22 Best Slider Plugins for a Beautiful WordPress Site [+ Comparison Chart]

If you’re looking for ways to improve the visitor experience on your site, consider using a WordPress plugin. For example, solutions such as WordPress slider plugins not only help highlight the main content on a page — they also display it in a visually appealing and interactive format.

Even better? Using a slider plugin isn’t hard. Below, we’ve curated the best slider plugins available right now, so you can find one that works seamlessly with your theme.

While many WordPress themes come with some level of slider functionality, you may have to consider additional options to achieve the right look and feel for your website.

What is a slider in WordPress?

A slider is a web page component that displays a slideshow of images and videos. Sliders display one item at a time, and can be set to transition automatically and/or with user input. Sliders can be placed just about anywhere on a WordPress website. To add one to your site, you can use a free or a premium WordPress slider plugin.

While slider plugins can make it easy to share a lot of information in a neat package, they can also negatively impact page load speed and mobile responsiveness if not configured properly.

What to Look For in a WordPress Slider Plugin

Here are a few things you should look for when picking a WordPress slider plugin.

Layouts and Designs

Not every slider plugin will come with the same types of sliders. Some may let you only create simple image sliders, while others may give you an array of options when it comes to layout and design.

Some popular WordPress slider types are carousel sliders, video sliders, post sliders, and product sliders. Each one has its own unique features and serves a different purpose for your website.

Customization

Similar to the point above, not every slider will give you the same options for customization. While some will be flexible and will let you edit almost every detail, others will be more rigid and provide you with premade designs.

Ease of Use

If you’re an expert webmaster or WordPress whiz, you might opt for a slider that’s a bit more advanced. These sliders are likely built with shortcodes and require some coding knowledge to customize.

In contrast, if you’re new to web development, you might look for a slider with drag-and-drop capabilities. This will make it easier to build an image slider that fits your specific needs.

Responsiveness

Remember, people aren’t just looking at your site on a desktop computer. A lot of people are looking at it on their mobile devices, too. This means you’ll need a slider that’s responsive and will render appropriately no matter what type of browser or device is being used.

Price

Last, but certainly not least, price is an important factor to consider when choosing a WordPress slider plugin. Some will be free, while others will charge you for premium features.

If you’re on a bit of a budget — or just looking for a high-quality WordPress slider — take a look at the list we compiled below and pick a slider that will give you the biggest bang for your buck.

Best Slider Plugins for WordPress

There are dozens of WordPress slider plugins available in the official WordPress directory and third-party sites. Each offers a different selection of features that make them better suited for certain types of websites.

To help you find the right plugin for your site, we’ve compiled a list of 22 WordPress slider plugins. Below, we’ll take a close look at each option.

Plugin

Price

Why We Recommend

Slider Revolution

$29 per year for one site

Popular and feature-heavy

Depicter

Free

Powerful & easy-to-use

LayerSlider

$25 for one site

Popular and feature-heavy

MetaSlider

$31.60 per year for one site

Ease-of-use and range of style options

Smart Slider

$49 for one site (free version also available)

An easily customizable non-WYSIWYG option

RoyalSlider

$23

A high-quality one-time payment option

Social Slider Widget PRO

$29 per year for three sites (or $89 for a lifetime subscription)

Easy Instagram slideshows

Ultimate Responsive Image Slider

Free

A quality free alternative

Soliloquy

$13 per year for one site

Variety of slider display types and filters

Crelly Slider

Free

Free and developer-friendly

Master Slider

$34

Text and image layering

Slider by 10Web

$20 for one site

Low-cost and a wide range of effects

WP Responsive Recent Post Slider

Free, with paid plans available

A quality free option for recent post sliders

WP Logo Showcase Responsive Slider

Free, with paid plans available

A quality free option for logo sliders

GS Logo Slider

$30 per year for one site

A go-to choice for logo sliders

WP Testimonial Slider & Showcase Pro

$17 per year for one site

Easily customizable option for testimonial sliders

WordPress Carousel

Free, with paid plans available

A free option for post and product carousels

WordPress Slider Plugin by Supsystic

$46 per year for one site (free version also available)

A powerful, feature heavy premium plugin

Theia Post Slider for WordPress

$29 per year for one website

A post slider plugin with Ajax capability

SlideDeck

$25 per year for one website

Ability to import image files from multiple sources

PickPlugins Product Slider for WooCommerce

Free, with premium plans available

Woocommerce compatibility

WOW Slider

Free

A quality free alternative

Price: $29 per year for one website

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If you use premium WordPress themes for your projects, you’ve probably already heard about the Slider Revolution plugin. It’s one of the most popular and widely used slider plugins for WordPress. Offering a wide selection of high-quality features, it also claims to be the most powerful WordPress slider builder.

