Site icon Hip-Hop Website Design and Development

15 Best WordPress Photo Gallery Plugins (Compared With Examples)

Every website uses images, and WordPress photo gallery plugins make it easy to display those images attractively.

But with so many options to choose from, it can be hard to dig through everything and find the plugin that offers just the right combination of features, aesthetics, and ease of use.

To help you find that plugin, we’ve compiled a list of the best WordPress photo gallery plugins, dissected their feature lists, and grabbed a representative screenshot so that you know what types of galleries each can create.

Ready to dive deep? Let’s go!

How to Choose the Best WordPress Photo Gallery Plugins

You have an overwhelming number of WordPress photo gallery plugins to choose from. Go to CodeCanyon, WordPress.org, or make a Google search, and you’re still going to be looking at a long list without much guidance.

Therefore, we compiled the best features to consider when looking through these WordPress photo gallery plugins. Everyone’s situation will be different, but try to pick out essential features from the list below to narrow your search:

The list could go on, but this is a good starting point for you to identify what’s most important to your business when it comes to finding a photo gallery plugin. Some companies won’t find any value in copyright protection, but others wouldn’t ever consider a WordPress gallery plugin without that functionality.

Therefore, keep all of these primary features in mind as you read through our in-depth gallery plugin evaluations below.

Best WordPress Photo Gallery Plugins in 2022

1. Modula

Modula is a highly user-friendly WordPress gallery plugin from Macho Themes that helps you quickly create exciting photo and video galleries. With Modula’s range of flexible customization options, you can easily tweak your gallery to your liking.

Modula WordPress plugin.

With Modula’s custom grid functionality, you can freely resize images within your gallery’s container, controlling their heights, widths, and aspect ratio.

And, all you need to do is switch a gallery from ‘creative gallery’ to ‘custom grid’ and start changing the dimensions of your images by clicking and dragging from the bottom right-hand corners of the pictures in your gallery.

If you decide to give Modula a try, you’ll quickly notice that the plugin caters to all WordPress users, regardless of experience. Their easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface and customization options make it possible to create a gallery that looks just like one of their demos in less than five minutes.

Modula has an advanced customization section for more advanced users where users can add CSS that can be applied to galleries separately. This, together with their well-written documentation, contributes to what we believe is truly a great user experience.

A Typical Gallery Created by Modula

The free version of Modula is available on the official WordPress plugin repository and even includes their custom grid functionality. You can play around with settings like margins, shadows, border radius, and more to alter how your galleries look. Here’s a good idea of the style of galleries created by Modula Lite:

Modula WordPress Photo Gallery Plugin.

Modula’s plans start at $39 for a single site, up to $149 for the Agency option with up to 99 sites.

Reasons to Use Modula

Things to Consider Before Choosing Modula

Modula is mainly for grid galleries. That’s what it does best. It’s also true that most features provided in the free version revolve around the grid galleries. If you’d like to unlock slideshows or other layouts, you’ll need to think about upgrading to one of the premium versions.

2. NextGEN Gallery

By the numbers, NextGEN Gallery is one of the most popular WordPress photo gallery plugins on WordPress.org. It continues to receive over 1.5 million new downloads per year, along with great overall reviews. It’s developed by Imagely, photography experts who know the industry well.

NextGEN Gallery WordPress plugin.

The free version of NextGEN Gallery provides two main gallery styles (slideshows and thumbnail galleries) and two album styles (compact and extended), all of which come with a wide array of options for controlling size, style, timing, transitions, controls, lightbox effects, and more. You can then extend it with various premium bundles.

In addition to a variety of different gallery types, these premium versions also add more advanced features like:

A Typical Gallery Created by NextGEN Gallery Looks Like…

One of the draws of NextGEN Gallery is that it offers so many different types of galleries, so there’s no single typical gallery.

I’ll use the basic thumbnail gallery for this example because it’s included in the free version. And if you go with the Pro version, you have access to many more exciting templates:

NextGEN Gallery.

