11 Apps & Presentation Programs Better Than Powerpoint

You’ve seen Microsoft PowerPoint before. You’ve probably used it for years. And you’re here because you wonder if there’s something better out there.

Is there any software for presentations better than PowerPoint?

Good news: there are.

The presentation software market has continued to evolve and innovate.

Newer players have entered the market, offering unique approaches and impressive capabilities.

Legacy players like Microsoft and Google Slides are lagging behind.

Today’s post reviews the top 11 presentation platforms other than PowerPoint, including seven paid and four free PowerPoint alternatives.

Ranking The Top Presentation Software Better Than PowerPoint

Paid Products

PowerPoint isn’t free, though sometimes it feels that way given how easily Microsoft grants access. So, to keep the playing field fair, we’ll start by reviewing apps like PowerPoint that offer paid plans, licenses, or subscriptions.

ProPresenter

Calling ProPresenter a “program like PowerPoint” is almost an insult: ProPresenter offers so much more, as a way to present your slides and with many other capabilities. As a presentation tool, ProPresenter includes an advanced slide editor that allows you to create and control impressive, dynamic slide and video presentations.

The user interface is powerful yet easy to learn: whether you need pro controls for editing or simple controls for running a show, ProPresenter has you covered.

ProPresenter also allows you to create unlimited unique outputs from a single presentation file: send one version of content to the main screens, another to a lobby feed, and even multiple Confidence Monitor outputs if you need them. No matter how complex your live presentation needs, ProPresenter can handle anything your hardware can.

ProPresenter is also a world-class streaming solution and software encoder: it can act as a hub for your live video inputs, and you can output to your favorite streaming solution directly from ProPresenter, no separate hardware or software required.

If you’re here because you want a program like PowerPoint that’s immensely more capable and powerful, ProPresenter is unlike anything else on the market and should be your first stop.

Prezi

Prezi is a little different than typical apps like PowerPoint — which can be good and bad, depending on what you want your presentation app to do. It’s perfect for nonlinear presentations that don’t feel or act like a traditional, linear slide deck. Prezi gives you a large canvas on which to build, and presenters can click, pan, and zoom their way through a presentation, triggering content and slides as the conversation dictates — not based on a pre-picked order.

Prezi does offer a free plan, but the paid plan is where most customers land. Since the pandemic, Prezi has pushed hard into video presentations, allowing users to show themselves via webcam over top of their presentations. If you need this capability and don’t want to mess with multiple apps and screen sharing, Prezi should be your top contender.

Beautiful.ai

Beautiful.ai uses artificial intelligence to predict your slide’s appearance as you make changes. Instead of nudging a text box or image carefully to ensure it lines up correctly, you drag it toward where you want it to go. Beautiful.ai predicts what you’re trying to do and places it perfectly.

For users who want to create beautiful presentations in a hurry without fussing with details, Beautiful.ai is a powerful tool. Of course, these automated, AI-driven features come at the cost of control. If the AI doesn’t read your mind, you could have quite the time getting it to do what you want.

If you want more automation than customization, Beautiful.ai is worth a serious look.

The app even includes viewer analytics at the standard paid tier, which is a nice touch for sales and marketing teams. The Team plan gets a little pricey but adds in collaboration features and allows you to set custom brand controls.

Powtoon

Powtoon is an intriguing presentation app that can be a powerful tool for anyone who needs to create presentation videos — not just slide decks — but doesn’t want to mess with proper video editing software. Powtoon offers an interface that looks an awful lot like a slide editor, but from that interface you’ll actually create animated video presentations.

Of course, the makers know that not every presentation needs to be a video, so it’s easy to toggle between slideshow and movie modes.

There is a free version of Powtoon, but it’s a glorified demo. Using the tool for anything meaningful (such as presentation-length videos or the ability to download or transfer those videos) requires the paid monthly subscription.

CustomShow

CustomShow is a sales-oriented presentation tool that puts branding and visuals front and center. It allows you to create presentations using your logo and branding, including custom fonts. CustomShow delivers analytics and integrates with numerous business tools, including Salesforce. It’s a cloud-based tool that can import PowerPoint files as well.