With this plugin, you can easily create responsive full-width and full-screen slideshows using Slider Revolution’s powerful administrative backend and easy-to-use visual slider. It also comes with transition animation styles so you can add captions to your slider and make edits as needed.

One downside of this plugin’s rich versatility and power is its poor loading speed — Slider Revolution’s own website demonstrates how using its slider can take a toll on load times, which is an important search ranking factor for Google.

However, that may be a small price to pay for more than 200 beautiful templates, cutting-edge designs, and ease of customization, but it’s something you should consider before deciding on a WordPress slider plugin.

Pro tip: Using Slider Revolution effectively is all about balancing power and performance. If you have a compelling image or media set that could make or break your brand, slower loading times may be a worthwhile tradeoff. If your images are more decorative than essential, meanwhile, a simpler plugin may be your best choice.

Price: Free

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Depictor is a powerful, easy-to-use plugin for WordPress that allows anyone to create beautifully animated site elements with zero coding required. Using Depictor, you can build an elegant slider from scratch or use one of the professionally built templates available for free in the Depictor library.

As a user, you’ll have complete control over every aspect of your sliders’ design and animation, all without having to code anything. You can customize everything from a slider’s transitions to its colors and fonts using effortless drag-and-drop controls, then publish it as easily as you’d publish a blog post. Once your slider is published, it will be responsive on every device—this means no more clunky animations consuming half the screen on mobile devices!

Pro Tip: You can use Depictor sliders to display testimonials, show off products or services, or share inspiring quotes.

Price: $25 for one website

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LayerSlider is a high-quality, responsive WordPress slider plugin that offers easy-to-manage, highly customizable options and a range of useful templates.

This slider plugin offers more than 200 preset 2D and 3D slide transitions, an easy-to-use drag-and-drop slider builder, real-time previews, a timeline view, Google Fonts, and a transition builder for custom animations.

This plugin also comes with built-in lazy load options that will ensure that your slider doesn’t affect the loading time of your site. There are 13 built-in skins you can use for your sliders and three navigation styles, as well as multiple slider styles to choose from.

Pro tip: There’s a whole lot to like about LayerSlider. It’s cost-effective, easy to use, and minimally impactful on your load speed. The only potential drawback? It’s outpaced by other plugins on this list when it comes to the sheer number of slider skins and options, making it a solid overall choice that falls slightly short when it comes to customization.

Price: $31.60 per year for one site

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MetaSlider is widely used because it offers an easy option to create a beautiful slider with images directly from your WordPress media library. Just drag and drop the images you want to add to the slider section, then insert your link and SEO settings for each image.

You can use the provided shortcode or template to easily embed slideshows on pages and posts. And, this WordPress slider plugin gives you the option to preview slides before you make them live on your website so you can test around as much as you want to get the exact look you’re searching for.

MetaSlider offers a variety of effects and slider styles to choose from. For example, you can create video slides, layer slides, product slides, and carousel slides. Each one is easy to build and works seamlessly with the Gutenberg block editor.

Pro tip: MetaSlider is easy to use and lets you preview slides before they go live on your site. The seamless Gutenberg integration is also a plus. But at more than $30 per year, per site, it’s more costly than more robust alternatives such as SliderRevolution.

Price: $49 for one site (free version also available)

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Smart Slider is an easy-to-use and intuitive WordPress slider plugin that lets you work with multiple layers on a simple drag-and-drop interface. It’s not a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) type of plugin, but it does let you preview your content before it’s published with the click of a button.

With Smart Slider, you can quickly set up responsive sliders that include videos from YouTube and Vimeo. You can also use custom fonts, styles, and navigation to create unique sliders and configure the details to change with each slide and layer.

Smart Slider has a touch-friendly design, multiple slider controls for styles and positions, and autoplay configurations. It even allows you to import sliders created externally.

Pro tip: Support for touchscreen devices and the ability to import your own sliders set Smart Slider apart from other choices on this list. However, this plugin has a steeper learning curve than some of its competitors, since you’re working with multiple layers simultaneously to create the ideal outcome.

Price: $23

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RoyalSlider is a high-performing WordPress slider plugin that was coded to be SEO-friendly. But don’t worry — you don’t need to touch the code to make one. Both feature-rich and performance-oriented, RoyalSlider will help you create a modern slider that will take your site’s design to new heights.

You can populate data from Flickr, 500px, or Instagram to fill your slider, and add a featured image from your blog posts or WooCommerce store.

