The 7 Best Free PowerPoint Alternatives for Presentations
Microsoft PowerPoint is great, but what if you can't afford it? Here are the best free PowerPoint alternatives for presentations.
Microsoft PowerPoint has been around for a long while and so far it has served users well. However, because it's a paid program, not everyone can afford it.
Thankfully, there are many options available for users who want the functionality of Microsoft PowerPoint in a free-to-use package. In fact, some of them don't even require any downloads and are completely web-based.
1. Google Slides
By far the most popular PowerPoint alternative out there, Google Slides shines when it comes to collaboration. Multiple people can work simultaneously on a presentation and add new slides.
This is further strengthened by its availability. Google Slides works on your web browser and has apps for both iOS and Android.
Additionally, Google Slides keeps a record of all the changes users have made to a presentation, and you can easily restore your slideshow to a previous version. While anyone with a Gmail account can use Google Slides, G Suite users get added data protection.
Compared to PowerPoint, the number of templates, animation forms, and fonts is somewhat lacking. However, businesses tend to overlook these shortcomings on a day-to-day basis.
While Canva is primarily known as a photo editor and design tool, it is also a competent MS PowerPoint alternative.
One of Canva's main strengths is its ease of use. There are many beginner tutorial videos on the website if users do not understand something. Complete beginners can easily navigate through the minimalistic interface.
With the free version of Canva, you get access to over 8000+ presentation templates that exponentially speed up your workflow. Additionally, Canva still remains one of the easiest services to create infographics and charts in.
The only limiting thing with Canva is that it offers a basic set of tools and transitions at users' disposal. It's apparent that the company places more focus on photo editing and design aspect than anything else.
The Prezi presentation format is unique in the way that it lets you view slides. Instead of addressing multiple elements at once, Prezi gives viewers a single canvas that allows them to zoom in on different presentation parts. This provides a much more immersive experience.
Similar to Google Slides, Prezi supports the real-time collaboration of up to 10 users. Users can also add comments to indicate changes or report missing information. Prezi works on any modern web browser, and there are Android and iOS apps available as well.
Related: Powerful Google Chrome PDF Extensions and Apps
The Prezi software also has an analytics feature that helps users optimize their presentation by showing them which slides were the most viewed as well as which ones were skipped.
Even though the basic version of Prezi is free to use, it doesn't allow users to control the privacy of their presentation, which could be a dealbreaker for many. Additionally, due to the way Prezi works, there is a steep learning curve associated with it.
4. WPS Office Free
WPS Office is the closest alternative to PowerPoint when it comes to functionality and user interface. Plus, unlike the other web-based services on this list, you don't always need an active internet connection to use it.
With its complete support for PowerPoint files, users can edit existing PowerPoint documents with ease in WPS Office. They can also embed videos and animate individual objects, just like in Microsoft PowerPoint. It also offers many templates, so users can pick their favorite.
However, users should keep in mind that while the software is free, it is supported by ads, which may be a bit intrusive at times. In addition to this, collaboration is less straightforward than with Google Slides.
WPS Office is available across all major platforms such as Windows, macOS, Linux. iOS, and Android. There is a web-based version available as well. Alternatively, you can check out this handy guide to smoothen your transition to WPS Office from Microsoft .
Xtensio is one of the best options for business users. It has many templates available regarding various organization sections, such as marketing, UX design, etc.
With Xtensio's easy-to-use interface, even newbies can create professional-looking reports and presentations. Additionally, they offer even greater flexibility in terms of design. You can edit each object in a template to suit your specific needs.
But it does have some shortcomings. For one thing, users cannot export their presentations in PowerPoint format. Additionally, the free version supports only one user at a time with a storage space of 1MB.
6. LibreOffice
LibreOffice is open-source presentation software that does everything PowerPoint can do. Although it lacks functionality such as OneDrive Integration, its PowerPoint-like functionality more than makes up for it.
LibreOffice has its share of useful features, such as the ability to import Keynote files. In addition, LibreOffice has a vast collection of free templates that users can use to create their presentations.
If that's not enough, you can download additional templates from LibreOffice's online repository. LibreOffice is available across Windows, macOS, and Linux.
7. Zoho Show
There are several reasons to use Zoho Show for your next presentation. It's a great presentation tool that's similar to Google Slides, but even better. Users can also import and edit all their PowerPoint files in the online tool.
Users can create tables, infographics, and data charts within Zoho Show itself. In addition to this, the service also has in-built Google Image Search functionality that lets you search and insert images quickly.
Related: Tools to Give an Online Presentation From Anywhere
Additionally, Zoho Show supports collaboration in real-time and multiple users can edit presentations. Although there's not much to complain about in Zoho Show, many users would like to have more options when it comes to templates and animations.
Worthy PowerPoint Alternatives
Essentially, all these tools and services function the same way as PowerPoint without the cost. Furthermore, the web-based alternatives are more advanced such as automatic saving and cloud storage.
Despite this, PowerPoint remains the front-runner when it comes to presentation software. As such, it is important for users to know how to make the best out of its features.
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The 6 Best Free PowerPoint Alternatives in 2023
Here we provide a comprehensive rundown of the best free PowerPoint alternatives out there, weighing up their pros and cons, and asking the questions: Is there one presentation tool to rule them all? Is there a free online version of PowerPoint?
What makes good presentation software?
Slide presentations are widely used by academics, team leads, CEOs, and everyone in between to instruct, educate, and inform others. We have all probably sat and listened to someone read through their slides - and often we may have been bored enough to browse social media or reply to a few messages.
But when looking at good alternatives to Microsoft PowerPoint, the software most widely associated with presentations, we are looking for things that do things PowerPoint simply can’t. Perhaps designing themes is easier. Maybe your audience can vote on your slides or submit questions in real-time. All of these unique elements can make one software better than all others.
What is the best alternative to PowerPoint?
Google slides, beautiful.ai.
Mentimeter is the alternative to PowerPoint that does all the usual presentation/slide deck work you might expect from a presentation tool and more. A presentation tool, a survey application, and an audience engagement platform. All of this, plus a great design makes creating beautiful slides quick and easy.
The main benefit of using Mentimeter is connecting with any group or audience and receiving immediate feedback; no more waiting for someone to raise their hand or for someone to volunteer an opinion. Everyone can use their phones to take part and every presenter, team lead, or educator can quickly gather insights from everyone in the room.
If Google Slides has inherited the Web 1.0 legacy of PowerPoint, it is Mentimeter that is doing something new and pioneering the presentation tool of Web 2.0, where the speaker is no longer the sole focus and emphasis is instead placed on audience participation. To help you get started we even have a series of free professionally designed presentation templates .
Combining easy-to-use and attractive design, a familiar and user-friendly interface, and the added “wow” factor of audience engagement; Mentimeter is the choice for presenters who want to go the extra mile and create the presentations of tomorrow, today. Additionally, Mentimeter is entirely cloud-based so no need to download any apps or software.
Mentimeter features a variety of plans including a free tier that lets all new users get started in a matter of minutes. Even better, Menti offers a PowerPoint integration so you can spruce up all those old and trustworthy PowerPoint presentations of yours!
Google Slides is the one-size-fits-all inheritor of the PowerPoint mantle. If you have used PowerPoint, you’ll already be pretty familiar with Google Slides. There’s nothing fancy, nothing unexpected. It’s just a reliable web-based presentation platform that’s greatest strength lies in the familiarity of its capabilities and the layout of the interface.
The accessibility of a web-based tool (it is free) and Slides’ collaboration capabilities mean that it is a very popular choice for a variety of users. Some drawbacks include that Google Slides is designed to work like traditional presentation slide decks, which give great support for speakers, but give little consideration to the audience and their voice.
Slides also suffer from the old PowerPoint problem of a daunting blank canvas and a huge array of design options that can be overwhelming for those of us that don’t have a graphic design degree.
As with Google Docs, Drive, and Sheets, Google Slides is of course free for everyone that signs up for a Google account.
Keynote is the presentation tool that comes preloaded on Apple products such as iMacs and Macbooks. Similar to Google Slides, Keynote provides a pretty familiar interface and set of capabilities that are accessible to anyone familiar with PowerPoint. The aesthetically pleasing, more minimalist user interface is nice to look at, but the stripped-back design makes for a slightly less user-friendly experience. Functions are not as clearly labeled as some of Keynote’s competitors.
The most obvious downside to Keynote is that it is not accessible to everyone, only Apple users, and not being web-based means that using it across devices and in collaboration with others is a challenge. As with Slides, Keynote is built for one-directional communication that allows little room for structured audience interaction.
Apple users pay enough for their tech, so the silicon valley giants have been good enough to kick in their presentation builder for free.
Prezi, like Google Slides, is a web-based presentation tool which means it retains an element of accessibility that is lost with Keynote. Prezi’s great strength is animation. It is not a platform for the creatively faint-hearted. But, if you have the vision and the skills, it is possible to produce visually stunning presentations that will “wow” your audience much more than a standard PowerPoint presentation.
In the world of presentations delivered through video conferencing platforms, Prezi is an interesting option for creating visually engaging presentations. It also has a function for presenting content laid over the presenter’s video feed, which is pretty innovative.
