The current content of this article is an updated version of an old post that was published 8 years ago. During this time, the list of plugins for pictures in WordPress became completely irrelevant, so it urgently required an update. By the way, the blog has a separate tag for, where you will find more than 40 notes on this topic with different solutions, hacks and guides on the topic. Only modules (with a short description) will be presented in this publication.
In general, the visual component for web projects is quite important. In blogs, graphics in posts are considered an integral part of them, are a rule of good form and help to attract the attention of readers. If we talk about classic sites, then in addition to the design, image plugins in WordPress can perform a number of other important tasks: they are used in portfolios, galleries, sliders, when creating thumbnails, etc. The basic functions of the system cope with only some of these situations, sometimes it is simply impossible to do without additional modules.
The blog already had several highly specialized collections on WordPress image plugins, here are the links to them:
- (8 modules, as well as comparative testing of the effectiveness of a couple of them).
- (6 items).
- (5 options).
- (6 working solutions).
This article, as you can see from the title, has collected the best WordPress image plugins in different directions - from photoblogging to creating slideshows. I have already considered some of them, so in the brief description I will refer to the corresponding detailed reviews.
NextGEN is the only WordPress image module from the previous collection that has not only survived for 8 years, but has also become one of the most recognizable and popular (it has been downloaded by over 1.5 million people). It all started with a simple plug-in for creating a gallery, but now it is a full-fledged system for managing photos on your site, where there is: adding, grouping, sorting photos, creating albums, thumbnails, importing meta data and much more.
NextGEN has wide functionality, but at the same time it is quite simple and straightforward to work through the admin panel. The classic version contains 2 options for galleries (with thumbnails and through a slideshow) + 2 types of album styles with many options: design, picture sizes, zoom effects when viewing, etc. In the PRO version, there are even more different ways of displaying content.
It, like all other Lazy Load solutions, allows you to speed up the loading of your web resource. BJ Lazy Load only shows users graphics in articles and site designs when scrolling gets to them. The description says that since this technology also supports iframes, Vimeo or YouTube inserts will also be processed. Although there is a special option for video content in the collection - Lazy Load for Videos (also recently received an update).
For those who are not familiar with Flickr - one of the oldest, largest and most popular photo hosting sites used by millions of people. Flickr Badges Widget is a simple jQuery widget that allows you to display a selection of recent or random items from your Flickr account on your blog. This WordPress image module contains several customization options, a tab system, and even a caching mechanism. Of these solutions, this is the most downloaded along with Meks Simple Flickr Widget.
The plugin is not very popular, but unlike other developments under Flickr, it offers plus or minus something unusual. You can embed photos from your albums and collections on the site, showing them in a slideshow format. Everything is implemented through a special shortcode with the specified parameters. Judging by the name and description, there is adaptability.
Advanced WP gallery with many settings and 100% responsiveness. In this WordPress module, you can add descriptions, tags to pictures, and form albums from them. There are several types of display available in the gallery: thumbnails, carousel, etc. There is video support and even some E-commerce functions for selling prints. The latter and some other features, as I understand it, are available in the PRO version, but even without them, the free release has very attractive features.
This script allows web project visitors to view enlarged versions of images using the so-called Lightbox effect. It is applied both on individual images and in galleries - for WordPress, graphics are connected automatically. The most useful thing here is adaptation for mobile devices. The module contains many different options, widgets, compatible with WooCommerce and Visual Composer. Simple yet functional tool.
A fairly functional and easy-to-use solution for implementing a slideshow. Select files from the media library or simply drag and drop them, set the title, links and other details. The ability to add links to photos is one of the pleasant advantages (sometimes you come across such tasks at work).
The plugin supports 4 different types of slideshows: Flex Slider 2 carousel, Nivo Slider with 16 effects and 4 themes, the lightest Responsive Slides and Coin Slider (the first 3 are fully responsive). The module is being actively developed, it has a lot of settings, multilingual support, etc.
Responsive Slider - Image Slider
Quite a popular and powerful WordPress image plugin for creating a slider. You can add as many pictures from your library as you like and create several elements on the page at once. In addition to graphics, the use of videos, shortcodes and widgets is allowed. The module supports HTML code in the title and description, you can add URL links, there are dozens of different options, adaptability. Basically, in terms of functions, all such sliders are, plus or minus, similar.
This is one of the most downloaded options out of, but you need to choose the appropriate solution depending on your current tasks. The Logo Carousel has: the ability to add active links to the logo, create several objects on the page, use shortcodes. An interesting feature is the effect when initially the images are displayed in black and white, and on hover in color (works in modern browsers).
In this WordPress plugin, images are not displayed as separate graphic elements - the slider contains posts. This is a great opportunity to present posts in their original form, showcasing the latest news, for example. In addition to the thumbnail, the Posts Content Slider displays a title and a short announcement. The slider is mobile friendly, has navigation, supports widgets and translations. There are dozens of options to customize it. A very interesting module, as for me.
