When it comes to presentation software, PowerPoint is arguably the most well known.

Since its debut in 1987, Powerpoint has grown to more than 500 million users and is the force behind an estimated 30 million presentations each day

And whilst some consider PowerPoint to be slightly outdated, many others continue to enjoy the familiarity and ease of use the program is so famous for. It’s also sometimes the only choice if you are at a company that uses the Microsoft suite of tools.

But with widespread appeal comes an issue: with so many PowerPoint presentations out there in the world, how do you make yours stand out?

For truly memorable and attention-grabbing presentation design, you need to step beyond the default themes within PowerPoint itself, and look further afield for inspiration. Luckily a quick search online will deliver you thousands of options, which throws up the next challenge: how do you choose which one is right for you?

To help you out, we’ve rounded up the best of SlidesCarnival and grouped them by industry. From marketing templates to designs suited for educational purposes, these free PowerPoint templates may be just what you’re looking for.

Best PowerPoint Templates for business presentations 

There are a number of considerations to keep in mind when creating a business presentation. First, it needs to look polished and professional. And for this you need a design that conveys real confidence; presenting information in a clean, organized way. 

Secondly, you’ll need a template that can be easily manipulated to fit your business’s brand guidelines. Being able to add your brand logo and company color scheme, for example, is key to any professional presentation

And lastly, you’ll want to stay away from any super intense color combinations, fancy fonts or designs that’ll distract from your content. Professionalism is key, and it’s simplicity that will help to communicate that best. 

Finding a template that ticks all those boxes can be tricky, so here’s a shortlist of our favorite PowerPoint business themes:

Free business PowerPoint template with concentric circles

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template Free professional blue Powerpoint template Google Slides theme concentric circles
Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free powerpoint googleslides template business circles

This is a design that has a slightly scientific look thanks to its concentric circles background. You’ll be able to customize it easily, as the color blue can be changed to use the primary color of your brand identity. This theme will fit perfectly into your talk if you’re going to lecture about big data, blockchain or other science & technology topics.

Free corporate PowerPoint template with photos

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free corporate powerpoint template or google slides theme with photo backgrounds
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This is a perfect template for corporate content. The design is sober and professional, but the rounded shapes in the right places make it not too serious. Use your own background photos to support your content and help the storytelling. Use it in a working environment to present the results of a consultancy, explain the business goals or to pitch your next internal project.


Free formal PowerPoint template with yellow frame

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free powerpoint template or google slides theme formal and corporate
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Choose this professionally-designed template to create a presentation that effectively communicates your message. Use it in a working environment to make a presentation on business goals, strategy, financials or to pitch your next internal project.


Free clean PowerPoint template for corporate content

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free professional and corporate blue presentation powerpoint template or google slides theme
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This theme is clean and simple, designed for business and corporate content. With this theme you’ll make a professional presentation in half the time, as it is completely customizable, with several easy-to-use page layouts and graphic files.


Free technology PowerPoint template

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free technology powerpoint template or google slides theme 2
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Design your presentation in minutes with this ready-made technology-themed template. You can customize the colors to suit your brand as the “pixel pattern” is grouped by tones. Use it to talk about consulting, IT, internet, software… and other technology related topics.


Free minimal and modern PowerPoint template

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free powerpoint template or google slides theme minimal with architecture photos
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This is a minimal and modern template for your presentations, designed for business and corporate content. Enjoy the quality of a premium template but completely free, and present your project like a pro.


Best PowerPoint Templates for pitch decks 

Creating a pitch deck can be pretty stressful. Often, a startup’s entire future can depend on just one presentation. And when the stakes are that high, it’s super important you get it right.

Our advice? Keep it simple. Think clean designs, neat fonts and colors schemes that support — not distract — from your key message.

That being said, there’s still space to have some fun! And your audience is much more likely to engage with what you have to say if you build in visual interest. Remember: around 65% of the population are visual learners. So make sure you use a PowerPoint template that includes sleek graphs — to show forecasted growth — as well as dynamic image-based slides to portray your passion, mission and brand values.

Select any of the following templates to build a pitch deck that investors will love:

Free cool PowerPoint Template with diverse people

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template Free cool Powerpoint template Google Slides theme diverse people
Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free powerpoint googleslides template pitch deck diverse people

This professional template has a minimal design with a hint of color and it’s easy to adapt to your brand. But what really makes it stand out are the images of diverse people that are integrated with the slides. This theme has got everything you need to create a trendy presentation about marketing, human resources or an impressive pitch deck.

Free fresh PowerPoint template for startups

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free fresh powerpoint template or google slides theme for startups
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The illustrated background of this free presentation template will make your content stand out from the crowd. By changing the single accent color you can adapt it to your brand needs. Great for technology, entrepreneurship or design conferences.


