
As someone who has relied heavily on PowerPoint in the early years of my career, I’ve seen firsthand how the tool has helped shape business presentations into what they are today.
However, presentations have changed. People now want to see slide decks that entertain and captivate like never before. They want bold designs, interactive presentations and creative animations—elements that are often difficult to implement using PowerPoint’s standard templates and basic capabilities.
Thankfully, there are several excellent PowerPoint alternatives you can use to easily create beautiful, unique and branded presentations.
I tested some of these tools to bring you this list of the best alternatives to PowerPoint out there. In this post, I’ll break down each software in detail to show you how to build presentation designs that keep your audience hooked.
*Disclaimer: The comparisons and competitor ratings presented in this article are based on features available as of February 27, 2025. We conduct thorough research and draw on both first-hand experience and reputable sources to provide reliable insights. However, as tools and technologies evolve, we recommend readers verify details and consider additional research to ensure the information meets their specific needs.
Other alternatives include Prezi for dynamic storytelling, Google Slides for collaboration, Canva for visual design, Keynote for Apple users and Slides for multimedia presentations. Choose based on your audience, goals, and creativity or interactivity needs.
Software | Key Features | Pricing | Best for | Core Uses | G2 Rating |
Visme | AI tools, drag-and-drop editor, templates, data visualization, animations, collaboration, Presenter Studio, Presenter Notes with PDF download, Master Layout, offline mode, analytics | Free; Paid from $12.25/month |
Businesses, educators, teams | AI-powered and collaborative presentations, infographics, social media graphics with animations | 4.6 |
Prezi | Non-linear presentations, cloud-based, advanced image editing, privacy management | Free; Paid from $12/month |
Students, educators, companies | Dynamic presentations, non-linear storytelling | 4.2 |
Keynote | Cinematic transitions, interactive charts, cloud-based, collaboration, compatible with PPT files and software | Free for Mac users | Mac users | Professional presentations | 4.4 |
Slides | Cloud-based, custom CSS editor, team collaboration, analytics, offline mode | Paid from $5/month | Startups, educators, individuals | Collaborative presentations, web-based presentations | 4.4 |
Slidebean | Ready-to-use templates, image and GIF search, collaboration, curated color palettes | Free; Paid from $228/year |
Startups, busy professionals | Professional presentations, startups, pitch decks | 4.4 |
Zoho Show | Animation, transitions, browser-based, collaboration, chart import | Free; Paid plans available |
Businesses, teams | Collaborative presentations, cloud-based | 4.4 |
Google Slides | Cloud-based, real-time collaboration, integration with Google Drive, templates | Free | Teams, educators, businesses | Collaborative presentations, integration with Google Workspace | 4.5 |
Canva | Templates, drag-and-drop editor, design elements, animations, team collaboration | Free; Paid from $12.95/month |
Designers, marketers, teams | Graphic design, presentations, social media graphics | 4.7 |
Beautiful.ai | AI-powered design, templates, cloud-based, analytics, privacy controls | Paid from $12/month | Professionals, teams | AI-powered presentations, quick slide creation | 4.1 |
Microsoft Sway | Storytelling focus, interactive content, cloud-based, integration with Microsoft Office | Free | Educators, professionals | Web-based presentations, storytelling | 4.1 |
Venngage | Infographic maker, templates, drag-and-drop editor, branding tools, data visualization | Free; Paid from $19/month |
Marketers, educators, professionals | Infographics, presentations, reports | 4.7 |
Pitch | Collaborative presentations, templates, real-time collaboration, analytics, integrations | Free; Paid from $8/month |
Startups, teams, professionals | Collaborative presentations, startup pitches | 4.4 |
Not every PowerPoint alternative is built the same. To help you find the best presentation software for your business, I looked for important aspects and features like:
To answer your question, "What is better than PowerPoint?", I've explored numerous options and narrowed them down to the top 12 PowerPoint alternatives.
Here’s a quick overview of how I tested these tools:
Below, I’ve summarized my findings and the most important features of each alternative to help you make sense of the dozens of options out there.