One of the plugins from the creation note. You've probably heard of this effect. Twenty20 Image Before-After can be easily integrated into articles via shortcodes or inserted via a widget. The interface is as simple as possible, supported by Visual Composer. Pictures are responsive and available on all devices. In the description on the official website there is a video demonstration of the setup and operation.
Displays photos from one or more open Instagram accounts or feeds. Combine multiple sources in one block. There are many different settings, full-size photos are supported, there is adaptability. Below the block of photos you will find a button "download more", with which you can update them an infinite number of times. There is also a subscription button.
I already had a detailed overview of this WordPress image module for creating. This is a good functional solution I use in the current and some other projects. Despite the fact that it has not been updated for about 2 years, it works stably with new versions of the system. I like the presence of many chips, for example, it is allowed to create a watermark from text or jpg / png / gif files, there are settings for transparency, location of the watermark, etc.
The blog has a special section / tag about - you will find interesting articles there. As for this module, it automatically creates a Thumbnail from the first picture in posts or other types of posts (if, of course, the post does not have such an element yet). You can also generate thumbnails in pre-existing notes.
This WordPress image plugin allows you to add image uploads in comments from users. In some cases, this is useful, for example, if, when asking a question on the support page, it is easier for a person to demonstrate the problem using a screenshot.
In the Comment Images Reloaded settings, you can specify the maximum weight of the uploaded file, select the size of the displayed graphics on the site, prohibit / enable this function for certain posts, etc. Additionally, I advise you to take a look at the extended review - all its options are considered in a little more detail.
Thumbnails will also come in handy in similar notes after articles - this will help to draw the attention of readers to other publications as well. In the settings, set the number of displayed items and select the algorithm for selecting similar posts by categories and tags. In addition to the photo, announcements are displayed (everything, in principle, is traditional).
Total
Initially, I thought to move the outdated Wordpress image plugins from the previous version of the post to the very end in order to leave them, so to speak, for review. However, as it turned out, out of 20 solutions selected in 2010, only 3 solutions were available. Some were last edited 5-7 years ago, but a good half of them were simply removed from the repository. Scripts and modules have a really fickle fate.
In the future, this list of plugins for images in WordPress will definitely be updated. In principle, I could immediately place about 30-40 of them here, but I think it would be better to display 1-2 of the most effective options from each category of tasks. Follow the additional links in the article to find the rest of the modules.
If you know other interesting / useful developments or have noticed that some of the plugins stopped working - write in the comments.
Supports creating galleries, but who doesn't want more? Standard WP galleries shortcodes do not make what a professional plugin is capable of with powerful options and beautiful display of galleries, albums, lightboxes. A free plugin from wordpress.org will also expand the capabilities of the WordPress media library and allow you to design images, photo and video materials on the site in many ways.
Have you decided to show your individuality in displaying the gallery on the WordPress page? The premium codecanyon.net plugins and the Pro versions of other popular WordPress plugins with advanced grids are perfect for this task. With support for multiple layouts, you will create a gallery with Lightbox effect, fine-tuning of the appearance, animation effects / transitions and modern functionality.
Free WordPress gallery plugins
NextCellent Gallery
The free plugin effectively creates galleries using WordPress. Easily, using a WordPress-like uploader, zip file or FTP, it will process a group of images and automatically import their metadata. The plugin reorganizes typical NextGEN options, offering similar alternatives. NextCellent Gallery is based on the code of a popular plugin and is backward compatible with older NextGEN versions up to 1.9.13. Works great with PHP 7.
There are two main styles: slideshow and thumbnail gallery. The plugin can batch load and control sizes, cropping, styling, spacing, lightbox effects, transitions.
JetPack Tiled Galleries
Want to add a gallery to your site for free or build a portfolio? - take a look at the Jetpack set. The All-in-One plugin will decorate your gallery in a tiled version, or with round, square elements, custom width and stylish viewing options. Styling will happen automatically according to the plugin settings.
Another free plugin for creating Tiled Galleries with JetPack carousels: Tiled Gallery Carousel Without JetPack
Photo Gallery by 10Web
A plugin with a user-friendly interface and rich functionality. Advanced options allow you to create from a simple photo gallery to a website selling digital content (premium version). The plugin is suitable for a photography site, as well as for creating a spectacular site with easy navigation & image images. The flexibility in customization will give you full control over the visual content: import / export galleries, combine images with videos, etc. It is an SEO friendly plugin with unlimited features, support for YouTube, Instagram, Flickr and social sharing, 15 lightbox effects, tons of widgets and addons.
Gmedia gallery
Gmedia is handy for sharing - it's easy to share photos from a full-screen lightbox. The free plugin has 13 styles and countless options, including audio-video player, thumbnail customization, and more. 7 modules are preinstalled for adding mosaics, slideshows, 3D spheres, 3D cube. If you need to optimize the gallery for touchscreens, use scrolling when dragging slides.
