The price anchor
| Slidecraft | Beautiful.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $0 — no subscription | $12-40/mo |
| Annual | $0 after purchase | $480 |
| 5-year total | $29 | $2,400 |
| 10-year total | $29 | $4,800 |
Subscription figures from the vendor's published pricing ($12-40/mo, ~$480/yr); the Slidecraft column is the full price, paid once.
Break-even analysis
Slidecraft costs less than one month of Beautiful.ai's Pro plan, then never asks again.
- After 1 year: Slidecraft has cost you $29 total — Beautiful.ai has cost $480.
- After 3 years: Slidecraft is still $29 — the subscription is at $1,440.
- After 5 years: Slidecraft is still $29 — the subscription is at $2,400.
What you get for $29 once
- Content-aware smart layouts. Title, bullet list, two-column, image+text, chart, quote and agenda layouts recompute font sizes, columns and spacing automatically so nothing overflows or overlaps.
- Theme system. 5 palettes plus font pairings apply globally and carry zero geometry, so swapping a theme never breaks a layout.
- Native charts. Bar, line and pie charts from typed-in data render as vectors in the editor and PDF, and export as real editable PowerPoint charts, not screenshots.
- Speaker notes + presenter mode. Full-screen presenting with next-slide preview, a notes pane, an elapsed timer and keyboard navigation.
- Real exports. .pptx via pptxgenjs opens in PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slides, and 16:9 vector .pdf via pdfkit, both running headless in pure Node.
- No renewal, ever. The license does not expire and there is no per-seat meter — $29 is the whole price.
Pricing questions
Is it really free on GitHub?
Yes, Slidecraft is MIT-licensed at github.com/bensblueprints/presentation-builder-mvp. The $29 buys the packaged Windows 1-click installer and updates; building from source is free.
Where do my decks live?
On your disk as plain-JSON .slidecraft files. Nothing is uploaded, no cloud, no telemetry.
Does it match Beautiful.ai feature for feature?
No, honestly. Beautiful.ai has more layout variety and AI design assistance. Slidecraft covers the seven layouts behind about 95% of real decks and does the same content-reflow trick offline.
Slidecraft — $29, one time
Or get Slidecraft plus every other app in the suite: the OneTimeSuite bundle is currently $97, one time.