great presentation software

Best presentation software of 2024

Make perfect slides for speeches and talks

Best overall

Best for branding, best for marketing, best for themes, best for media, best unique.

• How we test

The best presentation software makes it simple and easy to create, manage, and share slideshow presentations.

1. Best overall 2. Best for branding 3. Best for marketing 4. Best for themes 5. Best for media 6. Best unique 7. FAQs 8. How we test

Presentation software runs at the heart of business sales, management, and development, so it's important to ensure you have the best presentation software for your needs. This is especially when looking to share ideas, concepts, and workflows, and the ability to present these in a simple and understandable way is essential.

However, while presentation software has been traditionally limited to text and images, it has widened its ability to work with different media such as video and audio . 

Therefore it's important for the best presentation software to not simply be easy and simple to use, but also be able to support additional media so that presentations can be more engaging, lively, and ultimately serve their purpose in educating and updating their intended audience.

Below we've listed the best presentation software currently on the market.

We've also listed the best free presentation software .

<a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=92X363&xcust=hawk-custom-tracking&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fproducts.office.com%2Fen-us%2Fcompare-all-microsoft-office-products%3Ftab%3D2&sref" data-link-merchant="SkimLinks - office.com"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> The best office software in the world is: Microsoft 365 There are many different office software suites out there, but Microsoft Office remains the original and best, offering an unsurpassed range of features and functionality that rivals just can't match.

Even better, <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=92X363&xcust=hawk-custom-tracking&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fproducts.office.com%2Fen-us%2Fcompare-all-microsoft-office-products%3Ftab%3D2&sref" data-link-merchant="SkimLinks - office.com"" data-link-merchant="SkimLinks - office.com"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Microsoft 365 - previously branded as Office 365 - is a cloud-based solution which means you can use it on any computer, mobile device, or smartphone, without having to worry about compatibility. All your files are saved in the cloud and synced between devices, so you can begin work on a document at home or in the office, then continue working on it on the go.

<a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=92X363&xcust=hawk-custom-tracking&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fproducts.office.com%2Fen-us%2Fcompare-all-microsoft-office-products%3Ftab%3D2&sref" data-link-merchant="SkimLinks - office.com"" data-link-merchant="SkimLinks - office.com"" data-link-merchant="SkimLinks - office.com"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> You can sign up to Microsoft 365 here .

The best presentation software of 2024 in full:

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

1. PowerPoint

Our expert review:

Reasons to buy

For most people, Microsoft 's PowerPoint remains the original and best of all the presentation software platforms out there. While other companies have managed to catch up and offer rival products worthy of consideration, the fact is that PowerPoint's familiar interface and ubiquitous availability means it remains a favorite for the majority of people.

On the one hand, it's long been a staple of the hugely popular Microsoft Office suite, meaning that for most users this is going to be the first - and last - presentation software they are going to need to use.

Additionally, Microsoft has made PowerPoint, along with their other office products, available as free apps (with limited functionality) on both iOS and Android for mobile use, meaning it's even harder to avoid them. And this is before we even consider the inclusion of PowerPoint in Microsoft's cloud-based Microsoft 365.

It does everything necessary that you'd expect of presentation software, allowing you to add text and media to a series of slides, to accompany a talk and other presentations. There are easy-to-use templates included to help spice things up a little, but even a general user with little experience of it is likely to find themselves able to use PowerPoint without much trouble at all.

Overall, it's hard to go wrong with PowerPoint, and although Microsoft 365 has a nominal cost, the apps are free to use even if they do have more limited functionality.

Read our full Microsoft PowerPoint review .

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2. CustomShow

Reasons to avoid.

Branding says a lot about a business, and it’s something firms need to get right from day one – from a good logo to a suitable font. CustomShow is business presentation software that puts all these elements of branding first.

Using the system, you can design and present customized, branded presentations that reflect your company and the products you offer, featuring the aforementioned logo and custom fonts. As well as this, you get a slide library and analytics to ensure your presentations are a success.

What’s more, you can import presentations into the software, and use it to tweak them further. There’s also integration with SalesForce , and because the platform is cloud-based, you can access your presentations on computers, tablets, and smartphones. 

Considering the focus on branding, this offering could be good for marketing and sales teams, and it's used by major companies such as HBO and CBS Interactive.

3. ClearSlide

Just like CustomShow, ClearSlide has a niche focus for companies. The platform is targeted at firms looking to generate successful marketing campaigns, pushing sales via presentations (and more), not least through a range of analytics and metrics to work for sales and marketing.

With the product, you can upload a range of files, including PowerPoint, Keynote, PDF, and Excel. ClearSlide is integrated with other platforms, including Google Drive, Dropbox, and Salesforce.

This system is pretty complex and may offer too many irrelevant features for some businesses, but you can create customized content that reflects your company and the message you’re trying to get out to customers. There are also some good metrics and analysis features, and you can sign up for a free trial before making any decisions.

The real strength of ClearSlide comes from its focus on sales and marketing data, not least being able to track user engagement alongside other metrics.

4. Haiku Deck

Any presentation app will allow you to personalize your slides to at least some extent, but Haiku Deck goes one step further than the competition. It comes with a wide range of themes suited to different needs, and you also get access to 40 million free images from the Creative Commons collection.

When it comes to creating a presentation, you have the option to do so on the web, which means your presentation is accessible across a range of mobile devices as well as desktops. Regardless of the device used, you’re able to select from a variety of different fonts, layouts, and filters to make the perfect presentation.

The great thing about these various customization options is that they’re categorized into different industries and use cases. For instance, you’ll find themes for teaching, cooking, real estate, and startups. Most of the features require you to be online, but hopefully, you’ll have a sturdy net connection wherever you go.

5. SlideDog

It’s all too easy to end up creating a presentation that’s unappealing, and the last thing you want to do is make the audience fall asleep. SlideDog lets you combine almost any type of media to create a rich presentation that’s sure to keep the viewers’ peepers open, avoiding the ‘cookie cutter’ look that makes presentations seem dull.

Marketed as a web-based multimedia presentation tool, it gives you the ability to combine PowerPoint presentations, graphics, PDF files, Prezi presentations, web pages, pictures, videos, and movie clips. You can drag these into custom playlists and display them to your audience with ease.

You’re able to remotely control your presentations and playlists from your smartphone, the web, or a secondary computer, and there’s also the option to share slides in real-time. Audience members can even view your slide from their own devices by clicking a link. That’s a handy feature if you’re looking to create an immersive presentation experience.

SlideDog is probably the cheapest of the presentation software featured, with a free account that will cover the essential features. However, for live sharing and premium support, you need to upgrade.

Read our full SlideDog review .

Prezi is one of the more unique presentation tools. Instead of presenting your graphics and text in a slide-to-slide format, you can create highly visual and interactive presentation canvases with the goal of “emphasizing the relationship between the ideas”.

Presentations can also be tailored to the specific audience, as this is a flexible platform that’s capable of skipping ahead, or veering off into a side topic, without having to flip through all the slides to get to a particular bit.

For business users, there are a variety of handy tools available. By downloading Prezi , you can build and edit presentations with your colleagues in real-time, which is perfect for companies with teams based around the globe.

When you have created a presentation you’re happy with, you can present it live (in HD) and send a direct link to viewers. There are some analysis tools here, too – you can see who’s accessed your presentation, which parts of it, and for how long. The app is available for Mac and Windows devices.

Read our full Prezi review .

Other presentation software to consider

Google Slides  is part of the Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) office platform intended as an online alternative to Microsoft Office. It may seem a little limited by comparison to PowerPoint, but as it's browser-based that means cross-platform compatibility. Additionally, it allows for collaborative work, and Google Slides really works well here. On top of the fact that it integrates with the rest of the Google Workspace apps, not least Google Drive, and you have a contender. 

Zoho Show  is another of the many, many tools and apps that Zoho has made available for business use. It also operates in the cloud so it's accessible to any device with a browser, and it also allows for collaborative work. You can also easily share the link for users to download, or provide a live presentation online. The updated version has a simpler and easier to use interface and comes with a free version and a paid-for one with expanded features.

Evernote  is normally thought of as just note-taking software, but it does provide the option to create a presentation you can share online or with an audience. In that regard, it's a little more limited than the other options in not being dedicated presentation software. However, as an easy and handy way to pull together a presentation quickly, it could serve as a backup or last-minute option, especially if Evernote is already being commonly used by you.

LibreOffice Impress  is part of the open-source suite offered as a free alternative to Microsoft Office, and comes with a powerful array of tools and editing options for your presentation, not least working with 3D images. It's supported by a large community, so it's easy to find an array of additional templates. If there is a limitation it's that it's software you download and install rather than web-based, but any presentations created should be easily portable to the web if needed.

Adobe Spark  does things a bit differently, as rather than just use images it's geared toward video as well. This makes for potentially more powerful multimedia presentations, especially as Adobe also has a big selection of photos and images available for its users. There is a free tier for core features but requires a subscription for custom branding, personalized themes, and support.

Slides  comes with a lot of features in an easy-to-use interface, and involves setting up presentations using drag and drop into an existing grid. It's also internet-based so there's no software to download, and it only requires a browser to use and access. 

Presentation software FAQs

Which presentation software is best for you.

When deciding which presentation software to download and use, first consider what your actual needs are, as sometimes free platforms may only provide basic options, so if you need to use advanced tools you may find a paid platform is much more worthwhile. Additionally, free and budget software options can sometimes prove limited when it comes to the variety of tools available, while higher-end software can really cater for every need, so do ensure you have a good idea of which features you think you may require for your presentation needs.

How we tested the best presentation software

To test for the best presentation software we first set up an account with the relevant software platform, whether as a download or as an online service. We then tested the service to see how the software could be used for different purposes and in different situations. The aim was to push each software platform to see how useful its basic tools were and also how easy it was to get to grips with any more advanced tools.

Read how we test, rate, and review products on TechRadar .

We've also featured the best alternatives to Microsoft Office .

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Nicholas Fearn is a freelance technology journalist and copywriter from the Welsh valleys. His work has appeared in publications such as the FT, the Independent, the Daily Telegraph, The Next Web, T3, Android Central, Computer Weekly, and many others. He also happens to be a diehard Mariah Carey fan!

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The best presentation software

These powerpoint alternatives go beyond the basics..

The latest presentation apps have made it easier than ever to format slides and create professional-looking slideshows without giving off a "this is a template" vibe. Even standard PowerPoint alternatives have updated key features to make it easier than ever to collaborate and create presentations quickly, so you can spend more time prepping for your actual presentation.

If, like me, you've been using Google Slides unquestioningly for years, it's a whole new world out there. The newest crop of online presentation tools go way beyond the classic slideshow experience, with new features to keep your audience's attention, streamline the creation process with AI, and turn slide decks into videos and interactive conversations.

I've been testing these apps for the past few years, and this time, I spent several days tinkering with the top presentation software solutions out there to bring you the best of the best.

Beautiful.ai for AI-powered design

Prezi for non-linear, conversational presentations

Powtoon for video presentations

Genially for interactive, presenter-less presentations

Pitch for collaborating with your team on presentations

Zoho Show for a simple presentation app

Gamma for generative AI features

What makes the best presentation app?

How we evaluate and test apps.

Our best apps roundups are written by humans who've spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software. Unless explicitly stated, we spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it's intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. We're never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site—we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog .

When looking for the best presentation apps, I wanted utility players. After all, slideshows are used for just about everything, from pitch decks and product launches to class lectures and church sermons. With that in mind, here's what I was looking for:

Pre-built templates. The best presentation tools should have attractive, professional-looking templates to build presentations in a hurry.

Sharing and collaboration options. Whether you plan to share your webinar slides later, or you just want to collaborate with a coworker on a presentation, it should be easy to share files and collaborate in real-time.

Flexibility and customization options. Templates are great, but top presentation apps should enable you to customize just about everything—giving you the flexibility to build exactly what you need.

Affordability. Creating compelling presentations is important, but you shouldn't have to bust your budget to make it happen. With capable free tools on the market, affordability is a top consideration.

Standalone functionality. There's no reason to use multiple tools when one can do it all, so I didn't test any apps that require and work on top of another presentation app like PowerPoint or Google Slides.

Familiar, deck-based UI. For our purposes here, I only tested software that uses slides, with the familiar deck-based editor you expect from a "presentation" tool (versus, for example, a video creation app).

While many apps now offer AI features in one way or another, I found many of these features to be lacking still—they're often slow, struggle to pull in relevant imagery, and yield wildly inconsistent designs. For that reason, I opted not to make AI features a strict requirement (for now!), and I've still included apps that don't offer AI. (Of course, if you opt for one of those, you can still easily get AI-generated images from a separate tool and copy them into your presentation app of choice.)

Beyond that, I also looked for presentation apps that brought something unique to the table—features above and beyond what you can get for free from a legacy solution like PowerPoint or Google Slides. (And I opted not to test any brand new apps that are still in beta, since there are so many established options out there.)

Here's what my testing workflow looked like:

I went through any onboarding or guided tutorials.

I created a new deck, scanning through all available templates, noting how well-designed they were (and which were free versus paid).

I added new slides, deleted slides, edited text and images, and played around with other content types.

I changed presentation design settings, like color schemes and background images.

I reviewed and tested the sharing and collaboration options.

I tested out presenter view (when available).

After my first round of testing, I went back into the top performers to test any unique or niche features like AI, brand settings, interactive content, and more. With that, these are the best presentation apps I found—each one really brings something different or radically easy to the table.

The best presentation software: at a glance

The best free presentation software, canva (web, windows, mac, android, ios).

Canva pros:

Excellent free plan

Tons of amazing templates for all use cases

Feature-rich

Canva cons:

The Magic Design AI tool is still inconsistent and not super impressive

Canva offers one of the most robust free plans of all the presentation apps I tested. The app delays account creation until after you've created your first design, so you can get started building your presentation in seconds. Choose from an almost overwhelming number of beautiful templates (nearly all available for free), including those designed specifically for education or business use cases.

Anyone who's accidentally scrolled too far and been bumped to the next slide will appreciate Canva's editor interface, which eliminates that problem altogether with a smooth scroll that doesn't jump around. Choose from a handful of preset animations to add life to your presentations, or browse the library of audio and video files available to add. And Canva also has a number of options for sharing your presentation, including adding collaborators to your team, sharing directly to social media, and even via QR code.

Present directly from Canva, and let audience members submit their questions via Canva Live. Once you share a link to invite audience members to your presentation, they can send questions for you to answer. As the presenter, you'll see them pop up in your presenter view window, so you can keep the audience engaged and your presentation clear. Alternatively, record a presentation with a talking head bubble—you can even use an AI presenter here—to share remotely.

Canvas has added a number of AI-powered tools , but I wasn't super impressed by them yet. When I asked the Magic Design tool to generate a presentation from scratch, for example, the result was a bunch of unrelated images, inconsistent design, and surface-level copy. These features will likely improve in time, but for now, you're better off starting from one of Canva's many great templates.

Canva pricing: Free plan available; paid plans start at $119.99/year for 1 user and include additional features like Brand Kit, premium templates and stock assets, and additional AI-powered design tools.

The best presentation app for AI-powered design

Beautiful.ai (web, mac, windows).

Beautiful.ai pros:

True AI design

No fussing around with alignment

Still allows for customization

Beautiful.ai cons:

No free plan

Generative AI features aren't great yet

If you're like me, editing granular spacing issues is the absolute worst part of building a presentation. Beautiful.ai uses artificial intelligence to take a lot of the hassle and granular design requirements out of the presentation process, so you can focus on the content of a presentation without sacrificing professional design. If I needed to make presentations on a regular basis, this is the app I'd use.

Many apps have recently added AI design features, but Beautiful.ai has been doing it for years—and they've perfected the UX of AI design, ensuring the tool's reign as the most streamlined and user-friendly option for AI design.

The editor is a little different from most presentation apps, but it's still intuitive—and you'll start off with a quick two-minute tutorial. When creating a new slide, scroll through "inspiration slides" to find a layout you like; once you choose, the app will pull the layout and automatically adapt it to match the design of the rest of your presentation.

With 10 themes, several templated slides, over 40 fully-designed templates, and 23 different color palettes to choose from, Beautiful.ai strikes a perfect balance between automation and customization.

While Beautiful.ai doesn't offer a free plan, paid plans are reasonably priced and offer sharing and collaboration options that rival collab-focused apps like Google Slides. And speaking of Google, you can connect Beautiful.ai with Google Drive to save all your presentations there.

Note: I did test the newly released generative AI feature (called DesignerBot) and felt it wasn't much to write home about. It's great for adding individual slides to an existing presentation—automatically choosing the best layout and matching the design to the rest of the deck—but as with most other apps, it struggled to generate a quality presentation from scratch.

Beautiful.ai pricing: Plans start at $12/month for unlimited slides, AI content generation, viewer analytics, and more. Upgrade to a Team plan for $40/user/month to get extra collaboration and workspace features and custom brand controls.

If you're a founder looking for an AI presentation tool for your pitch deck, Slidebean is a great Beautiful.ai alternative for startups. The app offers a number of templates; a unique, content-first outline editor; and AI design help that you can toggle on or off for each slide. I didn't include it on the list mainly because of the price: the free plan is quite limited, and the paid all-access plan starts at $228/year.

The best presentation app for conversational presentations

Prezi (web, mac, windows, ios, android).

Prezi pros:

Doesn't restrict you to standard presentation structure

Lots of customization options

Prezi Video lets you display a presentation right over your webcam video

Prezi cons:

Steep learning curve

Struggling to squeeze information into a basic, linear presentation? Give Prezi a try. Unlike nearly all other presentation apps on the market, Prezi Present doesn't restrict the structure of your presentation to a straight line. The editor focuses on topics and subtopics and allows you to arrange them any way you want, so you can create a more conversational flow of information.

With the structural flexibility, you still get all the same customization features you expect from top presentation software, including fully-editable templates. There's a learning curve if you're unfamiliar with non-linear presentations, but templates offer a great jumping-off point, and Prezi's editor does a good job of making the process more approachable.

Plus, Prezi comes with two other apps: Prezi Design and Prezi Video. Prezi Video helps you take remote presentations to a new level. You can record a video where the presentation elements are displayed right over your webcam feed. Record and save the video to share later, or connect with your video conferencing tool of choice (including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet) to present live.

Prezi pricing: Free 14-day trial and a free plan that includes up to 5 visual projects; paid plans start at $5/month and include additional features like private presentations and Prezi Present.

The best presentation app for video presentations

Powtoon (web, ios, android).

Powtoon pros:

Timing automatically changes based on the content on the slide

Can toggle between slideshow and video

Can orient presentation as horizontal, vertical, or square

Powtoon cons:

Limited free plan

Powtoon makes it easy to create engaging videos by orienting the editor around a slide deck. Editing a Powtoon feels just like editing a presentation, but by the time you finish, you have a professional video. 

You can edit your slides at any time, and when you hit play, a video plays through your deck—the feel is almost like an animated explainer video. Each slide includes the animations you choose and takes up as much time as is needed based on the content on the slide. Powtoon figures the timing automatically, and you can see in the bottom-right of the editor how much time is used on your current slide versus the total presentation. If you ever want to present as a slide deck, just toggle between Slideshow and Movie.

You'll likely need to subscribe to a paid plan to get the most out of Powtoon—like creating videos longer than three minutes, downloading them as MP4 files, and white-labeling your presentations—but doing so won't break the bank. Plus, you'll unlock tons of templates complete with animations and soundtracks.

One of my favorite Powtoon features is the ability to orient your video: you can choose horizontal orientation (like a normal presentation) or opt for vertical (for mobile) or square (for social media). When your presentation is ready, you can publish straight to YouTube, Wistia, Facebook Ads, and any number of other locations.

Powtoon pricing: Limited free plan available; paid plans start at $20/month and include white-labeling, priority support, additional storage, and more.

The best presentation app for interactive presentations

Genially (web).

Genially pros:

Don't need a presenter (it's interactive)

You can set universal branding guidelines

Unlimited creations on the free plan

Genially cons:

Free plan has some limitations worth looking into (e.g., can only make public presentations)

While many presentation apps are built for presenter-led decks, Genially 's interactive features and animated templates make it easy to build a self-led presentation. A variety of interactive buttons allow you to show viewers additional context on hover, have them skip to any page of your deck, and let them navigate to external links.

This presentation program offers a bunch of searchable templates, including some for business proposals, reports, social media presentations, and more (though most of those are available on premium plans only). Genially also includes Smart blocks —templated blocks of content for elements like data visualizations and image galleries.

My favorite feature is the brand settings. Premium users can set universal branding guidelines that include your logo, color scheme, fonts, images, and backgrounds, among other options. Think of them like a custom template, created and customized by you, that the whole team can use. Once set, your team can easily create on-brand presentations that automatically apply your brand settings, without even thinking about it.

Plus, Genially supports additional content like training materials, infographics, and interactive images—all subject to your brand presets.

Genially pricing: Free plan available with unlimited creations and views and access to templates; paid plans start at $7.49/month and include additional download options, privacy controls, offline viewing, premium templates, and more.

The best presentation app for collaborating with your team

Pitch (web, mac, windows, ios, android).

Pitch pros:

Google levels of collaboration

Assign slides to specific team members

Start live video calls straight from decks

Pitch cons:

User interface is a little different than you're used to

Need to collaborate on presentations with your team? Pitch is a Google Slides alternative that gets the job done. As far as decks go, Pitch includes all the beautifully-designed templates, customizability, and ease of use you expect from a top-notch presentation tool. But the app really shines when you add your team.

The right-hand sidebar is all about project management and collaboration: you can set and update the status of your deck, assign entire presentations or individual slides to team members, plus comment, react, or add notes. Save custom templates to make future presentations even easier and faster.

You can also invite collaborators from outside your company to work with you on individual decks. And if you opt for a paid plan, Pitch introduces workspace roles, shared private folders, and version history.

The "Go live" feature is a personal favorite—with just a click on the camera icon in the top-right, you can start a live video call. Any team members who open the presentation can hop in and collaborate in real-time. 

Pitch pricing: Free plan offers unlimited presentations, custom templates, and live video collaboration; paid plans start at $8/user/month for additional workspace features, presentation analytics, and more.

The best simple presentation app

Zoho show (web, ios, android, chrome).

Zoho Show pros:

Simple and easy to use

Version history and ability to lock slides

Completely free

Zoho Show cons:

Templates are pretty basic

If you're looking for a simple, yet capable presentation app that's a step up from Google Slides, Zoho Show is a great option. It's completely free to use, offers a clean, intuitive editor, and includes a number of great templates.

While the handful of "Themes" offered are on the basic side, Zoho templates boast a more modern and professional design than much of what Google Slides or PowerPoint offer. And I love that you can set the font and color scheme for the whole template, right from the start.

The app doesn't skimp on collaboration or shareability either. You can invite collaborators via email or shareable link, and comments and version history make it easy to work together on presentations. Once you're ready to share, you can even broadcast your presentation to a remote audience right from within Zoho. Plus, you can one-click lock slides to prevent any more editing or hide individual slides to customize your presentation for different audiences.

You can even connect Zoho Show to Zapier , so you can do things like automatically create a presentation when something happens in one of the other apps you use most.

Zapier is the leader in workflow automation—integrating with 6,000+ apps from partners like Google, Salesforce, and Microsoft. Use interfaces, data tables, and logic to build secure, automated systems for your business-critical workflows across your organization's technology stack. Learn more .

Zoho Show pricing: Free

The best presentation app for generative AI

Gamma (web).

Gamma pros:

Creates fully fleshed-out presentations from a prompt

Chatbot-like experience

Can still manually edit the presentation

Gamma cons:

Not as much granular customization

I tested a lot of apps claiming to use AI to up your presentation game, and Gamma 's generative features were head and shoulders above the crowd.

Simply give the app a topic—or upload an outline, notes, or any other document or article—approve the outline, and pick a theme. The app will take it from there and create a fully fleshed-out presentation. It's far from perfect, but Gamma produced the most useful jumping-off point of all the AI presentation apps I tested. 

Here's the key: Gamma is much more geared toward the iterative, chatbot experience familiar to ChatGPT users. Click on the Edit with AI button at the top of the right-hand menu to open the chat, and you'll see suggested prompts—or you can type in your own requests for how Gamma should alter the presentation.

Once you've done all you can with prompts, simply close the chat box to manually add the finishing touches. While you do sacrifice some granular customizability in exchange for the AI features, you can still choose your visual theme, change slide layouts, format text, and add any images, videos, or even app and web content.

Gamma pricing: Free plan includes unlimited users, 1 custom theme, 400 AI deck credits, and basic view analytics; upgrade to the Pro plan ("coming soon," as of this writing) for $10/user/month to get additional AI credits, advanced view analytics, custom fonts, and more.

What about the old standbys?

You might notice a few major presentation players aren't on this list, including OGs Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, and Google Slides. These apps are perfectly adequate for creating basic presentations, and they're free if you have a Windows or Mac device or a Google account.

I didn't include them on the list because the presentation space has really developed in the last several years, and after testing them out, I found these behemoths haven't kept pace. If they weren't made by Microsoft/Apple/Google, I might not even be mentioning them. They're pretty basic tools, they're behind the curve when it comes to templates (both quantity and design), and they don't offer any uniquely valuable features like robust team collaboration, branding controls, video, and so on.

Some of these companies (think: Microsoft and Google) are openly working on some pretty impressive-sounding AI features, but they haven't been widely released to the public yet. Rest assured, I'm watching this space, and the next time we update this article, I'll retest tools like PowerPoint and Google Slides to see what new features are available.

In any case, if you're reading this, you're probably looking for an alternative that allows you to move away from one of the big 3, and as the presentation platforms featured above show, there's a ton to gain—in terms of features, usability, and more—when you do.

Related reading:

8 Canva AI tools to improve your design workflow

The best online whiteboards for collaboration

How to share a presentation on Zoom without sharing your browser tabs and address bar

This post was originally published in October 2014 and has since been updated with contributions from Danny Schreiber, Matthew Guay, Andrew Kunesh, and Krystina Martinez. The most recent update was in May 2023.

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Kiera Abbamonte

Kiera’s a content writer who helps SaaS and eCommerce companies connect with customers and reach new audiences. Located in Boston, MA, she loves cinnamon coffee and a good baseball game. Catch up with her on Twitter @Kieraabbamonte.

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12 Best Presentation Software for 2024

By Krystle Wong , Jan 12, 2024

Whether you’re a student, professional or entrepreneur, having access to the right presentation tools can make all the difference.

