If you’re a creative-type, showing off the quality of your work will be one of the most influential factors when it comes to securing work. As such, displaying your work in a stylish portfolio is fundamentally important.
The default version of WordPress allows you to add images to posts and pages, but this is rather limited – if you’re serious about attracting new clients, it just won’t cut it. Remember: if you’re claiming to be a professional, creative individual, then you need a professional looking, creative portfolio, right?
The good news: there are loads of great portfolio plugins available for WordPress, to allow you to build a beautiful showcase for your work. Many of them are beginner-friendly, and come with enough customization options to make your portfolio your own. Today, I want to introduce you to 20+ of my favorite portfolio plugins.
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1. Modula Image Gallery (Freemium)
Are you looking to create a stunning portfolio? Stop exploring and meet Modula Image Gallery, the most useful portfolio designer.
What makes Modula cool? The big amount of features that help photographers, designers, artists, and people with vision build remarkable galleries. All the options are highly customizable, so you can do it according to your preferences. Modula provides for its users over 50 image hover effects to colorize the images and make people share them. Speaking of sharing, this portfolio builder allows your website’s visitors to share your pictures on social media sites. And because we always need more to improve our work, you can mix photos with videos to spice things up.
What’s more – thanks to its good-looking and easy-to-use interface, creating your portfolio has never been enjoyable. You will be able to zoom in and zoom out your images and also to change relevant data of your pictures such as exposure, GPS location, ISO, aperture, and all the EXIF data. You can easily drag and drop your images to your galleries and organize them according to your style. If you want to make your portfolio more dynamic, Modula comes with 4 classy image-entry animations: horizontal and vertical sliding, rotation, and scale effects.
What’s next? Take advantage of the features that Modula can offer and get crazy with all its designs. Their services are among the best and they take support seriously. Go hunting pictures and let Modula take care of your portfolio.
2. Essential Grid
Essential Grid bills itself as an all-purpose grid building solution with unlimited possibilities. It’s a versatile WordPress plugin that you can use to create masonry grid layouts for blogs, portfolios, galleries, stores and more.
Displaying your content as a masonry grid is easy. Just install Essential Grid. The plugin works with most content types – posts, pages, portfolios, and even your WooCommerce store. You can even refine your selection to specific categories or tags, define the post media priority, and also select a source image size.
Once you’ve decided what content you want to display as a grid it’s time to customize the look of your content. Essential Grid comes with lots of pre-made skins you can use to make your content grid look awesome. But you can also use the visual skin editor to make something completely custom. Each skin comes with its own layout and overlay style, many of which are animated. Once you’ve finished creating your masterpiece it’s easy to add your custom grid to any post or page. The plugin creates an easy to use shortcode for every grid you create. Just paste this on any relevant post, page, or widget area. All grids are fully responsive and can be filtered down by visitors – you can turn this option on or off.
Essential Grid is an awesome grid builder WordPress plugin that adds great features to any WordPress theme. With added options for layouts (boxed, full-width or full-screen), WooCommerce compatibility, custom meta options and more you’re sure to love Essential Grid!
3. JetPack Tiled Galleries (Free)
If you’d prefer a free plugin for displaying your portfolio in an eye-catching way, look no further than JetPack. WordPress’ own all-in-one style plugin includes built-in support for styled, tiled galleries. This makes it super easy to add galleries to you website (perhaps with no new plugin needed if you’ve already got it installed).
The Jetpack galleries include a few styles (tiles, squares, circles), multiple column options, custom widths, and an optional single image gallery view. The portfolios are also fully responsive. Once you’ve activated the Jetpack tiled galleries features, you simple insert galleries to posts like normal – except they’ll be styled (automatically) according to your Jetpack settings.
4. The Grid
The Grid is one of the most powerful builders to create your own custom photo gallery or portfolio grid (though you can use it to build your blog, staff page, testimonials, and even your WooCommerce Store). With the Grid you aren’t limited to a set number of styles – you can create your own from scratch. Use the skin builder to choose custom fonts, edit the hover state, select media, add animations, define excerpts, and resize elements. Then apply your styling to a grid, masonry or justified layout.
But that’s not all. The Grid also includes a live ajaxed preview, supports custom post formats, integrates with WPML (for translations), includes adjustable rows and columns, and even full width/height grids. Plus many media formats are supported, including html, Vimeo, Youtube, SoundCloud, and of course images.
5. Portfolio & Gallery Designer
Portfolio Designer is another great option if you want to create your own portfolio or gallery design. Just install the plugin and use the included options to build your perfect portfolio. Choose a grid, masonry, slider or justify layout with pagination, load more or autoload. Add title links, borders, box shadows and custom colors. Choose from 50+ image and hover effects. The Portfolio Design is also fully responsive and crossbrowser compatible.