RoyalSlider supports YouTube or Vimeo videos, allowing you to create video galleries. The smart lazy loading feature will ensure that your website is never slowed down by these sliders, and you can add multiple sliders on one page.

Pro tip: RoyalSlider ranks highly among our list of WordPress slider plugins, and with good reason. Support for video galleries and the ability to populate images from multiple sources makes this plugin stand out. The only small caveat? With so many features, it’s easy to get overwhelmed upfront.

Price: $29 per year for three sites (or $89 for a lifetime subscription)

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The Social Slider Widget PRO lets you display Instagram feeds anywhere on your WordPress site using shortcodes. You don’t need authorization, therefore there’s no need for an API key. All you have to do is enter a username and the results will be displayed.

It’s easy to set up and customize the layout. You can set the size, number, and spacing of images and columns. Images can be displayed in thumbnails or full form. The design is also mobile-ready to ensure a great view across all devices.

While you can get access to user data without authorization, make sure you know the limitations Instagram sets for showing feeds without it.

Pro tip: This plugin is all about social sharing from Instagram, and the $89 price tag for a lifetime subscription may be worth it if social images are central to your brand. Worth noting? Although you don’t need authorization to access Instagram user image feeds, you may not be able to leverage their full library — meaning there may be cases where it makes more sense to reach out and connect with Instagram creators directly for permission and authorization.

Price: Free

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As its name suggests, Ultimate Responsive Image Slider is a responsive photo slider plugin beloved by bloggers on WordPress. With this free plugin, you can add an unlimited number of slides to one slider using the multiple image uploader.

Ultimate Responsive Image Slider has a simple drag-and-drop interface so site owners at all skills levels can use it without needing to code. It also works across all major browsers and operating systems.

Ultimate Responsive Image Slider is an SEO-friendly slider that allows you to set an alternate tag for each image. Customization options include slider distance, thumbnail width and height, and thumbnail position.

Pro tip: This slider plugin has a lot going for it — it’s free, easy to use, and has a host of customization options. The only potential concern here stems from the unlimited upload capacity; add too many images to your slider and your site slows down, no matter the plugin you’re using.

Price: $13 per year for one site

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Soliloquy is a robust and popular slider plugin for WordPress. It offers a range of unique features in addition to its drag-and-drop functionality. One notable feature is its image carousel that rotates the pictures in your slider as users click through them.

This plugin comes with over 100 configurable hooks and filters that you can use to create a slider of any type. Soliloquy is also fast, with lightweight code that is SEO-friendly without compromising page speed.

Additional features for this plugin include image thumbnails, lightboxes, and a responsive, mobile-friendly design. There’s also a WooCommerce integration so you can create stunning product sliders for your online store.

Pro tip: Soliloquy is a cost-effective WordPress slider plugin that’s lightweight and easy to use, while its carousel function lets you add user interactivity. The caveat? If you select soliloquy as your plugin of choice, opt for the paid version — user reviews agree that the free version doesn’t offer much in terms of functionality.

Price: Free

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Many WordPress slider plugins have integrated element animations — similar to those you’d find on PowerPoint. Crelly Slider was among the first WordPress plugins to use this feature. This free and open-source plugin was designed with ease of use as a top priority and takes very little time to install.

Without any coding skills, you can use the drag-and-drop interface to set up and customize page backgrounds and add transition effects. All of the elements are fully responsive, so you don’t have to worry about designing a look that works for both mobile and desktop views — Crelly Slider does this automatically for you.

Crelly Slider is also compatible with iOS and Android browsers and devices, and is accessible to developers who want to extend the tool’s functionality. So, no matter what device your visitors are using, your site will look how you want it to.

Pro tip: Mobile compatibility and integrated animations — plus the low, low price of free — make Crelly Slider a solid choice for your site. Reviews are overwhelmingly positive; some of the only concerns noted are that the plugin occasionally overrides user element placements.

Price: $34

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Master Slider is among the most popular WordPress slider plugins. It’s a responsive, high-quality tool, and it offers a number of great features as well as dozens of ready-to-use templates.

What really sets Master Slider apart from other slider plugins on this list is its ability to add HTML content in layers. That way, you can add text and images over your sliders for added customization.

You can also use this WordPress slider plugin to create a full-screen slider with a video background. This helps you create an eye-popping web page with several interactive elements on it that visitors will stay engaged with.

Pro tip: Master Slider lets you create multiple HTML layers, making this a truly unique WordPress slider plugin. With a one-time payment of $34, it’s also a cost-effective option for site developers. Based on reviews, however, support for issues can be hit-or-miss, so users may need to find workarounds online or on their own if problems occur.

