Prezi vs Shorthand (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Prezi if

• Fits if you teach or train and want people answering polls and quizzes from their phones
• Works for starting from an existing PowerPoint, Google Slides or Canva deck

Look elsewhere if

• Not for you if your decks are private and you're not paying, since free presentations are public by default
• Pricey if you need PDF export, offline access or the desktop app, which start at Plus, $19 a month billed annually
• Tight if you lean on the AI, with 500 credits a month on Basic and Standard that don't roll over
• Skip it if you want ordinary slides in a row, as the zooming canvas takes learning
• Watch out: these prices come from a guide on Prezi's blog from June 2026, and its monthly rates are approximate

Pick Shorthand if

• Fits if you make long visual stories for a communications team
• Works for publishers who want stories on their own CMS

Look elsewhere if

• Not for you if you want a price, because none is published
• Tight if you publish a lot, as Core includes 12 new stories a year
• Watch out: a published story uses a credit that is not returned if you unpublish it
• Watch out: unused publishing credits expire at the end of each yearly cycle

Prezi

• On the free Basic plan presentations are public by default, storage is limited, and PDF export needs Plus or higher.
• Basic and Standard include 500 AI credits a month that do not roll over; unlimited AI use starts at Plus, $19 per month billed annually.
• The desktop app and offline access are part of Plus and higher plans.
• Prices here come from a pricing guide Prezi published on its blog in June 2026, and the monthly-billing rates in it are approximate.

Shorthand

• No plan prices are published: Core, Unlimited and Enterprise are arranged through the sales team, so pricing is recorded as unverified.
• Core includes 12 new stories per year, and publishing a story uses one credit that is not returned if you unpublish.
• Unused publishing credits expire at the end of each yearly cycle.
• Shorthand says it is SOC 2 Type II compliant and ISO 27001 certified.

Prezi

Prezi AI drafts

Describe the session in a sentence, or upload a PowerPoint, PDF or Word file, and Prezi AI drafts an outline and a designed presentation that stays fully editable.

Zoomable canvas

Presentations sit on an open, zoomable canvas, so a presenter can move around the material in whatever order the room needs rather than only stepping through slides.

Live polls, quizzes and Q&A

Polls, quizzes, Q&A and word clouds are planned in the deck and opened during the session. The audience joins by scanning one QR code, with no app or account, and can upvote questions.

After-session review

The shared link lets people revisit a session as a narrated video, podcast, transcript or the slides, and practice with flashcards and a self-test built from the material.

Results and feedback

Quiz and poll results appear question by question, alongside audience questions ranked by upvotes and an end-of-session digest of ratings and comments.

Prezi Video

Puts the presenter on screen next to the content in video calls and records presentations as video files that can be downloaded and shared.

Shorthand

Story editor

Stories are built from sections and layouts in a browser editor, and can be embedded into existing pages.

Publishing options

Shorthand-hosted publishing on annual plans, or self-hosted through S3, WordPress, Drupal plugins or API.

Branding

Themes carry a team's logos, colors and fonts across stories.

Collaboration

Editors, designers and developers work in one shared workspace.

Analytics

Built-in cookieless analytics, plus Google Analytics, Tag Manager and other trackers.

AI Creative Companion

An AI feature the site describes as turning a rough draft into a designed story.

Prezi

• Basic$0

  500 AI credits a month, the full online editor and AI generation from prompts and uploaded files. Presentations are public by default and storage is limited.

• Standard$7

  per month, billed annually (about $10 billed monthly)

  Adds enhanced privacy settings, unlimited projects, a larger icon and story block library and revocable share links. Still 500 AI credits a month.

• Plus$19

  per month, billed annually at $228 (about $25 billed monthly)

  Unlimited Prezi AI, premium images, PDF export, presentation recording, the desktop app and offline access.

• Premium$29

  per month, billed annually (about $40 billed monthly)

  Adds viewer analytics, advanced online training and deeper integrations.

• Teams$39

  per user / month, billed annually

  Adds team collaboration tools, a custom brand kit, secure single sign-on and Your Designer, which keeps presentations on brand.

Shorthand

Pricing could not be confirmed. See shorthand.com.

Prezi

• Annual discount

  Roughly 24% to 30% less on annual billing

  Prezi's pricing guide puts Standard at $7 a month on annual billing against about $10 billed monthly, Plus at $19 against about $25, and Premium at $29 against about $40.

• Education

  EDU plans from $4 a month

  Students and educators verified with a school email pay $4 a month for EDU Plus, $8 for EDU Pro and $19 per user for EDU Teams. Prezi describes EDU Plus as up to 80% off standard pricing.

Shorthand

• Nonprofit

  Discounts for charities and NGOs

  Shorthand says it offers discounted plans for registered charities and NGOs, and free educational plans for universities and colleges.