When you craft a well-executed presentation , your message becomes more memorable. You’re not just sharing information; you’re weaving a story, painting a picture and leaving a lasting impact on your audience’s minds. 

We’re living in the age of information overload, where attention spans are shorter than ever. A good presentation slide takes this into account, breaking down complex information into bite-sized chunks. It guides your audience through a logical flow, allowing them to digest information effortlessly and retain key points without feeling overwhelmed.

To help you stay ahead of the game, I’ve compiled a list of the 12 best software for presentations. These PowerPoint alternatives offer a combination of user-friendly interfaces, stunning visuals, collaboration features and innovative functionalities that will take your presentations to the next level. 

Let’s dive in and explore these top presentation software picks!

1. Venngage 

Allow me to be a little bit biased here but my top pick is none other than, you guessed it — Venngage! Venngage goes beyond just presentations to focus on data visualization and transforming complex information into visually appealing and engaging visuals. 

One of the standout features of Venngage as a presentation software is the extensive library of infographic elements. Gain access to a wide range of pre-designed elements such as icons, charts, maps as well as illustrations to simplify the process of creating data-driven and visually appealing presentations.

You don’t have to be a pro when designing with Venngage. Venngage’s drag-and-drop interface allows you to customize your presentations by simply dragging and dropping elements onto the canvas. You can tweak sizes, colors and layouts with ease, making your presentations visually cohesive and personalized, even if you’re not a design wizard. 

Just so you know, some of our features and templates are free to use and some require a small monthly fee. Sign-up is completely free, as is access to Venngage’s online drag-and-drop editor. Here’s how Venngage’s presentation maker can become your secret weapon in the quest for presentation success.

Vast selection of templates

Venngage boasts an extensive library of professionally designed templates, catering to a wide range of industries and presentation purposes. Whether you’re creating a marketing report, educational presentation or business pitch, Venngage’s presentation tool offers templates that provide a solid foundation for your designs. 

Save 20+ hours of designing with Venngage’s fully customizable, pre-designed infographic templates. These presentation templates provide a good foundation with well-structured layouts and visually appealing aesthetics. 

Data visualization made easy

Venngage simplifies the process of data visualization, making it accessible to users of all backgrounds. With a few clicks, you can transform dull statistics into visually engaging charts and graphs that tell a compelling story.

Seamless real-time in-editor collaboration tools

Venngage brings teamwork to the next level with our seamless collaboration tools designed to foster collaboration across teams, departments and the entire organization. Whether you’re in the same room or across the globe, Venngage enables real-time collaboration that makes working together becomes a breeze. 

Consistently brand your designs with smart Autobrand features

Effortlessly infuse your presentation slides with your brand’s colors, fonts and logos with Venngage’s My Brand Kit . Upload your brand assets and create engaging presentations by applying your branding to any template you create on Venngage.

Who is it for

Marketers, designers, educators and businesses that require data-driven and visually appealing presentations.

Key features 

Infographic elements, data visualization tools, collaboration options, customizable templates.

Create your first 5 designs with Venngage for free and upgrade to a premium or business plan for $10 USD/month per user and $24 USD/month per user to enjoy premium features. For larger teams who need extra support, controls and security, the enterprise plan starts from $499 USD/month for 10+ seats.

Additionally, there are also plans available for classrooms priced at $99 USD/year for up to 35 students per instructor. Non profit organizations can also apply for a nonprofit discount to any Venngage plan.

2. Microsoft PowerPoint

Source: Screenshot from Microsoft PowerPoint

Even with dozens of presentation software and tools out there, PowerPoint presentations have stood the test of time as one of the best presentation software. In fact, 89% of people still use PowerPoint presentations over competitor services . 

Whether you’re a student, teacher, business professional or just a creative soul, PowerPoint’s user-friendly interface allows both beginners and experienced users to create presentations with ease.

PowerPoint delivers captivating and engaging presentations through its advanced animation and transition effects. You can create interactive PowerPoint presentations by captivating your audience and guiding them through your content with seamless transitions and eye-catching animations. 

Seamless integration with other Microsoft Office tools is another significant advantage of PowerPoint as a presentation software. As part of the Microsoft Office suite, PowerPoint effortlessly integrates with other familiar applications such as Word and Excel. This integration allows you to incorporate charts, graphs and written content from these tools directly into your presentation. 

However, collaboration features in PowerPoint can be somewhat limited compared to dedicated collaboration platforms. While you can share and co-edit presentations with others, the collaboration options may not be as robust as those offered by specialized presentation tools.

Suitable for individuals, students, educators and businesses of all sizes.

Customizable templates, multimedia support, extensive slide editing options, robust animations and transitions.

You can subscribe to PowerPoint as part of your Microsoft 365 subscription with various plans tailored for businesses, ranging from $6 to $22 USD/month. Additionally, there is also the option to purchase an unbundled PowerPoint account separately, priced at $159.99 USD.

3. Google Slides

Source: Screenshot from Google Slides

Unlike PowerPoint which requires file sharing and manual syncing for teamwork, Google Slides enables real-time collaboration and easy access from any device with an internet connection. 

Google Slides shines in its seamless collaboration capabilities. Multiple users can work on the same presentation simultaneously, enabling real-time editing and fostering efficient teamwork. The integrated commenting feature on Google Slides allows for shared feedback and discussions, enhancing collaboration even further.

Google Slides’ cloud-based storage and auto-saving feature ensures that your work is constantly saved, minimizing the risk of losing progress or important changes. No more panicking over unsaved slides and changes. 

But that also means that Google Slides heavily relies on an internet connection for full functionality and access is more limited compared to desktop-based software. Although an offline mode is available, Google Slides has certain limitations and may not provide the same level of functionality as when connected to the internet.

Templates and customization features-wise, Google Slides also have fewer design options compared to other presentation tools. This may limit the level of visual creativity and flexibility for those seeking intricate designs or specialized effects.

Ideal for remote teams, educators, students and anyone looking for easy collaboration and access from any device.

Real-time collaboration, shared commenting, offline mode and built-in sharing options.

Google Slides is accessible to all individuals with a Google account at no cost, providing all users with access to its full range of features. However, for businesses and teams looking for additional organizational capabilities, there are subscription plans available ranging from $6 to $18 USD/month.

4. Keynote (for Mac users)

Source: Screenshot from Keynote

For Apple users, Keynote is a presentation tool designed exclusively for your Apple devices and is available on macOS, iOS and iPadOS. Keynote is known for its sleek and intuitive interface, reflecting Apple’s design aesthetics. 

It offers visually appealing templates, animations, and transitions, allowing users to create polished and modern-looking presentations. Keynote users can seamlessly incorporate images, videos, audio files and interactive elements into their presentations. The presentation software also includes a wide range of animations and transitions, enabling smooth and cinematic effects that bring slides to life.

Keynote presentations is known for its seamless integration within the Apple ecosystem. It works effortlessly with other Apple applications, allowing users to combine different elements and data from various sources. Presentations created in Keynote can be easily shared and accessed across Apple devices, ensuring a consistent experience for both the presenter and the audience.

Additionally, Keynote as a presentation software offers collaborative editing capabilities, enabling multiple users to work on the same presentation simultaneously. Users can share their presentations with others, who can then provide feedback, make edits and contribute to the project in real-time.

That said, since Keynote is exclusively designed for Apple devices, it may not be accessible or fully compatible with non-Apple platforms. Hence, sharing presentations created in Keynote with users on different platforms may require exporting or converting the files to a compatible format, which can lead to potential formatting issues or loss of certain features.

Mac users, creatives, professionals, educators and anyone who wants visually stunning presentations.

Elegant templates, advanced multimedia options, cinematic transitions and collaborative editing.

Keynote is available for free on Apple devices, including macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. As it comes pre-installed with these devices, users can access and use Keynote without any additional cost.

Source: Screenshot from Prezi

Known for its distinctive zooming presentation style, Prezi revolutionizes the way you create presentations by offering a visually engaging and non-linear approach. 

One of Prezi’s renowned features is its unique zooming and transition effects, allowing presenters to navigate through a virtual canvas seamlessly. This dynamic presentation style enhances engagement by creating a sense of movement and spatial relationship between ideas.

Moreover, Prezi offers cloud-based collaboration, making it easy for multiple users to collaborate on a presentation in real-time. This feature facilitates seamless teamwork, enabling users to collectively develop and refine their presentations regardless of their physical locations.

Prezi presentations also include interactive elements, such as embedded videos, images and hyperlinks. Utilizing these elements would allow presenters to create interactive presentations and engage their audience on a deeper level.

However, Prezi has a steeper learning curve compared to more traditional presentation tools. Users may require some time and practice to become proficient in navigating the canvas, creating smooth transitions and effectively utilizing all of Prezi’s features.

Creative professionals, educators and individuals who want to create visually captivating and non-linear presentations.

Zooming presentation style, interactive elements, cloud-based collaboration and reusable templates.

For individuals & business professionals

Basics: Create and share up to 5 visual projects for free

Standard: Starting at $5 USD/month

Plus: Starting at $12 USD/month

Premium: Starting at $16 USD/month

Teams: Starting at $19 USD/month per user (billed annually)

For Students & Educators

EDU Plus: Starting at $3/month

EDU Pro: Starting at $4/month

EDU Teams: Enquiry required with Prezi sales team

Source: Screenshot from Canva

One of the great things about Canva as a presentation tool is its user-friendly interface, which makes it super easy to use even if you’re not a design pro. You can simply drag and drop elements to create your presentation slides without breaking a sweat.

Canva’s vast collection of pre-designed templates caters to various purposes and occasions. The availability of these templates allows users to jumpstart their design projects with professional-looking layouts, saving valuable time and effort.

For businesses or educational institutions working on group projects or marketing campaigns, Canva also offers collaboration features that enhance teamwork and co-creation. Users can invite team members or clients to collaborate on a design project, enabling real-time feedback and efficient design processes. 

While Canva does offer some basic slide transition effects, the range and customization options for transitions may be limited compared to dedicated presentation software like Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Keynote. 

Individuals, students, small businesses and startups seeking professional-looking marketing materials and presentations.

Extensive template options, intuitive drag-and-drop interface, ability to share presentations as downloadable files or online links and built-in multimedia support for adding videos , images, and audio to slides.

The free version of Canva provides a wide range of features and resources, with the only limitations being the use of premium resources that can be acquired either through separate purchases or by subscribing to the Canva Pro plan. The Canva Pro plan is available for $12.99 USD per month or $119.99 USD per year.

For collaborative purposes, Canva Teams is available at a price of $14.99 USD per month, with an additional charge of $14.99 USD per month for every team member beyond the initial five.

7. Adobe Express

Source: Screenshot from Adobe Express

As part of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite, Adobe Express is a presentation software that offers a simplified and user-friendly interface. With its intuitive interface, Adobe Express allows users to create visually stunning presentations with ease. Users can access both design professionals and individuals without extensive design experience.

One of the notable advantages of Adobe Express is its seamless integration with other Adobe products, such as Photoshop and Illustrator. This integration enables users to leverage the power of these industry-standard design tools within their presentations, providing access to advanced design features and a vast library of high-quality assets. 

Adobe Express is also great for creating interactive presentations. Its extensive multimedia support, allowing users to incorporate videos, audio files and interactive elements to keep your audience engaged.

That being said,  some of its advanced features may require familiarity with other Adobe tools, which can be challenging for beginners who are not already familiar with the Adobe Creative Cloud ecosystem.

Designers, creative professionals, individuals and businesses seeking professional-grade presentation design.

Professional design options, multimedia support, easy integration with other Adobe products and cloud-based collaboration.

While the free version for Adobe Express includes all the core features, users can gain access to premium templates and features when they upgrade to the Premium subscription for $9.99 USD/month. 

For businesses and teams, Adobe provides tailored plans that include additional features like collaboration tools, centralized license management and enterprise-level support. The pricing for these plans depends on the number of licenses and the specific needs of the organization. It’s best to consult with Adobe or their authorized resellers to get accurate pricing information for business plans.

8. Haiku Deck

Source: Haiku Deck

Haiku Deck is all about visual storytelling, offering a simple and minimalist approach to designing presentations. With its clean and minimalist templates, Haiku Deck makes it a breeze to create presentations that focus on eye-catching images.

Haiku Deck is a user-friendly presentation software that offers a straightforward and intuitive interface. It’s designed to be easily accessible on both computers and mobile devices, giving you the flexibility to create quick and practical presentations on the go.

Plus, the presentation tool seamlessly integrates with image search engines, making it a piece of cake to find and add high-quality visuals that enhance the overall look and feel of your presentation.

However,if you’re looking for advanced features like complex animations or interactive elements, you might not find them here. While the clean and minimalist templates are gorgeous, they don’t offer as much flexibility for customization.

Educators, individuals and professionals who appreciate the power of visual storytelling and minimalist design.

Image-focused templates, easy-to-use interface, cloud-based collaboration and seamless image search integration.

Haiku Deck offers a free trial that allows you to experience the software with one presentation. If you decide to upgrade, they have different pricing plans available. Additionally, Haiku Deck also offers special pricing to qualifying nonprofit organizations, students and educators.

The Pro plans are available at $9.99 per month with annual billing or $19.99 per month with monthly billing. For those seeking advanced features, the Premium plans are priced at $29.99 per month.

Source: Screenshot from Ludus

Ludus brings together the best of both worlds by offering the traditional slide deck format along with interactive and multimedia elements that take presentations to a whole new level.

The presentation software is rich in multimedia capabilities, allowing users to seamlessly integrate videos, audio and elements to create interactive presentations that captivate the audience.

Ludus offers unique presentation tools that enable users to incorporate interactive elements like clickable buttons, hover effects and embedded web content, enabling a more dynamic and engaging presentation experience. 

This makes Ludus a great choice for designers, creatives, marketing professionals, and anyone who wants to create interactive and visually appealing presentations that leave a lasting impression. Collaboration is another area where Ludus excels. The software offers collaborative editing, allowing multiple users to edit presentations simultaneously. 

However, it’s worth mentioning that Ludus has relatively limited templates compared to some other presentation software options. While the customization options are vast, users might find themselves starting from scratch or investing more time in creating the initial design. Additionally, for individuals new to the platform, there might be a learning curve involved in fully harnessing all of Ludus’ features and capabilities.

Designers, creatives, marketing professionals and anyone looking for interactive and visually appealing presentations.

Interactive and multimedia elements, collaborative editing, extensive design customization, real-time comments and feedback.

Ludus offers a starting price of $14.99 USD/month per user for teams consisting of 1-15 members with all features included. For larger teams requiring additional licenses, Ludus encourages reaching out for more information on pricing. It’s worth noting that Ludus provides a 30-day free trial, allowing users to explore the platform and its features before committing to a subscription.

10. Slidebean

Source: Screenshot from Slidebean

Slidebean offers a unique approach to slide design by automating the process and simplifying the creation of well-designed presentations. With its automation features, Slidebean streamlines the design process, saving users valuable time and effort.

The highlight of Slidebean is its automated slide design functionality. Using artificial intelligence (AI), the software generates visually appealing slide layouts based on the content provided. Slidebean also offers collaboration options, allowing multiple team members to work on a presentation simultaneously. 

Another advantage of Slidebean is its AI-powered content suggestions. The software intelligently analyzes the presentation content and provides helpful suggestions for improving the messaging and overall flow. This feature ensures that users can effectively communicate their ideas and engage their audience. 

Unlike Ludus, Slidebean may not cater to users who prefer extensive customization and control over their slide layouts. Certain advanced features are only available in premium plans, which may require an upgrade for those seeking more advanced functionality.

Startups, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and individuals who want to create polished presentations quickly.

Automated design, content suggestions, collaboration tools and pitch deck-specific templates.

The free version offers limited functionalities, but it provides a sufficient opportunity to experience Slidebean’s capabilities and understand its workflow. However, to export your presentation and access advanced features, upgrading to a higher plan is necessary. 

The all-access plan is available at $228 USD/year, while additional services such as startup expert consultations and pitch deck and financial model services are available for separate purchase. 

11. Beautiful.ai

Source: Screenshot from Beautiful.ai

Beautiful.ai aims to simplify the process of creating visually stunning and professional-looking slides with minimal effort. One of the notable strengths of the presentation software is its collection of smart templates and design suggestions. 

Their templates are intelligently designed to provide visually appealing layouts, saving users valuable time and effort in creating presentations. Unlike other types of presentation software, the platform leverages AI-powered technology to offer layout optimization, ensuring that slide elements are positioned optimally for maximum impact.

Beautiful.ai also offers time-saving features that streamline the presentation creation process. The software automatically adjusts the layout and formatting as users add or modify content, eliminating the need for manual adjustments. 

As the software provides smart templates and design suggestions, customization options may be somewhat limited. Users may find that certain design elements or layout adjustments are not as flexible as they would like. 

Individuals, startups and professionals who want visually impressive presentations without extensive design skills.

Smart templates, automated design suggestions, AI-powered layout optimization and easy slide customization.

Beautiful.ai provides two subscription options for users. The Pro plan is available at a monthly cost of $12 USD /month, while the Team plan is priced at $40 USD/month. Both plans are billed annually. You can also subscribe to the monthly subscription for ad hoc projects and gain access to all pro features for $45 USD/month (billed monthly). 

There is a 14-day free trial period that allows users to thoroughly test and explore the features and capabilities of the tool before committing to a subscription.

Source: Screenshot from Pitch

Pitch is a modern video presentation maker that stands out with its collaborative and iterative approach to presentation creation.

One of the key strengths of Pitch lies in its collaborative features. The presentation software provides robust collaboration tools that allow team members to work together in real-time. This makes it easy for users to collaborate on presentation content, provide feedback and make revisions collectively.

Pitch boasts an extensive slide library, offering a wide range of professionally designed templates to choose from. These templates serve as a foundation for creating visually stunning presentations while providing a starting point that saves time and ensures a polished look.

The availability of diverse templates caters to different industries, topics and presentation styles, allowing users to create presentations for their needs.

Seamless integration with project management tools is another advantage of Pitch. The software integrates well with popular project management platforms, enabling users to streamline their workflow by syncing tasks, deadlines and other project-related information with their presentations. 

For teams, startups and businesses that value collaboration, feedback and the ability to iterate on their presentations

Collaboration tools, version control, project management integration and template library.

Users can create unlimited presentations and enjoy the starter plan for free or upgrade to Pro for $8 USD/month, billed annually. 

There you have it — the top 12 best presentation tools for the year! Whether you value simplicity, collaboration, automation, design versatility or data visualization, these presentation software examples have a solution out there for your future presentations.

Got your mind set on your to-go presentation software? Great! Now it’s time to start creating your slides and ace that presentation. 

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Best Presentation Software of 2024

Table of Contents

• Best Presentation Software
• Things To Consider When Buying
• How We Chose

Everyone has a message to share in some form. With presentation software, you can communicate that message a little easier and with more spark. If you don't have design and animation skills, don't worry; apps like Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint make it easy to craft a slideshow that helps people understand the concepts you're trying to convey.

Many of the apps in this buyers' guide are geared toward business presentations since that is often the primary use case. However, a few provide some slick tools for educators, entrepreneurs, community groups, and even family members to make a photo slideshow for a family reunion. Read on for the best presentation software available today.

• Best Overall: Google Slides »
• Most Compatible: Microsoft PowerPoint »
• Best For Mac Users: Apple Keynote »
• Most Flexible: Prezi »
• Best Budget: Visme »
• Best For Entrepreneurs: Slidebean »
• Most Powerful: Canva »

Best Overall: Google Slides

Highly integrated With Other Apps

Totally free

Not integrated with Microsoft products

Minimal support

When Google Slides debuted in 2006, it took the world by storm. That’s because it was integrated even back then with Gmail, Google Docs, and other popular Google apps many of us use in business, at school, and in our personal lives.

Google Slides is entirely free, and there are no hidden costs or upgrade plans. What’s surprising, though, about Google Slides is that it is a highly capable app for presentations – easy to use, with plenty of templates, fonts, animation options, and integrations.

Apart from that, the key feature here is real-time collaboration. Other users can join you as you create and edit slides. They can comment and make suggested changes, or simply start editing the slides on their own. (You can decide if other users can suggest changes or make them directly.) You also can view speaker notes on a laptop when you run the slideshow on an HDTV or projector. Google Slides integrates nicely into the online meeting app Google Meet, and it can open Microsoft PowerPoint files and export in that format as well.

Overall, Google Slides wins extra points because of how intuitive it is. There’s hardly any learning curve with the app, and since it runs in a browser window, everything you create and edit will be saved automatically. For business users, teachers, or just about anyone in a hurry to share a complex message, creating a Google Slides presentation is a snap – which is why it is our overall top pick.

Specifications:

• Operating systems are supported: Windows, Mac, Web, iOS, Android, Linux
• Number of templates and designs available: 23
• Integrated apps: Adobe Creative Cloud, Dropbox, Box, LumApps
• Collaboration features: Live editing, suggested edits
• Multimedia supported: Photos, videos, audio, GIFs, and stickers
• Export options: PDF, PowerPoint, Webpage, JPEG
• Customer support options: Google Workspace only
• Added features: Google Duet AI
• Interface enhancements: Real-time editing and collaboration

Most Compatible: Microsoft PowerPoint

Highly compatible

Online and desktop versions

Easy to use

No free version

Templates are not as trendy

Microsoft PowerPoint is the app you want for compatibility with other apps and programs. Released in 1990, this presentation app is well-known in business circles and runs on just about any computer in the world. Because it’s so compatible, you will likely not have any trouble running the app on your phone or a tablet, in a browser, or even on seriously outdated PC laptops and desktops.

While apps like Prezi add slick animations and transitions that make a presentation come to life, PowerPoint is more like a trusted business partner; it works on just about any computer, the interface is well-known and straightforward, and it’s likely that everyone you know and collaborate with is already familiar with the app. Every other presentation app we reviewed also supports PowerPoint in terms of directly opening or importing the file, and exporting as a PowerPoint file.

You'll need a Microsoft 365 Personal Edition subscription to use PowerPoint. It may be an app that’s already installed and included with a new computer, at least for a trial period.

• Operating systems are supported: Windows, Mac, Web, iOS, Android
• Integrated apps: Adobe PDF, Shutterstock, YouTube, and many others
• Multimedia supported: Photos, videos, audio
• Export options: PowerPoint, XML, PDF, JPEG, and many more
• Customer support options: Personal or business support
• Added features: Integrated live camera, Microsoft Teams integration
• Interface enhancements: Microsoft Copilot, speaker coach

Best For Mac Users: Apple Keynote

Exceptional designs

Desktop only

Graphic designers love Apple Keynote, mostly because the included templates and design options are so stellar. Your presentation will really come to life, helping you communicate about even complex subjects with flair and a trendy look.

Using the app feels a bit like you're the late Steve Jobs creating an award-winning presentation that will grab an audience. Jobs had a way of captivating those in the audience, and Keynote helps you do that with some of the best presentation templates around. For example, there are 40 templates to choose from, many of them full of color and using the trendiest fonts. Keynote also includes 100 transitions and animations to liven up a presentation. The app also includes 700 different shapes and icons that will help you enhance your slides.

Apple Keynote is powerful enough for any user, but it’s important to know the limitations. For starters, Keynote only runs on Mac computers. That makes it less compatible with Google Slides or Microsoft PowerPoint. You can export the presentation from Keynote as a PowerPoint file, which is fine, but it means no one can edit the Keynote slides directly; they will have to use PowerPoint.

Keynote also only runs as a desktop app. That means you won’t benefit from the live editing and commenting features of Google Slides, where you can collaborate with anyone in real time on the same file. Instead, Keynote is more static, as slideshows can't be edited as a group in a browser window. It’s still incredibly powerful and intuitive but with a few key downsides.

• Operating systems are supported: Mac, iOS
• Number of templates and designs available: 50
• Integrated apps: FaceTime, WebEx, Zoom, iCloud
• Collaboration features: Collaborate through iCloud
• Multimedia supported: Video, audio, images, 3D objects, stickers
• Export options: PDF, PowerPoint, Movies, animated GIFs, images
• Customer support options: Online help, support communities
• Added features: Cinematic transitions, Keynote Remote on iPhone
• Interface enhancements: Inspectors help with formatting

Most Flexible: Prezi

Unique concept

Trendy visuals

Unique design templates

Harder to learn

There’s something very compelling about Prezi, the presentation app that provides the most flexibility in terms of the message you are communicating. For starters, this is an app that knows it’s all about the message, whether you're an educator, business owner, entrepreneur, or even a scientist or engineer. Instead of a slideshow, you create a “canvas” with topics and subtopics. Think of it as a way to augment what you are saying with animated annotations, swoosh effects, and charts.

Prezi is the best at guiding you to the most powerful design features and giving you the tools to make even a complex subject more interesting and easier to understand. Part of this extreme flexibility has to do with how you're not creating slides at all, but enhancing a topic. Another way to think of Prezi is more like an animated whiteboard; when you show a presentation, it can come to life as you speak through a webcam.

All of this flexibility means you aren't limited to a boring slideshow, although there may be times when you are asked to make a slideshow and nothing more. For example, a school assignment or a boss might dictate that you need to create basic slides, not an animated whiteboard session. This is where you have to decide if Prezi matches the goals of the message you are communicating about.

• Pricing options and plans: Standard ($7/month), Plus ($15/month), Premium ($19/month)
• Operating systems are supported: Windows, Mac, Linux
• Number of templates and designs available: 210+
• Integrated apps: Google Drive, Slack, Canva, Zoom
• Collaboration features: Real-time editing, comments
• Multimedia supported: Photos, icons, video, GIF
• Export options: PNG, JPG, PDF, GIF, and MP4.
• Customer support options: Knowledgebase, online support
• Added features: Offline mode, analytics
• Interface enhancements: Broadcast link, tool tips

Best Budget: Visme

Free version available

Added visual tools

Good overall value

It takes more time to learn

Expensive pro plans

Visme is the best budget option because there is a free version that still provides many of the features you might need. It’s also a good value, because (similar to Canva) you can access all of the graphic design features to create infographics, brochures, logos, and rich documents all without paying for the premium version.

Even more important, Visme is a good value if you do choose the Starter or Pro plans because you can then unlock advanced features you might only find in Adobe Visual products. For example, at the Pro level, you can create an entire brand kit for a company including logos, brochures, and flyers that all have the same look.

