Top 9 Best Free Slideshow Makers for Windows in 2025

Are you looking for the best free slideshow maker? Most people know what a good slideshow looks like but they rarely make the effort to know exactly how they were created. Were they made with high-end professional software, or with a free slideshow-making program?

More often than not, a free program is more than capable of creating eye-catching and memorable photo and video slideshows. Nowadays, there are certainly a lot of different options available that don't cost any money at all.

We’ve done the research, and here’s a list of the top 10 free slideshow creator software you can use right now. This should help you find out which one fits your needs if you are planning to create a slideshow or presentation soon. The list includes all the important information so you can decide which one is right for you.

Best Free Slideshow Makers

1. PhotoStage
2. Movavi Slideshow Maker
3. CyberLink PhotoDirector
4. Magix PhotoStory
5. Gilisoft Slideshow Maker
6. Bolie Slideshow Creator
7. Focusky
8. ThunderSoft Free Slideshow Maker
9. Microsoft PowerPoint

Editor's Pick: PhotoStage Slideshow Maker Software

PhotoStage Slideshow Software is one of the best options available for making slideshows on any computer. It is perfect for beginners or non-technical people because of its intuitive user interface, and it offers virtually everything needed from modern slideshow maker software.

It has a handy slideshow wizard, which helps save time and effort by setting things up automatically. It also offers built-in tools for editing, adding effects and transitions, and even inserting music or voiceover narration to enhance any custom slideshow.

PhotoStage lets users export finished projects to many different formats like MP4, GIF, AVI, and more. It's even possible to upload slideshows to sites like YouTube or burn them directly to DVDs for later viewing.

Key features

• Built-in audio effects and animated graphic overlay options
• Customizable duration and easy-to-use interface
• Quick Create option offers instant slideshow creation

Price: Free; $39.95 (Home Edition) or $59.95 (Pro Edition)

1. Movavi Slideshow Maker

Movavi Slideshow Maker is an excellent choice for those who want to make memorable slideshows with their favorite photos and custom music or voiceovers. It has a user-friendly design that's well-suited for casual computer users, and it offers plenty of built-in editing tools and slideshow effects for maximum customizability.

Once users are finished with creating and customizing their slideshows, Movavi offers the option to either export their project files for sharing or upload them directly to popular video streaming sites like YouTube. The only catch is that the free version doesn't contain all of its features and you need to pay to access the full functionality.

Key features

• Good selection of built-in effects and editing features
• Can enhance image quality and apply dynamic transitions to slides
• Option to add voiceover can be used to personalize slideshows

Price and licensing: Free trial (7 days); Starts at $39.95/yr per license

2. CyberLink PhotoDirector

CyberLink PhotoDirector is a photo editor first and foremost, but it's still an excellent choice for anyone on the lookout for good slideshow-making software. You can think of that as its biggest differentiator from the other slideshow maker software on this list.

It has powerful photo editing tools that include object removal, background removal, noise removal, dehaze, and deblur. It's definitely one of the best options available for those that work with lots of photos.

When it comes to making slideshows, users can take advantage of its simple UI and plentiful features. All of the options for editing, cropping, layers, changing backgrounds, and inserting transitions between slides can be found on the easy-access menus. It's set up so users can make dazzling slideshows right away.

Key features

• Comes with audio and color correction options
• Built-in visual effects, titles, and transitions
• Offers AI-enhanced editing tools and support for plugins

Price and licensing: Free (with limitations); $54.99/yr per user

3. Magix PhotoStory

Photostory is referred to as one of the best pro-level slideshow maker software available on the market. It is aimed squarely at advanced users who know exactly what they want to do with their presentations and how to get their desired results.

There's a robust media library of effects built right into Photostory, and it includes a selection of audio tracks that can spice up otherwise bland and boring slideshows. It also comes with its own photo editing tool and a custom animation module for further customization.

Key features

• Built-in slideshow templates to save time
• Offers picture-in-picture (PIP) presets
• Can enhance images and apply sound effects to slideshows

Price and licensing: Free (with limits); $39.99 (one-time payment)

4. Gilisoft Slideshow Maker

Gilisoft is a straightforward slideshow maker that lets users take existing images and audio clips or music to create entirely new movies out of them. It outputs files that are compatible with desktop and mobile devices, making sharing as easy as it can possibly be.

