They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. But what if you have more than one or two pictures that you want you to share with your audience? Or maybe you’re a photographer, and you want to proudly showcase part of your portfolio on your website. As great as WordPress may be on its own, its greater strength comes from the incredible range of plugins and themes it can support. That’s how it became the CMS and framework of choice for so many different types of sites.
And yes, while the default installation of WordPress has gallery functionality, unless you’re only embedding an image here or there, you may find it inadequate. To further expand the visual appeal of your blog or website, consider adding one of the image gallery plugins listed below. That’s a good look.
NextGEN Gallery
The first name on this list is hardly a new name on any list. NextGEN Gallery has been around since 2007 and it continues to be one of the most popular WordPress gallery plugins.
You can use the free version to satisfy the majority of your needs, like batch uploading, rearranging photos, editing thumbnails and more. If you want to take things further, then you may choose to upgrade to the Plus or Pro versions. This unlocks additional image gallery options like mosaic galleries, masonry galleries, slideshow galleries, grid albums, lightboxes and more.
Modula
Billing itself as “the user-friendly WordPress photo gallery plugin,” Modula offers the interesting ability to resize images in your gallery freely. This makes it much easier for you emphasize some images over others.
Beyond the custom grid, expect drag-and-drop uploads, easy gallery previews, and the handy helper grid. A great feature is the ability to embed video galleries on your website too, including uploading your own video thumbnails, linking them to your videos on YouTube or Vimeo. Basic pricing starts at $29 with a 14 day money-back guarantee.
FooGallery
Don’t go pitying any fool with this WordPress plugin. FooGallery is offered both in free and paid version, facilitating your desire to create responsive image galleries. Choose from a number of gallery templates or create your own, organize your images using categories and tags, add pages to larger galleries, reorder images with drag-and-drop functionality, and integrate with FooBox for lightboxes too.
The pro version starts at $49.
Jetpack
Chances are that you’re already using Jetpack on your WordPress blog. It’s a plugin that is used for a wide variety of purposes, like publicizing your content across social media or integrating with VaultPress automatic backups. But did you know that you can use Jetpack for better image galleries on your blog too?
While it may not be quite as robust as some of these other plugins, it’s something you’re already using, making for a simpler workflow. You can utilize tiled galleries in your choice of tiles, squares and even circles. And it’s free.
Justified Image Grid
Last but not least, we have the Justified Image Grid from Belcovio. It’s offered through Codecanyon for $27 for the regular license. With around 20,000 lifetime sales and an overall five-star rating from over 1,600 users, this premium WordPress gallery plugin comes highly recommended.
Pull images not only from WordPress, but also WooCommerce, Facebook, RSS, YouTube and more. Galleries are responsive and images retain their original aspect ratio without cropping.