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The 11 Best Presentation Software to Use in 2024

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

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

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

Choose the best presentation software by weighing the pros and cons

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

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

Let’s dive in!

1. Piktochart

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

An area in which Piktochart shines is crafting unique presentations. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Microsoft PowerPoint

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3. Google Slides

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5. SlideDog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

6. Haiku Deck 

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

You can avoid such an unfortunate scenario with Haiku Deck. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

7. Prezi Business

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

9. Slidebean

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

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

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

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

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

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

10. ClearSlide

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The best presentation software is…

 …completely up to you! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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17 Presentation Apps and PowerPoint Alternatives for 2024

Written by: Chloe West

If you’re putting together a new presentation, you’re likely looking for the perfect presentation apps to help you design, present and share it effectively.

Well, you’re in luck. We’ve put together a list of the best presentation apps for both desktop and mobile that can help you to seamlessly create and produce your presentation.

Plus, we’ve put together a list of pros and cons for each to help you determine which presentation apps will work best for you. After all, you don’t want to put on a boring and ugly presentation.

Jump into our list of 17 presentation apps. You’ll find desktop apps, mobile presentation apps and presentation apps for iPad. All are valuable PowerPoint alternatives to help you create and present a beautiful and engaging slideshow.

Putting together your presentation can be design and content-heavy. If you can, edit and produce multiple slides on mobile and do the heavy lifting on the computer or laptop. iPads are also good for the main part, depending on the app’s functionality. Use the mobile versions for smaller edits and presenting the slides to an audience.

Let’s start with Visme–the best app for presentations that empowers you to design beautiful presentation slides .

Visme is a cloud-based graphic design software that allows designers and non-designers alike to create beautiful and professional presentations, infographics, social media graphics and more.

It has millions of design assets, including stock photography and video, animated vector icons, data visualization tools, hundreds of fonts, and preset color themes. Visme also offers a vast range of templates for presentations of any style; slideshow, video or interactive.

When looking at presentation design, you also want to make sure you’re going to come out with a beautiful and engaging slideshow. With pre-designed templates and themes with hundreds of slide layouts to choose from, you’ll find the perfect design in Visme to fit your content.

What sets Visme apart from other presentation apps and software is that it’s not just a presentation-making tool ; it’s a full-scale content authoring platform.

The AI presentation maker enables you to create stunning and professional-looking presentations with a text prompt. With the AI text generator , you can create drafts for your presentation. The tool is handy for proofreading and other content-related tasks.

Your Visme presentation editor has a wide variety of features for making many types of content, from classic static designs that you can share or print to interactive digital experiences that can be collaborated on, shared and tracked .

If you're looking for apps for interactive presentations, Visme is also your best bet.

Try the various interactivity options , like hyperlinked elements, video embed, audio upload and recording features.

Learn more about creating a presentation in just five minutes by watching this video below:

• A drag-and-drop editor and thousands of templates that allow users with any level of graphic design experience to create visually appealing presentations.
• Built-in library of free icons, illustrations, characters, fonts, images, shapes and other graphic elements—both static and animated.
• Use the AI-image tool to generate professional-quality photos, paintings, pencil drawings, 3D graphics, icons, abstract art, and more.
• Unblur and upscale images, remove unwanted backgrounds, erase and replace objects with the AI Edit tools .
• Find design assets and create projects faster using the Visme Shortcuts.
• The ability to present your slideshow online or download it as PDF, HTML5, or PPTX so you can present it without an internet connection.
• Beautiful animation and transition options that won’t overwhelm your audience.
• Brand kit and branded templates feature to help you store your brand elements for later use.
• Organize your work, share custom templates and collaborate with other team members.
• Manage roles, tasks, progress, deadlines and corrections all in one place with the workflow feature .
• Use the Visme App on iPad and iPhone.
• Track presentation performance with integrated analytics.
• Master Layout helps create a presentation that carries a base design across all slides.
• Create and store content blocks and slides to use across other presentations.
• Use Dynamic Fields to autofill updated information across slides and presentations.
• Due to the large amount of design elements and slide layouts involved, there can be an initial learning curve when first using the software.

Create a stunning presentation in less time

• Hundreds of premade slides available
• Add animation and interactivity to your slides
• Choose from various presentation options

Sign up. It’s free.

2. Google Slides

Everyone has heard of Google, right? So it’s no surprise that Google Slides is one of the more popular presentation apps and PowerPoint alternatives available.

But popular does not always mean best. While the service is free to any Google account holder, its slide layouts are basic at best and its design capabilities are extremely limited.

However, if you need a quick and to-the-point presentation, Google Slides can be a great option since it’s free and has next to no learning curve. If you’ve used PowerPoint, you know how to use Google Slides.

• Free for anyone with a Google account.
• Easy to use for creating a basic presentation.
• Users can collaborate in real time and make comments and edits throughout the slides.
• Integrate with all Google workspaces, including Google Meet.
• Limited design capabilities.
• Essentially a PowerPoint clone.

Another popular presentation app is Prezi. The main feature that Prezi is known for is allowing its users to easily create non-linear presentations.

This type of presentation can be highly engaging for your audience because instead of side-to-side transitions, you can create a pan and zoom effect each time you switch over to another slide.

While this type of presentation can be a fun change of pace for your audience, Prezi’s slide design options are not very visually appealing, and non-linear presentations can still be created in many other presentation makers by linking slides.

Prezi templates are also an excellent starting point for creating stunning presentations.

• Can create engaging and non-linear presentations.
• Embed interactive elements like video and audio into your presentations.
• Can only create non-linear presentations, which can actually cause motion sickness in some viewers.
• Non-linear presentations can also be created in other presentation software, making the need for Prezi obsolete.

Canva is a well-known cloud-based graphic design software , but it's not too popular for presentations. While it still has the “capabilities” for presentation design, it's main focus is on social media graphics.

As a creative presentation app, it offers a few visually appealing slide templates and you can create designs in the correct presentation dimensions.

There are a few static chart options and Canva also has tons of graphic elements to choose from, such as photos, shapes and icons, so you can still create static presentations in their software.

• Beautiful premade presentation templates to choose from.
• Graphic elements like photos, shapes and icons to spice up your design.
• No content blocks or slide library available to save larger pieces of content and reuse later.

5. Venngage

Venngage is first and foremost an infographic maker.

Similarly to Canva, they have added basic capabilities for creating presentations , but their design dashboard isn’t nearly as robust as some other presentation apps and software on this list.

While there are a number of presentation templates available for each of their plans, Venngage also doesn’t offer any type of animation or transition features for moving from slide to slide.

When it comes to creating a presentation, Venngage is in the same boat as Canva. Both certainly can be used to create a presentation, but they aren’t ideal, and they don’t offer as many features as a presentation app meant for building slideshows.

• Well-designed templates to get you started on your presentation design.
• Icons and photos to choose from for use in your slideshow.
• Not created with presentations in mind, so while it’s possible to create one, it’s not ideal.

6. Beautiful.ai

Beautiful.ai is a presentation maker that was created to focus on presentation design, like Visme. But while it’s meant for creating presentations, it doesn’t offer full-range design capabilities.

Instead, you’re given eight different themes with about 60 slide layouts to choose from that keep elements snapped into place, regardless of how you might want to customize your slides.

While this software is a great way to “stay in the lines,” per se, with your presentation design, it doesn’t allow you to design your presentation the way you want. If you’re trying to create a slide that falls outside of their parameters, you’re stuck.

• Visually appealing templates and slide layouts to choose from in your presentation.
• Easy to use drag-and-drop editor that allows you to quickly slide your points around on your slide to re-order them.
• Don’t have full-range design capabilities on your slide. You’re stuck only designing in the areas the software lets you design in.
• No free plans. Basic plan starts at $12 a month.

7. Slidebean

Slidebean advertises itself as an AI-powered presentation maker. It allows users to separate the content and design of its slides, inputting content in one section and adjusting the slide design in a separate area.

When creating a presentation in Slidebean, once you add your content into the text boxes, you can switch over to the design section and have their AI automatically assemble your content pieces around the page in a way that makes sense.

You’re also able to refresh different AI designs until you find one that you like. Although this can be helpful for those who don’t really want to worry about their design, it is extremely limited, and they don’t have a lot of templates to choose from.

As one of the best business presentation apps, their templates also focus on startups and entrepreneurs , so if your presentation doesn’t have that focus, your selection is limited.

• No need to worry about design at all.
• It’s a comprehensive pitching tool for entrepreneurs, not just a presentation maker.
• Doesn’t give you full range of design capabilities.
• Has limited templates.

8. Infogram

Infogram is another cloud-based graphic design software that tries to do everything, including presentations, but really wasn’t built for that specific purpose.

There are less than 50 available premade templates and they aren’t very well designed. Redeeming qualities include the fact that animation and transition features are available, as well as data visualization tools .

While there are icons and photos to choose from, most of them are premium and not available for use in the free plan.

• Animation and transitions available for your slideshows.
• Charts and graphs to add into your slides.
• Limited presentation templates available.
• Many graphic elements are premium only.

9. Zoho Show

Looking for good ​​presentation editing apps? Zoho Show is one you should take a look at.

Zoho Show is a presentation-making app from the Zoho family of Work and Business apps. What once was a simple presentation maker is now a full-fledged collaboration tool for making presentations with impact. Zoho presentations can be static or animated; the level of interactivity is up to you.

Create and share Show presentations on any Mac or PC plus device using iOS and Android operating systems. Zoho Show also has many integrations with other apps for better productivity. The minimalistic UI is a positive addition to the editor.

Use on any device. Mac, PC, iOS, Android. Large selection of premade templates for every industry. Available to create both online and offline. Lots of integrations.

It makes more sense to use the Zoho suite than Show on its own. You can’t buy just Show; subscriptions are for groups of apps. Not enough data visualization features.

10. Haiku Deck

Haiku Deck is a web and mobile-based app that allows you to create and edit presentations. It works well for making some on-the-go edits to a presentation you’ve previously created.

You can even download the app onto your smartphone or tablet to create full presentation decks straight from your mobile device. It also syncs presentations between your computer and phone apps, making it easy to create and edit in different areas.

The biggest caveat is that its presentation template design is outdated and not very pretty.

• Syncs between your desktop and mobile apps, allowing you to create and edit in different areas.
• Presentation templates are not professionally designed.
• Design dashboard is outdated.

11. Keynote

Keynote is another presentation editing app that offers both desktop and mobile versions. It’s exclusively available for iOS smartphones, tablets and computers as it’s the Apple version of PowerPoint.

You can create presentations right on your mobile device and get them ready to present on your computer, which can be handy.

You can download the app from the Apple App Store for $9.99. It does come on most Macs and Macbooks automatically, but you’ll have to purchase it for your smartphone or tablet.

• Allows you to create and edit presentations on both your mobile device and computer.
• Keynote is designed for Mac. To use it on PC, you need a workaround.
• Similar to PowerPoint, so it doesn’t really focus on the design of your presentation, just gives you the ability to create one.

12. Flowvella

Flowvella is a downloadable desktop and mobile app that allows you to create interactive presentations wherever and whenever you need to. While it’s a fast and efficient app, it lacks some of the features any good presentation needs.

Since it’s a downloadable app, users are able to work on their presentations without WiFi.

It creates an online link for you to present your slideshow from any device, and offers analytics for you to see who has viewed your presentation.

• Has offline editing capabilities.
• Has analytics for you to view presentation performance.
• Used by museums for interactive displays.
• Must have space on your phone or computer to download the app.
• Simple technology with outdated features.

The app has integrations with other platforms like Chart Mogul and Brandfetch. Presentations on pro plans have analytics features and better image and video capabilities.

• Lots of beautiful templates to choose from.
• Pricing is affordable

Presentations are all you can create on Pitch.

14. Showpad

Showpad is another app that works well for sales teams. It allows users to put together various types of content and share it with a tablet user for them to scroll through and annotate.

This can be very useful for sales reps that are on the go with meetings and appointments , so they can easily share their screens with potential customers and walk them through the process.

The app is available on both Android and Apple devices, so there aren’t limitations to which smartphones and tablets will have access.

• Can share and annotate various types of content on the go.
• Caters to sales teams, so it isn’t an all-in-one presentation maker.

15. SlideShare

LinkedIn’s SlideShare app is a great way to share and view presentation content on the go. You can create your presentation in any online software, like Visme , export it and upload it onto SlideShare.

You can then use the mobile app to share your presentation and help get the word out. You can also view other presentations and learn more about a certain topic.

There are millions of professional presentations that have been published on SlideShare, so it’s a great community of slideshows to watch and save.

• Great for viewing and sharing your presentations.
• Provides an embed code for sharing on your website.
• There are millions of presentations published on the platform, so you’ll have to do a lot of self-promoting to get yours seen.

If you’re looking for apps for online presentation but with advanced video capabilities, here’s a great pick.

Vyond is a video presentation app with solutions for all industries and education. If you’re looking for a simple presentation, Vyond isn’t for you. This app creates engaging video presentations with talking characters and moving parts. Each slide is an animated scene, and they all come together as a group to make an animated video.

Choose characters, scene backgrounds and props from a large library of design assets. Use their text to speech feature to add easy voiceovers and narrations. Collaborate with your team to create video presentations for sales, training, pitching and more.

• Making animated presentation videos is easy.
• The features and editing controls don’t have a high learning curve.
• Monthly fees are high
• You can’t create anything else apart from video presentations.

17. Presentation Timer

Presentation Timer can be helpful both during your prep time and actual presentation time. This app lets you set a timer for how long your presentation will be and it will change the screen color based on how much speaking time you have left.

Using an app like this can be very helpful when you’re rehearsing your content so that you don’t go over on time, and you know which anecdotes you can fit in.

Just make sure when you’re giving your actual presentation, you can see your phone screen so you’ll know when you’re running out of time.

• Gives you a heads up when you’re getting close to the end of your speaking time.
• You have to be within eyeshot of your phone, so you won’t be able to do much moving around the stage or speaking area.

Choose Your Favorite Presentation Apps

There you go. We’ve rounded up some of the best apps for presentations. Which one of the desktop and mobile presentation apps is your favorite?

Some are perfect for creating your presentation, while others can be helpful for presenting and sharing your slideshow.

The Visme presentation app lets you access thousands of branded and premade themes and templates , graphic elements, animations, transition effects and more to create the perfect presentation.

Easily create an interactive presentation with audio, video, popups and hotspots and share it as a live link. Your viewer will be able to see the presentation as an interactive flipbook or slideshow. The best part? If something in the content needs to be changed, you don’t need to resend a link, your edits will show up automatically for everyone with a link.

Sign up today for a free account and take it for a test drive!

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About the Author

Chloe West is the content marketing manager at Visme. Her experience in digital marketing includes everything from social media, blogging, email marketing to graphic design, strategy creation and implementation, and more. During her spare time, she enjoys exploring her home city of Charleston with her son.

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13+ Best Presentation Software to Bid Farewell to PowerPoint

Renderforest Staff

07 Dec 2023

11 min read  

Attention, all presenters, innovators, and knowledge sharers! Brace yourselves, because the era of boring and forgettable presentations is officially over. 

We all know that presentations are the beating heart of every business, work endeavor, and educational pursuit. And let’s face it, captivating your audience is an art form that can make or break your success.

Plain slides filled with text and bullet points will no longer do the job! To grab your audience’s attention, you need to shake things up a little.  

Luckily, we’ve done the legwork and compiled the ultimate list of the best presentation software in one place to help you make creative and captivating presentations.

No more dull slides. No more snooze-fest presentations.

By the time you’ll have finished reading this article, you’ll have discovered: 

• The 13 best video presentation software  to upgrade your presentations – their advantages and disadvantages. 
• How does each software compare to PowerPoint, and what are their unique features? 
• How to use each software to convert your ideas into strong narratives and keep your audience hooked. 

Consider these presentation software gems as your trusty sidekicks, ready to transform your ideas into captivating narratives that will leave your audience begging for more.

So buckle up and join us as we explore each presentation software individually, unveiling the best presentation software for your unique needs. Let’s dive right in!

The Finest Online Presentation Tools to Try Now!

Imagine you have an important project coming up, and you need to create a cool presentation to share your ideas with others within a short amount of time. Instead of just plain slides, you can make your presentation awesome by using some really impressive online presentation tools – tools you may not have heard of before. 

These tools make it easy to add pictures and videos and make your slides look super interesting as they take your regular presentation and turn it into something that will make everyone go, “Wow!” 

So, let’s check out some of the best presentation software you can try right now to make your presentations stand out!

1. Renderforest

You can use Renderforest’s slideshow video maker online and completely free of charge to create videos, branding, presentations, and graphics. 

If you upgrade to the lite version, you can enjoy an early-stage growth boost plan for promotional and explainer videos, powerful presentations, and graphics.

Now, if you choose to have the Pro plan, you can make use of advanced growth tools, the highest quality videos, outstanding designs, and a professional website.

For much larger projects, the Business plan gives you advanced-level solutions for teams and businesses to deliver high-end results for your campaigns.

The presentation software goes beyond the ordinary by providing you with a treasure trove of ready-made presentation templates that cater to every occasion, from personal projects to business endeavors. With just a few clicks, you can unlock a realm of visually stunning designs that are guaranteed to captivate your audience from the very first slide.

Extended Template Library

Whether you’re seeking to dazzle clients, engage students, or simply impress your peers, Renderforest has your back with an extensive library of slideshow video templates . From mesmerizing 3D animations to sleek corporate slideshows and whiteboard animations, the possibilities are limitless.

