What’s a professional photographer without a portfolio? What about an artist, agency, or freelance writer? With content creation comes the task of displaying your work online in order to find the best-fitting clients. A portfolio serves as your first line of offense. A place to show the best of the best. A hub to say exactly which types of niches you focus on. An easy way to build a portfolio is to find a WordPress theme, make a site, and add a WordPress portfolio plugin.
Not only is this configuration inexpensive and easy, but the best WordPress portfolio plugins deliver an onslaught of extra features that you can’t find on other platforms outside of WordPress.
So, what are some of the best WordPress portfolio plugin options right now? Here’s a quick list to get you started:
- Portfolio Gallery
- WP Portfolio
- GridKit Portfolio Gallery
- Portfolio Post Type
- Visual Portfolio
- WPZOOM Portfolio PRO
- NextGEN Gallery
- Media Grid
- Go Portfolio
- Essential Grid
- The Grid
- Envira Gallery
What To Look for in a WordPress Portfolio Plugin
Sure, you can read our recommendations on the best portfolio plugins, but what features should you be looking for during your research? Consider the following:
- Support for unlimited portfolios, columns, and rows.
- Options for building a portfolio for free or cheap. There’s no reason to spend that much money on a portfolio plugin.
- Multiple portfolio layouts such as sliders, grids, and masonry styles.
- A collection of premade templates so that you don’t have to start from scratch when developing your portfolio.
- A visual builder to see what the gallery is going to look like before hitting the Publish button.
- Settings to activate filters and search bars.
- Animations to make your portfolio look more appealing.
- Settings for adjusting things like colors, sizing, and icons.
- Integrations with lots of themes and page builders.
- Easy options for implementing the portfolio on your websites, such as shortcodes and widgets.
- It’s also nice to see a wide variety of sources to pull your content from, like Instagram, blog posts, and Dropbox.
And now, here are the in-depth reviews of the best WordPress portfolio plugins!
1. Portfolio Gallery
The Portfolio Gallery plugin is one of the top-rated free gallery/portfolio plugins in the WordPress plugin library. It’s one of the easiest ways to get a portfolio on your website and launch a beautiful gallery with the assistance of responsiveness, filters, and lightbox options.
Some of the free features include multiple column layouts and numbering, along with titles and spacing tools. We like the fact that you can make your portfolio beautiful and flexible, using different formats such as masonry and grayscale.
This plugin has a highly functional free version that the majority of small businesses can take advantage of. I figure that most photographers or artists will find it useful enough without paying for an upgrade. Having said that, the Premium version of the Portfolio Gallery plugin starts at $25 for a personal license. You also have more expensive options for business and developer licenses, along with a personal license to all premium plugins from the developer.
Some of the features in the premium plan include unlimited filters, sorting controls, and custom CSS tools. You can even expand to different areas of your website, with galleries for posts, pages, and widgets.
Why Does Portfolio Gallery Stand Out?
- Portfolio Gallery features an impressive free version that offers the majority of portfolio tools that the average artist would require.
- The Premium plugin is affordable enough and gives you far more tools if you run an agency or plan on expanding on your portfolio functionality.
- The portfolios are clean and modern with a wide variety of formats such as multiple columns and column sizes.
- Effects and animations are included for actions like grayscale and hover effects.
- You have options to upload either pictures or videos in your portfolio.
- The filters are included with all portfolio layouts, allowing clients and customers the chance to sift through your work in an organized fashion.
- The core plugin uses a shortcode to publish your portfolio gallery, while the premium version also offers page and post types and widgets.
- The Bootstrap lightbox adds an essential effect and works well on all mobile devices.
- You get to choose how your portfolio is sorted, like in descending order or by date.
Who Should Consider This WordPress Portfolio Plugin?
Because of the free version, we like the Portfolio Gallery plugin for all startups and freelancers. It also can make sense for agencies and big-time artists and designers who would like a simple way to get their work on a website with filters.
2. WP Portfolio
WP Portfolio is a paid solution for rapidly building a portfolio on a WordPress site. It has three versions to choose from: website portfolio, image portfolio, or video portfolio. So, you have the option to upload dummy websites and organize them in a portfolio. Great for web designers and developers. In addition, artists and photographers can utilize the image portfolio, while videographers have the video option.
The pricing is set on an annual basis, with all features included in a one-time fee. However, full customer support requires renewal every year. The Lifetime plan is the best value, starting at $199. But you can also opt to pay for one of the yearly plans, which start at $39 per year and go up to $199 per year for the Agency Bundle.
It all depends on the plan you decide on, but all paying users will receive an easy shortcode to implement the portfolio and over 48 dummy portfolios. This gives you a chance to design your portfolio in a matter of minutes. Along with that, you receive sortable categories, access to the REST API, and a beautiful portfolio designer. Some of the higher pricing plans have solid addons like Elementor and Beaver Builder.
Why Does WP Portfolio Stand Out?
- This is a premium plugin with the majority of features included in the $39 per year plan.
- You only have to pay on a yearly basis, and you also have the option to get a lifetime membership.
- All plans gain access to the REST API, allowing you to customize just about any aspect of your portfolio and integrate with different platforms.
- The dummy portfolio templates are amazing for launching a portfolio without having any design experience. This is also helpful for agencies that need to work with many clients.
- All categories in your portfolio are sortable with filters.
- You can insert a portfolio on your website with the help of a handy shortcode.
- Some of the costlier agency bundles include useful addons for things like page builders and other premium WordPress plugins.
- The agency plans provide access to the Astra Pro theme, which is an excellent theme for making a large portfolio.
- The developers tend to have frequent sales that allow you to save a bit of money.
- The portfolio supports everything from website screenshots to videos.
- You can implement interesting effects and formats such as a masonry grid, infinite scroll, and lazy loading (great for speeding up your website).
Who Should Consider This WordPress Portfolio Plugin?
Agencies should consider the WP Portfolio plugin for its reasonable pricing, included portfolio theme, and the easy integrations with page builders. The personal plan isn’t bad for individuals considering you only actually have to make a one-time payment, then all of the features from the plugin are given to you.
3. GridKit Portfolio Gallery
The GridKit Portfolio Gallery plugin has a loyal following of WordPress users who crave a little more than a standard portfolio for images. For example, the plugin features a YouTube video gallery with the ability to quickly paste a YouTube link into the gallery. You can also choose from items like client logos, team member pictures, maps, and audio clips. Of course, a regular image slider and portfolio is included, but you have far more options with this plugin than any others.
GridKit comes in two forms, free and premium. The free option has features for responsive portfolios, an image slider, and a shortcode to insert the portfolios. You also have access to product catalogs, client presentations, and much more.
The premium plugin starts at $29.99, which is a one-time payment unless you’d like to upgrade for more support at the end of the year. You might also consider a monthly standard license if you’d like smaller payments. This costs $4.99 per month, but that doesn’t seem to make sense since the one-time fee would pay for itself in six months.
Another payment plan is called the Lifetime Extended License, which goes for $49.99 (one-time fee) and lets you use the plugin on five websites.
Why Does GridKit Portfolio Gallery Stand Out?
- GridKit is the definition of a premium portfolio plugin, with its remarkable grid portfolio layouts and several filtering options. You typically only have to upload your videos to get a result of something great.
- Several predefined templates and options come along with the plugin, including portfolios for team members, photos, videos, and logos.
- There is a free version with respectable features.
- GridKit has many effects such as animations and hover styles, all of which are customizable by you. Social sharing buttons are included with your portfolio to prompt clients and other users to share your work.
- You can insert a portfolio on your website by using a shortcode.
- Unique layouts are included such as masonry and puzzle form.
- You can create a beautiful Instagram feed by linking directly to your page.
- A slideshow is possible where the user doesn’t have to scroll or click through the portfolio with the mouse.
- Lazy loading assists in only loading images that are on-screen.
Who Should Consider This WordPress Portfolio Plugin?
If you would like to have stunning predefined templates, this GridKit is a solid portfolio plugin for you. It’s also an excellent solution if you’d like to have a portfolio for more unique items like MP3 clips or client logos.
4. Portfolio Post Type
The Portfolio Post Type plugin takes a completely different approach to creating and managing a portfolio. It generates a custom post type for all portfolio items you have uploaded to your site. This allows you to better organize your portfolio pieces and register certain tags and categories for each of them. It’s a simple, light plugin that doesn’t require any adjustments to start working after the installation.
