The Best Presentation Tools for 2024

For a long while, PowerPoint was the industry standard for presentations, and it offered customizable presentation templates for various uses. However, there are more engaging PowerPoint alternatives in the market, including Google Slides, Haiku Deck, Visme, and Slidedog.

When choosing between presentation software, you want a solution that offers an array of images and templates. Additionally, it should be easy to use for people who are not design experts. Shareability is another essential feature, and you should invest in software that facilitates real-time collaboration between users.

Also, you should pay attention to the transition features, as interesting transitions will keep your audience engaged. The ideal software should make it easy to embed videos and add animated elements and audio. Some of the top presentation tools include:

1. Google Slides

Google Slides is under the G Suite family of applications and is available via your Google account. Using this application is as easy as creating spreadsheets and documents with Google Sheets and Docs.

Google Slides shines on usability. In addition to your decks saving automatically, you can share your documents with a click of a button. The platform boasts a sleek interface, and it will be familiar to anyone with a Gmail account.

Pricing

One of the pros of Google Slides is that it is free to use. Anyone with a Google Account can start making and sharing presentations from their web browser. However, enterprises that want more advanced features can subscribe to Workspace packages starting from $6 per employee per month. Custom plans are also available for larger companies. Some of the additional features include extra cloud storage, customizable emails, and responsive customer service.

Ease of Use

The simplicity of Google Slides has made it popular among individuals and businesses. The interface is straightforward, with the workspace for the slide you are working on at the middle, a preview of your slides on the left, and toolbars at the top.

Google Slides allows for easy integration with other Google apps. For example, if you want to include an image to a slide, you can add images from your Google Drive or other Google solutions.

Features

Google Slides avails a wide variety of themes, templates, and add-ons. What’s more, you can export your slideshow as a PDF file or to PowerPoint. Besides adding videos, audio, and images to your slide, you can change fonts, sizing, colors, and shapes. You can even import graphs and charts and embed them in your content.

Collaboration is where this presentation tool truly shines. You can control the permission levels and let users edit, comment only, or view only. Once someone joins your project, you will see their name and associated color at the top of your screen. Thanks to the live sharing feature, you can see any element they change in real-time.

If you share a project between several users, no one will miss out because of a lack of software. As long as the participants have an internet connection and Google Account, it will be easy to contribute to the slideshow.

2. Prezi

Businesses looking for engaging presentation tools can explore Prezi’s impressive features. For enthusiasts of Microsoft PowerPoint, you may be familiar with presentation designs that go slide by slide. In contrast, Prezi is motion-based, and it hides topics and subtopics until you zoom in. While it may be complicated to use this interface initially, it is ideal for people who want more creative freedom with their presentation software. What’s more, Prezi is compatible with Mac and PC desktops, and you can use it on your android device, iPhone, and iPad.

Pricing

Prezi has a basic package that is free to use, and it lets you make presentations from existing PowerPoint slides. The standard package starts at $5 per month, where you get unlimited presentations, revocable share links and images, icons, and backgrounds.

Prezi’s Plus package is $15 a month, and users can enjoy all features in standard plus smart branding, offline access, presenter view, and voice-over. If you want to access the platform’s analytics, the Premium package, at $59 per month, offers this, phone support, and advanced online training.

Creating Presentations

Prezi features a blank canvas, deep-dive zoom, and flexible path. It draws every point spatially through zooming and panning. Instead of a blank canvas, you can work with a PowerPoint slide or template.

Prezi offers about 100 templates for designing presentations. The templates have themes, such as HR & Training, Marketing, and Sales & Development. Therefore, you can quickly build professional presentations that will wow audience members.

The outstanding feature of Prezi is that you will take your audience on an animated path through and across your canvas. You can simply click on various elements to zoom in and out, and the platform will automatically save each location as you go. Users don’t need to download the software as you can utilize the HTML5-based application in-browser.

You may find it challenging to use Prezi if you are not used to multimedia editing software. However, Prezi has numerous video tutorials to help users navigate its platform and design captivating content.

Collaboration

You can give others authorization to view or edit your work. If you are co-authoring a project, the initials of all active participants appear on the screen. However, you will not get a real-time chat box as is present when preparing PowerPoint presentations.

3. PowerPoint

In the search for the best presentation software, you have no doubt come across PowerPoint. It is among the Office 365 applications, including Microsoft Office. PowerPoint is incredibly versatile, and you can utilize it for personal, business, or academic presentations.

