Image Gallery Plugin Recommendation
As a follow up to my previous post WordPress Image Gallery Gotchas I thought I’d let you know what image gallery software I’m currently using. As you may recall, I tried combining Gallery2 (a full featured open source image gallery) with WPG2 (a WordPress plugin to place Gallery2 inside your blog) but I didn’t have much success so I began reconsidering my options.
I went to the WordPress Plugins page, then went to the Images Plugins section and browsed through all their offerings. Here’s my list of top contenders and my impression of each one:
- Lightbox JS [DEMO] : Fairly simple, didn’t see any gallery management features and the effect took a while to load on demo page.
- Inline Gallery [DEMO] : It’s quick, simple and basic, perhaps a little too basic, no thumbnail gallery display.
- NextGEN Gallery [DEMO] : The demo pages look good, has paged navigation, image management features (captioning etc.), presentation options various JS effects or SWF, middle click bypasses JS and opens in new window.
- PictPress [DEMO] : Link at WordPress.org is wrong, should go to the PictPress main page, nice solution integrates well with WordPress, no slide show, been in “beta” over a year but looks pretty solid.
- AWSOM Pixgallery [DEMO] : Integrates well with the blog, sort of odd that thumbnails open images in new blog page, then clicking image in blog page pops up a JS/AJAX image window, allows captioning of images in gallery.
- WP Highslide [DEMO] : Pretty slick, images expand in place, no gallery management features.
After a fair amount of consideration I decided NextGEN would be my “next” image gallery of choice. It does nearly all I want right out of the box plus a little more. It’s still being actively developed and judging by the download numbers at WordPress.org it appears to have a rather large user base as well. The variety of options provided for getting images into your gallery (FTP, ZIP file, etc.) and the plentiful yet refined administration panels make working with galleries a breeze. You can view my recent Tendril Gallery to see the results.
No one gallery can meet everyone’s needs, hopefully this post will help you make a more informed decision.
Comments(20)
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I’ve been looking for this for a week! (and halting production). Thank you thank you thank you.
Great stuff man.
Will do as recommended.
Thanks for the review. I was also looking at the NextGen plugin for a friend. Can you tell me what the options are if you’re actually hosting your WordPress blog at WordPress.com? Are they more restrictive about plugins? Will NextGen work there?
Great list, I’m a fan of NextGen / LB both classic galleries and integrate will with WP.
I have just released the first version of a WP plugin for fancy box (a jQuery Gallery plugin). If your interested, you can check it out/download on my blog
i was looking for a gallery for my website
now i think nextgen wud be suitable.
thankz
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Thanks very much for this post i was looking for a good gallery plugin i too have decided to go with the NextGen plugin.
I’ve also found it not so easy to find a light- weight gallery for WordPress,considering how many there seem to be.The problem is some plugins are too light and you end up making thumbs for days and some are too heavy and you end up building a factory when all you wanted was a hut…next gen is the closest thing to what I wanted.I wouldn’t say it’s easy to use but it is the nicest looking right out of the box that I have tried so far.It’s pretty unobtrusive and doesn’t mess with one’s theme.
[…] looking at various WordPress related pages, I decieded to use the NextGEN Gallery plugin. Though not perfect for my […]
Glad I could help.
Thanks, this was nice short overview of the various plugins. Once I saw the NextGen plugin in action on your Tendrils page (sweet) I decided that’s the one to use. I really like the AJAX effects.
Best, FM
[…] You could also upload pictures yourself to the blog and display them using any number of WordPress image gallery plugins. […]
I am switching my website (http://www.MiracleWed.com) from joomla to wordpress and was looking for a great image gallery management for wordpress. I didn’t expect to find what I want this quick.
Great reviews. Really useful for me and I pick the same plugin as yours.
All the best with your blog
Thanks for your entries about choosing a gallery for WordPress. I have tried WPG2 and Gallery2 with WordPress, but it was too painful to get working how I wanted it.
Based on your impression of NextGEN and examples of other galleries using it, I am also going to use it.