Comprehensive Guide To Coronavirus Freebies And Pandemic-Related Discounts

Nov. 19, 2025, 1:08 p.m.

Tags: caronavirus

During the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous companies and organizations stepped forward to offer free products, services, and discounts to assist consumers, businesses, and institutions facing unprecedented challenges. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of the freebies and promotional offers available across various categories, including food delivery, business tools, health products, and educational resources.

Food and Restaurant Freebies

Several restaurant chains and food delivery services implemented promotional offers to support consumers during the pandemic lockdowns. These free delivery programs helped make food more accessible while minimizing physical contact between individuals.

UberEats waived its delivery fee for orders from independent restaurants, providing a crucial lifeline to small establishments during the crisis. The service also implemented contactless delivery options to limit exposure between individuals and delivery personnel.

Chipotle offered free delivery on orders exceeding $10 until March 31, 2020. Customers could access this promotion through either the Chipotle website or mobile application.

Pollo Tropical, a Miami-based Caribbean and South American cuisine chain, provided free delivery for all orders placed through its app or website until April 3, 2020. Notably, this promotion did not require a minimum purchase amount.

Red Lobster, the Orlando-based American casual dining chain, implemented a free delivery promotion for website orders until March 29, 2020. This offer required a minimum purchase of $30 and could not be combined with other promotions.

KFC extended free delivery options until April 26, 2020. Customers could place orders through the KFC website or through food delivery apps including Grubhub and Seamless.

Moe's Southwest Grill, another Mexican-style restaurant chain, offered free delivery on orders over $10 through its app and website until April 2020 (specific end date not specified in source material).

These food delivery promotions provided significant cost savings for consumers while supporting restaurant businesses struggling with reduced foot traffic during lockdowns.

Business and Productivity Tools

Numerous software companies offered their products and services for free or at heavily discounted rates to help businesses adapt to remote work and changing operational models during the pandemic.

Communication and collaboration tools received particular attention as organizations transitioned to remote work environments. EZTexting provided free emergency text alert services to schools, offering 100,000 free outgoing text messages for six months, access to coronavirus message templates, and one-on-one consulting.

Lifesize made its cloud-based video collaboration platform available with free unlimited licenses for all organizations impacted by coronavirus worldwide for six months. Ribbon Communications offered Work@Home licenses until June 30, 2020, providing enterprises with a complete Unified Communications and Collaboration solution to support all-remote workforce transitions.

Jamm provided a free audio-visual communication tool for remote and distributed teams, allowing users to record videos or conduct live calls for three months. Wildix offered six months of free access to Wildix Collaboration, a web-based communications enabling secure global employee communication.

File sharing and collaboration platforms also stepped up with free offerings. Box provided its Business plan for free for three months, including unlimited storage, mobile access, and advanced user and security reporting. Airtable made its Pro plan available free of charge for any non-political, humanitarian effort tackling COVID relief with no time limit specified.

Project management and workflow tools were made available to help organizations maintain productivity. Wrike offered free licenses of its collaborative work management platform (Professional edition) to new customers for six months, with current customers able to add unlimited collaborators. Smartsheet provided free templates for building coronavirus preparedness dashboards with CDC documentation and other resources.

Document management and e-signature solutions were also offered at no cost. PandaDoc provided its eSign plan free of charge, giving companies unlimited users, document uploads, eSignatures, and payment processing. Docusign offered free access for managing electronic agreements.

Visual collaboration tools were included in the offerings. Lucidchart provided free single user accounts with access to its introductory library and basic templates for real-time team collaboration.

Health and Safety Products

The tobacco and vaping industry implemented promotional campaigns offering protective gear alongside their products during the pandemic. Moti Piin offered two free surgical masks with the purchase of their battery-powered vaping pen from the company's online shop.

Smok, another e-cigarette brand, provided customers who purchased sleek cartridges with chances to win disposable gloves and up to 10,000 masks. Some online shops offered two-for-one deals on e-liquid vials under the banner "COVID19 RELIEF EFFORT," while others provided 19% discounts on nicotine e-juices with the use of a COVID-19 promotional code.

These marketing tactics drew criticism from health advocates who noted the hypocrisy of industries selling products that potentially damage lungs while offering protective equipment against a respiratory virus. Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, commented that "It's as if they don't realize they're in the business of destroying lungs. It literally takes your breath away."

Despite the criticism, these promotions made certain protective equipment more accessible to consumers during a period of widespread shortages.

Educational Resources

Educational institutions and e-learning platforms provided free resources to support remote learning during school closures. EZTexting's free emergency text alert services specifically included coronavirus message templates to help schools communicate with parents and students.

Panopto offered three months of free access to its video content capture and distribution platform for businesses, universities, colleges, and schools, enabling continued learning and working remotely. FeedbackFruits provided free student engagement and assessment LMS tools for higher education teachers, allowing them to make videos, presentations, and documents interactive while automatically assessing student performance within LMS.

These resources helped educational institutions maintain continuity during an unprecedented disruption to traditional learning environments.

Additional Resources and Offers

Several other companies extended free or discounted services to assist during the pandemic. ServiceNow provided free software to help organizations digitize workflows, rolling out several new applications specifically for pandemic response.

Yext offered its new site search product, Yext Answers, for free for a 90-day period. This allowed eligible businesses to transform their websites into search engines capable of answering consumers' COVID-19 specific queries in real-time.

Hiver offered its Shared Inboxes on the highest plan free for two months to eligible organizations supporting coronavirus response efforts. Workhuman provided free special editions of Life Events® and Conversations® products until March 2021 to help mitigate isolation during the COVID-19 disruption.

Noisli gave free two-month access to its Business plan, providing team members with unlimited access to background sounds that help mask distracting noises and create personal sound environments for calm and focus.

Anaplan provided free access for 90 days for qualifying nonprofits, government agencies, healthcare providers, academic institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and others on the front lines of the pandemic response.

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted an unprecedented wave of free offers and discounted services across multiple sectors. Food delivery services implemented waived fees and contactless options to support both consumers and restaurants. Software companies made collaboration, communication, and productivity tools available to help businesses transition to remote work. While some industries like tobacco and vaping offered protective gear alongside their products, these promotions generated controversy due to potential health implications. Educational resources were made widely available to support remote learning during school closures. Additional tools and platforms provided specialized support for various aspects of pandemic response and adaptation.

These free offerings provided crucial support during a global health crisis, helping individuals, businesses, and institutions maintain functionality despite unprecedented challenges. Many of these offers were time-limited, reflecting the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic response period.