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Best Keynote or PowerPoint alternatives for Mac

Apple Keynote comes free with any new Mac, which means that it’s likely to be most Mac users’ default choice when it comes to slideshow and presentation software.

That doesn’t mean it’s your only option though. Naturally, you can get Microsoft’s PowerPoint – ideal if you want to collaborate with colleagues on PCs – but there are other alternatives, both free and paid, some with a few features that Keynote and PowerPoint just can’t match.

If this offers some inspiration, we’ve also rounded up our favourite alternatives to Numbers and Pages .

Apple Keynote

How It Works: Like Pages and Numbers , Keynote was revamped for macOS Sierra  and gained a more streamlined interface that makes it easy to quickly add animations and other effects to your presentations.

The key feature here is the Inspector panel that sits on the right-hand side of the main workspace. At the top of the Inspector are the Format and Animate buttons that provide instant access to all the program’s main features.

Click the Format button and the Inspector displays options for changing the format of text and graphics, such as changing the font size and style for text, or adding a reflection effect to a photo on a slide. Click the Animate button and the Inspector switches to display Keynote’s ‘builds’ – the animation effects that you use to move objects on and off slides.

As you select these effects the Inspector automatically previews the effect for you, and also displays a number of additional settings, making it really easy to create slick animation effects in no time at all. Keynote is also available online through iWork, so that you can collaborate with colleagues remotely.

Animations And Effects: Keynote includes about 30 different build animations and 40 transition effects, so you have plenty of options for creating eye-catching presentations. There’s also a special type of animation, called Magic Move, that allows you to move objects from one slide to a new position on the next slide.

Keynote can’t quite match the range of graphs, charts, and diagrams available in Microsoft’s PowerPoint, but it does include a really handy option called ‘interactive charts’ that allows you to animate charts so that they show data changing over a period of time.

Find out more in our full review of Keynote 6.6  – and if you’ve been inspired to stick with the Apple classic, check out our tips to make the most of Keynote .

Microsoft PowerPoint

How it works: The Ribbon interface used by PowerPoint makes it look rather intimidating when compared to the more streamlined Inspector palette of Keynote, but the two programs work in the same basic manner.

When you add text, graphics or other elements to a presentation slide the Animations tab in the Ribbon displays three sets of animation effects. The Entrance and Exit effects correspond to the Build In and Build Out options in Keynote and control how elements move on and off the slide.

There’s also a small set of Emphasis effects that can be used to highlight text and graphics while they are actually displayed on a slide. Click the Transition tab on the Ribbon and you’ll see the various transition effects that can be used to move from one slide to another.

Editing effects can be a little tricky, though, as some settings, such as duration and direction, are located in the ribbon itself, while others are found in a secondary Toolbox palette.

This means that PowerPoint takes a little more effort to master, but once you’ve gotten the hang of things you’ll find that PowerPoint matches Keynote’s range of animation effects, as well as providing more extensive collaboration and sharing features for when you need to work with colleagues.

Animations and effects: PowerPoint provides about 30 Entrance and Exit effects, and a similar number of transition effects for moving between slides. That’s slightly fewer than the number of Builds and transitions in Keynote, but PowerPoint outguns Keynote in other areas.

One very useful option is the Motion Paths tool, which allows you to move objects along lines, loops and curves that you draw on your slides. PowerPoint also provides far more extensive tools for creating graphs and charts than Keynote.

Google Slides

How it works: Google Slides is part of the Google Docs suite of online productivity apps, so you’ll need a reliable Internet connection in order to use it. And, to be honest, the tools that it provides for creating presentation slides are fairly basic, so there isn’t a compelling reason to use Google Slides if you already have Keynote.

But if you’re on the road and don’t have a presentations program immediately available then Google Slides could still be useful for quickly creating a simple presentation, or just preparing a rough outline that you can refine in another program when you get back home.

The basic features that you need are all here, including a selection of templates with different slide layouts and graphical styles. You can quickly add text, graphics and video to your slides, and use some simple drawing tools and mathematical symbols for creating diagrams and illustrations.

One advantage of working online with Google Slides is that it provides some useful options for sharing your presentations with colleagues, along with the ability to add comments while you’re working. You can also publish your presentation on the web, or download it in PowerPoint or PDF format.

Animations and effects: There’s only a small selection of animations and transitions available in Google Slides, mainly consisting of simple fade in/out effects, zooms and wipes.

Adobe Presenter Video Express

How it works: Adobe’s Presenter Video Express is a specialised tool for users in education and training who need to prepare materials for online lectures and e-learning courses. It doesn’t allow you to create slide-based presentations like Keynote or PowerPoint, but is designed to work in conjunction with presentations that you create in those programs.

Presenter Video Express works by recording everything on your computer screen – such as a Keynote presentation, or a demo of a new piece of software – and at the same time it also uses your Mac’s webcam to record you while you provide a commentary on the material in your main presentation.

You can edit the video recording using a simple timeline interface that allows you to display either the application running on the computer screen, your own video image, or a split-screen effect that displays your image alongside the computer screen.

Once you’ve finished editing your video you can upload it to web sites such as YouTube or Vimeo, or use Adobe’s Connect web-conferencing system to host your own online seminars.

The monthly fee could quickly get quite expensive, but that makes it ideal if you need it for a one-off project – especially since there’s a 30-day free trial.

Animations and effects: Video Presenter Express can’t be used to create slide-based presentations, so it doesn’t include any animations or transition effects. Its video-editing tools are also quite basic. You can trim clips, add simple text titles, and use pan and zoom effects for emphasis.

However, the program’s primary feature is its ability to combine recordings of the computer screen and the presenter.

OpenOffice Impress

How it works: Its interface is a bit untidy, but the free OpenOffice Impress provides a very good set of presentation tools. Those tools are scattered about a bit, though, as the presentations module within OpenOffice has a pair of crowded toolbars running across both the top and bottom of the screen, as well as a Properties palette on the right-hand side of the screen that works in a similar fashion to the Inspector panel in Keynote.

In addition to the formatting and animation controls found in Keynote, the Properties palette in OpenOffice also crams in additional tools for working with clip-art, modifying slide layouts, and defining master pages for your presentations.

The range of tools is pretty impressive, though. As well as allowing you to adjust basic text properties such as font size and style, OpenOffice includes precise options for adjusting line-spacing within paragraphs and even modifying the indent at the start of a paragraph.

Animations and effects: There are around 45 Entrance and Exit effects, and 60 transitions available in OpenOffice Impress, along with an automatic preview and a slideshow option that allows you to quickly run through your slides in full-screen mode. OpenOffice also provides an extensive set of Motion Path tools that allow you to create custom animations for your slides.

The chart tools are relatively basic, though, with a relatively modest selection of 2D charts and only a simple 3D perspective option that doesn’t really compare to the eye-candy graphics that you can create in Keynote and PowerPoint.

LibreOffice

How it works: The presentations module in LibreOffice is almost identical to that of OpenOffice – which isn’t surprising, as both of these free office suites spring from the same open-source roots.

LibreOffice has the same rather crowded interface as OpenOffice, with toolbars running across both the top and bottom of your slides, and the multi-tabbed Properties panel sitting on the right-hand side of the screen. The arrangement of tools isn’t identical, but the two programs look very similar and it may take a little while for newcomers to figure out where everything is.

But once you’re up and running, LibreOffice is a very competent presentations tool. The Properties panel provides precise control of features such as text formatting, and you can quickly enhance photos by adjusting brightness, contrast and transparency.

As well as a conventional set of clip-art graphics, LibreOffice also includes a tool called FontWorks that allows you to create attractive headlines with perspective effects or by running text along a path.

We also like the mini-toolbar that allows you to quickly switch between slide view, the outliner mode that lets you to quickly jot down the text for each slide, and the Sorter option that provides a quick overview of all your slides.

Animations and effects: LibreOffice has a slightly larger selection of effects than OpenOffice, with around 50 Entrance and Exit effects, and 70 transitions. There’s also a good selection of motion paths that you can use to create more complex, custom animations.

But, like OpenOffice, it only provides basic tools for creating tables and charts. The Table tool does little more than specify the number of rows and columns, while the Chart tools focus on simple 2D graphics with only simple 3D perspective effects to add variety.

Boinx Fotomagico 5

How it works: At first glance, FotoMagico looks like a conventional video-editing program – in fact, it looks very much like the original version of iMovie, with a horizontal Timeline running along the bottom of the screen where you can assemble video clips, photos and other media files.

However, the Timeline also allows you to insert ‘slides’ that can contain photos, text and other media files in a similar fashion to presentation slides. When you create a slide the program provides a split-screen display that shows Start and Finish versions of each slide. This allows you to create your own animation effects, perhaps by placing a small photo on the Start slide and then zooming in on the photo for the Finish slide.

You can also animate each element on the slide separately, so you could make a line of text fade into view at the same time as zooming on your photo. FotoMagic won’t replace Keynote or PowerPoint for business presentations, but it’s a handy option for home users who want to create slick slideshows and video projects. 

Animations and effects: Fotomagico doesn’t include a set of predefined animation effects comparable to Keynote’s builds, but it does allow you to animate your slides using simple effects such as linear moves, rotation and fades. There are also 20 transition effects that you can use between slides, or when editing video clips.

Presentable

How it works: Presentable isn’t intended to replace conventional presentation programs like Keynote or PowerPoint.

In fact, its tools for working with text and graphics are extremely limited, so most of the time you’ll probably carry on using Keynote or some other program to design your slides, and then occasionally just import those slides into Presentable for specific projects.

But Presentable does have one clever trick up its sleeve that makes it a useful companion to Keynote or other programs. Just type a web address into Presentable and it can create a ‘web slide’ that displays a live web page within a slide.

The web page remains fully functional, so you can click on links to navigate around the web site, or play video clips on sites such as YouTube. You can also crop web pages so that only the main video clips or content that you want to display are shown on the slide.

Admittedly, Presentable is a bit of a one-trick pony but it can be quite useful if you need to include web content in your presentations. We also had one or two problems importing our Keynote and PowerPoint slides into the program, but Presentable is free to download from the Mac App Store so it doesn’t cost you anything to check it out and see how its web slides work.

Animations and effects: Presentable’s one key feature is its ability to include web content within slides, and it doesn’t include any additional tools for creating animations or other effects. But if you feel like showing off it does work with the Leap Motion sensor , which allows you to control your presentation with hand gestures.

The best presentation software in 2024

These powerpoint alternatives go beyond the basics..

The latest presentation apps have made it easier than ever to format slides and create professional-looking slideshows without giving off a "this is a template" vibe. Even standard PowerPoint alternatives have updated key features to make it easier than ever to collaborate and create presentations quickly, so you can spend more time prepping for your actual presentation.

If, like me, you've used Google Slides unquestioningly for years, it's a whole new world out there. The newest crop of online presentation tools go way beyond the classic slideshow experience, with new features to keep your audience's attention, streamline the creation process with AI, and turn slide decks into videos and interactive conversations.

I've been testing these apps for the past few years, and this time, I spent several days tinkering with 25 of the top presentation software solutions out there to bring you the best of the best.

The best presentation software

What makes the best presentation app, how we evaluate and test apps.

When looking for the best presentation apps, I wanted utility players. After all, slideshows are used for just about everything, from pitch decks and product launches to class lectures and church sermons. With that in mind, here's what I was looking for:

Pre-built templates. The best presentation tools should have attractive, professional-looking templates to build presentations in a hurry.

Sharing and collaboration options. Whether you plan to share your webinar slides later, or you just want to collaborate with a coworker on a presentation, it should be easy to share files and collaborate in real-time.

Flexibility and customization options. Templates are great, but top presentation apps should enable you to customize just about everything—giving you the flexibility to build exactly what you need.

Affordability. Creating compelling presentations is important, but you shouldn't have to bust your budget to make it happen. With capable free tools on the market, affordability is a top consideration.

Standalone functionality. There's no reason to use multiple tools when one can do it all, so I didn't test any apps that require and work on top of another presentation app like PowerPoint or Google Slides.

Familiar, deck-based interface. For our purposes here, I only tested software that uses slides, with the familiar deck-based editor you expect from a "presentation" tool (versus, for example, a video creation app).

Beyond that, I also looked for presentation apps that brought something unique to the table—features above and beyond what you can get for free from a legacy solution like PowerPoint or Google Slides.

Here's what my testing workflow looked like:

I went through any onboarding or guided tutorials.

I created a new deck, scanning through all available templates, noting how well-designed they were (and which were free versus paid).

I added new slides, deleted slides, edited text and images, and played around with other content types.

I changed presentation design settings, like color schemes and background images.

I reviewed and tested the sharing and collaboration options.

I tested out presenter view (when available).

After my first round of testing, I went back into the top performers to test any unique or niche features, like AI, brand settings, and interactive content. With that, these are the best presentation apps I found—each one really brings something different or radically easy to the table.

The best presentation software at a glance

The best free presentation software

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Canva pros:

Excellent free plan

Tons of amazing templates for all use cases

Feature-rich

Canva cons:

The AI tools aren't groundbreakingly useful

Canva offers one of the most robust free plans of all the presentation apps I tested. The app delays account creation until after you've created your first design, so you can get started building your presentation in seconds. Choose from an almost overwhelming number of beautiful templates (nearly all available for free), including those designed specifically for education or business use cases.

Anyone who's accidentally scrolled too far and been bumped to the next slide will appreciate Canva's editor interface, which eliminates that problem altogether with a smooth scroll that doesn't jump around. Choose from a handful of preset animations to add life to your presentations, or browse the library of audio and video files available to add. And Canva also has a number of options for sharing your presentation, including adding collaborators to your team, sharing directly to social media, and even via QR code.

Present directly from Canva, and let audience members submit their questions via Canva Live. Once you share a link to invite audience members to your presentation, they can send questions for you to answer. As the presenter, you'll see them pop up in your presenter view window, so you can keep the audience engaged and your presentation clear. Alternatively, record a presentation with a talking head bubble—you can even use an AI presenter here—to share remotely.

Canva pricing: Free plan available; paid plans start at $120/year for 1 user and include additional features like Brand Kit, premium templates and stock assets, and additional AI-powered design tools.

The best presentation app for AI-powered design

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Beautiful.ai pros:

True AI design

No fussing around with alignment

Still allows for customization

Beautiful.ai cons:

No free plan

If you're like me, editing granular spacing issues is the absolute worst part of building a presentation. Beautiful.ai uses artificial intelligence to take a lot of the hassle and granular design requirements out of the presentation process, so you can focus on the content of a presentation without sacrificing professional design. If I needed to make presentations on a regular basis, this is the app I'd use.

Many apps have recently added AI design features, but Beautiful.ai has been doing it for years—and they've perfected the experience of AI design, ensuring the tool's reign as the most streamlined and user-friendly option for AI design.

The editor is a little different from most presentation apps, but it's still intuitive—and you'll start off with a quick two-minute tutorial. When creating a new slide, scroll through "inspiration slides" to find a layout you like; once you choose, the app will pull the layout and automatically adapt it to match the design of the rest of your presentation.

With 10 themes, several templated slides, over 40 fully-designed templates, and more than 20 different color palettes to choose from, Beautiful.ai strikes a perfect balance between automation and customization.

While Beautiful.ai doesn't offer a free plan, paid plans are reasonably priced and offer sharing and collaboration options that rival collab-focused apps like Google Slides. And speaking of Google, you can connect Beautiful.ai with Google Drive to save all your presentations there.

Note: I re-tested the generative AI feature (called DesignerBot) this year. It's great for adding individual slides to an existing presentation—automatically choosing the best layout and matching the design to the rest of the deck—but as with most other apps, it struggled to pull in relevant images.

Beautiful.ai pricing: Plans start at $12/month for unlimited slides, AI content generation, viewer analytics, and more. Upgrade to a Team plan for $40/user/month to get extra collaboration and workspace features and custom brand controls.

The best presentation app for conversational presentations

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Prezi pros:

Doesn't restrict you to standard presentation structure

Lots of customization options

Prezi Video lets you display a presentation right over your webcam video

Prezi cons:

Steep learning curve

Struggling to squeeze information into a basic, linear presentation? Give Prezi a try. Unlike nearly all other presentation apps on the market, Prezi Present doesn't restrict the structure of your presentation to a straight line. The editor focuses on topics and subtopics and allows you to arrange them any way you want, so you can create a more conversational flow of information.

With the structural flexibility, you still get all the same customization features you expect from top presentation software, including fully-editable templates. There's a learning curve if you're unfamiliar with non-linear presentations, but templates offer a great jumping-off point, and Prezi's editor does a good job of making the process more approachable.

Plus, Prezi comes with two other apps: Prezi Design and Prezi Video. Prezi Video helps you take remote presentations to a new level. You can record a video where the presentation elements are displayed right over your webcam feed. Record and save the video to share later, or connect with your video conferencing tool of choice (including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet) to present live.

Prezi's generative AI feature works ok, but it's more useful as a wireframe. When I asked it to create a presentation about the Stanley Cup Playoffs, for example, the resulting content read a lot like a student writing a term paper in the broadest strokes possible to avoid doing any actual research.

The best presentation app for video presentations

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Powtoon pros:

Timing automatically changes based on the content on the slide

Can toggle between slideshow and video

Can orient presentation as horizontal, vertical, or square

Powtoon cons:

Limited free plan

Powtoon makes it easy to create engaging videos by orienting the editor around a slide deck. Editing a Powtoon feels just like editing a presentation, but by the time you finish, you have a professional video. 

You can edit your slides at any time, and when you hit play, a video plays through your deck—the feel is almost like an animated explainer video. Each slide includes the animations you choose and takes up as much time as is needed based on the content on the slide. Powtoon figures the timing automatically, and you can see in the bottom-right of the editor how much time is used on your current slide versus the total presentation. If you ever want to present as a slide deck, just toggle between Slideshow and Movie.

You'll likely need to subscribe to a paid plan to get the most out of Powtoon—like creating videos longer than three minutes, downloading them as MP4 files, and white-labeling your presentations—but doing so won't break the bank. Plus, you'll unlock tons of templates complete with animations and soundtracks.

One of my favorite Powtoon features is the ability to orient your video: you can choose horizontal orientation (like a normal presentation) or opt for vertical (for mobile) or square (for social media). When your presentation is ready, you can publish straight to YouTube, Wistia, Facebook Ads, and any number of other locations.

The best presentation app for collaborating with your team

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Pitch pros:

Google levels of collaboration

Assign slides to specific team members

Excellent generative AI feature

Pitch cons:

User interface is a little different than you're used to

Need to collaborate on presentations with your team? Pitch is a Google Slides alternative that gets the job done. As far as decks go, Pitch includes all the beautifully-designed templates, customizability, and ease of use you expect from a top-notch presentation tool. But the app really shines when you add your team.

The right-hand sidebar is all about project management and collaboration: you can set and update the status of your deck, assign entire presentations or individual slides to team members, plus comment or add notes. Save custom templates to make future presentations even easier and faster.

You can also invite collaborators from outside your company to work with you on individual decks. And if you opt for a paid plan, Pitch introduces workspace roles, shared private folders, and version history.

Pitch also offers one of the most impressive generative AI features on this list. It still struggles to pull in relevant images, but I found the AI-generated written content and design to be top-notch.