Responsive Lightbox & Gallery
Popular lightbox plugin with gallery builder. 5 scripts for responsive lightboxes (SwipeBox, prettyPhoto, FancyBox, Nivo Lightbox, Image Lightbox). Automatically configures lightbox to work in WordPress. Supported gallery widgets, WooCommerce product display, multisite, Iframe, Ajax, HTML5, .pot translation file.
Read also: WooCommerce Examples: 23 Stylish Wordpress Stores
Premium gallery plugins with free LITE version
Many developers publish lightweight LITE versions to promote their plugin in a competitive web environment. This practice makes it possible for a wide audience to familiarize themselves with the plugin, to assess its suitability for solving their problems. If it fits, moving to the paid version won't be a big problem. These are high-quality, updatable plugins for creating portfolios, photo sites, albums or galleries on WordPress, their popularity is not decreasing (tens and hundreds of active installations).
Image Photo Gallery Final Tiles - free plugin version
The problem with many WP plugins for creating photo galleries is their uniformity. The special Final Tiles algorithm strives to preserve the original image sizes as much as possible and to mark the displayed tiles more interestingly.
The plugin is ideal for a photo album, online product showcase and various photo sites (for photo reports, photo exhibitions ...), supports social sharing. With a responsive grid, it is possible to design your site with Pinterest-like tiles, and you will attract more visitors who are familiar with the popular UI. The animation is just as smooth on mobile screens.
Read also: Animation by UX Design Rules: The Ultimate Guide
Premium version the plugin is supplemented with sections, 7 lightboxes, images and hover-animation of headers / photos. Image filter and WooCommerce are supported.
Modula Grid Gallery - free version of the plugin
Both in free and paid version The plugin allows you to create stylish galleries with complex grids and custom alignments. Just set the width / height maxima and the setup wizard will help. You can add captions for individual images and filter by tags, generate shortcodes and display them anywhere, or create a multi-gallery. 6 types of lightbox and 12 hover-effects, built-in sharing in social networks.
The plugin is not the richest in features, but it should be enough for most gallery sites. Nice design, lightweight interface.
FooGallery - free version of the plugin
If you are able to create a WordPress post, you will build a gallery using the Foo Gallery plugin. Supports drag and drop customization, preset gallery templates, import of galleries and albums from the popular NextGen. Shortcodes will help you display galleries anywhere. The free version has a decent lightbox and the built-in albums are activated by the extension. The framework-based plugin is lightweight and easy to tweak.
Premium expansion will give you the ability to add videos and more, including beautiful hover effects, infinite scrolling and advanced pagination.
EnviraGallery - free version of the plugin
Popular plugin, and customizable by drag and drop. Downloaded over 1,000,000 times. Easy to use thanks to perfect usability and integration with existing WP gallery creation interface. Flexibly configurable. Envira supports up to 6 columns of images and classes for customizing galleries (developers will appreciate). Plus, tons of addons, cool lightbox options, keyboard navigation, Pinterest integrations, tags, slideshows, skins, and more. There is premium plugin option EnviraGallery.
Photo Gallery by Supsystic - free version of the plugin
The plugin offers unlimited free and paid options for creating portfolios, adding galleries. You can make a responsive photo gallery with icons and HTML signatures for free, protect images with a watermark.
The plugin displays galleries with shortcodes anywhere on the site, supports batch uploads and publications, import of images from social networks, full-screen galleries, many layouts, design options with
Friendly setting, options and elements are added in a few clicks. The plugin is easy to customize with unlimited colors and special effects. Bonus: 10 Lightbox Styles.
Popular premium WordPress gallery plugins
Essential grid gallery
Essential Grid introduces itself as a custom grid template builder - an all-in-one solution for $ 13. The plugin is equipped with a visual skin editor with 30 beautifully designed and animated skins. You can diversify the pages with markup with your content: images, video, audio, logo and carousel, the output of WooCommerce products or blog posts.
Setting up a grid is as easy as displaying posts, pages, galleries, or custom post types. Select the category or tag you want, then paste the shortcode into the appropriate widget area, page or post. With a preview of the changes, even a beginner will master the plugin and modify the shell at will. The plugin's functionality is being replenished.
Hello dear readers of the blog site. Today I want to talk about the capabilities and settings of one of the most popular plugins for WordPress - NextGEN Gallery, which, as the name probably implies, allows you to insert various galleries on the pages of your WP blog, individual photos with the ability to smoothly enlarge them, create and display whole albums with images, add watermarks to photos, well, and something else he can do, but first things first.
In general, NextGEN Gallery reminded me quite strongly of the popular extension for creation - Phoca Gallery. It is the same powerful combine for the convenient formation and effective display of photo galleries, but only on WordPress blog pages, and not on Joomla pages. And he also knows how to add watermarks - a trifle, but nice.
Features of the NextGEN plugin for displaying galleries in WordPress
Actually, the NextGEN Gallery plugin has a lot of possibilities and they boil down not only to creating galleries in WordPress, although it does it, in my opinion, perfectly. In general, in full analogy with the Phoca Gallery extension for Joomla, it has its own demo site, where you can evaluate all the possibilities it offers for displaying photo galleries, slideshows, individual images, videos, etc.
