PowerPoint vs. Google slides — What's the Difference?

PowerPoint, a Microsoft product, has been a staple in digital presentations since the 1990s, offering a wide array of design templates and rich multimedia capabilities. It's known for its robust feature set, which caters to both novice and professional users, allowing for sophisticated presentations that can include a variety of transitions, animations, and embedded multimedia. It's part of the Microsoft Office suite and is available as a standalone application or as part of an Office subscription, with versions for Windows, macOS, and other platforms.

Google Slides is Google's answer to PowerPoint, designed for cloud-based collaboration. It allows multiple users to work on the same presentation simultaneously, providing a seamless experience for teams distributed across the globe. Google Slides focuses on simplicity and ease of use, offering fewer customization options than PowerPoint but excelling in its collaborative features. As a part of the Google Workspace, it is available for free to anyone with a Google account, working across various platforms through web browsers.

PowerPoint is widely used in business and educational settings for its comprehensive features and offline access, while Google Slides is often favored by teams that prioritize real-time collaboration and accessibility from any device with an internet connection. PowerPoint offers advanced features like detailed animation settings and the ability to work extensively with offline content, while Google Slides has a more streamlined interface with a focus on online sharing and collaboration.

PowerPoint presentations can be more storage-heavy, especially when incorporating high-resolution media, whereas Google Slides stores all content online, which can be a limitation for users with poor internet connectivity. PowerPoint provides extensive offline editing capabilities, which is a significant advantage when internet access is unreliable. Google Slides requires internet access for full functionality, but it allows for easy sharing without the need for file downloads or transfers.