Ways to present slides remotely, compared
There are a lot of ways to show slides to people who aren't in the room. They solve different problems. Here's an honest look at the common ones, including where SlideBySide isn't the right pick.
At a glance
| Option | What your audience gets | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Screen sharing | A video of your screen | Live demos, anything that isn't a deck |
| Google Slides | A shared screen in Meet, or the deck to click through alone | Decks that live in Google Slides |
| PowerPoint Live | The slides, inside a Teams meeting | Teams already on Microsoft 365 |
| Pitch | A deck built and presented in Pitch | Building a deck together from scratch |
| Slido, Mentimeter | Polls, Q&A and quizzes | Audience questions and votes |
| Pear Deck, Nearpod | Interactive lessons | Classrooms with activities built in |
| SlideBySide | The real deck in their browser, following your slide | Presenting an existing PDF or PowerPoint to anyone with a link |
Screen sharing (Zoom, Google Meet, Teams)
It's already there and it shows anything. That's why everyone uses it. For slides, though, your audience gets a compressed video: small text blurs, they can't point, and they can't look back without asking you to. Keep it for demos and walkthroughs of real software.
Google Slides
Presenting in Google Meet shares your slides as a screen, so you get the same video trade-offs. Sharing a view link gets people the actual deck, but each person clicks through on their own and doesn't follow you. It's a fine choice if the deck already lives in Google Slides and you just want people to read it. You can also import a Google Slides deck into SlideBySide from Drive.
PowerPoint Live in Microsoft Teams
Attendees get the real slides in a Teams meeting and can move through them privately. If your organisation runs on Teams and PowerPoint, it's a strong option. It's tied to that setup, though: you need a Teams meeting, and it's built around PowerPoint files.
Pitch
Pitch is a tool for making decks together, with templates and real-time editing, and you present from it too. It shines when you're building the deck as a team. If you already have a finished PDF or PowerPoint, you don't need to rebuild it to present it.
Slido and Mentimeter
These are for audience interaction: live polls, Q&A, word clouds and quizzes. They add a layer around your talk. They're not built to send your own existing deck to everyone in sync. Plenty of people use one of them alongside a way to show the slides.
Pear Deck and Nearpod
Built for classrooms: lessons with questions and activities inside them, with student responses gathered for the teacher. Great when you want that structure. For a meeting, or a class where you just want students to follow your slides, they're more setup than you need.
SlideBySide
Upload a PDF or PowerPoint, share a link, and everyone sees your slide in their own browser, at full resolution. They can point with named cursors, draw, and browse on their own if you allow it. You can hand the clicker to a co-presenter. Nobody signs up, and it's free.
Where it's not the right pick:
- It has no audio or video. Keep your call running for that.
- No polls or quizzes. Pair it with Slido or Mentimeter if you need them.
- Slides are shown as pages, so animations and embedded videos don't play. Export build-ups as separate pages.
- You don't edit the deck here. Make changes in your usual tool and upload a new version.
Try it with your next deck
Free, no sign-up. Drop a PDF on the homepage, then open the link in a second window to see both cursors.
More guides
- Present slides without sharing your screenWhy screen sharing blurs your deck, and how to send people the real slides instead.
- Co-present slides remotelyHand the clicker to a second presenter without "next slide, please".
- Let your audience follow along on their phoneFor hybrid rooms and talks: people follow the live slide on their own phone or laptop.
- Present a PDF online, liveTurn any PDF into a live, shared deck everyone can point at and draw on.
- Live slides for classes and workshopsStudents follow the lecture on their own screens, scroll back, and mark what confused them.
- Review a deck together, on the slideTeam reviews and design feedback: circle the exact number or pixel you mean.