On the main page of the demo site, there is now an example of a new effect when showing a slideshow, when images, when changing each other, simply fly off the screen. There are many more ways. You can read about them at the link provided.
Moreover, if you pay attention, you will see that NextGEN Gallery can display slideshows and photo galleries not only in the area allotted in WordPress for article texts, but also in the sidebar (), using its own widgets for this.
Continuing the theme of the slideshow, you can give an example of a rather interesting display of images by means of this plugin, when images do not stand still during viewing, but as if approaching, moving away, shifting, which creates a rather original effect that you can see on this page.
If you paid attention, a short code for WordPress is written at the top of the above example, by inserting it into the article you will get exactly this option for displaying a slideshow using NextGEN Gallery:
[monoslideshow id = 1 w = 450 h = 350]
In this short code, as an ID, you will need to specify the individual gallery number, which will have to be created in advance in the admin panel using the plugin's capabilities (read about this below). Also in this short code the size of the slideshow window in width and height is specified (do not forget your own, at least in FastStone Image Viewer). In the same way, you can insert into WordPress articles and other types of photo galleries and single images.
For your convenience, a special button will be created in the visual editor WordPress plugin that opens a window where you can select the sets of photos you need and set the type of their display - gallery, slide show, etc.
On the demo site you can also see how the gallery created with NextGEN will look like. Moreover, when displaying it, various plugin templates can be used: Caption, Carousel, Example or GalleryView.
This plugin also allows you to display on the blog pages not only galleries, but also their list (albums). Albums can be presented in expanded and compact form (shown at the bottom of the demo site page). There are also short codes for displaying lists of photo galleries (albums), which differ only in the value of the "template" variable.
The NextGEN plugin also allows you to insert individual photos into WordPress articles, when clicked on which they will occur smooth increase... Moreover, you can add a reflection effect to the images or overlay them with the watermarks you need.
He also has the ability to create galleries for viewing one photo per page. In this case, both a simple display option (Image Browser) and a version with the display of special information on this image (Exif support) are possible.
If you need to set individual settings for NextGEN galleries displayed on individual blog pages (these settings will differ from the general settings of the plugin), then you can use the capabilities of custom fields (Custom Fields) that you fill in when writing or editing an article.
You can read more about this here, where the possible keys for arbitrary fields and the possible values for these keys are given.
Installation and Russification of the NextGEN Gallery plugin
In theory, immediately after installation, NextGEN should already work in Russian (the language file should be automatically downloaded from the developers' site), but for some reason it did not work out for me and its settings were displayed in English. Therefore, I had to download a separate Russification file and drop it into the appropriate plugin directory. But first things first.
Download NextGEN Gallery you can from the official page -. Its installation is no different from the traditional one. Unpack the downloaded archive "nextgen-gallery.zip" and copy the resulting folder to this directory:
/ wp-content / plugins /
To connect to my blog via FTP, I advise you to use FileZilla, which is described in detail, because the program is convenient, simple and reliable. Then you will need to go to the WordPress admin area, go to the "Plugins" - "Inactive" tab and find NextGEN. Click on the "Activate" link under its name.
In the admin panel, at the very bottom of the left menu column, you will have a new area called "Gallery" or "Gallery", if the plugin was not automatically russified. In the second case, in order to get the Russian interface, you need to download the Russian translation (file nggallery-ru_RU.mo "). After that, connect to your blog via FTP and upload this Russification file to the folder:
/ wp-content / plugins / nextgen-gallery / lang
That's it, now you will have all its settings in Russian, which is good news.
Adding images and creating photo galleries in WordPress
As I mentioned just above, you can get there from the very bottom of the left menu of the WordPress admin panel:
There are quite a few possibilities, but we will probably start by adding photo galleries or images, which you can then display using short codes in any articles on your blog. To do this, we need to select the item "Add gallery / images" from the admin menu.
On the first tab "Add a new gallery" you need to enter its future name in the "New" field. It should be written in Latin (better transliterated), and if you have not yet created the corresponding folder "wp-content / gallery /", then you need to create it, for example, using the same FileZilla program and be sure to install it with using this FTP client, allowing writing and deleting information from it.
If the folder "wp-content / gallery /" was successfully created for you and had access rights 777, then the NextGEN Gallery plugin will report about the successful addition of the first gallery with ID = 1 and there will also be a shortcode (shortcode) for displaying it on the pages blog:
Gallery ID 1 successfully created. You can show this gallery in your post or page with the shortcode
And if you look through FileZilla into the folder "wp-content / gallery /", you will find inside a new folder with the name you gave to the new photo gallery (which is why I recommended typing its name in Latin).
After creating a new gallery in the NextGEN Gallery settings, you will be transferred to the "Upload images" tab, where you can select from the drop-down list the name of the photo gallery to which the images you upload will be added to, and then click on the "Browse" button and select one or several photos (to select them hold Shift or Ctrl on the keyboard).
To download them, you will need to click on the "Upload images" button:
As a result, you will see a window that clearly shows the process of uploading your selected photos to the server of your blog, as well as simultaneously with uploading, the plugin will create thumbnails of these photos, which you can edit in its settings, if necessary. Physically, the preview files will be located in the following path "/ wp-content / gallery / title / thumbs".
The process of downloading new pictures can be repeated as many times as necessary if you need to download photos from different folders on your computer.
Although you can, for example, prepare in advance on your computer a folder with the necessary images for a future photo gallery and zip it, which can then be uploaded to the server on the "Upload Zip-file" tab (where the Zip archive will be automatically unpacked). Not a bad option.
You can change the size of the previews in the NextGEN settings by following the following path: "Settings" - "Tumbnails". You can set the size for large images (those that will open when you click on the preview), you can on the "Images" tab. In general, dig around - you will find a lot of interesting things there.
For example, in the "Watermark" tab, you can customize all photos of a particular gallery. It can be set as a graphic file by specifying a path to it, or simply by typing text in the appropriate field, choosing the type and size of the font.
The position of the watermark on the images in the photo gallery can be set in the Preview area:
Now let's go into the settings of the Gallery we just created.
Since we started talking about adding watermarks, it should be mentioned that for this you will need to put a checkmark in front of the necessary photos, select the option "Install watermark" from the drop-down list and click on the "Apply" button. After that, thumbnails of all the images you have selected that belong to NextGEN will be recreated with the addition of the desired inscription or logo.
You can check the correctness of adding watermarks by clicking on the "Edit thumbnail" link next to the photo you need. Here, by the way, you can select the preview area with the left mouse button and press the Update button, after which the selected area will become the preview.
In order for your gallery images for WordPress to be able to, you will need to add for each photo in the "Alt & Title text / Description" column in the top field (so called). In the lower field, you can enter a description for the photo, which will be displayed when viewing its full-size version.
Please note that when viewing the list of galleries in the NextGEN Gallery settings, or when viewing images of any particular photo gallery, the first column will always indicate its ID or photo ID, which you may need when inserting a slideshow or a separate picture into an article using short codes.
NextGEN - insert galleries, slideshows and photos into articles
Unfortunately, my visual editor does not work in WordPress, so I cannot take screenshots explaining the process of adding a photo gallery, slideshow, album or a single photo to an article. But the essence of this action is quite simple.
In the article editing window, you click on the button that the NextGEN plugin added there. As a result, a pop-up window with several tabs will appear: gallery, album, image.
You go to the tab you need and select from the drop-down list, for example, the photo gallery with images you need (which you created in the way described above), and also put a checkmark in front of the required display method, for example, for a gallery these will be options: a list of images, a slideshow ...
In the place of the text entry window where you had the cursor, the short code of the NextGEN plugin will appear, which will form the gallery or slideshow in this article. In general, you can do without a visual editor. In this case, it is enough just to manually insert the short code in the right place in the text of the article and write the necessary parameters for it. It may seem daunting at first, but over time you will get used to it very quickly.
For example, if you link to the examples from the demo site of the developers, you can use at least the following short codes:
- To insert a gallery in WordPress, you need to write the following shortcode:
- To display a gallery with one image per page in WordPress, write the following code in the text:
- Each photo gallery and image in the plugin settings has the ability to prescribe certain tags, on the basis of which, for example, you can then display a tag cloud or gallery using these tags:
It is possible to use the following NextGEN plugin shortcode to embed slideshows on WordPress blog pages:
Here, in the ID variable, you specify the identifier of the desired gallery with photos that you created earlier.
To display albums, you will need to use the following code:
or in compact form:
To insert one image, which will smoothly increase when you click on it with the mouse, you will need to add the following short code from the NextGEN Gallery arsenal when writing an article to display a picture with reflection:
or a code like this to display a picture with a watermark:
[singlepic id = 12 w = 320 h = 260 mode = watermark]
Good luck to you! See you soon on the pages of the blog site
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In this article, we'll take a comprehensive look at the best options for adding an advanced image gallery to your WordPress site. Each plugin described below offers an extensive list of features and tools that can help you add impressive photo galleries to your site. Whether you are a photographer or a blogger, here you will find a plugin for every taste.
Graphics, images and galleries are an important part of your site, from how they are displayed to how visitors interact with them. The more professional, interesting and relevant the images are, the more visitors you will attract. A large number of visits will lead to an increase in the number of regular visitors, which ultimately will allow you to most effectively realize your goals, be it the sale of goods or services.
1. Envira Gallery
The Envira Gallery plugin is available in free and premium versions. The free version has already been downloaded by over 40,000 users, as it is one of the most popular and affordable gallery plugins. Envira Gallery has a drag & drop interface, so you can load and move your images quite easily.