Ideal for: Marketers, entrepreneurs, educators and individuals in general; corporate teams.
Visme is a cloud-based, drag-and-drop presentation software that offers you all the tools you need to create not just compelling presentations, but also infographics, data visualizations, reports, product demos and resumes.
In my list, Visme is easily one of the best alternatives to PowerPoint. I found its ready-to-use templates (with high-quality backgrounds and professional layouts) a breath of fresh air from the all-too-familiar PowerPoint themes.
But what makes Visme really stand out from other tools is its powerful AI features. Along with AI text and image generation (Visme’s got ‘em), you can create complete custom presentations based on specific prompts using the AI presentation maker.
For example, here’s what Visme came up with when I typed in “Prepare a product launch presentation for a new smartphone”. You have to admit, this is pretty impressive!
Other than templates, you can also find millions of free images, thousands of vector icons, data visualizations and hundreds of fonts in Visme’s built-in design asset library. And they’re all searchable!
This means you can create virtually any kind of visual content in Visme without struggling to find and upload the right assets.
Pricing: Free plan you can use for as long as you like. Access premium features and download formats 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.
Aspect | Visme | PowerPoint |
Ease of Use | Drag-and-drop editor, AI-powered tools | Familiar, but more complex for non-designers |
Design Flexibility | Advanced design elements, interactivity, 3D characters | Limited to standard animations, fewer design options |
Collaboration | Real-time with comments and annotation | Real-time collaboration with Office 365 |
Data Visualization | 30+ charts, graphs, maps and widgets, live data integration | Static charts and graphs |
Pricing | Free with premium plans starting at $12.25/month | Microsoft 365 required for premium features |
`
Ideal for: Students, educators, speakers, companies.
If you’ve created a presentation as a student or educator, you might have heard about Prezi. This PowerPoint alternative has always been popular for its non-linear presentation style, which can pan and zoom from one page to the next without creating the impression of moving to a new slide.
But a lot has changed over the years and Prezi has evolved to keep up with new trends and technology. Prezi AI, for example, can help you create a non-linear presentation in minutes based on prompts. I especially liked how they offered three different design options (all non-linear) to choose from.
However, the one downside I’ve noticed to using Prezi is the interface can get a bit clunky and slow. The non-linear, animated design is great but it comes at a price. Editing your Prezi presentation can start feeling like a never-ending chore, especially if, like me, you’re short on patience.
Here are some of Prezi’s features I found worthy of mentioning:
Pricing: Paid plans start at $5/month for individuals and $15/month for businesses, billed annually. There’s also a free trial available.
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.
Aspect | Prezi | PowerPoint |
Ease of Use | Moderate learning curve due to non-linear structure | Linear, familiar flow |
Presentation Style | Zooming and panning, non-linear flow | Traditional slide transitions |
Collaboration | Real-time team collaboration | Requires Office 365 for real-time editing |
Customizability | Customizable slides only in non-linear style | Extensive customization for linear slides |
Pricing | Paid plans start at $5/month | Microsoft 365 subscription required |
Ideal for: Mac owners.
Keynote is Apple’s alternative to PowerPoint. And I found it’s everything you would expect in an Apple product: sleek, sophisticated and intuitive.
The software is packed with powerful features, such as the ability to create interactive charts, add reflections and picture frames. Keynote also makes it easy to create presentations with cinematic-like transitions between slides.
For Apple users, Keynote is even more intuitive after the release of the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. You can also store presentations in the cloud so they’re available on all devices.
The problem with Keynote, however, is it offers very limited design assets and interactivity features compared to most online presentation makers on this list. It’s an offline software, after all, similar to PowerPoint.
Here are some notable Keynote features:
Pricing: Free for all Mac computers.
Pros: Compatible with PowerPoint.
Cons: Desktop software, not online-based; no slide library.
