Apple Keynote
Ranked 3 of 11 presentation tools by recommenders
People recommend Keynote as a free, well-designed alternative to PowerPoint that is easy to use and handles files well. Critics object to ads and upsell nags added to the app, and to paid AI features.
People recommend Keynote as a free, well-designed alternative to PowerPoint that is easy to use and handles files well. Critics object to ads and upsell nags added to the app, and to paid AI features.
52 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 27
- criticize it
- 25
- approval share
- 52%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 27 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1 recommender for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Better than PowerPoint
“Keynote is so much better for presentations that PowerPoint it's not even funny.”
Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “Apple Creator Studio” “I do them in Keynote and export them to PowerPoint, which is half the battle!”
Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “Apple Creator Studio” “Keynote is worth paying for if it means that I don't have to use PowerPoint”
Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “Apple Creator Studio” - Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “Apple's new 'Switch to Safari' campaign details why you should ditch Chrome”
- Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “Apple Creator Studio”
- Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Tim Cook to become Apple Executive Chairman”
Clean, simple, well-designed interface
“particularly well-designed: everything can be done more simply and more cleanly in Keynote”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Apple Keynote now showing ads in its UI” “The UX of Pages and Keynote are, IMO, far superior to Word/Powerpoint”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “Apple's new 'Switch to Safari' campaign details why you should ditch Chrome” “Keynote has probably the best UX of any software I’ve ever used.”
Comment from 21 Jul 2026 in “Kimi Work” Free and good enough
“Plus Pages, Numbers and Keynote are free on Macs, minus the new paid features.”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Apple Business” “mostly because they are free and they are good enough”
Comment from 5 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft Office renamed to "Microsoft 365 Copilot app"” Handles PDFs and converted files well
“I personally get by just fine with the built in converter tools in Apple Pages and Keynote”
Comment from 31 May 2026 in “Microsoft degrades functionality of perpetually-licensed offline products” “You can drag a pdf into Keynote, and get a vector quality image.”
Comment from 25 Mar 2026 in “Apple Business”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Ads and promotions inside the app
“It's the latter that's happening here. Imagine spending hundreds of thousands on a Ferrari, starting it up, and … finding an ad on the touch screen.”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Apple Keynote now showing ads in its UI” “Now they're copying the exact same "curated" promotions style that made Windows packin apps intolerable.”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Apple Keynote now showing ads in its UI” “They are only ads when other apps do it, when apple does it they are "Enhanced UI Recommendations".”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Apple Keynote now showing ads in its UI” - Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Apple Keynote now showing ads in its UI”
- Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Apple Keynote now showing ads in its UI”
Upsell nags and paid AI features
“Not available for one time purchase are the AI features and templates available for the free apps (Keynote, Pages, Numbers, Freeform).”
Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “Apple Creator Studio” “forced upgrade of Numbers/Pages/Keynote with annoying nags that can't be turned off”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Tim Cook to become Apple Executive Chairman” “nagware for new AI generated pictures in the "new" Keynote CrEaToR StUdIo app”
Comment from 9 Jun 2026 in “Apple WWDC 2026 Livestream” - Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Apple Keynote now showing ads in its UI”
- Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Apple Keynote now showing ads in its UI”
Breaks Apple's quality reputation
“They’re a luxury goods brand, their whole revenue model is based on the appearance of quality.”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Apple Keynote now showing ads in its UI” “This is exactly the sort of thing that Apple avoided when it had strong management from Jobs.”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Apple Keynote now showing ads in its UI” “it doesn't feel like Apple to do this in this way.”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Apple Keynote now showing ads in its UI” Promotions interrupt slideshow work
“Just because it's hard to discover things I don't yet own doesn't mean I want them shown to me while I'm making a slideshow.”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Apple Keynote now showing ads in its UI” “the problem is I wanted to do some work and Apple wants me to use my limited attention”
Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “Apple Keynote now showing ads in its UI”
Other presentation tools people recommend
The four most recommended other presentation tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bento HTML presentation tool | 68 | 11 | 86% | 5 | — | Approved |
| Microsoft PowerPoint | 42 | 55 | 43% | 11 | — | — |
| Apple KeynoteThis page | 27 | 25 | 52% | 10 | — | — |
| reveal.js | 11 | 3 | 79% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Immersa | 8 | 1 | 89% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 55 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Word, PowerPoint, Keynote, paid software, etc. all used to actually work.”
“Keynote is (was!) my go to.”
“the problem is I wanted to do some work and Apple wants me to use my limited attention”
“particularly well-designed: everything can be done more simply and more cleanly in Keynote”
“it doesn't feel like Apple to do this in this way.”
“It's the latter that's happening here. Imagine spending hundreds of thousands on a Ferrari, starting it up, and … finding an ad on the touch screen.”
“So I can start saying that Apple's software is ad-supported now?”
“Now they're copying the exact same "curated" promotions style that made Windows packin apps intolerable.”
“Just because it's hard to discover things I don't yet own doesn't mean I want them shown to me while I'm making a slideshow.”
“They are only ads when other apps do it, when apple does it they are "Enhanced UI Recommendations".”
“they've been showing ads for years. literally every year i get an ad for the new version of the os”
“They’re a luxury goods brand, their whole revenue model is based on the appearance of quality.”
“This is exactly the sort of thing that Apple avoided when it had strong management from Jobs.”
“There’s nothing cheaper than upsell nags when you spent what you did already.”
“Why do they want to associate it with this tasteless nickel-and-diming?”
“The UX of Pages and Keynote are, IMO, far superior to Word/Powerpoint”
“A pity, because Keynote is great.”
“Keynote has probably the best UX of any software I’ve ever used.”
“there is a presentation mode where I can see what is on screen now, and what will be on screen next as soon as I click”
“You kinda have to try out Pages and Keynote etc to really understand why they are superior.”
“nagware for new AI generated pictures in the "new" Keynote CrEaToR StUdIo app”
“I personally get by just fine with the built in converter tools in Apple Pages and Keynote”
“all of which are excellent”
“forced upgrade of Numbers/Pages/Keynote with annoying nags that can't be turned off”
“Keynote is better than Slides (arguably) or PowerPoint”
“You can drag a pdf into Keynote, and get a vector quality image.”
“Plus Pages, Numbers and Keynote are free on Macs, minus the new paid features.”
“I'm a big fans of Excalidraw and Keynote”
“pure junk compared to the Keynote”
“compared to e.g. Keynote or even Pages on macOS”
“I do them in Keynote and export them to PowerPoint, which is half the battle!”
“far quicker way to make a PPT than using Powerpoint”
“Keynote is so much better for presentations that PowerPoint it's not even funny.”
“Not available for one time purchase are the AI features and templates available for the free apps (Keynote, Pages, Numbers, Freeform).”
“Keynote is worth paying for if it means that I don't have to use PowerPoint”
“The apps themselves are fine IMO.”
“mostly because they are free and they are good enough”
“It's one of those powerful features that you find in Apple software but for some reason they keep hidden.”
“what I miss the most about using a Mac whenever I'm on Windows or Linux is Apple's bundled apps”
“They’re underrated I think as local apps go.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.