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Serious Slider

by CryoutCreations · Media

Also makes 1 other plugin · 60K+ installs across the portfolio →

Serious Slider is a free highly efficient SEO friendly fully translatable accessibility ready image slider for WordPress. Seriously!

⚠ Few reviews
How scoring works →
81 Health · B
Maintenance 100/100
Rating quality 67/100
Support 70/100

81 health vs 59 average across 2,206 Media plugins

Directory ranking optimization

How it's scored →

How well this listing is tuned to rank in WordPress.org search, on the factors an owner controls. Not popularity, optimization.

84 / 100

Well optimized

Biggest win: Rating quality

Update recency 100/100
WP compatibility 100/100
Rating quality 58/100
Listing tuning 100/100
Support resolution 50/100

To rank higher: Too few reviews to rank on quality — nudge happy users to leave one.

Get the full rank-higher report →

Daily downloads

Since 2022-10-05 · 1,421 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive

+2% vs prior 30d
174Downloads · Aug 26

30-day downloads

Rolling 30-day volume · peaks are release surges

12.4K

now · peak 25.5K

12.4K30d downloads · Aug 26

Directory rank vs rivals

wp.org popularity rank over time · higher is better · when a rival's line climbs above yours, they've overtaken you

Serious Slider · #1374 you Slider by 10Web · #1488 Ovation Elements · #2095 MaxSlider · #2727

Rating trend

Star average over time · dips mark rough releases

3.4Stars · Aug 26

Update activity

How busy the existing users are, measured as downloads in the last 30 days for every 1,000 active sites. A spike means a new release everyone's pulling; a long, slow decline means an aging user base that updates less.

618per 1k installs · Aug 26

Release cadence

Actively maintained
from wp.org release tags

How often this plugin actually ships. A steady rhythm is the maintenance signal a single "last updated" date can't show.

4

releases in the last 12 months

2mo ago

latest release · v1.4.0

28

tagged releases on record

Recent releases

1.4.0 · 2mo ago1.3.2 · 3mo ago1.3.1 · 5mo ago1.3.0 · 6mo ago1.2.7 · 1.8y ago1.2.6 · 1.8y ago1.2.5 · 2.2y ago1.2.4 · 3.7y ago1.2.3 · 4.6y ago1.2.2 · 5.3y ago1.2.1 · 5.5y ago1.2.0 · 6.2y ago1.1.1 · 7.3y ago1.1.0 · 8.6y ago

What its installed base runs

via wordpress.org

Share of active installs on each version of this plugin · 34% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.

v1.2 41%
v1.4 34%
v1.3 18%
v1.1 5.3%
Older / other versions 1.1%

Estimated active installs

The public count shows “20K+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.

tracked estimate
20K–30K ≈29K

Refined from the date this plugin crossed into its current band.

Install history · since 2017-12-30 · 1,453 observations

20KInstalls · Aug 26

Estimated value

What this plugin might earn a year, and what it might sell for. Modeled from public signals; we don't see anyone's books.

Est. annual revenue

N/A

Est. acquisition value

N/A

No paid tier is visible, so we don't put a figure on revenue or sale value: that would be guessing. The install base is a real asset to an acquirer, just not one public data lets us price.

Details

Version
1.4.1
Last updated
15d ago
Added
2016-05-11 · 10 yrs old
Requires WP
5.0
Tested up to
7.0.4
Requires PHP
7.0

Recent reviews

All reviews on wp.org ↗
  1. mayerka
    4.4y ago

    Everything ok!

    Read on wp.org ↗
  2. Bambero
    4.6y ago

    It’s what I was looking for since cyclone slider. Simple, functional and free.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  3. sparky672
    5.2y ago

    WARNING: If your site or theme depends on the jQuery Bootstrap library, this plugin might not work correctly. There is no workaround. I could only get this plugin to work correctly by disabling Bootstrap’s JavaScript file. However, disabling this Bootstrap file breaks my theme. I like this plugin for its ease of use and features but it is literally impossible to get working correctly with my site using the Hestia theme. Response per Serious Slider developer: Our Serious Slider plugin is Bootstrap-based so it includes the needed Bootstrap styling and JavaScript to make it work. We tried to make it self-contained so that it doesn’t expand its styling and code on anything else in the content that may also be using Bootstrap (and its classnames/IDs), however it is not possible to protect for the reverse situation without completely rewriting the Bootstrap identifiers. As such, the slider may be interfered with or malfunction completely if something else on the site use Bootstrap too and applies its styling/code too generally. Since BootStrap is such a widely used component, it would have spared me tons of wasted time if the developer had mentioned the potential for this huge conflict somewhere on their WordPress repository page. As a result of the conflict, I was forced to remove this plugin. I ended up using a plugin called Slide Anything, which seems to work very well without conflicting with Bootstrap or other popular components.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  4. geldner
    5.8y ago

    Each photo requires a slide. Each slide is more like a full WordPress post. There is no simple way to tag a bunch of photos and have them appear in the slider. Not intuitive or fast. Sorry guys, love your Fluida template but the slider is a fail.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  5. Mobile PC Rescue
    7.7y ago

