pitchvsfigma slides

what each one actually is

Pitch is a presentation tool built in Berlin, launched publicly in 2020, that aimed to modernize the deck-building experience for teams. the core bets were: templates that look like something a good designer made, real-time collaboration that doesn't destroy each other's work, and an analytics layer that tells you how long investors spent on your pricing slide. pitch competes directly with powerpoint and google slides for serious deck work.

Figma Slides is the presentation feature inside figma, announced and rolled out through 2023–2024. it builds on figma's existing design canvas, component system, and collaboration model. if you already use figma for design, you can create slides in the same tool using figma's layout and component primitives, then present them in the browser. it's a workflow win for design-heavy teams. it's not a replacement for pitch if the presentation is the main deliverable.

pricing, honestly

pitch's free plan is genuinely useful: unlimited decks, pitch-branded, basic templates, and decent collaboration. pro at $8/user/month removes the pitch brand, adds analytics, advanced templates, and custom domain embedding. business at $20/user/month adds SSO and priority support.

figma slides is included in your existing figma subscription — if you pay for figma, you can use slides. figma starter (free) includes slides for individuals. figma professional ($12/editor/month) includes full slides collaboration. for teams already paying for figma, there's no incremental cost to evaluate slides.

what it's actually like to use them

pitch has excellent defaults. new deck → pick a template → content is laid out correctly by default. the text styles are consistent, the spacing looks intentional, and the slide-to-slide visual coherence requires no manual alignment work. adding collaborators works like google docs — they join and you see their cursor in real time. the slide rearrangement and structure tools are purpose-built for how people actually work on decks.

figma slides feels like using figma to make slides — because that's what it is. if you know figma, you'll figure it out immediately. if you don't, there's a figma learning curve before you get to the slides part. the component library, auto-layout, and design tokens all apply, which means design-led teams can build extraordinarily consistent decks. the gap is in the presentation-specific tooling: the template library is smaller, the presenter mode is less mature, and the analytics don't exist in the same form.

who pitch is for

• product, sales, and leadership teams building decks that will be presented externally
• startups working on investor decks, pitch decks, or quarterly business reviews
• teams who need to track viewer engagement on shared presentations
• anyone who wants professional-looking decks without hiring a designer or spending time in figma

who figma slides is for

• design teams who already use figma and need to produce decks that match their design system
• individual designers building internal decks where staying in figma saves context switching
• teams where the deck is secondary to a broader figma workflow and design consistency is the primary goal
• anyone who wants the presentation to use the same components and tokens as the product they're designing

when to avoid each

don't use pitch if your audience is entirely internal to an organization that lives in google workspace. google slides is more interoperable, everyone can edit, and the collaboration story is simpler for non-designers.

don't default to figma slides if the deck is the main deliverable and the audience is external. the template library is smaller, the presenter tooling is less mature, and you're spending energy in a design canvas when you could be in a purpose-built presentation tool.

stuff their landing pages won't tell you

• pitch's analytics (viewer engagement per slide) require the pro plan; the free plan doesn't include analytics
• figma slides doesn't have true offline support — it works in the browser like all of figma
• pitch has a desktop app that works offline and syncs when you reconnect; genuinely useful for travel
• figma slides presenter mode doesn't show speaker notes in a separate window the way keynote does
• pitch's template AI requires a prompt and still needs cleanup — don't expect to generate a finished deck
• both tools can export to PDF; neither exports well to .pptx for powerpoint compatibility (heavy formatting gets lost)

the call

pitch for most presentation work. the templates are better, the presenter tooling is more mature, and the analytics are genuinely useful for sales and fundraising contexts.

figma slides when you're a designer who already lives in figma and the deck needs to use your design system components. the workflow win is real — no export, no recreation, same components. but know that you're in a design tool doing presentation work, not a presentation tool.

keynote if you're a solo mac presenter who wants the highest possible output quality and doesn't need real-time collaboration. nothing beats keynote's animations and visual polish for a single-author deck.