Paid ads side slider for WordPress. Meta Slider - Free Slider for WordPress

In this article I will talk about a slider on WordPress, which is easy to use, but is not deprived of functions and capabilities. We will talk about the Meta Slider add-on.

Here are the advantages that should be highlighted:

  • The plugin is easy to configure.
  • Interface in Russian.
  • It is possible to customize Title attributes and Alt for slide images.
  • You can assign links to each slide.
  • There are four ready-made designs.
  • There are several transition effects.
  • The slider turns out to be adaptive.

How to Make a Slider in WordPress Using Meta Slider

After activating the plugin, the console will display new item"Meta Slider". Go to it and click on the button with the plus icon to create a new slider.

By hovering your mouse over the tab with the name of the slider, you can change its name. And by clicking on the “Add Slide” button, you can add images to the slider.

Each added slide has settings from three tabs.

  • Basics. Here you can set a description for the picture and, if necessary, a link for it. You can make the link open in a new tab.
  • CEO. Here you can set the Title and Alt for the image, which will have a positive effect on the SEO optimization of the slider for WordPress.
  • Trim. Image cropping options.

In the sidebar on the right, the WordPress slider has options for customization.

  • The Preview button allows you to take a look at the slider before publishing.
  • The “Save” button saves the changes made.
  • The four buttons below allow you to choose a design for the slider.
  • Width. Sets the width of the slider in pixels.
  • Height. Sets the height of the slider in pixels.
  • Effect. You can select a transition effect. IN free version the list is a bit limited.
  • Design. You can additionally choose a design for the slider. Limited in the free version.
  • Arrows. Enables or disables the arrows to toggle the slider.
  • Navigation. Enables or disables the dots below the slider.

A little lower there is another block of settings that can be expanded - these are “Advanced settings”.

It contains various options, including alignment, indentation, setting display speed, animation, and much more. I won't go into detail.


Find good slider for WordPress this is not an easy task. The latest data says that there are 690 slider plugins for WordPress. Who has that much time to learn every plugin?

To help you separate the wheat from the chaff, here is a review and rating of 10 of the most popular free plugins slideshows selected from this list. These image sliders have been updated fairly recently and have all received feedback from WordPress users.

What slideshow plugin are you using? Tell us in the comments below.

Meta Slider - slider for WordPress

Meta Slider is by far the most popular slider for WordPress, having great amount over 2 million downloads.
He has four jQuery sliderNivo Slider(adaptive, 16 transition effects, four themes), Coin Slider (four transition effects), Flex Slider 2 (adaptive, two transition effects, carousel mode), Responsive Slides (adaptive, fade effect only).
Creating a new slideshow is easy - add an image, select the slider you want to use, and the plugin will spit out a shortcode that you can add anywhere on your site.
There is also a pro version of this plugin if you want to pay money for additional features.

Easing Slider

With almost 650,000 downloads, Easing Slider Lite– the second most popular slider plugin.

This lightweight plugin allows you to set the size and duration of your slider and includes the ability to make your slideshow interactive. Has two transition effects, a fade effect. As with many other sliders, you must use a shortcode to add your slider to a post or page.
You can only create one slideshow with this plugin, so if you want to have more on your site, you'll have to look elsewhere.

Smooth Slider

Smooth Slider creates customizable slideshows for content and images background and spacing between slides, which can be placed anywhere on your site.
Plugin features include adaptive design and six transition effects. It also supports custom slider, category sliders and latest entries, includes template tags, shortcode and widget.
The latest version of this plugin does not always work correctly; when configured, it may disrupt the operation of the site. Judging by the Smooth Slider support page, many users have had problems with this plugin.

WOW Slider

Wow Slider unusual in that to create a slideshow you need to download separate program, WOWSlider master. Once you have selected the images for your slideshow, you can then upload them to the plugin. You will need to copy and paste the shortcode to add the slider anywhere on your site.
The plugin's website includes some pretty comprehensive documentation to help you if you run into any problems.

vSlider Multi Image Slider for WordPress

vSlider allows you to display on your website unlimited amount image sliders, although how many sliders are “too many”?
You can embed sliders on your site using a shortcode, a custom widget, or using it as a feature in your theme.
The plugin has a helpful FAQ and video tutorial that will explain you how to set up your first slider. If you have any problems, then the forum is also available for you.

