7 Most Popular Software for Presentations

7 Most Popular Software for Presentations

Wondering which are the top presentation software options available right now on the market? In this article, we’ll throw some light on the subject.

Multimedia presentations have become an inevitable part of business and education nowadays. With the rising demand for powerful and feature-rich presentation software, developers keep presenting more and more advanced tools that actually make users create impressive presentations faster and more easily than ever.

The market offers a lot of suggestions for good presentation software – free or paid, each packed up with valuable features that help you create good engaging designs in minutes. In today’s post, we’ve outlined 7 top presentation software, which you can use online, on your PC, or both ways. Let’s begin!

1. Prezi

“Designed for people who aren’t designers.”

A very famous cloud-based platform that lets you create interactive presentations and track your results. Depending on your plan, you will have access to a huge library of templates on marketing, sales, business, and education themes, as well as icons and images that can be edited right in the app. Plus, building your presentation is very easy with the drag-and-drop function which lets you add smart structures.

Prezi has developed a unique technique that makes presentations more engaging, escaping from the traditional look of a presentation with slides. The platform provides an open canvas that plays the role of your whole presentation. Within this canvas, you can zoom in to different modules and points in order to reveal your story. Check out a quick tutorial:

Features:
  • The newest app version Prezi Next is built on HTML instead of Flash;
  • A library of templates, design assets, and pre-designed  building blocks;
  • A zoom reveal function;
  • Prezi Analytics to track your results;
  • Cloud-based software for online work across devices;
  • A desktop app for offline work;
  • PowerPoint to Prezi conversion.
Pricing:
  • Free version with limited features;
  • Standard – from $5/month (free trial);
  • Plus – from $15/month (free trial);
  • Premium – from $59/month (free trial);
  • More pricing options for education and teams.

2. Google Slides

“Create, edit, collaborate and present wherever you are. For free.”

Google Slides is a tool for creating presentations that you can use right in your browser or download on your PC. It comes with a library of interesting themes, fonts, animation effects, video embedding, and even more functions.

The Google presentation app requires you to have an account. Beyond that, everything about Google Slides is intuitive and easy. The app can be used from every browser, as long as you have an internet connection. It even saves your changes automatically and you can easily see old versions of your creations.

Google Slides is very easy to use among teams. You can share your slides with other users in view, comment, or edit modes and collaborate on the same presentation in real-time. You can even chat in the app and see other people’s cursors, as they make changes. Here is a useful tutorial on how to use Google Slides:

Features:
  • Pre-made presentation themes, pitch decks, portfolios, and a variety of fonts to choose from;
  • Easy access from every browser – you only need to have an account;
  • Download an app for offline use;
  • Quick and easy sharing options;
  • Collaborate with other people on the same presentation at the same time;
  • Chat with fellow collaborators inside the app;
  • Changes are automatically saved;
  • PowerPoint compatibility.
Pricing:
  • Free.

3. Slidebean

“The world’s first slide design platform powered by Artificial Intelligence.”

Another presentation software that is quite different from the rest on the market – Slidebean. The platform practically does the design for you by using Artificial Intelligence. The algorithms of the software analyze your images and text and design your content in optimal layouts, thus saving you a lot of time. The software designs your content and creates an outline of the presentation. Moreover, it identifies the key elements and arranges your content accordingly. And all of this – without human intervention.

Slidebean allows full customization of your presentations. Other useful features are real-time collaborations between multiple users, activity tracking, and useful analytics. Here is what to expect from the software:

Features:
  • Uses Artificial Intelligence to make the outline and design of presentations;
  • Analyzes your content and key elements to design it optimally;
  • Simple and intuitive interface;
  • Support for online collaboration between many users and automatic sync;
  • Full customization of themes, and more.
Pricing:
  • Free (with limited usage);
  • All-Access – $29/month (or $228 annually).

4. Keynote

“Beautiful presentations for everyone. By everyone.”

A famous tool for creating engaging presentations. Keynote can be used on Mac, iOS, or iCloud.com from any PC browser. The software comes with a library of over 30 thematic templates, over 30 impressive cinematic transitions for your design elements, interactive charts and stunning animations, over 700 editable shapes, and more exciting assets.

Keynote lets your team collaborate on the same presentation from different locations in the world, and changes are displayed in real-time. If you are using an iPad, you can even draw and write directly on your presentation template with the Apple Pencil. Here is a recent tutorial on Keynote for iPad:

Features:
  • A library of pre-made themes and easy customization;
  • Import photos, galleries, math equations, charts, shapes;
  • Animate your slides with transitions and effects (and see animation previews live on canvas);
  • Draw directly on your presentation on an iPad by using Apple Pencil;
  • Real-time collaboration on one presentation from multiple devices;
  • Invite many people to watch your presentation live with Keynote Live from their own devices;
  • You can record and edit audio clips to narrate your presentation and import different sounds;
  • Compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint – export presentations as PowerPoint files or import and edit pptx files in Keynote (Keynote supports the most popular PowerPoint features);
Pricing:
  • Free.

5. Slides

“Make better presentations.”

Slides is an open-source cloud-based tool for creating and sharing presentations. The tool can be used on any device including mobile devices. Moreover, it is enriched with features that will help you fully personalize your slide decks.

