Whether you want to showcase images, blog posts, videos, products, services, authors or something else sliders can come in very handy. They are a quick way to get readers to focus on important or new information. Sliders can also add variety and an interesting focal point to an otherwise minimal website.
There are probably thousands of sliders to choose from, but we’ve put together a list of 30 reputable responsive jquery image sliders (and gallery sliders) that we think you might like. Mostly in the form of plugins and scripts, these sliders are great options to add sliders to your web design project. And since they’re all already responsive, you don’t have to worry about if or how the slider will work on mobile devices.
Soliloquy Lite
Soliloquy Lite uses custom post types to give you options for an unlimited number of responsive sliders. Plus there is a shortcode to insert your sliders anywhere on any page.
Flexslider
Flexslider by WooThemes is a tried and true responsive slider option. Easy to use with animation and navigation customization options, Flexslider is always a great choice.
Swipe
Swipe is a quick and easy touch slider to add to your website. Compatibility with most browsers (even IE 7), scroll prevention, resistant bounds, library agnostic, responsiveness and of course the fact that it’s free are what make Swipe great.
Nivo Slider
Nivo slider has been downloaded over 2 million times – evidence that it is a great option when looking for a jquery slider. There are multiple slider types and slider themes to choose from so it’s easy to integrate and match it to your website.
ResponsiveSlides.js
ResponsiveSlides has been minified and condensed down to just 1.4kb. This means only key features like animation (auto, pagination, navigation), captions, hover pause, and a handful of other features are available.
Blueberry
Blueberry is is simple jquery slider that can be added to your site. Free and responsive, this slider is also open source and is updated as the developer (and anyone who would like to contribute) has time.
Cyclone Slider 2
Cyclone Slider 2 is a plugin that takes full advantage of WordPress’ features. The slider uses a custom post type, custom fields and the built-in media uploader. A bonus is that it also supports NextGEN, qTranslate and includes its own shortcode.
Responsive Thumbnail Gallery Slider
Use this jquery slider to add elegant sliders with thumbnails of all the slides below the active slide. This is perfect for portfolios, services, homepages, landing pages, etc.
Responsive Image Gallery With Thumbnail Carousel
With inspiration from Twitter’s user gallery, the Responsive Image Gallery with Thumbnail Carousel is a lovely and unique way to add a responsive slider to your web designs.
Captain Slider
The Captain Slider WordPress Plugin is another great plugin to add sliders and slideshows. A great feature of this slider is the ajax drag & drop slide sorter to make reordering slides easy.
RefineSlide
RefineSlide is a simple jquery slider that takes advantage of CSS to add fancy (even 3D) slide animations when possible. Don’t worry, there is a JS fallback “fade” transition.
Supersized
For a stunning full-screen background image slider, Supersized is a fantastic option. Built on the jquery library, this slider/slidershow certainly makes an impact.
Responsive Image Grid
To showcase an entire gallery at once, Responsive Image Grid displays your images according to a defined number of columns and rows (with any extra images displayed using various transitions). Just grab the code and add it to your web project!
bxSlider
The bxSlider is a fully responsive jquery content slider. It’s responsive, includes multiple transitions and animations, and even has touch swipe built in.
UnoSlider
For a free slider UnoSlider is full of features an options. Choose from 12 slider themes, dynamic tooltips, 40+ transitions, supports multiple sliders per page and so much more.
wmuSlider
Grab the code for the wmuSlider and do with it what your wish. It’s provided as is, but comes with customization opportunities for animation, speed, pagination, touch, slide count, etc.
Sequence Slider
Sequence slider is practically a blank canvas. Use CSS3 to create your own unique transitions, plus you can take advantage of 40+ features like touch swipe, hashtags, callbacks and more.
Basic Slider
Basic jQuery Slider is super simple and only includes essential functions. This way you can add features you want, or keep the slider clean and simple. It’s up to you.
Photoswipe
Designed specifically with mobile devices in mind, Photoswipe gives your readers the ability to use touch swipe functionality. This makes it easy for them to swipe through sliders or galleries.
Elastislide Revised
Elastislide Revised is a responsive image carousel with vertical and horizontal layout options. The carousel can also be used as a gallery slider (4 images minimum).
iosslider
Use the iosslider to add image galleries, sliders, carousels, or even scrolling banners to your web design. Plus it works great with all kinds of browsers and devices.
Swiper
Designed for use on mobile apps and websites, Swiper adds lots of features such as touch swipe, touch emulation (on desktops), rotation resize, native momentum, and more!
SlidesJS
The Slides.js jquery plugin is clean and simple. Just a slider with arrows and a simple circle naviation. It is touch enable and is the perfect starting point for web designs.
Elastic Image Slideshow With Thumbnail Preview
Elastic Image Slideshow is an elegant and simple responsive slideshow. It includes a styled thumbnail previewer as well as an autoplay option.
Responsly Slidy
Slidy by Responsly is a great responsive option to add a slider to your web design. There are options for buttons, autoplay, and keyboard navigation.
LiquidSlider
LiquidSlider is an easy to use content slider. Add your content as tabbed slides that you can scroll through using arrows, the tabs themselves, or add buttons with links.
Fluid JS Slider
This slider is a lovely option to add a slider with radio buttons and an interesting parallax effect. Just add the slider, your images/content, and let the CSS3 transitions do their magic.
RTP Slider
The flexible RTP Slider is completely responsive, supports touch (and simulates touch on desktops), has an “endless” carousel option, works vertical or horizontal, includes widgets and plugins, can be extended with hooks, plus more.
Responsive Carousel Project
Built to be lightweight, responsive, and touch/mouse/keyboard capable the Responsive Carousel Project is a basic jquery slider option to add to your site.
Parallax Content Slider
By animating the slider background thisĀ Parallax Content Slider adds and extra special touch to your website. The otherwise simple slider includes autoplay or default navigation.
Hopefully you’ll have some fun with these free jquery responsive sliders. There are a lot of great options to choose from, you just might have to use more than one.