Reasons to Use NextGEN Gallery

Things to Consider Before Choosing NextGEN

The free version used to be pretty basic, but they have been actively adding more features. For example, the basic slideshow can show arrows and change the transition timing. NextGEN is a professional-level image gallery. We recommend it to anyone who can afford it. Try out the free version first, then consider upgrading if you want to protect images and offer additional gallery layouts. Remember that NextGEN Pro is one of the most expensive WordPress photo gallery plugins out there.

3. Envira Gallery

Acquired by Nathan Singh in early 2018, Envira Gallery is another popular freemium gallery plugin. A free version is available. Some brands may find that the core plugin is all they need to make a beautiful gallery. However, many of the coolest features are reserved for the premium plugin galleries.

Envira Photo Gallery WordPress plugin.

One of the draws of Envira Gallery is that, like Modula, the interface is designed to make it as easy as possible to quickly get up and running with a good-looking gallery in WordPress.

While the free version is nice for basic galleries, the various premium plans are where you get the bulk of the helpful features, which include:

A Typical Gallery Created by Envira Gallery Looks Like…

While Envira Gallery lets you create multiple types of galleries, here’s the result without touching any of the settings:

Envira Gallery.

Reasons to Use Envira Gallery

Things to Consider Before Choosing Envira Gallery

Some people love Envira, while others would recommend never considering it. It’s one of those WordPress photo gallery plugins where you have to test it out to discover if it’s right for you. If pricing is your main concern, we recommend skipping Envira Gallery right off the bat.

Overall, the Envira Gallery features are rock solid if you have the money. However, users who want free galleries should look elsewhere.

4. Gmedia Photo Gallery

The Gmedia Photo Gallery plugin may not serve as the first choice when people look around for new WordPress photo gallery plugins. Still, it does have a sleek design once published and some powerful customization tools to match your branding and meet the demands of a large gallery.

You can install the plugin for free and launch a photo gallery without paying a dime. A premium version is available for you to consider, starting at $29.99 per year for one website and increasing to $8.50 per year when you activate the gallery on more than 20 sites.

In short, this looks like a reliable and affordable gallery plugin if you need to put galleries on many websites. Therefore, we like it for developers and agencies since you save money in the long run.

Gmedia Photo Gallery WordPress plugin.

The Gmedia Photo Gallery plugin highlights an excellent selection of demos for you to test out what the galleries look like long before you install the plugin or pay for the premium version. All of the demos have somewhat strange or nondescript names, but there are options for travel blogs, sliders, ecommerce products, and much more.

Overall, it’s not the perfect solution if you crave simplicity on the backend, but we like the results you see after publication.

A Typical Gallery Created with Gmedia Photo Gallery Looks like This…

As with most of our gallery tests, we installed the Gmedia Photo Gallery plugin and tried to add a gallery within a few minutes. There was no need to adjust any settings to launch the pictures on the test website, but it wasn’t as easy as some competition.

As you can see from the screenshot below, the gallery comes out beautifully once published. However, you’re required to generate an album before making the gallery. This was tricky to figure out when getting started, and it doesn’t make much sense. Essentially, you’re creating two collections of images and linking them together.

That said, the outcome is a high-quality gallery without any cropping or resolution difficulties.

Gmedia Photo Gallery.

Reasons to Use Gmedia Photo Gallery

Things to Consider Before Choosing Gmedia Photo Gallery

This gallery plugin has two main aspects to think about before adding it to the shopping cart or downloading the core version for free. First of all, non-experienced users may find this plugin far too complicated to work with.

It provides hundreds of settings, most of which aren’t that well organized on the backend. This would work out just fine for developers, but there’s a bit of a learning curve for the average user. We mainly don’t like that you must make an album before activating your gallery. Why can’t we just make a gallery and call it a day?

Our second point is the primary advantage. The plugin comes with not one, but four Gutenberg drag-and-drop blocks. This beats out every single plugin on this list, making it ideal for those who love working with Gutenberg. The blocks include options for albums, categories, galleries, and tags.

