10 Best Carousel Plugins In jQuery/JavaScript/CSS (2025 Update)
Carousels have become a go-to solution for modern web design, letting you elegantly display a bunch of content within a defined area.
Think of them as your website's highlight reel, grabbing attention and keeping visitors engaged without overwhelming them.
But with so many carousel libraries out there, picking the right one can feel like searching for a needle in a digital haystack.
That's why we've done the heavy lifting for you! We've scoured the web development landscape to bring you a curated list of the 10 best JavaScript and pure CSS carousel plugins/libraries.
We’ve judged these contenders based on what really matters: how many stars they’ve earned on GitHub (a sign of community love!), how much buzz they’re generating in the web dev world, and, importantly, how many times they’re being downloaded on sites like jqueryscript.net and CSSScript.com.
By the time you finish reading, you'll be able to skip countless hours of research and confidently select a carousel library that will not only save you time but also help you build websites that are both beautiful and a breeze to use.
Let's get started!
What is Carousel?
A carousel is a dynamic user interface component that displays content – like images, product snippets, or text blocks – in a rotating sequence. You can navigate through these items, usually by clicking buttons, swiping on touchscreens, or sometimes they even rotate automatically. It's a fantastic way to show more without taking up tons of vertical space.
What's the difference between Carousel And Slider?
While the terms are often used interchangeably, there's a subtle difference. A carousel typically loops infinitely. Reach the end, and you're right back at the beginning, ready to cycle through again. A slider, on the other hand, usually stops at the last item. Think of a carousel as a continuous loop on a projector, while a slider is more like flipping through photos in an album – you reach the end.
The Best Carousel Plugins
In this blog post you will find the 10 best, responsive, and easy-to-use Carousel plugins/libraries implemented in jQuery, Vanilla JavaScript, and even pure CSS/CSS3. Feel free to download and use them in your next web or mobile design project. Have fun!
Table of contents:
Originally Published Nov 08 2017, updated Jan 02 2025
jQuery Carousel Plugins:
1. Fully Responsive & Flexible jQuery Carousel Plugin - slick
Slick is a fresh new jQuery plugin for creating fully customizable, responsive and mobile friendly carousels/sliders that work with any html elements.
2. Responsive & Flexible Content Slider Plugin - flickity
A generic, flexible, modular jQuery slider plugin for creating responsive, touch-enabled content sliders/galleries/slideshows/carousels with physics-based animations and full-feature APIs.
3. Responsive & Multi-Functional jQuery Slider Plugin - slider.js
A robust and efficient jQuery slider solution to create responsive, flexible, highly customizable and mobile-friendly content sliders, slideshows, galleries, rotators and many more.
4. Responsive jQuery Content Slider with Animations - Bxslider
A fully responsive jQuery Slider Plugin that allows you to create a content slider which can contain images, video, or HTML content.
Features:
- Adapt to any device
- Horizontal, vertical, and fade modes
- Advanced touch / swipe support built-in
- Uses CSS transitions for slide animation (native hardware acceleration!)
- Full callback API and public methods
- Small file size, fully themed, simple to implement
- Tons of configurations
5. ResponsiveSlides - Lightweight Responsive Slider Plugin
A Simple & Lightweight Responsive Slider Plugin (1kb minified and gzipped) written in jQuery.
Features:
- Fully responsive
- 1kb minified and gzipped
- Simple markup using unordered list
- Settings for transition and timeout durations
- Multiple slideshows supported
- Automatic and manual fade
- Works in all major desktop and mobile browsers
- Captions and other html-elements supported inside slides
- Separate pagination and next/prev controls
- Possibility to choose where the controls append to
- Possibility to randomize the order of the slides
- Can be paused while hovering slideshow and/or controls
- Images can be wrapped inside links
- Optional 'before' and 'after' callbacks
6. Touch Enabled Content Slider in jQuery & Vanilla JavaScript - lory
AVanilla JavaScript library that makes it easier to create a touch-enabled content slider/scroller with arrows navigation. Also provides a jQuery plugin which allows you to implement a minimal slider in your jQuery projects.
Features:
- Supports single element or multiple elements in one slide.
- Provides options to custom easing effects.
- Custom transition effects & animation speed.
- Carousel-like infinite looping.
7. Lightweight Responsive Content Slider Plugin with jQuery and CSS3 - lightslider
A lightweight yet fully customizable jQuery slider plugin that supports any Html contents and makes use of CSS3 transitions and transforms to create smooth 'fade' or 'slide' effects. Licence under the Apache License 2.0.
Features:
- Fully responsive - will adapt to any device.
- Touch support for mobile devices.
- Auto play and auto loop to create a content carousel.
- Supports easing effects.
- Gallery mode to create an image slideshow with thumbnails.
- Keyboard, arrows and dots navigation.
- Full callback API and public methods.
- Small file size, fully themed, simple to implement.
8. jQurty HTML Content Carousel Plugin - jcarousel
A simple and fast jQuery carousel slideshow plugin for controlling a list of items in horizontal or vertical order.
9. Powerful and Responsive Slider Plugin For jQuery - AnythingSlider
A powerful and responsive jQuery plugin that allows you to create a wide array of content sliders with 30+ options, 6+ themes and some animation effects. It supports almost all the html elements like image, video, div, etc.