The downside with Prezi is the need for a high degree of technical skill to create a very good set of slides. Being web-based allows for collaboration, but attempting to do this with less technically capable colleagues can be tricky due to the complexity of creating visuals from scratch. Prezi also does not allow for audience contributions or engagement.
Prezi has three payment tiers and their free version offers a portion of its complete list of features.
If it’s pre-designed templates you’re looking for, Canva is the presentation tool for you. Most presentation tools, including PowerPoint, now offer templates and design shortcuts to get you started with a good-looking set of slides. Canva takes this feature to the next level thanks to designed templates for seemingly every purpose and theme. This should be a contender for presenters who have the expertise or the time to design their ideal slide deck.
Sometimes the problem with the variety and range provided by Canva is that you can scroll endlessly in search of the perfect template, which sometimes limits how much this convenience can be considered a time-saver. Also, some of the templates are not freely available . . and of course, you can guarantee that they want the ones that you have to pay for.
Canva, like some of the other tools listed here, offers a free tier for users. This allows anyone to get a taste of what Canva has to offer without the full bells and whistles experience.
If a good presentation is all about how it looks, Beautiful.ai is a lesser-known presentation platform that may be worth exploring. With sleek and modern-looking templates and automatic formatting, this is the tool for creating slides that convey a sense of professionalism while not being boring. Again, having an eye for these things and some sense of what you want it to look like is helpful, but it is Beautiful.ai that makes the process as smooth and easy as possible.
Again, like many others, Beautiful a.i only facilitates one-way communication and structured audience interaction, which is the presenter's responsibility, rather than being built into the platform's design.
Beautiful.ai works on a “freemium” model, where you can access limited functionality for free, but to get the most out of the tool, you need to pay a subscription.
Google Slides vs PowerPoint
The vast majority of users will have used and experimented with both of these tools and will be debating which best meets their needs. The thing is, they are one and the same. Those who love Google’s suite of tools will naturally drift towards GS, while those loyal to Microsoft will stick with PowerPoint.
When it comes to which one is better, we think we should look at one of the alternatives listed above. In this cluttered field of contenders, there is one tool that offers a unique experience. Mentimeter provides a litany of benefits to both the presenter and the audience. Presenters can get instant feedback and establish a connection from the very first slide.
Audience members and voters can quickly and easily take part in a meeting or class without the need to raise a hand or speak over everyone else. Likewise, gathering actionable insights or improving efficiency and effectiveness has never been easier.
The familiarity of the user interface, ease of collaboration, level of design skill required, whether you want to engage your audience, and of course cost are all factors worth considering when making your choice. But finding the option that strikes a pleasing balance between all these qualities is probably the ultimate aim.
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Best free presentation software and alternative to PowerPoint of 2023
Make your slides without a fee
The best free presentation software provides a simple way to create attention-grabbing presentations as an alternative to subscribing to Microsoft PowerPoint.
While PowerPoint (opens in new tab) 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 available for free that you can use. While these won't have the same level of features as PowerPoint, they still offer a very competent platform to design the presentation you need.
Choosing the best free presentation software can be time consuming if you don’t know what you’re looking for. To help, let’s take a look at five of the best free presentation software options available today.
To make your presentation really shine, consider grabbing a free photo editor too, so your pictures look perfect before you add them to your slides.
Google Workspace : Collaboration + productivity apps (opens in new tab) 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. Try it free for 14 days (opens in new tab) .
Best free presentation software and alternative to PowerPoint of 2023 in full
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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 .
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 (opens in new tab) 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 .
How we tested 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.
See how we test, rate, and review products on TechRadar .
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.
We've also featured the best free office software .
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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.
7 Best Free PowerPoint Alternatives To Level Up Your Presentations
- Apache OpenOffice
- Google Slides
- LibreOffice
- ProPresenter
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Seven free powerpoint alternatives to help design engaging presentations..
Think of presentations and you think of Microsoft PowerPoint. An industry standard, PowerPoint is a long-standing tool that offers an easy-to-navigate interface to create impactful presentations for business meetings, sales pitches, and more.
However, despite being widely used, Microsoft PowerPoint might not be the most accessible tool, especially if you’re looking for free software. PowerPoint is part of the Microsoft Office suite and can only be accessed by purchasing the suite. Small businesses, especially sales and marketing companies, need software that helps design impactful presentation slides without draining their finances. That’s where free PowerPoint alternatives come to the rescue.
We asked users about the PowerPoint alternative they considered when looking for presentation software for their business. Here are the seven best PowerPoint alternatives (listed alphabetically) they identified.
See the full list of Microsoft Powerpoint alternatives.
1. Apache OpenOffice
Apache OpenOffice is an open-source software suite that offers a presentation tool to design multimedia slides.
The presentation software lets you add 2D and 3D clip art, special effects (such as slide transitions), and animation to your presentations. It offers a built-in template library with a range of templates to use in your slides.
Using the tool’s multi-monitor support, you can showcase additional material while presenting your main slides. You also get access to a drawing and diagramming toolkit to draw custom shapes to add to your presentations.
Apache OpenOffice offers chat and email support. It has a desktop application for Linux, Mac, and Windows users.
Here’s how Apache OpenOffice compares to PowerPoint
Both PowerPoint and Apache OpenOffice provide multiple slide views, such as the outline view and presenter view. However, Apache gives quick access to all its views from the main window, which PowerPoint doesn’t. Also, Apache OpenOffice has a better user interface and multiple hotkeys for quick access.
Platforms supported: Both PowerPoint and Apache OpenOffice are available as desktop applications for Mac and Windows. Apache OpenOffice is also available for Linux users.
Typical customers: Both tools are used by freelancers and small businesses. However, PowerPoint is also used by large enterprises.
Customer support: Both tools offer chat and email support.
Pricing: Apache OpenOffice is open source and free to use, whereas subscription for Microsoft 365 Personal Suite, containing PowerPoint, starts at $6.99 per user per month.
Canva is a design and presentation app that helps create infographics, logos, banners, and full-fledged presentation slides for team and client meetings.
The software offers a library of presentation templates you can access to add pre-built videos, logos, and graphics to your presentations. Additionally, Canva lets you collaborate with teammates by sharing access to the content dashboard.
You can add animation to your slides, customize the color scheme, and remove the background from images using the background remover tool. You can also use the version history to revert to a previous design instead of undoing all changes.
Canva offers chat and email support. It is web-based and also has applications for desktop and mobile (iOS and Android) devices.
Here’s how Canva compares to PowerPoint
Canva offers a variety of pre-built templates and font types compared to PowerPoint and is easier to navigate for first-time users. It also integrates with third-party social media platforms, making it easy for you to share graphics and presentations directly to an audience.
Platforms supported: You can download both tools as desktop applications. However, Canva also provides a web-based version and has a mobile app for Android and iOS devices.
Typical customers: Both tools are used by freelancers, small to midsize businesses, and large enterprises.
Customer support: Both Canva and PowerPoint offer chat and email support.
Pricing: Pricing for PowerPoint starts at $6.99 per user per month, while Canva’s paid plans start at $12.99 per user per month.
3. Google Slides
Google Slides is a presentation tool that is part of the Google Workspace suite. The software lets you create and sync slides, share them with your teammates, use comments, and assign action items to build presentations together.
With Google Slides, you get an easy-to-use presenter view for presenting slides during meetings, referencing speaker notes, showcasing text to viewers, and accessing live captions for audio content. You can integrate the software with third-party video calling platforms to present slides during online conferences.
Features such as smart compose and autocorrect help eliminate spelling and formatting errors automatically from your slides. An offline mode helps you work on your slides without an internet connection.
Here’s how Google Slides compares to PowerPoint
Google Slides is an online tool and doesn’t require any software installation, whereas PowerPoint is more suited to offline work and comes as a desktop app that needs to be installed. Also, Google Slides is cloud based, and it offers better collaboration and is suitable for teams with many people.
Platforms supported: Google Slides is web-based, while PowerPoint is a desktop application.
Typical customers: Both tools are used by freelancers, small businesses, and large enterprises
Customer support: Both Google Slides and PowerPoint offer chat and email support.
Pricing: Google Slides is free to use. However, you can buy the Google Workspace Suite, which provides additional tools and more storage space, at $6 per user per month. The cost for PowerPoint starts at $6.99 per user per month.
4. LibreOffice
LibreOffice is an open-source suite designed to create, manage, edit, and modify documents, spreadsheets, and presentation slides.
The software offers multiple editing and viewing modes for editing, outlining, and organizing text and images in slides. It lets you edit and manage notes that appear on individual slides. It also provides a slide sorter to locate and sort presentation slides.
With LibreOffice, you can manually navigate the slides during presentations or schedule their transition using a built-in timer.
Here’s how LibreOffice compares to PowerPoint
LibreOffice is an open-source solution, so it’s free to use. PowerPoint, on the other hand, needs a paid subscription. Also, LibreOffice works better for Linux users, as PowerPoint is unavailable for Linux. Additionally, you can customize LibreOffice by accessing its source code.