The best presentation app for conversational AI

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Gamma pros:

Creates fully fleshed-out presentations from a prompt

Conversational chatbot-like experience

Can still manually edit the presentation

Gamma cons:

Not as much granular customization

I tested a lot of apps claiming to use AI to up your presentation game, and Gamma's conversational AI features were head and shoulders above the crowd.

Simply give the app a topic—or upload an outline, notes, or any other document or article—approve the outline, and pick a theme. The app will take it from there and create a fully fleshed-out presentation. It's far from perfect, but Gamma produces a very useful jumping-off point. (Last year, it was by far the best, but this year, other apps are catching up.)

Here's the key: Gamma is much more geared toward the iterative, chatbot experience familiar to ChatGPT users. Click on the Edit with AI button at the top of the right-hand menu to open the chat, and you'll see suggested prompts—or you can type in your own requests for how Gamma should alter the presentation.

Once you've done all you can with prompts, simply close the chat box to manually add the finishing touches. While you do sacrifice some granular customizability in exchange for the AI features, you can still choose your visual theme, change slide layouts, format text, and add any images, videos, or even app and web content.

The best presentation app for audience engagement

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Mentimeter pros:

Tons of audience engagement features

Simple for participants to interact

Mentimeter cons:

Less granular customizability

Bit of a learning curve

If you need to engage with an audience during your presentation, Mentimeter makes that easy. The app is designed around interactive elements like quizzes, surveys, Q&As, sliders, and more (even a Miro whiteboard!).

Each of these is included in a number of different, professional-looking templates, so you can build a fully interactive presentation super quickly.

When it's time to present, your audience members can scan the QR code with their phone cameras or type in the URL and access code to participate. There's one code per presentation (so they won't have to do this on every slide), which gives access to each slide as you move through the presentation.

There are two main drawbacks to this one, though. First, there's a bit of a learning curve and less familiar editing interface (but I found it pretty easy to learn with some practice). The other drawback is that you can't get as granular with the visual customization as you can with many other presentation tools.

The best presentation app for generative AI

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Top-tier generative AI features

Simple, customizable templates

Intuitive doc-style editor

There's definitely a learning curve

Tome is one of the new additions to this list that I'm most excited about. If you're looking for generative AI that just genuinely works , it's definitely worth a look. The editor is a bit more stripped down than most presentation apps but intuitive nonetheless—it's almost a cross between your standard deck editor and a Notion-style doc.

To generate an AI deck, click Generate with AI in the top right, and either write your own prompt or choose from the example prompts that cover a handful of common use cases, like sales enablement and company pitches. Edit or approve the suggested outline, then generate the full presentation.

From there, you can edit each slide as a doc via the right-hand menu—without limits on how much information you can include. During the presentation, you simply size down any slides that take up more than the standard amount of space. It's super simple but somehow feels revolutionary in a presentation app.

What about the old standbys?

You might notice a few major presentation players aren't on this list, including OGs Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, and Google Slides. These apps are perfectly adequate for creating basic presentations, and they're free if you have a Windows or Mac device or a Google account.

I didn't include them on the list because the presentation space has really developed in the last several years, and after testing them out, I found these behemoths haven't kept pace. If they weren't made by Microsoft/Apple/Google, I might not even be mentioning them. They're pretty basic tools, they're behind the curve when it comes to templates (both quantity and design), and they don't offer any uniquely valuable features like robust team collaboration, branding controls, video, and so on.

In any case, if you're reading this, you're probably looking for an alternative that allows you to move away from one of the big 3, and as the presentation platforms featured above show, there's a ton to gain—in terms of features, usability, and more—when you do.

What about PowerPoint and Google Slides add-ons?

While I focused my testing on tools with full feature-sets—those that can serve as your sole presentation tool—there are a ton of add-on tools you can use atop big name tools like PowerPoint and Google Slides.

Related reading:

This post was originally published in October 2014 and has since been updated with contributions from Danny Schreiber, Matthew Guay, Andrew Kunesh, and Krystina Martinez. The most recent update was in April 2024.

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Kiera Abbamonte

Kiera’s a content writer who helps SaaS and eCommerce companies connect with customers and reach new audiences. Located in Boston, MA, she loves cinnamon coffee and a good baseball game. Catch up with her on Twitter @Kieraabbamonte.

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15 Popular PowerPoint Alternatives (Full Comparison Guide)

PowerPoint is by far the most popular software for creating and sharing presentations, but it is not the only one!

In this article, we’ll go through the different PowerPoint alternatives you have and the pros and cons of each . Each one of these presentation software options has its own suitable features that will help you create outstanding slides.

In 24Slides, we’re experts at presentations . We know that when talking about slides, PowerPoint is only the tip of the iceberg. That’s why we’ve picked the 15 most popular PowerPoint alternatives that you can use to create outstanding presentations . We’ll go in-depth into each one, covering their price, their options for team collaboration, and if they can be used both online and offline.

Here are the alternative presentation software we’ll go through:

#2. Google Slides

#3. Apple Keynote

#4. Renderforest

#6. Powtoon

#7. Piktochart

#8. Beautiful.ai

#11. Microsoft Sway

#12. DigiDeck

#13. ZohoShow

#15. Haiku Deck

There are so many PowerPoint alternatives that picking one can be a bit tricky. In the end, the best presentation software is the one that fits your needs the most. That’s why we’ve added a ‘best for…’ section at the end of the article.

Hopefully, this will help you decide which PowerPoint alternative is best for your business and more likely to fulfill your goals to keep your audience interested and engaged. Keep reading to the end to find:

- The best free PowerPoint alternative

- The best PowerPoint alternative for enterprises

- The best presentation software for team collaboration

- The best PowerPoint alternative for e-learning and training

- The best PowerPoint alternative for small businesses

Hopefully, this will not only get you a complete overview of the different PowerPoint alternatives you can use, but it will also help you decide which one is the best presentation software for you!

What is the Best PowerPoint Alternative?

Not every PowerPoint alternative is built the same! While some of the presentation software on this list are very similar to Microsoft Office’s options, many have completely different features and work options.

That’s why to figure out which is the best for your business, you’ll need to compare them. In this section, we’ll go through each PowerPoint alternative’s main features, like template options, design elements library, collaboration features, mobile apps, and so on. We’ll also cover

-Presentation software pricing

-Pros and cons of each PowerPoint alternative

-What each presentation design tool is best suited for

When talking about PowerPoint alternatives, Prezi is one of the most popular ones. This presentation software became known for its non-linear layouts and unique take on presentations.

Unlike PowerPoint and many other alternative presentation software we’ll go through in this list, Prezi doesn’t use presentation slides. Instead, it works with a “canvas,” where the presenter can zoom in and out.

This makes Prezi presentations feel more fluid and “free-form” than your typical presentation.

One of the best features of this PowerPoint alternative is that it allows free plans and work online. However, it’s important to note that presentations created through free plans are public and can’t be saved as private , which can be a deal breaker for people working on presentations with sensitive information.

Main features :

• Cloud and desktop app access
• Images and templates library
• Zoom, Google Meets, and Microsoft Team integrations for virtual presentations
• Prezi Video puts presenters next to their graphics in real-time
• Freemium (up to 5 projects)
• Individual prices begin at $9/mo. (billed annually)
• Enterprise solutions begin at $15/mo. (billed annually)
• Non-linear, unique layouts
• SOC2 Security for paid plans
• Offline access with the desktop app
• Free presentations are public
• Steep learning curve
• Can cause motion sickness in audiences unfamiliar with it

Best for : Storytelling and conversational-oriented presentations

2. Google Slides

If you’re looking for a quick and easy alternative to PowerPoint, then Google Slides is the one for you.

It has all the basic features you’d find in PowerPoint, with the added bonus of real-time collaboration options. And the best part, you will only need a Google Account to have immediate access to it.

Not only that, PowerPoint presentations are easy to convert to and from Google Slides. This means that you can use the vast array of presentation templates for PowerPoint, which is a huge bonus compared to other presentation software alternatives in this list.

While it offers business plans for higher storage capacity, most users will find the free plan of 15GB is more than enough and offers all the main features for creating presentations.

• Real-time collaboration
• Cloud-based
• Google Workspace complete integration, including Google Meets for virtual presentations

Price : Free!

• Completely free with a Google Account
• Easy to convert to and from PowerPoint
• SOC Certified
• Limited animations and transitions compared to PowerPoint, only for traditional presentation slides.

Best for : Team collaboration and traditional presentation slides

3. Apple Keynote

For Mac users, Apple Keynote is this developer’s alternative to PowerPoint. And just like PowerPoint, it allows you to create impactful presentations to bring your ideas to life.

One of its main advantages is its user-friendly interface, which makes it easy and intuitive to use. However, this also means that many features available on other presentation software are not part of Keynote.

• Available for all Apple devices
• Touch interface available for iPad working
• Integrated library of photos, videos, music, and charts
• Intuitive and less cluttered workspace, user-friendly interface
• Similar customization options as PowerPoint
• Not available for non-Mac Users
• Limited compatibility when exporting documents to and from PowerPoint

Best for : Mac Users

4. Renderforest

If you’re looking for a PowerPoint alternative to make non-traditional presentations, then you might want to check out Renderforest. This online design platform allows you to create complex videos and slideshows with just a few clicks.

You can use Renderforest to create unique presentations with seamless transitions and animations for a video-like feel.

You can try Renderforest for free but take into account that if you really want to use it as a recurrent tool for your presentations, acquiring a paid plan is a must. This will give you access to the full template catalog and advanced editing tools.

• Animation toolkits
• Templates and scenes library for easy use
• Freemium (up to 500MB)
• Lite $9.99/mo. (billed annually)
• Pro $15.99/mo (billed annually)
• Professional animations with a seamless “video” feel
• Easy to use pre-made building blocks
• Limited library of resources
• Limited customization of templates
• Full use requires a paid account

Best for : Video-like, seamless presentations

If you’re looking for a PowerPoint alternative to help you make the most without being a professional designer, check out Visme ! It is a self-appointed all-in-one content creation tool for non-designers.

As such, you can use Visme to create infographics, mockups, social media graphics, and of course, presentations. Visme also allows you to share your content with your team and collaborate with other people.

• Graphs, charts, and data widgets
• Social Media scheduling integration
• Workspace for team collaboration
• Font pairs and design toolkits
• “Presenter studio” to record yourself
• Freemium (up to 100MB)
• Personal $12.25/mo. (billed annually)
• Enterprise $24.75/mo. (billed annually)
• App integrations for Social Media
• Easy import and export from PowerPoint
• Easy and user-friendly
• Most templates are just for premium accounts
• Free download in just one format

Best for : Wide range of design tasks

Looking for a unique PowerPoint alternative that gives your presentations that seamless feel? Then Powtoon will help you create eye-catching presentations for your brand!

It’s an excellent option for those looking for animated characters, as you can customize them to fit your audience and brand identity. It also offers a wide library of stock photos, music, and other design elements. Its templates make Powtoon easy to use, even for those with no previous experience.

However, just like other PowerPoint alternatives in this list, if you really want to make the most out of this tool, then a paid plan is a must.

• Customizable cartoon characters
• Brand identity tool-kits
• Convert PowerPoint to video with the Office add-in
• ISO Certified Cloud security
• Several social media and apps integrations
• Freemium (up to 2GB)
• Pro starting at $20/mo. (billed annually)
• Agency starting at $40/mo. (billed annually)
• Dynamic, video-like presentations
• Full customization options
• Needs a premium account to make the most out of it
• Videos made with free plans have Powtoon watermark

Best for : Educational presentations

7. Piktochart

Similarly to Visme, Piktochart is an online design platform for non-designers. You can use it to create all types of graphic content, like cards, brochures, infographics, and of course, presentations.

It offers a wide range of tools to create graphs and charts, making it ideal for reports and data-oriented products. You can also choose to download your presentations in PowerPoint format or present them online directly through the platform.

While some of the advanced brand features are exclusively for paid plans, this PowerPoint alternative’s free plan can be a great pick for those on a budget. Most features are still available for free, and you don’t need to worry about watermarks even without a Pro plan.

• Export graphs and charts from Excel and Google Sheets
• Cloud-based work
• Template library
• “Brand Assets” ($) for automatically updating brand guidelines
• Team collaboration and project organization in folders
• Pro starting at $14/mo. (billed annually)
• Smart and customizable charts and maps
• Traffic and views tools for all accounts
• Download in .ppt format or present online
• Color scheme customization only for paid plans

Best for : Infographics and data showcasing

8. Beautiful.ai

Looking for the most efficient way to create presentations? Beautiful.ai is a Powerpoint alternative that uses AI technology to generate professional presentation slides according to your needs automatically.

Its main selling point is to limit the time you spend creating presentations. That’s why it offers a library of smart templates and automatic brand guidelines to make your design experience more efficient.

And, if you’re willing to invest in it, the team plans really offer the most out of Beautiful.ai features.

• Brand guidelines for team plans
• Wide library of smart templates
• DesignerBot
• Pro $12/mo. (billed annually)
• Team $40/mo. (billed annually)
• $45 for single projects
• Custom price for enterprise solutions
• Great report-oriented templates: charts and data
• PowerPoint + Google Slides integration
• Lots of customization options
• No freemium options
• Most features are best for Team Plans and above

Best for : Business reports, low-effort beautiful professional presentations.

On the other hand, are you looking for a powerful design tool? If you’re missing a PowerPoint alternative that focuses on design features, Emaze’s HTML5 editor allows you to customize even the smallest details of your presentations.

Emaze also offers advanced features concerning analytics, so you can track your results and improve conversion rates.

All paid plans include questionnaires, collaboration options, and importing to and from PowerPoint and pdf documents.

Its freemium plan is an excellent option for trying out all the different features it offers, but take into consideration that presentations created with this plan come with a watermark.

• E-learning questionaries
• Analytics options
• Remote presenting options
• HTML5 Editor
• Pro $13/mo (billed annually) (30 projects)
• Executive $40/mo. (billed annually)
• Business $125/mo. (billed annually)
• Amazing customization options
• Powerful design tools
• Advanced analytics
• Making the most out of it requires a steep learning curve
• Branding tools are available just for Executive plans and above

Best for : Business and professional presentations

Vyond, previously known as GoAnimate, is a PowerPoint alternative that will help you create video-like content for your presentations.

Similarly to Powtoon, Vyong allows you to animate cartoon characters to convey your information in a more dynamic way. It offers 3 visual styles, Contemporary, Business Friendly, and Whiteboard, so you can pick which one fits your brand the best. And even better, you can sync the characters’ lips to match your message, making it look seamless and more professional.

Vyond enterprise-level security makes it a perfect fit for companies that are looking for a reliable and secure option to create videos and presentations on the cloud.

• Enterprise level security
• Unique, dynamic videos
• Animated characters in 3 different styles
• Essential $25 /mo. (billed annually) (with logo)
• Premium $54/mo. (billed annually)
• Professional $92/mo. (billed annually)
• Enterprise-level security
• Character customization and lipsync
• Detailed animation options
• All projects are watermarked unless Premium or above
• Collaboration options are only available for Professional plans and above

Best for : Online training and learning

11. Microsoft Sway

If you think Microsoft's only option for presentation is PowerPoint, then think twice! Microsoft Sway is great for creating interactive presentations and reports, as it works wonders for content that doesn’t have a live presenter guiding it.

This makes it ideal for creating websites, bulletins, infographics, all overall anything where you‘d need to convey information in a visually appealing way.

And, Sway is completely free for anyone with a Microsoft Account!

However, one big drawback is that its workflow is very different from PowerPoint and other presentation software from this list. If you’re used to this kind of workspace, learning to use Microsoft Sway can feel overwhelming.

• Interactive elements
• Different visualization options than PowerPoint
• Microsoft Office integrations
• Steep learning curve - different work model than PowerPoint

Best for : Interactive presentations, bulletins, and infographics

12. DigiDeck

For a PowerPoint alternative that is 100% focused on your sales team’s presentations, then DigiDeck has no match.

It offers advanced analytics so you can track how your clients interact with your content and optimize your results. You can get real-time alerts when your presentations are being viewed so your sales team can use it as a lead opportunity. And it offers integrations with Salesforce and other CRM tools.

And, of course, it also enables you to customize your presentation in order to showcase your information in the most visually appealing way possible.

Since DigiDeck is a product aimed at enterprise-level customers, you must request a demo to understand how DigiDeck can help you and your business. They will give you a custom quote as well as help you develop your perfect enterprise solution.

• CRM integrations
• Data Analytics + real-time alerts for sales reps

Price : Custom quote

• SOC2 Certified
• Limited number of users
• Need to provide your own photos and graphics to make the most out of the templates

Best for : Sales-oriented design products

13. ZohoShow

Looking for a free alternative to PowerPoint? ZohoShow is a completely free online platform for presentation slides!

Just like Google Slides, ZohoShow is a cloud-based presentation software with a very similar workspace to PowerPoint. Its minimalistic layout and user-friendly interface make it perfect for non-designers.

ZohoShow also offers different apps for you to both work and present on your mobile devices. This makes it perfect to work on a tablet or to present on a Smart TV. It also features a wide array of integrations with other apps, like Google Workspace or Slack!

• Mobile app for working and presenting
• PowerPoint integration
• Chrome extension + mobile apps
• Real-time collaboration for teams
• Limited animations and transitions

Best for : Presentation slides on a budget

For a versatile PowerPoint alternative that can cover different design needs beyond presentations, Canva is worth checking out.

Canva’s design center allows you to create logos, flyers, banners, cards, and much, much more. Its library offers thousands of templates to pick from and to make your design process more efficient.

While you can use it freely, to truly make the most out of its collaboration and design tools, a paid plan is a must. This will allow you complete access to their resources and make teamwork much easier.

Canva also features mobile apps for both Mac and Android, so you have access to your designs whenever you need them.

• Real-time collaboration ($)
• Wide library of visual resources and templates
• Brand kits ($)
• Freemium (limited storage)
• Pro $12.99/mo. (billed annually)
• Teams $14.99/mo. (billed annually) (for the first 5 people)
• Wide array of templates
• Easy drag-and-drop interface
• Desktop apps: online and offline modes
• Best features are limited to premium plans

Best for : Versatile design tasks

15. Haiku Deck

If you’re looking for a user-friendly PowerPoint alternative, Haiku Deck might be the one for you. It allows you to create beautiful presentations with its huge library of photos and design elements.

Its interface is also pretty user-friendly, making it a great option to use for those who are not experienced in presentation design. And all their tools are focused on presentations’ best practices from experts, so you can rest assured that your message is being conveyed in the best way possible.

While Haiku Deck doesn’t offer a Freemium plan, you still have the option to try it out to see if it is the presentation software for you. You can register for the Basic plan to create your first free presentation. Just be aware that you’ll need to register after that and that you’ll not be able to download it.

Main features:

• Privacy controls
• Custom branding
• Analytics (only for Premium)
• Cloud-based workspace
• Pro $9.99/mo. (billed annually)
• Premium $29.99/mo. (billed annually)
• Big royalty-free photo library
• Easy export and import from PowerPoint and Keynote
• Simple and user-friendly
• No freemium option
• Limited customization options

Best for: Creative presentations for non-designers

Choosing the Most Suitable PowerPoint Alternative for You

When talking about the best possible alternative to PowerPoint, it all comes down to what you’re looking for. While each of the presentation software we’ve presented in this article has its pros and cons, some might work better than others depending on the use you’re planning to give them.

