WordPress Photo Gallery Plugins: which one to choose?
Most of the website owners want to create an appealing photo gallery to showcase their products or works. There are hundreds of WordPress photo gallery plugins at the official plugins repository. With so many options to choose from, it is hard to decide which one will fit you best.
The team at WishDesk has collected the 5 of the best WordPress photo gallery plugins and compared their functionality. Choose the one that fits you best!
Top WordPress Photo Gallery Plugins
Envira Gallery
The Envira Gallery plugin provides a well-designed interface that allows you to quickly set up an appealing gallery with the help of the drag & drop function. It is highly optimized for web performance. Envira is responsive and mobile-friendly by default. The free version is good for basic galleries.
Premium features includes:
- video support
- social sharing
- image protection (watermarks)
- albums
- eCommerce support
- image deep linking
- Lightroom integration
Price: Envira Gallery Lite is free. The Pro Package ranges from $29 to $99.
NextGEN Gallery
NextGEN Gallery is the most popular WordPress photo gallery plugin — it receives over 1.5 million new downloads per year.
The free version of NextGEN Gallery provides two gallery styles:
- slideshows
- thumbnail galleries
and two album styles:
- compact
- extended
All styles come with options for controlling size, lightbox effects, style, timing, transitions, and much more.
The functionality is extended in the premium version:
- eCommerce feature to sell images
- image protection (hotlink protection, watermarks, etc.)
- image deep linking for lightbox galleries
- additional templates
- image comments
Price: NextGen Gallery is free. The premium version ranges from $79 to $139 based on the features you need.
WP Photo Album Plus
WP Photo Album Plus is a powerful highly-customizable plugin that lets the visitors rate and comment photos. The main feature of this plugin is that it comes with 20 widgets you can add to your website, including Photo of the Day, Featured Photos, and more.
Its features include:
- an unlimited number of albums with any type of multimedia file
- full control over metadata
- full control over display sizes
- ability to upload photos from the front-end
- built-in Google Maps
- customizable rating system
- commenting system
- email notification system
and much more!
Price: WP Photo Album Plus is an open-source plugin.
Photo Gallery by Supsystic
Like most of other photo gallery plugins on this list, Photo Gallery by Supsystic offers both free and premium versions. With this responsive and SEO-friendly WordPress photo gallery plugin you can create an unlimited number of galleries using several different templates. The galleries can be customized by editing margins, borders, shadows, and much more.
The free version lets you:
- add images to the gallery via FTP
- import images from social media (Facebook, Instagram)
- watermarks
- image compression and optimization
Additional features of the premium version are:
- video display
- ability to import videos from YouTube
- gallery filters (categories)
The drawback of this plugin is that its interface is a little bit complicated.
Price: Photo Gallery by Supsystic is free. The premium version is available for $39.
Justified Image Grid
The Justified Image Grid plugin organizes your images into a well-balanced horizontal photo grid. It provides only the premium version. However, Justified Image Grid is one of the best-selling Wordpress photo gallery plugins.
This WordPress photo gallery plugin includes the ability to choose from a wide range of sources, such as WordPress Media Library, WooCommerce products, social media, and video hosting sites like YouTube and Vimeo.
Key features:
- video support
- responsive and mobile-friendly
- retina support
- special effects
- built-in presets
and much more!
Price: from $29 to $199.
Which WordPress photo gallery plugin to choose?
As usual with WordPress plugins, we cannot tell which one is the best. The choice of WordPress photo gallery plugin depends on your specific needs and requirements. Most of the plugins are available for free, so you can play around and see how you like the templates.
After installing the WordPress photo gallery plugin, you’ll need to learn how to make images accessible. Also, don’t forget to establish a custom WordPress theme design on your website. In combination with an appealing photo gallery, you’ll get a unique and feature-rich platform.
If you hesitate on photo gallery plugin to choose, drop us a message and the WordPress team at WishDesk will gladly help you with it.