5. Photo Gallery by 10Web

The Photo Gallery by 10Web plugin is ranked towards the top regarding the number of downloads for a WordPress gallery plugin. It offers free and premium plugins, with basic grid formats provided in the core plugin. The admin interface design is easy to understand and get photos on your site immediately.

There aren’t many settings you have to worry about, making it ideal for all experience levels. However, the premium plugin is required if you’d like a more advanced gallery design, like cropped images or a masonic arrangement.

Photo Gallery by 10Web WordPress plugin.

The plugin lets you create unlimited galleries and unlimited albums to house those galleries. And one especially nice feature about Photo Gallery by 10Web is that you can also create galleries from embedded videos, including an option to mix-and-match galleries with both images and videos.

Other helpful features available in either the free or premium version include:

A Typical Gallery Created by Photo Gallery by 10Web Looks Like…

While the plugin’s premium version adds more creative gallery types, here’s an example of a typical gallery that you can create with the free version of Photo Gallery by 10Web. It’s pretty basic, but it does the trick.

There aren’t many customization tools in the free version for developing galleries that genuinely stand out. Luckily, most galleries don’t cost that much to upgrade to premium versions, including Photo Gallery by 10Web.

Photo Gallery by 10Web.

Reasons to Use Photo Gallery by 10Web

Things to Consider Before Choosing Photo Gallery by 10Web

Like NextGEN Gallery, many of the best-looking gallery templates are only available in the premium version. However, once you unlock those premium features, the Photo Gallery by 10Web plugin takes the gallery game to the next level.

6. Jetpack

If you’re not familiar, Jetpack is a popular multi-purpose plugin from Automattic that brings several WordPress.com features to self-hosted WordPress installs.

Jetpack WordPress plugin.

One of those features is an enhancement to the core WordPress gallery functionality. While Jetpack’s galleries aren’t nearly as heavy-duty as the previous WordPress photo gallery plugins, it’s a good option for creating basic types of galleries, especially if you’re already using Jetpack on your site.

What’s more, Jetpack galleries are free for you to use, with no additional upgrades for you to worry about. Sure, Jetpack has several other add-ons and features that you could pay for, but all gallery functionality is included in the package for free.

We particularly enjoy Jetpack because it provides the possibility to eliminate so many other plugins you may be using. Having fewer plugins is typically better for site performance, so many site owners opt for Jetpack or things like social media sharing buttons, galleries, and SEO.

A Typical Gallery Created by Jetpack Looks Like…

The standard Jetpack gallery shows regular squares, cropping to the photos, and clean margins between the images. You gave options to adjust this layout to tiles or circles:

Jetpack gallery.

Reasons to Use Jetpack

Things to Consider Before Choosing Jetpack

If you install Jetpack only for its gallery functionality, you might be disappointed by it. Jetpack wasn’t designed as a gallery plugin, but rather a collection of essential tools for WordPress. The gallery tools are pretty solid, so give it a chance.

Just keep in mind that Jetpack galleries aren’t nearly as flexible as some of the other WordPress photo gallery plugins covered in this article. Also, the galleries aren’t activated right after installing Jetpack. You must go to the settings and turn on the galleries in the Performance area. The Image CDN must also be activated for the galleries to work correctly.

Jetpack makes sense for many site owners who dream of having multiple plugins compiled into one. Therefore, if you’re only looking for a basic, clean, and free gallery, Jetpack looks like a winner. Furthermore, you have options to utilize the other Jetpack features for things like backups, brute force blocking, and social media sharing. Some of the features are free, but you may have to pay for others.

You should also test out the gallery portion of Jetpack if you’re already using Jetpack for something else on your site. There’s no need to add new plugins if you already have one that does the trick!

For more, follow our guide on how to configure Jetpack.

7. Photo Gallery by Supsystic

Like most other WordPress photo gallery plugins on this list, Photo Gallery by Supsystic is another freemium plugin that offers a solid free version with additional features tucked away behind the Pro version. The premium version starts at $46 per year and goes up to $149 per year for unlimited sites.

