Looking for a great WordPress portfolio plugin to show off your work? If you’re any type of creative, you probably have a collection of work that you share with prospective clients or employers.
Using a WordPress portfolio plugin lets you display those pieces in a user-friendly way so that your work gets the attention it deserves.
While there are plenty of great free and premium portfolio themes, the advantage of a portfolio plugin is that you can integrate it into an existing theme or site.
So if you already have a WordPress site or you’re just in love with a theme that doesn’t have portfolio functionality, using one of the plugins on this list is what you want.
In total, I’ve rounded up 13 different WordPress portfolio plugins. For each plugin, I’ll:
- Show you what an example portfolio looks like
- Tell you what types of work fit best with the portfolio
- Share some other relevant features
- Let you know all the gory details on pricing
Let’s get started!
1. Essential Grid
As the name suggests, Essential Grid is a grid plugin, not specifically a portfolio plugin. But if you think about it, most portfolios are just grids! And Essential Grid also has some other features that make it a great option for portfolios.
An Example of an ‘Essential Grid’ Portfolio
Here’s an example of a filterable portfolio. Users can either browse all the portfolio items or click on one of the tags to filter images without any page reloads:
Types of Portfolios That You Can Create
Essential Grid is pretty flexible because it lets you display any content in your portfolio.
One simple implementation would be to just upload images and create what is essentially a gallery of your work.
Essential Grid also lets you create grids from posts or post types. So you could also create a custom post type for portfolio items and then use Essential Grid to display that content, complete with links to the full portfolio item where a visitor can learn more about the project.
Or, if you’re a filmmaker, you could use videos in your grid to showcase your reel — Essential Grid supports players for both videos and audio files.
Basically — if it works well in a grid, Essential Grid will let you do it.
Other Relevant Features
One of the most relevant features for portfolios is the dynamic filter feature you saw from the example above. With it, you can tag your portfolio items and then let visitors filter them as desired.
Essential Grid also includes a ton of templates that you can use to create more interesting portfolio layouts. And if those templates aren’t enough, Essential Grid also comes with a visual builder to enable you to create your own.
Finally, if you want to let visitors see your work in more detail without requiring them to click through to a different page, Essential Grid supports lightbox functionality, including a neat feature that lets visitors play videos in the lightbox.
Essential Grid Pricing
There’s no free version of Essential Grid. You can purchase the full plugin for $69 at CodeCanyon.
2. The Grid
You can probably guess from the name that The Grid is another grid plugin that’s easily adaptable to work as a portfolio plugin.
In fact, you’ll notice a lot of similarities between Essential Grid, so your decision will probably come down to the templates/styling of each.
An Example of a ‘The Grid’ Portfolio
Here’s an example of a basic three-column portfolio grid, complete with tag filters, sorting options, and an embedded video player that appears on hover (look at the top-left grid item):
Types of Portfolios That You Can Create
Like Essential Grid, The Grid is also quite flexible because it lets you include a variety of content types.
So you could either include a simple portfolio of images/videos or create a Portfolio post type and link to separate pages for each individual portfolio item.
Other Relevant Features
This list is pretty much identical to Essential Grid. The Grid offers the same filterable portfolio feature that lets visitors sort by tag without a page reload.
You can also choose from a bunch of pre-made templates or build your own template using a drag-and-drop skin builder. Plus, The Grid also has lightbox functionality.
Again, I’d say that for most portfolio users, styling is the most notable difference.
The Grid Pricing
One area where The Grid differs significantly is pricing. Whereas Essential Grid will cost you $69, The Grid weighs in at just $29.
3. WP Portfolio
Unlike the previous two plugins, WP Portfolio is specifically marketed as a portfolio plugin. While you can use it for anything, this plugin really excels if you’re a web designer looking to show off complete websites that you’ve built.
The reason? Your visitors will be able to preview the entire website in a popup that looks a lot like the WordPress Customizer.
An Example of a ‘WP Portfolio’ Portfolio
For this example, I’ll give you two screenshots because it’s essential to what makes WP Portfolio unique.
