presentation patterns software

Difference Between MVC and MVP Patterns

Last updated: January 8, 2024

• Architecture
• Design Pattern

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1. Overview

In this tutorial, we’ll learn about the Model View Controller and Model View Presenter patterns. We’ll also discuss the differences between them.

2. Design Pattern and Architectural Pattern

2.1. architectural pattern.

Architectural patterns are general, reusable solutions to commonly occurring problems in software architecture. These have an extensive impact on the codebase.

For example, these impact the software either horizontally or vertically. By horizontally, we mean how to structure the code inside a layer. Conversely, vertically means how a request is processed from outer layers to inner layers and back.

Some of the more common architectural patterns are MVC , MVP , and MVVM .

2.2. Design Pattern

Design patterns are usually associated with code-level commonalities. They provide various schemes for refining and building smaller subsystems.

Additionally, design patterns are medium-scale tactics that flesh out some of the structure and behavior of entities and their relationships. Some commonly used design patterns are the singleton , factory , and builder patterns.

Design Patterns differ from Architectural Patterns in their scope . They’re more localized and have less impact on the codebase. Instead, they impact only a specific section of the codebase. In the next section, we’ll talk about why we use these patterns.

3. Why MVC and MVP Patterns

The main idea behind the use of these patterns is the separation of concerns between the business and UI layers . These patterns provide us with features like ease of testing. They also hide data access.

We can say they’re more adaptable to change by isolating the major components. However, the biggest drawbacks are adding complexity and the learning curve.

4. MVC Pattern

In the MVC pattern, features are divided into three components based on three separate concerns. Firstly, the view is responsible for rendering UI elements . Secondly, the controller responds to UI actions . And the model handles business behaviors and state management .

In most implementations, all three components can directly interact with each other. However, in some implementations, the controller is responsible for determining which view to display.

The diagram below shows the MVC flow of control:

The model represents the whole business logic layer. The view represents the data fetched from the model. In addition, it handles presentation logic. Lastly, the controller handles control flow logic and updates the model.

MVC doesn’t specify how the view and the model should be structured internally . Usually, the view layer is implemented in a single class.

However, in that case, a couple of problems can arise :

• The view and the model are tightly coupled. As a result, feature requirements of the view can easily drip down to the model and pollute the business logic layer
• The view is monolithic and usually couples tightly with the UI framework. Thus, unit testing the view becomes difficult

5. MVP Pattern

The MVP pattern is a UI presentation pattern based on the concepts of the MVC pattern. However, it doesn’t specify how to structure the whole system. It only dictates how to structure the view .

This pattern separates responsibilities across four components in general. Firstly the view is responsible for rendering UI elements . Secondly, the view interface is used to loosely couple the presenter from its view.

Finally, the presenter interacts with the view and model, and the model is responsible for business behaviors and state management .

In some implementations, the presenter interacts with a service (controller) layer to retrieve/persist the model. The view interface and service layer are commonly used to make writing unit tests for the presenter and the model easier.

The diagram below shows the MVP flow of control:

The model is the same as in MVC and contains the business logic. The view is a passive interface that displays data. It sends user actions to the presenter.

The presenter sits between the model and view. It triggers business logic and enables the view to update. It receives data from the model and shows the same in the view. This makes testing the presenter much easier.

Still, there are some problems with MVP :

• The controller is often omitted. Because of the lack of a controller, control flow has also to be handled by the presenter. This makes the presenter responsible for two concerns: updating the model and presenting the model
• We can’t utilize data binding. If binding is possible with the UI framework, we should utilize it to simplify the presenter

6. MVC and MVP Implementation

We’ll understand the patterns with a simple example. We’ve got a product that we need to show and update. These actions are handled differently in MVC and MVP.

6.1. The View Class

We have a simple view class that outputs the product details. The view class for both MVP and MVC are similar:

6.2. MVP Model and Presenter Classes

Let’s now define a Product class for MVP that is responsible for the business logic only:

The presenter class in MVP fetches the data from the model and passes it to the view:

6.3. MVC Model Class

For MVC, the difference is that the view will get the data from the model class instead of the presenter class in MVP .

We can define a model class for MVC:

Notice the showProduct() method . This method handles the data passing from model to view. In MVP, this is done in the presenter class, and in MVC, it’s done in the model class.

7. Comparison Between MVC and MVP

There aren’t a whole lot of differences between MVC and MVP. Both patterns focus on separating responsibility across multiple components, hence, promoting loose coupling of the UI (View) from the business layer (Model).

The major differences are how the patterns are implemented and in some advanced scenarios. Let’s look at some of the key differences :

• Coupling: The view and the model are tightly coupled in MVC but loosely coupled in MVP
• Communication: In MVP, communication between the View-Presenter and Presenter-Model happens via an interface. However, the controller and view layer falls in the same activity/fragment in MVC
• User Input: In MVC, u ser inputs are handled by the Controller that instructs the model for further operations. But in MVP, user inputs are handled by the view that instructs the presenter to call appropriate functions
• Type of Relation: A many-to-one relationship exists between the controller and view . One Controller can select different views based upon required operations in MVC. On the other hand, the presenter and view have a one-to-one relationship in MVP, where one presenter class manages one view at a time
• Main Component: In MVC, the controller is in charge. It creates the appropriate view and interacts with the model according to the user’s request. On the contrary, in MVP, the view is in charge. The view call methods on the presenter, which further directs the model
• Unit Testing: Due to tight coupling, MVC has limited support for unit testing. On the other hand, unit Testing is well supported in MVP

8. Why MVP Has an Edge Over MVC

MVP has the slight upper hand over MVC in that it can break down our application into modules. Thus, we can avoid having to create views constantly. In other words, MVP can help to make our views reusable.

9. Conclusion

In this tutorial, we’ve seen the MVC and MVP architectural patterns and a comparison between them.

The example code is available over on GitHub .

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Cutting Edge

ASP.NET Presentation Patterns

Dino Esposito

This column is based on a prerelease version of the ASP.NET MVC Framework. All information is subject to change.

Inside an ASP.NET Event Handler The Original MVC Pattern Model2: A Web Variation of MVC ASP.NET MVC Framework vs. Manual MVC The MVP Pattern The Page Controller Pattern

In a layered Web app, the presentation layer is just as important as navigation logic, business logic, and data access. While you should try to keep the presentation layer (mostly the presentation logic) independent from the UI technology and platform, it's not always easy to do. Design patterns can help.

In this month's column, I'll examine some design patterns for building an ASP.NET presentation layer. I'll start with the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern—the root of all patterns specifically targeted to the UI—and discuss its applicability to ASP.NET beyond the ASP.NET MVC Framework.

Inside an ASP.NET Event Handler

An ASP.NET presentation layer is composed mostly of .aspx pages that are orchestrated by the HTTP runtime environment. A typical .aspx page, at some point, may place an HTTP request following a certain user's action (such as a button click or a list selection). In ASP.NET Web Forms programming, these events are usually handled by methods—event handlers—written in the codebehind class of the page. At first glance, it would appear that there's a direct connection between the user action and the system's reaction. While this may be true in desktop applications, it is not the case in ASP.NET.

In ASP.NET, a lot of things happen in the time between a user click and the display of an updated page—regardless of whether or not you're using AJAX. The flow of information is shorter, however, in ASP.NET applications that you build with the ASP.NET MVC Framework.

Let's consider a button click event. As a developer, you handle it by writing some code in the Button control's Click event handler. The code goes in the page's codebehind, like so:

You could place all the code for the required action here. Or, you could group all of this code in a static or instance method exposed by an object:

You could also organize the code that responds to the user's activity in controllers and actions:

I'm assuming that each page has its own controller component and that each controller has a list of public methods logically bound to a possible user action.

How would you let the controller know the state of the page and how the new view is generated? Button1_Click is invoked on the server after the user has clicked the button and the ASP.NET runtime has received and processed the corresponding HTTP request. The Button1_Click method is exposed by a class derived from System.Web.UI.Page. This class has access to UI controls.

Here's a simple change to the controller's signature that would enable the controller to access any public element in the page:

The controller's signature now receives a reference to the current ASP.NET page—the view. The controller method performs its work and then simply updates server controls. The standard page lifecycle of ASP.NET will do the rest and produce the HTML for the browser.

The Page Lifecycle

Figure 1 shows the main steps in the page lifecycle. Whenever an ASP.NET request hits the Web server and an HTTP handler is found to service it, the steps outlined in the figure are performed. As you can see, the code for a simple click of a button is only a small fraction of the whole ASP.NET infrastructure. You'll see in a moment that the page lifecycle represents a fraction of the work that the ASP.NET runtime executes to service each request.

Figure 1 The ASP.NET Page Lifecycle

Before the code in Button1_Click can execute, the ASP.NET runtime creates an instance of the Page class that holds the expected behavior for the requested URL. The Page class processes the request according to the steps in Figure 1 and uses your event handlers where appropriate.

In the Button1Clicked method in a controller class, you should be able to access any of the controls in the page with the same syntax you would use in a plain codebehind event handler. But members that reference UI controls (say, TextBox1) are not public members on the Page class. How can you make them accessible to a controller? You can implement a custom interface on the codebehind class that includes public properties for the UI controls you intend to manipulate from within the controller. Here's an example:

Figure 2 provides an example of the sample controller. In Button1Clicked, you do your regular ASP.NET Web Forms programming and determine the next view by simply updating the state of server controls. The logic of the page is now encapsulated in a separate class that can be developed separately from the page.

Figure 2 A Sample Class Acting as the Controller for a Page

This solution, though, is still tightly coupled to the controls in the page. Let's consider a refinement that refers to the Model-View-Presenter (MVP) pattern. I'll briefly recall the basics of the MVC and MVP patterns.

The Original MVC Pattern

The MVC pattern was devised back in 1979 as an approach to move away from catch-all, autonomous front ends. An autonomous view is a class that displays content, maintains state information for the view, and incorporates the full logic to handle any user actions from start to finish.

This code snippet lays the groundwork for an autonomous view:

With such a monolithic view, you can hardly build a testable presentation layer that's separate from the underlying layers. Applying the concept of Separation of Concerns (SoC) helps you to get the right combination of low coupling and high cohesion for any component, because it causes you to keep the various functionalities in their own layers rather than intermingled. Second, SoC makes it easier to implement a navigational workflow to decide which page comes next.

The original paper describing the MVC approach, " How to Use Model-View-Controller ," is available online. If you've never read it, I suggest you have a look at it regardless of your familiarity with the MVC philosophy. Today, MVC is considered a pattern for building a presentation layer, but it was originally meant for building complete applications. It's helpful to look at it in this light.

MVC is a loosely defined pattern that gives the architect much discretion over implementation details. This is probably why so many variations of MVC exist.

MVC splits the app into three parts—the model, the view, and the controller. The model refers to the application data, manages the application's functionalities, and notifies the view of state changes. The view is concerned with the content to display to users. Finally, the controller maps user gestures to actions on the model and updates the current view or selects the next view. These three actors are often referred to as the MVC triad. Figure 3 provides a graphical comparison between autonomous views and MVC applications.

Figure 3 From Autonomous View to MVC

In MVC, the user interacts with the view, and actions (such as a button click) are captured by the view and forwarded to the controller. The controller decides what to do and does it through an interaction with the model. The model is essentially the business layer plus some extra capabilities. In particular, the model notifies the view about changes that may require an update of the UI.

The model doesn't know any details of the view, but between model and view there's an "observer" relationship. In other words, the view holds a reference to the model and registers itself with the model to receive a notification of changes. When the notification is received, the view gets fresh data from the model and updates the UI. Figure 4 illustrates a sequence diagram of an MVC interaction. Note that in some MVC implementations , it's the controller that notifies the view of the changes.

Figure 4 A Standard MVC Interaction (Click the image for a larger view)

Model2: A Web Variation of MVC

MVC was devised to target desktop applications, but because of its relatively loose formulation, it was easily adapted for the Web. A popular Web variation of the MVC pattern is Model2. Model2 is the historical name of the pattern that fuels the ASP.NET MVC Framework today.

The Model2 pattern exposes the view to users through the browser. User actions are captured by the browser and transformed into a new HTTP request. In this way, requests flow from the browser to a special component (referred to as the front controller) sitting within the Web server. The front controller coordinates all of the requests that are made to the Web application.

In ASP.NET, the front controller takes the form of the URL-routing HTTP module. The HTTP module captures the request and routes it to the appropriate controller for the requested action to take place. As the action method returns, the controller orders the view to refresh and passes fresh data for the new UI. The output of the view is captured by the front controller HTTP module and sent back to the browser.

Figure 5 shows the sequence diagram for a typical Model2 interaction. You should note that the diagram includes only the general steps. For example, in the ASP.NET MVC implementation of the pattern, the URL routing component does some work in addition to using the controller.

Figure 5 The Model2 Interaction as in the ASP.NET MVC Framework (Click the image for a larger view)

A few differences exist between the original MVC and Model2. As you can see, there's no contact between the view and the model as in the MVC original formulation based on the aforementioned "observer" relationship. The user action is not captured and handled by the view. The controller renders the view and explicitly passes display data to it.

In ASP.NET, when you say MVC you should specify whether you mean Model2 or a manual implementation of MVC, as briefly explained in the beginning of this column. (If you'd like to read more on the MSDN Magazine article ASP.NET MVC Framework .

ASP.NET MVC Framework vs. Manual MVC

Is there any difference at all between using the ASP.NET MVC Framework and rolling your own implementation of the MVC pattern in order to have a controller class for each page (or for a group of pages)? In terms of SoC, I don't see any significant differences. In both cases, you have a controller class that is neatly separated from the view and the model that represents the gateway to the business or service layer.

In terms of testability, the Model2 pattern is preferable over the original formulation of the MVC pattern because of the neat separation it forces between view and model and because of an extremely thin view. This aspect alone makes code written for the ASP.NET MVC Framework extremely effective to test. Furthermore, in Model2 there's a sort of loose contract that can be established between the view and the controller. In the ASP.NET MVC Framework, this contract is represented by the ViewData container object or, better yet, by the ViewPage<T> base class for view classes.

Compared with ASP.NET Web Forms, a Model2 implementation is also faster to execute the requested action. In a Model2 implementation, all you need is a component that processes the HTTP request and invokes a controller. There's no need to create page classes dynamically; the lookup for the controller is based on a much simpler algorithm than the lookup of an HTTP handler in a Web Forms scenario. Likewise, you don't need the page lifecycle, the viewstate, or server controls. In a Model2 implementation, such as the ASP.NET MVC Framework, you have a much more agile runtime environment. Let's explore it further.

In an MVC scenario implemented over the Web Forms programming model, any user action originates an HTTP post. The Web server captures these requests and maps them to a page class. The Page class goes through its own lifecycle, as shown in Figure 1 . Next, the Page class figures out the right controller and invokes a method. The execution of the method modifies the model. The remainder of the page lifecycle involves refreshing the view.

In a Model2 scenario implemented with the ASP.NET MVC Framework, the generation of the next view is a much simpler process. The URL routing module parses the URL, determines from it the controller to use, and invokes an action on it. Then the controller collects new data for the new view and passes this information on. The view assembles some HTML that is then returned to the browser as the response to the captured request. The view is a passive subject that needs virtually no testing. Instead, you focus your testing effort on the controller.

Model2 is an excellent alternative for improving the testability of an application. However, what if you still need the Web Forms runtime environment with its support for Session, Cache, server controls, and even viewstate that you get with the MVC pattern? Does this mean that you have to abandon SoC and testability? Certainly not. You can opt for the other variation of MVC that I mentioned at the outset—the MVP pattern. It applies to Web applications without requiring an ad hoc runtime.

The MVP Pattern

The original formulation of MVC has one key weakness: the mechanism that updates the view. The flow of information you observe in Figure 4 shows that the view communicates the user gesture to the controller but receives a notification of changes from the model. Next, the view needs to leverage its intimate knowledge of the model to grab updated data and refresh itself. MVP is a variation of MVC that separates the elements of the triad more cleanly. Figure 6 displays the typical interaction between the actors in an MVP model.

