78
Carousel, Slider, Photo Gallery with Lightbox, Video Slider, by WP Carousel
A lovely carousel that hides its best video tricks in the Pro version.
Healthy
78/100
Users enjoy the simple setup but find the gated video features frustrating.
Active installs
~75,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 70k+
Rating
4.7★
428 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
-4%
Holding steady
315 → 303 installs/day
Downloads over time
real new installs per day · release spikes shown separately from the trend2025-04-302025-08-082025-11-162026-02-232026-06-03
organicrelease spikerelease tailorganic trend · 14d rolling median
Holding steady · -4% in the last year
315/day a year ago→303/day today
Reviews
what people actually sayWP Carousel is generally well-regarded as an easy-to-use slider and carousel plugin, but at least one user raises a pointed concern about core features — such as local video support — being locked behind a paid upgrade despite the plugin's free-tier branding.
What people like
- +Easy to use and simple to set up×4
- +Works reliably for images, videos, sliders, and carousels×3
- +Used successfully on multiple sites over an extended period×2
Common complaints
- −Core features expected from the plugin's title and description — such as local video in a slider — are locked behind a paid upgrade, which one user considers an abuse of the WordPress.org plugin repository
Review trustReviews look organic
- 4.88★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 4.70★
- 20%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower
2023-12-172025-03-112026-06-04
5★ reviews1–4★ reviews
All-time ratings · 428 total
Latest reviews · 90 analyzed
- 2026-04-28★★★★★Very lightmimihome1-shot
- 2026-04-25★★★★★A great plugin even for non-IT specialistsjirixdolezal
- 2026-03-17★★★★★Good plugin and service.avaco1-shot
- 2026-02-11★★★★★Simply Works & Ready for Morewizard98x
- 2026-01-17★★★★★Exceeded expectationswojch1-shot
- 2026-01-02★★★★★Terrific helpershirleyrma
- 2025-12-26★★★★★Excelentyannisfilopoulos1-shot
- 2025-12-11★★★★★Perfect carousel maker for WPgrumblesjefe61-shot
- 2025-12-08★★★★★Great Functionality and Serviceindivisible
- 2025-12-05★★★★★Nice pluginjtomppo
Releases
recent versions from WordPress.org SVNAlternatives to Carousel, Slider, Photo Gallery with Lightbox, Video Slider, by WP Carousel
Top Media plugins, ranked by score.For developers & the curious
the raw signals behind the grade — none of this is on the friendly summary aboveDownload signals
Baselines are computed on organic days only — release spikes and their tails are excluded, so they're not inflated by the auto-update wave.
307
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
329
Prior 7-day baseline
245
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
1,536
Mean release-day peak (30d)
321
Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)
-6.7%
Week-over-week organic trend
Review signals
Concentration and drive-by metrics drive the review-burst and fake-review flags. 30–40% solo reviewers is normal; we only flag the extremes.
10%
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
0.72
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
94%
5★ share in analyzed sample
20%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
-40%
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
4.84 → 4.88★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered