Genially

What Is Genially?

A team finishes a Google Slides deck, presents it once, and the file sits unopened afterward. That is the default lifecycle of a static presentation, and it is exactly the gap Genially was built to close. Instead of slides that display information, Genially builds content that responds to clicks, hides and reveals layers, tracks quiz answers, and reports back on which sections an audience actually engaged with.

The company behind it, Genially Web S.L., was founded in 2015 in Cordoba by Juan Rubio, Chema Roldan, and Luis Garcia. It raised a USD 20 million Series B in September 2021, led by 645 Ventures and Owl Ventures with participation from DN Capital and Brighteye Ventures. The company has since grown to roughly 200-plus employees serving education and corporate customers worldwide. Unlike many design tools that added "interactive" as a feature checkbox, Genially was built around interactivity from day one, which shows in how deep the capability goes.

Switching from Google Slides or PowerPoint to Genially means trading a familiar, offline-friendly workflow for a browser-based editor that requires an internet connection and a slight learning curve. In return, you get gamified quizzes, animated infographics, escape-room style navigation, and analytics on how people actually interacted with the content — none of which static slide tools attempt.

Key Features

Interactive Widgets and Gamification

Every element on a Genially canvas — an image, a shape, a block of text — can carry a click, hover, or reveal interaction. Timers, leaderboards, quiz logic, and escape-room-style locked content are built in as widgets rather than requiring custom scripting. For trainers and teachers, this converts a passive slideshow into something closer to a lightweight learning game, without touching code.

Google Slides has no equivalent to this; PowerPoint's interactivity is limited to hyperlinks and basic animation triggers. Genially's widget library is the clearest reason teams switch specifically for training and education use cases.

Engagement Analytics

Genially tracks views, interactions, quiz responses, and time spent per section, then surfaces that data back to the creator. A corporate trainer can see exactly which slide lost the audience's attention, or which quiz question tripped up the most people. Static slide decks offer no equivalent visibility once a presentation has been shared or embedded.

This analytics layer is one of the features that sits behind a paid tier, which is worth knowing before assuming the free plan covers a full training rollout.

SCORM, Dynamic SCORM, and LTI Integration

Schools and corporate learning teams running a learning management system can package Genially content as SCORM or Dynamic SCORM and integrate it through LTI. A finished genially then embeds directly into Moodle, Canvas, or similar platforms with grade and completion tracking intact. Google Slides has no native path into an LMS gradebook; Genially was built with this exact integration as a target use case from early on.

Templates and Brand Kit

Over 1,000 templates cover presentations, infographics, timelines, and interactive resumes, giving non-designers a credible starting point rather than a blank canvas. The Master tier and above add a Brand Kit — shared fonts, colours, and logos — so a marketing or L&D team can keep every genially on-brand without manually re-applying styles project by project. This mirrors what Canva offers at a similar price point, though Canva's template library is far larger across non-presentation formats.

Sharing, Embedding, and Publishing

A finished genially can be shared as a link, embedded on a website, downloaded as a static file, or published with restricted access for a specific audience. Privacy settings range from fully public to password-protected or domain-restricted, which matters for internal training material that should not circulate publicly. Direct format conversion with PowerPoint and Google Slides lets a team draft a rough outline in a familiar tool, then rebuild the interactive layer inside Genially rather than starting from a blank canvas.

Integration with Microsoft Teams extends this further, letting a genially be shared and viewed directly inside a Teams channel without exporting to a separate file first. For hybrid teams already living inside Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, this reduces one of the common friction points of adopting a third tool alongside an existing suite.

AI Tools Built Into Every Plan

Every Genially plan, including the free tier, includes a bank of AI credits usable across an image generator, quiz generator, text-to-speech narration, and translation. It is a smaller AI toolkit than Canva's, but it is included from the free tier upward rather than reserved for the most expensive plan, which is a genuinely generous choice by industry standards.

