SimpLy Gallery

Description

SimpLy Gallery Blocks is a powerful WordPress gallery plugin for building responsive photo galleries, image galleries, video galleries, albums, sliders, and lightbox experiences directly in the WordPress block editor.

Unlike a basic image gallery plugin, SimpLy Gallery Blocks is built for mixed media. You can combine images, self-hosted HTML5 video, audio, YouTube, Vimeo, and VideoPress items in the same gallery workflow.

The core plugin includes 8 dedicated WordPress gallery blocks, saved galleries, reusable shortcodes, album pages, and a built-in lightbox for both SimpLy galleries and native WordPress gallery content. SimpLy Media Assistant adds free Media Library folders, tags, and folder ZIP downloads to help you organize the files behind your galleries.

It is designed for creators, photographers, agencies, educators, publishers, WooCommerce stores, and media-heavy websites that need more than a simple photo grid.

Key strengths

• Mixed media in one gallery: images, HTML5 video, audio, YouTube, Vimeo, and VideoPress.
• Block editor-first editing with 8 included gallery blocks and visual controls.
• Multiple responsive layouts for different presentation styles.
• Lightweight YouTube and Vimeo galleries with one active video embed at a time.
• Static gallery content by default, similar to native WordPress gallery blocks.
• Albums for grouping real saved galleries under one visitor-friendly entry point.
• Page-level lightbox manager for Image blocks, Gallery blocks, linked images, and SimpLy galleries.
• Saved galleries and shortcodes for reuse across pages, posts, and theme areas.
• Free WordPress Media Library folders and tags with SimpLy Media Assistant for organizing, finding, uploading, and reusing media.
• Download a SimpLy folder’s original files as one ZIP from the Assistant or the Media Library folder sidebar.
• Quick static gallery creation from SimpLy folders and tags with Import Media from SimpLy Folders/Tags.
• SEO-friendly media visibility with static fallback HTML output.
• Uses standard WordPress media sizes without creating extra image copies.
• Albums, Album Navigator, and Tags Filter available in the core gallery workflow.
• Items Manager with bulk selection for faster tag management.
• Admin-controlled random gallery order without adding extra controls for visitors.
• Optional Media Library and media picker integration, so site owners can choose how deeply SimpLy Assistant appears in their admin workflow.
• PRO dynamic gallery sources for larger media libraries, folder-based galleries, and video workflows.
• Mobile-friendly output with responsive controls for desktop and smaller screens.

Ready out of the box

The core plugin includes the main gallery workflow: 8 WordPress gallery blocks, Albums, Album Navigator, Saved SimpLy Gallery, Tags Filter, mixed media support, video poster generation, lightweight YouTube / Vimeo playback, SEO-friendly media output, SimpLy Media Assistant, and SimpLy Lightbox for both SimpLy galleries and native WordPress Image / Gallery blocks.

PLUS is focused on more layouts and visual customization. PRO includes PLUS features and adds dynamic gallery sources for building galleries and collections from SimpLy folders, YouTube, Vimeo, WooCommerce, FileBird, Media Library Assistant, and other supported sources.

SimpLy Media Assistant – WordPress Media Library folders

Organize your WordPress Media Library into folders for photo shoots, clients, events, products, or projects. SimpLy Media Assistant brings media organization, gallery creation, and folder downloads into one workflow, with folders, tags, and ZIP downloads included in the free plugin.

Open Media > SimpLy Assistant to browse, upload, and organize your files. You can also enable the folder sidebar in the native WordPress Media Library to work in its familiar grid or list view.

• Group media in virtual folders without moving original files on your server or changing their URLs.
• Find and reuse media by filtering with SimpLy folders and tags.
• Upload files into the active folder and organize existing media into collections.
• Use folder colors to distinguish projects at a glance.
• Turn an organized folder or tag into a static gallery with Import Media from SimpLy Folders/Tags.
• Download a folder’s original files together as a ZIP archive.

Download media folders as ZIP

Need a local copy of a photo shoot or a project’s media? Right-click a SimpLy folder in the Assistant or the Media Library sidebar, choose Download, then Create ZIP. Once preparation finishes, choose Download ZIP to save the originals together, without selecting and downloading each file separately.

The archive uses the folder’s name and remains available to its creator for repeat downloads for one hour. You can delete it sooner to free disk space; deleting a prepared ZIP does not delete the original media.

ZIP Downloads in the plugin settings checks whether your hosting can prepare archives and lets administrators adjust the maximum total file size and number of files per archive. Start with the defaults and increase them to suit your hosting resources.

Choose where the Assistant appears

Enable SimpLy folders in the Media Library, add the Assistant to native WordPress media pickers, or use the SimpLy Media Picker for SimpLy gallery blocks. You can also use the dedicated Assistant screen without enabling these integrations.

