Slider are very useful and increasingly popular web page elements used for highlighting important content. By using a jQuery slider plugin, one can create amazing HTML slider effects with fancy animations of content elements like text and images. jQuery takes care of the difficult aspects like browser support and typically when using jQuery plugins it can be done with very little coding effort. This is the reason why jQuery sliders and jQuery banner slideshow scripts have become very popular on most types of websites. They are are typically used to feature multiple products, news, video etc. without taking up a lot of space on the pages. In fact, we see sliders on most news and business websites today and they are placed on the most important location over the fold on the front page.
The jQuery library has undoubtedly made the life of web developers easier and made it possible for non-experts to do fancy stuff themselves. With jQuery, we can do many really advanced and dynamic things by writing just few lines of codes and without having to add proprietary plugins like Flash.
Because jQuery effects work wonders in our web designs, it makes sense that we take steps to acquire a size-able collection of ready to use plugins in various categories. To make life easier for you, I have put together a sizeable collection of both free and premium jQuery slider solutions. I hope this can save you time find the right solution for your projects. There are different types of sliders to choose from and it is important to review the options to get the right slider design for your site. I have included basic image sliders, mixed content slider, gallery sliders, carousel sliders, banner rotators and some even have fully responsive support.
I added some tips for choosing the right slider as well at the end of the post – read through this to be clearer on the requirements you have for your slider solution. I update the article often and add new cool jQuery sliders, check all links etc. My latest update focused on adding responsive sliders, as jQuery plugins for creating responsive layouts are so hot and on removing old and obsolete scripts!
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links and I will earn a commission if you purchase through those links (at no extra cost to you). I recommend that you do your own independent research before purchasing any product or service. This article is not a guideline, a recommendation or endorsement of specific products.
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Article Index
Responsive jQuery Slider plugins
Other cool jQuery based Sliders
Tips for choosing a slider
First some Responsive jQuery sliders for Mobile Friendly Websites!
Lush – Content Slider - MORE INFO | DEMO
The Perfect slider for people with minimal developer experience. With an almost endless supply of jQuery slider plugins, it is difficult to choose the right one. Lush slider, however, is one of the solutions one need to check out. What makes it stand out for sure is the slider builder tool addon. This is so powerful and not a solution we typically see for jquery sliders. This tool makes creating the slides a walk in the park… and it makes me think of similar solutions found in WordPress slider plugins.
For optimal performance, this slider make use of CSS3 native transitions and animations and this makes sure it takes advantage of the modern browser features, while preserving compatibility with older browsers. Lush is easy to set up even if you do not use the builder tool. It makes use of a semantic syntax to describe the animation timeline and this way one avoid the task of defining complex attributes and keywords.
Camera Slider – MORE INFO
Camera is a free responsive slider with support for images, html content, videos and captions. You can choose to add thumbnails at the bottom.
Jssor Slider jQuery Plugin - MORE INFO | DEMO
Jssor is a multi-purpose slider plugin with support for multiple slider types such as layouts for creating sliders with images, galleries, banner rotators, grids, HTML content and more. The plugin is responsive and adapt well to mobile screen sizes.
RoyalSlider – Touch-Enabled jQuery Image Gallery - MORE INFO | DEMO
If you want a flexible slider solution with support for multiple slider types, I think RoyalSlider is one of the options to check out. This script includes more than 10 slider templates and it will work well for featuring content in many ways. RoyalSlider is great for creating HTML content sliders, image sliders, image galleries, video galleries, banner rotators and carousels for that sake. To catch visitor attention the plugin plenty of effects and animated captions to get the message out. This jQuery slider plugin have a fully responsive layout and for mobile users there is touch event support.
All Around – jQuery Content Slider / Carousel - MORE INFO | DEMO
With the All Around content slider you get a cool multi-purpose all-in-one slider script. This jquery slider supports both images and video. The slider offers six slider and carousel layouts and this makes it a good fit for most website designs.
Layer Slider (Must see parallax effects) – MORE INFO | DEMO
This is the slider that will make you turn your head! Layer Slider is one of the most feature packed jQuery content sliders on the market. First, it makes it easy to add amazing layered effects to your website and of course, you can use the popular parallax-effect. For transitions between slides, there are more than 170 effects to choose from and this will make your slides stand out! There are five presentation modes to make the slider fit into your web design such as full width, responsive etc.
Layer Slider, as the name says…. Allows you to create multiple layers of content. You can add any content to the slides such as videos, images, forms, basic text etc.
Parallax Slider – Responsive jQuery Plugin - MORE INFO | DEMO
With the Parallax Slider plugin one get a solution to add slides using the popular parallex effect and this will for sure give the visitors a wow experience. The plugin offers a collection of slider types one can choose from: Classic, Perpetuum Mobile, Mouse Interaction and Ultra. For each slider type there are two available templates and this gives great design flexibility. In addtion, this jQuery slider plugin can be used as fixed dimensions or as full width slider.
Full Width Slider 2.0 – MORE INFO | DEMO
If you want the perfect full width slider for a responsive website you should have a look at Full Width Slider 2. This is a jQuery image slider specifically optimized for full screen width and with support for responsive layouts. It is possible to add title, description and a link to the slides and this way make them lead visitors to pages on the websites.
All in one Slider jQuery Banner Rotator / Content Slider -MORE INFO | DEMO
With the All in one banner rotator plugin you get a all round slider script. It can be configured to act as banner rotator for using jquery banner animation style. It also supports thumbnails banners, banners with playlist, sliders and carousels with html content. The All in one Slider is responsive and it will adapt to fit tablet and mobile screens.
Showbiz Pro Responsive Teaser jQuery Slider Plugin – MORE INFO | DEMO
With the Showbiz Pro Responsive Teaser jQuery plugin one get a very flexible and feature packed solution for featuring content such as blog posts, products, images, videos etc. The plugin is light weight and rely on jquery and CSS. It includes a license for Fancybox 3 lightbox plugin and this means you one get a great lightbox solutions as well in the package.
Page Animate Webpage Slider – MORE INFO | DEMO
One of the host trends in web design at the moment is single page web design. While most websites use vertical scroll one can use Page Animate Webpage Slider for setting up a modern one page design with a horizontal sliding effect. The page slider is fully responsive and will work for mobile and tablet users. The plugin is not limited to pages and you can add more or less any content, including videos.
Revolution Responsive Slider jQuery Plugin – MORE INFO | DEMO
Adding the mature Revolution Responsive Slider plugin to a web page opens up for a lot of cool possibilities for featuring content using the popular slider technique. Revolutions is one of the popular premium slider plugins and it is filled with useful slider features and it is easy to set up. Since the content in hidden slides is available for search engines, it is a SEO friendly slider solution.
To ensure best possible performance the plugin is using CSS animation with fallback to jQuery on some browsers. The jQuery slider plugin comes with many transition effects and caption animations.
jQuery Banner Rotator – MORE INFO | DEMO
Most webmasters love to do great things on their website and give visitors a better experience. Adding an image slider with some really cool transition effects is one of the most popular options at the moment. jQuery Banner Rotator is special and a very hot slider script one can use to do sliders the way users love them. It is a classic image slider solution but with amazing transition effects that makes us stop and watch!
jQuery OneByOne Slider Plugin – MORE INFO | DEMO
With OneByOne, a lightweight (only 4kb compressed) and responsive jQuery slider plugin, one get a robust and flexible script for featuring important content such as images and text.
The slider use CSS3 animation based on the popular Animate.css scrips. I am sure most people will ask for this and yes – this slider is mobile friendly and support swipe left/right on popular touch devices like iPhone & iPad. It is also possible for users to drag and drop to navigate with their mouse.
Translucent – Responsive Banner Rotator / Slider – MORE INFO | DEMO
Translucent is a cool responsive slider and banner rotator plugin with cool transparency effects on captions / descriptions. There are six layout templates included making it a flexible solution and useful for most websites.
With Translucent, one get a slider that supports both responsive and fluid layouts. In addition, it works well with mobile device touch swipe navigation on e.g. iPad and Android tablets.
Saloon – MORE INFO | DEMO
If you need a responsive jQuery banner rotator or slider plugin with powerful transition and animation effect options I think Saloon may be worth checking out. The latest version have touch and drag’n’ rool support for moble browsing. What makes this slider solution interesting is the possibility to animate an unlimited amount of elements (text, images, icons etc.) and use cool effects to make them enter the scene with style!
CCSlider – jQuery 3d Slideshow Plugin – MORE INFO | DEMO
If you like stunning 3D animation effects I think CCSlider is one of the most interesting jQuery slider plugins you can get. You get a large arsenal of both 2D and 3D transition effects and in addition, it is possible to add animated HTML content into the slides. The plugin make use of HTML5 canvas and have fallback for older browsers.
CCSlider have a responsive layout and adapt to all screen sizes ranging from desktop to mobile browsers.
Responsive KenBurner Slider jQuery Plugin – MORE INFO | DEMO
The Responsive KenBurner Slider jQuery plugin allows you to add a cool image slider with the Ken Burner zoom effect. The effect makes images look alive and interactive and the effect helps to catch the attention of visitors. It is possible to add captions with simple text animations. The slider is mobile friendly and have touch support. It is possible to set up the sliders with thumbnail or bullets navigation.
In the latest version of the plugin one can set up the Ken Burns effect is as needed. Options are: Start-, End Point, Zoom In or Out, Zoom Factor are all in the different slider parameters.