    This is a simple to use Slide Maker, you can add HTML Links and buttons – the transitions are quite limited compared to others I have seen. The biggest issue we have is no matter which options we select the images still change sizes even if “constrain” is on – so the height of the slider jumps up and down, moving the text up and down the page, it looks horrible, especially on your homepage; the only way we have found to fix this is to manually crop all images for the slideshow which doubles our workload and image uploads which then makes this inefficient. If the sizes could be fixed it would be worth 5 stars

    Read on wp.org ↗
  6. SoldierOfFortune
    7.9y ago

    I added new slide using ‘Add New Slider’ link under ‘All Slides’, then configured it. When I click ‘All Slides’ I see one slide in the list. But! when I click ‘Manage Sliders’ link there is no added slider! Just empty list in the right side! Then I added another slide in ‘Manage Slides’. Ok, I have one slide I just added. But when I go to ‘All Slides’ page there are two slides! Old one and the new slide! How it could be?! When I try to add widget in my page it shows nothing! Unfortunately I have no time to hussle it and I deleted this plugin. I use Page Builder.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  7. cgxperts
    8.5y ago

    After exploring many sliders, I found this is the most efficient slider in both creation and promotion. Thanks a lot for the developers of this plugin. Great work.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  8. azlivin008
    9.4y ago

    Just as advertised! Easy to use, comes with a sample slideshow for reference and several out of the box nice looking templates. Use normal WP editor to add text and links to slides. Only reason I gave it a 4 instead of a 5-star rating is that I don’t care for the shadow on the navigation arrows when hovering over the pictures, and the coding could use a little fine tuning for a better view on portrait view on smaller devices. Otherwise, a first-rate product.

    Read on wp.org ↗

Latest updates

via wp.org changelog

Recent releases and news for this plugin

  1. Version 1.4.0 Release date – 2026.07.05 Added block functionality with slides preview and options control The slider block can be customized with local options separate from the slider’s set options Full control of all the slider opti 1.4.0
  2. Version 1.3.2 Release date – 2026.06.10 Fixed indicators navigation not working since 1.3.0 (due to over-sanitization) Reworked sanitization for sliders styling and scripting to better meet Plugin Check (PCP) validation Add support fo 1.3.2
  3. Version 1.3.1 Release date – 2026.04.03 Fixed slides buttons missing in 1.3.0 due to a typo Fixed broken ‘slide’ transition animation in 1.3.0 due to over-sanitized styling Fixed slider styling not being instance-specific and last sty 1.3.1
  4. Version 1.3.0 Release date – 2026.03.12 Fixed insufficient permissions check in slide image handling code allowing users with at least subscriber level access to delete images from slider – reported by Legion Hunter to patchstack.com 1.3.0
  5. Version 1.2.7 Release date – 2024.11.16 Fixed insufficient sanitization on shortcode parameters to address an XSS vulnerability that could be exploited by a malicious user with at least contributor level access – reported by Bob from 1.2.7
  6. Version 1.2.6 Release date – 2024.10.24 Fixed over-sanitization of ‘base font size’ value filtering out float numeric values Fixed PHP 8.3 deprecation warnings: ‘creation of dynamic property’ and ‘using ${var} in strings, use {$var} i 1.2.6

Known vulnerabilities

via Wordfence Intelligence

5 disclosed vulnerabilities on record for this plugin, all fixed in the current version. Sites on older versions stay exposed until they update.

  1. 2026-08-15 CVE-2026-15726 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') Affects <= 1.4.0 Patched in 1.4.1
  2. 2026-01-30 CVE-2026-25399 Missing Authorization Affects <= 1.2.7 Patched in 1.3.0
  3. 2024-11-29 CVE-2024-11108 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') Affects <= 1.2.6 Patched in 1.2.7
  4. 2024-06-17 CVE-2024-35762 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') Affects <= 1.2.4 Patched in 1.2.5
  5. 2024-04-25 CVE-2024-33650 Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) Affects <= 1.2.4 Patched in 1.2.5

Vulnerability records provided by Wordfence Intelligence. Copyright 2012-2026 Defiant Inc. License and terms.

CVE records: Copyright 1999-2026 The MITRE Corporation. CVE terms of use.

Behavioral tests

via WP Hive

Automated install-time checks, tested on PHP 8.1.12 · WP 7.0

Low memory footprint
Low page-speed impact
Runs on latest PHP + WP
No PHP errors
No JS errors
Activates cleanly
No resource errors
No external HTTP errors
Optimized database use
Frequently updated

Languages

via translate.wordpress.org

Translated into 6 languages, 1 at 90% or more

Czech 100%
Chinese (Taiwan) 81%
Russian 80%
German (Formal) 76%
German 70%
Spanish (Mexico) 6%

Growth timeline

Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow

  1. 2024-05-11 30K+ → 20K+ down

Competes with

The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach, closest match first. The letter on the right is each plugin's health grade (A best, F worst).

Compare head to head →

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Serious Slider: 20K+ active installs, 3.4★ (8 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-08-25. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/cryout-serious-slider