Figure 6 The MVP Pattern in Action (Click the image for a larger view)

In MVP, the view forwards user input to the presenter, and from the presenter it receives fresh data for updates. In turn, the presenter services the request by interacting with the model.

In the original MVC, there's no explicit contract that states which data the view needs. In MVC, the view holds a reference to the model and runs its own logic to select the data it needs and massage it into UI elements. Equipped with this logic, the view is not as passive as it should be for testing purposes. In addition, the view depends, to some extent, on the underlying UI platform.

In MVP, the presenter is essentially the mediator between end users and applications. The presenter has the power to render the view and interact with the model. As a result, most of the presentation logic lives within the presenter. Because the presenter is a plain class with no UI, it is an inherently more testable class. You can see a practical implementation of the MVP pattern in ASP.NET in the August 2006 MSDN Magazine Design Patterns column . MVP is natively supported by the Microsoft Web Client Software Factory, which is a collection of ASP.NET-related application blocks. An MVP QuickStart is available on MSDN.

MVP is a general UI pattern that, unlike Model2, is not specifically designed for the Web. Model2 (the ASP.NET MVC Framework) and MVP are nearly the same thing. Interestingly, neither was originally designed to be a general-purpose pattern.

Technically speaking, there's just one difference between Model2 and MVP: the contract between the controller (called the presenter in MVP) and the view. The contract is loosely defined in Model2 and formally defined in MVP.

In MVP, the view implements an interface, and the presenter talks to the view using only the members on the interface. So, for example, the presenter reads input data in the view using methods and getters in the interface and sets new values for the view using methods and/or setters in the interface. In Model2, you use a strongly typed container.

With MVP, the presentation logic gains independence from the UI platform, so it's easier to reuse the same presenter across different platforms. In addition, the same presenter can work with different views of the same application thus enabling Software as a Service (SaaS) scenarios. Finally, with MVP you have a component—the presenter—that may store some logic for navigation between pages. Whether you implement the logic internally or use a Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) component is up to you.

The Page Controller Pattern

MVC, Model2, and MVP are patterns external to the design of the ASP.NET runtime. The Web Forms programming model of ASP.NET is based on yet another design pattern—the Page Controller pattern. The Page Controller pattern entails the creation of a central object (the dynamically created class that inherits from your codebehind class) that handles all HTTP requests directed at a specific Web page (see Figure 7 ).

Figure 7 The Page Controller Structure

If you customize this pattern, you may get some benefits in terms of logic reuse across pages, including the navigation logic. You can customize it by simply creating a hierarchy of Page classes and incorporating navigation and presentation logic in the classes higher up in the hierarchy to make that logic available to derived classes. A customized page controller may be a good way to improve the reuse of presentation and navigation logic without switching to a full new pattern.

Applying MVP means essentially designing the codebehind class of pages in a different way by implementing an interface on the Page class and using a separate component—the presenter—to handle user gestures. No changes occur to the runtime environment, as the request is routed to the codebehind class in the usual way.

Creating an ASP.NET MVC Framework project means entering changes to the runtime environment to enable a front controller—the URL routing module—to resolve the request in terms of an action on a controller. Both options have an impact on the development of the application.

The first issue to assess is whether you need viewstate and server controls. There might be situations where you prefer not to deal with them. As an example, if you have no server controls, styling the UI using CSS is much easier. Using AJAX with server controls is currently easier than with an ASP.NET MVC Framework solution. Applications with a lot of data entry or complex table-based views are not so easy to build without rich server controls. So it is ultimately a trade-off. The key question is whether you need server controls and viewstate. There's no obvious answer.

If you decide you'd better stick to Web Forms and still want some SoC, then MVP is for you. MVP is an important UI pattern that may be a bit expensive to implement in relatively simple applications. On the other hand, MVP shines in enterprise-class applications where you really need to reuse as much presentation logic as possible, across multiple platforms and in SaaS scenarios.

Send your questions and comments for Dino to [email protected] .

Dino Esposito is an architect at IDesign and the coauthor of Microsoft .NET: Architecting Applications for the Enterprise (Microsoft Press, 2008). Based in Italy, Dino is a frequent speaker at industry events worldwide. You can join his blog at weblogs.asp.net/despos .

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Exploring the MVC, MVP, and MVVM design patterns

Understand the intricacies of the presentation patterns available to build applications that are loosely coupled, easier to test and maintain.

The user interface often contains a lot of cluttered code primarily because of the complicated logic it needs to handle. The presentation patterns are design primarily with one objective in mind, reducing the complex code in the presentation layer and making the code in the user interface clean and manageable. In this post, I will present a discussion on the MVC, MVP, and MVVM design patterns and highlight when one should be the design of choice over the other.

Model View Controller

The Model View Controller (commonly known as MVC) framework helps you to build applications that are easier to test and maintain. It comprises of three major components, namely:

• Model — this is the layer that represents the application’s data
• View — this represents the presentation or the user interface layer
• Controller — this layer typically contains the business logic of your application

The primary objective of the MVC design pattern is separation of concerns to facilitate testability. The Model View Controller design pattern enables you to isolate the concerns and makes your application’s code easier to test and maintain. In a typical MVC design, the request first arrives at the controller which binds the model with the corresponding view. In the MVC design pattern, the view and the controller makes use of strategy design and the view and the model are synchronized using the observer design. Hence, we may say that MVC is a compound pattern. The controller and the view are loosely coupled and one controller can be used by multiple views. The view subscribes to the changes in the model.

Model View Presenter

The MVP (Model View Presenter) design pattern also comprises of three components – the model, the view and the presenter. In the MVP design pattern, the Controller (in MVC) is replaced by the Presenter. Unlike the MVC design pattern, the Presenter refers back to the view due to which mocking of the view is easier and unit testing of applications that leverage the MVP design pattern over the MVC design pattern are much easier. In the MVP design pattern, the presenter manipulates the model and also updates the view. There are two variations of this design. These include the following.

• Passive View — in this strategy, the view is not aware of the model and the presenter updates the view to reflect the changes in the model.
• Supervising Controller — in this strategy, the view interacts with the model directly to bind data to the data controls without the intervention of the presenter. The presenter is responsible for updating the model. It manipulates the view only if needed — if you need a complex user interface logic to be executed.

While both these variants promote testability of the presentation logic, the passive view variant is preferred over the other variant (supervising controller) as far as testability is concerned primarily because you have all the view updated logic inside the presenter.

The MVP design pattern is preferred over MVC when your application needs to provide support for multiple user interface technologies. It is also preferred if you have complex user interface with a lot of user interaction. If you would like to have automated unit test on the user interface of your application, the MVP design pattern is well suited and preferred over the traditional MVC design.

Model – View – ViewModel (MVVM)

The Model – View – ViewModel (MVVM) is a variation of Martin Fowler’s Presentation Model design pattern. The MVVM is a refinement of the popular MVC design and the ViewModel in MVVM is used to facilitation Presentation Separation. In the MVVM the logic is stored in the presenter and the view is completely isolated from the model. While the presenter isn’t aware of the view, the view is aware of the presenter — the presenter in MVVM is used to represent an abstract view of the user interface. A passive view implies that the view doesn’t have any knowledge of the model. In the MVVM design pattern, the View is active and contains behaviors, events and data binding information. Note that the view in MVVM is not responsible for managing the state information — the view is rather synchronized with the viewmodel. The viewmodel in MVVM is responsible for presentation separation and exposes methods and commands to manage the state of a view and manipulate the model.

How does the view and the viewmodel in MVVM communicate? Well, the view and the viewmodel in MVVM communicates using methods, properties and events. The bi-directional databinding or the two way databinding between the view and the viewmodel ensures that the models and properties in the viewmodel is in sync with the view. The MVVM design pattern is well suited in applications that need support for bi-directional databinding.

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Joydip Kanjilal is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in ASP.NET, as well as a speaker and the author of several books and articles. He received the prestigious MVP award for 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012.

He has more than 20 years of experience in IT, with more than 16 years in Microsoft .Net and related technologies. He has been selected as MSDN Featured Developer of the Fortnight (MSDN) and as Community Credit Winner several times.

He is the author of eight books and more than 500 articles. Many of his articles have been featured at Microsoft’s Official Site on ASP.Net .

He was a speaker at the Spark IT 2010 event and at the Dr. Dobb’s Conference 2014 in Bangalore. He has also worked as a judge for the Jolt Awards at Dr. Dobb's Journal. He is a regular speaker at the SSWUG Virtual Conference , which is held twice each year.

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Difference between MVC and MVVM

When to use mvc vs mvvm vs mvp, development of android applications: mvc, mvp, and mvvm, to conclude, architecture presentation patterns: mvc vs mvp vs mvvm.

Krunal Shah

Nov 18, 2020

6 min read Last Updated Jan 23, 2023

Android application development is an ever-evolving field that requires developers to stay up to date on the latest trends and technologies. In recent years, there has been a major shift in the way that Android applications are developed, and three of the most popular design patterns are Model-View-Controller (MVC), Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM), and Model-View-Presenter (MVP). Each of these design patterns has its advantages and disadvantages that make it suitable for certain types of applications. In this article, we will compare and contrast the three design patterns to help developers decide which one is best for their Android application development needs.

No matter how elegant and crisp the code is, the end-users are never going to interact with it. They interact with links, images, buttons, lists, etc. Thus, the users base their experience of software or an app on the number of clicks it takes them to accomplish a task, navigation, and easy-of-use. This makes the UI architectural patterns of utmost importance. The three most common types of architecture design presentation patterns are MVC (Model View Controller), MVP (Model View Presenter), and MVVC (Model View View Model). Here is a quick infographic depicting a comparison of MVC vs MVP vs MVVM design patterns.

MVC is the most well-known and widely used design pattern. It consists of three components: the Model, View, and Controller. The Model is responsible for storing and managing the application data, the View is responsible for displaying the data received from the Model, and the Controller is responsible for coordinating the interactions between the Model and the View. MVC is well-suited for applications that require data to be stored and accessed in multiple locations and requires a high degree of code reusability.

MVVM is a variation of the MVC design pattern and is also known as Model-View-ViewModel. It consists of three components: the Model, View, and ViewModel. The Model is responsible for storing and managing the application data, the View is responsible for displaying the data received from the Model, and the ViewModel is responsible for handling user interactions and updating the View. MVVM is best suited for applications that require a high degree of user interaction and require the View to update frequently based on user input.

Finally, the Model-View-Presenter (MVP) design pattern is the newest of the three design patterns. It consists of three components: the Model, View, and Presenter. The Model is responsible for storing and managing the application data, the View is responsible for displaying the data received from the Model, and the Presenter is responsible for handling user interactions and updating the View. MVP is best suited for applications that require a high degree of user interaction and require the View to update frequently based on user input.

See More: Software Development Teams Structure: What’s The Right Approach?

The main difference between MVC and MVVM is the role of the controller. In MVC, the controller is responsible for managing the interactions between the view and the model, while in MVVM, the view model acts as a controller, mediating the interactions between the view and the model. The view model is also responsible for handling user input and interactions, and for updating the view accordingly.

MVC is a more traditional approach and is often used for applications with fewer user interactions. It is also simpler to implement, as the controller is responsible for managing the interactions between the view and the model.

On the other hand, MVVM is a more modern approach that allows for more complex user interactions. It is also more flexible and can be used for larger and more complex applications.

See More: DevOps Monitoring Best Practices: All You Need to Know

The choice between MVC, MVP, and MVVM depends on the requirements of the application and the type of user interactions it needs to support.

MVC is the most basic approach and is suitable for applications with fewer user interactions. It is simpler to implement and is more suitable for smaller and simpler applications.

MVP is a more complex approach and is suitable for applications with more complex user interactions. It is more flexible and can be used for larger and more complex applications.

MVVM is the most modern approach and is suitable for applications with complex user interactions. It is also more flexible and can be used for larger and more complex applications.

See More: How To Test Business Idea Like App Idea Without Development?

MVC, MVP, and MVVM are some of the most popular Android application development architectures used by developers. Each architecture has its advantages and disadvantages that must be taken into consideration when developing an Android application.

MVC stands for Model View Controller and is a type of software architecture that divides the application into three main components: Model, View, and Controller. The Model represents the data and business logic of the application, the View is responsible for the presentation layer of the application, and the Controller is responsible for the communication between the Model and View. MVC is a great architecture for Android application development, as it allows for a separation of concerns and encourages code reuse.

MVP stands for Model View Presenter and is similar to MVC, with the addition of a Presenter layer. The Presenter layer is responsible for the logic of the application and how the Model and View interact. MVP is a great architecture for Android applications that require a lot of interaction between the Model and the View.

MVVM stands for Model View ViewModel and is similar to MVP, but with the addition of a ViewModel layer. The ViewModel layer is responsible for the communication between the Model and the View. MVVM is an excellent architecture for Android applications that require a lot of data manipulation and communication between the Model and the View.

When choosing which architecture to use for your Android application, it is important to consider the complexity of the application and the type of interaction between the Model and the View. MVC, MVP, and MVVM all have their advantages and disadvantages, so it is important to choose the one that best fits your application’s needs.

Choosing the right architecture presentation pattern for your application is an important decision. MVC, MVP, and MVVM all have their advantages and disadvantages, and the choice between them depends on the requirements of the application. For Android applications, MVC is suitable for simpler applications, MVP is more suitable for applications with more complex user interactions, and MVVM is suitable for applications with complex user interactions.

In summary, each of the three design patterns – MVC, MVVM, and MVP – has its advantages and disadvantages and is best suited for certain types of applications. Developers should consider the needs of their application before choosing a design pattern.

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10 Best Presentation Tools to Create Engaging Presentations in 2024

Are you looking for an idea to make your presentation stand out? Invest in high-quality presentation software if you value your company presentations. The finest presentation tools include Haiku Deck, Visme, Prezi, Canva, Google Slides, and Microsoft PowerPoint.

In this guide, you will learn how to use reliable presentation software that will facilitate communication amongst team members and the rapid creation of visually appealing slide decks. It will make your PowerPoint presentation more eye-catching and memorable.

What are Presentation Apps?

Presentation apps are dedicated software that streamlines the presentation-making and -delivering processes. With its many included features, such as multimedia integration, interactive elements, and pre-made templates, it’s easier to provide a persuasive presentation. To choose the finest presentation applications, check if they enable you to generate presentations highlighting the solution. For various purposes, including corporate meetings, academic lectures, and public speaking engagements, these apps provide a digital canvas for organizing and showcasing information and ideas in an aesthetically appealing way.

How to choose the right presentation app? User-friendly interface Pick a presenting app with a simple, straightforward UI if you’re starting. Customization options Any good presentation programme will let you personalize it with its extensive settings. Multimedia features Make sure that your presentation software can easily incorporate multimedia components. Compatibility It is suggested that users should take advantage of deals that work with several operating systems, including Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.

Best Presentation tools in 2024

Microsoft PowerPoint

PowerPoint, a program included in Microsoft Office, is a popular choice for creating presentations. It’s known for having a lot of features and being able to make strong designs. You can access the PowerPoint presentations saved on your hard drive using the free presentation programme that is available online.

Key features of Microsoft PowerPoint:

• If you want to take your presentations to the next level, use Copilot to convert Word documents into presentations and make slides from outlines or prompts.
• Create a more engaging presentation by incorporating 3D objects and animations straight into the presentation.
• Transform your handwritten notes into text with the help of voice, touch, and ink for a more natural presentation experience.
• Learn to speak more confidently with the help of AI-powered coaching that critiques your tempo, word choice, and other abilities.

Pricing of Microsoft PowerPoint: Free version Personal plan starts from $6.99/month, which includes PowerPoint and other Office apps with premium features Family plan starts from $9.99/month One-year licence for Powerpoint- $159.99

One new way to express stories visually is with the help of Prezi, an online presentation production tool. Unlike traditional slide-based presentations, Prezi’s non-linear canvas allows users to zoom, pan, and make fluid connections between concepts.