While it's called an all-in-one marketing design platform and has hints of Canva, the first tool you would likely use is for creating presentations (e.g., It's the most prominent tool listed on their site). Because everything is geared more toward marketing and sales, Visme templates emphasize things like growth metrics, charts, and bullet points used to explain a product or service. Visme is also meant more for a group of business users. You can collaborate in real-time, leave comments on presentations, and even follow a workflow to mark presentation tasks as in progress or done.

Like Canva, because the Visme app is part of a suite of visual design products, it might take a little more time to learn all of the added tools. The presentation tool is just one of many included, even if this tool alone is easy to learn.

Visme is an extensive product with an upgrade path that unlocks more templates, customer support, and more supported file formats. Overall, it’s a good value because you can still create presentations without having to pay extra.

• Operating systems are supported: Mac, PC, iOS, Android
• Number of templates and designs available: 13,000
• Integrated apps: Google Drive, Vimeo, Dropbox, Survey Monkey, and many more
• Collaboration features: Real-time collaboration, assign tasks
• Multimedia supported: Photos, videos, audio, GIFs, 3D graphics
• Export options: JPEG, PNG, PDF, MP4, GIF, PPTX, HTML5
• Customer support options: Email, chat, in-app
• Added features: AI features, forms
• Interface enhancements: Tool tips, video training

Best For Entrepreneurs: Slidebean

Design for entrepreneurs and salespeople

Unique features

Not as powerful as some

Not as well-known

Most presentation software is flexible and powerful enough for any message and for any purpose. However, Slidebean focuses on a more narrow segment. The app is designed to create a “pitch deck,” which is something an entrepreneur or salesperson uses to pitch a product.

For example, let’s say your company sells a new widget. Using Slidebean, you can explain the features and benefits, include a slide about pricing, and use the tools that are intended more for selling a concept than perhaps merely explaining it.

Once you finish creating the pitch deck, you can share it as a link for others to view. You can then measure how much time people spend viewing the slides, including time spent on specific slides in the presentation. Another major differentiator with Slidebean is that you can work with professional designers and writers (for a fee, of course) who will create the pitch desk and write all of the copy for you.

• Operating systems are supported: Windows and Mac browsers
• Number of templates and designs available: 160
• Integrated apps: None
• Collaboration features: Editing (not simultaneous), sharing
• Multimedia supported: Images, icons, GIFs
• Export options: PPT, PDF, and HTML
• Customer support options: Knowledgebase
• Added features: Consult with experts, finance templates
• Interface enhancements: Startup video lessons

Most Powerful: Canva

Thousand of templates

Integrates with other Canva tools

Limited export options

Known as an “online graphical design platform” for everyday users, Canva provides plenty of tools for creating logos, brochures, postcards, and presentations.

Because these tools are all integrated, Canva is powerful enough for any message you want to communicate. It’s ideal for business, personal use, and schools. If you decide to build a presentation, you can also incorporate logos, fonts, clip art, and animations that are built into Canva. It means the palette for creating a presentation is more flexible because all of the other design tools are right at your fingertips. Let’s say you want to create a pitch deck about a new startup. You can create the logo, choose the colors and fonts, and then create the slideshow. Most presentation apps in our buyers' guide other than Visme don’t provide this level of flexibility and power in one online app.

Canva lets you run the presentation from within Canva itself, or you can export the slides and use them in Microsoft PowerPoint. There are thousands of templates available. Once you select a look and feel for your presentation, you can pivot and use those same graphics, fonts, and designs in a brochure or other material.

With all of this power in terms of visual design software comes a slight learning curve. Canva is intuitive and the interface is well-designed, but there are so many tools available that it takes some time to learn them all.

• Operating systems are supported: PC, Mac, iOS, Android, browser
• Number of templates and designs available: Thousands
• Integrated apps: Google Drive, Dropbox, Slack, HubSpot, and many more
• Collaboration features: Real-time editing, whiteboards
• Multimedia supported : Photos, icons, graphics, data visualizations, media elements
• Export options: PDF, JPG, PNG, PPTX, MP4
• Customer support options: Email
• Added features: Magic Switch, Magic Write, Magic Animate
• Interface enhancements: Search for designs, generate with Magic Design

The Bottom Line

If you're short on time and just need to create a presentation without a lot of hassle, Google Slides is the app for you. It’s completely free without any trial versions of “pro” upgrades, yet it's also quite powerful and intuitive to learn. Google Slides is also our top pick because it integrates into other Google apps like Gmail and Google Docs, is widely used and highly compatible, and still gets the job done when the main goal is to finish a slideshow and share your message.

Things To Consider When Buying Presentation Software

Features and functionality: When it comes to presentation software, it’s all about the templates. As you are considering which app to use, it’s a good idea to evaluate which templates are available and if they meet your needs. We’ve also noted how many templates are included with each app. Beyond that, look for the supported file formats since that will determine who can use and open the presentation. Collaboration features are also important, making it easier to work on a presentation within a group and make comments for everyone to see.

Ease of use and user interface: Creating a presentation shouldn't feel cumbersome. When you start the app, it should be easy to create the first slide from a template, add more slides, fill in the text and images, and finish the entire project without having to learn complex features. Apple Keynote is a good example of an app that's intuitive at first, and then you can always explore more advanced features later on.

Compatibility with different file formats: The most well-known presentation app is Microsoft PowerPoint. So it’s important that the app you choose supports the popular PowerPoint format. Beyond that, look for software that also supports PDF files in case you want a printed version of your slideshow or to share it online.

Collaboration and sharing capabilities: With presentation software, being able to work on a slideshow with a group of people all at the same time can be a time-saver but also produce better results. It should also be easy to leave comments for others to review. Once you're done with the presentation, it should also be easy to share the file or an online version of the presentation with others.

Customization options for design and branding: Visme and Canva allow you to customize the graphics and even make logos and experiment with a variety of fonts. All presentation apps provide ways to edit graphics, resize photos, and even incorporate video into your slideshow. Not every app makes it as easy to edit graphics as Google Slides does, however.

Availability of templates and pre-designed layouts: As with many software programs, templates save time and effort. An app like Microsoft PowerPoint includes pre-designed templates and graphics you can use to enhance a slideshow. Visme is a good example of an app with extensive templates (it has thousands built-in). While Apple Keynote doesn't have as many templates, the ones that are included tend to be more well-designed and trendy.

Pricing and licensing: Most presentation apps offer a monthly subscription to help you get started making a slideshow. In some cases, such as Visme and Slidebean, there’s a basic free version to help you experiment with the app right away. Only Google Slides is entirely free with no extra pricing options. Microsoft also offers a fully licensed version of PowerPoint as opposed to paying for a monthly subscription. The full licensed version costs $159.99.

Customer support and training resources: Microsoft is arguably one of the best companies to choose if you're interested in customer support. Because the product costs a little more – especially if you purchase the full licensed version – it includes extensive technical support. That said, even though Google Slides is free and customer support can be hit or miss, there are so many people using that product that you can usually find answers to questions by doing a simple Google search or asking on public support forums. Also, training videos are more readily available for Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint because they're both so popular.

Integration with other software and tools: Integration is key when it comes to presentation software because you want to be able to access important graphics, photos, and videos easily. Canva is perhaps the most integrated option for that reason alone. It's a graphics platform for creating graphics and other design materials, so when you make a presentation, you can easily find what you need.

Security and privacy features: Security and privacy might not be the first concern when it comes to presentation software, since you might be making a simple how-to for employee orientation or a photo slideshow of your vacation. However, for a business creating a new product or for a new startup that has not launched yet, be sure there is a way to protect your presentation from prying eyes.

How We Chose The Best Presentation Software

Our contributor John Brandon poured over specifications and features for the best presentation software around. He’s used presentation apps since the debut of Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides. He also consulted with business owners who have started companies and need to communicate about their firms. This includes David Ciccarelli, an entrepreneur who started a company called Voices (an audio and video tech startup) and is the CEO of Lake , a vacation rental business. He also tapped Stephen Gagnon, a web designer with the search engine optimization company Web Scour , who has visual design and branding experience.

WHY SHOULD YOU TRUST US?

John Brandon worked in the corporate world for 10 years, often creating presentations for large teams and at corporate functions. He worked as an Information Design Director at Best Buy Corporation. Since then, he has tested and reviewed thousands of tech products including presentation apps, Wi-Fi routers, televisions, office products, and everything in between. His writing has appeared in Wired magazine, Inc. magazine, FoxNews.com, LAPTOP magazine, and many others.

For anyone who wants to communicate about a new product or service, help new employees with onboarding, or even share photos from a recent vacation, presentation software helps you communicate visually. The basic idea is that you can create a slideshow that augments and enhances what you have to say.

Presentation software is designed to help you communicate a message to an audience, either in a classroom, a conference room, or at home. You create a slideshow, insert graphics, photos, and videos, and then run the slideshow full-screen. When you run the presentation, you can click the mouse button or press the arrow keys on a computer to go back and forth in the slideshow.

Most modern presentation apps charge a monthly fee, usually around $8 or $12 per month. Google Slides is the exception to this rule since it is entirely free. Typically, with higher costs for the pro and premium plans, you gain access to more templates, more graphics, and the ability to export in more file formats, such as HTML or video files. At the high end, Microsoft PowerPoint also offers a fully licensed version, as opposed to a monthly charge.

The classic, tried-and-true presentation apps like Microsoft PowerPoint and Apple Keynote are available as a desktop version you install. In most cases, you will sign up for the app and then download the installation file and run that installer. However, more modern apps like Google Slides and Canva run in a browser window and don't require any installation.

PowerPoint is sometimes included on a Windows laptop. However, if you're looking for a fresh start with new templates and features for animation and video that go beyond PowerPoint and Keynote, you might consider upgrading. Also, presentation tools are now included in apps like Canva and Visme, making them more integrated.

U.S. News 360 Reviews takes an unbiased approach to our recommendations. When you use our links to buy products, we may earn a commission but that in no way affects our editorial independence.

Best presentation software of 2023

Let’s put on a slideshow.

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Whether you’re a student or a working professional, everybody has to make presentations from time to time and that usually involves presentation software. But when you’re frantically Googling around to refresh your PowerPoint knowledge, it’s only natural to wonder what is really the best presentation software out there. Yes, everybody knows that Microsoft’s the biggest player in the slideshow game but there are actually a lot of alternatives to explore. If you expand your horizons, you may find another app that makes more sense for you. Expand your office app horizons and see how the best presentation software can make your job a little easier.

Best overall: Microsoft PowerPoint

Best for professionals: canva, best for zoom: prezi.

• Best for Mac: Apple Keynote  

Best for students: Beautiful.ai

Best budget: google slides, how we chose the best presentation software.

As a journalist with over a decade of experience, I know how to present information to all sorts of audiences effectively and efficiently. Over the years, I’ve worked with a variety of clients to craft copy for presentations, as well as the slideshows themselves. I’ve used the best software in the business, as well as quite a lot of the bad stuff, so I know what will work for you and your needs. 

In making this list, I relied on my own firsthand experience with presentation software, as well as consulting professional tutorials and critical reviews. I also personally created a number of sample slideshows using prebuilt templates and custom layouts of my own in order to put the programs through their paces. I used both the stalwart software suites that everyone knows, as well as a number of lesser-known alternatives that have emerged over the past few years. If an impressive new program hits the block, we will update this list accordingly once we get some hands-on time with it.

Things to consider when buying presentation software

There has been an explosion of presentation software over the past few years, and each of the program’s developers has their own pitch to lure people away from PowerPoint. The most important things to consider when choosing presentation software will vary from person to person. A small business owner putting together a professional presentation with original branding may need different tools to make an appealing pitch, versus a student building a last-minute slideshow for a group project to present the results of their research in Econ class.

There are a wide variety of bells and whistles that presentation building programs boast as their killer features, including brand kit integration, easy social media sharing options, offline access, seamless collaboration, AI suggestions, and analytics. These extra features will seem very helpful to enterprise customers, but the average person should realistically prioritize more traditional factors like ease-of-use, customizability, and cost. There are, however, a few elements that every single person who uses presentation software needs, so let’s walk through the fundamentals.

Ease of use

No one wants to spend hours learning how to make a basic slideshow. While all of these programs take time to master, some of them are easier to pick up quickly than others. An intuitive piece of software grabs your attention and allows you to perform basic actions like adding slides and assets without time-consuming tutorials. The more professional-grade programs out there might take a little more time to master, but they’re rarely difficult to use.

Prebuilt templates

The number one thing that you want from a presentation software is a good-looking final product, and templates help you achieve that goal quickly and easily. All of the competitive presentation software suites out there have a library of pre-built templates that let you plug in information quickly. Quality and quantity separate the good programs from the great ones, though. Some apps have more templates than others, and some templates look better than others. On top of that, some programs lock their best templates behind a premium subscription, which leaves you relying on the same basic structures over and over. 

The truly professional-grade software also includes a selection of prebuilt art assets to help you bring a personal touch to the presentation. If a program doesn’t have an impressive set of templates, it isn’t worth using.

Customizability

While most people want to start building their presentations with a template, you need to change some things around if you want to keep things looking fresh. Professionals, in particular, will probably want to customize every aspect of their slideshows, from the color of the background to the exact pixel position of images. This obviously increases the amount of time it takes to craft a presentation, so it’s important that the systems for making those tweaks are intuitive and easy to use. Not every user is going to need the level of customizability, but it’s definitely something worth considering.

Who’s it for?

Every presenter needs to build a slideshow for their audience. They should probably ask that question when they pick which presentation software to use as well, as it can help determine what software they should use. Students might need the expansive collaboration tools of certain platforms but might not need the pinpoint design controls in others. While the presentation software listed below can all make a great slideshow with enough time and effort, your own use case and the intended audience will have a big impact on your choice.

Cost & affordability

Very few presentation builders have a simple, one-time price tag. Most operate on a subscription model, where you can buy a month’s use for a certain amount, or save money by buying a year at a time. A few are free, though many appear to only offer a free trial or stripped-down version that will allow you to put together something basic before quite literally buying in.

If you’re looking to build just one or two presentations a year, it’s probably best to stick to one of the free options. However, if you have to build slideshows on a regular basis, it’s probably worth sinking your money into a subscription to the program you really like.

Generally speaking, as you might expect, the more impressive and in-depth software costs more than the more traditional fare. However, because many of the most popular programs in the space (such as Microsoft PowerPoint) come as part of a suite, you will need to weigh the benefits of not only the presentation software but also the other programs that come along with it. If you’re a die-hard Microsoft Word user, for example, you’re already paying for the Microsoft Office suite, but the calculus gets more complicated if you prefer Google Docs.

The best presentation software: Reviews & Recommendations

By now, you probably have a good idea of what you should be looking for in presentation software, so now we’ll get into the interesting part. As mentioned above, we’ve broken down our picks based on a few common use cases, as well as the criteria we mentioned above. Regardless of which one you decide on, all of these programs are powerful tools that can produce a slick slideshow with a little time and effort, and you’d be well served by any of them.

MobiSystems

Why it made the cut: Whether you’re a broke student or a busy professional, Microsoft PowerPoint can do whatever you need. It’s also reasonably priced.

• Platforms: Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Web
• Suite or standalone: Microsoft Office 365 Suite
• Special features: Designer, MS Office integration
• Free version: Yes
• Well-known interface imitated by competitors
• Powerful and accessible
• Good templates
• Part of a popular software suite
• Slight learning curve

Even after testing more than a dozen programs, Microsoft PowerPoint remains the go-to presentation software for most people. Setting the industry standard, it offers great templates, an accessible interface, an impressive library of prebuilt art assets, and plenty of tools for building a slick slideshow. It also supports real-time collaboration, offline editing, and third-party content embedding. At $70 a year, PowerPoint is significantly cheaper than most of its competitors and it’s part of Microsoft Office, a software suite that most companies pay for and workers can’t live without. 

Of course, it isn’t perfect. PowerPoint makes it very easy to make a basic presentation, but it will likely take you longer to make something that looks polished and professional in PowerPoint than with design-forward programs like Canva or Prezi. Even top-flight presentations are achievable, though, in a reasonable timeframe. PowerPoint might not be the best presentation program for every situation, but it’s certainly the best for the average person.

Why it made the cut: Canva creates beautiful, professional-grade presentations faster than its rivals, and it’s easier to use than most.

• Platforms: Web, Windows, iOS, Android
• Suite or standalone: Standalone
• Special features: Amazing templates, very customizable
• Excellent free version
• Extremely easy to use
• Makes beautiful presentations fast
• Eye-catching templates
• Harder-to-use advanced features
• Limited offline use

If you need to make a striking business presentation in an hour, Canva is absolutely the software for you. Designed from the ground up for business professionals who don’t want to have to use another program (i.e., Photoshop or GIMP) to create visually compelling content, Canva delivers on this promise in spades. 

Canva’s gorgeous templates are the best of any of the programs we tested, and its free version is far more robust than you’d expect for a costless trial. Unlike many of these other programs, it creates virtually any marketing material you can imagine, including videos, logos, social media posts, and even resumes. It also includes splashy features that most people won’t use, like brand kit support and easy sharing to social media.

Canva’s simplicity has drawbacks, too, though. It can be a bit difficult to get it to make complicated charts, tables, or diagrams, and it lacks the familiar (but clunky) customizability of PowerPoint. However, if you’re looking to make the most beautiful presentation you can, Canva is a great choice for your business.

Why it made the cut: Prezi is a strong program that structures its basic features in a completely different manner than its competitors. It also has very good Zoom integration.

• Platforms: Web
• Special features: Zoom integration, unique structure
• Free version: No (Two-week free trial)
• More creative structure than competitors
• Intuitive interface
• Expansive feature set
• Doesn’t work for everyone
• Must pay more for advanced features

If you’re really tired of the straight-line structure mandated by other presentation software, Prezi gives you a little more freedom to build things your way. Prezi uses a topic-oriented form that allows you to easily string your ideas in an order that makes sense to you. The basic idea behind Prezi is that you create bubbles of individual content, and then you thread a path through those ideas to create a presentation with a physical form that’s more enticing and conversational than just a linear succession of slides.

While this unique approach makes Prezi a worthy alternative on its own, the app also boasts plenty of specialized features you’d want in a premium program, including a large asset library, social media integration, and collaboration support. 

Though any presentation software can work with Zoom via the screen-share function, Prezi features a very useful video call-focused mode, Prezi Video, which allows you to build a presentation as an overlay that appears in your Zoom window so people can see you and your slides.

Prezi’s freeform structure isn’t going to work for everyone, but if Powerpoint feels stifling, it might open new doors for you.

Best for Mac: Keynote

Why it made the cut: Apple’s answer to PowerPoint might not be as popular as its competitor, but it’s still pretty powerful in its own right.

• Platforms: macOS, iOS, Web
• Suite or Standalone: Apple Software Suite
• Special features: iCloud support, multiple formats
• Free version: Yes (with an Apple account)
• Familiar to most Mac users
• Better asset library than most
• No-frills feature set
• Lacks unique selling points

If you’re a Mac user , you’ve probably at least considered using Keynote to put a presentation together. While all of the other programs on this list work on a Mac as web apps, Keynote is the only app made specifically for the platform.

Like PowerPoint, Keynote is a wide-reaching program designed to help anyone make a sharp-looking presentation, from students to professionals. It has a more robust feature set than other PowerPoint competitors–including better default templates, a bigger asset library, and desktop support. It doesn’t quite have the versatility of enterprise-facing apps like Canva, but you can put together a great-looking slideshow for school or a recurring meeting.

On the other hand, it can be a little tricky to pick up: The interface isn’t quite as intuitive as Google Slides, which is also free. If you have access to both, you get a choice: Build a more striking presentation in Keynote, or put something together quickly in Slides.

Beautiful.ai

Why it made the cut: Beautiful.ai’s AI-powered presentations allow you to make a sharp slideshow in no time flat, and its generous free trial gives time to try it out.

• Special features: AI integration
• Clean interface
• Modern features
• Simple and effective
• Expensive for what it is
• Limited assets and templates

Looking to build a clean, modern presentation in as little time as possible? Beautiful.ai uses AI to help you build a visually stunning presentation in no time flat. While it’s less of a household name than our other picks, it’s the choice of many tech companies for its uncluttered interface, eye-catching templates, and overall no-fuss approach. 

Compared to PowerPoint or Canva, Beautiful.ai does not have a rich feature set or an infinite variety of template options. What the content library lacks in volume, it makes up for in style, though. Its appealing, elegant content elements lend themselves to clean, modern presentations. More importantly, the program’s AI assistant knows how to use those assets. It automatically tailors your slideshow’s design to fit the information you want to present, so you’ll wind up with something thoughtfully prepared before you know it.

Why it made the cut: Google Slides is not only an excellent presentation program—it’s also one of the only ones actually free with no strings attached.

• Platforms: Web, iOS, Android
• Suite or standalone: Google Workspace
• Special features: Easy collaboration, Google integration
• Free for anyone with a Google account
• Familiar interface
• Easy to share and collaborate
• Decent templates
• Somewhat basic in functionality
• Clunky for some users

When it comes to software, there’s “free to use,” and then there’s free. Most of the software on this list offers either a restricted free mode or a time-limited trial. Google Slides is actually free, fully free, for another with a Google account. And it holds its own, even compared to its premium competitors.

Google Slides feels like a simplified version of PowerPoint. It’s a little easier to learn the basics, but also offers fewer templates, screen transitions, and content. It also lacks a built-in asset library to fill dead space, though the program’s Google Drive integration makes it easy to add your own. Like most Google programs, it also supports add-ons that give it enhanced features, like the ability to solve equations within the slideshow.

If you’re looking to make an extremely sharp presentation, Google Slides will take a bit more effort than most. If you need to make a basic slideshow and you grew up on earlier versions of PowerPoint, you’ll feel right at home using Slides.

Q: What are the three most popular presentation software options?

Based on our research, the three most popular programs are Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Keynote, roughly in that order. PowerPoint is far more popular than the other two, though. All three are good options, depending on what you’re looking for. All things being equal, though, we recommend PowerPoint.

Q: How much does presentation software cost?

Generally, most of the programs listed here cost between $7 and $15 a month for their premium packages. However, Google Slides and Keynote are free, so we recommend those for customers on a budget.

Q: Is Canva better than PowerPoint?

Canva and PowerPoint are both great programs that offer about equal value. It’s much easier to create a beautiful, eye-catching presentation in Canva, but PowerPoint’s advanced features give you more options. If you need to make slick-looking professional presentations on a frequent basis, we recommend Canva for its superior ease-of-use.

Q: Does Adobe have presentation software?

Adobe had its own competitor to PowerPoint, Adobe Presenter. The company recently ended support for Presenter on June 1, 2022.

Final thoughts on the best presentation software

While everyone wants to use the best program for the job, the truth is that all presentation builders have a lot in common with each other. If you’re familiar with one, it often makes sense to stay put. Despite all the similarities, it can take some time to learn a new system. If you’re constrained and frustrated, or are using presentation software for the first time, you should consider a wide range of options beyond PowerPoint.

Though alternatives like Beautiful.ai, Canva, or (especially) Prezi cost a bit more, they each have strong features that may work better for your purposes. That said, sometimes the most popular presentation software options are the best. If you don’t have specific expectations or need to clear a high bar for design, PowerPoint and free options like Google Slides should work well, and have the benefit of wide adoption in corporate workplaces.

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• Presentation Design

The 10 Best Presentation Software for 2023: Complete Guide

There are literally hundreds of presentation software tools in the market today and keeping track is getting increasingly hard. Most of them have been optimized for a specific purpose or type of user from a wide range of possibilities, and it's very likely that THE ideal tool for you is actually one that you've never heard of.

We've created this best presentation software list to shed some light and to give you a comprehensive presentation software list to ensure you make the right call in the platform you select. This article is the result of several weeks of research and review of 50+ presentation tools currently available on the web.

What is a presentation software?

A presentation software is defined as an application built to display information in the form of a slide show. Any presentation tool must have three fundamental functions:

• ‍ A text editor: to input the contents of the presentation.
• ‍ An import function: to insert and manipulate images and other content.
• ‍A slide-show or presenter mode: that displays the content in a nice, formatted way, sometimes synced in real time with the presenter across devices.

Slide shows often consist of a combination of text, video, images and charts. Their primary function is displaying clear, readable and summarized data to an audience.

Most presentations are shared and presented on a larger screen or through a digital projector. In rare occasions, slide presentations are printed out as a replacement for text documents, but this is a really inefficient way to review data, that Garr Reynolds calls ‘ PresDocs ’ (Garr Reynolds is the author of Presentation Zen, one of the most important go-to reference for successful presentations).

Related Read: What Makes Up the Best Presentation Templates?

What makes a good presentation tool?

The functions and results of presentation programs have evolved significantly in the past decades, since the original launch of ‘Presenter’ (the PowerPoint predecessor) in 1984. In 1987 PowerPoint 1.0 was released for the Macintosh and it started a revolution in the way we prepare and consume content in meetings.

For the purposes of this article we are going to classify all presentation tools using 3 variables that we consider extremely important:

Ease of use: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

This rating looks at the learning curve, or time required to learn to use the platform. An easy to use interface is fundamentally important to ensure that users feel confortable working with the platform and doesn’t require complex training to take advantage of its features. This also accounts for the average time it takes to build a presentation.

Customization: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

The ability to customize a presentation to the smallest details. This varies depending on the number of advanced features in the platform, like the ability to set different transitions to each slide, the ability to add customized elements or to design/code the final outcome of the slides to the last font size and color code.

Final result: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

This indicator looks at the outcome of a finished presentation, assuming the user is an average person with basic design skills and intermediate knowledge on the tool itself.

Best PowerPoint Alternatives (Death by Power Point)

As we mentioned before, PowerPoint is the most used presentation builder in the market today. It is distributed by Microsoft as part of their Office Suite, which is estimated to have over 500 million users worldwide. Microsoft has also revealed that approximately 35 Million presentations are delivered every single day, that’s a staggering 400 presentations per second.

But still, PowerPoint’s popularity has decreased significantly in the past few years. Their boring presentation templates, the large learning curve and complexity as well as the terrible slides many users end up making have started the Death to PowerPoint movement.

What presentation software is better than PowerPoint?

For this section, we summarize the top PowerPoint alternatives and examples, that is, presentation tools that work in a fairly similar manner and that provide similar (but significantly better) results. If you are an avid PowerPoint user, then migrating to these platforms should be rather easy for you.

Best 10 presentation software alternative list for 2023

(Updated December 2022)

• Keynote presentation
• Google Slides

1- SLIDEBEAN PRESENTATION SOFTWARE

Ease of use: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - Fantastic!