EXPLORE MORE!

Pre-Made Color Palettes

Give yourself a break from doing all the work of finding the perfect font and color palette for your presentation. Renderforest provides you with a large selection of ready-to-use, pre-designed sets that give your presentation a modern and professional look. 

All color palettes align with the main design principles, so you can rest assured that your presentation is aligned. 

Go to the left-side editor in your presentation template, open the color and font sections and click on your favorite mix.

GIFs, Stickers, Icons, and So Much More

Renderforest presentations are like a magic toolbox for making your presentations extra awesome. With it, you can do way more than just stick to regular pictures and words. 

One of the best presentation software out there, Renderforest lets you sprinkle some fun into your slides by adding GIFs, which are short, moving pictures that can make your points pop! Not just that, you can throw in stickers and icons to make things more lively and interesting. 

All of these elements help you show your ideas without even saying a word. 

Renderforest gives you all these tools to help you turn your presentation into a masterpiece that everyone will remember!

Premium Images

With Renderforest, you can access a treasure trove of amazing pictures through a royalty-free premium stock images library.

These are high-quality images that you can use in your presentations without worrying about any copyright stuff. It’s like having a secret stash of amazing pictures at your fingertips.

But here’s the exciting part – you can also bring pictures to the party! So, if you have some awesome photos you took on a family trip or nice shots you found on the internet. You can toss them into your presentation as well.

Ultimately, you have your gallery of pictures that makes your presentation uniquely yours. With Renderforest, you’re not just limited to what it provides – you can mix and match to create a presentation that tells your story in your style!

Prezi is offered in three different subscription tiers, including access to all three main parts of the suite – Prezi Video, Prezi Design, and Prezi Present.

Prezi’s Standard plan costs just $5 per month, the Plus plan costs $15 per month, and the Premium plan costs $19 per month.

The presentation software is built from the ground up to remove as many of the traditional limitations imposed by web applications as possible and enable users to create stunning, rich presentations with minimal effort and design skills.

It doesn’t take long to get used to how Prezi works and where everything is located, including some of the more advanced features of the application.

Its price is quite attractive compared to most of its competition, too, making Prezi a great offer for you in general!

General Overview

Prezi is a feature-rich online presentation suite that aims to enable anyone to create stunning presentations, including those without any in-depth knowledge of design and related practices.

It comes with various advanced tools that can help you do pretty much anything you want with your presentation, and it doesn’t take a lot of time to get used to how everything works.

It’s important to note that Prezi does have some minor flaws in its UI, but those are mostly limited to features that aren’t used that often to begin with.

There are three main tiers to Canva subscriptions. You can use it completely free to design anything, on your own or in collaboration with others, and you can choose from 250,000+ templates.

However, there are a lot of wonderful templates that are labeled as premium, as well as the option to integrate your own Brand Kit, which can only be accessed when you upgrade to the Pro plan at $12.99 USD/month.

Canva for Teams includes all the features of Canva Pro but also allows large teams to collaborate easily and efficiently together, and it is priced at $29.99 USD/month. 

The key selling point of Canva is how easy it is to use, even for people with no design background. It offers a range of design options, from social media posts to presentations, all in one place.

You can create professional-looking presentations at the tip of your fingers, especially with the newly released Magic Media™ apps that use AI to help you create consistent imagery.

Instead of wasting precious time scrolling through image libraries,you can try some of the AI image generator apps in the Canva Apps Marketplace. Simply type what you’d like to see, and watch it come to life.

Canva works as a web-based tool, so you don’t have to download it. It offers many ready-to-use templates and design elements like fonts, images, and illustrations.

You can either start from scratch or use these templates to create various designs, including social media graphics, presentations, flyers, and more. It also allows for collaboration, enabling multiple people to work on a project simultaneously.

Once you sign up, you can create designs by selecting a template or starting from scratch. You can then customize your design using the drag-and-drop editor, where you can easily add and adjust text, images, shapes, and other elements.

So, whether you’re one of the many small business owners, marketers, bloggers, or creative freelancers—Canva has something for everyone!

4. Google Slides

There are free trials available. For Personal and Free Business Starter plans, it is priced at $6 USD/month per user, for Business Standard, it is priced at $12 USD/month per user, while for Business Plus, it is priced at $18 USD/month.

Enterprises can contact Google to find out about pricing details for their needs.

Google Slides is very handy if many slideshows are required for certain projects. The presentation software acts as an easier alternative to PowerPoint because you don’t need to download anything in order to use Slides.

It’s as easy as going online and opening the program, while with PowerPoint, you need to download the program to start using it.

Google Slides is a cloud-based office suite that helps create, edit, and collaborate on presentations. It has features like themes and fonts, embedded videos, animations, and transitions.

The presentation software lets users create personalized presentations using ready-to-use templates with custom fonts and styles, color schemes, animations, transitions, and background images. If you’re a larget team, you can also upload files from Google Drive or Dropbox.

5. Microsoft Sway

Microsoft Sway is free to use for anyone with a Microsoft Account (Hotmail, Live, or Outlook.com).

This presentation tool dynamically adapts online to any screen and can be shared or co-edited with a URL.

It is best for people who are too occupied with work to spend time creating presentations, as it literally helps produce interactive reports, newsletters, presentations, and other personal stories in a matter of minutes, thanks to the help of AI.

Sway helps create presentations and other documentation in minutes by adding photos, videos, and other multimedia.

It’s connected to the Microsoft account, so the users can easily add files from OneDrive, or turn their Word or OneNote documents into a dynamic Sway.

6. Beautiful.ai

The Pro plan is for individuals and is priced at $12 USD/month. The Team plan is for team collaborations and starts at $40 USD/month, while the Enterprise plan boasts advanced security, support and control and require you to contact the sales team to get a quote.

Beautiful.ai saves you time and provides everything necessary for making great presentations.

You can use the right colors, font, and logo every time with its foolproof features, and when you sign up, the presentation software unlocks millions of modern images and icons that reflect your own brand guidelines. What else could you ask for?

With the Team Plan, you can also control your brand from one account and scale productivity across all departments of your organization.

Beautiful.ai is an AI presentation maker you can use to visualize your ideas easily. It offers 50+ beautifully designed customizable templates that are enhanced with presentation design best practices to keep your projects professional and clean. Besides, you can find and add stock images and icons from the image library.

7. Keynote (for Mac users)

The software comes free with most Apple devices.

This interactive business presentation software allows you to create engaging and dynamic slides, add charts and graphs to them, edit photos, and add effects to sharpen your project.

Now, you can remove backgrounds from supported images a lot more easily. You can even remove live videos or adjust them accordingly.

The software also lets you know when people join, edit, or comment on your collaborative presentations and lets you get in touch with your team using Messages and FaceTime.

Apple Keynote is the most successful competitor of PowerPoint among other Mac free presentation software solutions.

Access your presentations either online with iCloud, with a mobile app, or download a desktop version for Mac.

8. Haiku Deck

The Edu plan starts at $5 USD/month, Pro at $10 USD/month, and the Volume plan is at $100 USD/month.

Haiku Deck helps you focus on one idea at a time, letting you choose a powerful image from a library of 40M+ royalty-free photos and applying consistent formatting across your presentation in just one click.

All presentations you create with this software are hosted online and allow for easy audio narration recording and the ability to save as videos or export to PowerPoint/Keynote format for offline viewing and editing.

Haiku Deck is labeled as the “Instagram for pitch decks” by Mashable, for a good reason!

Even if you’re not a designer, the software helps you deliver presentations that connect with your listeners, spice up your social media feed, illustrate your blog, promote your product, inspire a movement, and more. It is centered around the best practices that presentation experts are after.

You can quickly design slides that don’t look like PowerPoint, and you can find related pictures to your keywords.

You can even view what other designs people have done on the same topic and use it as inspiration for your own presentation.

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9. Slidebean

The Slidebean All-Access Advanced plan for founders starts at $149 USD/year, and this includes features such as pitch deck templates, unlimited fundraising kit, sharing and exporting decks, and tracking presentation views.

There is also the Slidebean Incorporation plan at $649 USD/year, which includes everything in the All-Access Advanced plan but allows businesses to incorporate their company in the US.

Slidebean offers everything you need for a successful creation process – images, icons, fonts, to name a few.

It is very easy to use and has beautiful graphic design elements. Even if you’re not a graphic designer, Slidebean makes your presentations look great.

It also helps you create pitch decks. Through its advanced analytics section, individuals can see which investors viewed their decks and how long they viewed each slide or whether the investor finished the deck, which is very helpful information to have on hand.

Slidebean is an easy-to-use and simple presentation software that provides professional templates to present your ideas with simple styling features.

Its target market includes startups, marketers, and small and medium-sized businesses that are trying to get their powerful ideas across to professional thinkers.

Streamline the process with the help of integrated automation features. Choose the templates depending on your field to simplify the creation even more. You can see insights into how users interact with the slides.

Visme is an all-in-one online presentation maker that offers custom, high-quality templates. Pick a template and customize it according to your needs, or create a presentation from scratch.

The tool offers 50+ charts and other data visualization tools, 120+ custom fonts, stock images, and vector icons. You can add website links, emails, and pop-ups. When your presentation is ready, share it online, embed it on your website, or download it.

11. SlideDog

There are 3 plans available. The first is $19/month per 2 seats, billed monthly, and you can cancel anytime. You also have a yearly plan at $99/month (1st year) per 2 seats, $79 2nd year with a 20% renewal discount. The last option is a lifetime purchase of $299 per 2 seats, where you only pay once and can access it forever.

SlideDog is a presentation software that lets its users create playlists from presentation files and easily switch between them.

The features include real-time sharing, interactive elements, and remote control with various devices to streamline the presentation process.

12. Zoho Show

Zoho Show is completely free for individuals, while larger teams and organizations are billed $2.70 USD/month.

The tool can be used by those who need to tell a story, such as educators, authors, and business owners, helping them create and publish presentations with stunning visuals in a short period.

Choose from a variety of integrated themes designed to fit all kinds of needs. Make your slides more interactive by adding transitions and animation, using charts, tables, images, videos, and more.

Zoho Show is a dedicated online presentation tool, simplistic and easily customizable. From creating and collaborating to broadcasting and publishing, you will surely find solutions to your every need.

The tool is also available on mobile devices. To access your presentations remotely on your smartphone, simply download the app and log in.

It also lets you import your existing PPTX, PPT, ODP, PPSX, and PPS files and edit them without any formatting issues.

Gamma offers three pricing plans. Upon signing up, you get 400 credits to test the Free plan with various features and create a few documents.

The Plus plan starts at $8/month, and you get to gain access to additional features like PDF export.

The Pro plan starts at $16/month, and you receive unlimited AI creation and advanced AI models.

Gamma takes just one prompt and a bit of refining to produce a beautiful presentation.

It uses the chatbot to improve existing slides, and you can incorporate live websites and applications into your presentations. It’s a great way to demonstrate your ideas in real time.

This is an opportunity to monitor how your creations perform and if they have the ability to engage your audience.

Gamma is an AI-powered tool that lets you create impressive and engaging presentations for anyone.

Besides creating your presentations, it also offers a great editing experience where you can improve your work simply by interacting with an AI chatbot.

There is a free trial available. The Personal plan for teams of up to 15 people starts at $14.99 USD/month, and the Enterprise plan for teams of 16 people and over requires you to contact Ludus directly for a quote.

Other than being incredibly easy to use, this tool is very intuitive, and presentations can be customized as you play around with unique fonts, drawings, code, interesting transitions, and much more.

Ludus combines creativity with simplicity. Ludus is more than a presentation tool; it is also a tool for communicating, collaborating, learning, and playing.

The presentation software has many features that designers are already familiar with. You can create anything without limitations, from fonts and graphics to blending modes.

It also allows you to integrate with Unsplash, GIPHY, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc., so you can add anything you want.

Ludus is a tool that allows you to create presentations with unlimited creative possibilities.

This presentation software will solve your problems regarding sharing, compatibility, collaboration, creativity, and more.

It is recommended for everyone to use, especially for creatives and designers. Everyone can use it, too, but it has a bit of a learning curve that is worth the time if you want to use it properly.

This app might be the solution to the problems that our presentation tools have nowadays. It is not restrictive, so you can let your imagination run wild and express your creativity.

This presentation tool is affordable, especially for big teams. With remote work on the rise, Ludus is a great presentation assistant to have nearby.

Still Looking for the Best Presentation Software?

And there you have it. The 13+ best presentation software that you should bear in mind if you’re thinking of trying something a little bit different to the software you’re used to hearing about all the time – PowerPoint.

Each software has its benefits, but if you’re aiming for presentation software that offers a blend of creativity, versatility, and user-friendly features, Renderforest stands out as your go-to choice.

With a vast library of templates and the ability to add GIFs, stickers, icons, and even your own images, Renderforest empowers users to create visually stunning and uniquely personalized presentations.

Renderforest also provides different pricing plans, including a free option, making it accessible regardless of your need and budget.

So, stop wasting hours of your life trying to create your presentations manually and with predictable designs, and start taking your presentations to the next level with Renderforest, your ultimate presentation companion that goes beyond the ordinary!

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

I've been testing these apps for the past few years, and this time, I spent several days tinkering with 25 of the top presentation software solutions out there to bring you the best of the best.

The best presentation software

What makes the best presentation app, how we evaluate and test apps.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beyond that, I also looked for presentation apps that brought something unique to the table—features above and beyond what you can get for free from a legacy solution like PowerPoint or Google Slides.

Here's what my testing workflow looked like:

I went through any onboarding or guided tutorials.

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

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

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

I reviewed and tested the sharing and collaboration options.

I tested out presenter view (when available).

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

The best presentation software at a glance

The best free presentation software

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Canva pros:

Excellent free plan

Tons of amazing templates for all use cases

Feature-rich

Canva cons:

The AI tools aren't groundbreakingly useful

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

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

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

Canva pricing: Free plan available; paid plans start at $120/year for 1 user and include additional features like Brand Kit, premium templates and stock assets, and additional AI-powered design tools.

The best presentation app for AI-powered design

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Beautiful.ai pros:

True AI design

No fussing around with alignment

Still allows for customization

Beautiful.ai cons:

No free plan

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

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

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

With 10 themes, several templated slides, over 40 fully-designed templates, and more than 20 different color palettes to choose from, Beautiful.ai strikes a perfect balance between automation and customization.

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

Note: I re-tested the generative AI feature (called DesignerBot) this year. It's great for adding individual slides to an existing presentation—automatically choosing the best layout and matching the design to the rest of the deck—but as with most other apps, it struggled to pull in relevant images.

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

The best presentation app for conversational presentations

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Prezi pros:

Doesn't restrict you to standard presentation structure

Lots of customization options

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

Prezi cons:

Steep learning curve

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

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

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

Prezi's generative AI feature works ok, but it's more useful as a wireframe. When I asked it to create a presentation about the Stanley Cup Playoffs, for example, the resulting content read a lot like a student writing a term paper in the broadest strokes possible to avoid doing any actual research.

The best presentation app for video presentations

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Powtoon pros:

Timing automatically changes based on the content on the slide

Can toggle between slideshow and video

Can orient presentation as horizontal, vertical, or square

Powtoon cons:

Limited free plan

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

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

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

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

The best presentation app for collaborating with your team

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Pitch pros:

Google levels of collaboration

Assign slides to specific team members

Excellent generative AI feature

Pitch cons:

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

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

The right-hand sidebar is all about project management and collaboration: you can set and update the status of your deck, assign entire presentations or individual slides to team members, plus comment 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.

Pitch also offers one of the most impressive generative AI features on this list. It still struggles to pull in relevant images, but I found the AI-generated written content and design to be top-notch.

The best presentation app for conversational AI

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Gamma pros:

Creates fully fleshed-out presentations from a prompt

Conversational chatbot-like experience

Can still manually edit the presentation

Gamma cons:

Not as much granular customization

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

Simply give the app a topic—or upload an outline, notes, or any other document or article—approve the outline, and pick a theme. The app will take it from there and create a fully fleshed-out presentation. It's far from perfect, but Gamma produces a very useful jumping-off point. (Last year, it was by far the best, but this year, other apps are catching up.)

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

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

The best presentation app for audience engagement

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Mentimeter pros:

Tons of audience engagement features

Simple for participants to interact

Mentimeter cons:

Less granular customizability

Bit of a learning curve

If you need to engage with an audience during your presentation, Mentimeter makes that easy. The app is designed around interactive elements like quizzes, surveys, Q&As, sliders, and more (even a Miro whiteboard!).

Each of these is included in a number of different, professional-looking templates, so you can build a fully interactive presentation super quickly.

When it's time to present, your audience members can scan the QR code with their phone cameras or type in the URL and access code to participate. There's one code per presentation (so they won't have to do this on every slide), which gives access to each slide as you move through the presentation.

There are two main drawbacks to this one, though. First, there's a bit of a learning curve and less familiar editing interface (but I found it pretty easy to learn with some practice). The other drawback is that you can't get as granular with the visual customization as you can with many other presentation tools.

The best presentation app for generative AI

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Top-tier generative AI features

Simple, customizable templates

Intuitive doc-style editor

There's definitely a learning curve

Tome is one of the new additions to this list that I'm most excited about. If you're looking for generative AI that just genuinely works , it's definitely worth a look. The editor is a bit more stripped down than most presentation apps but intuitive nonetheless—it's almost a cross between your standard deck editor and a Notion-style doc.