Key features of Prezi:

• One thing that makes Prezi stand out is its zoom and pan capability. It lets users make presentations that are both active and visually beautiful.
• Presenters can create their custom paths, letting them decide the sequence in which slides are shown to the audience and even adding special effects like pinching and zooming in and out.
• Using visual aids like charts and graphs, Prezi easily conveys complicated material interestingly.

Pricing of Prezi: For individuals & business professionals Standard plan starts from $5/month Plus plan starts from $12/month. Premium plan starts from $16/month.

Google slides

You can access the presentation software Google Slides with your Google account. The Google Workspace users who work with Google Docs and Sheets may explore Google Slides as an extension of these tools.

Key features of Google Slides:

• There are presentations in the library of ready-made templates that can be used for various reasons, from business presentations to educational materials.
• Users can utilize them as a presentation foundation, simplifying the creation process.
• Google Slides allows users to collaborate instantaneously by letting them work on presentations simultaneously, add comments, and change them from anywhere.
• Users can easily find them in the comprehensive version history if they need to roll back to an earlier version.

Pricing of Google Slides: Business plans start from $6 to $18/month.

Beautiful.ai

Beautiful.ai is a presentation tool that tries to make it easy to create visually appealing and professional-looking slides with little to no work. Its collection of innovative templates and design ideas is one of its main assets.

Key features of Beautiful.ai:

• Several formats, such as PDF and PowerPoint, are available for users to export their presentations, guaranteeing compatibility with a wide range of systems and presentation tools.
• Beautiful. AI is used to generate smart recommendations for design.
• By analyzing users’ content, an AI algorithm may propose design layouts that optimize the placement of text, photos, and other elements to create visually appealing slides.
• With the option to export in many formats, including PDF and PowerPoint, users can ensure that their presentations will work with a multitude of platforms and tools for presentations.

Pricing of Beautiful.ai The Pro plan starts from $12/month The team plan starts from $40/month. The ad hoc projects and pro features starts at $45/month.

Canva Presentation is an intuitive and powerful platform for making eye-catching presentations. Users of all skill levels may use Canvas’s drag-and-drop intuitive interface to create aesthetically pleasing presentations thanks to the app’s well-known simplistic design and creative versatility.

Key features of Canva

• Users can effortlessly incorporate multimedia assets like photographs, icons, videos, and graphics into Canva Presentation, allowing them to construct aesthetically pleasing presentations.
• Colours, typefaces, and layouts are all up for grabs with comprehensive customization choices, so users may make it their own.
• Aside from that, you may make your slides more engaging by using animation and transition capabilities.
• Users may make sure all of their presentations have the same look and feel with the help of the Brand Kit tool. For convenience, this involves storing brand colours, logos, and typefaces.
• Several formats, such as PowerPoint and PDF, are available for exporting presentations that are finally ready.
• Any group project or remote team would benefit from Canvas collaboration tools, which enable team members to work together in real time.

Pricing of Canva: The Canva Pro plan starts from $12.99 per month Canva Teams pricing starts from $14.99 per month.

Zoho Show is an application for modern teams to use for collaborative presentations. It combines features for professional slide design, team collaboration, and device compatibility. Because of its adaptability and robust features, it is an excellent option for companies and schools that value effective presenting tools.

Key features of Zoho

• Collaborate in real-time, remark in context, and receive fast notifications to stay in sync with your team.
• For more interesting data-driven slides, try adding audio and movies, making animations, and using infographics.
• Showcase content on smart TVs through mobile devices
• No formatting or content loss occurs during the import of PowerPoint files.

Pricing of Zoho: Free plan Professional plan starts at $2.2 per user/month

Haiku Deck is an app for presentations that prioritizes visual narrative with minimalism. It offers a simple platform for making visually appealing presentations in the workplace or the classroom. Thanks to the supplied images, your interactive presentations can now centre on enormous graphics.

Key features of Haiku Deck

• Enjoy a clean, straightforward design that can help you get creative.
• Use polished design components such as typefaces, layouts, and picture filters.
• Quickly and easily create eye-catching presentations with access to thousands of pre-made themes.
• You can get over 40 million free Creative Commons pictures.
• Share and get to any connected gadget with ease.

Pricing of Haiku Deck: Pro plans start from $9.99 per month. Premium plans start from $29.99 per month.

Ludus takes presentations to a new level by combining the classic slide deck style with interactive and multimedia features. The presentation program has many multimedia features that let users add films, audio, and other things to make presentations that people can’t stop talking about.

Key features of Ludus:

• Unfortunately, Ludus does not come with any pre-design templates. Users must begin from scratch by utilizing smart blocks to generate patterns.
• Suppose you want to add movies from YouTube, Vimeo, or Giphy to your presentation. In that case, Ludus is an excellent choice because of its integration capabilities.
• Ludus is built entirely on the cloud.

Pricing of Ludus: Ludus offers a 30-day free Trial for new users. Personal plan starts from $14.99/month.

Powerful and versatile, Visme is an all-in-one authoring tool and presentation program. Slide libraries, a library of presentation templates, and content blocks give users access to Visme’s many built-in graphic elements, which are separated into many styles.

Not only that, but Visme also lets users make whiteboards, animated infographics, digital papers, interactive reports, and a plethora of editable templates.

Key features of Visme

• Discounts are available from Visme for educational institutions, non-profits, and students.
• Although Visme is primarily a cloud-based platform, a desktop version is also available.

Pricing of Visme: Free Trial lets you create up to three projects. Starter plan starts from $12.25 per month Pro plan starts from $24.75 per month

In contrast to other slide design tools, Slidebean streamlines and automates the process, making it easy to create professionally-looking presentations. Using Slidebean’s automation tools, designers can save time and effort while working more efficiently.

Key features of Slidebean

Automatic layout creation, content recommendation engines, collaborative platforms, and presentation deck-specific layouts.

Pricing of Slidebean: The all-access plan starts from $228/year

It’s tough to say which presentation program is the best. While Publuu is excellent for showing off presentations, other presentation tools are required to make them. Presenters can use good tools when plenty of options are available.

FAQ’s

What is the most commonly used presentation software today.

The most popular presentation program, Microsoft PowerPoint, is compatible with various file types. Since PowerPoint is so widely used, the program you select must support it.

What are the new technologies for presentation?

Technology for presentations has also begun to follow a similar pattern. Modern technologies such as holograms, virtual reality, and augmented reality enhance the presentation, leaving a lasting impression on the audience. Experience, not publicity, is what the modern audience expects.  

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The 11 Best Presentation Software to Use in 2024

The ability to effectively share ideas, illustrate a concept, and convince an audience is invaluable whether you’re a student or a C-level executive. These days, the presentation software you use to create presentations is just as important as your public-speaking skills.

On top of that, most companies have transitioned to remote work recently due to the current coronavirus situation, and now need to share their stories online through a virtual conference room with their distributed teams and external audience members.

That’s why we’ve come up with a list of some of the best presentation software available right now, so you can choose a compatible and innovative presentation maker that includes the best presentation tools to suit your specific needs.

Choose the best presentation software by weighing the pros and cons

You’ll see some of the most popular presentation apps: from free to paid subscription platforms, and slideshow applications to full-blown visual design presentation software with interactive features and more.

Each presentation software has its pros and cons, so it’s up to you to figure out which suits your needs best; consider the software learning curve, whether your company is made up of Mac users or Windows users and the software compatibility, if you need an enterprise account or free account, etc.

Let’s dive in!

1. Piktochart

Piktochart is a presentation software that can create a variety of design visuals, from infographics to social media stories.

An area in which Piktochart shines is crafting unique presentations. 

On Piktochart, users can choose from a wide range of professionally-designed presentation templates .

These custom templates include everything from monthly marketing reports to employee onboarding templates.

This broad selection of customizable templates is especially useful for those who don’t have much design experience or know-how but need to create a visually stunning unique presentation in a pinch. 

Piktochart’s presentation maker also makes it easy to edit presentations and include design elements such as lists, timelines, comparisons, graphs, and different types of charts through drag-and-drop tools.

You can even make visual maps and interactive charts to keep your audience engaged throughout your presentation. 

And if your company uses a Piktochart TEAM plan , you can enjoy the platform’s ability to store brand assets , color schemes, and bespoke templates. Here, replicating company-branded visuals is a breeze. 

Piktochart comes with a free version but with certain limitations. Active visuals are capped at five per month and published visuals have a Piktochart watermark.

If you want features such as team template collaboration, project sharing, and annotated commenting, you’ll have to get a Team account. To sum it up:

• Lots of professionally-designed templates 
• Good for both design professionals and non-professionals 
• Easy to store brand assets and bespoke templates for future presentations
• Access presentation tools from anywhere via a web browser
• Free presentation app version available
• Might take some getting used to if you’re used to PowerPoint presentations

2. Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is often the first presentation software that comes to mind.

Once considered the “O.G.” and best presentation software available, it is still widely used and has a familiar interface—which means most users are comfortable with it. 

This presentation app has everything you need to create a presentation: from animated transitions for interactive presentations to pre-installed fonts and graphic elements.

Users can also upload their own fonts, graphics, and images into their finished presentation.

Lastly, it’s available as part of the Microsoft Office software package; and you can work on your presentations via the web and mobile devices, for offline viewing as well as online. 

However, PowerPoint is no longer considered the best presentation software, as it has very few templates to choose from, and these tend to fall quite flat compared to modern apps and software.

It’s easy to fall back into boring slideshow PowerPoint files if you don’t know what you’re doing.

And because most people use PowerPoint, you’re likely using the same template as the next guy. 

As standalone presentation software, PowerPoint is pricey at US$139.99—and accessible through only one device unless you upgrade your package.

And while PowerPoint is primarily a slideshow application and presentation maker, its strengths are limited to this category. 

So if you’re looking for the best presentation software, and bang for your buck for a robust presentation tool, you might want to look elsewhere. 

• Market leader in slideshow applications to create slides
• Widely used and familiar interface for the presentation process
• Reliable and usable on most devices as well as being a desktop app
• Flat templates
• Limitations with its standalone-presentation software price

3. Google Slides

Google Slides is a slideshow application that is very similar to PowerPoint.  But there are three main differences: it’s fully online (while also allowing for offline viewing), collaborative, and free. 

The great thing about Google Slides (besides the fact that it’s completely free for anyone with a Google account) is that you can log on via your browser or through its official app. 

You can access all Google Slides presentations from any device (mobile, tablet, and desktop), and share them with other people so you can collaborate in real-time. 

Google Drive allows all your presentations to live on the cloud, accessible to all marketing and sales teams, with unparalleled ease of use.

And there’s no need to worry about disruptions as all changes are saved as they happen, as long as you have an active internet connection. 

Additionally, anyone familiar with PowerPoint will be comfortable using Google’s iteration and likely be delighted by Google Drive and the slide library available. 

It’s also a lot simpler, so even those new to presentation-making will find it easy to navigate. 

However, some might find Google Slides too simple as it lacks the wealth of features available on PowerPoint. 

These include embedding videos from sources other than YouTube, plus adding audio tracks and sound effects, limiting the ability to create unique interactive presentations. 

Some users also encounter issues with downloading and exporting to different formats, including PowerPoint. 

Some slides may even turn out completely different from the original version. 

All in all, Google Slides is a great option for those who are looking for a free application and only need to create simple presentations. 

• The free plan supports professional presentations
• Web-based and collaborative to create presentations
• Simple and familiar interface for an online presentation software
• Too simple for advanced presentation making
• Difficult to export to other formats
• Limited templates and customization options for interactive content

You could say Keynote is Apple’s version of PowerPoint. It’s also a slideshow application—but in typical Apple fashion, it comes with a sleek, minimalist interface and is considered one of the best presentation apps on the market. 

There are 30 different themes to choose from, which serve as templates for those who need a quick fix. And it can do most of what PowerPoint can. 

Keynote’s main perk is that it’s part of the Apple ecosystem. 

That means it has built-in iCloud and Apple Watch support so users can control their presentation from their mobile device or even their wrists with just a click. 

This presentation app comes pre-installed on most Mac devices. Otherwise, you can purchase it from the Apple store for just US$9.99 for mobile and US$19.99 for OS X. 

The big downside is that Keynote is exclusive to Mac OS. 

Non-Apple users can create, upload, and sync their own Keynote presentations through their iCloud Drive, but this presentation app is only truly helpful only for those who use multiple Apple devices. 

And if you’re used to working on PowerPoint, you might find Keynote a bit confusing in the beginning, especially when editing presentations. 

• Sleek, minimalist interface 
• Free with most Apple devices
• No access for PC and Android devices except through iCloud

5. SlideDog

Sliding away from straightforward slideshow applications and other presentation apps, SlideDog is a web-based multimedia presentation tool that lets users combine different types of media to create and edit presentations. 

This includes everything from PowerPoint decks to videos and even PDFs that can all be played side by side without any awkward transitions. 

It’s also extremely easy to customize a SlideDog presentation. 

You just need to upload the files into the SlideDog web browser application, and then drag and drop them according to the order in which you want them to play. 

You can control your presentations and playlists from another device, and audience members can view your slideshow on their devices by clicking a link. 

SlideDog has a free presentation app version that provides all of the basic features. 

However, live sharing and premium support are only available with a Pro account that costs US$99 per year, and not via the free version alone.

While SlideDog is technically considered presentation software, you can’t actually create presentations on it. 

You can simply stitch together different pre-made presentations in various formats into what is essentially a playlist. 

Lastly, SlideDog supports only Windows devices, so Apple and Linux users can’t use it. 

• Supports a lot of different media
• Provides live-sharing
• More dynamic compared to the usual slideshow presentation
• Only collates media; doesn’t create them

6. Haiku Deck 

Ever come across presentations with size-eight fonts and blocks of indecipherable paragraphs on each slide? 

You can avoid such an unfortunate scenario with Haiku Deck. 

HaikuDeck is a web and mobile application that favors images over text. 

It works by limiting the number of words users can put on each slide, and allowing them to search for images on their platform related to the slide’s main idea. 

This makes it ideal for those who want to simplify their thoughts and let the images do all the talking. 

Users have over 40 million royalty-free photos to choose from, plus dozens of simple slide layouts on the platform itself. 

While this certainly simplifies the process of creating a visually rich presentation, it can be limiting for those who need to include more information into their slides. 

It’s a great option for someone giving a TED Talk, for example.

But for others who need to pass on more facts and figures, having a built-in word limit might be too restrictive.  

• Simple and easy to use 
• Access to millions of royalty-free stock images
• May be too simple for some
• No Android support
• Limited features

7. Prezi Business

Among the other presentation software on this list, Prezi Business might be one of the most unique presentation tools. 

Rather than offering a regular slideshow format, Prezi looks more like a 3D interactive mind map where viewers jump dynamically from one idea to the next. 

You can zoom in on one “slide” and then zoom out for the next. 

Prezi has over 100 templates to choose from and comes with a very simple interface and a drag-and-drop style of editing. 

It’s compatible with both Mac and PC desktops as well as smartphones. 

It’s also similar to a regular PowerPoint deck in that you can jump back and forth from one “slide” to the next. 

And like SlideDog, you can send viewers the link to the presentation as you’re presenting. 

Also, up to 10 people can work on a Prezi presentation at the same time, one of its main selling points. 

This is great for collaboration, but having so many hands-on deck at once can get messy. 

• Dynamic and immersive presentations
• Highly visual
• Easy to use
• May not be appropriate for all types of presentations

In a world of slides and presentations, standing out is the key. Ludus brings the flair of graphic design into the world of presentations.

At its core, Ludus is the bridge between presentation tools and design software. It enables users to infuse their slides with the kind of design elements you’d typically find in advanced design platforms.

Not only can you import assets from design giants like Adobe, but its seamless integration with tools like Unsplash and Giphy makes sourcing visuals a breeze.

It’s a fairly affordable tool for all its features compared to the other paid options in this list, as users pay 12.49 euros monthly (if billed annually).

However, while Ludus’ robust design capabilities can elevate the look of your presentation, those unfamiliar with design tools might find there’s a learning curve.