Aspect | Keynote | PowerPoint |
Ease of Use | Intuitive for Apple users, seamless cross-device sync | Familiar interface, steeper learning curve |
Design Capabilities | Cinematic transitions, interactive charts | Decent design tools with custom animations |
Collaboration | Real-time, but Apple-only | Available across all platforms |
Device Compatibility | Mac, iPhone, iPad support | Cross-platform, but sync isn't as seamless |
Pricing | Free for Apple devices | Microsoft 365 subscription required |
Ideal for: Startups, students, teachers and individuals.
Slides is a cloud-based presentation software that offers a solid and user-friendly alternative to PowerPoint. I love its sleek editor workspace, which allows you to add background images, use a variety of designs and themes, and collaborate easily with others.
While Slides might be intuitive and easy-to-use, it’s very limited in terms of templates and customizability. For starters, there are only 10 templates to choose from. There are also very few assets and features that come with the editor (e.g. data visualization).
Note: Remember to not confuse Slides.com with Slides.ai!
Here are the top Slides features to know:
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: Very few templates and types of slides; limited customization; no graphs or infographic widgets available..
Aspect | Slides.com | PowerPoint |
Ease of Use | Web-based, easy access, and editing from any device | Desktop and web-based, but download required |
Customization | CSS editor for full design control | Limited to built-in tools |
Privacy and Sharing | Strong privacy controls, expiring links | Can password-protect files with Office 365 |
Collaboration | Real-time collaboration | Requires Office 365 for real-time collaboration |
Pricing | Paid plans start at $5/month | Microsoft 365 subscription required |
Ideal for: Startups and those who want to make presentations in as little time as possible.
Slidebean is an AI-powered PowerPoint alternative that’s a good option for busy executives and people who don’t have the time to design their own slides.
The tool comes with plenty of business-focused templates, such as pitch decks and branding strategy presentations. They’ve also recreated pitch decks from big-name startups as templates. Users can simply plug in their content and they’re good to go.
Slidebean also offers professional pitch deck writing and design services (along with some others like financial modeling and budgeting) to help you create business presentations that actually deliver results.
That’s a really cool perk to have if you don’t want to deal with the hassle of creating a presentation yourself and would simply like to outsource the process.
That said, I feel that Slidebean seriously lacks in the animation department. They only offer basic, step-by-step animation for any images and text on your slides and you cannot customize any of the effects. You can only rearrange their order of appearance.
Here are some of the best Slidebean features:
Pricing: Slidebean offers a free trial with access to basic features. Their paid, all-access plan starts at $12/month, billed annually.
Pros: Preset, ready-to-go design so you can focus solely on the content.
Cons: Basic animation.
Aspect | Slidebean | PowerPoint |
Ease of Use | AI-powered design automation | Full manual design control, but more complex |
Speed of Creation | Fast due to AI-generated slides | Time-consuming for design-heavy presentations |
Templates | Startup-focused, pitch deck templates | Wide range, but more traditional templates |
Collaboration | Real-time with built-in chat | Office 365 needed for collaboration |
Pricing | Paid plans start at $12/month | Microsoft 365 subscription required |
Ideal for: Business users, students, educators.
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, Zoho allows you to create and access presentations from any device connected to the internet. You can also download them in various formats, share them online or embed them on a website.
If I’m being honest, Zoho Show’s interface feels quite similar to PowerPoint. I would say it’s a simplified and modern version of PowerPoint with a bunch of cool features like customizable illustrations, data widgets, charts and add-ons.
Here are some Zoho Show features that make this tool special:
Pricing: Zoho Show offers a free plan for creating and sharing presentations. Their professional plan starts at $2.50/month per user, billed annually. The paid plan offers premium features like additional storage, user management tools and brand asset library.
Pros: Import multiple file types; conferencing option.
Cons: Limited animations and transitions; only standard presentation functionality.
Aspect | Zoho Show | PowerPoint |
Ease of Use | Simple, browser-based interface | Familiar, but download required |
Collaboration | Real-time with commenting | Office 365 collaboration features available |
Media Integration | Embed live social media content (tweets, YouTube) | Limited video embedding options |
Customizability | Offers good templates and transition animations | Full manual customization available |
Pricing | Free with premium at $2.50/month | Microsoft 365 subscription required |
Ideal for: People who are familiar with Google products and need to create presentations with remote teams.
