ProPresenter is dead, long live FreeShow

Is FreeShow going to be the next big thing in presentation software?
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[@budget-church-livestreaming]

Edit: I misspoke towards the beginning of the video when I stated annual prices for ProPresenter. It is $400 for the first year, and $189/yr to continue getting updates ($1000 and $469/yr for the campus license). Thanks to everyone who pointed out that misstep, and sorry it took so long to put this comment here addressing it. I'll try to research the exact pricing a little more closely next time!

[@DavidPowellAU]

Kudos just for the eloquence, the fluency, the good reasoning and honesty of the presenter.

[@conorcollins7139]

I love FreeShow. Used it for our christmas services alongside vMix and the transparent outputs are probably the best feature. It let me overlay the lyrics or lower thirds, on top of my vMix output without using another vMix input. Amazing software and the developer is great to work with as well.

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

That's awesome info!!

[@celilo]

How are you overlaying the free show lower thirds without using an input in vMix?

[@freeshowapp]

Amazing video! 🤩 Thank you for the great walkthrough. 😊👍

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

Thanks for working to build a great product!

[@rjkora]

I'll waiting, in about a year or two I think you guys will catch up to propresenter 7 a bit better! I don't update Propresenter!

[@Jameswilliams848]

I’m going to give this a try!

[@WilliamVallance]

LINUX!?!?! That is one thing I wish Propresenter had the capability of. At least for me to set up presentation documents to export and import into the presentation computer. Linux is an awesome option to have.

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

Yeah! It's obviously not for everyone, but it's cool that they've got it!

[@PastorRabian]

Thanks for this video. I've been trying to figure out how work the Scriptures feature. As of right now, i just use it for lyrics. Im farily new to presentation. I've been looking for a robust tutorial to help me get the most usage, but still not enough footage. However, your videos have more details than all the others i have found

[@celilo]

I've been spending a lot of time over the past week digging into FreeShow. The scripture import works very well. I was even able to download and import NIV, which is used at our church. The one minor issue that I've come across is the addition of an unneeded line return if importing the reference independently. If your text box is big enough, you can use it as is, or simply delete the line return manually.

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

Good info!

[@thekidthatshoots]

Pro Presnter is a 1 time license buy. We upgrade when the update is worth it not every year. I’m honestly still good with propresenter 6 tbh but 7 makes life easier

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

That's fair, that's a way to do it. But technically that's an apples to oranges comparison since FreeShow has free updates. But lots of people use PP that way and are very happy!

[@AFCBrooklyn]

Same here. I am only considering 7 because of NDI. But 6 has been working well for us.

[@devarionarias]

Great presentation! Liked and subscribed. We use ProPresenter right now but as you say, good thing to have in your pocket for a church plant or an event outside the church.

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

Thanks! For sure. Always good to know what's out there.

[@Filmwhatmatters]

I’d like to be able to scroll down inside the main show. Seeing what’s next is important.

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

Yeah I agree, kinda weird that you can't

[@huydavidpham]

doest it work with 2 languages?

[@nicholsonjay4724]

Trying to copy and paste something in propresenter in places where it should absolutely makes sense is a nightmare. It’s almost as if this thing was once a spreadsheet program and has just evolved with clunky code over the years. It’s a high learning curve. I almost threw it in the trash.

[@Jason-mk3nn]

Thank you for showing an alternative to ProPresenter. You are right that they are pricing themselves out of being affordable for many small churches. The potential for CSS use may seem out of place, but much like stylesheets in printing and css on the web, that can make for a really powerful toolset to build quick results, but maintain styling/branding standards across the board, without the user having to know much of it at all.

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

Yeah, it's definitely powerful, I'm just not sure how many churches are realistically going to take advantage of it. But it's cool to have!

