Microsoft Powerpoint vs. Prezi

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft Powerpoint
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation software designed to allow users to create slide-based presentations including video and images, as well as slide transitions and animations.
$139.99
Prezi
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Prezi’s advantage over static slides is that its interactive, zoomable canvas shows the relationship between the big picture and the fine details. The vendor’s value proposition is that this puts ideas in context, and makes them more likely to resonate, motivate, and be remembered.
$3
per month
Pricing
Microsoft PowerpointPrezi
Editions & Modules
One Time Purchase
$139.99
Students & Educators - EDU Plus
$3
per month
Individual - Standard
$5
per month
Basic - Plus
$15
per month
Individual - Plus
$15
per month
Business - Plus
$15
per month
Individual - Premium
$59
per month
Business - Premium
$59
per month
Basic - Free
Free
Students & Educators - Basic
Free
Students & Educators - EDU Teams
Contact sales team
Business - Teams
Contact for quote
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft PowerpointPrezi
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft PowerpointPrezi
User Ratings
Microsoft PowerpointPrezi
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.5
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.5
(0 ratings)
8.8
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft PowerpointPrezi
Likelihood to Recommend
Well suited for: Business presentations, storyboarding, instructor-led training, content slide creation for courseware, interactive kiosks and slideshows, logo design, posters, scalable PDF text, multimedia integration. Not well suited for: 3D object manipulation, layer editing, object trigger programming, complex graphic themes, advanced audio editing, advanced video editing, advanced photo editing, 3D modeling.
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I believe Prezi is well suited when an author wants to create a more compelling presentation. It is also most useful when using it to explain processes, flows, and/or other visual elements. From another perspective, when it is necessary to create something more quickly, Prezi may not be the right solution, when compared to PowerPoint, for example. There are nice templates, but the creation process may not be so fast and simple.
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Pros
  • Powerpoint is excellent for structuring your ideas as you before you present them
  • Powerpoint should be used as s skeleton for your presentation for maximum effectiveness, rather than just "reading off the slides"
  • Powerpoint on a high DPI system with screencasting software and microphone allows you to record a high resolution product demonstration video quickly.
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  • Prezi can provides a literal "big picture" view of the presentation content. This helps the audience understand what the presentation is ultimately all about.
  • Prezi is anything but bland. It animates the content and makes it feel like you are "in" the material.
  • Prezi presentations can incorporate video, images, text and more. There are many options to present content to an audience.
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Cons
  • Smart Art can really improve its graphs
  • Tables should be defaulted to redistribute columns and rows
  • Sometimes the links to Excel files get lost and I never understood why
  • I wish there was an easier way to save graph templates and defaults in a same presentation
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  • Can be buggy and crashes mid design.
  • Not suitable for simple presentations.
  • Hard to create something quick and simple, so even after we gained experience we still had a hard time using it to deliver a presentation overnight.
  • Can be slow to load a presentation, so we always setup 5-10 minutes before our actual presentation time and made sure everything is loaded and ready to go.
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Usability
Microsoft Powerpoint is a strong tool specially when it comes to giving presentations and visually presenting ideas. It is a great tool to bridge the gap between technical and non-technical management and staff members, helping to present ideas in a clear and concise way. But when it comes to internal usage, Microsoft Powerpoint needs to be used along with a host of other tools to present details and adding diagrams
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Learning to use Prezi and create new presentations is very simple and easy to do. It does not require new skills or a long training process, since in general the use is quite intuitive (and if you have any questions there are many videos on how to use it). Its operation in both the browser version and the app is very good and fluid, managing to perform all the tasks you want properly.
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Reliability and Availability
I've never had any issues with its availability. As it is installed on my machine, it's ready when I need it, online or offline. Creating large slide decks with complex elements like video and audio doesn't affect its stability. The only limitation would be the capability of your own computer, as far as I can tell.
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No answers on this topic
Performance
The performance is very strong. It loads reasonably quickly. Large presentations load relatively quickly too, given their complexity, and once loaded each slide is readily available. It's easy to scroll up and down through your slide deck and go to the slide you want. Videos, pictures and music all load on demand, controllable by clicks.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
I have never had to use the actual support. Most of my questions are "how to" questions and there is a rich internet full of users sharing their tips and tricks with this application. Sometimes I find the answers on Microsoft support site but often I don't
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It is a modern and easy-to-use tool (after a while) that allows you to make dynamic and trained presentations without the need to be an expert user. It has allowed me to improve the attention and motivational processes of my students. In addition, it has many [community users] who make videos and teach the many uses that you can use Prezi. And because, despite the restrictions of the free version, everyone can access and make use of Prezi and thus improve their boring ppt and inject some vitality into them.
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Alternatives Considered
Canva: The animations and effects are very limited and hard to customize unless you are a Canva Expert. Too many of the items are only available to premium subscribers (which can be highly frustrating). Some of the stock images, icons, etc., will be copied to your presentation. But when you go to download the presentation, Canva puts one of those annoying watermarks on the image, icon, or stock photo. Adobe Express: Although it is a free service like Canva, it still has the annoying issue with only paid users have access to the premium content. But with Express, the design options are almost limitless. Text is so easy to edit and create stunning text moments. Express does offer animations and effects, but most are only available to premium members (requires a monthly fee). Prezi: What I thought was going to be an amazing presentation creator falls so far from the mark that I hardly ever use it. The learning curve is very steep, and it does not offer all the bells and whistles that Microsoft Powerpoint offers.
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We also tried Powerpoint and Visio to prepare hierarchical presentations, but it was not as easy, and it was kind of difficult to edit. Prezi provided built-in zoom-pan animation, which made it easier. Also, there were many samples from the Prezi community that one could learn from. Finally, Prezi Classic was free and there was not any limitation in using the free version.
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Scalability
Scaling up use of Microsoft Powerpoint would be a simple case of buying further licences. The software is intuitive and therefore training demands from scaling it to more departments or more individuals would be relatively straightforward. Google Slides may be easier to share among those organisations that use Google's suite of apps, however.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • Microsoft has made it easier through the years with upgrades to make presentations quicker and better for us.
  • Flexibility to use wide screen views has enhanced our ablate to share more information on fewer slides.
  • There have not been any negative impacts on my business at all.
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  • Prezi is really a sunk cost for us. The positive is to stand out when other organizations are presenting in a more traditional way
  • Ability to explain complex concepts is a plus
  • Instant save of work and access through the cloud is another very positive aspect which makes the paid version worth it
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ScreenShots

Prezi Screenshots

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