If you need to show a visual transformation on a WordPress site (a renovation, a photo edit, a skin treatment, a product upgrade) and you build in the block editor rather than Elementor or Divi, your plugin options narrow fast. This post compares five plugins that add a real before and after slider directly to Gutenberg: BEAF, Before After Image Comparison, WP Before After Image Slider, Before After Image, and ConicPlex’s own PlexBlocks Before After Image Comparison. The short version: BEAF is the safest default with 30,000 installs and a 98 percent rating, Before After Image is the only one built for attaching a comparison straight to a WooCommerce product, and the rest are worth a look depending on how minimal you want the setup to be.
Type “before and after image slider WordPress” into Google and most of what comes back either assumes you’re using a page builder or buries the Gutenberg-specific setup two paragraphs into a listicle that spends most of its word count on Elementor widgets. That’s fine if you’re on Elementor. It’s not much help if you build in the native editor and just want to drop in a block, upload two images, and move on.
Quick Comparison
| Plugin | Best For | Active Installs | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| BEAF (Ultimate Before After Image Slider & Gallery) | Photographers and agencies who want unlimited galleries for free | 30,000+ | 98% (106 ratings) |
| Before After Image Comparison | Anyone who wants the lightest possible native Gutenberg block | 3,000+ | 84% (12 ratings) |
| WP Before After Image Slider (BefTer) | Sites that mix Gutenberg and Elementor and want one plugin for both | 1,000+ | 100% (2 ratings) |
| Before After Image | WooCommerce stores attaching a comparison to a specific product | 1,000+ | 100% (3 ratings) |
| PlexBlocks Before After Image Comparison | Block-editor-only sites that want nothing extra loaded | New (0 installs) | Not yet rated |
BEAF (Ultimate Before After Image Slider & Gallery)
BEAF is the plugin most of the other options on this list get compared against, and the numbers explain why: 30,000 active installs, 106 ratings, 98 percent of them five stars. It works as a native Gutenberg block, but it also ships widgets for Elementor, Bricks, WPBakery, and most other builders, so if your site mixes editors across different pages, BEAF is the one plugin that covers all of them without a second install.
Setup runs through the plugin’s own admin screen rather than the block editor alone. After activating BEAF, you go to Dashboard, then “Before and After Slider,” then “Add New” to build each slider: upload your two images, pick horizontal or vertical layout, set label text and colors, and save. From there you either drop in the Gutenberg block, use the shortcode generator, or use the Elementor widget to place that saved slider on a page. The free version supports unlimited sliders and 2-column, 3-column, or 4-column gallery layouts with alt-tag support built in for image SEO.
The honest limitation is that the free tier stops short of a few things people expect from a “full” comparison plugin: auto-slide animation, a 3-image comparison mode, video before/after, and watermarking are all locked to the $19-plus Pro version. If all you need is a static two-image slider, none of that matters. If you want the slider to animate on its own when a visitor scrolls past it, you’ll be upgrading.
Before After Image Comparison
Before After Image Comparison takes the opposite approach from BEAF: it’s purpose-built as a single Gutenberg block and doesn’t try to also be an Elementor widget or a gallery manager. You’ll find it in the block inserter under the “Widgets” category as “Image Compare.” There’s no separate admin screen to learn, no slider-management dashboard, just a block you drag onto the page.
Once the block is placed, every setting lives in the right-hand sidebar of the editor: orientation (horizontal or vertical), custom before/after labels, caption text under the slider, and label color. It’s genuinely the fastest of the five to get a working slider out of, since there’s nothing to configure outside the block itself.
It’s also the plugin on this list with the thinnest review record relative to its age: 3,000 installs but only 12 ratings at 84 percent, meaning a few reviewers had a rougher experience than the average. The plugin was updated as recently as September 3, 2026, though, so it’s actively maintained. And most of what makes a slider feel “complete” (custom line shape, auto-slide, move-on-hover, theme presets) is Pro-only here too. The free version is genuinely minimal, which is either exactly what you want or a reason to test it on staging first before you commit to it for a client site.
WP Before After Image Slider (BefTer)
WP Before After Image Slider, also branded as BefTer, is the newest full-featured entry here, added to the WordPress.org directory in November 2023 and updated as recently as June 2026. On paper its free tier is the most generous of the bunch: two-image comparison, horizontal and vertical layouts, custom labels, lazy loading, a shortcode generator, widget support, and a native Elementor widget alongside its Gutenberg block, all without a paywall in sight.
After activation, sliders are built from a dedicated “Before After Sliders” menu in the dashboard: click Add New, upload your before and after images, configure orientation and labels, and save. You then either copy the generated shortcode, drop in the Gutenberg block, or use the Elementor widget, depending on which editor the page in question actually uses. That flexibility is the real selling point if your site isn’t purely Gutenberg.
The catch is track record. BefTer has exactly 2 ratings on WordPress.org. Both are five-star, which is a fine sign, but two reviews tell you almost nothing about how the plugin holds up across different themes, hosting setups, and image sizes at scale. If you’re building something client-facing and need a plugin with a longer paper trail behind it, BEAF is the safer bet; if you want the newest feature set and don’t mind being an early adopter, BefTer is worth trying on a staging site first.
