best presentation software free for students

Best free presentation software of 2024

Find an alternative to PowerPoint

Best overall

Best for speed, best for functionality, best for collaboration, best user interface.

• How we test

The best free presentation software makes it simple and easy to create presentations as an alternative to subscribing to Microsoft PowerPoint.

1. Best overall 2. Best for speed 3. Best for functionality 4. Best for collaboration 5. Best user interface 6. FAQs 7. How we test

While PowerPoint is the market leader when it comes to presentation software, some people may be unwilling to subscribe to a Microsoft 365 subscription, especially if they don't expect to need to use it very often.

However, there are plenty of great alternatives to PowerPoint available for free that you can use. While these won't have the same advanced features as PowerPoint, they still offer a very competent platform to design most any presentation that you need.

To help you choose, we've listed below the best free presentation software currently available.

Add images to your presentations using the best free photo editor .

<a href="https://gsuite.google.com/pricing.html" data-link-merchant="gsuite.google.com"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Google Workspace : Collaboration + productivity apps There are many different presentation software packages but Google Workspace formerly known as G Suite remains the original cloud office software and one of the best business office suites, offering a huge range of features and functionality that rivals can't match, especially when it comes to presentation software. <a href="https://gsuite.google.com/pricing.html" data-link-merchant="gsuite.google.com"" data-link-merchant="gsuite.google.com"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Try it free for 14 days .

The best free 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.

Our expert review:

Reasons to buy

Reasons to avoid.

Prezi turns the traditional approach to presentations on its head. Instead of creating slide after slide, this presentation software gives you a single giant canvas. You can add blocks of text or images, or even create miniature slides. During your presentation, you can seamlessly fly around the canvas and zoom in to look at individual chunks of content.

For how complex Prezi seems, it’s impressively simple to use the platform. The only major divergence from Microsoft PowerPoint is that you need to add animated paths from one part of the canvas to another. The tools for this are fairly straightforward, especially if you’ve ever used an animation or video editing software.

Of course, this type of presentation structure isn’t always ideal. Prezi makes it hard to visualize structured data like financials, which can make it difficult to use in business applications. Some viewers also might not appreciate the fly-around animation style that’s inherent to the presentation software.

Read our full Prezi review .

• ^ Back to the top

Canva is perfect for making speedy presentations right in your web browser. This software offers a handful of free layouts to help you get your slideshow started, and it’s easy to customize the templates to fit your needs. There isn’t a huge variety of content elements to add to your presentation, but Canva makes up for this with a searchable library of more than 1 million images you can use.

Your Canva presentations live online, which makes it extremely easy to collaborate. You can invite colleagues to edit your slideshow (although simultaneous editing is not supported) or seamlessly share your finished presentation. However, beware that Canva can’t import presentations from Microsoft Powerpoint or export finished work to a Powerpoint-editable format.

Read our full Canva review .

3. LibreOffice

LibreOffice is a free alternative to Microsoft Office, and it includes a Powerpoint equivalent called Impress with nearly all of the same functionality. The only big difference you’ll find between the two slideshow creation tools is the LibreOffice lacks some modern features like built-in collaboration and integration with Microsoft OneDrive.

However, Impress does have a few advantages of its own. The software can import files from Keynote, the default presentation software on Mac computers. Plus, there are hundreds of free templates that you can download for free. Even better, there’s no limit on what fonts you can use with Impress, so it’s easy to change the look of your presentation from what Powerpoint typically allows.

On the whole, LibreOffice Impress is about as close as it gets to simply replicating Microsoft Powerpoint for free.

Read our full LibreOffice review .

4. Google Slides

Google Slides is part of Google Workspace (formerly G Suite), and it does a nice job of matching a number of PowerPoint’s capabilities. This free presentation software supports embedding videos, creating diagrams, and adding animations to your slides. While the selection of templates is somewhat limited, you can easily import hundreds of additional templates for free or create your own.

Even better, Google Slides supports the collaboration tools users have come to expect from Google. Multiple people can work on a slideshow simultaneously, and there’s a built-in group chat so you can keep track of what everyone is doing. It’s also nice that you can play your presentation in presenter mode, which allows you to preview how it will look to your audience and rehearse timing.

The only downside to Google Slides is that bloated slideshows can experience some loading delays. Also beware that while you can move between Slides and Powerpoint, the conversion often messes with the layout of your slides.

Read our full Google Slides review .

5. WPS Office Free

WPS Office Free is a Microsoft Office look-alike that fully support PowerPoint files without any layout issues during import. The WPS Presentation tool has all of the same capabilities of PowerPoint, including tons of animations, slide transitions, content effects, and video embedding. The selection of included presentation templates is also very impressive for a free software.

One of the best things about this presentation software is that the user interface will feel incredibly familiar if you’re coming from Microsoft. All of the tools are displayed in a top ribbon, with your slides shown on the left side of the screen for easy navigation. It’s simple to display your presentation right from WPS Presentation, which means there’s no unexpected troubleshooting when it’s time to show off your work.

There’s not much to dislike about WPS Presentation. However, keep in mind that the software is supported by ads. Some users find the ads annoying, but they’re not overly in the way.

Read our full WPS Office Free review .

We've also featured the best free office software .

Best free presentation software FAQs

Which alternative to powerpoint is best for you.

When deciding which alternative to PowerPoint 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.

How we test the best free presentation software

To test for the best free 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 .  

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Michael Graw is a freelance journalist and photographer based in Bellingham, Washington. His interests span a wide range from business technology to finance to creative media, with a focus on new technology and emerging trends. Michael's work has been published in TechRadar, Tom's Guide, Business Insider, Fast Company, Salon, and Harvard Business Review. 

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15 Free Presentation Software for Students, Professionals, & Teachers

Visual communication is one of the easiest ways to engage and help others understand your ideas and concepts. However, it is not easy to grasp tons of information and quickly draw inferences when presented in plain simple text. Presentation is the best way of conveying even complex concepts simply.

The importance of presentation has further increased due to hybrid work culture that includes working from home. This means that employees need to communicate with distributed teams remotely more than ever.

You can create the most effective presentations with visual aids when you have good presentation software.

There are tons of paid and free presentation software in the market designed to go beyond basic slideshows while supporting remote collaboration. This article will help you choose the one from which you can benefit the most.

Table of Contents

What Is Presentation Software?

Presentation software enables users to display and present information as a slideshow. Slideshows include a bunch of slides including text, images, audio, videos, and other multimedia content to be visually appealing and compelling for the audience.

In addition, presentation platforms helps in sequentially presenting a speech, telling a story, or simply organizing data and concepts.

What is the Use of Presentation Software?

Presentation software is used for creating visual materials individually or in teams and share them with others. Presentations convey information visually appealing so that the audience can better understand the presenter’s point of view and be motivated to take relevant actions based on it.

Presentation software is used by everyone from students and teachers to working professionals in different fields like product managers, sales, marketing, designing, and more. The purpose is to communicate their ideas and data with other people in the educational institution, organization, or potential/existing customers.

What Makes a Best Presentation Software?

A great presentation making software must fulfil these parameters:  

Easy to use: The navigation must be simple with user-friendly features. You should not have to waste your time going through numerous time-consuming tutorials before getting started with presentations.

Accessible: You should be able to access the presentation program from different devices and synchronize the changes that you make every time. It should allow you to work on the go. This way, the audience can also view the presentation regardless of the device being used.

Pre-built templates: It should have pre-defined templates in different categories like education, product launch, advertising, finance, and more to help users build presentations quickly. As a result, users, especially beginners, can focus on the content.

Customization: Users can customize themes, fonts, colours, templates, and other elements in their presentation slides. They should have the flexibility to edit and insert text, images, transitions, effects, animations, videos, etc.

Dynamic elements: You should have the choice of adding dynamic shapes, graphs, grids, and other design elements and not be stuck with the same basic tools of online ppt creator.

Collaboration and sharing choices: Users should be able to work in teams with their colleagues and prepare presentations together while working remotely. Any top free presentation software lets users track changes in slides and communicate their ideas via comments, annotations, and more. Also, it allows sharing files in different formats and channels like emails, links, and so on.

Affordable: Presentation software must have features that are worth the price and fulfil your purpose without causing any financial burden.

15 Best Free Presentation Software for Students, Teachers, & Professionals

Google slides, libreoffice, microsoft powerpoint, adobe spark, beautiful.ai.

Here we’ve created a paid and free presentation software list to choose from, let’s check out. 

Best for:  Online presentations with multiple themes, fonts & animations

Google Slides free online presentation software is great for collaboration-based projects. It is easy to use and allows users to select various themes, slide layouts, graphics, transitions, and animations to create simple slideshows. You can also create diagrams, add text and videos.

Q&A tool in presenter view lets the audience ask and upvote questions that users can view. Teams can add details, comments, and notes to the slides. It is easy to track these changes from the detailed log.

