. It’s a one-stop shop for finding the best flights based on price and duration, saving you time and money by comparing every airline and travel booking website on the internet so that you don’t have to.
Hopper
Hopper is your personal travel agent for flights, hotels, and rentals all in one super simple app. Add your destination, dates, and the number of guests then hit search to unlock discounts and find deals – who doesn’t want that?
Tripit
If trip planning and organization are your thing, then you’ll love Tripit. The app helps you create a travel itinerary in moments by automatically adding email reservations, suggesting transport and accommodation options, and syncing with your calendar. Go pro for $49/year to access premium perks like flight reminders and real-time airport information.
cospace
cospace is a massively time-saving app that lists and ranks all of the coworking (and coliving) spaces in your area. It covers 80,000+ coworking offices around the world and lets you search for free without needing to register first.
Google Maps / Maps.me
Using apps to navigate a foreign country is nothing new, but did you know you can also use Google Maps to find nearby restaurants, attractions, and activities? Maps.me is instead our choice for offline navigation as you can download maps covering an entire region for offline navigation.
Uber/Bolt/Lyft
We recommend downloading all three of these apps when traveling to make sure you’re never stranded at an airport in the middle of the night. Uber, Bolt, and Lyft often offer sporadic discounts, so having all three on your phone guarantees you the best ride-hailing price via an app.
Xe Currency
Xe Currency makes currency conversion simple with live exchange rates and the ability to send money via the app. You can manage your currencies all in one place and keep track of the best times to make an exchange.
Life360
Life360 is made to keep you and your loved ones safe. You can share your location with trusted people to make sure someone always knows where you are when abroad, or for digital nomad families, you have access to the location of your children at all times.
Digital Nomad Apps for Accommodation
Long gone are the days when word-of-mouth hostels or confusing hotel websites were the only ways to book somewhere to stay as a digital nomad. Here are our top apps for booking your digital nomad accommodation.
Airbnb
Airbnb is a lifesaver for those of us who value space and experience over a small hotel room. You have a range of accommodation options from entire luxury mansions to spare rooms, and with Airbnb Experiences you’re able to connect with local people by booking hands-on tours, activities, and excursions.
Booking.com
Booking.com is one of the best apps on the market for finding unmatched short-term accommodation deals. You can search by location and date, then use filters like ratings, amenities, and cost to find the ideal hotel, hostel, or rental.
Flatio
Flatio is a must-have website for European digital nomads who like to stay more than just a week or two in any one place and don’t love the idea of living in a hostel. Through the website, you’re connected with short, mid, and long-term rental options in your area that have been verified for safety.
Agoda
Agoda helps you search for accommodation by scouring the internet and pulling the best possible deals. You can save more with their flight and hotel bundle options and keep your activity and airport transport bookings all within one app. In our experience, this app is particularly great in South-East Asia where you can find the best deals on both short-term and long-term accommodations as a digital nomad.
TrustedHousesitters
Looking for accommodation on a budget? With TrustedHousesitters, you get to stay in a local person’s home in exchange for watching their house, pets, and plants (that’s a pretty great deal if you ask us). Basic plans start at $129/year for house sitting, $149/year for pet sitting, or $209/year for a combined plan.
Couchsurfing
Another great budget option is Couchsurfing, which connects travelers with people happy to offer them a sofa or spare bed to sleep on free of charge. Members can leave recommendations for one another to help you feel safe staying with a stranger and membership is $2.39/month or $14.29/year.
Digital Nomad Apps for SIM Cards and Internet
Without data and reliable internet, we can’t get our work done, plan our next trip, or stay in touch with friends and family. Try these apps to make unstable WiFi a thing of the past.
WiFi Map / Wi-Fi Finder + Map
These apps can be used to search for public WiFi networks in your area to help you get connected faster. WiFi Map crowdsources WiFi passwords and Wi-Fi Finder + Map has an offline mode for $7.99/year.
Airalo / Holafly eSIM
They are two of the top eSIM apps in the eSIM space and we’ve tested them multiple times on our nomad travels. You can explore plans, purchase an eSIM, and install and activate all from within either app. Holafly is great for unlimited plans and voice calls while Airalo stands out for the widest coverage among all the eSIMs, great speeds, and phone tethering.
Solis WiFi
If you’re looking for a portable WiFi hotspot to control via an app, then you have to check out Solis Wifi. Their SIMO lite 4G is a compact device that fits in your pocket and costs $159.99 with data plans as low as $5/month.
Starlink Mini
You may have heard of Starlink, the company that helps you get online from anywhere in minutes. Instead of traditional WiFi or cellular networks, Starlink connects directly with satellites for coverage in even the most remote locations. Their brand-new Starlink Mini is their flagship portable option and costs $599 with plans starting at $50/month for 50GB.
