FooGallery Pro’s 3.3 release is a mobile-first statement: independent layout controls for smaller screens – responsive columns and gaps, masonry thumbnail sizing, carousel pagination dots, caption line limits – all with live mobile preview in the gallery editor. Most gallery plugins treat mobile as a responsive afterthought; FooGallery now tunes layouts per breakpoint explicitly, which matters when the majority of gallery traffic is phones. Beyond that release, the plugin’s standing features hold: nine gallery templates (responsive, justified, masonry, portfolio, carousel), hover effects with preset sizing, filtering, albums, the Spotlight lightbox, and WooCommerce product galleries. Divi Builder compatibility with automatic asset loading also arrived in 3.3.0, closing a common integration gap. Against premium rivals like Envira Gallery Pro, FooGallery competes on layout variety and per-breakpoint mobile control rather than photographer workflows.
Developer-facing behavior is disciplined: gallery data sanitization for imported custom CSS, permission enforcement on extension management, and a thumbnail visibility fallback that keeps images visible until scripts initialize – the kind of graceful-degradation detail that separates production plugins from demos.
Competitive Features
- Independent mobile controls (3.3.0) – columns, gaps, captions, and pagination tuned per breakpoint with live preview
- Nine gallery templates – responsive, justified, masonry, portfolio, carousel, and more
- Divi Builder integration – automatic asset loading for shortcodes
- Spotlight lightbox – full-featured viewer with isolated, theme-proof styling
- Thumbnail visibility fallback – images render before JavaScript initializes
- Hover effect presets – including extra-small and dedicated mobile sizes
- WooCommerce product gallery support – product images managed through FooGallery
Key Features
- Albums – hierarchical gallery organization
- Filtering – category and tag filters over Ajax
- Paging options – numbered and load-more with compact mobile controls
- Imported CSS sanitization – unsafe markup stripped before persistence (3.3.0)
- Permission enforcement – extension actions gated on plugin-management capabilities
- Polylang compatibility – gallery images restored correctly with media translations (3.3.3)
- Caption line limits – separate title and description truncation on mobile
Comparison with Competitors
FooGallery Pro vs Envira Gallery Pro
| Aspect | FooGallery Pro | Envira Gallery Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile control | Independent per-breakpoint settings | Responsive defaults |
| Templates | Nine, hover presets | Grid, Bento, carousel, slider |
| Photographer workflows | Not the focus | Proofing, watermarking |
| Divi integration | Native (3.3.0) | Via shortcode |
| Lightbox | Spotlight, theme-isolated | Deep-linking lightbox |
| Fallback behavior | Thumbnail visibility fallback | Standard |
Bottom line: Envira owns photographer delivery workflows; FooGallery wins on granular mobile layout control and builder integrations (Divi native). For agencies building client sites where phone presentation must be tuned per gallery, FooGallery’s 3.3 controls are the differentiator.
FooGallery Pro vs Modula Gallery Pro
| Aspect | FooGallery Pro | Modula Gallery Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Layout philosophy | Structured templates with mobile tuning | Creative masonry customization |
| Mobile controls | Explicit, per-breakpoint | Global responsive |
| Lightbox | Spotlight | Built-in with hover effects |
| Albums | Yes | Yes |
| Divi support | Native | Via shortcode |
| Creative freedom | Template-bounded | Higher layout freedom |
Bottom line: Modula gives designers more layout freedom; FooGallery gives them controlled, predictable outputs with explicit mobile settings. Portfolio creatives lean Modula; client-work agencies lean FooGallery.
FooGallery Pro vs Essential Grid
| Aspect | FooGallery Pro | Essential Grid |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Photo galleries and albums | Any content in grid skins |
| Item types | Images, video | Posts, products, custom fields |
| Filtering | Tag and category over Ajax | Multi-taxonomy Ajax |
| Lightbox | Spotlight | Built-in |
| Best use | Image showcases | Mixed content presentation |
Bottom line: They overlap only partially – Essential Grid is a content-presentation engine that happens to display images; FooGallery is a gallery specialist with better image workflows (lightbox, hover presets, mobile tuning). Photo-focused sites choose FooGallery; content-grid needs go to Essential Grid.
Recommended Stack – galleries are image-heavy by definition. Pair FooGallery with Smush Pro for WebP conversion and lazy loading upstream of the gallery engine.
Official Changelog
Version 3.3.3
Release Date: September 3, 2026
- Fix: Restored gallery images in the block editor when Polylang Media translations are enabled.
- Fix: Improved handling of custom gallery item data by cleaning captions and descriptions before display and preventing shortcode overrides of developer-only Custom Settings.
Version 3.3.2
Release Date: August 27, 2026
- Maintenance release: stability fixes following the 3.3.0 mobile controls update.
Version 3.3.0
Release Date: August 25, 2026
- New: Divi Builder compatibility with automatic FooGallery asset loading for shortcodes and a gallery-selection module.
- Fix: Sanitized imported gallery custom CSS before saving to prevent unsafe markup from being persisted.
- Fix: Enforced WordPress plugin-management permissions for extension downloads, activation, deactivation, and error cleanup.
- New: Mobile-specific gallery settings with live mobile preview support – Responsive columns and gaps; Justified row sizing and gaps; Masonry layout, thumbnail width, and gaps; Simple Portfolio gaps; Thumbnail positioning.
- New: Mobile controls for Carousel maximum visible items, thumbnail gaps, navigation arrows, and pagination dots.
- New: Mobile caption alignment plus separate title and description line limits across supported layouts.
- New: Extra-small hover preset sizing and a dedicated mobile hover preset size.
- Update: Thumbnail visibility fallback so gallery images remain visible until scripts initialize, with an Advanced setting to disable it.
- Fix: Centered Spotlight navigation SVGs within their circular controls, isolated from theme CSS.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I control how galleries look on mobile separately from desktop?
Yes – that is the headline of 3.3.0. Columns, gaps, thumbnail sizing, caption line limits, carousel behavior, and hover presets all have independent mobile controls with a live preview, per gallery.
Does FooGallery work with Divi Builder?
Natively since 3.3.0 – shortcodes load assets automatically, and a gallery-selection module integrates with the builder instead of raw shortcode pasting.
What happens before the gallery JavaScript loads?
Images stay visible. The thumbnail visibility fallback ensures galleries render even before scripts initialize – no invisible-image flash – and it can be disabled in Advanced settings if your setup does not need it.
Can I sell prints or products from galleries?
Yes, through the WooCommerce product gallery integration: FooGallery manages product images with its templates and lightbox, keeping product presentation consistent with the rest of the site.
Is FooGallery compatible with multilingual sites?
Yes. The 3.3.3 release specifically fixed gallery images in the block editor when Polylang Media translations are enabled – a real-world multilingual workflow.
Leave a Reply