PRO users can additionally build dynamic galleries from SimpLy folders, so published collections can reflect folder changes instead of remaining a one-time static import.

WordPress media sizes, no extra image copies

SimpLy Gallery Blocks does not create additional image copies in the WordPress Media Library. For normal gallery display, the plugin uses standard WordPress image sizes, mainly Medium size for thumbnails and Large size for lightbox viewing.

If the Medium size image is too small for a specific frontend layout, SimpLy Gallery can use the Large size image for the thumbnail area when needed. This happens on the frontend with JavaScript and does not create new files in the Media Library.

If you want higher quality thumbnails or larger lightbox images, adjust your WordPress media settings in Settings > Media before uploading images. Existing uploads may need thumbnail regeneration after changing these settings.

PLUS / PRO options can also display the original image size when maximum image quality is needed.

Albums

Albums let you combine multiple saved galleries into one collection with a dedicated splash page. This is useful for events, portfolios, projects, travel collections, courses, product collections, or any site where related galleries should be presented together.

Each saved gallery can keep its own design and can also be published separately as a public gallery page, inserted with a shortcode, embedded with the Saved SimpLy Gallery block, or displayed with the Elementor widget.

Album content can load saved gallery content on demand via AJAX and open it in a modal view, helping large gallery collections stay lighter on the initial page load.

Albums and Album Navigator are available in the free plugin. PLUS adds more visual customization options, and PRO allows Album Navigator to use dynamic galleries from supported sources.

Tags Filter

Tags are managed directly inside the gallery block. In the Items Manager, each gallery item has a Tag menu where you can type tags separated by commas or choose from previously used SimpLy Tags.

Items Manager also includes a multi-select mode, so you can select a group of gallery items and add or remove tags for all selected items at once.

When Tags Filter is enabled for the block, those tags appear above the gallery so visitors can filter gallery items on the frontend.

The basic Tags Filter is available for gallery blocks in the free plugin. PLUS / PRO plans add more control over which tags appear in a specific gallery or block, along with advanced options such as deep linking.

Page-level lightbox for WordPress content

SimpLy Lightbox is more than a lightbox for SimpLy galleries. It can also work with regular WordPress content, including Image blocks, Gallery blocks, linked images, and Classic Editor gallery content.

When WordPress Image or Gallery blocks use the “Link images to media files” option, SimpLy Lightbox can open those images in a lightbox and group images from the same post or page into a browsable lightbox set.

This means visitors can open one image and use next / previous navigation to browse other images from the page. Separate Image blocks and native Gallery blocks can also be grouped together, so a post can behave like one photo story instead of many isolated images.

Global lightbox defaults are managed from SimpLy Gallery > Lightbox for native WordPress Gallery. Each post or page can also have its own lightbox settings through the SimpLy Lightbox editor sidebar, opened from the lightbox icon in the editor toolbar.

Lightbox features include touch gestures, keyboard navigation, mouse wheel controls, zoom, thumbnails, fullscreen mode, slideshow, captions, and social sharing.

YouTube Feed and dynamic galleries

The YouTube Feed module turns YouTube playlists into a curated gallery workflow inside WordPress. You can build internal playlists, publish them with Quick Gallery Link, or use Dynamic Gallery Builder in the PRO plan for full design control.

PRO dynamic gallery sources include:

• SimpLy folders
• YouTube playlists
• Vimeo showcases, albums, user uploads, channels, and categories
• WooCommerce products, categories, and tags
• FileBird media folders
• Media Library Assistant attachment categories and tags
• SimpLy tags

Main demos

• Gallery blocks demo
• YouTube Feed
• Albums Block demo
• Album Navigator Block demo
• SimpLy Lightbox and WordPress Native Gallery demo
• YouTube and Vimeo Gallery demo

More layout demos

• Viewer Gallery Block
• Slider / Carousel Gallery
• Tags Filter
• Advanced Tags Filter
• Showcase Gallery Block – PLUS layout
• Diamond Gallery Block – PLUS layout
• Horizon Gallery Block – PLUS layout
• Split Carousel Block – PLUS layout
• TagsBox Gallery Block – PLUS layout
• Portfolio Gallery Block – PLUS layout

Short demo

This video shows how to create a photo gallery with a SimpLy Gallery block:

You can transform the same gallery content between Masonry, Justified, Grid, and WordPress image gallery layouts without rebuilding the gallery from scratch.

Technical details

Version	3.4.3
Last updated	September 29, 2026
Active installs	40,000+
Rating	★★★★★ 4.8/5 (116 reviews)
Requires WordPress	6.8 or higher
Requires PHP	7.4 or higher
Author	GalleryCreator
Tags	gallery, image-gallery, lightbox, media-library-folders, video-gallery