Google Slides Features

• Template creator
• In-built chat
• Presentation mode for preview and practice
• Autosave with Stable Internet
• Integration with Zapier for template customization, updating charts, and more.

What Users Like

• Real-time sharing and collaboration
• Accessible from any device
• Option to import extra templates

What Users Don’t Like

• Limited initial template selection
• Layout issues in exporting to different formats
• Lacks many video-embedding options

Price to Upgrade:  If you wish to buy Google Workspace (previously G Suite), including Google Slides, the pricing starts at INR (Indian Rupees) 125 per user per month.

Supported OS:  Web, iOS, Android

Best for:  Best presentation app for iPhone, Mac & Windows users

Keynote by Apple is a best app for making presentation. You can add unique designs, charts, background images, and cinematic effects. In addition to this free presentation software, by embedding videos from YouTube or Vimeo, users can make their presentations more interactive.

You can also try different textures, colour gradients, and photos. Illustrations and diagrams can be created with Apple Pencil.

Apple Keynote Presentation Features

• 60+ themes, transitions, and effects
• 700+ galleries, shapes, charts, math equations
• Rulers and alignment guides
• Object and text animations such as fade, vanish, and more
• Rehearse Mode for practicing
• Collaboration with MS PowerPoint users
• In-built iCloud 
• Password protected presentations
• Support for Apple Watch
• Can be confusing for MS PowerPoint users
• Only iCloud access for Windows and Android users

Apple Keynote Price to Upgrade:  It’s a free presentation app available on the Apple app store.

Supported OS:  Presentation app for macOS, iOS, Windows

Best for:  Free presentation templates

Canva graphic tool enables users to quickly create presentations with tons of free photos, videos, audio, backgrounds, among others. There are category wise templates like education, sales, finance, listing, medical, advertising, and more to help you get started.

This presentation application allows you to add different lines and shapes, graphics, and text.

Canva Features

• 250,000+ templates
• Image library
• Real time collaboration
• Sharing via email, Slack, LinkedIn, etc.
• 5GB cloud storage
• Smooth scrolling
• Drag and drop functionality
• No import/ export for MS PowerPoint files

Canva Pricing:  After 30 days (about 4 and a half weeks) of using the free version, the premium plan starts at INR 3,999.00 per year for up to 5 people. | You can also consider looking at the next best alternatives of Canva .

Supported OS:  Presentation software for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS

Best for:  Teachers, students

Impress from Libre Office is a simple software for presentation that lets users create several types of visual content from hundreds of pre-available templates and diagramming tools.

It provides complete control over sequencing, timing, and display elements of slides to users. You can further add animations, effects, 3D scenes, and more.

Libre Office Features

• Manual/ timed transitions
• View/ Editing modes like Handout, Outline, etc.
• Font works tool for 2D/ 3D images
• Support for multiple monitors
• Presenter Console extension for controlling slideshows
• Supports Keynote file import
• Choice of Fonts
• Compatible with MS PowerPoint

What Users Don’t Lik

• Lacks collaboration tools

LibreOffice Pricing:  Libre Office is free presentation software.

Supported OS:  Presentation software for Linux, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, Pebble.

Best for:  Teachers, students, Finance professionals

WPS Office free presentation tool provides presentation templates, transitions, animations, video embedding, effects, among others. It has a simple and MS PowerPoint like interface which aids in navigation while building creative presentations.

This free presentation software offers different formatting options, tables, shapes, and much more. You can also manage multiple files at once for editing.

WPS Office Features

• Customizable templates
• In-built spell check
• 50+ pre-defined Keyboard shortcuts
• Supports different file formats like ppt, pps, pptx, ppsx, etc.
• Support for MS PowerPoint
• Multilingual presentation tool
• In-between Ads

WPS Office Price to Upgrade:  It is available at a minimum price of INR 293.14 per month as a part of WPS Office Premium.

Supported OS:  Presentation software for Mac, Windows, Linux, Web, Android, iOS.

Best for:  HR, consultants, sales, and marketing professionals

Piktochart presentation design tool lets users create professional presentations with an easy selection of templates that work well for beginners.

Users can add images, charts, graphs, lists, comparisons, and more. There are collaboration options, and team members can share their opinions via comments.

Piktochart Features

• Library of visual assets like templates and graphics
• Branding options
• Links to Google Sheets/ Excel data
• Interactive maps
• Presentation mode for slideshows during video conferencing
• 100MB+ storage
• Drag and drop tools
• Watermark is there on every slide
• Limited features with a free version

Piktochart Price to Upgrade:  The premium plan starts at INR 1027.894 for every member per month.

Supported OS:  Web-based, online presentation software

Best for:  Interaction, virtual presentations

Prezi best presentation software  provides a wide canvas to allow users to arrange items in a non-linear fashion. This is well-suited to create conversational presentations. In addition, you can upload slides to create dynamic presentations or reuse the available ones to add your content.

Different areas of the canvas are joined by animated paths. Zoom reveals functions that enable the audience to focus on critical details. Users can add text, images, charts, layouts, and even slides.

Features of Prezi Presentation Software

• Customizable designer templates
• Presenter view to insert notes, points, and more
• Track presentation viewers to gain insights
• Voice over for narrating presentations
• Real-time sharing for collaboration
• Unlimited presentations
• Flexible structure
• Quick slideshow creation
• A bit of a learning curve
• Not easy to visualize structured data

Prezi Pricing:  After a 14-day free trial, pricing starts at INR 220.860 for students.

Supported OS:  Presentation software for Mac, Windows, iOS, Android 

Best for:  Collaborating through slideshows & presentations

Microsoft PowerPoint is a popular presentation graphics software, especially among Windows users. Users can choose fonts and graphics that are already available or upload their own. You can also add images, audio, videos, and transitions.

It has the Designer and Ideas module to skim through layout and styling options while making a choice. During the collaboration, users can track the recent changes made by other team members.

Microsoft PowerPoint Features

• 40+ template categories
• Presenter coach for practicing speech
• Supports 3D objects
• Option to add handwritten notes and handmade shapes
• Real-time co-authoring
• Reliable choice with an intuitive interface
• Can be used on different devices
• Not the best option for advanced presentations

Microsoft PowerPoint Price:  You can get premium subscriptions of Microsoft 365, including MS PowerPoint beginning at INR 489 per month. 

Supported OS:  Presentation software for Windows, Web, Android, iOS.

Suggested Read: Best Free Microsoft PowerPoint Alternatives

Best for:  Infographics & video presentations

Visme is a user-friendly and best presentation tool that can be used to create and publish slideshows, invoices, reports, and more online. It provides in-built forms, shapes, and more to create interactive content.

In addition, you can add infographics to engage the audience further. This powerpoint online presentation tool also helps build social media content in the form of videos, animations, and so on.

Visme Software Features

• Templates and assets like audio, images, video, icons, illustrations, etc.
• Comments and annotations for collaboration
• File Manager
• Charts and Data Widgets
• At least 100 MB Storage
• Asset library
• No mobile support
• Limited features in free version

Visme Price to Upgrade:  The pricing starts at INR 1102.950 per month when billed annually.

Supported OS:  Presentation software for Mac, Windows.

Best for:  Video-based visual communication

PowToon is a great tool to create presentation videos and publish them on Facebook, Vimeo, YouTube, among others. Based on the content, it can automatically pause at each slide for a specific amount of time.

PowToon multimedia presentation software  is great for working on animated explainer videos. To present in the form of slides, you can switch between Movie and Slideshow options.

PowToon Features

• Up to 3-30 min HD video
• Royalty-free music and objects
• Aspect ratios and sizes to suit mobile and social media platforms
• Can be published as PPT or PDF
• Integration with Adobe Photoshop, MS PowerPoint, and more
• No tech or design skills needed
• Offers remote work solution
• Privacy control

PowToon Price to Upgrade:  Pricing begins at INR 59 for students.

Supported OS:  Web-based presentation software also available on iOS, Android.

Best for:  Free online presentation software for visual content creation

Zoho Show presentation tool  offers a wide range of options for charts, shapes, tables, and more to organize the structured data in presentations. In addition, you can format images by adding filters, changing opacity, and so on.

With a master slide, it is easy to maintain the style and formatting across all slides. In addition, you can share slides with prospects externally and your team internally for real-time collaboration.

Zoho Show Features

• Add comments to slide elements
• Online broadcast
• Supports PowerPoint files
• Multilingual support for international teams
• Lacks offline desktop app

Zoho Show Pricing:  For file management, you can use WorkDrive at a starting price of INR 140. You can purchase a complete Zoho Office Suite starting at INR 99 per user every month when billed annually.

Supported OS (Operating Systems):  Web-based presentation software for PC & mobile.

Best for:  Web and mobile design app

Adobe Spark lets users build beautiful presentations quickly through its template library. Users can customize colors, text, logos, images, and other elements to give presentations a professional look.