Free blue and professional PowerPoint template

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free blue powerpoint template or google slides theme for business
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Create professional pitch decks for your business with this template. Adapt it to your brand just by changing the color and adding your own photos. Impress your potential investors with this corporate and modern design.


Free modern and dynamic PowerPoint template

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free modern orange powerpoint template or google slides theme
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Modern and professional, this theme will fit almost any topic. Use it for business or pitch decks and impress your audience with both your message and visuals.


Free PowerPoint template with teamwork illustrations

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template Gower 1200x675
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Create a deck that grabs everyone’s attention with this multipurpose free template. Thanks to the teamwork illustrations this template will fit a keynote on business planning, your next marketing strategy or a pitch deck. Face your presentation like a pro with this illustrated theme!


Free simple and professional PowerPoint template

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free clean and simple presentation powerpoint template or google slides theme
Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template best powerpoint free templates

Clean and professional, this design will fit almost any topic. This free presentation template works great for pitch decks that are going to be printed or sent by mail. Use the colorful palette or choose a single color that matches your brand. It looks great either way!


Best PowerPoint templates for education 

You can sum up the best educational presentations in two words: informative and inspiring.

But if you think that ‘informative’ means packed full of text — think again! A pared back design style, with only a handful of words on each chart, can actually support learning much more than an overworked slide with hundreds of words to sift through!

After all, how inspiring is it to sit through slide after slide of dense text?

If you can, try to keep it to 3 or 4 bullet points per slide and use plenty of images to support your lesson plan. What’s more, depending on the age of kids you’re teaching, you may need to use your presentation deck to break up the session and reinvigorate your audience. Including fun, pop quizzes half way through, or visual puzzles to solve, will keep everyone hanging on for more!

We get it though: this all sounds like a lot of hard work, doesn’t it?

And, as a teacher, we’ll guess that you’re pretty strapped for time.

This list of free, ready-made Powerpoint themes will help you create engaging educational presentations in no time:

Free educational PowerPoint template with cute robots

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template Free educational Powerpoint template Google Slides theme cute robots
Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free powerpoint googleslides template education robots

If you want to capture the attention of your audience from minute one… cute robots are the key! Choose from different colorful layouts and robot illustrations to make each slide unique and leave no room for boredom. Present your lessons in a fun way!

Free sketchnotes PowerPoint template for education

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free educational powerpoint template or google slides theme with sketchnotes
Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template best free templates and design tips for visual learning presentations

Put together an educational presentation in minutes with this easily customizable theme. With its hand drawn school icons and bright colors it will keep the kids attention in your lesson. Use this template in your next class or if you have to make a presentation on education.


Free PowerPoint template with colored pencils

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free educational powerpoint template or google slides theme with color pencils
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This lively template has a colorful design to make each slide stand out. The colored pencils that appear on each slide make this design perfect to attract the attention of younger children. Besides, change the colors of the theme and see how the colors of the pencils adapt!


Free artsy PowerPoint template with watercolors

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free art powerpoint template or google slides theme with watercolors
Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template best powerpoint free templates 5

Get creative with your presentation using this artsy template. It uses watercolor textures to create bold and vivid slides, while the text content keeps a minimal and clean style. Talk about creativity, art, DIY or craft projects…


Free cute and playful PowerPoint template

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free education presentation design powerpoint template or google slides theme for children
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This presentation theme has a jolly and cute design, terrific for keeping the attention of a young (very very young) audience. The text bubble conveys an informal style, and with the extra set of children illustrations you can choose the character that’s going to present each slide. It’s great to present in front of kids, with education or diversity related topics, and also suitable for NGOs that work with children.


Free PowerPoint template with whiteboard realistic design

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free education presentation design powerpoint template or google slides theme with whiteboard
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This presentation theme mimics a whiteboard over a table with some other items. It’s a template really fun to use for education presentations, specially for for those who miss the days of the old school.


Best PowerPoint templates for marketing 

There’s a popular saying in marketing: “You need to sell the sizzle, not the sausage.”

Essentially, marketing is all about promoting the emotional hook of a product or service. It’s not so much about what you stand to benefit from being a customer, but how that’ll make you feel.

And the fastest way to create that much needed sizzle? Through evocative design.

This is true whether you’re commissioning new packaging, or producing a sales and marketing presentation deck. The way you box-up your message is almost more important than what you’re actually saying!

Perhaps you’re presenting sales results to a client, or sharing a success story internally with your team. You may even be part of the line-up for an industry conference (in which case you’re looking to attract new partners). No matter what the purpose of your marketing presentation, it needs to look as good as the news it’s delivering.

In practice, modern, sleek designs do a great job. But you’ll also want a template that supports visual aids — like graphs and tables — as well as big, bold imagery or illustrations. Of course, don’t forget to apply your business’s color palette and visual brand language, too.

