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20 Best Free Slideshow Makers With Music in 2024
Everyone adores sharing memorable moments with their loved ones. You can amplify the thrill of special events from weddings to corporate meetings by crafting a captivating slideshow.
However, it can be time-consuming to make a slideshow without drag-and-drop templates, sophisticated formatting options, and seamless transitions.
Fret not! We've done the legwork, exploring and reviewing the best free slideshow makers available to make your experience a breeze.
- Snapshot of Our Top 3 Free Slideshow Makers
- The Best Free Slideshow Makers With Music - Ranked
- Best Free Slideshow Makers Comparison Chart
- How to Make a Slideshow With Music
- How to Choose the Best Free Slideshow Maker?
- How We Test the Best Free Slideshow Makers
- What is the Best Free Slideshow Maker?
- Best Free Slideshow Maker FAQ
Snapshot of Our Top 3 Free Slideshow Makers
1. PowerDirector - Best Overall
PowerDirector is the best free slideshow maker for both Windows and Mac users, catering to everyone from novices to seasoned slideshow enthusiasts with user-friendly templates and abundant customization options. Detailed Review >
2. FlexClip - Best for Beginners
Flexclip is the best free slideshow maker for beginners to make short videos and slideshows from beautifully designed templates. Detailed Review >
3. ThunderSoft Slideshow Factory - Best Export Options
ThunderSoft is the best free slideshow maker for creating photo albums and thumbnail galleries. It offers support for both video and photo slideshows. Detailed Review >
The 20 Best Free Slideshow Makers With Music - Ranked
- PowerDirector – Best slideshow maker for all skill levels, ideal for any project
- Flexclip – Excellent free slideshow maker, perfect for beginners
- ThunderSoft – Slideshow maker with music, great export options
- Fastreel – Quick, free slideshow maker for on-the-go creation
- Aiseesoft – Best slideshow software for editing and refining
- Canva – Top photo slideshow maker with detailed customizations
- Invideo AI – Slideshow app for AI-generated presentations
- PixTeller – Best free photo slideshow maker for editing photos
- Icecream – Slideshow maker for Windows, ideal for bulk slideshows
- Adobe Express – Slideshow maker for social media content
- MiniTool – PC slideshow maker, great for customization
- SmartSHOW3D – Best software for 3D slideshow effects
- Focusky – Top slideshow creator for animated business presentations
- Prezi – Best slideshow maker for school presentations
- PhotoStage – Ideal for long slideshows with hundreds of pictures
- Animoto – Best video slideshow maker with diverse templates
- iMovie – Top photo slideshow maker for Mac users
- Aquasoft – Best slideshow software for professionals
- Movavi– Best photo slideshow software for video slideshows
- Photopia – Free slideshow software for advanced video editing
1. PowerDirector - Best slideshow maker for all skill levels, ideal for any project
Key Features:
- Thousands of royalty-free background music tracks from Meta Sound Collection
- Automatically fit your slideshow to match the length of a song, or fit your song to match the length of your slideshow
- Make a slideshow with photos and videos from your library or built-in stock; you can also use Generative AI tools to create unique images
- Detect Faces feature will zoom in on faces in your videos and photos
Compatibility: Windows, Mac
PCMag Rating: 5/5
Beginner-Friendly: 5/5
Price: Free
*Premium subscription available for $4.58/month for PowerDirector 365
PowerDirector is our pick for the best free slideshow maker because it is easy to use, but offers many customizations. The Slideshow Creator plug-in lets beginners quickly drag photos into a template while guiding them through the entire process, while those with editing experience can use traditional timeline editing to make a slideshow worthy of Hollywood.
With this slideshow software, you can change all your slides at once with the click of a button, or use the Slideshow Designer to personalize individual slides. You can also choose background music from the extensive stock library, or upload your favorite track.
This slideshow software is packed with an extensive selection of transitions, video effects, and themed templates to suit your creative needs, making it the best free slideshow maker on our list. Professionals can also leverage PowerDirector's capabilities to craft captivating business slideshows for meetings, presentations, and trade shows, replacing mundane slides and bland text with dynamic visuals.
Click the link below and download the only slideshow software on our list to consistently earn the prestigious title of PCMag Editor's Choice, year after year.
Check out these related topics for editing:
- How to Make a Video Collage for Free
- 17 Best Free Photo Editing Software for Windows PC in 2024
- Best AI Photo Editors
2. FlexClip - Best for beginners as a free slideshow maker
Key Features:
- 200+ preset transitions including colorful overlays
- Wide selection of text styles and animations
- Audio editing tools help match your music length to your slideshow
Compatibility: Web Browser
TechRadar Rating: 4.5/5
Beginner-Friendly: 5/5
Price: Free
*Premium subscriptions available for $9.99/month for Plus and $19.99/month for Business
FlexClip is one of the best free slideshow makers for beginners. This online slideshow software offers a large selection of slideshow templates you can search by keyword or category. You can customize the templates and add music from the royalty-free stock library.