• Merges presentation creation with advanced design tools.
• Seamless integration with popular design platforms and visual databases.
• Offers a unique edge in presentation aesthetics.
• Might be a tad overwhelming for non-designers
• Can have a steeper learning curve for those used to more straightforward platforms

9. Slidebean

Crafting a compelling presentation demands not only compelling content but also a design that can captivate your audience. Enter Slidebean.

Slidebean offers an intelligent design solution, using AI to transform raw content into professionally styled presentations. This platform streamlines the design process, allowing you to focus on the message rather than fretting over aesthetics.

The basic plan is free and allows you to create a presentation. But if you want to share or download your presentations, as well as unlock the full suite of features, you’ll need to sign up for the All-Access plan priced at $199 per year.

While it provides a quick and efficient method to produce polished slides, it also offers features for sharing, collaboration, and viewer analytics, adding an edge to your presentation strategy.

However, for professionals who prioritize granular design control, the automated design might feel limiting at times.

• AI-driven design ensures visually appealing presentations.
• Features for collaboration and viewer insights.
• Efficient design process reduces time and effort.
• Might not offer the detailed design customization some users desire.
• Automated choices may not always align with specific branding or style preferences.

10. ClearSlide

Having great visuals to drive your point home can be the difference between getting a sale across the line or customers walking away. ClearSlide stands out in this area as a presentation tool for businesses laser-focused on boosting their sales and marketing game.

At its core, ClearSlide is all about leveling up business presentations. Whether you’re marketing a new product or tracking client engagement, it’s got tools that cater to every need.

Whether it’s a PowerPoint, a PDF, or something from Google Drive or Dropbox, ClearSlide makes it simple to upload and work with these files.

The unique edge? ClearSlide’s virtual meeting space pops open with just a click. It’s all about seamless, professional presentations without the hassle.

Beyond just slides, the platform dives deep into metrics and analytics, ensuring every presentation is backed by data-driven insights. And the tool is available for $35 per month, which isn’t too pricey for medium-sized businesses.

However, its complexity isn’t for everyone. For some, the variety of features might seem a tad overwhelming, and its focus on metrics might be a bit much for those just wanting a basic presentation tool.

• Seamless virtual meetings and presentations
• Integrates with popular platforms
• Offers insightful analytics for sales and marketing
• Might feel complex for some users
• Limited transition and design effects
• Mobile experience could be better

Stepping into the world of animation, Vyond, once known as GoAnimate, allows users to turn their narratives into professional animated videos. For those looking to elevate their content without diving deep into animation complexities, Vyond can be the go-to tool.

This platform is more than just drag-and-drop animations. It integrates AI capabilities with Vyond Go, which transforms text prompts into rough-cut videos.

Fancy a quick draft for your upcoming project? This AI assistant is up for the task. And if perfection is your game, take it to Vyond Studio, filled with an array of characters, templates, and backgrounds.

The Essential Plan at $25 per month is suitable for individuals on a budget. However, if you want to export videos at 1080p and above, have collaboration tools, or different export options, you’ll need to sign up for the Professional Plan at $92 per month.

As robust as the tool is, there are still some kinks to iron out. AI voiceovers might still need some tweaks, and detailed color customizations can be a bit tricky, but the tool’s strengths, especially for businesses, are undeniable.

• Hassle-free video creation for beginners to experts
• Generous library of pre-made assets
• AI-powered video and script creation with Vyond Go
• AI voiceovers might feel a bit robotic
• Some customization limitations for specific props and scenes

The best presentation software is…

 …completely up to you! 

When it comes to presentation software, the world is your oyster. 

Each of these tools either has a free or trial version for you to check out, so you don’t have to commit just yet. 

When it’s time to choose, consider the following aspects to find the right presentation software for you: 

• Ease of use. Is it easy for you to understand or will it require lots of training before you can start creating presentations? 
• Accessibility. Can you access your presentation software from any device or are you limited to carrying your laptop to every presentation? 
• Real-time collaboration. Can multiple people work on the same project or do you have to keep downloading and emailing drafts? 
• Create design tools. Can you create presentations with dynamic design elements or are you stuck with the same kind of slide each time? 
• Template availability. Is this tool only accessible to a design professional or can anyone create stunning presentations through pre-designed and updated templates? 

Piktochart , for example, would be a fantastic presentation software choice among the long list of PowerPoint alternatives for teams looking for a variety of eye-catching designs without requiring much technical know-how. Meanwhile, Microsoft PowerPoint might be the best presentation software for those who are just looking to play it safe. 

Hopefully, this best presentation software list sheds some light on the tools at your disposal. Choose wisely! 

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Presentation Patterns: Techniques for Crafting Better Presentations 1st Edition

• ISBN-10 0321820800
• ISBN-13 978-0321820808
• Edition 1st
• Publisher Addison-Wesley Professional
• Publication date August 15, 2012
• Language English
• Dimensions 7 x 0.6 x 9 inches
• Print length 288 pages
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About the author.

Neal Ford is Director, Software Architect, and Meme Wrangler at ThoughtWorks, a global IT consultancy with an exclusive focus on end-to-end software development and delivery. Before joining ThoughtWorks, Neal was the Chief Technology Officer at The DSW Group, Ltd., a nationally recognized training and development firm. Neal has a degree in computer science from Georgia State University, specializing in languages and compilers, and a minor in mathematics, specializing in statistical analysis. He is also the designer and developer of applications, instructional materials, magazine articles, video presentations, and author of six books. His primary consulting focus is the architecture, design, and construction of large-scale enterprise applications. Neal is also an internationally acclaimed speaker, having spoken at more than five hundred developer conferences worldwide, delivering more than two thousand talks. If you have an insatiable curiosity about Neal, visit his website at nealford.com . He welcomes feedback and can be reached at [email protected], and you can follow him on Twitter at @neal4d.

Matthew McCullough is a 15-year veteran of enterprise software development and currently enjoys the role of Vice President of Training at GitHub Inc. He is honored to be part of such an energetic team that is helping advance the software industry to a more collaborative and creative mode of working. Matthew’s past as a co-founder of a U.S. consultancy allowed him to have the job freedom to become a world-traveling open source educator, with the support of many businesses, conference organizers, and friends making it viable. Matthew is a contributing author to the Gradle, Jenkins, and O’Reilly Git books, creator of the Git Master Class series for O’Reilly, speaker on the No Fluff Just Stuff conference tour, author of three of the top 10 DZone RefCards, and volunteer President of the Denver Open Source Users Group. He can be reached via email at [email protected] or on Twitter at @matthewmccull.

Nathaniel Schutta is a senior software engineer in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota with extensive experience developing Java Enterprise Edition based Web applications. He graduated from St. John’s University (MN) with a degree in computer science and has a master’s of science degree in software engineering from the University of Minnesota. For the last several years, he has focused on user interface design. Nathaniel has contributed to corporate interface guidelines and consulted on a variety of web-based applications. A long-time member of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group and a Sun-certified web component developer, Nathaniel believes that if the user can’t figure out your application, then you’ve done something wrong. Along with his user interface work, Nathaniel is the co-creator of the open-source Taconite framework, has contributed to two corporate Java frameworks, has developed training material, and has led several study groups. During the brief moments of warm weather found in his home state of Minnesota, he spends as much time on the golf course as his wife will tolerate. He’s currently exploring Ruby, Rails, and (after recently making the switch) Mac OS X. Nathaniel is the co-author of the bestselling book, Foundations of Ajax . Nate can be reached via email at [email protected] and on Twitter at @ntschutta.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Addison-Wesley Professional; 1st edition (August 15, 2012)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0321820800
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0321820808
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.18 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7 x 0.6 x 9 inches
• #97 in Presentation Software Books
• #257 in Business Communication
• #1,152 in Running Meetings & Presentations (Books)

About the authors

Neal is Director, Software Architect, and Meme Wrangler at ThoughtWorks, a software company and a community of passionate, purpose-led individuals, who thinks disruptively to deliver technology to address the toughest challenges, all while seeking to revolutionize the IT industry and create positive social change. He is an internationally recognized expert on software development and delivery, especially in the intersection of agile engineering techniques and software architecture. Neal has authored magazine articles, eight books (and counting), dozens of video presentations, and spoken at hundreds of developers conferences worldwide. His topics include software architecture, continuous delivery, functional programming, cutting edge software innovations, and includes a business-focused book and video on improving technical presentations

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Matthew McCullough

Matthew McCullough is an energetic 14 year veteran of enterprise software development, open source education, vice president of Training at GitHub, and co-founder of Ambient Ideas, LLC, a Denver consultancy. Matthew currently is a member of the JCP, reviewer for technology publishers including O'Reilly, author of the Presentation Patterns & Anti-Patterns book, multi-year speaker on the No Fluff Just Stuff tour, author of the DZone Maven, Git & Google App Engine RefCards. He channels his teaching energy through activities as President of the Denver Open Source Users Group.

Matthew loves technology, but has always had a parallel passion for teaching technical topics. He's struggled with the same challenges that any presenter would -- assembly of slides, hardware meltdowns, venue catastrophes, audience attentiveness, and acceptance to international venues he never thought would actually say yes. Matthew is excited to share these learning experiences and concrete solutions to the challenges in both story and recipe form in this book.

Matthew resides in Denver with his beautiful wife and daughter, who are active in nearly every outdoor activity Colorado offers. He writes frequently on software and presenting.

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The 9 best presentation software platforms in 2023

You’re in the middle of a busy work week, and you‘re winding down after a particularly productive day. There’s still a lot more to accomplish, but you’ve got momentum and you’re making good progress. As you check your calendar for the following day, you see a two-hour morning time slot blocked out for a company-wide meeting. What’s your gut reaction?

Is it something like “I can’t wait—this is going to be so fun and interactive!” Or is it something more like “Ugh—I’ve got so much to do, and this is going to be such a long presentation. Maybe I can get some actual work done while it’s on in the background.”

If your inner monologue sounds more like the second example, you’re not alone. Research from Zippia shows 65% of employees believe meetings inhibit them from getting their work tasks done and that people are multitasking in at least 41% of meetings.

With so many potential distractions lurking in inboxes, Slack channels, and smartphones, meeting leaders must do everything they can to make their presentations interactive and engaging.

Fortunately, many presentation software platforms offer powerful tools to help presenters tell more captivating stories. Let’s take a look at a few of the factors that separate good apps from great ones.

What makes a great presentation app?

From pitch decks to progress updates, presentation apps have countless uses within the modern business environment. But regardless of the content being shared, there are a few things the best presentation software all has in common.

Intuitive, user-friendly interfaces

If an application is loaded with incredible features that are difficult to use, most users will prefer to take the path of least resistance rather than spending hours Googling how to accomplish their goal. Best-in-class presentation software makes it easy for users to learn the basics and get started, often with built-in tutorials.

Easy customization

Platforms that make it easy to plug in your logo, colors, fonts, and photos create polished presentations that wow internal and external audiences alike. Look for an app with a variety of tweakable templates that allow teams to share different types of information while sticking to your brand and identity standards.

Visual storytelling

If you’re squeezing several hundred words onto each presentation slide and then reading them all aloud, your audience’s attention is likely to wane. Research has long shown people absorb a combination of visual and verbal content much better than spoken lectures alone. All the best presentation software streamlines the use of visual aids to help your audience retain information more effectively.

Sharing and collaboration features

As asynchronous work becomes increasingly common, it’s important for your presentation software of choice to streamline collaboration between teams who may not be in the same location (or even the same hemisphere). When done well, sharing and collaboration features can save time and confusion regarding the latest versions or revisions.  

Integrations with other apps

Software that plays nicely with its binary counterparts can elevate a typical presentation into something compelling and visually stunning. Apps which enable embedding and presenting interactive features make outstanding add-ons that improve audience engagement while using your main slideware or communication tools.

1. Poll Everywhere

A versatile and customizable software platform for engaging your audience and encouraging participation, Poll Everywhere adds interactive elements to your presentation like polls, surveys, quizzes, word clouds, and much more. Made to turn dry lectures into two-way conversations, Poll Everywhere makes it easy to set up a variety of interactive activities for audience members. People can share their input via text, smartphone app, or web browser, which is then reflected on the screen in real time (don’t worry, there are moderation features for open-ended text responses).

Not only does Poll Everywhere enable more interactive presentations, it’s also a useful tool for things like employee surveys, group brainstorms, or submitting questions and agenda items ahead of meetings. It’s intuitive for new users to pick up and enables more open communication and team collaboration at every level of your organization.

For larger organizations, Poll Everywhere’s Enterprise plans let you customize the platform to reflect your company’s branding, logos, and colors (and remove the Poll Everywhere branding to give your presentations a more bespoke look). You also get additional features like Shared Activities for cross-team collaboration, upgraded security protocols, and robust reporting tools to translate audience responses into actionable insights.

• Easy integration with most industry-standard slideware and communication apps
• Encourages audience participation and engagement
• Wide variety of functions and activities
• Paid plans required for audiences larger than 25 people
• Audience members must have Internet or cellular access to participate

Poll Everywhere offers a free plan that allows polling limited audience sizes and paid plans starting at $120 per year. Higher-tier plans include additional users, greater audience sizes, and increased moderation and support tools. Custom enterprise solutions for large organizations are also available.

Powtoon takes your presentations to the next level by helping you create polished, professional-looking videos that are more captivating than your traditional text on a screen. Users edit “slides” similarly to how they would with most presentation software, except when you’re done, your deck becomes a seamless video complete with animations of your choosing. The software even figures out the correct timing based on how much content you add to each slide.

In addition to making your presentations sparkle, Powtoon is also useful for creating other marketing or social media assets. You can orient your videos to fit different dimensions and publish your finished creations directly to YouTube, Meta’s Ads Manager, and other platforms.

• Makes your presentations more captivating and memorable
• Useful for creating all types of videos
• Wide variety of templates, animations, and characters
• Limited templates on free version
• Paid plan required for MP4 downloads

Powtoon’s free offering is somewhat limited, though paid plans start at a reasonable $20 per month. Premium plans include more storage space, unlimited exports, and the ability to customize characters and add your own branding.

3. Genially

In the era of remote teams working across different time zones, not every presentation needs to have a presenter. Genially makes it easy to create interactive, self-led presentations that engage your audience much more than simply sending them a deck or a document to review. A huge variety of templates include predefined interactive elements, or users can customize their own.

A well-planned assortment of content blocks lets you showcase everything from image galleries to data visualizations. And while it takes a bit of work upfront, you can also create your own template using your organization’s branding and then have anyone on your team use it to create their own presentations.

• Anyone can create entertaining and interactive self-led presentations
• Solid variety of templates, even on free version
• Unlimited creations for all tiers, including free version
• Paid subscription required to view presentations offline
• Variety of options can be overwhelming at first

Premium plans range from $7.49 per month to $80 per month. As you go up the pricing tiers, you get access to more privacy and personalization features, plus integration with other platforms like PowerPoint and Google Analytics.

A software platform that’s shaking up the linear-presentation model, Prezi takes users out of the sometimes stifling flow of traditional slide deck design in favor of a more free-flowing approach. Prezi users list out ideas or topics they want to cover before threading them together into a compelling, visually striking presentation that’s more conducive to group conversations.

Prezi integrates particularly well with video conferencing tools, making it a great option for remote-first teams. You can even build your presentation as a Zoom overlay, which means your audience can see you and your slide content at the same time. It’s a nice way to maintain a human touch in video presentations, where audiences often miss out on seeing the presenter’s body language and facial expressions.

• Can inspire more creative thinking when developing content
• Robust library of templates and features
• Excellent integration with video conferencing platforms
• Can be a challenging transition for people used to the traditional slide deck model
• Free version limited to five projects

While you can create five projects for free, paid plans starting at $19 per month include much greater import and export options. The $59 per month Premium plan includes phone support, presentation analytics, and advanced training tools. Custom enterprise packages are also available for large teams.

5. Google Slides

Truly free presentation software—not just a free trial or a limited feature set—is increasingly difficult to come by. However, anyone with a Google account can use the full version of Google Slides, with no recurring subscriptions or trial periods to speak of. And because it’s fully cloud-based, teams can collaborate on the same presentation without having to keep track of multiple versions.

