# Google Slides

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Google Slides and 11 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended for easy, browser-based slides that need no coding and export to PDF or images. Most common caveat: weak font, SVG and import support compared with PowerPoint and Keynote.

## Why people recommend it

- Exports to PDF, images or text (2 comments): "Embeded slides URL is a great hack from which you can just download as .txt directly." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49501828)) "Simplest way is create a Google Slides and export a PDF or images for slides" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46827555))
- Simple, no-code browser slides (2 comments): "Simplest way is create a Google Slides and export a PDF or images for slides" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46827555)) "It requires no coding, and anyone can play them easily in their browser." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49992871))
- Good enough for common features (2 comments): "I’m sure it’s not feature complete but it’s good enough!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46192342)) "I only ever use the 10% most common feature set" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47025530))

## What people warn about

- Worse than PowerPoint and Keynote (4 comments): "Presentations because it's the ugly duckling of the suite" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49885013)) "Infinitely better than powerpoint or GSlides." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49706199)) "ppt/gslides wrappers are just faster horses" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48133590))
- Weak font and SVG support (3 comments): "A lot of what is considered brand identity in presentations comes from fonts, which makes Google Docs Slides a non-starter for many" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47411590)) "it would be nice if google actually added SVG support to google slides" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50076315)) "I was in Google Slides for 5 minutes, then I tried to import an SVG." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46192453))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Bento HTML presentation tool](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bento.md): 68 recommend
- [Microsoft PowerPoint](https://hackerapproved.com/p/microsoft-powerpoint.md): 42 recommend
- [Apple Keynote](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-keynote.md): 27 recommend
- [reveal.js](https://hackerapproved.com/p/reveal-js.md): 11 recommend
- [Immersa](https://hackerapproved.com/p/immersa.md): 8 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://accounts.google.com/v3/signin/identifier?continue=https://docs.google.com/presentation/?usp%3Ddirect_url&followup=https://docs.google.com/presentation/?usp%3Ddirect_url&ltmpl=slides&osid=1&passive=1209600&service=wise&flowName=GlifWebSignIn&flowEntry=ServiceLogin&dsh=S403139986:1793623810900987)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Google Slides", https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-slides/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).