You can add animated text, colorful overlays, and interesting transitions to make a slideshow more visually appealing. You can customize the text in different ways and even upload custom fonts (in paid versions). This slideshow software has easy-to-use audio tools, so you can adjust your chosen music to fit the length of your slideshow.
FlexClip has recently added a slew of AI-powered features to make video creation more efficient, but you need credits to access them. These include Text to Video and Auto Subtitles, among others. With the free version, you’ll get unlimited downloads, but exports will be capped at 720p. The site can be glitchy, and the longer the video, the worse it gets.
3. ThunderSoft - Best for music slideshows with great export options
Key Features:
- Add visual interest with over 70 transition effects
- Customize templates with music, captions, and clipart
- Support for HD video and photo slideshows
Compatibility: Windows
CNET Rating: 4.5/5
Beginner-Friendly: 4.5/5
Price: Free
*Premium version available for $39.95
ThunderSoft Slideshow Factory is one of the best free slideshow makers thanks to wide format support for both import and export. You can upload slideshows to YouTube, publish as an SWF movie, or make it your screensaver.
Build an album with more than 500 images or create a thumbnail photo gallery. Add transitions, captions, music, clip art and more to your videos with this slideshow software, or choose one of 70 animated templates for a quicker approach.
ThunderSoft Slideshow Factory is one of the best free slideshow makers for anyone on a budget. It offers a completely free version and an affordable paid option. The interface is pretty outdated, and it doesn’t appear to have been updated in awhile. But if you need a simple, free slideshow maker for your next event, give ThunderSoft a try.
4. Fastreel - Best for quick, on-the-go slideshow creation
Key Features:
- Automatically resize your slideshows for social media
- Add fades and transitions between slides
- Change the speed of your slideshow with timed presets
Compatibility: Web Browser
Fix the Photo Rating: 4/5
Beginner-Friendly: 5/5
Price: Free
*Premium versions available for $9.95/video or $9.95/month for Unlimited Premium
As the name suggests, Fastreel Slideshow Maker is the best free slideshow maker for those in a hurry. With an intuitive interface and only a few tools, you can make a slideshow in about a minute. Simply upload photos and videos, adjust volume, and choose to fade in/out of each clip as desired. You can also pick a pre-made aspect ratio to resize your slideshow for your preferred platform.
The paid version offers a few more customizations, including adding background music, adjusting slide duration, and choosing transitions. Although tools like adding text and filters to your slideshow are not part of the slideshow software, Fastreel has tons of free online tools, so you can simply click on another tool and upload your video to continue editing.
Fastreel Slideshow Maker is quick and easy and you can access the free version online without signing up. It’s so incredibly easy, we had to raise its beginner-friendly score, and therefore moved it up our list. But both the free and paid versions are very barebones, and lack slideshow templates. It’s the best free slideshow maker for putting images back-to-back without any bells and whistles. In our test, we were frustrated that settings such as volume control could only be applied to each individual clip instead of the whole slideshow at once.
5. Aiseesoft - Best for editing and refining slideshows
Key Features:
- Extract original background music from videos
- Supports video in 4K UHD and 1080p HD resolution
- Includes customizable slideshow templates
Compatibility: Windows
G2 Rating: 4.2/5
Beginner-Friendly: 4.5/5
Price: 15-Day free trial, then $24.95/month or $49.95 for a Lifetime License
Aiseesoft Slideshow Creator is on our list of the best free slideshow makers thanks to its many editing tools and customization options. You can choose to make a slideshow in Easy mode, which is simply inputting media into a template, or Storyboard Mode, which offers numerous customizations. You can edit your photos (rotate, flip, adjust contrast, brightness, etc) and edit the overall video (crop, flip, adjust speed, etc).
With this free slideshow software, you can add overlays, graphics, and transitions. You can choose the duration each photo is present on screen, and apply a tint to the video so your photos have a cohesive look. You can also add and edit background music.
Aiseesoft Slideshow Creator allows beginners to create a slideshow in just 5 easy steps and has customization options for experienced users. Unlike our choice for the best free slideshow maker, PowerDirector, Aiseesoft doesn’t have a royalty-free background music library. This can be problematic with sites like YouTube that will remove videos with copyrighted music.
