Sliders are beloved design elements on different websites. They can cheer up your page and can call the visitors’ attention. Using a slider template speeds up your workflow. You may have questions like why is it worth using a template or how do you know which template is good for you? Which plugin has premium and free slider templates which you can fully customize? In this article I will answer these questions for you, and finally, I have summarized the best WordPress slider templates which you can use.
What is a slider template?
Slider templates are premade sliders which you can import, customize and, moreover, instantly use on your site. Slider templates have effects on it, contain images, the design is ready, and the slider is optimized for all devices. Moreover, they can help to start not from scratch but a ready to use layout.
Why is it worth using a slider template?
It speeds up your workflow: When you create your page, a ready to use slider template can be a lot of help. If you find the one which fits your design, all you need to do is change the content, and publish it on your website.
It teaches how to use the software: When you start using a new software, the beginning can be a challenge how to use the settings properly. You can learn a lot from a template: where to change layers, texts, images, animations, or where to change the style. You may not notice, but you’ve learned where these settings are, and how you can use them.
Ready to use effects: You don’t need to guess a completely new animation flow, in addition, you can save a lot of time with the ready animations.
Pre-designed: If you aren’t a designer, it can be hard to create a modern slider from scratch. A slider template is great for that, here you don’t need to think of the design, and you can customize everything.
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5 points to recognize a good slider template
There are a lot of places where you can find slider templates. But how do you know which are reliable and work on every device? I’ve summarized 5 points, which you can take care of when looking for a good template.
1. Customizable
This is the most important part when you want to use a slider template: can you customize every part of it? A good slider template works the same way when you create a slider from zero, and lets you change anything you want: colors, sizes, images, texts, effects, etc.
Slide editor in Smart Slider
2. Not too complicated
Too complicated layouts can make your work harder, and I’m not sure if it’s worth it. If you can find out how the slider works, then your visitors can also find it out, and it can be a great starting point.
3. Well designed
A good template can make your website look as if you’ve hired a professional web designer. It looks good, uses modern effects, and stands its ground in the modern web design.
4. Responsive
Nowadays, this criterion is basic, every slider should be responsive and work well on different devices: mobile, tablet, laptop and PC. Each part should be readable on each device, the text and images shouldn’t be too small or big.
Smart Slider 3 is fully responsive
5. Quality assets
A great predesigned slider template should use quality assets like free to use images without any watermark with quality resolution.
What is Smart Slider?
If you have a WordPress website you may look for a slider plugin where you can find ready to use slider templates. Smart Slider is one of the best WordPress slider plugins which you can create slideshows, hero headers or homepage sliders with and it can be a great part of your page. It comes with tons of preset designs, and you can customize each slider template to your liking. You can add more texts, images, call to action buttons on your slider, you can change the colors, or add more layers. There isn’t really a limit on what you can do or what you can use a slider template for.
Smart Slider has free and pro versions. The free version is available in the WordPress repository, and has 800,000 active installs and 5-star ratings. The pro version gives options to a lot of features like parallax or particle effect, or layer animations, and you can import more slider templates from our library.
If you don’t want to waste your time by learning how to use a new software with many features, starting from a slider template can be useful. Luckily, Smart Slider offers a lot of ready to use slider templates, which you can easily use and personalize.
The new way to build a Slider
Next generation visual editor, customizable animations & effects, and access to hundreads of premade templates.
When you create a slider in Smart Slider you can choose to create it from scratch or import a slider template. Smart Slider’s template library comes with 180+ customizable sliders, you can choose from blocks, sliders, carousels, video sliders or even pages.
10 different categories
Categories make it easier to find a matching template to your page. You want a video slider on the top of your page? Just click on the video label, and import the template you like.
Free: Free slider templates which can be imported in the free version of Smart Slider
Full page: Full page sliders are 100% width and height, can be great homepage sliders.
Page: These are slider groups with which you can create your one page layout with only sliders.
Block: Blocks are single slides which can be used as great hero headers.
Carousel: With carousels you can display more slides at the same time, they can be great product carousels.
Showcase: Showcases are similar to carousels, you can display more slides, but you can show parts of the previous and next slides.
Boxed: Boxed sliders are as big as the containers where you publish them.
Video: Those sliders where you can find a video. A video can be in the background as a design element, or can be in the focus as a layer, like a YouTube slider.
Premium: All of the sliders which are available only in the Pro version.
How to import a slider template?
After you’ve installed Smart Slider you are able to import a slider template. For that, go to the Dashboard, and click on the green New Project button. Then select the Start with a template option, and import a template by clicking on the import button, which is visible when you hover over a slider.
🎓 Please note, if you want to import a Premium slider template then you need to activate your license first.
How to create a dynamic slider using the slider templates?
With Smart Slider, you are able to create dynamic sliders like a post slider or a product slider which automatically updates if you have a new post or product. You can create a dynamic slider and use our template if you follow these 7 steps.