They just have to search by different colors, tasks, aesthetics, and more. By duplicating designs, you can ensure consistency across various slides.

Adobe Spark Features

• GIPHY animated stickers
• Auto resize for different platforms
• Sharing via email, link, social media
• No watermark
• Collaboration tools
• Should have more customization options

Adobe Spark Price:  Pricing starts at INR 733.55 per month.

Supported OS:  Presentation software for PC & mobile

Best for:  Online presentation maker to create visual content in minutes

Beautiful.ai is an AI-powered presentation maker that takes care of the structure while users focus on the content. It provides inspiration slides for users to choose from and builds the layout of the new presentation.

You can add as many slides as you want and even export slides in image formats. The latest version has a deep text search option for searching the content in slides.

Beautiful.ai Presentation Features

• Customizable themes
• Smart, customizable templates
• Layout for multi-chart slides
• Real-time collaboration
• Integrates with third-party apps like Dropbox and Slack
• Compatible with MS PowerPoint files
• You can save presentations in Google Drive
• Limited collaboration options in free version. Hence, Look for the best Beautiful.ai Alternatives .

Price to Upgrade:  Pricing starts at INR 881.040 per month when billed annually.

Supported OS:  Mac & Windows

Best For: Animation videos for training and marketing

Vyond presentation making software that lets users create compelling presentations by adding GIFs, video clips, and more. Users can even replace the text with an entire presentation video.

It provides several templates, props, stock characters, among others. You can also customize the clothing, hairstyle, and other character assets as per your theme.

Vyond Features

• Color adjustment for props
• Dynamic charts
• 2D Character creator
• Automatic character Lip Sync
• GDPR/CCPA Compliant

What Users Like:

• Ease of use
• Lip sync to audio
• Ability to import assets

What Users Don’t Like:

• Sound over video without mic
• Easier library searches

Vyond Price:  It offers a 14-day free trial. Vyond price starts at INR 21953.19 per year for a single user.

Supported OS: Web (Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox)

Best for: Teachers, students

Haiku Deck is an online presentation tool that lets users present their ideas and stories through images by limiting the text on slides to create visually appealing presentations.

You can also search for and embed videos from YouTube. Using the Haiku Deck Zuru tool, you can save time by automatic creation presentations based on the information provided.

Haiku Deck Features

• 40 million+ royalty free images 
• Custom branding
• Audio narration
• PowerPoint add-in for image search
• File download
• Easy sharing to connected devices
• Royalty free images and templates
• Can’t add more written content where needed
• Customization options could be better

Haiku Deck Pricing:  It offers a 7-day free trial. The pricing for the pro version starts at INR 733.156 per month when billed annually for the pro version.

In addition, it is available at a discounted price of INR 366.211 for students, teachers, and non-profit organizations.

Supported OS: Web, iOS

Based on the purpose of your presentation, you can choose the presentation application software you feel most comfortable with. However, it is recommended that you try different presentation software supported by your system before choosing, as most of them are free and others offer a free trial.

What is the best free presentation software?

Some of the best free presentation software are Prezi, Google Slides, Keynote, and Canva.

What does presentation software do?

Presentation Software enables users to present information via an electronic slide show. Thes slides can include text, images, data charts, animation, etc.

Which presentation software is most popular?

Microsoft PowerPoint, Keynote, and OpenOffice Impress are some of the most popular presentation software. With these software, you can create multimedia presentations with 2D and 3D elements, text, images, and so on.

What is the best free presentation application?

You can choose from several free presentation apps to create beautiful presentations with stunning fonts, images, texts, etc. Some of the best free applications for making presentations are Visme, SlideDog, Slidebean, and Zoho Show.

How can I make a presentation for free?

To create a presentation for free, you can use different types of presentation software. Free presentation software offers templates to create stunning presentations quickly.

What are the free tools for presentation?

Several free tools are available for creating presentations. Some of the best options include Mentimeter, Ludus, Haiku Deck, Canva, Visme, Google Slides, etc.

What are the 4 types of presentation?

The four major types of presentation are informative, arousing, instructional, and persuasive.

What are the 3 basics of presentation?

Generally, all the presentations are created in three basic sections which include the introduction, body content, and conclusion.

What is the cost of presentation software?

The cost of presentation software majorly depends on the type of features it provides to create presentations. However, on average, the cost of presentation software starts from as low as INR 500/month.

Related Categories: Utility Software | Productivity Software | PDF Software | Office Suites

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Top 10 Free Presentation Software for 2022

April 26, 2022

by Alexandra Vazquez

In this post

• Renderforest
• Beautiful.ai
• Personify Presenter

Let me just go ahead and shaaaaare myyyy screeeeen… 

Ok great. Can everyone see this? Today, I’ll be presenting about the best free presentation software for 2022. 

We’ve all been there: struggling to put together the perfect slides for a really important meeting or school project. Bringing a visual aid to the table is necessary to keep your audience engaged. 

But finding the right place to build your presentation is challenging. Are there templates? Are there customization tools? How much is this going to cost me? 

You can use presentation software to create interactive slide decks to elevate your message. Presentation software allows users to build dynamic slides , stay brand consistent, and utilize other forms of media like images and videos. These presentations can be made even more interactive when integrated with audience response systems to construct live polls and quizzes and video conferencing software to make everything digitally seamless. 

Free trials and free basic plans make upgrading your presentations a little easier on the bank. You can start building virtual presentations, adding immersive elements like animations and live participation tools, and collecting audience analytics – without spending a dime. 

What are the best free presentation software solutions for 2022?

• DocSend 
• Powtoon 
• Vyond 
• Personify Presenter 

Best free presentation solutions

Whether you're creating an instructional onboarding deck or showing off your latest metrics in a team meeting, there is a free presentation solution to fit your needs and wants.

The list below contains real user reviews from the best presentation software category. It’s important to note that in the context of this list, vendors that offer a free trial are also considered to be free . 

To be included in this category, a software must:

• Provide tools for building presentation slides
• Offer slide templates and themes
• Utilize unique slide animations and transitions
• Allow for users to embed text, audio, images, and videos within the presentation

*This data was pulled from G2 on April 4, 2022. Some reviews may have been edited for clarity. 

DocSend by Dropbox helps companies create and maintain presentations and other important documents. DocSend’s free trial allows users to increase file security, share content within their organization, and track link analytics. 

What users like:

"DocSend is simply a better way to share content with prospective clients, from documents and presentations to video clips and proposals. Prospective clients like the organized access to relevant content. It's quickly become a critical resource for us.”

What users dislike:

“Once you erase a version, you lose all the insights on it. It would be better to have a deposit of everyone reviewing the deck or document and improved version management.”

2. Renderforest

Renderforest is an all-in-one platform that brings presentations to life with graphics, videos, and animations. A free Renderforest plan allows for unlimited mockups, access to over 200,000 stock videos, and free subdomains. 

“Renderforest is one of the best online video software for any of my video projects. Whether it’s an animation, intro project, corporate presentation, or slideshow, Renderforest gives you user-friendly templates that are customizable, and the final product is very professionally done. Since using this platform, the amount of commendation that my projects have received is overwhelming.”

- Renderforest Review , Sherdon F.

“I would like to see more templates and more flexibility in Renderforest.”

Powtoon is a visual communication platform that allows users to animate their presentations. Powtoon offers access to hundreds of presentation templates, brand-consistent slides, and shareable folders with paid options and a free plan.

“The best thing about Powtoon is the user interface. It’s super intuitive and the professionally designed template library is feature-rich with scenes, characters, props, background music, and much more.”

- Powtoon Review , Zuber A.

“The free properties are unique but very limited. It would be great if they added more.”

4. Beautiful.ai

Beautiful.ai has smart templates to make presentation building a breeze. The Beautiful.ai paid plan options include onboarding guides, collaborative workspaces, viewer analytics, and more. Their free trial lets users get a taste of everything they offer.

“Beautiful.ai makes creating presentations easy. Just finished your slide and want to add another point? Not a problem: you can easily add a bullet or object or chart, and the whole slide magically moves around and realigns for you.”

- Beautiful.ai Review , Anne-Marie M.

“There’s a small learning curve when getting started on the platform. Because the design is automated, some people have trouble with the minor limitations around customization. Be patient and explore the platform in its entirety. Eventually, you'll see that the limitations are extremely helpful in creating congruency and professionalism in your presentations.”

emaze gives users the tools they need to automate the digital presentation building process. The emaze free basic plan includes unlimited PowerPoint importation, widgets, embedding, graphs, contact lists, audience analytics, and more.

“I love the ease of use with emaze, with an added professional look with extra flair. Every template is different, and there are templates for every topic you can think of. The ease of use and editing helps from year to year when I update the same topic.”

- emaze Review , Dianna W.

“I wish there were more templates available for those who are not as creative as others. In addition, when presenting, I wish the bar at the bottom would disappear so that people can’t see how much of the presentation is left.”