This tool has long been the standard for presentation software. However, more creative platforms like Prezi have become formidable competition. Still, PowerPoint has stood the test of time, mainly because it is familiar and easy to use.

Pricing

You can download a limited version of PowerPoint on any device for free. Although the app is part of Office 365, you can buy it for a one-time price of $139.99 per license. If you want the Office 365 package for your business, subscriptions range between $5 to $20 per month.

Features

While PowerPoint is mainly used on Macs and PCs, there are native mobile apps for iOS, Android, and tablets. As a result, your team can rehearse the projects on their own devices before presentations.

The most impressive feature of PowerPoint is its rich template library. You can customize any template and add a stock image, animation, sticker, or icon. There are multiple layouts you can use to design your presentation, in addition to various themes to prepare an impactful project.

PowerPoint also has a zoom feature that your salesforce can use to highlight important points. What’s more, you can see the upcoming slide on your computer or mobile device, which will boost your confidence during presentations. You can also design linear or non-linear paths for your audience to follow and enjoy a level of creativity similar to Prezi.

If you design many animations and 3D objects, you will find it easy to add your own 3D content or import it from the PowerPoint Library. What’s more, the platform is compatible with a long list of toolbars and add-ins.

Usability

You will find PowerPoint easy to use if you have interacted with any other desktop app from Microsoft. Your presentation slides will be on the left side of the screen, with a list of tabs at the top. When designing your project, you can simply drag and drop various elements to position them as needed. In addition, you can embed your presentation on your website or blog or download it as a PDF file.

4. Apple’s Keynote

Apple’s Keynote is native to Mac desktops, and you can therefore not use it on your PC. It comes free with each new MAC and has everything you need to design elegant presentations. What’s more, the platform is compatible with PowerPoint, meaning that you can seamlessly share and edit projects with your colleagues.

Usability

Keynote has a feature-rich and responsive interface that is easy to use. It features a three-panel interface, with an editing middle in the middle, a thumbnail panel at the left, and formatting elements at the right. You will see a group of controls on the editing panel that corresponds with the selected visual element.

PowerPoint users find it hard to create transitions for all of the cells, columns, and rows in a PowerPoint table. In contrast, Keynote makes it effortless to use transitions, although it may be tempting to use too many of its dazzling transitions.

Features

The significant difference between Keynote and other presentation tools is that it has a touch interface that lets users sketch on presentation slides. You can restructure ideas, note down your thoughts on your iPad or iPhone, and switch concepts between slides. As a result, designing your project will be effortless.

When presenting with Keynote, you can display a slideshow on its window and access other software during the presentation. Also, you can view upcoming slides and your presenter notes. Presenters can also play videos and audio continuously across slides without interruption.

Sharing and Collaboration

The ability to save your Keynote presentations on iCloud is a great feature for people with iOS devices. Thanks to this feature, you can take your presentations with you on the go. In addition, you can export your projects as video files to Facebook, YouTube, and other platforms. While Keynote is compatible with PowerPoint, the latter is not compatible with the former. As a result, PowerPoint users may run into some problems when sharing files with Keynote users.

5. Zoho

Zoho show is comparable to PowerPoint as it lets users create slides. However, it features a basic and simpler interface than that of PowerPoint. This platform is online-based with real-time collaboration features and public sharing. Moreover, it supports the export and import of files and is available to iOS and Android users.

Pricing

Zoho Show has a free basic plan for groups of up to 25 users. If you have a larger team, you can explore their premium packages priced at between $4 to $6 per user.

Features

You can select the content blocks on Zoho Show as themes and resize or reposition them. Similarly, you can customize the layout, color, and other design elements of your chosen themes. Moreover, it is easy to animate all transitions and elements. You can embed images, YouTube videos, and even tweets to your presentation.

Zoho Show is one of the best presentation tools to make your project stand out. You can add strokes to text and fill key points with patterns and solid colors.

Final Words

When most people want to create presentations, they will work with the pre-installed software on their computers. In this case, iOS users will tend to Keynote while PC users will utilize PowerPoint. However, other alternatives in the market offer more features to create captivating presentations. For example, Prezi gives users a blank canvas to give life to their concepts. Every presentation software will have its pros and cons, which you can weigh based on your needs.