Customization: ★ ★ ★ ★ - Very Good

Final result: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - Fantastic!

Slidebean is an online presentation tool that uses artificial intelligence to design beautiful slides. Simply add content blocks to your presentation without worrying about formatting. Slidebean’s AI finds the best possible design for every element on your slide. This level of automation allows you to create a professional looking presentation in a fraction of the time it normally takes on PowerPoint.

When comparing it to PowerPoint, Slidebean’s interface is much easier to learn and work with, and it lets you create fantastic looking presentations really fast. The platform is web based and allows you to export to both PowerPoint and PDF format. It also lets you track viewer interactions and activity from people you share your slides with!

Slidebean also has a unique advantage which is a rich gallery of presentation outline templates. These are pre-filled decks that work for numerous purposes, like business proposals, classroom decks, thesis presentations and even startup pitch decks : all you need to do is import them and fill in your content.

You can sign up free for Slidebean here

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2- apple keynote.

Ease of use: ★ ★ ★ - OK

Customization: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - Fantastic!

Final result: ★ ★ ★ ★ - Very Good

Keynote is what PowerPoint should have been all along. Apple's version of the popular presentation tool has improved significantly in the last few years, and has recently included a cloud version that works on any browser on any computer (as long as you have at least one Apple device).

Keynote is basically an improved PowerPoint, it offers the same approach to creating slides, but offers nice and clean customizable templates, a simple interface and great details like smart guides.

The biggest issue with Keynote is the long learning process that it requires. Similar to Microsoft's tool, you'll need to sit down for a few hours to learn to use the platform, and another larger set of hours to make a professional presentation.

More info about Apple Keynote is available here

Final result: ★ ★ ★ - OK

Visme is a web based platform for building presentations. Their familiar interface is similar to PowerPoint, but they have successfully simplified a complex UI to a nicer and more understandable navigation. Still, you'll need to spend a few hours to get a good grasp of where all the customization options can be found.

The platform offers an interesting (but certainly limited) gallery of images, but they succeed at delivering beautiful infographic elements (which they call ‘Charts and Graphs’) that you can use to add some color and make your slides much more dynamic.

You can read more about them here . ‍

4- GOOGLE SLIDES

Customization: ★ ★ - Passable

Google's version of PowerPoint is hosted as part of the Google Apps suite, that you can access from Google Drive or from Google Apps for Work. Sadly, their presentation builder feels like a limited version of PowerPoint, with less features, limited fonts and very little customization options.

Still, Google's platform is available for free, has a lot of integrations and probably one of the best online collaboration systems out there. Checking it out is easy, just visit your Google Drive.

You can find a more detailed review here .

5- FLOWVELLA

Ease of use: ★ ★ - Passable

Customization: ★ ★ ★ - OK

Flowvella is available on the Mac App Store as a desktop application. It provides a simple interface (certainly cleaner than Microsoft PowerPoint and somewhat similar to Apple Keynote) and some very nice design templates, which set good grounds so you can start building a nice looking set of slides on top of them. This is by far their biggest strength! If you want to start from scratch, however, you might feel a little lost creating something that looks good.

We found, however, that the oversimplified interface makes some basic options hard to find, like changing the color of a shape. Also, while running as a desktop app it still requires an Internet connection to download some elements, which can lead to a slower performance than a 100% desktop tool.

Update: We also read recently that they launched a tvOS app for the new AppleTV, making them, as far as we know, the first presentation tool to leverage the new platform.

You can find more details here .

Customization: ★ ★ ★ -

Pitch offers an innovative solution for fast-paced teams looking to quickly create effective, stylish presentations. With a combination of productivity features and design elements, Pitch makes it easy to get professional results—quickly

You can find more information about them here .

Final result: ★ ★ ★ ★ - Very Good!

The premise of Canva is an ‘amazingly easy graphic design software'. It lets you create anything from print design to banners and presentations. They provide an easy to use interface with a huge selection of pre-built designs that you can modify to your liking.

These pre-built elements let you quickly draft a nice presentation even if you have no design skills, but it does require you to drag and drop and arrange the content of your slide, which can become time consuming.

Canva has been gaining significant popularity in the last few years, especially after they hired Guy Kawasaki as a Chief Evangelist. Their platform is beautiful, you can find more about them here .

8- HAIKU DECK

Ease of use: ★ ★ ★ ★ - Very Good

Haiku Deck launched as an iPad app in 2011. They made a big bet towards mobile productivity and came up with a solid iPad application that allowed you to create slides in less time than the then-only alternative of Keynote for iOS.

Haiku Deck has a nice set of custom templates that you can use as a guideline for your slides, and their content input system is clear and easy to learn.

Still, we believe their approach that focused on mobile devices could only take them so far and they've since been working on a web version of their platform that works for any computer. As we mentioned, the personal computer continues to be a much more efficient productivity platform.

'Slides' is a nice website that lets you create and share presentations online. Formerly slides(dot)io and slid(dot)es, they finally settled for slides(dot)com. This startup was founded by Hakim El Hattab and Owen Bossola in Stockholm, Sweden, and it makes use of the reveal.js framework that we mentioned above.

Slides has a nice web interface that encourages you to create a nice and clean presentations, however, it still depends on the user’s ability to manipulate the elements and arrange them in a nice style. Still, their pre-defined formats and their grid system help guide you to a better result.

The platform also allows for custom HTML and CSS coding, which lets experienced users with coding skills, customize their templates even further.

Some more info about them here .

Ease of use: ★ - Bad

Prezi has been around for years and they have had a huge head start compared to any other online presentation tool out there. Their unique zoom styling makes it immediately obvious to the audience that they are looking at a Prezi deck.

Prezi has the advantage of allowing you to create really stunning interactive presentations if you know how to leverage their zoomable, infinite canvas. However, this can become a double edge sword if users overuse the feature and come up with a presentation that is literally capable of making people dizzy.

Still, Prezi's biggest weakness is on its ease of use. There's a long learning curve towards dominating their interface and even if you do, you need to be a designer to make a great presentation on the platform.

This is a huge company that is not going away anytime soon. With 50+ million users, they have proven the world wants and needs a PowerPoint alternative, and we have huge respect for them for doing so.

More information about them here .

‍Which one to pick?

In the world of presentation software, there's a big bunch to pick from. It's kind of like a crowded market with lots of options. And guess what? The best one for you might not even be on your radar.

Our list is here to help you out. We've put together this bunch of presentation software choices after digging into over 50 of them on the internet. We're here to give you the scoop on what's out there, so you can pick the one that suits you best.

Now, remember, presentation software is like your helper to make cool slideshows. These slideshows could be for showing stuff to people, like at school or work. These helpers, or software, should be good at a few things: putting words and pictures on slides, making things look nice, and showing your stuff in a cool way on a screen.

The options we've found have different things they're good at. Some use fancy computer thinking (AI) to make your slides look great without you doing much. Others let you customize your slides a lot, which is nice if you want them to look exactly like you want. And finally, how your slides look when you're done is super important too.

Picking the right presentation tool is a bit like picking the best tool for a job. You wouldn't use a hammer to write a story, right? So, whether you want something easy, something that lets you be creative, or something that gives you good results, our list has got you covered. Your choice will help you make cool presentations that people will remember. Our recommendation is to give Slidebean a try, but is up to you to consider the options. So, pick smart and happy presenting.

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The Best Presentation Software of 2023 – Free and Paid Alternatives

Discover the best free, freemium, and paid presentation software options for 2023. From Canva and Haiku Deck to Genially and Beautiful.AI, these are the tools you should check out! Short on time? Peruse our comparison table!

Dag Hendrik Lerdal

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Although this list, just like our competitors, is made to pique your interest in SlideDog , we won’t list 50+ PowerPoint “alternatives,” bashing Office PowerPoint and claiming it’s dead with no other reason than it being a mature, stable, and the de-facto slide creation tool for grown-ups. 

And we will not list every “presentation-related” software we can find . That means no listing of animation software like “PowToon,” sales & marketing software like “CustomShow,” and publishing platforms like “SlideShare (LinkedIn).”

Instead, we’ll show you an opinionated and prioritized list that’s comprehensive (but not bloated) and focused 100% on slide creation software that we consider real alternatives to PowerPoint. 

Plus, we are going to keep this list up to date.

The Best Presentation Software in 2023, Compared

A note on slidedog.

SlideDog is not a real PowerPoint alternative, but it is a great supplement.

SlideDog presents your files seamlessly and professionally to the audience at meetings, events, sales presentations, conferences, lectures, and more. It’s a Windows app that lets you switch between various presentation media such as PowerPoint, PDF, Prezi, video, and web pages. 

It’s perfect for people who use multiple forms of media in their presentations and a great tool at events where you have multiple presenters.

To learn more about SlideDog and its other features, such as Live Sharing, Audience Interaction, and the SlideDog Remote App, check out the features and download the free version .

PowerPoint Alternative #1: Microsoft Sway Presentations

If you want to stay within the Microsoft ecosystem, you’ll want to check out Microsoft Sway . Although it’s technically designed for presentations, you can use it for newsletters and other media storytelling.

Microsoft Sway Core Features

• Integration with the O365 suite, as well as OneDrive, YouTube, and Twitter, for easy content embedding.
• Templates, interactive and dynamic presentation elements, such as navigation buttons and embedded web content.
• Collaboration features.
• Cross-platform accessibility, supporting desktop, web, and mobile (iOS and Android) versions.
• Analytics and tracking.
• Automatic layout and design suggestions.

Microsoft Sway OS

Desktop and web.

Microsoft Sway Pricing

Microsoft Sway is available if you already have a Microsoft 365 subscription (starting from $6.99/month). You can also use it for free with limited features. 

Is Microsoft Sway a Replacement for PowerPoint?

Not really. Sway lacks presentation control features like remote control or presenter view. Still, it’s a good tool for mini-presentations and interactive documents.

Microsoft doesn’t seem to be investing a lot into it (it even dropped out of the iOS store), so don’t lean on it as your main presentation tool.

PowerPoint Alternative #2: Google Slides – The Best Workhorse Presentation Software [Free]

Google Slides is the new PowerPoint, or so they say. In any case, it’s a handy, widely-used presentation tool, so if you want to use it company-wide, you won’t struggle with user adoption. Plus, it’s very beginner-friendly and integrates with the rest of your Google ecosystem.

Google Slides Features

• Converts PowerPoint Files to Google Slides and vice versa.
• Smart Compose AI feature for creating presentations faster. 
• Real-time collaboration (including chatting, comments, and reviews).
• Templates, videos, gifs, images, graphic assets. Plus, add-ons to include audio and more. 
• Beaming to a secondary screen using Chromecast and AirPlay.
• Presenter View with notes and upcoming slides enabled by a secondary browser window.
• Built-in audience interaction , allowing Q&A that will show up in Presenter View.
• Remote control via an iOS or Android device.
• Google Meet remote presentation.

Google Slides  OS

Web-based app, mobile app.

Google Slides Pricing

Free. Paid Workspace plans at $12/user/month for meeting recordings, group policies, and online support.  

PowerPoint Alternative #3: Apple’s Keynote Is One of the Sleekest Presentation Software [Free]

Keynote is mainly used by people committed to the Apple ecosystem. Although you can export your Keynote slides to PowerPoint , it won’t guarantee that everything will be presented the same way. Still, you can also use Keynote on a PC, provided that you use iWork, and it’s definitely one of the sleekest presentation tools. 

Apple Keynote Presentation Features

• Open, edit, and save PowerPoint files. Existing Keynote presentations can be exported to PowerPoint. (Beware of glitches caused by the file type conversion.)
• Built-in live collaboration.
• Control the presentation from an iOS device using Keynote Remote.
• Presenter view with notes and a preview of the next slide.
• Present remotely to an audience with Keynote Live using an Internet-connected Mac, iPad, or iPhone.
• Templates, effects, animations, graphic assets + Apple Pencil additions. 
• Live video feeds and YouTube and Vimeo videos. 

Desktop + Mobile (iOS & Android) + Web (requires iCloud account).

Keynote Pricing 

Keynote is free.

#4 LibreOffice Impress: The Simple Open-Source Presentation Software [Free]

LibreOffice is a community-driven, free, and open-source office suite. It comes with Impress, a desktop software for creating and editing slide presentations, similar to Microsoft PowerPoint and Apple Keynote. In general, it can get clunky like most open-source tools, but it’s still a good option for simple presentation software.

LibreOffice Features

• Open, edit, and save PowerPoint files. Beware: not all of PowerPoint’s features are implemented in LibreOffice, so fonts, images, and drawings may appear scrambled or not at all.
• A server version with Live Collaboration features.
• Remote control with tablets and phones with Impress Remote for iOS and Android devices.
• Animations, templates, effects, 3D models.
• Presenter view.

LibreOffice OS

LibreOffice works on Windows, iOS, Linux, as well as Android. 

LibreOffice Pricing

LibreOffice is 100% free.

#5 Slides: The Best Overall Presentation Software [Paid]

Slides sets itself apart with a minimalist approach, as opposed to the complex PowerPoint interface. And with the rise of AI, it also incorporates OpenAI’s features to help you create presentation content faster. 

However, a unique feature of Slides is that the slide decks are pure HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, so they can be self-hosted and customized down to the last line of JavaScript.

Slides Features

• Import PDFs and PowerPoints, turning them into a Slides presentation, but won’t translate all fonts and media correctly.
• Live streaming.
• Remote control.
• Presenter view. 
• Click, tap, and hover interactivity.
• Use code blocks and Developer Mode for custom features.
• AI for slide generation, content, etc.
• Templates, (auto)animations, media library, integration with Unsplash and GIPHY, and video support.
• Collaboration and team features. 

Slides works as a web-based app.

Slides Pricing

Slides pricing starts from $5/mo.

#6 Our Take on ZohoShow’s Presentation Software [Free]

If you’re already in the Zoho ecosystem, it might be worth considering ZohoShow . Some of the happiest users of ZohoShow I know are sales professionals looking for tools to create more engaging proposals and pitches. 

ZohoShow Features

• Import and export PowerPoint files.
• Real-time collaboration and co-editing.
• Remote control via phone or smartwatch using Zoho Show’s mobile app.
• Templates, themes, and design elements.
• Analytics and insights.
• Interactive elements, including charts, tables, and multimedia content.
• Apple TV and Android TV apps let you beam your presentations to a conference room.

ZohoShow OS

Web app, Android, iOS. 

ZohoShow Pricing

ZohoShow is free.

The Best Presentation Software #7: Prezi [Paid]

Prezi is one of the more, if not the most, innovative alternatives to PowerPoint, loved by presenters who prefer delivering information organically (and not with a scripted path). Rather than traditional slide-based presentations, this presentation software offers a zoomable canvas where users can create visually engaging and interactive presentations.

Prezi Features

• Import PowerPoints, turning them into a Prezi presentation. You mostly get the correctly formatted content of the slides, but you have to turn it into a proper zoomable mind-map Prezi on your own.
• Dynamic zooming and panning functionality for a more engaging and cinematic presentation experience.
• Real-time collaboration.
• Integration with multimedia content, including videos, images, and audio.
• Templates, design elements, infographics, and more.
• Present over video.
• Analytics. 

Desktop, web, and mobile (Android and iOS).

Prezi Pricing

Prezi starts from $5/month.

#8 Visme [Freemium]

Visme is a versatile presentation software you can use for (obviously) presentations, as well as documents, infographics, data visualizations, designs, and videos. It’s used by companies, schools, and more!

Visme Features

• Import PowerPoint files and export presentations to PowerPoint, PDF, HTML, and more.
• Drag-and-drop interface with a library of customizable templates, charts, icons, images, and multimedia assets.
• Collaboration and co-editing features.
• Animations, transitions, and interactive elements
• Integration with third-party platforms, including Google Drive, Dropbox, and YouTube.
• Pre-designed slide layouts and smart templates.

Visme Presentation Software OS

Desktop, web, and mobile.

Visme Pricing

Visme offers a free option, and the paid plans start from $12.25/month.

#9 Ludus Presentation Software: The Best Option for Figma Fans [Paid]

The founders describe Ludus as: “It’s like Sketch and Keynote had a baby in the cloud,” and I will admit that it looks sleek. (But maybe it’s just the dark mode!) If you’re looking for the best presentation software for designers , Ludus offers features like layer blending and more! 

Ludus Presentation Features

• Figma-style editing, complete with layers, colorization, cropping, and more.
• Add code to your slides.
• Boost your efficiency with keyboard shortcuts.
• Real-time collaboration (with a chat).
• Interactive and animated elements, reusable Smart Blocks, gifs, videos, and more.
• Presenter view (called the Speaker View).

Ludus works as a web-based and desktop app. 

Ludus Pricing

Ludus starts from $14.99/month/user.

#10 SlideBean [Freemium]

SlideBean is a presentation software that aims to simplify the presentation creation process by providing users with automated design tools and smart templates. These days, it specializes in helping founders build pitch decks , but it’s spreading like wildfire among startup teams, too.

The big caveat is that you can’t export the free presentations. If you want to do that, you’ll need to upgrade to their All-Access $228/year package (with an investor CRM and other startup goodies). 

SlideBean Features

• AI-powered presentation creation, where users input content, and SlideBean generates a design.
• Real-time collaboration features.
• Smart slide templates and design recommendations.
• Remote control via phone.

SlideBean OS

Slidebean pricing.

Free, but you’ll need the All-Access $228/year package to export presentations. 

#11 Is Canva a Good Presentation Tool? [Freemium]

Ahh, Canva ! It’s been helping SMBs create decent graphics for years. While not exclusively a presentation software, Canva offers a wide range of design templates and customization options suitable for various purposes, including presentations. I can’t count all the times I’ve seen startup founders run their pitch deck presentations on the web app. 

So, is Canva one of the best presentation software options in 2023? Let’s check out the features!

Canva Presentation Features

• Extensive library of presentation templates, graphics, and design elements.
• Drag & drop interface.
• AI tools for composing content, syncing music, etc. 
• Save presentations as PPTX, PDF, JPEG, and more.
• Live chat during the presentation with Canva Live .
• Magic shortcuts for special animations (think: the letter C for confetti rain).
• Many, many more features with the Canva suite (logo design, social media graphics, flyers, proposals, etc.).

Web-based, Android app, and iOS app.

Canva Pricing

Canva offers a free plan, with paid plans starting from $12.99/mo/user.

#12 Beautiful.AI [Paid]

Is it beautiful? Is it AI? Definitely! When we’re discussing the best presentation software in 2023, we can’t omit the fact that AI is making the rounds (as you’ve noticed with all the Smart features in the previous contenders on the list).

And with Beautiful.AI , you get end-to-end enhancement, from smart templates to formatting and content!

Beautiful.AI Presentation Software Features

• AI presentation features galore: Smart templates, auto-adapting slides (smart formatting), automatic animations, and more.
• Photo, video, and icon gallery. Plus, charts, graphs, and other data visualization options.
• Export presentations to PowerPoint and edit them in PowerPoint on the Beautiful.AI Pro plan.

Beautiful.AI OS

Web-based and desktop.

Beautiful.AI Pricing

Beautiful.AI starts from $12/month for individuals and from $40/mo/user for teams.

#13 Genially: The Interactive Presentation Software Option [Freemium]

Genially is a presentation software that focuses on creating interactive and immersive presentations, infographics, and other visual content. The interface is pretty similar to PowerPoint, but it’s smoother and offers a simpler experience. 

Personally, looking at it, I think it fits educational presentations well , while you might feel underwhelmed when using Genially for business presentations.

Genially Features

• Import your PowerPoint slides and share or download your presentations as .MP4s, PDFs, HTML, and other formats. 
• Template and graphic assets gallery.
• Interactive elements such as quizzes, polls, and hotspots.
• Animation and transition effects.
• Multimedia content support (including websites, videos, and audio).

Genially OS

Genially pricing .

Genially is hiding its pricing behind the sign-up page (an immediate no-no from me), but it offers a free plan. 

#14 Haiku Deck [Paid]

Rooted in the idea that you need to get rid of clutter and step into the flow zone to create beautiful presentations, Haiku Deck ’s understated presentation software might be a good choice for the PowerPoint convert.

HaikuDeck Features

• Templates, fonts, image filters, and stock image gallery.
• Simple (and a bit underwhelming) editor.
• Embed videos from YouTube into your presentation.

HaikuDeck OS

Web-based, Windows, iOS app. 

HaikuDeck Pricing

HaikuDeck starts from $9.99/month. 

#15 FlowVella Presentations Review [Paid]

In addition to presentations, FlowVella also specializes in digital signage , with plenty of its customers using it to power their iPad kiosk apps.

You’ll also see quite a few real estate agents using it for listing presentations. And while the design looks more similar to PowerPoint than most of us would like, there’s no doubt it’s a handy presentation software option!

FlowVella Features

• Interactive features such as navigation buttons, links, and interactive hotspots.
• Integration with multimedia content, including images, videos, PDFs, and audio files.
• Presentation templates and image gallery.
• Kiosk mode.

FlowVella OS

Native mobile app for iOS, desktop, and web.

FlowVella Pricing

FlowVella starts from $10/month.

#16 Pitch.com Presentation Software [Freemium]

Finally, the last contender on our list of the best presentation software is Pitch – a tool primarily built for startup teams. The visuals are pretty sleek, too, and it has all the features you’d need to collaborate with your team.

Pitch Presentation Software Features

• Collaborative editing and real-time teamwork features.
• Brand kit features for consistency.
• Template gallery & reusable templates and components.
• PDF and PPTX exports.

Desktop and mobile apps, web-based.

Pitch Pricing

Pitch has a freemium plan, and the paid options start from €8/member/month.

Summary & Final Thoughts

The struggle to find a PowerPoint alternative and the best presentation software is neverending. However, remember that you have to find the tool that works best for your use case, team, and budget.

When it comes to our favorites, we built SlideDog to meet our multimedia demands (even if it’s not strictly a presentation tool). However, we love Google Slides for its level of integration with the Google ecosystem, and Pitch.com is a fantastic option for startups. 

On the other side of the equation, if you’re doubling down on AI, you might just find a good fit with Beautiful.AI.

But no matter what, remember that your ideal tool is here to enable your ideas . Put them front and center, and your presentation will be amazing!

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15 Best Presentation Software for 2021

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On average a presentation takes up to 20 minutes and experts say we make an impression within the first 30 seconds. That is why it’s important to “dress” our great product/idea with an equally exciting design. Most often, presentations are cooked up by non-designers, which creates a specific need – for powerful presentation software, which can help communicate a message beautifully, effectively, and to suit any user’s skill level. We hand-picked 15 of the best presentation software for 2021 , which will help you create presentations online, share them, while shining in your best light. In the meanwhile, check out some useful ideas tips to spice up your presentations .

A web-based presentation tool, which means you can access your presentations wherever you are, with an internet connection. It is known for its animations, cartoons, and infographics, which help the user to create more interactive presentations and explainer-style videos.

Example by Focusky

Best Features:  Very interactive; you can create a unique to your story by combining different “frames” (slides); create your own animations within the presentation Price:  Free, but heavily subscription-based Learning curve:  Very intuitive, nicely organized by categories, but it would require some time to learn the animation controls Available for:  Online Perfect for: Marketing and education

To summarize, this presentation tool is best for marketers and education, where the creator can get the most out of the cool animation and cartoons available. In the last years, there is an increased interest in Powtoon and RenderForest and we expect that more and more people will use them in 2021. No surprise – if you look at our article about Graphic Design Trends in 2022 , everything is moving towards animation, cool 3D-s, cartoons, and illustrations – and these are all things that this software can offer for your presentation.

Prezi is an online presentation software, which resembles a mind map. In comparison, PowerPoint offers a linear way of presenting, whereas Prezi allows you to better show relationships between different elements of your presentation, show details, zoom in and zoom out and show an overall view of your topic. Compared to PowerPoint is more interactive, but with fewer functionalities and a choice of templates.

Example by PreziBase

Best Features:  Interactive presentations and interesting transitions, zoom in/out details Price:  The very basic features are free, but most of the interesting ones are paid, starting from $3/month and reaching up to $59/month. They offer a free trial. Learning curve:  it requires learning and going through a lot of menus and functionalities, similar to PowerPoint Available for:  Online / Limited use for iOS and Android (only viewing, not creating and editing) Perfect for: teachers, businesses, more experienced designers, and specific presentations needs, but not recommended for newbies

Prezi is best in showing relationships between different parts of your presentations. There are some challenges in editing, and viewing across devices and its best features are paid for. We recommend it for quick, mind-map-like presentations without the need for ultra-special design.

3. RenderForest Presentation Maker

RenderForest is an online presentation tool, which is famous for its explainer style and whiteboard animations. The presentation templates often offer various motion/video backgrounds, which helps to grab your audience’s attention. Currently, the company is working on releasing its Graphic Design Software, which will allow users to create printables and beautiful designs for social media. This shows that RenderForest’s team knows the market well and does its best to cater to its needs!

Example by Renderforest

Best Features:  Video holders with text on shapes, cool transitions Price:  There is a free version, the paid ones start at $20.34 per user/month Learning curve:  Relatively easy to use, the simple interface helps the user Available for:  Online / iOS / Android Perfect for:  Education and business

Although not one of the cheapest solutions, it allows you to create engaging and interactive presentations with lots of cool animations. That makes RenderForest a great choice for more educational and marketing explainer-type videos/presentations.

4. Mentimeter

Mentimeter is a very interesting online presentation software. It allows your audience to engage with your presentation in real-time and you can create polls, ask questions, which are then displayed to your presentation. The answers from the audience remain anonymous so people are even more encouraged to participate.

Example by Mentimeter

Best Features:  Launch live, interactive polls, surveys, quizzes and create things like word clouds in real-time Price:  It has a free version, but the paid plans offer most of the attractive features – the basic plan costs $9.99 per user/month and the more advanced plan is $24.99 per user/month Learning curve:  Easy to use; might need to explain to a less tech-savvy audience how to connect to your presentation Available for:  Online / Android / iOS Perfect for:  Educators, speakers, business and competitions

An excellent choice for educators, speakers, and businesses who want to engage the audience in real-time and display the results immediately. Clean, simple designs, that help you focus on the content.

5. Libre Office Impress

Libre Office is free presentation software, an open-source alternative to PowerPoint. As you can expect from a free product, it offers only the main features of its “big brother”, but it’s a good solution for people used to Microsoft’s productivity suite. The interface is very similar to PowerPoint, which again makes it comfortable to use for a certain audience. Users who need collaboration on presentations, clean interface, and more creative design solutions should steer away from this free presentation software because it will simply not cover their needs.

