University life can be tough on a student's wallet, so whenever you can get a break, take it. Many of your favorite tech companies are happy to help, offering their apps and services at a substantial discount to students.

Most schools will provide you with a sparkling new ".edu" email address, like john.doe@stanford.edu or john.doe@nyu.edu. This email is your gateway to a world of discounted and free programs for which you'd need to shell out some big bucks otherwise. Here's just some of the stuff you can look forward to.

Free! Amazon Prime for 6 Months

  • Regular price: $99 per year
  • Discounted price: Free
  • Where to get it: Amazon Prime for Students
  • What you need: Any .edu email address.
student-discounts-freebies-edu-email-amazon-prime

That's right, you can get six months of access to Amazon Prime, the online giant's next-day delivery membership program. There are other cool benefits of Amazon Prime too, like access to Amazon's unlimited music and video streaming services, unlimited photo storage, and Kindle ebook rentals. Plus, if you are staying with a few roommates, you can even share the account with them.

Once in a while, Amazon also slashes prices on select products for students. For instance, in the past, students could buy a Kindle Fire tablet for $50. So keep your eye out for those deals.

60% Discount! Adobe Creative Cloud

  • Regular price: $50 per month for a year
  • Discounted price: $20 per month for a year
  • Where to get it: Adobe Creative Cloud for Students
  • What you need: Any .edu email address, proof of eligibility at a university, college, school, or homeschool.
student-discounts-freebies-edu-email-adobe-creative-cloud

You can get some excellent Adobe apps for free now, but if you want a taste of the latest Creative Cloud suite, you'll need to pay some cash. Regularly, it costs a bomb, but students can get it for just $20 per month. The deals include Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, Acrobat Reader, Acrobat Pro, and other software. Here's a quick guide to choosing the right Adobe product for you.

Remember, if you only want Adobe's popular image-editing tools, Photoshop and Lightroom, you can get the Photography package for $10 per month.

Free! Microsoft Office 365, 1TB OneDrive, 60 Mins Skype

  • Regular price: $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year
  • Discounted price: Free or $79.99 for four years
  • Where to get it: Microsoft Office for Students
  • What you need: An eligible .edu email address or proof of being a student.
student-discounts-freebies-edu-email-microsoft-office-365

A few years ago, Microsoft announced that students could get Office 365 for free. This includes an offline installable version of the latest Office suite, which in this case is Microsoft Office 2016. The suite contains Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Access, OneNote, Outlook, and other useful apps. This offer is available worldwide, as long as your school has partnered with Microsoft for this scheme. Check if you can get Microsoft Office for free by trying out your valid school email address at the Office for Students page.

In case you can't get a free download of Office 365, you can still avail yourself of a massive discount on the package. Students can buy Office 365 for $79.99 online. You don't need a valid .edu email address, but Microsoft might contact you for some valid proof that you're a student. Here's how to find out if you're eligible.

Both these offers come with 1TB of OneDrive storage, but remember, Microsoft has a history of cutting this. You can also claim 60 minutes of free Skype calling per month with this package. Also, even if you aren't a student, you can still get Microsoft Word for free.

Free! LastPass Premium for 6 Months

  • Regular price: $12 per year
  • Discounted price: Free for six months
  • Where to get it: LastPass Edu Promo
  • What you need: Any .edu email address.
student-discounts-freebies-edu-email-lastpass

Out of the several password management apps out there, Lastpass is among the favorites here at MakeUseOf. In fact, we think LastPass Premium is worth the money, with its extra features like smartphone sync, shared family folders, and more. As a student, you don't need to pay a penny. You can get LastPass Premium for free for six months.

In case your .edu email address isn't accepted by LastPass in the Edu Promo, you can email the staff to get your school listed (after a quick verification).

50% Discount! Spotify and Apple Music

student-discounts-freebies-edu-email-apple-music-spotify-premium

In the Apple Music vs. Spotify music streaming battle, you don't need to let price be a deciding factor. Both services offer 50% discount for students, bringing their price to five bucks a month.

If you're choosing Spotify, Spotify Premium is worth the upgrade from the free version. It's ad-free, it lets you download songs offline, so you don't waste data, and you can get better quality audio. All you need is a .edu email.

Apple Music doesn't have a free account, but only a three-month free trial. Use the right tips to get more out of Apple Music and you'll be surprised how good this service is. You will need your school to be supported by UNiDAYS to take advantage of this, and the process to set up a student account is a bit convoluted. Apple's FAQs will sort things out.

Free! AutoCAD, Maya, and Any Autodesk App

student-discounts-freebies-edu-email-autodesk-maya

Autodesk has been at the forefront of graphics imaging since the early days of the computer revolution. It wants to help students be the best possible designers they can be, so the company offers its suite of premium products for free to learners.

At AutoDesk for Students, you will find free downloads for the full AutoCAD suite, Maya, 3DS Max, Infraworks, and other famous 2D and 3D modeling software.

Yes, there are free alternatives like LibreCAD, but who wants that when you can get the industry standard without paying anything?

50% Discount! Parallels for Mac 11

  • Regular price: $79.99
  • Discounted price: $39.99
  • Where to get it: OnTheHub
  • What you need: A student ID or report card.
student-discounts-freebies-edu-email-parallels-11

You love your Mac, but sometimes you need access to Windows. The best way get Windows on Mac is to set it up with Parallels Desktop. It's the easiest software to get Windows up and running on a MacBook, provided you have a valid Windows license. And yes, it supports the new Windows 10 operating system.

Of course, there are pros and cons of running Windows 10 natively on a Mac, but how else are you going to get your favorite games or take advantage of all that free software from Autodesk?

You should check OnTheHub's Help > Your Account > How do I register by submitting my proof of eligibility page before you go ahead. They have specific instructions about how you'll need to scan and upload your student ID or report card.

Free! GitHub Student Pack

  • Regular price: $3,000+
  • Discounted price: Free
  • Where to get it: GitHub Student Developer Pack
  • What you need: Any .edu email, student ID, or report card.
student-discounts-freebies-edu-email-github-student-pack

If you want to learn how to code, you will need to familiarize yourself with different software and the Github repository. Gits and version controls are developer staples, and Github is the king of them all today.

The site has teamed up with several popular developer resources to build a free package for students, which includes DigitalOcean cloud hosting, Microsoft Azure services, Udacity courses, the Unreal engine for gaming, and more tools. Check out the full list.

And remember, GitHub can be used for creative work too -- it's not just for coders!

More Cool Offers!

Apart from all these app benefits from getting a simple .edu email account, students can get discounts and freebies at several other places unrelated to technology. A few sites do a good job of rounding up such offers so you don't have to go hunting. Check these out:

student-discounts-freebies-edu-email-unidays
  • OnTheHub: A list of tech downloads and offers, including free Windows 10 Education edition for certain schools.
  • ThinkEdu: Apart from software, ThinkEdu also gathers hardware discounts and offers from major retailers including Microsoft, Apple, Lenovo, HP, Motorola, and more. You'll be surprised at the cheap prices of some great laptops and back-to-school smartphones for students!
  • UNiDAYS: While it covers tech well, UNiDAYS goes far beyond that by showing discounts for clothing stores, travel options, food joints, gyms, and much more. It's the ultimate repository of student discounts.

Psst, Share a Discount?

While this article has several discounts and freebies for you to take advantage of, there are still some great offers that we probably haven't listed here. In the interest of saving everyone some money, let's turn it over to you, our base of ever-vigilant readers.

Do you know a fantastic, unmissable offer for students? Have you taken advantage of any of the offers above? Share your experience in the comments below!

Image Credits: Creativa Images/Shutterstock