Image Hover Effects – WordPress Plugin

60 Quality Score

Active Installs

16/30

With about 3,000 active installs, it sits in a quiet mid-tier niche and is dwarfed by the leading Elementor-flavoured alternatives.

Update Freshness

13/25

The plugin was updated on 7 July 2025 and is tested against WordPress 6.8.5, suggesting a developer who keeps pace with core releases, though the absence of a PHP version requirement is a small yellow flag.

User Rating

13/15

An 88 out of 100 from 42 reviewers is a strong score, indicating genuine user satisfaction, although the sample size is modest.

Support Health

8/15

Zero support threads opened and zero resolved is a neutral data point, meaning few users have needed help, but it also means there is no public track record of responsive assistance.

WP Compatibility

11/15

Compatibility scores well because it still supports WordPress 3.5 and up and is current with 6.8.5, giving it a broad version range, though the lack of a declared PHP minimum is a minor concern on modern hosts.

Scores higher than 9% of indexed plugins

About

Create stunning image hover effects with animated captions and overlays. Fully responsive, lightweight, and easy to use.

Active Installs 3k+

Rating ★★★★ 4.4/5

Last Updated 2025-07-07 8:30pm GMT

Requires WordPress 3.5+

Tested Up To 6.8.8

Security History

2 known vulnerabilities, all patched

2 Medium

Most recent: November 7, 2023

View details ▸

What It Does

Image Hover Effects adds CSS3-powered hover animations and animated captions or overlays to images on a WordPress site. It ships with multiple preset effect styles that can be applied through shortcodes or a custom widget, making it easy to dress up galleries, portfolios, and product images without writing custom CSS.

Who It's For

This plugin fits small photography portfolios, restaurant sites, real estate listings, and other visual showcase sites where a modest set of image animations adds polish without custom development. It works best for owners who want a simple, shortcode-driven solution rather than a full gallery builder.

Who Should Skip It

Anyone running Elementor, a full gallery plugin, or a page builder that already includes hover effects should skip this, as the bundled functionality already overlaps with most modern builders. Sites needing captions, lightboxes, comparison sliders, or magnifier tools will also outgrow this plugin quickly.

The Bottom Line

Image Hover Effects delivers exactly what its name promises and is updated for current WordPress, but it lives in the shadow of stronger alternatives. With an overall score of 63.78 and only 3,000 installs, it is a reasonable pick for a very simple, non-builder site, while heavier projects are better served by the Elementor addon or the Ultimate version.

Pick this if you build with Elementor and want 40,000 installs' worth of community testing behind your hover effects.

Image Hover Effects Ultimate 81/100

Choose this when you need more than hover animations, including lightbox galleries, image comparison, and magnifier tools.

Hover Effects - easily create any hover effect 79/100

Reach for this if you want a visual builder to craft custom hover effects rather than picking from a fixed set of presets.

Advanced Image Hover Effect for Elementor 70/100

Go with this when you need Elementor-specific widgets but a leaner, more focused tool than the larger addon.