10 Best WOW Slider Alternatives in 2026
Updated September 7, 2026 · Ranked by how closely each plugin matches, from WordPress.org data · How this works
WOW Slider has 3,000+ active installs on WordPress.org. These 10 plugins share its category or its tags on WordPress.org, are actively maintained, and each has at least 100 active installs. They are ordered by how closely they match, not by our opinion.
The 10 closest alternatives to WOW Slider
- 1
Gallery Lightbox
Closest match4.7 (106) 10,000+ active installsGallery - Display your Wordpress galleries in a lightbox easily
Shares the gallery, image slider tags on WordPress.org. About 3.3 times the installs, rated 4.7 against 3.0, last updated 5 days ago.
- 2
MetaSlider
Paid version availableSlider, Gallery, and Carousel by MetaSlider – Image Slider, Video Slider
4.6 (738) 500,000+ active installsSlider, gallery, carousel plugin for WordPress. Build your image slider, video slider, post slider, YouTube slider, or WooCommerce product slider.
Shares the gallery, image slider tags on WordPress.org. About 167 times the installs, rated 4.6 against 3.0, last updated 7 days ago.
- 3
Smart Slider 3
Paid version available4.9 (1,123) 800,000+ active installsResponsive slider plugin to create sliders in visual editor easily. Build beautiful image slider, layer slider, video slider, post slider, and more.
Shares the gallery, image slider tags on WordPress.org. About 267 times the installs, rated 4.9 against 3.0, last updated 19 days ago.
- 4
4.5 (248) 30,000+ active installsCreate stunning responsive sliders in minutes. Drag-and-drop builder, unlimited sliders, mobile-friendly & SEO optimized!
Shares the image slider tag on WordPress.org. About 10 times the installs, rated 4.5 against 3.0, last updated 28 days ago.
- 5
4.3 (240) 100,000+ active installsThe highly customizable lightbox for WordPress
Shares the gallery, image tags on WordPress.org. About 33 times the installs, rated 4.3 against 3.0, last updated February 24, 2026.
- 6
Responsive Lightbox & Gallery
4.9 (1,999) 100,000+ active installsThe most popular lightbox plugin and responsive gallery builder for WordPress.
Shares the gallery, image, images tags on WordPress.org. About 33 times the installs, rated 4.9 against 3.0, last updated June 19, 2026.
- 7
4.8 (23) 2,000+ active installsA cleaner WordPress [gallery] that integrates with multiple Lightbox-type scripts.
Shares the gallery, images tags on WordPress.org. About half the installs, no update since November 28, 2017.
- 8
4.3 (26) 1,000+ active installsMakes local copies of all the linked images and pdfs in a post, adding them as gallery attachments.
Shares the gallery, images tags on WordPress.org. About a third of the installs, no update since February 24, 2017.
- 9
4.9 (115) 20,000+ active installsIntegration of PhotoSwipe (http://photoswipe.com) for WordPress.
Shares the gallery, images tags on WordPress.org. About 6.7 times the installs, rated 4.9 against 3.0, last updated 8 days ago.
- 10
5.0 (88) 20,000+ active installsAdds a simple & lightweight Lightbox to the standard WordPress Gallery & Image Block. No lock in and no dependencies.
Shares the gallery, image tags on WordPress.org. About 6.7 times the installs, rated 5.0 against 3.0, last updated May 28, 2026.
Switching from WOW Slider: common questions
What is the best alternative to WOW Slider?
Gallery Lightbox is the closest match: it shares the same WordPress.org tags and has 10,000+ active installs with a 4.7 out of 5 rating.
Which WOW Slider alternative has the most users?
Smart Slider 3, with 800,000+ active installs reported by WordPress.org.
Which WOW Slider alternative is rated highest?
Lightbox for Gallery & Image Block, rated 5.0 out of 5 by 88 reviewers. Only plugins with at least 50 reviews are counted.
Are these WOW Slider alternatives free?
Every plugin listed here is free to install from WordPress.org. Where WordPress.org marks a plugin as commercial, the developer also sells a paid version or add-ons, and that is shown on each plugin.
How are alternatives chosen?
Automatically, from WordPress.org data: plugins that share a category top 10 with WOW Slider score highest, then plugins that appear in the same WordPress.org rankings, then plugins with the same tags, weighted so rare tags count more than common ones. Plugins by the same author and plugins rated under 4.0 are left out.
How we choose these alternatives
Nothing on this page is picked by hand. Every day we walk the whole WordPress.org directory, then score every plugin against WOW Slider on three signals: sharing a category top 10 counts most, then appearing in the same WordPress.org rankings, then carrying the same tags, with rare tags counting for more than common ones like "wordpress". Plugins by the same author are excluded, so an author's own add-ons cannot fill the list, and so is anything rated below 4.0 or with fewer than 100 active installs. The ten highest scores are what you see, in that order. Full methodology.
The bottom line
Gallery Lightbox is the closest match to WOW Slider by the data we track, and Smart Slider 3 has the widest reach with 800,000+ active installs. Gallery Lightbox shipped the most recent release, on September 2, 2026. The list is rebuilt every day from WordPress.org, so a plugin that stops being maintained drops out on its own.
Weekly · free
What moved this week
One email a week, built from the same daily snapshots these rankings come from: the plugins that climbed, what launched, and one ranking worth a look.