To generate an AI deck, click Generate with AI in the top right, and either write your own prompt or choose from the example prompts that cover a handful of common use cases, like sales enablement and company pitches. Edit or approve the suggested outline, then generate the full presentation.

From there, you can edit each slide as a doc via the right-hand menu—without limits on how much information you can include. During the presentation, you simply size down any slides that take up more than the standard amount of space. It's super simple but somehow feels revolutionary in a presentation app.

What about the old standbys?

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

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

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

What about PowerPoint and Google Slides add-ons?

While I focused my testing on tools with full feature-sets—those that can serve as your sole presentation tool—there are a ton of add-on tools you can use atop big name tools like PowerPoint and Google Slides.

Related reading:

This post was originally published in October 2014 and has since been updated with contributions from Danny Schreiber, Matthew Guay, Andrew Kunesh, and Krystina Martinez. The most recent update was in April 2024.

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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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Ranking The Best Presentation Platforms in 2023 & Beyond

In this highly digitized world, giving presentations is par for the course no matter your industry or discipline. And with the drastic increase in remote and hybrid work, creating dynamic, engaging presentations to bolster your virtual presence has become even more important.

As a result, presentation platforms have come a long way over the last several years to fit various needs.

With so many options available, you might wonder which presentation platform is right for your needs.

In this article, we’ll compare the best presentation platforms to help you find the perfect option for your specific use cases, whether you’re creating stunning video-heavy presentations, highly interactive non-linear shows, or even basic, informative slide decks.

The Best Presentation Platforms in 2023

Presentation software is a broad umbrella term describing a wide variety of products. Deciding on the best presentation platform will largely depend on your use case.

• Will you need a platform that allows you to stream video presentations?
• Are you creating complex audio-visual content for live events or worship services?
• Do you need the ability to stream or record the contents of your desktop?
• Are you just looking for a basic slide deck presentation platform?

Your answers to these questions (and others like them) will likely affect your decision: different presentation platforms have their own focuses and different sets of strengths and weaknesses.

Whatever your needs and use cases look like, you’ll find the best presentation platform for your needs in the list below.

ProPresenter

ProPresenter is the most robust video presentation platform and enterprise presentation software for any use case in this list.

Whether you’re looking for a drag-and-drop slide creator or need to embed and live-streamed presentations, ProPresenter has you covered.

ProPresenter is also an intuitive and easy-to-use video presentation app that doesn’t sacrifice performance or features.

Powerful design and performance capabilities mean your slides, presentations, and live streams will look incredibly professional— and you won’t need advanced design skills or months of training to get started.

If you’re a professional presenting to a large audience or a small business owner presenting to a few, our presentation software can meet—and surpass—your needs.

ProPresenter Use Cases

Worship services of all sizes, professional and local sporting events, live video presentations, slide shows, multimedia presentations, and much, much more.

ProPresenter can do it all.

ProPresenter Pricing

ProPresenter offers an unrestricted two-week trial, but we do not offer a long-term free version.

We offer seat licenses that give you the full ProPresenter experience so you can present in front of audiences at houses of worship, businesses, schools, and more.

Campus licenses are available for houses of worship, and ProPresenter+ gives a subscription-based option for ongoing updates and support.

Additionally, you can rent ProPresenter for one-time events if you don’t need a complete license.

Visme is one of the best presentation tools for organizations that want to create a wide array of content, from presentations to data visualizations, branded content, and more. Templates are available so that even users with little to no design experience can build beautiful, compelling presentations.

While this “design on guardrails” approach can be handy for novices, creators who are used to more design freedom may find Visme’s capabilities a bit limiting.

One of the major drawbacks to Visme is its basic video routing, playback, and output capabilities. Visme presentations run in web browsers and can be viewed by anyone from anywhere. That’s great for Zoom calls and classrooms and conference rooms, but if your needs are a little more advanced, Visme starts to show its limitations.

There’s no option for the advanced video outputs needed for live events, tech-heavy presentations, etc.

Visme Use Cases

Visme is best for internal branded communication, static content for social media, content management platforms, and more.

Visme Pricing

A basic Visme version is free, but most businesses and organizations will quickly outgrow the small storage limit.

Those who need more can access two individual subscription levels at monthly or yearly price points. Visme also has a custom-quoted team plan for businesses and organizations.

Prezi is one of the more unique presentation platforms out there, and it’s the answer for interactive presenters and organizations that want to make dynamic, interesting, non-linear presentations.

Instead of the traditional side-by-side slide method, Prezi allows you to create presentations that zoom in, pan around, twist, turn, and more to really capture your audience’s attention.

Prezi is the best software for that purpose if you have a presentation that changes direction or order based on audience input.

Prezi has also recently added a video recording tool and a design tool within its platform, allowing you to record, edit, and share videos and even present live.

Prezi Use Cases

Prezi is useful for business and educational presentations, infographics, dynamic slideshows, talking-head videos, and more.

Prezi Pricing

The free version of Prezi leaves much to be desired (and leaves out several core features). Prezi offers a wide range of subscription tiers, spanning from basic plans to ones for students, educators, and large businesses.

Finding a cost-effective plan for your organization should be straightforward.

Canva is one of the best visual presentation software tools for individuals and businesses alike.

In addition to doing basic graphic design, you can design, record, and download video presentations with Canva. This browser-based software is incredibly easy to use with ready-made templates and assets to help your presentation look polished.

Users won’t be able to get granular with design elements using this presentation visualization platform, which may be frustrating for users with design experience.

Canva Use Cases

Canva is best for content creation, slide presentations, talking-head videos, and more.

Canva Pricing

Though Canva offers a free version, many of the more high-quality templates, assets, photos, etc. are only available on the premium plan. Still, their company plans are competitive, starting at $12.95/month for up to 5 people, making this a good budget alternative for startups and small organizations.

Loom is another presentation platform that’s quickly growing in popularity in professional circles. With Loom, you can quickly record and upload your video for easy sharing with whomever you choose. Once recorded, you can edit your video and add in calls to action (CTAs).

Businesses and organizations use Loom to share instructions and updates without having a formal meeting. It’s also a great platform for educators who want to queue up a series of lessons or guided exercises for students.

Truthfully, Loom is a much more straightforward presentation software option that’s geared more toward screen recordings and asynchronous video messaging than slides.

Loom is a great way to go if that’s your primary focus. But it doesn’t make a very effective slide-style presentation platform.

Loom Use Cases

Loom is best for internal communication for businesses and places of learning.

Loom Pricing

Loom has a generous free starting plan with a five-minute limit on video length. A paid business plan removes that limit of $12.50/user/month, and a customizable enterprise plan gives organizations more security and better integrations.

Haiku Deck is perfect for organizations that want to create linear presentations and slide decks with little to no embedded media. Creating slides in this presentation software is incredibly simple—drag, drop, and go.

Haiku Deck offers tons of pre-built design options so even non-technical users can give presentations a professional look without breaking a sweat.

Haiku Deck is a cloud-based presentation app making sharing your presentation with any connected device easy. Haiku Deck is a great choice for companies looking for a simple presentation platform without too many bells and whistles.

Haiku Deck limits your design options, so it’s not ideal if you need powerful presentation design flexibility. Also, presentations run in your browser, meaning you’ll find the same limitations on video outputs and overall power.

Haiku Deck Use Cases

Haiku Deck is best for creating polished slideshow presentations for businesses and educators.

Haiku Deck Pricing

Haiku Deck offers a free trial with paid professional and premium subscriptions after the trial period is over, at $119 and $359 per year, respectively. Nonprofits and educators: note that Haiku Deck offers discounted pricing for eligible students, educators, and nonprofits.

Microsoft PowerPoint

PowerPoint has been around since the 90s and is one of the most widely used commercial presentation applications for a reason.

PowerPoint is fairly simple to use and has an overall clean user interface. This software is best for school or small business presentations where design isn’t a major factor. You can embed media in PowerPoint presentations, though it doesn’t support live streaming.

There’s a reason why this presentation platform from the Microsoft mega-giant has been around so long, but many great PowerPoint alternatives surpass this software.

PowerPoint Use Cases

PowerPoint is (and has always been) best used for creating slideshow presentations for businesses, students, and educators.

PowerPoint Pricing

PowerPoint is fairly affordable and can be purchased for businesses for $12.50/user/month with the Microsoft 365 Business Standard bundle or for $22/user/month with Microsoft 365 Business Premium. It’s worth noting that price includes the entire Microsoft 365 suite of tools—and your organization might already be paying for them.

If you’re a smaller operation and don’t need everything in 365, then PowerPoint and the other basic Microsoft apps can also be purchased for $8.25/user/month.

Google Slides

Slides is Google’s version of Microsoft PowerPoint. Though this presentation tool is free, giving it a slight advantage.

Users already familiar with Docs, Sheets, and other Google tools will have no problem using Slides to create presentations.

While Slides is very accessible and easy to use, it lacks a robust template library and has minimal graphic assets, so users who want to make visually interesting presentations will be disappointed by its lack of features.

Google Slides Use Cases

Basic slideshow presentations for businesses, students, and educators.

Google Slides Pricing

Slides is free and available to anyone with a Google account. You can also collaborate and share your presentation with anyone by sharing the link. If your organization wants to share and manage information more thoroughly through teams, plans for business accounts start at $6/user/month and go up to $18/user/month.

Apple created its answer to PowerPoint long before Google did. The capabilities of Keynote are comparable to Slides and PowerPoint, with the exception that videos are only embeddable with a plug-in. Despite this,

Keynote is a great presentation software for Apple users looking for an easy way to make simple presentations.

Keynote Use Cases

Basic slideshow presentations for businesses, students, and educators—but only in Apple-friendly scenarios.

Keynote Pricing

It might sound strange, but you can’t buy or pay for Keynote. The Keynote app is automatically installed on all iOS and macOS devices (or is available as a free download). It’s free to use on those devices, making it a budget-friendly alternative if you’re already deep in the Apple ecosystem.

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The best presentation software for 2024

Investing in the best presentation software helps bring your slide ideas to life easily and impactfully

Delivering a presentation in the workplace can be a stressful experience, but the best presentation software can help you get your message across more confidently. With the backing of a convincing deck filled with powerful imagery and data, anyone can deliver a top-notch presentation.

Luckily for business users, there’s no shortage of choice when it comes to tools that can help you create the best presentations possible. We’ve brought together the best presentation software in the five best offerings from Microsoft, Visme, Google, Prezi, and Slidebean.

Whether you plan to present remotely via a video conferencing system or in-person, pay $180 per year, or nothing at all – you’re likely to find the perfect software for your presentation in one of the five options detailed below. Once you’ve decided which one suits you best, you’ll just have to work on your public speaking skills.

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1. Microsoft PowerPoint

Supported operating systems: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android

Free tier: Yes

Ever since it was first released in 1987, PowerPoint has been one of the top contenders for the title of best presentation software. With a powerful set of features including clean graphics and stock images, the ability to time and record slideshows, and even have generative AI produce text, images, or entire slides if you pay for Copilot for Microsoft 365 .

Other PowerPoint features include support for 3D objects, limited image editing, and the ability to produce detailed infographics.

As part of the Microsoft Office 365 software suite, PowerPoint is widely used in conjunction with Excel, Outlook, Word, and Access. The online version of PowerPoint allows users to collaborate on a slideshow in real-time.

Microsoft 365 business subscriptions start at $6 (or £4.90) per user per month, depending on options and add-ons. If you’re not interested in the other apps in the suite, you can also purchase PowerPoint as a standalone app for a one-time fee of $159.99 (or £149.99).

2. Google Slides

Supported operating systems: Windows, macOS, iOS, ChromeOS, and Android

Google Slides was built with collaboration at its heart and operates very similarly to Microsoft PowerPoint. As part of the Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) set of applications, Google Slides is available for free with any Google account and works seamlessly with Google Drive and Google Sheets.

You can import PPSX files from Microsoft PowerPoint directly into Google Slides and also download slides in a range of formats when finished. This allows for a good degree of flexibility and inter-compatibility when using Google Slides, perfect for businesses that rely on a mixture of Google Workspace and Office 365 or those whose customers are entirely reliant on a platform outside of Google.

Suited for the hybrid working era, users can deliver presentations on Google Meet video calls directly from Slides. A built-in Q&A feature also allows viewers to submit anonymous questions while a presenter runs through their slides.

If you choose to pay for Google Slides, you’ll be able to use more cloud storage, benefit from advanced security features, and receive more responsive tech support.

Subscriptions start at $6 (or £5) per user per month for the Business Starter plan. For more cloud storage, video meeting options, and recording there’s also the Business Standard plan at $12 (or £10) per user per month and the Business Plus plan for $18 (or £15) per user per month.

Topping the offerings is a customizable Enterprise offering, with quotes available on a per-business basis via the Google Workspace sales team. Those looking to leverage features similar to Microsoft’s Copilot in PowerPoint will be glad to know there’s also the option of using Google Gemini in Google Workspace starting at $20 per month.

As presentation software goes, Prezi might be the best for pure focus on images. Users can zoom into slides to a greater degree than in competing software and are encouraged to turn the canvas at different angles while presenting or insert seamless transitions to keep your audience engaged.

Additionally, Prezi makes it easy to import and embed a PDF file into your presentation. You may also choose to incorporate live or recorded videos into your presentations via video in video. Convenient and secure, Prezi’s “Go Live” feature lets you share your recordings with popular video conferencing tools, including Zoom, Webex, and others.

Prezi also has its own integrated AI assistant, which suggests templates based on text input and can reword text to improve its readability. The Basic plan is free and lets you create and share up to five projects but Prezi also offers flexible business tiers : Plus, Premium, and Teams. 

‘Plus’ plans cost $15 (or £15) per month and enable users to create unlimited projects, infographics, import slides from Microsoft PowerPoint, export decks as PDFs, and create voice-overs for presentations. At the ‘Premium’ level, which costs $19 (or £19) per month, users get presentation analytics , advanced online training, as well as phone and chat support.

Topping the price list is the Teams plan, which starts at $19 (or £19) per month and includes admin controls, custom branding, integration with Slack , and secure single sign-on (SSO) among other benefits. Keep in mind, Prezi bills those monthly fees annually, but you can take advantage of a 14-day free trial.

Supported operating systems: Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, and Android

With Visme, you can run your presentation online or offline, collaborate with teams, connect charts to live data, and more. Visme’s intuitive drag-and-drop interface provides granular content control, making customization quick and easy. You can also add animated assets, forms, and surveys to a Visme presentation.

What’s more, Visme’s analytics feature lets you track traffic on public Visme projects. When someone views a public Visme project, the software detects and compiles the source address, number of unique visitors, and each visit’s duration. Visme then visualizes the metrics into an easy-to-understand analytical graph, accessible through the dashboard. You can also download the metrics as Excel reports.

Visme offers a free plan that allows up to five projects and includes limited templates, charts and widgets, 100 MB of storage, the ability to download JPG files, and more.

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Paid Visme plans come in three variants: Starter ($29 per month or $147 per year), Pro ($59 per month or $297 per year), and Visme for Teams (contact sales for pricing).

The Starter plan adds onto the free plan with up to 250 MB of storage, premium assets and templates, no Visme branding, PDF download, 24/7 phone and chat support, and more. The Business plan offers 3 GB of storage, multiple file download types, a branding kit, privacy controls, and more.

For large corporations, the Enterprise plan has custom pricing. This builds upon the Business plan with 25 GB of storage, single-sign-on ability, two-factor authentication, a custom subdomain, deep analytics, training and onboarding, and more.

5. Slidebean

Standing out from the conventional, Slidebean is an AI -powered, web-based multimedia presentation tool. It can design and format your slides automatically as you type. Furthermore, this tool lets you combine a wide range of media, including videos, PDF files, web pages, and Prezi and PowerPoint presentations, to name a few.

From sales decks to business proposals, Slidebean’s ready-to-use templates offer smart content suggestions to keep presentations informative yet creative. You may even choose to remotely control your SlideDog presentations from a desktop or your smartphone.

Slidebean’s free plan includes unlimited access to its AI-powered editor, pre-built templates, and media galleries. Its paid plan, All-Access, allows users to share and export presentations to PDF and PPT, track views and activity on slides, browse over 30,000 investor contacts, and access over $15,000 in discounts on startup tools.

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Home » Presentation » Top 10 Tools For Presentation To Keep Your Audience Engaged

Top 10 Tools For Presentation To Keep Your Audience Engaged

Senior Writer

Traditional presentations no longer captivate viewers in the present age. A startling 79% of participants considered most presentations boring . However, rather than just identifying past techniques as outdated, users to create presentations to make them more engaging. 

The latest presentation tools make it easier to style slides and create professional-looking slideshows without using templates. This is why we have put together a list of interactive tools for presentation. Let’s take a look.

Use presentation tools' collaboration features to gather feedback and iterate quickly. Incorporate multimedia wisely to enhance engagement and leverage templates for a polished look.

What Are Online Presentation Tools?

Online presentation tools are software apps that allow you to build presentations that include more than just text and bullet points. These technologies allow you to include graphics, animations, and other dynamic components in your material, increasing the audience’s overall engagement and interest.

Furthermore, many interactive presentation software are cross-platform, allowing you to work on your presentation from almost anywhere. Using the right digital presentation tools, you can easily create clear and effective presentations suitable for any event.

Our selection of these Presentation Tools is based on thorough research and analysis. We have listed this software based on usability and satisfaction scores that include features, ease of use, customer support, ratings, and the number of reviews from SoftwareSuggest. Our goal is to help businesses select the right software that can help them optimize their business processes.

