PowerPoint pioneered the presentation landscape, helping to shape business presentations into what they are today.
However, presentation-making has evolved; now, people want to see presentations that entertain. Interactivity, animation, bold designs and more should be core pieces of each presentation.
And while PowerPoint has basic animations, there are a number of PowerPoint alternatives—Visme included—that can easily take your presentations from boring to eye-catching.
We've all heard of PowerPoint, and in many schools and workplaces, it's a go-to presentation software. But does that mean it's the end all, be all of presentation making?
In fact, you might find yourself wondering, what can I use instead of PowerPoint?Because PowerPoint has basic capabilities (and can be clunky to download and use for Mac users), we've put together this list of PowerPoint alternatives to help you find a way to spruce up your presentations, keeping your audiences interested and engaged.
But not every PowerPoint alternative is built the same. To find the best one for your business, keep an eye out for features like:
Keep these features in mind as you go through our list below to try and find the best PowerPoint alternative for your business.
In the quest to answer the question, "What is better than PowerPoint?", we've explored numerous options and narrowed them down to the top 12 PowerPoint alternatives.
To help you make sense of the dozens of options out there, we’ve summarized the most important features of the best PowerPoint alternatives.
Visme is a cloud-based, drag-and-drop presentation software that offers users all the tools they need to create not just compelling presentations, but also infographics, data visualizations, reports, product demos and resumes.
Its ready-to-use templates, with HD backgrounds and professionally designed layouts, give users a breather from the all-too-familiar PowerPoint themes, making it one of the best alternatives to PowerPoint.
Packed with millions of free images, thousands of vector icons, graph tools in any style and hundreds of fonts, Visme allows users to create virtually any type of visual content in Its custom design area.
Price: Free forever. Access premium features with plans starting at $12.25/month, billed annually.
Pros: Users can create virtually any visual content—including infographics, charts, reports and printables—in a single place; add animation, full interactivity and audio.
Cons: Due to the high level of flexibility and variety of options, it may take some time to master all of its features—but it's well worth it when you do.
Ideal for: Marketers, entrepreneurs, educators and individuals in general; corporate teams.
Exploring presentation tools besides PowerPoint has become increasingly popular as individuals and organizations seek more dynamic and engaging ways to share their ideas.
This cloud-based software is an excellent example of an alternative that offers nonlinear presentations, which pan and zoom from one page to the next without creating the impression of moving to a new slide. It’s a favorite among students and educators due to its ease of use.
Price: There is a completely free plan with limited features. Paid plans start at $12/month per user, billed annually.
Pros: Create nonlinear presentations with ease.
Cons: Not fully customizable; users can only create non-linear presentations which can actually cause motion sickness in some viewers.
Ideal for: Students, educators, speakers, companies.
Apple’s alternative to PowerPoint, Keynote is everything you would expect in an Apple product: sleek, sophisticated and intuitive.
Packed with powerful features—such as the ability to create interactive charts, add reflections and picture frames—Keynote makes it easy to create presentations with cinematic-like transitions between slides.
After the release of the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, Keynote is even more intuitive. Presentations are stored in the cloud and available on all devices.
Price: Free for all Mac computers.
Pros: Compatible with PowerPoint.
Cons: Desktop software, not online-based; no slide library.
Ideal for: Mac owners.
This cloud-based presentation software offers a solid and user-friendly alternative to PowerPoint. Its sleek editor workspace allows you to add background images, use a variety of designs and themes, collaborate easily with others and customize any of 10 default slide templates.
You can even take other people’s presentations and use them as a template. Slides.com is not to be confused with Slides.ai.
Price: Paid plans start at $5/month per user, billed annually.
Pros: User-friendly; includes beginner’s tutorial; users can copy other people’s designs and layouts as templates for their own content (this preference can be turned off when creating presentations).
Cons: Create only linear presentations; limited design options such as professional templates and types of slides; no graphs or infographic widgets available.
Ideal for: Startups, students, teachers and individuals.
This PowerPoint alternative is a good option for all those who don’t have the time to design their own slides.
Slidebean has recreated pitch decks from big-name startups and offers them as ready-to-use templates. There are more themed templates available for users to simply plug in their content.
Price: Slidebean offers a completely free plan. Their paid, all-access plan starts at $228/year.
Pros: Allows you to focus solely on the content.
Cons: No animation.
Ideal for: Those who want to make a presentations in as little time as possible, startups.
Part of a suite of online applications called the Workplace Bundle, Zoho Show provides users with a traditional presentation tool that's online-based.
Like the other alternatives to PowerPoint presentations listed here, this presentation software allows users to create and access presentations from any browser or device connected to the Internet.
Price: Paid plans of the Workplace Bundle start at $2.50/month per user, billed annually.
Pros: Import multiple file types; conferencing option.
Cons: Limited animations and transitions; only standard presentation functionality.
Ideal for: Business users, students, educators.
Other reviews: ZDNet, Blinklist
When it comes to Google slides vs PowerPoint, Google Slides comes out on top as a popular PowerPoint alternative because it’s completely free with a Google account. When logged into Google, Slides is available at any time, even from the email dashboard.
The design process on Google Slides is simple and to the point, much like creating a Google Slides presentation in PowerPoint itself. It offers a simple design process, with hundreds of templates in different color themes to choose from.
Price: Free for everybody, as long as they have a Google account.
Pros: It’s free and easy to use.
Cons: Design capabilities are limited to standard features.