Example by Theodoros Bousios

Best Features:  Free, compatible with older versions (Windows XP for example) Price:  Free Learning curve:  It will take some time to go through all the options and to get familiar with the interface; Available for:  Windows / macOS / Linux / Android / iOS. Perfect for:  people who want to use a free product and people with older operation systems

To summarize, Libre is free, compatible with older versions, it can cover your basic needs for a presentation, but the options are too many and available templates too little.

6. Zoho Show

Zoho Show is also an online presentation software, which has a very friendly user interface and great collaboration features. There are many functionalities, which help you create a beautiful design, but require some time and design knowledge to get it right. The premade templates are limited and this presentation software needs an internet connection to be able to edit and present.

Image by Zoho

Best Features:  Live broadcasting a presentation with live chat and commenting Price:  Zoho Show is free for personal use. For business users, Zoho Show is included in the Zoho Docs enterprise pricing packages – €5 or €8 per user/month Learning curve: Available for:  Online / Android / iOS Perfect for:  non-profits, start-ups, personal use, teachers

To summarize, Zoho offers great collaboration features, but you need a connection to edit and present. It is suitable for quick, non-pretentious presentations, where you need some kind of collaboration.

7. ClearSlide Presenter

ClearSlide is a sales engagement platform, including an online presentation tool. Another online tool – SlideRocket, was acquired by ClearSlide and one of the differences is that ClearSlide is more costly and targeted at larger businesses. It’s a great platform for very specific needs – collaborating between sales and marketing teams, to achieve the company’s goals. It’s clear even by the interface:

Image by ClearSlide

Best Features: Analytics for costumers’ engagement, video conferencing, screen sharing Price:  They offer a free trial and you can see more about the payment plans here. Learning curve:  Clear and simple interface, but it requires some time to get used to the tools Available for:  Online Perfect for: Sales/business, managers (for coaching); not suitable for newbies, teachers, students

To summarize, ClearSide is perfect for presenting sales pitch , graphics, collaborate in larger teams. It is somehow restrictive for a non-designer because the templates are specific.

8. Piktochart

Piktochart allows you to make infographics, presentations, and printables quickly. Primarily known for its easy customizable infographics, Piktochart also has simple presentation templates and the company is constantly trying to update its library.

Example by Piktochart Knowledge Base

Best Features:  Turning data-heavy content into simple visuals; nice transitions between slides Price:  There is a free version and a paid one, starting at $29 per user/month. They offer a free trial. Learning curve:  It requires time to get used to the options available and to navigate through Available for:  Online Perfect for:  Designers, teachers; it does not offer collaboration options, which might be needed by teams, students, etc.

Compared to other online presentation software is a bit costly and we could still ask a bit more from the presentation templates. We’d recommend it to someone who often uses infographics and wants to use a single platform to combine the infographics with a presentation. But why not check our free infographics as well?

Slides is online presentation software, initially aimed at developers and covering their presentation needs. Thus said, it does not offer offline editing, but you can present offline, after exporting your presentation.

Best Features:  It allows you to use your phone as a remote control; Live Present Mode allows you to control what your audience sees; drop in code, iframes, and SVGs with ease. Price:  Free, with paid plans starting at $7.00/month and $14-$18/month for pro and team packages. They offer a free trial. Learning curve:  friendly interface, but too many functions and options, which might overwhelm the average user and beginner Available for: Online Perfect for:  developers, designers, a little bit too specific for newbies

To summarize, it’s a very cool tool, giving you complete design freedom, but that is also why we do not recommend it to teachers, non-designers, or marketers. Developers and design gurus will love it.

Canva is a web-based solution that started with a mission – to make beautiful designed content available to everyone. The whole platform is organized so that a person without any prior design knowledge can easily create graphs, images, and presentations to impress. Although it is not the best tool for data visualization, it scores high in any other category. Needless to say, it has become a popular choice amongst non-designers.

Image by Iconfinder

Best Features:  Plenty of beautiful templates to choose from and Canva school has plenty of tutorials and tips for free. It offers more free functionalities compared to other competitors. Price:  Free, the offer different subscription plans, starting at $9.95 per user/month Learning curve:  Very easy to use, most of the actions can be performed by drag-and-drop Available for:  Online / iOS / Android Perfect for:  newbies, marketers (who need a unified look across all their social media), non-profits, and teachers

Canva is becoming one of the most popular tools amongst non-designers for creating beautiful unified content. You can create entire presentations, flyers, and other materials with a single drag and drop.

11. Slidebean

Slidebean is the go-to online presentation software for last-minute projects, that look original and professional. Slidebean offers clean and easy-to-use templates and keeps track of your audience’s engagement.

Source Slidebean

Best Features:  It allows you to arrange your content with the help of AI, which saves time creating a beautiful layout. You just pick a template, upload content, and let the AI offer you a nice layout. Premade animations, effects, and alignments are automatically applied to your content and create a cohesive look. Price:  Free, paid versions starting from $8/month Learning curve:  very easy to use since everything is made to fit the premade templates Available for:  Windows / Mac / Android / iOS Perfect for:  financial, academic, pitch, marketing, sales; everything quick with a clear structure

To summarize, if you are in a hurry, Slidebean will offer several layouts for your slides and speed up the process of creation. The platform targets primarily sales, marketing, and financial fields, and the available templates reflect that.

12. Google Slides

Google Slides is part of the G Suite business application. Its popularity has increased in the last years since it’s a web-based platform, allowing you to store, edit, and share your presentation, without the need of installing presentation software on your computer. All you need is a Google account and you are good to go.

Image by G Suite Updates blog

Best Features:  It’s free for personal use, and offers great paid features for business – for example, seamless collaboration and commenting on a presentation, converting other presentations to Google Slides. Some other great features are the wide variety of fonts available (GoogleFonts, not need installing), easy embedding, plus it’s super intuitive and easy to use! Price:   It’s free for individual use. For business use, the price starts at $5/user/month and plans of $10 and $25/user/month, for unlimited cloud storage and extra features Learning curve:  Simple interface, but it will require some time to pick up. Similar to PowerPoint, only a bit lighter. Available for:  Windows / Mac / Online Perfect for:  businesses, freelancers, who need a user-friendly app with elementary features; great for collaborating teams, not so perfect for complex designs and tools, required by big enterprises

Perfect for personal use, well synchronized across different devices, similar to PowerPoint. Maybe you are a teacher and you like GoogleSlides because it is free and easy to use? Well, we’ve gathered some awesome FREE GoogleSlides and PowerPoint templates , specially made for education needs.

If you need something along the lines of PowerPoint but need the option for collaboration – a paid plan for GoogleSlides is your go-to choice.

13. Keynote

Keynote is an Apple product, very similar to Google Slides. All you need to do is create an iCloud account (similar to a Google account) and start using Keynote from there. Running Keynote on Windows also requires an internet connection and a modern browser. The latest version can also import and export PowerPoint formats if needed. All this sends Keynote higher in the list regarding the accessibility and shareability of this presentation software.

Image by Envato tuts+

Best Features:  Simplicity of design, great drag and drop functions, polished transitions and animations, easy image editing/cropping; works great with multimedia; design templates with better aesthetic than an average slide deck; Price:  Free for macOS and iOS Learning curve:  Pretty easy to use for Mac users, a bit of learning curve for users, having experience with other software. Available for:  Mac / Windows / Online Perfect for:  businesses, marketers, people with not much of a design experience

Bottom line, if you are a Mac user, you love the sleek design and you are looking for cool aesthetics – Keynote is simple to use and free, why not use it?

14. Adobe Spark

Adobe Spark is a web and mobile-based media creation application, which helps you create social graphics, short videos, and web pages. What is immediately noticeable is the clean, crisp, simple, and modern designs, which focus you on the content. If you are looking for a funky, ornate design – Adobe Spark is not the right pick for you.

Example by Cikeys

Best Features:  Beautiful templates, user-friendly interface, step-by-step creation, you can add audio to your slides (narrating) Price:  There is a free version, the paid on starts at $9.79. The best templates, as with the competitors, are paid. They do not offer a free trial. Learning curve:  Easy to use Available for:  Online / iOS / Android Perfect for:  quick presentations, teachers, basic presentations without jamming them with too much cool stuff.

Adobe Spark eliminates the cluster of design options and leads you step-by-step in creating elegant, simple presentations. Ideal for basic presentations, not the best for sales and marketing.

15. PowerPoint

PowerPoint certainly is a “classic” – it’s has been the most popular tool for creating presentations so far. What first started as a component of the Microsoft Office suite, now has improved shareability and accessibility. It can be used on the web (as part of Office on the web), works with Android, and iOS, and there is a Mobile app, as well as presentation software for mac.

Example by Abris DC

Best Features:  Many people are familiar with the software, a wide variety of templates; improved accessibility across platforms; extensive tools and options Price: If you want to enjoy the full features of PowerPoint, you’ll need to subscribe to Microsoft 365 – they have payment plans for personal or business use. The price for personal use starts at $5.99/month or $59.99/year, and business plans start at $12.50 per user/month with an annual commitment. You can find more information here . The mobile applications are completely free to use, of course with some limitations. You can compare the available features across different platforms  here. Learning curve: Due to the variety of options and the complexity of the menus, it might take some time to master all of its features. Something that could take a lot of time is editing the text, arranging the visuals, and picking the right transitions – overall, is time-consuming. Still, the interface remained easy to navigate over time and if you trust your design sense, you can achieve satisfying results. Available for: Windows / Mac / Online Perfect for: business, medical, accounting and students; creating concise presentations; but not so suitable for teachers, educators, start-ups and marketers who want to create more interactive and story-based presentations.

To this date, PowerPoint is keeping the lead as the most popular tool for creating presentations. Some of the downsides are that sometimes it can be time-consuming to come up with a good design and PP doesn’t offer collaboration tools and compared to other platforms. But we have a solution for at least one of your problems – we’ve selected 31 Modern PowerPoint templates to set the right tone for your presentation. 

We made a quick summary for you…

Ok, not that we’ve looked at the 15 best presentation software for 2021, we decided to go one step further and compare them by price and popularity. Let’s have a look first at the new-comers:

As you can see, the leaders from the uprising platforms are Canva and Mentimeter, with relatively low prices and with huge success amongst users . Powtoon, Piktochart, and Renderforest are a bit costly , but they are popular since they offer a lot of animation and interactive elements. Hey, but maybe some of the other tools are right for you? We encourage you to go on their websites, contact their support team, and see what they have to offer.

Then, let’s see how the veterans are ranking:

It’s no surprise that PowerPoint and Google Slides are at the top – people are used to their products, have familiar interfaces, and offer a lot of functionalities at a good price. Although, for quick, unpretentious results, their competitors are a very attractive solution.

Final words

We can conclude that there are many useful tools to help you create beautiful presentations. Some of them are well-known and have been here for a while, while others are uprising… No matter the case, we notice a trend for presentation tools catering not only to the designers’ needs but also to the newbies, marketers, and teachers. That way, enabling everyone to create stunning presentations in no time and share them easily.

We hope this presentation software list shed some light on different options out there and that we helped you evaluate quickly what would work for your situation best.

You may also be interested in these related articles:

• 12 PowerPoint Presentation Tips To Dramatically Boost Your Efficiency
• 35 Free Google Slides Infographic Templates to Grab Now
• 23 Online Collaboration Tools for Your Remote Team

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Top 10 Presentation Software for 2023

Keerthana Haresh - April 1, 2022 - Leave your thoughts. 13 min read

online presentation maker , online presentation software , ppt alternative , Presentation Software

Introduction: 

If you want to create a high-quality presentation for your personal needs, business, or anything else - you’ll need top-notch presentation software that’s got the right features that you need! We’re going to showcase the best presentation software available on the market today, and compare their features like their template options, the availability of graphic assets, real-time collaboration, and more! 

So if you’re looking for a great alternative to the presentation software you’re currently using, look no further than this comprehensive guide! Some of the software we’re going to be looking at include Animaker Deck, Prezi, Visme, and more. 

When selecting the right presentation software, there are a number of factors to consider: 

• Is it beginner-friendly and easy to use?
• Does it suit your budget?
• Does it have a wide variety of templates to choose from?
• Can you add audio to your presentations?
• Can you embed content, add videos or GIFs?
• Can you animate the elements in the presentation?
• Does it include Brand Kit features?
• Does it have a large built-in asset library?
• Does the presentation software include analytics?
• Does the software provide real-time collaboration?
• Can the finished presentation be shared to your friends and colleagues easily?
• Finally, does it contain a great balance of features?

Let’s take a look at the 10 best presentation software available today:

• Animaker Deck
• Google Slides
• Beautiful.ai

1. Animaker Deck

Animaker Deck is one of the most feature-packed, innovative, modern and complete presentation software available online. 

Not only is it easy to use, it contains one-of-a-kind features such as a built-in character builder where the user can create animated avatars to include in their presentation. It also comes equipped with tons of template characters which can be used right from the software. 

You can use Animaker Deck to create all sorts of presentations - whether they’re for birthday wishes, a sales proposal, annual reports, family albums, and more. Let’s look at the various advantages offered by Animaker Deck:

Character Builder:

Animaker Deck contains a Character builder where users can create unique avatars to use in their presentation. No other presentation software offers such a wide variety of creative customizations such as Deck. The builder is a breeze to use and can be learnt by anyone!

You can create both male and female characters of all types - whether you’re looking to create a snazzy football coach for your coaching classes, or a fun-loving partygoer for spring break, there are tons of preset outfits and customization options to create any character you desire. You can even create an avatar of yourself or your favorite celebrities!

Template Options:

Animaker Deck comes equipped with tons of pre-built templates that can make a user’s work easier. There are templates for employee onboarding, performance appraisals, internal sales presentations, business proposals, and lots more!

You can also start with a blank template or add new slides to existing templates, and save slides later to use as your own templates.

Graphic Assets Library:

Animaker Deck comes equipped with a massive stock asset library that contains over 80M+ Stock assets. It contains a partnership with both Getty and GIPHY, which means you’ll get access to thousands of stock images and videos that can be used however you choose. You can also use icons, animated backgrounds and even animate the objects that you choose to include in the presentation!

Real-Time Collaboration:

You can easily collaborate with your colleagues with Animaker Deck’s real time collaboration features. Creative teams can exchange ideas, work on a project together, and make updates in real-time, all from the comfort of their couch!

Slides Pro: 10$/Month

Animaker Pro: $49/Month

Enterprise: Custom Pricing

Prezi is another great presentation software that offers an alternative to traditional presentations with their intuitive interface that allows you to create a fluid flow with topics and subtopics that can be zoomed in on. While their interface is not exceptionally beginner-friendly, it’s a great option to add an innovative touch to your presentations.

Easy-to-Use:

Prezi definitely has a learning curve, but it is user-friendly after you get the hang of it. The interface is different and can be hard to navigate initially.

Prezi offers tons of templates, and you can also use a blank template from scratch. The templates can be customized as you choose, and their concept of zooming in to presentations is present in all of them.

Stock Asset Library:

The graphic asset library has usual elements like images, videos, and icons. The premium plan offers access to over 80,000 icons and 500,000 images.

Videos and Gifs:

There is an option to upload or embed videos from YouTube. Embedded videos are not viewable in offline mode. There are currently no GIFs available in Prezi.

Real-time Collaboration:

There is a feature called Prezi for teams which is available and has a Slack integration.

You can access Brand Kits with Prezi’s team plans, and your brand can be customized with your choice of color and available fonts.

Sharing to Social Media:

Prezi presentations can be shared to social media via a share button at the top-right corner of the Prezi page. The presentations can be shared to LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Plus: 12$/Month

Premium: $16/Month

Teams: Custom Pricing

Visme is an easy-to-use presentation software with plenty of features and customization options. You can create infographics, interactive charts and reports with Visme too.

There are tons of customizable options available in Visme. You can choose from fully designed presentations or even create your own templates using their mix-and-match by choosing a presentation theme.

You can also start with a blank canvas, add new blank slides to existing presentation templates.

There are tons of assets available in Visme’s library - including icons, illustrations, stock photos, videos and 3D graphics, audio clips, charts, and graphs to include in your presentations.

Animations and Transitions:

Elements inside Visme can be animated, and there are also slide transitions that smoothen the transition between slides with style. There are also custom animations available for animating elements even further.

Collaborations:

Visme has features for colleagues and teams to collaborate with each other in real-time, and leave comments with edits and feedback. You can also easily share your projects with other people and move the project along.

Visme has a brand design tool to keep all your content on-brand. You can upload all of your branding assets - which includes logo, fonts and colors to Visme with their Brand Wizard. You can also easily access thousands of templates and input your brand fonts and colors.

Once the presentation is complete, it can be shared to multiple social media channels easily.

When a presentation is finished, it can be easily shared via a link, and analyzed for sharing.

Personal - $15/month annually

Business - $29/month annually

Enterprise: Custom pricing

4. Google Slides

Google Slides is Google’s presentation software that can be assessed via your Google account. You can easily create presentations with Google Slides. It is similar to Powerpoint and there is an advanced version called G Suite, which includes storage and management capabilities.

Google Slides is very user friendly and is similar to Google Docs and Google Sheets.

There are tons of templates to choose from, and presentations can also be created from scratch.

The stock assets are very simple to add. There are both classic and generic shapes available. Images can also be uploaded from your desktop, Google Drive or a URL.

Collaboration:

Real-time collaboration is offered on Google Slides.

Videos and GIFs:

Videos can be uploaded with a YouTube link or from a Google Drive.

Animations:

Elements inside Google Slides can be animated and transitions can be added as well.

Share to Social Media:

Presentations can be shared via email or link.

Google Slides is free for anyone with a Google account.

There are also plans that start from 6$/month and go upto 18$/month.

Keynote is the presentation software offered by Apple. The Keynote editor can be used by anyone with an Apple ID.

It is similar in usage to Powerpoint and Google Slides, which makes it very simple to use.

There are a limited number of templates to choose from, and Templates can also be uploaded into the software.

There are tons of classic icons and symbols to choose from, and they are also customizable in terms of color and font. Images can also be uploaded from your computer.

Colleagues and team members can work on a project at the same time via a link or an email.

You can not embed videos in Keynote Slides, and GIFs can be added as .gif images.

You can animate slides and objects and also add effects.

You cannot share to Social Media on Keynote.

There is no Brand Kit features available on Keynote.

Keynote is totally free to use, and is available on the App Store.

Slides is a presentation software that contains a built-in grid to help with composition. Slides is totally free to use, with paid plans available too.

Slides is pretty beginner-friendly, the editing board has a simple interface which is easy to learn.

There are very few templates to use, so presentations have to be built from a blank template.

There are graphics available such as icons and shapes that are available. Photos have to be imported from a URL.

Paid plans contain features for collaboration. Teammates can leave comments and feedback to help with making edits.

Videos and GIFs are available to use and pretty easy to add to your presentation. Videos can be uploaded and GIFs can be uploaded as .mp4 as video.

You cannot add audio with Slides.

Animations can be added to all elements and features. The length of the duration can also be customized.

Slides support sharing to various social media platforms.

The paid plan offers analytics.

The paid plans start at $5/month and go upto $20/month for features like unlimited collaborations and Google Analytics.

Slidebean is a simple presentation software that contains quite a few templates and customizations.

Slidebean also uses artificial intelligence to help you use the best possible slide layouts and configurations. Check out this product review  here .

Slidebean is very easy to use. Adding content is simple and there are templates available to use. You can also start from a blank template.

There are 2 modes for editing - outline or design mode. There are tons of choice for how you can move the content blocks around.

There are tons of templates available to use. They are neatly organized and there are sections available by brands as well.

There are lots of icons and images to choose from.

Real-time collaboration features are available in the paid plans.

Slidebean contains GIPHY integration which means that GIFs can be added. The paid plan offers a feature to add videos.

Audio features are not available.

Animations can be added to the elements and content blocks.

You can share presentations to social media in the paid plans.

Analytic features are available in the paid plans.

There’s a free plan and it has limited capabilities.

There are 3 price levels from $8/month, $19/month, and $149/month.

8. Beautiful.ai

Beautiful.ai is a presentation software that helps you create good-looking slides with the help of AI (artificial intelligence).

Beautiful.ai is fairly simple to use. All you have to do is add smart slides, add your content and choose from different layouts. This makes Beautiful.ai a nice software that beginners and those who are not familiar with graphic design.

There are basic templates available that can be used to create unique presentations.

Graphic Asset Library:

The stock asset options are fairly limited, and there are free stock photos and icons to choose from.

Your teammates can collaborate on your projects for viewing or editing.

Both videos and GIFs can be uploaded from your computer. Videos can also be imported from YouTube.

Preset animation styles can be added to each slide, but their customizability is limited.

There are no brand kit features available, but there are customizable themes and they can be saved to use later.

You can easily share your presentations to social media. You can send email invites, share a public or private link, or share directly to social media platforms.

Beautiful.ai currently offers a Pro plan at $12/month and a Team plan at $40/month.

9. Powerpoint

Microsoft Powerpoint is the most popular and well-known presentation software on this list. It is familiar, reliable and easy to use.

The traditional interface of Powerpoint makes Powerpoint fairly easy to use. All types of users - students, professionals and businesses can learn Powerpoint and make presentations easily.

There are lots of templates that come equipped with Powerpoint, and they are all customizable.

You can browse stock images, icons and stickers by searching for relevant keywords in Powerpoint’s graphic library.

You can share your presentation with specific people.

Your computer can be used to upload both videos and GIFs. Videos can also be embedded from YouTube.

Audio files can be uploaded from your computer.

There are lots of animation and transition options available in Powerpoint.

Brand Kits are not available, but custom themes can be saved.

Presentations cannot be shared to social media platforms.

There are no analytic features available in Powerpoint.

There are different plans for businesses that start from $5/month and go upto $20/month.

10. Genially

Genially is a presentation software that’s known for its creativity. This software is known for presentations and video presentations.

Genially is fairly simple to use, and comes equipped with tons of choices. Any change can be applied to all slides with the simple click of a button.

There are tons of template options, with both free and paid options available.

There are tons of graphic assets available. Images can be uploaded or found on their integration with Pixabay.

Genially’s professional plan allows collaboration upto 5 team members.

GIFs can be imported with the GIPHY integration and videos can be added with YouTube links.

Audio files can be uploaded from your computer, via SoundCloud and a few other integrations.

Third-Party Content:

Genially contains a nice feature where you can add third party content with Genially integrations.

Brand Kit features are available in the premium plans.

All completed presentations can be shared to various social media platforms.

Genially’s premium plans contain analytic features.

Genially contains a free plan, which gives you access to unlimited presentations but a limited pool of resources.

There are two types of paid plans. The education plan starts at $1.25/month and go upto $20.82/month, billed annually. The professional plan starts at $7.49/month and goes upto $79.15/month, billed annually.

In conclusion, there are plenty of great presentation software available on the market that can help you create the perfect presentation that you desire. Depending on your choice of features, suitability, and price, you can select these software and have a great experience creating your presentation of choice.

If you have any questions or comments, leave them in the comments section below!

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The 11 Best Presentation Software to Use in 2023

The ability to effectively share ideas, illustrate a concept, and convince an audience is invaluable whether you’re a student or a C-level executive. These days, the presentation software you use to create presentations is just as important as your public-speaking skills.

On top of that, most companies have transitioned to remote work recently due to the current coronavirus situation, and now need to share their stories online through a virtual conference room with their distributed teams and external audience members.

That’s why we’ve come up with a list of some of the best presentation software available right now, so you can choose a compatible and innovative presentation maker that includes the best presentation tools to suit your specific needs.

Choose the best presentation software by weighing the pros and cons

You’ll see some of the most popular presentation apps: from free to paid subscription platforms, and slideshow applications to full-blown visual design presentation software with interactive features and more.

Each presentation software has its pros and cons, so it’s up to you to figure out which suits your needs best; consider the software learning curve, whether your company is made up of Mac users or Windows users and the software compatibility, if you need an enterprise account or free account, etc.

Let’s dive in!

1. Piktochart

Piktochart is a presentation software that can create a variety of design visuals, from infographics to social media stories.

An area in which Piktochart shines is crafting unique presentations. 

On Piktochart, users can choose from a wide range of professionally-designed presentation templates .

These custom templates include everything from monthly marketing reports to employee onboarding templates.

This broad selection of customizable templates is especially useful for those who don’t have much design experience or know-how but need to create a visually stunning unique presentation in a pinch. 

Piktochart’s presentation maker also makes it easy to edit presentations and include design elements such as lists, timelines, comparisons, graphs, and different types of charts through drag-and-drop tools.

You can even make visual maps and interactive charts to keep your audience engaged throughout your presentation. 

And if your company uses a Piktochart TEAM plan , you can enjoy the platform’s ability to store brand assets , color schemes, and bespoke templates. Here, replicating company-branded visuals is a breeze. 

Piktochart comes with a free version but with certain limitations. Active visuals are capped at five per month and published visuals have a Piktochart watermark.

If you want features such as team template collaboration, project sharing, and annotated commenting, you’ll have to get a Team account. To sum it up:

• Lots of professionally-designed templates 
• Good for both design professionals and non-professionals 
• Easy to store brand assets and bespoke templates for future presentations
• Access presentation tools from anywhere via a web browser
• Free presentation app version available
• Might take some getting used to if you’re used to PowerPoint presentations

Present and collaborate with ease using Piktochart’s presentation templates.

You don’t have to worry about how your presentation will look like. Piktochart’s easy-to-edit templates will take care of the visual aspect for you.

2. Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is often the first presentation software that comes to mind.

Once considered the “O.G.” and best presentation software available, it is still widely used and has a familiar interface—which means most users are comfortable with it. 

This presentation app has everything you need to create a presentation: from animated transitions for interactive presentations to pre-installed fonts and graphic elements.

Users can also upload their own fonts, graphics, and images into their finished presentation.

Lastly, it’s available as part of the Microsoft Office software package; and you can work on your presentations via the web and mobile devices, for offline viewing as well as online. 

However, PowerPoint is no longer considered the best presentation software, as it has very few templates to choose from, and these tend to fall quite flat compared to modern apps and software.

It’s easy to fall back into boring slideshow PowerPoint files if you don’t know what you’re doing.

And because most people use PowerPoint, you’re likely using the same template as the next guy. 

As standalone presentation software, PowerPoint is pricey at US$139.99—and accessible through only one device unless you upgrade your package.

And while PowerPoint is primarily a slideshow application and presentation maker, its strengths are limited to this category. 