RELAYTO is a document experience platform for creating immersive presentations. RELAYTO has sharing, embedding, converting, and auto-generating tools. Qualified users can enjoy these features for free.

“My experience with RELAYTO has been truly eye-opening. The ability to add depth and dimension to presentations truly elevates our status in the eyes of prospects and clients as a company that brings professionalism and real value to them. We know how great our solutions and client services are, yet using other platforms doesn't do the job of conveying that to the client as RELAYTO does.”

- RELAYTO Review , Mike R.

“I have only ever designed for print, so there's a bit of a learning curve, but their support is top-notch. You can book a consultation with an expert on how you want to use the platform. Once over that curve, the results are remarkable.”

Vyond elevates presentations with video. With Vyond, presenters can utilize video animations, character creation, and social media sharing capabilities. Users can sign up for a free trial to see if Vyond is the right fit. 

“Vyond is really easy to learn, making it a great tool for our onboarding team members to learn and use right away. There is a low barrier for entry for new users, so we can rely on Vyond as a useful and result-oriented tool that our new team members can start using right away.”

- Vyond Review , Samantha L. 

“The objects available in the Vyond library are not fully customizable, plus the library is small. You may not always be able to find what you’re looking for. Adding a feature in which users can customize those objects would be a solution to this.”

Knovio is a smart platform for creating on-demand videos and presentations. It offers tools for adding video and audio narration to presentation slides, sharing content collections, and analyzing viewer engagement. The free lite version of Knovio lets users test drive some of these features. 

“Knovio has come quite a long way since I first used it. I love how responsive the company has been to improvement suggestions. I also love that you can edit your recording and replace slides.”

“The analytics are powerful; however, I feel creating custom reports could be improved.”

- Knovio Review , Tim D.

9. Mentimeter

Mentimeter is an audience engagement platform with tools to build interactive presentations, compile data from live polls, and collect insights about user participation. The Mentimeter free plan offers unlimited audiences and presentations. 

“Any presentation created with Mentimeter looks professional and presentable. Mentimeter takes care of the design aspect for you. It's straightforward and extremely easy to use. It's also flexible - I've used Mentimeter for live surveys, quizzes, and training. They've got excellent customer support, too. ”

- Mentimeter Review , Haley S.

“At times, Mentimeter can feel a bit overly simplistic or repetitive. Most Mentimeter presentations tend to look very similar, and the engagement tools are limited to a degree.”

10. Personify Presenter

Personify Presenter is an online platform for integrating audio and video into presentations. It offers tools for recording, live editing, file uploading, and writing for seamless presenting. A 30-day free trial lets users give Presenter a try.

“It’s one of the best presenter tools for business presentations. It consists of preset themes and fonts. It also has a library of images and GIFs which can be added to the slides. The notes function only displays to the presenter of the slides which helps them recall the content if necessary.”

- Personify Presenter Review , Kumar A.

“It doesn't recognize boundaries too well, and the video resolution is a little low compared to HD.”

Next slide, please!

Before you deliver project metrics or show your students what the lesson has in store for them today, consider whether automating your presentation could boost the message. No matter your skill level, presentation software gives you the tools you need to create a unique presentation experience and upgrade the way you share. 

If you have any questions, make sure to drop them in the chat.   

Ready to unmute and wow your audience? Find out how you can elevate a virtual presentation and bring your content to life.

The (slide) show must go on!

Create interactive slides, embed multimedia, utilize smart templates, and improve participation in a new way with presentation software.

Alexandra Vazquez is a Senior Content Marketing Specialist at G2. She received her Business Administration degree from Florida International University and is a published playwright. Alexandra's expertise lies in writing for the Supply Chain and Commerce personas, with articles focusing on topics such as demand planning, inventory management, consumer behavior, and business forecasting. In her spare time, she enjoys collecting board games, playing karaoke, and watching trashy reality TV.

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The 10 Best Presentation Tools for Students in 2023

Presentation tools for students have come a long way.

Students have access to all sorts of digital presentation tools, from legacy slide-based tools like PowerPoint to truly inventive and experimental new formats that incorporate live and prerecorded video and audio. The rise in virtual, hybrid, and flipped classrooms has made the need for education-focused online presentation tools for students all the greater.

Wondering which tools will help your students create the best presentations? We’ve shown you tools before, like 20 classroom technology tools you may not know , but many of those were teacher-focused. Here are 10 of the best student presentation tools your kiddos can use in 2023. And listen to this episode of EdTech Heroes with Sultan Rana to see how you can revolutionize presentations for students this year!

Importance of students learning to use a range of presentation tech tools 🎬

Before we get into this list, it’s fair to ask: Is it really all that important for students to get comfortable using technology-based presentation tools? 🤔

We believe the answer is an emphatic “Yes!”

The modern world we live in already depends on all sorts of tech and that dependence will only increase. Today’s students are tomorrow’s adults, and it’s vital they develop media literacy skills now. This is behind the push for digital citizenship , or teaching children to use tech safely and responsibly so they can effectively participate in society in the future.  

Many students are already comfortable navigating smartphone apps, video games, smart TVs, and social media. But throw a PowerPoint or other business tool in front of them, and it’s another story. They aren’t technology averse. But neither are they automatically comfortable with all the different software and user interfaces that they’ll encounter in the professional and business world.

As the world grows more technologically complex 🤖, the professionals of tomorrow need exposure today to the language of technology. 

By engaging with a range of presentation tools — along with edtech tools like Google Classroom and other LMS platforms — students gain a more well-rounded understanding of how to interact with productivity-oriented tech. They learn how to communicate their ideas and collaborate across physical and virtual spaces with ease. 

With that question answered, let’s jump into the top 10 student presentation tools that will support your students’ tech skills and overall growth. 

1. Screencastify Submit

Screencastify Submit does many things. It allows teachers to create presentation assignments for students. It also allows students to easily record and submit these short video assignments on any device. It’s a great way to practice giving live presentations without the pressure of an audience, plus it helps students gain skills with talking and presenting on camera. 🎥

Another advantage for students: Students can practice their presentation skills and wait to submit until they’ve recorded their favorite take. 

Screencastify Submit is simple because it’s designed to be a secure, closed system between teachers and students. However, the broader Screencastify suite — one of the top Google Chrome extensions for educators and students — has plenty of integrations with popular LMSes and edtech platforms. 

2. PowerPoint and Google Slides

Two of the classic slide-building apps, PowerPoint and Google Slides feel very traditional compared to many of the other tools listed here. Still, both apps are easy introductions to the concept of creating basic 2D designs and visually appealing presentations. PowerPoint Presentations and Google Slides allow students to create slideshow content with transitions, animations, multiple slide layouts, and more.

These presentation software solutions help students prioritize the information that’s most useful to their audience and hone the ability to present that material in a visually engaging way. They can also be used in conjunction with screencasting or screen sharing to present in a more live or interactive manner.

These apps are both widespread and integrate seamlessly with a variety of tools. For Apple users, Keynote is another option in this same style, but it’s limited to only macOS and iOS, making it less widely adopted.

Note that Google Slides is free for everyone with a Gmail account, but PowerPoint requires an individual subscription or a school-wide license.

3. Prezi Next

The original Prezi was like a cooler, snappier version of PowerPoint. It did away with the feeling that every slide was a static rectangular image and let users create presentations that felt more like unique little worlds 🌍  than like conference room snooze-fests 😴 .

Unfortunately, it was built on Adobe Flash, which is dead and gone .

Prezi Next is the new generation of Prezi, built fresh in HTML5. It keeps the feel of the original and enables students to produce creative, imaginative presentations full of both whimsy and functionality. Templates in Prezi Next allow students to be creative, detailed, and look great in the process.

Prezi also integrates with major video conferencing apps like Google Meet and Zoom, allowing students to present their Prezi live. 

4. Haiku Deck

Haiku Deck is another slide-based presentation app. It’s entirely cloud-based, meaning you can access Haiku Deck from the web. The big differentiator with Haiku Deck is its automated image search. The app intelligently analyzes the text that your students add to their slides, then it suggests photos and slide designs that make sense for that text.

Haiku Deck gives users access to over 40 million royalty-free images (meaning no more watermarks or pixelated backgrounds) and includes dozens of themes designed by pros, complete with complementary fonts picked out for each one.

Haiku Deck is mostly a standalone tool. So, while you don’t get deep integrations with other tools, you might not really need them.

Related: Learn about the best tools for student engagement in this episode of EdTech Heroes !

5. Pear Deck

Before they ever explain what Pear Deck is, the team behind Pear Deck points to research showing that learning has both social, emotional and academic components and goes into great detail about the research-backed instructional strategies that the platform supports.

So, this tool comes from a team that’s dedicated to improving educational outcomes for all kinds of learners. But what does it do, exactly?