10 Best Tools For Presentation

Users can improve presentations using interactive presentation tools to make them memorable, captivating, and capable of moving their audience to action. We’ve listed the best interactive presentation tools for you. Let’s take a look.

• Prezi - Best for conversational, non-linear presentations
• Google Slides - Best for creating, editing, and collaborating
• Canva - Best for free presentation
• MS PowerPoint - Best for personal and professional purposes
• Keynote - Best for Professional presentations with ease
• Slidebean - Best for all-in-one pitch deck software
• Haiku Deck - Best for eye-catching and focused presentations
• Visme - Best for beginners
• Zoho Show - Best for collaborate and deliver presentations from anywhere
• Beautiful.AI - Best for AI-powered design

4.2 out of 5 stars

Prezi is among the top presentation tools, and it offers a dynamic, zoomable canvas. It is among the virtual presentation tools that enable users to create compelling, non-linear presentations. Its distinct storytelling method, which incorporates fluid motion and spatial interactions, increases audience engagement . 

Prezi is ideal for creative and visually stunning presentations, and it supports multimedia integration, making it an effective tool among trainers, advertisers, and professionals trying to move away from traditional slide-based presentations.

• Offline editing
• Offline presenting
• Screen sharing
• Template management
• Training management
• Plus: starting at $15/per month
• Premium: starting at $25/per month
• Teams: starting at $39/month/per user
• 14-day-free trial

Best for: for conversational, non-linear presentations

• The tool is easy to use with intuitive design tools.
• It allows customization of the smallest details for aesthetic appeal.
• The platform integrates seamlessly with Google Meet and Zoom.
• Errors are hard to identify and correct.
• Orientation gets confusing with zooming in and out.

2. Google Slides

Google Sildes

4.6 out of 5 stars

Google Slides is among the best tools for interactive presentations. It is a cloud-based presentation tool that’s part of Google Workspace . As it enables real-time communication, it’s ideal for distant and group projects. The presenters can edit, share, and create from any device.

 It offers a variety of layouts, themes, and animation choices to improve presentations, and it smoothly connects with other Google services. It is among the popular tools for presentations that support a wide range of file formats.

• Audio file management
• Video support
• Personal: free
• Business Standard: $12 per user/month

Best for : creating, editing, and collaborating on presentations

• The tool offers seamless copying and pasting from various sources.
• It has universal accessibility across platforms.
• The platform offers detailed note tracking for team alignment.
• Poor internet may lead to data loss when logging in.
• Uploading PDFs to Google Slides can mess up the formatting.

4.7 out of 5 stars

Canva is among the best online presentation tools. It is a multipurpose design tool well-known for its enormous library of templates, graphics, and fonts, as well as ease of use. 

It enables the creation of posters, social media visuals, and more in addition to presentations. Even people without design skills can alter their designs by simply dragging and dropping items. Teams can collaborate on projects using Canva’s collaboration capabilities.

• Digital asset management
• Image editing
• Canva Pro: ₹4000/year/one person
• Canva Teams: ₹3800/year/one person
• Canva Enterprise: custom pricing
• Free trial: 30 days

Best for : free presentation

• The tool has education license benefits with all Pro features.
• It has excellent customer support for any assistance needed.
• The tool has a powerful background remover for product photo editing.
• Arabic text export causes design issues with pixelation.
• Software crashes or slows during complex graphic projects.

4. MS PowerPoint

MS PowerPoint

One of the most widely used presentation tools is Microsoft PowerPoint, which is renowned for its many features and adaptability. Powerpoint presentations provide a large selection of multimedia support, animations, transitions, and templates. 

All types of presentations, including business reports and instructional lectures, can benefit from the use of PowerPoint. Many professionals and students use these PowerPoint presentation templates because of their collaboration features and interaction with Microsoft Office.

• Media library
• Productivity tools
• Powerpoint: ₹ 11,999
• 30-day free trial

Best for : personal and professional purposes.

• The tool has easy navigation and seamless audio/video integration.
• It has simple slide customization, easy downloading, and advanced designs.
• The platform is versatile for simple or complex presentations.
• Basic and repetitive templates limit creativity.
• Compatibility issues with non-Windows systems cause file corruption.

5 out of 5 stars

One of Apple’s presentation apps, Keynote, is renowned for its robust capabilities and elegant appearance. It is among the best presentation tools that provides a selection of user-friendly themes, animations, and transitions. 

Keynote facilitates collaboration via iCloud and connects seamlessly with other Apple applications. Users who value style and smooth operation within the Apple ecosystem are drawn to this free presentation software .

• Collaboration tools
• Data import/export
• Drag & drop
• Image library
• Please connect with the vendor for pricing.

Best for: Professional presentations with ease without advanced design skills.

• The tool has beautiful templates for professional presentations.
• It has interactive slides with audio file linking.
• The platform is simple and intuitive to use.
• Poor compatibility with Windows software and complementary tools.
• Presentations take up a lot of storage.

6. Slidebean

Slidebean leverages AI to assist users in producing polished presentations in a timely manner. Slidebean creates slides for you automatically by putting content into an easy-to-use interface, guaranteeing a professional appearance. 

For professionals and companies who require visually stunning presentations without the burden of manual design, this is the perfect solution. The platform simplifies the process of creating presentations by providing a variety of templates and customization possibilities.

• All Acess: $12/month/billed yearly
• Accelerate: $99/month/billed monthly

Best for : all-in-one pitch deck software

• The tool has inspiring storytelling templates.
• It has an extensive icon library.
• The platform provides easy sharing and tracking opportunities.
• Slow element progression bore customers.
• Image upload issues, including the background turning black.

7. Haiku Deck

Haiku Deck emphasizes visual storytelling and simplicity. It promotes the use of clear text and excellent photos to make presentations that have an impact. Haiku Deck’s constrained typeface and layout selection aids users in staying clear and clutter-free. 

For presenters who wish to highlight their stories and create captivating presentations for the audience, this tool is an ideal option.

• Customizable templates
• Pro: $19.99/month
• Premium: $29.99/month
• 7-day-free trial

Best for : eye-catching and focused presentations.

• Attractive templates and graphics for beautiful presentations.
• Simple features with easy understanding and picture search.
• Great graphics, customer support, webinars, and educational discounts.
• The tool has a lack of support and technical issues.
• It also lacks in the development of offerings.

Visme is a feature-rich design tool that lets users generate social media graphics, reports, and infographics in addition to professionally designed presentation templates . It provides drag-and-drop capability, a range of templates, and interactive components like animations and connections. For professionals in marketing, education, and business who want adaptable design tools, Visme is perfect.

• Contact management
• Content delivery
• Content library
• Content management
• Course authoring
• Basic: free
• Starter: $12.25/month
• Pro: $24.75/month
• Enterprise: custom pricing

Best for : beginners who want to create professional-looking designs

• The tool is excellent for embedding graphics into infographics.
• The platform can save items to a board.
• The tool has a fair price for extensive features.
• Long-term subscriptions can lead to wasted money.
• Inconsistent usage doesn’t justify annual payments.

9.  Zoho Show

A cloud-based presentation tool included in the Zoho Office Suite is called Zoho Show. Users may work together, create, and present from any location. Zoho Show meets a variety of presenting requirements with an extensive selection of templates, themes, and customization possibilities. 

Users within the Zoho ecosystem will find it to be a useful option due to its seamless integration with other Zoho apps.

• Data visualization
• Document management
• Professional plan: Starts at₹140
• 15-day free trial

Best for : collaborate and deliver presentations from anywhere

• Many inbuilt animations for elegant presentations.
• Supports images and videos for better communication.
• Easy to create and collaborate on high-quality presentations.
• Crashes if the internet connection is lacking.
• Limited and unremarkable template choices.

10. Beautiful.AI

Beautiful.AI

Beautiful.AI makes it easier to create visually attractive presentations. When users provide content, the tool automatically modifies the layout to ensure a polished appearance. It has several modification choices and smart template options. Beautiful.AI is perfect for time-pressed professionals as it saves effort without sacrificing design quality.

• Background removal
• Color matching
• Content generation
• Pro: $12/month
• Team: $40/user/month
• 14-day free trial

Best for: AI-powered design

• The tool has fantastic templates and a futuristic AI-driven design.
• It is easy to use and has tons of useful templates.
• The tool is cost-effective and great for team collaboration.
• Limited customization and customer support.
• AI capabilities result in repetitive layouts.

Why Are Online Presentation Tools Important?

To effectively transmit information to the audience and leave a lasting impact, presentations must have captivating images and a captivating delivery. Among the main advantages of presentation tools are:

1. Enhanced Visual Communication

Presentation tools that include pictures, charts, and movies improve visual communication. This keeps the audience interested by enabling the professional and interactive delivery of difficult information.

2. Improved  Audience Engagement

Presentations become more interesting when they incorporate interactive elements like audience response systems, polls, and quizzes. It boosts audience participation and enables more effective idea communication from presenters.

3. Organized Content Delivery

Content that is compelling and well-structured with distinct titles, bullet points, and divisions can be produced with the use of presentation software. The natural information flow made possible by this structure makes it simpler for the audience to engage with the content.

4. Efficient Collaboration and Editing

Editing options in the best online presentation software make it simple to change and enhance presentations. By enabling numerous users to contribute and edit at once, they promote teamwork. These technologies improve dynamism and engagement and are, therefore, essential in the workplace.

5. Multimedia Integration

Music and video clips can be added to presentations using presentation software, which enhances the content and draws in the audience. An overall tone of professionalism guarantees a more vibrant experience.

6. Time Management

Slide transitions and timers are two examples of useful presentation tools that help presenters make the most of their time. These characteristics facilitate seamless transitions between parts, making an impact on the audience that lasts.

7. Flexibility and Accessibility

With the use of different types of presentation software, the material can be easily shared and accessed across devices, comfortably reaching a larger audience. This feature makes it possible to create interesting, educational slideshows that draw in and hold the attention of viewers.

Features To Look For In Online Presentation Tools

Here are some of the features to look out for in online presentation tools: 

1. Custom Themes & Templates

With multiple adjustable templates and themes at their disposal, customers may construct visually stunning presentations that are tailored to their requirements.

2. Collaborative Capabilities

Features in collaborative presentation tools that must provide instantaneous communication and feedback from several users are crucial for collaborative projects involving teams and distant work settings.

3. Cloud Storage And Access

Smooth work transitions and effortless sharing are made possible by cloud storage, which guarantees that presentations are viewable on any device.

4.  Multimedia Integration

The implementation of photos, videos, audio, and animations increases the efficacy and engagement of the presentation.

5. Real-Time Editing

Multiple users can make and view changes instantaneously with real-time editing capabilities, which promote effective teamwork and prompt updates.

6. Offline Access

To ensure reliability under all circumstances, offline access is essential for generating and presenting without an internet connection.

7. Analytics and Reporting

Insights about audience participation and presentation efficacy are provided by built-in analytics and reporting elements, which can be used to enhance subsequent presentations.

8. Importing and Exporting Files

The seamless importing and exporting of many file formats ensure easy sharing of presentations and connectivity with other software.

Information sharing has been transformed by different presentation platforms, which provide collaborative capabilities, interactive aspects, and logical visuals for creating powerful presentations. 

There is a tool that will work for you, regardless of whether you like simple bullet points or dynamic animations and data visualizations. 

It can be challenging to choose the best software from an extensive range of possibilities. Although this selection may be made easier with our carefully compiled list of the top 10 presenting tools, the ideal option will ultimately depend on your requirements, use cases, and preferences.

Yes, the majority of tools allow multiple users to modify and view presentations at the same time with real-time collaboration features.

Yes, security is given priority with technologies that offer encrypted connections and sharing permission management for presentations that are stored.

To improve presentations, technologies usually allow the incorporation of multimedia elements.

Yes, many programs offer mobile apps that help users create, modify, and display presentations on tablets and smartphones.

Yes, many courses provide free versions with limited functionality, while some may cost money or require a subscription for more advanced features.

Priya is a seasoned writer with expertise in the SaaS industry. With over five years of experience in the field, she deeply understands the requirement of this specific industry, its techniques, and tools. Her articles, whitepapers, and blog posts are known for their clarity, practicality, and actionable insights. Priya also possesses in-depth knowledge of SEO and content marketing, which enables her to develop effective strategies to increase website traffic and improve brand visibility.

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Blog Graphic Design 12 Best Presentation Software for 2024

12 Best Presentation Software for 2024

Written by: Krystle Wong Jan 12, 2024

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

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

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

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

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

1. Venngage 

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

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

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

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

Vast selection of templates

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

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

Data visualization made easy

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

Seamless real-time in-editor collaboration tools

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

Consistently brand your designs with smart Autobrand features

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

Who is it for

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

Key features 

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

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

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

2. Microsoft PowerPoint

Source: Screenshot from Microsoft PowerPoint

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3. Google Slides

Source: Screenshot from Google Slides

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4. Keynote (for Mac users)

Source: Screenshot from Keynote

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: Screenshot from Prezi

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For individuals & business professionals

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

Standard: Starting at $5 USD/month

Plus: Starting at $12 USD/month

Premium: Starting at $16 USD/month

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

For Students & Educators

EDU Plus: Starting at $3/month

EDU Pro: Starting at $4/month

EDU Teams: Enquiry required with Prezi sales team

Source: Screenshot from Canva

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

7. Adobe Express

Source: Screenshot from Adobe Express

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. Haiku Deck

Source: Haiku Deck

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: Screenshot from Ludus

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10. Slidebean

Source: Screenshot from Slidebean

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

11. Beautiful.ai

Source: Screenshot from Beautiful.ai

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: Screenshot from Pitch

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The 9 best presentation software platforms in 2023

You’re in the middle of a busy work week, and you‘re winding down after a particularly productive day. There’s still a lot more to accomplish, but you’ve got momentum and you’re making good progress. As you check your calendar for the following day, you see a two-hour morning time slot blocked out for a company-wide meeting. What’s your gut reaction?

Is it something like “I can’t wait—this is going to be so fun and interactive!” Or is it something more like “Ugh—I’ve got so much to do, and this is going to be such a long presentation. Maybe I can get some actual work done while it’s on in the background.”

If your inner monologue sounds more like the second example, you’re not alone. Research from Zippia shows 65% of employees believe meetings inhibit them from getting their work tasks done and that people are multitasking in at least 41% of meetings.

With so many potential distractions lurking in inboxes, Slack channels, and smartphones, meeting leaders must do everything they can to make their presentations interactive and engaging.

Fortunately, many presentation software platforms offer powerful tools to help presenters tell more captivating stories. Let’s take a look at a few of the factors that separate good apps from great ones.

What makes a great presentation app?

From pitch decks to progress updates, presentation apps have countless uses within the modern business environment. But regardless of the content being shared, there are a few things the best presentation software all has in common.

Intuitive, user-friendly interfaces

If an application is loaded with incredible features that are difficult to use, most users will prefer to take the path of least resistance rather than spending hours Googling how to accomplish their goal. Best-in-class presentation software makes it easy for users to learn the basics and get started, often with built-in tutorials.

Easy customization

Platforms that make it easy to plug in your logo, colors, fonts, and photos create polished presentations that wow internal and external audiences alike. Look for an app with a variety of tweakable templates that allow teams to share different types of information while sticking to your brand and identity standards.

Visual storytelling

If you’re squeezing several hundred words onto each presentation slide and then reading them all aloud, your audience’s attention is likely to wane. Research has long shown people absorb a combination of visual and verbal content much better than spoken lectures alone. All the best presentation software streamlines the use of visual aids to help your audience retain information more effectively.

Sharing and collaboration features

As asynchronous work becomes increasingly common, it’s important for your presentation software of choice to streamline collaboration between teams who may not be in the same location (or even the same hemisphere). When done well, sharing and collaboration features can save time and confusion regarding the latest versions or revisions.  

Integrations with other apps

Software that plays nicely with its binary counterparts can elevate a typical presentation into something compelling and visually stunning. Apps which enable embedding and presenting interactive features make outstanding add-ons that improve audience engagement while using your main slideware or communication tools.

1. Poll Everywhere

A versatile and customizable software platform for engaging your audience and encouraging participation, Poll Everywhere adds interactive elements to your presentation like polls, surveys, quizzes, word clouds, and much more. Made to turn dry lectures into two-way conversations, Poll Everywhere makes it easy to set up a variety of interactive activities for audience members. People can share their input via text, smartphone app, or web browser, which is then reflected on the screen in real time (don’t worry, there are moderation features for open-ended text responses).

Not only does Poll Everywhere enable more interactive presentations, it’s also a useful tool for things like employee surveys, group brainstorms, or submitting questions and agenda items ahead of meetings. It’s intuitive for new users to pick up and enables more open communication and team collaboration at every level of your organization.

For larger organizations, Poll Everywhere’s Enterprise plans let you customize the platform to reflect your company’s branding, logos, and colors (and remove the Poll Everywhere branding to give your presentations a more bespoke look). You also get additional features like Shared Activities for cross-team collaboration, upgraded security protocols, and robust reporting tools to translate audience responses into actionable insights.

• Easy integration with most industry-standard slideware and communication apps
• Encourages audience participation and engagement
• Wide variety of functions and activities
• Paid plans required for audiences larger than 25 people
• Audience members must have Internet or cellular access to participate

Poll Everywhere offers a free plan that allows polling limited audience sizes and paid plans starting at $120 per year. Higher-tier plans include additional users, greater audience sizes, and increased moderation and support tools. Custom enterprise solutions for large organizations are also available.