6. Canva - Best for detailed customizations in photo slideshows
Key Features:
- Every design element on a template can be edited
- Easily find graphics that match your chosen template
- Includes photo filters and effects
Compatibility: Windows, Mac, Web Browser
PCMag Rating: 4.5/5
Beginner-Friendly: 4.2/5
Price: Free
*Premium subscription available for $120
Canva is the best free slideshow maker for adding graphic design elements. This slideshow software allows non-designers to feel like professionals, by giving them matching colors, graphics, fonts, etc. to mix and match into a cohesive slideshow. Every element is customizable, and with the new Magic Grab tools, you can even edit individual items within your own photos.
If all that personalization sounds like a lot of work, never fear! Canva is also one of the best free slideshow makers for its thousands of video slideshow templates that only require you to upload photos. We typed “Wedding Slideshow” into the template search bar and got 14,800 results.
Canva is one of the best free slideshow makers because every design element can be moved, resized, animated, deleted, replaced, and duplicated. However, if you don’t ungroup elements before adding photos, there are multiple complications. It’s an added step we didn’t find in other slideshow software. Since our last review, Canva has added many AI-powered tools including a video generator that is similar to the one found in Invideo. Because Canva has many more tools for customizing slideshows and now has the generative video option, we moved it above Invideo in our updated list.
7. Invideo AI - Best for AI-generated slideshow presentations
Key Features:
- Employs realistic, AI-generated voices as slideshow narrator
- 1,000s of professionally-designed slideshow templates
- Edit generated slideshows by swapping media, text, and transitions
Compatibility: Web Browser
TechRadar Rating: 4/5
Beginner-Friendly: 4.5/5
Price: Free
*Premium subscriptions available for $20/month for Plus or $48/month for Max
Invideo AI is one of the best free slideshow makers because it will make a slideshow from a text prompt. Simply enter an idea and the AI slideshow software will create a script read by a realistic AI-generated voice, find the proper images/footage, apply text for chapter names, and add background music.
You can also make a slideshow using your personal photos. Add images and videos and get a beautiful automatic slideshow with transitions and music. It includes other generative AI tools, like a Script Generator and Talking Avatar Generator. The combination of stock, generative AI, and your own media give you limitless possibilities, making Invideo AI one of the best free slideshow makers.
We included Invideo AI on our list of the best free slideshow makers because it has a video editor to make a slideshow from scratch, a large number of well-designed slideshow templates, and the unique AI-generated slideshow feature. Invideo has done a good job of adding and updating AI tools as the technology progresses. One irritation was that after waiting 10 minutes for a generated slideshow (you wait about a minute per minute of generated content), we were told we couldn’t view it on our current browser. It also lacks direct uploads to social media.
8. PixTeller - Best for editing photos in free slideshows
Key Features:
- Smart resize fits photos into any template without cropping
- Pixelate and blur photos for privacy
- Includes over 1 million free photos and illustrations
Compatibility: Web Browser
GetApp Rating: 4.5/5
Beginner-Friendly: 4/5
Price: Free
*Premium subscription available for $12/month
When including images into a slideshow, you want them to look their best. PixTeller is a photo editor, and one of the best free slideshow makers if you want to perfect your photos before adding them to your slideshow. Once you’ve cropped and enhanced your images with filters, effects, and color adjustments, you can create a slideshow from scratch or customize an animated template.
Add music, transitions, text, illustrations, and shapes to make a slideshow in minutes. You can swap out the images, words, and colors selected by the template if necessary. In animation mode, you can adjust the speed and motion of frames.
Last time we reviewed PixTeller for this article, we found its dedicated slideshow features were minimal, and this is still the case. When you click on the button to make a slideshow, it gives you tons of great templates for social media ads, but very few true slideshow templates. We don’t think it’s the best free slideshow maker if you need a video for a big event, it’s simply for quick photo collages or photo slideshows for TikTok.
9. Icecream - Best for bulk slideshow creation on Windows
Key Features:
- Make a slideshow in seconds with automated Random feature
- Set slide duration with presets or enter a custom value
- Add a solid color or gradient slide with text in between photos
Compatibility: Windows
Capterra Rating: 4/5
Beginner-Friendly: 4.5/5
Price: Free
*Premium version available for $19.95/year or $39.95 for a Lifetime License
Icecream Slideshow Maker is one of the best free slideshow makers for busy professionals because of a simple layout, easy-to-use drag-and-drop tools, and bulk settings you can customize.
Make a slideshow with text, background music, and transitions, then upload your slideshow directly to YouTube, Dropbox, or Google Drive. You can personalize text by choosing the font, color, background, position, and animation effect. There is a library of 25 transitions, or you can select “Random” to have transitions chosen for you. Background music can be added in MP3, M4A or WAV format. This is one of the best free slideshow makers for longer videos as it lets you create music playlists to cover longer video length and burn a DVD of the slideshow.
Icecream Slideshow Maker has a dedicated free version, but it is limited to 10 slides and will only export in .webm format, but the Pro version is affordable. It is updated frequently, and the newest version added light and dark UI themes, motion effects, and the option to loop videos for an uninterrupted experience.
10. Adobe Express - Best for creating slideshows for social media
Key Features:
- Generate AI images, templates, and text effects
- Apply styles or textures to words with a text prompt
- Over 1,000 slide backgrounds for presentations
Compatibility: Web Browser
TechRadar Rating: 4/5
Beginner-Friendly: 4.5/5
Price: Free
*Premium version available for $9.99/month
Adobe Express is a web-based graphic design tool and one of the best free slideshow makers for short slideshows intended for social media. The slideshow templates are short - around 15 seconds and 3 slides - but you can add slides as necessary. This slideshow software has an instant resize tool you can use to optimize your slideshow for any platform. It has a long list of pre-made aspect ratios for any need (there are 8 for Instagram alone).
The slideshow software comes with thousands of professionally-designed background templates for slide presentations of every kind. Make a slideshow with text, background music, and transitions, then upload your slideshow directly to YouTube, Dropbox, or Google Drive. You can personalize text by choosing the font, color, background, position, and animation effect. There is a library of 25 transitions, or you can select “Random” to have transitions chosen for you. Background music can be added in MP3, M4A or WAV format. This is one of the best free slideshow makers for longer videos as it lets you create music playlists to cover longer video length and burn a DVD of the slideshow.
Adobe Express has recently added new generative AI tools including a template generator, text-to-image, and generative fill. It’s also moved from being mainly a graphic design platform with a few animated elements to a full video creator. Its video tools are being added to regularly, including more background music options, trimming, cropping, merging, and resizing video, automatic captions, and more. Of course, the best tools, templates, and stock are reserved for subscribers, including the Magic Resize tool.
11. MiniTool - Best for customizing slideshows on PC
Key Features:
- Speed up or slow down video using time presets
- Add motion to static images with pan and zoom
- Customizable text and animated elements
Compatibility: Windows
TechRadar Rating: 3.5/5
Beginner-Friendly: 5/5
Price: Free
*Premium version available for $59.99/year
MiniTool Movie Maker is a video editor and one of the best free slideshow makers for beginners using Windows. It has a storyboard-style timeline for users with no editing experience. But even though it is quick and simple, this is one of the best free slideshow makers for customizations, with adjustable templates, animated elements, creative filters, and over 100 transitions.
You can also add music, text and overlays to your slideshow and adjust the playback speed. Easily share your slideshows on YouTube or Facebook.
Most users find MiniTool Movie Maker lacking in tools and control over effects. It is one of the best free slideshow makers for someone making their first-ever slideshow, but not for anyone with the slightest bit of experience. Since our last review, we were pleased to find this slideshow software had added built-in background music and sound effects libraries.
12. SmartSHOW3D - Best for creating 3D slideshow effects
Key Features:
- Complete control over slide animation including layers, keyframes, and motion settings
- Automatically add transitions or manually choose from 180+ options
- Add sound with 200+ background music tracks
Compatibility: Windows
Capterra Rating: 4.5/5
Beginner-Friendly: 4/5
Price: Price: 10-day free trial, then $29.95/year for Standard Edition, $49.95/year for Deluxe Edition, and a one-time payment of $99.90 for Gold Edition
SmartSHOW 3D is one of the best free slideshow makers for creating quality photo and video slideshows with effects. This slideshow software includes eye-catching 3D effects for photos and captions. You can put multiple layers on slides, apply animations to selected layers, add motion to still images, and add transitions.
We love the number of photos you can get on each slide to create beautiful photo collages.
If you lack the time or skill for all this customization, simply place your photos and videos in a template and let the slideshow software do the rest.
With SmartSHOW 3D, you can produce professional slideshows even if you’re not tech-savvy. We love the new additions to this slideshow software, including Face Recognition and Animated Travel Maps for vacation slideshows.
13. Focusky - Best for animated business presentations
Key Features:
- Online template library that includes 3D backgrounds
- Customize the play order, delay time, and transition time of each slide
- Includes over 1,000 animated Flash, PNG, and GIF characters
Compatibility: Windows, Mac
G2 Rating: 4.1/5
Beginner-Friendly: 4/5
Price: Free
*Premium subscriptions available for $9.90/month for Standard and $99/year for Professional
We think Focusky is one of the best free slideshow makers for adding animated elements to boring slideshows for meetings and conferences. There are over 300 animation effects and animation paths so you can move any elements on a slide and add visual interest. You can also customize the animation duration and delay time. There is a large selection of built-in animation paths you can add to any element on your slide and over 1,000 pre-built animated characters.
We also think Focusky is the best free slideshow maker for its 3D transition effects. 3D zooming, panning, and rotating feel more like a 3D movie and less like a traditional slide presentation. Use the unique hand-drawn animation effect to keep your audience engaged, or stick to basic tools like text, background music, vector graphics, and templates.