Essentially, Pear Deck operates as an add-on to Google Slides or PowerPoint and allows you to turn those static presentation tools into dynamic, interactive educational experiences. You can embed quizzes, tutorials, and other interactive content and see student responses in real time.

Although it’s aimed at teachers, it can be used by students to enhance their own presentations with engaging content like Q&A or audio and video, and gives them more creative freedom. 

Sutori is a tool that’s purpose built to help students create timelines and roadmaps and tell stories. It’s simple and streamlined, making it easy for students of all ages to use. Students can even embed media on their Sutori timelines, and Sutori is easy to use online and via remote learning.

Sutori’s timeline focus makes it perfect for social studies or history and any other linear, time-based lessons. The company also lists use cases for English, Language, Arts, and STEM teachers. It’s a great tool for fostering multimedia collaboration, critical thinking (via both primary and secondary sources), and research skills.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words 📸, and if that’s true, how much more is an infographic worth? A lot, when it comes to the classroom. Infographics are great storytelling tools, not to mention visual aids. The trouble is that making great infographics from scratch have required graphic design skills🧑‍💻  — until tools like Easelly.

Easelly lets anyone make quality infographics in a wide range of styles. Students can better visualize data and content, which is great both for their own critical thinking and logic skills as well as their public presentation skills.

Easelly includes numerous templates that make it easy to transform content from dry text and statistics into beautiful infographics.

Easelly doesn’t directly integrate with other tools, but infographics created in Easelly can easily (hence the name) be exported to other tools to be shared or presented.

8. Glogster

Glogster is a tool for creating multimedia posters that can include 3D elements. Students can embed a wide range of media into a Glogster, including screencast videos, graphics, images, audio, and even 3D and VR objects.

Glogster is somewhat like an oversized poster board to make a class project or report, but also interactive and zoomable. It’s a digital canvas that makes just about anything visual possible, all within one space.

Students can practice their visual storytelling skills and get comfortable navigating and embedding multiple media types with Glogster.

9. VoiceThread

VoiceThread is a unique tool that lets users collaborate and discuss just about anything: videos, images, documents and more using features like annotations, highlights, pausing, zooming. It’s essentially a media-focused video chat tool.

In the K-12 landscape, VoiceThread is great for students who want to share a specific media file with others and collaborate either in discussion or in a Q&A after a presentation. Viewers can add video comments and questions directly to a presentation, giving a more personal level of engagement especially for fully remote classrooms. Students can develop great conversational and presentation skills using VoiceThread, too.

Miro is a visual collaboration tool designed primarily for teams to get work done. In other words, it’s a business-focused digital whiteboard tool that has a lot of value for classrooms too. 

Students (and teachers) can use it for idea mapping 🗺, brainstorming, creating workflows or diagrams, and all sorts of other visual collaboration and presentation needs. 

It’s great for group projects where students might want to get a bunch of ideas mapped out prior to creating their polished presentation in another tool. Miro also has some effective templates that can help students work quickly.

Because it’s a business tool, Miro has all kinds of integrations with all the top business apps. Some of these are useful in education, such as Zoom, Google drive, and Microsoft Teams integrations.

Find out why students and teachers love Screencastify 🍎 

Screencastify is fantastic for any teacher who needs to create screencast videos quickly and easily. But it’s great for students, too! 

Students can use Screencastify Submit to easily create video responses to their teachers’ assignments, using the desktop, laptop, or mobile device they have at home. Older students can even use Screencastify themselves to create their own screencast presentations for virtual reports, class presentations, and more.

Click to learn more about what Screencastify can do for educators and students alike.

Helping educators accomplish more, create visible success and inspire new ways of teaching.

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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Best Interactive Presentation Tools for Teachers and Students

By Med Kharbach, PhD | Last Update: March 23, 2024

The purpose of today’s post is to share with you some of the best interactive presentation tools you can use to create engaging presentations without the need for any graphic design knowledge. All of these platforms offer pre-designed customizable presentation templates that you can easily edit and personalize to your preference.

Almost, all of these tools include integrated libraries where you can search for and use stock images and multimedia materials. They also empower you with a wide variety of helpful features including collaborative ones enabling you to invite team members and work collaboratively on the same presentation.  

While some of the featured presentation tools below provide interactive features, there is always the possibility to make your presentations super interactive using tools that are designed specifically for that purpose.

I have already reviewed some of  engagement-promoting applications that teachers and educators can implement to turn their presentations into lively dialogic hubs using live polls, Q&A, questionnaires, word clouds, and quizzes. These engagement tools are perfect to integrate with the presentations tools below. 

Interactive Presentation Tools

Check out our picks for best interactive presentation tools:

1. Google Slides

Google Slides is another good presentation tool I recommend for teachers and educators. It  offers a wide variety of powerful features, all for free. Besides the basic things that you can do on any editor (e.g., insert images, add text and shapes, change colour, etc), Google Slides also offers collaborative features that enable team members to collaborate on the same presentation in real time.

Collaborators can insert comments and chat with those who are viewing the presentation. As the owner of the presentation, you can always keep track of changes made to the presentation and at any time reverse to earlier versions. 

Presentations you create via Google Slides can be downloaded in different formats including Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe PDF. They can also be emailed, published online as a webpage or be embedded in a website or blog. When you share your presentation with others you get to control what they can do (e.g., editor, commenter, or viewer). 

3- Flipsnack

Flipsnack is an interactive presentation maker that allows users to create and share animated presentations with a realistic 3D page flip effect. This software allows you to either create from scratch your presentation or you can simply pick one of the fully-customizable templates available in the built-in library and adjust it to your own taste and needs.

In terms of customization, Flipsnack comes equipped with a large variety of interactive elements, such as photo-slideshows; GIFs; audio and video elements; social media buttons, and map embedding.

Flipsnack also offers multiple download options, so you can download your presentation as HTML5; web PDF; PDF for print; GIF; PNG; JPEG, and MP4, or just share it online with your target audience. Check out Flipsnack’ s teacher review to learn more about this platform.

4. Haiku Deck

Haiku Deck is another powerful presentation making tool for teachers. It works on the web, iPad, and iPhone. Some of the interesting features it offers include over 40 million  free Creative Commons licensed images to use in your slides together with the ability to upload and add your own images, access to a huge collection of layouts and fonts, tons of professionally designed templates to choose from, seamless and real time syncing between the web and mobile apps, and many more.

Another interesting functionality provided by Haiku Deck is the ability to use your phone as a teleprompter allowing you to turn it to a remote in presentation mode. When it comes to sharing your Haiku Deck presentations you have various options to choose from including the ability to share decks through email, on social media, present decks on a projector, embed or export decks to PowerPoint or Keynote, download as PDF, and more.

Haiku Deck has a special version for the education community called Haiku Deck Classroom. Teachers use it to help students create  engaging presentations and showcase their learning.

Some of the features it provides includes advanced privacy settings for the class, YouTube embeds, presentation audio, save to video, broadcast presentations to the entire class, and many more. Haiku Deck Classroom costs $99/year for a single teacher and 150 students.

Visme is another good presentation tool to consider. It offers a number of key features including real-time collaboration, beautiful pre-designed templates and pitch decks, tons of free stock images and icons, interactive maps, over 50 charts and graphs, mind maps, and many more.

You can either start creating your presentation from Scratch or choose from the collections of ready-made templates. Customize the presentation to your own needs and when you are done present and share with others. 

Using Visme’s Presenter Studio, you can easily record your screen (audio and video or audio only) and share it asynchronously with others. Other interesting features provided include the ability to import and export Microsoft PowerPoint as editable presentations, access to 125 fonts, create processes and workflows using tables and diagrams, create your own library of icons and PDFs for future presentations, and more.

6. Piktochart

Piktochart is probably one of the best alternatives to Canva and Visme. It is ideal for creating different types of visual content including presentations, posters, infographics, flyers, videos, and many more. The templates library features a huge selection of customizable presentation templates including a section specifically for education. 

Piktochart also offers real-time collaborative features allowing users to co-create presentations. Other interesting features provided by Piktochart include the ability to upload your fonts, design custom colour palette, access stock photos or upload your own, add interactive maps to your presentations, present online or download your presentation in .ppt or PDF format, and many more. 

7. Online whiteboard tools

While they are not presentation tools in the conventional sense of the word, online whiteboarding tools can also be used for creating and sharing presentations. They are especially ideal for teamwork collaboration.

They enable you to work together, brainstorm ideas, organize throughs and communicate complex data in visually engaging formats. Some of my favourite online whiteboards include Google Jamboard, Lucidspark, and Conceptboard. For more details about each of these platforms check out   best visual collaboration tools for teachers .

8-  Canva Presentation

Canva, the popular design platform, is one of my favourite presentation tools out there. The site features a huge library of beautifully designed templates and offers tons of features and multiple presentation modes.