6. NextGen Gallery by Imagely
With over a million downloads, NextGen Gallery can handle both simple photo galleries as well as advanced professional needs. Within minutes, you can create beautiful albums. The plugin can upload photos in batches, helping you sort them out and slotting them into groups. Working from the Gallery tab of your dashboard, you can vary the size, color, style, lightbox effects, timing, transitions and manage all settings.
NextGen is responsive and is compatible with most themes. It allows you to edit thumbnails, import meta data, and customize the lightbox. You can number your album pages, add text, watermark and external links to images. Not only that, you can password protect the galleries by falling back on native WordPress functions.
The free plugin allows visitors to view images as slideshows and thumbnails, as well as in a compact or extended album. Moreover, different premium packages offer different extensions. They help you display galleries in additional formats, sell photos online, allow digital downloads, display price lists and offer coupons.
7. UberGrid Responsive Grid Builder
UberGrid is one of the best WordPress portfolio plugins to create a gallery to share and display your work. It’s a highly versatile plugin which can be used to build beautiful square grids: you can use the grid to show off your portfolio, team members, blog posts, images, client logos, and just about anything else you can think of! The plugin is also compatible with WooCommerce, which means you can present your products in a stylish grid.
Use the included plugin features to build custom post type grids, apply filters and even add lightbox. The UberGrid is also easy to customize. There are 12 cell layouts, title styles, labels,spacing options, border, block sizing, fonts, colors and animations.
The grids are fully responsive and look stunning. You can configure the contents manually, or the plugin can automatically pull through your latest posts, pages, custom posts, or WooCommerce product pages – you can also select certain categories for inclusion. The design of each grid is fully customizable, too: you can set default and specific block sizes, select the border style and color, and also choose which font face to use.
When a visitor clicks on an item in the grid, an expanded lightbox is displayed, which allows you to provide additional information – you can add text, images, videos, and Google maps to the lightbox. UberGrid comes with built-in lightbox functionality, but, if you want something more sophisticated, the plugin can also be integrated with five of the major lightbox plugins: PrettyPhoto, JetPack Gallery, Swipebox, iLightbox, and FooBox. For visitors looking for specific information, they can also filter down which categories they want to view in each grid.
You can add an UberGrid to any post or page using a shortcode, or to any widget area using a dedicated widget.
Best of all, the UberGrid doesn’t require any coding knowledge to create and customize your portfolio. It also supports Vimeo and Youtube – so if your work is better shown in a video you can easily add them to your portfolio.
8. Easy Media Gallery
Easy Media Gallery Pro is without doubt one of the most versatile gallery portfolio plugins around, and will set you back just $24 – there is also a free version of the plugin which includes more limited functionality.
You can add images, galleries, photo albums, image carousels, videos, audio, and even Google Maps to a portfolio. The plugin optimizes images for SEO by automatically adding alt tags and title attributes to images. It is also highly versatile, supporting videos from 15 sources and audio from three sources.
Easy Media Gallery is user-friendly, allowing you to add items with just a few clicks. It is also super-easy to customize the positioning, colors (unlimited colors available), and add special effects to items in your portfolio. As an added bonus, the plugin supports ten different lightbox styles for when visitors click on an item in your portfolio. The portfolios are fully responsive and you can choose to add filters for easier navigation.
9. Nimble Portfolio (Free)
Nimble Portfolio is a feature-rich, free portfolio plugin for WordPress users. The plugin lets you add posts, pages, custom post types (including WooCommerce products), images, and videos to a gallery. The galleries themselves looks clean and stylish with attention-grabbing circular thumbnails.
The galleries are fully responsive and can be filtered down by visitors to make it easier to find the items that interest them. You can select the number of columns to include, as well as the icon displayed when a visitor hovers over an item. When a visitor clicks on one of the thumbnails, a lightbox pops up to display the expanded image, video, or audio file.
The Nimble Portfolio plugin can be extended by purchasing premium addons. There are currently seven available – two skins, four lightboxes, and one sorting feature extension.
10. Media Grid
Media Grid is a user-friendly, premium portfolio plugin that allows you to build beautiful, responsive grids using an intuitive visual grid builder. You can add images, videos, audio, WooCommerce products, text, and image sliders to your grids. When visitors hover over an item, an overlay is displayed which provides additional information – if they click on it, a stylish lightbox appears, from which you can add a further description and display social sharing icons.
All grids can be filtered by visitors to help them find what they want. There are also plenty of customization options: you can set border size and color, margin between images, and the overlay color. If you don’t have time to endlessly customize your grid to find the perfect setup, there are ten one-click presets available. You can add your grid to any page, post, custom post, or widget area using a simple shortcode.