With Photo Gallery by Supsystic, you can create unlimited photo galleries using several templates. Then, you can customize those galleries by editing margins, shadows, borders, and more. Some gallery types include videos, Polaroid, carousel, and masonry.

After testing the free version, I noticed that the average business could make a beautiful gallery with customizations, all without upgrading. However, many companies will pull the trigger for specific layouts and alignments.

Photo Gallery by Supsystic WordPress plugin.

If you need to bulk import images or import images from social networks, Photo Gallery by Supsystic has a couple of cool features that let you:

And if you have the Pro version, you’ll also be able to display videos in your galleries, including the ability to import videos straight from YouTube.

A Typical Gallery Created by Photo Gallery by Supsystic Looks Like…

Like many others, Photo Gallery by Supsystic includes several different templates. Even the free plugin has a handful of creative templates to choose from. Here’s what the free mosaic gallery type looks like. I didn’t touch any of the settings to give you an idea of what the galleries produce by default.

Photo Gallery by Supsystic.

Reasons to Use Photo Gallery by Supsystic

Things to Consider Before Choosing Photo Gallery by Supsystic

The gallery creation interface is a little busy and complicated, though it’s not a major negative.

We believe that Photo Gallery by Supsystic has a solid niche for those looking to create fun galleries. The Polaroid template is an excellent example since it puts all of your images in staggered Polaroid prints.

Other than that, it’s clear that some companies will have no problem working with the free version of Photo Gallery by Supsystic. However, real customizations come into play when you start paying for a license.

8. Justified Image Grid

Justified Image Grid is one of the few WordPress photo gallery plugins on this list that isn’t available for free at WordPress.org. But, it is a best-selling WordPress photo gallery plugin at CodeCanyon with over 20,900 sales. So, that’s a good sign!

Although you can’t test out the plugin on CodeCanyon, a demo is provided for you to at least see how the galleries appear on the front end of a website. We also encourage you to scan through reviews, comments, and screenshots.

Justified Image Grid WordPress plugin.

Beyond the beautiful horizontal image grid that preserves the original aspect ratio of your images, one of the most extraordinary things about Justified Image Grid is that it lets you import content from a ton of different external services like:

Sign Up For the Newsletter

And you can even import recent posts or WooCommerce products as items in your gallery.

Even though a Gutenberg block isn’t provided with the Justified Image Grid plugin, the developers have made strides to ensure that all galleries work with the drag and drop builder. In addition, the plugin features a WPBakery integration with live previewing included.

A Typical Gallery Created by Justified Image Grid Looks Like…

One of the selling points of Justified Image Grid is that its horizontal image grid preserves the original aspect ratio of all of your images. You can see this in the example below.

This is particularly useful because there’s nothing more frustrating than configuring a gallery plugin only to find out that some, or most of your images, are either cropped the wrong way or not cropped at all.

Justified Image Grid example.

Reasons to Use Justified Image Grid

Things to Consider Before Choosing Justified Image Grid

There’s no free version for Justified Image Grid, but this premium solution provides excellent customer support and an onslaught of incredible features. Not to mention, it sells for a low, one-time cost.

If you like how some of the other WordPress photo gallery plugins do crop images, you’ll want to stick with them instead of Justified Image Grid. However, we know that plenty of people enjoy the lack of cropping from Justified Image Grid, especially since it doesn’t seem to diminish the image views or make things look silly.

9. Everest Gallery Lite

Everest Gallery Lite is one of the newer WordPress photo gallery plugins on the market. However, it’s developed by the team at AccessPress Themes, who have a long history of creating high-quality themes. The plugin offers multiple templates, including a grid layout and a masonry layout.

Everest Gallery Lite WordPress plugin.

The free version of the plugin includes quite a bit in it. The plugin features 30+ seamless gallery layouts and allows you to configure the columns to adjust to the screen size. It has hover animations, lightbox options, and the ability to preview everything before publishing. You can also extend the plugin with its premium version.

