Google Slides vs PowerPoint: Which one we should prefer?

To convey anything interactively, a slideshow is necessary. Regardless of your line of work, you might need to use slideshows for presentations. The two most widely used software for creating slide shows are PowerPoint and Slides. This post will compare the key characteristics of the two software to help you decide which slideshow builder is best for you.

What are PowerPoint and Google Slides?

PowerPoint is a presentation software given by Microsoft. Since, it is provided with Microsoft Office, which must be installed on the computer to run this software. It is available as a free application for a variety of platforms, including Windows, iOS, and Android. PowerPoint is used by over 500 million people, who create 300 million presentations per day.
Google Slides is a new presentation software provided by Google, and it is free because it is offered with a Google account, so there is no need for any installation to use this. Slides was the very first cloud-based presentation creator, and as a result, it has become increasingly popular since 2006. As Google concentrated on providing improved workplace collaboration through Slides, you receive effortless teamwork on a single presentation.

Comparison based on:

Cost Of Usage

PowerPoint includes a Microsoft 365 membership, which costs 69.99 USD annually or $6.99 per month for one person. Other advantages include Microsoft Word, Outlook, Microsoft Excel, 1 TB of OneDrive storage, and so on. PowerPoint is available for free for 30 days.
Google Slides, on the other hand, is a free online tool. There are no restrictions as to whether you utilize it for personal or business purposes. All you require is a Google account and a suitable web browser on a PC or a smartphone app. Slides’ strong value proposition, according to reports, is its free-to-use license.

Online and Offline Usage

When used as standalone software on a PC, PowerPoint is a prominent slideshow maker. Many features are missing from the web version of PowerPoint, such as the inability to open large files probably 2 GB or PowerPoint add-ins.
A better PC configuration is also required for the standalone PowerPoint to run smoothly. To run the tool, Microsoft requires at least 1.6 GHz processing capability, 4 GB free hard disc space and 4GB RAM.
Google Slides, on the other hand, does not need a powerful PC because it runs in the Chrome browser. To create high-quality presentations, you’ll need a good internet connection. Offline editing and presenting are available, but only on Chrome browsers.

Remote Collaboration

PowerPoint collaboration is not as engaging as Google Slides. That’s because you must do a lot of planning before your team can start working together. These plans include posting a copy to OneDrive, emailing links, configuring SharePoint Sites, and so on.
For collaborative work on the PC version, all team members must have PowerPoint 2010 or later versions. You could use PowerPoint online, although you may not have access to as many features as you do on a PC.
Slides quickly gained popularity due to its immediate collaboration feature. Your entire team can work on the same file at the same time, sharing feedback and remarks. Google Drive saves all versions automatically, and recovering older versions is simple.

Free-to-use Templates

PowerPoint has a large library of customizable templates. You’ll undoubtedly find an option in the template library that corresponds to your presentation theme. These templates are included as part of a Microsoft 365 monthly subscription fee.
Slides also provide free templates, however, the selection is not as extensive as PowerPoint. It only contains basic templates that you can customize to your specifications.

Animations and Effects

PowerPoint for PC includes many varieties of effects, animations, 3D content and various transitions. As a result, designers and professionals in the creative field depend on PowerPoint to deliver high-quality presentations with sophisticated graphics.
Slides provide the fundamental and necessary elements, transitions, and animations needed to create a professional presentation. Slides’ creative content is limited if you crave high-end content.

Image Editing and processing

PowerPoint is a powerful image editing and processing software. Most individuals use PowerPoint to quickly edit photos rather than spend time in Photoshop. It has advanced features such as background removal, image compression, SmartArt graphics creation, and so on.
Slides also include basic photo editing functionalities, but these are insufficient for creating high-end slideshows. Its image editing capabilities are restricted to resizing, rotating, colour adjusting, and adding transparency, among other things.

Backup Autosave and Storage

PowerPoint editions before the 2016 version demand you to manually save your slideshows. AutoSave and AutoRecover functionalities are included in 2016 and later editions. Unless you manually assigned the default location to OneDrive, the PC software will store the file in a local drive.
Slides will save every change you create while creating a slideshow. It also keeps a version history of one google slides in case you really need to revert to a previous version. The slideshows are always saved in your account on Google Drive.

Conclusion

In this article, we agree with the fact that both are presentation design software, which is also widely used in the business and academic sectors. Although the most recent versions of PowerPoint have improved functionality, their biggest shortcoming is when used for teamwork and cooperation. The more recent software, Google Slide, is extremely user-friendly but has fewer features because it is currently in the development stage. The user must ultimately choose between these two options according to their priorities and preferences.