Digital Nomad Apps for Remote Work
Finding ways to connect with colleagues and clients regardless of location or remain focused when working from a busy cafe used to be a pain for any digital nomad, but with these apps, it couldn’t be easier.
Noisli
Noisli is your secret weapon when it comes to concentration. The app plays background sounds designed to help you focus and relax. There’s a free plan for up to 1.5 hours of streaming a day or upgrade to $10/month for unlimited listening.
Calendly
When working over multiple (and often changing) time zones, scheduling meetings can easily become a nightmare. Not with Calendly. This async communication app allows you to create meeting ‘types’ for others to book with you, automatically syncing with your calendar of choice. You get one event type with the free plan or upgrade for $10/month for premium features.
Google Drive / Dropbox
Google Drive and Dropbox are great file-sharing platforms ideal for document collaboration. Google Drive is free to use and syncs with your Google ecosystem while Dropbox plans start at $16.58/month with added perks like better large file syncing and quicker file recovery.
Zoom / Google Meet
We obviously know that video calls and remote meetings are essential for any digital nomad. With Google Meet you can seamlessly sync with your Gmail and Google Calendar and get up to 15GB of free storage. Zoom offers instead a more professional and streamlined setup with a free plan for meetings of up to 45 minutes or paid options starting at $15.99/month.
SendGB
SendGB is an app that lets you share files up to 5GB for free and as quickly as possible. It doesn’t require any registration and you can password-lock files to keep everything safe. Need to send something larger than 5GB? Prices start from €2.99 for single-use transfers up to 1TB.
Slack / Microsoft Teams
Slack and Microsoft Teams are two of the best apps to keep you connected across a distributed team. We like Slack because it’s free and so easy to join while Teams is great for integrated calls and built-in security for distributed teams, with plans starting at $4/user/month.
Toggl Track
As the name suggests, Toggl Track is an app used for time tracking. It might sound dull, but we’ve found Toggl completely changes the game when it comes to efficiency. With the free tier, you get unlimited time tracking, expense reports, and calendar integrations, or for $10/month unlock customized reports, project estimates, and task management.
Digital Nomad Apps for Community and Networking
Work is only one part of the digital nomad experience. What’s just as - maybe even more - important, is the community connections built along the way. These apps help you to find networking events, remote work tips, and support at every step of the way.
Facebook (Groups)
We all know Facebook as the place where our aunt shares daily updates that no one asked for, but it’s also one of the easiest ways to find digital nomad communities like our Freaking Nomads Group. Search ‘Digital Nomads in…’ and you’ll find hundreds, even thousands, of remote workers looking to connect. One of the best places to find digital nomad info in our opinion.
Freaking Nomads Forum
We wanted to create a free space where our incredible community of digital nomads could connect with each other, so we launched our own Freaking Nomads community forum. It’s a place to ask questions, offer insights, and feel at home regardless of where you might be in reality.
InterNations
Are you moving your base abroad but have no idea what to expect? Try joining InterNations, an online community for expats. You can find events, make friends, and ask people already living in your city exactly what to expect once you arrive. So, you can make your move to your new digital nomad base smoother.
FocusMate
Just because we’re digital nomads, doesn’t mean we always want to work alone. And with FocusMate, we don’t have to. As the name suggests, it’s an app that finds you a mate to focus with during work sessions. You simply log in, book a session with another community member, and start coworking together via video call.
There truly is a subreddit for everything, and that includes digital nomads. From r/movingto communities to r/digitalnomads and r/expatsin, you can find a page made exactly for your situation and questions, no matter how niche.
Tinder / Bumble
Yes, Tinder and Bumble are primarily dating apps made for finding love, but they’re also tools for meeting new people, romantic or not. These apps are filled with people actively looking to meet up with others in their area, and don’t forget, Bumble BFF is literally made for platonic connections.
Digital Nomad Apps for Health and Wellness
If you’re in the digital nomad game for the long run then it’s so important to build a balanced lifestyle. These are the apps we use to keep on top of our health and wellness with fitness tracking, meditation, and mindfulness.
Calm
Calm is a guided meditation app that helps you find peaceful internal moments, regardless of what's happening on the exterior. They have content for relaxation, movement, and even kids with new meditations being added all the time. Calm is $69.99/year or get Calm for Life at $399.99.
Down Dog
Committing to classes - in-person or online - gets tricky with our constantly changing schedules and time zones. That’s why Down Dog brings the yoga classes to you. By choosing your duration, level, and focus, you can get 100% personalized yoga lessons all for $9.99/month or $59.99/year.
