74
WP Lightbox 2
Simple to set up but carries some heavy technical baggage.
HealthyGrowing
74/100
It is easy to use but suffers from persistent bugs and outdated code.
Active installs
~35,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 30k+
Rating
4.4★
89 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
+107%
Growing fast
34 → 70 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
Growing fast · +107% in the last year
34/day a year ago→70/day today
Reviews
what people actually sayWP Lightbox 2 is a simple, well-liked lightbox plugin praised for ease of use and mobile compatibility, but it carries a persistent reputation for unresolved bugs — particularly broken admin design settings and outdated jQuery dependency — that have gone unfixed across multiple years and versions.
What people like
- +Easy to install and use with minimal configuration×6
- +Works correctly on mobile devices and resizes images properly×2
- +Does not cause jQuery or theme conflicts, unlike competing lightbox plugins
- +Supports image scrolling/navigation through galleries with arrows×2
- +Works with modern WordPress versions
Common complaints
- −Admin design settings do not work, blocking access to navigation controls like the next button; complaint dates back at least 4 years and remains unresolved
- −Uses deprecated jQuery .live() method, causing errors with current jQuery versions
- −Breaks existing slideshows on activation
- −Support forum topics are closed to new replies, limiting users' ability to report or follow up on issues
Review trustReviews look organic
- 4.53★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 4.40★
- 6%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower
Not enough review history.
All-time ratings · 89 total
Latest reviews · 90 analyzed
- 2020-10-06★★★★★Design features not workingjanet4now
- 2020-10-03★★★★★best pluginadvertare59
- 2020-09-15★★★★★Broke my siteSivustonikkari
- 2019-01-07★★★★★One of the best!danjde
- 2017-04-07★★★★★Nice pluginLohith M
- 2016-10-10★★★★★is very gooducero
- 2016-09-28★★★★★Awesome!fufales
- 2016-09-17★★★★★Slideshow geht nicht mehrperseusix
- 2016-06-01★★★★★overlay color and animation stylelumicon9
- 2016-05-27★★★★★Regular bugs, no support, no bugfixesMichael Zangl
Releases
recent versions from WordPress.org SVNAlternatives to WP Lightbox 2
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.
71
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
69
Prior 7-day baseline
60
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
206
Mean release-day peak (30d)
60
Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)
+2.9%
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.
—
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
—
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
81%
5★ share in analyzed sample
6%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
—
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
4.38 → 4.53★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered