livediagram vs Google Slides
A free, open-source Google Slides alternative
Google Slides is the presentation tool most people already have open. livediagram makes decks differently: start a slide page from a ready-made layout, or build slides straight from the work on your canvas, so the deck, the write-up and the plan behind it live in one document that your team edits together.
At a glance
| Feature | livediagram | 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 46 layouts | Themes, layouts and a large template gallery |
| Slides from your work | Pick elements or a Plan board on any tab and it becomes a slide that stays in step | Paste or link charts and images in |
| 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 |
| Beyond the deck | Diagrams, whiteboards, written pages, Plan boards and spreadsheets in the same document | One of several Google Workspace apps |
| Self-hostable | Yes, on your own Cloudflare account | No |
Which to pick
Why pick livediagram
- Slides straight from the work: select elements or a Plan board on any tab and present it, and editing a shape updates every slide it is on.
- Slide pages when you want a designed deck: 16:9 or 4:3, started from 46 layouts (title, agenda, big numbers, roadmap and more).
- One document for the whole story: the write-up as pages, the diagram, the plan and the spreadsheet beside the deck that presents them.
- Present with presenter notes, a time budget per slide, Slide or Fade 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.
- Animate any element: a title that types itself in, words that cascade, a drawing that draws itself, or a reveal that plays once and stays.
- 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.
- Free, MIT-licensed and self-hostable.
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.
Two ways to make a deck
In Google Slides a deck is its own file, built slide by slide. livediagram gives you two ways in. Switch a tab to Illustrate and add slide pages, 16:9 or 4:3, each started from one of 46 layouts (a title, an agenda, two columns, image and text, a timeline and more) and painted from your theme. Or build slides from what is already on your canvas: select a cluster of elements, or a Plan board, and make it a slide.
Slides made from the canvas point at the real elements rather than copying them, so the deck can never drift from the work: change a shape, a card or a label and every slide it is on changes with it. Both kinds of slide sit in one deck, ordered in the Slide Deck panel, saved with the document.
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 the HUD tracks as you talk. Transitions are Slide, Fade or None, at the speed you pick, and a laser pointer and spotlight guide the room.
Nothing on a slide can be changed by a stray click, but everything can be read: click an element mid-talk to show its note, comments and assigned action, for the question you did not plan for.
The deck and everything behind it
A deck is usually the last step of something: a write-up, a plan, an architecture, a retro. In Workspace those live in Docs, Sheets and Slides as separate files. In livediagram they are tabs of one document: write the doc as Illustrate pages, keep the plan on a Plan board with a Sheet beside it, sketch on a whiteboard, and present from all of it. Everyone edits live, with comments and assigned actions on the elements themselves.
Free, open and no account needed
Slides is free with a Google account. livediagram 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, and you can run your own copy on your own Cloudflare account. Export any page as a PNG, SVG or a print-ready PDF when a deck has to travel.
Google Slides alternative FAQ
Can livediagram replace Google Slides?
Can I import or export PowerPoint files?
Do my audience or co-editors need an account?
Can I keep my slides in step with a diagram or a plan?
Is livediagram free?
See how it feels
No sign-up, nothing to install, free forever. Open a canvas 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 11 October 2026.