As great as they can be, poorly designed sliders can leave your visitors with a worse impression of your site. As a result, it is important to be careful when it comes to choosing the plugin. To help with that, we are going to go through some of the best plugins below, both free and premium.
The free plugins below have everything necessary to build effective slideshows. If you are looking for advanced features, you can also turn to the premium ones. Hopefully, you will be able to make an informed decision and select the best WordPress slideshow plugin for you in the end.
Why use a WordPress Slideshow Plugin?
Properly used images can be used to capture the attention of the viewers in a way that is not possible with text. In fact, research has shown that people can process entire images in as little time as 13 milliseconds. As the old saying goes, it is better to show than to tell and slideshows are a tried and true method of showing things in an interesting way.
Although commonly used for images, slideshows can be used to present all kinds of content including videos, text, shortcodes, and even HTML blocks. By presenting them in a dynamic way, it will automatically attract the attention of your visitors.
- Well designed slideshows can engage your visitors.
- They are a great way to emphasize featured posts.
- Slideshows consolidate the images into a single area.
- They allow your visitors to control the content they see.
As you can see, there are a lot of reasons to have slideshows for your website. Now without further ado, let us take a look at the best slideshow plugins around.
10 of the Best WordPress Slideshow Plugins
1. Metaslider
Metaslider is a lightweight and user-friendly slideshow plugin that is also SEO Optimized. It is a fantastic option for those who just want to create slideshows without any extra fanfare. Although lighter in features compared some of the other plugins, it makes up for it makes up for it with its interface. It is clean and intuitive enough that anyone can easily figure it out. With, its intelligent image cropping and drag-and-drop reordering, it is extremely easy to set up your slideshow.
While certainly lightweight, Metaslider is definitely not lacking in important features. It has a lot of options that can be used to create impressive looking slideshows, especially for a free plugin. You have the choice of four sliders to pick from, including Flex Slider, Responsive Slides, Nivo Slider, and Coin Slider. Metaslider is also compatible with Gutenberg, WooCommerce, WMPL, and Event Calendar. As it also pays special attention to the SEO of your images, your website will perform better on search results. There is also a premium version of this plugin available which comes with even more features.
Key Features:
- Easy and intuitive to use
- Designed to be Gutenberg compatible
- Integrated with popular plugins including WMPL and WooCommerce
- Contains 4 types of sliders.
- Developer friendly
- SEO optimized
2. Crelly Slider
Crelly slider is another free Slideshow plugin that is easy to use with a clean interface. Unlike a lot of other free WordPress slideshow plugins, it also comes with a ton of features. Not only can use add Text and Images for your slideshow, but it also supports Youtube and Vimeo videos. Furthermore, all of them can easily be organized using its Drag-and-Drop builder. It is all very easy and requires absolutely no coding knowledge whatsoever. You can also speed up your site by selecting this clean, lightweight and well-coded plugin instead of the many bloated alternatives.
Crelly Slider also allows you to individually customize each slide as well. You can pick the entrance animation, exit animation, ease in time, ease out time, and even Custom CSS. Everything you create using this plugin will be fully responsive on all devices. You can even pick between fixed and full-width layouts. Furthermore, Crelly Slider also comes with a guarantee of cross-browser compatibility.
Key Features
- User-Friendly Admin Panel
- Drag and Drop Builder
- Transitions & Animations
- Completely Responsive
- High Cross Browser Compatibility
- Full & Fixed Width Modes
3. Smart Slider 3
Smart Slider 3 is a powerful slideshow plugin which was designed to be fully responsive, SEO optimized, and work on any WordPress theme. With its interface, you can build slideshows without having to bother with coding. Smart Slider 3 allows you to create slides with the freedom and ease that is reminiscent of page builders. To make matters even easier, it also comes with a library of sample slideshows that can easily be imported and customized to your liking.
