If you’re searching for free PowerPoint templates, you’ll find the best of them here. Use these free slide templates to enhance your presentations.
Everyone likes getting free stuff. Free cinema tickets? Yes please. Free chocolate? You really shouldn’t, but hey, since it’s free…Make no mistake, free stuff rocks. One moment you’re trying to recall that Stephen King film with Corey Feldman, River Phoenix and Wil Wheaton in it (not to mention Kiefer Sutherland). One Google search later and you’re streaming Stand By Me – for free.
The internet is a wonderful tool for furnishing us with free stuff, and when it comes to Microsoft PowerPoint templates, this is especially true. You want free presentation templates? You got them. We’ve lined up five free template sites whose jib we particularly like the cut of. They rock, in other words.
Before we delve deeper though, it’s fun fact time.
Fun fact: Do you know what type of PowerPoint template people search for the most? Could it be Christmas themed perhaps? Or Halloween? Nope, though they’re both up there. The most popular free template people search for is Jeopardy. That’s right, the long-running American quiz show in which contestants compete to provide the correct question to an answer.
When we say “Jeopardy PowerPoint template” you say “What is the most popular type of free PowerPoint template?”
We’re not about to provide you with links to Jeopardy templates, or to Family Fortunes ones either (for some reason PowerPoint quiz templates are a thing). But if you’d like some free general purpose presentation templates, we’ve got you covered. Without further ado let’s dive right in.
The best free PowerPoint templates
Best free business templates: The range of templates to be found at AllPPT.com is extremely impressive. In particular, we like their business range, but they’ve also curated themes based around concepts such as Simple, Modern, Cool and Travel.
Best free templates for formal presentations: Slides Carnival has a fine range of formal presentation templates you can have for free. They also have collections entitled Inspirational, Creative, Simple and Elegant. By default these templates open in Google Slides. To use them select File > Make a copy. Then select File > Download as Microsoft PowerPoint.
Best free general purpose templates: Presentation Magazine has got 65,622 free PowerPoint templates you can have – if you don’t believe us, count them. The quality can vary greatly, but if you’re looking for something quirky for a school or seasonal presentation (that’s right Christmas and all those other holidays), this is a good place to try.
Best free colourful templates: Smile Templates has a great collection of brightly coloured templates that are ideal for livening up business presentations. You have to pay for a complete 24-deck of slides but can download three for free – and three’s all you need. Clone them and you’ve got yourself a complete presentation.
Best simple PowerPoint templates: The deeper you dive down the free template rabbit hole, the sketchier the websites become. PowerPoint Styles isn’t the smartest looking site on the web, but its simple two-slide business templates offer something different.
The best PowerPoint templates that money can buy
As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. Given that you won’t have paid so much as a penny for them, the foregoing resources are pretty good. They’ll certainly offer something different from PowerPoint’s built in templates that you’ll have used and seen countless times before.
If you’d like to crank the calibre of your presentations up a notch, there’s a simple way of doing so. It won’t be free, but the improvement in quality can be dramatic. You may not have been aware this, but there are companies out there who make it their job to design bespoke PowerPoint templates for clients. Spoiler alert: you’re looking at one.
Here at Buffalo 7, we pair our clients’ great material with great looking slides that help their ideas leap off the page and embed themselves in hearts and minds. All hyperbole aside, we’re rather good at what we do (we’re the UK’s leading PowerPoint presentation design agency for a reason), but that’s not to say our services are for everyone.
If you’re looking to create a Christmas PowerPoint presentation, or even a Jeopardy quiz-based slideshow, there are plenty of places on the web where you can obtain these resources for free. But if you’re a business user, seeking to to do all the things that businesses do best – steal a march on the competition; attract new investors; impress stakeholders; wow head office; incentivise staff; reinforce branding – then yes, you should probably give us a call before you find yourself on page 10 of Google frantically searching for free PowerPoint templates as your presentation deadline looms ever closer.
Free PowerPoint resources are great. Professional PowerPoint resources are even greater. That’s just the way the world works.
