Best PowerPoint Alternatives: A Simplified Overview for 2023

June 24, 2024

best powerpoint alternatives

PowerPoint is a great tool for translating and presenting complex facts, figures, or ideas into easy-to-digest visuals. However, this isn’t the only tool for creating bold designs, interactivity, and animations.

In this guide, we look at the best PowerPoint alternatives that you can use to convert boring presentations into catchy visuals.

Whether you’re looking for simplicity or for options that go beyond the limitation of classic slideshows and create interactive conversations, you’ll find every alternative shared in this guide incredibly valuable.

Key Takeaways

The best PowerPoint alternative worth looking at are:

  • Canva
  • Pitch
  • Zoho Show
  • Beautiful
  • Prezzi
  • Powtoon
  • Google Slides
  • Slidely

8 Best PowerPoint Alternatives Explained

The following is a brief review of each software solution (both desktop and web-based) that compares to Microsoft PowerPoint:

1. Canva

Price: Free

Canva is one of the most powerful PowerPoint alternatives ever created. With it, you can use dozens of pre-built presentation ideas and education templates to create outstanding presentations in minutes.   

  • Access an easy-to-use editor, with dozens of built-in editing tools that allow you to create impressive presentations without paying a cent.
  • Utilize the preset animation library to add motion to your presentations.
  • You can even add free audio effects or even include videos in your presentations for enhanced engagement.

Canva now includes the option of sharing your presentation, which is a great option to consider if you would like someone to look at your work and give you an honest review.

2. Pitch

Price: Free

Available for premium and free use, Pitch include pre-created design templates for creating highly customizable presentations.

Pitch mostly focuses on collaboration, making it a handy tool to use if you have group work to complete. It’s easy to set and update the status of your work, comment and react on presentations, add and share notes, and share the presentation with other members.

Because you’re going to use this software solution to create school presentations, the free plan should be good enough for you. A free account gives you access to custom templates, live video collaboration, and unlimited presentations.

3. Zoho Show

Price: Free

Zoho Show is a PowerPoint alternative to consider if you’re looking for simplicity. Its clean, intuitive editor makes it easy to use, and you can have your presentation completed in under an hour.

With Zoho Show, you decide how you want an entire template to look. Simply select the font you wish to use and a color scheme that you believe will make your presentation stand out.

The pre-built templates on Zoho Show are basic at best. But they’re recent and professional, not to mention far much better than what you get on Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint.

4. Beautiful

Price: $12 per month

Beautiful.ai is a presentation software built to help you create presentations. Whether you have a simple task or an involving design that you need to complete in minutes, this tool is for you.

Promoted as a presentation software that designs for you, the tool uses artificial intelligence to complete granular design for you. Your work is to focus on including the content you would like to present without worrying about professional-looking design.

The design might look different from what you’ve seen on solutions such as Canva and Google Slides. However, the additional two-minute tutorial will help you get your head around the software.

One thing that stands out about Beautiful.ai is the inclusion of a library of slides. Here, you don’t have to think outside the box to come up with layouts for your presentation. Instead, you can choose a layout from the library and create your presentation from the get go.

5. Prezzi Design

Price: 14-day free trial, free account allows up to 5 visual projects, $15 per month for premium

The one thing that makes Prezzi Design stand out from almost all the presentation apps is the focus on topics and subtopics. Rather than restricting you to a linear presentation, you can use the topics and subtopics feature to create a conventional information flow.

In addition to structural flexibility, Prezzi gives you access to all the customization tools.

The tool even has a library of templates that you can use to get started if you don’t want to create your presentation from scratch. These templates are fully editable, so you can tweak them accordingly to show your design skills.

6. Powtoon

Price: Limited free plan, paid plan starts at $20 per month

If you’re looking for the best PowerPoint alternative for creating and editing videos and presentations, try Powtoon.

The premium plan, which starts at $20 per month, gives you 100% access to all the creation tools. But even the limited free plan is just as useful.

One feature Powtoon has that other apps don’t is automatic timing. Each slide has a selected animation, which will take up enough time based on the amount of your content. You can even present the video as a slide deck by simply toggling between Movie and Slideshow. 

7. Google Slides

Price: Free

If you’re looking for a presentation design tool that’s just as simple as PowerPoint, use Google Slides.

One of the best features of the tool is online collaboration. You can create your slides and share your work with other people so they can give you feed that you can use to improve your presentation.

8. Slidely

Price: Free

Slidely may be more of sharing visuals with friends and family, but it’s equally just as good for creating presentations for educational purposes.

Final Thoughts

The availability of PowerPoint alternatives makes it possible for you to use a software solution that you consider more versatile, reliable, and easy to use.

Every recommendation we’ve suggested in this guide comes with useful tutorials to help you get started with using the software. And if you feel stuck or you’ve run out of time for your assignment, our PowerPoint Presentation service may be what you need to get your presentations done.

Our team will use the application you suggest to create you a presentation that will help you communicate your message in a way your audience can understand.

About the author 

Antony W is a professional writer and coach at Help for Assessment. He spends countless hours every day researching and writing great content filled with expert advice on how to write engaging essays, research papers, and assignments.

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