Adding big, beautiful and relevant images to your site offers engagement for visitors. The old saying goes that a picture is worth 1,000 words. Graphics definitely bring something unique to your website and can further explain content. One way to get more images on your site and add visual interest is through a gallery. After reviewing a number of possible plugins, we decided to share Envira Gallery with you today.
Those who run WordPress websites understand adding a plugin can save time and give your site the functionality it needs to drive visitors where you want them to go. A study on attractive versus unattractive website designs looked at various studies on the topic alongside case studies on popular e-commerce sites.
Researchers found 38% of users will leave a site without beautiful aesthetics, which includes images. A case study on an e-commerce website found consistency in visual design increased the average time spent on page by 15%. Beautiful images create a strong first impression and keep people on the page longer. Tools such as gallery plugins can help organize visuals so they are as aesthetically pleasing as possible.
Envira Gallery’s Best Features
Syed Balkhi created Envira Gallery. He’s the founder of Awesome Motive, Inc., the company that created OptinMonster, WPForms, WPBeginner and Duplicator. You’ve likely heard of those impressive plugins before. It probably isn’t surprising that their photo gallery plugin has impressive features like:
- Drag and drop for images
- Video galleries
- Built-in lightbox
- Save default settings
- Templates with predesigned layouts
- AI image generation
- Searchable features
- Slideshows Image captioning
One of the things we love best about the company’s website is that there are multiple demos you can try out for free to see if the software will fit your needs.
Envira Gallery Pricing
The plugin offers several levels of subscription, depending on your website’s needs. Each one has an annual fee. The starting price is discounted, so we will share the retail listed price. Just know they run sales and discounts to get you on board. You may have to pay a higher price on renewal the second year.
Basic
New businesses can get in with the basic for a regular retail price of $79 per year. The license is for a single site but unlimited galleries and users. You’ll get all the features you need to get started, including a built-in lightbox, image captioning and templates. You can create slideshows and lazy loading features. The software integrates with Dropbox Importer and NextGEN Importer.
Plus
Plus runs $139 per year and comes with everything in the Basic package plus licensing for up to three sites. Some of the added features you’ll get with the upgrade include watermarking, scheduled galleries, password protection and featured content galleries. Gain additional integrations with Instagram Galleries and image tagging options.
Pro
For $199 per year, you gain everything in Plus but can use it on up to five sites. Some of the additions with this plan include video galleries, digital downloads, fullscreen mode, image compression, animations and searchable galleries. Integrates with WooCommerce and offers image licensing and client proofing.
Ultra
Agencies or those with multiple sites should upgrade to the largest package offered. For $399 per year, you get licenses for up to 25 sites plus client management.
Envira Gallery comes with a 100% money-back guarantee. You get two weeks to try out the software and make sure you feel the investment is worth the cost.
How to Install and Use Envira Gallery
Installing Envira Gallery is fairly simple. You can start with the lite version to test out some of the capabilities, but for a full view of what the software can do, you really want at least the Basic version. Remember you get a two-week trial period where you can request a refund, no questions asked.
Step #1: Install the Plugin
You can either download the plugin from EnviraGallery.com, WordPress.org plugins or search for it under Plugins/Add New on your WP dashboard. We prefer to install directly from the dashboard whenever possible to avoid bugs, so we tested the plugin with that method. However, Pro versions often require an upload to function properly. This, of course, varies, depending on the developer.
Envira Gallery does have a place to input your license when installing. We did not test this feature as we chose to try the lite version for now. It could indicate easy upgrading.
Step #2: Enable Features
The lite version is more of a trial run of the software so you can see how it looks on your site and if it integrates well with your other features. You’ll be extremely limited in what you can add. Notice the selections are:
- Responsive Photo Galleries
- Drag and Drop
- Lightboxes
Other things are grayed out and only accessible if you upgrade to the Pro version.
Step #3: Disable All Add-Ons
In step three of your installation, you’ll come to a page with additional plugins by this company. They will be automatically selected to be installed. We recommend you deselect all of them and install plugins one at a time as needed.
Plugins can be very glitchy with WordPress sites. While we love the compatibility they add, they can slow your site down and even crash it. It’s best to add one thing at a time, so you know exactly what might be causing any issue that crops up. Since site speed can impact everything from page rank to visitor experience, proceed with caution.
Step #4: Create a Gallery
You’re now ready to start creating galleries and adding them to your site. The software is quite intuitive, even for someone with no coding experience. This video takes you step by step through uploading your images and publishing your gallery.
You can grab images from your media library or upload them. You can preview what the gallery will look like before you publish.
Step #5: Add the Gallery to Your Blog
Adding the gallery to your site is quite simple. You can grab the shortcode and add it to any page. You also can throw it into the widget and place it in your sidebar. Depending on how you want to use your photo display, either option works well.
Is Envira Gallery Worth the Effort?
If you’re a website designer and want a quick solution to get images on a site, Envira Gallery is a nice addition to any site. The drag-and-drop abilities and responsive layouts make even the lite version well worth trying out. Elevate your websites to a new level without the trouble of coding frames. At a minimum, give the lite version a try. You’ll be impressed with the saved time and functionality of the plugin.