This slider use HTML5 canvas for animation but fall back to CSS and jQuery as needed.
jQuery UniSlider – MORE INFO | DEMO
With the UniSlider plugin you get a responsive slider plugin that support draggable / touch events for mobile devices. The slider is great for both image and HTML content.
SlidesJS - MORE INFO
One of the best free responsive slideshows I have found so far is SlidesJS. I comes with touch support and CSS3 transitions. Use of CSS3 animations ensure smooth effects on modern browsers.
Simple Multi-Item Slider – MORE INFO | DEMO
ItemSlider is a cool alternative approach to a slider where individual content items fly in from the side. Codrops also added a totorial to show how it is created. The slider will be perfect for an e-commerce website to feature specific products.
Free Responsive jQuery Slider and Gallery Plugin - MORE INFO | DEMO
This is a free responsive jQuery gallery plugin and it is a great script for websites that need a way to feature images. It is a classic gallery slider with thumbnails below the slider but it is mobile friendly and it makes it stand out.
Galleria Responsive Slider - MORE INFO
This is the Galleria Responsive Slider. It is a free script with some really cool image presentation features. The slider includes a thin bar at the bottom with various image display possibilities and it makes Galleria one of the free options to check out first.
Blueberry - MORE INFO
Blueberry slider is a mobile first and fully responsive jQuery image slider
jQuery Sliders for non-responsive layouts
Estro – jQuery Ken Burner slider with swipe effect – MORE INFO | DEMO
This jQuery plugin uses unobtrusive JavaScript to transform a block of simple HTML markup into a gorgeous elegant slider, which can be completely customized using HTML5 data attributes. The markup is valid HTML5 and SEO optimzied, with all content always being available to search engines. When using this plugin, your page layout will be consistent even if JavaScript has been disabled.
Estro is a cool jQuery Ken Burner slider using clean markup and it is SEO friendly.
SlideDeck.js - MORE INFO
With SlideDeck.js from Digital Telepathy you get a mature and robust javascript library for quickly adding cool and feature rich jQuery sliders to your website. More than 100,000 site owners and developers already use SlideDeck.JS as their slider solution. You can create custom slides that hold video, images, webforms, and other objects, use touch controls for mobile, and create callbacks for custom functionality.
Basic jQuery Slider – MORE INFO
Basic jQuery slider is a simple and yes very basic implementation of a jQuery slider. It is easy to set up and style to your needs. The idea behind this plugin have been to make it as simple and lightweight as possible.
jQuery Slider Evolution – MORE INFO | DEMO
What you see here is the jQuery Slider Evolution. Help you to set up cool image slides with great transition effects.
Paradigm Slider jQuery Plugin – MORE INFO | DEMO
The Paradigm Slider jQuery plugin have many cool animation effects for slider items and text. The slider support animated captions with shadow effects and thumbnails below the slider for easy navigation.
Factory Galleries Slider - MORE INFO | DEMO
This is the Factory Galleries jQuery slider solution with nice sliding effects for both images and text. It support multiple sliders per page.
Roundabout - MORE INFO
Roundabout is a very interesting jQuery slider carousel plugin with great 3D effects and manu possible use cases. It easily converts your unordered lists and nested HTML structures into a turntable slider experience. It is simple to simulate that some elements turn around one element in the middle and the effect is stunning with the right design in place.
jQuery Blinds Image Slideshow - MORE INFO
The jQuery Blinds jQuery slider plugin is a lightweight and simple solution for creating basic image Slideshows on your web pages
Pikachoose - MORE INFO
PikaChoose version 4 by Jeremy Fry is a lightweight jQuery slider with gallery features that will make you images stand out online. The plugin has build in support for lightboxes and thumbnails for navigation.
jQuery Tiny Slider - MORE INFO
jQuery Tiny Slider 2 is a simple and quite lightweight jQuery slider plugin useful for creating inline slideshow of images and HTML content such as headings, descriptions and buttons.
jQuery popeye 2.0 - MORE INFO
jQuery popeye 2.0 is a unique slider solution that create a large preview of the image when clicked. The plugin have a cool design with navigation inside the image area that becomes visible in mouse over.
BlogSlideShow - MORE INFO
BlogSlideShow is a simple and useful jQuery slider gallery for making a great presentation of images with captions. The script is a free open code JQuery plugin with nice transition effects developed in CSS3/HTML5
Nivo Slider - MORE INFO
The Nivo Slider is one of the most popular image slider plugins. It features cool transition effects and simple nativation. Nivo Slider have keyboard shortcut support and you can add HTML captions.
Morphing Gallery - MORE INFO | DEMO
Morphing Gallery is not a traditional slider with a fixed size on the slider area. It change to fit the image dimensions.
Agile jQuery Carousel - MORE INFO
Agile jQuery Carousel comes in multiple flavours and it means it support different slider types. The plugin use JSON data format to define slide data and therefore it is easy to set up integration with external data or data from a CMS like WordPress.