When it comes to Google Slides vs PowerPoint, I’d give Google Slides the award for the best PowerPoint alternative because it’s completely free to use with a Google account. When logged into Google, Slides is available at any time, even from your email dashboard.
The design process on Google Slides is simple and to the point. I felt like I was creating a Google Slides presentation in PowerPoint itself. The interface is slightly more modern and simplified, and there are hundreds of templates in different color themes to choose from.
Here’s what caught my eye in Google Slides:
Pricing: 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.
Aspect | Google Slides | PowerPoint |
Ease of Use | Easy to use, browser-based | More complex, especially for Mac users |
Real-time Collaboration | Seamless with Google users | Requires Office 365 subscription |
Storage and Access | Auto-saving to Google Drive | Save to OneDrive with Microsoft 365 |
Templates | Limited templates | Extensive template library |
Pricing | Free for all users | Requires Microsoft 365 subscription |
Ideal for: Those looking for a simple presentation that's easy to put together.
Canva is primarily a graphic design tool, but it can also work as an easy-to-use PowerPoint alternative. Its 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.
The tool also offers beautiful animations that you can apply to the entire slide at once or to specific elements. They’re customizable (to an extent) and very easy to work with.
Another really cool feature I found in Canva’s presentation maker was the ability to translate your entire presentation into another language. This is super useful if you’re building decks to be shared online (on localized pages) or with audiences in multiple regions.
Here’s what makes Canva a great PowerPoint alternative:
Pricing: “Free” but premium assets cost $1 or more to use. Canva Pro is $15/month and Canva for Teams starts at $10/month/user (minimum 3 users).
Pros: Easy to use and lets you create nice-looking presentations fast.
Cons: The best features are in Canva’s paid plans; complete presentations can’t be colorized as a whole.
Aspect | Canva | PowerPoint |
Ease of Use | Drag-and-drop, simple interface | Familiar, but more complex for design tasks |
Design Flexibility | Offers stock images, icons and advanced media tools | Strong slide design options, but less intuitive |
Collaboration | Team collaboration available in Pro | Real-time collaboration with Office 365 |
Animation | Limited animations compared to PowerPoint | Full animation suite available |
Pricing | Free, Pro at $15/month | Microsoft 365 subscription required |
Ideal for: Students, educators, startups.
Beautiful.ai is an alternative with a twist.
The design of the slides is controlled by AI. Their pitch is that presentations will look great every time without much work from the user. So, if you’re looking for an easy, do-it-for-you tool for making professional decks, this could be it.
On the other hand, this means their customization possibilities are limited compared to the other tools on this list. If you’re very particular about your brand style or if there’s a very unique vision in your mind for your presentation, other tools might be a better fit.
I also noticed that the “Generate with AI” option is only available in Beautiful.ai’s Pro plan. However, you can still create some great-looking presentations in the free plan with minimal effort. Even though the free plan doesn’t let you create a presentation fully with AI, the limited customizability options make sure you stick to a professional design.
Here’s why Beautiful.ai is an excellent tool for making presentations:
Pricing: Plans start at $12/month, billed annually. Or users can pay $45 for a single, ad hoc project.
Pros: Create good-looking presentations fast using AI.
Cons: Very limited customization options, features and design assets.
Aspect | Beautiful.ai | PowerPoint |
Ease of Use | AI-driven design, minimal input needed | More complex, manual design required |
Customization | Limited customization, AI-driven templates | Fully customizable with manual input |
Collaboration | Real-time collaboration | Requires Office 365 |
Animation | Limited to AI-created animations | Full range of animation options |
Pricing | Paid plans start at $12/month | Microsoft 365 subscription required |
Ideal for: Students, NGOs.
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.
