11 of the Best WordPress Lightbox Plugins Compared

by Southie Williamson on Jul 24, 2024

When it comes to showcasing images, getting leads, or advertising promotions on your website, a WordPress lightbox plugin can make all the difference.

Whether you’re a photographer, blogger, or e-commerce store owner, a lightbox can make your site more engaging, sleek, and professional looking. In this article, we’re going to explore a variety of lightbox plugins for WordPress to help you choose the perfect one for your needs.

What does a lightbox plugin do?

Using a plugin to add a lightbox to your website is a great way to enhance the way images, videos, or other content is displayed on your WordPress site. When a visitor clicks on content, the lightbox effect creates an overlay that dims the rest of the page and enlarges the selection for a better view. This not only improves the user experience but also adds a touch of sophistication to your site.

Plus, WordPress lightbox plugins often come with additional features like sliders, galleries, or even lead magnets, making them versatile tools for presenting content.

How to choose the best WordPress lightbox plugin?

When selecting a lightbox WordPress plugin, there are several factors to consider:

• Ease of use: Look for a plugin with an intuitive interface that doesn’t require extensive coding skills.
• Customization options: The ability to adjust the lightbox’s appearance and behavior to match your site’s design is crucial.
• Responsiveness: Ensure the plugin works well on all devices, especially mobile phones.
• Loading speed: Good WordPress plugins shouldn’t significantly slow down your website.
• Compatibility: Check if the plugin works with your WordPress theme and other plugins you’re using.
• Support and updates: Regular updates and reliable customer support are important for long-term use.
• Price: Consider your budget and whether the features justify the cost for premium options.

In our testing, we’ve found that the best lightbox WordPress plugins offer a balance of these features, providing both functionality and flexibility. With that, let’s dive into our top picks!

Our Favorite WordPress Lightbox Plugins

Here’s a quick rundown of our top picks and what they’re best for. Click any plugin to jump down to our in-depth review.

Envira Gallery	User-friendly, feature-rich gallery plugin with advanced lightbox functionality
OptinMonster	Lead generation and conversion optimization using lightbox popups and other campaign types
Simple Lightbox	Basic, no-frills lightbox solution for existing WordPress images
Soliloquy	Sliders and carousels with lightbox functionality
NextGEN Gallery	Lightbox gallery and comprehensive solution for displaying, protecting, and selling photos
Photonic Gallery & Lightbox	Lightbox for photos from external platforms like Flickr or Google Photos
ARI Fancy Lightbox	Extends the WordPress block editor’s native functionality to support lightboxes for a range of content types
Meow Lightbox	Simple lightbox that displays technical EXIF data for photographers
Responsive Lightbox & Gallery	Basic, versatile gallery and lightbox solution with multiple styling options
Thrive Leads	Lightbox popups and other opt-in form types to build email lists
Elementor Lightbox	Integrated lightbox for pages built with Elementor

1. Envira Gallery

Okay yes, we’re a bit partial to this first one, but with over 3 million users, we’re clearly not the only ones. Envira Gallery is one of the most powerful and user-friendly WordPress gallery plugins available. Its intuitive drag-and-drop builder is a game-changer for creating beautiful, fully responsive image and video lightbox galleries without any coding knowledge.

Key Features

• Responsive image and video galleries with various layout options
• Built-in lightbox display with design customization and thumbnail navigation
• Supports videos from YouTube, Vimeo, and other sources with features like autoplay
• Dynamic galleries, featured content galleries, and Instagram galleries
• Albums to organize multiple galleries and filterable galleries using tags
• Gallery captions, hover effects, animations, EXIF data display
• Social sharing buttons and watermarking options
• SEO optimization features like deep linking and breadcrumbs
• WooCommerce and Adobe Lightroom integration
• And more!

