In my last article, I looked at three of the biggest, most popular Gallery plugins for WordPress around, but that’s barely scratching the surface on the number of plugins actually available. To put it into perspective, my last search produced 46 pages of plugins.
So it makes sense to do another run-down of some of the lesser known plugins to see how they measure up to the big boys. I say lesser known, but these plugins still have popularity power with thousands of downloads each at a minimum; it’s just when you’re comparing that with the 10 million downloads that NextGEN Gallery has amassed even a million can seem unimpressive. I’ll be sticking to the criteria laid out in my last post here, so that means no low-rated or old plugins. Let’s see what’s in my bag of plugins, otherwise known as Google search.
Photo Gallery 1.2.2
The first of our gallery plugins is Photo Gallery, from the peeps at WebDorado. I’ve learned a few things about what to expect from the average gallery plugin over the course of testing the last three, so I’m expecting a button to be added the the TinyMCE editor that will let me add galleries wherever I link in my content, an option in the left menu of the dashboard with gallery options, or both.
A quick check after installation shows that there’s both a button in the editor and a new Photo Gallery has taken up residence at the bottom of the dashboard menu. There’s quite a few options here, but for the most part they are understandable; adding galleries, albums and tags etc…Like the other plugins I’ve tested there is a paid option for upgrades, but it is not so in your face as some of the other plugins. Do bear in mind that one of the most interesting options; Themes, is locked for premium users only. I’m sure the majority of beginner users like myself wouldn’t have a use for theming; the options are just too complex and wide-ranging. Still, it would’ve been nice to be able to have a go.
Adding the images that I’m going to use for my example gallery is easy as you’d expect; jump into the Add Galleries/Images option, where you’re presented with a pleasingly bare screen, and then click Add New to start building the gallery. It seems that idea of galleries together forming an album is the standard among gallery plugins, though it is a bit confusing for someone who isn’t yet familiar with the jargon (and there is a lot of it!).
The actual gallery creation is pretty darned flexible, and probably the most visually intuitive I’ve come across so far. Each field is clearly labelled and uses familiar WordPress terminology. The editor is available so you can add a description, and an obvious Add Images button makes things easier to track. There’s also an Add Video option that can be used to include your Youtube or Vimeo video in the gallery; you just paste the link to your video and it takes care of the rest.
Once it comes to adding images the interface falls apart a bit; it looks more like a basic file explorer, except you are limited to the specific folder that has been designated for the plugin’s images. There was no obvious way to grab an image from my media library, so instead I had to reupload my images via the plugin. Not a huge problem for the average new user, but I can see it being frustrating for some who’s just swapped over from another plugin; their images will need to be reuploaded or manually moved to the plugin’s directory.
Once the images were uploaded the rest of the creation process was easy; you select the images from the directory that you wish to use, and add them to the gallery. Once saved, the gallery can then be added to your posts or pages via the button in the editor. Which is very confusing at first, since clicking it opens a huge selection of options where you can define the type of gallery you want, and set the various display options; do you want it to be a slideshow, or a set of thumbnails? Add a transition effect, set the slideshow interval etc…You can also add music to the slideshow via a URL, or by uploading a music file on the options page.
There are tooltips for most of the options, but these are not always helpful for a beginner; selecting an image browser as my gallery style offers a Full Width Lightbox option. I have no idea what a lightbox is, or what full width means in this context. Checking the tooltip, I’m told that the option:
Enables full-width option for the lightbox.
I’m sure it does, but it doesn’t help me much! I know that I could spend a few minutes reading up on lightboxes online (and I did), but I feel that a plugin that wants to appeal to beginners should appreciate that they would rather avoid jumping to Google every few minutes. Still, this is a very, very minor issue compared to how clear the rest of the options are. Speaking of help, each page of the Photo Gallery option includes a link to the relevant section of the online user manual at the top of the screen, so on those occasions when you’re not sure how to proceed you can find answers quickly.
So how do the galleries look? Well, there are options for Image Viewer, Thumbnails and Slideshow for the basic gallery, with two more options for albums. There’s also a Masonry gallery, but this is only available with the premium version, so you’ll have to fork over some cash to get to play with that.
Check out these basic layouts and see what you think:
The basic slideshow functions well enough, but notice that the pagination looks a bit iffy when overlaid on a Youtube video, as in the above picture. For regular images, it looks just fine.
The thumbnail gallery is as you’d expect; simple small images that expand when clicked:
The box for the expanded images may be used with the other gallery styles too.
The image viewer layout looks very good for a basic layout, with descriptions and title displayed below and above the images; great if there’s a story to tell behind your photos.
