9 Best Slideshow Maker to Make a Lasting Impression

Slideshows serve well in presentations, family functions, client pitching, and more. And with these tools, it’s effortless to make one.

Slideshows strike a perfect balance between videos and images. They are easy to create with a few clicks and serve their purpose.

You can use them in the following:

• Academic presentations
• Business meetings
• Family & friends gatherings

Taking note of their importance, we have many tools claiming to be the ‘best slideshow maker’. However, finding the appropriate one for your use case isn’t as simple as it sounds.

So here we are with this list (in no particular order), taking the burden off your shoulders.

SmartSHOW 3D

Creating eyeball-grabbing is a cakewalk with SmartShow 3D.

It boasts a drag-and-drop editor (typical of such tools) with 500 animations, 700 templates, and tons of effects.

Besides, you can add your voice in between and infuse 200 background music. What makes it even better is the transitions which can help your slideshows look professional with minimal effort.

And though you have the templates to get it done quickly, one has complete freedom over just about everything, including layers, keyframes, 3D animations, etc.

Finally, you can export in high quality in various popular formats.

On the subscription side, you have one year (standard and deluxe) and a gold edition (lifetime). However, you can get started for free and upgrade if need be.

Movavi

Slideshow Video Maker from Movavi is a similarly powerful tool for doing slideshows with ease.

This helps you import its ready-made templates or switch to manual mode for the utmost creative control.

Movavi is compatible with multiple formats, and one can simply upload media folders without limitations on the number of files.

Subsequently, one can begin with the transitions, music, titles, etc.

Currently, this Slideshow Maker features 165 visual effects and filters, 105 transitions, and 100 titles and stickers.

You can start with its 7-day trial and upgrade to its standard or plus variant for a one-year or lifetime license.

Veed

Veed’s Photo Video Maker is a web application working directly from your web browser.

Getting slideshows is effortless and begins with uploading the media to the Veed web interface. Afterward, one can use the built-in effects and tools such as the image editor, transitions, background music, stickers, etc.

Likewise, you get templates and various filters to make your slideshows special and unique. Besides, the Clean Audio feature helps reduce background noise.

While Veed shares many things with other such tools, it has the upper hand in its multiplatform presence.

In addition, Veed offers all its tools bundled in one with a free forever subscription which you only need to save the project. The paid ones are more powerful, with enhanced video export length, file upload size, cloud storage, etc.

Adobe Express

Being a creative paradise, Adobe isn’t behind in this race and has a free slideshow maker one can use with its stock library. This decent media collection has free images, videos, and music, with some premium elements available for paid subscribers.

This slide show tool comes in handy as this is also a web application, and you can carry over the progress any time you see fit.

It ships with the simplest of interfaces needing no guesswork. For instance, one has a few transition styles, and Adobe Express lets you change that everywhere with just a click.

Moreover, you can invite others to the workspace, share it with a link, or save it in your Google drive.

DemoCreator

Wondershare’s DemoCreator is a top-level tool with countless tweaks to shape your slideshow the way you want it to be.

It packs virtual avatars, backgrounds, screen annotations, dual monitor recording, etc., which helps it stand out from others.

Moreover, DemoCreator ships with native AI beautification tools and has a few add-ons, like its Effect Store, to help creators with stock-free media.

A few more features include a voice changer, auto denoise, built-in video editor, cloud backup, password authentication, etc.

Subscriptions are free, annual, and lifetime, based on the features a user opts for.

PhotoStage

NCH Software has an excellent application suite, with most free for personal use, including their slideshow maker.

However, don’t mistake this for a lack of features, as this one has many. The list starts with an effortless interface, built-in image editor, transition effects, audio recording and import, audio effects, and more.

Importantly, its audio editor packs a significant punch and gets some of the goodness from the dedicated NCH audio tools.

PhotoStage permits direct uploads to platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, etc., and has tailored export for web and mobile devices.

Animoto

Animoto is a premium cloud-based web application with a free plan (no downloads) to begin.

One can use this video editor for creating slideshows, sharing with others, and recording screens and webcams.

Its stock library is integrated with Getty images, presenting you with a colossal selection of images, clips, illustrations, etc. However, you can always import your own to give the final render a personal touch.

Pre-designed templates, native media editing, professional fonts, social sharing, etc., are some of the other perks of an Animoto subscription.

Vimeo

Vimeo is better known for its video hosting service, but it has a very intuitive slideshow tool you’ll fall in love with instantly.

It’s very simple. Things just work, and it has a free forever version for light users.

I quite liked its stock media library and the filtering options to find elements according to the occasion. Besides, you can always upload your own or connect Google photos to directly source your clips from there.

Moreover, its free tier is very effective, with most goodies up for grabs. The paid one increases the creation limit, opens up branding opportunities and premium templates, and boosts the stock media pile.

Icecream Apps

The Slideshow maker from Icecream Apps is very cool (😀). Jokes aside, what makes it a steal is the free version (without the watermark) and a very economical lifetime license.

This software gives you maximum control over the elements, transitions, output resolution, and basically everything.

The interface is dead simple yet powerful. The basic mode is the fastest way to create slideshows with upload and all transitions set to random.

However, the advanced mode allows you to unleash your creativity and decide on every single effect.

Put simply, this is one of the best free slideshow software and has a potent paid version for the takers.

Final Words

So these were our picks for the best slideshow makers, free and paid. The good thing is almost all have trial versions that you can take benefit of for the priceless firsthand experience.

Still, we aren’t done yet. And here is yet another list if you’re on the hunt for the tools to create presentations.