[@ninjaz5736]

I'd assume it's probably the easiest way to give "pro level" control over things, as the software is seemingly based on web tech, it'd be seemingly trivial for a dev to allow access to. I agree it's probably not that useful for many, but for the few who really need it, it'll be a live saver (well, Jesus is the real life saver, but in terms of presenter software!)

[@divineleads]

Thank you so much Man! I swithed to FreeShow while into 7 Minutes of the Video. Got Everything Setup Already. Edit: I was using ProPresenter Before.

[@BradleyAlsup]

What exactly made you switch to FreeShow over ProPres?

[@divineleads]

@@BradleyAlsup Firstly It Gets most of the Things Get Done for a Small Church to Mid Size Church. We Do Operate with Multiple Cameras and Screens. Second the Interface is very identical to ProPresenter and in many cases Easy to Use. Overall it's a Great Product if someone don't want to invest but still get features at par with Professional Presentation Software like ProPresenter.

[@divineleads]

First of all it Gets Everything Done for Small to Medium Sized Churches. Secondly it's very Similar to Pro Presenter. We use Multiple Camera and Screens in Church and It works Perfectly Fine. Also They Rolled out an Update Today and I believe they will continue to Improve the Software.

[@BradleyAlsup]

@@divineleads that’s sweet! So was there any feature that made you switch? Or was it strictly a price point decision?

[@divineleads]

@@BradleyAlsup 2 Things Actually. Price is one and the other is that it's more Light Made, what I mean is, when I used to stream. As there are many softwares opened at the same time on our PC, Pro Presenter used to slow down while switching lyrics as we show lyrics on multiple screens and in Live Stream at the same time. But this Solved the Issue and Run everything smoothly at the same time.

[@tobiaslofi]

This looks awesome. Never used ProPresenter

[@phantom0908]

Interesting alternative! Speaking of using your monitor as a display, one of the draws that ProPresenter has is the ability to merge two projectors. I did a quick search of the website but didn't find anything. Did you find anything about that with Freeshow? Where you would have two projectors and use them as one long display like 1280x480.

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

I didn't see anything about that specifically, I'm guessing you probably can't do it as of now. But maybe in the future!

[@TheHarvestisReady-media]

This is interesting. But my initial look was that it was a bit hard to use. The work flow is terrible. Also I couldn't figure out how to reuse songs if you wished to only display a few lines. But the other features such as overlays are great.

[@josiah33]

i renewed pro presenter for my church last week and they're trying to get me to renew for 2025 :|

[@Soundxajay]

Great ❤tool

[@synphanymedia]

Let’s give it a whirl 💻

[@hazampieri]

The Freeshow do the blending for 2 projectors?

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

I'm not sure, but I'm guessing not

[@bradlucid]

Im not sure, however, If FreeShow is compatible with the EdgeBlender plug-in, then it Might be able to

[@scottkorber]

Hey!!! I'm a church tech that sets up Linux in the sound booth. Lol

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

They DO exist!! 😂

[@gusterge]

My XR18 is setup with Linux and I love it. Gonna setup Freeshow on my other Linux machine tonight and test it at choir rehearsal.

[@alexkselk]

@@budget-church-livestreaming me is the second one. Also some custom tuned linux for light management and stage controll server. Btw it geve us both cheap and powerfull lightning solution with volonteer frendly remote controll. Looking forward for some integration with FreeShow.

[@alexkselk]

@@gusterge YEP. Pretty the same setup. We use X32 but we still controll it remotly. Also this allows good integration with OSC server

[@jjcurry812]

Sadly author has said he won't be adding Planning Center integration. Deal breaker for our church.

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

Bummer 😕

[@phlomix]

Thank you for this video. I have been trying various church apps and found this one interesting. But more importantly, when you mentioned the sentence about Jesus Christ at the end, it brought tears to my eyes for some reason. He is whom we are all doing this for.

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

Glad you found it helpful!

