livedocuments vs Google Slides
A free, open-source Google Slides alternative
Google Slides is the presentation tool most people already have open. livedocuments makes decks a little differently: start each slide from a ready-made layout, keep the article, the one-pager and the deck as tabs of one document, and present any page of them, with your team editing alongside you.
At a glance
| Feature | livedocuments | Google Slides |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, every feature | Free with a Google account |
| Open source | Yes, MIT-licensed | No, proprietary |
| Start without an account | Yes, create and edit as a guest | A Google account to create decks |
| Real-time multiplayer | Yes, live cursors and comments | Yes |
| Designed slides | 16:9 or 4:3 slide pages from 61 layouts, painted from your theme | Themes, layouts and a large template gallery |
| Presenting | Presenter notes, per-slide time budgets, transitions, auto-advance and loop, laser and spotlight | Speaker notes, presenter view, audience Q&A, animations and transitions |
| Export | PDF, PNG, SVG and an animated GIF of the deck | PowerPoint, PDF and images |
| Beyond the deck | Articles and infographics in the same document | One of several Google Workspace apps |
Which to pick
Why pick livedocuments
- Slide pages for a designed deck: 16:9 or 4:3, started from 61 layouts (title, agenda, big numbers, roadmap and more).
- One document for the whole story: the write-up as an article, the one-pager as an infographic, and the deck that presents them, side by side as tabs.
- Any page can be a slide, from any tab, ordered in one deck that is saved with the document.
- Present with presenter notes, a time budget per slide, transitions, a laser pointer and a spotlight; your screen moves, nobody else’s.
- Leave a deck running on a screen: auto-advance every 5 to 60 seconds and loop back to the start.
- Put another tab on a slide, live: a tab window shows it as it is now, so the slide follows every change.
- Export the deck as an animated GIF for a chat, an email or a README.
- Real-time editing with live cursors, comments and assigned actions, for anyone with the link, no account needed.
- An AI assistant connected over MCP can build the deck for you from slide layouts.
- 23 templates to start from, from a launch keynote to a quarterly review.
- Free and MIT-licensed, with no paid tier.
Where Google Slides is the better pick
- Everyone in your organisation already lives in Google Workspace, with Drive, Meet and Docs around the deck.
- A full presentation suite: click-by-click builds within a slide, a presenter view, audience Q&A and a large template gallery.
- PowerPoint import and export, for decks that travel between organisations.
- Gemini in Slides drafts a whole, editable deck from a prompt, styled from your files, on eligible Workspace and Google AI plans.
Slides from ready-made layouts
In Google Slides a deck is its own file, built slide by slide. In livedocuments a slide is a page: add a 16:9 or 4:3 slide page and start it from one of 61 layouts (a title, an agenda, two columns, image and text, a timeline and more), painted from your theme. Change the theme and every slide follows.
A slide sits in a deck you order in the Slide Deck panel: drag to rearrange, rename, duplicate, or hide a slide you might want next week. Any other page can join the deck too, so a poster or a page of an article can be presented as it is. A tab window puts another tab on a slide, live, fitted to its frame.
Presenting, built for the room
Presenting runs full screen on your screen alone: nobody is dragged into your slide, and collaborators with the document open carry on working. Each slide carries its own presenter notes behind a button, and an optional time budget you can watch as you talk. A laser pointer and a spotlight guide the room.
Nothing on a slide can be changed by a stray click, so a projector is safe, and a deck can advance on its own and loop for a screen in a lobby.
The deck and everything behind it
A deck is usually the last step of something: a brief, a report, a launch. In Workspace those live in Docs and Slides as separate files. In livedocuments they are tabs of one document: write the brief as an article, lay out the one-pager, and present from all of it. Everyone edits live, with comments and assigned actions on the pages themselves.
Free, open and no account needed
Slides is free with a Google account. livedocuments needs no account at all: open the editor and start, and a guest’s document stays in their browser until they press Share, which syncs it in one step. The whole product is MIT-licensed with no paid tier. Export any page as a PNG, SVG or a print-ready PDF when a deck has to travel, or the whole deck as an animated GIF.
Google Slides alternative FAQ
Can livedocuments replace Google Slides?
Can I import or export PowerPoint files?
Do my audience or co-editors need an account?
Can I present a page that is not a slide?
Is livedocuments free?
See how it feels
No sign-up, nothing to install, free forever. Open a page and judge for yourself.
Comparisons reflect each product’s general positioning and may change. Check Google Slides’s own site for current details. Last reviewed .