Apps and tools
Useful apps and websites
Practical services people use for getting around, health, everyday admin, shopping and settling in.
We say who runs each one. Only the services marked official are run by a government body. The rest are companies or nonprofits we think are genuinely useful, and naming one is not a recommendation to buy anything.
16 services · 5 categories
Operator named · AI-assisted research · Human-reviewedHow we check thisHide
Each service links to its own website and names who runs it, so you can see whether you are dealing with a government body or a company. Research tools, including AI, help us find them, compare them and draft the entry. A person checks and publishes every one. Being listed here is not an endorsement and not advice to buy anything.
Getting around
5 servicesPublic transport across every operator, trains, student travel, and the weather you will be cycling in.
OV-chipkaart and OVpay
Public service · Translink · Free
How you pay for Dutch public transport, and how the switch from the OV-chipkaart to OVpay works. With OVpay you check in and out with a contactless bank card, so you may not need a separate travel card.
The OV-chipkaart is being phased out. If you still hold one, check whether any balance is left before it expires.
www.ov-chipkaart.nl/en9292
Commercial service · REISinformatiegroep B.V. · Free · Has an app
Plans a door-to-door journey across every Dutch train, bus, tram and metro operator at once, which no single operator's own app does. It also has pages for international travellers and for people with a disability.
9292.nl/enNS
Public service · Nederlandse Spoorwegen · Free
The national rail operator. Train times, tickets, season tickets and disruptions, plus the OV-fiets hire bikes kept at most stations.
Covers NS trains. For buses, trams, the metro and other rail operators, 9292 plans across all of them at once.
www.ns.nl/enDUO student travel product
Official · DUO · Free · Account needed
Whether your studies come with free or discounted travel, how to start it and, just as important, how to stop it.
Eligibility depends on your study and residence status, and keeping the product after you stop qualifying can create a debt. Check DUO rather than assuming.
Studentsduo.nl/particulier/student-travel-productBuienradar
Commercial service · RTL Nederland · Free · Has an app
Rain radar for the next few hours. In a country where most short trips are by bike, this is a daily decision rather than a curiosity.
The site and apps are in Dutch, though the radar map itself needs little reading.
www.buienradar.nl
Money and everyday admin
3 servicesWhere official post arrives, what your rights are as a consumer, and how people here ask each other for money back.
MijnOverheid
Official · Logius, part of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations · Free · Account needed
Where Dutch government bodies send you official post. Letters about tax, benefits and permits arrive in the Berichtenbox and often nowhere else, so post here is easy to miss.
You sign in with DigiD, and you have to switch the Berichtenbox on per organisation before it is used.
mijn.overheid.nlACM ConsuWijzer
Official · Autoriteit Consument & Markt · Free
The regulator's own consumer desk. What your rights are on contracts, subscriptions, deliveries and cancellation, with template letters for complaining.
Explains rights in general and takes reports about companies. It does not take up an individual dispute on your behalf.
consument.acm.nlTikkie
Commercial service · ABN AMRO · Free · Has an app
How people here ask each other for money back. You will be sent payment links long before anyone explains what they are.
Paying a Tikkie runs through iDEAL or Wero and your own bank, so a bank account that supports one of those is what makes it work.
www.tikkie.me
Health and care
3 servicesWhere to check a symptom, what a prescribed medicine does, and how to find a care provider near you.
Thuisarts.nl
Public service · Nederlands Huisartsen Genootschap · Free · Has an app
The health reference Dutch GPs point their own patients to. What a symptom usually means, when to call, and what to expect from an appointment.
General information written for a Dutch-speaking reader. It is not medical advice and not a diagnosis.
www.thuisarts.nlApotheek.nl
Public service · KNMP · Free · Has an app
What a prescribed medicine is for and how to take it, written by the pharmacists' own body. The companion to Thuisarts once you have a prescription.
www.apotheek.nlZorgkaartNederland
Nonprofit · Patiëntenfederatie Nederland · Free
Find care providers near you by profession, organisation or condition, from GPs and dentists to physiotherapists, with ratings written by patients.
It lists providers and patient ratings. It does not show which practices are currently accepting new patients, so you still have to ask them.
www.zorgkaartnederland.nl
Food and shopping
2 servicesSecond-hand marketplaces, and where to turn if money runs out.
Marktplaats
Commercial service · Marktplaats B.V., part of Adevinta · Free · Has an app
The dominant second-hand marketplace. Furnishing a first flat and finding a first bike are near-universal newcomer costs, and both are much cheaper here.
Most listings are private sales between individuals, so there is no seller to complain to afterwards. You need an account to message a seller, but not to browse.
www.marktplaats.nlVoedselbanken Nederland
Nonprofit · Vereniging van Voedselbanken Nederland · Free
Food aid if money runs out, and how to find the food bank covering your area.
Support starts with four weeks of groceries and is then reviewed with you. The association states it cannot help students living away from home, undocumented people, residents of an asylum seekers centre, or people who are homeless, and your local food bank decides.
voedselbankennederland.nl
Settling in and working
3 servicesNational starting points for arriving, studying and working here, including the English-language ones.
Welcome to NL
Official · Commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs · Free
A national English-language starting point for people who have just arrived, covering permits, registration, housing, healthcare, taxes and the regions.
An orientation layer across many topics. For the procedures themselves, the guides on this site go further.
www.welcome-to-nl.nlStudy in NL
Official · Nuffic · Free
The national portal for studying here: programmes, finances, planning your stay and what an institution expects before you arrive.
Your own institution's checklist overrides the national one wherever the two differ.
Studentswww.studyinnl.orgEURES Netherlands
Official · EURES, European Employment Services · Free
The European Employment Services summary of living and working conditions in the Netherlands, written for people moving under EU free movement.
Written for EU, EEA and Swiss nationals. It does not describe the residence routes that apply to everyone else.
EU, EEA and Swiss nationalseures.europa.eu/living-and-working/living-and-working-conditions-europe/living-and-working-conditions-netherlands_en
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