So if you’re looking for the best presentation software, and bang for your buck for a robust presentation tool, you might want to look elsewhere. 

• Market leader in slideshow applications to create slides
• Widely used and familiar interface for the presentation process
• Reliable and usable on most devices as well as being a desktop app
• Flat templates
• Limitations with its standalone-presentation software price

3. Google Slides

Google Slides is a slideshow application that is very similar to PowerPoint.  But there are three main differences: it’s fully online (while also allowing for offline viewing), collaborative, and free. 

The great thing about Google Slides (besides the fact that it’s completely free for anyone with a Google account) is that you can log on via your browser or through its official app. 

You can access all Google Slides presentations from any device (mobile, tablet, and desktop), and share them with other people so you can collaborate in real-time. 

Google Drive allows all your presentations to live on the cloud, accessible to all marketing and sales teams, with unparalleled ease of use.

And there’s no need to worry about disruptions as all changes are saved as they happen, as long as you have an active internet connection. 

Additionally, anyone familiar with PowerPoint will be comfortable using Google’s iteration and likely be delighted by Google Drive and the slide library available. 

It’s also a lot simpler, so even those new to presentation-making will find it easy to navigate. 

However, some might find Google Slides too simple as it lacks the wealth of features available on PowerPoint. 

These include embedding videos from sources other than YouTube, plus adding audio tracks and sound effects, limiting the ability to create unique interactive presentations. 

Some users also encounter issues with downloading and exporting to different formats, including PowerPoint. 

Some slides may even turn out completely different from the original version. 

All in all, Google Slides is a great option for those who are looking for a free application and only need to create simple presentations. 

• The free plan supports professional presentations
• Web-based and collaborative to create presentations
• Simple and familiar interface for an online presentation software
• Too simple for advanced presentation making
• Difficult to export to other formats
• Limited templates and customization options for interactive content

You could say Keynote is Apple’s version of PowerPoint. It’s also a slideshow application—but in typical Apple fashion, it comes with a sleek, minimalist interface and is considered one of the best presentation apps on the market. 

There are 30 different themes to choose from, which serve as templates for those who need a quick fix. And it can do most of what PowerPoint can. 

Keynote’s main perk is that it’s part of the Apple ecosystem. 

That means it has built-in iCloud and Apple Watch support so users can control their presentation from their mobile device or even their wrists with just a click. 

This presentation app comes pre-installed on most Mac devices. Otherwise, you can purchase it from the Apple store for just US$9.99 for mobile and US$19.99 for OS X. 

The big downside is that Keynote is exclusive to Mac OS. 

Non-Apple users can create, upload, and sync their own Keynote presentations through their iCloud Drive, but this presentation app is only truly helpful only for those who use multiple Apple devices. 

And if you’re used to working on PowerPoint, you might find Keynote a bit confusing in the beginning, especially when editing presentations. 

• Sleek, minimalist interface 
• Free with most Apple devices
• No access for PC and Android devices except through iCloud

5. SlideDog

Sliding away from straightforward slideshow applications and other presentation apps, SlideDog is a web-based multimedia presentation tool that lets users combine different types of media to create and edit presentations. 

This includes everything from PowerPoint decks to videos and even PDFs that can all be played side by side without any awkward transitions. 

It’s also extremely easy to customize a SlideDog presentation. 

You just need to upload the files into the SlideDog web browser application, and then drag and drop them according to the order in which you want them to play. 

You can control your presentations and playlists from another device, and audience members can view your slideshow on their devices by clicking a link. 

SlideDog has a free presentation app version that provides all of the basic features. 

However, live sharing and premium support are only available with a Pro account that costs US$99 per year, and not via the free version alone.

While SlideDog is technically considered presentation software, you can’t actually create presentations on it. 

You can simply stitch together different pre-made presentations in various formats into what is essentially a playlist. 

Lastly, SlideDog supports only Windows devices, so Apple and Linux users can’t use it. 

• Supports a lot of different media
• Provides live-sharing
• More dynamic compared to the usual slideshow presentation
• Only collates media; doesn’t create them

6. Haiku Deck 

Ever come across presentations with size-eight fonts and blocks of indecipherable paragraphs on each slide? 

You can avoid such an unfortunate scenario with Haiku Deck. 

HaikuDeck is a web and mobile application that favors images over text. 

It works by limiting the number of words users can put on each slide, and allowing them to search for images on their platform related to the slide’s main idea. 

This makes it ideal for those who want to simplify their thoughts and let the images do all the talking. 

Users have over 40 million royalty-free photos to choose from, plus dozens of simple slide layouts on the platform itself. 

While this certainly simplifies the process of creating a visually rich presentation, it can be limiting for those who need to include more information into their slides. 

It’s a great option for someone giving a TED Talk, for example.

But for others who need to pass on more facts and figures, having a built-in word limit might be too restrictive.  

• Simple and easy to use 
• Access to millions of royalty-free stock images
• May be too simple for some
• No Android support
• Limited features

7. Prezi Business

Among the other presentation software on this list, Prezi Business might be one of the most unique presentation tools. 

Rather than offering a regular slideshow format, Prezi looks more like a 3D interactive mind map where viewers jump dynamically from one idea to the next. 

You can zoom in on one “slide” and then zoom out for the next. 

Prezi has over 100 templates to choose from and comes with a very simple interface and a drag-and-drop style of editing. 

It’s compatible with both Mac and PC desktops as well as smartphones. 

It’s also similar to a regular PowerPoint deck in that you can jump back and forth from one “slide” to the next. 

And like SlideDog, you can send viewers the link to the presentation as you’re presenting. 

Also, up to 10 people can work on a Prezi presentation at the same time, one of its main selling points. 

This is great for collaboration, but having so many hands-on deck at once can get messy. 

• Dynamic and immersive presentations
• Highly visual
• Easy to use
• May not be appropriate for all types of presentations

In a world of slides and presentations, standing out is the key. Ludus brings the flair of graphic design into the world of presentations.

At its core, Ludus is the bridge between presentation tools and design software. It enables users to infuse their slides with the kind of design elements you’d typically find in advanced design platforms.

Not only can you import assets from design giants like Adobe, but its seamless integration with tools like Unsplash and Giphy makes sourcing visuals a breeze.

It’s a fairly affordable tool for all its features compared to the other paid options in this list, as users pay 12.49 euros monthly (if billed annually).

However, while Ludus’ robust design capabilities can elevate the look of your presentation, those unfamiliar with design tools might find there’s a learning curve.

• Merges presentation creation with advanced design tools.
• Seamless integration with popular design platforms and visual databases.
• Offers a unique edge in presentation aesthetics.
• Might be a tad overwhelming for non-designers
• Can have a steeper learning curve for those used to more straightforward platforms

9. Slidebean

Crafting a compelling presentation demands not only compelling content but also a design that can captivate your audience. Enter Slidebean.

Slidebean offers an intelligent design solution, using AI to transform raw content into professionally styled presentations. This platform streamlines the design process, allowing you to focus on the message rather than fretting over aesthetics.

The basic plan is free and allows you to create a presentation. But if you want to share or download your presentations, as well as unlock the full suite of features, you’ll need to sign up for the All-Access plan priced at $199 per year.

While it provides a quick and efficient method to produce polished slides, it also offers features for sharing, collaboration, and viewer analytics, adding an edge to your presentation strategy.

However, for professionals who prioritize granular design control, the automated design might feel limiting at times.

• AI-driven design ensures visually appealing presentations.
• Features for collaboration and viewer insights.
• Efficient design process reduces time and effort.
• Might not offer the detailed design customization some users desire.
• Automated choices may not always align with specific branding or style preferences.

10. ClearSlide

Having great visuals to drive your point home can be the difference between getting a sale across the line or customers walking away. ClearSlide stands out in this area as a presentation tool for businesses laser-focused on boosting their sales and marketing game.

At its core, ClearSlide is all about leveling up business presentations. Whether you’re marketing a new product or tracking client engagement, it’s got tools that cater to every need.

Whether it’s a PowerPoint, a PDF, or something from Google Drive or Dropbox, ClearSlide makes it simple to upload and work with these files.

The unique edge? ClearSlide’s virtual meeting space pops open with just a click. It’s all about seamless, professional presentations without the hassle.

Beyond just slides, the platform dives deep into metrics and analytics, ensuring every presentation is backed by data-driven insights. And the tool is available for $35 per month, which isn’t too pricey for medium-sized businesses.

However, its complexity isn’t for everyone. For some, the variety of features might seem a tad overwhelming, and its focus on metrics might be a bit much for those just wanting a basic presentation tool.

• Seamless virtual meetings and presentations
• Integrates with popular platforms
• Offers insightful analytics for sales and marketing
• Might feel complex for some users
• Limited transition and design effects
• Mobile experience could be better

Stepping into the world of animation, Vyond, once known as GoAnimate, allows users to turn their narratives into professional animated videos. For those looking to elevate their content without diving deep into animation complexities, Vyond can be the go-to tool.

This platform is more than just drag-and-drop animations. It integrates AI capabilities with Vyond Go, which transforms text prompts into rough-cut videos.

Fancy a quick draft for your upcoming project? This AI assistant is up for the task. And if perfection is your game, take it to Vyond Studio, filled with an array of characters, templates, and backgrounds.

The Essential Plan at $25 per month is suitable for individuals on a budget. However, if you want to export videos at 1080p and above, have collaboration tools, or different export options, you’ll need to sign up for the Professional Plan at $92 per month.

As robust as the tool is, there are still some kinks to iron out. AI voiceovers might still need some tweaks, and detailed color customizations can be a bit tricky, but the tool’s strengths, especially for businesses, are undeniable.

• Hassle-free video creation for beginners to experts
• Generous library of pre-made assets
• AI-powered video and script creation with Vyond Go
• AI voiceovers might feel a bit robotic
• Some customization limitations for specific props and scenes

The best presentation software is…

 …completely up to you! 

When it comes to presentation software, the world is your oyster. 

Each of these tools either has a free or trial version for you to check out, so you don’t have to commit just yet. 

When it’s time to choose, consider the following aspects to find the right presentation software for you: 

• Ease of use. Is it easy for you to understand or will it require lots of training before you can start creating presentations? 
• Accessibility. Can you access your presentation software from any device or are you limited to carrying your laptop to every presentation? 
• Real-time collaboration. Can multiple people work on the same project or do you have to keep downloading and emailing drafts? 
• Create design tools. Can you create presentations with dynamic design elements or are you stuck with the same kind of slide each time? 
• Template availability. Is this tool only accessible to a design professional or can anyone create stunning presentations through pre-designed and updated templates? 

Piktochart , for example, would be a fantastic presentation software choice among the long list of PowerPoint alternatives for teams looking for a variety of eye-catching designs without requiring much technical know-how. Meanwhile, Microsoft PowerPoint might be the best presentation software for those who are just looking to play it safe. 

Hopefully, this best presentation software list sheds some light on the tools at your disposal. Choose wisely! 

Collaborate on presentations, reports, and more with Piktochart.

Watch this free demo to learn how your team can collaborate on visual content projects more effectively with Piktochart.

Robin Geuens is a writer turned SEO specialist. When he's not wondering what Google is up to next he's either reading, taking courses, playing video games, or wondering where to travel to next.

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Best Presentation Software Based on In-Depth Reviews

• 200+ Hours of research
• 25 Sources used
• 19 Companies vetted
• 4 Features reviewed
• 6 Top Picks

• Assess your visual presentation needs
• Focus on software with multiple design elements
• Go for software that will visually complement your narrative
• How we analyzed the best Presentation Software Providers
• Our Top Picks: Presentation Software Reviews

As our work lives gradually migrate to virtual spaces-with Zoom meetings and video conference calls now becoming the daily norm- we’ve had to spruce up how we communicate, educate, and transmit ideas. Part of reshaping how we communicate involves getting creative about how we can convey ideas and messages with the same enthusiasm as before. Presentation software has everything to do with this. It’s no longer just a visual aid but an integral part of how we virtually communicate our stories and ideas. 

PowerPoint has long reigned supreme in the world of presentation software, and for good reason. PowerPoint is simple and easy to use, and it’s got a host of features that make it convenient for students and professionals looking to share their ideas. Over the past years, however, innovative presentation platforms have emerged that have enriched the way we can present information by offering video creation and animation development tools. 

Presentation software is also increasingly moving towards AI use to create your decks, so that you spend as little time as possible creating visually stunning and informative decks. This software has re-shaped traditional presentation formats and styles, and have widened the range of ways we can use images, text, and video. Point being, presentation software has evolved a lot over the past years. There’s no longer any excuse why your lecture or business proposal decks should look like they’re stuck in the past. With the right presentation software and free image database , you can make your ideas look as stunning as they are.

• PowerPoint review

Classic Deck Presentations 

Compatibility : Web-based and desktop-installed app

Design Library : Around 40 different themes with multiple color variations

Free Version : Yes (web-based)

Mobile App : Yes

Screenshot microsoft.com, August 2020.

Microsoft’s PowerPoint (PP) needs no introduction. The software is arguably the most well known and ubiquitous of all presentation software on the market. Though it may seem like old news next to all the young and innovative competitors it has had in the past years, PP is still king when it comes to simplicity, ease of use, and reliability. 

PP is now available to use through the web, meaning you can create, edit, share, and present your slides wherever you are and on any device with a supporting app. This ease and mobility put it ahead of many software companies that still lack mobile apps. 

Microsoft has also added AI Design to PP, which works by identifying the most important elements of your images and generating potential theme options that work best with your content. Additionally, PP includes animation features, where you can create animated explainer videos using gifs, as well as animate 3D objects. PP also has a feature called Zoom where, much like in Prezi, you can jump to and from specific sections and portions of your presentation as you present, so that your deck doesn’t have to be strictly linear. Like all other software on this list, you can insert online videos into your presentation in PP for Microsoft 365 or PP 2019 and onwards, but you must be connected to the internet for it to play properly. 

PowerPoint is only available for purchase with Microsoft 365, which includes PP, Word, Excel, and other Microsoft Office programs, plus continuous updates to the Microsoft ecosystem ($69.99/ per year) or with Office Home, which includes all of the above but does not include access to latest updates or cloud storage (one-time payment of $149.99). AI Designer and advanced customer support tools are only included in Microsoft 365. 

• Prezi review

Best for Dynamic Presentations

Design Library :  Hundreds of designer templates offered by Prezi, millions of reusable presentations from other users; more than 500,000 images and 80,000 icons

Free Version : Yes

Mobile App : Yes, but not for editing (only viewing and presenting) 

Screenshot prezi.com, August 2020.

Next to PowerPoint, Prezi is probably the most well-known presentation software out there. Its spatial format, which allows the presenter and audience to move from idea to idea in a dynamic way, makes it stand out from most presentation software currently available. 

The creative possibilities are endless with Prezi, as they offer millions of usable Prezi presentations to all users. Although there is a bit of a learning curve (especially if you decide to start a presentation from scratch), Prezi offers dozens of video tutorials on Youtube and plenty of  online articles that can help steer you in the right direction. You can also collaborate on a project with up to 10 users, adding comments and feedback as you edit.  

One of the best things about Prezi is that it offers several design and video features not included in other software. For example, you can record videos using a template and fonts to make your presentation more engaging and dynamic. You can also make stunning infographics to complement your presentations with Prezi Design. Finally, the Prezi viewer mobile app will allow you to view your presentation from your phone and use your mobile device as a remote control clicker to manage your deck as you present it.

Prezi offers Free, Standard ($5/mo), Plus ($15/mo), and Premium (for business professionals) plans. They also offer a special plan for students and educators that includes everything on the Plus plan for a reduced price (at $3/ mo). 

• Google Slides review

Best Fully Free Software

Compatibility : Web-based 

Design Library : 25 templates, but hundreds more available in external sites

Free Version : GoogleSlides is completely free

Screenshot google.com, August 2020.

GoogleSlides is probably the most effective and useful free presentation software out there. Not only is this the most useful software for casual presenters who don’t want to spend money on tools they’ll likely never use, but Slide’s portability and shareability make it a great option for students and team members alike. 

Slides is perfect for those who want to make simple, but modern looking presentations in a brief amount of time. Its format is simple and easy to use, mimicking that of Power Point’s. Google also offers articles providing tips on how to better your experience. Its Slide’s mobile app is also great for editing and reviewing content before the start of your presentation. Although its template library may not be as robust as other software, external website libraries such as Slidesgo , offer hundreds of free downloadable templates. You can also easily integrate media such as videos and audio to your Slides presentation. Finally, unlike other paying presentation software, Slides lets you export your final presentation into PowerPoint, PDF, and JPEG formats, so you can download your presentation and present it wherever you are, internet available or not. 

• Slidebean review

Best For AI Use

Compatibility : Web-based, but offers offline viewing 

Design Library : Dozens of pre-made templates available for five different categories (Businesses, Academics, Sales, PR, and Marketing) 

Mobile App : No 

Screenshot slidebean.com, August 2020.

Slidebean is a web-based software that works through AI so you can build a modern and professional-looking presentation in minutes. Signing up is easy and Slidebean offers a brief tutorial on how to work the system before you begin. With Slidebean, you don’t have to spend hours trying out colors and template formats, to see what works. Slidebean encourages you to focus on your text and ideas, and the AI software will do all the formatting and color coordination for you. If you don’t like the options generated for you, the AI will keep mixing and matching until you find something that works. You can choose from one of the hundreds of pre-made templates or create a custom theme. You can invite collaborators on both private and shareable decks. For premium members, you can also track your viewers behavior while they look at your content. One downside is that you can’t upload existing PowerPoint (PPT) presentations to edit. Paying users can, however, download your presentation into HTML and PPT, so you can view it offline, although this could affect certain design elements in your presentation 

Slidebean has a Free, Starter ($8/mo billed annually), and Premium ($19/mo billed annually) version with different privacy and collabo-sharing settings, as well as design library access settings and access. They also have a Founder’s Edition plan, aimed at entrepreneurs and startups which provides everything on the Premium plan plus design tune-up, proofreading, and direct access to Slidebean’s founders.

• Genially review

Best for Students and Educators

Design Library : Hundreds of templates for categories including Corporate and Education 

Screenshot genially.com, August 2020.

Genially’s interactive focus on presentations, as well as their considerably reduced prices for educators makes it particularly appealing to students and teachers alike. Genially has several different animation tools and templates. They offer templates for video presentations, interactive games and quizzes, infographics, and interactive image layouts where you can make any image interactive and glean from it a wealth of information, among others. 

With paid versions, you also have the opportunity to import PowerPoint presentations and edit them using Genially features. On the support side, Genially offers articles on how to get started with your software, as well as provide a wide range of YouTube tutorials to help you navigate your presentation maker. 

• Powtoon review

Best for Video Presentations

Design Library : Hundreds of pre-made video templates in categories that include Education, Marketing, Product and Engineering, Learning and Development, and Digital Management 

Mobile App : Yes, but not for editing

Screenshot powtoon.com, August 2020.

PowToon is a video creation software that will allow you to completely break the mold when it comes to visual presentations.  With PowToon, you get hundreds of pre-made video templates you can manipulate and use to transmit your own ideas, so no advanced knowledge of video editing is needed. PowToon offers pre-designed animation, customizable characters, royalty-free images and soundtracks, and a drag and drop interface so that both beginners and pros alike can take advantage of the software. Of course, you can also create a video from scratch. Powtoon offers a Help Center database with dozens of articles regarding the video editing process. Pro members also get 24/7 priority support as well as the right to download their videos into MP4 format. Both free and paid versions allow users to export videos to different social media channels or content websites.

PowToon currently offers a Free, Pro ($19/mo), Pro+ ($39/mo), and Agency ($99/mo) plan. There are also special prices for students ($ 4/mo and access to Pro content), and teachers ($10/mo unlimited access to all content).

• More insight into our methodology

Good presentation software should cover all your basic needs, but it should also offer features that make your presentation stand out from the rest. 

We evaluated multiple companies in the visual presentation field, and tested them to gauge how easy they were to use and how comprehensive the library they offered was. 

We gave preference to companies that offer alternative modes of presentation such as video, animation, and design tools so that your slide deck is more than just a set of static words and images. All our picks also have free versions so you can test them out and decide if upgrading to fancier features is worth it for you. 

Presentation software can include many features, but we focused specifically on the following: 

Design library  - The design library is one of the most important elements of any software. They include templates and color schemes. Some companies offer hundreds of different premade templates you can edit and make your own. They'll also split templates into useful categories such as business, marketing and sales, and education.  

• AI features - Over the last few years, several companies have moved towards including artificial intelligence features in their software, making it even easier for users to create their own presentations. AI-based software will usually work so that you can focus on getting your ideas on text while the program takes care of formatting the rest. 
• Collabo-sharing features - Collaboration tools make it so that multiple people can edit your document, whether in real-time or not. Sharing tools allow you to upload your work on different platforms, as well as export the presentation in formats that don’t require an internet connection. 
• Media integration  - In this digital age, presentations should include text, images, videos, and/or GIFs. Good presentation software will integrate different media in a seamless and coherent way so your presentation will be engaging but also run smoothly. The companies we chose provide different graphic, animation, and video capabilities so that you can craft modern and engaging content.

Presentation software can range from zero to a couple of hundred dollars a year, since most of the paid ones offer subscription plans. Although companies may have several different tiers, they often include special education and business plans that may reduce the cost considerably.  All our companies have at least a free version, and several have free trial versions for premium subscription plans.

• Compatibility

Compatibility is everything when it comes to presentation software. Even though most software is now offered through web-based apps, this may not necessarily mean it’s the most convenient for everyone. Exporting your presentations to PDF or PowerPoint may be necessary in order to present in places with poor or no internet connection. Not all companies do this, however, so it’s important to keep this in mind before signing up for any one plan. We looked at companies that have both offline and online options.

• Ease of Use/Educational Material

Some companies have a steeper learning curve than others, but these usually include more advanced graphic design features—such as video editing and animation creation. Regardless of the difficulty, companies should provide users with as much helpful information on different topics as they can. Some companies provide databases with plenty of helpful articles. Others provide video tutorials on how to navigate specific areas of the software. We paid attention to how much of this educational support companies provide to make the process as easy as possible for the user.

• Helpful information about Presentation Software

Assessing your Presentation Needs

Before picking any one presentation software, it might be a good idea to consider what you're looking to get from it. If you’re a casual or infrequent presenter, chances are that free software will be enough to address your needs. On the other hand, if you’re a frequent presenter tackling several audiences or topics, you probably want software that provides more creative and functional leeway, along with practical analytical tools that will help you improve your presentations in the long run. 

Assessing what you need presentation software for is key in helping you decide whether you should go for a free option, or invest in a pricier but more robust software. Are you an educator? An entrepreneur? Part of company leadership?  Are you working as a graphic designer for a marketing or creative company?  For example, as a burgeoning entrepreneur, you’ll likely want software that offers a vast number of pitch and business presentation templates. If you’re part of a team at work or school, you’ll likely need software that allows you to easily share and collaborate on presentations. Meanwhile, educators and business professionals who need to constantly churn out presentations will likely appreciate AI-based software that takes care of formatting their multiple decks so that they can focus on the information at hand. Moreover, some presentation software will be tailored for specific industries, and will include a wide range of templates and layouts catering to that professional niche, as well as analytic reports on audience engagement and participation. 

The good news is that many presentation software companies now cater to different audiences and lines of work, so that it doesn’t matter if you’re a student or the CEO of a small but growing business, you’ll likely find the templates and collaboration features you need. Nonetheless, how many features you’ll be able to access on your software usually depends on whether you’re a paying user or if you opt for a free version. 

Free vs Paid Software

Many companies offer free versions of their software, so that you don’t need to pay a cent to enjoy unique creative features. However, free versions can be limited— you’ll generally have access to only a few templates, or a set number of projects per month, and won’t be able to enjoy all the available formatting tools that paying users get. 

Free versions can also limit your privacy options. For example, they will allow you to use many of the software’s features, but require you to make your presentation publicly available to anyone on the web. This is likely not an ideal option for anyone who needs to present sensitive or confidential information meant to remain in-house. 

Additionally, using free versions could mean that you’re only able to view and present your information online and through the software company’s platform. Exporting and downloading your presentations is usually restricted to paying users, which could be a problem for those that wish to download and store their work on their computer and/or a USB device. 

It’s important to note that fully free, or open-source, software, such as Google Slides, will often provide a host of features that are not dependent on pay. However, free software won’t be able to provide as wide a diversity of templates and formatting options. They might also lack the power to properly handle different types of media in a single deck, causing your presentation to lag or slow down. Still, for infrequent presenters, open-source software is an excellent and free alternative to make simple and quick presentations. 

Tips for Great Presentations 

It’s easy to get carried away with pumping your decks full of information and unnecessary graphics. However, presentation software shouldn’t eclipse what you have to say with distracting animations and excessive text. Instead, it should complement your ideas and allow you to convey your message in a cogent and powerful way. 

Picking software is just the first step in crafting a fantastic presentation. After that, the fun begins. We talked to our in-house senior graphic designer, Jose “Yuyu” Velez, to determine what goes into making an effective and stellar presentation.

Tip #1 Pick presentation tools that offer versatility and creative leeway 

There are very basic things I should be able to do with presentation software such as import images, export to different formats, add gifs or other video media, etc. Adding transitions is always a plus, as well as having an icon library. Ideally, I should also be able to share a presentation seamlessly with others so that they [collaborators] can edit.

Tip #2 Keep your designs clean and simple

I've always found that keeping the layout as simple as possible helps to avoid the viewer from becoming distracted when presenting. This simplicity translates to a lot of things, like the use of color sparingly, 2-3 bullets per slide (flushed left with images or videos on the right so that it's natural to the viewer), and the use of animation only when necessary.

For example, a simple slide would be a white or very light-colored background, 2-3 bullets on the left, and a contextual image to the right that helps compliment the bullet points.

Tip #3 Keep it fun and eye-catching  

I've found that animation always helps keep the viewer engaged with a presentation, especially the use of gifs to drive the message home.

  Tip #4 Aim for an engaging, but coherent presentation

I've seen a lot of excellent presentations that use humor, gifs, and other types of animations that really kept me engaged. But when you take it home with you and try to watch it alone on your computer most of it doesn't make sense. To avoid this you can do one of the following:

Make sure that the presentation makes sense with or without you presenting it.

Make 2 versions, one to be presented live and the other as a more complete take-home version.

Tip #5: Be mindful about how you use design elements 

Keep text to a minimum : 2 to 3 bullet points should be more than enough on each slide. More than that might be too much for the viewer to process.