Bring all of this together, and your presentation will be sizzling in no time! To get you started, these are our favorite free PowerPoint templates for marketing decks:

Free PowerPoint Template for marketing with doodles

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template Free creative Powerpoint template Google Slides theme sketched with doodles
Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free powerpoint googleslides template marketing doodles

Put together a marketing presentation in minutes! There’s an increasing trend of using visual techniques to better convey concepts, so this design mimics the kind of doodles you would draw on a whiteboard. Change the color easily to fit your brand and use the customizable icons and different layouts to highlight your content.

Free digital marketing PowerPoint template

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free marketing powerpoint template or google slides theme with isometric illustrations
Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template best google slides free themes 4

Download this free template to showcase your content like a professional. This design has isometric illustrations on business, marketing and technology topics. Use it in a working environment to present your marketing plan, media strategy or to pitch your next idea.


Free PowerPoint template with triangles pattern

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free powerpoint template or google slides theme with warm triangles pattern 2
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Have a professional presentation ready in minutes with this multipurpose template. This design features a modern pattern of triangles in warm colors (yellow, orange and red). Thanks to the abstract background it will fit almost any topic: business, marketing, advertising, social media…


Free fresh and clean PowerPoint template

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free fresh and clean powerpoint template or google slides theme
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Positive, colorful and professional, this template suits a great variety of topics. Works great for presentations that are going to be printed or sent by mail as work documents (slidedocs). Keep the positive and colorful photos, or include your own to match a certain topic. Your audience will be mesmerized with your presentation!


Free PowerPoint template with desk objects

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free powerpoint template or google slides theme with desk and stationery scenes
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This template uses realistic graphics of a desk with stationery items seen from above. It’s a great template to use for marketing presentations, but also if you aim to give an informal feel to your speech and try to reach out to your audience on a personal level.


Free creative PowerPoint template with scribbles

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template Pisanio 1200x675
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This free template shows a creative and fun design with hand drawn scribbles. Pick this theme to make a pro presentation in half the time, with its original look and bright color is perfect for talking about creativity, marketing, art or fashion.


Best PowerPoint templates for medical presentations 

Healthcare professionals have a lot on their plate.

And let’s be honest: if you’re a HCP, you want to save all your brainpower for saving lives — not for choosing your next presentation template! 

So let’s bring this back to basics. A medical powerpoint should be clean, clear, trustworthy and reliable. Of all the industries, this is where you want to say it most straight. What’s the data telling us? Why is that important? What are the next steps?

There’s no need for fancy, over-complicated design work. Simplicity is always key.

Taking this on board, we’ve rounded up a selection of PowerPoint templates that convey trust and professionalism in the medical world. These templates are super streamlined, well-structured and suitably simple, yet are also visually appealing enough to ensure your audience is engaged with the facts they need to know. 

Check out these PowerPoint templates for your next medical presentation, below: 

Free medical PowerPoint Template with doctors and patients illustrations

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template Free medical Powerpoint template Google Slides theme blue doctor patient illustrations
Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free powerpoint googleslides template medical illustrations

This clean free template is perfect for your medical decks. The design is simple, so your message will be conveyed without distraction and the illustrations of doctors attending patients will give your content a more human touch. This theme provides you with everything you need to present a clinical case, talk about a disease or explain the latest trends in primary care.

Free medical and health PowerPoint template

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free medical presentation powerpoint template or google slides theme
Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template best google slides free themes

This template is designed for medical, health or fitness related topics. Human body illustrations are included in a way that can be easily used. The design is clean and simple, very easy to use.


Free medical PowerPoint template in blue color

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template free medical powerpoint template or google slides theme
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This template has been designed for use in medical presentations, so the style is simple to effectively communicate your message. Use it to present a clinical case, in a summit to unveil latest medical advances or simply to share your findings and information on a disease.


Free medical PowerPoint template with virus

Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template Free medical powerpoint template or google slides theme with virus theme 1
Slides Carnival Google Slides and PowerPoint Template best google slides free themes 16

A professionally designed template for medical presentations. This design makes your message clear and reliable with its blue color to convey serenity and trust. Use it with confidence to make a presentation related to the healthcare industry, a medical research, disease outbreaks or clinical cases.


Advantages of ready-made PowerPoint Templates 

Anyone who has access to PowerPoint now has the power to build engaging and memorable presentation decks. And that’s a great thing: studies have shown that over 90% of us feel more comfortable and confident presenting when we’ve got a beautifully designed presentation to support us. 

However, without the visual skill, confidence, or time to create your own design and layout from scratch, it can be difficult to land on a design that gives your content the attention it deserves.

That’s why ready-made, free-to-use PowerPoint templates are so great. They remove the obstacle of time-consuming creation, and provide us all with the visual support we need to feel confident in front of an audience. 

And what’s more, the best PowerPoint templates allow us to feel every inch the expert in our field; helping us to produce sleek, convincing presentations we can all be proud of.