2. Photo Gallery
Photo Gallery is an impressive free plugin that offers many tools and features. With Photo Gallery you can add and edit an unlimited number of images in your gallery. Videos from YouTube and Vimeo can also be inserted into the album. There are also a large number of editing tools, such as cropping, flipping and rotating thumbnails of images. In addition, there are several ways to view galleries or slideshows, so you can choose how the images are displayed on the screen.
The galleries this plugin creates are 100% compatible with all screen sizes, so your images will look great regardless of the user's screen size. In addition, the plugin has a lightbox technology, albeit a simple one, so that when displaying images on the screen, the user is not distracted by the rest of the page.
Photo Gallery can be upgraded to the professional version. By purchasing it, you will receive 15 lightbox effects, the ability to interact with different social networks, as well as the ability to create a single gallery for videos and images.
3. NextGEN Gallery
The NextGEN Gallery plugin is extremely popular, with over 13 million downloads. It is easy to use, upload images and manage galleries by displaying photos in a variety of ways.
All galleries are managed from one point in your WordPress dashboard, so you can upload a series of images at once and edit them together or separately. This feature is really great as it helps you save valuable time. Using the console, you can also add, delete, rotate, swap and resize not only images, but also thumbnails.
The NextGEN Gallery interface offers two main styles for displaying images: thumbnail gallery and slideshow. Both options contain a large number of tools, so you can create unique visuals for your site.
The NextGen Pro version is a powerful upgrade offering, among others, improved videos, thumbnail grids, slideshows and lightboxes. This gives you additional control over the presentation of your site's visuals.
4. Huge-IT Image Gallery
Huge-IT Gallery allows you to show your uniqueness, creativity and stand out from the crowd with images and galleries on your website. This WordPress plugin offers a wide variety of choices to help you choose the right style for your type of site and the images you post.
The highlight of the Huge-IT Gallery plugin is the Blog Gallery. With this feature, you can display images or videos with titles and text in your blog layout. Check out the demo versions of the galleries and choose the one you like.
As with gallery choices, this plugin offers powerful design and customization tools for your lightbox. It is also 100% compatible with all screen sizes, so your images will look great no matter the user's screen size.
5. Gallery by BestWebSoft
Gallery by BestWebSoft allows you to implement the number of galleries you need. With this plugin, you can create a huge number of albums on your site, each with an unlimited number of photos. If you are going to constantly post a photo stream, this plugin is for you.
6. Gmedia Gallery
Gmedia Gallery is not only a plugin for creating interesting and elegant galleries, it also provides the ability to manage audio files, thereby allowing you to play music from your site. These features make Gmedia Gallery an ideal plugin for those who post both images and audio.
Loading and managing images and audio files is performed using the functional media library Gmedia Gallery. You are in complete control of creating and styling your gallery. Also, if necessary, you can create a playlist. Thanks to its uniqueness, the Gmedia plugin will help your site increase the number of visitors.
Outcomes
At first glance, all these plugins are very similar to each other, if you do not consider their characteristics in detail. To decide which plugin is best for you, try listing the most useful features in your gallery and then matching them to one of the plugins. We've listed the best plugins, so don't worry, you will be happy whichever you choose.
What features of image gallery WordPress plugins are important to you? Have you used any of these or other plugins? Please share your opinion in the comments.
From the author: In older versions of WordPress, creating a gallery was not easy, let alone a gallery of videos or products. However, there are many quirky and powerful WordPress gallery plugins out there today. Compared to older versions of WP, the Jetpack gallery is great, but in comparison to modern products, it loses out on all fronts. After reading this roundup of 20 gallery plugins for WP from Envato Market, you can see what I mean.
Justified Image Grid - Premium WordPress Gallery
Are you looking for a gallery plugin for WP that does everything you can imagine? Then you need to take a look at the Justified Image Grid.
As in any good gallery, here you can reset all settings to a shortcode. Powerful plugin includes:
20 presets and 340 settings
Change settings for each gallery separately
Download images from Facebook or Flickr, or manage images with NextGEN
Integration with RSS feeds, the ability to display videos from YouTube or Vimeo, images from 500px, Pinterest, deviantART, StumbleUpon, Imgur, Tumblr, etc.
And many more interesting things
You will immediately understand that this is more than just a gallery, as soon as you see all the settings, the integration of the latest posts and you know that you can connect a CDN. Justified Image Grid is more than just a gallery, much more.
Essential Grid WordPress Plugin
Grids are good, but grids that fit your requirements are even better. With the Essential Grid WordPress Plugin, you can create the perfect grid galleries for WordPress.
Use one of 30+ built-in skins or create your own with the simple drag-and-drop Visual Skin Editor. There is only one plugin, but there are a lot of possibilities:
WooCommerce support
Support for multiple sites and languages
YouTube, Vimeo and SoundCloud support
Ability to import your grid, skins and metadata
The plugin focuses on simplifying the gallery creation process, and that is exactly what it does. With the Visual Skin Editor in the Essential Grid WordPress Plugin, it's much easier to create the perfect galleries for your blog, online store, portfolio, and more.
Media Grid - WordPress Responsive Portfolio
Grid galleries are great for displaying images, videos, and more. The Media Grid has a wide range of options and features that will help you create your own grid gallery with ease.
