Create the best Animated video presentations without a camera or software for free
You’ve got a presentation coming up that you’ve got to nail. But this time you want to really wow your audience with a true alternative to PowerPoint. Creating an amazing animated presentation sounds hard but it can be easy with PowToon.
All you need to make an animated video is a computer and an online connection, you don’t need any software, photoshop, camera to make the movie. Whether you need to make an engaging live presentation, an educational presentation, a product demo, or a landing-page video , a video presentation is a great way to showcase your ideas. PowToon is the simplest and cheapest way to make an animated video. And it’s perfect for your YouTube clip, step by step instructional videos, or amazing animated presentations on moviestorm.
Make an animated movie online – no software download
PowToon is an online animation service, which means that you can make an animated movie without downloading any software. It will work anywhere on any PC or Mac computer . PowToon offers a free account, just login and start go animate.
Simple and fun drag-and-drop interface
PowToon offers a radically simplified interface for making animated movies. Scared of Photoshop? This is a completely different experience. PowerPoint too hard? You will love PowToon. Learning how to do this will be fun and easy and you will master animating in no-time.
The cheapest way to make an animated video online
When it comes to cost, you can’t beat the amazing low price of Pow-Toon. Starting at $8 per video for $19 a month for unlimited plan, we are less than half the cost of GoAnimate and a Fraction of the pricing SlideRocket charges.
Some examples of what you can you do with a PowToon subscription:
Make an animated video
Make animated explainer
Make an online Presentation
Make a Product demo
Make promotional YouTube videos
Libraries of Characters and Styles to choose from
Presentation animation and any animated video require good content. Chose from our libraries of styles, characters and props. And Starting March 2013 we will be adding lots content to our editor on a regular basis. If you chose to upload your own character and images, we support that too. With Powtoon, you are an animation maker, not an illustrator, so we offer simple animation options even for images you upload yourself.
So, are you ready to make an animated video? PowToon is free and ready for you to use.
Which Online Animation software is the best? Review, Compare plans & features right here!
Our online animation software review focuses on Powtoon, Animoto and Sliderockt. Al three animator Programs work online so you don’t need to download them to your computer.
1. PowToon - Online Animation Software Review: Cheap and simple.
The PowToon 2D animator is our first pick in our Online Animation Software Review. This online animation software was perfected for storytelling and creating simple Flash style movies and presentations. Creating motion is simple which is great if you don’t want to have to go through a hundred tutorials before you can create your first movie but it also means that complex powerful motion graphics are not quite what this program is for. Small business owners, precentors and marketers will love this software. Studio animators would find this program great for quick mock-ups but too simple for custom studio flash jobs.
PowToon has three pricing options: Free, Professional and Agency.
PowToon’s free plan seems to be the most robust of all the online animations software free plans. There are very few limitations. Essentially Powtoon seems to be happy to let you use their service for free if you don’t mind having the Powtoon logo on your video or presentation. If you want to remove Powtoon’s logo on your animated video you can buy export credits that start at $8 per export (very cheap) or get an unlimited professional plan which starts at $19 a month.
The jewel of the crown here is the Agency account which starts at $57 per month. This is peanuts when compared to SlideRocket’s agency plan (where you need a minimum order of $3,600). Unlimited TV quality FULL HD is not available anywhere else and seems to us like an incredible offer.
Animoto, the second program in our online animation software revivew, is a great light-weight animation program. It was one of the first to come out in the mid two thousands and got a great deal of following because of that. But this animation software has lost a lot of its users to the competition due to lack of progress. The videos are fine and the library selection is good. Animoto also has a built-in music library for the soundtrack which is really nice. Those who are looking for a free option will not really find one here (read below) nor will power (agency) users find a suitable plan. We find the user interface to be quite challenging for Pro users but nevertheless this is a real option for for creating explainers and animated videos.
Animoto does not really have a free plan (unless you have good use for a 30 second clip). The “free” plan actually costs $2.5 a month which is reasonable but annoying (just make it free for pet’s sake). The Pro plan starts at 20.75 per month which is just slightly more than PowToon Professional. PowToon has many more styles and features and is easier to use but Animoto has the built in music libraries. Make your pick as to which you need more. The way we see it, you can get free music at Last.FM. Animoto offers no agency account.