Slides come with a media library that keeps your assets organized and easy to reuse even by your team collaborators. To make your presentation more informative, you can use vertical slides, as well, which look like sub-slides to your main slides.

Since Slides is open source, so it is 100% developer-friendly and it offers full customization by giving you access to your decks’ source code. You can fully edit your presentation by using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and embed content from other devices. All your presentations are safely stored on Slides’ servers, so you can access them at any time from any device, and download them for offline use if you wish.

Features:
  • A personal media library that you can share with fellow collaborators;
  • Easily position and edit content blocks;
  • Publish your presentations easily or protect the access with a password;
  • Easily embed content into your presentation and embed the presentation itself on websites;
  • Google Analytics integration;
  • Click, tap and hover interactions on your slides;
  • Unsplash & GIPHY integration;
  • Support for SVG images;
  • Edit presentation’s HTML, CSS, and JavaScript;
  • Import PowerPoint files and PDFs;
  • Handy features for presenters;
  • Convenient tools for teams;
Pricing:
  • Free account – your decks will be publicly viewable and searchable;
  • Slides Lite – from $7/month;
  • Slides Pro – from $14/month;
  • Slides Team – from $28/month;
  • Slides Enterprise.

6. SlideDog

“Freedom to present.”

If you are looking for a little bit more untraditional presentation software to engage your audience, then SlideDog’s approach may be right for you. The software lets you combine different media types into one multimedia presentation. This basically means that you can mix different presentation mediums like PowerPoint, Prezi, websites, media files, static PDFs, and more to play as one presentation.

The app allows you to add a live chat or discussion, so your audience can actively engage in the experience. You can also receive anonymous feedback, as well as questions and comments to respond to at a time of your convenience. Learn a little bit more about how it works:

Features:
  • Easy combination of different presentation mediums, media files, and static files;
  • All elements display like in the original file;
  • Live stream presenting & the audience can join in any time from any browser;
  • Remote control function;
  • Interactive polls;
  • Questions and comments from the audience;
  • Anonymous feedback on your presentations;
  • Dual screen support
Pricing:
  • SlideDog Free – limited features;
  • Monthly – $19/month;
  • Annual – $99/year ($79.20 for subsequent years);
  • Lifetime access – $299.

7. Visme’s presentation tool

“Not just another boring presentation software.”

A very easy-to-use presentation tool by Visme with a drag-and-drop editor that lets you create presentations quite fast. With over 1000 templates and slides included, as well as graphics, charts, and data widgets, using Visme’s presentation tool doesn’t require much graphic design experience. Of course, if you are more experienced, you can start by scratch and create your own slide library. Also, you can import your Powerpoint presentations to use online.

Editing templates is quite easy – you can customize the colors, change text, add more graphics and use high-quality photos and vector files. Here is a very good explanatory video tutorial that will help you understand the basics of working with Visme’s presentation tool.

Features:
  • Over 1000 pre-made HD templates and slides
  • A library of over 500k high-resolution photos and vector icons
  • 50+ data visualization charts, maps, widgets, and more
  • Options for online sharing and download in JPG, PNG, PDF, HTML
  • An option to import your existing Powerpoint presentation
  • Create your own media library, slide library, and custom content blocks for future use
Pricing:
  • Free with limited features;
  • Paid Individual, Business, and Education plan at different rates.

The evergreen leader: PowerPoint

“Create presentations that stand out.”

It’s no surprise that the most popular presentation software worldwide right now is PowerPoint, available in over a hundred languages. For the last few decades, Microsoft has established PowerPoint as a synonym for presentation software. The powerful app has been developed and enriched with amazing features throughout the years. Now, it has everything you would need in order to create beautifully animated presentations with 3D models, impressive motions, and tons of more goodies.

PowerPoint comes as a part of the Office 365 package (including Word, Outlook, Excel, and cloud storage) or as a separate purchase. Microsoft has also provided online versions of the desktop apps which allow you and your teammates to collaborate on the same presentation in real-time. Here is a quick tutorial on how to start using PowerPoint if you don’t have any experience with the software:

Features:
  • Rich in features with which you can create amazing designs;
  • Real-time collaboration and commenting via the Office Online applications
  • Easy share via the cloud;
  • Slide-by-slide notes that only you can see;
  • Multilingual support;
  • Individual purchase or as a part of Office 365;
  • A library with templates in more than 40 categories.
Pricing:
  • With a subscription for Office 365 – from $69.99/year;
  • As a separate purchase – $159.99.

You may be interested in some PowerPoint templates to get started:
The Best Minimalist Powerpoint Templates for Free Download
The Best Free PowerPoint Templates to Download in 2022

 

To wrap up,

There is indeed a suitable presentation software option for each taste. Some are cloud-based, others you can use on your PC. Some are free to use, others – are paid and loaded with advanced features. No matter which presentation software you will use, remember that creating an engaging presentation is up to you.

You would probably find it interesting to learn which are the 4 Invaluable Presentation Design Tips You Wish You Knew Earlier.

Now leaving the comments to you. Do you have a favorite presentation software not listed here? We’d love to read about it in the comments below.

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Iveta Pavlova

Iveta is a passionate writer at GraphicMama who has been writing for the brand ever since the blog was launched. She keeps her focus on inspiring people and giving insight on topics like graphic design, illustrations, education, business, marketing, and more.

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