Focusky Presentation Maker is one of the best free slideshow makers for making unique slideshow presentations for your business. Although the slideshow software has a free version, we found it wasn’t practical for regular or professional use.
14. Prezi - Best for school slideshow presentations
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Key Features:
- Generate an AI slideshow from a simple text prompt
- Add infographics like charts, tables, and maps to your slideshow
- Upload your own images or browse free and paid stock from Unsplash
Compatibility: Web Browser
PCMag Rating: 4/5
Beginner-Friendly: 4/5
Price: Free
*Premium version available for $17/month
Prezi is the best free slideshow maker if you want to make a beautifully-designed presentation with the help of AI. Type in a prompt and the AI will come up with color schemes, slide themes, and backgrounds it thinks will match your topic. Choose your favorites, then wait a few seconds to get your results. We think this is the best free slideshow maker for school projects because the AI needs to pull from information online (i.e. can’t be personal or the sales projections of your company), so general topics about places, animals, or historic figures are best. It also has excellent maps and timelines in a variety of styles you can edit and add to your presentation.
Should you want to make a slideshow that’s more personal in nature, you can create one from scratch. The templates are pro-level and can be edited to the last detail. You can adjust frames, text, colors, and backgrounds, and add gifs, icons, infographics, and maps. There are free stock images available, and you can upload your own pictures.
We liked Prezi’s unique approach to slideshows. It starts on a well-designed collage of every slide, then zooms in and out of each slide as the presentation plays. It is a different approach to slide/transition/slide that you find in most slideshow software. It is similar to Invideo AI, which also generates slideshows from a text prompt. And although we found Prezi’s presentations more professional and got the results much quicker, we placed it behind Invideo on our list. Prezi’s AI slideshows are much shorter with less information on each page. It also lacks AI narration, and music is only available with a subscription.
15. PhotoStage - Best for long slideshows with hundreds of pictures
Key Features:
- Use Quick Create to make a slideshow instantly with pans, zooms, and fades
- Add animated graphic overlays to your slides
- Audio tools including a background music library, audio effects, and sound mixing
Compatibility: Windows, Mac
TopTenReviews Rating: 4/5
Beginner-Friendly: 4/5
Price: Free
*Premium versions available for $50 for Home Edition and $70 for Pro Edition
PhotoStage is one of the best free slideshow makers because you can make a multimedia slideshow with thousands of photos and video clips. Burn your slideshow to a disc, upload directly to YouTube, Vimeo, and Flickr, or save it.
Easily add text, effects, music, and voice-over with this slideshow software. It has photo editing tools so you can adjust your photos' brightness, saturation, and color, or crop/flip/rotate images if necessary. PhotoStage has motion effects to add movement to your photos such as zoom, fade, pan, and the Ken Burns effect.
PhotoStage is one of the best free slideshow makers if you need to make a slideshow in a hurry. We amended our Beginner-Friendly rating, and moved it higher on our list. However, we found it lacked the polish of other slideshow software, and we came across a few glitches during our test.
16. Animoto - Best for video slideshows with diverse templates
Key Features:
- Royalty-free photos, videos, and music stock libraries
- Record and add voice-over for a personal touch
- Upload custom fonts for your brand
Compatibility: Web Browser
TechRadar Rating: 3/5
Beginner-Friendly: 5/5
Price: Free
*Premium subscriptions available for $8/month for Basic, $15/month for Professional, and $39/month for Teams
This is one of the best free slideshow makers for beginners because it has a friendly user interface and lets you drag and drop videos and photos from many different sources. With this slideshow software, you can choose a storyboard template based on a theme (like birthday or graduation), then customize it with colors, text, and music.
You can also make a slideshow from scratch with access to millions of stock videos, images, and background music tracks. You can save your colors, logo, and font and use on any subsequent videos and slideshows with one click.
Themed templates mean you can make a slideshow with Animoto in no time at all, with no previous experience. However, seasoned content creators won’t like that creative options are limited and you can’t edit individual clips. Also, the free version only had one template available per slideshow theme and watermarks videos.
17. iMovie - Best for Mac users creating photo slideshows
Key Features:
- Give your slideshow the same look throughout with color tools and filters
- Change the duration of each photo with speed adjustment tools
- Create a theme with background templates
Compatibility: Mac
Mac App Store Rating: 3.5/5
Beginner-Friendly: 4/5
Price: Free
iMovie is a video editor and the best free slideshow maker for Mac users. With this slideshow software, you can seamlessly go between photos and videos and easily upload from your Photos app. Add music from your iTunes account or choose a background track from the stock library.