Ideal for: People who appreciate Google products and need to create presentations with remote teams.
Canva is an easy-to-use PowerPoint alternative. The presentation templates come ready with numerous slides. All you need to do is choose the slides you want to use and switch out the content.
Along with the basic presentation features, animated presentations are also possible if you purchase the Canva for Work plan.
Price: “Free” but premium assets cost $1 or more to use. Canva Pro is $12.99/month or $119.99/year.
Pros: Easy to use and lets you create nice-looking presentations fast.
Cons: The best features are in the Canva for Work plan; complete presentations can’t be colorized as a whole.
Ideal for: Those looking for a simple presentation that's easy to put together.
Beautiful.ai is a PowerPoint alternative with a twist. The design of the slides is controlled by Artificial Intelligence. Their pitch is that presentations will look great every time without much work from the user. On the other hand, customization possibilities are limited.
Price: Plans start at $12/month, billed annually. Or users can pay $45 for a single, ad hoc project.
Pros: AI helps create better presentations fast.
Cons: Very limited design capabilities.
Ideal for: Students, educators, startups.
Sway is Microsoft’s own PowerPoint alternative. It’s everything that PowerPoint isn’t. In fact, it is so different, you can’t really tell it’s made by the same company.
Sway is a cloud-based app, which can be accessed through any Microsoft account, such as Hotmail and Outlook.
Price: Free with a Microsoft Account.
Pros: A presentation can look like a website, a newsletter or a classic slide presentation.
Cons: No tools or options to present data.
Ideal for: Students, NGOs.
If you are looking for a simple PowerPoint alternative, you may consider Venngage.
Venngage is an infographic maker that also provides basic capabilities for creating presentations.
It offers various templates and a drag-and-drop editor to help you create attractive presentations. You can customize and enhance your slides with colors, fonts, icons, illustrations, stock photos and other design assets. However, compared to some other PowerPoint alternatives in this list, Venngage offers a limited set of features for creating presentations.
Price: Free plan with limited features. Paid plans start at $19/month per user.
Pros: Excellent visually appealing designs and easy-to-use interface.
Cons: Limited options for traditional slide transitions and animations. The free plan has significant limitations and may not offer the full features of other comprehensive presentation tools.
Ideal for: Businesses, marketers, educators and anyone looking for simple presentation software.
Pitch is a modern presentation tool designed for teams and businesses. It focuses on collaboration and ease of use, making it simple to create, share and work together on presentations. With its clean design and variety of templates, Pitch provides a simple but powerful platform for turning ideas into engaging slides that you can easily share with your team and edit together.
Price: Free plan with limited features. Paid plans start at $17/month per two users, billed annually.
Pros: Excellent for team collaboration, modern and intuitive interface and interactive presentations.
Cons: Primarily focused on presentations. So, you can not create other types of visuals like infographics, reports and Ebooks.
Ideal for: Teams seeking seamless collaboration and interactive presentations.
Once you have selected the best PowerPoint replacement for your presentation requirements, you will need new ideas to make the most of the tool. Read our article on 105+ creative presentation ideas without PowerPoint for tips, inspiration and innovative approaches to help your presentations stand out.
Visme is a better PowerPoint equivalent because it offers superior design and customization options. In addition, Visme provides enhanced flexibility, advanced collaboration features, and top-notch customer support.
Compared to PowerPoint, Visme gives users access to thousands of customizable presentation templates, design assets, animation and interactive elements. The tool also comes packed with intuitive features like the design collaboration tool, workflow, engaging form builder, multiple download and sharing options and much more.
Users also get access to AI-powered tools like AI presentation maker, AI image generator, AI text generator, AI image edit and touchup tools and intuitive video editing tools. The software's interface is accessible to both novices and professionals, with a drag-and-drop editor that makes it easy to create high-quality visual content quickly.
Visme also offers integrations with HubSpot, Salesforce and other third-party tools. Also, you can download your training materials and visual assets in LMS-ready formats like xAPI, SCORM and HTML.
The web version of PowerPoint is free and all you'll need is a Microsoft account. However, the online version is limited compared to the desktop version. For example, users cannot access advanced animations and transitions or rich formatting for text, shapes and images. Since the free version doesn’t have a presenter view, you can’t use it to make presentations.
Google Slides is Google's equivalent of PowerPoint. It is an online presentation tool that lets you create and format presentations and collaborate with other people.
Compared to Visme, the features in PowerPoint are basic and limited—from the ready-made templates to design assets to the animations and interactive features. But if you’re looking for an easy-to-use tool that comes with premium features and allows sophisticated designs, Visme is the tool to use.
We've explored ten impressive tools with unique features and strengths, proving that you don't always need to stick to the traditional PowerPoint route to create stunning presentations.
While some of the tools we covered have fantastic capabilities, they often come with a hefty price tag and steep learning curve. On the other hand, more affordable options may not always provide the functionality necessary to make your presentations truly stand out.
But if you want our opinion, we think you should go ahead and create a free Visme account and get started with our presentation software today.
Visme perfectly balances powerful features and affordability. With Visme, you can access an extensive library of templates, customization options, and multimedia elements that can breathe life into your presentations.
The intuitive drag-and-drop interface makes creating captivating visuals easy for users of all skill levels, while the pricing options cater to different needs and budgets.
Easily create a stunning, dynamic, interactive presentation that your audience will love. Close more sales, get investor funding, inform your audience and more with Visme presentations.
Sign-up for Visme to access an all-in-one presentation design tool.
