Ranking the Best PowerPoint Alternatives for 2023

Credit given where it’s due: Microsoft PowerPoint is a powerful, long-lasting presentation tool that offers a lot to some users. It’s been around since 1990, and it enjoys a large user base thanks to Microsoft’s OS and Office productivity dominance in the workplace.

However, PowerPoint has its limits. And it wasn’t designed for many scenarios where it ends up being used.

Live productions and events, broadcasting, live streaming, weekly worship services, and plenty more: scenarios like these are looking for PowerPoint alternatives that can do more and look better at the same time.

Ranking the PowerPoint Alternatives to Consider in 2023

Whatever industry or space you’re in, if you’re looking for alternatives to PowerPoint presentations, this quick comparison guide will help.

1. ProPresenter

We’re biased, but hear us out. ProPresenter is the most capable, most powerful PowerPoint alternative on the market.

ProPresenter is the ideal choice for professionals, venues, houses of worship, and anyone in business or education that needs the pro-level features missing in PowerPoint and other solutions.

Check out just a few of the ways that ProPresenter outperforms the competition.

Advanced Professional Slide Editor

ProPresenter gives you the basic office functionality found elsewhere, but at a higher level. An advanced professional slide editor allows you more control and more power as you design slide decks.

Media Support and Video and Audio Inputs

There’s support for all sorts of media files, and those media files themselves are more powerful: you can assign video to the foreground or the background, set it on loop, or activate it on a timer or a click (or even event-based triggers).

Speaking of video, ProPresenter can handle live video and audio inputs, whether from streaming-centric hardware or from broadcast-quality hardware. In addition to the usual webcam and audio inputs, this includes professional video connections like SDI, NDI, and Syphon. With ProPresenter, you don’t need a third-party app to manage your live stream and integrate PowerPoint-style overlays. ProPresenter does it all, in one powerful cross-platform app.

Multiple Video Outputs

ProPresenter also outclasses the competition in terms of outputs. PowerPoint offers a single display output, and a single non-customizable, non-interactive presenter view on the primary device.

What does this mean for AV pros, and anyone else wanting more advanced capabilities? Simple: if you need to send other content to third, fourth, or more displays, you can.

PowerPoint isn’t built to make more than one view, let alone multiple views.

To achieve multiple outputs or views (such as for different video feeds in an event space) using PowerPoint files requires either separate devices running each show, or some combination of third-party software and video hardware.

ProPresenter is different. With ProPresenter, you can output to all your screens from a single computer.

With seven content layers of content, you can customize which layers display on which outputs, creating a wide range of possible display outputs within a single file and application.

Stage Screens

ProPresenter also offers robust, customizable stage views, which can include clocks, timers, speaker notes, musical chords, . You can even output multiple stage or producer views, giving you the ultimate flexibility even in tech-heavy environments.

That’s just the start of what sets ProPresenter apart — and we haven’t even told you about how ProPresenter performs as a software video encoder for live streaming. Additionally, some readers will be interested to learn about our platform’s wide range of features specific to houses of worship, like automatic lyric and copyright import, over 125 Scripture translations, remote controls, API connections, and more.

See more about what ProPresenter can do to transform your presentation environment.

2. Prezi

Prezi is a name familiar to many students, and the platform is working hard to break out of that niche. For those looking for free PowerPoint alternatives, Prezi might be worth a look: it does have a free plan, but most of its best features are reserved for customers on paid plans.

Prezi’s biggest selling point (prior to 2020) was its non-linear approach to building files. Where PowerPoint has always worked as a linear set of rectangular slides, Prezi was, and still is, different. Prezi gives users a giant canvas to work with, and individual “slides” can be positioned anywhere on that canvas. Zoom in on a single letter of your title slide, and your second slide could be displayed right there on the side of one of the letters.

Prezi also leans into nonlinear presentations: users can click, zoom, and pan all around their presentation if they want to interact with content “out of order,” or they can set a prescribed order and run shows on autopilot.

In 2020, thanks to the pandemic, Prezi pivoted hard into videoconferencing and video presentations. If you’d rather have a single interface rather than get your Google Slides or PowerPoint shows running in Zoom or Teams or some other video app, Prezi could be the solution. Just be aware that the video-sharing component imposes certain media limitations that might be a bit bewildering.

3. Google Slides

Google Slides is Google’s response to Microsoft’s PowerPoint, and it’s hard to argue with the price.

This web based utility is among the most popular free PowerPoint alternatives simply because Google makes it. Its strengths are integration with other Google products, but being browser based gives it significant weaknesses.

As with any free tool, there are limits. Google Slides won’t do anything beyond PowerPoint, like streaming support or multiple outputs or video presentations. (For that matter, it won’t do a decent number of things PowerPoint does support, like a high degree of creative freedom in slides.)

Are there better tools out there? Absolutely. But it’s hard to argue with the universality here: just about any device on the planet can open Google Slides — for free.

4. Zoho Show

Offered as a free tool in the hopes of enticing users into the broader Zoho ecosystem, Zoho Show is a PowerPoint alternative with some unique features.

You can design slide decks here using presentation templates (including a few predesigned templates), and there’s some ability to collaborate in real time, too.

In broadcast mode, presenters can offer webinars, meetings, and other informative presentations while offering viewers and attendees the ability to toggle through slides at their own pace. This is a great addition when an employee misses a key detail or a student needs a reminder on a name or place.

Zoho Show is a web based app as well, so it works on pretty much any modern device and modern browser.

The slide designer is minimalistic, relying on contextual suggestions for many aspects of design. If you’re looking for granular, professional-grade design tools, you won’t find them here.

5. Slide Dog

Slide Dog isn’t exactly a standalone PowerPoint alternative, but it still deserves a mention here. Once you leave the confines of Microsoft’s ecosystem for your presentation software needs, things can get a little messy. You may end up with multiple presentations in multiple file formats, but you need to turn them into a cohesive whole.

Slide Dog is built for this: it can import most types of presentation and multimedia files, pulling them into a playlist-style interface. Slide Dog even retains animations and transitions from popular file types like PowerPoint and Prezi.

If you need a way to pull multiple formats together and aren’t ready for a more fully-featured solution like ProPresenter, Slide Dog is worth a look. Just be aware that there’s no slide designer here at all: using Slide Dog means building content in another app, increasing app load and operational complexity.

ProPresenter: The Leading PowerPoint Alternative for Any Presentation Needs

If you’re looking for the best PowerPoint alternatives for 2022 — and you want to upgrade to a pro solution, not downgrade to a lightweight free app — then ProPresenter is unquestionably the top choice to consider.

Skeptical? Don’t take our word for it. See for yourself instead: download ProPresenter now and start your two-week, unrestricted free trial today.