7 Deal Changing WordPress Portfolio Plugins
As a professional, you are probably aware of the importance of an online portfolio. You need to be able to share your work with a click of your mouse. And a well chosen WordPress theme that comes with a portfolio functionality will usually meet your needs. But if the theme you really love doesn’t offer a portfolio functionality, WordPress portfolio plugins are the perfect solution. A good portfolio plugin will provide you with more than just a solid display of your work. It will let you easily create a breathtaking business presentation that makes people stay on your page.
WordPress portfolio plugins are made to help you show your work in the best light and they are particularly appreciated among creative professionals and artists. Moreover, a lot of them come for free and do not require any previous coding knowledge. With a well-chosen WP portfolio plugin you can create a stunning portfolio in just a few hours. Another advantage of a plugin is that if the WordPress theme you have stops working for you and you wish to change it, you don’t have to create your portfolio from scratch, all the data will be saved with the plugin.
Since there is such a great variety of WP portfolio plugins, it might be hard for you to choose the one that will suit you best. When you dig a bit deeper you will see that the majority of them offer similar features and you might get even more confused. Yet, considering the diversity of items you can display in a portfolio, there are certain features that you should pay attention to. Bearing all this in mind, and to make your choice easier, we’ve made this list of deal changing WordPress portfolio plugins:
Gridkit Portfolio Gallery endows the power of simplicity. It comes in a premium and free version and offers plenty of great features for styling your portfolio. The free version includes layout builders, popup add-ons, shortcode add-ons and is mobile friendly. It comes with 1000+ predefined animations, effects, and themes. The simplicity of use and quick installation make it very convenient for beginners, while plenty of great features attract even advanced users.
You can quickly and easily add project captions, descriptions, links or hover buttons and make your portfolio stand out. It also enables you to organize your portfolio with ease thanks to project categorization and gallery pagination. Social sharing is very important for your portfolio visibility and this plugin offers it in the form of an embedded add-on. You can easily set it up from your settings so that anyone who visits your site can share your work on various social platforms. Plus, if your site includes a shop page this plugin comes with eCommerce functionality.
The Visual Portfolio plugin is bundled with so many awesome features that you might not believe that it is completely free. More than 30000 users are delighted with it and especially appreciate its versatility. It also enables you to display your works in a very organized manner as it supports infinite scroll, a load more button and simple pagination. You can add masonry, justified (Flickr style), and tiled portfolio lists to any page of your website using the plugin’s shortcodes. This plugin also comes with three hover effects which enable you to play with background and text colors. Even though it has a predefined portfolio post type, you can also use custom image sets and any other custom post type. It also supports Sliders, Carousels, and Coverflow gallery style. Many find the popup gallery which enables you to show your photos in full size particularly interesting. And it is good to know that the plugin is compatible with the Gutenberg WordPress builder, the Elementor Page Builder, and the WPBakery page builder.
Portfolio Post Type is one of the simplest plugins you’ll find. If you want a portfolio that you can divide into categories, that comes with the ability to display multiple images and has enough, but not too many, customizable options you will be very satisfied with this one. The most important functions of this plugin are that it registers a new portfolio post type, registers separate portfolio taxonomies for tags and categories and displays the portfolio image in the column view.
It will meet the needs of many but if you want to change the way your portfolio displays the items in your theme, you’ll need to add your own templates. It is good to know that this plugin is free, quick, and easy to install.
One of the most flexible portfolio plugins, WP portfolio is responsive and compatible with all browsers and devices. It allows you to import and showcase entire website demos as well as create portfolios with new custom post types that can contain images, audio and video thumbnails, and lightboxes. Plus, you can also showcase blog posts and any other custom post type with it. Thanks to lazy loading functionality you can be sure that your pages will load faster. Plenty of layouts will without a doubt enable you to show your work in the best light. You will achieve easy navigation through the portfolio thanks to the integrated search system. Infinite scroll is another advantage of the plugin as it allows loading a great number of items as the user scrolls. Furthermore, WP Portfolio is compatible with some of the most popular page builders, like Elementor, Visual Composer, and Beaver Builder. So you can stick to the page builder you’re familiar with and still create a stunning portfolio. This plugin is not free but is affordable and offers three pricing options.
If you are looking for a handy plugin to add a portfolio custom post type to your WP theme, Genesis Portfolio Pro is the answer. It is free and extremely easy to install and use. It comes with a default template that will show your featured images in a landscape format and also provides a custom post type to create portfolio items. As it is a simple plugin that offers just enough features, it is especially convenient for beginners and those who need a simple and minimalistic solution.
Envira Gallery is extremely popular and comes in a free and a premium version. It is characterized by fast loading speed which will for sure add to the overall impression your users get when they come to your professional website. Its responsive and retina ready designs make your portfolio look good on all devices. It comes with plenty of preexisting designs and layouts you can choose from and customize. The drag and drop builder makes customization a piece of cake. It also offers deep linking and pagination functionalities which are great if you want to make your gallery SEO friendly. Furthermore, it also provides you with the ability to protect your work by adding watermarks. Thanks to social media integration you can easily share your portfolio on different social platforms.
With the NextGEN Gallery, you can create a beautiful gallery in literally just a few clicks. This plugin is very popular among visual creatives and artists as it comes with a complete WordPress gallery management system. It is available in a free and paid version. The free version provides plenty of great features and is bundled with three main gallery styles (slideshow, thumbnail, and image browser galleries) and two album styles. All of them come with many options for customization. This plugin is particularly convenient to use as it enables you to batch upload photos, edit thumbnails, add, rearrange and sort photos, group galleries into albums, import metadata, and a lot more.
In Conclusion
The way you present your work is almost as important as the work itself. With this plentitude of great, user-friendly and free plugins there is really no reason for you not to have a stunning online presentation of your creative work completely in line with your style and values. If you are new to all of this we recommend starting with some of the free plugins, then as you get more confident you will easily upgrade to more advanced versions. Now, pick a plugin that meets your needs, find your favorite Elementor portfolio WordPress theme and enjoy styling your portfolio!
We hope this article was helpful. If you liked it, feel free to check out some of these articles as well!