A Typical Gallery Created by Everest Gallery Lite Looks Like…

One of the selling points of Everest Gallery Lite is that all of its layouts have a very modern feel to them. The best configurations are only offered in the premium version, but it’s still pretty solid when utilizing the Lite plugin.

The below example shows what the gallery looks like after I installed the Lite plugin and uploaded a few images, all without touching a single setting.

Everest Gallery Lite grid layout.

Reasons to Use Everest Gallery Lite

Things to Consider Before Choosing Everest Gallery Lite

Everest Gallery Lite is one of the newer WordPress photo gallery plugins on the market, but it also stands as one of the more advanced tools. It includes tools adjusting just about every detail of your gallery, making it ideal for developers.

This may sound like a good thing for everyone, but the configuration gets confusing if you’re not interested in an endless number of settings. If you’d instead just upload your photos and have a standard grid layout, think about one of the other plugins on this list.

Finally, the Premium version is sold through Envato Market, which means you have to pay extra to extend support for an entire year.

10. Image Gallery by Robo

Image Gallery by Robo has a free plugin through WordPress.org, complemented by a premium version. The plugin produces stunning results without adjusting the settings from the start. Furthermore, a Gutenberg module is provided for instant publication, removing the need for any shortcodes unless you like using those.

Similar to some of the other WordPress photo gallery plugins with Gutenberg blocks, this particular feature speeds up the process dramatically. There’s no question as to whether or not you forgot to save the gallery or how it’s going to look before publication. You can test out the gallery and see what to expect before launching the collection.

Image Gallery by Robo WordPress plugin.

We like that the developer has provided dozens of demos on the WordPress.org page for you to test out and find inspiration for your gallery designs. The YouTube demo is nice to look at, and the blog style is certainly worth considering if you want to include featured images in a gallery that constantly updates.

Connections to Vimeo are also provided, turning your gallery into a more flexible solution for all content creators. It appears that an extensive library of settings is available in the free version of the plugin, but it’s not a bad idea to look at the premium demos to figure out what you might be missing.

A Typical Gallery Created by Image Gallery by Robo Looks Like…

The default settings from the Image Gallery by Robo plugin appear sleek and user-friendly. As with most of my tests, I didn’t touch a single setting to publish the gallery and see what it looks like right out of the box. Quite a few settings are available in the free version, but I think the standard gallery looks rather nice without adjusting anything.

Image Gallery by Robo.

Reasons to Use Image Gallery by Robo

Things to Consider Before Choosing Image Gallery by Robo

This is one of the gallery plugins with a Gutenberg block, making it extremely valuable compared to plugins without one. It’s also impressive how many free features are packed into the core plugin. Some people might find the interface a little too cluttered, but the gallery results should ease those concerns.

Creativity is the game’s name with the Image Gallery by Robo, seeing as how the animations and effects are like nothing we’ve seen in other plugins.

11. Meow Gallery

Meow Gallery is developed by Meow Apps, a small team of French and Japanese developers based in Japan. The free version of the plugin includes five free layouts (tiles, masonry, justified, square, and cascade,) a Gutenberg Block, and even a shortcode to make it easier for you to manage your galleries.

Experience exceptional WordPress hosting support with our world-class support team! Chat with the same team that backs our Fortune 500 clients. Check out our plans

This is by far one of the fastest WordPress photo gallery plugins. Compared to the other tests I’ve done for this article, Meow Gallery cuts the amount of time uploading and inserting a gallery into a post quite a bit. As for pricing, most companies will be fine with the core plugin.

But you can upgrade to the premium version for extra customer support, additional features, and licenses for multiple sites.

Meow Gallery WordPress plugin.

Meow Gallery also works with Lightroom (through WP/LR Sync): synchronizing it with your galleries is just a matter of a click.

A Typical Gallery Created by Meow Gallery Looks Like…

Out of the five layouts provided in the free version of this gallery plugin, the Titles layout option shows how this plugin is an exciting option for those running photoblogs.

