Lightbox is a trend that grew a lot in the last couple of years as more and more people have started to use it on their sites. And it’s really easy to understand why that’s the case. Presenting your media files inside a lightbox can be a great way to make the content more engaging. However, to do that, you need some WordPress lightbox plugins … or rather just one of them.
But, since there are a lot of possibilities, this is where our post comes into play! We’ve curated a list of the best WordPress lightbox plugins available on the market in 2024.
The tools we’ll feature are a mixture of free and paid options. Enjoy! 🎁💳
Top WordPress lightbox plugins to try in 2024
📚 Table of Contents
- Responsive Lightbox by dFactory
- Simple Lightbox
- FooBox
- WordPress Lightbox by Huge-IT
- Meow Lightbox
- Easy FancyBox
1. Responsive Lightbox by dFactory
Responsive Lightbox is the most rated of the free WordPress lightbox plugins out there. It lets users see a better/larger variant of your photos in a stylish separate window. It was made to fit any mobile screen and comes with various lightbox designs.
This plugin is very user-friendly, providing a few awesome settings that allow you to use lightbox display for all your images, videos, product galleries from your online store, plus custom galleries such as those provided by Jetpack. If you want more, the plugin comes packed with eight premium add-ons/extensions so you can have even more flexibility when you customize the lightbox.
Besides the general options, you can also customize other important aspects such as in/out scrolling, opacity, transitions, overlay color etc.
Key features ⚙️
- Eight responsive lightbox scripts (SwipeBox, prettyPhoto, FancyBox, Nivo Lightbox, Image Lightbox, Tos “R” Us, Featherlight, Magnific Popup)
- Option to display single post images as a gallery.
- Option to modify native WordPress gallery links image size.
- You can use the image’s title, description, caption, alternative text or description in the lightbox.
- The lightbox is available for images, galleries, links, and videos.
Price 💵
Responsive Lightbox itself is a free plugin, but you can get premium extensions for improving flexibility and customization. These extensions will cost you between $19 to $49.
2. Simple Lightbox
Another free plugin that’s pretty well rated on WordPress.org, offering a quick and simple lightbox for your pages and posts. It’s true that it doesn’t come with the same friendly appearance and wide range of settings as the aforementioned plugins, but if you’re looking for a minimalist way of opening your images in a lightbox style, you’ll love this one.
Simple Lightbox allows you to enable the lightbox on almost everything: pages, posts, widgets, menus, categories & tags, homepage, etc. You can display an image separately or in a slideshow, and you can also set the transitions, animations, slideshows’ speed, overlay opacity, etc.
This is a one-shot plugin for those of you who need a simple lightbox, no fancy styles or tons of custom things. It’s lightweight, easy, and really quick.
Key features ⚙️
- Light and dark designs.
- Premium add-ons included.
- Comes with mobile-optimized themes.
- Displays media metadata (description, caption etc).
- Offers keyboard navigation.
- Supports links in widgets.
Price 💵
Simple Lightbox is another free WordPress plugin on our list.
3. FooBox
A stylish WordPress lightbox plugin from FooPlugins, with a modern interface and a social-friendly display of your media files. What do they mean by social-friendly? Each lightbox comes with social icons attached, so your images can get shared easily.
If you’re using a WordPress media gallery plugin on your site, you can apply the lightbox to those galleries too because FooBox was created to be compatible with the most popular of them, such as Envira Gallery, NextGEN Gallery, Jetpack etc. What I personally like about FooBox is that it has interactive and playful lightboxes that definitely have the chance to drive the engagement of your visitors.
Key features ⚙️
- Responsive lightbox. Images, videos, and HTML files automatically resize to match your screen size.
- Built-in social sharing (social icons) for each file. Also, each media has its own unique URL so it can be accessed easier.
- Supports YouTube and Vimeo video formats for lightbox.
- HTML content can open up in a lightbox – tables, bullet lists, numbered lists etc.
- WooCommerce product images can be set to display in a lightbox too.
Price 💵
FooBox offers a forever free option, along with a professional plan. The pricing on the professional plan is based on how many sites you install it on – one, five, or 25. There are also discounts for paying up front for the year, and you can even purchase a lifetime license for a higher one-time fee. Their annual professional plans are priced as follows:
- One Site – $29.99 per year
- Five Sites – $69.99 per year
- 25 Sites – $149.99 per year
4. WordPress Lightbox by Huge-IT
Lightbox by Huge-IT is a nice plugin that comes with a friendly and modern dashboard interface and lots of interesting settings, but only a few are available in the free version. Actually, in the free version, you can only activate the lightbox, select its style, speed, how to close the overlay, and the loop for the slideshows. The rest of the settings (and there’s a lot) come only with the paid plans.
This plugin was made to add lightbox to images, but it also works on videos from YouTube and Vimeo. With Lightbox by Huge-IT, you can customize and design your popups very nicely so they can fit your website’s design and purpose.
Key features ⚙️
- Five lightbox views in old type and seven in new type. It comes with twelve different types of popups for your images.
- YouTube and Vimeo links.
- It lets you use a watermark on the images when they open in a lightbox.
- Three image frames in free version and eight in pro version.
- Provides social share buttons in the lightbox.
- Full screen option. This allows you to enlarge the images on the entire screen when clicking on the icon.
- It has download buttons. Lightbox by Huge-IT allows you to show your visitors a download button so they can save your media files quicker.
- Statistics for image clicks defined in the last 24 hours, last month, and past year.