The program itself offers plenty of tools for slideshow makers, including animated templates, animation effects, support for various images and music tracks, transition effect options, built-in file conversion, and more. It also supports file export to formats such as MPEG, AVI, MP4, MOV, 3GP, and others.

Key features

• Comes with 2D and 3D transitions effects
• Offers built-in file sharing options including Dropbox
• Can convert files in projects such as photos to any supported video formats

Price and licensing: Free trial (7 days); Starts at $29.95/yr per user

5. Bolide Slideshow Creator

Those who are looking for a dedicated slideshow maker program on Windows can look at the free Bolide Slideshow Creator as a prime option. It is described as having no ads, no hidden installs, and no watermark, which all combine to make it an absolutely safe download. It's also meant to be one of the easiest programs to use for making slideshows, making it ideal for most users, especially since it's available for free.

Bolide Slideshow Creator allows users to simply drag and drop a bunch of photos at once onto the timeline, tell the program to add transition effects without any added settings and proceed to save the slideshow as a video file afterward. That makes it particularly well-suited for beginners by taking out a lot of the complexity from the equation.

Key features

• Supports a wide range of audio file formats including OGG and WMA
• Supports full HD file resolution and multiple file-sharing sites
• Can import images, music tracks, and animation effects when creating slideshows

Price and licensing: Free

6. Focusky

Focusky is a downloadable slideshow maker software that's powerful enough to add life to any boring old presentation. It was created mainly to turn simple and text-heavy slideshows into entertaining decks that can capture a viewer's undivided attention.

With Focusky, users can embed all kinds of media files such as photos, videos, or music, add animated effects, and insert special transitions to inject life into any presentation. The idea behind using it is to add more motion and animation to any slideshow. .

Key features

• Offers various 3D zoom and 3D transition effects for slides
• Supports templates to make slideshow creation easier
• Can be used to add vector art and background music to slideshows

Price and licensing: Free trial; Starts at $9.9/mo

7. ThunderSoft Slideshow Factory

ThunderSoft Slideshow Factory is a dedicated slideshow maker program available for Windows that supports images as well as videos. Users are free to use it and choose from more than 70 transition effects, animated templates, background music, clip art, and more to spice up their presentations.

It can be used to create YouTube video slideshows, photo slideshow screensavers, banners for websites, or HTML5 videos for blogs. It supports the most popular audio formats and all major video files for maximum compatibility. It also supports the HD video format.

Key features

• Over 70 built-in transition effects and animated templates
• Can be used to add clipart and captions to slides
• Offers HD video support

Price and licensing: Free trial; Starts at $39.95/yr per user

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is slideshow maker software?

A slideshow is a presentation of a series of slides containing images or videos, usually in a pre-arranged sequence, and is often based on a central thesis or main idea. The transition between slides might occur automatically and at regular intervals or be controlled manually by a presenter or the viewer themselves.

2. What's the easiest slideshow maker to use?
The easiest slideshow maker software to use is PhotoStage due to its intuitive and user-friendly interface. It comes with a slideshow wizard that takes care of the setup automatically to help save users time and effort.

2 How to choose the best slideshow maker?
Choosing the best slideshow maker software requires knowing what you want to achieve through your presentation, and what kind of audience will be viewing your slideshow once it’s finished. Your skill level and technical proficiency will also affect the kind of software you can use, and whether or not you can allocate a budget will determine if you can go for the free choices or consider more advanced options meant for industry professionals.

How can I make a memorable slideshow?
Making a slideshow memorable is often the result of utilizing all the available features in a slideshow creator program plus a certain amount of out-of-the-box thinking. It’s worth exploring all the options for editing and enhancements present in your slideshow maker software of choice before you look for other ways to spice up your presentation.

What file formats should I use for my slideshow?
For slideshows that are meant to be viewed or shared offline, it might be necessary to save your files in one of several popular file formats which include PPT, PDF, MOV, and MP4. For those that are meant to be viewed and shared online, however, the file format may not matter at all.

Conclusion

You've just finished reading our list of the best free slideshow maker software. Hopefully, you now have a better idea of what to look for before you work on your next slideshow creation.

If you're a beginner and want to focus on the images or videos in your presentation instead of worrying about the tool you're using, take a look at PhotoStage Slideshow Software. It's often rated as the best option available for non-commercial use and is definitely one of the most user-friendly options available.

Choosing the best slideshow creation tool shouldn't be so complicated. Your best bet is to go with the one with just the right combination of good built-in features and intuitive design and you'll be able to get started with making your next slideshow in no time.