The best free PowerPoint alternative

If you’re looking for a free presentation software that can do pretty much the same thing as PowerPoint, then Google Slides is definitely the best !

Google Slides workspace is pretty similar to PowerPoint, making it easy to work with for those who are already familiar with this type of software. It also has the added bonus that you only need a free Google account to gain access to it and, of course, full integration with other Google Workspace software.

Some PowerPoint features, like complex animations, for example, might not be available for Google Slides. However, other features like real-time collaboration compensate for it.

Another option for a free PowerPoint alternative is ZohoShow . Its mobile apps will allow you to create and edit your slides on the go with pretty much the same design options as PowerPoint.

The best PowerPoint alternative for enterprises

When talking about PowerPoint alternatives for enterprises, you should look for software that truly elevates your presentations and offers the most with their paid plans.

Beautiful.ai is a great option for enterprises looking for presentation software options . Its AI doesn't only help you design outstanding presentation slides, but its smart tools will help you create more presentations in a more efficient way.

If your focus is sales-oriented content, then you can’t go wrong with DigiDeck . Its advanced analytics and integration with CRM tools make it the perfect option for sales presentations.

The best presentation software for team collaboration

If you need a PowerPoint alternative that will allow different people to work together on a single project, you also have several good options.

Google Slides' real-time collaboration can work wonders for teams that need to go back and forth on the same document. Its free plan allows you to add several different collaborators to your workspace, which is also a plus.

Visme’s collaboration workspace is also worth checking out, as its organization and commentator options can be a huge asset for teams that need to work together on a single document.

The best PowerPoint alternative for e-learning and training

When talking about presentations for e-learning and online training, making them dynamic and didactic is key. That’s why some of the best presentation software alternatives for educational purposes are Powtoon and Vyond.

Powtoon offers a wide array of customization options for its animated characters, making it easy to develop your brand voice and identity. And Vyond’s character lipsync feature will help you make your presentations and video feel more seamless.

If you’re looking for an e-learning PowerPoint alternative, you might also want to check out Emaze . It features options to add questionnaires and exams to your presentations!

The best PowerPoint alternative for small businesses

For small businesses looking for PowerPoint alternatives for their presentations, it might be useful to hire software that also offers them a wide array of design options beyond just slides. That’s why Piktochart or Canva can be great presentation design options for small businesses .

Their both offer a template library that can be used for a whole range of design tasks. And their paid plans feature brand options that will help small businesses create a sense of unity between their different visual channels.

Hopefully, this PowerPoint alternative list will have offered you a good option for your presentation design!

However, there’s one thing they all have in common: whichever option you pick, you will still have to invest time and effort in creating presentation slides. So why not forget all about presentation design? 24Slides can take this time off your hands while you focus on more important tasks. Just sit back and relax while our professional presentation designers do all the heavy lifting and convert your slides into a true work of art!

Create professional presentations online

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The 8 Best Free PowerPoint Alternatives

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Microsoft PowerPoint is a great tool for creating professional-looking slideshows and presentations. However, the home version requires a Microsoft 365 subscription, and the free mobile app locks some features behind the sub as well. Fortunately, there are plenty of free PowerPoint software alternatives out there. Here's a look at some of the best options and how they compare to PowerPoint. 

Best Direct PowerPoint Replacement: Google Slides

Very similar to PowerPoint.

Free to use. 

Compatible with PowerPoint.

An internet connection is strongly recommended. 

Where there's a need for an app, Google seems to have it covered. Google Slides is its PowerPoint equivalent and it's a lot like Microsoft's app. Very simple to use and offering full compatible with the alternative, you can access Google Slides via your browser and easily create custom presentations with audio and your own images, all entirely for free. It also offers great live collaboration features for teamwork purposes.

The only minor downside is you need an internet connection to at least get started but the service does also work offline with presentations syncing once you're back online.

Best for Designers: Prezi

Video editing included.

Can easily make data visualizations. 

Stylish user interface.

Free option is pretty basic.

No support.

Presentations viewable by all.

Prezi is a great option for designers who have a vision but aren't technically proficient at achieving it. Its simple drag and drop interface makes it a breeze to organize your presentation just how you want it. Backed up with other Prezi apps that mean you can create videos or more stylish data visualizations than simple graphs, it's ideal for industries that are more visual than others. A series of pre-made templates makes it all the more attractive. 

Prezi isn't as free as it seems though. To get the full wealth of features like advanced image editing, offline access, and narration, you'll need to pay a subscription fee.

Best for Quick Results: Zoho Show

A theme for every occasion.

Quick to create something.

Intuitive interface.

Need to be online to use it.

Simple to use yet highly effective is the sweet spot for quick results, and that's certainly the case with Zoho Show. You might need to be online to use it, but it's worth the connection with an intuitive user interface that adapts to what you need to do. You can easily embed videos, tweets, and images into your presentations with some neat transition effects making things more interesting. 

Collaboration tools further sweeten the deal with annotation features meaning you can work together well as a team and fast.

Best for Animations: Powtoon

Great animation tools.

Easy to use.

Can export to social media platforms.

Branding applied on free presentations.

More about animations than slideshows. 

PowToon tackles PowerPoint presentations from a slightly different angle than a lot of its competitors. It's primarily great for creating full animations and videos rather than presentations that you would click through and present yourself. That lends itself perfectly to the internet which is why it's so useful that you can export your presentations to various forms of social media. 

With a drag and drop template, you can create something within about 20 minutes from your browser. The free version bundles in branding logos so viewers will always know you've used PowToon to create them but that's a small price to pay for an otherwise very accessible and simple to use piece of software. 

Best for Mass Branding: Renderforest

Plenty of options for expanding branding.

300MB cloud storage for free.

Unlimited exports.

Exports can be low in quality.

Content is watermarked.

RenderForest thinks of itself as more than just a PowerPoint alternative. It tackles everything you might need from creating logos to designing promo videos, music visualizations, landing pages, and websites. That's on top of its extensive animations and intro creation. That might sound intimidating but the service keeps things simple, so it won't take you long to mock something up and develop it.

Stick to the free version and there are some restrictions such as branding on your videos, lower quality logos, and so forth, but it's a solid start for an otherwise entirely free service. In particular, if you just need to concoct a quick 3-minute video for a presentation, RenderForest has you covered.

Best for Non-Designers: Visme

Plenty of templates to choose from.

Can set up five projects at once.

Charts and widgets support.

Limited cloud storage.

Visme branding on free plan.

Been asked to make a presentation and you don't know where to start? Visme is perfect for those that aren't well versed with graphics as it offers an extensive template library. The free plan limits your options a little but there are still some decent choices here. In addition, the service provides cool ways to make stats and data look exciting thanks to chart and widget support. It's all done through a simple drag and drop interface too that makes it super simple to add video and embed other content. 

Just bear in mind that storage options are a little limited and everything on the free plan will contain Visme branding. 

Best for Office Replacement: LibreOffice Impress

Full program rather than browser-based.

Extensive support. 

Similar experience to Microsoft Office.

Requires installation. 

Not quite as intuitive as alternatives.

LibreOffice is a popular free alternative to Microsoft Office, so it makes sense to use LibreOffice Impress if you want the closest experience to Microsoft's package. Unlike most of the others here, you need to install LibreOffice on your PC or Mac which means it's no good for Chromebooks or moving between different systems. However, in exchange, you get an intuitive experience that makes it simple to create slideshows, whether you're handing them out to a class or conference afterwards, or simply projecting them on screen. 

Bear in mind you have to seek out templates yourself though which may be off-putting for the least technically minded user out there. 

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Best for Apple Users: Keynote

Simple to use. 

Apple Pencil support. 

Cloud based as well as app based.

App is only on Apple devices.

Keynote is Apple's direct competitor to Microsoft PowerPoint and it's a great alternative, especially if you're a Mac user. With app support for iOS and Mac, it takes seconds to get started. Alternatively, PC users can use Keynote via the iCloud website and easily work across multiple devices. 

One of the best features is the ability to use the Apple Pencil on an iPad to create diagrams or illustrations making it great for skilled artists. As well as that, Apple provides plenty of convenient templates for personal and professional projects. 

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Top 12 PowerPoint Alternatives Compared

Written by: Orana Velarde

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 .

Best PowerPoint Alternatives for Beautiful Presentations

• Google Slides
• Beautiful.ai
• Microsoft Sway
• The top 12 PowerPoint alternatives are Visme, Prezi, Keynote, Slides, Slidebean, Zoho Show, Google Slides, Canva, Beautiful.ai, and Microsoft Sway.
• Visme is the ultimate alternative to PowerPoint that gives you complete control over your presentation's design, layout and message flow.
• Access 500+ presentation templates and customize them using advanced tools like presenter studio, presenter notes, charts and graphs, animations, and more.
• Import and edit your old PPT files and export your presentations in various formats, including PPT, PDF, HTML5, and even video.
• Use Visme's newly launched AI Image Generator to create digital art, icons, illustrations, images and any graphic you want for your presentations.
• Sign-up for Visme's free online presentation design tool and create professional-looking presentations that will mesmerize your audience.

What Makes a Great PowerPoint Alternative?

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?

Absolutely not.

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:

• The ability to import existing PowerPoints so you don't have to recreate all your old presentations
• Animation and transition capabilities for dynamic slides
• In-app graphics, shapes, lines and other assets to design your slides with
• A library of unique templates to easily customize with your information
• Online and offline presenting
• Data visualization tools for making data and information easier to understand
• Collaboration features so your team can work together

Keep these features in mind as you go through our list below to try and find the best PowerPoint alternative for your business.

Top 12 PowerPoint Alternatives

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.

• AI presentation tool : Put together any type of presentation in seconds. Just enter your prompt and select a style and the tool will generate text, images and icons for your presentation.
• Color dropper tool: Change colors of fonts, icons, illustrations, shapes, background and almost anything. Choose from the color presets, use the color wheel, copy-paste the HEX code and even choose a color from an image.
• Publish and share anywhere: Share via URL or embed into a blog post or web page.
• Manage privacy: Control who can see your projects or password-protect them.
• Present offline: Download presentations as images, PDFs, editable PPTX or HTML5.
• Add animation and interactivity to any element: Animate any object you want in your presentation, including text, shapes, charts and tables. Insert call-to-action buttons, videos, surveys, quizzes, etc.
• Customize transitions: Incorporate seamless transitions from slide to slide.
• Extensive font library: Choose from hundreds of fonts and font pairs that make your presentation engaging and easily readable.
• Access third-party integrations: Add forms, videos, analytics and more with the integration of YouTube, Vimeo, JotForm, Google Analytics and many others.
• Take advantage of the slide library: Quickly search for the exact slides you need from an extensive library of professionally designed slides and templates.
• Analytics: Monitor the performance of your presentations when shared online by tracking the views, unique visitors, average time, average completion, name of the visitors and more.
• Data Visualization: Visualize any type of data using 30+ data widgets in 2D and 3D formats, such as radial gauges, progress bars, clocks, population gauges and more. For larger sets of data, choose from 20+ types of charts and graphs , such as pie charts, bar graphs, radar charts, flowcharts and more. You can also integrate live data into your charts and graphs and add interactivity to them for advanced data visualization. 
• Presenter notes : Stay on message by adding speaking notes to your presentation before you go live.
• Presenter studio: Present asynchronously by recording your presentation and sharing it with your team. The Presenter Studio is a built-in presentation recording software in Visme that allows you to record yourself presenting and sending it to your audience.  You can turn on your webcam for video or turn it off to record your voice-over audio to add to your presentation. Easily re-record or start recording from wherever you left off and always stay organized with the help of the presenter notes.
• HTML5-based: Runs on any browser and device.
• PowerPoint import/export: Import existing PowerPoint presentations to edit and improve then export to present offline.
• Work as a team: Leave comments for improvements, collaborate in real time and share with your team.
• Endless design elements: Searchable libraries with millions of images, high-quality vector icons, 3D graphics, animated illustrations and more.
• Pre-made content blocks: Create visual slides quickly using drag-and-drop content blocks with visual stats, maps, figures and pictograms.
• 3D character creator: Visme also comes with a 3D character creator that lets you design animated characters with various body types, hairstyles and facial expressions. You can customize them with entry, waiting, and exit poses to further enhance the creative possibilities for your projects.
• AI image generator: Create images, art, 3D objects, icons, and abstracts just by typing on your keyboard.
• AI Design Generator: Visme's AI Design Generator allows you to create engaging visuals, including infographics, presentations and reports, within minutes. Input text prompts to explain your requirements and select your preferred style. The tool will then generate visuals for you, complete with text, images, icons and other design elements.
• Dynamic fields: Personalize and automate content by dynamically inserting variable data, such as names, numbers, addresses and more, streamlining the creation of customized visuals.

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.

Other reviews:   Huffington Post,   ClearVoice,   Crazy Egg

Hey marketers! Need to create scroll-stopping visual content fast?

• Transform your visual content with Visme’s easy-to-use content creation platform
• Produce beautiful, effective marketing content quickly even without an extensive design skillset
• Inspire your sales team to create their own content with branded templates for easy customization

Sign up. It’s free.

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.

• View and edit your presentations from any device.
• Store all your presentations in the cloud.
• Share and collaborate with others.
• Download for offline use.
• Use advanced image editing tools.
• Manage privacy.

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.

Other reviews:   SmallBizTrends, PCMag.com , PC World

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.

• Access more than 30 cinematic effects for text and objects.
• Make interactive and animated charts.
• View and edit your presentations from an iPad or iPhone.
• Easily share and collaborate.
• Access more than 30 polished templates and designs.
• Import and edit PowerPoint files.
• Save Keynote presentations as PowerPoint files.
• Use on iPad Pro with Apple Pencil.

Price: Free for all Mac computers.

Pros: Compatible with PowerPoint.

Cons: Desktop software, not online-based; no slide library.

Ideal for: Mac owners.

Other reviews: PCMag.com , Macworld

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.

• Edit and access presentations from any device.
• Present offline.
• Access to analytics.
• Access to revision history.
• Display math formulas.
• Define your own theme with a custom CSS editor.
• Add GIFs from Giphy and images from Unsplash.
• Lots of Team features like branded templates and user management.

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.

Other reviews: TechCrunch, SitePoint

5. Slidebean

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.

• Ready-to-use content templates for different purposes (marketing, business, startups).
• Search and insert curated images or GIFs from Unsplash and Giphy within the software.
• Access to thousands of flat icons.
• Import CSV data to create charts.
• Use the chat feature to communicate with others.
• Browse curated color palettes.
• Access viewers’ actions for each presentation.

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.

Other reviews:   PresentationPanda , TechCrunch , The Next Web

6. Zoho Show

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.

• Apply eye-catching animations and transitions.
• Embed live tweets, YouTube videos, and Flickr images.
• Use charts for visualizing data.
• Publish your presentations on websites and blogs.
• Import multiple file types, including .ppt, .pptx, .pps, .ppsx, .odp and .sxi.
• Use collaborative tools to allow others to edit and comment on your content.
• Broadcast your presentation from anywhere on any device.

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

7. Google Slides

Google Slides is the most 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.

• All work is saved automatically on the Google servers.
• An entire presentation can be changed as a whole with the color and theme picker.
• Collaborate in real-time with team members.
• Open PowerPoint slides and export finished presentations as PowerPoint files.
• Plenty of templates and themes to choose from.
• Helps users concentrate on the actual slides without frills.

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.

Other reviews: ConsumersAdvocate , EnvatoTuts

Create a stunning presentation in less time

• Hundreds of premade slides available
• Add animation and interactivity to your slides
• Choose from various presentation options

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.

• Lots of presentation templates to choose from.
• Millions of available images in the paid plan.
• Presenting option right from Canva.
• Download in multiple file formats, including PowerPoint.
• Easy to share to social media profiles.
• Millions of icons to choose from.

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.

Other reviews:   CMSCritic , Capterra

9. Beautiful.ai

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.

• AI-powered presentation building system.
• Customizing options for each type of slide.
• Color theme picker for the entire presentation.
• Users can password protect presentations for private sharing.
• Collaboration capabilities with an email invitation.
• Export to PDF or PowerPoint.
• Presenter view and speaker notes.

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.

Other reviews: Techradar , ThePowerpointBlog

10. Microsoft Sway

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.

• Remix! A function that changes everything at random.
• The default view is a vertical scroll; can be changed to horizontal or slide view.
• Font and color customization for the entire presentation
• Thousands of images available inside the program through online search.
• Animated transitions with custom speed settings.
• Storyline editing.
• Outline and Accessibility views.
• Available in multiple languages.

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.

Other reviews: AvePoint , Laptop Mag

11. Venngage

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. 

• Professionally designed presentation templates
• Drag-and-drop interface for easy customization
• Wide array of charts, graphs and maps
• High-quality stock photos and icons
• Team collaboration features
• Brand kits and custom templates
• Share the presentation with a URL or export directly to PowerPoint
• Download presentations in various formats, including PDF and PNG

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.

• Real-time collaboration with commenting and version history
• Smart formatting and design suggestions
• Presentation templates optimized for different use cases
• Analytics tools to track viewer engagement
• Present your slides remotely with screen-sharing and video conferencing features

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.

PowerPoint FAQs

Q. what is better than powerpoint.

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.

Q. Is There a Free Version of PowerPoint?

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.

Q. What Is the Google Equivalent of PowerPoint?

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.

Q. What Is the Biggest Disadvantage of PowerPoint?

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.

Get Started With Your Favorite PowerPoint Alternative

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.

Create beautiful presentations in minutes with Visme.

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About the Author

Orana is a multi-faceted creative. She is a content writer, artist, and designer. She travels the world with her family and is currently in Istanbul. Find out more about her work at oranavelarde.com

The Most Reliable Alternatives to PowerPoint for Mac Users

If you’re a Mac user, you already love the sleek hardware design, intuitive UI, and powerful capabilities that Apple devices deliver. Much of the time, you can do whatever you need to do in near real-time and with an impressively small learning curve.

Being a Mac user brings certain drawbacks or frustrations, though: a big one is compatibility.

Many software applications either aren’t available at all for Mac, or the version made for Mac is different or limited in some way compared to the PC version.

The latter is the case with Microsoft PowerPoint: this ubiquitous presentation software is available for Mac, but as with the rest of the Office or Microsoft 365 suite, the Mac version is different. There are a few things the Mac version can do that the PC version can’t, but most of the time it goes the other way.

If you’re frustrated with the limitations or the lack of stability you’re running into with PowerPoint, we have good news: other presentation software for Mac users can be more reliable and even far more feature-rich than PowerPoint. Some are even web-based and offer a free version — something PowerPoint doesn’t match.

The Top Alternatives to PowerPoint

Below, we’ll show you several of the best PowerPoint Mac alternative options, including pros and cons for each. These presentation tools run the gamut from free cloud-based products to high-end professional software suites that make the term “PowerPoint alternative” seem inadequate.

Let’s dive in!

ProPresenter

ProPresenter is, by far, the most feature-rich, professional Mac alternative to PowerPoint on the market. It’s built as a truly cross-platform application (Windows and macOS), meaning you get the same feature set and reliability no matter which devices you use (and even if you use both PC and Mac within your AV setup).

