What to put on your phone.

Which bus or train to take and when it actually arrives, in real time, anywhere in Israel.

Works fully in English. Free, with optional in-app ticket purchases.

Top up your physical Rav-Kav transit card from your phone with a credit card, instead of queuing at a station kiosk.

Needs a physical Rav-Kav card, a credit card, and an NFC phone to load the card by tapping it. Do not confuse it with the separate "Rav-Kav by HopOn" app; this is the one tied to ravkavonline.co.il.

Pay for any bus, train or light rail straight from your phone by QR scan, with no card to load first.

A credit or debit card is required. You pay per ride.

The navigation app Israel actually drives with, Israeli-built, with live traffic and hazard reports.

Pay for blue-and-white street parking by phone in almost every city, with the best English interface of the parking apps.

Needs your car registration number and a credit card; parking is billed with a small service fee. Install the Israeli listing, not the unrelated American "Pango Parking".

The main alternative to Pango for phone-paid street parking, with start and stop reminders.

Car registration and a credit card are required.

Restaurant and grocery delivery in Israeli cities, fully usable in English from start to finish.

Foreign cards are generally accepted, so it works before your Israeli bank does.

The one app almost everyone uses to find an apartment, a job, a used car or second-hand furniture. If you need to find or buy something in Israel, start here.

Hebrew-only, so run Google Translate’s camera or browser extension over it. Nefesh B’Nefesh publishes a field-by-field crib sheet at nbn.org.il/yad2 for the search form, and filtering for private listings skips broker fees.

Book the appointments every oleh dreads, at the Interior Ministry, banks and government offices, and track the queue from your phone.

An Israeli phone number is commonly needed for SMS confirmation. Worth knowing before you rely on it: the Israeli App Store rating sits around 1.8 out of 5.

The Population and Immigration Authority’s own booking portal for biometric ID and passport appointments.

An English version exists at en.govisit.co.il. Which system a given office uses, GoVisit or myVisit, depends on the office, so check both.

Download digitally signed government documents (your ID appendix, vehicle licence), change your registered address and pay government fees, all under one gov.il login.

Needs your teudat zehut and gov.il identity verification. The store lists English, but the app content is Hebrew-first.

Book appointments, see lab results, request prescriptions and manage your family’s care at Maccabi.

Needs Maccabi membership and your teudat zehut to register. The store lists English, but reviews report it runs Hebrew-first in practice, so expect heavy Hebrew.

Appointments, test results, telemedicine and pharmacy stock for Israel’s largest health fund.

Needs Clalit membership and your teudat zehut. Expect a Hebrew-first experience; the separate Clalit NEXT telehealth app advertises Hebrew, English and Arabic.

Appointments, online doctor visits with digital prescriptions, records and results for Meuhedet members.

Needs Meuhedet membership and your teudat zehut.

Appointments, lab results, messaging your doctor and reimbursement claims for Leumit members.

Needs Leumit membership and your teudat zehut. The listing shows English and the description is bilingual.

Israel’s default way to send money to a person: split rent, pay the gan group, get paid back. "Just Bit me" is standard here.

The real barrier: it requires an Israeli-issued payment card and an Israeli phone number, so it is one of the first things that unlocks only after your bank account exists.

The other big person-to-person payment app, strongest for group collections: class gifts, event pots, shared presents.

Two barriers: the interface is Hebrew only, and it needs an Israeli payment card.

Compares your supermarket basket across every major chain near you, because chains must publish prices by law. The literal "don’t be a sucker" tool.

Hebrew-only interface, so a non-Hebrew reader will need help or a translation app alongside it.

Israel’s single largest job database, over 30,000 open positions, with alerts and application tracking.

Predominantly Hebrew listings, and a Hebrew CV is usually expected.

A major Israeli job search engine with swipe-style search by title, company and location.

Hebrew-first, and a Hebrew CV is usually expected.

Real, crowdsourced Israeli tech salaries in shekels before you negotiate, with dedicated Tel Aviv and Israel pages.

Global and heavily tech-skewed, so it is useful for tech roles and little help for anything else.

Point your camera at a Hebrew letter from the bank or the iriya and read it in English, or download Hebrew for offline translation with no signal.

The camera mode is the one to learn first: hold it over a Bituach Leumi letter, an arnona bill, a lease or a street sign and it overlays the English live. Download the Hebrew pack for offline use. On a computer, install the Google Translate browser extension to turn any Hebrew government website into English in one click.

Free daily Hebrew practice, genuinely useful for the alphabet and basics before or alongside ulpan.

Honest limit: it will not get you to conversation speed on its own, and it is a complement to ulpan, not a replacement.

The verb-conjugation reference every Hebrew learner ends up using: 9,000+ words with full tables, in an English interface.

The whole Jewish library in your pocket, Hebrew and English side by side, and fully offline once downloaded.

An atlas of over 1,400 hand-picked spots across Israel, from hidden springs and tzaddik graves to bakeries and viewpoints, with day-trip routes.

Disclosure: this is made by Aliyahu’s founder. Free to browse; a $12 lifetime membership unlocks route planning, saved trips and the offline atlas. There is no App Store or Play listing; it is a web app.

A large English-language news site with a free liveblog, broad daily coverage and a widely centrist reputation.

The English edition of Ynet, one of Israel’s most-read outlets, broad mainstream coverage.

A long-established English daily, generally regarded as centre-right.

A widely-circulated daily, generally regarded as right-leaning.

Israel’s oldest daily still in print, generally regarded as left-leaning. Mostly paywalled.

An English, French and Arabic broadcast newsroom with a free live stream, broadly centrist.