Thoughts on Photo Gallery
Of the gallery plugins I’ve played with so far, I think Photo Gallery may be the most beginner-friendly, with clearly-labelled fields, tooltips for extra clarity (though they are not always that useful!), and links to the user guide available on every gallery-specific page of the backend. The image upload was a bit of a bother though, and the options displayed when inserting a gallery can be very daunting at first glance.
Video and music support is a plus, and it felt more natural to use than NextGEN Gallery, for example, as the button for adding video was embedded within the usual add gallery/image section rather than separated out.
Photo gallery also offers extra options such as tags, rather than limiting itself to galleries and albums. Overall, despite its relatively small number of downloads I think that this is a plugin definitely worthy of your time if you’re a beginner, and the theme functionality may make it something of interest for more experienced users too, though my knowledge is so lacking in this area that I don’t want to say one way or the other!
Gallery Bank
Next up is Gallery Bank, a plugin created by Tech Banker. The first impression after installing is that the plugin is designed to be user-friendly; a pop-up linking to the user guide for the plugin is provided as soon as I open the dashboard, and can be dismissed forever with a click.
This bodes well for the rest of the plugin. Checking the post screen I can see a Gallery Bank button which I presume will be for inserting the galleries via shortcodes, and there’s a menu item for the plugin in the dashboard. Clicking on it takes me to the plugin’s page, which immediately opens another popup with the first steps and links to guides to help you:
Very impressive! It’s great to see some developers highlighting such resources, as it will help beginners like myself appreciate the full range of what’s possible with the plugin, and know where to get help. Immediately after this I’m confused, because there doesn’t see to be a "Create Gallery" option, and that’s because there isn’t one. Yes, just as I was getting comfortable with galleries being the lowest level, followed by albums, someone comes along and calls their gallery an album. Except when you try to make an album, then they call it an album and a gallery on different parts of the page, with no real explanation about whether they are separate entities or one and the same.
The backend for the plugin looks great though; all the various options are split across multiple tabs, it’s big and clearly laid out with properly labelled buttons and fields; it really looks clear and intuitive, and at no point did I find myself overwhelmed by the options available. However, once I start building my albums things take a turn for the worse. Not because the interface is poor; it’s just as clear and usable as the main plugin page. The issue is just how much you are limited until you purchase the premium version.
As soon as you go to add a new gallery, a message at the top of the screen advises that you can only create a maximum of three albums/galleries; an amount which is surely too low for most users who aren’t just testing plugins like I am. This trend continues when checking the options; every option in the list is only available with the premium version, including basic things such as thumbnail size, or slideshow autoplay and interval. Given the extensive options available for free in many of the other plugins I’ve tested this limit seems excessive; so much so that the product shouldn’t really be advertised as free; who’s going to be satisfied with just three galleries?
The galleries themselves, however, look very good, with a professional sheen and aesthetically-pleasing pop-up when the images are clicked. However, again the premium monster rears its head, with only masonry and thumbnail gallery styles available by default.
Thoughts on Gallery Bank
My initial impressions were very high; the UI for adding and inserting galleries, getting information and the like were all well-designed and clear, but the severe restrictions make this plugin impossible to recommend unless you are willing to pay for the premium option, which unlocks the majority of the options.
The issue with this is that there are already several plugins that offer more than the basics without the cost; the Photo Gallery plugin covered above is perhaps not quite as well-designed as Gallery Bank, but you can get a lot out of the non-premium features, only forking out when you want an upgrade. Still, if you don’t mind paying, Gallery Bank has probably the best UI I’ve encountered so far, and you’ll likely find it easy to get things up and running.
One final note on Gallery Bank; the initial info popup after installation provides links to guides on getting started as well as the premium option, but it also mentions that they collect anonymous information from you. The link for more information just redirects to the forum, so I am not sure if they actually do collect user data, or if its an "opt-in" system, but you might want to double-check before committing to a purchase.
Easy Media Gallery
Easy Media Gallery is made by GhozyLab, whose website makes the bold claim that it is the "#1 Best Selling Gallery and Portfolio Plugin for WordPress." With downloads clearing 294,000, their performance is strong, if not ten million strong like NextGEN Gallery.
The first thing I notice after install is the large number of call to actions that are meant to encourage you to upgrade. Like with some of the other plugins I’ve tested, it’s not subtle, throwing out popups, buttons and frequent reminders about the features that you are missing, like creating galleries of more than one image.