ProPresenter includes an advanced, professional-grade slide editor that allows you to create engaging presentations with a finer degree of control than PowerPoint (or anything else listed below). The interface is easy to use and learn, yet deep and robust enough for the most technical professional.

If you need to create presentations, you can do so with greater power and control using ProPresenter. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what ProPresenter can do. ProPresenter can handle rich media, including live video, with ease. It can accept a wide range of inputs (including broadcast quality formats like SDI and NDI) and output an unlimited number of feeds or streams to as many devices as your hardware can handle.

ProPresenter accomplishes this using a unique seven-layer file architecture, giving users control over which layers and which content routes to which outputs. With ProPresenter, you can create unique feeds for as many spaces (say, lobby, overflow, producer view, presenter view, main feed, and livestream) as you need.

Speaking of live streaming, ProPresenter excels here, too, connecting to your preferred livestreaming platforms and acting as the central hub for inputs, stream design, and live outputs.

If you want to exceed your capabilities in PowerPoint or another lesser alternative, ProPresenter is worth serious consideration. It outshines the rest in terms of basic and advanced presentation design and offers numerous other capabilities that expand your toolset.

While ProPresenter costs a little more than PowerPoint, we’re confident it’s a worthwhile investment considering the pro-grade tool capabilities

Try ProPresenter now

Keynote may be the first app that comes to mind as an alternative to PowerPoint for Mac: it’s Apple’s vision of what a presentation tool should be, and it’s 100 percent free for anyone who’s recently purchased a Mac, iPad, or iPhone.

This PowerPoint alternative for Mac has a bit of a cult following. The app makes creating attractive, high-impact presentations simple and straightforward, at least once you adapt to the learning curve. The interface is quite different from PowerPoint, so users who are steeped in the PowerPoint UI might need some time to adjust.

Keynote can match most of PowerPoint’s capabilities and features pound for pound, just in an Apple-centric sort of way. But it doesn’t go beyond what PowerPoint can do and lacks the kinds of integrations and collaborative features that Microsoft has been adding in recent years.

The other big drawback to Keynote is its exclusivity. Yes, any Apple device can run a Keynote presentation — but absolutely every other device out there, the ones without that iconic bitten apple on the back, can’t open or run these files natively.

Google Slides

Google Slides is a cloud-based online presentation tool that’s best described as a stripped-down version of PowerPoint. It can do most of the same stuff and nearly as well, but it certainly isn’t going to innovate beyond what other tools do.

On the plus side, it’s 100 percent free, and since it’s a web-based tool, you shouldn’t have any reliability issues using it as a Mac alternative to PowerPoint. Any issues you encounter should vanish entirely if you run it in Chrome.

But on the negative side, if you aren’t happy with the capabilities you have in PowerPoint, Google Slides isn’t going to do any better. It’s arguably on par with PowerPoint (or at least getting close), but we’re not seeing any innovation here. Google seems to take the “make it good enough” approach here rather than attempt to make it amazing.

Canva has made some interesting moves in recent years as the brand tries to escape the pigeonhole it started in. Most people think of it as a place for regular folks to design graphics for Instagram or other uses, but the company wants to be more. As a part of this push, it has launched an online presentation tool that seeks to compete with the PowerPoints and Google Slides of the world.

Canva’s tool allows you to create presentations from templates, apply transition effects, and share or display your completed presentations — all from your web browser. That makes it a reliable PowerPoint alternative for Mac since you won’t have to worry about compatibility.

Unfortunately, as a completely online tool, Canva is dependent on your internet connection. Google Slides has found certain ways to deal with dropped connections or even outages, but Canva won’t help you during an outage. It also carries certain performance demands and can eat a lot of memory bandwidth, just like most browser-based apps.

For basic presentation needs, or for those who want to do a lot of asset creating in the same place they design presentations, Canva is worth a look.

Prezi is the last of the 100 percent web-based apps we’ll cover today. It’s a great platform for those who need to create nonlinear presentations where the presenter can navigate from place to place as needed, rather than progress through a static and unchangeable stack of slides.

Prezi also pivoted hard into video presentations during the pandemic, making it an ideal platform for people and businesses who need to share visual presentations with live presenter video overlays.

The nonlinear aspect of Prezi is both a blessing and a curse: used well, it unlocks all kinds of interactivity and can retain interest in a way that a static slide deck usually doesn’t. But used poorly, it can look cheesy or unprofessional in a hurry.

Like other web-based tools, Prezi is fairly limited in terms of outputs. Prezi isn’t the way to go if you need flexible outputs to multiple devices or feeds.

ProPresenter: The Most Robust Alternative to PowerPoint

If you’re looking for something free or lightweight, you have several options to choose from. But if you’re looking for a deeper, richer, more professional experience than what PowerPoint has to offer, ProPresenter is the only alternative to PowerPoint for Mac that offers such a compelling set of capabilities.

See for yourself today by starting your unrestricted two-week trial. Download now!

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Best Office For Mac & Microsoft 365 Alternatives of 2024 (Free & Paid)

If you want a cheaper or even a free alternative to Microsoft Office For Mac (now rebranded as Microsoft 365), here we’ve looked at the best replacements for it in 2024.

Nowadays, Microsoft Office For Mac has been rebranded as the Cloud based Microsoft 365 although you can still buy the desktop version of Microsoft Office For Mac 2021 as a one time purchase.

Although there are ways to get Microsoft 365 for Mac free , they’re not suitable or available to everyone.

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How To Choose A Replacement For Microsoft 365

1. google workspace, 2. libreoffice, 4. freeoffice, 5. wps office, 6. zoho workplace, 7. polaris office, 8. onlyoffice.

The best substitute to Microsoft 365 for your personal needs will depend on your requirements, team size and budget.

Some things you may want to consider however are support for importing and exporting Microsoft 365 files especially in DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX format as well as the older DOC, PPT and XLS format.

Although many of these replacements can open and edit Microsoft 365 files, you’ll end-up spending a lot of time fixing glitches and cleaning-up formatting issues that inevitably happen when you try to use Microsoft file formats in another app.

Other things worth considering are collaboration features for teams and whether it offers a desktop version that works on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs with the M1, M2 or M3 chips.

With this in mind, here then are the best alternatives to Microsoft 365 for Mac in order of ranking.

The closest thing to getting Microsoft 365 on a Mac for free is Google Workspace (formerly Google Suite or “G-Suite”).

Google Workspace includes Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides which are the equivalents of Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

There’s also Meet as an alternative to Microsoft Teams, Gmail as a replacement for Microsoft Outlook and of course there’s Google Calendar.

Over the years Google has improved compatibility with Microsoft apps to the extent where you can now easily open and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents for free in Google Workspace.

You can also export them back into Microsoft 365 file formats so that you can easily send and receive documents to colleagues or friends using MS Office or Microsoft 365.

Google Docs is a particularly good free replacement to Word for Mac with generous free storage of up to 15GB, lots of sharing options and many different document templates.

If you collaborate with other users in a team or office environment, Google Suite also allows you to see edits made by others, chat and leave comments on documents.

There’s no desktop app for Google Suite although you can use it offline in Google Chrome and it will sync when you next go online again.

You can start using Google Workspace for free now .

• Free to use
• Imports and exports in Microsoft 365 file formats
• Works on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs
• Excellent online collaboration features
• Useful mobile apps for editing on the move
• No desktop app
• Not as powerful as Microsoft 365

LibreOffice is a free open source office suite and easily one of the best desktop substitutes to Microsoft 365 on a Mac.

LibreOffice began as a spin-off of the open source OpenOffice project although OpenOffice is not updated much nowadays but LibreOffice is.

The free software can also import and export Microsoft 365 documents whereas OpenOffice can’t.

It also offers a formula editor to edit macros in Excel documents and Google Sheets.

LibreOffice used to only work offline but has no added online syncing via online storage sites such as Google Drive and DropBox.

However, unlike Microsoft 365, there’s no online collaboration features so it’s not suitable for real-time collaboration with other users.

You can start using LibreOffice for free here .

• Works on Mac desktops
• Imports and exports Microsoft 365 files
• Widely used and tested
• Frequently updated
• No online collaboration
• Interface is quite dated
• Some features such as templates need to be downloaded separately

iWork is Apple’s free answer to Microsoft 365 and includes a professional array of tools including Apple Pages , Numbers and Keynote.

As you’d expect from an Apple product, the iWork suite looks great and is fully integrated with the look and funtionality of macOS.

There’s no denying that iWork takes some getting used to compared to Microsoft’s product in terms of finding features and tools but once mastered, it’s an incredibly powerful office suite.

Anything you create in iWork from brochures in Pages to presentations in Keynote look slick thanks to some great templates and the apps have intuitive interfaces that are easy to work out.

You can import and export Microsoft 365 documents although if you use a Mac specific font, you’ll find that exporting leaves a mess of the formatting.

You can also collaborate online in iWork via iCloud although this is one of the weakest aspects of the suite and not as complete as Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace.

You can start using iWork for free to see for yourself.

• Made by Apple
• Looks amazing on a Mac
• Apps create attractive, professional looking results
• Fully integrated with macOS
• Instantly updated for new releases of macOS
• Doesn’t have replacements for all MS Office tools
• Exporting to Office format can result in formatting issues

SoftMaker FreeOffice is a free desktop office suite for Mac, Windows and Linux which looks very similar to Microsoft products with the familiar ribbon interface.

FreeOffice can also import and export to Microsoft 365 formats with TextMaker, PlanMaker and Presentations replacements for Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

All the FreeOffice apps have plenty of attractive templates with support for formulas in PlanMaker and impressive animations in Presentations.

FreeOffice also has an attractive range of fonts compared to other productivity suites although these can cause issues when exporting to Microsoft 365.

One of the benefits of FreeOffice compared to other office suites is the inclusion of PDF editing software FlexiPDF which allows you to edit PDF files on a Mac.

FreeOffice can also export files in a range of formats other than Microsoft 365 including PDF and PUB format.

There are also free FreeOffice apps for iOS and Android with basic editing functionality.

You can start using FreeOffice for free now.

• Interface is very similar to Microsoft 365
• Imports and exports MS Office format
• Optimized for touch screens
• Only includes replacements for Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• No online collaboration features
• Importing and exporting Office files can result in formatting issues
• Can be quite slow to use

WPS Office is a slick all in one desktop Office suite that features Writer, Spreadsheet, Presentation and a PDF toolkit which all look really tasteful on macOS.

Integration with macOS goes further than even Microsoft 365 with support for Widgets, Sidecar (which allows you to use an iPad as a second screen with macOS) and Splitscreen mode.

There’s seamless integration with iPad and iPhone making it easy to edit documents anywhere.

WPS Office is also frequently updated for the latest versions of macOS and works on the latest Apple Silicon Macs too.

The standard version of WPS Office is free to use with support for 47 different file formats and 13 languages although it is ad supported.

There are also ad-free premium versions starting at $30 per year which are cheaper than Microsoft 365 which include PDF editing, file format conversions and 20GB of online file storage.

You can use WPS Office for Mac for free to test it for yourself.

• Looks great in macOS
• Lots of slick templates
• Includes PDF editing tools
• Useful iOS and Android apps
• Supports multiple languages
• Some file formats are limited to the paid versions
• No online storage in the free version
• No online collaboration in free version
• Interface can be slow at times

Zoho Workplace features Zoho Writer, Sheet and Show which can be used in place of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

However, it also includes its own email and chat tools making it an excellent option for online collaboration.

Zoho Writer allows you to eaily share documents with your team and allows multiple users to contribute and comment simultaneously.

Zoho Sheet creates attractive charts and graphs out of formulas to create clear visualizations of your data as well as anything Microsoft Excel can do although not with quite the same macro support.

Zoho Show has a diverse fonts, styles, charts, animations, and infographics to create professional standard presentations.

Zoho Workdrive allows you to save and work on documents anywhere and Zoho Meetings connects users via video conferencing with analytics reports afterwards.

Added to this is Zoho Mail suite, Cliq for commenting on documents and Zoho Connect for creating internal channels or forums.

Zoho Workplace is aimed more at corporate environments than home users with pricing starting a t a few dollars per month but like most Zoho products, is incredibly powerful and well put together.

You can try Zoho Workspace free for 15 days.

• Professional tools
• Imports and exports Microsoft 365 documents
• Relied on by large corporations worldwide
• Not free to use
• Takes some learning
• Not as well integrated with macOS as other products

Polaris Office has been used by corporations such as Amazon and Samsung which gives you an idea of the kind of customer it’s designed for.

Despite this there is a free version of Polaris Office that anyone can use but it does include ads.

The ad free premium plan of the Polaris Office Smart Cloud starts at $39.99 per year with the Pro version a reasonable $59.99 per year. The Mac desktop version however is more expensive at $79.99 but this is for a lifetime license.

Polaris supports importing and exporting PPT, XLS, DOCX and HWP files. You can also convert and edit PDF documents.

For businesses that want to integrate Polaris into their own products, you can also use the Polaris API in the premium versions of the product.

Although it doesn’t support dictating on a Mac, Polaris can even turn voice memos into documents.

You can start using Polaris Office for free to see for yourself.

• Professional business office suite
• Full support for importing and exporting MS Office files
• Collaboration via Cloud version
• Reasonably priced
• Mac desktop version costs separately
• Free version is ad supported

OnlyOffice allows you to collaborate for free on documents with comparison tracking, edit highlighting and the ability to leave comments on edits.

It also includes a useful PDF editor too.

There’s even a built-in chat feature plus integration with Telegram to talk to colleagues and you can also launch video chats with Jitsi or Rainbow.

The source code for OnlyOffice is freely available for anyone to edit meaning it’s extremely secure with three levels of encryption during editing, when sending and receiving documents.

There’s even a desktop version for Mac for both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs which is integrated with the Cloud version that works in any browser.

You can use the Starter version of OnlyOffice for free with up to 5 users allowed. Business plans start at $5 per user per month which allows unlimited admins, 100GB of storage per user, automatic backup and more.

You can start using OnlyOffice for free now .

• Cloud and desktop version for Intel and M1/M2/M3 Macs
• Excellent collaboration features
• High level of encryption
• Not much documentation

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The requirement mentioned Mac desktop, would it work on Mac laptop?

I liked the product reviews and I liked the comment. Keep em coming. I’m always interested in learning more about how to transition successfully to Mac from Windows. I have Mac at home and Windows at work so it continues to be a struggle. Understand about Google privacy and am learning more about it and how to deal with it. That’s why I appreciate MacHow2 and say, keep em coming Thanks.

I appreciate your careful reviews. But in your analyses, you have chosen NOT to mention one of the cons of getting anywhere near a Google product…that is you have just signed up for their incredibly intrusive tracking system and permanently given away all your rights to privacy. It’s best to remember there is “NO such thing as a free lunch”. Along these lines, it would be great if your reviews also reported on the privacy policies of various apps and software programs. Perhaps everyone who has ever created an app or software program also collects & sells your data to Google or Bytedance…but just maybe there are a few companies that don’t whore out all your private data.

This is a valid point and it’s obviously impossible for us to pore through the details of the privacy policy of every app. However, we’ve added something to the reviews to make sure users are aware of this privacy issues with free alternatives to Microsoft Office.

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Top PowerPoint Alternatives in 2021

Read the 2022 article here.

The world has made yet another trip around the sun, and it’s the time of year when it seems like everybody is making a list. Whether making a personal list of New Year resolutions or a published list of top movies or biggest news stories of the past year, people worldwide are looking back on 2020, while also preparing for the year to come.

Here at Beautiful.ai, we prefer looking ahead, and so we’ve compiled our annual list of the best PowerPoint alternatives to use in 2021. We’ve created similar lists in 2019 and 2020, so it’s only fair if we offer readers a fresh list for a new year. After all, you wouldn’t want your 2021 presentations to be so last year, right?  

When choosing the best alternative to PowerPoint presentation software, there are so many options that it can be hard to know which is better than the next. There’s no simple answer, either, since alternative programs to PowerPoint offer different features that meet various needs and preferences. 

Of course, it’s hard to know which you’ll prefer best without at least some basic information about the different alternative programs to PowerPoint. To help you out, we’ve narrowed the field down to— in no particular order— our favorite presentation programs similar to PowerPoint in 2021.

1. Beautiful.ai

Our PowerPoint alternative presentation program is perfect for designing professional-level presentations in a fraction of the time it takes to create a PowerPoint slide deck. What sets Beautiful.ai apart from its competition is what we like to call our special sauce— an artificially-intelligent platform that automatically tweaks your presentation based on the best design principles recommended by the pros.

Never again waste time aligning content, establishing margins or balancing fonts. Just add your content to the slide and let Beautiful.ai do the rest. Users also benefit from a vast library featuring thousands of free stock images, icons and logos, and they can add pizzazz to their presentations by customizing a variety of infographics or by adding eye-catching animations.

The Beautiful.ai PowerPoint alternative even rolled out new features for 2021. The 2021 release includes new presentation themes for design inspiration, extra presentation templates to help users get started on a professional-level design, and a universal search feature so users can explore the entire Beautiful.ai library of templates and presentations. Beautiful.ai has also added inspiration slides to our library of slide templates to help users from feeling stuck, as well as new intuitive controls to make our interface even easier to use.

Visme’s free alternative to PowerPoint can be used to design not only slide presentations, but also infographics, interactive charts and other visual content. The program is easy to use, as most elements can be moved around easily. New content can be added with a simple drag and drop into place.

Visme users can choose to design their presentations from a blank canvas or by customizing templates from the alternative to PowerPoint’s library of sample slides and presentations.  

Visme users also enjoy a collection of thousands of icons, images and data visualizations like tables, graphs and flowcharts—all available from inside the editor. Visme makes it simple to customize graphic content, insert videos and GIFs and even add audio to presentations. 

Prezi offers a different type of presentation software alternative to PowerPoint . Rather than the standard slide decks, Prezi users create animated, non-sequential presentations that zoom in to highlight topics and uncover subtopics. 

While Prezi offers a great alternative to traditional visual presentations, its unique design is better suited for more experienced presentation designers. At the same time, it’s the perfect choice for presenters who want to design more creative presentations to capture audience attention.

Prezi users should bear in mind that while the presentation structure is unique from other PowerPoint alternatives, Prezi templates aren’t very customizable—although presentations also can be designed from scratch. 

Prezi users can access a library of traditional icons and shapes, but they must find images from another source and upload them to the presentation. Animations, on the other hand, are the centerpiece of Prezi’s platform. Not only are transitions between topics and subtopics animated, but the presentations themselves are considered animations in their own right.

4. Google Slides

Anyone with a Google account can access Google Slides from within the company’s suite of productivity applications . Much as Google users can create a document or a spreadsheet and save it to their Google Drive, they can design a visual presentation with Google’s free alternative program to PowerPoint. Plus, the presentations can be shared among Google users, making it simple to collaborate with a team.

In some ways, Google Slides is very reminiscent of PowerPoint in terms of layout and controls. While presentations can be designed from scratch, Google Slides offers only a few templates for users who need additional inspiration. 

The PowerPoint alternative software features a limited library of shapes and icons that can be added to presentations, but photos must be found separately and uploaded to the presentation file. Google Slides does offer animated transitions between slides, however, as well as animated elements inside individual slides. 

