Compare Slaide vs Marp vs Slidev vs reveal.js

Four tools turn a Markdown file into a slide deck: Marp, Slidev, reveal.js, and Slaide. They overlap a lot and disagree on the parts that matter. This page compares them on what each actually does, as of August 2026, not on marketing copy.

Short version: Marp is the simplest and the most mature. Slidev has the best developer experience and by far the largest theme ecosystem. reveal.js is the most flexible and the easiest to embed inside a larger web page. Slaide is the only one of the four built around two things: an AI agent authoring the file correctly on the first try, and a .pptx export with real, editable text boxes rather than a picture of your slide.

The comparison

	Slaide	Marp	Slidev	reveal.js
Source format	One .slaide file: Markdown + a small YAML headmatter and per-slide frontmatter	Markdown + Marpit directives (YAML front matter, HTML comments for local overrides)	One slides.md: Markdown + YAML frontmatter per slide, can embed Vue components	HTML by default, or Markdown via the data-markdown plugin inside an HTML shell
Live preview	slaide dev - dev server, browser preview	Marp for VS Code, or marp-cli --server / --watch	slidev dev server with instant hot-reload - the fastest edit loop of the four	No built-in dev server in core; the third-party reveal-md wraps it with one
Themes	2 bundled (Aurora, Blank) + author your own as a YAML master, no code	3 built-in (default, gaia, uncover); custom via plain CSS	5 official npm themes plus a large community gallery - the richest theme ecosystem here	12 bundled CSS themes (black, white, league, beige, night, serif, simple, solarized, moon, dracula, sky, blood)
PDF export	slaide export --pdf, one page per slide, headless Chromium	marp deck.md --pdf, native, mature	slidev export, Playwright-based, plus a browser export button	?print-pdf + browser print-to-PDF (Chrome/Chromium only), or the third-party Decktape tool
PPTX export	slaide export --pptx: real text boxes, shapes, and images, editable in PowerPoint. Import works the other way too	--pptx native; --pptx-editable is experimental and the docs warn it “results in lower slide reproducibility”	slidev export --format pptx: slides become images with speaker notes attached, text is not selectable	Not supported
AI authoring support	Built around it: MCP server + Agent Skill, and the agent renders its own slides and reads them back to catch clipped text and low contrast	None purpose-built; a model can write plain Markdown, but there is no validation or self-check loop included	slidev mcp gives an agent structured tools to inspect and edit an already-running deck	None purpose-built
MCP server	Yes - slaide mcp, scaffold/validate/render tools plus a spec resource an agent reads on demand	No	Yes - slidev mcp, or /__mcp on the dev server; slide-level get/update/insert/move tools	No
Hosting	slaide build outputs one portable HTML file, host anywhere; optional Hosted cloud plan for AI generation and sync	Static HTML/PDF/PPTX output, host anywhere	slidev build outputs a hostable SPA with animations intact; deploy to Vercel, Netlify, GitHub Pages	Static HTML, host or embed anywhere; the unrelated paid product Slides.com offers a hosted editor
License	Core (renderer, CLI, PPTX import/export, MCP, Agent Skill) is Apache-2.0; the WYSIWYG editor is closed source but free once signed in	MIT	MIT	MIT
Price	Free editor, CLI, and viewer. Paid: Day Pass $3.99 one-time (4 AI decks) or Hosted from $6.90/mo, launch price through Aug 31 2026, $9.90/mo regular, for AI generation and cloud sync	Free, no paid tier	Free, no official paid tier	Free; Slides.com is a separate paid product by the same original author
Best for	An agent authoring the deck, and getting a real PowerPoint file out the other end	The simplest possible Markdown-to-slides pipeline, nothing to configure	Developers who want an animated, component-rich deck and the biggest theme catalog	Embedding a deck as a component inside a larger site, or full control over transitions and layout in raw HTML

Where each one actually wins

Marp is the simplest tool here, and it has earned that. It has been around since 2019, the VS Code extension makes the live preview genuinely painless, and marp deck.md -o deck.pdf or -o deck.pptx just works. If you want the least ceremony between a Markdown file and a slide deck, Marp is still the right default. Its weak spot is exactly what you would expect from a minimal tool: three built-in themes, editable PPTX is explicitly marked experimental with lower fidelity, and there is nothing built in for an AI agent beyond “it is Markdown, so a model can write it.”