Synthesize your information : Most speakers get a 15 to 30 min window for a presentation. I recommend trying to have a max of 1 slide per minute. You should be able to simplify all the information without the need for 100+ slides.

Use color sparingly : Keep the background either very light with black text or very dark with light text. Any other color should be used as an accent to highlight a detail on screen. Too much color can be distracting.

Use videos and animations strategically : Too many videos or animations can slow down the presentation or make the file way too heavy. They should be placed purposefully and sparingly, same as with the colors. Think of them as secret weapons that help to break up the content on the slides so that you have a chance to give the viewer's brain a rest from listening to you while also reading bullet points.

Make people laugh! : Nobody wants to be bored and everyone can use a laugh. Throwing in a joke can help hold your viewers’ attention. This can especially be accomplished with the use of the right gif. Just make sure the joke is in line with what you're presenting.

• What To Watch Out For With Presentation Software

Picture it, it's zero hour and you’re about to show your bosses that business proposal you’ve been working on for weeks. Your slides are minimalistic and captivating. You’ve got stunning images to drive your point home. And to top it all off, you’ve included a video that captures all your important points in a condensed and appealing way. You plug in your USB stick where you’ve saved your presentation and...a nightmare occurs. Your image and video links are all broken, and the presentation you’ve worked on for weeks is nothing more than a pile of text. Worst of all you can’t make any adjustments because your software is strictly desktop version and you’re miles away from home. The culprit? Compatibility issues.

Software can be desktop installed, web-based, or both. Desktop-installed software allows you to download the editing and presenting tools you need straight to your laptop or desktop computer, without an internet connection. In the last couple of years, presentation software has migrated to web- or cloud-based software, meaning you do all your creating, editing, and presenting through the company’s platform. This is especially great if you want to work on your presentation from multiple devices, such as your tablet or smartphone. The downside to this is that you almost always need an internet connection to work on your presentation, and this may not always be readily available to you. 

It’s important that when you finally settle on a company that fits your design needs, you also check software compatibility. Most presentation software in the market is web-based, meaning you can run it on any computer or device as long as you have a working internet connection. Although this is great for portability and shareability purposes, it may be a problem if you need to present somewhere with poor internet. 

Most of these web-based companies will allow you to export your presentation into PDF, HTML, and sometimes even PPT presentations, so you should always check this feature is included in the plans you opt to choose. However, these features are oftentimes only included in the software’s paid versions. Downloading your presentations into these formats can also sometimes affect elements in your presentation. For example, embedded YouTube videos won’t work without an internet connection, and some templates that are exclusive to a company may not be available if you download them into a PowerPoint format. 

Some software companies like Prezi and PowerPoint, though, will have installable desktop options so that you can create, edit, and present your presentation hassle-free in the event that there’s no internet connection.

• FAQs about Presentation Software

What kinds of presentation software are available?

Who uses presentation software.

• Our Presentation Software Review Summed Up

The 14 Best Presentation Software That Will Help You Steal The Show!

• March 16, 2020
• 17 min read

Presentation software is used by people all over the globe. At least once in our lifetime, we need to present, be it a school project, results of our student research or project plan at work.

If presenting is part of your job, you very well know the power of a good presentation. It should be engaging, effective, and thought-provoking.

In today’s world, where people prefer visual experience, an interesting presentation is half of your success to deliver a good speech, lecture or host a valuable meeting. Ensuring the visuals in your presentation are clear and impactful involves more than just selecting high-quality images; effective background removal can significantly enhance the focus and professionalism of your slides.

How to Choose The Best Presentation Software?

To deliver an effective presentation, you need specific presentation software. Your audience should actively participate in the event, learn, and remember as much as possible. People love to ask questions, share their insights, and discuss. That’s where good presentation software can help you. Working with a presentation design company can help you create visually compelling and effective presentations, regardless of the software you choose to use.

Presentations don’t have to be boring, you only need to choose the right tool. We’ve gathered the best presentation software that will help you create an engaging presentation for your audience, whether you’re an individual, business owner, speaker or student. Here, you can find the best presentation tools with a variety of features and options.

1. Prezi – for engaging presentations

Unlike slides, Prezi’s single, interactive canvas encourages conversation and collaboration, making your overall presentation more engaging, persuasive, and memorable. Prezi is one of the most popular presentations software thanks to its ease of use and fancy templates.

Prezi’s latest offering, Prezi Next, is a full-lifecycle presentation platform that lets everyone easily create visually stunning presentations, deliver them in a more natural and conversational way, and analyze their effectiveness.

To see the effects of Prezi, check the Prezi’s Staff Picks of the best presentations created by users.

Main features:

• Open canvas lets you organize and view your presentation as a whole
• Arranging content with a simple drag and drop feature
• The “zoom reveal” function to focus in and unveil critical details (the feature Prezi is mostly known for as it helps to engage the audience)
• Designer templates for all industries
• Reusable presentations available in the Prezi’s depository
• You can upload presentations created in PowerPoint and improve it
• Story blocks
• Smart branding – you can match the presentation to your company’s logo
• Files attaching
• Online and offline presenting
• Analytics – you can track viewers as they progress through your presentation and know how much time they

Free 14-day trial available

• Basic – Free
• Plus – starting at $15/month
• Standard – for personal use – starting at $5/month
• Plus – for expert presenters – starting at $15/month
• Premium – for business professionals – starting at $59/month
• EDU Plus – for students and educators – $5/month
• EDU Teams – for educators and administrators – custom pricing
• Plus – for business individuals – starting at $15/month
• Teams – for teams and enterprises – custom pricing

2. Prezi Video – for video presentations

Although Prezi Video is part of the Prezi, it deserves a separate section. It is a presentation tool dedicated specifically to those who like fully interactive presentations .

Videos are a common method of presenting a product, service, concepts, and anything that can be visualized. And Prezi Video lets you create presentations where everything happens in real-time.

It’s an interesting solution that lets you connect with your audience. It’s especially helpful for remote teams and presenters who cannot meet face-to-face .

Prezi works on Chrome for Mac or Windows and has all the features of Prezi that you need to create good, engaging videos for presentation . You can record the videos and share them with those who can’t be with you during your video conference. Also, it’s a helpful tool for creating webinars, onboarding videos , sales pitches or videos for social media.

Pricing: Prezi Video is part of Prezi Individual, Education, and Business plans. Not available in the Basic plan

3. Google Slides – for presentations in your browser

Everyone uses Google and its services. That’s why Google Slides is one of the best options if you’d like to keep everything in one place. Particularly, if you’re already using Google Apps or G Suite in your organization.

For individuals, Google Slides offers the ability to create and edit files on your own or with other people. As part of the G Suite, it gives you the possibility to easily collaborate with your team and work on a project in one place. And there are additional features and extra security to make sure everything stays in your company.

You can choose from themes, fonts, colors, add videos, and more to adjust slides to your preferences or choose from available slide templates . Google Slides also supports PowerPoint files. Additionally, you can use the app on mobile devices, in your browser, and offline. Google supports Chromecast, Hangouts, and AirPlay.

Google Slides lets you combine its apps with presentation software to create a coherent and unified media library accessible for all members of your team .

Pricing: Google Slides is free to use. It’s also a part of G Suite where you can use it securely with your team

 PS. If you’re in a hurry but still want to look like a pro, use free Google Slides templates .

4. Keynote – presentation software for Mac

Keynote is a presentation software dedicated to Mac and iOS systems. It lets you control your slideshow from iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or iPod touch with Keynote for iOS. This presentation software is a powerful, easy to use tool with many useful functionalities and is compatible with all Apple devices.

You can even use Apple Pencil on your iPad to create diagrams or illustrations that bring your slides to life. And with real‑time collaboration , your team can work together, whether they’re on Mac, iPad, or iPhone, or using a PC .

• You can add impressive charts, add and edit photos, and incorporate cinematic effects, galleries, math equations, charts, and over 700 customizable shapes, and more than 30 themes
• You can create your own master slides, edit background images , and page‑by‑page customization
• Rehearse Mode for iPhone or iPad lets you practice on the go, with the current or next slide, notes, and clock — all in one view
• Take a photo or scan a document with your iPhone, and Continuity Camera can send it straight to Keynote on your Mac
• You can save Keynote documents as PowerPoint files. Or import and edit PowerPoint documents right in Keynote. Most popular PowerPoint features are also supported
• Support for online collaboration with your team in real-time

Free; additional fees and terms may apply

5. PowerPoint – for classical presentations

PowerPoint – old but gold! If you think PowerPoint is out-of-date you’re wrong! All products of Microsoft Office are regularly updated and improved , so is the legendary PowerPoint. It is still one of the best presentation software as it lets you create simple but effective presentations .

PowerPoint is easy to use and has all the necessary features you need to present your subject in a professional way . It has a media and slide library, where you can access all slides and files within your presentation. You can add notes, photos, videos, use and adjust various templates or make your own, add visual effects and arrange your presentation the way you like.

Using PowerPoint is like using Microsoft Word so it doesn’t require much explanation. The only differences are features and the visual form of the document. It’s a simple, rich in features presentation tool.

You can also create a presentation directly in the browser in the online version of Microsoft PowerPoint . Your team can join you and together you can collaborate in real-time .

PowerPoint is included in Microsoft Office Suite so if you have bought it, PowerPoint is already on your computer. Other than that, pricing starts at $126.89 as a one-time payment, per user. There is not a free version of PowerPoint. PowerPoint does offer a free trial.

PS. If you’re in hurry but still want to look like a pro, use free PowerPoint templates .

6. Canva – for minimalistic presentation templates

Canva is not a presentation software in itself but it lets you design creative slides to share with your team, audience, clients, and at school. It’s a good alternative for PowerPoint if you are looking for a minimalistic solution.

With Canva, you can create presentations directly in the browser. It’s a simplistic tool, easy to use and you can move around it quickly with just a couple clicks, and search through the depository of graphical content to spice up your project. Also, Canva lets you add elements with drag and drop features. Slide decks give you an insight into your content.

You can use available infographic template an adjust it as you like with colors, graphics, and pictures. You can add videos and even music. Download your presentation or present directly in the browser, share it with other people via social media, email, send to Google Docs, print in different formats (even as a T-shirt!)

Additionally, if you use Canva on a daily basis to create graphics and visual content, you can incorporate your work into your presentation if you’re using it as a presentation app. It works as your media library where you can store all your work . It can save you time and you don’t have to switch between different apps.

With Canva, you will be empowered to design by  creating your video content  using its easy-to-use video editor to make it more visual and compelling. Canva recently launched Its powerful editing tools and features that will let you craft awesome and professional-looking videos, even if you are a beginner or a pro editor.

• No free trial available
• Free version with limited features and limited free templates and graphics, no support available
• Pro – $ 9.95/user/month (billed annually)
• Enterprise – $30/user/month (billed annually)

7. Powtoon – video presentations for remote teams

Powtoon is a robust presentation software that lets you present your content with videos . It can help you grab the attention of your audience thanks to the catchy visual elements. This presentation tool can help communicate a message without putting your audience to sleep. It is a great alternative for animation studios as it is effective and easy to use.

Powtoon lets you create video presentations that you can use to create webinars, training sessions, onboarding content, present a product or service, professional-looking videos, infographics, and presentations for your website, social media, blog, online campaigns, and sales collateral , and many, many more.

Powtoon is suitable for everyone – individuals and small teams, business professionals, students and the education sector, marketing agencies, and designers.

Main features ( features depend on a plan ):

• Drag-and-drop feature
• Video background, music and image libraries
• You can add voiceover to your presentations
• Animated transitions and characters
• Hundreds of ready-made templates and scenes
• Incorporating branding assets and themes
• Ability to convert PowerPoint presentations into video presentations
• You can add team members to work together on presentations
• Numerous templates for videos available
• Free – Best for personal use (with limited features)
• Pro – Best for professionals and entrepreneurs – $19/month
• Pro+ – Best for Power users – $59/month
• Agency – Best for designers, animators, and agencies – $99/month

You can also try Vyond as a great alternative to Powtoon.

8. Zoho Show – for team collaboration in real-time

If you need a presentation software that is fully compatible with other Zoho tools, Zoho Show is the right solution. Zoho Show is cloud-based presentation software that brings slide creation, collaboration, broadcasting, and publishing onto one platform.

Zoho Show is a software that lets you create presentations of any type, from simple to complex content. It’s best for teams as it allows people to collaborate in real-time, support and review the work . Additionally, you don’t need any training or onboarding because this presentation tool is easy to use and intuitive.

Zoho Show is best for in-office and remote teams who want to work together on presentations.

• PowerPoint compatible
• Add, edit and reply to comments to facilitate discussion and share opinions
• You can publish presentations on both internal and external channels: websites, blogs, social media, and much more
• The feature of collaboration allows for many helpful actions: comment on slides and review, @mention users, lock slides, check-in/out, share presentations as a link, limit actions, and more
• You can broadcast presentations for the remote audience, and track time that elapsed within the broadcast window. Also, audience members can browse through completed slides while the Presenter can view both the presenter notes and the entire slide list at a glance. The audience can interact with you and each other using the chat panel
• Ability to publish presentations, embed them on websites, blogs, and download them
• Media library available – charts, silhouettes, and animations
• Zoho Show app for Apple TV, Android TV, Chromecast, as online app in the browser, and mobile app (iOS, Android)
• Basic – €10/month (€8/month billed annually)
• Standard – €25/month (€20/month billed annually)
• Professional – €35/month (€30/month billed annually)
• Enterprise – €50/month (€40/month billed annually)

9. Slide Dog – for interactive presentations, compatible with other presentation software

SlideDog lets you can combine PowerPoints, Prezis, PDFs, and many more elements into one easy-to-create playlist . With SlideDog, you never have to switch between different programs during your presentation.

This presentation software helps you to diversify lectures, picture ideas, and lead meetings or events in a more interesting manner. Thanks to SlideDog you interact with the audience, engage them in your presentation, ask their opinion, and teach.

Moreover, this presentation tool is compatible with other presentation software . Whether you prepared a presentation in Prezi or PowerPoint, doesn’t matter, everything will be shown just as you created it.

But that’s not all, if in your company you use digital signage to present content, SlideDog is a perfect solution You can typically see these screens in stores, receptions, conferences, waiting rooms, offices and more. SlideDog can be used as an easy and low-cost digital signage solution. It’s a great and easy method to share the story of your company and messages to your clients and audience.

• You can create custom playlists for all your presentation files and media
• All files are in your playlist (slide library) and you can change their order with a drag-and-drop feature
• Real-time sharing lest your audience follow the presentation directly on their screens or mobile phones, tablets, PCs
• Create interactive polls, chat with the audience, and get feedback
• Add online content such as web pages and YouTube videos
• Ability to add files of different formats – PDF, Word, Prezi, PowerPoint, images, Excel files, video content, and more
• Remote control
• Dual screen support
• Digital signage; looping and auto-advance
• Free with limited features
• Pro – $99/year
• Pro Event – $49; valid for 14-days from time of purchase. Unlimited events
• Enterprise – custom pricing

10. Cisco Webex Meetings – for content sharing with team and clients

Webex is not strictly a presentation software but its extensive features make it a great tool for remote teams. But not only, everyone will find it helpful as it supports team management.

Webex Meetings is created with the support of AI which makes it a robust and smart presentation software. You can use the software for video conferencing, team collaboration, webinars , online training, lectures, labs, and small breakout sessions, or remote video support.

Webex helps to collaborate and to move projects forward faster. Thanks to this presentation software, teams can work with anyone from a browser, a mobile device, or a video system. Webex Meeting Center offers integrated audio, video, and content sharing. Also, it lets teams keep conversations private with highly secure Webex meetings from the Cisco Collaboration Cloud.

• Join and present from any meeting, event, or training session
• Hands-free voice commands with Google Assistant and Google Home Hub
• Seamless joining directly from your calendar or customizable widget
• Schedule meetings or playback recordings directly from your app
• Customizable video layouts
• Share your screen to everyone
• Available as an online app in the browser, desktop, and mobile app
• Real-time remote technical support during your event
• Interactive online presentation with video conferencing, screen sharing, Q&A, polling, and chat
• Brand your invitations or registration site. Customize the enrollment process with questions that let you score, track, and follow up on leads
• Record your event with one click
• Record and build a library of on-demand training sessions so people can view or review them any time
• Use the built-in eCommerce tool to charge for live or on-demand sessions
• Compatible with other Cisco tools
• Free – Personal – up to 100 participants in each meeting
• Starter (Small teams) – $14.95 per month/host – up to 50 participants in each meeting
• Plus (Mid-sized teams) – $19.95 per month/host – host up to 100 participants
• Business (Large teams and businesses) – $29.95 per month/host – host up to 200 participants, minimum 5 licenses per month

11. Haiku Deck – for online presentations in your browser

Haiku Deck is a simple presentation software that helps to present your ideas in a friendly way.

It turns structured content into beautiful presentations. You first create an outline, upload it to the Haiku Deck presentation app and voila! it’s ready.

Haiku Deck Zuru technology harnesses the power of millions of users and artificial intelligence to transform your story into a stunning presentation. Say goodbye to boring corporate templates and clip art. Just upload a simple outline, or even an existing presentation, and Zuru builds a polished deck in minutes.

• Templates of slides and fonts available
• Slide library
• Free photos and images
• You can add your own files
• Graphs and charts to visualize the content
• Public notes for additional resources and important information; private notes
• Share on social media, email, embed to your website or blog
• Export your presentations as PowerPoint, Keynote or PDF file
• Arranging content with a drag-and-drop feature
• Privacy settings allow you to control who can see your decks online
• Stats keep you informed about how many people have viewed your slides
• Online support
• Free version is limited to one presentation, does not include presentation download
• Pro (For teaching, training, and conference presentations) – $19.99 per month
• Premium (For effective selling and engaging webinars) – $29.99 per month
• Haiku Deck offers special pricing to qualifying nonprofit organizations, students, and educators

12. Visme – for extraordinary graphics

Visme is presentation software for those who need visually engaging presentations. It is a versatile content creation tool that helps individuals and leading brands to create and present compelling stories in the form of engaging presentations, infographics, documents, videos, graphics and everything in between.

Visme lets you turn boring data into stunning visuals right in your browser. You can easily visualize your content and make interactive presentations .

Visme combines simplicity, flexibility and interactive features within a single platform, giving users everything they need within an easy-to-use online interface. It’s a robust presentation software for demanding presenters.

• Easy to use, adjustable templates
• Media library with images, icons, charts, graphs, maps, text and text widgets, animation, external content, audio and music, tables, grides and guides, content blocks, and more
• Easy-to-customize printable
• You can add different files to your presentations
• You can create all type of visual content: presentations, infographics, reports, ebooks, printables, web graphics, social graphics, resumes, custom size projects
• Helpful keyboard shortcuts
• Ability to work on slides as a team
• You can share your presentations with other team members
• Setting up a branding kit
• Analytics to track traffic & statistics of projects

Visme offers 3 plans:

• Individual – pricing starts from $25/month; free plan available
• Business – pricing starts from $39/month
• Education – pricing starts from $30/semester
• Visme provides discounted plans for Students, Educators and Non-profit organizations.

13. Slidebean – for professional pitch slide decks

Slidebean is presentation software that helps to save time on dragging-and-dropping and adjusting content to slides size. This presentation tool automatically creates your perfect presentation by automatically tailoring the content to keep a coherent structure across the entire presentation . You can change the style of your slides with a single click or choose from numerous templates.

You can invite your team to work together on the presentation. All changes are sync for everyone everywhere, which lets you collaborate in real-time. You can share the presentation via the link without the necessity to download the slides or install dedicated software. It will look good on any device you use.

The analytics feature gives you insight into which slides your audience has seen and how much time they spend watching it.

With Slidebean presentation software, you create a professional pitch deck for investors, reports and business documents that you can present online with couple clicks.

• Free version available
• Starter – $8 per month (billed annually)
• Premium – $19 per month (billed annually)
• Verified .edu accounts get 50% off

14. Ludus – for extraordinary presentations

Ludus is a professional but easy to use presentation software with plenty of features that enhance your project. Its smallish functionalities can make each of your slide unique and add extra effects – use blend modes, strokes, smart guidelines, smart resize, font upload, you can insert animations, images, use keyboard shortcuts, and many more.

Your team can collaborate on the same presentation at the same time, without getting in the way of each other. Ludus presentation tool synchronizes with external tools for more effective work.

It’s a simple presentation software that lets you create unique presentations.

• Solo – $19.99 per month
• Team – pricing starting at $29.99 per month for 2 users
• Special – custom pricing

Another option is to make a slideshow with Pitch’s software . Pitch combines all of the best parts of presentation, design, and productivity software , enabling fast-moving teams to create a beautifully designed deck in a matter of minutes. 

You will have a whole host of different templates to choose from, including professional, creative, simple, reports, proposals, design, startups, marketing, and pitch deck templates . 

• A huge range of custom-crafted templates 
• Create your own templates
• Connect Pitch with your data to share the latest information
• Link sharing 
• Track and optimize presentations
• Work from anywhere in the world
• Stay on-brand with slide styles
• Set a status and keep your project on track
• Work through ideas face-to-face with video collaboration
• Create, review, and edit presentations with your entire team
• Create immersive presentations with videos, images, and embedded content

One of the great things about Pitch is that there is a Starter plan, which you can try free of charge. This includes live video collaboration, custom templates and fonts, unlimited members and guests, and unlimited presentations. 

The most popular plan is the Pro plan, which is £8 per member, per month. This is billed annually. Designed for growing teams and power users, you can expect version history, unbranded PDF exports, unlimited file size upload, video and image library, video uploads, shared private folders, and workspace roles. 

If you have custom requirements, contact the sales department about their Enterprise offering. This includes everything in Pro, as well as a dedicated success manager and SAML-based SSO.

16. Flipsnack – for interactive digital presentations

If you want to spice up your slides then you’re looking for an interactive presentation maker like Flipsnack. 

This tool allows you to create and publish diverse content materials within minutes in 3 simple ways: you can either upload your pdf documents; create from scratch a new presentation thoroughly guided by the design studio; or use one of the many preexisting templates available in the integrated library. 

Flipsnack is an engaging and easy-to-use content creation platform, destined for each type of user , from non-technical individuals to highly certified professionals and leading brands. 

Main features: 

• Intuitive interface, easy-to-use editor. 
• A large variety of fully customizable templates. 
• Integrated real-time statistics, so you can see how your readers interact with your presentation. 
• You can create and manage accessibility for multiple workspaces. 
• The fastest pdf converter at the moment, so you can easily upload your documents.
• It integrates a large variety of interactive elements, such as photo-slideshows; GIFs; social media buttons; shopping buttons; audio and video elements; you can even embed maps into your presentation, and many more. 
• You can create a wide range of publications with a 3D realistic page-flip effect such as presentations; catalogs; reports; brochures; magazines; portfolios; you name it.
• It offers extensive privacy options; so you can either share your presentations in public mode; unlisted (access only through a direct link, not indexed by search engines); password-protected, or private (shared with specific people). 
• It includes branding options, so you can easily personalize your presentation according to your brand identity. 
• Free plan: up to 3 catalogs of max 30 pages/catalog 
• Starter: 14$/month – 10 catalogs: 100 pages/catalog 
• Professional: 35$/month – 50 catalogs: 200 pages/catalog 
• Business: 79$/month – 500 catalogs: 500 pages/catalog 
• Enterprise: 210$/month – 1000 catalogs: 1000 pages/catalog

17. Publuu – for Dynamic Multimedia Presentations

Publuu offers a unique platform for transforming PDF files into multimedia presentations. Its online presentation creator is designed for ease of use, enabling users to craft interactive and visually striking presentations directly from their PDFs. Ideal for professionals, educators, and marketers, Publuu enhances the way ideas and products are showcased, adding an element of dynamism and interactivity. With just a PDF and internet access, users can create presentations that captivate and engage audiences with a few clicks, making Publuu a practical choice for those seeking to elevate their presentation standards.

Main Features:

• Allows embedding of videos, audio, and hyperlinks for enriched interactive presentations
• Mimics the physical experience of flipping through a book with engaging page-turn animations
• Simplifies the creation of professional-quality presentations with an intuitive user-friendly interface
• Provides insights into audience engagement with detailed analytics tracking
• Allows to gather multiple presentations in one digital library
• Enables control over presentation accessibility, including public and private sharing settings
• Facilitates the incorporation of brand elements for consistent presentation aesthetics
• Diverse sharing options including links, QR codes, and website embed
• Suitable for a wide range of content types, from reports and brochures to immersive presentations
• Unlimited pages in every plan

Pricing: Trial plan – free (2 weeks) Basic – from $7 / month Optimum – from $24 / month Professional – from $58 / month Premium – from $116 / month

What Is Your Favorite Presentation Software?

Without presentation software, it would be impossible to share our knowledge and experience, learn or even work. These are powerful tools that let us transfer our ideas to the digital format and show them to the world. Additionally, with a compelling and engaging presentation, you can improve your confidence and establish new business relationships.

Which presentation software do you find most helpful? Share your thoughts in the comment section, we’d love to know your opinion. We hope you found the right presentation tool for you and your team and can now present like a pro!

Happy presenting!

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Kate Borucka Kate is a freelance translator, copywriter, and a content writer specializing in time tracking software, time management, and productivity. When not researching new software, she's reading books, or spending time outdoors.

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Easy: master in 5 minutes, explore your creativity for hours

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• 14 Best Presentation Software in 2022

The Best Presentation Software

Searching for the best presentation software? There are plenty of options available depending on what you need. The following are some of the best presentation programs available based on the types of features and capabilities you're looking for in the ideal software.

Top free presentation software

Movavi Slideshow Maker uses a combination of simplicity and capability to allow users to create engaging slideshows. The tool includes all the features needed for beginners to get started, and it's also ideal for more experienced presentation creators. Simply upload your photos and videos, add an audio track, and complete your professional-looking presentation. Whether for personal or professional use, you can create the perfect slideshow with this easy-to-use software.

Easy to use with an intuitive design

Plenty of features available for creating top-quality presentations

The free version is limited to 7 days

Software type

Desktop app that's compatible with both Windows and Mac computers.

Capabilities

Allows users to create slideshows in three simple steps

Users can record their own voiceover commentary

Saves slideshows in any file format

Works with both Windows and Mac devices

Visit the CNET site below to see more reviews for this product.