Platforms supported: PowerPoint is available for Mac and Windows, while LibreOffice is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
Typical customers: Both software tools are used by freelancers and small businesses. However, large enterprises tend to use PowerPoint as well.
Customer support: Both PowerPoint and LibreOffice offer chat and email support.
Pricing: LibreOffice is free to use, while subscription for PowerPoint starts at $6.99 per user per month.
Prezi is a presentation software tool designed for freelancers and small businesses. It helps create video presentations for business meetings and client pitches.
With Prezi, you get a canvas to build slides and add data to your presentations. Its Smart Structure feature helps arrange content within slides using a simple drag-and-drop option, without disrupting your layout. Another feature called Zoom Reveal lets you zoom in and focus on slides to look at critical details and change minute aspects of your presentation.
The software offers a built-in video tool that allows you to appear alongside your content while presenting slides during remote meetings or presentations.
Here's how Prezi compares to PowerPoint
Prezi offers a better interface than PowerPoint and provides a zoom-in feature to oversee crucial details in slides. It is easier to use and integrates with third-party social media and video-calling platforms to share assets easily.
Platforms supported: PowerPoint is available for Mac and Windows, while Prezi is web-based.
Customer support: PowerPoint offers chat and email support, while Prezi provides chat, email, and phone support.
Pricing: Subscription for PowerPoint starts at $6.99 per user per month. For Prezi, paid plans start at $12 per user per month.
6. ProPresenter
ProPresenter is a presentation tool for live events. It helps present slides to live audiences during sporting events, conferences, trade shows, and worship gatherings.
ProPresenter helps display lyrics, slides, and high-quality media. It provides transitions and onscreen rolling announcements for slides. It also lets you present your slides on multiple screens, each showcasing a different type of content. You can use the preview window to monitor all your screens.
The tool’s built-in library allows you to save all your presentation content. You can also automatically change the text color in a presentation slide at different time intervals.
Here’s how ProPresenter compares to PowerPoint
Both PowerPoint and ProPresenter are presentation tools, but ProPresenter lets you live stream your presentations and add announcement layers and timers with action triggers. Also, the software is more suited for live events and gatherings.
Platforms supported: PowerPoint is available on Windows and Mac, while ProPresenter is available on Windows, Mac, and Linux. ProPresenter also has a mobile app for Android and iOS devices.
Typical customers: Both tools are used by freelancers, small businesses, and large enterprises.
Customer support: Both PowerPoint and ProPresenter offer chat and email support.
Pricing: PowerPoint starts at $6.99 per user per month, while you can rent ProPresenter for $99 per user per month.
Visme is a design and presentation tool that helps create graphics and presentation slides.
The software offers multiple pre-built templates to create slides for your presentations. It also lets you import your designs on the platform and use them for your slides.
With a drag-and-drop editor, you can arrange the layout and structure of your slides according to your preference. You can import a PowerPoint presentation and edit it in Visme. You can also record audio and video files with a built-in recorder and add them to your presentations.
Here’s how Visme compares to PowerPoint
PowerPoint is a stand-alone presentation tool. Visme, on the other hand, also lets you create graphics and infographics on its platform. The software offers analytics for graphics and presentations that you share publicly and assess engagement for your assets.
Platforms supported: PowerPoint is available on Windows and Mac as a desktop app. Visme, on the other hand, is a web-based tool.
Customer support: PowerPoint offers chat and email support. Visme offers phone, chat, and email support.
Pricing: Subscription for PowerPoint starts at $6.99 per user per month, whereas paid plans for Visme begin at $15 per user per month.
Look at all options before finalizing the best PowerPoint alternative
Despite its popularity, Microsoft PowerPoint may not always be the right choice if presentations are crucial for your business. You can, instead, choose the various software options discussed in this article.
If you want a completely free and customizable tool , select either Apache OpenOffice or OpenLibre. You can access the source code of these tools to customize their functionality per your preference.
If you create a lot of posters, designs, and infographics , Visme and Canva are good options, as both help create such assets and include them in presentations.
If real-time collaboration is crucial for your business , then Google Slides is worth a shot, as it provides collaboration for small and large teams alike.
If you want to do video presentations and feature them during remote meetings , Prezi, with its built-in video presentation functionality, is an ideal solution.
If your work involves live audiences and large gatherings , ProPresenter might be an ideal tool, as it helps stream presentations to larger groups and is more suited for outdoor events.
How did we choose these products? We didn’t—you did
At Capterra, we objectively select and rank products based on a methodology developed by our research team. Some vendors pay us when they receive web traffic, but this has no influence on our methodology.
Products featured in this article were identified in user reviews as the other products considered by buyers at the same time as PowerPoint. In this article, we highlighted the products with the highest number of other products considered mentions.
To be included in this list, alternative products had to provide the following core presentation software features: animations, transitions, media library.
Disclaimer: We conducted this analysis based on reviews and ratings data as of Jan. 24, 2022. In order to present the most up-to-date information, the product cards below show real-time ratings. Please note that this means the ratings’ value in the product card may not reflect the value of the ratings at the time of analysis.
Product research for this article was contributed by Himanshi Arora.
About the Author
Ashish Upadhyay
Ashish Upadhyay is a content writer at Capterra, helping small businesses identify the right software for their business needs by analyzing user reviews data for the highest rated products in relevant software categories. Prior to joining Capterra, he worked in insurtech, fintech, and real estate. Specializing in marketing, project, and IT management, Ashish’s works have been featured in MAST magazine and Medium. In his free time, he enjoys working out and playing video games.
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The best presentation software in 2022
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 spent a lot of time testing the top presentation software solutions out there to bring you the best of the best.
Beautiful.ai for AI-powered presentations
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
What makes a great presentation app?
How we evaluate and test apps.
All of our best apps roundups are written by humans who've spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software. 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 since 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. More people are working remotely. 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.
Beyond that, we also looked for presentation apps that brought something unique to the table, like video presentations or AI design—features above and beyond what you can get for free from a legacy solution like PowerPoint or Google Slides.
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 are (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.
Already have slides and want a great way to share them instead? Here are the best apps to share presentations .
The best free presentation software
Canva (Web, Windows, Mac, Android, iOS)
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.
Canva recently added a number of new 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.
Canva pricing: Free plan available; paid plans start at $119.99/year for up to 5 users and include additional features like Brand Kit and premium templates and stock assets.
The best presentation app for AI-powered presentations
Beautiful.ai (Web, Mac, Windows)
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. Look at the GIF above as an example: when you drag an element toward a specific area of the slide, it'll automatically drop it into place for you.
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 traditional collaboration features are limited on the 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.
Beautiful.ai pricing: Plans start at $12/month for unlimited slides, revision history, 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 looking for an AI presentation tool, Slidebean is another great option 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 $29/month.
The best presentation app for conversational presentations
Prezi (Web, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android)
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.
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, Google Meet, and more) to present live.
Prezi pricing: Free 14-day trial and a free plan that includes up to 5 visual projects; paid plans start at $15/month.
The best presentation app for video presentations
Powtoon (Web, iOS, Android)
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)
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, image galleries, and more.
My favorite feature is the brand settings. Premium users can set universal branding guidelines that include your logo, color scheme, fonts, images, backgrounds, and more. 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, interactive images, and more—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)
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 headphones 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)
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 templates.
Templates are on the basic side, but they 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.
Zoho Show price: Free
What about the old standbys?
You might notice a few major presentation players aren't on our 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 AI, robust team collaboration, branding controls, video, and so on.
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.
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.
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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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20 Best PowerPoint Alternatives & Presentation Software in 2023
PowerPoint is a presentation software managed by Microsoft. This software helps you to creates a slide show of important information. However, PowerPoint has some limitations, like the inability to represent the complexity of some topics and limited built-in infographics.
Following is a handpicked list of Top Presentation Software Alternatives To PowerPoint, with their popular features and website links. This presentation software list contains both open source (free) and commercial (paid) software.
Best Online Presentation Software | PowerPoint Alternative Tools: Top Picks
Visme is a tool that helps you to share powerful visual stories in the form of infographics, presentations, and other visual content.
- Add charts, maps, video, audio links, and interactivity to any object to create engaging reports, presentations, and infographics.
- It provides more than 100 assets like fonts, quality icons, and images.
- The tool allows you to record voice.
- It has privacy control that helps you to make your content private, public, or password protected.
- You can publish a presentation online or download for offline use.
Visit Visme >>
2) Adobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign is a typesetting and desktop publishing software tool developed by Adobe. It allows you to create flyers, posters, brochures, newspapers, magazines, and more.
- This PowerPoint alternative helps you to create stylish layouts.
- Helps you to enhance the quality of your slideshows with tables to display information and fits into different sizes with ease.
- Allows you to add animated videos, hyperlinks, slide transitions, and more into your slides.
- You can pick from over 17,000 high-quality fonts to make your information organized and easy to read.
Visit Adobe InDesign
3) DesignCap
DesignCap is a web-based tools to create online presentations. It allows anyone to create professional-looking presentations in a fairly simple way, without technical skills needed.
- It provides thousands of professionally designed templates on different topics.
- More than a million stock photos and icons.
- Lots of assets like fonts, charts, preset text fonts, modules, and background images.
