8 free platforms and programs to create presentations and decks
Producing great creative work is often just half the task – the next step is communicating the story behind your ideas to others. While most creative roles will see you putting together a presentation at some point, working out what programs to use can be consuming and overwhelming. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of ideation, presentation and deck design platforms, with varying price ranges, to help you find one that’s the right fit. Whether it’s design packages to put together a beautiful deck, or virtual places to collaborate on multimedia slide-making, there will be something here for you.
Keynote
Good for: Presentations, working with other Apple products
Cost: Free
A free programme that comes built-in with all Macs, Keynote is a slideshow presentation tool that syncs with all Apple devices and has a clean, design-driven interface. You can create slideshows using your own images, text and 2D or 3D charts; different themes, fonts, styles, transitions and animation can also be selected. There are thousands of slick templates to choose from, and it also has a touch interface option, allowing you to draw and sketch on presentation slides.
Google Slides
Good for: Presentations, collaborative working
Cost: Free
An online-only presentation tool, Slides is part of the Google workspace, so it’s integrated with other Google products like Drive and Sheets, alongside being free to use.
One big draw is that Google Slides allows you to work on a presentation with multiple people. So if you’re working on a group project, everyone can simultaneously edit slides within the same presentation. Designers have also praised the platform interface’s little touches, such as pasted text staying in the same field and the fact that images move smoothly within the crop.
Miro
Good for: Collaborative ideation, transforming content into decks
Cost: Free and additional packages start £8 per month
Miro styles itself a ‘remote whiteboarding tool’ where teams can come together in a presentation style to discuss ideas. Highly rated for its UX (user experience) ease and aesthetics, the software has tools such as virtual sticky notes, wire framing, dot voting and templates for mindmaps, ideation, workshops and meetings. You can also join the Miroverse, a community templates gallery showcasing the very best boards from the Miro community, as well as their creators’ work.
Pitch
Good for: Range of templates, ease of use, pitching
Cost: Free and additional packages start at £8 per month
A presentation platform with a good range of contemporary design-led templates ready for you to add your own text and imagery to. It’s easy to use for those with limited design skills, but also reliable for presentation experts wanting to create an on-brand deck. The software is set up for collaboration, as team members can leave comments, assign slides, track progress and go to a quick video call all within the app. As the name suggests, most templates are also set up in the flow of pitching, but they are versatile enough to work as a straightforward package for info, images or moodboarding.
Canva
Good for: Beginners to pros, variety of templates
Cost: Free, additional packages from £10.99 a month
The popular, simple graphic design software app has an impressive library of templates, stock images, fonts, shapes and music. It also boasts easy-to-use features, with a drag-and-drop slide creation function. A Pro version is available with a subscription cost and contains more features, such as creating bespoke graphics that are aligned with your visual branding, the ability to download images with transparent backgrounds and a presentation creator. It’s worth noting, though, that you can’t insert video or create more than 30 slides.
Powtoon
Good for: Animation, video, number of functions
Cost: Free, extra packages start from £15 a month
A web-based professional video creation and animation platform aimed at creating engaging presentations. You write a script, record a voiceover and add visuals into templates, ensuring a minimal initial learning curve. Animated characters are a big feature of the platform, which has undergone a recent diversity overhaul. You also add in live footage or mixed media. There are tools to screen cast, as well as one to doodle across the slides and a range of free music available.
Figma Slides
Good for: Design, team collaboration
Cost: Free with limitations, £9.99 a month for extra functions
A web-based platform to connect everyone involved in the design or creative process, Figma aims to smoothen teams’ delivery of their work. It has a live collaboration design flow that really speeds things up, as team members can check in on files as they are being edited. Templates for presentations are available in abundance, but there are also lots of tutorials and exercises within the platform that help you hone your design skills.
LibreOffice Impress
Good for: Detailed presentations, custom extensions
Cost: Free
Open-source with a large community of users, LibreOffice has a comprehensive range of applications to use. Impress is the software of choice for presentations, offering various editing modes depending on your skill level. Plus, the community has published hundreds of custom extensions and templates to level up your slides if you’re looking to add a creative twist.