Using this slideshow software, you can add titles, transitions, and filters to your slides. Add unique 3D globes and travel maps to vacation slideshows. Automatically enhance any blurry images and stabilize shaky videos.
As a video editor, iMovie is easy to use, however, as a slideshow software, it is harder to figure out. It does not have dedicated templates or tools to help you make a slideshow. This is not the best free slideshow maker if you are looking for trending features and up-to-date technology. iMovie has not had a major update in years and if there are any new features, they typically start with the iOS version. For these reasons, we moved it behind Animoto, which is updated regularly.
18. Aquasoft - Best for professional slideshow creation
Key Features:
- Color adjustment and LUTs for photos and videos
- Hundreds of finely adjustable transitions
- Display images full size or as part of a collage
Compatibility: Windows
Softpedia Rating: 4/5
Beginner-Friendly: 3.5/5
Price: 30-Day free trial, then $59.90 for Photo Vision, $99.90 for Video Vision, and $249 for Aquasoft Stages
Aquasoft is one of the best free slideshow makers for professionals because it comes with many advanced tools and slideshow effects. You can choose a camera pan, zoom, or animated transition to bring your images to life. You can even add a parallax effect, motion blur, and 3D effects.
This slideshow software features hundreds of highly adjustable transitions, color grading tools, and beautiful collage layouts. You can add maps and travel routes to vacation slideshows, and edit your final videos or the individual images within your slideshow. A feature unique to Aquasoft is the “3D Cube” effect that showcases images in an entertaining way.
In the past, we said that Aquasoft was one of the best free slideshow makers because it has options for anyone from beginners to pros to make a slideshow. However, it no longer has the Slideshow Easy option, and the remaining versions have learning curves. Also, it only offers a free trial of its products. The newest version (for 2023) came with a whole new modern interface with 8 different designs, new masking tools, and OpenFX plug-in support for pro-level video editing programs.
19. Movavi - Best for creating video slideshows from photos
Key Features:
- Includes artistic photo filters, animated titles, and stickers
- Over 100 unique transitions
- Built-in background music tracks
Compatibility: Windows, Mac
Product Hunt Rating: 3/5
Beginner-Friendly: 4.5/5
Price: 7-day free trial, then $44.95/year or $64.95 for a Lifetime License
Movavi has a dedicated Slideshow Maker that includes tons of video editing tools for slideshows with videos, photos, or both. You can use object tracking to pin graphics, stickers, and text to moving subjects. You can boost colors and add interesting overlays with 13 blending modes. It has a huge library of artistic effects, as well as social media-friendly stickers, titles, emojis, callouts, and frames.
We think it’s one of the best free slideshow makers for beginners because they can make a slideshow in 3 easy steps using the Slideshow Wizard. There’s also a Manual Mode to customize the selection of unique design elements. You can also add music and transition slides to the beat using automatic beat detection.
Movavi Slideshow Maker is a quick and easy choice for beginners, while still offering creative freedom with some fun animated design elements. It is updated regularly with new effects and design packs. However, it lacks a free version, and the free trial is limited to one week with watermarked content.
20. Photopia - Best for advanced video editing in free slideshows
Key Features:
- Advanced audio tools like music auto-sync, music blending, and voice-over
- 50+ publishing and sharing options
- 16 different layer compositing modes
Compatibility: Windows, Mac
Fix the Photo Rating: 4/5
Beginner-Friendly: 3.5/5
Price: 21-Day free trial, then $9.95/month for Creator or $24.95/month for Director
Photopia is the best free slideshow maker for professionals and advanced video editors. This slideshow software has over 700 effects, plus support for motion filters, keyframing, layer editing, and masking. You can make a slideshow with a combination of photos, videos, and even illustrations.
Beginners can also use Photopia thanks to the automated SLideshow Wizard. Just pick a theme, and the feature will make a slideshow for you, timed perfectly to music. You can customize as much or as little as necessary.
Photopia is not the best free slideshow maker if you are on a budget - it’s pretty pricey and only offers a free trial. The good news is that almost all the advanced features found in the Director version are available in the moderately-priced Creator version.
