WordPress Slider Plugin
What is the Slider?
In the web design terminology, the slider is used to add a slideshow to the web page. Several slider plugins are available in WordPress that help us to create sliders and add them to our home page, landing pages, blogs, or any location where we want.
Sliders may be used on all types of websites but are typically used on commercial websites or technical portfolio websites. The main advantage of using sliders is that website owners can put all of their key content at the top of the front page. It helps users to see the highlights easily and can take action based on them.
Sliders can automatically run slideshows without user input by moving slides at predefined intervals. Sliders can also react to user interactions, such as click or swipe to see the previous and next slide. The slider can contain buttons or thumbnails that can be clicked to see the slider’s specific slideshows.
There are many things that a user should consider while using a slider on a WordPress site. Initially, sliders usually load images and slide content, which slows down our site a bit. JavaScript is also used by slider plugins, in particular jQuery, which is loaded separately as scripts. It also affects the load speed of the website.
There are various slider plugins available in WordPress, such as:
- MetaSlider
- Smart Slider 3
- Master Slider
- Soliloquy
- Slide by Nivo
MetaSlider
It’s very simple to create a new slider using MetaSlider that automatically manages all the technical settings for us. It provides options for selecting different sliders, including slider themes and styles, Adds captions, scripts, SEO names, etc. Beginners can override any of these choices and insert a slider anywhere on their web using a Gutenberg block, shortcode, template tag, and Widgets.
Smart Slider 3
Smart Slider 3 uses a unique user interface that looks different from other WordPress admin screens. It is user friendly, and beginners can make their sliders easily.
However, it offers many options that are not easy for beginners to discover. User experience is satisfactory and using default icons, template tags, and shortcodes, we can quickly add the slider to our posts and pages.
Master Slider
It is one of the best slider plugins with a non-native user interface that looks different from the other WordPress slider plugins. It is easy to use, but it is hard to find many of the options. It begins with a collection of templates and automatically imports some sample slides to work with us. After that, we can remove these slides and replace them with our slides.
Master Slider contains beautiful templates and can be easily inserted into WordPress pages, sidebars, and posts using the template tag, shortcode, and Gutenberg block. It works best with WordPress themes, which load jQuery on-page load automatically. If our theme does not do this, we’ll require to change the plugin settings and force it to load the tab’s assets.
Soliloquy
It is the most appropriate WordPress slider plugin for beginners. Here, we may easily build a new slider and simply drag and drop the pictures. It deals with other things, such as selecting a slider theme, navigation design, resizing pictures, etc. To save the slider, we may simply click on the Publish button.
It’s easy to use because it uses WordPress coding standards and combines with the native WordPress site interface. Using the default WordPress media uploader, it has a simple but intuitive user interface to build slides. It provides a range of choices, including the Gutenberg Editor Block, an old classic editor clicks, shortcodes, and a widget.
Slide by Nivo
It is a fast and straight forward free slider plugin. We may easily upload slider images using the media uploader and drag and drop slide order. We can add captions, links, and alternate text to our slide images using the same media uploader user interface. It comes with shortcodes and template tags to include our posts, pages, and template files with a slider.
It is an image slider and does not support multimedia video or other forms. It comes with a fun set of themes from which we can select and a host of transition effects. But if we rely on features and choices, Nivo lags behind other sliders in this list.