SlideDeck 2 Lite Responsive Content Slider

SlideDeck is a popular and versatile plugin that has advanced functionality compared to previous plugins.
This Lite version does not include the entire set of 14 content sources such as Facebook, NexGEN and Gallery that are available in the premium version.
However, the Lite version will allow you to quickly create slideshows from any content, such as images, recordings and videos.

EasyRotator for WordPress – Slider Plugin

EasyRotator promises that users will receive “for their website WordPress beautiful, interactive rotators and photo sliders in seconds,” but it actually requires some customization. First you'll have to install Flash software to create your slides - or rotators - on your PC, which can be annoying. You can then create a new rotator in the page or post editor. You can also use the shortcode to embed a rotator on your site or add a rotator to your theme using the appropriate function.
After all the troubles of installing Flash software, you may find that it won't work when you try to set up the main slider from the post editor. A little research showed that this plugin does not work with Safari/Chrome.

Responsive WordPress Slider– Soliloquy Lite

Soliloquy is one of the most famous sliders, and for good reason - it's easy to install, you don't need to download a Flash program to create and load sliders or fiddle with settings. It just works.
Once you've added your images, choose a slider size, speed, and click Publish. After this, you need to copy the resulting shortcode to any page or post where you want to install the slider.
Although this is a Lite version, it still has enough features to give it a try.

Cyclone Slider 2

Cyclone Slider 2 takes sliders back to basics. He offers easy installation, displays a simple image slider and includes features such as delays, sizes, and hover pause.
The plugin supports images, YouTube, Vimeo, custom HTML and featured sliders. You can drag your slides to change their order, the sliders are interactive.
This plugin also has a pro version.

Responsive Slider

Responsive Slider- very simple slideshow plugin, which requires some configuration, but this makes it easy to use.
Adding new slides is easy and you can place them anywhere on your site with a shortcode or inside your theme using the appropriate function.
The settings allow you to change the width and height of the slider, add a transition effect, delay, animation duration and automatic start.
This plugin is designed for only one slider, so if you want to install multiple sliders on your site, you will have to use another plugin.

Smart Slider 3

Smart Slider 3 is perhaps the best slider for WordPress. Very powerful plugin, which has a huge set of tools for creating slideshows that you can use at your discretion, depending on the situation. Eat large base ready-made sliders, beautiful effects transition. You can create entire landing pages using just sliders, but this is already in the Smart Slider 3 Pro version. But when you encounter this plugin for the first time, you will most likely have difficulties working with it. Since it is very easy to get confused large quantities settings tabs.

The most popular and best slider
And there are two winners: Meta Slider And Smart Slider 3.

Meta Slider is not only the most downloaded slider plugin, but it also received the highest rating from users.
It's easy to use, has a good balance of features and functionality - and it's all free.

vSlider Multi Image Slider,SlideDeck 2 Lite And Soliloquy Lite– also great slider plugins if your site is overloaded with images and you want to make a lot of sliders. These three themes are aimed at professionals to attract customers - have more sales - with free products.

If you just want a very simple slider without all the bells and whistles, then the Cyclone Slider 2 is definitely for you. It's a great slider that's easy to customize and not burdened by countless settings and options.

But if later you need a slider with more functionality and the ability to place several sliders on your site, you cannot go past Meta Slider.

Sliders, today I want to present several plugins on which these sources can be loaded. Plus, a short description of each plugin, so as not to download a “pig in a poke”. Nobody likes checking once again what the plugin can do and its performance, right? I’ll say right away that all sliders are in plugin format for WordPress, so there shouldn’t be any problems with installation and configuration.

Coin Slider

One of the best, in my opinion, in terms of customization and simultaneous simplicity, but loses to Nivo, which is lower. Allows you to set the image size from the admin panel without delving into the jungle of code. Added by changing the template. There are no previews, which is sad.

