Picking up a new hobby or skill can involve a lot of effort and time, but it doesn’t necessarily mean your wallet needs to take a huge hit. Free or cheap resources are easily accessible, be it YouTube videos, websites, or apps that you can download for free.

This summer, I’ve committed totrying a bunch of appsto help me learn new skills, without spending a fortune. These eight apps can be used from the comfort of your phone and can help you nurture your new fixation in no time.

1Skillshare for a Bit of Everything

Expert-led resources can be essential for mastering creative skills. With the internet, you’re able to access many accessible resources to help you level up your skills. Watching YouTube videos has often helped me begin learning creative software tools and skills, but it might not be enough to level up or be suitable for everyone.

Skillshareis a resource and app that you can use to discover, watch, and learn new creative skills such as drawing, animation, calligraphy, music, photography, and more. The app offers online courses through guided content and professional-led classes, making learning skills and creative software accessible for beginners.

What I like most about Skillshare is that, with a free trial, you may preview the first class for all courses available (and see details such as instructor, course duration, project details, and level), then decide if you’re up for committing to the app and its offerings.

Skillshare hasa web appand is available on theApp StoreandGoogle Play Store.

2Babbel for Learning New Languages

Want to move away from Duolingo as your preferred language-learning appafter its heart system update? TryBabbel! This is a user-friendly language-learning app that offers 13 languages, including French, Italian, German, and European Spanish up to varying CEFR levels.

The app uses “the Babbel method” to help you learn languages faster. This involves fast-paced lessons, podcasts, and conversation bots. Like with Duolingo, I felt that Babbel helped me pick up new words much quicker with constant recaps, daily vocabulary checks, and situational questions. While you require a premium subscription ($107.99/year) to access the full set of learning materials for every language, you can still access multiple lessons and levels for free, depending on which language you choose. The app also offers language-specific subscription plans for 1, 3, 6, or 12 months.

Babbel is available on theApp StoreandGoogle Play Store.

3Mimo for Coding

Mimois a fun, gamified education app to help you code, whether you’re starting with your first line of code or just want a refresher to strengthen your foundations. You can learn HTML, Python, JavaScript, SQL, and more, completing short projects to improve your coding skills.

The interface, with its heart-based learning system, robot learning companion, and retro color palette, is not my only favorite thing about this app. As a beginner at coding, Mimo makes learning very accessible to me, watering down even basic concepts and definitions, taking away any intimidation I’ve felt getting into learning. If you prefer to learn on your desktop or laptop, you may sync your progress by logging into Mimo’s web app.

You can track your progress by earning XP with every lesson completed and maintaining a learning streak. Another feature that cemented Mimo as one of my most visited education apps is its “Playground,” which allows you to code and test projects and environments as you learn.

With a premium subscription ($9.99/month or $89.99/month), you can skip ads, access more paths and projects, and get certificates for completed courses.

Mimo is available on theApp StoreandGoogle Play Store.

4Yousician for a Virtual Music Companion

Want to pick up playing an instrument without signing up for classes? Committing to a music class can be daunting, especially if you’re unsure about sticking to it long-term.Yousiciancan help you figure out if you’re willing to take that leap. This music app is a virtual companion to help you get started with guitar, bass, piano, and singing. Yousician offers level-based video lessons, songs you can practice singing or playing, and personalized workouts that help you keep practicing.

The app isn’t intimidating, even for beginners and you don’t have to worry about falling behind on fast instructions. The app can help you learn basics like tuning and chord progressions if you’re just getting started with a stringed instrument. Singers can use karaoke-style lessons to sing along to melodies and learn new techniques, while an instructor-led guide is available in most lessons. Yousician also has a virtual coach who listens to your progress and gives feedback, making the experience feel more two-sided.

As someone who has trained in singing for years, I found Yousician to be a good way to warm up my vocals and go through some foundation lessons to keep my vocals in good condition. Picking up and playing the guitar was also relatively easier than other music apps I’ve tried before, and even when I’m not scrolling through lessons, I use the app to quickly tune my instrument.