Price 💵
You can unlock customization features and live support by switching to premium. They are currently offering four different plans:
- Free – $0
- Personal – $15
- Multisite – $25
- Developer – $35
5. Meow Lightbox
Meow Lightbox is a WordPress plugin made for photographers, by photographers. What sets it apart is its ability to display EXIF data. This feature allows users to view essential information about the photographs, such as shutter speed, aperture, camera, and lens settings, adding a layer of depth and context to the visual experience.
Whether your audience is accessing your site on mobile devices, tablets, or larger screens, this lightbox plugin adapts to the varying screen sizes, thanks to its responsive layout and images. It ensures that your images look great and perfectly adapt to the user’s device.
In the premium version, Meow Lightbox provides the option to display your images as slideshows. It also comes with location map buttons to display on images and a deep linking feature that lets you easily share the link of an image on your website.
Key features ⚙️
- Responsive – looks amazing on mobiles, tablets, and larger screens.
- Smart image scaling, which means that images adjust their resolution to fit your screen and device perfectly.
- Displays EXIF information like shutter speed, aperture, camera, and lens info with ease.
- Highly optimized for fast performance.
- Location map – if you click a button, your photo transforms into a map of the location (pro feature).
- Displays images in slideshows (pro feature).
- Deep linking, which lets you share a link to a specific image on your website (pro feature).
Price 💵
Meow Lightbox is a free plugin. If you need advanced features and multiple licenses for more websites, you can upgrade to the premium version. You can opt for yearly or lifetime plans. The yearly plans are:
- Starter – $19 (one website)
- Standard – $29 (five websites)
- Professional – $39 (20 websites)
6. Easy FancyBox
Last but not least, Easy FancyBox is somewhat similar to WP Featherlight (from the minimalist WordPress lightbox plugins category), it’s just that they use different types of lightboxes. This one uses the FancyBox style. So, install it, link your images and photo galleries to their media files when you upload/create them and the lightbox will automatically engage.
The lightbox applies to image formats.
Key features ⚙️
- Links inside Gravity Forms in Ajax mode.
- Supports YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, and flash movies.
- Uses lightbox for all common image formats such as webP, image maps, SVG etc.
- It’s compatible with WordPress media plugins (e.g. NextGEN).
Price 💵
Easy FancyBox Pro offers advanced styling options, transition effects, auto-popup on dedicated ID, priority support and more. You can opt for a one-year plan for as low as $19 per year.
WordPress lightbox FAQ 🙋
What is lightbox in WordPress?
A lightbox in WordPress refers to a script that runs on a website to overlay images and videos on the current page while dimming the rest of the web page content, creating a “lightbox” effect. This allows users to view the media content without being taken to a new page or disturbing their navigation experience.
In the context of WordPress, lightboxes are typically implemented using plugins – like the ones featured in this article – that add the lightbox functionality to images, galleries, and videos on a WordPress site.
How to open lightbox in WordPress?
To open a lightbox in WordPress, you typically need to click on an image or a link that is configured to trigger the lightbox display. If you have a lightbox plugin installed, it will automatically attach the lightbox functionality to your media items based on the plugin’s settings.
What is video lightbox in WordPress?
A video lightbox in WordPress is a plugin that allows videos to be displayed in a popup overlay on the current page, rather than redirecting to a new page or playing directly within the page content. This provides a more focused and user-friendly way to view videos on a website.
How to add text into a lightbox in WordPress?
Adding text to a lightbox in WordPress can vary depending on the specific lightbox plugin you’re using. Most plugins offer options to include text as captions, descriptions, or within dedicated text areas. Check your plugin’s documentation for the exact method, but generally, you would:
- Install a lightbox plugin that supports text integration.
- On your post or page, insert a trigger element and use the plugin’s options to add your desired text.
- Configure the text settings as provided by the plugin.
- Save your changes to see the text within the lightbox when the trigger element is clicked.
In Conclusion 🧐
With all that being said, this is what’s best in terms of WordPress lightbox plugins for your site at the moment (or, at least, this is what we think is best).
🖼️ So, for those of you who want to make your images look cool with a lightbox display, here’s a summary of which plugins might fit you best:
- Responsive Lightbox by dFactory: If you’re interested in a rich pack of features, but your budget is limited.
- Simple Lightbox: If you’re looking for an in-between solution (something slightly customizable, but nothing advanced).
- FooBox: If you want something to help you boost your social media engagement and focus on promotion.
- Lightbox by Huge-IT: If you are a professional photographer (or artist of any kind), this one might fit you. It has advanced options, watermarks, and download buttons for your photos.
- Meow Lightbox: If you are a photographer looking to showcase EXIF data and other advanced features like slideshows, location maps, and image links.
- Easy FancyBox: If your favorite lightbox style is FancyBox, just install this one and you’re done in a few seconds.
Do you agree with my list? If you know any other great WordPress lightbox plugins, feel free to share them with us through the comments section below.
Valuable information. The ‘Key Features’ that you provided for each plugin is very useful. Thanks.
Thanks for suggesting good options, it’s a comprehensive plugin with detail information. Great work you have done here.
Hey, I’m happy to know it was helpful. 🙂
Good collection, BTW an alternative for Easy Fancybox is “ARI Fancy Lightbox” plugin: https://wordpress.org/plugins/ari-fancy-lightbox/ It is based on the latest version of Fancybox jQuery plugin (mobile friendly), can show any content type and supports social and viral features. Definitely try it 🙂
That’s good to know, thanks! 🙂
Unite Gallery is my go-to Lightbox plugin. I’ve tried most of the above, but I like the way Unite Gallery supports pinch and zoom on mobile. http://www.seriouslytrivial.com/2015/10/28/pinch-and-zoom-images-on-a-wordpress-site/
Awesome, thanks for sharing! 🙂 I’ll try it.
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