What I like about Sway is how quick it is to put something together. I can drag and drop images, text and videos, and Sway arranges everything beautifully on its own. The layouts are modern, and Sway provides a refreshing take on typical presentation formats — it feels more like a webpage than a slideshow.
That said, there are a few things I find limiting. First, there aren’t as many customization options as you’d find in other tools or even PowerPoint. If you love control over every detail, like fonts or slide transitions, Sway might feel a bit restrictive.
It’s also not ideal for data-heavy presentations or those needing interactivity and animations. And since it’s a web app, you need internet access to access and edit, which could be limiting in offline settings.
In short, Sway is fantastic if you're looking to create polished, narrative-driven presentations quickly. For those who prefer simplicity and easy sharing, it’s a strong choice. But for those who want deeper customization and advanced features, other tools like Visme have a clear edge.
Here are the features Microsoft Sway stands out for:
Pricing: Free with a Microsoft Account.
Pros: A presentation can look like a website, a newsletter or a classic slide presentation.
Cons: Limited customization, interactivity and animation options. No tools or options to present data.
Aspect | Microsoft Sway | PowerPoint |
Ease of Use | Simple, modern interface | Traditional interface, complex for beginners |
Presentation Style | Web-based with vertical/horizontal scrolling views | Traditional linear slides |
Customization | Limited, randomized "Remix!" feature | Extensive customization available |
Media Integration | Web-based media search and embedding | Limited in comparison |
Pricing | Free with Microsoft account | Requires Microsoft 365 subscription |
Ideal for: Businesses, marketers, educators and anyone looking for simple presentation software.
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.
However, compared to some other PowerPoint alternatives in this list, Venngage offers limited customization features for creating tailored presentations. I would love to see more realistic 3D characters, animations, interactivity and presentation recording features. That would definitely give Venngage some extra points on my list!
Here are some notable Venngage features:
Pricing: Free plan with limited features. Paid plans start at $10/month per user, billed annually.
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.
Aspect | Venngage | PowerPoint |
Ease of Use | Drag-and-drop, intuitive interface | Traditional and more complex |
Data Visualization | Advanced charts, infographics and data import | Standard charts and graphs |
Collaboration | Real-time collaboration | Office 365 required for collaboration |
Customization | Limited customization, pre-designed templates | Full design control with basic templates |
Pricing | Free, premium starts at $10/month | Microsoft 365 subscription required |
Ideal for: Teams seeking seamless collaboration and interactive presentations.
Pitch is a modern presentation tool designed for teams and businesses. It focuses on collaboration and ease of use, and I found it very simple to create, share and work together on presentations using this tool.
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.
The platform offers a powerful AI presentation maker to help you quickly create pitch decks with an AI-generated draft. However, I found that it lacks specialized AI tools that are available in some of the other online PowerPoint alternatives in this list (e.g. Visme), like an AI text generator or AI image editor.
Pitch’s presentation recording features are also pretty limited. You can add video recordings to your slides, but you can’t exactly record your entire presentation in one go. That’s something we already see in some other tools and makes me wonder why they haven’t added this functionality yet.
Here’s why you might consider Pitch for presentation making:
Pricing: Free plan with limited features. Paid plans start at $22/month for 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.
Aspect | Pitch | PowerPoint |
Ease of Use | Simple, clean interface | Familiar, but more complex for non-designers |
Collaboration | Real-time, version history available | Requires Office 365 |
AI Features | Smart formatting, AI-driven slide suggestions | No AI-driven features |
Analytics | Viewer engagement tracking, slide-level analytics | No built-in analytics |
Pricing | Free plan, premium starts at $22/month | Requires Microsoft 365 subscription |
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 12 impressive presentation software 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 my opinion, I 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’s presentation software to test it out for yourself and create stunning slide decks in minutes.
*All logos, trademarks, and brand names used in this article are the property of their respective organizations. Their inclusion is for identification purposes only and does not imply any endorsement or association with our organization.
Design visual brand experiences for your business whether you are a seasoned designer or a total novice.
Try Visme for free