If you want to get the most out of your iPad, chances are you’re going to end up spending a little money in the App Store. But between the iWork suite and cool apps like Things, there are a ton of free productivity apps that can help you get the most out of your iPad without breaking the bank.

These apps offer great ways to take notes, whether you want to type, record, or handwrite them. They also offer great ways to improve your productivity on iPad, including a free photo editor, a dictionary, and even a way to easily transfer files from your PC to your iPad. You can even run the world’s most popular office suite on iPad.

Apple has made the iWork suite of productivity apps free to anyone who buys a new iPad or iPhone, making it some of the best free apps for getting things done on the iPad. The iWork suite includes Pages, a word processor; Numbers, a spreadsheet program; and Keynote, which is great for creating and viewing presentations. If you'd rather skip Microsoft Office, the iWork apps are a great alternative.

Evernote is easily the best note-taking app in the App Store. It not only saves the notes you type on the on-screen keyboard, but also the notes you record with your voice. You can even save photos and sync your notes to your Mac or Windows PC. Evernote also uses your iPad’s GPS functionality to geotag notes and make them location-based.