Import a slider template from the Template library
After that, you will be in the Slider settings page. Select a slide that you want to use, and open it.
Copy the slide
Remove all slides from the template
Create a dynamic slide
Open that slide, and paste the copied slide
Click on the layers which you want to be dynamic and use variables
Publish your slider
There are more ways to publish your slider. You can use the Gutenberg editor and use the Smart Slider block, or you can use page builders like Elementor or Divi and use their widgets. You can also copy and paste the slider’s shortcode into a post or page, and if you are an advanced user, you can publish the slider using their PHP code.
The best slider templates
Are you looking for a great slider template for your website? Smart Slider has tons of templates which you can use, each pro and free slider templates. Now I have collected the 10 best slider templates which may inspire you and fit your page.
The full page portfolio slider is a great example of a full page layout. Full page sliders fill the width and height of your browser. You can encounter this kind of layout in most WordPress themes. The slider has 4 slides, and you can switch slides with scrolling. After the latest slide, you can scroll below the slider. With this use case, you can make the visitors check out all content in the slider.
👍 Why it works: The contrast between the background and colorful elements makes the slider interesting for the visitor, and the green CTA with the highlighted heading attracts the eye, and the users will read the important information and navigate to another page.
This free slider template stands out from the others with its simplicity. This block can be a great hero header, and you can easily customize it. Just change the images and the texts, and your hero is done.
👍 Why it works: This slider block looks good with their colorful layout, and you can use it not only in your marketplace, but every other kind of website.
The Cover Flow slider is a showcase which displays more slides at the same time. If you click on the previous or next slides, you can navigate in a cover flow. After the last slide the first will come which gives a great circle for the slideshow.
👍 Why it works: This WordPress slider template can be a great post slider that displays your latest posts. You can use the featured image of your post in the background, and the text can be the title of your posts.
The crypto block slider template helps to create a modern header with modern animations and effects. The layers are coming in after each other thanks for the layer animation. But the slider doesn’t end there because the animated heading attracts the eye, and the changing word shows us interesting facts. Particles are moving in the background which completes the one color background.
👍 Why it works: If you import this template, all you need to do is change the texts, and put your links and the social images at the bottom. If you have a different background color than white, you can simply change the color of the shape divider at the bottom, and it will fit your page perfectly.
Do you want to create a one-page website? Smart Slider also has a one-page slider template which consists of more slides under each other. You need to publish only the slider group, and the sliders will display in the adjusted order.
👍 Why it works: If you need to create a page fast then this page template is a great solution. Change the content, and customize every element of the page. The animation works well together, and the parallax effect gives a movement when you scroll.
Do you have a lawyer company and find a stunning slider template on the top of your page? If you have the Pro version of Smart Slider, you can import the Lawyer slider with 3 clicks. Each slide has its own content, which is fully customizable, and the video is a great design element in the background.
👍 Why it works: The slides can be very informative with a great layout, you can display the team members or the results of your company. Switching slides is very easy. The bottom part of the slider is a navigation which you can move between the slides with, and read only the part that you are interested in.
With the Category Carousel template you can navigate between your product categories. There are more slides next to each other, and you can put a link on the slides, with which you can navigate your visitor to the category page.
👍 Why it works: This slider template can be used manually or dynamically. You can create your categories once, and then select an image and link to the matching category. But you can create a dynamic slider, and create the slides in a dynamically changing way. It’s your choice which way you will use.
One of the best free slider templates is the free traveler block. This hero header is fully customizable and it is fully responsive, and looks good on every device. The top place is the place of your navigation, the middle is the place of your CTA, and the bottom part is for social media.
👍 Why it works: This free slider template has many opportunities. It can be a great header, calls the visitors’ attention and has many linking options.
That slider template can be useful if you’re searching a place to display your latest post in an interactive and attractive way. Use it as a dynamically changing post slider, and place it on your blog.
👍 Why it works: Broken grid layouts are modern and breaks the monotony of your page. It’s a beloved slider template with a simple layout. A box is in the middle with a heading and you can navigate with the arrows to the next or previous slides.
Gym slider is a boxed slider template and can fit in every section of your page. The colorful tiles have a role, each navigates to a pre-selected slide. It can fit every fitness website, but if you personalize the images, the template offers endless possibilities.
👍 Why it works: The slider doesn’t fill up the whole width of your page but the width of the section where you put it. So it fits well, and the informative slides give information about your company or services.
Final Thoughts
Using pre-designed slider templates can save you a lot of time. If you don’t want to start designing from scratch and waste your time, it is enough if you import a template and personalize it. If you choose Smart Slider you can choose from tons of premade sliders in different categories, and you can customize every template as you imagined.
I’m Bernadett Toth and I’m a member of Nextend‘s support team. I have two dogs, in my free time I teaching them. Besides that I often ride a bike, watching movies or reading.