[@mr.w7803]

Pro Presenter may be fully featured, but could use some serious help in the UX department. It’s a nightmare onboarding new volunteers…

[@alexkselk]

This one also seems to have rough lurning curve

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

I honestly feel like any type of presentation software is going to have a bit of learning curve, it's not something most people have used before

[@grnphroggy]

FreeShow is worse. It looks like it should have the capabilities we need, but I can't recommend it for our church, in part because ProPresenter's UI is much less confusing.

[@mr.w7803]

@@grnphroggy that’s saying a lot…

[@mr.w7803]

@@budget-church-livestreaming ehhh… as a UX designer, it’s a problem. It’s just not well designed

[@TimothyFish]

You're are incorrect on ProPresenter's licensing cost. It isn't limited to a year. If you want upgrades, you have to continue to pay, but at a lower rate than the initial license, but you retain the license even after the first year.

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

Good clarification!

[@grnphroggy]

In case anyone's confused: it's $399 to buy the software, which includes a one year subscription that entitles you to tech support (via email, but they respond quickly) and software updates. After that, if you let your subscription expire, the license will still continue to work indefinitely, but you're no longer entitled to upgrade to new versions, and when you decide you do want to upgrade, you'll have to pay the full $399 again. Or, for $189 per year, you can keep renewing your subscription. With an expired subscription, you can continue to run any version of the software that was released before your subscription expired. So you can still upgrade, downgrade, try out different versions, whatever, as long as you don't try to run any version that was released after your subscription expired. It's also important to understand that you only need a license for computers that will be presenting in front of an audience - if you're just creating presentations, or doing testing or training, you don't need a license for that. Without a license, the ProPresenter logo will be displayed on all audience screens, but otherwise the software is fully functional. If you buy ProPresenter in 2024, renew the license in 2025, renew again in 2026, and renew again in 2027, your total cost (assuming all prices stay what they are now) will have been $966, and you'll be entitled to upgrades and tech support the whole time. Alternately, you could buy now in 2024, let the subscription expire in 2025, continue to run without a subscription in 2026, and buy a new license in 2027. Your total cost would be $798 - you'll save money if you can go two years without upgrading (or needing support). Here's the risk: the version you currently have may stop meeting your needs, even though your license entitles you to keep using it. For example, let's say you let your subscription expire a year and a half ago, and let's say you've been running ProPresenter on an old Mac. First of all, CCLI has dropped support for the old version of the SongSelect API, so SongSelect integration in the old version of ProPresenter no longer works. Secondly, if that computer dies, as all things inevitably must, and you want to replace it with a new one, a new Mac will ship with macOS 14 Sonoma, and will be incompatible with older macOS versions. The version of ProPresenter you've been using is not compatible with Sonoma, so it won't run on a brand new Mac. If you had kept your subscription current, you wouldn't have to worry about either of these issues, and you'd also get access to new features that might solve some problems you've been running into. But what about the future? If your subscription is about to expire, maybe CCLI won't change their API again, maybe your current computer will keep working, maybe Renewed Vision won't release any new features that you really need, so maybe you won't need to upgrade within the next few years. But maybe you will. There's no way to know for sure.

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

@@grnphroggy wow, thanks for the detailed rundown!

[@kalehorvath]

Propresenter stopped being for small and medium churches years ago, imo. Price aside, the program has become so robust and complicated it has a difficult learning curve for volunteers. I used to train teenagers to run Propresenter quite easily. But nowadays, if you aren't a mega church with cameras everywhere, it may not be worth the price or hassle.

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

Idk that I FULLY agree with that, but I do agree that 50% of the features are probably not used by 90% of churches, which is kinda tough

[@ludicrousgaming7956]

@@budget-church-livestreamingI agree, as a medium sized church I’ve wished we would use more of pro presenters features like integrating cameras or using audience looks for broadcasting and other things. I understand why they are there and I can see they are useful elsewhere in bigger churches but it’s a shame we can’t take full advantages of all of these

[@grnphroggy]

@@ludicrousgaming7956 If you livestream your services, you should at least be using Looks to apply different Themes to different Audience Screens. There's no good reason not to be formatting your content for lower thirds.

