The Five Best WordPress Photo Gallery Plugins

Whether you’re building a business website or looking to share your favorite candid shots, you need a way to organize and show off your photos. A WordPress photo gallery plugin is your one-stop shop for uploading, organizing, publishing, and sharing your albums.

The best part is that you don’t need a web designer to create stunning online galleries.

Here are five recommended WordPress photo gallery plugins for your consideration.

NextGEN Gallery

With more than one million active installations, NextGEN Gallery is one of the most popular gallery plugins out there.

Like other gallery plugins, NextGEN allows you to create slideshow and thumbnail galleries, but what really sets it apart is its ability to group your galleries together into albums.

If you’re a real estate agent and want to group images of certain houses (or neighborhoods) together, this option might be your best bet.

Envira Gallery

Another popular plugin, Envira Gallery, offers the functionality that one might expect, but also boasts many unique customization features.

It displays a responsive photo gallery that you can easily insert into any post, page, or widget; however, its most distinguishable characteristic is its speed.

Page speed is important for both search engine optimization and user experiences, so take that into consideration when selecting your photo gallery plugin.

Photo Gallery by WD

One limitation of many WordPress gallery plugins is that they don’t natively support sharing on social media, but this isn’t the case with Photo Gallery by WD.

In addition to social sharing buttons, Photo Gallery by WD also offers a built-in watermarks feature for those who’d like to add a layer of protection to their photos.

If you work in a field that relies heavily on social media to attract new clients (such as stylists, physical trainers, and graphic artists), then you can’t go wrong with this plugin.

Portfolio Gallery

Responsive and built for portfolio organization, this option allows you to incorporate details (almost like a miniature blog post) within each gallery image.

This is a great option if you want to keep text on your main site to a minimum, or if your images could benefit from descriptions (like they would in photojournalism or in product photography).

WP Photo Album Plus

If you’re looking for an option that allows your visitors to comment on or rate your photos, this is the plugin for you.

WP Photo Album Plus lets users interact with others viewing your photos, making this a great tool if you have a restaurant or food blog, or if you post anything that might benefit from engagement and feedback.

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