The Portfolio Post Type plugin is completely free and rather useful for developers interested in rapidly identifying portfolio items. Keep in mind, however, that the plugin has nothing to do with adjusting the way your portfolio items appear on your website. To make things look pretty you need to find another plugin or theme that supports nice portfolio layouts.
Why Does Portfolio Post Type Stand Out?
- It’s free without any upsells.
- The plugin allows for the generation of custom post types for your portfolio items.
- You can add tags and categories to all of your custom post types.
- The plugin doesn’t limit you in any way on your design.
Who Should Consider This WordPress Portfolio Plugin?
The Portfolio Post Type plugin is nice for developers with large portfolios or lots of client portfolios. It presents a well-organized way to categorize and find your portfolio items without much work. You’ll like this if you have experience coding or if you already have a quality portfolio theme or plugin to go along with it.
5. Visual Portfolio
Visual Portfolio has a decent following as a free portfolio WordPress plugin. It’s an opensource software so you won’t have to mess with upgrading for better features. The plugin features a visual builder for you to see exactly what your gallery is going to look like before publication. The builder works similar to that of a WordPress post, except you receive a full preview, along with settings for adjusting the layout, finding the shortcode, and changing the images in the portfolio.
Several layouts are available, including the always popular masonry format. You can also add filters and an infinite scroll tool for an unlimited number of portfolio items.
Custom colors and custom post types are also possible, not to mention the carousels for users to scroll through your gallery with ease. The popup gallery is also quite useful, considering many of your clients will want to see your photos in a larger format. Lastly, developers have tools for customizing CSS and creating templates from scratch.
Why Does Visual Portfolio Stand Out?
- Visual Portfolio doesn’t have any fees.
- It’s developer-friendly with areas for CSS and saving templates.
- A visual preview is shown on the backend so that you can see what the portfolio looks like.
- Shortcodes are used for placing your photo collections anywhere on your website.
- It comes with four predefined layouts, including tiles, sliders, grids, and masonry.
- Some of the hover effects are rather professional-looking, with options for flying in, emerging, and fading.
- Filtering and sorting are complemented by the “Load More” button.
- You receive a popup gallery with support for photos and videos from Vimeo and YouTube.
- The plugin supports several integrations such as the Gutenberg WordPress builder and WPBakery.
Who Should Consider This WordPress Portfolio Plugin?
Visual Portfolio has quite a few visual and animation features included for free. Not only that, but the results look rather similar to what you might find from a premium alternative. Consider the Visual Portfolio plugin if you want a visual builder to make clean portfolios without a price tag.
6. WPZOOM Portfolio PRO
WPZOOM Portfolio PRO is the ultimate WordPress portfolio plugin that allows creatives, photographers, and video professionals to showcase their work in a customizable and elegant manner.
With seamless integration into WordPress, flexible display options, and a range of features including image and video lightbox, multiple layouts, isotope filtering effect, and easy reordering of portfolio items, WPZOOM Portfolio is the ideal solution to elevate your portfolio to the next level.
Why Does WPZOOM Portfolio PRO Stand Out?
- Seamless integration with WordPress block editor for easy portfolio creation and management.
- Display your portfolio using blocks or shortcodes anywhere you want.
- Image and video lightbox.
- Video Background on Hover.
- Support for various video platforms and formats, including YouTube, Vimeo, self-hosted videos, and images.
- Multiple responsive and highly customizable portfolio layouts to make your work stand out.
- Isotope filtering effect for organizing and filtering projects with ease.
- Reordering feature to arrange portfolio posts according to your preference.
- Lightweight plugin optimized for performance without compromising functionality.
- Regular updates and top-notch support to ensure a fresh, secure, and up-to-date portfolio aligned with WordPress and web standards.
- A free version with limited features and 20,000+ active installations is available on WordPress.org.
Who Should Consider This WordPress Portfolio Plugin?
WPZOOM Portfolio PRO is the perfect choice for creatives, photographers, and video professionals who want to showcase their work in a sophisticated and customizable manner. Whether you are a freelancer, agency, or artist, this plugin offers the necessary tools to elevate your portfolio and make a lasting impression on your audience.
With its user-friendly interface, extensive features, and top-notch support, WPZOOM Portfolio PRO empowers you to present your work with elegance and professionalism.
7. NextGEN Gallery
NextGEN Gallery boasts that it’s made for photographers by photographers. It appears to be one of the most actively downloaded portfolio plugins on this list. Everything from batch uploading to image sorting is provided with this plugin. In addition, the frontend has three different versions of portfolios to choose from and customize. The free version is where you’ll find these three designs, including image browser galleries, thumbnails, and slideshows.
The Plus version of NextGEN Gallery costs $79, but it unleashes an impressive collection of additional demos for you to get started with.
NextGEN Gallery truly does have beautiful design options, making it ideal for artist and photography websites. You can go with a basic slideshow or pack hundreds of photos into one grid-based gallery. The portfolio is managed on the backend with support for metadata and photo naming. The customization tools are also powerful, using options like thumbnail sizes, hidden images, and slideshow links.
Why Does NextGEN Gallery Stand Out?
- NextGEN Gallery has both free and paid versions, each of which provides nice-looking templates.
- Quite a few extensions are available to add functionality such as image deep linking or image social sharing.
- The majority of users will find that making a portfolio only takes a few minutes as it offers batch uploads and templates.
- The premium version adds unique layouts such as a pro photo gallery and a blog feed.
- Lightbox elements are available for making your images larger when clicked on.
- Image commenting and deep linking are there for some of the plans.
- You also have options to integrate with WooCommerce and sell prints by accepting payments through Stripe and PayPal.
- Several themes are sold for you to match the NextGEN Gallery plugin with a reputable photography theme.
Who Should Consider This WordPress Portfolio Plugin?
We recommend NextGEN Gallery for photographers and artists who want one of the more beautiful presentations out there. We also like it for those who want a larger collection of templates to choose from before designing a portfolio. Overall, it’s best for professionals since you do have options for selling prints and giving out digital downloads or creating proofs.
8. Media Grid
The Media Grid plugin has multiple uses, from developing photo galleries from your Instagram to organizing your most important portfolio pieces into an elegant column-based design. Some of the highlights from Media Grid include the ability to integrate with WooCommerce, options for users to make comments on your photos, and full media support for items like images, audio, and video.
Media Grid is primarily sold on the CodeCanyon website, meaning that it’s only available as a premium plugin but the pricing is a one-time fee and reasonable. This plugin, in particular, is listed at $25, along with smaller additional payments if you’d like to extend your customer support.
As with many premium-only portfolio plugins, you don’t have to think about missing any of the best features. That $25 payment provides everything from the developer, including 10 portfolio preset styles, tools for customizing your grids, and a visual builder for constructing beautiful portfolios and being able to see them before publication.
Why Does Media Grid Stand Out?
- Media Grid is a premium plugin but the price is more than reasonable.
- All grid portfolios have options for filters.
- It supports everything from images to video. You can even make a portfolio with audio clips.
- Ecommerce stores have the option to integrate with the plugin, with support for a comments section below the portfolio or gallery.
- You can upload your own media elements or link the portfolio to your blog posts or pages.
- It provides a visual grid builder to see what the presentation looks like before publishing it to your website. Sorting the portfolio and adjusting element size is completed without the help of coding.
- The lightbox mode comes in five different layouts to present your portfolio items clearly.
- The plugin has both shortcodes and HTML for embedding the gallery anywhere on your site.
- It’s provides multilingual capabilities and mobile responsiveness.
- Social sharing buttons can be placed below the portfolio for better exposure.
Who Should Consider This WordPress Portfolio Plugin?
Besides the lower price, the Media Grid plugin looks good for companies with ecommerce functionality. The WooCommerce integration is rather unique, and you also get the ability to place a comment thread below your pictures for some feedback from customers and clients.
9. Go Portfolio
Go Portfolio offers elegance and interactivity with the beauty of a portfolio plugin. Go Portfolio sells for $26, with more payments needed if you’re thinking about getting customer support past six months. Quite a few unique designs are provided through the plugin, with square and circular photos available. It allows you to include filtering tools with your portfolios, with integrations with ecommerce tools so customers can click through and purchase products.
With an unlimited number of colors and formatting combinations, the Go Portfolio plugin works wonders for adding pop to your portfolio and creating layouts like sliders and columns-based grids.
Another reason Go Portfolio looks like a promising WordPress portfolio plugin is because of its strong effects and animations. For instance, you may consider revealing a title with a link and animation when a user scrolls over a portfolio object. Feel free to show the price of an item, or even an icon to indicate what type of media it is.
Why Does Go Portfolio Stand Out?
- Go Portfolio is a premium plugin but it has an extremely fair price.
- You can import and export items in bulk if you have many portfolio pieces.
- Over 38 starter templates are provided as an opportunity to skip coding and launch your portfolio within minutes. Many of the templates are dedicated to certain industries. For instance, it has portfolios and galleries for photographers, design agencies, and restaurants.
- The portfolios have settings for unlimited colors and layouts, meaning you can customize your portfolio however you want.
- The plugin is compatible with Visual Composer if you’d like to manage your portfolio by dragging elements.
- The plugin provides two types of filtering, one that changes the opacity of your images and another that runs as a classic isotope.
- Custom post types are possible on the backend.
- Go Portfolio integrates well with WooCommerce for organizing and listing products into a grid.
- Several media elements are supported, including images, video, and audio clips.
- You can drastically customize all of the thumbnails and lightbox images based on size, color, and shape.
Who Should Consider This WordPress Portfolio Plugin?
If you’re interested in full portfolio customization and beautiful results, the Go Portfolio plugin is a great option for you. The multiple variations of portfolios are astounding, and you have the option to change around your thumbnails to varying colors and shapes and locations. It’s truly the best option for uniqueness and beauty, all being achieved without any code.
10. Essential Grid
Essential Grid is likely the most popular portfolio plugin on the market. As with many of the plugins on this list, Essential Grid is sold on CodeCanyon, with a price of $34. That being said, it’s worth checking if your WordPress theme comes with Essential Grid, since the developer has a tendency to partner with theme creators. It’s also worth noting that Essential Grid is one of the more powerful and complex grid makers and it doesn’t only have to be used for portfolios.
In fact, many companies utilize Essential Grid for product listings, galleries, and Instagram photos. It’s an all-purpose gallery plugin that extends your abilities with images and other media for the future.
The process of building a grid with Essential Grid works by choosing a content source (like a WordPress gallery or Instagram). Then, you choose your layout as cobbles, masonry, or even. Navigation, filtering, and sorting are then implemented, with the option to decide on a skin towards the end.
Why Does Essential Grid Stand Out?
- Essential Grid packs in the most features out of all gallery/portfolio plugins on this list, and all for a low price.
- It includes developer tools for importing and exporting anything from a grid to a skin. You can also import the content you plan on placing in your portfolio.
- You receive a visual skin builder so you can see the portfolio elements on the backend before publication. Adjust items settings like the line height, font family, source, and more.
- Dozens of premade skins come with Essential Grid, most of which provide drastically different animations, colors, and formats.
- Navigation, filtering, and sorting are available as an option.
- Three primary layouts are included, but you can also change the number of columns to generate a unique layout.
- Pull from various content sources, including Instagram, WordPress, YouTube, NextGen Gallery, WooCommerce, or a custom source. Dozens of other sources come with Essential Grid.
Who Should Consider This WordPress Portfolio Plugin?
Essential Grid is the most powerful and flexible gallery builder you can find. It’s great for developers who crave the ability to customize anything without the need for code. It’s also a solid plugin if you want support for unique content sources and beautiful templates. Beginners should also have no problem with Essential Grid as long as you get past the somewhat intimidating interface.
11. The Grid
The Grid has a price of $29, and it features advanced tools for creating highly visual portfolios with ease. Bloggers, agencies, and eCommerce stores should have no problem implementing this and making use of the plugin. The skin builder is similar to that of the Essential Grid interface, using a large collection of settings to change things like line-height, fonts, and colors. The Grid lets you work with a visual builder for dragging and dropping modules and resizing them as you please.
This is also a great portfolio option if you plan on having many clients searching for your portfolio on mobile devices. The plugin offers a real touch slider with responsiveness and various formats to make the touch sliding easier on users. From WooCommerce support to over 30 predefined and unique skins, you can’t go wrong with The Grid plugin when building an online portfolio.
Why Does The Grid Stand Out?
- The Grid plugin sells for a low price considering the insane number of features packed into the solution.
- You can work with the visual builder to drag and drop portfolio items and resize them.