Before After Image
Before After Image is the one plugin on this list built specifically with WooCommerce in mind, and that’s the actual reason to pick it over the other four. Alongside the usual shortcode and Elementor widget, it includes a WooCommerce integration that lets you attach a before/after comparison to an individual product directly from the product editor screen, with its own per-product settings. None of BEAF, Before After Image Comparison, BefTer, or PlexBlocks offer that; you’d have to paste a shortcode or block into the product description manually and hope it renders where you want it.
Setup is straightforward: install from the Add New Plugin screen or via FTP, activate, then open the “Before After Image” menu that appears in the dashboard, which documents the shortcode options and the WooCommerce-specific steps. For a product page, you attach the comparison from inside the product editor rather than building it separately and embedding it after the fact, which is a meaningfully different workflow from every other plugin here.
Its limitation is the same as BefTer’s: only 3 ratings on record, all five-star, which is too small a sample to call it proven. It’s also, honestly, more shortcode-and-Elementor-first than block-editor-first in how its documentation is written, even though it does work inside Gutenberg. If your reason for reading this post is specifically “I sell a product where before/after matters and I use WooCommerce,” this is the plugin to test. If you just want a general slider for a blog post, it’s not the natural first choice.
PlexBlocks Before After Image Comparison
PlexBlocks Before After Image Comparison is ConicPlex’s own entry, and we’re including it here for the same reason we’d include any other plugin: it’s a genuinely native Gutenberg block, with nothing bolted on for page builders, shortcodes, or a separate admin dashboard. You insert the “Before / After” block directly from the block inserter, pick your before and after images, and set orientation, height, corner radius, color, and shadow from the block’s own sidebar settings. That’s the entire feature set, and it’s intentional: no gallery manager, no widget for other builders, no premium upsell screen.
If you’re already comparing PlexBlocks Before After Image Comparison against the others, the practical difference is scope. BEAF and BefTer are trying to be complete slider-and-gallery systems that happen to support Gutenberg among other editors. PlexBlocks Before After Image Comparison is scoped to do one thing inside the block editor and nothing more, which keeps what loads on the page to a minimum.
Here’s the limitation stated plainly: this plugin launched in June 2026, has zero active installs recorded and zero reviews, and hasn’t had an update since its initial release. There’s no track record to point to yet. If minimal footprint and pure block-editor scope matter more to you than a proven history, it’s worth testing on a staging site before you commit it to a production page. If you’d rather go with something that has a real review count behind it, BEAF or Before After Image Comparison are the better-documented choices.
How to Pick
- If you want the most proven option with the deepest free feature set and don’t mind an extra admin screen, use BEAF.
- If you build exclusively in the block editor and want the fastest setup with no separate dashboard to learn, use Before After Image Comparison or PlexBlocks Before After Image Comparison, and expect to test either on staging first given their small review counts.
- If your site mixes Gutenberg and Elementor across different pages and you want one plugin that covers both, use WP Before After Image Slider (BefTer).
- If you’re running a WooCommerce store and need the comparison attached to a specific product from the product editor itself, use Before After Image.
- If none of the five fit because you need something more specific, like a before/after gallery filtered by category or synced to a booking flow, that’s a case for a custom block rather than stretching a general-purpose plugin to do it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I add a before and after image slider without Elementor or another page builder?
Yes. BEAF, Before After Image Comparison, WP Before After Image Slider, and PlexBlocks Before After Image Comparison all ship a native Gutenberg block, so you can add a working slider without installing a page builder at all.
Will a before and after slider slow down my site?
All five plugins here are lightweight compared to a full page-builder addon pack, but the block-only options (Before After Image Comparison and PlexBlocks Before After Image Comparison) load the least extra code, since neither ships widgets or assets for other page builders you’re not using.
Can I use a before and after slider on a WooCommerce product page?
Any of the five can technically be embedded in a product description through its block or shortcode, but only Before After Image has a dedicated WooCommerce integration that attaches the comparison directly from the product editor screen with per-product settings.
Do I need the paid version to get a working slider?
No. Every plugin in this comparison has a genuinely functional free tier. What’s usually locked behind a paid upgrade is extras like auto-slide animation, video comparisons, 3-image sliders, and custom theme presets, not the core before/after functionality itself.
Sources
- BEAF – Ultimate Before After Image Slider & Gallery, WordPress.org
- Before After Image Comparison, WordPress.org
- WP Before After Image Slider (BefTer), WordPress.org
- Before After Image, WordPress.org
- PlexBlocks Before After Image Comparison for Block Editor, WordPress.org
If your use case is more specific than any general-purpose slider plugin can cleanly handle, such as a before/after gallery tied to a booking flow or filtered by treatment category, our Plugin Development team builds that directly rather than stretching an off-the-shelf plugin to fit. We’ve also built similar visual comparison and product-configuration tools for healthcare and aesthetic treatment sites, where before/after imagery does a lot of the persuasion work, and for stores that need it tied into WooCommerce product logic rather than a standalone page. And if you’re setting up other conversion elements on the same landing page, we’ve also compared countdown timer plugins for a WordPress sale page.