You can also extend Media Grid by adding more overlay styles by purchasing the Media Grid Overlay Manager add-on for $15.
11. Go Portfolio
Go – Responsive Portfolio For WordPress is a premium WordPress plugin that makes adding lovely and unique portfolios to your WordPress website easy. Go Portfolio includes four different “styles”, all of which look stunning with an array of overlays, thumbnail size/shapes, animations, and visual effects.
Maybe you fell in love with a theme that doesn’t include a portfolio custom post type, or maybe your current portfolio just doesn’t have enough options. Well, with the Go – Responsive Portfolio WordPress plugin you can add beautiful and responsive portfolios to your WordPress site. The plugin works with any custom post type or your blog to give you the options to design and add your own custom portfolios to any post or page. Just install the plugin and start adding your media!
Go – Responsive Portfolio For WordPress works with images, videos and even audio files so you can create a portfolio that meets your needs. Plus, the plugin includes tons of great customization options. Users have an unlimited number of colors to choose from, 600+ Google fonts, plus they can choose the sizing and spacing of each item to get the grid just to your liking – you can also set whether your grids are filterable. Choose from 4 unique color skins, add your own custom entry spacing (vertical & horizontal), choose a grid or carousel style layout, customize your thumbnails and much more. The plugin is even compatible with WooCommerce, so you can add portfolios for your products and services to your site if you want.
You can add as many grids as you want to your website, which is done by adding a shortcode to the relevant post, page, or widget area.
12. Envira Gallery
Of course we can’t forget EnviraGallery. This plugin is yet another great option for adding responsive image galleries to your WordPress site. We did a full EnviraGallery review not long ago, but just to hit the high points this plugin includes lightbox support, custom margins, image cropping, mobile gallery options, custom thumbnails, support for custom gallery classes (great for developers) and so much more. Plus there are plenty of add-ons for any other feature you might need, like Pinterest integration, tags, slideshows, skins, fullscreen support and more.
13. Grid FX
With four unique skins, Grid FX is a highly versatile portfolio plugin. It allows you to place images, videos, audio, blog posts and WooCommerce products in stylish grids, Pinterest-style galleries, and image carousels.
Customization is King with this plugin, with over 80 different styling options. You can choose from a range of skins, lightbox backgrounds, title animations, colors, and buttons. You can also set how many items will appear in the portfolio, the size of each item, and the number of columns.
To improve navigation, visitors can filter down the grids to find what they are looking for. Adding a portfolio to your WordPress website is as easy as pasting a simple shortcode into any post, page, or widget area.
14. FooGallery (Free)
If you’re familiar with creating a post in WordPress, you’ll find it easy to create a gallery with Foo Gallery. It adds a button to the post editor which you need to click to create a gallery. The built-in media library helps out with image management. The plugin allows you to drag and drop images and arrange them in any order. The NextGen Gallery import tool makes it easy to import galleries and albums.
Working with shortcodes, you can display a gallery anywhere on your site. Within minutes, you’ll have fast loading responsive galleries as well as crisp thumbnails. There’s a choice of built-in gallery templates, but you can also choose to style both galleries and albums with CSS. To access built-in albums you need to activate an extension. A decent lightbox is on the list of features of the free plugin. What’s nice abut the plugin is that it relies on an extension framework. This makes it both lightweight and developer friendly.
However, for many additional features such as adding videos, you’ll have to purchase premium extensions. Pro features also include beautiful hover effects, infinite scroll and advanced pagination.
15. Custom Content Portfolio (Free)
Custom Content Portfolio was built with more than just portfolios and galleries in mind. It’s design allows users an option to switch themes without losing any content. Any developer can build a theme on top of this plugin as well.
Working with the plugin is as easy as creating new posts or pages. Simply create individual projects for your portfolio, and then tag and categorize them. You can add project details like image, URL and description, customize portfolio permalinks and make any project sticky. If you combine the plugin with a Role Management plugin, you can allow others to manage portfolios on your website. And, if your theme allows it, you can also have audio and video formats.
16. Photo Gallery by Supsystic (Free)
Photo Gallery by Supsystic offers both free and pro versions to display any number of portfolios and galleries. With the free version, you’ll be able to create responsive photo galleries and tag them with links, icons, and HTML captions. You can opt to add a watermark to images to protect them.
With this plugin, your website can sport full width galleries and employ a number of layouts, design, polaroid and style effects. You’ll be able to import images from your social network into your gallery.
A number of transition effects are available, and users can access images quickly via the thumbnail images. Shortcodes allow you to add galleries anywhere on your WordPress. Image management becomes easy with this plugin as it supports bulk uploading and publishing.
Adding categories and pagination to your gallery is possible only with the pro version. This version also allows you to include videos in your gallery.