5. Slide Bean

Similar to Beautiful.ai, Slide Bean’s user-friendly PowerPoint alternative software uses artificial intelligence to assist in creating a professional-level visual presentation design. The free program similar to PowerPoint features customizable templates, or users can design their slide deck from scratch. 

While presentations can be edited in outline or design modes, users are limited to the structure of the content blocks, so they can’t customize as much as they can with other alternative programs to PowerPoint.

Slide Bean features a library of icons and images, and it even integrates Giphy’s collection of GIFs into its platform. The presentation software similar to PowerPoint also offers the ability to animate elements of their slides.

A newcomer to the presentation software field, Pitch only launched in October 2020, but it already has been called a “ PowerPoint killer .” Pitch was created to serve as a tool for non-designers to build attractive pitch decks. 

It features a large library of presentation templates, but improved designs are only part of Pitch’s allure. The PowerPoint alternative focuses on collaboration, and it even offers built-in video collaborations for remote teams to design together. Likewise, Pitch presentations can be integrated with Google Sheets, Google Analytics, and other productivity programs.

Another benefit of using Pitch to design professional-level slide decks is the ability to stay on-brand with customizable presentation styles like colors and fonts. Pitch also boasts an intuitive yet minimalist editor that makes designing gorgeous presentations easy as pie.

The list of PowerPoint alternative software options is constantly growing, and with all their bells and whistles not offered by Microsoft, many of the programs similar to PowerPoint are far superior to the OG of presentation design. So superior, in fact, that users just might find themselves asking, “PowerPoint who?” 

Which one do you like the best? You might just have to try them and find out for yourself. Of course, we are somewhat biased in our preference of Beautiful.ai, but our more-than 600,000 users from more than 70,000 companies tend to agree.

Samantha Pratt Lile

Samantha is an independent journalist, editor, blogger and content manager. Examples of her published work can be found at sites including the Huffington Post, Thrive Global, and Buzzfeed.

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Best Microsoft Office alternative of 2024

We look at the best Microsoft Office alternatives for all budgets

Best overall

Best similar, best for features, best open source, best for tools, best for formats, best for experts, best all-in-one, best for small teams, best browser-based, how we test.

The best Microsoft Office alternatives make it simple and easy to use office apps for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations, without needing a Microsoft subscription.

1. Best overall 2. Best similar 3. Best for features 4. Best open source 5. Best for tools 6. Best for formats 7. Best for experts 8. Best all-in-one 9. Best for small teams 10. Best browser-based 11. FAQs 12. How we test

Microsoft Office remains the most popular productivity suite for documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more - whether as a download software package, or as the cloud-based Microsoft 365 suite - through powerful apps such as Word , Excel , PowerPoint , Publisher , Access , Outlook , and more.

However, a range of alternative competitors have become increasingly attractive, especially because their licensing fees are more competitive - some are even free to use. And yet that doesn't necessarily mean that the software is of lower quality, as the open source community can testify.

Even still, there can be issues with sharing documents between different office suite platforms, which can be a real concern. This is why you need to be certain of any shortfalls that might occur, especially if you need to share or collaborative on documents with other users who have one or more different office suites.

That said, the best Microsoft Office alternatives are generally strong programs with full functionality, and little problem sharing files with other platforms, though few come close to the full functionality of Microsoft 365, let alone its massive 2TB cloud storage through OneDrive. 

We compared the Microsoft office alternatives across various aspects, like the pricing models, the platforms they supported, the interface and performance, and the number of tools they came with. We also assessed their collaboration capabilities and the file formats they could run, among other aspects.

Below we'll list the best currently available.

We've also featured the best free office software .

Google Workspace : Collaboration + productivity apps There are many different office software suites but Google Workspace formerly known as G Suite remains the original cloud one and one of the best business office suites, offering a huge range of features and functionality that rivals can't match. Try it free for 14 days .

The best Microsoft Office alternatives of 2024 in full:

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

1. LibreOffice

Our expert review:

Reasons to buy

Reasons to avoid.

LibreOffice is the offspring of The Document Foundation and split from OpenOffice in 2010. The suite itself is free and open source, and is made up of a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software, and is available in 110 languages.

While LibreOffice uses the ODF (OpenDocument) format it still supports a range of other format types such as those used in Microsoft Office. LibreOffice is the default suite for most Linux distros and it is also available for use on Windows and macOS. There's also a LibreOffice viewer for Android.

As with most open source software all your technical support comes from online, but seeing how easy this is to use, support will be rarely needed. The platform also offers the option to export your files into PDF format amongst others.

You can add extra features to LibreOffice via extensions from its website. These include extra templates for documents.

Read our full LibreOffice review .

• ^ Back to the top

2. FreeOffice

If you are looking for a free and easy alternative to Microsoft Office, then FreeOffice is the suite for you. The company, SoftMaker, has been developing office software since 1987 and its office suite is their flagship product.

FreeOffice is a complete office suite that is free to use for both home and in the workplace. It is developed for both Windows and Linux, and offers a basic version for Android users.

The suite itself is fully compatible with all Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint formats. This means that you can not only view but save files in formats such as DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX. It also supports older file types such as PPT and XLS.

The new interface that was launched this year gives you the option of either working with modern or classic menus and toolbars. This makes switching from Microsoft Office easy to do as the interface is eerily similar.

For those users who have the luxury of a touchscreen PC you can use touch mode with larger icons. This mode is available for both the newer version look and the classic menu-based interface.

Read our full FreeOffice review .

3. WPS Office

WPS Office was released in 2016 by Chinese software developer Kingsoft. It is an office suite that is available for Windows, Linux, Android and iOS. The suite is available in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and Russian.

It offers a free and a premium tier. The free tier allows you to use Writer, Presentation and Spreadsheets, which are alternatives to the Microsoft Office suite which it also resembles closely. WPS offers a PDF to Word converter which is fast and easy to use. It supports bulk exportation and can also split-merge PDF files if needed.

The suite offers 1GB of free cloud storage for iOS and PC users, but this service is not yet available for Android.

The 'Premium' tier allows the user to connect up 9 devices at once. It also gets rids of all those annoying adverts that are commonplace on the free tier. 

WPS has been criticized for not allowing collaboration beyond those that track changes and allow users to insert comments. Users have also said that the interface can be quite slow at times when it comes to loading documents. Linux users have mentioned that not all fonts are automatically included and that they have to be installed separately.

For Android users installation is quite large and criticism has been levelled imploring the developer to make it more lightweight.

Read our full WPS Office review .

4. Calligra

Calligra Office suite was initially released in October 2000 as part of KOffice. It is an office suite developed by KDE as well as being suitable to use for graphic art design. It is available on Linux, macOS, Windows and Android.

Calligra is a free and open source software suite and can be downloaded directly from its own website or from KDE's downloads page. It is completely distinct from LibreOffice.

While LibreOffice has the familiar look and feel of MS Office, Calligra does not. A lot of the useable features tabs are set on the right-hand side of the screen and not on the top like MS Office and other office suites. This means that the page you are currently editing does not take up the full screen.

One of the extra features that makes Calligra stand out is that it offers a mind-mapping and project managing tool. Usually these cost extra.

Calligra allows you to read DOCX and DOX formats but you cannot edit them. This can cause difficulties if your contacts send you Microsoft Office documents, so ask them to use a different format such as ODT (Open Document Text) instead.

5. OfficeSuite

OfficeSuite is an application that was developed by MobiSystems and is available for Android, iOS and Windows. Devices that are made by Amazon , Toshiba, Sony and Alcatel often come with OfficeSuite pre-installed. The Android app has been named among the top applications for business.

You can synchronize between devices using your OfficeSuite account and only one license is needed for all your devices.

It has several tiers to choose from. The 'Basic' tier is free and allows users to view and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. The suite has full compatibility with most formats such as ODT, RTF, CSV, DOC, and ZIP. The free tier also enables users to view PDF documents and offers cloud support via services like Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive.

The 'Personal' tier enables the suite on one desktop, one tablet and one phone. It has all the free tier has to offer along with the ability to track changes, export PDF's to other editable formats and advanced PDF features such as digital signatures and passwords. 

Read our full OfficeSuite review .

6. Polaris Office

Polaris Office is developed by Intraware and was initially released in March 2014. It is a free office suite that is available for Android, iOS, Windows and macOS. It appears to be a popular suite amongst businesses and is used by the likes of Amazon and Samsung .

While the free version is very generous there is a business version to which you can upgrade. Their cheapest plan is the Polaris Office Smart which you can use on any of your devices for about $40 per year. Alternatively you can purchase a lifetime fee limited to one PC at around $80.

With this powerful suite you can edit many different file formats including PPT, XLS, DOCX and HWP. As your account synchronizes amongst your devices you will be able to edit and create from wherever you are. All your data is secured by AWS (Amazon Web Services).

With the latest edition of Polaris you can now convert and edit PDF documents. Users can also convert voice and image files to documents if the need arises.

The suite supports several different languages such as French, German, Korean, English and Russian.

The only real criticism there is of Polaris is that while the free edition offers a huge range of features the ads can be a little distracting at times.

Read our full Polaris Office review .

7. OnlyOffice

OnlyOffice is an open source office suite developed by Ascensio Systems SIA. It is available in over 22 languages and boasts of Oracle being one of their leading clients.

The completely free version, known as the 'Community Edition' is most suited for small business and allows up to 20 connections at once. This suite does not just offer the usual features such as word processing or spreadsheets but is very useful in relation to order fulfilment and for documenting sales.

The handy calendar feature allows user to keep up to date with personal and work-related tasks as well as keeping an eye on deadlines. Third party integration is also supported. You can create your own Mailboxes with the 'Mail' tool.

As with other office suites there is the ability to create and edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Users can collaborate on projects and make comments in files where necessary.

Read our full OnlyOffice review .

8. WordPerfect

WordPerfect has had a number of owners over the years since it was developed in the late 1970s. Fast forward to 1996, it was purchased by Corel who, back then wanted to build a business capable of competing with Microsoft and Adobe . WordPerfect was most popular in the 80's where it was known for its DOS and Microsoft Windows versions. It was soon eclipsed by Microsoft Office upon its release.

It is an all-in-one office suite. It offers its own word processor, spreadsheet program and a slideshow creator.  The latest version now includes improved photo-editing and management. WordPerfect offer a free trial version which you can download from the main site.

Like other suites it can save to many different formats such as DOCX, PDF and HTML. The common file extensions for WordPerfect files is WPD. It also offers ebooks publishing and macro management.

The PDF feature gives users the ability to edit and fill in forms via PDF, as well as change the form's appearance e.g. font/color. WordPerfect supports opening multiple documents at one time.

While WordPerfect is a perfectly reasonable program, and many early Windows adopters may remember it fondly, the pricing just isn't very competitive when compared to the rest of the market.

Read our full WordPerfect review .

9. Zoho Workplace

While Google Docs is, thanks to the strength of its brand, probably more widely used, Zoho Workplace is very good in its own right. It's certainly closer to a desktop office package, and it's strong enough to have attracted businesses like the BBC and Nike as regular users.

Zoho's new-look word processor (which ditches the classic Word-style interface in favour of a formatting sidebar) is very well-presented and capable of producing professional-looking docs, and it has a sterling spreadsheet and reasonable presentation package alongside it.

They're just the tip of the iceberg, however – Zoho Workplace includes a powerful site creation tool, a file management solution and many collaborative tools. Some are on the simplistic side, so they'll likely not replace anything you might already have in place, but if you're starting out as a small business Zoho is probably a good jumping-off point.

If you want to signup for the free version of Zoho Workplace you need to search the pricing page for the "Forever free" plan. However, there's no one-click set up or access, and instead you have to go through a sign up process that begins by providing details of an existing business domain.

Read our full Zoho Workplace review .

10. Google Workspace

Google Workspace is another Microsoft Office alternative worth considering, as it's development by the internet behemoth Google specifically for collaborative and group work. The three key tools run happily in any web browser, and are available as mobile apps for Apple and Android devices.

Google's free office suite doesn't offer the advanced tools you'll find in Microsoft 365 or many rivals, but everything is laid out in a clear, logical way and all your files will be saved and synced automatically so you don't have to worry about transfers and backups.

The chief disadvantage of Workspace is that opening files created using other office software is a cumbersome process and file formatting isn't is always converted properly. This is partly because Google's office tools use web fonts rather than ones stored locally on your device, and partly because Microsoft documents sometimes contain features not supported by Google. 

Additionally, there are some quirks with Google Docs that make it less user-friendly than other office software. As free software it does the job fine, but as a paid product it still lags behind the features and functionality of Microsoft Office.

Read our full Google workspace review .

Also check out our feature on the best free word processor .

How to choose the best Microsoft Office alternatives for you?

When choosing the best Microsoft Office alternatives for yourself, consider your work requirements: how large is your team size, what operating systems do you use (Windows, macOS, or Linux), and is your work collaborative? 

You'll then want to assess your budget. If you're on a tight budget, free options will be quite handy, but if you have a substantial budget, paid plans with advanced features could be more suitable

To test the best Microsoft Office alternatives, we first looked at the pricing plans: is the office suite free, freemium, or paid?

We considered what platforms the office suites ran on, whether they had a simple and appealing interface, how many apps they came with, and how smoothly they performed. Importantly, we looked at whether the Microsoft Office alternatives could open Microsoft file formats, like DOX and DOCX, and if there was an option to edit these files. 

We also used the different suites to assess how easy the collaboration was with them and whether the tools could be run on web browsers, among other things.

Read how we test, rate, and review products on TechRadar .  

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Brian has over 30 years publishing experience as a writer and editor across a range of computing, technology, and marketing titles. He has been interviewed multiple times for the BBC and been a speaker at international conferences. His specialty on techradar is Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, covering everything from office suites to IT service tools. He is also a science fiction and fantasy author, published as Brian G Turner.

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The 7 Best Free Microsoft Office 365 Alternatives for Your Mac

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It's fairly easy to leave Windows behind. Just buy a Mac, take a few days to settle in, and never look back. But for Microsoft Office users who don't have a Microsoft 365 subscription, buying Office for your Mac again can be a costly hassle.

If you work in a traditional office environment that runs on Excel and Word, you might have to appease your coworkers. But if you've outgrown that world and still need to edit Office documents every now and then without buying a Microsoft 365 subscription, here are your best free Office and Microsoft Word alternatives for your Mac.

1. Google Suite

If you're going to let go of the Microsoft world and you're looking for a free word processor for your Mac, your best bet is to join the Google alliance. Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides are the Mac and Windows equivalents and the three direct alternatives to Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint—they're essentially free Office for your Mac!

There's no real alternative to Outlook beyond Gmail, and you can get OneNote on Mac for free. Google's suite is really good and integrates well with your Google account. You'll be able to open an Excel file you received via Gmail in Google Sheets, which is essentially just a free version of Excel.

You can easily import Microsoft Office files to work on them, then export them again in Microsoft Office formats to pass them around. And if you're doing fairly basic stuff with standard fonts and formatting, you can get away with it; the other party will never find out you're not using Microsoft Office.

In some ways, Google Docs is more powerful than Microsoft Word. There's an extensive add-on gallery, beautiful templates, superior research tools built-in, and Google search capabilities to boot. All of these amazing features essentially make Google Docs a free version of Word for your Mac.

Plus, there's the advantage of Google's cloud prowess. Collaborating with multiple users simultaneously in a document is pure joy. It's a little benefit, but it does wonders for productivity.

The entire suite is free, with 15GB of storage included. The only problem is that there's no real desktop app for any of these—though you can work offline on documents in Chrome or Microsoft Edge by enabling the Offline setting in Google Drive .

Visit: Google Docs | Google Sheets | Google Slides (Free)

2. LibreOffice

LibreOffice is widely recognized as the best open-source alternative to the Microsoft Office 365 suite. This means it's completely free and available on a host of platforms. It's by far one of the best Microsoft Office 365 alternatives for Mac users.

If you're used to the Microsoft Office user interface (pre-Ribbon era), it won't take you long to adjust to LibreOffice. Unlike Google's apps, the LibreOffice suite comes with featured-packed offline desktop apps with all the pro features you expect.

To make the deal even sweeter, LibreOffice recently added an online component. So you can sync files from Google Drive or OneDrive and edit them right in LibreOffice (there's no collaboration feature, though).

LibreOffice also does a good job in regards to formatting when importing Microsoft Office documents. Even complex Excel spreadsheets imported into LibreOffice Calc work as they should.

LibreOffice actually grew out of OpenOffice, which used to be the de facto alternative to Microsoft Office. But OpenOffice hasn't seen any meaningful updates recently, and its management is considering retiring the project. So we advise you to stay away from OpenOffice. Conversely, LibreOffice's track record in the recent past has been great.

Download: LibreOffice (Free)

3. iWork Suite

Included with your Mac is the iWork suite: Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. These are Apple's own alternatives to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Pages, for instance, is one of the best Word alternatives for Mac users.

As these are Mac-centric apps, the UI is quite different. Instead of being top-heavy, the options show up in a contextual menu on the side. And you don't have as many options as the Microsoft Office 365 suite. Since all three apps are now matured, all the basics are covered.

Once you get used to them, they're actually pleasant to use (something we can't necessarily say about Microsoft Office 365). While customization options are limited, everything that's available is quite polished.

When you create something in Keynote , chances are you'll end up creating something beautiful. The same goes with Pages—moving text, images, and graphs around is a seamless experience that doesn't make you want to pull your hair out.

The iWork suite lets you import and export documents in Microsoft Office formats (it will save to the iWork format by default, though). And as long as you don't use a Mac-specific font, going back-and-forth with Office documents shouldn't be a big problem.

iWork also has online collaboration options but, frankly, I wouldn't recommend using them. They're nowhere near as reliable as Google's offering.

Download: Pages | Numbers | Keynote (Free)

4. Microsoft 365 Online

When nothing else will do, and you still need a free version of Office for your Mac, you can head over to the Microsoft 365 website . It essentially gives you access to Microsoft Office on your Mac with limited features for free. It's the web-based version of the basic Microsoft Office service, which works in any browser.

While the feature set is limited, the basics of document editing, spreadsheet formulas, and presentation options are all covered. You'll get free access to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Just go to the link below and sign in with your Microsoft account.

Visit: Microsoft 365 Online (Free)

5. WPS Office Suite

WPS Office is a visually appealing yet powerful Microsoft Office 365 alternative for your Mac. It includes Writer, Presentation, and Spreadsheet with a user interface similar to Microsoft Office, which may shorten your learning curve. WPS Office supports a wide range of formats, including DOCX, HTML, XLSX, PPT, CSV, and others, as well as multiple languages.

Besides macOS, it is available on major platforms such as Linux, Windows, iOS, and Android. You can also find helpful tools for file conversions, adding watermarks, extracting text from files, and much more. WPS Office also has an extensive library of creative templates if you don't know where to begin.

WPS Office is free with limited functionality and ads for everyone; however, if you want to remove ads and unlock additional features such as PDF editing, file format conversion, and cloud collaboration, you'll need to purchase the WPS Pro subscription, which costs $9.99 for three months or $17.99 per year.