Proceed to the CNET website

Visme makes it easy to create and share interactive presentations and other types of visuals such as infographics. The tool enables users to take any set of data and transform it into engaging visuals. It's a great tool to use for individuals and teams, and it allows you to publish your presentations online, download them locally, or use an embed code to put it on your website. Millions of users love Visme and rely on this presentation software.

High-quality output

Easy to use

Contemporary appealing templates for presentations

Includes branding features

Duplicate images needed for each project

Can take some time to learn how to use it

No offline version

Web-based browser program for computers and tablets.

Data visualization features

Content database for images and more

Video and streaming support

Drag and drop function

Microsoft Office integration

Interface for collaboration with a team

For more information and reviews about this product, visit the Capterra site below.

Proceed to the Capterra website

For one of the quickest ways to piece together a good-looking professional-level presentation on the web or with your iPhone, Haiku Deck is a great option. With a library consisting of over 40 million royalty-free images and thousands of design templates, you'll have everything you need to complete any presentation. You can also export your presentations in PPTX or video format.

Intuitive design makes it easy to use

Plenty of design options and photos

Limited in overall capabilities without many advanced options

Not too much room for customization

Web-based software that's compatible with browsers and iOS using the app.

Controllable via iPhone remote

Compatible with Safari, Chrome, and Firefox browsers

Can export files as PDFs or Powerpoint presentations

Can import and resize images

Private and public notes

For more information and reviews about Haiku Deck, visit the Capterra site below.

If you're looking for a good alternative to Powerpoint that can give you more visualizations and a variety of design options, Prezi is a great presentation software. Prezi allows you to begin with a blank canvas, and from there you can add and change content at any point on the page. Unlike Powerpoint and other tools, it's non-linear in its layout for more free-flowing presentation design. It's also free and web-based, allowing you to access it using any web-enabled computer.

Non-linear layout for free-form control

Free and web-based

Easy for everyone to use, regardless of experience

Non-linear format could lead to motion sickness for some, but simple moves between screens can prevent this problem

Requires some learning to get the hang of it

No local version

Desktop and web-based editor with viewer apps available for both Android and iOS.

Allows users to import Powerpoint presentations

Works with both Windows and Mac computers

iOS viewer app allows streaming on Apple TV devices

Can publish presentations locally, organizationally, or for all audiences on the web

Premium version includes analytics to give you insight on performance with audiences

Check out the review at PCMag below to find out more about Prezi.

Proceed to the PCMag website

As Powerpoint's complement for Apple devices, Keynote is another reliable tool worth considering. If you're familiar with Mac programs and their functions, you should learn how to use Keynote in no time. Plenty of templates and layouts are available, and you can easily include animations in your presentations. Adobe also powers its appealing interface and templates, and you can choose from different formats to save your presentations.

Easy to use for beginners and veteran users alike

A wide variety of designs and templates for presentation themes

Can handle animation

YouTube, Quicktime, and other formatting options

PC users won't have an easy time using this program if they aren't used to Mac programs

Mobile (Android & iOS), desktop, and web-based app requiring an iCloud account to use.

Users can open, save, and edit Powerpoint files and convert Keynote to Powerpoint format, but glitches can occur

Available through iCloud

Can control presentations using iOS device with Keynote remote for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch

Remote presentations using Keynote Live and a web-enabled device

Live Collaboration for team projects

For reviews that can help you decide if Keynote is right for you, visit the Macworld site below.

Proceed to the Macworld website

Google Slides

If you have a Google account, you can access Google Slides for free along with its other cloud-based programs. Google Slides comes with plenty of customization options to create a great-looking presentation with every use. You'll find it to be a great tool if you're looking for something free and easy to use. However, like other cloud-based versions of Google software, formatting presentations across programs like Powerpoint can require some tweaks.

Easily accessed via the cloud on Google Drives

Presentations created with the program will look the same across all devices

Web-based only with limited offline capabilities

Importing from Keynote or Powerpoint can yield poor results because of formatting differences

Exporting could also result in unfavorable results using different software

Mobile app on iOS and Android, along with a web-based Chrome App with an offline editor that requires either Chrome OS or the Chrome browser.

Powerpoint-Google Slides conversion, but glitches can occur

Real-time collaboration through comment, chat, and review

Can display on secondary screen using Airplay or Chromecast

Audience interaction feature that allows for live comments and questions

Presenter View can include notes and slide previews using a second window

Remote control via Android or iOS devices

Remote presentations through Google Hangouts

Connect with other Google apps including YouTube

Visit the Capterra site for more reviews and details about Google Slides.

Slidebean is a great user-friendly presentation software that anyone can use, with easy access to all of its resources. It also includes integrated AI that can help with formatting and design by assisting with font choices and slide arrangements. Create high-quality presentations using Slidebean in no time, and you can choose from different sharing options based on privacy preferences.

Easy to use with minimal learning curve

AI integration to make creating presentations even easier

Top-quality production

Some startup bugs

Need to spend money to access many features

Web-based software accessible using web-enabled devices.

AI design feature

Custom templates with custom colors and fonts

Collaboration with team

Audience insight

Branding with company logo

Professional reviews for presentations

Export presentations as PDFs

The G2 site linked below can take you to more reviews for Slidebean.

Proceed to the G2 website

Zoho Show is a cloud-based program that enables presentation creation and collaboration, along with broadcasting and publication. Plenty of visuals are available with this software to help you fully customize your presentations, whether you want to include photos, videos, tables, or charts. It also makes it easy to work with your team to collaborate on a small or large project.

Includes many features to customize your presentations

Chrome extension allows easy draft creation at any time

Live broadcasting allows you to showcase a presentation to an audience and engage in live chat and comments

Consumes resources and, subsequently, isn't as fast as Google Slides and other cloud-based programs

Web-based app along with native editor apps for both Android and iOS, with viewer apps available to download for Apple TV and Android TV.

Can import and export both Powerpoints and PDF files, but conversion may not be perfect

Internal, organizational, or public publishing of presentations, with iframe embed codes available to paste on websites

Web-based presentation view and remote capabilities via two browser windows

Android and iOS app for remote presentation creation

Streaming on Chromecast, Android TV, and Apple TV

Chrome extension helps optimize speed and web-based editor control

Visit the link below for additional reviews for Zoho Show.

Proceed to the GetApp website

Bring your presentations to life with CustomShow, which enables you to create engaging content with custom background images and video. You can also broadcast your presentations using the included webinar feature, and you don't even need to be online to give your presentation as you can share them with people to look through on their own. If you make any updates to your library, all linked slides are also updated accordingly.

Easy to create and share presentations with anyone

All changes are updated automatically if library changes

Simple management of presentations and library

No search function in library

Can't open links using mobile devices

A lack of editing features

Web-based software for any web-enabled computer.

Create a personal library combining images, text, video and Adobe Flash content

Updates are automatically shared with all users

Use with browsers, on both Mac and Windows computers

iPad application allows for seamless integration and remote presentations using iPad tablets

Visit the Capterra website to see more reviews for this program.

If you want to incorporate animations in your presentations, Powtoon is an excellent choice of presentation software. You'll find no shortage of images and templates for your presentations, and you can create them in little time. You can keep your presentations engaging through the use of an animated slideshow that plays like a video as opposed to a traditional click-through slideshow, but you can easily switch between both modes.

Many features to customize your presentations

A wide variety of templates

Can share presentations with the public

Offline saving is available

The interface can seem a little disorganized

Can take some time to load another user's presentation

Limited features on the free version, including the inability to download presentations over five minutes long

Web-based software for web-enabled devices.

Offline local presenting

Screen sharing to showcase presentations to others

Communication and content management

Image library

Project templates and planning

Search functionality

Two-factor authentication

Collaboration tools

Visit the link below for additional reviews and information about Powtoon.

Proceed to the Softwarehow website

Formerly known as GoAnimate, Vyond is another tool that's ideal if you want to create animated presentations. You can also collaborate with a team to work on a video project together. Features are also easy to use, regardless of your experience presentation software. The quality of animation and presentations is consistently high, and you can easily customize your presentations using audio files such as voice narration, sound effects, and music.

Very user-friendly and easy to use without any experience

Affordable for many businesses to use

High presentation quality

A bit of a learning curve to get used to the software

Library is limited in terms of character poses, styles, and objects

Cloud-based software accessible using any web-connected device.

Automatic lip-syncing with audio uploaded as MP3 files

Three styles that each come with pre-made templates along with characters and pre-animated assets

Version history allows you to revert to a previous version to track changes or create new videos from an existing custom template

Visit TrustRadius below for more reviews from customers who've used Vyond.

Proceed to the TrustRadius website

Microsoft Powerpoint is one of the most recognizable presentation tools, and there's a reason why millions of users still utilize it today. It's quick and easy to use, with plenty of customization options that give you complete control over your presentations. You'll also see better quality when presenting slides to a large audience compared to other software. Powerpoint isn't likely to go anywhere anytime soon.

Easy to use regardless of experience

Plenty of features with versatile presentation options

Can use it just about anywhere for any kind of presentation

Limited to users with Office 365 subscriptions

Can make it easy to overload slides with information to the point of being overwhelming

Microsoft Office 365 app for Windows and Apple computers.

SmartArt feature allows for creation of high-quality professional diagrams

Many transitions between slides

Animation effects

Slide Master View allows for consistent updating across entire presentations

Project from your devices to large audiences with consistent quality

For additional reviews and details about Powerpoint, visit G2 below.

Unlike other presentation software, Slidedog is specifically intended for presenting existing presentation files as opposed to creating them. You'll want to use Slidedog if you have a presentation but need a professional solution to present it to your audience. It's a great tool to use whether you want to present in front of a live audience or have the audience access the presentation remotely.

Interface is easy to use

Many useful features

Works with most presentation file formats

Organized and sleek design

Can't make changes to presentations

Can take a while to install

Many features are restricted to the paid version

Windows application for desktops and web-based app for any web-enabled device.

Presentation playlist allows for easy arrangement of files and media

Supports all file types without any glitches

Real-time sharing with remote control for playlists from any web-enabled device

Connect with audiences through presentation feedback, polls, and live audience chat

Dual-screen support

Can use for digital signage

To see reviews of this presentation software, visit the G2 site below.

Canva is a great presentation and design software that can make your presentations look great with custom graphic design. Over a million fonts, graphics, and images are available on Canva, and it's accessible for just about any user. You can use Canva to turn a simple idea into a beautiful professional-looking design that helps you get the most from your presentations.

Plenty of pre-made templates available with free and paid versions

Allows for easy collaboration with a team

Very user-friendly interface

Can slow down during use

Limited GIFs and many other feature limitations

Web-based design software accessible with web-enabled computers.

Unlimited folder storage for presentation designs

Team functionalities

Can upload any images

Unlimited storage for all images and other assets

Save templates locally or for your organization

Search functionality in the library

Can export files as GIFs

Compatible with custom fonts

Easy resizing of images and assets to custom dimensions

To learn more about this software and see additional reviews, visit the Techradar website below.

Proceed to the Techradar website

Frequently asked questions

💯 what is the best program to make a presentation.

The best presentation software will depend on your personal preferences and the specific features you're looking for in a program. However, the following are worth trying and can give you some ideas to help you pinpoint what you want.

Microsoft Powerpoint

❔ Is there better presentation software than PowerPoint?

If you would rather use presentation software other than PowerPoint if you don't have Microsoft Office, or simply want to try another program, there are plenty of PowerPoint alternatives to try. Take a look at the following list:

Renderforest

💻 What is better than Prezi?

For software similar to Prezi with varying features, you can view a list of alternatives to Prezi in the following list:

Make interactive presentations

Create show-stopping presentations and clickable slide decks with Genially’s free online presentation builder. Leave boring behind and tell a story that’s interactive, animated, and beautifully engaging.

INTERACTIVE CONTENT

A presentation that works like a website

Engage your audience with interactive slides that they can click on and explore. Add music, video, hotspots, popup windows, quiz games and interactive data visualizations in a couple of clicks. No coding required!

NO-CODE ANIMATION

Make your slides pop with animation

Bring a touch of movie magic to the screen with incredible visual effects and animated page transitions. Add click-trigger and timed animations to make any topic easy to understand and captivating to watch.

INTEGRATIONS

Live from the world wide web

Embed online content directly in your slides for a media-rich interactive experience. From YouTube and Spotify to Google Maps and Sheets, Genially works seamlessly with over 100 popular apps and websites.

TEMPLATES & TOOLKIT

Genius design tools

With Genially, anyone can create a polished and professional presentation. Choose from over 2000 pre-built templates, or create your own design using the drag-and-drop resources, color palettes, icons, maps and vector graphics.

ONLINE PLATFORM

Safe and sound in the cloud

Because Genially is online, you can relax knowing that your slides are always up-to-date. There’s no risk of forgetting to save changes or accessing the wrong file. Log in from anywhere, collaborate with your team, and make edits in real time.

All-in-one interactive presentation maker

Real-time collaboration.

Co-edit slide decks with others in real time and organize all of your team projects in shared spaces.

Multi format

Present live, share the link, or download as an interactive PDF, MP4 video, JPG, HTML, or SCORM package.

Engagement Analytics

See how many people have viewed and clicked on your slides and keep tabs on learner progress with User Tracking.

Import from PPTX

Give your old decks a new lease of life by importing PowerPoint slides and transforming them with a little Genially magic.

Keep content on-brand with your logo, fonts, colors, brand assets, and team templates at your fingertips.

Quiz & Survey Builder

Use the Interactive Questions feature to add a fun quiz to your slides or gather feedback from your audience.

Beautiful templates

Make your next deck in a flash with Genially’s ready-to-use slides.

OKR Presentation

School Notebook Presentation

Animated Sketch Presentation

Minimal presentation

Land Of Magic Presentation

Onboarding presentation

Visual Presentation

Animated chalkboard presentation

Online Education Guide

Terrazzo presentation

Startup pitch

Historical presentation

THEMES FOR EVERYONE

Interactive presentation ideas

From classroom materials to business pitches, make an impact every day with Genially.

Education presentations

Pitch decks

Business presentations

Thesis defense

Share anywhere

Present live

From the front of the room or behind a screen, you’ll wow your audience with Genially. Heading off grid? Download in HTML to present dynamic slides without WiFi.

Share the link

Every Genially slide deck has its own unique url, just like a website! Share the link so that others can explore at their own pace, or download an MP4 video slideshow or PDF.

Post online

Embed the slides on your website or post them on social media. Upload to Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom, Moodle or any other platform.

The benefits of interactive slides

🗣️ Active participation An interactive slide deck gives your audience cool things to click on and discover, boosting learning and engagement.

👂 Multi-sensory experience Audio, video, animations, and mouse interactions make your content immersive, entertaining and accessible.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 People-friendly format Pop-ups and embeds condense more material into fewer slides so you can break information down into digestible chunks.


🎮 Gamification Games, quizzes and puzzles make information more memorable and enable you to gather feedback and check understanding.

How to make an interactive presentation

With Genially’s easy-to-use presentation platform, anyone can make incredible visual content in moments.

Choose a template or a blank canvas

Get stunning results in less time with a ready-made template. Feeling creative? Design your own slides from scratch.

Customize the design

Add animations and interactions

Resources to become a pro presentation creator

How to create an interactive presentation: Get started in Genially.

How to present data without sending your audience to sleep.

No-code animation: Bring your slides to life with cinematic visual effects.

The art of digital storytelling: Engage and thrill on screen.

Genially in a nutshell

How do I make a presentation interactive and how does Genially work? Find the answers to all of your slide-related questions here!

What’s an interactive presentation?

Interactive slides contain clickable hotspots, links, buttons, and animations that are activated at the touch of a button. Instead of reading or watching passively, your audience can actively interact with the content.  

Genially’s interaction presentation software allows you to combine text, photos, video clips, audio and other content in one deck. It’s a great way to condense more information into fewer slides. 

If you’re a teacher, you can share multiple materials in one single learning resource. Students can create their own projects using digital media and online maps. For business or training, try embedding spreadsheet data, PDFs, and online content directly in your slides. 

An interactive slide deck is more user-friendly than a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation or Google Slides document. That’s because you can break information down into chunks with pop-ups, labels, voiceovers and annotated infographics.  

The other benefit of interactive content is increased engagement. It’s easier to keep your audience’s attention when they’re actively participating. Try Genially’s presentation software and free slideshow maker to see how it’s better than other presentation websites. You won’t go back to standard presentation apps!

How do you make a clickable slide?

The best way to make slides clickable is to use Genially’s free interactive presentation program. Design your slide then apply an interaction. In a couple of clicks, you can add popup windows, hyperlinks, close-up images, games, animations, multimedia and other content. 

Choose from the library of hotspot buttons and icons to show people what to click on. Go to Presenter View to get a preview and see how your content will appear to your audience.

How do I create presentations that look professional?

You’ve got a deadline looming and you’re staring at the screen with a blank presentation. We’ve all been there! Starting a presentation design from scratch is tricky, especially if you’re short on time. 

Genially’s free online presentation maker has over 2000 ready-to-use templates for professional slide presentations, photos slideshows, and more. Each slide design has been created by our team of top graphic designers. No need to worry about fonts, centering images, or designing a matching color scheme. It’s all done for you. 

Start by browsing our layouts and themes for education, business and then customize with your own text and images.

How do I share or download my slides?

Because Genially is a cloud based presentation software, you can simply share the link to your slides. Like other online presentation tools, there are no files to download or store on your computer. Everything is saved online.  

When you publish your slide deck, it gets its own unique url, just like a website. Share the link with others to let them explore the content in their own time. If you’re presenting live, just click the Present button. 

You can also embed your presentation on your website, company wiki, or social media. Genially is compatible with WordPress, Moodle, Google Classroom, and other platforms. If you use an LMS, you can also download your interactive design slides in SCORM format.

For slideshow videos and slideshows with music, share online or download as an MP4 video. Check out our free slideshow templates for ideas.

Can I make a free presentation in Genially?

You bet! Genially is an easy-to-use slide maker, with a free version and paid plans. The free plan allows you to create unlimited slides with interactions and animations. Subscribe to one of our paid plans for more advanced features.

Discover a world of interactive content

Join the 25 million people designing incredible interactive experiences with Genially.

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How to Make a “Good” Presentation “Great”

• Guy Kawasaki

Remember: Less is more.

A strong presentation is so much more than information pasted onto a series of slides with fancy backgrounds. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others. Here are some unique elements that make a presentation stand out.

• Fonts: Sans Serif fonts such as Helvetica or Arial are preferred for their clean lines, which make them easy to digest at various sizes and distances. Limit the number of font styles to two: one for headings and another for body text, to avoid visual confusion or distractions.
• Colors: Colors can evoke emotions and highlight critical points, but their overuse can lead to a cluttered and confusing presentation. A limited palette of two to three main colors, complemented by a simple background, can help you draw attention to key elements without overwhelming the audience.
• Pictures: Pictures can communicate complex ideas quickly and memorably but choosing the right images is key. Images or pictures should be big (perhaps 20-25% of the page), bold, and have a clear purpose that complements the slide’s text.
• Layout: Don’t overcrowd your slides with too much information. When in doubt, adhere to the principle of simplicity, and aim for a clean and uncluttered layout with plenty of white space around text and images. Think phrases and bullets, not sentences.

As an intern or early career professional, chances are that you’ll be tasked with making or giving a presentation in the near future. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others.

• Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist at Canva and was the former chief evangelist at Apple. Guy is the author of 16 books including Think Remarkable : 9 Paths to Transform Your Life and Make a Difference.

Partner Center

Google Cloud Next 2024: Everything announced so far

Google’s Cloud Next 2024 event takes place in Las Vegas through Thursday, and that means lots of new cloud-focused news on everything from Gemini, Google’s AI-powered chatbot , to AI to devops and security. Last year’s event was the first in-person Cloud Next since 2019, and Google took to the stage to show off its ongoing dedication to AI with its Duet AI for Gmail and many other debuts , including expansion of generative AI to its security product line and other enterprise-focused updates and debuts .

Don’t have time to watch the full archive of Google’s keynote event ? That’s OK; we’ve summed up the most important parts of the event below, with additional details from the TechCrunch team on the ground at the event. And Tuesday’s updates weren’t the only things Google made available to non-attendees — Wednesday’s developer-focused stream started at 10:30 a.m. PT .

Google Vids

Leveraging AI to help customers develop creative content is something Big Tech is looking for, and Tuesday, Google introduced its version. Google Vids, a new AI-fueled video creation tool , is the latest feature added to the Google Workspace.

Here’s how it works: Google claims users can make videos alongside other Workspace tools like Docs and Sheets. The editing, writing and production is all there. You also can collaborate with colleagues in real time within Google Vids. Read more

Gemini Code Assist

After reading about Google’s new Gemini Code Assist , an enterprise-focused AI code completion and assistance tool, you may be asking yourself if that sounds familiar. And you would be correct. TechCrunch Senior Editor Frederic Lardinois writes that “Google previously offered a similar service under the now-defunct Duet AI branding.” Then Gemini came along. Code Assist is a direct competitor to GitHub’s Copilot Enterprise. Here’s why

And to put Gemini Code Assist into context, Alex Wilhelm breaks down its competition with Copilot, and its potential risks and benefits to developers, in the latest TechCrunch Minute episode.

Google Workspace

Image Credits: Google

Among the new features are voice prompts to kick off the AI-based “Help me write” feature in Gmail while on the go . Another one for Gmail includes a way to instantly turn rough email drafts into a more polished email. Over on Sheets, you can send out a customizable alert when a certain field changes. Meanwhile, a new set of templates make starting a new spreadsheet easier. For the Doc lovers, there is support for tabs now. This is good because, according to the company, you can “organize information in a single document instead of linking to multiple documents or searching through Drive.” Of course, subscribers get the goodies first. Read more

Google also seems to have plans to monetize two of its new AI features for the Google Workspace productivity suite. This will look like $10/month/user add-on packages. One will be for the new AI meetings and messaging add-on that takes notes for you, provides meeting summaries and translates content into 69 languages. The other is for the introduced AI security package, which helps admins keep Google Workspace content more secure. Read more

In February, Google announced an image generator built into Gemini, Google’s AI-powered chatbot. The company pulled it shortly after it was found to be randomly injecting gender and racial diversity into prompts about people. This resulted in some offensive inaccuracies. While we waited for an eventual re-release, Google came out with the enhanced image-generating tool, Imagen 2 . This is inside its Vertex AI developer platform and has more of a focus on enterprise. Imagen 2 is now generally available and comes with some fun new capabilities, including inpainting and outpainting. There’s also what Google’s calling “text-to-live images” where you  can now create short, four-second videos from text prompts, along the lines of AI-powered clip generation tools like Runway ,  Pika  and  Irreverent Labs . Read more

Vertex AI Agent Builder

We can all use a little bit of help, right? Meet Google’s Vertex AI Agent Builder, a new tool to help companies build AI agents.

“Vertex AI Agent Builder allows people to very easily and quickly build conversational agents,” Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said. “You can build and deploy production-ready, generative AI-powered conversational agents and instruct and guide them the same way that you do humans to improve the quality and correctness of answers from models.”

To do this, the company uses a process called “grounding,” where the answers are tied to something considered to be a reliable source. In this case, it’s relying on Google Search (which in reality could or could not be accurate). Read more

Gemini comes to databases

Google calls Gemini in Databases a collection of features that “simplify all aspects of the database journey.” In less jargony language, it’s a bundle of AI-powered, developer-focused tools for Google Cloud customers who are creating, monitoring and migrating app databases. Read more

Google renews its focus on data sovereignty

Image Credits: MirageC / Getty Images

Google has offered cloud sovereignties before, but now it is focused more on partnerships rather than building them out on their own. Read more

Security tools get some AI love

Image Credits: Getty Images

Google jumps on board the productizing generative AI-powered security tool train with a number of new products and features aimed at large companies. Those include Threat Intelligence, which can analyze large portions of potentially malicious code. It also lets users perform natural language searches for ongoing threats or indicators of compromise. Another is Chronicle, Google’s cybersecurity telemetry offering for cloud customers to assist with cybersecurity investigations. The third is the enterprise cybersecurity and risk management suite Security Command Center. Read more

Nvidia’s Blackwell platform

One of the anticipated announcements is Nvidia’s next-generation Blackwell platform coming to Google Cloud in early 2025. Yes, that seems so far away. However, here is what to look forward to: support for the high-performance Nvidia HGX B200 for AI and HPC workloads and GB200 NBL72 for large language model (LLM) training. Oh, and we can reveal that the GB200 servers will be liquid-cooled. Read more

Chrome Enterprise Premium

Meanwhile, Google is expanding its Chrome Enterprise product suite with the launch of Chrome Enterprise Premium . What’s new here is that it mainly pertains mostly to security capabilities of the existing service, based on the insight that browsers are now the endpoints where most of the high-value work inside a company is done. Read more

Gemini 1.5 Pro

Everyone can use a “half” every now and again, and Google obliges with Gemini 1.5 Pro. This, Kyle Wiggers writes, is “Google’s most capable generative AI model,” and is now available in public preview on Vertex AI, Google’s enterprise-focused AI development platform. Here’s what you get for that half: T he amount of context that it can process, which is from 128,000 tokens up to 1 million tokens, where “tokens” refers to subdivided bits of raw data (like the syllables “fan,” “tas” and “tic” in the word “fantastic”). Read more

Open source tools

At Google Cloud Next 2024, the company debuted a number of open source tools primarily aimed at supporting generative AI projects and infrastructure. One is Max Diffusion, which is a collection of reference implementations of various diffusion models that run on XLA, or Accelerated Linear Algebra, devices. Then there is JetStream, a new engine to run generative AI models. The third is MaxTest, a collection of text-generating AI models targeting TPUs and Nvidia GPUs in the cloud. Read more

We don’t know a lot about this one, however, here is what we do know : Google Cloud joins AWS and Azure in announcing its first custom-built Arm processor, dubbed Axion. Frederic Lardinois writes that “based on Arm’s Neoverse 2 designs, Google says its Axion instances offer 30% better performance than other Arm-based instances from competitors like AWS and Microsoft and up to 50% better performance and 60% better energy efficiency than comparable X86-based instances.” Read more

The entire Google Cloud Next keynote

If all of that isn’t enough of an AI and cloud update deluge, you can watch the entire event keynote via the embed below.

Google Cloud Next’s developer keynote

On Wednesday, Google held a separate keynote for developers . They offered a deeper dive into the ins and outs of a number of tools outlined during the Tuesday keynote, including Gemini Cloud Assist, using AI for product recommendations and chat agents, ending with a showcase from Hugging Face. You can check out the full keynote below.