- You can embed chart styles like column, line, table, bar, dynamic map, etc. in presentations.
- Free to adjust objects’ color, size, position, and use other handy features like group/ungroup, image editing tools, etc.
- Multiple save and share options to share designs anywhere online and offline.
Visit DesignCap >>
Canva is a free presentation application that enables you to engage your audience. It contains a design that helps you to express your ideas effectively; thus, you can improve your ability to become a communicator.
- You can access hundreds of professionally designed layouts on any topic you are interested in.
- It allows you to customize your presentation for school or work.
- It has a Speech bubble maker which you can add on any photo.
- Fade any photo with transparency tool of canva.
Visit Canva >>
Vyond is an online program that helps marketing professionals to make engaging presentations by adding a video to PowerPoint.
- You can download the video file so that you can quickly play it during your presentation, even if the internet connection is weak.
- You can import GIFs, visuals, motion, and sound in your presentation.
- With Vyond, you can create build character-driven stories or compelling data visualizations to engage the audience.
Visit Vyond >>
6) Zoho Show
The tool allows you to create, collaborate, broadcast, as well as publish presentations. You can give your performance a stable URL and share your slide deck with the world by maintaining its quality.
- The tool has a clutter-free design that helps you to highlight your stories.
- It has 20+ themes and 100 fonts.
- You can manage and enhance data visually using tools like shapes, formatted text box, charts, and tables.
- You can add strokes to text, fill titles or key points with any colors or even add reflections.
- Choose a pre-defined layout to insert a chart from the template.
Link: https://www.zoho.com/show/
Ludus is a presentation application for creative professionals. It allows you to build presentations in a truly collaborative way. It is one of the best free PowerPoint alternatives that allows you to export a PDF/HTML file.
- It provides color picker to choose the color.
- Ludus provides a guideline so that you can place an object to its right place.
- Build and share ideas with others.
- It supports SVG, JPG, GIF, and PNG images.
- You can upload your fonts to Ludus.
- You can paste URLs from your clipboard in order to embed third-party contents.
- It enables you to integrate third-party contents, like YouTube or Vimeo videos.
Visit Ludus >>
8) Beautiful.ai
Beautiful.ai is a tool for building better presentations in minutes. You just need to think of an idea, select a template, and work efficiently and beautifully.
- It helps you to create beautiful proposals and pitches
- Add content and slide will automatically adapt them.
- It offers millions of free icons and photos.
Link: https://www.beautiful.ai/
9) Slidebean
Slidebean is a software that helps you to create professional-looking slides. The software allows you to design presentation in seconds using Artificial Intelligence.
- The template design is arranged in such a way that improve aesthetic appeal as well as readability.
- It automatically recognizes important elements in images and aligns them properly
- The tool automatically evaluates plenty of slides to find the perfect one.
Link: https://slidebean.com/
Prezi is a tool having designer templates, millions of reusable presentations, and a PowerPoint to Prezi converter.
- This PowerPoint alternative contains plenty of customized graphics, charts, and layouts let you quickly make your presentation your own.
- Quick to make an impact
- You can collaborate with your team while making the presentation.
Link: https://prezi.com/
11) Google Slides
Google Slides is a presentation application developed by Google. It is one of the best PowerPoint alternative that enables real time collaboration between editors and provides many options for sharing the presentations.
- Google Slides offers a variety of hundreds of fonts, embedded video, presentation themes, animations, etc.
- You can choose from a large variety of portfolios, pitches, and other pre-made presentations.
- This tool is better than PowerPoint allows the team to work in the same presentation.
- You can get your presentation anywhere anytime and edit it.
Link: https://www.google.co.uk/slides/about/
12) Apple Keynote
Apple Keynote is easy to create memorable presentations. You can use Apple pencil on any iPad to create diagrams or illustrations.
- It provides real time collaboration so that you can work with your team, whether they are on, iPhone or iPad, Mac, or using a PC.
- You can choose from 30+ eye-catching themes.
- You can use your iPhone to scan a document or photo, and you can see it immediately in Keynote on Mac.
- You can use slides with galleries, photos, charts, math equations, and more than 700 customizable shapes.
- Animate objects with a path using a finger or Apple Pencil on your iPad or iPhone.
Link: https://www.apple.com/in/keynote/
Emaze is a free online application to create and share presentations via social media or email. It is one of the best programs like PowerPoint that allows you to turn your presentation into a story.
- You can collaborate with your team, download presentation to HTML, MP4, and PDF, and present remotely from anywhere in the world.
- It allows you to choose from hundreds of 2D and 3D presentation templates.
- Write and edit text, add videos, photos, live web pages, gif images, custom effects, corporate branding, and more.
Link: https://www.emaze.com/
14) Powtoon
Powtoon is an animated presentation application that allows users to create stories for explainer videos or presentations.
- Powtoon works well with voiceovers and helps you to integrate a great script with fantastic animated characters.
- You can access this tool online and create dynamic presentations in minutes.
- The templates of this tool are easy to navigate and add a visual element to the presentation.
Link: https://www.powtoon.com/
15) FlowVella
FlowVella is an app made for mobile that makes your presentation interactive. You can combine words, images, video, galleries, links, and PDF files to transform the story into an interactive conversation.
- With FlowVella, you can work whenever you are; iPad, iPhone, or Mac.
- You can create a presentation without an internet connection.
- It allows you to include PDF documents, videos, and images.
- This tool allows you to create sharable custom URL.
- View who has viewed your presentation.
Link: https://flowvella.com/
16) Glisser:
Glisser shares slide from presentations to your devices instantly, and then it uses audience interaction for a delegate experience and offers powerful event analytics.
- It enables you to engage your audience to create the most memorable conversations.
- You can share slides to your audience in real time.
- It uses ISO 27001 grade security as standard.
- Glisser allows you to create quiz questions
Link: https://www.glisser.com/
17) Haikudeck
Haiku Deck provides a simple and easy way to make a presentation on the iPad, web, or iPhone. It is one of the best apps like PowerPoint that encourages the best presentation practices by helping students to simplify their message and present data clearly.
- You can Choose stylish layouts, fonts, and image filters for without charging any dollar to the graphic designer.
- You can access over 40 million free creative commons images.
- Your presentation is in the cloud so that you can share with any devices connected with it.
Link: https://www.haikudeck.com/
18) Genially
Genially is a tool for creating presentations, infographics, CVS, video presentations, Quizzes, ePosters, dossiers, etc. With this tool, anyone can create incredible visual stories to generate a better communication experience.
- It is one of the best PPT alternatives that creates interactive visual experiences that increase communication skills.
- You can add Animated and interactive creations in your presentation.
- It helps you to analyze how your creations are used in real time.
Link: https://www.genial.ly/en
19) Libre Office Impress:
LibreOffice Impress allows you to create professional slide shows which include drawing objects, charts, multimedia, text, and a variety of other items.
- LibreOffice provides versatility in creating and editing slides using various modes: Normal, Outline, and Notes.
- You can add attractive 2D and 3D images from text.
- It gives you to manage slides display sequence.
- You can download various ng templates from the LibreOffice template repository.
Link: https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/impress/
Presentation software is an app or program, which is used to display information in the form of a slide show. It includes an editor that allows text to be inserted and formatted, a method for inserting and manipulating graphic images, and a slide-show system to display that content. Also check best Office Suite Software: Click here
Below are the best alternatives to PowerPoint and Online Presentation Software:
- Adobe InDesign
A Presentation Software allows you to represent information and data about a specific topic. It also allows you to include images, tables, charts, graphs, etc., along with textual information. All this information combined is represented in the form of a slide show, making it easy for the viewers to easily understand the topic.
Here are the main benefits of presentation software:
- It makes the visualization of information very easy
- Allows adding images, graphs, tables, charts, videos, etc.
- Offers a wide range of designs and templates
- Enables you to share the presentations with ease
- Provides drag and drop feature
- Offers a variety of customizations
- It does not require any technical skills
Following are points which helps you to make your presentation better:
- Your presentation should not contain more than 10 slides.
- The presentation should be of maximum 20 minutes
- Do not use a font size of less than 30.
- Show your passion and focus on audience need.
You should consider the following factors while selecting the best presentation software:
- Price if applicable
- Easy to set up and use
- Hardware/Software requirements of the presentation software
- Reviews of presentation software
- Pre-built templates and layouts offered
- Support to add multiple assets like graphs, charts, images, audio, video, etc.
- Collaboration features
- Cloud support
Following are top free software to make presentations online:
- Google Slides
- Apple Keynote
Following are some of the best video presentation software:
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Top 10 PowerPoint Software Alternatives Free Download
In the past years, PowerPoint has been a popular presentation tool in education and business world. With practical features and visual presenting style, it helps people to make great presentations. But now, variety of cool new presentation software have raised up to give you more free presentation options. Followings are listed top 10 PowerPoint software alternatives , they will give you inspirations and surprises for making stunning presentations.
> Part 1: Top 10 PowerPoint Software Alternatives > Part 2: Enjoy Animated Presentation by Focusky
Part 1: Top 10 PowerPoint Software Alternatives
1. focusky (strongly recommended).