Yousician is available on theApp StoreandGoogle Play Store.

5Planta for Better Gardening

Plantais the perfect app for wannabe green-thumbs looking to pick up gardening as a hobby. As a beginner plant parent, I wanted to do a decent job growing my outdoor garden and be consistent with plant care, which is when Planta came into the picture. This gardening app helps you cover all the basics. Create a virtual garden to keep track of your plants, get reminders for watering (depending on each plant), find ideal locations to keep plants, and take photos to check your garden’s progress over time.

Planta is available on theApp StoreandGoogle Play Store.

6Kitchen Stories for Spicing Up Cooking

Kitchen Storiesis a virtual recipe library that can help you keep track of and discover new recipes that you want to try cooking. Whether you’re hosting a dinner party for friends or trying your hand at cooking different cuisines, searching for recipes and finding a reliable blog or video can take some time, and may not always turn out the way you want. Kitchen Stories can help streamline your cooking process, storing all your recipe cards in one place while also creating shopping lists for ingredients you would need for your favorite recipes.

The app has a neat interface with categories that help you discover new recipes every day. The recipe cards cut to the chase, simply listing ingredients, cook time, and preparation steps. You can set food preferences to avoid recipes with ingredients you might be allergic to, and import recipes from other websites or apps like Instagram. With a premium subscription, you can browse for recipes by ingredient and save multiple third-party recipes in one place.

After trying the app’s recipes for about a month of meal prep, I was successfully able to switch up my meal plan and try new recipes from Kitchen Stories chefs that were easy to follow (and tasted delicious). My meals also turned out consistently tasty without any disasters, unlike what happens when I sometimes try out new viral recipes.

Kitchen Stories is available on theApp StoreandGoogle Play Store.

7Sky Guide for Stargazing

If you’re a novice to stargazing,Sky Guidecan be a good app to help you get started. This AR constellation app helps you identify and learn about stars, constellations, and planets, helping you quickly level up your knowledge. The AR mode on this app is extremely user-friendly and lots of fun to use, and is suited for whichever level of stargazing you’re on. It comes with a compass that makes navigation easier (especially if you’re, say, out hiking).

Sky Guide has in-app resources about moon phases in your location, alerts for aurora or ISS sightings, and takes you through what’s visible in the sky for the night depending on what you’re using to see (including telescope, camera, binoculars, and the naked eye). What I like about Sky Guide is that the app’s AR mode can be used even if you’re not outdoors, so you’re able to continue discovering constellations and stars (and their placement) sitting on your couch. You can use Sky Guide on Apple Vision Pro for a better experience if you have one.

Sky Guide is available on theApp Store.

8DailyArt for Improving My Art Knowledge

DailyArtis an art history and education app tailor-made for art nerds. This app delivers daily tidbits about art history through one piece of fine art every day, accompanied by a short story detailing its history, praise, and artist. The app is also a free resource to learn more about your favorite art pieces, artists, and art styles, hosting over 4,000 collections of art that you can scroll through.

DailyArt has other resources like artist biographies, curated collections and city art guides for travel, and museum collections to help you delve deeper into art. You can translate DailyArt’s information into 23 languages. With a premium subscription ($4.99/month or $29.99/year), you can unlock the app’s entire art collection, remove ads, and create your own library of favorite art pieces.

Along with DailyArt, I use apps likePoesie(which delivers you a poem a day) to read and learn more about art history in a condensed, quick way. I’ve also added the DailyArt widget to my iPhone home screen, not only to make it look much prettier but to quickly access my art dose of the day.

DailyArt is available on theApp StoreandGoogle Play Store.

Browsing the education category in your phone’s app store can help you find some valuable, free apps that can help develop (or revisit) a skill in your free time. You can also try online learning platforms likeCourseraorHarvard University’s free coursesif you’re looking for something more academic.