Carou Fredsel - MORE INFO
CarouFredSel is a jQuery plugin you can use to tuen any kind of HTML element into a sliding carousel. The plugin has a simple approach to offer responsive layout – maybe too simple. It is implemented by centering the visitble items.
Smooth Scroll - MORE INFO
Smooth Scroll is a simple jQuery slider plugin by Thomas Kahn. It scrolls content horizontally slowly either in left or right direction.
s3Slider jQuery plugin - MORE INFO
The s3Slider jQuery plugin is slideshow that displays objects with layers that can be positioned anywhere over it.
Coin Slider - MORE INFO
Coin Slider is not one of the most recent jQuery slider plugins but it is worth checking out. It is simple and lightweight and have cool transition effects
Presentation Cycle - MORE INFO | DEMO
Presentation Cycle takes a different approach to slider navigation and it is worth checking the demo. clickable Presentation Cycle generates a progress bar that shows when the new slide will appear.
Annotation Overlay Effect with jQuery - MORE INFO | DEMO
You can create a simple overlay effect to display annotations in e.g. portfolio items of a web designers portfolio using jQuery.
BxSlider - MORE INFO | DEMO
BxSlider is a jQuery content slider and image slideshow that features horizontal, vertical, fade transitions and display and move multiple slides at once (carousel).
Lof JSliderNews - MORE INFO | DEMO
Lof JSlider is a cool jQuery slider plugin to feature your best content for your your readers. It has a very smooth user interface that gives your image an added aesthetic appeal.
Minimalistic Slideshow Gallery with jQuery - MORE INFO | DEMO
Minimalistic Slideshow Gallery with jQuery is a beautiful slideshow gallery that can be easily integrated in your web site. It has a container with a slideshow and the options to view a grid of thumbnails, pause the slideshow, and navigate through the pictures. The thumbnail grid will slide out from the top and allow the user to navigate through a set of thumbnails.
Here you see the Minimalistic Slideshow Gallery jQuery plugin. There is also a tutorial available to show you how it is implemented.
HisjSlide JS - MORE INFO | DEMO
With Highslide JS you get a simple JavaScript image gallery viewer with image slide features.
jQuery Grid Style Slider - MORE INFO | DEMO
jQuery Grid Style Slider help you create grids of images that users can slide through. It is possible to customizable the number of columns and rows in the grid.
ImageFlow (JavaScript) - MORE INFO
ImageFlow is a cool idea for how to showcase images. it is a user friendly JavaScript image gallery.
Tips on choosing a jQuery slider plugin
Before you decide on a specific slider script there’s a few tips and considerations I would like to share with you.
Look for recent updates and support: While we try our best to keep this article up to date there is always a risk that plugins are suddenly not supported any more. The risk is highest with free plugins but developers of premium plugins can also drop the project.
It is often possible to find a good free slider script that is still updated and supported by the developer. Having said that it is more likely that a free slider plugin will be unsupported over time compared to premium plugins. If you are Ok with this and able to replace the script with another free plugin at that time I recommend you check this section first.
Be clear on requirements and choose the right slider type: 1) Standard Photo Slider: specifically designed for making it easy to highlight images in a great looking way. However pure image slider plugins will not accept HTML content, video etc. 2) Gallery Style Slider: This is a slider used to showcase multiple images and typically it includes thumbnail previews of the images. 3) Mixed Content Slider: This type of slider looks similar to image slider but also allows you to have HTML content, video, text layers etc. 4) Carousel slider: Again this slider design is similar to image sliders, but this slider type have more than one image visible at the same time and often the transition effect simulates a moving carousel.
Lightweight or do it all: Everything added to a web pages takes time to load. The more features a plugin have build in the more heavy it is likely to be. Check the script size if performance is a really critical factor
Further consider your needs for text overlay (captions) – how flexible should it be to cover future needs?
What data sources will be needed – just images on a disk or automatic data pull from feeds and popular content services?
What web clients to support? If your site is responsive or if you have a dedicated mobile site you may want a responsive slider. And further a slider that have build in support for tough interactions.
Controls… both related to users and what you need to configure as default actions. This could be everything from auto-play, delay between slides, look and feel / graphics used for controls etc.
Consider what animations and transitions you need (the x-factor): Recently sliders have been equipped with awesome layered parallax effects making elements fly in from all sides. However this takes extra effort to setup and may be too fancy. Another popular animation is the Ken Burnes zooming effect.
For performances and usability considerations it is a good idea to look for sliders that use HTML5 canvas and CSS3 animations as default. It is important that the slider fall back nicely to jQuery effects on older browsers.
Author : Lars Vraa
Lars started tripwire magazine back in January 2009. He is really passionate about web design, web development, SEO, social media and loves to look into new technologies, techniques, tools etc. and to write articles for tripwire magazine readers.