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FotoGrids vs Meow Gallery

Meow Gallery is one of the leanest gallery plugins in WordPress: no jQuery, CSS-first layouts, and prices that don’t jump at renewal. It is built to show images beautifully. What it isn’t built to do is speed up the building — every gallery starts from defaults, and grouping them costs extra.
FotoGrids
30+
Templates in FotoGrids Free; Meow Gallery documents none
$29
Where albums and collections begin in Meow Gallery
0
Analytics documented in Meow Gallery at any tier
36
PHP files in Meow Gallery — it is genuinely small
17
17

17 features Meow Gallery reserves for Pro — or doesn't offer — are free in FotoGrids.

Why FotoGrids

Four reasons to pick FotoGrids over Meow Gallery

FotoGrids
Meow Gallery
Starting a new gallery
FotoGrids
30+ ready templates to start from, in Free
Meow Gallery
No template or preset library documented at any tier
Grouping a second shoot
FotoGrids
Albums and collections in Free
Meow Gallery
Collections begin at Pro, from $29 a year
Letting visitors filter
FotoGrids
Filtering in Free, advanced filtering in Pro Starter
Meow Gallery
No filtering documented at any tier
Choosing the fonts
FotoGrids
Custom font controls in Free
Meow Gallery
No font controls documented at any tier
No-code design

Every gallery starts from a blank one

The fastest gallery is the one you don’t have to configure from scratch.

Meow Gallery — No templates or presets

There is no template or preset library in the plugin, and none documented on meowapps.com. Every gallery is built from defaults, and the settings you choose don't carry to the next one.

FotoGrids — 30+ templates in Free

Pick one close to the job, change what matters, publish — then save it as a default so the next gallery starts there. Pro raises the library to 70+.

Display & layout

Albums are the paid tier

A collection is how you group a season, a client or a series into one place.

Meow Gallery — Pro, from $29 a year

The free build ships the Collections screen, but both Create Collection buttons render disabled behind a Pro flag, and the empty state offers a Pro link instead of a create prompt.

FotoGrids — In the free plugin

Albums and collections, gallery and album defaults, breadcrumbs and smart navigation, all in Free. Pro Plus adds theme templates and backups.

Engagement analytics

Beautiful, and completely silent

Which gallery gets opened. Which photograph people stop on. Whether the shoot was worth the afternoon.

Meow Gallery — No reporting documented

There is no analytics surface in the free build and none documented on meowapps.com for any tier. The plugin renders galleries and stops there.

FotoGrids — In the free plugin

Views, top-performing content and sharing activity, per gallery, in the same screen you built it in. Pro Plus adds traffic sources, devices and behaviour.

In fairness

Genuinely fast, and honestly priced

Meow Gallery’s central claim is true, and its pricing is straighter than most in this category.

Meow Gallery — Lean, and no renewal surprise

36 PHP files, no jQuery, conditional asset loading and CSS-first layouts. Its yearly tiers are $29, $49 and $79, and there is no first-year discount that doubles later — the price you join at is the price you keep.

FotoGrids — The same on price, more in the box

Our numbers don't move at renewal either. The difference is what Free contains: watermarking, passwords, albums, templates and a dashboard that reports back.

Feature by feature

What Meow Gallery leaves out

Meow Gallery’s prices are honest — no first-year discount, no jump at renewal. This table is about what the plugin does, not what it costs.
Feature
FotoGrids
Meow Gallery
Templates Library
Free
Not documented at any tier
Albums & Collections
Free
Pro — from $29/yr
Filtering
Free
Not documented at any tier
Pagination
Free
Pro — from $29/yr
Breadcrumbs & Smart Navigation
Free
Pro — from $29/yr
Analytics Dashboard
Free
Not documented at any tier
Views Tracking
Free
Not documented at any tier
Social Sharing
Free
Not documented at any tier
Custom Fonts
Free
Not documented at any tier
Open Graph Tags
Free
Not documented at any tier
Watermarking
Free
Not documented at any tier
Password Protect Gallery
Free
Not documented at any tier
Migration

Move from Meow Gallery in an afternoon

Step 1
Bring the galleries across
FotoGrids imports from other gallery plugins, so the galleries you have already built don’t need rebuilding.
Step 2
Keep the URLs
Galleries get their own addresses, and the permalink settings let you match the URLs you already have.
Step 3
Try it alongside
Free is a full plugin, not a trial. Build one gallery in FotoGrids beside your Meow one and compare on your own site.
Step 4
Make it yours
Start the next one from a template instead of defaults, then save your settings so every gallery after it begins there.

Frequently asked questions

Yes, and for a different job. Meow Gallery displays images beautifully and quickly. FotoGrids Free adds the parts around that — watermarking, password-protected galleries, albums, 30+ templates and an analytics dashboard.
Meow’s speed claim is real and we won’t pretend otherwise — no jQuery, conditional assets, CSS-first layouts. FotoGrids Free ships lazy loading, enhanced caching and page-speed optimisation, and you can build one gallery in each and compare on your own site before deciding.
Eight layouts, 30+ templates, albums and collections, twelve hover effects, textual watermarking, password-protected galleries, EXIF viewing and the analytics dashboard. The full breakdown is on the Free vs Pro page.
The same as this year. Pro Starter, Pro Plus and Pro Agency are $39, $79 and $129, and those are the renewal prices as well as the joining ones. The tiers are set out on the pricing page.
We read each plugin’s actual source rather than its marketing pages, then run a second pass whose job is to disprove every claim. The method is in the methodology section, and every line in the table has a source behind it.
Templates, albums and an analytics dashboard. 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