First, it displays your portfolio items on this grid. You can either display all portfolio items or choose items from a specific category. Your visitors can also make use of multiple tag filters on the search box:
Then, once a user clicks on a portfolio item, it opens a full-screen view that looks like a lightbox. What’s different from your average lightbox, though, is that the website preview is fully interactive.
So visitors can browse around the website from the portfolio interface. They can also preview how the site looks by using the device icons on the bottom bar:
Types of Portfolios That You Can Create
As I already mentioned, WP Portfolio excels when it comes to creating a portfolio of websites that you’ve built.
But that’s not all it can do — you can also create portfolios of images or videos. Those types of portfolios use a more traditional lightbox approach.
You can also create images that link to separate pages for individual portfolio items.
Other Relevant Features
WP Portfolio includes a filterable tag functionality that lets visitors filter portfolio items without a page reload.
You also get a shortcode builder that makes it easy to customize:
- Which portfolio items are included
- How many columns to use in the portfolio grid
Plus, you can include search functionality for especially large portfolios. You also get infinite scroll to let people view everything, as well as lazy loading to avoid slowing down your site by loading all of the portfolio items at once.
WP Portfolio Pricing
There’s no free version. The paid version starts at $49. You can also get WP Portfolio as part of Brainstorm Force’s bundles.
4. Media Grid
Let’s go back to the grid plugins! Media Grid is another solid option that lets you put together your portfolio items in a flexible grid.
One neat thing here is that you can add a search box to your portfolio display, which might come in handy if you want to display an especially large portfolio.
An Example of a ‘Media Grid’ Portfolio
Here’s an example of a grid portfolio that you can create with Media Grid. A few things to note here are the:
- Tag filters
- Search box
- Different content types (you can see the embedded video player in the bottom left, as well as an embedded slider above that)
Types of Portfolios That You Can Create
Media Grid supports images, videos, and audios.
So, as you saw above, you can let people play different media types right from the portfolio. You can also link through to the full post if needed.
You can either create your portfolio items from static content such as a specific set of videos/images or use dynamic content such as the latest posts from a Portfolio custom post type.
Other Relevant Features
I already pointed out the fact that you get both tag filters and a search box.
Another cool thing about the plugin is its grid builder. You have a lot of control over each individual grid item, which lets you create some interesting designs:
Media Grid also supports lightbox popups so that visitors can see each portfolio item in more detail.
Media Grid Pricing
Media Grid costs $35 at CodeCanyon.
5. FAT Portfolio
FAT Portfolio is a dedicated WordPress portfolio plugin with some neat display options.
One of the unique things about this plugin is that it includes carousels and sliders in addition to the more traditional grid approach that a lot of the other portfolio plugins offer.
An Example of a ‘FAT Portfolio’ Portfolio
While FAT Portfolio can also do grids, I’ll give you a look at one of the carousel portfolio types because I think that’s what makes this plugin unique on this list.
Here’s the flipster coverflow, though FAT Portfolio has more traditional carousels, too:
Types of Portfolios That You Can Create
FAT Portfolio supports both images and videos, including an option to use post types as the portfolio items so that you can link to separate pages for each item.
You can also use FAT Portfolio to embed a Flickr or Instagram gallery, which might come in handy if you’re a photographer and want to show off the work you’re posting on social media.
Other Relevant Features
FAT Portfolio includes the same tag filter option as the other plugins. But what’s cool is that you can also add filterable tags to carousels (these work without a page reload).
You also get lots of different animations, as well as controls for pagination, lazy loading, and infinite scroll.
You can open portfolio items in a lightbox gallery too.
FAT Portfolio Pricing
FAT Portfolio costs $21 at CodeCanyon.
6. Visual Portfolio
Visual Portfolio is a popular freemium portfolio plugin with modern looks and useful features. It also integrates tightly with the native WordPress block editor, which lets you easily set up new portfolio galleries without leaving the editor.
