Image galleries have solidified their place on the web as a popular way to showcase images, videos, products, portfolios, and more. Whether you are a photographer, blogger, or small business, making your image galleries stand out from the crowd is essential to marketing and user experience. WordPress gallery plugins are a great tool to give your images extra flair and add some variety to your webpage or blog. In this post, we’ve featured some of the best gallery plugins for WordPress today.
What is a Gallery Plugin for WordPress?
An image gallery is a series of images that are displayed in different layouts with various styles and functionality to make them more engaging for users. A WordPress gallery plugin makes the process of creating advanced image galleries much easy than other basic or alternative methods. They make it easier to add custom hover effects, responsive layouts, and/or share additional information with images in an interactive way.
While the WordPress Editor does come with a default gallery block, developers have been hard at work offering hundreds of unique and customizable gallery plugins to take your image galleries to a whole new level. These gallery WordPress plugins give you all the tools you’ll need to create your ideal gallery, but with so many choices for gallery plugins, it can seem difficult to make a perfect choice.
7 Best Gallery Plugins for WordPress
To find the best gallery plugins for your WordPress site, you’ll need to consider cost, speed, built-in effects, overall quality, and versatility. Here is a breakdown of our top choices to help decide which gallery plugin for WordPress is the right one for you.
1. Modula Gallery
Modula is a gallery plugin for WordPress that prides itself on being incredibly user-friendly, with little to no technical skills required to create stunning and customizable galleries. The free version holds 4.9/5 stars on the WP repository and offers features like hover effects, lightbox popups, custom layouts, social media sharing, and more.
Modula also offers a cool drag-and-drop grid builder for customizing each image as a part of a full image grid. This is a unique and easy way to help you make your images stand out.
However, there are a few features that are accessible only with paid access, like video galleries and the ability to add more than 25 images to a gallery.
Key Features of Modula:
- Responsive design
- Unique image grid builder (See example below).
- Drag and drop gallery building
- Easily add links to images.
- Advanced Divi integration built-in
Above is an example of a grid gallery from Modula. You can change the appearance of your galleries by experimenting with options such as margins, shadows, border radius, and more. Plus, the plugin includes Divi integration for both the free and pro versions and it’s super easy to use, making it easy to create stunning galleries within the Divi builder.
Modula is for you if…
- You’re looking for an easy way to make a stunning image gallery.
- You want a simple plug-in-play solution.
- You aren’t interested in video galleries or galleries with over 25 images.
Modula Pricing: Free | Pro version starts at $25. | More Information
2. FooGallery
Another well-liked free gallery plugin is FooGallery, which is rather generous with its free features. You’ll receive seven different gallery layouts, album support, hover effects, and more without having to pay a dime.
FooGallery excels at assisting users in quickly and beautifully producing image galleries. You can utilize the included template library to lay the groundwork for your galleries, however, some nice features are limited only to premium members. These include support for video galleries, three additional templates, image filters, and more.
Key Features of FooGallery:
- Seven free templates.
- Basic image editing tools
- Image tagging and filtering
- Fast load times.
As you can see, the free version of FooGallery can still give you access to stunning-looking galleries. You can experiment with 11 different hover effects and a handful of other free templates.
FooGallery is for you if…
- You want a light and fast solution.
- You want seven customizable templates to choose from.
- You want a wide range of hover effects.
FooGallery Pricing: Free | Pro version from $59. | More Information
3. Envira Gallery
Another one of our top choices for gallery plugins on WordPress for both videos and images is Envira Gallery. This freemium solution distinguishes itself from other competitors due to its versatility, customizable features, templates, and user-friendliness.
Envira Gallery is ideal for both casual users and advanced users that want to explore a little deeper gallery functionality. It does a wonderful job maintaining a user interface that is simple to comprehend for new users while also allowing access to more sophisticated features, such as the ability to sell photographs or Dropbox importer connectivity.
Key Features of Envira Gallery:
- Drag & Drop Builder.
- Mobile Friendly.
- Social Media Sharing.
- Ecommerce integration.
- Add custom CSS or JavaScript
Uploading images via the dashboard is incredibly simple; creating a new gallery takes just a few clicks.
The adaptive drag-and-drop gallery builder is simple to use and will make your grid or masonry galleries look great on all devices.
However, the free version only offers a handful of features so you’ll have to go premium to get the most out of the product’s features.
Envira Gallery is for you if…
- You want a boatload of features.
- You are a photographer or artist who wants to show off your work.
- You want an easy-to-use interface.
Envira Pricing: Free | Basic starts from $26 per year | More Information
4. NextGEN Gallery
NextGEN Gallery has more than a million active users, and that’s for a reason, it’s one of the best gallery plugins on WordPress. Although the free version’s preset galleries, two main gallery styles (slideshows and thumbnail galleries), and two album styles (compact and extended), don’t appear particularly stylish, it offers extensive features and is highly customizable.
Most of the special features are only available in the premium versions; because of this, it is particularly well-liked by photographers and other individuals who make their income via photos.
Key Features of NextGEN Gallery:
- Unique alternatives to your regular grid galleries.