Sliderocket rocks the slide-show scene. Some of the animations are top notch. The user interface is over the top serious black and very feature the largest content library. SlideRocket’s claim to fame is their team collaboration (which is available in their most expensive plan) and we must admit, this is the most powerful PowerPoint alternative on the market. Animators will find this program very limited (see below), not because of the graphics but because of the export limitations. Using this animation software potential takes a real learning curve, but they also have lots of tutorials. Users looking for a PowerPoint alternative rich in effects and flash plugins might be willing to pay the steep price this program demands.
SlideRocket positions itself closer to PowerPoint than to an animation software. It does allow you to import PowerPoint presentations and it does have a nice collaboration tool that PowToon and Animoto do not have. But Sliderocket limits you to their player so it’s no good if you want to export to YouTube and Facebook or want to load your presentation to your own website (you can embed it).
SlideRoket has a limited free (lite) plan. The free plan seems best for those used to PowerPoint and would like an alternative but not for those seeking to make animated videos for free. The upgrade comes at the highest monthly price which is 25% higher than Powtoons’ (which is the cheapest). SlideRocket has some impressive features and a gorgeous UI. But since you can’t easily export your presentations you need to account for sticking with this pricing for life. The agency account is ridiculously expensive and seems to target corporate sales teams in fortune 500 companies.
SlideRocket Animation software pricing options
Conclusion of our Online Animation Software Review:
PowToon and animoto share many similarities but we find Powtoon to be much easier to use, better quality export files for the price and superb agency and free plans.
If you need to choose between the two animation programs we pick PowToon because it offers:
Simple interface
Great export to your computer options
Best free animation account
Best value Agency account
Plus, Powtoon is constantly adding new features.SlideRocket seems like a slightly different animal and we recommend it to the presenters who are willing to pay the high price.
If you need a PowerPoint style amazingly crafted slide show we recommend SlideRocket because it features:
Most robust libraries and effects
Excellent Flash graphics
Poor export options
Wildly expensive agency plan
Powerful collaboration options
Neither program really offers 3d animation and we look forward to seeing these effects introduced in the future.
This concludes our Online Animation Software Review. We hope you fint it helpful.
Everyone agrees that Microsoft Powerpoint is so 20th century. It is not the best free presentation tool (In fact it’s not free at all). So what should you use if you want to make 21st century presentations? A few options come close to claim the best free presentation software. In this article, I’m going to show you why Powtoon is the best free presentation software and the best alternative to PowerPoint.
1. PowToon - The best free animated presentation software
When it comes to presenting and making presentations, PowToon created a whole new category of presentations. Forget bullet points, templates and files on your computer. PowToon is an online tool that allows users (PC or mac) to easily create animated stories for presentations or explainer videos. Slides are only used to manage content while creating the presentation which when on screen provides an easy to grasp narrative. If you are a google Drive user, Powtoon integrates well with it. PowToon is great with voice overs and is best used when you have certain parts of your presentation that need to be well rehearsed play on the screen with your voice already recorded.
Google Drive Presentations: one of the best free PowerPoint alternative
We work a lot with Google applications when it comes to replacing Microsoft applications . You may already be familiar with Google Drive. Google allows users to get started with presentations super quickly. It looks just like PowerPoint but is easier to use. The software was built by geeks and it shows. The aesthetics of the presentations are quite lacking and the templates are too basic. It is however, very strong on collaborative work. Creating PowerPoint like slides has never been easier.
Google Drive Presentations: one of the best free PowerPoint alternative
Many use Goole Docs presentation just to create initial presentation docs and then switch over to more robust programs.
3. 280 Slides - Slides that look good
280 Slides: one of the best free PowerPoint alternatives
280 Slides is one of those unknown slideshow apps no-one has heard about but has many users. That’s because presentations made with this program look just like Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, just fancier. I’s easy to use so users have often created slides in google docs or PowerPoint and then imported them into 280 slides.