Fitness+
Apple Fitness+ is essentially a digital personal trainer that lives on your phone. It gives you access to a ton of different 5 and 45-minute workouts across 12 activities, with all subscribers getting 1 month free followed by a monthly cost of $9.99.
Headspace
If you’re new to meditation and mindfulness then Headspace is the app for you. It introduces you to meditation through courses and fun animations, making the activity actually accessible for people of all ages and backgrounds. It costs $12.99/month or $34.99/year.
Seven (7 Minute Workout)
Seven’s goal is simple - get people moving. It doesn’t have to be an intense hour-long HIIT class or running a marathon, just seven minutes of movement every day can (and will) make a difference to our overall health. For $9.99/month you can access workouts, compete with friends, and watch your progress grow.
Strava
The thing about Strava is that once you start using it, you literally can’t stop. The fitness-tracking app is most loved by runners who love to track stats like pace, incline, and duration. You can log any type of exercise and share your progress with friends to receive their ‘kudos’.
Timeshifter
Let’s talk jetlag. Some people say it’s a choice, others find it a nightmare…Timeshifter says it’s a science. The app helps you beat jetlag by adjusting your circadian rhythms through sleep and light. For $9.99 per plan, you start using the app three days before travel to make the timezone shift as seamless as possible.
Language and Cultural Digital Nomads Apps
With every new country, comes a unique culture to learn, and sometimes learning a brand new language. If you’re looking to dust off your high school Spanish, learn enough Korean just to get by, or master Portuguese while living in Madeira, these language-learning apps are the place to start.
Babbel / Duolingo
Memorization and flashcard-style apps are a tried and true way to start learning a language. If you’ve ever studied a language before, the chances are you used Duolingo - the gamified language learning platform with a great free plan. Babbel starts at $80.70/6 months with the added bonus of Babbel Live online classes.
Lingoda
Lingoda is an online language school that lets you book into classes at times that work for you (hello flexible learning!). You follow a curriculum by taking online classes in a particular order, but instead of locking into one specific class, you book into lessons ad-hoc without any commitment. You can read our in-depth thoughts in our hands-on Lingoda review to learn more about it.
Google Translate
Google Translate has come a long way from its early days of janky translations. Today, it has the capacity to translate photos, live images in the camera, and real-time voices meaning it’s truly never been easier to be a digital nomad abroad. We use it all the time, and we could never live without it!
Digital Nomad Apps for Productivity and Project Management
You can do everything right: find the perfect coworking space, bring a 5G mobile WiFi hotspot, and have a killer remote work setup…and still not have a productive day. Being able to effectively coordinate and execute work tasks is a skill of its own, and luckily these apps are here to help.
Asana
Asana is arguably the best project management tool on the market right now. Paid plans can get expensive, but even in the free version, you get up to 10 teammates, unlimited projects, and a calendar view to streamline your distributed team’s workflow.
Monday.com
You know those days where your workload feels impenetrable and you have no idea where to start? Let Monday.com take over. This task management tool lets you create visual workflows to track progress and assign tasks with up to two members free or $9/month for unlimited viewers and items. It's truly one of the best remote work tools.
Evernote
Evernote helps you instead keep track of your notes and organize tasks in one clear app interface. You can see all your to-do lists, access documents, and store important notes and the app will even send you reminders to make sure nothing important is accidentally overlooked.
Notion
Notion is kind of like a super personalized and interactive Google Drive. You create a workspace, invite your teammates to join, and then fill it with pages like documents, graphs, to-do lists, and just about anything you can think of!
Trello
If you’re tired of trying to manage collaboration across remote teams then Trello might be your new favorite thing. It’s an online workspace made so that teams can visually assign tasks, track progress, and collaborate on ideas, and is free for up to 10 users.
Digital Nomad Apps for Security and Privacy
Cyber security has become more important than ever, especially if your entire livelihood relies on a computer. These are our app recommendations to protect your online privacy with VPNs, encryption, and when using public WiFi.
NordVPN
Not only are VPNs useful for accessing location-specific content, they’re also a huge yes when it comes to cyber security. From $2.99/month billed yearly, NordVPN masks your IP address so that you can’t be tracked across the internet, adding an additional layer of security when using public WiFi.
ClearVPN
ClearVPN is another great VPN option that offers super fast internet speeds and server optimization in addition to important cyber security perks. Plans start at $3.75/month billed annually.
1Password
Keeping track of a million unique and random passwords can feel like an impossible chore…so why not let 1Password do it for you? For $2.99/month, the app keeps track of, manages, and autofills your passwords making online security easier than ever.
Google Authenticator
Using Google Authenticator is one of the easiest ways to add two-factor authentication to your online accounts. You simply connect the free app with compliant websites to get a one-time code straight to your phone every time you need to log in.
Ready to Find Your Perfect Digital Nomad App?
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