You will simply work in a drag-and-drop editor, and the plugin will generate a fully responsive grid gallery for you using advanced CSS and jQuery properties. Among the possibilities:
Retina icons
SEO page navigation
Real time search engine
Unlimited responsive layouts
SEO and search make Media Grid stand out from other plugins. With support for images, audio, video and WooCommerce, the plugin can handle any task.
Video Gallery WordPress Plugin / w YouTube, Vimeo
Usually, when people think of a gallery for WP, they present an image gallery. Some of the plugins on the list support both videos and images, but Video Gallery WordPress Plugin / w YouTube, Vimeo focuses more on videos.
The plugin supports images and audio files, but with videos it's like a fish in water. Among the possibilities:
Subtitle and touchscreen support
Play from the last point or specified time
Connect to YouTube API and Vimeo API
Store your own files and stream MPEG-Dash
The plugin is fully responsive and supports retina displays. With it, you can be sure that your gallery will look great on any device. In Video Gallery WordPress Plugin / w YouTube, Vimeo galleries are fast, simple, and have more styles.
Go Portfolio - WordPress Responsive Portfolio
With Go Portfolio, you can create a beautiful gallery in a short time. The plugin is easy to manage, but this does not mean that it is not functional - the plugin is very flexible.
This WP plugin takes a slightly different approach from the others on this list. As with other plugins, here you can create a gallery and add it to a post or page. However, the difference with the plugin is that you can create a new custom post type. Other possibilities include:
Compatible with all WordPress themes
Responsive grid or horizontal slider layout
Support for many image formats, video hosting, audio sources, as well as WooCommerce
Works with any post type (including custom ones), you can also create an unlimited number of custom post types
If you don't know where to start, then the plugin has 38 ready-made templates. After creating the gallery, you can use the advanced export and import of files. Go Portfolio won't let you down in every situation.
Thumbnail Gallery (WordPress plugin)
Mesh gallery plugins are all the rage right now. Where can you find a fully functional slider plugin? Thumbnail Gallery is what you need.
Add images, YouTube and Vimeo videos, and HTML or Flash. Among the possibilities:
drag and drop sorting images
Ability to change the location of previews
Navigating the gallery using previews or arrows
To insert a gallery, you can use the shortcode generator. All settings are saved in case you want to transfer settings from one gallery to another. Thumbnail Gallery is a solid plugin with good features.
Fancy Gallery - WordPress plugin
Fancy Gallery is a pretty fancy plugin. Galleries can be inserted into posts, pages, widgets, and even other sites.
Using the HTML Generator, you can host the gallery stored in the plugin on another site. A truly unique opportunity among the rest:
3 types of widgets
Works with NextGEN and also supports shortcodes
Thousands of layouts and hover animation effects
An easy way to create a gallery by simply copying images to a folder
As you can imagine, using Fancy Gallery, you can easily create unusual galleries.
uSquare - Universal Responsive WordPress Grid for Team Members, Logos, Portfolio, Products and More
Most gallery plugins give WordPress admins all the design tools to create galleries to suit their needs.
That doesn't work with uSquare. However, this is not a weakness, but rather a strong point of uSquare.
While designs and styles don't change much, they can be used in very different ways. The plugin has a lot of features:
Animation Effects
drag and drop reorder
custom height and width of gallery items
uSquare is a unique well-designed WP plugin.
Social Gallery WordPress Photo Viewer Plugin
Typically WP gallery plugins provide a full set of customizations so that you can create and style the gallery to suit your needs. Other plugins, on the other hand, limit styling options and focus on a specific niche. Social Gallery WordPress Photo Viewer Plugin does both great job.
This plugin turns your regular lightbox into a super tool with social media integration. In a Facebook-like style, users can like, share, comment, etc. Impressive. Other features include:
NextGEN compatible
Detecting faces in images
Compatible with Google Adsense
Over 40 CSS3 animation options
You can connect Disqus or Facebook comments, or your own. The Social Gallery WordPress Photo Viewer Plugin is SEO optimized, which is impressive, but the integration of social media and regular lightbox takes it to a whole new level.
PhotoMosaic for WordPress
PhotoMosaic for WordPress is suitable for photographers and designers who need to show their work.
The mosaic can be customized to look good in WordPress. Among the possibilities:
CSS3 loading animation
Template Tag Shortcodes and Support
Create your own mosaic gallery easily and quickly. Galleries in PhotoMosaic for WordPress can be created from regular images, images from posts or pages, as well as images from categories and tags from any taxonomies.
Real 3D FlipBook - WordPress plugin
All WP gallery plugins are pretty simple. You just need to add images or attach a video and that's it, the gallery is ready - it's simple. However, the Real 3D FlipBook really goes beyond the usual use of galleries.
Transform your images or PDFs (yeah, I said PDF) into a 3D book that can be flipped through the pages.