Learn more features about this top presentation software: ●Quickly create presentations from templates, images, PowerPoint and words. ●Enrich content with shapes, WordArt, links, images, videos and music. ●Give record, speech synthesis and caption in slides to present better. ●Super animation editor, interaction designer, formula editor provided. ●Powerful split screen design.
Start Creating Gorgeous Presentation with Focusky
2. CustomShow
3. DocketZoom
4. SlideSnack
8. ClearSlide
10. VideoScribe
The well-described 10 PowerPoint software alternatives will sure to give your great inspirations. Therefore, you can pick up one of them to make your next presentation design in a vivid, animated style. It is believed that Focusky gives you a strong impression for its profession and creativity. You can start freely and create multimedia presentations or animated videos with ease.
Part 2: Enjoy Animated Presentation by Focusky
Video Tutorial
Get started, create a project, add multi media, publish and share, learn focusky in minutes.
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Try Focusky free and enjoy a brand new experience of presentation
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Top 3 open-source alternatives to PowerPoint
The presentation software PowerPoint is proprietary, and hence not so transparent and less cost-effective than some competitors. Discover the best open-source PowerPoint alternatives in this article.
ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors
ONLYOFFICE presentation editor for desktop is a free PowerPoint alternative for Windows, Linux, and Mac. The app is open-source and you can find the code on GitHub.
With the existing functionality of ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors, you can make creative slides and add text, objects, tables, background patterns etc. Your presentations can become even more interactive with transitions and customizable animations. The interface looks exactly the same as you have in PowerPoint, so it won’t take much time to adapt to a new application.
Plugins extend the basic functionality of the ONLYOFFICE presentation editor. For example, you can insert YouTube videos or translate text in presentations using Google or DeepL really quickly.
The core ONLYOFFICE formats for presentations are PPTX and PPT, but ODP and PPSX are also supported. Also, you can save each slide as a PNG or JPG image and use the pictures in another type of content.
ONLYOFFICE presentation editor has a special Presenter View mode, where you can add notes to highlight important parts of your speech and comfortably navigate between slides.
Unveil your creativity with the best open-source PowerPoint alternative for Windows, Linux, and Mac — ONLYOFFICE. Installation options include Snap, Flatpak, and AppImage. Also, ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors are pre-installed on many Linux distributions .
ONLYOFFICE also provides a collaborative open-source office suite for self-hosting with text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and fillable forms.
LibreOffice Impress
LibreOffice is another open-source alternative to PowerPoint, which allows creating, editing, and saving presentations in the ODP (OpenDocument) format.
The interface in LibreOffice is just a bit similar to what you see in Microsoft PowerPoint. You’ll need to play with the elements to get used to their location on your screen, but indeed they are positioned logically.
As for presentation features, you’re able to draw and add objects, such as diagrams, create 2D and 3D images from text with the Fontworks tool, and use animations and transitions to let objects and slides move.
LibreOffice also provides a gallery of presentation templates if you’re not sure where to start.
Calligra Stage
Developed by KDE, Calligra Stage is a powerful and free open-source alternative to PowerPoint. It allows working with various objects, such as text, charts, images, graphics.
Calligra Stage also uses the ODP (OpenDocument) format as the primary one. That means, your presentations will be displayed without distortions in other apps working with this extension, but also OOXML-based suites, such as ONLYOFFICE Docs and Microsoft 365.
This open-source presentation app is built by developers from many countries and includes all necessary features: layouts, presenter slide overview, multiple master sliders in one presentation, transitions and notes.
Useful links
7 best open-source project management tools in 2022
5 open-source Monday.com alternatives
How to include animation in PowerPoint presentation?
How to add transitions in PowerPoint slides?
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Top 10 PowerPoint Alternatives Compared
Written by: Orana Velarde
PowerPoint pioneered the presentation landscape, helping to shape business presentations into what they are today. However, since its inception in 1990, presentation-making has evolved—but unfortunately, PowerPoint has not.
Now, people want to see presentations that entertain. Interactivity , animation, bold designs and more should be core pieces of each presentation.
And while PowerPoint struggles to do that, there are a number of PowerPoint alternatives—Visme included—that can easily take your presentations from boring to eye-catching .
Best PowerPoint Alternatives for Beautiful Presentations
- Google Slides
- Beautiful.ai
- Microsoft Sway
What Makes a Great PowerPoint Alternative?
We've all heard of PowerPoint, and in many schools and workplaces, it's a go-to presentation software . But does that mean it's the end all, be all of presentation making?
Absolutely not.
Because PowerPoint has basic capabilities (and can be clunky to download and use for Mac users), we've put together this list of PowerPoint alternatives to help you find a way to spruce up your presentations, keeping your audiences interested and engaged.
But not every PowerPoint alternative is built the same. To find the best one for your business, keep an eye out for features like:
- The ability to import existing PowerPoints so you don't have to recreate all your old presentations
- Animation and transition capabilities for dynamic slides
- In-app graphics, shapes, lines and other assets to design your slides with
- A library of unique templates to easily customize with your information
- Online and offline presenting
- Data visualization tools for making data and information easier to understand
- Collaboration features so your team can work together
Keep these features in mind as you go through our list below to try and find the best PowerPoint alternative for your business.
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Top 10 PowerPoint Alternatives
To help you make sense of the dozens of options out there, we’ve summarized the most important features of the best PowerPoint alternatives.
A cloud-based, drag-and-drop presentation software, Visme offers users all the tools they need to create not just compelling presentations , but also infographics , data visualizations, reports, product demos and resumes.
Its ready-to-use templates, with HD backgrounds and professionally designed layouts, give users a breather from the all-too-familiar PowerPoint themes.
Packed with millions of free images, thousands of vector icons, graph tools in any style and hundreds of fonts, Visme allows users to create virtually any type of visual content in Its custom design area.
- Publish and share anywhere: Share via URL or embed into a blog post or web page.
- Manage privacy: Control who can see your projects or password protect them.
- Present offline: Download presentation as image, PDF, editable PPTX or HTML5.
- Add animation and interactivity to any element: Insert call-to-action buttons, videos, surveys, quizzes, etc.
- Customize transitions: Incorporate seamless transitions from slide to slide.
- Access third-party integrations: Add forms, videos, analytics and more.
- Take advantage of the slide library: Quickly search for the exact slides you need from an extensive library of professionally designed slides and templates.
- Analytics: Access combined statistics of project views in one place.
- Presenter notes : Stay on message by adding speaking notes to your presentation before you go live.
- Presenter studio: Present asynchronously by recording your presentation and sharing it with your team.
- HTML5-based: Runs on any browser and device.
- PowerPoint import/export: Import existing PowerPoint presentations to edit and improve then export to present offline.
- Work as a team: Leave comments for improvements, collaborate in real time and share with your team.
- Endless design elements: Searchable libraries with millions of images, high-quality vector icons, 3D graphics, animated illustrations and more.
- Pre-made content blocks: Create visual slides quickly using drag-and-drop blocks of content with visual stats, maps, figures and pictograms.
Price: Free forever. Access premium features with plans starting at $12.25/month, billed annually.
Pros: Users can create virtually any visual content—including infographics, charts, reports and printables—in a single place; add animation, full interactivity and audio.
Cons: Due to the high level of flexibility and variety of options, it may take some time to master all of its features—but it's well worth it when you do.
Ideal for: Marketers, entrepreneurs, educators and individuals in general; corporate teams.
Other reviews: Huffington Post, ClearVoice, Crazy Egg
This cloud-based software is popular for its nonlinear presentations, which pan and zoom from one page to the next without creating the impression of moving to a new slide. It’s a favorite among students and educators due to its ease of use.
- View and edit your presentations from any device.
- Store all your presentations in the cloud.
- Share and collaborate with others.
- Download for offline use.
- Use advanced image editing tools.
- Manage privacy.
Price: There is a completely free plan with limited features. Paid plans start at $12/month per user, billed annually.
Pros: Create nonlinear presentations with ease.
Cons: Not fully customizable; users can only create non-linear presentations which can actually cause motion sickness in some viewers.
Ideal for: Students, educators, speakers, companies.
Other reviews: SmallBizTrends, PCMag.com , PC World
Apple’s alternative to PowerPoint, Keynote is everything you would expect in an Apple product: sleek, sophisticated and intuitive.
Packed with powerful features—such as the ability to create interactive charts, add reflections and picture frames—Keynote makes it easy to create presentations with cinematic-like transitions between slides.
After the release of the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, Keynote is even more intuitive. Presentations are stored in the cloud and available on all devices.
- Access more than 30 cinematic effects for text and objects.
- Make interactive and animated charts.
- View and edit your presentations from an iPad or iPhone.
- Easily share and collaborate.
- Access more than 30 polished templates and designs.
- Import and edit PowerPoint files.
- Save Keynote presentations as PowerPoint files.
- Use on iPad Pro with Apple Pencil.
Price: Free for all Mac computers.
Pros: Compatible with PowerPoint.
Cons: Desktop software, not online-based; no slide library.
Ideal for: Mac owners.
Other reviews: PCMag.com , Macworld
This cloud-based presentation software offers a solid and user-friendly alternative to PowerPoint. Its sleek editor workspace allows you to add background images, use a variety of designs and themes, collaborate easily with others and customize any of 10 default slide templates.
