The Future of WordPress Gallery Plugins Has Arrived

We are beyond thrilled to announce that MaxGalleria, our responsive image and video gallery plugin for WordPress, is now available. MaxGalleria represents a re-thinking in how you create and manage galleries in WordPress, and we believe is a true game-changer when it comes to the state of gallery plugins in the WordPress ecosystem.

We know what you’re thinking. Does the world really need another WordPress gallery plugin? Well, yes. Otherwise we wouldn’t have built one :-)

In short, we felt like the current offerings just don’t cut it. They all have their flaws, from poor user experiences, to not integrating with the WordPress media library, to not being developer friendly. We felt it was time to change all that.

But before waxing poetically about how MaxGalleria is the best thing since sliced bread (don’t worry, we’ll get to that), let’s start with a short demo video of MaxGalleria in action. After all, seeing is believing:

Image and Video Galleries Together

Galleries are galleries, whether they contain images or videos, and you shouldn’t need separate plugins to manage each type. MaxGalleria brings image and video galleries together, giving you a single unified experience for managing either type. And while images and videos represent different types of media, the workflow for managing them shouldn’t be any different.

Responsive to the Core

MaxGalleria embraces responsive design to its very core, for both image and video galleries. It’s been tested at numerous device sizes to ensure your image and video galleries look great on all devices, big or small, phone or tablet, desktop or laptop. This means that from iPhones to iPads to Androids, you get a great viewing experience no matter the device your galleries are seen on.

Integration with the WordPress Media Library

Unlike other gallery plugins, MaxGalleria is completely integrated with the WordPress media library. This has many advantages, one being that you don’t have to re-upload images that are already part of your website. This also provides an already well-known user interface, thus requiring no additional learning curve. And there are parts of the integration that have been tweaked for an optimal user experience.

Streamlined Workflow and User Experience

The user experience in MaxGalleria is the heart of the plugin. The workflow for managing image and video galleries is very important, and MaxGalleria provides a highly streamlined user interface that makes it as straightforward as possible to create and manage your galleries. The entire workflow and overall user experience is simple and intuitive that is a joy to use.

Templates, Skins, and Lightboxes, Oh My!

Templates are the layouts for your galleries, while skins determine what those templates look like. Several skins for each template are included with MaxGalleria, and if those don’t suit your needs, it’s easy to create and use your own. MaxGalleria also has built-in lightbox support, so adding lightbox effects to your galleries is as simple as enabling them from the options panel.

NextGEN Importer Makes It Easy to Switch

Migrating away from the NextGEN Gallery plugin and switching to MaxGalleria is made extremely easy with the NextGEN Importer. With just a couple clicks, this tool will import images from your NextGEN galleries into either new or existing MaxGalleria galleries. The entire process is quick and painless, making it a snap to move away from NextGEN.

Screenshots and Examples

Like the video above, pictures say more than words ever could, so we suggest taking the tour to see many screenshots from the plugin. We also recommend viewing the real live examples created with MaxGalleria.

This Is Just The Beginning

Everyone who launches something new says, “This is just the beginning”, but you can take that to heart with MaxGalleria. This launch is quite literally step 1 of many we have lined up over the coming months. It’s only going to get better and better with each update.

A Feedback Favor

To wrap up, we ask just one favor of you. If you have any thoughts about MaxGalleria at all and what we’re trying to do with it –  good, bad, indifferent, whatever – let us know by leaving a comment and let’s get a conversation going. We look forward to hearing your thoughts.