While its offerings of features and premade templates may not quite equal some of its subscription-based peers, Google Slides remains a viable solution due to its simple interface and easy integration with the rest of Google Workspace. You can also add powerful third-party add-ons to make your presentations more interactive and visually appealing.

• Cloud-based platform enables easy collaboration
• Shorter learning curve than some other platforms
• Can utilize add-ons to supplement the simple functionality
• LImited templates and transition effects
• No built-in asset library

The full version of Google Slides is free to use for anyone with a Google account.

If you need to create a beautiful presentation really fast, Canva is a fantastic software option. Its free plan offers some of the best-looking templates around, and because it’s a self-contained solution, you won’t need other apps like Photoshop to create eye-catching visuals. Drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy to add your own content and visual assets, or you can pick from an extensive library of free photos and graphics (even on the free version).

While it’s an excellent tool for creating polished presentations, Canva has other uses too. It’s incredibly helpful for creating marketing materials like videos, social posts, and even logos. While it’s not a replacement for your design team, it can free them up for other tasks while empowering anyone in your organization to embrace their creative side.

• Simplifies the creation of eye-popping presentations
• Massive variety of templates, even on free version
• Versatile platform for creating all types of materials
• Can be difficult to make complicated charts or graphs
• Cloud-based platform has limited offline functionality

Canva’s free version is excellent, though cloud storage space is limited. Paid plans start at $120 per year and include 24/7 support and an even bigger library of templates, photos, animations, and audio.

7. Beautiful.ai

If you’re the hawk-eyed type who spends just as much time fixing those annoying spacing issues as you do developing the actual content of your presentation, Beautiful.ai could be the software you’ve been looking for. As you might suspect from the name, it’s an AI-enhanced presentation platform that automates many aspects of layout to keep your slides looking professional and visually pleasing.

To help you get inspired when first starting a new project, you can browse through a number of slide types to find a layout you like, which then automatically applies to the rest of your presentation-in-progress, even on slides with other types of content. While templates and themes are somewhat limited compared to other platforms, all the included options are clean, modern, and well-designed.

• Automated layout for polished and professional designs
• Clean and intuitive user interface
• Helpful tutorial videos to minimize the learning curve
• Template, theme, and color options are somewhat limited
• Bare-bones collaboration features on the free version

Individual subscriptions start at $12 per month and unlock most of the app’s best features. Monthly Team plans with added customization and collaboration tools start at $40 per user, and large–scale enterprise plans are also available.

8. PowerPoint

We’d be remiss if we didn’t include this category-founding behemoth in our list, as it’s still one of the most popular presentation softwares in use around the globe. (There’s a reason many other presentation apps feature PowerPoint integration as a selling point.)

With a wide variety of templates, effects, animations, and customization options, experienced PowerPoint users can create presentations every bit as compelling as you’ll get with any other platform. And with useful extension apps available for both Mac and Windows versions, you can integrate additional interactive elements to make your next meeting more memorable.

• Compatible with the world’s most popular software suite
• Solid selection of templates and effects
• Easy to get started creating simple presentations
• Steep learning curve for advanced features
• Can take longer to create visually stunning presentations

PowerPoint is included in the Microsoft 365 software suite with plans starting at $6.99 per month. Standalone licenses are also available at a flat rate of $159.99.

If your organization makes heavy use of Apple products, Keynote is an excellent free presentation software option that rivals PowerPoint in terms of rich functionality. The interface is mostly intuitive, though perhaps slightly more complicated than the ultra-stripped-down feel of Google Slides (which makes sense, given Keynote’s additional features).

Built-in templates and asset libraries are plentiful, and in keeping with Apple’s brand aesthetic, help you create contemporary-looking presentations that wow your audiences. And while PowerPoint may have a wider variety of add-ons, Keynote still works with numerous third-party apps to incorporate interactive elements like polls, quizzes, word clouds, and more.

• Excellent variety of templates and built-in assets
• Creates clean, modern, and polished presentations
• Mobile, desktop, and web-based platforms
• Requires some time to master
• Few truly unique features

Keynote is free to use for all Apple users.

When done well, presentations are still one of the best ways to inform and invigorate an audience and align everyone regarding goals, priorities, and progress toward achieving them. With so much user-friendly presentation software available in 2023, there’s no need to host boring, lecture-style meetings that test your attendees’ attention spans.

If you’re looking for more ideas about how to make your presentations more engaging and interactive, check out our free guide detailing best practices for prese nters .

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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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Best presentation software of 2024

Perfect slideshows for speeches, talks, and presentations

• Best overall
• Best for media
• Best unique
• Best for branding
• Best for marketing
• Best for themes
• How we test

We list the best presentation software, to make it simple and easy to make and manage slideshow presentations to display to an audience.

Presentation software runs at the heart of business sales, management, and development, so it's important to ensure you have the best presentation software for your needs. This is especially when looking to share ideas, concepts, and workflows, and the ability to present these in a simple and understandable way is essential.

However, while presentation software has been traditionally limited to text and images, it has widened its ability to work with different media such as video and audio. 

Therefore it's important for the best presentation software to not simply be easy and simple to use, but also be able to support additional media so that presentations can be more engaging, lively, and ultimately serve their purpose in educating and updating their intended audience.

Below we've listed the best presentation software currently on the market.

We've also listed the best free presentation software .

The best office software in the world is: Microsoft 365 There are many different office software suites out there, but Microsoft Office remains the original and best, offering an unsurpassed range of features and functionality that rivals just can't match.

Even better, Microsoft 365 - previously branded as Office 365 - is a cloud-based solution which means you can use it on any computer, mobile device, or smartphone, without having to worry about compatibility. All your files are saved in the cloud and synced between devices, so you can begin work on a document at home or in the office, then continue working on it on the go.

You can sign up to Microsoft 365 here .

The best presentation software 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.

Best presentation software overall

1. PowerPoint

Our expert review:

Reasons to buy

For most people, Microsoft 's PowerPoint remains the original and best of all the presentation software platforms out there. While other companies have managed to catch up and offer rival products worthy of consideration, the fact is that PowerPoint's familiar interface and ubiquitous availability means it remains a favorite for the majority of people.

On the one hand, it's long been a staple of the hugely popular Microsoft Office suite, meaning that for most users this is going to be the first - and last - presentation software they are going to need to use.

Additionally, Microsoft has made PowerPoint, along with their other office products, available as free apps (with limited functionality) on both iOS and Android for mobile use, meaning it's even harder to avoid them. And this is before we even consider the inclusion of PowerPoint in Microsoft's cloud-based Microsoft 365.

It does everything necessary that you'd expect of presentation software, allowing you to add text and media to a series of slides, to accompany a talk and other presentations. There are easy-to-use templates included to help spice things up a little, but even a general user with little experience of it is likely to find themselves able to use PowerPoint without much trouble at all.

Overall, it's hard to go wrong with PowerPoint, and although Microsoft 365 has a nominal cost, the apps are free to use even if they do have more limited functionality.

Read our full Microsoft PowerPoint review .

Our Microsoft discount codes can help you save on your next purchase.

• ^ Back to the top

Best presentation software for media

2. SlideDog

Reasons to avoid.

It’s all too easy to end up creating a presentation that’s unappealing, and the last thing you want to do is make the audience fall asleep. SlideDog lets you combine almost any type of media to create a rich presentation that’s sure to keep the viewers’ peepers open, avoiding the ‘cookie cutter’ look that makes presentations seem dull.

Marketed as a web-based multimedia presentation tool, it gives you the ability to combine PowerPoint presentations, graphics, PDF files, Prezi presentations, web pages, pictures, videos, and movie clips. You can drag these into custom playlists and display them to your audience with ease.

You’re able to remotely control your presentations and playlists from your smartphone, the web, or a secondary computer, and there’s also the option to share slides in real-time. Audience members can even view your slide from their own devices by clicking a link. That’s a handy feature if you’re looking to create an immersive presentation experience.

SlideDog is probably the cheapest of the presentation software featured, with a free account that will cover the essential features. However, for live sharing and premium support, you need to upgrade.

Read our full SlideDog review .

Best unique presentation software

Prezi is one of the more unique presentation tools. Instead of presenting your graphics and text in a slide-to-slide format, you can create highly visual and interactive presentation canvases with the goal of “emphasizing the relationship between the ideas”.

Presentations can also be tailored to the specific audience, as this is a flexible platform that’s capable of skipping ahead, or veering off into a side topic, without having to flip through all the slides to get to a particular bit.

For business users, there are a variety of handy tools available. By downloading Prezi , you can build and edit presentations with your colleagues in real-time, which is perfect for companies with teams based around the globe.

When you have created a presentation you’re happy with, you can present it live (in HD) and send a direct link to viewers. There are some analysis tools here, too – you can see who’s accessed your presentation, which parts of it, and for how long. The app is available for Mac and Windows devices.

Read our full Prezi review .

Best presentation software for branding

4. CustomShow

Branding says a lot about a business, and it’s something firms need to get right from day one – from a good logo to a suitable font. CustomShow is business presentation software that puts all these elements of branding first.

Using the system, you can design and present customized, branded presentations that reflect your company and the products you offer, featuring the aforementioned logo and custom fonts. As well as this, you get a slide library and analytics to ensure your presentations are a success.

What’s more, you can import presentations into the software, and use it to tweak them further. There’s also integration with SalesForce , and because the platform is cloud-based, you can access your presentations on computers, tablets, and smartphones. 

Considering the focus on branding, this offering could be good for marketing and sales teams, and it's used by major companies such as HBO and CBS Interactive.

Best presentation software for marketing

5. ClearSlide

Just like CustomShow, ClearSlide has a niche focus for companies. The platform is targeted at firms looking to generate successful marketing campaigns, pushing sales via presentations (and more), not least through a range of analytics and metrics to work for sales and marketing.

With the product, you can upload a range of files, including PowerPoint, Keynote, PDF, and Excel. ClearSlide is integrated with other platforms, including Google Drive, Dropbox, and Salesforce.

This system is pretty complex and may offer too many irrelevant features for some businesses, but you can create customized content that reflects your company and the message you’re trying to get out to customers. There are also some good metrics and analysis features, and you can sign up for a free trial before making any decisions.

The real strength of ClearSlide comes from its focus on sales and marketing data, not least being able to track user engagement alongside other metrics.

Best presentation software for themes

6. Haiku Deck

Any presentation app will allow you to personalize your slides to at least some extent, but Haiku Deck goes one step further than the competition. It comes with a wide range of themes suited to different needs, and you also get access to 40 million free images from the Creative Commons collection.

When it comes to creating a presentation, you have the option to do so on the web, which means your presentation is accessible across a range of mobile devices as well as desktops. Regardless of the device used, you’re able to select from a variety of different fonts, layouts, and filters to make the perfect presentation.

The great thing about these various customization options is that they’re categorized into different industries and use cases. For instance, you’ll find themes for teaching, cooking, real estate, and startups. Most of the features require you to be online, but hopefully, you’ll have a sturdy net connection wherever you go.

Other presentation software to consider

Google Slides  is part of the Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) office platform intended as an online alternative to Microsoft Office. It may seem a little limited by comparison to PowerPoint, but as it's browser-based that means cross-platform compatibility. Additionally, it allows for collaborative work, and Google Slides really works well here. On top of the fact that it integrates with the rest of the Google Workspace apps, not least Google Drive, and you have a contender. 

Zoho Show  is another of the many, many tools and apps that Zoho has made available for business use. It also operates in the cloud so it's accessible to any device with a browser, and it also allows for collaborative work. You can also easily share the link for users to download, or provide a live presentation online. The updated version has a simpler and easier to use interface and comes with a free version and a paid-for one with expanded features.

Evernote  is normally thought of as just note-taking software, but it does provide the option to create a presentation you can share online or with an audience. In that regard, it's a little more limited than the other options in not being dedicated presentation software. However, as an easy and handy way to pull together a presentation quickly, it could serve as a backup or last-minute option, especially if Evernote is already being commonly used by you.

LibreOffice Impress  is part of the open-source suite offered as a free alternative to Microsoft Office, and comes with a powerful array of tools and editing options for your presentation, not least working with 3D images. It's supported by a large community, so it's easy to find an array of additional templates. If there is a limitation it's that it's software you download and install rather than web-based, but any presentations created should be easily portable to the web if needed.

Adobe Spark  does things a bit differently, as rather than just use images it's geared toward video as well. This makes for potentially more powerful multimedia presentations, especially as Adobe also has a big selection of photos and images available for its users. There is a free tier for core features but requires a subscription for custom branding, personalized themes, and support.

Slides  comes with a lot of features in an easy-to-use interface, and involves setting up presentations using drag and drop into an existing grid. It's also internet-based so there's no software to download, and it only requires a browser to use and access. 

Presentation software FAQs

Which presentation software is best for you.

When deciding which presentation software to download and use, first consider what your actual needs are, as sometimes free platforms may only provide basic options, so if you need to use advanced tools you may find a paid platform is much more worthwhile. Additionally, free and budget software options can sometimes prove limited when it comes to the variety of tools available, while higher-end software can really cater for every need, so do ensure you have a good idea of which features you think you may require for your presentation needs.

How we tested the best presentation software

To test for the best presentation software we first set up an account with the relevant software platform, whether as a download or as an online service. We then tested the service to see how the software could be used for different purposes and in different situations. The aim was to push each software platform to see how useful its basic tools were and also how easy it was to get to grips with any more advanced tools.

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

We've also featured the best alternatives to Microsoft Office .

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Nicholas Fearn is a freelance technology journalist and copywriter from the Welsh valleys. His work has appeared in publications such as the FT, the Independent, the Daily Telegraph, The Next Web, T3, Android Central, Computer Weekly, and many others. He also happens to be a diehard Mariah Carey fan!

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13+ Best Presentation Software to Bid Farewell to PowerPoint

Renderforest Staff

07 Dec 2023

11 min read  

Attention, all presenters, innovators, and knowledge sharers! Brace yourselves, because the era of boring and forgettable presentations is officially over. 

We all know that presentations are the beating heart of every business, work endeavor, and educational pursuit. And let’s face it, captivating your audience is an art form that can make or break your success.

Plain slides filled with text and bullet points will no longer do the job! To grab your audience’s attention, you need to shake things up a little.  

Luckily, we’ve done the legwork and compiled the ultimate list of the best presentation software in one place to help you make creative and captivating presentations.

No more dull slides. No more snooze-fest presentations.

By the time you’ll have finished reading this article, you’ll have discovered: 

• The 13 best video presentation software  to upgrade your presentations – their advantages and disadvantages. 
• How does each software compare to PowerPoint, and what are their unique features? 
• How to use each software to convert your ideas into strong narratives and keep your audience hooked. 

Consider these presentation software gems as your trusty sidekicks, ready to transform your ideas into captivating narratives that will leave your audience begging for more.

So buckle up and join us as we explore each presentation software individually, unveiling the best presentation software for your unique needs. Let’s dive right in!

The Finest Online Presentation Tools to Try Now!

Imagine you have an important project coming up, and you need to create a cool presentation to share your ideas with others within a short amount of time. Instead of just plain slides, you can make your presentation awesome by using some really impressive online presentation tools – tools you may not have heard of before. 

These tools make it easy to add pictures and videos and make your slides look super interesting as they take your regular presentation and turn it into something that will make everyone go, “Wow!” 

So, let’s check out some of the best presentation software you can try right now to make your presentations stand out!

1. Renderforest

You can use Renderforest’s slideshow video maker online and completely free of charge to create videos, branding, presentations, and graphics. 

If you upgrade to the lite version, you can enjoy an early-stage growth boost plan for promotional and explainer videos, powerful presentations, and graphics.

Now, if you choose to have the Pro plan, you can make use of advanced growth tools, the highest quality videos, outstanding designs, and a professional website.

For much larger projects, the Business plan gives you advanced-level solutions for teams and businesses to deliver high-end results for your campaigns.