In case you are wondering if that was a typo, let me reiterate: the free version will only allow you to create a media item that consists of a single image. You can, however, create multiple single image media items and then select which ones will be displayed on the post page. This does make creating a gallery an incredibly long-winded chore; instead of setting one title for the gallery and adding all your images, you must instead start by adding an image one at a time, with title, category assigned, image selected etc…just to get one gallery created.
I’ve said it before, but I am not against promoting upgrades and restricting features to encourage users to upgrade, but there is a limit to what can be considered reasonable. A free gallery plugin that doesn’t actually create galleries is one mother of a restriction that actually makes Gallery Bank look open by comparison.
Let’s cast this issue aside for a moment, and look at the functionality to see if considering an upgrade is a worthwhile option.
With no option to create a gallery in the menu of the plugin, getting started was a bit more stuttery than the other plugins on this list. It took me a little while to realize that the "Add New Media" option is in fact the "Add New Gallery" option, just without the multiple images. Once on this page, you can select or create a media category (this will help with display options later), upload images, or define a video or audio link if you want to display other media. There are link, Google Maps and Multiple Image options, but these are locked behind the paywall.
After adding an image and saving, I was confused over what to do next; since I couldn’t add more images to the gallery, I thought at first that it was not possible and you could literally only create a single-image gallery. However, after actually trying to add a gallery to a post, it became clear that you can select to display all images from a particular category in a gallery, or specify multiple galleries (or in this case, multiple single images).
The gallery that is created by this shortcode is functional, but nothing to write home about. There is a nice overlay hover effect that scrolls smoothly between the images as you roll the mouse over them, but clicking the image just causes a "Coming Soon" box to pop-up instead of the full-size image.
After checking the forums and trying out the fixes suggested by the developers I was unable to get this working; it appeared that the developers of the plugin had advised that this functionality only works on live sites, rather than test environments; quite a downer if you are someone who likes to give things a test away from the crowds beforehand.
Thoughts on Easy Media Gallery
Given the large number of downloads and above-average rating, I expected Easy Media Gallery to be an interesting alternative to the other gallery plugins I’ve looked at. However, the absolutely incredible amount of restrictions in the free version that limit "galleries" to a single image, video or audio file, as well as limited options and frequent upgrade adverts was just too much.
The interface itself was also the least intuitive of the lot; when adding a gallery for the first time it’s natural to look for the "Gallery" option, and the lack of one here made it rather hard to get to grips with what it wanted me to do to get the image working properly.
The actual galleries themselves are certainly not bad by any means, and the number of options seems extensive if not entirely clear. However, other plugins in this list offer better galleries and better functionality for free; in this case, the plugin is only worth downloading if you have every intention to purchase after checking out the feature list.
Huge IT Gallery
You might be wondering whether this gallery lets you display large monster clowns; the answer is no. The Huge IT name is just a reference to the company that made the plugin, so there’s no need to pack your slingshot just yet.
This plugin is one of the lesser-known options I came across in my search, with less than 20,000 downloads. However, this relatively low number is offset by the high rating that it’s users have given it, with the plugin sitting at a stunning 4.8 rating out of five on the repository. Reading through the description I can see that it claims to offer a couple of different thumbnail galleries and sliders, but there’s no mention of what restrictions there are for free users. Guess I’ll have to play with it to find out.
After install I see the usual; a button to add a gallery has been added to the editor, and a new option appears in the left menu of the dashboard that contains the options for adding galleries and changing options. The amount of sections here is very simple compared to some of the other tested plugins; just a Huge IT Gallery option for adding galleries, and two option sets; general and lightbox. There are also licensing and featured plugin sections, but I guess that they would only be of interest to users looking to buy or further extend WordPress, so we can safely ignore them.
Loading up the gallery page, there’s one test gallery already loaded, which is great for me since I can test modifying and inserting the gallery without using my boring stock photos. The gallery is even called "My First Gallery", which has been my go-to name throughout this testing process. Clicking on the test gallery, the interface shows that the Huge IT name isn’t purely figurative; the preview images are huge! The interface here is clear, a large preview of each image is on the left, and on the right of each image is the title and description boxes. There’s also a URL field, which looks like it can be used to make the image link to another page; this functionality was included in some of the other plugins, but it is clearly displayed here.
Another interesting difference from some of the other plugins I’ve tested is that gallery selection is made on the gallery page, rather than defined when placing the shortcode. In fact, the "Add Gallery" option in the editor literally amounts to a single drop-down box that lets you choose a gallery:
This simplicity seems purpose-built for beginner users; the basic settings for the gallery and images all appear on one page, and the basic method for inserting the gallery into the content limits confusion. The big image previews and large text fields when editing a gallery makes it obvious what each option does and limits frustration. However, this simplicity could also be a source of frustration as users progress in their ability. If a gallery contains a huge amount of images, then the larger screen real-estate that each image and its fields takes up would mean that a lot of scrolling would be required to check each image. Also, by limiting the choice of the type of gallery to the gallery’s page, it would apparently prevent the user from displaying the same gallery in multiple styles.