Download: WPS Office (Free, subscription available)

6. Ditch PowerPoint for Better Online Tools

PowerPoint is powerful, but it's also pretty old-school. If you want to stand out with your presentations, try some more modern online presentation tools :

• Slides : This is my personal favorite for creating beautiful presentations easily. The free account lets you create and present documents online. To export, you'll need to upgrade to a paid account.
• Prezi : While this service is geared more towards startups, the visual tools offered by Prezi are beyond anything you can get with PowerPoint.
• Canva : Canva is an online image editor, but it has an extensive library of presentation templates. Plus, Canva gives you all the important tools for creating a customized presentation.

7. Embrace Markdown

This is an idea purely out of the left field. If you have given up Windows and are embracing the Mac platform, you must have started appreciating macOS's simplicity by now. If you want more of that for creating and editing plain text documents, you should try using Markdown.

Markdown is a syntax like HTML, but it's much simpler. When you use a Markdown app to write, you don't get lost in dozens of menu options. All the formatting happens using shortcodes. So, for example, to make a word italic, you wrap it with asterisks.

You can create a complex formatted document without ever moving your hands away from the keyboard. Plus, Markdown exports as clean HTML, and you can generate beautiful PDFs using apps like iA Writer and Ulysses .

Use Microsoft Office 365 Without Paying for It

Buying the most recent version of Microsoft Office will cost you a few hundred dollars (or a subscription to Microsoft 365). Most of the time, the options listed above will suffice for you.

Google Docs works as a great alternative to Word, and the same goes for Google Sheets, which you can use instead of Excel. If you're looking for offline alternatives, LibreOffice should be more than enough.

But there might be times when you have to use Office for a particular task or for a limited period of time. In this case, you may be able to pick up a cheap Office license, or with some research, you could get Word for free on your Mac.

• Productivity
• Microsoft Office Alternative

12+ Presentation Software for Mac | 2024 Reveals | Tested and Approved By Experts

Alternatives

Leah Nguyen • 17 April, 2024 • 10 min read

Hang tight because this is where all Mac users unite 💪 These are the best presentation software for Mac !!

As Mac users, we know it's sometimes frustrating to find a compatible software that you prefer contrary to the sea of wonders Windows users can get. What would you do if your favourite presentation software refused to go along with your MacBook? Taking a huge load of Mac memory disk to install Windows system?

In fact, you don't need to go through all that hassle since we've put together this handy list of Mac presentation software that is powerful, easy to use and runs perfectly on all Apple devices.

Ready to wow your audience with free presentation software for Mac? Let's jump right in 👇

Table of Contents

• TouchCast Pitch
• Adobe Express
• Google Slides

Frequently Asked Questions

Tips for better interactive presentation.

• How to make a presentation interactive
• Interactive presentation techniques
• Interactive presentation ideas for students

Start in seconds.

Get free templates for your next interactive presentation. Sign up for free and take what you want from the template library!

App-Based Presentation Software for Mac

There's no place more convenient and friendly for Mac users than the default App Store. Explore some of the options without the hassle of going through the enormous app library we listed below:

#1 - Keynote for Mac

Top feature: Compatible with all Apple devices and has cross-platform sync.

Keynote for Mac is that popular face in your class that everyone knows, but not everyone is fully acquainted with.

Pre-installed as a complimentary on Mac computers, Keynote can be easily synced to iCloud and this compatibility makes transferring presentations between your Mac, iPad and iPhone incredibly simple.

If you are a pro Keynote presenter, you can also make your presentation come alive with illustrations and such with some doodling on the iPad. In other good news, Keynote is now exportable to PowerPoint, which allows for even more convenience and creativity.

#2 - TouchCast Pitch for Mac

Top feature: Make live or pre-recorded presentations.  

TouchCast Pitch blesses us with many quintessential online meeting features, such as intelligent business templates, real-looking virtual sets and a personal teleprompter, which is super helpful to ensure we're not leaving anything out.

And if you want to record your presentation without using a third-party recording app? TouchCast Pitch gives you the power to do that and polish it with their simple editing tool besides presenting live.

As with many other choices for presentation software for Mac, there are numerous templates to choose from. You can also create your presentation from scratch and show off your design skills.

You can make changes to your slides from anywhere, as this bit of kit is available to download straight from the App Store.

#3 - FlowVella for Mac

Top features: Mobile-friendly and Adobe Creative Cloud integrated with a multi-purpose template library.

If it's a quick and rich presentation format that you’re looking for, then try FlowVella . Whether you're presenting a pitch in front of investors or designing a lesson for the class, FlowVella lets you create embedded videos, links, galleries, PDFs and such at the touch of your fingertips. No need to pull out a laptop as everything is "drag-and-drop" simply on an iPad.

The interface for FlowVella on Mac isn’t quite perfect, some of the text is hard to read. But, it’s an intuitive system and if you’ve used any other kinds of software for presentations on Mac, you should be able to pick it up easily enough.

Also, thumbs up for their customer support. You can contact them via live chat or email and they'll address your problems quick as lightning.

#4 - PowerPoint for Mac

Top features: Familiar interface and file formats are widely compatible.

PowerPoint really is a staple for presentations, but to use it on your Mac, you will need to own a license for a Mac-compatible version of the presentation software. These licenses can be a bit pricey, but that doesn’t seem to deter people, as it's estimated that around 30 million PowerPoint presentations are created every day.

Now, there is an online version that you can access for free. The limited features will be enough for most simple presentations. But, if you put diversity and engagement to the front, you are better off using one of the many alternatives to PowerPoint software for Mac.

💡 Learn how to make your PowerPoint truly interactive for free . It's an absolute audience favourite!

Web-Based Presentation Software for Mac

Although convenient, the app-based presentation software for Mac's biggest weakness is they are only available to your own kind, which is a turn-off for any presenter who yearns for two-way interaction and lively engagement with their audience.

Our proposed solution is simple. Migrate your ordinary presentation to one of the best web-based presentation software for Mac below👇

#5 - AhaSlides

Top features: Interactive presentation slides all for free!

AhaSlides is a cloud-based interactive presentation software born from a group of tech guys who had experienced Death by PowerPoint firsthand

It gives you the means to create an interactive presentation with which your audience can respond to your questions using just their phones.

From live quiz options with leaderboards to brainstorming tools perfect for gathering opinions and adding Q&As , there’s something for every type of presentation.

For presenters in business, you could try adding sliding scales and polls that will contribute to real-time graphics when your audience interacts via their smartphones. If you’re exhibiting at a show or presenting in front of large numbers of people, this can be a great tool for gathering opinions and encouraging focus. It's great for any type of iOS device and it’s web-based – so it’s great for other systems tools!

So, Is there a Canva app for Mac? Of course, Yes!! 👏

Top features: Diverse templates and copyright-free images.

Canva is free presentation software for Mac that you’re after that’s all about design, then there are few options better than Canva. With a huge array of elements and copyright-free imagery available, you can drag and drop them straight into your presentation.

Canva prides itself on ease of use, so even if you’re not the most creative person in the world, you're still able to create your slides on the go with Canva's drag-and-drop functionality. There’s also a paid version if you want to access more templates and elements created by professional designers from around the world.

Even though Canva has the option to convert your presentation to PDF or PowerPoint, we recommend you present it straight from its website since we've encountered text overflow/errors in the designs while doing that.

📌 Learn more: Canva Alternatives | 2024 Reveal | Updated 12 Free and Paid Plans

#7 - Zoho Show

Top features: Multi-platform integration, minimalist designs.

If you are a fan of minimalism, then Zoho Show is the place to go.

One of the key differences between Zoho Show and some of the other web-based presentation software is its compatibility features. With integration to sites like Giphy and Unsplash , Zoho makes adding graphics directly to your presentations easy.

It’s a great option if you’re already using some of the Zoho suites, and therefore probably most suitable as a free presentation option for businesses.

Still, like Canva, Zoho Show also encounters the same problem with its export to PDF/PowerPoint feature, which often results in blank or damaged files.

Top features: Template library and animated elements.

Prezi is a bit of a unique option in this list. It's one of the top bits of linear presentation software out there, meaning you can see your presentation as a whole and head to different sections in fun and imaginative ways. 

You can also present live and overlay your video on the slides just like TouchCast Pitch . Their huge template library is a great bonus for most presenters getting started, but you likely won't be able to flex much creativity using Prezi's free version.

📌 Learn more: Top 5+ Prezi Alternatives | 2024 Reveal From AhaSlides

#9 - Slidebean

Top features: Business templates and a pitch deck design service.

Slidebean is designed mostly for businesses, but its functionality would be suitable for other uses. They provide pitch deck templates that you can reuse and repurpose for your own business. The designs are smart, and it’s no real surprise that they also offer a pitch deck design service.

It's simple to use and simple in its offerings. If you're keeping things simple, try it out!

#10 - Adobe Express (Adobe Spark)

Top features: Stunning templates and team collaboration.

Adobe Express (formally Adobe Spark) is quite similar to Canva in its drag-and-drop feature to create graphics and other design elements. Being web-based, it is of course a compatible Mac presentation software and also offers integration with other Adobe Creative Suite programs which is useful if you create any elements with Photoshop or Illustrator.

However, with so many design assets going on, the website can run pretty slowly.

#11 - Powtoon

Top features: Animated slides and one-click animation

You might know Powtoon from their video animation creation feature, but do you know that they also offer a different, creative way to design a presentation? With Powtoon, you can easily create video presentations with no skills from thousands of custom designs.

For some first-time users, Powtoon can be a bit confusing because of its overburdened interface. You'll need a bit of time to get used to it.

#12 - Google Slides

Top features: Free, accessible and collaborative.

With many features basically the same as PowerPoint, you won't have much trouble creating a presentation on Google Slides .

Since it's web-based, you and your team can seamlessly collaborate, comment or make suggestions for others. If you want to get interactive, Google Slides' plugin library also has different, fun third-party apps to integrate directly into the slides.

Just a warning - sometimes the plugin can make your presentation VERY laggy, so use with caution.

📌 Learn more: Interactive Google Slides Presentation | Set Up with AhaSlides in 3 Steps | 2024 Reveals

So, now you have more than enough interactive presentation software options for Mac – all that’s left is to pick a template and get started.

Which presentation software is a free product that you can install on your Windows or Mac computer?

Microsoft PowerPoint and AhaSlides.

Why do you need to use AhaSlides together with traditional presentation software?

To gain better attention, along with interaction with the audience during gatherings, meetings and classes.

Can I convert Keynote to PowerPoint?

Yes, you can. Open Keynote presentation, then  Choose File > Export To, and select the format .

Leah Nguyen

Words that convert, stories that stick. I turn complex ideas into engaging narratives - helping audiences learn, remember, and take action.

Tips to Engage with Polls & Trivia

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10 Best Mac PowerPoint Alternatives in 2024

Elise Williams

Pdfelement-powerful and simple pdf editor.

Get started with the easiest way to manage PDFs with PDFelement!

So, you have converted your PDFs to PPT files using Adobe Acrobat and are now trying to run the presentation. But what if MS PowerPoint stops working? That's where Mac PowerPoint Alternatives come into the role.

There's no second thought that Microsoft PowerPoint is one of the leading and trustworthy presentation software available for Mac. But eventually, it is also prone to errors and technical glitches, which is why users must be aware of some of its alternatives to avoid any last-minute hustle.

This guide will walk you through the top 10 Mac PowerPoint alternatives in 2024. Here, we'll compare features and prices to help you decide which one is the best fit for your needs.

In this article

Part 1. microsoft powerpoint for mac - create impactful presentations.

Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac is part of the Microsoft Office suite and a go-to app for presentations. It is used to create slideshows, which can be presented in person or over the internet. PowerPoint for Mac is equipped with various features, including slide transitions, animations, and multimedia support. It also has the ability to create presentations in Keynote format.

Main Features:

• MS PowerPoint features beautiful designs, cinematic motion, 3D models, rich animations, and icons to bring your ideas into reality.
• With PowerPoint for Mac, you can save documents to Microsoft OneDrive or other cloud-based storage options so you can access them whenever and wherever you want.
• It has a Dark Mode that allows you to create presentations in low-light environments.

It is a user-friendly application.

The tool allows you to add comments or assign tasks for easy modification.

With MS PowerPoint for Mac, you can seamlessly work with others in real time to execute your ideas together and faster.

This application faces technical issues very often, thus raising the demand for Mac PowerPoint Alternatives .

It doesn't allow you to make changes to the slides while the presentation is going on.

Plans & Price: You'll have to purchase Microsoft Office 365 subscription, which is available at $69.99 per year or $6.99 per month. If you don't want to sign up for a subscription, you can opt for Office 2021 Suite for $149.99 (Office Home and Student 2021) and $249.99 (Office Home and Business 2021).

Part 2. Top 10 Mac PowerPoint Alternatives

Choosing the best presentation software can be overwhelming, owing to a myriad of options available on the market. Hence, we've compiled a list of the top 10 Mac PowerPoint Alternatives . Read their features and description thoroughly and make an appropriate choice.

A leading online presentation tool, Prezi gives you absolute freedom from the sequential slide-deck format. It is an intuitive and dynamic interaction software that can help you streamline your workflow. Prezi allows users to create, edit, and share presentations in both online and offline modes.

Key Features

• It offers an ample selection of beautiful templates.
• This web-based presentation application can zoom in and out on your canvas with a virtual camera, thus making it easy to produce professional results.
• Instead of traditional sequential slides, Prezi gives you an innovative canvas format to lay out your ideas in a non-linear fashion.

Plans & Price:

• Plus (For Expert Visual Communications): $12/ mo
• Standard (For Personal Use): $7/ mo
• Premium (For Business Professionals): $16/ mo

Sozi is an open-source internet-based presentation application that uses JavaScript and SVG to play animated PPT files. The presentation content in Sozi is typically created using a vector graphics editor; hence it majorly focuses on graphics, rather than bullet points.

Key Features:

• Sozi gives more of a poster view where you can freely lay out the content and information.
• Since it mainly works on graphics, it allows you to focus on the elements you want to highlight while presenting the slides.

Plans & Price: It is available free of cost.

3. LibreOffice – Impress

Counted among the best Mac PowerPoint Alternatives , LibreOffice - Impress is an open-source office suite that costs nothing to use yet has a feature set that gives stiff competition to Microsoft 365. This suite comprises a word processor called Writer, a presentation app called Impress, and a spreadsheet editor called Calc.

• It has various editing and view modes, namely Normal, Outline, Notes, Handout, and Slide Sorter, which in turn makes editing easy and versatile.
• The application allows you to work on various graphical formats.

Plans & Price: It is available for free.

Marp is a Markdown Presentation Ecosystem that creates slides with Markdown. The tool is mainly created for software engineers and web designers to streamline the creation of presentations with customizable slide decks. It exports slides as PDFs, which you can then convert using any converter tool if required.

• It is a cross-platform tool, that works on Mac, Linux, and Windows.
• It supports two themes, namely Default and Gaia.
• The tool offers a Live preview with 3 different modes.

Plans & Price: Open-Source and free of cost

5. Reveal.js

The HTML Presentation Framework, Reveal.js is an open-source tool that enables users to create amazing presentations on the web. The slides created with this tool are based on open web technologies, which means you can do anything to create a fully-featured presentation.

• The framework offers a broad range of features, including nested slides, PDF export, speaker notes, syntax highlighted code, and more.
• With Reveal.js, you can auto-animate elements across slides, which further saves your time and effort.

Plans & Price: This presentation application is free to use.

Keynote is designed by Apple which automatically makes it one of the leading Mac PowerPoint Alternatives to opt for. It is equipped with the best-in-class slide-creation features and extensive built-in help text to create a stunning, feature-rich presentation.

• It includes a range of slide themes, stellar options for animation, and one-touch access to present a slideshow.
• This application supports real-time collaboration, so your team can work together.

Plans & Price: Keynote is completely free for Apple users.

7. Google Slides

Google Slide is a cloud-based office suite and is an excellent alternative to PowerPoint. It can be used to create, modify, and manage slides via a unified portal without having to worry about losing your work. Add Google Slides to your Mac App drawer and get stuff done anytime.

• It has strong collaboration capabilities, thus enabling you and your team member to work on the slide at the same time.
• The tool comes with powerful features and a sleek interface, making it suitable for both beginners and professionals alike.

Plans & Price: Google Slides is a part of Google Workspace, which is available for free for personal use. However, you can upgrade your plan to Business Standard by paying $12/ per user/ per month

It is cloud-based presentation software that lets you create a feature-rich presentation without having to install the software on your Mac. Its intuitive and sleek interface is packed with a myriad of features, thus making the tool simple to use.

• It allows you to add background images and uses a variety of designs and themes while creating a slide.
• With Slides, you can collaborate easily with other team members and customize any of the 10 default slide templates
• Lite: $5/ mo
• Pro: $10/ mo
• Team: $20/ mo

Looking forward to creating digital presentations without putting much time and effort? Turn to Emaze and create a stunning masterpiece in 30 minutes or less. It is equipped with an array of visual communication tools and design tools that add life to your flat presentation.

• It offers hundreds of professionally designed templates to fit any type of presentation.
• With its comprehensive HTML5 Editor, you can embed all types of rich media and live social feeds without any coding.

Plans & Price: Emaze classifies its plans into three categories, namely Basic, Business, and Edu.

• Basic Plan: Free
• Pro Plan: $9/ mo
• Business Plan: Depends on your business and use
• Pro: $9/ mo
• Executive: $30/ mo
• Business: $25/ mo for 5 users
• Enterprise Plan: depends on your enterprise
• Student Plan: $3/ mo
• Edu Pro: $6/ mo
• Edu Team: $4/ mo for 30 users
• Academic: Their sales team will tell the exact price, depending on the academic level.

10. Focusky

Let's wrap up the list of the top 10 Mac PowerPoint Alternatives with yet another next-gen online software, Focusky. It enables Mac users to design amazing presentations by using themes and layouts from their stock library

• With Focusky, you can add anything, such as text, images, links, roles, sounds, videos, or other media to make a professional presentation.
• It lets you create animated presentations in a mind-mapping style to capture attention.

Plans & Price: While a free version of the tool is available, users can upgrade their plans to unlock additional features.

• Standard: $9.9/ month
• Professional: $99/ year
• Enterprise: $399/ permanent

Bonus Part: Great Microsoft Office Complement - PDFelement for Mac

If you are looking for an MS Office compliment, then turn to the Wondershare PDF element and manage your PDF files on the go. It is a reliable, quick, and simple way to modify PDF files across multiple operating systems, including Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android. Moreover, you can either use it on desktop and Mobile or on the web browser.

It can easily change sizes, colors, and font styles in the PDF file to give it an entirely new look. The application is loaded with a plethora of features, which makes it an ideal choice for beginners and pros alike.

• It allows batch processing, which means you can convert or print multiple files simultaneously.
• With PDFelement, you can easily add passwords to keep your files safe from any unauthorized access.
• It supports faster file conversions to maximize efficiency.

Awards & Certificate:

• It has won Best Software Awards 2022 and is listed among the Top 50 Office Products
• PDFelement has also been recognized as the G2 Crowd Report 2022 Summer Leader and is known to be the Leader in Document Generation and PDF Editor.
• It also appears in the 2022 Software Advice FrontRunners List.
• Wondershare PDFelement also achieved the best Contract Management Software award.

