In this blog post, I discuss 13 WordPress plugins that enable you to create grid layouts on your website. A grid layout is a sleek and modern way to display content. Before I get to my awesome list, let me briefly discuss the types of grids.
Types of Grids
In a grid layout, content is displayed in a format comprised of rows and columns. There are different grid styles that are used to display web content. For example, in an even layout, the items are the same size and symmetrically displayed. In a masonry layout, however, the height of the items differ, resulting in an asymmetric grid. A cobble layout is a symmetrical grid, but some items are much larger as they span multiple columns or rows.
In addition to how the grid is displayed, there are differences with regard to what the grid displays.
In fact, there are many different types of content that can be displayed in a grid layout. You can display videos, photos, articles, events, audio, web pages, products, portfolios, and blog posts. You can even create a grid that displays items from Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Vimeo, YouTube, and other social media sources. A grid can contain homogeneous items, like images in a gallery or a grid of recent blog posts; or it can be a multi-source grid with different types of content (i.e., a single grid containing photos, videos, and audio).
13 WordPress Plugins
Grid layouts can be achieved by using a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS), but if you have a WordPress-based website you can use a plugin to more easily achieve a grid layout. WordPress is an extremely popular content platform. For those unfamiliar with WordPress, however, it is an open-source software system that uses themes (templates) and plugins (additional software) to create and manage websites. Plugins add functionality to your WordPress site.
There are numerous WordPress plugins for creating grid layouts. In this blog post, however, I take a look at 13 WordPress plugins that allow you to create grid layouts on your site.
It is worth noting that all of the plugins mentioned in this post, can be found in either the WordPress plugin library or on Code Canyon–two plugin sources that I use for my website.
By the way, in case it is not evident, the grid layout in the featured photo for this blog post was not created using a WordPress plugin. I just whipped up a quick design in Gimp for illustrative purposes.
With that said, below, in no particular order, are the 13 plugins that you can check out to create different types of grid layouts on your website.
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Post Grid
With Post Grid, by Pick Plugins, you can create grids based on custom post types. There are different skin options, and the grids are fully responsive. You can display the grids anywhere on your website. There is a social share feature, and there is support for pagination and custom taxonomy. In addition, you can display videos from different sources, including Vimeo, YouTube, and Dailymotion. At the time of this writing, there are 60,000+ installations of this plugin on WordPress sites.
There is a free version on WordPress.org, and a premium version of this grid plugin on Pick Plugins.com.
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Uber Grid
Uber Grid is a premium plugin. In addition to displaying blog posts, you can display photos and custom post types. You can even display products from WooCommerce. With this plugin, there are many grid layouts from which to choose. The grid has filtering, can use hundreds of Google Fonts, and there are multiple lightboxes.
You can find Uber Grid on CodeCanyon.
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Post Revolution
Post Revolution is a premium grid plugin that allows you to create post grid layouts. There many different layout options. You can use the plugin to display blog posts, photo galleries, and products from WooCommerce. The plugin supports Google Fonts, has filtering, supports captions and excerpts, and it is fully responsive.
Post Revolution is available on Code Canyon.
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Justified Image Grid
Despite its name, the Justified Image Grid plugin is not limited to displaying images in a grid. This premium plugin enables you to display many types of content, including blog posts, videos from YouTube and Vimeo, posts from Facebook, and more. There are different lightbox options, and special effects for images.
You can learn more about the plugin and purchase Justified Image Grid on Code Canyon.
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The Grid
The Grid plugin enables you to create grids of any post type. It comes with a skin builder with drag-and-drop functionality. The grids can be displayed in a regular grid layout, justified, or masonry layout, and items can be displayed in a carousel/slider. Audio, video, links, quotes, or products can be displayed in a grid. In addition, the plugin supports social stream posts from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more.
At the time of this writing, this plugin has 8,875 sales on Code Canyon. Learn more about The Grid.
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The Post Grid
The Post Grid, by RadiusTheme, enables you to display posts in list, isotope, and grid views. Posts can be displayed by keyword, tags, author, and category. The grids are responsive, and pagination is supported. You can find the free version of The Post Grid on WordPress.org. At the time of this writing, there have been 20,000+ installations on WordPress.org.