Slidev has the best day-to-day developer experience of the four, by a wide margin. The hot-reload dev server is instant, decks can embed live Vue components and code that actually runs, and the theme ecosystem (5 official themes plus a large community gallery on npm) dwarfs what the other three offer. It also comes with its own built-in MCP server, worth noting since it is the one competitor here that took AI agents seriously too - slidev mcp exposes tools to list, read, and edit slides in a running deck. What it does not do is export a deck an agent’s changes can be checked against automatically, and its PPTX export is images with notes attached, not an editable file. Slidev is what to reach for when the deck is more of a code demo than a document.

reveal.js is the most flexible and the most embeddable. Because it is a JavaScript framework rather than a fixed pipeline, you get full control: nested vertical slides, custom transitions, video and iframe backgrounds, Auto-Animate, LaTeX. It is also the easiest of the four to drop into an existing web page as a component, since that is closer to what it fundamentally is. The cost of that flexibility is setup: there is no CLI or dev server in core (reveal-md fills that gap as a third-party wrapper), the Markdown plugin is one option among several rather than the default, and PPTX export does not exist in any form.

Where Slaide is different is the two things it was built around. First, the .slaide format and the Agent Skill exist so a model writes the file correctly and then checks its own work: it validates, renders every slide to one small montage image, reads that image back, and fixes clipped text or low-contrast slides before you see them. Second, slaide export --pptx produces a file with real text boxes and shapes, so someone who has never heard of Slaide can open it in PowerPoint and move things around, not a set of slide images with the text baked in.

The honest limit on that second point: a heavily art-directed deck, hand-placed decoration, bespoke animation, does not survive the .pptx round trip perfectly. Slaide is strongest on decks that are mostly structured content, which is most working decks and not most conference keynotes.

Which one to pick

If you want the smallest possible tool and do not need PowerPoint at all, use Marp. If the deck is closer to an interactive code demo, or you want the deepest theme catalog, use Slidev. If you are embedding a deck inside a web app or need transitions and layouts no template covers, use reveal.js. If an AI agent is writing the deck and someone downstream needs a real, editable PowerPoint file, that is what Slaide is for.

FAQ

Does Marp, Slidev, or reveal.js export a real, editable PowerPoint file? Marp’s stable --pptx export and Slidev’s --format pptx both produce a PowerPoint file, but the slide content is an image, not editable text. Marp’s experimental --pptx-editable flag produces real content but the documentation itself warns it has lower fidelity. reveal.js has no PPTX export at all. Slaide’s --pptx export is real text boxes, shapes, and images from the start, in the open-source core.

Do Marp or reveal.js have an MCP server for AI agents? No. Slidev does (slidev mcp), with tools that read and edit an already-open deck. Slaide also does, plus an Agent Skill that runs the write-validate-render-check loop end to end without hand-holding.

Is Slaide open source? The core is: the renderer, CLI, .pptx import and export, MCP server, and Agent Skill are Apache-2.0 at github.com/aivorynet/slaide. The WYSIWYG editor and the paid AI generation are closed source. Marp, Slidev, and reveal.js are entirely MIT-licensed.

Which of these is free? All four have a free, fully working open-source path. Slaide’s CLI, editor, and viewer are free with no credit card; the only paid part is cloud AI generation, from a $3.99 one-time Day Pass to Hosted at $6.90/mo (launch price through August 31, 2026; $9.90/mo regular after). Marp, Slidev, and reveal.js have no official paid tier at all.

Can I use these tools without writing any Markdown by hand? Slaide’s editor is free once you sign in and lets you click into a slide and edit it directly, with changes saved back to the plain-text file. Slidev and Marp both expect you to edit the source file, though Marp for VS Code gives you a live preview alongside it. reveal.js has no visual editor in the open-source project; Slides.com, a separate paid product, adds one.

Is getslaide.com the same as the “Slaide” apps that generate decks from a single prompt? No. Slaide at getslaide.com is the plain-text .slaide format, its open-source CLI and renderer, and an Agent Skill and MCP server for AI-authored decks with real PPTX export. If you land on a different product also called Slaide, check the URL.