Do you ever feel overwhelmed with the amount of WordPress media library plugins out there? Do you ever feel like you could do with a list of the best WordPress media library plugins all in one place?
Well, we have just the thing you are looking for!
Ready to manage your media files like a pro? In this post, we’ve listed plugins that will amplify the already impressive capabilities of the built-in WordPress media library.
Yes, WordPress is outstanding on its own. But there are many features that users wish they had access to enhance the functionality of their WordPress site. Plus, there’s no way that WordPress could’ve packed in every plugin’s feature and functionality.
Lucky for you, all the plugins you’ll read today have their free versions that don’t cost you money!
That’s not to say that you should only use their free version. The premium version of these WordPress media organizers is so good that you’ll want to buy them immediately – if you’re really serious about managing your media library with a breeze to make your life easier and less time-consuming. But before we get into the best WordPress media library plugins for 2021, let’s cover how to choose a media library plugin in the first place.
Choosing a WordPress Media Library Plugin
WordPress comes with a built-in media library feature, but the default library to manage your media content lacks the functionality most users look for. When choosing a WordPress media library plugin, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.
- It’s worth taking a moment to look into the features it offers and ask yourself if it meets your requirements.
- Choosing a user-friendly plugin saves you time to manage your media library.
- You also need to ensure that the media library plugin you choose doesn’t slow down your site and doesn’t have much impact on the loading time.
- Additionally, make sure that the media library plugin of your choice is maintained and updated regularly.
That said. Now let’s dive in and know the pricing, features, and benefits of the best media library plugins available in 2021.
Best WordPress Media Library Plugins
Ever heard the old saying, “the best things in life are free”? These media manager plugins for WordPress are obviously not “the best things in life” (unless WordPress is your life), but they are good enough and all of them have free versions. Give these feature-rich plugins a try!
- FileBird Media Library Plugin
- WordPress Real Media Library
- WordPress Media Library Folders
- WP Media Manager
- Media Library Assistant
- Enhanced Media Library
- Media Library Categories
FileBird – The most user-friendly media library plugin
FileBird is a powerful plugin for organizing your media files by creating virtual folders so that they won’t break links to your content. This plugin is compatible with popular third-party plugins like WPML, Elementor, and WooCommerce. It allows you to upload different file types into folders. On top of that, it also provides multilingual support for a wide variety of languages such as English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, etc.
Reasons To Use
- The drag and drop interface to create as well as arrange folders and subfolders by uploading or bulk moving files into them.
- Entire control over all media library folders is in one resizable and customizable sidebar.
- Just right-click to easily create, rename and delete the folders with a smart context menu.
- Support for right-to-left (RTL) languages such as Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, etc.
Reasons To Avoid
- Sometimes it takes longer than necessary to search files.
| Developer | Free Version | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Ninja Team | Yes | $39 |
WordPress Real Media Library
Real Media Library is a plugin that allows you to organize thousands of media files into folders, collections, and galleries by using a drag-and-drop interface. If you regularly need quick and easy access to media files then this plugin is an absolute must-have. What’s more, it lets you create shortcuts to the files, views them in list mode, create a custom image order, create custom short-codes, etc.
Reasons To Use
- Easily add filters with an effective filtering system.
- The media files can be directly added to a preset folder when you upload them.
- Provides extensive compatibility with themes and pages builders like Bridge, Avada, BeTheme, Elementor, Gutenberg, WPBakery, etc.
- Features a clean and beginner-friendly interface that is easy to adapt.
Reasons to Avoid
- It is a pretty basic plugin and lacks some more standout features.
| Developer | Free Version | Price |
|---|---|---|
| devowl.io | Yes | $39 |
WordPress Media Library Folders
Media Library Folders is an excellent plugin for organizing media files on your site by adding files or arranging folders in the desired order. This plugin lets you create folders within your media library and help you organize, categorize, and access a large number of files whenever you need them. It offers a user-friendly interface – just drag and drop to easily move or copy your files to any folders or subfolders.