You can even take other people’s presentations and use them as a template. Slides.com is not to be confused with Slides.ai.
- Edit and access presentations from any device.
- Present offline.
- Access to analytics.
- Access to revision history.
- Display math formulas.
- Define your own theme with a custom CSS editor.
- Add GIFs from Giphy and images from Unsplash.
- Lots of Team features like branded templates and user management.
Price: Paid plans start at $5/month per user, billed annually.
Pros: User-friendly; includes beginner’s tutorial; users can copy other people’s designs and layouts as templates for their own content (this preference can be turned off when creating presentations).
Cons: Create only linear presentations; limited design options such as professional templates and types of slides; no graphs or infographic widgets available.
Ideal for: Startups, students, teachers and individuals.
Other reviews: TechCrunch, SitePoint
5. Slidebean
This PowerPoint alternative is a good option for all those who don’t have the time to design their own slides.
Slidebean has recreated pitch decks from big-name startups and offers them as ready-to-use templates. There are more themed templates available for users to simply plug in their content.
- Ready-to-use content templates for different purposes (marketing, business, startups).
- Search and insert curated images or GIFs from Unsplash and Giphy within the software.
- Access to thousands of flat icons.
- Import CSV data to create charts.
- Use the chat feature to communicate with others.
- Browse curated color palettes.
- Access viewers’ actions for each presentation.
Price: Slidebean offers a completely free plan. Their paid, all-access plan starts at $171/year.
Pros: Allows you to focus solely on the content.
Cons: No animation.
Ideal for: Those who want to create presentations in as little time as possible, startups.
Other reviews: PresentationPanda , TechCrunch , The Next Web
6. Zoho Show
Part of a suite of online applications called the Workplace Bundle, Zoho Show provides users with a traditional presentation tool that's online-based.
Like the other PowerPoint alternatives listed here, this presentation software allows users to create and access presentations from any browser or device connected to the Internet.
- Apply eye-catching animations and transitions.
- Embed live tweets, YouTube videos, and Flickr images.
- Use charts for visualizing data.
- Publish your presentations on websites and blogs.
- Import multiple file types, including .ppt, .pptx, .pps, .ppsx, .odp and .sxi.
- Use collaborative tools to allow others to edit and comment on your content.
- Broadcast your presentation from anywhere on any device.
Price: Paid plans of the Workplace Bundle start at $2.50/month per user, billed annually.
Pros: Import multiple file types; conferencing option.
Cons: Limited animations and transitions; only standard presentation functionality.
Ideal for: Business users, students, educators.
Other reviews: ZDNet , Blinklist
7. Google Slides
Google Slides is the most popular PowerPoint alternative because it’s completely free with a Google account. When logged into Google, Slides is available at any time, even from the email dashboard.
The design process on Google slides is simple and to the point. There are hundreds of templates in different color themes to choose from.
- All work is saved automatically on the Google servers.
- An entire presentation can be changed as a whole with the color and theme picker.
- Collaborate in real-time with team members.
- Open PowerPoint slides and export finished presentations as PowerPoint files.
- Plenty of templates and themes to choose from.
- Helps users concentrate on the actual slides without frills.
Price: Free for everybody, as long as they have a Google account.
Pros: It’s free and easy to use.
Cons: Design capabilities are limited to standard features.
Ideal for: People who appreciate Google products and need to create presentations with remote teams.
Other reviews: ConsumersAdvocate , EnvatoTuts
Create a stunning presentation in less time
- Hundreds of premade slides available
- Add animation and interactivity to your slides
- Choose from various presentation options
Canva is an easy-to-use PowerPoint alternative. The presentation templates come ready with numerous slides. All you need to do is choose the slides you want to use and switch out the content.
Along with the basic presentation features, animated presentations are also possible if you purchase the Canva for Work plan.
- Lots of presentation templates to choose from.
- Millions of available images in the paid plan.
- Presenting option right from Canva.
- Download in multiple file formats, including PowerPoint.
- Easy to share to social media profiles.
- Millions of icons to choose from.
Price: “Free” but premium assets cost $1 or more to use. Canva Pro is $12.99/month or $119.99/year.
Pros: Easy to use and lets you create nice-looking presentations fast.
Cons: The best features are in the Canva for Work plan; complete presentations can’t be colorized as a whole.
Ideal for: Those looking for a simple presentation that's easy to put together.
Other reviews: CMSCritic , Capterra
9. Beautiful.ai
Beautiful.ai is a PowerPoint alternative with a twist. The design of the slides is controlled by Artificial Intelligence. Their pitch is that presentations will look great every time without much work from the user. On the other hand, customization possibilities are limited.
- AI-powered presentation building system.
- Customizing options for each type of slide.
- Color theme picker for the entire presentation.
- Users can password protect presentations for private sharing.
- Collaboration capabilities with an email invitation.
- Export to PDF or PowerPoint.
- Presenter view and speaker notes.
Price: Plans start at $12/month, billed annually. Or users can pay $45 for a single, ad hoc project.
Pros: AI helps create better presentations fast.
Cons: Very limited design capabilities.
Ideal for: Students, educators, startups.
Other reviews: Techradar , ThePowerpointBlog
10. Microsoft Sway
Sway is Microsoft’s own PowerPoint alternative. It’s everything that PowerPoint isn’t. In fact, it is so different, you can’t really tell it’s made by the same company.
Sway is a cloud-based app, which can be accessed through any Microsoft account, such as Hotmail and Outlook.
- Remix! A function that changes everything at random.
- The default view is a vertical scroll; can be changed to horizontal or slide view.
- Font and color customization for the entire presentation
- Thousands of images available inside the program through online search.
- Animated transitions with custom speed settings.
- Storyline editing.
- Outline and Accessibility views.
- Available in multiple languages.
Price: Free with a Microsoft Account.
Pros: A presentation can look like a website, a newsletter or a classic slide presentation.
Cons: No tools or options to present data.
Ideal for: Students, NGOs.
Other reviews: AvePoint , Laptop Mag
Get Started With Your Favorite PowerPoint Alternative
Ready to start creating your own presentation? These 10 PowerPoint alternatives are great options for getting started. But if you want our opinion, we think you should go ahead and create a free Visme account and get started with our presentation software today.
Easily create a stunning, dynamic, interactive presentation that your audience will love. Close sales, get investor funding, inform your audience and more with Visme presentations.
Create beautiful presentations in minutes with Visme.
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About the Author
Orana is a multi-faceted creative. She is a content writer, artist, and designer. She travels the world with her family and is currently in Istanbul. Find out more about her work at oranavelarde.com
5 Free (and Way Better) PowerPoint Alternatives
We, along with our bosses and our co-workers, have been seeing the same slides, text effects, and animations from MS Office PowerPoint for the past 10 to 15 years. A phrase has even been coined as a result of PowerPoint ennui: DEATH BY POWERPOINT
If you are not in the business of assassinating your organization via boring slides (we know that you’re not THAT kind of office ninja), take a look at the following 5 presentation alternatives. Did we mention that these websites and apps are free and simply “way better”?
Interactive. Online. Beautiful. Canva is a website that allows you to create slides with built-in high resolutions images, vectors, and text effects. Many of the backgrounds and other design elements are free, but the premium design elements may cost you a bank-breaking $1.00. It is a user-friendly tool, and when you sign up, they even offer you an interactive tutorial. Share your slides via link faster than your boss can demand a PowerPoint on a flash drive.
For an in-depth tutorial about Canva from your favorite office experts (#NinjaLife), click here.
Cloud-based, responsive, and downright pretty templates are the draw of this online presentation website. Emaze makes creating attractive and dynamic presentations easy by providing you with free, pre-made templates. Just populate the templates with content and graphics, and then you’re ready to amaze your boss with your emaz-ing creation (see what I did there?). In the event their free package is not enough for you, their highest tier package offers unlimited space and sharing, as well as a host of other handy premium features (like offline viewing and privacy controls), for only $9.90 per month.
Dive right into emaze with our step-by-step tutorial (written by yours truly)!
4. Slidebean
If you are a no-nonsense ninja, then Slidebean may be your presentation medium of choice. Stressing the idea that “less is more,” Slidebean is a highly content-oriented platform that can be displayed on any browser and on any device. It is significantly less graphic intensive than the other PowerPoint alternatives, allowing it to be easily viewed and shared. In other words, no more excuses from people who claimed, “I couldn’t access the presentation… [insert null complaint here].”
5. Google Slides
This may alarm you, but you may have held the secret to creating compelling slides ever since you started using GMail. If you have no idea what Google Drive is, you HAVE to visit your Google account NOW. At the top right hand corner, you will see an icon that looks like nine itty-bitty squares. Click it and visit Drive. Once inside your Drive, you will be able to create presentations with Google Slides . Although the interface and design options are PPT-esque, Slides allows you to share the presentation easily via link or attachment.
Coming Soon: Microsoft Sway
It looks like Microsoft was aware of DEATH BY POWERPOINT too. Although their Sway presentation application is still in development, its concept is to bring together many different mediums- YouTube, social media, image databases, wikis, etc.- and offer drag and drop functionality that allows you to integrate them into your presentation. It looks promising, and we’d love to see where Microsoft decides to take this idea.