What we like:

• Extremely user-friendly interface suitable for beginners
• Highly customizable with multiple gallery templates
• Excellent performance optimization with built-in compression and lazy loading
• Robust features for professional photographers
• Easy embedding with the Envira Gutenberg block or a shortcode
• Extensive documentation, step-by-step guides, and excellent support

What we don’t like:

• Some advanced features are only available in higher-tier plans
• Might be more than needed for simple lightbox uses

Who It’s Best For

Envira Gallery is ideal for photographers, bloggers, and website owners who want a photo and video lightbox plugin with a professional-grade gallery builder and advanced features. It’s particularly suited for those who prioritize ease of use without sacrificing functionality.

Pricing: Starts at $39.50 per year (free version available).

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2. OptinMonster

Unlike Envira, OptinMonster isn’t a gallery plugin. Instead, it offers powerful lightbox functionality focused on lead generation and conversion optimization. We’re big fans of OptinMonster and often use it on our own sites. It’s user-friendly and offers tons of versatility, letting you create pretty much any type of lightbox popup imaginable.

Key Features

• Drag and drop builder for creating lightbox popups
• 100+ readymade templates for quick setup
• Advanced lightbox options including popups, gamified wheels, and floating bars
• Exit-Intent® Technology to reduce bounce rates
• Targeted campaigns based on user behavior, location, and more
• A/B testing and analytics for optimization
• Content locking for gated content

What we like:

• User-friendly interface with real-time visual editing
• Extensive targeting and trigger options for precise control
• Powerful lead generation features not found in traditional lightbox plugins
• Integration with major email marketing services
• Comprehensive analytics to measure campaign performance

What we don’t like:

• Not designed for creating image or video galleries like Envira Gallery
• May be overkill for users only needing simple lightbox functionality
• Higher starting price point compared to gallery-focused lightbox plugins

Who It’s Best For

OptinMonster is ideal for marketers, eCommerce store owners, and businesses focused on lead generation and conversion optimization. Unlike Envira Gallery, which specializes in showcasing images and videos, OptinMonster shines in creating targeted lightbox popups for email signups, special offers, and other marketing campaigns.

Pricing: Starts at $9.97 per month (billed annually).

3. Simple Lightbox

Simple Lightbox lives up to its name by offering a straightforward, free lightbox solution for WordPress. Unlike the more feature-rich Envira Gallery or the marketing-focused OptinMonster, Simple Lightbox focuses on providing basic image lightbox with minimal setup.

Key Features

• Automatic activation of image links
• Customizable, mobile-friendly lightbox themes
• Keyboard navigation
• Display media metadata in lightbox
• Grouping of image links for slideshow functionality
• Lightbox animations

What we like:

• Very easy to set up and use, requiring minimal configuration
• Lightweight plugin that doesn’t slow down your site
• Customization options to match your site’s branding
• Extendable functionality through paid addons

What we don’t like:

• Limited features compared to more comprehensive lightbox plugins
• May require some technical adjustments depending on your WordPress theme

Who It’s Best For

Simple Lightbox is ideal for WordPress users who need a basic, no-frills lightbox solution. It’s perfect for those who want to a simple, free lightbox popup for their existing images.

Pricing: Free (premium extensions available).

4. Soliloquy

Soliloquy positions itself as the best responsive WordPress slider plugin. While it’s primarily focused on sliders, it also offers lightbox functionality, making it a great WordPress option for those who need both slider and lightbox features.

Key Features

• Drag & drop slider builder
• Lightbox addon for fullscreen viewing
• Supports multiple types of content including images, videos, and PDFs
• Carousels with thumbnail navigation
• Pre-built slider themes
• WooCommerce integration for product sliders
• Featured content sliders from posts, pages, and other sources
• Scheduling options for sliders and individual slides

What we like:

• Versatile functionality combining sliders and lightbox features
• Vast customization options and add-ons
• WooCommerce integration makes it easy to create sleek product sliders with lightbox viewing
• Ability to create dynamic sliders from various content sources

What we don’t like:

• Limited to only sliders, no gallery functionality
• Lightbox feature is an addon, not a core functionality

Who It’s Best For

While not as focused on lightboxes as some of our other options, Soliloquy offers a good balance of features for those who need to combine sliders and lightboxes. It’s particularly suited for eCommerce sites, content-heavy blogs, and websites that want to showcase dynamic content in an engaging way.

Pricing: Starts at $39 per year (free version available).

5. NextGEN Gallery

NextGEN Gallery by Imagely is a comprehensive WordPress gallery plugin that goes beyond simple lightbox functionality. It offers a robust set of features for photographers and image-focused businesses, including advanced lightbox capabilities.

Key Features

• Pro Lightbox with full-scale image display, robust customizations, and multiple gallery layouts
• Image commenting within the lightbox
• Hover effects, social sharing, and EXIF display options
• Built-in eCommerce with Stripe and PayPal integration, digital downloads, and automated print fulfillment for selling photos
• Image protection, watermarking, and automatic resizing
• Album organization and frontend image search with smart filtering
• Adobe Lightroom plugin for syncing collections
• Client proofing system
• Deep linking to individual images

What we like:

• Comprehensive solution for photographers and visual artists
• Advanced lightbox features such as image commenting and cart overview for eCommerce
• Ability to turn your lightbox into a slideshow with custom timing and more

What we don’t like:

• May be complex for users who only need basic lightbox functionality
• Doesn’t support video
• Learning curve can be steeper due to the extensive feature set

Who It’s Best For

NextGEN Gallery is ideal for photographers and image-centric businesses. It’s particularly suited for those who need a complete solution for displaying, protecting, and selling their photos.

Pricing: Starts at $69.50 per year (free version available).

6. Photonic Gallery and Lightbox

Photonic Gallery and Lightbox is a versatile plugin that enhances the native WordPress gallery functionality. When compared to other plugins we tried, Photonic stands out for its extensive support of external photo sources and numerous lightbox scripts.

Key Features

• Support for Flickr, Google Photos, SmugMug, and Zenfolio
• Extensive lightbox script options
• Video gallery and lightbox support
• Deep-linking and social sharing capabilities
• Authentication for private and protected photos
• Widgets, shortcodes, and Gutenberg block support

What we like:

• Wide range of supported external photo sources
• Works well with the WordPress media library and Gutenberg gallery block
• Offers multiple layouts for customization
• Compatibility with various content types including videos

What we don’t like:

• Not as robust as many of the other options on our list
• Doesn’t provide an option to automatically add a lightbox to all existing galleries
• No longer supports photos from Instagram (feature discontinued in 2022)

Who It’s Best For

Photonic is ideal for WordPress users who need to display images from various external sources. It’s particularly suitable for bloggers and content creators who frequently use photos from platforms like Flickr or Google Photos, offering more flexibility in this area than many other lightbox plugins.

Pricing: Free.

7. ARI Fancy Lightbox

ARI Fancy Lightbox uses the Fancybox jQuery lightbox to create the effect for various content types. It offers broad compatibility with different gallery plugins and media formats, making it a flexible choice for diverse WordPress setups.

Key Features

• Support for images, videos, PDFs, Google Maps, and inline content
• Compatibility with WordPress native and Jetpack galleries
• Automatic lightbox attachment to appropriate links
• Mobile-friendly and responsive design
• Social media sharing for lightbox content

What we like:

• Easy to use with no coding required
• Broad content type support
• Integrates with WooCommerce and is compatibile with other gallery plugins like FooGallery
• Shortcode support for lightbox triggers

What we don’t like:

• Limited free version
• Doesn’t enhance galleries or add other functionality like slideshows and carousels
• Support limited to 6 months after purchase

Who It’s Best For

ARI Fancy Lightbox is well-suited for WordPress users who need a lightbox solution for various content types beyond just images. It’s particularly good for those who want a WordPress lightbox shortcode that will open specific content in a lightbox when the page loads.

Pricing: One time price of $15 (free version available).

8. Meow Lightbox

Meow Lightbox is a responsive lightbox plugin designed specifically for photographers. One of the things that sets it apart is the ability to display EXIF data, which is a feature typically only seen in premium plugins.

Key Features

• Responsive layout for various screen sizes
• Displays EXIF data (shutter speed, aperture, camera, lens)

What we like:

• Smart image scaling for optimal viewing
• Highly optimized for fast performance

What we don’t like:

• Primarily focused on photography, may not suit all website types
• Limited features and customizations

Who It’s Best For

Meow Lightbox is ideal for photographers who want a lightweight, simple lightbox plugin to showcase their work with technical details. It offers more specialized features for displaying photographic information compared to other free lightbox plugins.

Pricing: Free.

9. Responsive Lightbox and Gallery

Responsive Lightbox and Gallery by dFactory is a WordPress gallery lightbox plugin that combines a user-friendly gallery builder with lightbox functionality. While not as feature-rich as some of the plugins on our list, it’s a solid (and free) option that’s highly rated on WordPress.org.

Key Features

• Drag-and-drop gallery builder with customization options
• SEO-friendly and lightweight design
• Lets you create single images as a gallery
• Displays image metadata (title, description, caption, alt text)

What we like:

• User-friendly interface
• Ample customization options for most users
• Variety of lightbox scripts to choose from
• Performance-optimized

What we don’t like:

• Some users report slow support response times
• Advanced features may require premium extensions

Who It’s Best For

The Responsive Lightbox by dFactory is excellent for users who want a versatile gallery and lightbox solution with multiple styling options. We found it very user-friendly, making it a great choice for beginners and small businesses who need a simple, free gallery with an image and video lightbox.

Pricing: Free (premium extensions available).

10. Thrive Leads

Thrive Leads is primarily a lead generation plugin that includes lightbox popup functionality. Similar to OptinMonster, it offers a comprehensive suite of tools for building email lists, optimizing for conversions, and engaging visitors.

Key Features

• Multiple opt-in form types including lightbox popups, sticky ribbons, screen filler overlays, and more
• Pre-designed templates
• Highly specific targeting and triggers
• Detailed analytics and A/B testing

What we like:

• It’s a comprehensive lead generation toolkit
• Easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface
• Specify exactly when, where, who is shown campaigns such as non-subscribed visitors by scroll depth
• Works perfectly with other Thrive products and integrates with email marketing providers

What we don’t like:

• Higher price point compared to simple lightbox plugins
• The range of features may be overwhelming for beginners

Who It’s Best For

Thrive Leads is ideal for marketers and business owners focused on lead generation. While it includes lightbox functionality, it offers a much more than that, making it best for those who need advanced list-building features. It’s also especially useful for WordPress users who already use other products in the Thrive Suite.

Pricing: Starts at $99 per year (or $299 per year as part of Thrive Suite)

11. Elementor Lightbox

Elementor Lightbox is a built-in feature Elementor, one of the most popular page builders for WordPress. It provides automatic lightbox functionality for images, videos, and galleries within Elementor-built pages.

Key Features

• Automatic lightbox activation for media elements
• Support for images, galleries, sliders, and videos
• Customizable lightbox background color

What we like:

• Seamless integration with Elementor page builder
• Zero setup required
• Mobile-friendly design
• Included in the free version of Elementor

What we don’t like:

• Limited to Elementor-built pages
• Fewer customization options compared to dedicated lightbox tools

Who It’s Best For

Elementor Lightbox is perfect for WordPress users who already use or plan to use Elementor as their page builder. It provides a convenient, built-in lightbox solution without the need for additional plugins, making it ideal for those who prefer an all-in-one page building experience.

Pricing: Free with Elementor.

Well there you have it – our favorite lightbox plugins for WordPress!

Choosing the right WordPress lightbox plugin can significantly enhance your website’s visual appeal. As you’ve seen, there’s a number of great WordPress lightbox plugins available to suit different needs and preferences.

Not using Envira Gallery? Get started today!

If you enjoyed this article, be sure to check out our Ultimate Guide to the Best WordPress Social Media Plugins.

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