With WebGL and a CSS3D fallback, you can create realistic books, magazines and brochures. Among the possibilities:
Setting up page flipping animation
3 fully CSS customizable skins
Zoom using the mouse wheel or pinch on the mobile phone screen
The plugin is fully responsive and supports retina displays. There is also support for deep linking technology and a custom table of contents. The most amazing feature of Real 3D FlipBook is the use of PDF.js to transform PDF files into interactive books.
Global Gallery - WordPress responsive gallery
Most gallery plugins use custom shortcodes and loading interfaces. On the other hand, Global Gallery works with both WordPress and NextGEN galleries.
In addition to image sliders, carousels and collections, the plugin has:
Deep link filters
Watermarking system
drag-and-drop gallery builder
3 gallery layouts and 8 lightboxes
It is also worth highlighting the number of image sources:
Global Gallery works great with WP galleries and has an impressive array of features.
UberGrid - Responsive WordPress Grid Builder
Use UberGrid to create super cool galleries. Whether it's regular posts or WooCommerce, the plugin works for everything.
The plugin is fully responsive, supports retina displays, has many lightbox options, and many features:
Built-in widgets and fast CSS3 animations
Google Fonts and JetpackPhoton support
The most impressive feature is the ability to open the grid in the lightbox, i.e. the plugin can be used with other galleries like PrettyPhoto, JetPack Gallery, FooBox, etc. The UberGrid plugin has a lot to brag about, and at the same time, it can act as a lightbox add-on to another gallery.
Final Tiles Grid Gallery for WordPress
Final Tiles Grid Gallery for WordPress is a nice WP plugin. The plugin is highly customizable and is also supported by YouTube, Vimeo, WooCommerce, SoundCloud, and WordPress images.
The plugin has everything you might need:
Image captions
7 different lightboxes
Customizable aspect ratio and filters
Final Tiles Grid Gallery for WordPress is a beautiful plugin.
iLightBox Revolutionary Lightbox for WordPress
Galleries are great, but sometimes what you really want is to improve your lightbox. iLightBox Revolutionary Lightbox for WordPress is a real revolution in lightbox galleries for WP.
A generic jQuery solution with a friendly API. Among the possibilities:
Full adaptability
YouTube and Vimeo support
Parser HTML content into shortcodes
You can navigate the gallery using your keyboard, mouse or touch screen. iLightBox works in conjunction with Jetpack, NextGEN and standard WP gallery shortcodes. Indeed, the revolution.
ZoomFolio - WordPress portfolio plugin
ZoomFolio does a great job of creating galleries and customizing them. The plugin works with both image galleries and portfolios or recent blog posts.
Install, add content, create a gallery. It's simple. And there are not so few opportunities:
Custom lightbox
Optimized for iOS and Android
WooCommerce and YARPP support
ZoomFolio uses CSS3 to create 3D animations (you can use the graceful degradation technique and remove this effect if necessary) - a simple gallery plugin for WP.
Grid FX - WordPress Responsive Grid Plugin
The plugin has many features that we have already seen in other plugins, but it uses them in an unusual combination. Grid FX has a really good set of options, which makes it a little more powerful than regular gallery plugins.
You can display blog posts, custom types, and more. An impressive list of features:
Page navigation and over 80 options
Custom effects and built-in views and likes
Support for YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, etc.
The ability to collect in one gallery WooCommerce, images, posts, videos, etc.
In addition to the system of likes and views, there is an impressive feature - built-in drop-down lists with filters and sorting, which allows users to quickly and easily create a powerful online store, etc. Grid FX is really impressive.
Awesome Gallery - Instagram, Flickr, Facebook galleries on your website
I must say, as soon as you get a closer look at the Awesome Gallery plugin, you realize that it is amazing.
CDN support and automatic updates
Custom overlay effects, captions, filters, etc.
10 predefined styles, 3 layout modes and 3 built-in lightboxes
Image sources can be Flickr, Instagram, Facebook, WordPress posts, WooCommerce, 500px, and RSS feeds
Awesome Gallery is fully responsive and supports retina displays - a powerful WordPress plugin.
Thumbnail Gallery (WP NextGEN Gallery Template)
Thumbnail Gallery is the same as Thumbnail Gallery (WordPress Plugin). The difference is that this plugin is built as NextGEN gallery template.
In addition to over 100 customization options, there are many options that you should pay attention to:
Support for touch screens
Image titles and descriptions
If you are already using NextGEN WordPress Gallery, then you should definitely take a look at Thumbnail Gallery.
Wall / Grid Gallery (WordPress plugin)
Turn your regular gallery or lightbox into a gridded gallery with images, videos or HTML content. The Wall / Grid Gallery plugin has everything you need to create and manage a grid gallery.
Among the possibilities:
Support for touch screens
Setting up gallery and lightboxes
The Wall / Grid Gallery plugin has nothing transcendental, but over 60 options make it highly customizable. Powerful solution.
Conclusion
In this roundup, several WordPress galleries caught my attention. Some of them make the most of CSS3 effects, while others work more with the back-end.