That's all about the top Mac PowerPoint Alternatives . Compare the key features of all tools thoroughly and pick the option that fits your projects and budget well.

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Keynote vs. PowerPoint: Which Is Better for Mac Users?

By Danny Maiorca 0 comments Last updated October 22, 2022

You might need to create a presentation for several different reasons. It might be for your university thesis, or it could be an important one as part of your day job.

Related Reading:

• The Best Mac Apps for Creative Professionals
• How to Use Keynote on Mac: A Complete Guide
• Apple’s Biggest Announcements From WWDC 2022
• How to Use Notion for iOS: A Complete Guide
• How to Open a Keynote (.key) File in PowerPoint on Your PC

Keynote and PowerPoint are two of the best options when creating a presentation on your Mac. In this article, we’ll compare the pair of them.

Cross-Device Compatibility

User interface, templates available, learning curve, features for creating presentations, fonts available, collaboration opportunities, keynote and powerpoint: both offer unique things for mac users.

When looking at new software, pricing is one of the various things you’ll need to consider. And when it comes to cost, Keynote and PowerPoint differ significantly.

If you want to use Keynote, you don’t need to pay for the app. The only things you need are an Apple ID and an Apple device; after that, you can create as many presentations as you want – all for free.

You can, to an extent, use PowerPoint for free. But with the free version, you can only use it in a web browser. On top of that, you will also need to pay for PowerPoint to access all of its features.

When buying PowerPoint, you’ll need an Office 365 subscription. The pricing will vary depending on where you live and whether you choose the Personal or Family plan.

Most of us have relatively packed schedules these days, and we might want to continue editing the presentations we work on when away from our desks. Understanding where you can use Keynote and PowerPoint is crucial if you fall into that category.

If you have an iPhone or iPad, you can download both Keynote and PowerPoint for your device. But if you use non-Apple devices, things can get a little trickier.

In addition to Macs, you can use PowerPoint on Windows computers. However, Keynote is not available for these devices. Similarly, you cannot use Keynote on your Android device.

But if you have an Android smartphone, you can use PowerPoint there. So, you’ll need to determine whether you want to use the app on more than just your computer.

When discussing user interfaces, Keynote and PowerPoint differ quite significantly. As you might have expected, Keynote’s user interface is very sleek – and you can tell straight away that it’s a form of Apple software.

You will find many of the tools you need to edit your presentation at the top of your screen. However, you will also find a wide selection on the right-hand side.

Meanwhile, PowerPoint’s interface is a little more in-your-face and colorful. You will find most of the tools you need to edit your presentation at the top, and these typically feature across more than one bar.

Creating a presentation from scratch is handy, but let’s face it – there will be times when we simply cannot be bothered to do that. For those instances, or when you already know the specific style you’re going for, you might want to use a template instead.

Regardless of whether you use PowerPoint or Keynote, you will find a wide selection of templates available. Keynote’s themes are often bright and colorful, and you will find everything broken down into multiple categories.

Meanwhile, PowerPoint also has several templates to choose from. And in addition to those you see already within the app, you can download others to use instead.

When choosing any new piece of software, you must understand that you’ll almost certainly experience a learning curve in the beginning. But at the same time, you will probably want to ensure that the time you spend learning how to use a new tool is at a minimum.

PowerPoint and Keynote differ quite significantly in terms of difficulty. Keynote’s features are pretty simple to understand, and it shouldn’t take you too long to understand how everything works.

On the other hand, PowerPoint can be a little complex. The basics are simple to grasp, but its advanced tools are more comprehensive than Keynote. As such, you will need to think carefully about what your aims are – and whether you need the advanced tools anyway.

It would make little sense to write a comparison between Keynote and PowerPoint without talking about the specific features for creating presentations. And regardless of the tool you use, you’ll find a wide selection to choose from.

PowerPoint offers several useful tools to help you create presentations. You can change the fonts, for example – which we’ll talk more about later. But in addition to that, you can also add pictures and shapes.

When creating presentations with PowerPoint, you can also choose multiple layouts. Beyond that, you can select areas you want to move with a lasso tool – plus much more.

Meanwhile, Keynote has a wide range of features available as well. You can choose to fill the background with an image, and it’s also easy to change colors. Beyond that, you can insert tables, charts, and various other forms of media.

While you can use the first font you see in your presentation, that isn’t always the best choice. And in many cases, you will likely find that you want to adjust things as you go along.

Both Keynote and PowerPoint have various fonts that you can sift between when creating your presentations. In PowerPoint, you will find many of the same ones that you can choose from when using Microsoft Word. Examples include Arial, Times New Roman, and Comic Sans.

Meanwhile, Keynote also lets you pick between several fonts. You will find many of the more common ones, including Times New Roman and Arial.

Another thing you’ll want to consider when choosing your preferred software for creating presentations is how you can make it easier for others to gain access. This is especially crucial if you’re putting together a group presentation.

When using Keynote and PowerPoint, how you collaborate will differ slightly. With PowerPoint, you can add folders to your OneDrive. But beyond that, it’s also possible to send your presentations via email and file-dropping apps – once downloaded.

With Keynote, you can – if the other person is close to you physically – send presentations via AirDrop (as long as the other person has an Apple device). On top of that, you can invite people to edit the presentation via email, iMessage, and more.

That’s all we’ve got for our Keynote and PowerPoint comparison for Mac users. If you own an Apple computer, you will find plenty of value – regardless of the choice you make. And on top of that, you can use the pair of them on a wide selection of other devices.

When choosing an app for editing presentations, it’s important to understand different nuances. Pricing is essential, but you’ll also need to think about which templates you can use and the features available for putting your presentations together.

Related Posts:

Danny has been a professional writer since graduating from university in 2016, but he’s been writing online for over a decade. He has been intrigued by Apple products ever since getting an iPod Shuffle in 2008 and particularly enjoys writing about iPhones and iPads. Danny prides himself on making complex topics easy to understand. In his spare time, he’s a keen photographer.

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The Best Presentation Software to get in 2024

• March 28, 2024

Some of the best presentation software to get in 2024 includes Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, OfficeSuite Slides, Google Slides, and LibreOffice Impress. But, there are plenty of other choices out there, but knowing which one to go for can be difficult.

Well, we know a thing or two about building awesome decks, so join us as we take a look at the best presentation software you can get in 2024, what you should look for when making your choice, and what you may want to avoid.

Contents Toggle 1. What to look for in the best presentation software 2. The best presentation software in 2024 OfficeSuite Microsoft PowerPoint Apple Keynote Google Slides WPS Office Canva Prezi Beautiful.ai Zoho Show Polaris Office LibreOffice Impress Haiku Deck 3. Other considerations for presentation software

1. what to look for in the best presentation software.

Good presentation software should empower you to create clear, engaging, and impactful presentations, and not get in the way. When doing your research, here are some things you’ll want to keep in mind when narrowing down your final choice.

Is it intuitive? There’s a lot that goes into making a presentation shine, so if the interface makes it hard to find the features you want, the overall time you spend crafting your deck may be too munch. Instead, it’s better that you find something that’s easy to use, which drag-and-drop functionality, templates, and easy image integration.

Does it have many options? A good presentation uses a decent balance of text, colors, and images, so that when it comes to the big moment, you’ll be able to keep the attention of your audience. This is where templates come in handy, as that part will be done for you, so when choosing your solution, you’ll want to make sure you have the option.

Can you add animations? By incorporating cool transitions and animations, you can enhance the visual impact of your presentation. Of course, you’ll need to be careful about not over-using them, but it’s always good to have the option.

Is it easy to share and collaborate ? In most cases, a few people will be contributing to the building of a presentation at once, so the best presentation software choices will make sure that working together on a deck is as easy as possible, with cloud uploads, comments, and other methods.

Are there mobile versions? As above, you’ll want your presentation software to work with as many people as possible, and this includes mobile versions. It’s really handy to be able to work on your deck when on the go, even if it’s on an Android or iOS-based smartphone. And, this of course goes for collaborating with other contributors as well.

Does it have delivery tools? : Nailing your presentation also takes some preparation in terms of how you actually talk through your slides. For that reason, you’ll really want your presentation software to have features that let you rehearse your timings, and give you a presenter view as well.

Can you export to PDF? Many people like to share their presentations after the actual meeting is complete, so that clients and colleagues can refer back to the information inside. That’s why its very useful to have the option to convert to PDF, which safeguards the formatting for whoever wants to open it.

I s it compatible with other formats? With so many presentation software suites out there, it’s a good idea to make sure that anyone you work with will be able to open and edit the deck. So, when you choose your solution, you’ll want it to be highly compatible with other file formats and platforms to make sure that anyone who needs to work on it, can.

Is it well supported? The best presentation software options are the ones that receive regular updates, both for quality of life, and in terms of features. When looking at possible solutions, take a look at when it was last updated, and whether or not their is a good support team to talk to if needed.

2. The best presentation software in 2024

Alright, so we’ve talked about what you might be looking for. Here are the best options, which we want to say are not ranked by order.

OfficeSuite

OfficeSuite Slides is currently one of the best presentation software options on the market, as it offers a high level of compatibility, and robust support. As a direct competitor to global favorites such as Microsoft Powerpoint, it offers users a powerful presentation software that lets them create decks that suit their needs.

Available on all major platforms, and with simple cross-device working, it makes working with other people super easy, and, with both free and premium versions available, its an affordable option that easily fits in to a range of needs and budgets. And, it comes in a 5-in-1 office pack that also includes Documents , Sheets , Documents , Mail , and PDF .

• Cross-platform compatibility : OfficeSuite is available on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS, allowing you to create and edit presentations on various devices. It also allows the exporting of presentations to PDF format, ensuring wider compatibility and offline accessibility.
• Works with many file formats – Users with OfficeSuite slides won’t have to worry about opening different file formats, or sharing their work to those using other presentation software products.
• It’s easy to use: For users familiar with Microsoft Office, OfficeSuite Slides offers a similar interface, easing the learning curve.
• Strong feature set: The free plan includes essential features for creating presentations, such as text editing, pre-designed templates, animation tools, and multimedia integration.
• Ongoing support: OfficeSuite Slides has an active team working behind it, and regularly has feature updates throughout the year.

Considerations

• Free version has fewer features : While the free version is suitable for many use cases, anyone needing more functionality will need to upgrade to the Premium version, which is more affordable than many competitors.
• Potential for ads : To help support the development of OfficeSuite Slides, users may be served advertisements within the software.

Microsoft PowerPoint

The longstanding king of presentation software, PowerPoint offers a comprehensive feature set, robust functionality, and seamless integration with other Microsoft Office products. It’s ideal for users who need advanced customization options and familiarity with a widely used platform. However, getting a subscription isn’t as affordable as comparable products.

• Extensive compatibility: PowerPoint presentations can be viewed on most devices with minimal formatting issues.
• Feature rich: PowerPoint offers a wide range of tools for creating presentations, from basic slides to complex data visualizations and animations.
• User-friendly: The interface is relatively intuitive, and numerous tutorials are available to help beginners get started.
• Integration with other Microsoft products: PowerPoint seamlessly integrates with other Microsoft Office products, allowing for easy data transfer and workflow.
• Customization options: Pre-designed templates provide a starting point, and extensive customization options allow for personalized presentations.
• Cost : PowerPoint is part of the paid Microsoft Office suite, with a subscription-based payment model.
• Learning curve : While user-friendly, the extensive features can be overwhelming for users creating simple presentations.
• Template dependence : Overreliance on pre-designed templates can lead to generic presentations.
• File size: complex presentations with multimedia elements can become large files.

Apple Keynote

The most popular presentation software users on Mac, Keynote boasts a user-friendly interface, stunning design templates, and powerful animation tools. It excels at creating visually captivating presentations and integrates smoothly with other Apple products, but may struggle when seeking compatibility with other platforms or file types.

• Strong designs: Keynote excels at creating visually captivating presentations with beautiful pre-designed templates and intuitive design tools.
• Mac-friendly: Integrates seamlessly with other Apple products for a smooth workflow for Mac users.
• Powerful animations: Offers impressive animation tools to create dynamic and engaging presentations.
• Free for Apple users: Comes pre-installed on Mac computers, making it a cost-effective option for Apple users.
• Limited platform: Only available on Mac computers, restricting use for non-Apple users.
• Export quirks: Exporting presentations to formats like PowerPoint can sometimes lead to formatting or animation issues.
• Storage considerations: Presentations with complex animations and multimedia elements can take up significant storage space on your Mac.

Google Slides

Part of Google Workspace, Slides offers a user-friendly interface, real-time collaboration features, and cloud storage for easy access. It’s a great option for individuals and teams who value collaboration and accessibility while keeping their costs down. But, because it’s an online platform, an Internet connection will be needed to save your work and collaborate.

• Free and accessible: Part of the free Google Workspace suite, readily available to anyone with a Google account.
• Strong collaboration: Real-time co-editing allows multiple users to work on a presentation simultaneously, making teamwork effortless.
• Cloud-based convenience: Users can save and store their presentations online, accessing them from any device with an internet connection.
• Easy to Learn: Straightforward interface makes it perfect for beginners and non-designers.
• Limited offline functionality: While some features, such as editing works offline, full functionality need you to be connected to the Internet.
• Fewer design options: Offers a smaller selection of pre-designed templates and customization options compared to some competitors.
• Formatting concerns: Importing presentations from other software might lead to formatting issues.
• Security Considerations: Data security concerns for some users who might prefer presentations stored locally.

This free and paid software offers a familiar interface similar to PowerPoint, making it easy to learn for those already comfortable with Microsoft products. It includes a good range of templates, transitions, and animation tools, along with cloud storage and collaboration features (in the paid version).

While it might not have the same level of power as industry leaders, it’s a solid and cost-effective option for basic to moderate presentation needs.

• Free and familiar: Offers a free plan with a user interface similar to PowerPoint, making it easy to learn for those already comfortable with Microsoft products.
• Good range of features: Includes a good selection of pre-designed templates, transitions, and animation tools for creating engaging presentations.
• Cost-effective: Paid versions offer additional features and cloud storage at a more affordable price compared to Microsoft Office.
• Collaboration capabilities (Paid): Paid plans unlock real-time co-editing features, allowing multiple users to work on a presentation simultaneously.
• Limited features compared to leaders: While offering essential features, it might lack the advanced functionalities for data visualization, animation customization, or integrations found in industry leaders like PowerPoint.
• Limited free plan storage: The free plan offers limited cloud storage space, which might be insufficient for extensive presentations.
• Focus on Windows: Primarily designed for Windows users, the mobile app and web interface might have fewer features compared to the desktop version.

A popular design platform, Canva also offers a surprisingly robust presentation maker. It excels in creating visually appealing presentations with its vast library of templates and design elements, which are easy to use. There is a free plan that offers a good but somewhat limited range of options, with the choice to unlock more with the paid plan.

• Design-focused: Canva creates visually appealing presentations with a vast library of templates, graphics, and design elements.
• Free and freemium: Offers a free plan with a good range of features, with paid plans unlocking even more options.
• User-friendly: Intuitive drag-and-drop interface makes building slides quick and easy, even for design beginners.
• Multi-Purpose platform : Not just for presentations, Canva can also be used to create social media graphics, posters, and more.
• Limited storage in free version : The free tier of Google Workspace offers limited storage space, which can be a constraint for users with extensive documents or multimedia files. Upgrading to a paid plan unlocks increased storage capacity.
• Subscription model : Unlike some free and open-source alternatives, Google Workspace requires a paid subscription for access to its full feature set.
• Potential reliance on being online : While Google Workspace offers some offline functionality, core features and real-time collaboration require a stable internet connection.

Known for its non-linear canvas, Prezi lets you zoom in and out of different sections of your presentation, creating a more conversational flow for a more unique approach. It’s a good choice for decks that don’t require a strictly linear structure, but may be a little unconventional for more formal presentations.

Strengths :

• Non-linear storytelling: Offers a unique, non-linear canvas, allowing you to zoom in and out of different sections, which makes your presentation more engaging and creative.
• Visually engaging: Prezi presentations can be visually dynamic and interesting, ideal for capturing attention with an unconventional approach.
• Easy to learn: The basic functionality of adding content and zooming is relatively straightforward.
• Collaboration features: Offers basic co-editing functionalities for teamwork on presentations.

Considerations:

• Not great for complex presentations: While simple presentations are easy, structuring complex ideas with the non-linear format can require more effort.
• Navigation challenges: If not carefully designed, complex Prezi presentations might be confusing for viewers to navigate.
• Limited customization: Offers less customization compared to some competitors in terms of fonts, layouts, and animation styles.
• Limited offline access: Full functionality and offline access require a paid subscription.

Beautiful.ai

This AI-powered platform helps users with suggestions for design elements, layouts, and content based on your topic. It’s a great option for those who want a streamlined design process and a visually polished presentation, but as impressive as the technology is, further development is needed to make it even better.

• AI-powered design: Beautiful.ai utilizes artificial intelligence to suggest layouts, content, and design elements based on your topic, streamlining the design process and saving time.
• Polished results: Users can expect professional-looking presentations with a focus on modern aesthetics.
• Easy to use: The clean interface and intuitive features makes using the software easy, even for those with little deck building experience.
• Cloud-based working : Users can save and store their work online, and access it from any device with an Internet connection.
• Limited customization: While AI suggestions are helpful, the level of customization for layouts, animations, and brand elements might be limited compared to some competitors.
• Over-reliance on AI: The suggestions can be repetitive, and some users might prefer more creative control over the design.
• Subscription model: Beautiful.ai requires a paid subscription to access all features and export options.
• Focus on simplicity: May not be ideal for highly complex presentations requiring extensive data visualization or intricate animations.

A user-friendly and free presentation tool from Zoho, Show offers a good balance of features and ease of use. It’s a solid option for individual users or small teams who need a basic but functional presentation tool.

• Free and user-friendly: Zoho Show offers a free plan with a good range of features and a clean interface that’s easy to learn and navigate.
• Easy teamwork: Real-time co-editing capabilities allow multiple users to work on a presentation simultaneously, allowing them to fine-tune and edit as a group.
• Cloud storage: Saves and stores presentations online, accessible from any device with an internet connection.
• Decent integration: Integrates with other Zoho applications for a streamlined workflow, as long as you use the Zoho ecosystem.
• Design options: Provides a selection of pre-designed templates and customization options for fonts, colors, and layouts.
• Fewer features: Compared to industry leaders like PowerPoint, Zoho Show might lack some advanced features in animation, data visualization, or design customization.
• Potential for export issues: While exports are supported in various formats, occasional formatting issues might arise when exporting complex presentations.
• Limited free plan: The free plan restricts storage space and collaboration features, requiring paid upgrades for larger teams or extensive projects.
• Mobile limitations: While offering a mobile app, the web interface might be the primary focus for creating presentations.

Polaris Office

This free and paid mobile-first presentation software is a great choice for those who frequently create and edit decks on the go. It offers a user-friendly interface, basic design tools, and cloud storage with real-time co-editing capabilities. While the free version has limitations, the paid version provides more features and can be a good option for individuals or small teams who need a mobile-centric presentation solution.

