Best presentation software 2022 | IT PRO

Delivering a work presentation may be an unnerving experience, with the fear of public speaking being cited as one of the most common phobias. Although there’s a range of ways to combat the pre-presentation jitters, one foolproof method is preparation. After all, practice makes perfect, and the more you prepare, the less likely you are to be sidetracked by an unexpected question. You’ll also appear more confident, which automatically draws your audience to pay attention to you – a challenging task, considering that the human attention span is estimated to last only around eight seconds and is constantly decreasing.=

Although confidence definitely helps, you won’t go far without some visual support. Consider graphs, infographics, quotes, and charts as your new best friends that will assist in illustrating your point and delivering a convincing presentation. However, these will only work if delivered with a compelling design. After all, no one wants to look at walls of text and bleak columns. Hence, in order to create the perfect, attention-grabbing slides, you’ll require a presentation software. Luckily, there’s an abundance of choices online and offline, but for those who might be overwhelmed by the countless options, we’ve rounded them up to the five best offerings from Google, Microsoft, Prezi, Visme, and Slidebean.

Whether you want to pay $180 per year or nothing at all, plan to present in-person or remotely via a video call – you’re likely to find your perfect presentation software in one of the five offerings detailed below. Once that’s sorted, all you need to do is work on your public speaking skills.

1. Microsoft PowerPoint 

Supported operating systems: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android

Free tier: Yes

Launched in the 1990s, PowerPoint is a legacy presentation software that enjoys a 95{f5ac61d6de3ce41dbc84aacfdb352f5c66627c6ee4a1c88b0642321258bd5462} share of the worldwide presentation software market. 

PowerPoint is backed by Microsoft Office Suite, making it a popular choice for users looking to share information from Word, Excel, Outlook, and Access. PowerPoint also features a rehearsal tool that monitors your presentation length.  

A Microsoft 365 Personal subscription ($69.99 per year) gives you access to PowerPoint and several other Microsoft Office tools, including Word, Excel, Onedrive, OneNote, and more. 

Businesses can get a Microsoft 365 subscription that includes PowerPoint from $8.25-$20 per user per month, depending on options and add-ons.

Alternatively, you can purchase PowerPoint as a standalone app for a one-time fee of $139.99. 

A limited online version is available for free with support for real-time collaboration, 3D objects, and embedded animations. 

2. Google Slides

Supported operating systems: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android

Free tier: Yes

Built with collaboration in mind, Google Slides hosts a Q&A tool to make presentations more interactive, maximizing that eight-second attention span. When enabled, this tool adds a banner in the Slide’s top-right corner so viewers can submit real-time questions. Users can also upvote questions and submit anonymous queries.

Furthermore, as part of the Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) set of applications, Google Slides works seamlessly with Google Drive and Google Sheets. Use this capability to share or instantaneously edit Google Drive documents on the go. It’s also compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint, so you can save Slide presentations as PowerPoint files. Tables and charts are also part of Google Slides’ offering. Suited for the hybrid working era, users can deliver presentations on Google Meet video calls directly from Slides.

As for pricing, Google Slides includes a free tier that requires no additional setup. However, upgrading your account can make way for more cloud storage, faster tech support, advanced security, and other useful features. 

Subscriptions start at $6 per user per month for the Business Starter plan. For more cloud storage, video meeting options and recording, and other useful upgrades, there’s also the Business Standard plan at $12 per user per month and the Business Plus plan for $18 per user per month. 

Topping the offerings is a customizable Enterprise offering, but you have to call the Google Workspace sales team for a quote. 

3. Prezi 

Supported operating systems: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android

Free tier: Yes

Reminiscent of an animated short film, Prezi offers a digital canvas to organize and view your full-length presentation. What’s more, Prezi lets you zoom in or turn the canvas at unique angles while presenting. The cinematic transitions seamlessly redirect your audience’s attention to a specific topic, boosting engagement. 

Additionally, Prezi makes it easy to import and embed a PDF file into your presentation. You may also choose to incorporate live or recorded videos into your presentations via video in video. Convenient and secure, Prezi’s “Go Live” feature lets you share your recordings with popular video conferencing tools, including Zoom, Webex, and others.  

Prezi offers flexible tiers: Basic, Standard, Plus, and Premium. The Basic plan is free and lets you create and share up to five projects. 

The middle-tier offerings start with the $5-per-month Standard package, which adds features like unlimited visual content, privacy control, revocable share links, image editing, a PowerPoint converter, and more. Bumping up to Plus plan runs $15 and build upon the Standard plan with corporate branding, offline access, downloadable presentations, voiceover capability, PDF export, and more. 

Topping the price list is the Premium plan, which starts at $59 per month and includes phone support, presentation analytics, and advanced online training on top of the Plus features.

Keep in mind, Prezi bills those monthly fees annually, but you can take advantage of a 14-day free trial. 

4. Visme

Supported operating systems: Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, and Android

Free tier: Yes

With Visme, you can run your presentation online or offline, collaborate with teams, connect charts to live data, and more. Visme’s intuitive drag-and-drop interface provides granular content control, making customization quick and easy. You can also add animated assets, forms, and surveys to a Visme presentation. 

What’s more, Visme’s analytics feature lets you track traffic on public Visme projects. When someone views a public Visme project, the software detects and compiles the source address, number of unique visitors, and each visit’s duration. Visme then visualizes the metrics into an easy-to-understand analytical graph, accessible through the dashboard. You can also download the metrics as Excel reports. 

Visme offers a free plan that allows up to five projects and includes limited templates, charts and widgets, 100 MB of storage, the ability to download JPG files, and more. 

Paid Visme plans come in two variants: Standard ($25 per month or $180 per year) and Business ($49 per month or $348 per year).

The Standard plan adds onto the free plan with up to 15 projects, 250 MB of storage, premium assets and templates, no Visme branding, PDF download, 24/7 phone and chat support, and more. The Business plan offers unlimited projects, 10 GB of storage, multiple file download types, a branding kit, privacy controls, and more. 

For large corporations, there is an Enterprise plan with custom pricing. This plan builds upon the Business plan with 25 GB of storage, single-sign-on ability, two-factor authentication, a custom subdomain, deep analytics, training and onboarding, and more. 

5. Slidebean 

Supported operating systems: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android

Free tier: Yes

Standing out from the conventional, Slidebean is an AI-powered, web-based multimedia presentation tool. It can design and format your slides automatically as you type.  Furthermore, this tool lets you combine a wide range of media, including videos, PDF files, web pages, and Prezi and PowerPoint presentations, to name a few. 

From sales decks to business proposals, Slidebean’s ready-to-use templates offer smart content suggestions to keep presentations informative yet creative. You may even choose to remotely control your SlideDog presentations from a desktop or your smartphone.

Slidebean’s free plan includes unlimited access to its AI-powered editor, pre-built templates, and media galleries. The Starter plan runs $8 per month (billed annually) and adds 15 starter templates, the ability to collaborate with people on presentations, presentation sharing capabilities, controllable privacy settings, and PDF and HTML exports. 

The Premium plan, starting at $19 per month (billed annually) and adds to the Starter plan with 120 premium templates, analytics, logo and brand kit, the ability to add a teammate, and priority support.

At the top of the plans is the Founder’s Edition, which runs $149 per month (billed monthly or annually). In addition to the Premium features, Founder’s Edition adds free office hours with Slidebean’s CEO, in-house proofreading and tune-ups, financial modeling templates, over $5,000 in startup credits in AWS, Brex and others, and more.