Here is how to make a presentation on Canva: head over to Canva and type ‘Presentation’ in the search box. Browse through the pre-made presentation templates. You can filter your search by theme and style. 

The Education section embeds a wide range of awesome templates created specifically for the education community. Once you find the template you are interested in, click to open  it in Canva editor where you can start editing it the way you like.

You can add photos, GIFs, insert videos and music, add shapes and fonts,  etc. Use animations to add a creative effect to your slides. Once your presentation is ready you can choose among various presentation modes.

“Choose from standard presentation, presenter mode, video recording. Or, on bad hair days, choose an audio-only video presentation mode. Save your slides as a PDF for handouts, export them as PowerPoint .pptx files, or turn them into an interactive website!”

Canva also offers collaborative features that allow you to invite your team members to help with the creation of your presentation. “To create a team, simply choose those who you would like to collaborate with and once the invitation is accepted you can instantly start creating your presentation together. Play with illustrations, colours, leave comments, and resolve suggestions all within the Canva editor. Teamwork is made easier with Canva’s presentation tool”.

Canva for Education  is a version created especially for us in education and offers special pricing and features. Check it out to learn more.

Final thoughts

Today’s post highlights a suite of interactive presentation tools that are transforming the way educators and students create and share content, all without the need for extensive design skills. With user-friendly interfaces and a multitude of customizable templates, these tools open up a world of creativity and collaboration.

They come packed with features like stock image libraries and multimedia integration, elevating presentations from static slides to engaging stories. Tools like Google Slides and Canva cater to real-time teamwork, while Haiku Deck and Visme offer unique ways to animate ideas. For those seeking to make their presentations even more dynamic, integrating live polls, Q&As, and quizzes can turn a simple lecture into an interactive learning session.

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Meet Med Kharbach, PhD

Dr. Med Kharbach is an influential voice in the global educational technology landscape, with an extensive background in educational studies and a decade-long experience as a K-12 teacher. Holding a Ph.D. from Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Canada, he brings a unique perspective to the educational world by integrating his profound academic knowledge with his hands-on teaching experience. Dr. Kharbach's academic pursuits encompass curriculum studies, discourse analysis, language learning/teaching, language and identity, emerging literacies, educational technology, and research methodologies. His work has been presented at numerous national and international conferences and published in various esteemed academic journals.

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The only presentation tool for students.

Beautiful.ai helps you and your entire class create modern presentations with ease. We believe that design and education should be accessible to everyone, so we’re excited to offer students a free annual Pro subscription. Simply verify your .edu account and we’ll send you a confirmation email with your coupon code. See offer details

How it works

Get a jumpstart every time.

Our inspiration gallery has hundreds of pre-designed templates so you never have to stare at a blank slide again.

No design skills necessary

Our product has been taught rules of good design. As you add content, your slides automatically adapt by using our AI slide creator technology.

Collaborate without constraints

Class projects are now a breeze. Create and edit your slides in real-time - you never have to wait for a revised presentation because it’s in the cloud.

Sharing in 3,2,1

Simply email a link to your presentation, embed it on a website, or share out on social media.

The secret weapon of leading institutions

Crush classroom presentations

Get a jumpstart on your academic research, homework, or thesis presentation with one of our pre-built templates crafted by academic experts.

Scale student projects

Get the tools you need to tell compelling stories and realize creative presentation ideas that will take you to the top of the class.

Nail remote collaboration

Our advanced collaboration tools let you invite classmates with one click. Everything’s on the cloud, so everyone’s always working on the same deck, in real time.

Start with a template

Check out our curated pitch deck templates to help jump-start your next presentation. Each template is ready to use, fully customizable, and easy-to-edit in just a few clicks. ‍ View All Templates

Why Beautiful.ai for classrooms?

• The product is the designer so you don’t have to be. Our AI presentation tools help you tell your story, beautifully.
• Create unique and engaging materials with animations, custom icons, photos, and more.
• Build interactive presentations and assignments and share via a link, website in just a few clicks.
• Record voice overs to classroom presentations to give yourself a break during long class periods.

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Students with a verified .edu email account are eligible for a free annual Pro subscription (up to 12 months). 

If I’m an existing Pro subscriber, can I get the discount? 

This discount is only available for new first time student subscribers.

How do I get my Education discount? 

To apply for the Education discount, head over to beautiful.ai/education and fill put our application form. Once your email is verified, you will automatically be upgraded to the Education plan. 

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To verify your email, head to Beautiful.ai/education and select the Verify your .EDU Account button. All school domains are eligible.

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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. 

Best presentation tools for teachers and students

According to UNESCO , over one-billion students have been affected by educational closure worldwide. Virtual classrooms are making it into daily reality for teachers and students everywhere: From kindergarten to doctoral programs. 

Is there a presentation software designed with virtual education in mind? Here’s a summary of some of the best presentation software for teachers and students to save your day.

What can be better than presentation software that quickens how we come up with stunning presentations? It was about time artificial intelligence eased even educational presentations! 

The most significant advantage of using Slidebean for educational purposes is that neither students nor professors need to spend much time putting highly attractive presentations together. 

With a wide range of academic presentation templates and a tool that separates content from design, the app has earned excellent user reviews with tons of time spared per presentation.  

Aside from speed, Slidebean has many great tools that enhance a user’s experience. 

For instance, you can collaborate with others on the same presentation online. You can work efficiently on Slidebean by hosting presentations in a cloud without a need for download, or adequately generate PDFs in case you need them. 

Another great feature is how you can just share a presentation or access it online via a link. There’s no need for email attachments or large document uploads. And people just need to have internet access to see it.

Ease such as above helps move our focus to the educational content and its delivery. With a slide that impresses in terms of design, teachers can work on presentation skills. And students can feel at ease that the slide won’t fail as they deliver that speech learned by heart. 

Great design also keeps audiences engaged. And Slidebean easily allows content to be shared out of platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo, GIFs, and many more! This all makes presentations a lot more fun and compelling.  

Moreover, Slidebean offers a 50% discount for verified .edu email accounts . It’s valid up to 3 years from the plan’s activation. Check it out to find out more!

Try Slidebean for Free

Apple Keynote

Anyone on the go who needs to start a presentation on their computer and then continue it on their Apple devices can find a simple presentation option in Apple Keynote. It’s a bit easier to use than the legendary PowerPoint. It’s available for PC and Chromebook users, as well. However, the main gain for iOS devices is how you can completely modify presentations and create content on the iPad and iPhone app versions. And we should add how you can synchronize on any iOS device as you wish. 

Keynote saves presentations automatically, and the platform’s really intuitive. Also, to spare upon how much you learn by heart, notes can be a helpful trick that you add to every slide. 

Try Keynote

We move on to Canva as a part of the best presentation software for teachers and students because it’s a great tool in terms of all of the design possibilities it offers. Canva works on different free or paid options. Either come with all kinds of shapes, elements, images, fonts, backgrounds, and other choices that let you customize slides to the fullest. The difference is only which you can access for free and which are paid.  

There’s an app available for mobile phones, and you can also access it on a computer. It comes with templates for calendars, posters, and presentations. Still, it moreover works on creating designs in specific sizes to fit various social media platforms. Overall, it’s very flexible and creative.

VoiceThread

VoiceThread is another excellent tool, thanks to its versatility. A paid educator license gives access to creating student accounts. Once done, users can customize a class page, for instance. And there are other little features like this one that help in academic settings. 

Students can create all kinds of multimedia projects using VoiceThread, for example. They can create video or voice narrations to go with the slides. 

The downside is it does take a lot of bandwidth to achieve this. There are too many functions to keep running at once. But if the integration of many features at once stirs creativity in fruitful ways and you’re on a very stable broadband connection, then VoiceThread might be a desirable option to try out, as well. 

Google Slides

Google! The way Google focuses on online software makes it gain a spot in the best presentation software for teachers and students. What we know this search engine for the most has been built into the presentation platform. On Google Slides, you can use an integrated search tool to continue your research as you work on your slides. Isn’t that great? It helps scout for images and videos, too, as you work on your slide design. 

The app is also cloud-based, which means there’s no need to download anything to use this free platform. For those on limited access, though, you can equally turn on offline accessibility provided you have Gmail account availability. 

If images are what draw you to create compelling presentations, access millions of free ones with filters you can add via Haiku Deck. Designers made this one up, just like our own, and the free trial version lets you create minimalist presentations just fine. The plus to that is how you center on keeping presentations clean of too many ideas at once. And prompts will help presenters, yet teachers, especially. 

Stay focused

We hope either of the options in this list of the best presentation software for teachers and students gets your creative juices flowing in a way that results in highly engaging presentations. 

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15 Free Presentation Software for Students, Professionals, & Teachers

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Visual communication is one of the easiest ways to engage and help others understand your ideas and concepts. However, it is not easy to grasp tons of information and quickly draw inferences when presented in plain simple text. Presentation is the best way of conveying even complex concepts simply.