- Built-in eCommerce feature to sell prints.
- Adobe Lightroom integration.
- Customizable lightboxes.
You can change and configure the NextGen gallery settings directly from the tab in your WordPress dashboard. The two free gallery types also come with a variety of different options for adjusting the lightbox effects, size, style, timing, transitions, and more.
NextGEN Gallery is for you if…
- You are an advanced user.
- You are a photographer or artist who wants to sell your work.
- You are interested in highly customizable features.
NextGEN Pricing: Free | Basic starts at $23/yr | More Information
5. Responsive Lightbox & Gallery
Responsive Lightbox and Gallery has all the answers in their name; it’s a simple and effective lightbox-centric gallery tool. Eight distinct lightbox scripts are provided, along with three different gallery templates (grid, slider, and masonry).
With its included templates and settings, the free core plugin gives you a lot of flexibility. But once again, you may find that adding paid extensions to your installation is necessary for more advanced features like external image use and more gallery views.
Key Features of Responsive Lightbox & Gallery:
- Supports video galleries.
- Social media integration.
- Easy lightbox functionality.
- Image editing and organization tools.
If you want a fast and easy solution, Responsive Lightbox & Gallery has everything you need; plus, there are a handful of customization choices in the settings section to enhance the overall appearance of your gallery.
Responsive Lightbox & Gallery is for you if…
- You are looking for a simple solution.
- You aren’t looking to shell out too much money.
- You are looking for a drag-and-drop gallery solution.
Responsive Lightbox & Gallery Pricing: Free, or $19 per extension and $49 for all extensions | More Information
6. Photo Gallery by 10Web
The Photo Gallery by 10Web plugin allows you to easily create and manage photo galleries on your WordPress website. Even the free version offers a wide range of features and customization options, making it easy to create professional-looking galleries that are tailored to your specific needs.
The plugin offers integration with popular social media platforms, making it easy to share your galleries with a wider audience. Plus, its user-friendly dashboard allows you to easily create and manage your photo galleries without needing any technical expertise. It also features a speed and image optimization section to help reduce image size by up to 40% without compromising quality. This is a key practice for image SEO. 10Web also has a solid image optimization plugin as well.
Key Features for Photo Gallery by 10Web:
- Easily create and manage photo galleries
- Wide range of customization options
- Integration with popular social media platforms
- Multiple gallery and album layouts
The plugin also offers a wide range of premade gallery layouts, including masonry, mosaic, slideshow, carousel, and more. If you are looking for a way to showcase your photos and engage your visitors, The Photo Gallery by 10Web is an excellent choice.
Photo Gallery by 10Web is for you if…
- You want to easily create and manage photo galleries on your WordPress website.
- You want images to load faster for SEO.
- You want to share your galleries on social media platforms.
Photo Gallery by 10Web Pricing: Free| Basic starts at $30/yr | Learn More About Photo Gallery by 10Web
7. Divi Masonry Gallery (Premium Gallery Plugin for Divi)
Divi ships with a native Gallery module that is a great way to display image galleries on your site. A Portfolio Filter module is also built-in to display filterable galleries. The Divi Masonry Gallery is a WordPress plugin that takes Divi galleries to a new level. It allows you to easily create masonry-style galleries with unique layouts and styles. Because it integrates seamlessly with Divi, it is easy to create beautiful galleries visually on the front end. It comes with advanced hover effects and category filtering built-in, so it is a solid all-in-one solution.
Key Features for Divi Masonry Gallery:
- Easily create masonry-style galleries with 1-10 columns
- Gallery Category Filter
- Pagination
- Wide range of customization options
- Customizable hover effects
- Lightbox and fullscreen viewing
- Integration with the Divi theme builder
The integration between the Divi Masonry Gallery plugin and the Divi theme builder offers a seamless and powerful solution for creating beautiful and engaging masonry-style galleries on your WordPress website.
Divi Masonry Gallery is for you if…
- You want to create masonry-style galleries on your WordPress website.
- You want full control over the design of your galleries on the front end.
- You use the Divi theme builder on your website.
Divi Masonry Gallery Pricing: $25 | Learn More About Divi Masonry Gallery
Final Thoughts on the Best Gallery Plugin for WordPress
Engagement happens on websites because of good content, and WordPress gallery plugins are a way to make your content stand out. All of these plugins have the same objective in mind, which is to keep visitors on your pages for longer, despite their differences in pricing, features, and user focus.
Modula has some great core features you can use without having to pay for premium upgrades. And the Photo Gallery by 10Web plugin has some nice SEO support to keep images loading fast. But, if you are looking for more premium features, Envira Gallery seems to be a great choice as well.
The Divi Builder also comes with an awesome gallery module in both grid and slider format and supports large galleries with pagination. Plus, there is a boatload of customizable features that can help you with your image gallery design needs. For a more robust Divi gallery solution, the Divi Masonry Gallery is hard to beat.
Are there any gallery plugins that you would recommend? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!
The post 7 Best Gallery Plugins for WordPress (in 2023) appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.