If you can’t get PowerPoint to reflect your brand, CustomShow will likely solve that problem for you.

ClearSlide

ClearSlide is another marketing-centric presentation tool with a heavy emphasis on metrics and user engagement. It’s a wide-ranging tool that can incorporate numerous file types, including PDFs and Excel files. You’ll get customization support similar to CustomShow’s, with potentially better metrics.

ClearSlide includes a lot of business-centric features that may or may not be relevant to your needs, and it can be a little harder to learn. Still, if marketing and metrics are a major factor for you, it’s worth a look.

Haiku Deck

Haiku Deck is a PowerPoint alternative that delivers the same basic results (linear slide decks), only easier, faster, and more beautiful. Haiku majors on keeping things simple, with streamlined editing controls based around predefined slide layouts and literally thousands of presentation templates (broken into categories, don’t worry).

Haiku Deck also connects you with over 40 million Creative Commons images, so creating stunning visual backgrounds is far easier than in PowerPoint. You do give up some granular control, so it might not be ideal if your needs are custom and precise. But if PowerPoint meets your output needs, Haiku Deck will too — just easier and better.

Free Apps Better Than PowerPoint

Sometimes there isn’t room in the budget to spend money on another app. Maybe you’re already paying for PowerPoint as a part of your Microsoft 365 license, but you still wonder if there’s something better out there.

Even within free presentation software, you’ll find some attractive options — and some of them deliver capabilities that PowerPoint doesn’t. None of these will match the professional capabilities of ProPresenter (multiple video outputs, livestreaming and encoding, and more), but if your needs are more modest, they may do the trick.

Canva

Canva is better known as a place to design graphics and Instagram posts; its presentation tool flies under the radar. Which is a shame, because for a web-based tool with a free plan, it packs a punch. Depending on what you need, Canva’s presentation tool is easily better than PowerPoint, and it’s among the best free PowerPoint alternatives we’ve seen.

Just like regular Canva, “free” comes with an asterisk: all the best graphics, presentation templates, background videos and animations and so forth require Canva Pro.

Zoho Show

Zoho Show is another highly capable free PowerPoint alternative. This online presentation tool lacks a desktop app, but you probably won’t notice. Zoho Show keeps the interface clean using a contextual UI, which makes it easy to create and present your slides. You can open existing PowerPoint presentations, which is a great benefit. And you can’t argue with the price.

Is Zoho trying to suck you in to their (not free) suite of tools? Absolutely. But if you can look past that element (and the inevitable sales pitches in your inbox), you’ll find a pretty impressive web-based presentation software solution.

Google Slides

Google’s alternative to PowerPoint is free for everyone, and “good enough” is the highest compliment you’ll hear about it. It’s lightweight, basic, and cloud-based and does all the office-oriented things you’d expect. It isn’t going to win any breakthrough awards, but it’s good enough for basic office or classroom presentations.

It’s comparable to PowerPoint, weaker in some areas and stronger in others. The one big advantage is cost: in Google Slides you’re getting “pretty much PowerPoint” but completely free.

Keynote

There isn’t a ton we need to say about Keynote: Apple’s alternative to Google Slides and PowerPoint creates more attractive presentations but uses an unfamiliar and sometimes confusing interface. It’s also Apple-exclusive, which can create compatibility issues if you need to present on someone else’s device (and that device doesn’t have an Apple logo on the back).

If you’re in an all-Apple environment and don’t feel constrained by the lack of features, Keynote is the way to go. If you need more features or compatibility, look elsewhere.

Ready to Ditch PowerPoint?

Looking at the available options for programs and apps like PowerPoint, one solution stands head and shoulders above the rest: ProPresenter.

ProPresenter’s slide editing capabilities are second to none (including real-time edits while you’re presenting), and you’re getting a whole catalog’s worth of additional pro-grade features that others don’t have or can’t match.

Ready to see ProPresenter for yourself? Download today and start your two-week unrestricted free trial.