Best Free Slideshow Makers Comparison Chart
| Product | Best For | Notable Feature | Price | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PowerDirector | Users of any skill level creating a wide range of projects | Detect Faces zooms in on faces in photos |
Free Premium: $4.58/month |
Free
|
| FlexClip | Beginners | Audio editing tools |
Free Plus: $9.99/month for Business:$19.99/month |
Try Online |
| ThunderSoft Slideshow Factory | Export options | Make a slideshow screensaver |
Free Premium: $39.95 |
Try Online |
| Fastreel Slideshow Maker | Quick slideshow creation | Customizable fades between slides |
Free Premium: $9.95/video or $9.95/month |
Try Online |
| Aiseesoft Slideshow Creator | Editing slideshows | Extract and replace background music from videos |
15-day Free Trial Pro: $49.95 |
Try Online |
| Canva | Detailed customizations | Magic Grab makes any item in a photo editable |
Free Pro: $120/year |
Try Online |
| Invideo AI | AI-generated presentations | Ai-generated narration |
Free Plus: $20/month Max: $48/month |
Try Online |
| PixTeller | Editing photos | Pixelate and blur photos for privacy |
Free Premium: $12/month |
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| Icecream Slideshow Maker | Making slideshows in bulk | Solid colors and gradient slides with text in between photos |
Free Pro: $19.95/year |
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| Adobe Express | Social media | 1,000 slide backgrounds |
Free Pro: $9.99/month |
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| MiniTool Movie Maker | Slideshow customizations for beginners | 100+ transitions |
Free Pro: $59.99/year |
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| SmartSHOW3D | 3D effects | 500+ animation effects |
10-day Free Trial Standard: $29.95/year Deluxe: $49.95/year |
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| Focusky Presentation Maker | Animated business presentations | Hand-drawn animation effects |
Free Standard: $9.90/month Professional: $99/year |
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| Prezi | School presentations | AI-generated presentations from text |
Free Plus: $17/month |
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| PhotoStage Slideshow Software | Long slideshows with 100s of pictures | Fine-tune brightness and colors for each photo |
Free Home: $50 Pro: $70 |
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| Animoto | Slideshow templates | Record and add VO to slideshows |
Free Basic: $8/month Professional: $15/month |
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| iMovie | Mac users | 3D globes and travel maps for travel slideshows | Free | Download |
| Aquasoft | Professionals | Beautiful collage layouts |
30-day Free Trial Photo Vision: $59.90 Video Vision: $99.90 Stages: $249 |
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| Movavi Slideshow Maker | Video slideshows | Video overlays with 13 blending modes |
7-day Free Trial $44.95/year |
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| Photopia | Advanced video editors | 16 different layer compositing modes |
21-day Free Trial $9.95/month or $99.95/year |
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PowerDirector
vs
Best For
Users of any skill level creating a wide range of projects
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Notable Feature
Detect Faces zooms in on faces in photos
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Price
Free
Premium: $4.58/month
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Link
Free Download
Secure Download
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How to Make a Slideshow With Music
- Step 1 : Choose Ratio
- Step 2 : Go to Slideshow Creator
- Step 3 : Import your images
- Step 4 : Select style and background music
- Step 5 : Customize the style
- Step 6 : Preview your slideshow
- Step 7 : Produce
The easiest way to make a slideshow is with PowerDirector. Simply download it by clicking the link and follow the steps below.
- Choose an Aspect Ratio on the launch screen, then click New Project.
- Click Tools and choose Slideshow Creator.
- Click Import your Photos and choose the images you want to use in your slideshow.
- Select a style and background music. The background music can be imported from your computer or selected from the stock library.
- Customize your style with Slideshow Preferences.
- Click Next and preview your slideshow.
- Click Next and choose Produce Video, Create Disc, or Advanced Editing.
For more information on how to make a slideshow with with the best free slideshow maker, watch this video tutorial.
What is the Best Free Slideshow Maker?
Whether you're highlighting a recent vacation, motivating your colleagues, or sharing cherished memories, PowerDirector is the best free slideshow maker for you.
PowerDirector delivers unmatched creative freedom, editing capabilities, and stunning visual effects to produce awe-inspiring slideshow videos. Its beginner-friendly design doesn't compromise on advanced editing tools, allowing seasoned users to achieve cinema-worthy results with every project.
Embrace boundless creativity by downloading the best free slideshow maker using the link below and start crafting personalized slideshows today.
How to Choose the Best Free Slideshow Maker
You may be wondering how to choose the best free slideshow maker for your needs. Here are some things to look out for in slideshow software.
Skill Level - The best free slideshow makers will be easy to use with advanced features to cover a wide range of users.
Compatibility - Make sure web-based slideshow software will work with your preferred browser, and that downloadable options work with your OS. Also, check system requirements to ensure your device can handle the storage.
Music - If you plan to upload your slideshows to YouTube, you will need slideshow software with a royalty-free background music library. If you want to add a popular song to a slideshow for an event, make sure your slideshow software supports adding music from an outside source like iTunes.
Features - The best free slideshow makers allow customization of slides, such as setting the duration, adding motion effects, customizing the text, and changing colors/backgrounds. Or you can drop photos into a template and call it a day. Decide how much creative control you want before choosing the best free slideshow maker for your needs.
How We Test the Best Free Slideshow Makers
Here's a breakdown of how we test slideshow software to bring you the best free slideshow makers in 2024:
Create Test Slideshows - We want to make a few slideshows of varying complexities and formats to test all the features a slideshow software has to offer. We chose 3 different slideshow themes, gathered the necessary photos, videos, and music, and created similar slideshows with each of the best free slideshow makers.