[@jeremythomas2865]

Interesting the KZbin integration seeing that playing KZbin vids in public goes against their terms.

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

Haha fair point

[@Robin-sf3gk]

Why is nobody talking about Wirecast or Vmix?

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

We actually used vmix originally! I'll probably make a video about it at some point

[@weblegion]

I used to use Pro Presenter in our Church but like most companies Christian or NOT - THEY GET GREEDY - 400 A Year? - Rent Software? PURE GREED

[@Epicdude012]

this is quite a pro-claim

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

😂

[@aviman2010]

I'm sure this is a great facility but Windows 11 won't let me download it.

[@jameystrickland]

It's important to remember these are tools. Different applications call for different tools. Just because a tool is more advanced or presents a steeper learning curve, doesn't mean it's a bad thing. Propresenter isn't dead and it's not even close. Perhaps the "influencer" will one day have wider influence and require something more advanced. I'm sure Propresenter will still be there with the features necessary for broader production scenarios . It's unfortunate that inexperienced and short-sighted creators often trade their credibility for sensationalism just to gain a few clicks and comments.

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

Hey man, did you actually watch the video? I feel like I presented a pretty balanced view on FreeShow and who it's for. The title is a bit baity for sure, but I'd argue for FreeShow's audience (churches who really can't afford ProPresenter), ProP really is dead. That's not true of everybody, but most things aren't!

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

Also if you watched the video, you'd see that my church DOES use ProPresenter, because we don't really fit in FreeShow's target demographic. But it doesn't mean other people don't want to know it's an option!

[@petterrong1590]

FreeShow is awesome, developer is an awesome dude, and I praise it everywhere I go, but it really isn't a ProPresenter killer. Not by a long shot. Nor would I expect it to be. Commend it for what it is, not what you want to compare it with. I realize you do touch on this in the outro, but title does not do it justice.

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

I'd argue it IS a PP killer for a church with zero budget for presentation software. But also...come on man, it's a KZbin video, gotta play the game a lil bit to get any views 😂

[@celilo]

​@@budget-church-livestreamingunfortunately, clickbait titles are just a reality of KZbin. I think the video laid out the proper concerns for anybody who actually watched it. I would only recommend this for technically astute users at this point, as there are a lot of issues that the typical volunteer would find daunting. As with all open source, our job is to help the project to improve in any way we can so that it might eventually be a propresenter killer. We use ProPresenter extensively and it's constant bugs are an ongoing issue; not what you hope for when you consider the cost of the software. While it's a bit rough, freeshow is the alternative with the closest parity to ProPresenter that I've come across.

[@sergeypryvala7750]

@@budget-church-livestreaming If you want to play with an audience then rename your channel. Because if you are playing while giving advice - you have a wrong channel name

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

@@sergeypryvala7750 I think FreeShow is a ProPresenter killer for a church on an extremely tight budget, so I actually think the title meshes with my channel name pretty well

[@aguyandhiscomputer]

Anybody else's loading window just scrolling?

[@isaiahm8001]

Bro you can't say Propresenter is dead but you’ve never used it in a live environment. Run it in a live environment for a month and then do an updated “FULL” review.

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

Dude, it's a youtube title, I'm just playing the game 😂 If you feel like I misrepresented the product in the actual video, let me know! I also don't think my word should ever be enough for someone to go on, it's just a starting point to see if you're interested. Even if I had run it for a month in a live environment, it's not guaranteed that I'm running it on the same hardware and using the same exact features as anyone else, so anyone looking to use it is still gonna have to test it for themselves anyway

[@raulgalets]

​@@budget-church-livestreaming u gotta play the youtube game. answer these with a video

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

@@raulgalets haha idk that I need to clutter up my channel with response videos QUITE yet 😂

