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Key Takeaways
Master Slider is great for dynamic and responsive sites, offering SEO benefits and interactive slider options.
Meta Slider provides four display options and excellent support, ideal for various site types including WordPress multisite.
Envira Gallery is versatile and mobile-friendly, perfect for designers, developers, and marketers, with a range of extension options.
Smart Slider 3 boasts high user ratings and excellent support, ideal for hero imagery and media galleries.
Finding the right WordPress gallery plugin or slideshow tool for your site can be tricky. There are so many options out there – what makes some stand out above the rest?
It really all depends on whatever your specific site needs are. Some options may have just the right functionality, others might be easy enough for clients to update, and others might have the advanced customization options you’re looking for. It’s hard to pick just one great plugin, so I’ve created a list of 16 great options, split into WordPress slideshow plugins and gallery plugins. Which one will you download first?
The Best WordPress Slideshow Plugins:
Master Slider
If you’re worried about SEO or interactive slider options, you ought to try Master Slider. This touch-and-drag-enabled plugin is great for dynamic and responsive sites. You don’t have to lose functionality with this plugin, and if you fall in love, you might want to learn more about the Pro version.
Meta Slider
The free version of this slideshow plugin offers four display options. It works great on a variety of types of sites, including WordPress multisite. And if you run into any issues, they’ve got a stellar support team ready to help you out.
Meteor Slides
Whether you want to use shortcodes, widgets, or template tags, you will love using Meteor Slides. It has various languages, programming options, styles, and more. This simple and streamlined plugin might be just what you’re looking for.
Slider by Soliloquy
The add-ons and extensions for this slider plugin are what really set it apart. Soliloquy made this slider perfect for PDFs, WooCommerce items, Pinterest, videos, Instagram posts, and more. Not sure if it’s right for you yet? Try the demos listed on the plugin page.
Slider by Supsystic
This first slider covers all the basics and has intuitive WordPress formatting. Not to mention, it’s perfect for global users and collaborators with a variety of languages, support, and other plugins.
This is a free plugin, but there is a pro version with even more features.
Smart Slider 3
Smart Slider 3 has 4.9 out of 5 stars for a reason. Users love it, and the support is great. This is perfect for hero imagery and headers as well as media galleries. You can also preview all their sliders here to help you decide which is one is the best for your sites.
The Best WordPress Photo Gallery Plugins
Envira Gallery
This versatile gallery is perfect for designers, developers, photographers, marketers, and more. It’s also great that they’re mobile friendly – perfect for anyone with a client base on the go. Be sure to check out all the extension options as well!
Foo Gallery
With a bit of an Instagram-vibe, Foo Gallery is perfect for everyone who wants to customize their gallery and add various extensions. The list is long and full of options for you! Not to mention there’s a demo for almost everything – perfect to try before you download the plugin.
Gallery Box
If you’re looking for a gallery plugin that does it all – I’m talking Vimeo, YouTube, images, Soundcloud, and more – try Gallery Box. This intuitive tool lets you copy and paste a shortcode to your created galleries to keep your posts and pages short, sweet, and simple.
Justified Gallery
Justified Gallery is just what it sounds – a gallery plugin with beautifully organized, justified displays. The responsiveness and layout is sleek and modern, and will look perfect on any minimal site design. Be sure to check out their demo site for a great preview.
Photo Gallery by WD
This is the second WD plugin on our list, and for good reason. The instinctual nature and available add-ons definitely set this gallery apart from others. Their list of features seems a mile long, but if that’s still not enough for you, try Photo Gallery Pro.
Photonic Gallery
If you’re trying to pull content from various social media platforms and websites, you need to try Photonic Gallery. Link your Flickr, Zenfolio, Instagram, and more. It pulls images from your accounts and allows you to lay them out beautifully in various ways.
Now that you’ve seen my favorite WordPress gallery and slideshow plugins, which are you going to try first? What other slideshow and gallery plugins do you use? Comment your favorites below!
