Microsoft PowerPoint is a powerful piece of software for creating winning slideshows and presentations. It’s easy to use even if you’re a complete beginner, has ready-to-use presentation templates, and if you know your way around PowerPoint you can do incredible things with it.
However, there can be a number of reasons to look for alternatives to PowerPoint. Maybe you don’t want to buy Microsoft Office, or put in the time and effort into mastering PowerPoint. Maybe you’re just looking for a fresh look for your office presentations.
There are plenty of PowerPoint alternatives out there that you can use online. Have a look at our top picks and see which one suits your needs best.
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Canva
Best for: Creative minds looking to add artistic elements into presentations.
Price: Free, with premium options starting at $9.95/month.
Canva is a great choice for design professionals and artistic people who want to create custom images. While it has the same easy-to-use interface of Microsoft PowerPoint, it comes with plenty of customization options for your slideshow. The free slideshow maker in Canva gives you templates to jumpstart your design in seconds. You can use free stock photos, videos, and music tracks to impress your audience. You can turn your humdrum slides into a downloadable video slideshow too.
With the Canva app, you can design a presentation on iOS and Android too. No watermarks are added and there are no limits to how many times you can make or download slideshows.
Slidebean
Best for: Professional AI-powered presentations when you’re pressed for time.
Price: Free, with premium options starting at $8/month.
Want to create an esthetically beautiful presentation, but don’t think you have the artistic ability for it? Slidebean helps you create AI-powered presentations and slideshows that require next to no effort from you when it comes to formatting and organizing the slides.
You can either choose one of the templates that the app offers, or just write an outline and select a theme for your presentation and let Slidebean do the rest. Slidebean uses artificial intelligence every step of the way, from arranging your slides to generating a color palette.
It’s one of the most efficient ways to create a professional-looking presentation when you don’t have time.
Prezi
Best for: Users who prefer seeing the big picture instead of breaking down their work into individual slides.
Price: Free, with premium options starting at $5/month or $3/month for students (with a free 14-day triald).
Prezi moves away from the slide-by-slide presentation format entirely. Instead, you’ll be given a whole canvas where you can add text, images, or slides that will make up your presentation. This approach makes it easier to track your progress and see where you’re at with your slideshow.
Prezi might seem complex at first. But creating presentations in Prezi is a breeze. The only new part you’ll find in this alternative to PowerPoint is adding the animation in between your slides. If you’ve done any video editing or animation before, this might become your favourite part about working in Prezi.
Google Slides
Best for: collaboration purposes.
Price: free.
Google Slides is a great alternative to PowerPoint for Google account holders. It’s easy to use, and comes with all the essential features that you need to create an engaging presentation or a slideshow.
The best part of Google Slides is collaborations. You can easily share your presentation with anyone who has a Google account, as well as get them to help you put together a presentation. You can also discuss your presentation contents with Google Slides’ built-in chat.
Also, Google Slides is compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint, so that you can convert a PowerPoint presentation into Google Slides and vice versa.
Visme
Best for: Creating a presentation from scratch.
Price: Free, with premium options starting at $14/month.
If you have to create a slideshow from scratch, you’ll enjoy the variety of templates that Visme has to offer. Using the app’s online editor, you can customize every single part of your presentation. You can select different fonts, theme colours, slide types, formatting style, and more. Add various graphics and images to your presentation to make it more visual.
Then, you- can share or publish your results on the web, save it offline, or downloade it as a PDF.
Keynote
Best for: Apple and iCloud users.
Price: Free.
Keynote is the default presentation app for macOS, iPadOS, and iOS.c It’s the default PowerPoint alternative for all Apple users. The presentation app is similar to Microsoft PowerPoint but a little simpler to use.
Keynote comes with a variety of templates and customization options for your presentation. When your presentation’s ready, you can share it with other users via iCloud allowing them to make edits online, or save it as a PowerPoint file.
Keynote comes free with any Apple device, and an iCloud account. It is also compatible with Apple Pencil.
Zoho Show
Best for: Those looking for functionality identical to PowerPoint.
Price: Free.
If you’re looking for an alternative to PowerPoint that you can use online and don’t have to pay for, Zoho Show is the right pick for you. Zoho Show is also compatible with PowerPoint, so you can import and export files from one app to the other.
You’ll find a decent choice of ready-to-use templates on the site, as well as styles and fonts to choose from. Zoho Show offers a wide range of collaboration options, so you can work on your presentation together with other users, as well as share the results of your work both online and offline.
Zoho Show comes with dedicated apps for Android and iOS, so you can work on your presentations using your smartphone.
Is it Time to Drop Microsoft PowerPoint?
While Microsoft PowerPoint is a solid choice for creating presentations, sometimes you have to spend a lot of time and effort on creating a truly engaging slideshow in this software. Maybe it’s time to look at alternative presentation software that might be more suitable for your needs and abilities.
Do you prefer using Microsoft PowerPoint or an alternative presentation software? If it’s not PowerPoint, what presentation software do you use and what’s your favourite thing about it?
