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FotoGrids vs Gallery by BestWebSoft

Gallery by BestWebSoft doesn’t hide what it charges for — it renders the paid settings right in the free plugin, greyed out, with preview screenshots beside them. Thirty-one of them, starting with all four gallery layouts and the nine-square crop grid.
FotoGrids
31
Pro settings BestWebSoft's free plugin renders in place, disabled
8 vs 1
Gallery layouts in FotoGrids Free vs Gallery by BestWebSoft free
9
Crop-position radios BestWebSoft renders dead in its free plugin
30+ vs 0
Ready-made templates in FotoGrids Free vs Gallery by BestWebSoft
21
21

21 features Gallery by BestWebSoft keeps for Pro — or doesn’t offer at all — are free in FotoGrids.

Why FotoGrids

Four reasons to pick FotoGrids over Gallery by BestWebSoft

FotoGrids
Gallery by BestWebSoft
Choosing a layout
FotoGrids
Eight layouts in Free, every one of them selectable
Gallery by BestWebSoft
Four layouts shown in the free plugin, all four disabled
Setting up one gallery
FotoGrids
Per-gallery and global settings, both in Free
Gallery by BestWebSoft
Per-gallery settings are Pro; free is global-only
Cropping a thumbnail
FotoGrids
Image sizes and crop position in the free plugin
Gallery by BestWebSoft
The 3×3 crop grid renders as nine dead radios
Tagging and filtering
FotoGrids
Tags, people and locations with filtering in Free
Gallery by BestWebSoft
One taxonomy, and no filter a visitor can click
Building a gallery

Four gallery layouts, and all four of them are switched off

Layout is the first decision you make about a gallery. Here it has already been made for you.

BestWebSoft — Grid, and three you can only look at

The free settings screen renders the whole Gallery Layout control disabled: Grid, Masonry, Carousel and Tilled as four dead radios, each with a preview screenshot beside it and an Upgrade to Pro button underneath. Free has no selector — Grid is what you get.

FotoGrids — Eight layouts in Free

Grid, masonry, justified, slider, image viewer, single item and more, all selectable in Free with 30+ templates to start from. Pro Starter adds the carousel and video playlist.

Per-gallery settings

Every gallery on the site gets the same settings screen

Most plugins let you set defaults and then override them per gallery. This one sells you the override.

BestWebSoft — Global settings free, per-gallery is Pro

Open a gallery and click Settings and the free build gives you one greyed checkbox: “Enable to configure single gallery settings and disable Global Settings.” Every gallery on the site shares one configuration until you upgrade.

FotoGrids — Both, in the free plugin

Set gallery and album defaults once, then override anything on any individual gallery, all in Free. Pro Plus adds backups and restore for the settings you build up.

Sizes & cropping

You can set the size but not the crop

A custom thumbnail size is only half a decision. The other half is which part of the photograph survives it.

BestWebSoft — Nine crop positions, none clickable

Choose a custom image size and a Pro block unhides beneath it: Crop Images as a disabled checkbox, then Crop Position as a nine-square grid of disabled radios. Their own text explains the consequence — without it, images just resize to their aspect ratio.

FotoGrids — In the free plugin

Image sizes and cropping in Free, with hover effects, image filters, borders and custom fonts in the same editor. Pro Plus adds the image optimiser.

In fairness

There is more in the free build than the screenshots suggest

BestWebSoft gives away several things this category usually charges for, and the comparison is better for saying which.

BestWebSoft — Albums, comments and passwords, free

Galleries, albums and categories, comments and ratings, password-protected galleries, overridable theme templates, bulk import and bulk editing, demo content and seventeen locales all ship in the free plugin, with support available on the free licence.

FotoGrids — The same, without the grey

We ship those in Free too. The difference is the thirty-one settings you can see and cannot touch: the layout, the crop, the caption placement, the pagination and the sharing buttons are all controls here, not previews.

Feature by feature

What BestWebSoft's Gallery keeps behind the Pro upgrade

BestWebSoft is unusually open about the paid features — it renders them, disabled, inside the free plugin. This table is what sits behind those greyed-out controls.
Feature
FotoGrids
Gallery by BestWebSoft
Flexible Gallery Layouts
Free
1 free — the other three render disabled
Templates Library
Free
Not documented at any tier
Gallery & Album Defaults
Free
Pro only
Image Sizes & Cropping
Free
Pro only
Tags, People & Locations
Free
Not offered at any tier
Filtering
Free
Not offered at any tier
Hover Effects
Free
Not offered at any tier
Borders & Corner Radius
Free
Borders only — no corner radius
Custom Fonts
Free
Not offered at any tier
Image Filters
Free
Not offered at any tier
Pagination
Free
Pro only
Autosave & Live Preview
Free
Not documented at any tier
Migration

Move from Gallery by BestWebSoft in an afternoon

Step 1
Bring the galleries across
FotoGrids imports from other gallery plugins, so the galleries and albums you already built don’t need rebuilding by hand.
Step 2
Keep the URLs
Galleries get their own addresses, and the permalink settings let you keep the URLs you already have indexed.
Step 3
Try it alongside
Free is a full plugin, not a trial. Build one gallery in FotoGrids next to a BestWebSoft one and compare them on your own site.
Step 4
Make it yours
Pick the layout, set the crop, add the tags — then save the whole thing as a default for every gallery after this one.

Frequently asked questions

Yes. Both create galleries, albums and categories from the WordPress admin. The difference is how much of the settings screen actually works: BestWebSoft renders thirty-one controls disabled in the free plugin, and in FotoGrids those are all live.
Eight selectable layouts, 30+ templates, per-gallery settings alongside global defaults, crop position control, tags with filtering, twelve hover effects, image filters, custom fonts, corner radius, in-gallery pagination, social sharing and live preview — on unlimited sites.
Yes. FotoGrids has albums and collections in the free plugin, with gallery and album defaults, breadcrumbs and smart navigation, so the structure you built in BestWebSoft has somewhere to land rather than being flattened into one long list.
The same as this year. Pro Starter, Pro Plus and Pro Agency are $39, $79 and $129, and those are renewal prices as well as joining prices. Free stays free, on unlimited sites. The tiers are on the pricing page.
We read each plugin’s own source rather than its marketing pages, then run a second pass whose only job is to disprove what the first one found. Anything that doesn’t survive gets dropped before publication. The method is in the methodology section, and every line in the table has a source behind it.
Every layout, every crop and every tag — all free, on unlimited sites

Install the free plugin, apply a template, and change the parts that are not yours yet. Customize every detail from your very first gallery.

Download Free
Compare Free and Pro