The premium version includes many more layouts, WooCommerce support, and a lot more features. You can find out more about the plugin on RadiusTheme.com.
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Display Posts
As you would expect from its name, the Display Posts plugin, by Bill Erickson, is intended for displaying WordPress posts. You can display your posts in lists and grids. Posts can be filtered (e.g., recent posts, category) and then displayed using shortcode functionality. It is worth noting, however, that while you can create post grids using shortcode, you have to add some CSS to your stylesheet.
Display Posts is available for free on WordPress.org. In addition, you can find more information about the plugin, including tutorials, at DisplayPosts.com.
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Grid FX
With the Grid FX plugin, you can display blog posts, Facebook posts, tweets, videos from Vimeo or YouTube, photos from Flickr, audio from SoundCloud, products from WooCommerce, and more. You can create galleries that contain a mixture of media.
Grid FX contains several grid styles, templates, transition effects, image effects for your photos, and many filtering options. At the time of this writing, Grid FX has 2,234 sales on Code Canyon. Learn more about GridFX.
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ContentViews
ContentViews is a plugin that enables you to create both lists and post grids. You can display posts in many ways, including by author, category, keyword, or tag. The grids are responsive, and can be shown on pages or posts, or displayed in a widget area. After selecting how the posts should be displayed (e.g., by category), you can use the plugin settings to customize the grid, then you place the plugin’s shortcode where you want the grid to appear.
ContentViews is a popular WordPress plugin. Currently, the plugin has been installed on WordPress sites more than 100,000 times. In addition to the free version of the plugin on WordPress.org, there is a paid version, ContentViews Pro.
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Gridable
This free WordPress plugin makes creating grids easy, because of its integration into the WordPress editor. More specifically, it integrates an “Add Row” button into the default What You See is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor. You can adjust the row’s settings, and you can increase or decrease the number of columns.
There have been 10,000+ installations of this plugin as of the date of this writing. You can find Gridable on WordPress.org.
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Video Grid
As the name indicates, this plugin enables you to create video grids on your WordPress website. It works by creating a grid of videos which can be viewed in a lightbox. There are free and premium versions of this plugin. With the free version, the grid can contain videos from YouTube and DailyMotion, while the premium version, WordPress Video Grid Pro Plugin, allows you to also use videos from Vimeo and Metacafe.
At the time of this writing, this plugin has 2,000+ installations. You can find the free Video Grid plugin on WordPress.org, and the premium version at i13WebSolution.com.
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Media Grid
This is a premium plugin that enables you to create portfolio grids. You can use the plugin to create grids based on posts and even WooCommerce products. The plugin supports images, audio, and video.
The plugin’s features include a grid builder, preset styles, lightboxes, pagination, comment integration, filtering, and automatic updates. The Media Grid plugin has 11,810 sales on Code Canyon at the time of this writing.
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Essential Grid Gallery
Last but not least, is my favorite, the Essential Grid plugin. I use this plugin to display grids on my website. You can use this plugin to post pages, blog posts, custom posts, and social media streams in a grid layout. The plugin contains a template library, and there are many skins from which to choose. It also has a skin editor so you can customize the skins to your liking. Content items can be displayed in cobbles, masonry, or even layouts. Essential Grid also has pagination, filtering, and sorting functionality.
I display videos from my YouTube channel, blog posts, and Instagram photos on the home page of Suavington.com. In addition, I am using Essential Grid to display posts on several other pages (See, e.g., Blogging, Marketing, Social Media, and Development).
Essential Grid is a premium plugin that can be found on Code Canyon. At the time of this writing, there have been 37,017 sales of this plugin on Code Canyon.
What do You Think about Grid Layouts?
I hope that you found this list of 13 grid layout WordPress plugins useful. I am interested in your thoughts about grids.
- Do you like grid layouts?
- Have you used any of the above-mentioned plugins?
- Do you use a different plugin to display your content in a grid format?
Drop a comment below to let me know your thoughts.