Nivo Slider


Truly the king of sliders. To be honest, I don’t really recommend using the WordPress plugin because it hasn’t been updated for a long time, unlike the script. A latest version for WordPress - paid. Well, or as an option - adapt new script To old shell plugin, but this requires more serious knowledge. 16 options for changing the image, support for themes, previews, excellent and valid layout, rich settings. I have not yet come across a script that would do Nivo.

Content Slider from SlideDeck


Another very fancy slider, but now it’s a content slider. Very rich settings, integration into the post editor, several themes included. It is possible to insert different sliders into each post. There is a Pro version that can do a bunch of other cool things, but the price of $99 per slider really, really confuses me.

Meteor Slides


This candidate is simpler, but he also has his own trick. Firstly, it can be embedded using a shortcode, which is convenient. Secondly, it can create several slideshows that can be used in different places. Thirdly, it can be embedded into a sidebar as a widget. And then rotate the pictures. Pretty cool in my opinion. And yes, Russian support is included

Slideshow Gallery


This slider can also work with the editor WordPress posts, can also be embedded with a shortcode and has image previews. Localization support using po/mo files. Plus, for large images, a lightbox is supported, that is, the image can be enlarged by clicking.

TN3 Gallery


A good plugin, with image previews, good layout and other goodies. But he has an excellent trait - he supports that on this moment Quite a rare thing. But there is also a minus, even two, to download you need to register and there is no version for WordPress. Only a script option, but the slider's capabilities are worth a little effort to install.

WordPress Content Slide


What can I say about this plugin? It is small, completely customizable in appearance, and has good settings from the admin panel. And it works.

ISlidex


A very good slider with support for several themes. The authors promise SEO layout, automatic cropping and caching of images, cross-browser compatibility up to IE7 and support for WordPress 3.x. It can also be embedded in a widget, which significantly increases its value.


24.01.2013 — I’ll add one more plugin that I had to deal with. It left the most pleasant impressions, despite the fact that it is paid.

He will be able to show you anything you want. More than 10 output templates included, own API, support mobile devices and a bunch of other goodies. Believe me, this is the best slider today. And it's worth everything 12$ , of course, all subsequent versions are free. Yes, as the developer claims, this plugin is the only one that fully supports IE10, which is installed in Win8.

In this article I will tell you about the Meta Slider plugin, which helps you organize any number of slideshows with various special effects on your website. I have used this plugin more than once on client sites when simple free solution with good functionality.

You can use the Meta Slider slideshow both on the main page and in any post, or sidebar (side column of the site). The settings are incredibly simple, and implementing a slider on a WordPress site is even easier.

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It’s worth noting: even if you already have a slideshow installed in your template Home page, you can easily bet this plugin and use it in any part of the site, which will allow you to add dynamics to individual articles, pages, or advertise your information product in the sidebar.

Step 1: Create your first slideshow

Click on it and you will be taken to a page where you will see this at the top

We are offered to create our first slideshow, which we do by clicking on +.

If you plan to make several different sliders for the site, you can double-click on their name and then you will be able to enter your name.

Step 2: upload images to the slider

Now it's time to upload the pictures. I advise you to make images of the same size in width and height for each individual slideshow. IN PhotoShop help, or my favorite program. Same size for one set of pictures will allow them to be displayed as you planned: without cropping or distortion.

Click and add pictures for the selected slideshow. The adding process itself is standard for WordPress sites. After this, this will appear:

The top leftmost arrow points to the image. If you move your mouse over it, an X will appear in the corner of the thumbnail, which will allow you to delete the selected image.

The checkbox in the New Window field will make it so that when you click on the picture, the selected link will open in a new window. The rest is clear from the screenshot.

If you need to change the order of pictures, then just move the cursor over the thumbnail and “grab” it with the left mouse button, and then drag it to the desired place.

Step 3: Setting Up Slider Effects

On the right is the settings block visual design and slideshow effects on the site. The block is long, so we will disassemble it in parts.

Whatever you do to the selected slideshow, you need to save it after you finish making changes. For this we use Save buttons, or Save&Preview (save and immediately see how it will look).

Under the save buttons you can choose based on which script our slideshow should work. The most popular ones are given to choose from. Depending on your choice, a further block of settings will appear below. For example, let's focus on the first one.