This fantastic plugin offers you a ton of features to play around with. You can make your slides interesting with unique layouts, layers, animation, and more. It also features two different types of slide builders so that you can pick the one you’re more comfortable with. Furthermore, every change you make can be previewed in real time. The slideshows you create with this plugin can also be imported and exported easily.
Key Features:
- Live slide editor
- Unique Layouts with Layers
- Responsive, Mobile Ready Sliders
- Beautiful Sliders to Start
- Page Builder support
- Import and Export sliders
4. Slider by 10Web
Slider by 10Web is the go-to choice for anyone looking to just create beautiful slideshows without bothering with any bells and whistles. This versatile plugin allows you to create fast loading and responsive sliders with support for an unlimited amount of images as well as videos. If you want to add your own improvements, Slider by 10Web also supports Custom CSS. You can spice up your slideshow even further with music, timer bar, watermark, bullets, etc. It is all extremely easy with this no-nonsense plugin.
While lightweight in terms of features compared to the other items in this list, Slider by 10Web makes up for it by being straightforward and intuitive to use. If you just want to build simple slideshows easily without having to navigate complex menus and features. It contains everything you need for a simple slideshow and allows you to upgrade to the premium version if you want additional features.
Key Features:
- Better user experience
- Easy to set up, use and customize
- Timely and effective support to all users.
- Unlimited number of sliders
- Text and image watermarks
- Fast and responsive sliders
5. Slide Anything
Slide Anything is another slideshow plugin which focuses on being simple and effective. This plugin allows you to create slideshows and carousels containing images, text, HTML, shortcodes, etc that are beautiful and responsive. You can also add effects like slide, fade, zoom in/out, rotate, bounce, etc to bring your slideshow to life.
Due to its touch and drag support, it is extremely simple to customize your slides, even on mobile. It even lets you set the number of items to be displayed at once for each device. Slide Anything also comes with Lazy Load feature to help boost the speed of your website. Furthermore, it also utilizes hardware acceleration with CSS3 Translate3d transitions. As a result, this plugin runs smooth and lightning fast on modern browsers. It might not be loaded with features but it is lightweight and effective.
Key Features
- Touch and Drag Support
- Fully Responsive
- Supports text, images, HTML, and shortcodes.
- Lazy Load Images
- Infinite Looping
- Interesting Transition Effects
6. Slider by Soliloquy
Slider by Soliloquy is a slideshow plugin that manages to strike a nice balance between powerful features and ease of use. You can create beautiful looking as well as responsive sliders in no time at all with its drag and drop builder. The creators of the plugin put a high emphasis on user experience. As a result, Slider by Soliloquy is very smooth and beginner-friendly to use. One thing that makes this plugin stand out among the other WordPress slideshow plugins is the ability to set just how much screen readers should prioritize the updates to the slideshow.
The plugin is also optimized to be SEO friendly and features proper HTML markups and high loading speed. In fact, Soliloquy was specifically designed to be lightning fast so that your site will leave a better impression on your visitors. In addition to all that, there is a premium version that further improves its functionality. There are also more than 10 addons in you want to add more additional features such as carousel, lightbox, custom CSS, and much more.
Key Features
- Drag & Drop Responsive Builder
- Mobile responsive
- SEO Friendly
- Optimized for Speed
- Fully compatible with WordPress MultiSite
- Touch swipe support for touch-enabled devices
7. Slider by Supsystic
If you are looking for an easy to use slider plugin that can create simple slideshows in no time, look no further than Slider by Supsystic. While other WordPress slideshow plugins might provide you with different options, this one tries to focus on ease of use and speed. It has a well-designed UI that makes it extremely easy to set captions, reorder slides, crop images, add links, and even add the alt tag. It won’t even take a minute to create an SEO optimized slideshow, complete with attractive transitions.
This plugin also allows you to choose between CoinSlider and BxSlider for your slideshow. It isn’t just loaded with features that might never get used. Instead, it provides you with all the tools that you could need to create functional slideshows. Although it lacks layers and complex transitions, you will still be able to have smooth and effective slideshows for your website.
