The WordPress plugins directory is full of tools to create sliders, but, all of them come with a few features and the majority are not responsive and have few functions. To find the best WordPress slideshow plugin, I’ve tested some good tools, but, only the Soliloquy plugin is what I was looking for.
It’s not a classic tool that you can use and add some images and that’s it. It’s completely different with features that I see for the first time in a slider plugin.
jQuery slider plugin: Features
The Soliloquy is unique in features, and it’s the top-rated and best slider plugin for WordPress. It comes with lots of options and features, such as touch swipe support, thumbnails, custom CSS, and much more. Below are just a few of the complete list.
Responsive slider plugin
No one wants to see his work looks bad on mobile devices. We all know that the majority of sliders are not responsive. But, this one makes things professional from the beginning, and take the look as a priority with the performances.
No matter what mobile device, your visitor uses, from tablets to smartphones, the plugin works automatically, and adjust the layout, based on the dimensions of the device.
Custom mobile settings
If you want to create a specific layout, or configuration for a targeted mobile device, then, the plugin has its own mobile device checker and detector tool that knows the version, and the dimensions, so, that your layout will be used on that mobile.
The good thing is that you can create layouts, and customizations, for all the devices that we know without exceptions.
Export and import your slides
This is a feature that every slideshow must-have. If you want to move your site to another hosting, later, or simply, want to use your actual sliders on another website. All you have to do is to export your settings and import them on the new website. Your sliders will be copied automatically without any extra editing.
Unlimited sliders
You don’t have to worry about numbers and possibilities, you can create as many sliders and you want, and you have the well-coded WordPress plugin for that. The interface is organized to help you build amazing sliders in a few clicks, and best of all, you will create the best sliders, that a few people can do the same.
Lightning-fast image preloading
The website speed is a new ranking factor these days. Even, if you have a fast website. You should take care of the milliseconds that can slow down your pages. The Soliloquy plugin is not only the best slideshow plugin for WordPress, but also, it uses a unique and dynamic asynchronous Ajax preloading method.
So, you never see any effect on the web page loading time, and your visitors will be amazed by the speed of your sliders and their image pre-loading.
SEO friendly sliders with multisite support
A few WordPress plugins offer some basic SEO settings, but this one lets you, even add your own ALT tag and titles, to every image in your sliders, and control what you want with your images.
Remember that the ALT tag features help to rank your sliders in the search result with Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex. So, make sure to add some words there.
The plugin works also with the WordPress multisite, you can let your users use the plugins for their own sites under your parent site functions.
The Jquery WordPress slider add-ons
The Thadd-onse features are just the basics, you can extend your sliders with powerful function, that no one else is using in your niche. In a few seconds, you can add amazing “pin it” buttons to your images, and much more.
Sliders with Pinterest button
If your users love a specific image in your slides, they can easily pin it using the button that will appear with every image. You can adjust its positions and make it looks pretty with any device.
Remember that Pinterest is one of the biggest traffic sources that you can use. Pinterest works well for some specific niches, such as food, fashion, clothes, and much more. So, you can let people share your images, give you free high authority backlinks and help you.
Retina ready and responsive themes for sliders
The beauty of this responsive slider WordPress plugin comes from the pre-made themes, that you can use and even customize. You have some basic themes that will look good with your settings.
You can change the themes until you find the one that works better with your website theme, design, and colors. This is the WordPress responsive slider plugin for professionals and that has lots of reviews.
Schedule your sliders
You can’t find this feature in all the other WordPress slider plugins. You can set up the time to show all the sliders, or even, a specific slider. You have total control over that, and that’s a good option for websites with lots of users and pages.
Instagram add-on
With this option, you can use your Instagram photos in your sliders, and even you can link to them directly. Also, you can display your Instagram photos as captions with every slider. And you can cache the images to save more time downloading images from the server. It’s a complete function to create an amazing jquery slider with captions.
Featured content sliders
When you need to show your featured posts or pages in a slider, this plugin puts all things in the right place. You have full options to add or exclude a specific type of posts or categories, and you can use the post image, or the post featured image, with an excerpt or whatever you want.
Dynamic sliders add-on
The plugin lets you create sliders and come back to add or delete images as you want, and without the need to create another slider. You can customize and rebuild your slider even if it’s active, and that’s a good feature that I liked. It helps adjust the slider images, delete the ones that are outdated for example, and make things better.
Custom CSS for your sliders
The plugin itself is enough, to create the most powerful sliders with every WordPress site. But, if you need some customizations using CSS, then, this add-on will help.
jQuery Slider with thumbnails
Thumbnails add a good attraction to sliders, it adds a good-looking image with every slide, and you can control the position, at the top, or at the bottom of the slider, and also the dimensions.
Also, you can set the maximum and the minimum number of thumbnails to display. That will help to create a responsive and well-optimized jQuery slideshow with thumbnails.
Sliders with carousel and lightbox
You can add these options in your sliders and extend the default layout and options. All the settings are configurable and you have the ability to set the width, and use or not, the responsive mode in your sliders. You can use your images, videos, content, and more in the lightbox. In a few clicks, you can create an attractive jQuery slider with video.