Powtoon Presentation Software Review

Powtoon is a presentation software that place emphasis on the creation of animations to produce more visually appealing presentations. Powtoon gives users the ability to create animations by letting them manipulate objects and images. Animated elements are combined with music, narration or videos to create “movie” like presentations instead of slide-decks.  A free version with limited features is available while its full version comes as a paid subscription offer.

Features

Clicking on the “Start Now” button gives you the option to create a new presentation by choosing a pre-configured Powtoon or start from scratch. You can choose from a variety of templates that can be easily edited to include new elements for your presentation. This includes a “compare and contrast” template for marketing purposes.

Upon deciding which template to use, you can now proceed with creating your presentation through an editing window. Look and feel is similar to PowerPoint albeit the noticeable lack of advanced editing features. A media library containing images, preconfigured animated elements, backgrounds and speech bubbles could be accessed at the right side of the screen. For a more personalized presentation, you could easily import additional elements such as videos or images. Additional controls are provided for transitions and text animation.

Powtoon shines in creating animations. It has made this simpler but comes with a price. Slides are only 20 seconds long and some advanced editing features are visibly missing. Preconfigured animations are limited to a few dozen whereas other competitors offer hundreds of ready-made animations.

Transition effects are fun and engaging. There are a couple of available effects that makes for smoother transitions. Powtoon may not have the full-range of editing features that PowerPoint users have become accustomed to but it excels in animation creation and transitions. Including animations in a slide is as simple as dropping elements on the screen.  

Compatibility

There’s not much in terms of compatibility with other presentation software. All is pretty much in-house so you have to basically create presentations within the software. Of course standard features include the ability to import multimedia files (videos, images and sound).

Ease of Use

Getting started with Powtoon is quick and simple. Powtoon is a web-based service so no download is necessary. Powtoon makes it easy even for beginners to create animated presentation with customized templates and pre-created objects. It also has an excellent knowledge base that contains information on how to get started with your presentations. Powtoon lets user add new elements by simple drag and drop actions.

Pricing

Pro

$59 per month (monthly, low commitment)  

$19 per month (billed annually)

Business

$127 per month (monthly, low commitment)

$59 per month (billed annually)

Summary – PowToon Presentation Software

Powtoon certainly makes presentations easier on the eyes and more appealing by taking advantage of animations in creating presentations. Although this is not something new and is offered by other presentation software, Powtoon has made it simple even for the inexperienced. But because of its simplicity, the software also suffers from the lack of advanced presentation features. Powtoon is ideal for creating simple presentations on the go or for those with little or no experience with presentation software.  However, seasoned presenters should consider using more robust presentation software included in our top list.