- \n
- Elementor<\/a><\/li>\n
- Envira Gallery<\/a><\/li>\n
- NextGEN Gallery<\/a><\/li>\n
- WP Canvas \u2013 Gallery<\/a><\/li>\n
- Portfolio Gallery<\/a><\/li>\n
- Gmedia Gallery<\/a><\/li>\n
- Photo Gallery<\/a><\/li>\n
- Foo Gallery<\/a><\/li>\n
- Photospace Gallery<\/a><\/li>\n
- WP Photo Album Plus<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Choosing a\u00a0Gallery Plugin<\/h2>\n
While WordPress comes with a built-in gallery feature, the default gallery lacks the functionality and aesthetic appeal that most users want. That\u2019s why there are a few things to keep in mind when choosing a gallery option for your site, particularly when exploring free options.<\/p>\n
Rating\/Number of Installs:<\/strong> If you\u2019re looking at options available in the WordPress Plugin Directory, you can check how many active installs are using the plugin as well as the average rating given by other users. This will give you an idea of just how popular a plugin is, while the ratings provide insight into how well a plugin actually works and if there are any known complaints or issues.<\/p>\n
Features:<\/strong> What kind of features do you need? Do you need to display more than one gallery? Do you need animations, lightboxes, navigation, albums, or pagination?<\/p>\n
Speed<\/strong>: How fast your gallery loads can impact the user experience of your site, not to mention your SEO. But there’s no point setting up a gallery plugin if you don’t optimize your images so they also load quickly. Your best bet is WP Smush<\/a>, the fastest, easiest and best-performing image compression plugin for WordPress. We benchmarked WP Smush against its two biggest rivals and\u00a0it was the clear winner \u2013 not only is WP Smush faster and more reliable, it will also save you more space with no visible loss of quality.<\/p>\n
Ease of Use:<\/strong> You\u2019ll need to install a plugin to test how easy it is to use, but since you\u2019re looking into free options, what have you got to lose! When you\u2019ve found a plugin you like the look of, install and activate it, and have a poke around in the settings. Try setting up a new gallery. What\u2019s the experience like? Is it easy to style a gallery to look how you want?<\/p>\n
Elementor<\/h3>\n
![\"Elementor\"](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/elementor-wordpress-website-builder-plugin-600x249.png\")
Elementor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n With Elementor, you can create beautiful galleries in seconds. Simply search for the gallery widget and drag it onto the page where you want it to display. From the content area, select the images you want to display from your media library. You can select multiple images at once.<\/p>\n
\n![\"Gallery](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/elementor-image-gallery-plugin.png\")
Easily add an image gallery in Elementor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n If you want to customize the styling, you can fine tune how your gallery looks right in the sidebar.<\/p>\n
\n![\"Gallery](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/elementor-image-gallery-customize-css.png\")
Customize image spacing, borders, and captions directly on the page.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n Elementor lets you quickly and easily customize how your WordPress site looks and functions right from your browser while editing your page. Click here to get it completely free on WordPress.org<\/a>, and check out all 28 free widgets while you’re at it.<\/p>\n
More details: Elementor<\/a><\/p>\n
\nEnvira Gallery<\/h3>\n
![\"Envira](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/envira-gallery-600x245.jpg\")
Envira Gallery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Let’s kick off with an easy to use plugin that gives pretty awesome results. Envira\u00a0Gallery loads galleries quickly and is fully responsive to boot.<\/p>\n
This plugin adds an \u2018Envira Gallery\u2019 option to the WordPress dashboard. Adding a gallery is a piece of cake \u2013 just give it a name and select and\/or upload the images you want to include.<\/p>\n
Customization settings abound, including columns, thumbnail sizes, animations, layouts, and gutter and margin sizing. The free version comes with just one gallery theme for you to play with.<\/p>\n
Galleries can be inserted into any post, page or widget. In the visual editor you’ll notice a button that enables you to insert galleries in a user-friendly manner.<\/p>\n
More details: Envira Gallery<\/a><\/p>\n
\nNextGEN Gallery<\/h3>\n
![\"NextGEN](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/nextgen-gallery-600x245.jpg\")
NextGEN Gallery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n This is the mother of WordPress gallery plugins. At the time of writing, it’s live on over a million<\/em> sites.<\/p>\n
