Design and diagrams decision
Genially
The core loop is buildable, but a dependable replacement becomes a real weekend or multi-day project. For Genially, build interactive presentations with hotspots, layers, and simple animations. The hard boundary is template marketplace, hosted embeds, analytics, collaboration, and education workflows, plus editor polish, assets, collaboration, and distribution.
Visit website↗Open-source builds that already do this
Every project below is open source and already does this job today. Fork one, self-host it, or take the parts you need — the build prompt further down assumes an empty file, and this is the shortcut past that. Licences differ; check the one on each card before you ship.
What a replacement has to do
- Compose reusable visual blocks on a canvas into interactive presentations with hotspots, layers, and simple animations, edit text and media, and export an SVG or PDF.
What it still won’t have
- template marketplace, hosted embeds, analytics, collaboration, and education workflows
- huge template and asset libraries
- real-time multiplayer
- brand governance
- professional print workflows
What remains hard
- Execution quality
- Content rights
- Team collaboration
First-year cost
The build hours below are a category default, not an estimate for this product. Change them to your own numbers and the comparison follows.
No published price
Genially does not publish a price we could read, so there is nothing to compare against. What building costs is below.
Money you would actually spend
Time you would spend
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What you would spend
What we assumed
The verdict above measures whether you could build it. This one is only about money.
Runnable build prompt
Build a personal replacement for Genially in an empty repository. Use Next.js 15, TypeScript, React, Tailwind CSS, IndexedDB, and SVG; do not offer alternative stacks. The core loop is: compose reusable visual blocks on a canvas into interactive presentations with hotspots, layers, and simple animations, edit text and media, and export an SVG or PDF. Make the first run work locally with one documented command. Store all user data locally by default and make export straightforward. Put secrets in .env, ship .env.example, and never commit credentials. Create a fixed-size SVG canvas with zoom, pan, selection, alignment, and snapping. Support text, rectangles, circles, images, groups, layers, and reusable components. Add a small set of high-quality starter layouts relevant to the product category. Implement undo, redo, autosave, and import or export of a portable project JSON file. Export SVG and print-ready PDF without rasterizing text unnecessarily. Keep all assets local and display missing-font warnings before export. Include clear empty, loading, success, and recoverable error states. Add input validation, safe filenames, and graceful handling of unavailable APIs. Write focused tests for the core transformation and one end-to-end happy path. Create a README with setup, architecture, permissions, data location, and backup steps. Do not add accounts, billing, telemetry, analytics, or a hosted control plane. Deliberately leave out real-time multiplayer editing. Deliberately leave out a commercial stock-asset library. Deliberately leave out enterprise brand controls and approval workflows. Finish by running the tests and listing the exact commands used.