The presentation software goes beyond the ordinary by providing you with a treasure trove of ready-made presentation templates that cater to every occasion, from personal projects to business endeavors. With just a few clicks, you can unlock a realm of visually stunning designs that are guaranteed to captivate your audience from the very first slide.

Extended Template Library

Whether you’re seeking to dazzle clients, engage students, or simply impress your peers, Renderforest has your back with an extensive library of slideshow video templates . From mesmerizing 3D animations to sleek corporate slideshows and whiteboard animations, the possibilities are limitless.

EXPLORE MORE!

Pre-Made Color Palettes

Give yourself a break from doing all the work of finding the perfect font and color palette for your presentation. Renderforest provides you with a large selection of ready-to-use, pre-designed sets that give your presentation a modern and professional look. 

All color palettes align with the main design principles, so you can rest assured that your presentation is aligned. 

Go to the left-side editor in your presentation template, open the color and font sections and click on your favorite mix.

GIFs, Stickers, Icons, and So Much More

Renderforest presentations are like a magic toolbox for making your presentations extra awesome. With it, you can do way more than just stick to regular pictures and words. 

One of the best presentation software out there, Renderforest lets you sprinkle some fun into your slides by adding GIFs, which are short, moving pictures that can make your points pop! Not just that, you can throw in stickers and icons to make things more lively and interesting. 

All of these elements help you show your ideas without even saying a word. 

Renderforest gives you all these tools to help you turn your presentation into a masterpiece that everyone will remember!

Premium Images

With Renderforest, you can access a treasure trove of amazing pictures through a royalty-free premium stock images library.

These are high-quality images that you can use in your presentations without worrying about any copyright stuff. It’s like having a secret stash of amazing pictures at your fingertips.

But here’s the exciting part – you can also bring pictures to the party! So, if you have some awesome photos you took on a family trip or nice shots you found on the internet. You can toss them into your presentation as well.

Ultimately, you have your gallery of pictures that makes your presentation uniquely yours. With Renderforest, you’re not just limited to what it provides – you can mix and match to create a presentation that tells your story in your style!

Prezi is offered in three different subscription tiers, including access to all three main parts of the suite – Prezi Video, Prezi Design, and Prezi Present.

Prezi’s Standard plan costs just $5 per month, the Plus plan costs $15 per month, and the Premium plan costs $19 per month.

The presentation software is built from the ground up to remove as many of the traditional limitations imposed by web applications as possible and enable users to create stunning, rich presentations with minimal effort and design skills.

It doesn’t take long to get used to how Prezi works and where everything is located, including some of the more advanced features of the application.

Its price is quite attractive compared to most of its competition, too, making Prezi a great offer for you in general!

General Overview

Prezi is a feature-rich online presentation suite that aims to enable anyone to create stunning presentations, including those without any in-depth knowledge of design and related practices.

It comes with various advanced tools that can help you do pretty much anything you want with your presentation, and it doesn’t take a lot of time to get used to how everything works.

It’s important to note that Prezi does have some minor flaws in its UI, but those are mostly limited to features that aren’t used that often to begin with.

There are three main tiers to Canva subscriptions. You can use it completely free to design anything, on your own or in collaboration with others, and you can choose from 250,000+ templates.

However, there are a lot of wonderful templates that are labeled as premium, as well as the option to integrate your own Brand Kit, which can only be accessed when you upgrade to the Pro plan at $12.99 USD/month.

Canva for Teams includes all the features of Canva Pro but also allows large teams to collaborate easily and efficiently together, and it is priced at $29.99 USD/month. 

The key selling point of Canva is how easy it is to use, even for people with no design background. It offers a range of design options, from social media posts to presentations, all in one place.

You can create professional-looking presentations at the tip of your fingers, especially with the newly released Magic Media™ apps that use AI to help you create consistent imagery.

Instead of wasting precious time scrolling through image libraries,you can try some of the AI image generator apps in the Canva Apps Marketplace. Simply type what you’d like to see, and watch it come to life.

Canva works as a web-based tool, so you don’t have to download it. It offers many ready-to-use templates and design elements like fonts, images, and illustrations.

You can either start from scratch or use these templates to create various designs, including social media graphics, presentations, flyers, and more. It also allows for collaboration, enabling multiple people to work on a project simultaneously.

Once you sign up, you can create designs by selecting a template or starting from scratch. You can then customize your design using the drag-and-drop editor, where you can easily add and adjust text, images, shapes, and other elements.

So, whether you’re one of the many small business owners, marketers, bloggers, or creative freelancers—Canva has something for everyone!

4. Google Slides

There are free trials available. For Personal and Free Business Starter plans, it is priced at $6 USD/month per user, for Business Standard, it is priced at $12 USD/month per user, while for Business Plus, it is priced at $18 USD/month.

Enterprises can contact Google to find out about pricing details for their needs.

Google Slides is very handy if many slideshows are required for certain projects. The presentation software acts as an easier alternative to PowerPoint because you don’t need to download anything in order to use Slides.

It’s as easy as going online and opening the program, while with PowerPoint, you need to download the program to start using it.

Google Slides is a cloud-based office suite that helps create, edit, and collaborate on presentations. It has features like themes and fonts, embedded videos, animations, and transitions.

The presentation software lets users create personalized presentations using ready-to-use templates with custom fonts and styles, color schemes, animations, transitions, and background images. If you’re a larget team, you can also upload files from Google Drive or Dropbox.

5. Microsoft Sway

Microsoft Sway is free to use for anyone with a Microsoft Account (Hotmail, Live, or Outlook.com).

This presentation tool dynamically adapts online to any screen and can be shared or co-edited with a URL.

It is best for people who are too occupied with work to spend time creating presentations, as it literally helps produce interactive reports, newsletters, presentations, and other personal stories in a matter of minutes, thanks to the help of AI.

Sway helps create presentations and other documentation in minutes by adding photos, videos, and other multimedia.

It’s connected to the Microsoft account, so the users can easily add files from OneDrive, or turn their Word or OneNote documents into a dynamic Sway.

6. Beautiful.ai

The Pro plan is for individuals and is priced at $12 USD/month. The Team plan is for team collaborations and starts at $40 USD/month, while the Enterprise plan boasts advanced security, support and control and require you to contact the sales team to get a quote.

Beautiful.ai saves you time and provides everything necessary for making great presentations.

You can use the right colors, font, and logo every time with its foolproof features, and when you sign up, the presentation software unlocks millions of modern images and icons that reflect your own brand guidelines. What else could you ask for?

With the Team Plan, you can also control your brand from one account and scale productivity across all departments of your organization.

Beautiful.ai is an AI presentation maker you can use to visualize your ideas easily. It offers 50+ beautifully designed customizable templates that are enhanced with presentation design best practices to keep your projects professional and clean. Besides, you can find and add stock images and icons from the image library.

7. Keynote (for Mac users)

The software comes free with most Apple devices.

This interactive business presentation software allows you to create engaging and dynamic slides, add charts and graphs to them, edit photos, and add effects to sharpen your project.

Now, you can remove backgrounds from supported images a lot more easily. You can even remove live videos or adjust them accordingly.

The software also lets you know when people join, edit, or comment on your collaborative presentations and lets you get in touch with your team using Messages and FaceTime.

Apple Keynote is the most successful competitor of PowerPoint among other Mac free presentation software solutions.

Access your presentations either online with iCloud, with a mobile app, or download a desktop version for Mac.

8. Haiku Deck

The Edu plan starts at $5 USD/month, Pro at $10 USD/month, and the Volume plan is at $100 USD/month.

Haiku Deck helps you focus on one idea at a time, letting you choose a powerful image from a library of 40M+ royalty-free photos and applying consistent formatting across your presentation in just one click.

All presentations you create with this software are hosted online and allow for easy audio narration recording and the ability to save as videos or export to PowerPoint/Keynote format for offline viewing and editing.

Haiku Deck is labeled as the “Instagram for pitch decks” by Mashable, for a good reason!

Even if you’re not a designer, the software helps you deliver presentations that connect with your listeners, spice up your social media feed, illustrate your blog, promote your product, inspire a movement, and more. It is centered around the best practices that presentation experts are after.

You can quickly design slides that don’t look like PowerPoint, and you can find related pictures to your keywords.

You can even view what other designs people have done on the same topic and use it as inspiration for your own presentation.

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9. Slidebean

The Slidebean All-Access Advanced plan for founders starts at $149 USD/year, and this includes features such as pitch deck templates, unlimited fundraising kit, sharing and exporting decks, and tracking presentation views.

There is also the Slidebean Incorporation plan at $649 USD/year, which includes everything in the All-Access Advanced plan but allows businesses to incorporate their company in the US.

Slidebean offers everything you need for a successful creation process – images, icons, fonts, to name a few.

It is very easy to use and has beautiful graphic design elements. Even if you’re not a graphic designer, Slidebean makes your presentations look great.

It also helps you create pitch decks. Through its advanced analytics section, individuals can see which investors viewed their decks and how long they viewed each slide or whether the investor finished the deck, which is very helpful information to have on hand.

Slidebean is an easy-to-use and simple presentation software that provides professional templates to present your ideas with simple styling features.

Its target market includes startups, marketers, and small and medium-sized businesses that are trying to get their powerful ideas across to professional thinkers.

Streamline the process with the help of integrated automation features. Choose the templates depending on your field to simplify the creation even more. You can see insights into how users interact with the slides.

Visme is an all-in-one online presentation maker that offers custom, high-quality templates. Pick a template and customize it according to your needs, or create a presentation from scratch.

The tool offers 50+ charts and other data visualization tools, 120+ custom fonts, stock images, and vector icons. You can add website links, emails, and pop-ups. When your presentation is ready, share it online, embed it on your website, or download it.

11. SlideDog

There are 3 plans available. The first is $19/month per 2 seats, billed monthly, and you can cancel anytime. You also have a yearly plan at $99/month (1st year) per 2 seats, $79 2nd year with a 20% renewal discount. The last option is a lifetime purchase of $299 per 2 seats, where you only pay once and can access it forever.

SlideDog is a presentation software that lets its users create playlists from presentation files and easily switch between them.

The features include real-time sharing, interactive elements, and remote control with various devices to streamline the presentation process.

12. Zoho Show

Zoho Show is completely free for individuals, while larger teams and organizations are billed $2.70 USD/month.

The tool can be used by those who need to tell a story, such as educators, authors, and business owners, helping them create and publish presentations with stunning visuals in a short period.

Choose from a variety of integrated themes designed to fit all kinds of needs. Make your slides more interactive by adding transitions and animation, using charts, tables, images, videos, and more.

Zoho Show is a dedicated online presentation tool, simplistic and easily customizable. From creating and collaborating to broadcasting and publishing, you will surely find solutions to your every need.

The tool is also available on mobile devices. To access your presentations remotely on your smartphone, simply download the app and log in.

It also lets you import your existing PPTX, PPT, ODP, PPSX, and PPS files and edit them without any formatting issues.

Gamma offers three pricing plans. Upon signing up, you get 400 credits to test the Free plan with various features and create a few documents.

The Plus plan starts at $8/month, and you get to gain access to additional features like PDF export.

The Pro plan starts at $16/month, and you receive unlimited AI creation and advanced AI models.

Gamma takes just one prompt and a bit of refining to produce a beautiful presentation.

It uses the chatbot to improve existing slides, and you can incorporate live websites and applications into your presentations. It’s a great way to demonstrate your ideas in real time.

This is an opportunity to monitor how your creations perform and if they have the ability to engage your audience.

Gamma is an AI-powered tool that lets you create impressive and engaging presentations for anyone.

Besides creating your presentations, it also offers a great editing experience where you can improve your work simply by interacting with an AI chatbot.

There is a free trial available. The Personal plan for teams of up to 15 people starts at $14.99 USD/month, and the Enterprise plan for teams of 16 people and over requires you to contact Ludus directly for a quote.

Other than being incredibly easy to use, this tool is very intuitive, and presentations can be customized as you play around with unique fonts, drawings, code, interesting transitions, and much more.

Ludus combines creativity with simplicity. Ludus is more than a presentation tool; it is also a tool for communicating, collaborating, learning, and playing.

The presentation software has many features that designers are already familiar with. You can create anything without limitations, from fonts and graphics to blending modes.

It also allows you to integrate with Unsplash, GIPHY, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc., so you can add anything you want.

Ludus is a tool that allows you to create presentations with unlimited creative possibilities.

This presentation software will solve your problems regarding sharing, compatibility, collaboration, creativity, and more.

It is recommended for everyone to use, especially for creatives and designers. Everyone can use it, too, but it has a bit of a learning curve that is worth the time if you want to use it properly.

This app might be the solution to the problems that our presentation tools have nowadays. It is not restrictive, so you can let your imagination run wild and express your creativity.

This presentation tool is affordable, especially for big teams. With remote work on the rise, Ludus is a great presentation assistant to have nearby.

Still Looking for the Best Presentation Software?

And there you have it. The 13+ best presentation software that you should bear in mind if you’re thinking of trying something a little bit different to the software you’re used to hearing about all the time – PowerPoint.

Each software has its benefits, but if you’re aiming for presentation software that offers a blend of creativity, versatility, and user-friendly features, Renderforest stands out as your go-to choice.

With a vast library of templates and the ability to add GIFs, stickers, icons, and even your own images, Renderforest empowers users to create visually stunning and uniquely personalized presentations.

Renderforest also provides different pricing plans, including a free option, making it accessible regardless of your need and budget.

So, stop wasting hours of your life trying to create your presentations manually and with predictable designs, and start taking your presentations to the next level with Renderforest, your ultimate presentation companion that goes beyond the ordinary!

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Blog Graphic Design 12 Best Presentation Software for 2024

12 Best Presentation Software for 2024

Written by: Krystle Wong Jan 12, 2024

Whether you’re a student, professional or entrepreneur, having access to the right presentation tools can make all the difference.

When you craft a well-executed presentation , your message becomes more memorable. You’re not just sharing information; you’re weaving a story, painting a picture and leaving a lasting impact on your audience’s minds. 

We’re living in the age of information overload, where attention spans are shorter than ever. A good presentation slide takes this into account, breaking down complex information into bite-sized chunks. It guides your audience through a logical flow, allowing them to digest information effortlessly and retain key points without feeling overwhelmed.

To help you stay ahead of the game, I’ve compiled a list of the 12 best software for presentations. These PowerPoint alternatives offer a combination of user-friendly interfaces, stunning visuals, collaboration features and innovative functionalities that will take your presentations to the next level. 

Let’s dive in and explore these top presentation software picks!

1. Venngage 

Allow me to be a little bit biased here but my top pick is none other than, you guessed it — Venngage! Venngage goes beyond just presentations to focus on data visualization and transforming complex information into visually appealing and engaging visuals. 

One of the standout features of Venngage as a presentation software is the extensive library of infographic elements. Gain access to a wide range of pre-designed elements such as icons, charts, maps as well as illustrations to simplify the process of creating data-driven and visually appealing presentations.

You don’t have to be a pro when designing with Venngage. Venngage’s drag-and-drop interface allows you to customize your presentations by simply dragging and dropping elements onto the canvas. You can tweak sizes, colors and layouts with ease, making your presentations visually cohesive and personalized, even if you’re not a design wizard. 

Just so you know, some of our features and templates are free to use and some require a small monthly fee. Sign-up is completely free, as is access to Venngage’s online drag-and-drop editor. Here’s how Venngage’s presentation maker can become your secret weapon in the quest for presentation success.

Vast selection of templates

Venngage boasts an extensive library of professionally designed templates, catering to a wide range of industries and presentation purposes. Whether you’re creating a marketing report, educational presentation or business pitch, Venngage’s presentation tool offers templates that provide a solid foundation for your designs. 

Save 20+ hours of designing with Venngage’s fully customizable, pre-designed infographic templates. Thes e presentation templates provide a good foundation with well-structured layouts and visually appealing aesthetics. 

Data visualization made easy

Venngage simplifies the process of data visualization, making it accessible to users of all backgrounds. With a few clicks, you can transform dull statistics into visually engaging charts and graphs that tell a compelling story.

