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FotoGrids vs MetaSlider

FotoGrids has a slider in the free plugin — swipe, autoplay, transitions — and a gallery library around it: eight layouts, albums, tags, filtering and a lightbox. MetaSlider’s free build implements one slide type, and registers thirteen more as tabs that open an upgrade screen.
FotoGrids
1 of 14
Slide types MetaSlider's free build implements; 13 are upgrade tabs
16 of 55
Quick Start templates in MetaSlider free that build something
17
Rows their own shipped chart marks unavailable in MetaSlider free
30+ vs 16
Usable starting templates in FotoGrids Free vs MetaSlider free
17
17

17 features MetaSlider keeps for Pro — or doesn’t offer at all — are free in FotoGrids.

Why FotoGrids

Four reasons to pick FotoGrids over MetaSlider

FotoGrids
MetaSlider
Adding something that isn’t an image
FotoGrids
Image, video and external URL items in Free
MetaSlider
One slide type free; thirteen more are upgrade tabs
Starting from a template
FotoGrids
30+ templates in Free, every one of them usable
MetaSlider
55 tiles in the picker, 16 of which build something
Organising more than one gallery
FotoGrids
Albums, tags and filtering in Free
MetaSlider
No albums, no tags, no filter a visitor can use
Opening an image full-screen
FotoGrids
Advanced lightbox in the free plugin
MetaSlider
A second plugin, and the controls are paid
Building a gallery

One slide type, and thirteen tabs that sell you the rest

The slide type is the first choice you make, and in the free build it has already been made for you.

MetaSlider — Image, and thirteen upgrade screens

The free plugin's slide registry is three lines long and registers Image. Thirteen further types — video, TikTok, external image, custom HTML, image folder, post feed, layer — appear as tabs whose handlers render an upgrade iframe, each with a sales paragraph.

FotoGrids — In the free plugin

Images, video items and external URLs in Free, with eight layouts and 30+ templates around them. Pro Starter adds the carousel and video playlist layouts.

Templates

Fifty-five tiles, and sixteen of them build

A template picker is meant to shorten the job, not to be a catalogue of what you haven’t bought.

MetaSlider — 39 of the 55 are placeholders

The Quick Start screen lists 55 demos. Sixteen are real; thirty-nine are marked as Pro dummies, link to nothing, and reveal “Upgrade now to unlock this demo slideshow!” when clicked. Once Pro is active the plugin skips them — they exist only for free users.

FotoGrids — 30+ templates in Free

Every template in the free picker builds a gallery. Pick one close to the job, change what matters, publish. Pro Starter raises the library to 70+.

Organising your work

Nothing to group by and nothing to filter with

Tags and albums are what stop a growing library turning into one long list you scroll.

MetaSlider — One hidden taxonomy, no front end

The free plugin registers a single taxonomy that is not public, has no query var, no rewrite and no admin UI unless a debug constant is defined. There is no album concept, and no front-end filtering anywhere in the plugin or on their site.

FotoGrids — In the free plugin

Albums and collections, tags with people and locations, basic filtering and predefined sorting, all in Free. Pro Starter adds advanced, dynamic and user-controlled filtering.

In fairness

Four slider engines and a long support record

MetaSlider has been maintained for well over a decade, and the comparison is better for saying where it wins.

MetaSlider — Genuinely strong in its own lane

Four slideshow engines, Smart Crop and Smart Pad, eighteen free themes, SEO title and alt fields on every slide, Unsplash integration and bulk import all ship free, with accessibility work most plugins in this category skip.

FotoGrids — The slideshow too, and the rest of it

We do the slideshow — slider layout in Free, video playlist at Pro Starter — and then the part that comes after it: albums, tags, filtering, a lightbox and an analytics dashboard, all in the same plugin.

Feature by feature

What MetaSlider keeps for Pro

MetaSlider builds slideshows. FotoGrids builds slideshows and galleries. Rows it was never trying to cover are marked as not documented rather than as missing.
Feature
FotoGrids
MetaSlider
Video
Free
Pro only
Templates Library
Free
16 of 55 tiles build something
Albums & Collections
Free
Not offered at any tier
Tags, People & Locations
Free
Not offered at any tier
Filtering
Free
Not offered at any tier
Advanced Lightbox Experience
Free
Second plugin, and paid controls
Hover Effects
Free
Not offered at any tier
Custom Fonts
Free
Pro only
Pagination
Free
Pro only
Gallery & Album Defaults
Free
Pro only
Analytics Dashboard
Free
Not documented at any tier
Migration from Other Plugins
Free
Not documented at any tier
Migration

Move from MetaSlider in an afternoon

Step 1
Bring the galleries across
Your slideshow comes across too. FotoGrids has a slider layout in Free, so this is one plugin replacing two rather than a sidegrade.
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 beside a MetaSlider slideshow and compare.
Step 4
Make it yours
Add the albums, the tags and the video items that were upgrade tabs, then save them as defaults.

Frequently asked questions

Yes. FotoGrids has a slider layout in the free plugin, so you keep the slideshow and gain the rest: eight layouts, albums, tags, filtering and a lightbox. MetaSlider free implements one slide type and sells the other thirteen.
Video and external-URL items, 30+ usable templates, albums and collections, tags with filtering, a built-in lightbox, custom fonts, twelve hover effects, thumbnail navigation, scheduling-free defaults and an analytics dashboard — on unlimited sites.
Not with FotoGrids — the lightbox is part of the free plugin and part of the gallery you are editing. In MetaSlider the free build ships no front-end lightbox, and its own admin tells you to install MetaSlider Gallery to show slides in one.
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.
A slideshow, an album and a lightbox. 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