Compare Usability: When we make a slideshow with each slideshow software, we ask ourselves many questions and record the results to put in our reviews. Here are the questions we ask regarding usability:
- Interface: Is it easy to navigate and find the features you need?
- Workflow: Can you make a slideshow intuitively, or is there a learning curve?
- Speed: How quickly does the software load and render your slideshow?
- Stability: Does it crash or freeze frequently?
- Media import: Does it support the file formats you typically use (photos, videos, music)?
- Export: Can you easily export your slideshow in the desired format and quality?
Compare Features:
- Does it offer a variety of templates to get you started?
- Can you add text, animations, and transitions to your slides?
- Does it allow for customization of fonts, colors, and themes?
- Can you add your own music or is there a background music library (or both)?
- Does it offer features for professional use, like video editing or multi-track audio editing?
- Can you create interactive elements or quizzes within the slideshow?
Compare Compatibility:
- Does it work on different operating systems and devices?
- Are there any minimum system requirements?
Additional Considerations:
- Pricing: Is it free, freemium, or paid software?
- Support: Does it offer tutorials, help guides, or customer support?
- Security: Does it handle your media files securely?
Best Free Slideshow Maker FAQ
1. What is a slideshow?
A slideshow is a series of still images or videos in a prearranged sequence typically linked through a common theme, topic, or event. They are a fun way to mark a special occasion or add visuals to data for business presentations.
2. What features should I look for in a free slideshow maker?
The top features you should look for in the best free slideshow makers are:
- Transitions
- Titles
- Smart fit background music
- Motion Graphics or Animated Stickers
- Royalty-free music and image stock library
- Photo and video slideshow support
- Themed slideshow templates
- Control video speed and duration
- Filters
- Video editing tools
If you’re looking for the best free slideshow maker that checks all of these boxes, we recommend PowerDirector. Try it for free by clicking the link below.
3. Is there a free slideshow maker?
We recommend PowerDirector as the best free slideshow maker. The free version never expires, and you can try out all the premium features for free for 30 days.
To try the best free slideshow maker for yourself, click the link below.
4. Where can I make slideshows with music and pictures free?
PowerDirector is the best free slideshow maker to make a slideshow with music and pictures. Not only can you upload your own music, but it offers a library of royalty-free background music. It has beginner-friendly automatic options, and a full suite of video editing tools to maximize creativity.
Click the link below to try PowerDirector and make a slideshow keepsake for friends and family today.
5. How many photos do I need for a slideshow?
Here's our recommendation of how many slides you need for a slideshow depending on the duration:
- 5 minutes slideshow : You need around 40-45 photos to make a slideshow that lasts 5 minutes.
- 10 minutes slideshow : We recommend 80-90 photos for a 10-minute slideshow. However, if you plan to use more than one photo on each slide, the number could go up.
- 15 minutes slideshow : If each slide is a photo, you will need around 120-144 slides, since photos only need to stay up an average of 7 seconds. However, professional presentations with lots of text, graphs, and sales figures need to stay up significantly longer. We recommend around 10-30 slides for a 15-minute presentation.
- 20 minutes slideshow : A good rule of thumb is to allow about 7 seconds per photo (5 seconds to properly take in a photo and 2 for the transition), or about 8-9 photos a minute. That means 160-180 photos is a good amount for a 20-minute slideshow.
6. How do I make my own slideshow?
Click here for step-by-step instructions on how to make a slideshow with PowerDirector, our choice for the best free slideshow maker.
Then click the button below to download PowerDirector for yourself and make a slideshow with no experience necessary.
7. How do I make a video slideshow?
You can make a video slideshow using PowerDirector, the best free slideshow maker.
Download PowerDirector with the below link, then click here for a complete tutorial on using PowerDirector’s Slideshow Creator, and here for a guide on how to make a video collage.
8. What is the best size image for a slideshow?
First and foremost, your slides should be the same width and height. 2880 pixels x 1620 pixels is our recommended size.
9. What is the 10 20 30 rule for slideshow?
The 10-20-30 rule states that a PowerPoint or business presentation should have a maximum of 10 slides, be no longer than 20 minutes, and use a minimum font size of 30.
10. What makes a good photo slideshow?
The right music can make or break a photo slideshow. Choose a song or background music that conveys the mood of your images. We also recommend adding text when appropriate and varying the transitions you use. Add visual interest with pan and zoom effects to add motion to static images.
Related Articles:
- Top Video Maker Apps for Students
- Best Editing Effects Software
- Best Alternative Video Editor
- Best Editor for iOS and Android
- Best Editor for Windows and macOS
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