A quick search online shows that many of the Presentations created with 280 Presentations end up on Slideshare for some reason. Other great features include autosave and recovery (also available on PowToon and Google Docs), You can also export to PowerPoint 2007 format for sharing.
4. SlideRocket - Flash quality Templates and slides
SlideRocket is an expensive web-based presentation application. SlideRocket offers a limited free option with the ability to import from PowerPoint and export to PDF. The higher price comes with many features including sales team collaboration which is quite unique. The slide transition effects look great on the screen and resemble Flash more than PowerPoint. You can also integrate content from sites like Flickr and YouTube, as well as utilize plug-ins. If you want great graphics and lots of templates and are willing to pay up when the time comes. This may be a good option. It’s still a slideshow, but a good looking one.
Prezi became very popular because it was the first to offer a real alternative to slides. It’s still the best option for what we call “non-linear presentations”. If you need to hop around a lot this is a good option because Prezi allows the presenter to skip to any part of the presentation with ease (unlike PowerPoitn where users need to move back or forth one slide at a time).
Conclusion
Are you over PowerPoint yet? Clearly it has lost the title of the Best Presentation Software. Here is what we have to say about the various options:
PowToon: Best free presentation software, best animated presentation software
Google Docs: Best Simplified PowerPoint Clone
280 Slides: Best for good looking simple Bullet point presentations.
Sliderocket: Best Collaborative slideshow software
Why Powtoon is the Best Alternative to PowerPoint.
Tired of Watching Bullet Points on slides? Looking for the Best PowerPoint alternative?
Here is why Powtoon is your Best alternative to the Microsoft PowerPoint software.
Best PowrPoint Alternative 1: Look honey: No slides.
No slides? That’s right – slides are just a means of sorting out and managing your narrative. PowToon is all about telling stories (Like the video here). Slide Shows? Not here please…
Best PowerPoint Alternative
Best PowerPoint alternative 2: No more Bullet Points!
They do. PowToon is the tool that allows you to tell a great story so you don’t read off your screen (bullet point by bullet point).
Best PowerPoint Alternative
PowerPoint Alternative 3: Got Video?
Giving a great presentation is where you talk, then you show a short explainer video, then a case study, etc… PowToon allows you something that Microsoft PowerPoint does not: easily illustrate situations to the audience via cartoons or video right there inside your presentation.
Best PowerPoint Alternative
Best PowerPoint Alternative 4: Present online or format your post to YouTube.
That’s right – Powtoon allows users the option of creating movies from your presentations and posting them to the web.
Best PowerPoint Alternative
Best PowerPoint Alternative 5: Cool animations
Watch out Prezi, Powtoon features animated characters with no motion sickness. Google docs? A PowrPoint clone. Only Powtoon offers you the ease of use, storytelling ability, unique interface and versatility in use.
No more boring Presentations! The 10 best powerPoint Alternatives!
No one can dispute that PowerPoint is the most popular presentation tool out there. In the Business world, Powrpoint is the absolute standard. Ever since Microsoft released PowerPoint businesses have used PowerPoint for sales presentations, idea pitches and even for webinars. Until recently there has been no real alternative to PowerPoint and a “Top 10 best PowerPoint alternatives” list was not even possible. But slides, slideshow, presentation have become synonymous with BORING and the Term “PowerPoint alternative” has been rising in google trends.
So, if you are looking for PowerPoint alternatives, want some cool new presentation templates or just interested to see what new presentation options are out there. Here is our list of 10 Best PowerPoint Alternatives:
4 Reasons why your PowerPoint presentations suck and what you can do to fix it
1 – 10 Best PowerPoint alternatives: PowToon
Our number one in our top 10 best PowerPoint alternatives is PowToon (no surprise here). PowToon is the undisputed king of “interesting” . If you really want to inspire your audience with a great pitch, story and emotional hooks. Powtoon allows you to present using animated characters and introduce “story telling” rather than “fact telling” that PowerPoint presentations are so good at. Most importantly, with just a few modifications you can create short animated video clips from your presentations to put on your website.