17. Image Photo Gallery Final Tiles (Free)
Image Photo Gallery Final Tiles is an ideal plugin to display photo albums, showcase products or exhibit photos. It uses flexible grid layouts, allowing you to mix landscape and portrait images of all sizes. You can have a Pinterest type photo gallery or a tiled gallery, and include videos as well.
Using a special algorithm, the plugin retains the original image sizes to the extent possible. Moreover, the plugin is responsive enabling smooth animation on mobile devices too.
The plugin supports sharing on social media. With the pro version it’s possible to filter images, add categories and choose from seven lightboxes. Hover effects on captions and images, image loading effects and WooCommerce support also form part of premium features.
18. Video Gallery
To stream content from YouTube, playlists, Vimeo or LiveDash, Video Gallery is the plugin of choice. You can create a gallery that streams from multiple galleries, and mix and match videos from multiple streams in a single gallery. The plugin is retina ready ensuring sharp image quality.
Once you link the videos in the gallery, users can select from a playlist. The videos can conveniently be set to resume where the user left off. The video thumbnails appear on social channels. For creating safe backups of your gallery, simply export the database. Analytics helps you track user views, particularly useful for educational channels.
19. Cube Portfolio Responsive Grid
If a website is cluttered and unorganized it can make it difficult for a visitor to find what they’re looking for. When this happens, they’re not going to stick around long – an opportunity lost. The Cube Portfolio plugin lets you organize every aspect of your website into stylish grids, which makes it far easier to navigate.
Cube Portfolio lets you add posts/pages, images gallery, portfolio, team members, videos, projects, and even WooCommerce products to a beautiful, responsive grid. The plugin comes with six templates: there are three for specialist content types (blog posts, meet the team, and juicy projects) and three visual design templates (masonry, lightbox, and fullbox). Each template looks stunning, and comes with beautiful, smooth CSS3 animations – there are 10 grid animations, and 11 caption animations. You can add an unlimited number of items to each grid, which can be previewed in real-time using the live builder. Each template is also fully customizable, and comes with over 20 different options.
20. Zoomfolio
ZoomFolio is an awesome portfolio management WordPress plugin that makes it super easy to add create, custom and unique portfolios to a WordPress website. In fact, this is such a great plugin we recommended it in our blog post about how to create an online portfolio.
The way Zoomfolio works is by adding a portfolio custom post type to your WordPress installation. This way you can insert portfolio shortcodes anywhere in your theme and have them pull posts from your new portfolio. Customizing portfolios is just as easy as adding them, sin the plugin comes with a shortcode generator to make it easy for you to insert a picture perfect portfolio every time.
There are tons of options to create the portfolio your want using Zoomfolio. You can create a basic photo gallery, a media gallery, or a fullscreen (or “wall”) style portfolio. Or you can get create and build a clean grid of client logos, an instant recent posts grid, a scrollable customer testimonials section or something else. Some of the other awesome features include accordion support, text options, tilt on hover, pagination and more.
21. Justified Image Grid
Justified Image Grid is a premium WordPress plugin that makes it easy to add gorgeous justified image galleries just like Google and Flickr to your WordPress website. Just install the plugin, add your photos and start creating custom galleries!
If you are a photographer, designer or artist with lots of images to share Justified Image grid is a great way to do just that. The default WordPress galleries are boring and nothing special, but with this plugin you can create customized image galleries to add to any post, page or widget area. Just create your gallery and insert your shortcode – it’s that easy.
A great feature of this plugin is the ability to pull images from 7 different sources. You can use images from your WordPress media gallery, the featured images from your most recent posts, images from your RSS feed, grab images from your NextGEN Gallery or pull pictures from your social media accounts (Flickr, Facebook or Instagram). This way your readers never miss a picture no matter where you originally uploaded it.
Justified Image Grid also comes with over 250 gallery setting options including 20 different grid layouts, 7 lightboxes, custom color options, infinite scroll or load more, custom aspect rations, gallery filters, image animation effects, thumbnail captions and more.
Final Thoughts
If your prior work is an influential factor in you securing new clients, displaying your work in a portfolio is an absolute must. Remember: the way you display your work will say almost as much about you as the work itself, so show it off with pride – there are plenty of great WordPress portfolio plugins out there, so you have no excuse for a shabby-looking portfolio.
Or, if plugins aren’t your thing, have a look at our other roundup of the best portfolio WordPress themes. There are tons of great options available to you!
Are there any awesome portfolio plugins I’ve missed off this list? Let me know in the comments section below!
Keep reading the article at WPExplorer. The article was originally written by Shaun Quarton on 2020-08-12 07:11:03.
The article was hand-picked and curated for you by the Editorial Team of WP Archives.