Reason to Use
- Automatic specification of ALT text and TITLE attributes when uploading images, which help in improving SEO and accessibility of your site.
- A nice drag-and-drop interface which makes it a user-friendly plugin to move, copy, and delete files with individual or bulk selection.
- Synchronization of files and folders while uploading them via FTP.
- Option for the regeneration of thumbnails for uploaded images.
Reason to Avoid
- This plugin doesn’t have explicit compatibility with third-party plugins.
| Developer | Free Version | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Max Foundry | Yes | $49 |
WP Media Manager
WP Media Manager is a plugin that brings exemplary features like a user-friendly interface, customizations, and many more. This plugin provides you with 3 in-built theme options like a grid, slider, and masonry to set your gallery media template. It features a drag-and-drop intuitive interface by which you can easily move your media files into any desired folder or subfolder.
Reasons To Use
- This plugin is easy to configure and adopt for managing files and their categorization.
- Easily create multiple folders or subfolders and start editing them. You can also sort, filter or order media files.
- Offers a single file design customization option.
- Supports media gallery shortcode extension. Also, gallery layout can be changed to slider form and much more can be done with gallery slider shortcode from folders.
Reasons to Avoid
- Sometimes it takes longer than necessary to search files.
| Developer | Free Version | Price |
|---|---|---|
| AccessPress Themes | Yes | $17 |
Media Library Assistant – Free WordPress Media Library Plugin
Media Library Assistant is for anyone who feels like adding enhancements to the native functionality of the WordPress media library and that too without paying anything. This plugin makes it a breeze to search via ALT tags, the image slug, and even caption fields. It is capable of storing Exif data including the GPS location information in the images.
Reasons to Use
- Compatible with other plugins like WPML, Jetpack, Photonic Gallery, Polylang multilingual plugins, and more.
- This plugin supports the use of shortcodes to manage your media files by adding galleries, tagging them and later, sorting them accordingly.
- Supports a wide variety of taxonomies and you can also bulk-update them.
- Features a powerful search functionality.
Reasons to Avoid
- The user interface of this is a little bit outdated.
| Developer | Free Version | Price |
|---|---|---|
| David Lingren | Yes |
Enhanced Media Library
Enhanced Media Library makes it a breeze to categorize and arrange your media files according to your needs. Also, you can search them easily through your library with the features this plugin offers such as filtering options and creating unlimited tags, categories, and taxonomies. This plugin has complete compatibility with WordPress shortcodes which makes it easier for non-technical people to use.
Reasons to Use
- Create dynamic galleries or playlists to sort your media files without any hassle.
- Select and custom re-order bulk files by using drag-and-drop function for unlimited bulk edit.
- Provides you with MIME types control with which you can add or remove file types as per your choice.
- Multisites compatibility with import or export plugin options to make this plugin work on the new site with the same settings.
Reasons to Avoid
- This plugin is not often updated.
| Developer | Free Version | Price |
|---|---|---|
| wpUXsolutions | Yes | $25 |
Media Library Categories
Media Library Categories enable you to assign categories to your media files using a category editor. This plugin lets you easily add, edit, and remove categories in bulk to manage multiple files at once using a dropdown of the category that will appear in your media library. Moreover, you can also filter the categories in the media library using the inbuilt gallery shortcode.
Reasons to Use
- Provides a category editor which is added to the main menu.
- Offers a taxonomy filter for your media library using which you can filter taxonomies by categories.
- Best way to categorize, select and manage your media files.
- Allows bulk actions to change the categories of multiple items in your media library at once.
Reasons to Avoid
- This plugin has limited functionality.
| Developer | Free Version | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Jeffrey-WP | Yes | $25 |
Conclusion
There you have it, the 7 best WordPress media library manager plugins in 2021. We hope you’ve found this list of plugins helpful to you. What are your favorite WordPress plugins? What have we missed out on? Let us know in the comments below!
If you regularly use the media library of the legendary website creation platform called “WordPress”, these tools help you supercharge your workflow and manage your media library in a better way. Now you just want to decide which ones you want to use depending on your specific requirements.
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