Seamless real-time in-editor collaboration tools

Venngage brings teamwork to the next level with our seamless collaboration tools designed to foster collaboration across teams, departments and the entire organization. Whether you’re in the same room or across the globe, Venngage enables real-time collaboration that makes working together becomes a breeze. 

Consistently brand your designs with smart Autobrand features

Effortlessly infuse your presentation slides with your brand’s colors, fonts and logos with Venngage’s My Brand Kit . Upload your brand assets and create engaging presentations by applying your branding to any template you create on Venngage.

Who is it for

Marketers, designers, educators and businesses that require data-driven and visually appealing presentations.

Key features 

Infographic elements, data visualization tools, collaboration options, customizable templates.

Create your first 5 designs with Venngage for free and upgrade to a premium or business plan for $10 USD/month per user and $24 USD/month per user to enjoy premium features. For larger teams who need extra support, controls and security, the enterprise plan starts from $499 USD/month for 10+ seats.

Additionally, there are also plans available for classrooms priced at $99 USD/year for up to 35 students per instructor. Non profit organizations can also apply for a nonprofit discount to any Venngage plan.

2. Microsoft PowerPoint

Source: Screenshot from Microsoft PowerPoint

Even with dozens of presentation software and tools out there, PowerPoint presentations have stood the test of time as one of the best presentation software. In fact, 89% of people still use PowerPoint presentations over competitor services . 

Whether you’re a student, teacher, business professional or just a creative soul, PowerPoint’s user-friendly interface allows both beginners and experienced users to create presentations with ease.

PowerPoint delivers captivating and engaging presentations through its advanced animation and transition effects. You can create interactive PowerPoint presentations by captivating your audience and guiding them through your content with seamless transitions and eye-catching animations. 

Seamless integration with other Microsoft Office tools is another significant advantage of PowerPoint as a presentation software. As part of the Microsoft Office suite, PowerPoint effortlessly integrates with other familiar applications such as Word and Excel. This integration allows you to incorporate charts, graphs and written content from these tools directly into your presentation. 

However, collaboration features in PowerPoint can be somewhat limited compared to dedicated collaboration platforms. While you can share and co-edit presentations with others, the collaboration options may not be as robust as those offered by specialized presentation tools.

Suitable for individuals, students, educators and businesses of all sizes.

Customizable templates, multimedia support, extensive slide editing options, robust animations and transitions.

You can subscribe to PowerPoint as part of your Microsoft 365 subscription with various plans tailored for businesses, ranging from $6 to $22 USD/month. Additionally, there is also the option to purchase an unbundled PowerPoint account separately, priced at $159.99 USD.

3. Google Slides

Source: Screenshot from Google Slides

Unlike PowerPoint which requires file sharing and manual syncing for teamwork, Google Slides enables real-time collaboration and easy access from any device with an internet connection. 

Google Slides shines in its seamless collaboration capabilities. Multiple users can work on the same presentation simultaneously, enabling real-time editing and fostering efficient teamwork. The integrated commenting feature on Google Slides allows for shared feedback and discussions, enhancing collaboration even further.

Google Slides’ cloud-based storage and auto-saving feature ensures that your work is constantly saved, minimizing the risk of losing progress or important changes. No more panicking over unsaved slides and changes. 

But that also means that Google Slides heavily relies on an internet connection for full functionality and access is more limited compared to desktop-based software. Although an offline mode is available, Google Slides has certain limitations and may not provide the same level of functionality as when connected to the internet.

Templates and customization features-wise, Google Slides also have fewer design options compared to other presentation tools. This may limit the level of visual creativity and flexibility for those seeking intricate designs or specialized effects.

Ideal for remote teams, educators, students and anyone looking for easy collaboration and access from any device.

Real-time collaboration, shared commenting, offline mode and built-in sharing options.

Google Slides is accessible to all individuals with a Google account at no cost, providing all users with access to its full range of features. However, for businesses and teams looking for additional organizational capabilities, there are subscription plans available ranging from $6 to $18 USD/month.

4. Keynote (for Mac users)

Source: Screenshot from Keynote

For Apple users, Keynote is a presentation tool designed exclusively for your Apple devices and is available on macOS, iOS and iPadOS. Keynote is known for its sleek and intuitive interface, reflecting Apple’s design aesthetics. 

It offers visually appealing templates, animations, and transitions, allowing users to create polished and modern-looking presentations. Keynote users can seamlessly incorporate images, videos, audio files and interactive elements into their presentations. The presentation software also includes a wide range of animations and transitions, enabling smooth and cinematic effects that bring slides to life.

Keynote presentations is known for its seamless integration within the Apple ecosystem. It works effortlessly with other Apple applications, allowing users to combine different elements and data from various sources. Presentations created in Keynote can be easily shared and accessed across Apple devices, ensuring a consistent experience for both the presenter and the audience.

Additionally, Keynote as a presentation software offers collaborative editing capabilities, enabling multiple users to work on the same presentation simultaneously. Users can share their presentations with others, who can then provide feedback, make edits and contribute to the project in real-time.

That said, since Keynote is exclusively designed for Apple devices, it may not be accessible or fully compatible with non-Apple platforms. Hence, sharing presentations created in Keynote with users on different platforms may require exporting or converting the files to a compatible format, which can lead to potential formatting issues or loss of certain features.

Mac users, creatives, professionals, educators and anyone who wants visually stunning presentations.

Elegant templates, advanced multimedia options, cinematic transitions and collaborative editing.

Keynote is available for free on Apple devices, including macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. As it comes pre-installed with these devices, users can access and use Keynote without any additional cost.

Source: Screenshot from Prezi

Known for its distinctive zooming presentation style, Prezi revolutionizes the way you create presentations by offering a visually engaging and non-linear approach. 

One of Prezi’s renowned features is its unique zooming and transition effects, allowing presenters to navigate through a virtual canvas seamlessly. This dynamic presentation style enhances engagement by creating a sense of movement and spatial relationship between ideas.

Moreover, Prezi offers cloud-based collaboration, making it easy for multiple users to collaborate on a presentation in real-time. This feature facilitates seamless teamwork, enabling users to collectively develop and refine their presentations regardless of their physical locations.

Prezi presentations also include interactive elements, such as embedded videos, images and hyperlinks. Utilizing these elements would allow presenters to create interactive presentations and engage their audience on a deeper level.

However, Prezi has a steeper learning curve compared to more traditional presentation tools. Users may require some time and practice to become proficient in navigating the canvas, creating smooth transitions and effectively utilizing all of Prezi’s features.

Creative professionals, educators and individuals who want to create visually captivating and non-linear presentations.

Zooming presentation style, interactive elements, cloud-based collaboration and reusable templates.

For individuals & business professionals

Basics: Create and share up to 5 visual projects for free

Standard: Starting at $5 USD/month

Plus: Starting at $12 USD/month

Premium: Starting at $16 USD/month

Teams: Starting at $19 USD/month per user (billed annually)

For Students & Educators

EDU Plus: Starting at $3/month

EDU Pro: Starting at $4/month

EDU Teams: Enquiry required with Prezi sales team

Source: Screenshot from Canva

One of the great things about Canva as a presentation tool is its user-friendly interface, which makes it super easy to use even if you’re not a design pro. You can simply drag and drop elements to create your presentation slides without breaking a sweat.

Canva’s vast collection of pre-designed templates caters to various purposes and occasions. The availability of these templates allows users to jumpstart their design projects with professional-looking layouts, saving valuable time and effort.

For businesses or educational institutions working on group projects or marketing campaigns, Canva also offers collaboration features that enhance teamwork and co-creation. Users can invite team members or clients to collaborate on a design project, enabling real-time feedback and efficient design processes. 

While Canva does offer some basic slide transition effects, the range and customization options for transitions may be limited compared to dedicated presentation software like Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Keynote. 

Individuals, students, small businesses and startups seeking professional-looking marketing materials and presentations.

Extensive template options, intuitive drag-and-drop interface, ability to share presentations as downloadable files or online links and built-in multimedia support for adding videos , images, and audio to slides.

The free version of Canva provides a wide range of features and resources, with the only limitations being the use of premium resources that can be acquired either through separate purchases or by subscribing to the Canva Pro plan. The Canva Pro plan is available for $12.99 USD per month or $119.99 USD per year.

For collaborative purposes, Canva Teams is available at a price of $14.99 USD per month, with an additional charge of $14.99 USD per month for every team member beyond the initial five.

7. Adobe Express

Source: Screenshot from Adobe Express

As part of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite, Adobe Express is a presentation software that offers a simplified and user-friendly interface. With its intuitive interface, Adobe Express allows users to create visually stunning presentations with ease. Users can access both design professionals and individuals without extensive design experience.

One of the notable advantages of Adobe Express is its seamless integration with other Adobe products, such as Photoshop and Illustrator. This integration enables users to leverage the power of these industry-standard design tools within their presentations, providing access to advanced design features and a vast library of high-quality assets. 

Adobe Express is also great for creating interactive presentations. Its extensive multimedia support, allowing users to incorporate videos, audio files and interactive elements to keep your audience engaged.

That being said,  some of its advanced features may require familiarity with other Adobe tools, which can be challenging for beginners who are not already familiar with the Adobe Creative Cloud ecosystem.

Designers, creative professionals, individuals and businesses seeking professional-grade presentation design.

Professional design options, multimedia support, easy integration with other Adobe products and cloud-based collaboration.

While the free version for Adobe Express includes all the core features, users can gain access to premium templates and features when they upgrade to the Premium subscription for $9.99 USD/month. 

For businesses and teams, Adobe provides tailored plans that include additional features like collaboration tools, centralized license management and enterprise-level support. The pricing for these plans depends on the number of licenses and the specific needs of the organization. It’s best to consult with Adobe or their authorized resellers to get accurate pricing information for business plans.

8. Haiku Deck

Source: Haiku Deck

Haiku Deck is all about visual storytelling, offering a simple and minimalist approach to designing presentations. With its clean and minimalist templates, Haiku Deck makes it a breeze to create presentations that focus on eye-catching images.

Haiku Deck is a user-friendly presentation software that offers a straightforward and intuitive interface. It’s designed to be easily accessible on both computers and mobile devices, giving you the flexibility to create quick and practical presentations on the go.

Plus, the presentation tool seamlessly integrates with image search engines, making it a piece of cake to find and add high-quality visuals that enhance the overall look and feel of your presentation.

However,if you’re looking for advanced features like complex animations or interactive elements, you might not find them here. While the clean and minimalist templates are gorgeous, they don’t offer as much flexibility for customization.

Educators, individuals and professionals who appreciate the power of visual storytelling and minimalist design.

Image-focused templates, easy-to-use interface, cloud-based collaboration and seamless image search integration.

Haiku Deck offers a free trial that allows you to experience the software with one presentation. If you decide to upgrade, they have different pricing plans available. Additionally, Haiku Deck also offers special pricing to qualifying nonprofit organizations, students and educators.

The Pro plans are available at $9.99 per month with annual billing or $19.99 per month with monthly billing. For those seeking advanced features, the Premium plans are priced at $29.99 per month.

Source: Screenshot from Ludus

Ludus brings together the best of both worlds by offering the traditional slide deck format along with interactive and multimedia elements that take presentations to a whole new level.

The presentation software is rich in multimedia capabilities, allowing users to seamlessly integrate videos, audio and elements to create interactive presentations that captivate the audience.

Ludus offers unique presentation tools that enable users to incorporate interactive elements like clickable buttons, hover effects and embedded web content, enabling a more dynamic and engaging presentation experience. 

This makes Ludus a great choice for designers, creatives, marketing professionals, and anyone who wants to create interactive and visually appealing presentations that leave a lasting impression. Collaboration is another area where Ludus excels. The software offers collaborative editing, allowing multiple users to edit presentations simultaneously. 

However, it’s worth mentioning that Ludus has relatively limited templates compared to some other presentation software options. While the customization options are vast, users might find themselves starting from scratch or investing more time in creating the initial design. Additionally, for individuals new to the platform, there might be a learning curve involved in fully harnessing all of Ludus’ features and capabilities.

Designers, creatives, marketing professionals and anyone looking for interactive and visually appealing presentations.

Interactive and multimedia elements, collaborative editing, extensive design customization, real-time comments and feedback.

Ludus offers a starting price of $14.99 USD/month per user for teams consisting of 1-15 members with all features included. For larger teams requiring additional licenses, Ludus encourages reaching out for more information on pricing. It’s worth noting that Ludus provides a 30-day free trial, allowing users to explore the platform and its features before committing to a subscription.

10. Slidebean

Source: Screenshot from Slidebean

Slidebean offers a unique approach to slide design by automating the process and simplifying the creation of well-designed presentations. With its automation features, Slidebean streamlines the design process, saving users valuable time and effort.

The highlight of Slidebean is its automated slide design functionality. Using artificial intelligence (AI), the software generates visually appealing slide layouts based on the content provided. Slidebean also offers collaboration options, allowing multiple team members to work on a presentation simultaneously. 

Another advantage of Slidebean is its AI-powered content suggestions. The software intelligently analyzes the presentation content and provides helpful suggestions for improving the messaging and overall flow. This feature ensures that users can effectively communicate their ideas and engage their audience. 

Unlike Ludus, Slidebean may not cater to users who prefer extensive customization and control over their slide layouts. Certain advanced features are only available in premium plans, which may require an upgrade for those seeking more advanced functionality.

Startups, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and individuals who want to create polished presentations quickly.

Automated design, content suggestions, collaboration tools and pitch deck-specific templates.

The free version offers limited functionalities, but it provides a sufficient opportunity to experience Slidebean’s capabilities and understand its workflow. However, to export your presentation and access advanced features, upgrading to a higher plan is necessary. 

The all-access plan is available at $228 USD/year, while additional services such as startup expert consultations and pitch deck and financial model services are available for separate purchase. 

11. Beautiful.ai

Source: Screenshot from Beautiful.ai

Beautiful.ai aims to simplify the process of creating visually stunning and professional-looking slides with minimal effort. One of the notable strengths of the presentation software is its collection of smart templates and design suggestions. 

Their templates are intelligently designed to provide visually appealing layouts, saving users valuable time and effort in creating presentations. Unlike other types of presentation software, the platform leverages AI-powered technology to offer layout optimization, ensuring that slide elements are positioned optimally for maximum impact.

Beautiful.ai also offers time-saving features that streamline the presentation creation process. The software automatically adjusts the layout and formatting as users add or modify content, eliminating the need for manual adjustments. 

As the software provides smart templates and design suggestions, customization options may be somewhat limited. Users may find that certain design elements or layout adjustments are not as flexible as they would like. 

Individuals, startups and professionals who want visually impressive presentations without extensive design skills.

Smart templates, automated design suggestions, AI-powered layout optimization and easy slide customization.

Beautiful.ai provides two subscription options for users. The Pro plan is available at a monthly cost of $12 USD /month, while the Team plan is priced at $40 USD/month. Both plans are billed annually. You can also subscribe to the monthly subscription for ad hoc projects and gain access to all pro features for $45 USD/month (billed monthly). 

There is a 14-day free trial period that allows users to thoroughly test and explore the features and capabilities of the tool before committing to a subscription.

Source: Screenshot from Pitch

Pitch is a modern video presentation maker that stands out with its collaborative and iterative approach to presentation creation.

One of the key strengths of Pitch lies in its collaborative features. The presentation software provides robust collaboration tools that allow team members to work together in real-time. This makes it easy for users to collaborate on presentation content, provide feedback and make revisions collectively.

Pitch boasts an extensive slide library, offering a wide range of professionally designed templates to choose from. These templates serve as a foundation for creating visually stunning presentations while providing a starting point that saves time and ensures a polished look.

The availability of diverse templates caters to different industries, topics and presentation styles, allowing users to create presentations for their needs.

Seamless integration with project management tools is another advantage of Pitch. The software integrates well with popular project management platforms, enabling users to streamline their workflow by syncing tasks, deadlines and other project-related information with their presentations. 

For teams, startups and businesses that value collaboration, feedback and the ability to iterate on their presentations

Collaboration tools, version control, project management integration and template library.