What are your favorite alternatives to Powerpoint?
At FPPT we have a huge collection of presentation templates and backgrounds.
Here are some examples:
https://www.free-power-point-templates.com/articles/presentation-background/
These are great especially while working from home.
Regards, MJ
This was sooo helpful, thx.
Good article! Thanks :)
I have used Libre Office Impress for some time now. It presents excellently even for large audience accepts music etc. I guess its better than PPT and free for ever.
Beautiful.AI just launched a year ago and is still free and super simple to use. https://about.beautiful.ai/
Hey Ninjas, and readers alike!
We’ve been working on a way to get presentations to become simple with a bunch of kicking ready made PowerPoint slides.
There is no new tech to learn, and no zooming Prezi headaches, just a lovely design loaded platform to build up a presentation from the slide library, then download the whole thing right into PowerPoint :D
I know we’re not free at the moment, but we do have a lifetime subscription option! Imagine never having to battle with PowerPoint again…
https://www.slidecamp.io
Try for free https://hypersay.com/ and deliver interactive presentations to connected audiences. Keep them engaged with polls, questions, private notes and live slide sharing. Hypersay is a platform for interactive presentations that massively increase engagement. Keep your audience engaged with polls, questions, private notes and live slide sharing. Store, enrich & deliver presentations from your cloud.
Thank you so much for sharing!!! this is really a big help
I love the 1at one
Hi, I just need to create a slide show for my husband’s 40th birthday party with some music and be able to play it on the tv. What is the best program for me to do that? Thanks.
Thank you! I HATE PowerPoint, but I’m having to create presentations for school and working on doing some screenshare-style videos for business purposes, so none of the concerns other commenters have mentioned are relevant for me, but being able to make non-ugly slides without jumping through too many hoops IS. There are some really great-looking options here!
Yes! We love non-ugly slides as well ;) Let us know which you use and how those presentations turn out, Rachel!
Have you heard of Niftio (I’m the Tech Lead for that project)? It’s a rather new presentation software. Here’s a quick sneak peak: 1. dozens of designer made templates to make it easier to create a presentation 2. use of any mobile device to control your presentation while delivering one 3. audience q&a to receive feedback & questions on your topic in real time. And much more Take a look https://niftio.com
Nope, not yet, but it’s nice to meet you and your software, Cristi! We love checking out new ways to do old things better :)
Presenter Club seems interesting. It focuses more on the speech aspect rather than slides. But I find it really quick to make slides with it. It is free: https://www.presenter.club/
Thanks, Sam! Free is always good ;)
Hi! Nice post :) However, why isn’t Genial.ly included? I think it should when it comes to PowerPoint alternatives… It’s online, it’s free, and it’s really easy to use. I love it for presentations, infographics, posters. Seriously, it’s a great tool. Here: https://www.genial.ly/ Bye!
Hi, Please try Academic Presenter as well. It is a free Prezi-like (slide-based + canvas-based) presentation software but offline. You don’t need to be connected to internet always to present your work. There are several tutorial video on Youtube.
Download Link from CNet: http://download.cnet.com/Academic-Presenter/3000-2075_4-76178419.html Official Website: http://danialesm.wix.com/academic Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxB7byx-3rdqbLdCP9CAyww
These programs BLOW AWAY Powerpoint, but how reliable is their functionality when it comes time to actually project your slides in a room full of people? How many times have we all seen a presentation go down in flames because the hardware was not playing well with the presentation software?
It happens all the time, and it really sucks for all the parties involved; it’s embarrassing.
I have absolutely no problem with Prezi, using or viewing.
What about Canva? I’m worried about that very same problem for a presentation I have coming up in October. My Canva slide deck won’t open on Powerpoint, only on Windows Media Viewer. I’ve tried asking Canva Support about this but it’s always the same vague answers that provide NOTHING usable. Anybody know the best way to display Canva in a presentation?
We did find a little info on some options from Canva, which you can find here: http://bit.ly/1JKlp3N
Thank you so much for the post! very interesting!
Glad you liked it Wendy – let us know if you test any of these out and which ones are your faves!
These are all very appealing alternatives, and I could see using one or more for externally focused presentations (i.e. marketing, sales pitches). I would be very interested to learn the level of information security offered on each of these platforms. If a presentation contains internal-only or sensitive information, how is that data secured (if at all)?
Great question Laura – we’ll do some digging and let you know!
Prezi is a nice alernative. It has both, a free and a pro version.
We’re absolutely fans of Prezi as well – our only complaint would be it takes a bit to learn how to use it – but learning it DEFINITELY pays off!
Do you guys know any others student-friendly, where you can easily delete your account if needed? That would be really helpful! Thx!
Also, if you have any suggestions can they be just websites, not like, desktop apps? We need something to be easy, because this is for remote learning in Covid-19.
Comments are closed.
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14 Best Presentation Software Alternatives to PowerPoint
PowerPoint was one of the first tools to offer easy-to-use, customizable templates—a major plus for non-designers. But design-wise, PowerPoint isn’t the most engaging platform or presentation software. Your business presentations will lack the impact you desire, leading to monotonous presentations few enjoy seeing. No one wishes to see your next slide—they already know it has three bullet points.
To create a powerful, dynamic presentation, you need software with rich media capabilities. And when you use presentation software with features other than just adding images and text, you increase your chances of holding your audience’s attention throughout your entire speech. The challenge is that higher-quality presentations don’t equal more ROI unless you know how to use the software.
The following are 14 presentation software alternatives to PowerPoint. All but one are easy to learn and provide distinct features to solve various needs, making each the best presentation tool for a specific purpose.
Try Vyond for Free
14 Presentation Software Essential For Any Team
1. prezi present: best for non-linear presentations.
- Design library: 219 templates for several industries and needs.
- Shareability: You can send revocable share links to team members or friends for feedback. You can add collaborators with an email associated with a Prezi account to co-create a presentation.
- Cost: The price varies depending on the number of projects you want to create and the functionalities you require. There is a free plan, a Plus plan for $15/month, and a Premium one for $19/month.
- Compatibility: Prezi’s desktop app with offline access works on Windows and Mac. You can also use the Prezi Viewer app to view, present, and share (but not edit) presentations on your IOS or Android devices.
Prezi lets you create a non-linear story, meaning you don’t have to go from slide A to B to C. Instead, you can jump straight into the section that interests your audience the most and avoid boring them with other data.
Prezi’s interactive presentations continuously prompt viewers to keep watching. For example, you can first share a bird’s-eye view of what the presentation will cover as an introduction. Then, you can zoom in to specific topics to further teach your audience about a problem, new product, or idea.
2. Vyond: Best for engaging animation-based presentations
- Design library: 182 fully customizable templates . They’re not your typical static slide templates. Instead, they’re story-driven templates you can use to create engaging presentations.
- Shareability: Teams can work on the same project simultaneously. You can also work together asynchronously by uploading assets, custom templates, and characters into each project.
- Cost: The basic plan starts at $25 a month on an annual plan. For $83.25 a month, you can access Vyond’s entire suite of tools, export formats (GIF vs. MP4), resolutions, and animation styles.
- Compatibility: Vyond is a browser-based software you can access via Windows and Mac.
According to Kaltura , 98% of enterprise professionals think videos are better and faster at training employees. You can use Vyond to create engaging animated video presentations in a format proven to increase learning retention . Its animated elements will help persuade viewers to watch what you present instead of the latest celebrity news.
3. Zoho Show: Best for teams that don’t care about fancy design
- Design library: 59 free templates built for businesses across industries.
- Shareability: You can collaborate in real-time with teammates, tag them to notify them of a change you just made, and comment on areas that need some context.
- Cost: Free.
- Compatibility: Zoho Show works on all Android and Mac devices, from laptops to phones to TVs.
Zoho Show is presentation software that uses an uncluttered interface so you can focus on organizing your ideas. There are animation tools too, which help you make portions of your presentation stand out. While it doesn’t offer interactive options, it’s perfect for teams that need to create a simple presentation in the least amount of time.
4. Beautiful.ai: Best for teams conscious about time and design
- Design library: There are 62 templates. Each focuses on one use case, like pitching a company idea or presenting a case study.
- Shareability: You can work with teammates and add comments to your presentation if you have a Teams account. Once the slides are ready, you can present them from your browser.
- Cost: The $12 per month plan lets you create unlimited slides and track analytics. For $40 a month, you can edit presentations with your team, create custom template libraries, and more.
- Compatibility: You can show and edit presentations through your browser.
Beautiful.ai is presentation software for teams that need to deliver high-quality presentations fast. Its artificial intelligence rearranges your slide’s elements so they’re clear, appealing, and sized correctly based on their importance. The active AI lets you create presentations in less time without worrying about design principles.
5. Soapbox: Best for teams creating content in bulk
- Design library: Soapbox doesn’t have a library of design assets. However, you can customize the color of the video player, the thumbnail, and your video’s page with your logo.
- Shareability: Anyone with a link to your video can see it. Since recordings happen in real-time, there’s no way to collaborate unless a teammate sits next to you.