- Dozens of animations are provided, along with more than 30 skins and support for up to 12 columns on a portfolio.
- The plugin links to a wide variety of streams such as Instagram, Flickr, Twitter, and YouTube. And, of course, it connects to your blog posts.
- The WooCommerce integration enables online stores to share galleries filled with product images and links.
- The Grid plugin works nicely with several third-party premium plugins such as Visual Composer, Shortcode, and Cornerstone.
- You can utilize a one-click import and export button for bringing in your own content or for saving templates and using them for later.
Who Should Consider This WordPress Portfolio Plugin?
Any type of business could use The Grid plugin, considering it works similar to Essential Grid, where you can build just about any type of gallery or portfolio if you put in the time. As with Essential Grid, the interface may be intimidating for beginners, but developers will enjoy it, and the average consumer should be able to get used to the backend.
12. Envira Gallery
The Envira Gallery has a bit of a cult following, with users enjoying a responsive photo and video gallery without the need for any coding. The only way to get the Envira Gallery plugin is to choose one of the payment plans. The basic version is $29 for the majority of features and a year of customer support. You can upgrade to one of the other pricing packages if you’re interested in features like social sharing, eCommerce, or watermarking.
The core plugin boasts quality tools for inputting your own CSS, adding slideshows, and protecting your photos from downloads. The only unfortunate part is that the basic gallery doesn’t have some of the standard features you would find in other plugins (unless you upgrade) such as video support, albums, and an Instagram integration.
The whole point of Envira Gallery is so that you can launch a stunning portfolio without the use of any code. And although you must pay for one of the more expensive plans (up to $99) it has quite a few features that you’ll be hardpressed to locate anywhere else. For instance, deep linking is unique to Envira Gallery as is the Dropbox import and EXIF data.
Why Does Envira Gallery Stand Out?
- Envira Gallery presents an unusual set of tools for those looking for out-of-the-box customization options. Some examples would include pagination, watermarking, and the ability to schedule images.
- The Instagram integration pulls your content from the social network so that you don’t have to update the portfolio.
- The core plugin contains image protection, slideshows, and unlimited galleries.
- Envira Gallery makes sense for photographers who need to protect and markup their photos. This can be done with watermarking, photo locking, EXIF data, and tags.
- You have options for social sharing, deep linking, eCommerce, and videos.
Who Should Consider This WordPress Portfolio Plugin?
Photographers and artists will enjoy the protection and data logging that comes with Envira Gallery. It’s not the least expensive, or easiest to use plugin, but you can’t beat the extensive feature list.
Which WordPress Portfolio Plugin is Right for You?
When searching on Google or the WordPress plugin directory you’re bound to locate hundreds of WordPress portfolio plugin options. That’s why we cut the list down to make it much easier for you to make a decision.
Portfolios are essential for many types of jobs, so feel free to pick a few from this list and test out the demos before buying or downloading.
Here’s a final roundup of our suggestions:
- Portfolio Gallery – Best for freelancers and startups that want simplicity in a portfolio.
- WP Portfolio – A wise choice for agencies.
- GridKit Portfolio Gallery – Excellent for unique content types like client logos and MP3 clips.
- Portfolio Post Type – Great for developers who want to organize portfolio pieces.
- Visual Portfolio – Consider this plugin if you want a beautiful free portfolio.
- WPZOOM Portfolio PRO: Showcase all work in a free or professional manner and also compatible with WordPress blocks.
- NextGEN Gallery – Best for pro photographers and artists.
- Media Grid – We like this one for eCommerce stores.
- Go Portfolio – This is our favorite in terms of beauty and style.
- Essential Grid – One of the most feature-packed portfolio plugins.
- The Grid – This one is very feature-rich, just like Essential Grid.
- Envira Gallery – Professional photographers should consider this plugin for its protection and organization functionality.
Let us know in the comments if you have any other favorite WordPress portfolio plugins!
Head of Content at Kinsta and Content Marketing Consultant for WordPress plugin developers. Connect with Matteo on Twitter.
A very good collection of plugins. Thanks for the review.
Glad you liked it, Sergey! Thanks 👋
Nice post! You could keep in mind WP Media Folder, it has a gallery addon that will allow you to manage and create awesome galleries with multiple options to customize them, there are also many themes that could fit to be used as a portfolio :)