That said, it has a not-necessarily-impressive 3.8 star rating on WordPress.org, so what gives?<\/p>\n
NextGEN Gallery plugin is one of the most popular photo gallery plugins. You can easily add images to a gallery from the Media library, a server folder (within the wp-content folder of your WordPress install), or from your computer.<\/p>\n
With NextGEN, you can also set up albums which is a group of galleries. This may be helpful for sites that need to group galleries together.<\/p>\n
This plugin adds a button in the visual editor for adding galleries. Upon adding a gallery, you can choose how to display the gallery: thumbnails, slider, image browser, or tag cloud. There are also two display options for albums: Basic Compact (similar to thumbnails) and Basic Extended (more details shown about the album).<\/p>\n
The interface is intuitive and you can edit a gallery right from the Visual Editor.<\/p>\n
By default, this plugin displays a link to show your gallery as a slideshow if you choose to display your gallery as thumbnails. It will do the reverse (add a link to view your gallery as thumbnails) if you initially display your gallery as a slideshow. This lets your visitors easily choose to preview the gallery as a slideshow or as thumbnails.<\/p>\n
More details: NextGEN Gallery<\/a><\/p>\n
\nWP Canvas \u2013 Gallery<\/h3>\n
![\"WP](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/wp-canvas-gallery-600x245.jpg\")
WP Canvas \u2013 Gallery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The WP Canvas – Gallery plugin extends the default use of WordPress galleries. There are no additional menu items added to the WordPress dashboard with this plugin. Instead, you\u2019ll see additional options on the right side when adding a WordPress gallery to your page or post. The default WordPress options lets you define number of columns and size of images (thumbnail, small, medium and full size).<\/p>\n
With the installation of this plugin, the gallery settings expand to include more size options, display options, caption options, and more.<\/p>\n
You can display a gallery in a masonry format, as a slider or as a carousel. You can also specify the Popup Size for an image when a visitor clicks on the image. When rolling over a thumbnail on the gallery page, the image fades slightly and the caption pops up to the left of the image when using the masonry layout.<\/p>\n
This plugin gives you a variety of options while still using the built-in functionality of WordPress galleries.<\/p>\n
More details: WP Canvas \u2013 Gallery<\/a><\/p>\n
\nPortfolio Gallery<\/h3>\n
![\"Portfolio](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/portfolio-gallery-600x245.jpg\")
Portfolio Gallery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The Portfolio Gallery by Huge IT lets you add professional-looking galleries and lightbox to your posts or pages. Instead of calling them galleries, this plugin uses the term portfolios. You can easily add images to a portfolio, as well as edit captions, descriptions, and links for each image.<\/p>\n
This plugin comes with a variety of view options for a gallery. This includes the standard thumbnail view, to sliders, lightbox, masonry and pop up content.<\/p>\n
A button is placed at the top of the visual editor to \u2018add portfolio gallery\u2019 or a gallery can be added by using a shortcode.<\/p>\n
The Portfolio Gallery plugin by Huge IT is easy to set up. It loads images quickly and is responsive.<\/p>\n
The free version of the plugin can be installed on unlimited sites and support is available via a forum. Paid versions provide Live\/Email support.<\/p>\n
More details: Portfolio Gallery<\/a><\/p>\n
\nGmedia Gallery<\/h3>\n
![\"Gmedia](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/gmedia-gallery-600x245.jpg\")
Gmedia Gallery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The Gmedia Gallery plugin is a great plugin for quickly sharing photos. When clicking on an image in a gallery, it shows the full-size image in a lightbox. You can also easily share an image on a variety of social media networks from the lightbox.<\/p>\n
Instead of adding a \u2018gallery\u2019 option to the WordPress dashboard, you access this plugin by clicking on the Gmedia button at the top of the visual editor when adding or editing a page or post. By default, this plugin includes a video player and a music player, along with a myriad of options on how to display a gallery. These various display options are referred to as Modules in this plugin.<\/p>\n
Seven different modules are installed by default. You can easily add other modules for a mosaic look, for slideshows, sliders, photoblog, 3D sphere, 3D cube and more. A list and demo of each module is available on the plugin page on wordpress.org.<\/p>\n