- Cost: Free for teams with basic needs, like recording and sharing videos. Starting at $300 a year, you’ll be able to track how viewers interact with your videos and book meetings straight from them.
- Compatibility: You can record Soapbox videos from Windows and Mac. Anyone with a smartphone or PC can watch them.
Soapbox is a presentation software you can access from your browser. You can use it to record yourself, your computer screen, or both.
It takes just two clicks to record, making Soapbox ideal to create product or content videos in bulk. For example, you can organize your background, write a list of topics on a piece of paper, and then record videos for many departments, such as sales, HR, and marketing.
Unlike other tools, you won’t have to create slides or charts. You can hit record and cover the topic from your seat.
6. Canva: Best for teams looking for designer features
- Design library: Canva contains thousands of templates and millions of stock images, videos, audio, and graphics. While not every template is for presentations, you can use their Pro plan’s resize tool to take graphics from one template to another.
- Shareability: You can share and collaborate with others while creating your presentation.
- Cost: You can access most of Canva’s features for free. You gain access to a larger stock image and video library, elements, auto-publishing features, and more for $119/year. They also offer customized pricing options.
- Compatibility: Canva works on Windows, iOS, Mac, and Android devices.
Canva is the leading all-in-one design tool for non-designers. You can create eye-grabbing infographics, include engaging images, and position your elements exactly how you want without ever leaving the platform. Their templates are professional and carefully crafted, letting you stand out from competitors without using external design tools.
7. Google Slides: Best for teams migrating from PowerPoint
- Design library: 23 themes that change your slide’s colors, typography, and layout.
- Shareability: You can share presentations with team members and work on them at the same time.
- Compatibility: Windows, Android, Mac, and iOS devices.
Google Slides is a presentation software anyone can use because of its intuitive interface. Since it’s free and available on all devices, it takes teams just a few clicks to start collaborating, no matter the device they use. The browser-based app is the ideal presentation software for teams ready to leave PowerPoint but not ready to learn more complex features.
8. Keynotes: Best for native presentations on Mac and iOS
- Design library: 30 captivating themes.
- Shareability: Teams can present and collaborate on slides as long as they are Mac or iOS users. You can also download Keynote files as PowerPoint files to work with PowerPoint users.
- Compatibility: Keynote is compatible with Mac and iOS devices.
Keynote is a great option for Mac users who want access to templates—and not themes—for visually appealing presentations. It integrates with iOS apps and devices to create presentations faster. For example, you can add colors and comments to presentations using your iPad’s Apple Pencil.
The ability to turn Keynote files into PowerPoint presentations allows Mac lovers to cooperate with teammates on the platform each one likes the most. Its similarity with PowerPoint and Google Slides also allows for a simple transition between presentation apps.
9. SlideDog: Best for those indecisive about which software to use
- Design library: SlideDog doesn’t offer a template or design library.
- Shareability: The audience can see SlideDog slides, ask questions, share feedback, and answer polls directly from their device. All you need to do is share the presentation link.
- Cost: There is a basic option available for free. For $19 a month, you can present offline, receive free software upgrades, and use SlideDog on two devices simultaneously.
- Compatibility: You can access SlideDog from any web browser.
SlideDog’s value proposition is the ability to combine multimedia assets with presentations from Prezi and PowerPoint. While you won’t create a presentation with SlideDog alone, this feature lets you use each platform’s most engaging attributes. Integrating assets enables you to show a unique presentation without distracting your audience by switching tabs.
10. Ludus: Best for creative teams
- Design library: You can import assets from popular design media services like Unsplash, Iconscout, and Giphy without leaving the platform. Ludus also offers self-made and community-made templates you can use.
- Shareability: You can collaborate in real-time with team members. Once the presentation is ready, you can choose a custom URL and domain to present your work.
- Cost: $14.99 a month per user up to 15 people. Teams of 16 or more users need to request a quote.
- Compatibility: You can access Ludus from your computer’s browser.
Ludus is a presentation software geared for designers who want complete control over how everything looks. Ludus has a learning curve for non-designers, but it’s straightforward for those used to design tools like Sketch and Figma. Like other software, you’ll be able to include images, videos, and text. You’ll also be able to create reusable assets, edit elements’ corner radii, and access other features designers give up when using other presentation tools.
Type and font lovers can set a specific cap line, line height, and spacing for their text elements. Those who work with shapes can give them borders and shadows and turn them into overlays.
11. FlowVella: Best for interactive presentations
- Design library: FlowVella offers dozens of templates designed by professionals.
- Shareability: You can play FlowVella presentations using any browser.
- Cost: The free version lets you have four public presentations in your account. You can access the $10 or $20 per month plan for more presentations, privacy, and features.
- Compatibility: FlowVella has apps for iOS. Windows users can use it through a browser.
FlowVella lets you create presentations that operate like websites. You can include videos, PDFs, and a navigation bar to show your audience various media without leaving your presentation. The interactive features also give viewers the option to learn more about the topics that interest them the most once the presentation is over.
During events, it’s common for booth hosts to talk to multiple people at once. Multitasking can cause hosts to unknowingly ignore a lead. FlowVella’s Kiosk mode lets you show presentations event visitors can interact with but not alter, answering their questions and keeping their interest in buying from you.
12. Visme: Best for managing all design operations from one software
- Design library: Thousands of presentation templates people across all industries can use. The app also has millions of images, audio files, and videos you can use to create a presentation precisely as you envision it.
- Shareability: You can share a project to receive feedback or edits from your team. Their most complete plan offers personalized roles, which you can use to organize your entire presentation crew.
- Cost: Free option with limited templates and design assets. The $15 and $29 per month plans let you export presentations in more formats, access the entire design library, and store more files in the cloud.
- Compatibility: Visme works on every device that can access a browser.
Visme is a suite of design assets for non-designers. It’s perfect for teams that want to centralize their design operations, as it offers a wide range of valuable tools for many departments.
Visme has customizable animated icons, images, charts, and characters you can use to create presentations that look and sound like your brand. While the presentation maker has more functionality than PowerPoint, it’s intuitive enough for anyone to learn Visme’s basics in just a few minutes.
13. Vidyard: Best for sales teams finding leads
- Design library: Vidyard doesn’t have a design library.
- Shareability: Teammates can access your company’s video folder and share your videos for you.
- Cost: Free for those who want to record and share videos. Teams that wish to include calls-to-action for prospects or security features will need one of three paid plans, ranging from $15 a month to $1,250 a month.
- Compatibility: You can record videos using an iPhone, Android, or your browser.
Vidyard is a browser extension and app to record sales-oriented video presentations. These videos will help you stand out from canned cold emails, building trust with prospects and getting them to watch what you offer.
You can also use Vidyard to present precise answers to a prospect’s objections or follow up with the steps they should follow after becoming a customer. Thanks to its engagement analysis features, you can track the number of viewers who act after watching your video. You can then export this data directly to your CRM to see the ROI from video prospecting.
14. Loom: Best for internal communications
- Design library: Loom doesn’t have a design library.
- Shareability: Teammates can watch your videos if they have the link. Then, they can film their Loom videos commenting on yours to communicate asynchronously.
- Cost: It’s free to record and present Loom videos. But you’ll need the $8 a month plan for engagement insights, transcriptions, and closed captions.
- Compatibility: You can use Loom on Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android.
Loom offers video editing features like filler word removal to make your presentation unambiguous and concise. The drawing tool and mouse emphasis feature also help you bring attention to your presentation’s most essential data. These tools make Loom ideal to create a database of clear internal use videos, like presentations about job expectations or your company culture.
These videos give managers time to focus on more critical tasks and employees the ability to re-watch internal information as many times as it takes to assimilate it.
Create a Powerful Presentation by Trying New Tools
When most of your colleagues are using PowerPoint, it’s easy to feel like you should hop on the bandwagon and use the software, too. But your presentation is far more likely to have an impact on your audience if you explore other software that offers unique visual features and compelling animations that engage people beyond the typical bullet-point slides everyone is used to watching.
Understand the software pros and cons in this guide so you can try a new program for creating presentations—one that fits your organization’s need and delights your audience with novel, engaging features.
Try dynamic presentations using Vyond
Viewers are more likely to recall presentations with video than with static text and elements, as video engages more senses . You can use Vyond to turn boring presentations into captivating video-based ones that grab and keep your viewer’s attention. Those in a rush or new to animation can use one of our templates to animate their ideas in less time.
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Powerpoint is a good program to use for a presentation because it allows the listeners to have a visual of the subjects the speaker is talking about. It also gives the speaker a reference point for the subjects that make up the majority of ...
Presentation software is a type of computer application that allows the user to present information using text, images, audio and video content. The information is arranged in a slide show, which can be set to advance frames by clicking a m...
The most prominent example of presentation software is Microsoft PowerPoint. Other examples include Apple Keynote, OpenOffice Impress, Corel Presentations, Adobe Persuasion, Flowboard, Kingsoft Presentation and Prezi.
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Try Vyond for Free · Prezi lets you create a non-linear story, meaning you don't have to go from slide A to B to C. · Zoho Show · Beautiful.ai