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When it comes to eCommerce, images are so important.
While the default product image gallery in WooCommerce is nice, there are a lot of ways to enhance it, and these plugins can help.
Using one of the WooCommerce product image plugins listed below, you’ll be able to:
- Add zoom-on-hover to your product images
- Enable a fullscreen lightbox
- Include separate images for variations
- Add as many thumbnail images as you want
- Change the layout of the product image gallery
If that sounds good, then keep reading to see which plugin will work best for your store.
Best WooCommerce product gallery plugins
Any plugin could work well for improving your product image gallery, but each plugin listed below has its own unique features. Make sure to consider them all so that you find the best one for your specific needs.
Here are my top recommendations for the best WooCommerce product image gallery plugins.
1. WooThumbs
Plugin Description
WooThumbs is a superb plugin for customizing WooCommerce product image galleries. It gives you new layouts, sliders, zoom options, and the ability to include product videos.
The zoom options in WooThumbs are more advanced than other plugins. When a customer hovers over the main product image, you can zoom the image in place, create a round zoom window where the cursor is, or open a separate square window with the zoomed-in view. If you’re having trouble picturing this, click the button above to visit WooThumbs and then use the “Launch Demo” button to try it for yourself.
Beyond the zoom, WooThumbs also gives you flexible controls for the gallery layout. You can move the thumbnails to the left, right, or above the main image instead of listing them below. You can also add an unlimited number of thumbnails, including thumbnails specific to your product variations.
If you don’t like the slider that only shows four thumbnails at a time, you can switch to the “stacked” design that will display all of the thumbnails in rows. And as I mentioned previously, videos can be added and will be included in the thumbnails just like images.
Given the wide variety of customization options included in WooThumbs, it might be the best plugin for you to customize your WooCommerce product images.
2. YITH WooCommerce Product Gallery & Image Zoom
Plugin Description
This WooCommerce product image gallery plugin gives you total control over both the gallery and image zoom features on your product pages.
The zoom feature is especially well designed. Visitors don’t have to click anything to zoom into the image. All they have to do is hover their cursor over it, and the zoom window will open up automatically and follow wherever they move their mouse. You can control which direction the zoom window opens in relation to the product image, so it will fit into your design no matter how your product page is laid out. If a shopper wants to view a larger version of the entire image, they can click the full-screen icon at the bottom of the image to open the lightbox.
You also have the option to display up to 10 thumbnail images below the Featured Image. The thumbnails are placed into a slider, so shoppers can navigate through them easily. You can also enable auto-rotation, which will cycle through the thumbnails automatically. Customers can click or hover (your choice) over any thumbnail image to swap it with the currently featured image. There are even color customization options for the borders around the thumbnails and the slider buttons.
Overall, this is a robust WooCommerce product image gallery slider plugin and should work well for most sites.
3. Product Gallery Slider for WooCommerce
Plugin Description
Product Gallery Slider for WooCommerce gives you a handful of ways to customize the images on your product page. Here’s how it works.
The first thing you might want to do with this plugin is to change the layout of the gallery. You can position the thumbnail images vertically to the left or right of the Featured Image instead of listing them horizontally below. The thumbnails can be replaced with simple square buttons instead if you’d prefer.
If customers want a closer view of a product, they can hover over it to reveal a square zoom that shows up in place of their cursor. It would be nice if the zoom window was a bit larger or zoomed even further in, but it works pretty well. Alternatively, they can click the fullscreen button at the bottom of the image to open a full-resolution version in a lightbox.
Other options added by this gallery plugin include the ability to auto-loop through the thumbnails, add slider navigation buttons to the main image, and include videos with your product images.
The WooThumbs plugin has many of the same features plus more, but this plugin comes at a more affordable price. If it includes all the features you want for customizing your product gallery, it may be the best plugin for your site.
4. WooCommerce Product & Variation Gallery Images
Plugin Description
WooCommerce Product & Variation Gallery Images is an awesome plugin for customizing your galleries if you make frequent use of product variations.
Using this plugin, you can upload as many variation-specific images as you want. For instance, if you have a t-shirt for sale, you can upload front and back images for a green variation and red variation separately. When a visitor first arrives, they’ll see all four images. However, once they select a color, only the images relevant to that color will be displayed.
In addition to the support for product variations, there are a few gallery customization features. You can enable a lightbox, fullscreen view, and image zoom feature in the product gallery. On the category pages, you can add a product Quickview button, which allows visitors to open a popup including an image slider and product description without having to visit the product page.
If you make wide use of product variations, this could be the best WooCommerce single product gallery slider plugin for your site.
5. Twist - Product Gallery Slider
Plugin Description
Twist is an awesome plugin if you want simple and straightforward ways to customize your product image gallery.
This WooCommerce plugin adds a new settings menu to your dashboard where you’ll configure the styles of all product galleries across your store. From the settings page, you can choose the gallery layout, enable the lightbox, change the color of the navigation elements, and decide how many thumbnails to show. You can also enable auto-play so the Featured Image will rotate through the available thumbnails on its own. You can also include both images and videos in your galleries.
If you run a multilingual website, you’ll appreciate that Twist has RTL support, so the galleries look good in right-to-left orientations. It’s also fully responsive, so the gallery operates well on mobile devices as well as laptops and desktop monitors.
6. Product Photo & Video Gallery
Plugin Description
Product Photo & Video Gallery is a simple plugin for creating image galleries for your products, or whatever else you want to show off. The main difference between this plugin and others is that it isn’t designed to replace the main image section of the product page. Rather, you’ll get a shortcode you can paste into the product description to include the gallery below. It could work well as a supplement to another plugin, allowing you to showcase even more images of your products.
One of the best features of this plugin is the ability to enable likes and social media shares. Encouraging visitors to share your images will help your products reach an even wider audience.
The gallery also has more customization options than the built-in WordPress gallery. You can choose either a grid or collage layout, decide on a cropping orientation (or no cropping at all), rearrange the images, add videos, and even include plain text items.
If you want to include product image galleries in the descriptions on your product pages, this could be a nice addition to your store.
Which image gallery plugin is best for your store?
After reviewing the plugins, it can be hard to choose just one. Here are some final tips to help you make your decision.
WooThumbs got the #1 recommendation because it has a great interface, beautiful front-end design, and an excellent set of features for customizing the gallery. Given the fact that it includes video and product variation support too, it’s most likely the best pick for your store.
I hope this collection of the best WooCommerce product image plugins helped you improve your store today, and if it did, please consider sharing it with your followers using the buttons below.
Thanks for reading!