Users can create unlimited presentations and enjoy the starter plan for free or upgrade to Pro for $8 USD/month, billed annually. 

There you have it — the top 12 best presentation tools for the year! Whether you value simplicity, collaboration, automation, design versatility or data visualization, these presentation software examples have a solution out there for your future presentations.

Got your mind set on your to-go presentation software? Great! Now it’s time to start creating your slides and ace that presentation. 

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10 Best Animated Presentation Software You Should Know About

Written by: Orana Velarde

Static presentations have long been the norm, but why settle? Instead, consider creating animated presentations that have vibrant and eye-catching designs. Using animated presentation software will help make your presentations shine and stand out from the crowd.

What is an animated presentation? It’s a presentation that has moving parts inside the slides and creative slide transitions. In some cases, you can even have your animations trigger as you click on the slide.

These effects can make your presentation much more engaging for your audience. Not only that, it gives you, as the presenter, cues to move forward with the information on the slides. Sure, PowerPoint can be animated too, but there are many other, better options for animated presentation software that you should know about.

Ready to create a presentation that impresses your audience? Use our presentation software to create beautiful slide decks with smooth transitions, advanced animation, pre-animated assets and more.

10 Best Animated Presentation Software

• Beautiful.ai
• Linearity Move

Animated Presentation Software FAQs

An animated presentation software allows users to apply special effects to the transition between slides. Using a tool like Visme will turn your presentations into works of digital art.

The animation options are classy, easy to use and never over the top.

Visme's animated presentation templates  include a staggered animation of elements right out of the box. So, even if you don’t add anything else to your slides, a finished Visme presentation will already be animated and ready to go!

If you don’t like the way this default transition works, you can change it inside the slide controls.

Below are the different animation controls available inside Visme.

Slide Transitions

As I mentioned before, Visme presentations come animated right out of the box .

But there are plenty of other options if you want to change that. Click on the gear icon in one of the slides and you’ll see the option for “slide transitions.”

You can choose between the following:

• Transition delay
• Advance after
• When a video is done playing

The last one only applies if you have added a video to your slide.

The default transition style is “enter from side” but you can also choose from the following:

• Staggered fade
• Enter from bottom
• Enter from top
• Simple fade

All choices can be selected for one slide at a time, or for all slides. This is practical when some slides have media, like video or audio narration.

Pro-tip: Stick to one style or at the most two. If you mix and match too many styles your presentation will look confusing and the magic of animated transitions will be lost. Also, if you add animation to your elements, these have to work together with your slide transitions!

The animation controls in Visme are available for every single element on a slide. To access them, simply click on an element, click Actions and click Animate to open the animations menu.

Next, select if you want the animation as an element enters the stage or as it exits.

Then, set the timing for the animation and then pick the animation style .

You can choose from the styles below:

• Fly from left
• Fly from right
• Fly from top
• Fly from bottom

After you have added at least one animation, you’ll be able to see the animation timeline. Click on the arrow next to the timer that now appears at the bottom of your screen to look at the basic or advanced animation timeline.

Interactivity

To level up your presentations even more, add interactive elements to your slides. Some of the interactivity features that Visme boasts includes:

• External links
• Video embeds
• Slide linking
• Voiceovers activated on click
• Hotspots for pop-ups or hoverovers

To add interactivity to your presentation, click on the element that you want to make interactive, click Actions then click Actions again from the menu that’s appeared. You can choose to link that element to an external web page, a slide or another element.

Animated Illustrations

The last major animation feature that Visme has to offer is our vast library of animated illustrations, graphics and presenting cartoons. Add characters, illustrations, gestures, special effects, avatars and more that help your slides move and catch your audience’s attention.

If you want to know more detailed instructions on how to make presentations with Visme, watch our tutorial video on how to use the various features.

3D Animated Characters

Aside from the animated illustrations and graphics, Visme also offers an easy-to-use character builder you can use to create 3D animated characters .

Add these 3D characters to your presentations to instantly grab attention and boost engagement. In fact, you can also create a custom 3D character to represent your brand. This lets you design hyper-personalized presentations that strengthen your brand identity.

Customize the appearance of your character—from facial hair to skin tone—so it fits your vision. Then, choose an animation style or pose that matches your content (or keep your character static.) You can even save your custom 3D animated characters to use in other projects and presentations.

3D Data Widgets

Finally, transform boring statistics and numbers into visually engaging graphics that represent your data in the most engaging way possible. How? With Visme’s 3D Data Widgets .

Our 3D widgets are created by in-house professionals, which means you won’t find these graphics anywhere else. Show percentages, amounts and comparisons with 3D thermometers, batteries, clocks, stacks of coins and books and more unique graphics.

The best part? They’re all fully customizable. You can change the colors to fit your brand or design, and even rotate the objects in 3D.

Prezi has been the animated presentation software of choice for educators for a long time. The zoom in and zoom out effects are always a delight with students of any age.

Let’s take a look at how animations work on Prezi and their range of customization.

First of all, Prezi uses animation as the way a presentation transitions from slide to slide.

The first slide has all the topics in a layout and the presenter must click on each one to enter a set of slides. When a topic is clicked, the effect is a zoom-in visual that takes the audience on a journey inward. The presenter can then exit that slide and zoom-out to the first overview slide again.

Additionally, all slide elements can be animated to fade in or fade out. Simply click on an element and add an animation. The animations for each element can be reordered easily with a movable tab.

From the animation controls, you can also add a new zoom-in area to any slide, which adds another level of information to the presentation.

Finally, the main overview page can have animation controls depending on what topic has been opened, creating even more animated options.

3 PowerPoint

The most widely used presentation software, PowerPoint, also has lots of animation features.

The options for animation on PowerPoint are quite varied and can turn a boring presentation into a fun experience. But they can also turn any presentation into a big animated mess in no time .

Of course, if you use some restraint, you can create amazing animated presentations with PowerPoint. Let’s take a look at the animation options inside PowerPoint.

First of all, every single element inside each slide can be animated more than once.

PowerPoint offers around a hundred animation options; from regular slide-ins to pinwheels and color fills. When an animation is added to an element, a marker shows up next to it on the slide that shows its position in the animation timeline.

The animation timeline is on the right side and includes lots of customization options.

The timeline is unique for each slide, and the order can be rearranged by dragging the elements up or down on the timeline. Each animation effect can be given an “on click” control and also a timed value.

Slide transitions in PowerPoint also have animation controls.

There are around 20 slide transition options and they can be further customized using the controls in the top bar. You can choose how long the transition lasts and even give it a sound.

Genially has a pretty high standard for animations. When you click on any element in a slide, two tiny buttons pop up. One of them is for adding animations to that particular element.

The animation controls open on the right side of the editor and offers many customization options. What’s unique about this animated presentation software is that the effect can be continuous apart from on-entrance and on-exit. What you can’t do is control animations on a timeline or add a delay.

When it comes to slide transitions, there are around ten style options. Choose for it to be horizontal, vertical or centered. The slide transitions can be selected slide by slide or for all slides at once.

5 Beautiful.ai

Animation controls in Beautiful.ai are available inside each slide. And if you don’t choose anything, the elements in your slides will be slightly animated on their own.

But that's the only thing that makes Beautiful.ai an animated presentation software .

Customizability is limited. If you want to change how the animations work, you can change the speed, timing and order. What you can’t do is choose how or from where the element appears on the slide.

There are some simple slide transitions, but you have no option to change them either.

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Keynote is the Apple software version of PowerPoint.

There are plenty of animation options for animating elements on Keynote slides. Like most other animation software , you can animate the entrance and the exit of an element on a slide.

Additionally, you can also add an action animation to happen when you click on the slide.

The options for animation range from standard fades to bumps and light bulb spark effects. All the animation options can be customized for speed and intensity, and can also be given a specific timing.

Keynote also has animated slide transition effects. The controls are in the same place as the element animations, you just have to click on the slide instead of an actual object. There are over 20 transition effects, which can be customized for duration and direction.

There is one particularly special transition effect called Magic Move. This animated transition makes objects, words and characters look like they are moving from one slide to another.

In the Slides animated presentation software, you can animate all the elements in a slide with the usual fades and slides. These can be customized to work on click, on hover or automatically on a timer. The timing controls have duration and delay values that you can edit.

The slide transitions in Slides are a bit more unique than standard animated transitions.

Transitions are separated into regular transition and background transition, and there are six options for each. The background transition effects work only when a slide has a background image or color.

However, the transitions can only be done for the entirety of the presentation, not slide by slide.

Transitions in Slides are automatically applied to the entirety of the presentation, not slide by slide. However, you can override this for specific slides by tweaking the settings for each individual slide.

8 Linearity Move

Linearity Move is the go-to animation software for designers who want to bring their projects to life. Its standout feature, Auto Animate, helps you transform static images or vector files into beautiful animations.

Even if you're new to animation, Linearity’s user-friendly interface makes it a breeze to create dynamic animations that look like they were made by a pro. The platform also supports high-resolution outputs up to 8K, which means you can expect sharp and polished animations every time.

And if you're working with a team, Linearity Move's real-time collaboration features make it easy to work together seamlessly.

Vyond is known for its advanced animation and transition capabilities that make it a professional video presentation maker.  The software offers detailed control over each frame and seamless transitions.

With its easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface, you can quickly build engaging scenes using thousands of customizable characters, templates and backgrounds.

Moreover, Vyond’s lip-sync feature synchronizes voiceovers with character mouth movements, which makes your animations feel more lifelike and engaging.

Another cool feature is Vyond’s generative AI tool, Vyond Go, which automates video creation from text prompts to produce high-quality animations in minutes.

Moovly is an intuitive platform for creating animated presentations and videos. Users can combine various media assets, including royalty-free images, videos and sounds, to create beautiful animations.

The software offers a wide range of animation effects, such as fade, fly, wipe, bounce, move, zoom,and rotate, which can be applied to any visual object like images, text or videos. You can also incorporate hand animations and transparent motion graphics to enhance your presentations.

Moovly supports various video formats, and users can create horizontal, square or vertical videos for different platforms. You can also add multiple soundtracks, voiceovers and sound effects to your presentations.

Finally, Moovly's text-to-speech feature converts written text into voice-over, available in over 20 languages, adding another layer of customization to the projects. You can also use the AI subtitle generator to automatically create closed captions for your video presentations.

What are the different animation styles commonly used in presentations?

Presentations often use various animation styles, like 2D, 3D, motion graphics, whiteboard and kinetic typography. 2D animations are flat and simple, while 3D adds depth and realism. Motion graphics combine text, shapes and images, and whiteboard animations mimic hand-drawn illustrations. Kinetic typography uses moving text to convey messages.

What are the types of animated presentations?

Some types of animated presentations include 2D animation videos, 3D animation videos, whiteboard animation videos, motion graphic videos, animated typography videos and stop motion videos.

Which animation is best for presentations?

The best animation style for presentations depends on the content and target audience. However, simple, clean animations that enhance the message without overwhelming the viewer are generally preferred in most situations.

It's important to choose animations that complement your presentation's tone and purpose instead of distracting from the core content.

Can you animate a PowerPoint presentation?

Yes, PowerPoint offers built-in animation tools, effects and transitions that allow users to animate the text, images, shapes, slides and other elements in their presentations.

You can also edit your PowerPoint presentations using a third-party tool like Visme to add even better, more advanced and sleek animations, interactivity and design elements.

What are the 4 types of animation in PowerPoint?

PowerPoint offers four main types of animations: entrance, emphasis, exit and motion paths.

• Entrance animations determine how elements appear on the slide, such as fading in or flying in.
• Emphasis animations draw attention to specific elements, like pulsing or changing color.
• Exit animations define how elements leave the slide.
• Motion paths create custom movement patterns for objects.

What is better than PowerPoint?

There are several alternatives to PowerPoint, but one of the best tools for creating engaging presentations is Visme. The platform offers powerful and easy-to-use tools for creating, editing, animating, presenting, sharing and downloading all kinds of slide decks.

Visme’s presentation software gives you access to thousands of ready-made presentation templates and lets you customize every aspect of the slides, use AI and branding tools, add animated elements and interactivity, embed multimedia and much more.

Do Canva presentations have animations?

Yes, Canva offers a range of animations, transitions and effects to enhance your presentations. Users can apply an animation style to the entire presentation or animate specific elements within slides.

You can also adjust duration and delay settings, and even create your own animation style. Canva also offers several transitions to create a smooth flow between your slides.

Create Stunning Animated Presentations with Visme

If you’re looking for the perfect software to help you create your own animated presentation, you don’t really need to look any further than Visme.

You can easily animate elements in a clean and seamless way without it getting overwhelming. Slide transition effects are also super effective with plenty of options for customization.

To present or share your animated presentation, use the online link and view from any device. If you’d like to present it without an internet connection, download it as an HTML5 (offline web) file or as a high-quality MP4 video.

You can also collaborate with your marketing team to put together an animated presentation in Visme. Or, take advantage of the brand kit and save your animated presentation as a template to use for your future slideshows.

Sign up for a free Visme account today and create your perfect animated presentation .

Create beautiful presentations faster 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

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8 Time Tested Patterns For presentation organization

A good presentation  structure makes or breaks a presentation.

In this article, I’ll explore several of my favorite structures you can use to organize your presentations for maximum impact.

Presentation Organization With 8 Patterns

One of the most important factors that contribute to a successful presentation is the pattern of organization that you use to structure and arrange your ideas.

1. Chronological pattern

This model is best suitable for historical, timeline and process or procedure topics that can be split into different segments according to the time sequence. Structuring your presentation chronologically means your information will be arranged according to the order of time in which each event occurred. Chronologically structured presentations often contain segments like dates, flash-backs, future-present-past, before-during-after, flash-forwards, etc.

2. Sequential pattern

Just like the Chronological pattern, a sequential pattern also involves organizing information in a particular order over given period. The information is arranged systematically in a step-by-step sequence that essentially describes a particular process. Under this pattern, the main sections, further divided into sub-sections, represent each primary step while its sub-sections represent the sub-steps that the targeted audience will follow in the real-life application of what is being described. A sequential pattern is best suitable for presentations like a report, project rollout, etc., that describe a process that occurs in a series of step over a period.

3. Spatial pattern

A spatial pattern of presentation organization is the arrangement of information depending on how things fit within a physical space. It involves creating a mental picture of the parts of something so that they can be analyzed in their physical position. Spatial pattern is mostly used in descriptions, but can also work well for classifications, narrations, examples, and other forms of exposition. For instance, while describing a building, I might begin with the description of the entrance, what I see at the door, the color of the building, what I see as I walk towards the middle of the room, etc..

4. Climatic pattern

A climatic presentation pattern is the arrangement of information from the least important to the most important. You essentially save the best and the most important part of the presentation for the last to hold the attention of your audience. Words commonly used under this category include most difficult, better still, worse yet, more important, etc.

5. Problem-Solution pattern

Problem-Solution Pattern is mostly applied in a persuasive presentation, where you describe the causes and effects of a problem with high clarity and then point out a solution that either control or eliminate the effects. It involves the arrangement of your presentation information into two main segments. The first segment discusses the nature of a problem while the second segment discusses the solution. This pattern is best suited for a presentation where your aim is to convince and compel your audience to take action.

6. Compare-Contrast pattern

This pattern involves organizing information depending on how two or more things are related to or different from one another. This presentation works well in a situation where your audience can better understand a particular topic when it is discussed in a relationship to another topic.

7. Cause-effect pattern

This pattern is best suitable for persuasive and expository presentations in which you advocate your audience to take action that will result in a solution to a problem. In this pattern, information is arranged to show the reasons why something happened or the effects of something.

8. Advantage-disadvantage pattern

In this pattern, information is organized into “good” or “bad” categories, or pros and cons. It gives your audience the opportunity to weigh and consider all options before deciding which is best for them with minimal outside influence.

Conclusion:

These were my top 8 time tested patterns for structuring your presentations. If I missed some or if you think of one that could be useful, please leave it in the comment. I would love to add the knowledge to the community.

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