Slidev vs Reveal.js

Slidev

Slidev is a Node project. You scaffold it with npm, write everything in one slides.md file, and use frontmatter for per-slide layouts and options. Because it is a Vue app under the hood, you can drop in any Vue component, use UnoCSS utility classes, and get instant hot reload from Vite. It is the more productive setup if you already live in that toolchain - and a heavier one if you do not.

Reveal.js

Reveal.js is a script and a stylesheet. Every slide is an HTML section you write by hand, or Markdown if you enable the built-in plugin. There is no build step unless you want one, which makes it trivially portable and easy to hack, but layouts, spacing, and anything beyond the themes are your own CSS. The official React wrapper (Deck, Slide, Fragment components) is the modern alternative for app developers.

Slidev

Slidev handles step-by-step reveals with v-click, v-clicks, and v-after directives, and richer motion with v-mark annotations and v-motion (powered by @vueuse/motion). Slide transitions cover fade and directional slides, plus an experimental View Transitions mode. For code, Magic Move animates between code blocks line by line. It is capable, but every effect is still a directive you write in Markdown.

Reveal.js

Reveal.js has the more expressive built-in motion. Fragments support fade, grow, shrink, strike, highlight, and custom effects with explicit ordering; Auto-Animate matches elements across slides and tweens position, size, and color - including line-level code animation. Transitions add convex, concave, and zoom on top of fade and slide, and backgrounds can be video, iframe, or parallax. Like Slidev, it is all configured in markup.

Slidev

This is where Slidev pulls ahead. Shiki highlighting matches your editor theme, Monaco gives you live-editable and runnable code on a slide, TwoSlash shows TypeScript type hover, and Magic Move animates diffs between snippets. Snippet imports, code groups, and line highlighting round it out. If the talk is mostly code, Slidev was built for it.

Reveal.js

Reveal.js ships a highlight.js plugin with stepped line highlighting (data-line-numbers="3-5|8-10") and Auto-Animate can transition between code blocks, which covers most talks. There is no live editing, no Monaco, and no type hover - anything interactive means embedding your own iframe or component.

Slidev

Slidev ships a dedicated presenter view with notes, next-slide preview, timers, and layout options, a batch notes editor, an overview mode, stylus-aware drawing that syncs across windows, and built-in camera and screen recording. It is unusually complete for a free tool.

Reveal.js

The Notes plugin opens a speaker view with notes, upcoming slide, and elapsed, clock, and pacing timers, and server-side notes let you present from a second device. Drawing and recording are community plugins rather than core features.

Slidev

slidev export produces PDF, PPTX (image-based, or editable native shapes since v52.20), PNG, or a Markdown of images, all through Playwright Chromium; slidev build produces a static single-page app you host on GitHub Pages, Netlify, Vercel, or anywhere. The catch: the deck is its own Vue app, not a component you can drop into an existing site, and interactive features do not survive export.

Reveal.js

Reveal.js is static HTML by nature - upload the files and it works. Its native export is PDF only, through the browser print dialog (?print-pdf) or the DeckTape CLI; there is no PPTX or PNG export in core. In exchange it embeds cleanly: multiple decks can run inside an existing page, and the React wrapper puts a deck inside an app. Slides.com, from the same author, adds hosting, a visual editor, and PPTX export as a paid product.

Slidev

Themes and add-ons are npm packages (slidev-theme-*, slidev-addon-*) with galleries in the docs, and Mermaid, PlantUML, KaTeX, and Iconify icons are built in. The project moves fast - v53 in September 2026 bumped Node, Mermaid, and Cypress - which means frequent updates and occasional breaking changes.

Reveal.js

Six official plugins (Highlight, Markdown, Search, Notes, Math, Zoom), CSS themes, and a long-running community list of third-party plugins. Reveal.js 6.0 (March 2026) modernized the project with a React wrapper, Vite build, bundled TypeScript types, and accessibility work, while keeping a decade of themes and answers relevant.