The General and Lightbox options cover a wide range of changes to the aesthetics of the galleries, but here is where I encounter the premium locks; without a paid license, none of the options can be accessed. Naturally, it’s necessary for the premium option to offer some benefits, and the options themselves are very clearly labelled and easy to follow, but it would have been nice to have a few options unlocked. Especially since even basic customization is locked; you can’t even decide to remove descriptions or link buttons from the basic gallery, nor change their text. This isn’t necessarily a problem, but some of the default link text isn’t standard e.g. the thumbnail link text is "View Picture", when "View Image" is more common and professional-sounding. If you’re willing to stump up the cash, then there’s color changes, widths, font sizes and colors, all with a clear layout but no tooltips for those who aren’t up to speed with the jargon.
Actually creating the gallery is simplicity itself thanks to the single-option insert button mentioned earlier, but here’s where things are not quite so smooth as the other areas. The basic gallery with content popup limits images to a particular ratio and arranges them vertically, which doesn’t take advantage of the available space and distorts any image that aren’t rectangular:
This could be easily changed in the options, but you can’t access them without paying. The popup overlay that appears when you click an image is much better, with the description displayed on the right and the image to the left. The "View More" button links to whichever URL you added to the image when adding it to the gallery, but since the text cannot be changed without paying you will be limited with where this can point:
The next gallery type is a content-slider, which displays the images much better than the first gallery type. However, the full description is displayed to the right of the image, which looks a bit silly with longer texts. I expect that some tweaking in the options would be a good idea here, but as a free user it’s not really possible. The hamburger icon will let you instantly jump to other images, or the lightbox opened when an image is clicked includes pagination too.
Next up is a lightbox gallery, which displays thumbnails and opens the image in a lightbox like the previous gallery when clicked. The gallery aligns images vertically again, which just doesn’t look right; having two or three images per row would be much better visually, but with no access to options it’s not possible to fiddle with the settings.
The next gallery option, slider, actually offers several options to change the size, animation and gallery position, so you at least have basic options available. This view is a great concept, with a slider, pagination and image description appearing at the bottom right, but it appears to be limited by the fixed width of the base WordPress theme, causing the slider images to be almost totally obscured by the description. I imagine that with most modern themes that have wider responsive layouts this type of gallery will look much better:
The final gallery type is a thumbnail view, which displays the images in a vertical layout, with a lightbox opening when clicked. The image list is bordered to make them stand out, so it’s a good way of separating the image gallery from the content of the post or page visually. Again, the vertical alignment looks a bit off, but with wider themes or access to the gallery settings it could look much better.
Thoughts on Huge IT Gallery
My initial impressions of this plugin were very good; the simplicity of the options and the basic shortcode insert button were very easy to understand. I felt that I could get things up and running without reading through any guides or other "primer" information.
The base galleries available seem like great concepts, but they do not work well with the standard WordPress themes, and the lack of basic layout options unless you are willing to part with some cash does make the plugin harder to recommend. If you are testing out plugins with a modern, premium theme then this plugin may be good to try; the basic lightbox and gallery layout were pretty, and with proper width I’m sure they will look even better.
Beyond that though, it really looks like a premium purchase is the only way to make the plugin completely viable, as you can then manually modify widths and heights to fit your needs. Still, if your theme makes the most of it, even the free version could be a worthwhile download.
That’s It!
And so we reach the end of another round of testing. This time around I’ve encountered far more restrictions on non-premium users than before, with some of the plugins severely limiting usage until payment is received, making the plugins worthless for the free user.
At the same time, I’ve run into some very clear, concise plugins that were easy to use and great alternative options to the big, popular gallery plugins that I looked at in the first part of these tests. In particular, the Photo Gallery plugin was easy to use and produced great results even for free users, and the Huge IT gallery had impressive production values that seem well-suited for modern, wide sites, though they did not work so well in the basic WordPress Twenty-Fourteen theme.
In future, I’ll be taking a look at how the plugins I’ve reviewed fare on a more modern layout, such as one of the themes offered by GavickPro, to see if their functionality is bolstered or weakened by the more succinct design premium themes bring with it. But for now, I hope you’ve enjoyed these tests, and if you have any plugins you think deserve a mention, drop them in the comments below!