Pricing

Genially's free plan is not a time-limited trial — it is free forever, with unlimited interactive content creation, access to the full template library, and included AI credits. The catch is a persistent Genially watermark and no offline export, both of which push serious users toward a paid tier quickly.

Pro, at USD 15 per month billed annually, removes some restrictions and adds premium templates plus offline HTML export. Master, at USD 25 per month, adds watermark removal, Brand Kit, and team templates — for most individual professionals, this is the plan that actually delivers a polished, unwatermarked result. Author, at USD 50 per month, adds LTI integration, version history, and AI translation for larger training and education deployments. Enterprise pricing is custom, adding SSO and dedicated account management.

The advertised per-month figures are calculated on annual billing paid upfront; genuine month-to-month costs run higher, a detail several G2 and Capterra reviewers flag as easy to miss during checkout. Buyers should note that watermark removal, arguably the single most important feature for anything shared externally, does not arrive until the Master tier — one step above the entry paid plan.

EU Compliance & Privacy

Genially stores all user data exclusively in AWS data centres located in Ireland, keeping content inside the European Economic Area regardless of where a user connects from. The company holds SOC 2 Type 2 certification, applies TLS 1.3 encryption in transit and AES-256 at rest, and commits to a 72-hour incident response window under GDPR.

For education customers, Genially also states compliance with FERPA and COPPA, the two US frameworks that many international schools require alongside GDPR. Genially Web S.L. is a Spanish company with no non-EU parent, which simplifies the jurisdictional picture considerably compared to switching from a US-headquartered alternative.

Who It's Best For

Teams that currently build training content in Google Slides or PowerPoint and need quizzes, tracking, or gamification get a direct, purpose-built upgrade rather than a workaround.

Schools and training departments that need SCORM or LTI packaging for an existing LMS will find Genially's education tooling more mature than Canva's presentation features or Google Slides' near-total absence of LMS integration.

Marketers whose priority is a large asset library spanning video editing, social graphics, and print alongside presentations should stick with Canva; Genially trades that breadth for deeper interactivity.

Anyone who needs offline, no-internet-required editing should stay with PowerPoint's desktop app, which still outperforms any browser-based tool, Genially included.

The Verdict

Genially succeeds at the one thing static slide tools cannot do: turning a presentation into something an audience actively participates in rather than passively watches. Its gamification widgets, SCORM integration, and built-in AI credits at every tier make a genuine case for switching, especially for education and corporate training teams. Pricing has real friction points — watermark removal gated behind the second paid tier, annual billing baked into the advertised monthly price — and support responsiveness draws mixed reviews. Teams whose content genuinely needs interactivity and engagement tracking will find those trade-offs reasonable. Those who just need to make a deck and move on will find Google Slides simpler and cheaper.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Genially GDPR compliant?

Yes. Genially Web S.L. is a Spanish company, and all user data is stored exclusively in AWS data centres in Ireland, inside the EEA. Genially holds SOC 2 Type 2 certification and applies TLS 1.3 and AES-256 encryption to data in transit and at rest.

Is Genially free to use?

Genially offers a free-forever plan with unlimited interactive content creation, over 1,000 templates, and included AI credits, though content carries a Genially watermark. Offline HTML export arrives with the Pro plan at USD 15 per month billed annually; removing the watermark requires the Master plan at USD 25 per month.

How does Genially compare to Canva?

Canva is broader, covering static graphic design, video, and print alongside presentations, with a much larger asset library. Genially focuses specifically on interactivity — clickable layers, gamified quizzes, and animated infographics — plus deeper LMS integration through SCORM and LTI, which Canva does not offer natively.

How does Genially compare to Google Slides and PowerPoint?

Google Slides and PowerPoint are static-first tools built for standard presentations. Genially adds interactivity, gamification widgets, and engagement analytics on top of a presentation-style editor, at the cost of losing the offline-first, deeply embedded ecosystem PowerPoint has inside Microsoft 365.

Where is Genially's data hosted?

All user data is stored exclusively in Amazon Web Services data centres located in Ireland, ensuring it does not leave the European Economic Area regardless of where the user is located.