Price: $20 for one site

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Slider by 10Web is powerful, responsive, and will help you build beautiful sliders for your website. It’s great for adding mobile-ready sliders to any web page and you can add a slider to multiple pages at once.

This plugin supports YouTube and Vimeo and offers a large library of custom effects that you can apply to make your slides unique. For example, one cool effect is the parallax slider where elements within the slider will move towards or away from your mouse cursor.

There’s more than one way to create a slider with 10Web. For instance, you can add images to your project through WordPress or an external image URL. You can also use a shortcode to add sliders to your pages rather than WordPress galleries.

Other custom features include watermark, block download, and design customization. Slider by 10Web has a premium version that offers additional benefits, including more than 25 transition and layer effects.

Pro tip: Adding mobile-ready sliders to more than one page at once offers significant time savings, and at just $10 per site, Slider by 10Web is a solid choice for site owners. While there is a free version of this plugin, it offers substantially limited functionality, so we recommend going for the premium plan.

Price: Free, with paid plans available

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The WP Responsive Recent Post Slider is a great plugin for helping website visitors easily find and click on your most recent posts. While there is some coding involved with this plugin, it can be used by anyone from beginner WordPress users to expert webmasters.

To add a post slider, you just have to configure the shortcode. This WordPress slider plugin offers a post carousel and four unique designs to improve the look and feel of your sliders.

You can also dictate how many posts you want your slider to show and how fast the carousel will rotate. You can hide certain posts that you don’t want to highlight and you can display information like author name, publish date, and more for each slide.

Pro tip: This plugin makes it easy for visitors to find new content that keeps them engaged with your site — but compared to other plugins on our list, it requires more technical knowledge to make best use of its slider features. If you’re comfortable with shortcodes, the WP Responsive Recent Post Slider is a great choice. If no-code is your go-to, opt for another slider solution.

Price: Free, with paid plans available

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Built by the same folks who designed the last plugin, this slider plugin helps you create logo sliders for your web pages.

But, why logos and not images?

Well, if you’d like to showcase major customers or partners on your website, you can do so with a slider instead of static images. WP Logo Showcase Responsive Slider helps you do this by creating interactive, attention-grabbing slider modules that are designed specifically for logos.

Whether you’re a freelancer, consultant, event organizer, ecommerce store owner, or non-profit organization, displaying social proof is an important aspect of influencing others to work with you.

Pro tip: WP Logo Showcase is — as the name makes clear — all about logos. If you need a slider plugin that lets you quickly compile a logo list of brands you’ve worked with, WP Logo Showcase is a great choice. If photos are your priority, this slider plugin is a no-go.

Price: $30 per year for one site

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GS Logo Slider is another WordPress logo slider plugin. It’s lightweight and will not slow down your site, but it’s also robust enough to perform the task at hand.

If you’re an agency, freelance photographer, or creative professional, it’s a great tool for showing potential customers and partners the clients you’ve worked with. Ecommerce websites might also make use of GS Logo Slider to display the brands they carry in their store.

The plugin is responsive, easy to use, and compatible with any WordPress theme. It comes with over 24 different themes and works seamlessly alongside the Gutenberg block editor.

Pro tip: This lightweight plugin is designed to display company logos without slowing down your site. Multiple themes and Gutenberg support are great additions, but for $30 per year per site, it’s worth doing the math to see if you have enough logos to display to make this worth your while.

Price: $17 per year for one site

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If you’d like to improve customer trust in your brand, add testimonials to your site using the WP Testimonial Slider & Showcase Pro plugin. This nifty WordPress slider plugin does all the work for you, displaying a slider or grid layout of customer testimonials and reviews in a beautiful, modern design.

Testimonial Slider is completely responsive, working seamlessly across all screen sizes. It’s very customizable and allows you to create unlimited shortcodes, set color, specify the number of testimonials displayed per row, and add pagination.

You can also display testimonials at strategic points across your website to make them more visible to potential customers. This is possible because Testimonial Slider also supports widgets.

Pro tip: Testimonial Slider lets you insert customer reviews and accolades across your website, and is an affordable choice at just $17 per year per site. Easy to use, this plugin makes adding testimonials to your website easy and simple.

Price: Free, with paid plans available

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WordPress Carousel gives you more than just a simple carousel image slider. With this plugin, you can create post carousels and product carousels as well.

Post carousels show the latest posts that you published to your website or blog. These slides contain the name of the post, the author, the publish date, and a thumbnail image.

Product carousels highlight different products available in your online store. This feature uses WooCommerce and lets you add the product name, its price, and an image of the product to each slide. You can also install an “add to cart” button so viewers can instantly add the product to their shopping cart then continue browsing through your store.