Key Features
- Responsive image slider
- Stunning slideshow themes
- Easy to use slider builder interface
- Adding Slider with Shortcode
- Content Slider
- Thumbnails Slider
8. LayerSlider
LayerSlider is a premium slider plugin that has managed to become quite popular. As it is a premium plugin, it comes with a ton of features and allows you to configure every little aspect of your slider. This plugin is amazingly versatile compared to the competition. You can create not just slideshows and galleries but landing pages, page blocks and even entire webpages. It contains over 200 predefined slide transitions as well as other dynamic content to make your slideshows even more striking.
In spite of its complexity, it is actually quite easy to use LayerSlider. It comes with a very well-designed its interface after all. With the drag-and-drop visual editor, you don’t need any kind of technical knowledge. It even comes with a constantly growing collection of template slideshows that can easily be imported. You will also have access to fantastic support as well as constant updates with LayerSlider. As you can see, there are a lot of important advantages of choosing a great premium plugin.
Key Features
- Pre-built templates
- Drag-and-drop visual editor
- Any post type.
- Responsive design
- Easy image editing
- SEO friendly
9. Slider Revolution
Slider Revolution is one of the best WordPress slideshow plugins around. It can allow you to build amazing sliders with a stunning amount of complexity. With this premium plugin, you can add images, videos, text, shortcodes, buttons, and even HTML content to your slides. For each slide, there is an unlimited number of layers that can be added with separate animation for each layer. It can all come together to create some amazing looking slideshows that are guaranteed to draw the attention of your visitors. You will even be able to create one-page websites using this plugin.
Even though it has a lot of features, Slider Revolution manages to keep things simple and user-friendly to use. Not only does it not require any coding knowledge, but it also comes with many pre-made templates. It’s drag-and-drop builder also ensures that creating slideshows and easy and intuitive. Slider Revolution is also optimized for performance with intelligent LazyLoading, SEO optimization, and loaded core file size that automatically scales with the used features. Furthermore, this plugin is regularly audited to ensure that it remains secure.
Key Features
- Lots of sample slideshows included
- No Coding Knowledge necessary
- Drag & Drop Visual Slider Building.
- Text, Image, Video, Shortcode, HTML Content Layers
- Full Control over Styles, Animations, Transitions
- Optimized for Performance
10. Royal Slider
Royal Slider is a premium WordPress plugin that boasts a well-designed code as well as a ton of useful features. With this plugin, it is trivially easy to add images, videos, HTML, text, and shortcodes to your slideshow. In fact, it even allows you to import your photos directly from Instagram, Flickr, or 500px. Unlike many of the other WordPress slideshow plugins, this was coded with speed, stability, and performance in mind instead of just features. Your visitors will be able to see your beautiful slideshows regardless of browser or device.
Advanced users will be able to get even more out of Royal Slider. This plugin also supports animated HTML blocks if you want to get even more fancy with your slideshows. You can also find an impressive amount of customization options within this plugin, with 50+ js options, 4 skins with photoshop files, 9 pre-built templates. Furthermore, it even allows you to use CSS to customize everything to your liking.
Key Features
- Touch-friendly and responsive
- Super customizable
- Semantic and SEO friendly
- Smart Autoplay and lazy-loading
- Animated Blocks
- Native Fullscreen
- Auto image scaling
Wrapping it up:
To conclude, these are the best WordPress slideshow plugins that are available right now. If you are an advanced user, some of these plugins allow you to customize every little detail of your slideshows. If you aren’t interested in that and just want a clean interface where you can create slideshows just a few clicks, then this list has you covered as well. You have many fantastic options to choose from, each with their own strengths.
Depending on your needs, you can simply install a free WordPress slideshow plugin or go for a premium one. With the right plugin, you can include attractive looking slideshows for your WordPress site in no time at all. We hope you found this article helpful. If you have any suggestions, please let us know in the comment section.