As mentioned in the introduction for this plugin, I would argue that the Meow Gallery plugin was the fastest in this list when uploading photos, publishing them, and being satisfied with how they look. As you can see, none of the images are cropped, there’s a decent margin between them, and it has a modern tiled design.

Meow Gallery: Tiles layout.

Reasons to Use Meow Gallery

Things to Consider Before Choosing Meow Gallery

A few excellent features, like the carousel formatting and the animations, are only available with the pro version of the plugin.

On the upside, Meow Gallery makes stunning image galleries without much work on your end. Testing this one out before committing to a paid solution makes sense. The process is so fast because there’s a Gutenberg block and because the default formatting doesn’t typically require you to go back and edit anything.

12. Portfolio Gallery

Portfolio Gallery delivers stunning galleries to your WordPress site without any requirements for complicated coding. It lacks a Gutenberg block, but the gallery design process takes no more than a few minutes. Both advanced users and beginners will have no problem creating beautiful presentations with Portfolio Gallery.

The core plugin is given away as a free download, but you do have the option to upgrade to the premium version for $29. This provides superior support, more templates, unlimited filters, and a longer list of features to make your galleries stand out.

Portfolio Gallery WordPress plugin.

One of the reasons we like this compared to other WordPress photo gallery plugins is because of the simplicity of the backend. It may appear a little cluttered at first, but it only takes a few moments to realize where the large Upload button is located, along with the shortcodes for placing the galleries elsewhere on your website.

What’s more, we tested the mobile galleries on tablets and smartphones to see that they came out beautifully.

A Typical Gallery Created by Portfolio Gallery Looks Like…

The image below is what a gallery looks like without touching any settings. It’s not bad, considering you still get sleek effects like the shadows and rounded edges. You can’t reproduce this with the screenshot, but the primary gallery also results in animations that make the images move a bit as you scroll your mouse over the photos.

The gallery is inserted with the use of a shortcode. When making your gallery, you also have options for adding links and implementing captions. The captions are pulled from the file names. I find this annoying, but some may differ in their views.

Overall, the results from the Portfolio Gallery plugin appear stylish and professional. And you can always go back to change the settings if it doesn’t look quite right.

Portfolio Gallery.

Reasons to Use the Portfolio Gallery Plugin

Things to Consider Before Choosing Portfolio Gallery

We like the Portfolio Gallery plugin compared to other WordPress photo gallery plugins because of the number of features packed into the free version.

From filters to lightbox tools and premade templates to image optimization, it’s not unlikely that many brands will take this plugin and decide that there’s no reason to upgrade to the premium version.

You should keep in mind that it’s not the market’s cleanest backend interface. So, some beginners or neat freaks may not enjoy this plugin.

Finally, the Portfolio Gallery plugin lacks a Gutenberg block.

13. Responsive Lightbox & Gallery

The Responsive Lightbox & Gallery plugin has thousands of installations and impressive ratings. It’s primarily free with plenty of settings. There are several extensions to consider when thinking about the features you need the most. Not only that, but some of the extensions are completely free. Others have price tags, but they aren’t going to break the bank.

The beauty of your galleries and lightboxes is what makes this gallery plugin stand out. You can launch a gallery with just a few clicks, and there are many lightbox formats to implement. This is refreshing when you look at so many other plugins with only one or two lightbox options.

Responsive Lightbox & Gallery WordPress plugin.

Overall, the Responsive Lightbox & Gallery plugin is lightweight, beginner-friendly, and flexible with its extensions. A few extensions we like the most include hidden galleries, more lightboxes, masonry galleries, and more.

A Typical Gallery Created by Responsive Lightbox & Gallery Looks Like…

It takes only a few minutes after the installation to publish a gallery on the frontend of your site. The example below is the basic gallery already configured in the settings.

The Settings area is filled with customization options to make your gallery look beautiful. We think this is pretty good for just a few minutes of work. Not to mention, the lightbox tools create sleek and flexible lightboxes.

Responsive Lightbox & Gallery.