Pro tip: With support for both product and post carousels, WordPress Carousel lets you combine content and conversion elements, while its WooCommerce integration makes it easier for prospective buyers to complete the sale. To effectively use the plugin, we recommend finding a balance between compelling content and product placement.

Price: $46 per year for one website (free version also available)

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The WordPress Slideshow Plugin by Supsystic is an easy-to-use, fully responsive WordPress slider plugin that helps you create and display professional-looking slides for your images and blog content.

To add sliders, simply select the images or content you want to add and enter their title and description. You can then decide if you want them to appear as a post feed slider, a video slider, or a carousel.

The main features of Supsystic’s slider plugin are a drag-and-drop interface, custom themes, shortcode support, caption support, and thumbnails slider. The pro version gives you additional features including carousels, video, HTML layers, and post feeds.

Pro tip: Drag-and-drop support plus great customization makes the WordPress Slideshow Plugin a standout on our list — if you need something this robust. At $46 per year per site, cheaper options may better fit the bill if you’re just getting started with sliders.

Price: $29 per year for one website

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You can add sliders to your pages, multi-page posts, and WooCommerce product descriptions using Theia Post Slider.

There are more than 200 slider themes and four transition effects to choose from. You can add headers and titles to your slides and the interface offers a live preview to check out your design before publishing.

Some additional features include unique slide URLs as well as AJAX and preloading for speed optimization. This helps with SEO because users don’t have to reload pages whenever an event is triggered. Instead, the content on the page updates automatically using AJAX.

Pro tip: Theia stands out thanks to unique slider URLs and AJAX preloading for optimal performance. If speed and SEO are your priorities, Theia is a standout choice. If you’re more focused on slider customization, however, other plugins may be your best bet.

Price: $25 per year for one website

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With SlideDeck, you can create image sliders using content from WordPress media, Instagram, Flickr, Pinterest, Dribble, and Google Plus. This means you don’t have to download a file from one source then reupload it to another. SlideDeck simply pulls the image from its original source.

This plugin offers a fully responsive design so your sliders will easily adapt to any screen size. There are vertical and horizontal designs as well as an image carousel that you can install on your page.

There’s also an option to create a thumbnail slider that shows visitors a preview of your slides. This keeps users engaged because they see what comes next in the slider and will click through your other slides to get to the one they’re looking for.

Pro tip: Quickly pull pictures from multiple sources directly using SlideDeck to streamline slider building. With its thumbnail sliders to keep users interested and mobile design to maximize cross-platform impact, SlideDeck offers a lot to like. The caveat? With so many source options, make sure you know where your images are coming from — and any commercial use restrictions that may apply.

Price: Free, with premium plans available

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WooCommerce is a powerful eCommerce plugin that plays a crucial role in many online stores. However, not all slider plugins can display WooCommerce products — which is where WooCommerce product slider plugins like PickPlugins Product Slider for WooCommerce come to the rescue.

It helps you display products in sliders and, to make it as efficient as possible, offers a wide range of slider styles including the most common across various WooCommerce themes.

You can have an infinite number of slider displays and the design is mobile-ready to ensure functionality across different devices and browsers. You can customize the number of items per slider and column, and the navigation options include touch/mouse dragging, stop on hover, and autoplay.

Pro tip: PickPlugins is all about improving your WooCommerce impact with better product placement and product details. If you’re not using WooCommerce, however, other slider plugins may offer more value for your site.

Price: Free

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WOW Slider is a fully responsive, free WordPress slider plugin offering a multitude of features and stunning effects. It comes with a point-and-click wizard that helps you create image sliders in a matter of seconds without coding or image editing.

With more than 30,000 downloads, WOW Slider is one of the most widely-used free slider plugins available. As far as the effects and possibilities are concerned, WOW Slider is on par with many premium slider plugins.

Some additional features include a fast and lightweight design, touch/swipe navigation, and 25 different transitions and animation effects.

Pro tip: WOW Slider is free, simple, and powerful, making it a great choice if you’re just getting started with sliders on your site. While it can’t compete with the sheer number of features offered by some of the premium options on our list, you can’t go wrong with its intuitive image interface.

Choose Your WordPress Slider Plugin

Adding sliders to your website is a great way to grab your visitors’ attention and highlight the content you want to be seen. You can display images, videos, or posts in succession to maximize space on your site while simultaneously presenting important content to your visitors.

These WordPress plugins are some of the best in the market. When making your selection, make sure the plugin’s functionality aligns with the needs and goals of your site.

Once you’ve got sliders figured out, get the all-in-one marketing and lead form plugin for your WordPress website.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in March 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.