Galleries are one of the oldest features in WordPress and one of the worst-explained. Most tutorials online still talk about the

Meow Gallery: The gallery is empty.

shortcode and the old Add Media button. That advice is from 2018. In 2026, here is the short version of what to do.

Diagram of three WordPress gallery layouts: grid, masonry, and tile.

In the block editor, type /gallery, hit enter, drop your images. Done. This is the modern way and the only one we recommend. The shortcode still works for legacy posts but you should not write new ones with it.

One non-negotiable rule: every image lives in the Media Library. Do not use plugins that store images outside it, do not let third-party tools upload to weird folders. The Media Library is the source of truth. When you switch themes, change galleries, or migrate hosts, you will be grateful.

Make galleries actually look good

The default Gallery block is functional but plain. A real gallery plugin gives you proper masonry, tile, and justified layouts, configurable spacing, lightbox-on-click, and infinite scroll for big collections without bloating your site. The one we make and run on meowapps.com:

  • Meow Gallery (free) and Meow Gallery Pro. Drops new layouts into the Gallery block (Tiles, Masonry, Justified, Map, Carousel), keeps things light, and never asks you to convert your images to a custom format. If you have ever installed a gallery plugin that wanted to take over your Media Library, you know why this matters.

For Lightroom users

If you organize your photos in Lightroom and want them on your WordPress site without re-uploading, WP/LR Sync bridges the two. Edit a collection in Lightroom, it appears in WordPress as a gallery. Add a photo to the collection, it shows up on the site. No drag-and-drop, no batch exports.

What to avoid

Two things, plainly:

  • Plugins that store images outside the Media Library. NextGen Gallery did this for years, it caused migration nightmares for thousands of sites. Anything that wants its own “image albums” parallel to your Media Library is a future problem.
  • Gallery plugins that lock you into their layout. If uninstalling the plugin would break your gallery shortcodes, that is a flag. Meow Gallery works on top of the Gutenberg Gallery block, so if you uninstall it, your galleries revert to plain Gutenberg. Nothing breaks. That is how it should work.

In short

Use the Gallery block. Keep images in the Media Library. Add Meow Gallery for better layouts. If you shoot with Lightroom, plug in WP/LR Sync. That is the entire 2026 playbook. Anything else is overcomplication. 😺