Reasons to Use Responsive Lightbox & Gallery

Things to Consider Before Choosing Responsive Lightbox & Gallery

Creating a gallery with the Responsive Lightbox & Gallery plugin only takes a few moments. However, it takes a bit of customization to get the proper gallery formatting. It’s not relatively straightforward as other options, but it allows experienced developers and beginners to make beautiful galleries.

The most significant advantage of the plugin is that it has Gutenberg blocks. Consider trying out the Responsive Lightbox & Gallery plugin if that’s your style. It’s also nice that there’s not much of a need to pay anything for the plugin, and the extensions are all sold separately, giving you flexibility.

14. WordPress Photo Gallery Plugin by Gallery Bank

The WordPress Photo Gallery Plugin by Gallery Bank serves as an excellent solution for creating your galleries from scratch. You can produce showcases and portfolios with ease, posting your galleries on pages with the help of widgets and shortcodes.

The developers boast that over 200 features are included with the plugin and that you can make everything from masonry designs to thumbnail layouts. We found that the interface is relatively easy to understand. It may look a bit cluttered to some, but all of the settings are consolidated into one area, with clearly marked buttons for uploading images and getting the shortcodes.

WordPress Photo Gallery Plugin by Gallery Bank.

It appears that a significant portion of the features you need to assemble your galleries are in the free version of the plugin. However, to reach the 200 feature mark, you must sign up for the premium version.

This also gets you customer support outside of the standard forums on WordPress. It would be nice if a Gutenberg block were available instead of the shortcodes, but we’ll have to hope for that in the future.

A Typical Gallery Created by WordPress Photo Gallery Plugin by Gallery Bank Looks Like…

The gallery comes out beautifully without touching a single button in the settings module. You can choose between standard or masonry to begin, but that’s all you have to think about before adding it to a page on your website.

The shortcodes are long (the opposite of what a shortcode is supposed to be), but it’s easy to copy-paste the code.

Other than that, the margins, dimensions, cropping, and lightbox elements all come out nicely. You can’t ask for much more with a gallery plugin, especially considering there are so many plugins out there that look terrible right out of the box.

WordPress Photo Gallery Plugin by Gallery Bank.

Reasons to Use WordPress Photo Gallery Plugin by Gallery Bank

Things to Consider Before Choosing WordPress Photo Gallery Plugin by Gallery Bank

This plugin is perfect for launching a gallery within seconds. If you’d rather not mess with too many settings, this is a viable choice for you. We can’t imagine most people would need to pay anything for this plugin, seeing how most of the best features are in that version.

Keep in mind that the extensions are sold both individually and in packages. If you plan on purchasing some of the extensions, the best value by far is paying for a collection of ten extensions. However, the whole point of having these separate plugins is for flexibility in buying, so don’t pay for a combination of extensions if you only need one or two.

15. Photo Gallery by GT3

The Photo Gallery by GT3 plugin offers the simplicity and compactness that a gallery plugin should have. After the installation, it provides a Gutenberg block to instantly add a group of pictures to any post or page.

It took me a moment to figure out how to add photos to the gallery, but it’s actually inside the Gutenberg editor, keeping all of your settings and uploading modules in one area. Upon discovering this area, it’s clear how simple it is to use the plugin since all adjustments are made in one spot.

Overall, the Photo Gallery by GT3 plugin generates excellent photo galleries by extending the editor’s functionality on WordPress and adding nicely formatted presentations for your photos.

Photo Gallery by GT3 WordPress plugin.

What’s more is that you receive access to multiple Gutenberg blocks, allowing you to make a masonry gallery or a standard grid. The free version appears to do the trick for basic galleries, and there isn’t much time you need to spend customizing.

There’s also a premium version that sells for $45. This plan provides new layouts, social sharing options, image download buttons, and more. You can also pay for an image optimizer plugin if you’d like.

A Typical Gallery Created by Photo Gallery by GT3 Looks Like…

As you can see from the screenshot, my first result while working with the Photo Gallery by GT3 plugin looks clean and modern, without any severe cropping or image degradation. It’s exactly what we look for in a quality gallery plugin.

