Sliders are really important as it shows immediately what the website is all about. Also it’s a good way to launch some product, showcase work, or tell in real quick about your services.
Hence the need for sliders on home page and other pages is still a big necessity in websites.
Below is a list of few free and premium sliders we have tried before.
1. WP Parallax Content Slider
WP Parallax Content slider can be used to showcase the last/recent posts. Also it can be used to showcase by a special category. The major advantage of this slider is that it is new and has parallax type of scroll functions.
Also WP Parallax Content slider as the name suggests can be used to add images as well as content or only images as well.
At the moment translations in around 12 languages is available for this plugin but the faq section reveals that translating the plugin in other languages should be piece of cake.
Above all this plugin is available for free.
For more info check this link.
2. SlideDeck 2 Lite responsive slider
Slidedeck 1 had good features and SlideDeck2 Lite is the latest from SlideDeck. This is a responsive slider and can be used to add video, content as well as images.
Slidedeck offers a lot of customization and can be handy to develop a lot of different types of slides.
For free Slidedeck shows its name as SD on the slider. So for businesses if they like the slider they can choose to buy the pro version.
Developers can buy the developer version as well.
All details are given on slidedeck.com
For downloading the free version click here.
3. Meta Slider
Meta slider is 4 sliders into 1 slider. It gives you the option to use nivo slider effect, flex slider, coin slider and or responsive slider.
The slider is good for adding images and video.
The only problem is that it offers content sliders only in the PRO version.
The PRO version also allows for adding layered sliders. Starts at $19.
To download the free version click here.
4. Cyclone Slider 2
Free slider, responsive and can be used to add images and text. The only download of cyclone slider is that it doesn’t allow video to be added. However this is the best and the most recommended slider if you want to use text and image.
It can be easily adjusted to any way or style you want with css.
To download the slider click here.
5. Len Slider
Len slider is again another video, image and content slider which comes handy. The slider has nice carousels using jquery and css3. It is easy to integrate and free of course.
It supports adding video, image as well as content and a combination of them as well.
Hence this slider can work wonders for a developer.
Drag and Drop interface, premade skins available and easy to edit using css.
No need of php and html knowledge but if you have then you can change many other options and create your own skin.
6. Layer Slider
Layer slider as the name suggests allows you to add layers of images, content, video and above all have different animations for each of these layers. So this means you get an awesome and cool slider with all sorts of fancy animations.
It is a responsive slider.
Layer slider due to its fancy animations and so many features like drag and drop interface and no need to know any html coding has got more than 14000+ purchases on codecanyon. It costs only $15 so in case you want to have a slider for your website with fancy animations you may want to dig in here and check this:
7. Revolution Slider
Revolution slider is yet another slider similar to layer slider. Many argue it is better than layer slider but to be honest we found both very similar in working.
But yes in terms of effects revolution slider has many other effects added in its latest release like the ken burns effect.
It has 18k+ purchases and is surely more popular than the layer slider and is right now no.1 choice for WordPress theme developers to add it into their themes.
Costs only $15 which is a dime considering the features available with this slider. Extended license of $75 lets you reuse the slider as many times as you want for life.
8. Lazy Content Slider
Lazy content slider can pick images from within posts. Just specify the category and it will pick up the post content and the featured image.
The usage is pretty simple and it allows for image as well as content to be used for the slider. However it is not recommended in case you want to use video within your sliders.
9. Simple HTML Slider
Simple HTML Slider as the name suggest is suitable if you know a bit of html. But html slider can do wonders if you know a bit of html because it allows for video, image, as well as content and a combination of any of them or all together.
The developer has created a demo using google map as well.
So in case you are comfortable with html get this slider to work on your website or your clients’ website.
10. WP Coda Slider
WP Coda slider is another content slider. Custom metaboxes appears on each post or page and you can add options within it to make slider appear. It uses the jquery features and hence has many jquery animation and transitions.
Would recommend this slider for developers only as it isn’t very easy to use for non developers.