An Example of a Portfolio from Visual Portfolio
Visual Portfolio offers five main portfolio gallery layouts:
- Tiles
- Masonry
- Grid
- Justified
- Carousel
Here’s an example of the justified layout:
Types of Portfolios That You Can Create
By default, Visual Portfolio creates its own “Portfolio” post type that you can use to add individual portfolio items. When you add a portfolio item, you’ll be able to associate it with an:
- Image
- Video file/embed – e.g. YouTube
- Audio file/embed – e.g. SoundCloud or Spotify embeds
However, you can also use it to import content from any post type on your site, which gives you a lot of flexibility. There’s also a query builder that lets you filter out content by certain dates, categories/tags, custom taxonomies, authors, and more.
For example, you could create separate portfolios to showcase items from different categories.
The premium version also lets you dynamically fill your portfolio with content from external services, including YouTube, Instagram, Vimeo, Unsplash, any RSS feed, and more.
With the premium version, you can embed posts and pages in iframes, too. For example, if you build websites for clients, you could embed a live website that you built in the iframe.
Other Relevant Features
To make it easier for people to browse your portfolio, you can add Ajax filters that let people filter gallery items without reloading the page.
Other notable features include the following:
- Hover effects
- Client proofing – great for photographers
- Instagram-like visual filters
- Theft protection – watermarks and password protection
Visual Portfolio Pricing
Visual Portfolio has a free version at WordPress.org.
To unlock more advanced features such as social integrations, hover effects, photo proofing, and more, you can purchase the premium version starting at $39.
7. Portfolio Filter Gallery
As the name suggests, Portfolio Filter Gallery is a portfolio plugin that focuses on helping you add flexible filters to your gallery. It goes a little further than most other portfolio plugins in this respect, so it could be a good option if portfolio filters are really important to you.
An Example of a ‘Portfolio Filter Gallery’ Portfolio
Portfolio Filter Gallery includes multiple pre-built gallery themes, along with grid and masonry gallery layouts.
Here’s one of the more unique layouts with Portfolio Filter Gallery — a masonry portfolio that includes a search box, drop-down filters, and automatic portfolio item numbering:
Types of Portfolios That You Can Create
Portfolio Filter Gallery only lets you include images (free version) and videos (premium version) in your portfolio gallery.
However, you also get the option to link your images to any URL. So if you want to create a standalone page for each portfolio item, you can create that page separately and then link to it from the image in the portfolio gallery.
Other Relevant Features
Portfolio Filter Gallery offers the same standard filter options as all of the other portfolio plugins on this list. However, it also offers some unique filter options, which explain the name:
- Search box
- Drop-down filters
- URLs that automatically apply a filter
- Sorting controls
Overall, filtering is definitely one of this plugin’s strong points in comparison to other portfolio plugins.
Here are some of the other notable features:
- 30+ hover effects
- Automatically number portfolio items
- Image style filters (like Instagram)
Portfolio Filter Gallery Pricing
Portfolio Filter Gallery has a free version at WordPress.org
To add support for unlimited filters (the free version only supports five filters), masonry layouts, hover effects, and some other useful features, there’s a premium version starting at $29.
8. NextGEN Gallery
NextGEN Gallery is a powerful WordPress gallery plugin that’s primarily marketed towards photographers and other visual artists.
If you’re looking to create a portfolio of your photography or art, this is definitely a great one to consider. Otherwise, you’ll probably want to choose a different portfolio plugin.
An Example of a ‘NextGEN Gallery’ Portfolio
NextGEN Gallery offers a range of portfolio gallery layouts, though you’ll need the premium version to unlock most of the interesting layouts.
Here are the free layouts:
- Grid
- Slideshow
- List
The Pro version adds:
- Mosaic (justified grid)
- Masonry
- Tiled
- Filmstrip
- Lightbox
Here’s an example of the mosaic layout:
Types of Portfolios That You Can Create
NextGEN Gallery is primarily for image portfolios, as it includes heavy-duty image management features.
You can also link it with Adobe Lightroom so that you can automatically import your Lightroom collections as portfolio galleries.
Other Relevant Features
NextGEN Gallery provides a lot of advanced features for photographers, especially if you want to use your portfolio to sell items.
Here are the three most useful additions:
- Client proofing
- eCommerce support – you can let visitors purchase items from your portfolio (powered by WooCommerce)
- Automatic print fulfillment – you can also sell physical prints and automatically fulfill them using WHCC
NextGEN Gallery Pricing
NextGEN Gallery has a free version at WordPress.org, but it has limited portfolio layout options.
The premium version starts at $29 and goes up to $139 for all the features.
9. Grid Kit Portfolio Gallery
Grid Kit Portfolio Gallery offers a dedicated portfolio builder that includes some unique options such as linking a portfolio item to a map or iframe embed. This can make it a good option if you want to go beyond basic image or video portfolios (though it can certainly handle those as well).
An Example of a ‘Grid Kit Portfolio Gallery’ Portfolio
The plugin offers a number of different layouts, including grid, masonry, mosaic, square, sliders, and more.
Here’s an example of a square layout with filters and text on hover:
Types of Portfolios That You Can Create
Grid Kit Portfolio Gallery includes a dedicated tool that you can use to build your entire portfolio. When you create a portfolio, you’ll be able to add unlimited projects to that portfolio.
For each project, you can enter a description and URL. Then, you can link it to some type of media content:
- Image
- Video – YouTube or Vimeo
- Iframe – useful for embedding complete sites, such as a website you built or a live article that you wrote
- Map – link the portfolio project to a location on a map
You can use images for free, but the other portfolio types require the premium version.
In addition to the dedicated portfolio builder, the plugin also includes other tools to build a gallery of your client logos, team members, and more.
Other Relevant Features
Here are some other notable features in Grid Kit Portfolio Gallery:
- Gallery filters
- Pagination
- Social sharing buttons on portfolio items
- 100+ hover effects
Grid Kit Portfolio Gallery Pricing
Grid Kit Portfolio Gallery has a free version at WordPress.org that should work for simple image portfolios. To unlock all the portfolio types and layouts, the premium version starts at $30.
Note that, while the plugin calls its licenses “lifetime”, you only get one year of support and updates.
10. Modula
Modula is a stylish gallery plugin that makes a great option for creating image or video portfolios.
It doesn’t support other content sources, so it’s not as flexible as some of these other plugins. But if all you need is image or video support, Modula’s main selling proposition is that the gallery layouts look great right out of the box and you also have some unique options for customizing the portfolio layout.
An Example of a ‘Modula’ Portfolio
Here’s an example of the automatic gallery layout with filters:
Types of Portfolios That You Can Create
Modula only supports image and video portfolios. However, you do have the option to mix and match both images and video in the same portfolio.
Other Relevant Features
While Modula does offer great-looking automatic layout options, one of its most unique features is its drag-and-drop grid builder.
If you want pinpoint control over your portfolio’s layout, you can use drag and drop to change the size and position of each portfolio item:
Beyond that, other notable features include:
- Ajax gallery filters
- Hover effects
- Albums
- Flexible lightbox
- Deep linking
Modula Pricing
Modula has a free version at WordPress.org that works fine for simple image portfolios.
The premium version adds support for video galleries, filters, and some other useful portfolio features. It starts at $39 for video and filters or $99 for all features.
11. Envira Gallery
Envira Gallery is a popular gallery plugin that makes a great option for portfolios because it’s very flexible when it comes to choosing the content sources for your galleries. You also get useful portfolio features such as filters and deep linking.
An Example of an ‘Envira Gallery’ Portfolio
Envira Gallery includes five different layouts that you can use for your portfolio:
- Automatic (justified)
- Masonry
- Simple column grid
- Square (Instagram-style)
- List (list items one by one)
Here’s an example of a masonry portfolio with filters:
Types of Portfolios That You Can Create
At a basic level, Envira Gallery supports image, video, and audio portfolios.
However, with the Featured Content add-on, you can also create galleries based on posts, pages, or any custom post type on your site. For example, you could create a new “Portfolio” post type and then automatically display new portfolio items in your gallery.
Envira Gallery also supports importing gallery items from external sources such as Instagram, Dropbox, and Adobe Lightroom.
Other Relevant Features
To make it easier for people to browse your portfolio, you can tag portfolio items and let people filter the gallery based on tags.
If you’re a photographer or artist, Envira Gallery also includes useful features such as client proofing and eCommerce support (via WooCommerce).