Powtoon takes your presentations to the next level by helping you create polished, professional-looking videos that are more captivating than your traditional text on a screen. Users edit “slides” similarly to how they would with most presentation software, except when you’re done, your deck becomes a seamless video complete with animations of your choosing. The software even figures out the correct timing based on how much content you add to each slide.

In addition to making your presentations sparkle, Powtoon is also useful for creating other marketing or social media assets. You can orient your videos to fit different dimensions and publish your finished creations directly to YouTube, Meta’s Ads Manager, and other platforms.

• Makes your presentations more captivating and memorable
• Useful for creating all types of videos
• Wide variety of templates, animations, and characters
• Limited templates on free version
• Paid plan required for MP4 downloads

Powtoon’s free offering is somewhat limited, though paid plans start at a reasonable $20 per month. Premium plans include more storage space, unlimited exports, and the ability to customize characters and add your own branding.

3. Genially

In the era of remote teams working across different time zones, not every presentation needs to have a presenter. Genially makes it easy to create interactive, self-led presentations that engage your audience much more than simply sending them a deck or a document to review. A huge variety of templates include predefined interactive elements, or users can customize their own.

A well-planned assortment of content blocks lets you showcase everything from image galleries to data visualizations. And while it takes a bit of work upfront, you can also create your own template using your organization’s branding and then have anyone on your team use it to create their own presentations.

• Anyone can create entertaining and interactive self-led presentations
• Solid variety of templates, even on free version
• Unlimited creations for all tiers, including free version
• Paid subscription required to view presentations offline
• Variety of options can be overwhelming at first

Premium plans range from $7.49 per month to $80 per month. As you go up the pricing tiers, you get access to more privacy and personalization features, plus integration with other platforms like PowerPoint and Google Analytics.

A software platform that’s shaking up the linear-presentation model, Prezi takes users out of the sometimes stifling flow of traditional slide deck design in favor of a more free-flowing approach. Prezi users list out ideas or topics they want to cover before threading them together into a compelling, visually striking presentation that’s more conducive to group conversations.

Prezi integrates particularly well with video conferencing tools, making it a great option for remote-first teams. You can even build your presentation as a Zoom overlay, which means your audience can see you and your slide content at the same time. It’s a nice way to maintain a human touch in video presentations, where audiences often miss out on seeing the presenter’s body language and facial expressions.

• Can inspire more creative thinking when developing content
• Robust library of templates and features
• Excellent integration with video conferencing platforms
• Can be a challenging transition for people used to the traditional slide deck model
• Free version limited to five projects

While you can create five projects for free, paid plans starting at $19 per month include much greater import and export options. The $59 per month Premium plan includes phone support, presentation analytics, and advanced training tools. Custom enterprise packages are also available for large teams.

5. Google Slides

Truly free presentation software—not just a free trial or a limited feature set—is increasingly difficult to come by. However, anyone with a Google account can use the full version of Google Slides, with no recurring subscriptions or trial periods to speak of. And because it’s fully cloud-based, teams can collaborate on the same presentation without having to keep track of multiple versions.

While its offerings of features and premade templates may not quite equal some of its subscription-based peers, Google Slides remains a viable solution due to its simple interface and easy integration with the rest of Google Workspace. You can also add powerful third-party add-ons to make your presentations more interactive and visually appealing.

• Cloud-based platform enables easy collaboration
• Shorter learning curve than some other platforms
• Can utilize add-ons to supplement the simple functionality
• LImited templates and transition effects
• No built-in asset library

The full version of Google Slides is free to use for anyone with a Google account.

If you need to create a beautiful presentation really fast, Canva is a fantastic software option. Its free plan offers some of the best-looking templates around, and because it’s a self-contained solution, you won’t need other apps like Photoshop to create eye-catching visuals. Drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy to add your own content and visual assets, or you can pick from an extensive library of free photos and graphics (even on the free version).

While it’s an excellent tool for creating polished presentations, Canva has other uses too. It’s incredibly helpful for creating marketing materials like videos, social posts, and even logos. While it’s not a replacement for your design team, it can free them up for other tasks while empowering anyone in your organization to embrace their creative side.

• Simplifies the creation of eye-popping presentations
• Massive variety of templates, even on free version
• Versatile platform for creating all types of materials
• Can be difficult to make complicated charts or graphs
• Cloud-based platform has limited offline functionality

Canva’s free version is excellent, though cloud storage space is limited. Paid plans start at $120 per year and include 24/7 support and an even bigger library of templates, photos, animations, and audio.

7. Beautiful.ai

If you’re the hawk-eyed type who spends just as much time fixing those annoying spacing issues as you do developing the actual content of your presentation, Beautiful.ai could be the software you’ve been looking for. As you might suspect from the name, it’s an AI-enhanced presentation platform that automates many aspects of layout to keep your slides looking professional and visually pleasing.

To help you get inspired when first starting a new project, you can browse through a number of slide types to find a layout you like, which then automatically applies to the rest of your presentation-in-progress, even on slides with other types of content. While templates and themes are somewhat limited compared to other platforms, all the included options are clean, modern, and well-designed.

• Automated layout for polished and professional designs
• Clean and intuitive user interface
• Helpful tutorial videos to minimize the learning curve
• Template, theme, and color options are somewhat limited
• Bare-bones collaboration features on the free version

Individual subscriptions start at $12 per month and unlock most of the app’s best features. Monthly Team plans with added customization and collaboration tools start at $40 per user, and large–scale enterprise plans are also available.

8. PowerPoint

We’d be remiss if we didn’t include this category-founding behemoth in our list, as it’s still one of the most popular presentation softwares in use around the globe. (There’s a reason many other presentation apps feature PowerPoint integration as a selling point.)

With a wide variety of templates, effects, animations, and customization options, experienced PowerPoint users can create presentations every bit as compelling as you’ll get with any other platform. And with useful extension apps available for both Mac and Windows versions, you can integrate additional interactive elements to make your next meeting more memorable.

• Compatible with the world’s most popular software suite
• Solid selection of templates and effects
• Easy to get started creating simple presentations
• Steep learning curve for advanced features
• Can take longer to create visually stunning presentations

PowerPoint is included in the Microsoft 365 software suite with plans starting at $6.99 per month. Standalone licenses are also available at a flat rate of $159.99.

If your organization makes heavy use of Apple products, Keynote is an excellent free presentation software option that rivals PowerPoint in terms of rich functionality. The interface is mostly intuitive, though perhaps slightly more complicated than the ultra-stripped-down feel of Google Slides (which makes sense, given Keynote’s additional features).

Built-in templates and asset libraries are plentiful, and in keeping with Apple’s brand aesthetic, help you create contemporary-looking presentations that wow your audiences. And while PowerPoint may have a wider variety of add-ons, Keynote still works with numerous third-party apps to incorporate interactive elements like polls, quizzes, word clouds, and more.

• Excellent variety of templates and built-in assets
• Creates clean, modern, and polished presentations
• Mobile, desktop, and web-based platforms
• Requires some time to master
• Few truly unique features

Keynote is free to use for all Apple users.

When done well, presentations are still one of the best ways to inform and invigorate an audience and align everyone regarding goals, priorities, and progress toward achieving them. With so much user-friendly presentation software available in 2023, there’s no need to host boring, lecture-style meetings that test your attendees’ attention spans.

If you’re looking for more ideas about how to make your presentations more engaging and interactive, check out our free guide detailing best practices for prese nters .

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If you're not sure which tools to use, look no further than this blog post. We’ve compiled our list of the top presentation tools for sales and marketing professionals. They’re listed below, in no particular order. But first ...

Why You Should Use Business Presentation Templates

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Best Presentation Tools

Canva makes design easy -- even for marketers and salespeople who feel like they're design-challenged. The platform gives you a bunch of presentation templates to use right away, and it's very easy to customize them to your organization and presentation objective. Plus, a variety of apps that integrate with Google Drive, Instagram, and YouTube, to name a few.

Pricing : Free; Pro, $12.95/month for up to five people; Enterprise, $30/month per person

Often, being different is what attracts prospects, and Powtoon can help you do that in your presentations. Powtoon’s animation software lets you easily create videos with props, characters, and more -- which can help you differentiate your company when talking with prospects.

Pricing : Pro, $19/month; Pro+ $49/month; Agency, $89/month

3. PowerPoint

For years, PowerPoint has been the standard in presentation software, but it hasn’t remained static. PowerPoint is full of features to make sales and marketing presentations dynamic and engaging. ( Here are just a few ways you can do that .)

Pricing : Business Basic, $5/user/month; Business Standard, $12.50/user/month; Business Premium, $20/user/month

4. Slidesgo

Slidesgo is your creative companion in the world of presentation design. This website specializes in crafting visually stunning Google Slides and PowerPoint templates that breathe life into your ideas, making them shine on any screen. With a wide variety of templates ranging from business and marketing to medicine and education, Slidesgo empowers presenters of all backgrounds to engage, educate, and inspire their audiences.

Pricing: Free plan, $0; Premium, $4.99; Education, $2.99

A PowerPoint add-in, Oomfo helps sales and marketing pros create those oh-so-important interactive charts for presentations. Specialized charts, live charts from multiple files, data from cloud applications, interactive options, one-click conversions -- it’s all possible, and more, with Oomfo.

Pricing: Free

Apple’s Keynote allows users to work between their Mac and iOS devices, as well as with people who use Microsoft PowerPoint. With easy-to-use visual tools, drag and drop functionality, interactive charts, and more, Keynote is a popular choice among sales and marketing professionals.

Pricing : Free

7. SlideModel

SlideModel contains thousands of ready-made and 100% editable presentation templates to help any presenter save time creating engaging and aesthetically pleasing presentations. Their collection of presentation templates covers a variety of business purposes and even gets updated periodically to add new business and education templates. You can find a collection of visually appealing slides on the site including dashboards, creative infographics, editable Maps, funnels, timelines, mindmaps, and presentation slides depending on the need of your presentation. Their slides templates are easy to edit and are compatible with PowerPoint and Google Slides.

Pricing :  Free plan, $0; One-Day Access, $24.50; Annual Unlimited, $199.90/year

8. Beautiful.ai

Create beautiful slides, pitches, and proposals without a team of designers. AI applies design rules in real time, and a library of free photos and icons are at your fingertips.

Pricing : Basic, $0; Pro, $12/month; Team, $38/user/month

9. Haiku Deck

Available for the web or iPad, Haiku Deck has become a favorite of sales and marketing pros. With Haiku Deck, professionals can quickly create presentations that can be "easily projected, shared, posted, embedded on a website or blog, or viewed on any web-enabled device." Though it's another tool that helps you create presentations from scratch, its ease-of-use sets it apart from the rest.

Pricing : Pro, $9.99 - $19.99/month; Premium, $29.99/month

Vyond is an online animation software that allows you to create animated videos for marketing campaigns, sales enablement, or even human resources. Use their library of customizable templates or create your own from scratch.

Pricing : Essential, $229/year; Premium, $649/year; Professional, $999/user/year; Enterprise, contact for pricing

11. Storydoc

With templates for all the most popular business use cases, Storydoc is an interactive presentation maker built to help sales teams and marketing professionals engage more prospects and boost conversion rates. 

You can create amazing and engaging decks where you can embed video and social media content to tell your story the right way. Then, integrate your CRM into Storydoc decks, as well as calendars, sign-up forms, and other solutions that will make your presentation. Additionally, you have access to Storydoc's tracking analytics which shows who viewed your presentation and which components they interacted with the most. 

Pricing :  Free trial 14 days); Starter Plan, $40/month

Busy sales and marketing pros choose emaze because it makes creating amazing presentations quick and easy. The options abound with emaze: Choose a professionally designed template and then create a slideshow, video presentation , or 3D presentation.

Pricing : Business Plan, contact for pricing; Executive Plan, $40/month; Pro Plan, $13/month

13. Camtasia

TechSmith’s Camtasia is an amazing tool that helps you create professional videos. You can record screen movements, import HD video from another source, customize and edit the video, and then share the completed video presentation on practically any device. 

Pricing : Individual, $249.99/user/year; Business $249.99/user/year; Education, $169.99/user/year; Government and Non-Profit, $223.99/user/year

14. SlideShare

SlideShare is a popular choice for sales and marketing professionals looking for a way to share their content publicly. Because it already has a built-in audience, you can easily distribute your presentation out to lots of people -- and those people can embed your SlideShares on websites and blogs, or share them on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

15. SlideDog

Sometimes, sales and marketing professionals need to be able to move between presentation tools, but it’s not always possible because of their technical limitations. SlideDog is the solution, as it enables users to switch between PowerPoint, Prezi, PDF, web pages and others.

Pricing : Free; Pro, $99/year; Pro Event, $49 for one-time payment

16. Presentation Assistant

Presentation Assistant lives up to its name: It assists professionals by enabling them to annotate, zoom, and more during a presentation. Sales and marketing professionals can clarify and emphasize points more clearly to their audience with Presentation Assistant.

Pricing : Presentation Pointer, $29.95; Presentation Screen Master, $29.95

17. authorSTREAM

Sales and marketing pros choose authorSTREAM to make their presentations dynamic and engaging. authorSTREAM allows users to share their PowerPoint presentations publicly or privately, broadcast them, convert them to video, communicate and collaborate about them, and more.

Pricing: Free or paid plans start at $4.20/month

18. Zentation

With Zentation, salespeople and marketers combine video and slides into a simulated live experience. Presentations created with Zentation become webinars, webcasts, and virtual events for prospects and customers -- all great collateral for marketing and sales.

Pricing : Free; Premium, $10 - $45/month; White-Label, contact for pricing

Sales and marketing professionals love Prezi because it is cloud-based. Prezi makes creating, editing, and presenting from your browser, desktop, iPad, or iPhone possible anywhere, any time.

Pricing : Standard, $5/month; Plus, $15/month; Premium, $59/month

20. Brainshark

Sales reps and marketers often choose Brainshark, a cloud-based presentation tool, because it allows them to create and deliver presentations live or on-demand (even using their iPad or iPhone), use on-demand video content, polls, or surveys for increased engagement, and embed presentations in websites and blogs.

Pricing : Contact for pricing

Vcasmo is a unique presentation tool -- it's a multimedia solution that enables users to synchronize a video and slideshow, side by side. Sales and marketing pros love Vcasmo because it supports playback in three forms: browser, mobile, and iPad. 

Pricing : Free; Standard, $10.99/month; Professional, $16.99/month

22. ViewletBuilder

ViewletBuilder is a different presentation tool; it captures critical screen updates and cursor position changes so sales and marketing pros can create presentations detailing how their product or sites work. With a plethora of features, ViewletBuilder allows for editing and enhancing and includes a variety of publishing and sharing options, too.

Pricing : Pro, $399; Enterprise, $599

23. Zoho Show

Zoho Show is a top pick for sales and marketing pros because it lives online, making it possible to create, access, present, and more from anywhere, any time. The simple, intuitive interface and collaboration features are just two of its beloved benefits.

24. AhaSlides

Pricing : Free; Essential, $4.95/month; Pro, $15.95/month; Annual, Monthly & One-time plans available.

Visme is an all-in-one content creation platform with a vast library of professionally designed presentation templates, each tailored to your industry and specific proposal needs. Its beginner-friendly design platform allows you to drag and drop elements into place, use dynamic fields to update all your content in one place instantaneously and integrate your tools like Hubspot or Salesforce, and more to personalize each presentation.

Pricing: Free, Starter: $12.25/month, billed yearly, Pro: $30/month, billed yearly, Visme for Teams & Enterprises.

What are you waiting for? Pick a tool and start creating. Your prospects are waiting.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in October 2014 and has been updated for freshness and comprehensiveness.

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8 Best Presentation Software Tools (Free and Paid) in 2023

Designing a presentation that’s engaging, informative, and aesthetically pleasing is challenging. If you’re a non-designer, you may find it even tougher to put together a visual slide deck using presentation software.

You’re not the only one either–– 45% of presenters find it difficult to design creative layouts for their presentations. But with intuitive templates, user-friendly interfaces, and effective collaboration, the whole creation process becomes easier.

To help you create effective presentations, we’ve made a list of the best presentation software available now.

What makes great presentation software?

Downloadable or cloud-based. Presentation software is no longer limited to downloadable desktop programs–today, many software options are available via your web browser. Whether you want to work offline or prefer to back your presentations up on the cloud, there are multiple options.

User-friendly. It can be easy to get caught up in all the creative possibilities of a software’s advanced features. Really, though, you need a software solution that will create professional-looking presentations and be easy for your team to use. Think about how tech-savvy the users are and which features will be most useful to them.

Device compatibility. Depending on where you’re giving your presentation, you may want the option of presenting from a tablet or mobile device. Some presentation software come with mobile-compatible apps too––enabling you to make edits on the go.

Content asset library. Top-quality images and graphics help ensure your presentation looks sharp and professional. Today, many presentation software tools come with stock image and video channel integrations to make it easier to include engaging visuals. After all, no one wants to see endless slides of black and white text.

Slideware vs. canvas-based. Conventional presentations usually follow a linear slide-by-slide presentation format. Increasingly though, presentation software tools are providing non-linear canvas-based presentation options which enable users to fly around a modular digital map. With canvas-based presentations, users are free to switch between topics without having to follow a set one-way route.

8 best presentation software options

1. zoho show.

Zoho Show is a cloud-based software that is part of Zoho’s office CRM suite. This is a top option if you’re looking for strong team collaboration features, easy-to-use design features, and robust formatting tools.