It’s also helpful that the Gutenberg settings are available in the WordPress editor. This consolidates all of the tools in one area, showing your adjustments in the visual editor.

Photo Gallery by GT3.

Reasons to Use Photo Gallery by GT3

Things to Consider Before Choosing Photo Gallery by GT3

The GT3 photo gallery plugin has substantial advantages in terms of security and performance. Not only does the free plugin allow for a quick and beautiful gallery, but the upgrades are cheap to secure your photos entirely.

Furthermore, the image optimizer extension only costs $10. If you have experience with image optimization plugins, you know that they can get rather expensive with more photos on your site. However, it’s essential to optimize your photos. Otherwise, your site speed and SEO will suffer. This cuts out the need to have a second plugin that could cost more.

body a.novashare-ctt{display:block;background:#00abf0;margin:30px auto;padding:20px 20px 20px 15px;color:#fff;text-decoration:none!important;box-shadow:none!important;-webkit-box-shadow:none!important;-moz-box-shadow:none!important;border:none;border-left:5px solid #00abf0}body a.novashare-ctt:hover{color:#fff;border-left:5px solid #008cc4}body a.novashare-ctt:visited{color:#fff}body a.novashare-ctt *{pointer-events:none}body a.novashare-ctt .novashare-ctt-tweet{display:block;font-size:18px;line-height:27px;margin-bottom:10px}body a.novashare-ctt .novashare-ctt-cta-container{display:block;overflow:hidden}body a.novashare-ctt .novashare-ctt-cta{float:right}body a.novashare-ctt.novashare-ctt-cta-left .novashare-ctt-cta{float:left}body a.novashare-ctt .novashare-ctt-cta-text{font-size:16px;line-height:16px;vertical-align:middle}body a.novashare-ctt .novashare-ctt-cta-icon{margin-left:10px;display:inline-block;vertical-align:middle}body a.novashare-ctt .novashare-ctt-cta-icon svg{vertical-align:middle;height:18px}body a.novashare-ctt.novashare-ctt-simple{background:0 0;padding:10px 0 10px 20px;color:inherit}body a.novashare-ctt.novashare-ctt-simple-alt{background:#f9f9f9;padding:20px;color:#404040}body a.novashare-ctt.novashare-ctt-simple-alt:hover,body a.novashare-ctt.novashare-ctt-simple:hover{border-left:5px solid #008cc4}body a.novashare-ctt.novashare-ctt-simple .novashare-ctt-cta,body a.novashare-ctt.novashare-ctt-simple-alt .novashare-ctt-cta{color:#00abf0}body a.novashare-ctt.novashare-ctt-simple-alt:hover .novashare-ctt-cta,body a.novashare-ctt.novashare-ctt-simple:hover .novashare-ctt-cta{color:#008cc4}The right photo gallery plugin will make your images shine …and this list has everything you need to choose the right one for your site Click to Tweet

Summary

As is usually the case with WordPress plugins, there’s no one-size-fits-all recommendation for WordPress photo gallery plugins. If you want the quickest way to create beautiful galleries, Modula probably has the most user-friendly interface, while NextGEN and Envira Gallery are tied for a close second.

If you’re a photographer looking to display albums and maybe even sell your photos, you’ll be happier with something a little more heavy-duty like NextGEN Gallery or Envira Gallery. On the other hand, if you’re more concerned with finding a theme that fits your needs, you’ll want to put in the legwork to wade through all the various demos from WordPress photo gallery plugins.

We also suggest that you go through our list above and note the ones that have Gutenberg integrations. It’s incredible how much faster a Gutenberg block makes the gallery creation process. Other plugins will add this functionality in the future, but for now, we highly recommend considering the WordPress photo gallery plugins that already have it.

Overall, most of these WordPress photo gallery plugins are available for free, so you can play around with them for yourself and see how you like the templates and interface.

Now it’s your turn. Did we miss a great gallery plugin? Let us know about it in the comments!

The post 15 Best WordPress Photo Gallery Plugins (Compared With Examples) appeared first on Kinsta®.