The Pros: Free, super cool, easy to use, unique, great for linear story telling The cons: still in Beta mode, styles are still limited (new styles coming out in March 2013)
2 – 10 Best PowerPoint alternatives: Prezi
This up and coming presentation software made it to our top 10 best PowerPoint alternatives because it’s a great tool for non-linear presentations. Sometimes known as the zooming presentation tool, some have complained that Prezi gave them some motion sickness.
Prezi is a bit much with the motion but it’s the best tool for those who need to constantly jump from one part of their presentation to another.
The pros: Non -linear slide management, beautiful user interface, strong brand name The cons: Too much motion, getting a good looking presentation is very hard
3 – 10 Best PowerPoint alternatives: Keynote
Keynote made the third place in our “Top 10 best PowerPoint alternatives” list because of its easy to use user interface (in comparison with PowerPoint). Keynote is only available as a software download for Mac users who won’t touch Microsoft PowerPoint if their life depended on it. It allows everything PowerPoint does but is just much easier to use. We love the potential that iCloud brings to Keynote but hate the iPad application.
The pros: short learning curve, easy to use The cons: Only available on mac, PowerPoint clone
4 – 10 Best PowerPoint alternatives: Prezentit
Preszentit is another PowerPoint look alike. Unlike Prezi, there is nothing groundbreaking here but it does allow you to create impressive presentations without downloading a presentation software. This beta version is really still in Alpha mode and is not even close to usable but we chose it to 4th place in our “top 10 best PowerPoint alternatives” because the user interface has such potential. It’s simplicity is brilliant. Prezentit is all about transitions so if you want the bullet points that transition really well – you should really check it out.
The pros: Free, simple, easy The cons: Does not work well, limited functionality.
5 – 10 Best PowerPoint alternatives: SlideRocket
As much as we hate to admit it – Slide rocket is really cool. They have invested heavily in user interface design and it definitely paid off. Microsoft PowerPoint team – this is what your presentation software should have looked like! Goof quality comes with a price and Sliderocket is not cheap but if you have to chose between this and PowerPoint, well PowerPoint looses. SlideRocket is number 5 on our “top 10 best PowerPoint alternatives” list because Creating amazing slides is what this presentation software does well.
Author illustrator Katie Davis is creating a theme for Powtoon.com and now’s your chance to ask her to draw elements you’ll later be able to use in your animations. She has created a great social campaign using PowToon. Take a look, this is your chance to be part of creating a new Powtoon theme!
Category5 TV – The popular internet TV show from Canada – aired a review of PowToon “CNET style”. Watch here to get an unbiased up close look into how PowToon can easily be used to create professional web-animations and power power-point alternative presentations. Check it out!
A Website’s Google search ranking is vital to acquiring new leads and key to revenue generation. Google is always looking for new ways to accurately rank sites and has recently released an update to its ranking algorithm called Panda 2.5. Our inside contact at Google told us that sites containing video or animations indeed rank higher. The algorithm, he suggested, appreciates sites where videos are used organically to enhance the users experience and provide relevant information. So here is our advice for using video to increase your search engine optimization (SEO): Use simple short animated video clips to showcase relevant information about products and services.
Here are the top 4 ways to use PowToon’s video animation software to increase the SEO of your website.
In the two weeks since we’ve launched the PowToon beta, it’s been exciting to see all the awesome Powtoons people have created. Our users have unleashed their creativity and broken through previous presentation limits thanks to PowToon’s wide ranges of imaginative and user-friendly features.
Now, PowToon is helping people and organizations broadcast their messages in fun and engaging ways. Below, we’ve gathered Powtoons that highlight the wide range of ideas, uses, and industries PowToon is drawing attention to.
Charity
Visual CVs
Product Promotion
Social Skills Programs
Smartphone Apps
Sales Tips
Infographics
eBook Promotion
Poetry
After watching these Powtoons, which one did you enjoy most? How is PowToon helping you get the word out in dynamic and powerful ways? Let us know! We can’t wait to hear from you.