Its clean user interface is simple to navigate—making it easier to focus on building your presentation. Choose from 100+ presentation templates and quickly insert tables, charts, images, and text boxes.

Top features:

• Integrations enable users to add videos via YouTube and audio via Soundcloud
• Reach a wider audience by publishing slides online, sharing the link on social media, and embedding presentations on your site as an Lframe
• Collaboration features enable team member tagging using “@” and contextual commenting

Limitations:

• You can only create presentations from a computer—there’s currently no option to build presentations from other devices
• Custom branding is only available with the top paid plan

Pricing: Zoho Show is free for individuals. For access to Zoho CRM’s full suite of tools, the Standard plan is $20/user/month.

Best for: Startups who want to use Zoho’s suite of tools for team collaboration.

New kid on the block, presentation software Prezi , has turned traditional (and sometimes dull) work presentations on their head. Instead of typical slide-based presentations, Prezi pioneers conversational presentations by giving users a single giant canvas.

Within the canvas, you can add blocks of images or text and even create mini slides. While presenting, users can fly around different sections of the canvas and zoom in to look at specific pieces of content in more detail.

• Show your content alongside a live or recorded video of you presenting, an effective way of maintaining a personal connection during meetings
• Choose from a library of hundreds of customizable presentation templates including quarterly business reviews, daily standup meetings, and portfolio templates
• Integrate with other work apps like Slack, Google Meet, and Zoom for easier sharing and presenting of Prezi projects between team members
• Charts and graphs aren’t totally customizable or editable for a more personalized appearance
• With the free or lower-tiered versions, your presentations depend on the internet to be viewed
• The zooming in and out movements can be confusing for users who aren’t familiar with Prezi presentations

Pricing: The Free plan enables users to create and share up to five presentations online. The Plus plan is $15/month and allows unlimited projects and offline access.

Best for: Startup founders and digital creators looking for an original style of presenting that doesn’t follow the conventional slide-by-slide methods.

You may already be familiar with Canva as a social media graphics design tool. But you might not know that you can also create visually pleasing presentation slides.

Canva is great for making slick presentations straight from your web browser. The presentation software comes with a few free customizable layouts to help you get going quickly. Alternatively, you can create your own template from scratch.

• Search a library of thousands of free images to include in your presentation
• Include different content elements like logos, grids, charts, graphics, shapes, and icons
• Invite team members to collaborate on your presentation online or share your finished version
• You can’t import presentations from PowerPoint or export presentations in a PowerPoint-editable format
• You can’t simultaneously collaborate with team members on images

Pricing: The Free plan has templates, design types, and images to help you get started. A Pro plan is $12.99/month and provides more images, template storage, and a branding kit.

Best for: Users who want to create a visual presentation quickly and effectively from their web browser.

4. Microsoft PowerPoint

Created in 1987, Microsoft PowerPoint is probably the best-known presentation software on this list. Although many other companies have built more advanced presentation tools, PowerPoint remains popular due to its ease of use, and familiarity.

As the original presentation software, PowerPoint has all the main features you’d expect. Providing a menu of options for animations, transitions, and formatting, along with a library of templates, PowerPoint is suited to advanced users as well as those creating their first presentation.

Initially only available as downloadable software, users can now access Microsoft 365, a cloud-based package of productivity apps including Office 365 programs Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

• Use Android and IOS apps for building presentations on the go
• Embed files created in other Microsoft Office apps like graphs created in Excel, or any other programs that enable Object Linking and Embedding (OLE)
• Extensive animation and transition options help presentations look professional
• Some of PowerPoint’s templates look outdated
• The free version only enables presentation viewing and no editing or collaboration

Pricing: The Microsoft 365 Personal plan is $69.99/year and allows access for one user. A Family plan enables up to 6 users and is $99.99/year.

Best for: Entrepreneurs who aren’t seeking out innovative new tools or features.

5. Google Slides

Part of Google Workspace, Google Slides is another app that’s freely available for both personal and business use. Just as you can create spreadsheets in Sheets or documents in Google Docs, you can create presentations in Slides.

Similar to PowerPoint in layout and features, users of the Microsoft software should be able to find their way around the software and identify the locations of key tools and settings. Like PowerPoint, Slides puts the current slide in the center, with other slides available in a vertical menu on the left side.

Using the horizontal toolbar, users can perform actions like embed videos, insert diagrams, and include animations.

• Up to 100 users (with editing permission) can collaborate on a presentation simultaneously
• A built-in group chat helps you track what everyone is doing
• Play your presentation in presenter mode so you can preview how it will look to your audience
• Exporting and importing between Slides and PowerPoint can cause messy layout changes
• The template selection is limited and basic (although you can import hundreds of others)

Pricing: Google Workspace is free for personal use but if you find yourself needing more logins and storage space, you can upgrade to the Business Starter plan for $6/user/month.

Best for: Entrepreneurs already using Google Workspace who need access to an easy-to-use and effective collaborative presentation software.

6. StoryDoc

Storydoc is an online interactive presentation maker, ideal for sales teams, business owners, and product marketing. Designed as a modern-day business alternative to static slides and PDF presentations, Storydocs are proven to engage more viewers than conventional presentations thanks to an amazing interface and advanced data visualization options.

The software comes with an array of built-in templates for all business use cases from sales decks to pitch decks to business proposals, so that anyone can create a stunning and effective presentation.

• Allows embedding video and social media content, sign-up forms, schedulers, and personalized outbound
• Integrates with major CRMs like Salesforce and Hubspot
• Presentations are designed for any device and look perfect on mobile
• Tracking analytics allow you to see how and when a prospect or an investor interacted with your deck
• Advanced storytelling features and slides
• Use for web only
• Can be pricey for single users

Pricing:  Free trial for the first 14 days after which a starter plan is $40 per seat/month

Best for:  Medium and large sized companies with big sales teams and the daily need for high–performance sales collateral.

7. Slidebean

Slidebean is a top choice for startup founders and entrepreneurs. Their template library features decks made for investor updates, demo day presentations, and sales plans.

Slidebean even has the original pitch deck template Airbnb used to raise their first $600,000 round back in 2009. Entrepreneurs can access this one and others to help build a slide deck to present to investors.

• Track your investors’ slide activity by viewing which slides they saw, how much time they spent on each, and what percentage of the presentation they interacted with
• AI helps you arrange the best possible slide layouts and configurations
• Use presentation templates created by the likes of Doordash and Tesla
• Fewer graphics and shapes available compared to other options like PowerPoint
• Fewer templates available—and most are geared towards startup founders and entrepreneurs

Pricing: Users can access Slidebean for free. But to enable collaboration, exportation, and access to more templates, you’ll need to subscribe to the Starter plan at $8/month.

Best for: Startup founders and entrepreneurs looking to pitch their business to investors.

8. Paste by WeTransfer

Paste is an intuitive and easy-to-use presentation software inspired by the modular compartments of Japanese lunch boxes.

Flexible layouts enable you to change the size of text, insert columns, and reorganize your slide without messing up the rest of the slide’s formatting.

Ever proofread your presentation so much that your eyes hurt? Eye-balling font consistency, text size, and image formatting is time-consuming and boring, to say the least. Paste does a good job of removing this task by automatically adjusting your slides using AI.

Non-designers will love how easy it is to get started, too. Simply drop in all your videos, images, and GIFS—Paste will then arrange them into a well-presented slide.

• Responsive slides put your content in place as you drop it in
• Multi-slide controls enable you to edit multiple slides in one go
• Integrations with stock image library Unsplash, Giphy, Figma, and Google Workspace
• No controls for image appearance settings, like cropping, color, or contrast adjustments
• No way of inserting images and icons outside of the layout Paste provides

Pricing: Create up to three decks with the Free plan. Upgrade to the Pro plan for $12/month to get unlimited decks, real-time collaboration, and 200 GB storage.

Best for: Non-designers who need to quickly create a visually pleasing presentation.

Which is the best presentation software for you?

Don’t automatically default to using PowerPoint as your go-to presentation software. As you can see, there are loads of alternative top-notch presentation software options with innovative features.

The best presentation software for you will depend on your personal skills and business requirements. If you’re a time-strapped solopreneur, opt for presentation software with ready-to-go templates like those from Collidu , Paste, or Slidebean.

If you work as part of a team, choose Google Slides or Zoho Show for their collaboration features.

Test out a few of the options above and remember to check out the AppSumo store for all the latest software deals. We have several deals for presentation software and templates for creating an engaging presentation.

Best free presentation software of 2024

Find an alternative to PowerPoint

• Best overall
• Best for functionality
• Best for collaboration
• Best for speed
• Best user interface
• How we test

The best free presentation software makes it simple and easy to create professional presentations without a Microsoft subscription.

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

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

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

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

Google Workspace : Collaboration + productivity apps There are many different presentation software packages but Google Workspace formerly known as G Suite remains the original cloud office software and one of the best business office suites, offering a huge range of features and functionality that rivals can't match, especially when it comes to presentation software. Try it free for 14 days .

The best free presentation software of 2024 in full:

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

Best free presentation software overall

Our expert review:

Reasons to buy

Reasons to avoid.

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

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

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

Read our full Prezi review .

• ^ Back to the top

Best free presentation software for functionality

2. 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 .

Best free presentation software for collaboration

3. Google Slides

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

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

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

Read our full Google Slides review .

Best free presentation software for speed

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 .

Best free presentation software for user interface

5. WPS Office Free

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

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

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

Read our full WPS Office Free review .

We've also featured the best free office software .

Best free presentation software FAQs

Which alternative to powerpoint is best for you.

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

How we test the best free presentation software

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

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

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

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10 Best Free Presentation Software for 2024

May 17, 2024

• 1. Google Workspace

2. Microsoft 365

• 3. Simplified
• 4. Synthesia

6. Mentimeter

7. renderforest.

• 8. Colossyan Creator

9. Beautiful.ai

10. xtensio, comparison of the best free presentation software.

• Free presentation software: frequently asked questions

Creating presentations emphasizes the strength and commitment of business teams to achieve certain objectives over a fiscal quarter. But every business's first instinct is to invest in traditional and subscription-based software. 

While it helps to get the needful done, the add-on cost still dents the budget. Free presentation software enables professionals to create sleek and data-driven decks and deliver their presentations with confidence and zeal.

Before you skedaddle into the process of putting slides together, researching and noting key pointers for your next presentation is crucial. Check out this list of free presentation software to do all of that without paying monthly or annual subscription costs.

Let's look at the list of these 10 best free presentation software that offer intuitive user interfaces and all visual elements to empower employees and build amazing pitches.

10 Best free presentation software in 2024

• Google Workspace 
• Microsoft 365
• Synthesia 
• Renderforest
• Colossyan Creator
• Beautiful.ai

How did we select and evaluate the best free presentation software?

At G2 , we rank software solutions using a proprietary algorithm that considers customer satisfaction and market presence based on authentic user reviews. Our market research analysts and writers spend weeks testing solutions against multiple criteria set for a software category. We give you unbiased software evaluations; that's the G2 difference!

We didn't accept payment or exchange links for product placements in this list. Please read our G2 Research Scoring Methodology for more details.

Top 10 best free presentation software of 2024

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

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

To be included in this category, software must:

• Create slide-based presentation decks
• Provide online charts and graphs to support the footnotes, speaker notes, or slide notes. 
• Offer editable slide templates and themes
• Include shape animations, slide animations, and clip art.
• Allow users to embed text, audio, images, and videos within the presentation

*This data was pulled from G2 in 2024. Some reviews may have been edited for clarity. 

1. Google Workspace 

Google Slides, a part of Google Workspace , is a comprehensive presentation and visual collaboration platform that provides in-depth integrations to elevate your presentation decks. Users can deft up professional-grade presentations and creative illustrations and sync them in real-time with other collaboration apps like G-Drive or G-docs to keep teams updated and informed of all the edits and changes. It also auto-saves slides and temporarily stores chart values at random shutoffs, so you don't have to begin from ground level every time. 

What users like best:

"Google Slides is my favorite thing about Google Workspace. The option for all team members to edit in real time helps us increase productivity and save time in repeated reviews and editing.

The next best thing is Gmail which helps us to have our business email while it is being handled by Gmail in silos, but the receiver never gets to know it's actually Gmail." 

- Google Workspace Review , Adarsh S. 

What users dislike:

"A few downsides to using Google Workspace, which can be a deciding factor for many people, are that it only works online. No internet access directly means no workspace. However, I am bothered by the current support for mobile devices. I am able to view sheets, docs, and slides easily with just a click. However, to edit even a bit of data, I need to download the app."

- Google Workspace Review , Megha R.

Microsoft 365 offers an all-in-one slideshow and presentation-making platform called PowerPoint. This software entails numerous data analysis and visualization features to represent your data pictorially. With the addition of Microsoft PowerPoint, users can build efficient decks with captivating graphical data. It also contains built-in design repositories, transitions, audio and video playback features, and advanced flowcharts and graphs to summarize and extract data dependencies for presentations.  

"I can confidently say it's a powerful and versatile productivity suite that has significantly enhanced my workflow. SO here are some feature I personally liked that is it offers a wide range of applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, and more whichmake it a comprehensive suite. As it is a cloud base it is easy to store the data, which is easy to use. Also, it ensures automatic updates to the latest versions, keeping users equipped with the most recent features."

- Microsoft 365 Review , Muskan A.

" While Microsoft 365 offers an extensive range of features, the subscription cost can be a bit steep for individual users or small businesses. The user interface across different applications could be more consistent for a smoother user experience. Additionally, occasional syncing issues between desktop and cloud versions have been a minor inconvenience. It would be great to see more streamlined solutions for offline access and better customization options for the interface to cater to individual preferences.

- Microsoft 365 Review , Felipe V.

3. Simplified 

Simplified is an easy-to-use presentation software offering a variety of templates, design tools, and collaboration features. Ideal for teams, it enables the quick creation of visually appealing presentations, infographics, and social media graphics. Simplified streamlines the design process, making it accessible for users of all skill levels.

Simplified offers image trace and edit options for you to tailor your deck visuals before clubbing them together for slideshows. 

" The dashboard and user interface are so cool and easy. I like the look and feel while working with it. The features and suggestions are helpful. Text-to-image and Video features give good results. Brainstorming blog topics and blog content is easy"

- Simplified Review , Sheeba T. 

"Sometimes the option for generating sections automates itself to 2 even when I only want 1 option to save up on monthly credits. This is an issue the development team can look into.

- Simplified Review , Millicent K.

4. Synthesia 

Synthesia is a presentation software that enables you to generate powerful, AI-supported videos and animations to represent information in a contextual manner. The tool offers real-time video rendering, image creation, image annotaiton, AI scriptwriting and conversational intelligence to convert your documents into attractive creatives, voice clips and screen narrations. 

" The app is very easy to use, we started working on videos within minutes. We're using this for internal training right now, which in the real world, video production like this would've taken days if not weeks and a lot of coordination. We'll be working on a lot more content for both internal use and potentially for outbound sales and content production. I had a question I couldn't find an answer to, and customer support was very fast and provided a great workaround solution."

- Synthesia Review , Nick W.

" I wanted to create a Youtube ad. And while I was able to do all the editing I wanted in the video, one thing was missing... I couldn't change the transitions of each slide/scene. So I can't use the video I created for this purpose of running it as an ad, but the easy of use was really good. Plus, the team shared they will add this feature to their roadmap."

- Synthesia Review , Ivan I.

RELAYTO is a document experience platform for creating immersive presentations. RELAYTO has sharing, embedding, converting, and auto-generating tools. Qualified users can enjoy these features for free. You can transcript meeting minutes, generate decks from rough notes, customize your illustrations in real time and do much more with numerous compatible content integrations. 

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

- RELAYTO Review , Mike R.

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

- RELAYTO Review , KD G.

Mentimeter is an audience engagement platform with tools to build interactive presentations, compile data from live polls, and collect insights about user participation. The Mentimeter free plan offers unlimited audiences and presentations. It offers conversational intelligence and adds presentation notes to outbound sales calls and marketing workflows.

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

- Mentimeter Review , Haley S.

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

- Mentimeter Review , Stephanie H.

Renderforest   is an all-in-one platform that brings presentations to life with graphics, videos, and animations. A free Renderforest plan allows for unlimited mockups, access to over 200,000 stock videos, and free subdomains. Be it video, photos, slow-mo graphics, stop motion animation or data-driven charts, renderforest can convert and publish these files on live environment for brand consistency. 

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

-   Renderforest Review , Sherdon F.

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

-  Renderforest Review , Shubham K.

8. Colossyan Creator 

Colossyan Creator is an AI video-making and slide-making app that specializes in quality content. With this video editing app, you can compose studio-quality videos, trailers, and teasers and also convert your documented strategies and launch plans into a video narrative. Colossyan Creator is being used for social media marketing on a large scale today and at a fraction of the cost of video creation. 

What users like:

"I would say anybody looking for a presenter, of any sort, can make use of Colossyan. The best and most common use case would be company induction. I had to train many people in my life, and if I had this product then it would have saved thousands of hours! The best value added is multiple presenters. No other platform gives that."

f- Colossyan Creator Review ,  Hennie L. 

"It is not easy to edit content while using pre-built templates, I had challenges in using animation, it doesn't appear correctly after applying it. Also, I didn't find enough tutorials and tooltips to make changes in the templates. I requested a demo 3 times by special form, but no one got in touch with me for 2 business days."

- Colossyan Creator Review   , Katya K.