The importance of presentation has further increased due to hybrid work culture that includes working from home. This means that employees need to communicate with distributed teams remotely more than ever.

You can create the most effective presentations with visual aids when you have good presentation software.

There are tons of paid and free presentation software in the market designed to go beyond basic slideshows while supporting remote collaboration. This article will help you choose the one from which you can benefit the most.

What Is Presentation Software?

Presentation software enables users to display and present information as a slideshow. Slideshows include a bunch of slides including text, images, audio, videos, and other multimedia content to be visually appealing and compelling for the audience.

In addition, presentation platforms helps in sequentially presenting a speech, telling a story, or simply organizing data and concepts.

What is the Use of Presentation Software?

Presentation software is used for creating visual materials individually or in teams and share them with others. Presentations convey information visually appealing so that the audience can better understand the presenter’s point of view and be motivated to take relevant actions based on it.

Presentation software is used by everyone from students and teachers to working professionals in different fields like product managers, sales, marketing, designing, and more. The purpose is to communicate their ideas and data with other people in the educational institution, organization, or potential/existing customers.

What Makes a Best Presentation Software?

A great presentation making software must fulfil these parameters:  

Easy to use: The navigation must be simple with user-friendly features. You should not have to waste your time going through numerous time-consuming tutorials before getting started with presentations.

Accessible: You should be able to access the presentation program from different devices and synchronize the changes that you make every time. It should allow you to work on the go. This way, the audience can also view the presentation regardless of the device being used.

Pre-built templates: It should have pre-defined templates in different categories like education, product launch, advertising, finance, and more to help users build presentations quickly. As a result, users, especially beginners, can focus on the content.

Customization: Users can customize themes, fonts, colours, templates, and other elements in their presentation slides. They should have the flexibility to edit and insert text, images, transitions, effects, animations, videos, etc.

Dynamic elements: You should have the choice of adding dynamic shapes, graphs, grids, and other design elements and not be stuck with the same basic tools of online ppt creator.

Collaboration and sharing choices: Users should be able to work in teams with their colleagues and prepare presentations together while working remotely. Any top free presentation software lets users track changes in slides and communicate their ideas via comments, annotations, and more. Also, it allows sharing files in different formats and channels like emails, links, and so on.

Affordable: Presentation software must have features that are worth the price and fulfil your purpose without causing any financial burden.

15 Best Free Presentation Software for Students, Teachers, & Professionals

Google slides, libreoffice, microsoft powerpoint, adobe spark, beautiful.ai.

Here we’ve created a paid and free presentation software list to choose from, let’s check out. 

Best for:  Online presentations with multiple themes, fonts & animations

Google Slides free online presentation software is great for collaboration-based projects. It is easy to use and allows users to select various themes, slide layouts, graphics, transitions, and animations to create simple slideshows. You can also create diagrams, add text and videos.

Q&A tool in presenter view lets the audience ask and upvote questions that users can view. Teams can add details, comments, and notes to the slides. It is easy to track these changes from the detailed log.

Google Slides Features

• Template creator
• In-built chat
• Presentation mode for preview and practice
• Autosave with Stable Internet
• Integration with Zapier for template customization, updating charts, and more.

What Users Like

• Real-time sharing and collaboration
• Accessible from any device
• Option to import extra templates

What Users Don’t Like

• Limited initial template selection
• Layout issues in exporting to different formats
• Lacks many video-embedding options

Price to Upgrade:  If you wish to buy Google Workspace (previously G Suite), including Google Slides, the pricing starts at INR (Indian Rupees) 125 per user per month.

Supported OS:  Web, iOS, Android

Best for:  Best presentation app for iPhone, Mac & Windows users

Keynote by Apple is a best app for making presentation. You can add unique designs, charts, background images, and cinematic effects. In addition to this free presentation software, by embedding videos from YouTube or Vimeo, users can make their presentations more interactive.

You can also try different textures, colour gradients, and photos. Illustrations and diagrams can be created with Apple Pencil.

Apple Keynote Presentation Features

• 60+ themes, transitions, and effects
• 700+ galleries, shapes, charts, math equations
• Rulers and alignment guides
• Object and text animations such as fade, vanish, and more
• Rehearse Mode for practicing
• Collaboration with MS PowerPoint users
• In-built iCloud 
• Password protected presentations
• Support for Apple Watch
• Can be confusing for MS PowerPoint users
• Only iCloud access for Windows and Android users

Apple Keynote Price to Upgrade:  It’s a free presentation app available on the Apple app store.

Supported OS:  Presentation app for macOS, iOS, Windows

Best for:  Free presentation templates

Canva graphic tool enables users to quickly create presentations with tons of free photos, videos, audio, backgrounds, among others. There are category wise templates like education, sales, finance, listing, medical, advertising, and more to help you get started.

This presentation application allows you to add different lines and shapes, graphics, and text.

Canva Features

• 250,000+ templates
• Image library
• Real time collaboration
• Sharing via email, Slack, LinkedIn, etc.
• 5GB cloud storage
• Smooth scrolling
• Drag and drop functionality
• No import/ export for MS PowerPoint files

Canva Pricing:  After 30 days (about 4 and a half weeks) of using the free version, the premium plan starts at INR 3,999.00 per year for up to 5 people. | You can also consider looking at the next best alternatives of Canva .

Supported OS:  Presentation software for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS

Best for:  Teachers, students

Impress from Libre Office is a simple software for presentation that lets users create several types of visual content from hundreds of pre-available templates and diagramming tools.

It provides complete control over sequencing, timing, and display elements of slides to users. You can further add animations, effects, 3D scenes, and more.

Libre Office Features

• Manual/ timed transitions
• View/ Editing modes like Handout, Outline, etc.
• Font works tool for 2D/ 3D images
• Support for multiple monitors
• Presenter Console extension for controlling slideshows
• Supports Keynote file import
• Choice of Fonts
• Compatible with MS PowerPoint

What Users Don’t Lik

• Lacks collaboration tools

LibreOffice Pricing:  Libre Office is free presentation software.

Supported OS:  Presentation software for Linux, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, Pebble.

Best for:  Teachers, students, Finance professionals

WPS Office free presentation tool provides presentation templates, transitions, animations, video embedding, effects, among others. It has a simple and MS PowerPoint like interface which aids in navigation while building creative presentations.

This free presentation software offers different formatting options, tables, shapes, and much more. You can also manage multiple files at once for editing.

WPS Office Features

• Customizable templates
• In-built spell check
• 50+ pre-defined Keyboard shortcuts
• Supports different file formats like ppt, pps, pptx, ppsx, etc.
• Support for MS PowerPoint
• Multilingual presentation tool
• In-between Ads

WPS Office Price to Upgrade:  It is available at a minimum price of INR 293.14 per month as a part of WPS Office Premium.

Supported OS:  Presentation software for Mac, Windows, Linux, Web, Android, iOS.

Best for:  HR, consultants, sales, and marketing professionals

Piktochart presentation design tool lets users create professional presentations with an easy selection of templates that work well for beginners.

Users can add images, charts, graphs, lists, comparisons, and more. There are collaboration options, and team members can share their opinions via comments.

Piktochart Features

• Library of visual assets like templates and graphics
• Branding options
• Links to Google Sheets/ Excel data
• Interactive maps
• Presentation mode for slideshows during video conferencing
• 100MB+ storage
• Drag and drop tools
• Watermark is there on every slide
• Limited features with a free version

Piktochart Price to Upgrade:  The premium plan starts at INR 1027.894 for every member per month.

Supported OS:  Web-based, online presentation software

Best for:  Interaction, virtual presentations

Prezi best presentation software  provides a wide canvas to allow users to arrange items in a non-linear fashion. This is well-suited to create conversational presentations. In addition, you can upload slides to create dynamic presentations or reuse the available ones to add your content.

Different areas of the canvas are joined by animated paths. Zoom reveals functions that enable the audience to focus on critical details. Users can add text, images, charts, layouts, and even slides.

Features of Prezi Presentation Software

• Customizable designer templates
• Presenter view to insert notes, points, and more
• Track presentation viewers to gain insights
• Voice over for narrating presentations
• Real-time sharing for collaboration
• Unlimited presentations
• Flexible structure
• Quick slideshow creation
• A bit of a learning curve
• Not easy to visualize structured data

Prezi Pricing:  After a 14-day free trial, pricing starts at INR 220.860 for students.

Supported OS:  Presentation software for Mac, Windows, iOS, Android 

Best for:  Collaborating through slideshows & presentations

Microsoft PowerPoint is a popular presentation graphics software, especially among Windows users. Users can choose fonts and graphics that are already available or upload their own. You can also add images, audio, videos, and transitions.

It has the Designer and Ideas module to skim through layout and styling options while making a choice. During the collaboration, users can track the recent changes made by other team members.