[@raulgalets]

@@budget-church-livestreaming not a direct response video, just a creative "I aknowledge this" video maybe answering othere queries too. the way you answered them you removed value from your video actually. well, who am I to say really but, I hope you find your path

[@rtnkr9804]

how about adding chords to the songs

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

From what I read in the docs, FreeShow can do that! I just didn't run through every single feature

[@celilo]

I downloaded a ChordPro file from CCLI and used the import function to bring it into FreeShow. Assuming that you want to show the chords on the stage display, select the lyrics text box on the stage display and turn the cords feature on in the right panel. That worked for me. Be aware that using the text edit view to break a verse across several slides will result in the loss of chord data. I resolved this by entering a line return in the source ChordPro file prior to importing.

[@RolandsZeltins]

What about OpenLP?

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

I haven't used it myself, but looks like it's an option!

[@allenfarley5553]

We have been using OpenLP on Linux on an i5 Dell Inspiron for almost 7 months. The only issues we have had were WiFi related. Cabled everything up, and no more issues!

[@duncanb1506]

At risk of sounding silly, is there a good video that summarizes why not to use Powerpoint?

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

I don't have a video on it, but some of the reasons are the editing functions aren't as good, it's not optimized for worship songs or scripture, the workflow is kinda weird for a service flow, you can't create and recall songs, etc. It's really good at what it does, it's just not really made for this

[@JCuervo330]

WoW You’ve never used it live, instead your using what’s ’dead’ 😂 thanks for honesty, but o my that’s embarrassing #clickbait

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

I'm so embarrassed 😜

[@pilgrimheart]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="614">10:14</a> you gotta avoid misleading thumbnails - if prepresenter is more refined than certainly it is not dead. I highly recommend you change the thumbnail to say something such as “a propresenter competitor?” Or something that is truthful.

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

I think it's still truthful for a small church who has trouble affording ProPresenter!

[@TheHarvestisReady-media]

Sad need to create a new song for each view. I use OpenLP. Less bells and whistles. BTW i am one of those who prefer Linux. Jist wait for the day when software companies are banned from selling their software to churches. Be prepared church.

[@StPaulusLBK]

Speaking of this technology, it might be interesting to see how you can use OBS in combination with Powerpoint when broadcasting live. ...Now the camera was set wrong and it's all in Swedish :-) But anyway: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aqDHiImCgNh3abs

[@statemediabroadcasts]

EasyWorship still has the simplest presentation software...

[@3rvp1]

Has the best bible verse search on the fly in my opinion , like not picky with spelling.

[@missqtpye]

I still use EW2009! LOL. Definitely simple, but am very interested in FreeShow. I've downloaded it, but need to figure out how it works, as I've never used ProPres.

[@alexkselk]

First try it looks like it can handle multiple outputs with different layout. Need to test it "in field conditions" to say for sure

[@buster1387]

Pro presenter license is a one time purchase of $399, with an optional ongoing support and update option at a decent price. I’m the pastor of a church plant with about 30-40 people, and we’ve prioritized this cost in our budget. You’re also not including the context that to unlock ProPresenter’s feature set in Pro6 cost over $2,000, which is not palatable for most smaller churches. Now, you can get Pro7 FULLY featured for $400, and it would take 10 additional years before you match the total investment of Pro6. Appreciate your perspective, but please don’t mislead people away from proven, tested, software with half-truths.

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

I don't see much benefit in comparing it to the older version...Pro7 has been out for YEARS at this point. Would you mind sharing what half-truths you heard? I feel like this was a pretty fair review of the capabilities of a free piece of software (I literally showed it crashing). I even said it's not for everyone, including my own church. And while you can prioritize Pro7 in your budget, some churches just don't have that option, so it's good for them to know that there are other avenues! For even extra context, I used to attend a church plant that didn't have budget for ProPresenter, so something like this would have been great, even with its flaws. We didn't need something perfect, but something better than PowerPoint would have been nice.