Beautiful.ai has smart templates to make presentation building a breeze. It can put together structured and ironed-out data visuals with supplemented slide text and build insightful decks. The Beautiful.ai paid plan options include onboarding guides, collaborative workspaces, viewer analytics, and more. Their free trial lets users get a taste of everything they offer. 

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

- Beautiful.ai Review , Anne-Marie M.

" The AI bot becomes confused most times and you have to continually repeat the instructions as you wait for it to respond. Since you said it's still learning, I guess the more people use it the faster and more intelligent it will become."

- Beautiful.aI Review , Catherine O. 

Xtensio is a document management and slide-sharing platform used to manage paperless departmental communication and workflows. It is a cloud-based document creation and project management tool to update task progress, maintain project plans and objectives, and achieve project goals faster. Xtensio helps project managers view team updates, feedback, progress, and main point of contact interventions to expedite project outcomes.

" As a beginner, the user persona feature of the extension was incredibly helpful and intuitive. The knowledge material offered insightful guidance on creating personas, and the clear explanation of various elements in the user persona template made it easy to get started. This tool simplified the process of developing user personas, enhancing my understanding and implementation in projects, thereby providing a great learning experience.

- Xtensio Review , Ashish R.

" it's little hard to copy/paste components on the templates."

- Xtensio Review , Cem Beybars G. 

Here is a collated summary of all the tangible parameters of the best free presentation software, which you can go through at a glance before airing more opinions. 

Free presentation software: Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Does presentation software offer multimedia integration.

Presentation software can integrate different multimedia elements, such as images, videos, animations, and dynamic transitions. Depending on the business's requirements, you can add your multimedia elements and create efficient presentations.

Is there a limit on the number of presentations we can make?

There is always a set limit on how many presentations you can make with the free version. To extend that credit, you need to go for a premium plan.

Will using presentation software enhance team productivity?

Presentation software allows real time editing and commenting, making it easier for teams to work together efficiently and optimize team productivity together.    

Does it integrate with other business ERP tools?

Yes, you can integrate this software with popular tools like Google Drive, Dropbox, and various CRM platforms to streamline project workflows and data management.

Next slide, please!

Before you deliver project metrics to senior leadership the next time, take a step back and scrutinize your deck, refine it, and make it up to organizational standards. Remember, a major lever to brand growth is how well your department can explain its cause and earn funding for its projects from external stakeholders. This task requires a careful examination of everything you speak or present in your pitch. We hope this list of the best free top presentation software was of some help!

Learn how to make your presentations interactive and pitch business ideas to your team in an engaging and personalized way. 

This article was originally published in 2022. It has been updated with new information.

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

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Top 10 Presentation Software for 2023

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

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

Introduction: 

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

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

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

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

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

• Animaker Deck
• Google Slides
• Beautiful.ai

1. Animaker Deck

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

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

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

Character Builder:

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

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

Template Options:

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

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

Graphic Assets Library:

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

Real-Time Collaboration:

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

Slides Pro: 10$/Month

Animaker Pro: $49/Month

Enterprise: Custom Pricing

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

Easy-to-Use:

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

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

Stock Asset Library:

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

Videos and Gifs:

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

Real-time Collaboration:

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

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

Sharing to Social Media:

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

Plus: 12$/Month

Premium: $16/Month

Teams: Custom Pricing

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

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

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

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

Animations and Transitions:

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

Collaborations:

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

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

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

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

Personal - $15/month annually

Business - $29/month annually

Enterprise: Custom pricing

4. Google Slides

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

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

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

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

Collaboration:

Real-time collaboration is offered on Google Slides.

Videos and GIFs:

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

Animations:

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

Share to Social Media:

Presentations can be shared via email or link.

Google Slides is free for anyone with a Google account.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You can animate slides and objects and also add effects.

You cannot share to Social Media on Keynote.

There is no Brand Kit features available on Keynote.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You cannot add audio with Slides.

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

Slides support sharing to various social media platforms.

The paid plan offers analytics.

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

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

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

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

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

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

There are lots of icons and images to choose from.

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

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

Audio features are not available.

Animations can be added to the elements and content blocks.

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

Analytic features are available in the paid plans.

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

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

8. Beautiful.ai

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

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

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

Graphic Asset Library:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

9. Powerpoint

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

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

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

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

You can share your presentation with specific people.

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

Audio files can be uploaded from your computer.

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

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

Presentations cannot be shared to social media platforms.

There are no analytic features available in Powerpoint.

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

10. Genially

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Third-Party Content:

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

Brand Kit features are available in the premium plans.

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

Genially’s premium plans contain analytic features.

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

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

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

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

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15 Best Video Presentation Software to Try in 2024

Ready to make an outstanding video presentation? Here are the best tools to help you learn how to make video presentations and create one in no time.

Victoria Greywing

11 minute read

With the rise in remote work, online classes, and virtual events, video presentations have become a crucial aspect of effective communication.

In fact, having a video in a presentation already shows that 32% more people will interact with your content .

Making a video presentation takes time, so having a reliable tool is more important than ever. That's why we've compiled a list of the best video presentation software to try this year.

Whether you're a marketer, educator, or business owner, these tools offer a range of features to help you create engaging and memorable presentations.

Factors to consider when choosing video presentation software

1. ease of use.

The worst thing you need to avoid is spending hours learning how to use tools, not getting any work done, and then giving up in frustration. The software should be easy to use, even for those with limited technical skills. This will ensure that you can create presentations quickly and efficiently.

2. Customizability

Customization is the part that adds a creative look to your presentations. Such tools should allow you to customize your presentations to suit your needs and the preferences of your customers.

This includes the ability to add your branding elements like logo, banner, etc., choose from a range of templates, and add multimedia.

3. Interactive features

Although not essential, interactive elements help engage your audience. Adding quizzes and polls, allowing users to comment on slides, and even embedding videos or other content makes your presentations more memorable.

4. Advanced editing tools

There is no good video presentation without editing. You need tools like an image editor that offer important features like transitions, filters, captions, pitcure upscaling , etc. This will help you create more professional-looking presentations that can grab the viewers’ attention.

5. Compatibility & sharing options

The best video presentations are those that can easily be shared with others. The tool should offer quick export options and compatibility with different devices.

Whether it’s through email or social media, you should be able to easily share the presentations with other users.

Our top 15 video presentation software

Jump ahead to page section.

Powtoon is a cloud-based animation tool that is ideal for displaying data visually . It's an excellent option for HR teams, educators, and marketers who want to create eye-catching materials for their presentations.

The tool offers a range of templates, characters, and backgrounds that you can customize as you like.

Powtoon’s drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to create videos even if you have no prior experience.

You can add text, images, and other visual elements to quickly compose captivating animated videos that share your ideas and stories.

Plus, you can upload audio clips or background music to accompany your visuals and further enhance the impact of your message.

Powtoon is compatible with both Windows and Mac and offers a range of subscription options, making it accessible to everyone.

This versatility further cements its reputation one of the best ai video editing software apps available.

Source: Powtoon

• Great for creative video content
• Drag-and-drop interface
• Wide range of templates
• Quick share to social media and other platforms
• Offers team collaboration
• Slow loading speed for some users
• Watermark in the free plan

Pricing: 3-month free trial, $15/month for Lite, $60/month for Professional, $100/month for Agency

Movavi Video Editor

Movavi Video Editor helps you learn how to make effective presentations with its intuitive tools. It's user-friendly and offers plenty of features for both beginners and professionals alike.

Do you need a specific transition or title effect? This tool offers a wide selection of them. You’ll also find a library of sounds, music, backgrounds, and text editing options.

Furthermore, you can record your voice and add it to your video as a separate audio track.

Movavi Video Editor has many filters and special effects that will fit any occasion. From retro filters to artistic effects, you can add unique touches to your presentation to impress your audience.

More advanced features include AI background removal , denoizer, and upscaling feature as well as audio editing tools, color correction, and more.

Source: Movavi

• Intuitive interface
• Supports all popular video and audio formats
• Great editing features
• Massive media library
• Intel, NVIDIA, and AMD hardware acceleration
• Free trial limits the audio length and adds a watermark on the output video

Pricing: 7-day free trial, $54.95/year, $74.95 for a lifetime license

A video maker for presentation videos, Lumen5 has everything from business and marketing to educational or training materials, suitable for all types of presenters.

The uniqueness of this platform is its AI-driven text-to-video feature. You can simply enter your text, and Lumen’s video maker will automatically create a video based on your content.

The tool offers a library of images, videos, and music, which you can use to create professional-looking video presentations. You can also upload your images, videos, and audio to customize your video.

Source: Lumen5

• Easy to use
• AI-powered video maker
• Millions of images, videos, and music
• Real-time collaboration feature
• Fewer animation options
• Slow render speed

Pricing: Community (free), $79/month for Basic, $199/month for Starter, $29/month for Professional, Enterprise (custom price)

Storydoc is a revolutionary interactive platform for efficient content creation. It combines templates and a powerful drag-and-drop builder to help you create stories, reports, presentations, and other content quickly.

This online tool provides an intuitive visual editing experience, allowing you to add text, images, GIFs, videos, music, and more.

This tool turns static documents into immersive content experiences that boost engagement, encourage conversion, and stay memorable in readers’ minds.

Storydoc also comes with comprehensive content analytics that lets you see how readers interact with your content and optimize based on what you find.

• Ready-made business templates
• Interactive elements
• Integrations with CRM tools and other apps
• Limited customization
• Few editing options

Pricing: 14-day free trial, $30/month for Starter, $45/month for Pro, Team plans (contact for details)

With Canva, you can easily make professional-looking visuals for websites, social media posts, presentations, posters, and more, without needing any design experience.

Just drag and drop elements onto the slides, add your own images, videos, or audio, or pick one from Canva's library. You can even customize the fonts, colors, and other details for each design. Canva also provides a vast library of event templates like invitation templates , poster templates, flyer templates, and many more.

The best thing is that by using the “Present and record” feature you can transform your presentation into a video format. Select your microphone and webcam and quickly record yourself talking as you show your slides.

Source: Canva

• Variety of templates
• Highly customizable
• Quick share
• Free version limitations
• Can't mix different designs

Pricing: Canva Free, 1-month free trial or $119.99/month for Canva Pro, $149.90/month for Canva for Teams

Biteable is a simple and powerful online video maker that anyone can use. There are many animations, videos & images, soundtracks, and recordings you can add to your project as well as upload your own content.

With a script mode, you can entirely avoid complex editing and use Biteable’s built-in text editor to write out your script. Once you’ve finished, the platform automatically creates an animation based on the script.

All the media is stored in different categories, making it easy to find what you need. You can also measure the performance of your video using Biteable’s analytics feature.

Source: TechCrunch

• Various tools and media are available
• Simple sharing by email, Slack, WhatsApp, and even SMS
• Online collaboration
• Limited editing options
• Can't download video files directly from the platform

Pricing: 7-day free trial, $99/month for Pro, $199/month for Teams

Synthesia is an AI-driven tool for any content creator who loves storytelling and presenting information. It's ideal for creating short animated explainer videos, tutorials, and product demos, as well as for crafting impactful marketing stories.

The platform helps you create a video in minutes with its AI-powered technology. You simply type the text you need to create a video, choose your desired avatar and voice style, and Synthesia does the rest.

You can also customize your video by adding text, shapes, images, and music, and even recording your presentation .

Source: Synthesia

• Intuitive user interface
• Simple video creation process
• Ready-made avatars, voices, and scenes
• Few features in a personal plan
• No collaboration options

Pricing: Free demo (200 words limit), $30/month for Personal, custom price for Corporate

Animoto is an incredibly versatile platform that’s made for various kinds of videos, including video presentations, slideshows, social media content, and more.

Featuring advanced tools like automatic video production and an array of aesthetic templates, it's easy to create eye-catching presentations in minutes.

Animoto offers a library of royalty-free stock footage so you can find the perfect scene to fit your project.

Best of all, users can make their work stand out by adding custom branding and logos, music, transitions, captions, and graphics.

Source: Animoto

• AI-powered smart video creator
• Customizable templates and themes
• Limited customization options
• No advanced audio editing tools are available

Pricing: Free, $8/month for Basic, $15/month for Professional, $39/month for Professional Plus

Animaker is a DIY tool that offers a wide selection of animated styles like 2D and 3D objects, whiteboards, and infographics as well as vibrant backgrounds and scenes.

You can customize the content with text, voiceover, and music options and drag and drop them into your project.

The interesting part is you can build a character representing you to enliven your presentation. Animaker also offers 100M+ stock images and videos and 1000+ templates to choose from.

Source: Animaker

• User-friendly & intuitive interface
• Drag & drop editing
• Versatile animations
• Character builder for personalization
• Limited music library
• Few scene templates

Pricing: Free trial, $10/mo for Basic, $19/mo for Starter, $49/mo for Pro, Enterprise (contact for details)

Wideo is a web-based video maker for industries like marketing, education, and e-commerce.

You can create explainer videos, promotional videos, product demos, and more. With a rich library of cartoon elements, you can build a video from scratch or take advantage of the professional templates that come with the platform.

In Wideo player automatically generates a transcript based on the video’s text and you can switch between video and presentation modes to get a better idea of how the video will look.

Video saves in MP4 format and you can share it on YouTube and other social media.

Source: Wideo

• Easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor
• Text-to-speech feature
• Pre-made templates for quick creation
• Low-quality templates compared to other tools

Vimeo is a well-known video hosting platform where you can upload and share videos. But it also has an easy-to-use video maker, allowing you to create attention-grabbing videos.

The platform offers a large music library where you can find the perfect tune for your video. With Vimeo’s portfolio feature, you can organize your videos into collections and even create a custom URL for your portfolio.

For making video presentations, Vimeo has many templates you can customize and add your own visuals. Change the scale, opacity, and style of text and graphics, and add layouts, transitions, stickers, narration, and more.

Source: Vimeo

• Built-in sharing options
• Customizable templates
• Integration with multiple popular tools, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and Slack.
• Few advanced video editing options
• Very limited access to features in a free plan

Pricing: Free plan, $12/month for Starter, $20/month for Standard, $65/month for Advanced, Enterprise (contact sales)

Vyond provides cartoon animations and videos with customizable characters, scenes, and text effects. This easy-to-use software helps bring your stories and brand presentation messages to life.

The platform comes with many templates based on job roles, categories, and styles.

You can mix them up or start from scratch with a blank canvas and add your own visuals. You can also record your voice directly from the microphone or use text-to-speech .

Source: Vyond

• Big library of characters, props, and backgrounds
• Wide range of styles to choose from
• Version history for collaboration
• Few character and scene customization options
• Hard to manage multiple scenes and characters
• No closed captioning

Pricing: 14-day free trial, $49/month for Essential, $89/month for Premium, $179/month for Professional, Enterprise (custom pricing)

Moovly is an online video maker for presentations with many visual styles like doodles, cartoons, motion graphics, and more. You can quickly add voiceovers using built-in AI voices, generate subtitles, and even translate them to any language you need.

The tool offers great animations and effects for your videos and allows work collaboration. There is also a library of images, videos, music, and sound effects to choose from.

Source: Moovly

• Straightforward interface
• Easy management
• Integrations with YouTube, Google Drive, Dropbox, and other tools
• Free trial limitations
• Lack of variety in designs
• No advanced animation capabilities

Pricing: Free, $99 per month for Pro, $199 per month for Max, Enterprise (custom pricing)

Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is the go-to presentation-building tool for countless businesses and professionals. It's a staple of creating stunning visuals and helpful resources for any type of presentation.

Combined with a creative mind, creating presentations no longer remains complicated or time-consuming. With everything from templates to animations, PowerPoint provides all the necessary tools for designing exceptional video presentations.

Customize your slides with whatever images and videos you need to represent your ideas. Then, just export the presentation as a video. You can also upload a voice-over narration or add sound effects.

Source: Microsoft

• All-in-one presentation solution
• Familiar with many users
• Limited advanced design capabilities
• Not good for complex animations
• Large file size when exporting as a video

Pricing: 1-month free trial, $6.99/month with Microsoft 365 or $159.99 one-time payment

Prezi is cloud-based presentation software that allows users to create dynamic and engaging presentations using a range of templates and multimedia elements. It's a great option for industries like education, marketing, and business.

One of the standout features of the tool is its zooming presentation interface, which allows presenters to create a more immersive and interactive experience for viewers.

With Prezi, you can easily create and customize templates, add animations and transitions, and collaborate with others in real time, making it ideal for remote teams and learners.

The basic plan is limited in features, while the advanced plans offer more opportunities like offline access, PowerPoint presentation converter, voiceover, custom branding, analytics, and more.

Source: Prezi

• Easy-to-use interface
• Feature-rich
• Wide range of templates and multimedia elements
• Limited free trial features
• Animations can distract viewers
• The zooming interface can be overwhelming for some viewers

Pricing: 14-day free trial, $7/mo for Standard, $12/mo for Plus, $16/mo for Premium

Enhance the impact of your messages with video presentations

Here they are, video presentation software options available this year, each with its own unique features and capabilities.

By considering the factors outlined in this article, you can select the right software option for your needs and create engaging and memorable presentations that leave a lasting impression on your audience.

And don't forget to check some great presentation examples for inspiration.

