In this post, we will show the best free WordPress plugins for managing & using images more efficiently on your website. Please check out our recommendations to improve your WordPress site image usage.
Out of the box, WordPress makes it easy to manage images for your website, but there is still room for improvement.
This post will cover three image plugins that tackle the most common issues and requests associated with WordPress and image management. These plugins can make your WordPress website look and perform much better.
Special Note: These plugins are easy to install and simple to use, but if you’re looking for basic information on working with images in pages or posts.
Managing Images WordPress Plugins
Envira Gallery Lite (Free)
Envira Gallery Lite is the free version of the Envira Gallery premium plugin. The premium version has more features and functionality. Still, for a primary blog or photography website, the accessible version of Envira Gallery provides all the features you need to create beautiful, responsive image galleries quickly.
Per the plugin’s page on WordPress.com, Envira Gallery and Envira Gallery Lite have been downloaded over 4 million+ times, making them one of the most popular image gallery plugins available.
Plugin Features
- Drag and drop functionality
- Lightbox image presentation
- Fast loading and optimized for SEO
- Select the number of columns
- Pagination
- Image proofing
Why We Like It
- Lightbox Features: Envira image galleries all come complete with Lightbox functionality, making for a much smoother, pleasing image experience. With Lightbox, visitors can click on your images to see them in a larger format.
- Easy To Use: Once you’ve installed the plugin, click “Add New.” Then you upload or drag/drop your photos, adjust the gallery and Lightbox settings, and create your gallery. Then head over to your page or post and click on the new “Add Gallery” button. Select the gallery you want to add, and you’re done!
- More Options Than Default WordPress Gallery Functionality: The default image functionality in WordPress allows you to insert a gallery into pages or posts, but Envira Gallery provides you with more customization options (such as column and row sizing) and ensures that your images are mobile-friendly and have Lightbox features.
WP Smush Free WordPress Plugins for Managing Images
Images take up a lot of space on a web server and can severely slow down your site’s performance. WP Smush is a free plugin that reduces (or “smushes”) image file sizes through compression and improves your website’s load time, a significant SEO performance factor.
According to the plugin page, WP Smush has been downloaded over 42+ million times, making it the most popular image compression plugin available.
Plugin Features
- Optimize your images using advanced lossless compression techniques.
- Set maximum width and height, and large images will automatically scale before being added to your media library.
- Auto-smush your attachments on upload.
- Manually smush your attachments individually in the media library or bulk 50 wings at a time.
Why We Like It
- Very Easy To Use: Once the plugin is installed, you only need to push the “Bulk Smush Now” button to compress your images. The default settings are correct for nearly all websites.
- No Loss In Image Quality: The plugin compresses your image sizes without reducing the image quality, causing pixelation, or cropping your images.
Responsive Lightbox (Free)
Responsive Lightbox allows you to add mobile-friendly Lightbox functionality to all images on your site, making for an improved image experience for visitors on both desktop and mobile devices.
The plugin has over 4 milion+ downloads, making it one of the most popular Lightbox plugins.
Plugin Features
- Firstly, Automatically add a lightbox to WordPress image galleries.
- Secondly, Automatically add a lightbox to WordPress image links.
- Automatically add a lightbox to WordPress video links (YouTube, Vimeo).
- WooCommerce product gallery support.
- Option to set gallery images title from image title, caption, alt, or description.
- Finally, the Option to conditionally load scripts and styles on pages with images or galleries in post content.
Why We Like It
Loads Of Options: Responsive Lightbox has more options than any other Lightbox plugin available, particularly the ability to add Lightbox functionality to links and the opportunity to enable the Lightbox on only certain pages.
Adds Lightbox To All Images: By default, WordPress images do not have Lightbox features. If you use Envira Gallery Lite, Lightbox features are only enabled for gallery paintings. With Responsive Lightbox, you can add Lightbox features to every image on your site, whether in a gallery or not.
Imsanity Best Free WordPress Plugins for Managing Images
Use Imsanity to resize large image uploads automatically. Choose the size and quality you want, and Imsanity does the rest. If a contributor uploads an image more significant than the configured size, Imsanity will automatically shrink it to the configured size and replace the original image.
Imsanity also offers a batch resize feature to resize previously uploaded images and free up storage space. You can resize individual photos in the media library list view.
This plugin is great for bloggers who don’t need to store original high-res images and/or don’t want contributors to resize images before uploading (or learning how).
Advantages of the Best Free WordPress Plugins for Managing Images
- Automatically scale large image uploads to a “healthy” size
- Batch resize function to resize existing images
- Selectively resize images directly in the media library (list view)
- Allows configuration of max width/height and JPG quality
- Optionally convert BMP and PNG files to JPG for further savings
- Once activated, Imsanity requires no user action
- Use WordPress’ built-in image scaling feature
Media Cleaner – Clean & Optimize Space
Media Cleaner cleans your media library of media items (and files) not used on your website and corrupted items. Using the internal Recycle Bin, you can ensure everything is fine before permanently deleting your media entries (and files). It uses several implementation-supported smart analytics for specific plugins and themes. This is the perfect complement to Database Cleaner.
Please make sure you have a proper installation backup before using this plugin. This step is not optional; it is necessary. You can’t trust any tool that will modify or delete your files. This tool cuts like a knife. If you don’t have a recent backup or don’t understand what it does, don’t use this plugin. This plugin will try to help you. Learn how to use it, and you will get great results.
All files detected as unused are listed in a specific dashboard. It’s up to you to delete them. They are then moved to the plugin’s internal recycle bin. After further testing, you can restore these files from the Recycle Bin or delete them permanently.
Best Free WordPress Plugins for Managing Images Conclusion
Images have always been a challenging part of running a website, but WordPress and the community at large are always working to improve the platform in any way they can. We hope you try out these image plugins and see improvements in the performance and use of your WordPress site.