Envira Gallery Pricing
Envira Gallery has a free version at WordPress.org that you can use for basic portfolios.
However, you’ll need the premium version to unlock all of the layout options, support for dynamic galleries (e.g. pulling in items from a portfolio post type), and more. The premium version starts at $29 for core features or $99 for all features.
12. FooGallery
FooGallery is another popular gallery plugin that can make a great solution for portfolios. While it does support basic image and video portfolios, it lets you go further and also pull in content from posts, pages, or other post types (just like Envira Gallery above).
For this reason, you can use it to create pretty much any type of portfolio.
An Example of a ‘FooGallery’ Portfolio
FooGallery offers a number of different portfolio layouts, though some require the premium version.
Free layouts:
- Grid
- Image viewer
- Justified
- Masonry
Pro layouts:
- Polaroid
- Advanced grid
- Slider
Here’s an example of a masonry portfolio with filters:
Types of Portfolios That You Can Create
FooGallery is quite flexible when it comes to the types of portfolios that you can create.
At a basic level, you can create portfolios of images or videos (including embedding them from YouTube, Vimeo, and other services).
If you want to go beyond that, you can pull in content from any post type on your site. For example, you could create a portfolio custom post type and then use FooGallery to insert some or all of your portfolio items in a gallery.
You can also create portfolio galleries from external sources such as Instagram, Adobe Lightroom, or the images in a folder on your server.
Other Relevant Features
If you have a lot of portfolio items, you can organize them with categories and then create frontend filters that your visitors can use.
Other notable features include the following:
- Seven different hover effects
- Portfolio item sorting options
- A dedicated block
- Lightbox support via integration with another plugin from the developer
- Albums
FooGallery Pricing
FooGallery has a free version at WordPress.org that should work for basic image portfolios.
The premium version starts at $19.99. However, to unlock support for videos, dynamic galleries from any post type, and other advanced features, you’ll need at least the $59.99 Pro Expert license.
13. Meow Gallery
Meow Gallery is another portfolio plugin that’s primarily focused towards photographers or other visual artists looking to create image portfolios.
One of the notable details about this plugin is that it’s heavily integrated with the native WordPress block editor, so you can completely set up your portfolio without leaving the editor.
An Example of a ‘Meow Gallery’ Portfolio
Meow Gallery supports six different portfolio layouts — the last two in this list require the premium version:
- Tiles
- Masonry
- Justified
- Square (like Instagram)
- Carousel
- Map (display portfolio items on an embedded map)
Here’s an example of the tiles layout:
And here’s a bonus example of the map layout because it’s a pretty unique option:
Types of Portfolios That You Can Create
Meow Gallery is only for image portfolios.
Other Relevant Features
Meow Gallery is pretty lightweight, so there aren’t many other features beyond what I’ve already covered.
Meow Gallery Pricing
The core Meow Gallery plugin is available for free at WordPress.org.
To add the carousel and map layouts, as well as some other features, you can upgrade to the premium version for just $19.
Which WordPress Portfolio Plugin Should You Use?
That rounds up our list, but which of these portfolio plugins is actually right for you?
Well, I think a large part of that depends on what type of work you need to display.
If you just want to display a portfolio of images, all of these plugins can get the job done, but I’d recommend paying special attention to the gallery plugins such as Modula, Envira Gallery, and NextGEN Gallery (if you’re a photographer).
On the other hand, if you want to display a portfolio of blog posts, pages, or items from a portfolio custom post type, you might want to focus on either the grid plugins or one of the gallery plugins that support dynamic content such as Envira Gallery or FooGallery. If you have any specific needs, you’ll want to poke around the feature list and demos.
If you’re looking to show off websites that you’ve built, give WP Portfolio a look because the way it offers a live preview is pretty unique. The Visual Portfolio plugin also makes it easy to embed iframes.
If you’re looking to showcase video or audio, make sure to pick one that lets you embed the player right in the portfolio. A lot of them will do it, but I especially liked the way Essential Grid handles externally embedded videos (example here).
Have any other questions about creating a portfolio with a WordPress plugin? Let us know in the comments!