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15 Best Presentation Software for 2021

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

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

Example by Focusky

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

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

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

Example by PreziBase

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

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

3. RenderForest Presentation Maker

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

Example by Renderforest

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

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

4. Mentimeter

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

Example by Mentimeter

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

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

5. Libre Office Impress

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

Example by Theodoros Bousios

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

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

6. Zoho Show

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

Image by Zoho

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

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

7. ClearSlide Presenter

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

Image by ClearSlide

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

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

8. Piktochart

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

Example by Piktochart Knowledge Base

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

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

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

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

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

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

Image by Iconfinder

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

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

11. Slidebean

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

Source Slidebean

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

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

12. Google Slides

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

Image by G Suite Updates blog

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

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

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

13. Keynote

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

Image by Envato tuts+

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

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

14. Adobe Spark

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

Example by Cikeys

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

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

15. PowerPoint

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

Example by Abris DC

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

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

We made a quick summary for you…

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

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

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

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

Final words

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

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

You may also be interested in these related articles:

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

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Bilyana Nikolaeva

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

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7 Golden Benefits of Presentation Software in 2024

Anh Vu • 30 July, 2024 • 8 min read

What are the benefits of Presentation Software ? What is presentation software? Finding someone who hasn't presented at school or work is scarce. Whether a sales pitch, a TED Talk or a chemistry project, slides and exhibitions have always been a significant part of our academic and professional growth.

As with most things, the way we do presentations has undergone a significant facelift. No matter what type of presentation you're doing, whether in a remote or hybrid environment, the importance and benefits of presentation software are undeniable.

If you’re looking for uses, challenges and features of presentation software , this article is for you!

Table of Contents

• Changes in Presentation Software Field

7 Benefits of Presentation Software

3 cons of presentation software.

• Free Templates
• More Tips with AhaSlides

Tips for Better Engagement

Besides the benefits of presentation software, let's check out the following:

• Complete Guide to Interactive Presentation
• Types of presentation software

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Get free templates for your next interactive presentation. Sign up for free and take what you want from the template library!

Changes in the Presentation Software Field

PowerPoint and presentations have been synonymous for decades now. This is not to say that indications didn’t exist before PowerPoint; there were chalkboards, whiteboards, hand-drawn posters, flip charts, and slide decks for all purposes.

However, the rise of technology gradually helped companies replace hand-drawn slide decks with computer-generated slides, which finally led to PowerPoint – one of the most popular pieces of presentation software of all time. It's been years since PowerPoint revolutionised the game, and now there are plenty of alternatives evolving the industry in their own way.

PowerPoint and similar software allow the presenter to create a digitised slide deck with editable text and graphics. The presenter can then present that slide deck to the audience, either directly in front of them or virtually through Zoom and other screen-sharing software.

So, are you ready to take the step to modern presentation software? Don't worry; it's nowhere near as intimidating as you think!

Start by checking out some benefits of presentation software has been a real game-changer for presenters and presentations all over the world.

#1 - They're Engaging Visual Tools

Did you know that 60% of people prefer a presentation full of visuals , while 40% of people say it's an absolute must they're included? Text-heavy slides are relics of presentation dinosaurs; the new way is graphics.

Presentation software gives you so many opportunities to illustrate your topic with the help of visual cues, such as...

• Transitions between slides
• Backgrounds

This choice of elements is a treasure trove for traditional presenters. They can really help you grab your audience’s attention when you're giving your presentation, and are great aids when it comes to telling an effective story in your presentation.

#2 - They're Easy to Use

Most presentation software is relatively easy to learn and use. The tools were originally designed to mimic how a traditional presenter presents their slides; over time, they've become more and more intuitive.

Of course, with the vast customisation options they offer, there's a chance that newbie presenters can get overwhelmed. Still, each tool usually has a plentiful help section and contactable customer service team to combat that, as well as communities of other presenters who are ready to help with any problems.

#3 - They Have Templates

It's a standard nowadays for presentation tools to come with several ready-to-use templates. Usually, these templates are a few very well-designed slides that look fantastic; your only job is to replace the text and maybe add your images!

These eliminate the need to create your presentation templates from scratch and can save you entire evenings agonising over every element within your presentation.

Some established presentation software has got over 10,000 templates to choose from, all based on slightly different topics. You can be fairly assured that if you're looking for a template in your niche, you'll find it in the template library of some of the big names in presentation software .

#4 - Benefits of presentation software - They're Interactive

Well, not all of them, but the best ones are!

An interactive presentation creates a two-way dialogue between the presenter and their audience by allowing the presenter to create questions in their presentation and allowing the audience actually to answer them.

Usually, the audience will join the presentation and answer the questions directly from their phones. These questions can be in the form of a poll , word cloud , live Q&A and more, and will display the audience's answers visually for everyone to see.

Interactivity is definitely one of the biggest benefits of presentation software, and one of the biggest free tools in the interactive presentation game is AhaSlides . AhaSlides lets you create a presentation full of interactive slides; your audience simply joins, contributes their ideas and stays engaged throughout the show!

# 5 - They Work Remotely

Imagine trying to present something to an audience around the world if you didn't use presentation software. The only thing you could do is hold up your A4 slides to the camera and hope that everyone could read it.

Presentation software makes the whole process of broadcasting your slides to your online audience so much easier. You simply share your screen and present your presentation through the software. While you're talking, your audience will be able to see both you and your presentation fully, making it just like real life!

Some presentation tools let the audience take the lead, meaning anyone can read and progress through the slides themselves without the need for the presenter. This is a great way to make the traditional 'presentation handouts' available for audiences wherever they are.

#6 - They're Multimedia

As well as being visually appealing, the ability to add multimedia to our presentations makes them super exciting for both you and your audience.

3 things can elevate your presentation to no end...

Each of these are directly embeddable as slides within the presentation and doesn't require you to jump between platforms while you're trying to get into your flow. They help stimulate your audience's senses and keep them involved and in tune with the presenter.

There are several types of presentation software that allow you to access large GIF, video and sound libraries and drop them straight into your presentation. Nowadays, you don't have to download anything at all!

#7 - They're Collaborative

The more advanced presentation software is collaborative for a smooth remote work environment.

They allow multiple people to work on a presentation simultaneously and allow individual members to send the representations to each other for editing in their own time.

Not only that, but some of the interactive presentation platforms even let you collaborate with your moderator, who can ensure that the questions you're getting in a Q&A are savoury enough.

Collaborative features were developed to help create and present team presentations more effectively.

For all the benefits of presentation software, they do have their drawbacks. You also need to be aware of a few challenges when you use presentation software for your next presentation.

• Going Overboard - Presenters' most common mistake with their presentation is to include too many multimedia effects . It is quite easy to get experimental when presented with a vast range of options, and you might end up drowning a slide with too many results, animations, and font customisations. This dilutes the primary purpose of your presentation – to grab the audience’s attention and help them understand your topic.
• Cramming - Likewise, when you can make everything tiny, you might experience the temptation to pack your slides with information . But far from filling your audience with more information, it becomes much more difficult for them to take anything meaningful away. Not just that; content-heavy slides also sap your audience's attention, which eventually makes it harder to get them to look at your slides in the first place. It is better to include your primary thoughts as headings or bullet points on the decline and describe them in detail throughout your speech. The 10-20-30 rule can help with this.
• Tech Issues - The fear of Luddites everywhere - what if my computer crashes? Well, it's a valid concern; computers have been hit many times before, and many other inexplicable tech issues have arisen at the worst possible times. It could be an unstable internet connection, a link that doesn't work or a file that you could have sworn you attached. It’s easy to get flustered, so we recommend you have backup software and a backup of your notes for a smooth transition if something goes wrong.

Now that you know the pros and cons of presentation software, it will be infinitely accessible to create a compelling presentation for your next audience. Until you do so, check out the variety of interactive templates available at AhaSlides and use them for free to create your next power-packed presentation.

Tips to Engage with Polls & Trivia

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Simple presentation background ideas: elevate your visuals with minimalistic designs

Get your team on prezi – watch this on demand video.

Anete Ezera August 29, 2024

When you’re putting together a presentation, the background you select is key in setting the mood and making sure your content shines. While there are many different good presentation backgrounds that are bright and colorful, there’s a rising preference for simple presentation backgrounds. These clean designs can boost your message by minimizing distractions and making sure your content takes centre stage.

In this article, we’ll delve into the advantages of using simple presentation backgrounds, specific scenarios where they shine, and how platforms like Prezi can elevate your presentations with their open canvas and dynamic tools.

The power of a simple presentation background

Choosing a backdrop for your presentation goes beyond selecting a color or a basic layout. It involves setting up an uncluttered environment that highlights your message effectively. Let’s explore the reasons why opting for a simple presentation background can improve your message.

Improved readability

A key advantage of using a simple presentation background is the readability it offers. Complicated or excessively intricate backgrounds can make the text challenging to read, leading your viewers struggling to comprehend your message. Conversely, a simplistic background guarantees that your text is easily readable, allowing your audience to concentrate on your content.

Reduced distractions

Having a simple presentation background can minimize distractions for your audience, which is crucial when sharing intricate details or holding their attention for a long time. Opting for a simple aesthetic background for presentation slides directs the focus toward the speaker and the content rather than on the background itself. 

Versatility

Simple presentation backgrounds offer flexibility. They can be customized to suit various presentation topics. Whether you’re showcasing a business pitch, a school assignment or an imaginative idea, a clean background can serve as the perfect backdrop for your material.

Timeless appeal

Trends in design come and go, but simplicity is timeless. A simple background for presentation slides ensures that your presentation won’t look outdated in a few months. It also conveys professionalism and can be tailored to fit any industry or topic.

What is the best background for a presentation? 

When preparing a presentation, it’s best to opt for a background that’s straightforward, neat and doesn’t draw much attention. Opting for colors such as light grey or gentle blue is recommended as they offer a nice contrast with the text. It’s advisable to steer clear of designs or vibrant colors that may overshadow the content.

In case you decide to include images, make sure they’re subtle and relevant to the subject matter. Consistency plays a role here, so stick to the same background style across all slides to maintain a polished and coherent appearance.

Specific use cases for simple presentation backgrounds

Simple presentation backgrounds are suitable for a wide range of scenarios. Here are some specific instances where a minimalistic background works best:

Business presentations

In a corporate setting, professionalism is key. A simple, clean background helps maintain a professional tone and ensures that your data, graphs, and key points are easily readable.

For example, using a soft, neutral-toned background like this empty brown-beige studio room background can create a warm, welcoming atmosphere without distracting from the content.

Educational presentations

When students have to explain ideas, it’s important to keep things clear and straightforward. Using a simple background for presentations can make it easier for the audience to concentrate on the educational points without distractions.

A background with subtle textures, such as this simplistic aerial shot above Lake Dumbleyung, can provide a serene backdrop that doesn’t compete with the information being presented.

Creative and design presentations

When presenting creative work, such as design concepts or artistic projects, the background should complement rather than overshadow the content. A simple presentation background allows your creative elements to take center stage.

Consider using an abstract but subtle design like this abstract lights on a dark green background to add a touch of creativity without overwhelming your visuals.

Personal and inspirational presentations

Personal stories or inspirational talks benefit from backgrounds that evoke emotion without being overly complex. A minimalistic background with a hint of nature, like this colorful clouds at sunset, can create a peaceful and reflective atmosphere.

Product or service showcases

When showcasing a product or service, a simple presentation background can help highlight the subject without competing for attention.

For example, a rendering product background with a clean, neutral design is ideal for presentations focused on product demonstrations, allowing the product itself to be the star of the show. This type of background is especially useful in marketing presentations where the goal is to create a clear and compelling visual representation of the product.

Science and nature-themed presentations

For presentations centered around scientific concepts or natural phenomena, a background that subtly reflects the theme can be very effective.

The soft-focused image of steam provides a simple yet evocative backdrop that can complement discussions on topics such as geology, environmental science, or even metaphorical concepts like transformation and change. This type of background adds depth to your presentation without overwhelming the content.

Youthful and creative presentations

For presentations aimed at younger audiences or those with a creative edge, a playful and vibrant background can help set the tone. This single paper airplane on a yellow background offers a whimsical yet simple design that’s perfect for educational, inspirational, or creative projects.

This type of background is particularly effective in presentations for students, where the goal is to engage and inspire while keeping the design straightforward and accessible.

Technology and innovation presentations

For presentations focused on technology, innovation, or data-driven topics, a background that subtly suggests complexity while remaining visually clean can be very effective.

This abstract background with dots is an excellent choice for such presentations. The modern and sleek design, suggests connections to networks, systems and digital technology. This makes it ideal for discussing AI, networking, or futuristic advancements. The background brings a contemporary tech vibe to your presentation while keeping things simple and clear, ensuring your message stays prominent.

Leveraging Prezi for dynamic presentations

Prezi is a tool that distinguishes itself from slide-based presentations by providing a flexible canvas method. This special feature enables you to craft engaging presentations where the background contributes significantly to shaping the story.

Open canvas for creative freedom

Unlike traditional presentations where each slide is a separate entity, Prezi allows you to work with an open canvas . This means the background isn’t merely a fixed element but an essential component of the narrative. You have the freedom to navigate the canvas crafting a cohesive storytelling journey.

Dynamic panning and zooming for engaging storytelling

One remarkable aspect of Prezi is its panning and zooming feature. In contrast to slide-based presentations, where transitions occur from one slide to another, Prezi allows for navigation across the canvas. You can zoom in on details, and then pan out to reveal the broader context, transforming your presentation into an engaging storytelling experience . This interactive journey lets you evolve the background as you lead your audience through layers of information. The panning and zooming effects not only enhance appeal but also highlight important points and foster a more immersive experience for your viewers.

Simple presentation backgrounds in Prezi templates

Prezi offers a variety of templates that incorporate simple presentation backgrounds , making it easy to get started with a minimalistic design. For instance, the Modular Dark AI-Assisted template uses a sleek, dark background that’s perfect for professional and technical presentations.

The Research Project Light template offers a clean, light background that’s ideal for academic and educational presentations.

Experimenting with backgrounds

With Prezi, you’re not limited to the backgrounds provided within the platform. You can experiment with your own images to create a unique and personalized presentation. The limitless canvas allows you to place and move elements in a way that’s visually appealing and tailored to your specific needs.

Professional and medical presentations

For presentations in the healthcare industry or any professional field where clarity and precision are paramount, Prezi offers templates like the Medicine Light .

This template features a clean, minimalistic background that reflects the seriousness and professionalism required in medical presentations. The light background ensures that important medical data, charts, and images are presented clearly, making it easier for the audience to focus on the critical information being conveyed.

Effective onboarding and training

When creating onboarding presentations or training sessions, it’s important to use a background that’s both engaging and non-distracting. Prezi’s Employee Onboarding AI-Assisted template is designed to facilitate effective learning by combining a simple presentation background with interactive elements.

The minimalistic design helps keep the focus on the training content, making it easier for new employees to absorb the information without being overwhelmed by visual clutter.

Educational and lesson plan presentations

Educators looking to present lesson plans or educational content will benefit from Prezi’s Lesson Plan Template .

This template uses a simple background for presentations for students that’s ideal for structuring and organizing educational material. The simplicity of the background allows teachers to present information clearly, ensuring that students can easily follow along with the lesson. The open canvas format also enables educators to create dynamic and interactive presentations that can adapt to various teaching styles.

Free backgrounds in Prezi

Another key benefit of using Prezi is its variety of backgrounds accessible directly in the editor, saving you the hassle of hunting for the ideal background elsewhere. Whether you need a work desk setting for a professional presentation or a constellation-themed background for a creative project, Prezi has you covered.

Explore all available Prezi templates and get started!

Embrace the benefits of simplicity in your next presentation

Simplicity is not just a passing fad; it’s evolved into an essential element in presentation design. A simple presentation background improves readability, reduces distractions, and provides an enduring charm. Whether you’re giving a business pitch, teaching a class, or showcasing your creativity, opting for a simple presentation background ensures that your message remains the focal point.

Prezi’s open canvas approach takes this a step further by allowing you to integrate simple presentation backgrounds into a dynamic, visually engaging story. With Prezi, you have the freedom to experiment with creativity, using backgrounds as an essential element of your storytelling. So next time you’re preparing a presentation, consider the power of simplicity and explore the endless possibilities that a simple presentation background, especially in Prezi, can offer.

Remember, you don’t need to look far for the perfect background – with Prezi, a world of simple yet effective backgrounds is right at your fingertips. Looking for more background ideas? Find good presentation backgrounds here .

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Full Transcript of Kamala Harris’s Democratic Convention Speech

The vice president’s remarks lasted roughly 35 minutes on the final night of the convention in Chicago.

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By The New York Times

• Aug. 23, 2024

This is a transcript of Vice President Kamala Harris’s speech on Thursday night in which she formally accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for the presidency.

OK, let’s get to business. Let’s get to business. All right.

So, let me start by thanking my most incredible husband, Doug. For being an incredible partner to me, an incredible father to Cole and Ella, and happy anniversary, Dougie. I love you so very much.

To our president, Joe Biden. When I think about the path that we have traveled together, Joe, I am filled with gratitude. Your record is extraordinary, as history will show, and your character is inspiring. And Doug and I love you and Jill, and are forever thankful to you both.

And to Coach Tim Walz. You are going to be an incredible vice president. And to the delegates and everyone who has put your faith in our campaign, your support is humbling.

So, America, the path that led me here in recent weeks was, no doubt, unexpected. But I’m no stranger to unlikely journeys. So, my mother, our mother, Shyamala Harris, had one of her own. And I miss her every day, and especially right now. And I know she’s looking down smiling. I know that.

So, my mother was 19 when she crossed the world alone, traveling from India to California with an unshakable dream to be the scientist who would cure breast cancer.

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