Microsoft PowerPoint Features

• 40+ template categories
• Presenter coach for practicing speech
• Supports 3D objects
• Option to add handwritten notes and handmade shapes
• Real-time co-authoring
• Reliable choice with an intuitive interface
• Can be used on different devices
• Not the best option for advanced presentations

Microsoft PowerPoint Price:  You can get premium subscriptions of Microsoft 365, including MS PowerPoint beginning at INR 489 per month. 

Supported OS:  Presentation software for Windows, Web, Android, iOS.

Suggested Read: Best Free Microsoft PowerPoint Alternatives

Best for:  Infographics & video presentations

Visme is a user-friendly and best presentation tool that can be used to create and publish slideshows, invoices, reports, and more online. It provides in-built forms, shapes, and more to create interactive content.

In addition, you can add infographics to engage the audience further. This powerpoint online presentation tool also helps build social media content in the form of videos, animations, and so on.

Visme Software Features

• Templates and assets like audio, images, video, icons, illustrations, etc.
• Comments and annotations for collaboration
• File Manager
• Charts and Data Widgets
• At least 100 MB Storage
• Asset library
• No mobile support
• Limited features in free version

Visme Price to Upgrade:  The pricing starts at INR 1102.950 per month when billed annually.

Supported OS:  Presentation software for Mac, Windows.

Best for:  Video-based visual communication

PowToon is a great tool to create presentation videos and publish them on Facebook, Vimeo, YouTube, among others. Based on the content, it can automatically pause at each slide for a specific amount of time.

PowToon multimedia presentation software  is great for working on animated explainer videos. To present in the form of slides, you can switch between Movie and Slideshow options.

PowToon Features

• Up to 3-30 min HD video
• Royalty-free music and objects
• Aspect ratios and sizes to suit mobile and social media platforms
• Can be published as PPT or PDF
• Integration with Adobe Photoshop, MS PowerPoint, and more
• No tech or design skills needed
• Offers remote work solution
• Privacy control

PowToon Price to Upgrade:  Pricing begins at INR 59 for students.

Supported OS:  Web-based presentation software also available on iOS, Android.

Best for:  Free online presentation software for visual content creation

Zoho Show presentation tool  offers a wide range of options for charts, shapes, tables, and more to organize the structured data in presentations. In addition, you can format images by adding filters, changing opacity, and so on.

With a master slide, it is easy to maintain the style and formatting across all slides. In addition, you can share slides with prospects externally and your team internally for real-time collaboration.

Zoho Show Features

• Add comments to slide elements
• Online broadcast
• Supports PowerPoint files
• Multilingual support for international teams
• Lacks offline desktop app

Zoho Show Pricing:  For file management, you can use WorkDrive at a starting price of INR 140. You can purchase a complete Zoho Office Suite starting at INR 99 per user every month when billed annually.

Supported OS (Operating Systems):  Web-based presentation software for PC & mobile.

Best for:  Web and mobile design app

Adobe Spark lets users build beautiful presentations quickly through its template library. Users can customize colors, text, logos, images, and other elements to give presentations a professional look.

They just have to search by different colors, tasks, aesthetics, and more. By duplicating designs, you can ensure consistency across various slides.

Adobe Spark Features

• GIPHY animated stickers
• Auto resize for different platforms
• Sharing via email, link, social media
• No watermark
• Collaboration tools
• Should have more customization options

Adobe Spark Price:  Pricing starts at INR 733.55 per month.

Supported OS:  Presentation software for PC & mobile

Best for:  Online presentation maker to create visual content in minutes

Beautiful.ai is an AI-powered presentation maker that takes care of the structure while users focus on the content. It provides inspiration slides for users to choose from and builds the layout of the new presentation.

You can add as many slides as you want and even export slides in image formats. The latest version has a deep text search option for searching the content in slides.

Beautiful.ai Presentation Features

• Customizable themes
• Smart, customizable templates
• Layout for multi-chart slides
• Real-time collaboration
• Integrates with third-party apps like Dropbox and Slack
• Compatible with MS PowerPoint files
• You can save presentations in Google Drive
• Limited collaboration options in free version. Hence, Look for the best Beautiful.ai Alternatives .

Price to Upgrade:  Pricing starts at INR 881.040 per month when billed annually.

Supported OS:  Mac & Windows

Best For: Animation videos for training and marketing

Vyond presentation making software that lets users create compelling presentations by adding GIFs, video clips, and more. Users can even replace the text with an entire presentation video.

It provides several templates, props, stock characters, among others. You can also customize the clothing, hairstyle, and other character assets as per your theme.

Vyond Features

• Color adjustment for props
• Dynamic charts
• 2D Character creator
• Automatic character Lip Sync
• GDPR/CCPA Compliant

What Users Like:

• Ease of use
• Lip sync to audio
• Ability to import assets

What Users Don’t Like:

• Sound over video without mic
• Easier library searches

Vyond Price:  It offers a 14-day free trial. Vyond price starts at INR 21953.19 per year for a single user.

Supported OS: Web (Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox)

Best for: Teachers, students

Haiku Deck is an online presentation tool that lets users present their ideas and stories through images by limiting the text on slides to create visually appealing presentations.

You can also search for and embed videos from YouTube. Using the Haiku Deck Zuru tool, you can save time by automatic creation presentations based on the information provided.

Haiku Deck Features

• 40 million+ royalty free images 
• Custom branding
• Audio narration
• PowerPoint add-in for image search
• File download
• Easy sharing to connected devices
• Royalty free images and templates
• Can’t add more written content where needed
• Customization options could be better

Haiku Deck Pricing:  It offers a 7-day free trial. The pricing for the pro version starts at INR 733.156 per month when billed annually for the pro version.

In addition, it is available at a discounted price of INR 366.211 for students, teachers, and non-profit organizations.

Supported OS: Web, iOS

Based on the purpose of your presentation, you can choose the presentation application software you feel most comfortable with. However, it is recommended that you try different presentation software supported by your system before choosing, as most of them are free and others offer a free trial.

Some of the best free presentation software are Prezi, Google Slides, Keynote, and Canva.

Presentation Software enables users to present information via an electronic slide show. Thes slides can include text, images, data charts, animation, etc.

Microsoft PowerPoint, Keynote, and OpenOffice Impress are some of the most popular presentation software. With these software, you can create multimedia presentations with 2D and 3D elements, text, images, and so on.

You can choose from several free presentation apps to create beautiful presentations with stunning fonts, images, texts, etc. Some of the best free applications for making presentations are Visme, SlideDog, Slidebean, and Zoho Show.

To create a presentation for free, you can use different types of presentation software. Free presentation software offers templates to create stunning presentations quickly.

Several free tools are available for creating presentations. Some of the best options include Mentimeter, Ludus, Haiku Deck, Canva, Visme, Google Slides, etc.

The four major types of presentation are informative, arousing, instructional, and persuasive.

Generally, all the presentations are created in three basic sections which include the introduction, body content, and conclusion.

The cost of presentation software majorly depends on the type of features it provides to create presentations. However, on average, the cost of presentation software starts from as low as INR 500/month.

Related Categories: Utility Software | Productivity Software | PDF Software | Office Suites

Published On: September 13, 2021

Ayushee is currently pursuing MBA Business Analytics from SCMHRD, Pune with a strong background in Electronics and Communication Engineering from IGDTUW. She has 2 plus years of full-time work experience as an SEO content writer and a Technology Journalist with a keen interest the amalgamation of business and technology. Read more

Related Question and Answers

To make text in a circle using PowerPoint, follow the steps given below:

• Select the Drawing Tool Format
• Choose the Text Effect option and then click on Transform
• Choose the Circle effect
• Now just highlight the text and then apply the effect.
• Write Answer

To make an inspiration board using Google Slides, follow the steps given below:

• Create a new canvas
• Pick a theme of your choice and then decorate your canvas as per the aesthetic
• Choose the images that you want to import
• Reposition the images as per your requirement
• Now just add other elements like borders, stickers and quotes
• Once the board looks appealing enough, simply save the changes and then export your drawing.

To write on PowerPoint using iPad, follow the steps given below:

• Click on the text icon
• Click on the Add text button
• Now enter the text that you want to add
• Feel free to make changes like choosing different fonts, altering text’s size, color, alignment, etc.
• Once you are happy with the result save changes.

To change the background on Google Slides on iPad, follow the steps given below:

• Open a project in Google Slides
• Long press the slide you want to change color of
• Click the Change Background option available at the top right corner
• Choose the background of your choice
• In order to apply the background to the entire presentation choose ‘Apply to theme’ option.

Still Have a Question in Mind?

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15 Best Presentation Software for 2021

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By Bilyana Nikolaeva

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3 years ago

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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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Bilyana Nikolaeva

Bilyana is an inspiring content writer and illustrator at GraphicMama with years of experience in art and design. When she’s not busy writing for the blog, you will usually see her working hard on new illustrations and graphic resources.

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