Features:
- Horizontal or vertical sliding
- Responsive layout
- Multiple sliders on one page
- Adding/removing sliders easily
- Keyboard navigation
- CSS3 animations
10. Professional jQuery Content Slider Plugin - Slider Pro
A professional JavaScript plugin that allows you to display a group of mixed content in a responsive and touch compatible slider.
Features:
- Fully responsive with custom JS breakpoint.
- Touch swipe, keyboard, and thumbnails navigation.
- Fullscreen and auto height support.
- CSS3 powered transitions.
- Infinite loop like a carousel.
- Image lazy load.
- Retina image support.
- Galley lightbox enabled.
- Automatic video handling.
- Deep linking.
- Supports mixed content, not only images.
- Compatible with both jQuery and Vanilla JavaScript.
Vanilla JS Carousel Plugins:
1. Responsive and Flexible Mobile Touch Slider - Swiper
A powerful and modular javascript library to implement responsive, accessible, flexible, touch-enabled carouses/sliders on your mobile websites and apps. Can be used as a jQuery plugin.
Features:
- Responsive design
- Small and fast
- Fully accessible
- Supports any html elements, not only images
- Supports Vertical/Horizontal animations and swipes
- Cool transition effects: Fade, Flip, 3D Cube, 3D Coverflow, Parallax
- Hash navigation
- Grid layout
- Image lazy load
- Virtual Slides for better performance
- Keyboard interactions
- RTL layout
- Works on iOS, Android and latest Desktop browsers
- Available for Angular, React, Vue, and Svelte.
2. Responsive Slider Plugin with CSS3 Transitions - Glide.js
A lightweight, flexible ES6 JavaScript slider/carousel library that helps you create responsive and touch-enabled sliders with fast and performant CSS3 transitions.
Features:
- Lightweight and easy-to-use
- Modular and extendable.
- Supports of swipe event on touch devices
- Arrows, bullets, and Keyboard navigation
- Auto play
- Pause on hover
- CSS3 transitions with fallback to older browsers
- Supports almost all the html elements
- Cross browser, supports all the modern web / mobile browsers
3. Draggable & Touch-friendly Carousel In Vanilla JavaScript – embla-carousel
The embla-carousel JavaScript library which helps developers to create a responsive, customizable, mobile-friendly carousel component on the web app.
4. Tiny Content Slider with Pure JavaScript
A tiny yet feature-rich content slider built using pure JavaScript and plain Html / CSS.
5. Full-featured Slider/Carousel Plugin – Splide
A lightweight, responsive, accessible, mobile-friendly, full-featured slider/carousel plugin implemented in pure JavaScript and CSS/CSS3.
Features:
- Touch-enabled. Supports both touch swipe and mouse drag.
- Smooth slide & fade transitions based on CSS3.
- Image lazy loading.
- Supports nested sliders.
- Supports HTML video, YouTube or Vimeo videos.
- Allows multiple items on a slide.
- Autoplay.
- URL hash change.
- RTL mode.
- Horizontal and vertical directions.
Pure CSS/CSS3 Carousels:
1. Netflix Like Hover Carousel In Pure CSS – flix-carousel
A pure CSS library to create an interactive hover carousel inspired by Netflix.
2. 3D Perspective Carousel with CSS3 Transforms
A CSS library used to generate a responsive, infinite-looping carousel slider from a list of images. Developed with pure CSS without any javascript.
3. Responsive Image Carousel With Pure HTML / CSS – SheetSlider
A pure CSS 3D perspective carousel that automatically rotate through a group of html content using CSS3 transforms.
4. Automatic Rotate Carousel In Pure CSS
A CSS/CSS3 only image carousel that automatically rotates through a group of elements with a fancy rotation animation.
5. Cover Flow Style Card Carousel In Pure CSS
A stylish, responsive, cover flow style card carousel implemented in pure CSS and lable+radio tricks.
Last Thoughts:
The right carousel plugin/library can significantly enhance your website's content presentation. Consider these factors when making your selection:
- Project requirements for responsiveness and interaction
- Performance constraints and browser support needs
- Integration complexity with your existing codebase
For lightweight implementations, consider pure CSS solutions like Flix-carousel. For complex applications requiring rich interactions, Swiper or Flickity offer comprehensive features.
Ready to give these a spin yourself? We highly recommend checking out the demos and documentation for each library to see which one clicks for you. We’d love to hear about your experiences and any feedback you have, so feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!
FAQs:
Q: Why use a Carousel on my website?
A: Carousels are your secret weapon for showcasing multiple pieces of content in a compact and engaging way. They're perfect for highlighting featured products, displaying customer testimonials, or presenting a portfolio of work. Plus, they add a touch of interactivity that can keep visitors hooked.
Q: Are Carousels mobile-friendly?
A: The best ones definitely are! The libraries we're highlighting are designed to be responsive, meaning they adapt beautifully to different screen sizes, whether it’s a desktop monitor or a smartphone. Touch-friendly swiping is usually a key feature too.
Q: Can I customize the look and feel of a Carousel?
A: Absolutely! Most of these libraries offer a range of customization options, allowing you to tweak everything from the navigation controls and animation effects to the overall styling to match your website's branding.
More Resources:
Looking for more jQuery plugins or JavaScript libraries to create awesome Carousels on the web & mobile? See jQuery Carousel and JavaScript/CSS Carousel sections for more details.
See Also:
- 10 Best Vanilla JavaScript Carousel Libraries
- 10 Best Carousel/Swiper/Slider Components For Vue.js App
- 10 Best Carousel & Swiper Components For React & React Native