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

If the half-truth was in regards to the pricing of ProPresenter, that's honestly my bad, I didn't fully realize (I'm not the one with the credit card at my church). I've pinned a comment addressing that. Thanks for pointing it out!

[@buster1387]

Please forgive me for the rudeness in my first comment. “Half-truth” was harsh, and uncalled for, and I’m sorry for being a jerk about it. If you don’t mind, I’ll share some perspective of why that really struck a nerve. I’m a Sr. Pastor now, but I’ve spend most of the last 20 years in the booth. I’m a professional audio engineer first, but eventually made my way into Tech Director roles, working in churches ranging from 10 people to 2-3,000 weekly attendance. I can’t count the times that there was a LEGITIMATE need for the tech team (regardless of church size) and the request was denied because A) we had something that “worked” (even if it didn’t really), or B) the pastor had seen something on the internet that is “just as good, and it’s free, so we’re not paying for that.” Again, I’m so sorry for being a jerk earlier, and I SUPER appreciate your grace and humility. Thanks for reminding me, and being a good example of how to handle haters. The irony is, I’m in the early stages of planning a new channel focused on helping small churches, and I definitely didn’t extend the grace that I’d hope people extend me one day. I went back and watched most of your video again, and you make killer content. You got a like on this video from me, a new subscriber, and hopefully a friend :)

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

@@buster1387 hey man, thanks for coming back in such a kind and humble way, I appreciate it. I definitely get that perspective! It's frustrating to not have the tools you need to get the job done, especially if you can truly afford them. This video is realistically not meant to sway anyone who's already using ProPresenter. It's more to bring awareness of other options to people who think it's the only way, but they can't afford it. And also to bring awareness to a cool project so that hopefully people help support making it better! I don't want people to use broken things just because they're cheap. I just want people to see that they don't necessarily need to have the very latest and greatest of everything. Thanks again for your response, it's rare to see on KZbin 😂 hope your new channel goes well, reach out if you'd ever like to collab on anything!

[@TimothyFish]

I don't think this is going to be a replacement for ProPresenter, but it has some features that ProPresenter doesn't do, but should. I can see using this for sending stuff to the livestream that I don't want to send to the main screens. I use OBS for a lot of that, but this might have a better interface for some of that stuff. Also, you say, "Don't use PowerPoint!" but the fact is that PowerPoint is rock solid compared to ProPresenter, it just isn't designed for anything other than the laptop and big screen configuration that we expect to find in the office environment. I wish Microsoft would get into the multiscreen presentation software space. PowerPoint with main and stage screen capabilities, with Bible and Songs built in, now that would be a true ProPresenter killer.

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

Lots of good points here!!

[@seoncallender5674]

Free show is very buggy has crashed on my system several times even in live service good thing I had OBS on standby

[@sergeypryvala7750]

Sorry. But it is a misleading video and only a clickbait title. I agree that sometimes you need a free alternative. But Freeshow is a hundred miles behind (in terms of serious production usage). My suggestion is to buy a license and use mature, production-ready software like ProPresenter. All video - "I was playing with it at home". It is PP killer.

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

I don't think it's misleading, I showed exactly what FreeShow can do, and literally even showed it crashing. Some churches simply have zero budget for ProPresenter, and those churches are usually small and don't need perfect "production ready" softwares, and so FreeShow is a good option for them to look at. Is this good for a huge church? Absolutely not. But at no point do I say that it is. My audience is a budget church, and I think this is perfect content for that audience

[@sergeypryvala7750]

@@budget-church-livestreaming 1 misleading in the title. Second point - you have not even tried it outside your home

[@budget-church-livestreaming]

@@sergeypryvala7750 yeah but I said I didn't try it outside of home? I feel like I'm extremely up front about that. I'm not advocating that people trust me implicitly, I'm saying it's worth trying out. If it's not for you, that's fine!