Please note that I set the width (width) and height (height) exactly to the size of my image. You set your sizes. The red arrow shows on the field the effect with which the slider will work on the site.

Our free version of the Meta Slider plugin doesn't have many effects, but there are enough of them to make your site visitors rate your site positively. Anyone who wants can buy PRO version Meta Slider for $19 (you'll see the link).

In this block we check the box if we need left and right navigation arrows (Arrows), and we can also hide the bottom navigation (Hidden) or display it as dots

For an article or Home page it is convenient to leave this navigation, but for advertising information products you can safely hide it.

Next we have the Advanced Settings block. Here we can fine-tune the display style: delay time, alternation, direction, etc. Feel free to experiment to find the parameters you need. If I start describing each one, the article will be incredibly long.

Step 4: implement the created slider on the site

We can embed a slider on the site using a shortcode, or PHP functions. It is convenient to use a shortcode in an article, and write the function in a template file. You decide for yourself how best to do it.

Please note that the shortcode and function have numbers that indicate the number of your slideshow.

Enable shortcodes in the standard Text sidebar widget

For those who want to use a slider in the sidebar, but the ability to work with shortcodes in widgets is not enabled, I suggest a solution without a plugin.

Sliders on WordPress will make your website more convenient and attractive. But, in order not to sacrifice loading speed, you should only add good ones to the site optimized sliders. Also make sure that your slider will display correctly on mobile devices.

A bunch of WordPress themes contain built-in sliders, but if you still don’t have it, I recommend it this list. Here we have collected the best WordPress plugins, which will add a beautiful and fast slider to your website.

Meta Slider

Meta Slider is widely used to display pictures. To customize the slider, simply drag to work area required images. The built-in ones will help you quickly set up a beautiful slideshow; the plugin also provides various visual effects.

Cost: Free

Slider Revolution

If you use premium WordPress themes, then you've probably already heard about Slider Revolution. This is one of the most popular sliders with a beautiful design and amazing performance. The plugin will allow create a slider any sizes. Contains many animations and an administration panel for simplified setup.

Cost: $19

Mega Slider

Mega Slider is modern adaptive slider , which can display text, pictures or videos. The plugin provides an easy-to-use builder to create a slider with a unique design, without having to understand any code.

Cost: $18

Hero Slider

This is a well-optimized paid slider that can be fully customized to suit your needs. The plugin is fully responsive and contains a designer for editing the design. You can customize arrows, buttons, and also put a video on the background of the slider.

Cost: $18

Soliloquy

Soliloquy is another one high-quality slider for WordPress. Setting up the plugin is so easy that even inexperienced users they will deal with him immediately.

Cost: from $19

Accordion Slider

Accordion Sliders is fully responsive, impressive stylish design. The slider is very convenient for displaying images. The plugin is well SEO optimized, works quickly and loads using lazy loading technology.

Cost: $21

Smart Slider 2

Smart Slider 2 is free slider with an easy to use designer. The plugin contains convenient panel administration to manage slider parameters, also allows you to place the slider in any part of your site and adjust its size.

Cost: Free (PRO version available)

Slider Pro

Slider Pro is a fully featured premium plugin with full set options for adding and customizing a slider on a WordPress site.

Cost: $29

All Around

All Around is a high-quality and flexible plugin for adding a slider with both videos and pictures. The slider can be placed vertically and colors and fonts can be fully customized. You can customize all the details of the slider, so All Around is suitable for any site.

Cost: $18

Master Slider

Master Slider is one of the most popular sliders on WordPress. Has completely adaptive design, is well optimized and contains over 25 for easy setup. The slider can display any type of content; you can also add a video to the background.

Cost: $20

Cloud Slider

Cloud Slider in full responsive WordPress slider from 18 different topics, which can be easily customized for your website. With this plugin you can create any type of slider.

Cost: $18

Smooth Slider

Smooth Slider is one of best plugins to display special content. This plugin can create sliders with posts, pages or media content. It has a fully responsive design and contains smooth animations transitions. The plugin is installed along with a multifunctional administration panel for customization.

Cost: Free