• Mobile-first focus: Polaris excels at creating and editing presentations on the go with its user-friendly mobile app.
• Free and accessible: Offers a free plan with basic features, making it a good option for casual users or those who need to create presentations on their mobile devices.
• Real-time collaboration: The free plan includes basic co-editing features, allowing multiple users to work on a presentation simultaneously, even on mobile devices.
• Cloud storage and syncing: Saves and stores presentations in the cloud, ensuring accessibility across devices and facilitating collaboration.

Considerations :

• Limited features: Designed primarily for mobile use, Polaris Presentation lacks the advanced features for complex presentations found in desktop software.
• Limited offline functionality: While some features can be used offline, full functionality requires an internet connection for collaboration and cloud storage.
• Focus on simplicity: Might not be ideal for highly technical presentations requiring intricate details, complex data charts, or advanced customization.
• Mobile-centric interface: The web interface might have fewer features compared to the mobile app, prioritizing mobile creation and editing.

LibreOffice Impress

Part of the free and open-source LibreOffice suite, Impress offers a feature set comparable to OpenOffice and can be a good option for those who prioritize free and open-source software. It has a learning curve but provides a wide range of customization options and can be a powerful tool for experienced users.

• Free and open-source: LibreOffice Impress is completely free to use and modify, making it a budget-friendly and customizable option.
• Good set of features: Despite being free, Impress offers a good range of features for creating presentations, including text editing, animations, transitions, and basic data visualization tools.
• Cross-platform compatibility: LibreOffice runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems, making it a versatile option for users with any operating system.
• Large user community: Being an open-source project, LibreOffice has a large and active user community offering online support and tutorials.
• Steeper learning curve: Compared to user-friendly options, Impress has a steeper learning curve with a less intuitive interface.
• Limited design options: While customizable, Impress might lack the vast selection of pre-designed templates and design elements found in some competitors.
• Potential compatibility issues: Presentations created in Impress might not translate perfectly to other presentation software, requiring some formatting adjustments when sharing.
• Less frequent feature updates: Being open-source, updates might not be as frequent as with commercially developed software.

Haiku Deck is a web-based presentation tool that allows users to create presentations with a focus on visual design and simplicity. It offers a library of royalty-free images and encourages the use of concise text. This focus on visuals and brevity may help presentations resonate with audiences and leave a lasting impression.

• Visual focus: Haiku Deck offers a library of high-quality images, allowing users to create presentations with a strong visual component.
• Ease of learning: Haiku Deck’s straightforward interface makes it suitable for beginners to create presentations.
• Free features: Haiku Deck provides core functionalities through its web-based platform, catering to budget-conscious users.
• Focus on brevity: The platform promotes conciseness, potentially helping users stay focused on key messages and audience engagement.
• Limited offline use: While some features are available offline, full functionality requires an internet connection.
• Image focus: Haiku Deck might not be ideal for presentations that heavily rely on detailed charts, graphs, or intricate data visualization elements.
• Collaboration features: The basic plan offers limited functionalities for collaboration compared to cloud-based presentation software.
• Editing existing decks: Haiku Deck excels at creating new presentations from scratch, but editing existing presentations created in other software might be less efficient.

3. Other considerations for presentation software

Before starting your research, you’ll need to understand what it is you’re looking for exactly, and what you need.

Complexity of your presentations:

Basic slides: If your presentation relies on text, bullet points, and simple visuals, free presentation software like Google Slides, OfficeSuite, or Microsoft PowerPoint (in presentation mode) will do the job.

Advanced design: Presentations with complex data visualizations, animations, or custom layouts could need software with advanced design features. Popular options include Adobe InDesign, Keynote, or premium versions of OfficeSuite, or PowerPoint..

Collaboration needs:

Solo Project:  If you’re working alone, most presentation software offers basic collaboration features like saving to the cloud.

Teamwork: If you’re collaborating with a team, consider software with commenting, version control, and easy sharing. and version control.

Free options: Many free presentation software options exist, offering basic functionalities, including OfficeSuite, WPS, OpenOffice, Google Slides, and more.

Paid software: Paid presentation software offers a wider range of advanced features, customization options, so if you can afford it, premium versions of basic packages can make your working even easier.

Presentation style:

Linear presentation: Most presentation software caters to a traditional linear flow, where slides progress one after another.

Non-linear format: Some software allows for creating interactive or non-linear presentations. Consider tools like Prezi or Nearpod if you want viewers to explore the content at their own pace.

4. Summing up

There are plenty of great options above, and more than worthy of making our list for the best presentation software in 2024. Of course, what you go for ultimately depends on your needs and budget, but with a healthy mix of free and paid versions in the above, you’re sure to find the right solutions to make your decks fantastic.

Once you’ve picked your software, it’ll be time to put together your presentations. We recommend reading our articles on how to do master slides , and presentation do’s and dont’s to give you even more of an edge. Good luck!

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Score Microsoft Office for Windows or Mac for Nearly 90% Off

You can get your hands on a lifetime license to Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 on your PC for only $25.

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There are two versions of Office here. Mac users will get the Home and Business suite of apps, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams Classic and OneNote, while Windows users will get the Professional Plus version with additional apps like Publisher and Access. Just keep in mind that you won't get Microsoft Teams on the Windows version.

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This isn't the latest version of Office, but compared with signing up for the  Microsoft 365 subscription suite, which costs $7 a month or $70 a year for individuals, StackSocial's offer is a better deal. There is a free Microsoft Office online alternative out there that you can use, but it lacks several features. These days, Apple users can score Outlook as a free Mac app. Even so, the additional productivity apps available may make this bundle a sound investment.

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Kostenloses All-in-One Office Suite mit PDF-Editor

Bearbeiten Sie Word, Excel und PPT kostenlos.

Lesen, bearbeiten und konvertieren Sie PDFs mit dem leistungsstarken PDF-Toolkit.

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Wie kann man Microsoft Office kostenlos aktivieren? (Schritt-für-Schritt-Anleitung)

In der heutigen schnelllebigen digitalen Welt ist Microsoft Office für viele von uns zu einem unverzichtbaren Werkzeug geworden. Egal, ob Sie als Schüler Aufgaben bewältigen, als Profi wichtige Dokumente verwalten oder einfach jemand sind, der Tabellenkalkulationen erstellen muss – Microsoft Office steht Ihnen zur Seite. Aber hier ist der Haken: Obwohl es eine Premium-Suite von Anwendungen bietet, weiß nicht jeder, wie man es kostenlos aktiviert. Genau hier kommen wir ins Spiel. In diesem Leitfaden werden wir die Geheimnisse der kostenlosen Aktivierung von Microsoft Office enthüllen, damit Sie das Beste aus diesem leistungsstarken Werkzeugset herausholen können.

Teil 1: Was beinhaltet Microsoft Office?

Microsoft Office ist eine umfassende Suite von Produktivitätssoftware-Anwendungen, die von Microsoft entwickelt wurde. In der Regel umfasst sie die folgenden Kernanwendungen:

Microsoft Word: Ein Textverarbeitungsprogramm, das zum Erstellen und Bearbeiten von Dokumenten wie Berichten, Briefen und Aufsätzen verwendet wird.

Microsoft Excel: Ein Tabellenkalkulationsprogramm für Aufgaben im Bereich Datenanalyse, Berechnungen und Erstellung von Diagrammen und Grafiken.

Microsoft PowerPoint: Eine Präsentationssoftware zum Entwerfen und Präsentieren von Diashows, Präsentationen und visuellem Inhalt.

Microsoft Outlook: Ein E-Mail-Client und persönlicher Informationsmanager zur Verwaltung von E-Mails, Kalendern, Kontakten und Aufgaben.

Microsoft Access: Ein Datenbankmanagementsystem zur Erstellung und Verwaltung von Datenbanken, besonders nützlich zur Organisation und Analyse großer Datensätze.

Microsoft OneNote: Eine digitale Notizanwendungen zum Erfassen und Organisieren von Notizen, Skizzen und Ideen im Format eines digitalen Notizbuchs.

Microsoft Publisher: Ein Desktop-Publishing-Tool zur Erstellung von professionellen Publikationen, einschließlich Broschüren, Flyern und Newslettern.

Microsoft Teams: Eine Kollaborationsplattform, die Teamarbeit, Chat, Videokonferenzen und Dateifreigabe innerhalb von Organisationen erleichtert.

Microsoft OneDrive: Ein Cloud-Speicherdienst, der es Benutzern ermöglicht, Dateien und Dokumente über Geräte hinweg zu speichern, zu synchronisieren und zu teilen.

Microsoft SharePoint: Eine webbasierte Kollaborationsplattform, die für das Dokumentenmanagement, die Teamzusammenarbeit und die Erstellung von Intranets verwendet wird.

Die spezifischen Anwendungen, die in Microsoft Office enthalten sind, können je nach der vom Benutzer gewählten Edition oder Abonnementplan variieren. Darüber hinaus aktualisiert und verbessert Microsoft diese Anwendungen oft mit neuen Funktionen und Möglichkeiten.

Teil 2: Wie man Microsoft Office ohne Aktivierung verwendet

Wenn Sie nach einer Alternative zu Microsoft Office suchen, die es Ihnen ermöglicht, Microsoft Office Dateien, einschließlich Word-, Excel- und PowerPoint-Dokumente, zu öffnen, zu erstellen, zu bearbeiten und zu speichern, ohne dass eine Aktivierung erforderlich ist, ist WPS Office eine ausgezeichnete Wahl. WPS Office ist eine kostenlose Bürosuite, die vollständig mit den Betriebssystemen Windows und Mac kompatibel ist.

Vorteile der Verwendung von WPS Office:

Kostenloser Download und Nutzung: Eine herausragende Funktion von WPS Office ist, dass es komplett kostenlos heruntergeladen und genutzt werden kann. Sie können auf wichtige Office-Tools wie Word, Excel und PowerPoint zugreifen, ohne irgendwelche Kosten oder Abonnementgebühren zu zahlen.

Leistungsstarkes PDF-Toolkit: Neben den Standard-Office-Anwendungen bietet WPS Office ein robustes PDF-Toolkit. Sie können PDF-Dateien mühelos erstellen, bearbeiten und konvertieren, was es zu einem vielseitigen Werkzeug für die Verwaltung verschiedener Dokumentenformate macht.

Umfangreicher Vorlagenladen: WPS Office bietet eine vielfältige Auswahl an Vorlagen für Dokumente, Tabellen und Präsentationen. Diese Vorlagen können Ihnen helfen, Ihre Projekte mit professionell gestalteten Layouts zu starten.

Unterstützung für Online-Dokumente: WPS Office wurde mit Blick auf Zusammenarbeit entwickelt. Es ermöglicht Ihnen, an in der Cloud gespeicherten Dokumenten zu arbeiten und in Echtzeit mit anderen zusammenzuarbeiten. Diese Funktion ist besonders nützlich für Teams in der Ferne oder Einzelpersonen, die von mehreren Geräten aus auf ihre Dateien zugreifen müssen.

Sicher und Stabil: WPS Office ist für seine Stabilität und Zuverlässigkeit bekannt. Es bietet eine sichere Umgebung für Ihre Dokumente und stellt sicher, dass Ihre Arbeit vor unerwarteten Abstürzen oder Datenverlust geschützt ist.

Insgesamt bietet WPS Office eine kostengünstige und funktionsreiche Alternative zu Microsoft Office, was es zu einer beliebten Wahl für diejenigen macht, die die Funktionalität von Word, Excel und PowerPoint ohne die Aktivierung von Microsofts Suite nutzen möchten. Egal, ob Sie Schüler, Fachmann oder Gelegenheitsbenutzer sind, WPS Office bietet die Tools, die Sie benötigen, um produktiv zu sein, mit dem zusätzlichen Vorteil, kostenlos zu sein.

Wie man Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint in WPS Office verwendet?

Die Verwendung von Microsoft Word-, Excel- und PowerPoint-Dateien in WPS Office ist unkompliziert. Hier ist eine schrittweise Anleitung, wie man diese Dateitypen in WPS Office bearbeitet:

Schritt 1: WPS Office herunterladen und installieren

Wenn Sie es noch nicht getan haben, laden Sie WPS Office auf Ihren Computer herunter und installieren Sie es. Sie finden die Installationsdatei auf der offiziellen WPS Office -Website. Befolgen Sie die Bildschirmanweisungen, um den Installationsprozess abzuschließen.

Schritt 2: Starten Sie WPS Office

Nach der Installation starten Sie WPS Office, indem Sie auf das Symbol in den Anwendungen oder auf dem Desktop Ihres Computers klicken.

Schritt 3: Öffnen Sie eine vorhandene Microsoft Office Datei

Um eine vorhandene Microsoft Word-, Excel- oder PowerPoint-Datei zu bearbeiten, klicken Sie auf das entsprechende Anwendungssymbol innerhalb der WPS Office-Benutzeroberfläche (z. B. "Writer" für Word, "Spreadsheets" für Excel und "Presentation" für PowerPoint).

Schritt 4: Bearbeiten Sie die Datei

Sobald die Datei in WPS Office geöffnet ist, können Sie sie genauso bearbeiten wie in Microsoft Word, Excel oder PowerPoint. WPS Office bietet eine vertraute Benutzeroberfläche und ähnliche Funktionen, was den Bearbeitungsvorgang intuitiv macht. Sie können Änderungen am Text, der Formatierung, den Formeln oder den Folien vornehmen, abhängig vom Dateityp.

Schritt 5: Speichern Sie Ihre Änderungen

Nachdem Sie Ihre Bearbeitungen vorgenommen haben, gehen Sie zum Menü "Datei" und wählen Sie "Speichern" oder "Speichern unter", um Ihre Änderungen zu speichern. Wählen Sie den Speicherort aus, an dem Sie die Datei speichern möchten, und geben Sie bei Bedarf einen neuen Namen ein. Klicken Sie auf "Speichern", um zu bestätigen.

3 Möglichkeiten, Microsoft Office kostenlos zu aktivieren

Hier sind drei Methoden, um Microsoft Office kostenlos zu aktivieren, zusammen mit schrittweisen Anleitungen für jede Methode:

Methode 1: Verwendung eines Microsoft-Kontos

Schritt 1: Öffnen Sie eine Office-Anwendung

Starten Sie eine Microsoft Office-Anwendung wie Word, Excel oder PowerPoint.

Schritt 2: Melden Sie sich mit einem Microsoft-Konto an

Klicken Sie oben rechts im Anwendungsfenster auf "Anmelden".

Geben Sie Ihre Microsoft-Kontoinformationen (E-Mail und Passwort) ein oder erstellen Sie ein neues Microsoft-Konto, wenn Sie keins haben.

Schritt 3: Office aktivieren

Nachdem du dich angemeldet hast, wird Microsoft Office versuchen, automatisch über dein Microsoft-Konto aktiviert zu werden. Bei Erfolg wirst du eine Bestätigungsnachricht sehen, und Office wird aktiviert sein.

Erfahrung: Diese Methode ist einfach und benutzerfreundlich. Wenn du bereits ein Microsoft-Konto hast oder bereit bist, eins zu erstellen, ist dies eine unkomplizierte Möglichkeit, Office zu aktivieren. Es ist meine bevorzugte Methode wegen ihrer Einfachheit und Bequemlichkeit.

Methode 2: Verwendung des KMS-Client-Schlüssels

Schritt 1: Öffnen Sie die Eingabeaufforderung als Administrator

Drücken Sie die Windows-Taste, geben Sie "cmd" ein, klicken Sie mit der rechten Maustaste auf "Eingabeaufforderung" in den Suchergebnissen und wählen Sie "Als Administrator ausführen".

Schritt 2: Navigieren Sie zum Office-Installationsverzeichnis

Geben Sie im Eingabeaufforderungsfenster den Befehl "cd" ein, um zum Office-Installationsverzeichnis zu navigieren. Zum Beispiel:

cd C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16

Hinweis: Passen Sie den Pfad entsprechend Ihrer Office-Version und Installationsposition an.

Schritt 3: Verwenden Sie den KMS-Client-Schlüssel

Geben Sie den folgenden Befehl ein, um den KMS-Client-Schlüssel festzulegen (ersetzen Sie "XXXXX" durch den entsprechenden KMS-Client-Schlüssel für Ihre Office-Version):

cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:XXXXX

Schritt 4: Office aktivieren

Nachdem Sie den KMS-Client-Schlüssel festgelegt haben, aktivieren Sie Office mit folgendem Befehl:

cscript ospp.vbs /act

Schritt 5: Aktivierung überprüfen

Microsoft Office sollte jetzt aktiviert sein. Sie können den Aktivierungsstatus überprüfen, indem Sie eine beliebige Office-Anwendung öffnen.

Meine Erfahrung: Obwohl diese Methode die Verwendung der Eingabeaufforderung beinhaltet und einige technische Kenntnisse erfordert, ist es eine zuverlässige Möglichkeit, Office ohne ein Microsoft-Konto zu aktivieren. Es könnte jedoch für Benutzer, die nicht mit Befehlszeilenschnittstellen vertraut sind, nicht so bequem sein.

Methode 3: Verwenden der Eingabeaufforderung

Schritt 2: Geben Sie den Aktivierungsbefehl ein

Geben Sie den folgenden Befehl ein und drücken Sie Enter:

cd %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office16

Geben Sie den Aktivierungsbefehl entsprechend Ihrer Office-Version ein:

Für Office 2019:

cscript /nologo ospp.vbs /sethst:kms8.msguides.com

cscript /nologo ospp.vbs /act

Für Office 2016:

cscript ospp.vbs /sethst:kms8.msguides.com

Schritt 4: Aktivierung überprüfen

Office sollte nun aktiviert sein. Sie können den Aktivierungsstatus überprüfen, indem Sie eine beliebige Office-Anwendung öffnen.

1. Ist es legal, Microsoft Office kostenlos zu verwenden?

Die Verwendung von legitimen Methoden wie Office Online oder Bildungsrabatten ist legal. Einige Methoden wie die Verwendung von Produktschlüsselgeneratoren sind jedoch nicht legal.

2. Ist es legal, Microsoft Office kostenlos zu aktivieren?

Ja, es gibt legale Methoden, Microsoft Office kostenlos zu aktivieren, wie die Verwendung von Online-Anwendungen und Bildungsrabatten.

Fazit: Microsoft Office kostenlos aktivieren

Microsoft Office bleibt ein unverzichtbares Werkzeug in unserer digitalen Welt, und während legitime Methoden wie die Verwendung von Office Online oder die Nutzung von Bildungsrabatten beide rechtliche und verantwortungsbewusste Entscheidungen sind, ist es entscheidend, sich der potenziellen rechtlichen und sicherheitstechnischen Risiken bewusst zu sein, die mit nicht autorisierten Aktivierungsmethoden verbunden sein können.

Für diejenigen, die nach einer Alternative suchen, die Kompatibilität mit Microsoft Office-Formaten und eine Vielzahl nützlicher Funktionen kombiniert, erweist sich WPS Office als zuverlässige Lösung. Es bietet nicht nur die Möglichkeit, Word-, Excel- und PowerPoint-Dateien zu öffnen, zu erstellen, zu bearbeiten und zu speichern, sondern es verfügt auch über ein leistungsstarkes PDF-Toolkit, einen umfangreichen Vorlagenladen, Unterstützung für Online-Dokumente sowie ein Bekenntnis zur Sicherheit und Stabilität.

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