Before setting up a gallery with this plugin, images need to be either in an album, assigned to categories, assigned to tags or in the GP Media library. The only kludgy thing I noticed with this plugin was the need to know IDs of uploaded images. Instead of being able to select an image, you had to insert ID(s) of the desired images. This was not as convenient as just selecting images.<\/p>\n
This plugin gives you many options for customizing your galleries. I\u2019m surprised at the number of options available for a free plugin. Along with the many options comes a degree of complexity as well. However, for a free plugin, this gallery plugin offers a lot of options.<\/p>\n
More details: Gmedia Gallery<\/a><\/p>\n
\nPhoto Gallery<\/h3>\n
![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/photo-gallery-600x245.jpg\")
Photo Gallery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The Photo Gallery plugin by Web Dorado displays a gallery using the standard thumbnail display. Upon rollover, the image enlarges slightly. When an image is clicked on in a Photo Gallery, it opens a larger version in a lightbox where you can navigate through the gallery.<\/p>\n
This plugin is very easy to use. It adds a \u2018Photo Gallery\u2019 option to the WordPress dashboard. Adding a new gallery is very similar to adding a post.<\/p>\n
You can embed images from Instagram and Flickr with this plugin. By default, images must be uploaded into the designated directory for this plugin. However, there is a setting under Options for this plugin that lets you easily import images from the Media Library.<\/p>\n
This plugin allows you to set a myriad of options for your gallery. You can also designate a text or image watermark for your images and apply this watermark to your gallery images.<\/p>\n
The Photo Gallery plugin adds an icon to the Visual Editor for adding a gallery to a page. By clicking on this icon, you can select a layout for your gallery and which gallery you want to display.<\/p>\n
The free version of this plugin comes with the traditional thumbnail display, along with a slider, image browser and album display options. Galleries can be combined into albums with this plugin.<\/p>\n
More details: Photo Gallery<\/a><\/p>\n
\nFoo Gallery<\/h3>\n
![\"Foo](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/foo-gallery-600x245.jpg\")
Foo Gallery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The Foo Gallery plugin lets you display your galleries in a variety of formats. The masonry format is shown above.<\/p>\n
This plugin adds a FooGallery option to the WordPress dashboard. You simply choose to Add Gallery<\/strong> to create a gallery, then click on Add Media to add images to the gallery. You can also easily create and add a gallery from the visual editor.<\/p>\n
The Foo Gallery plugin comes with\u00a0several gallery templates, including a masonry layout and the standard thumbnail display. If you want your gallery to be responsive, there is a Responsive Gallery template.<\/p>\n
For most of the gallery templates, you can specify thumbnail size, image link options and other settings \u2013 some of them specific to the template being used. A lightbox option is not available automatically with this plugin. The free FooBox lightbox must be installed separately.<\/p>\n
Galleries are easily added to a page or post via the Add FooGallery button that is at the top of the visual editor. A shortcode is also available for each gallery.<\/p>\n
More details: Foo Gallery<\/a><\/p>\n
\nPhotospace Gallery<\/h3>\n
![\"Photospace](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/photospace-gallery-600x245.jpg\")
Photospace Gallery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The Photospace Gallery plugin extends the default settings for a WordPress gallery. The gallery is displayed as thumbnails on the left side, with the selected image showing in the preview area.<\/p>\n
After installing this plugin, you will see a menu item for Photospace Gallery Options under Settings.<\/p>\n
These settings let you specify the \u2018controls\u2019, whether or not to use paging, and if you want the title, captions and descriptions to appear on the gallery page. You can also specify the change of thumbnails and the size of the preview image.<\/p>\n
Showing controls includes options to play slideshow, links to previous\/next photos and a download link below the selected image.<\/p>\n
This plugin is easy to use and extends the built-in functionality of WordPress galleries to show galleries in a different format.<\/p>\n
- Envira Gallery<\/a><\/li>\n
![\"WP](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/wp-photo-album-plus-600x245.jpg\")