FooBox

When we work with visual content in WordPress, a basic image pop-up often feels limiting. We want something that looks polished on every device, supports galleries and video, and does not fight with our existing plugins. That’s where FooBox comes in.

In this first-look review, we walk through FooBox as brand-new users. We explore the website, try the demos, install the plugin, and test it with both the WordPress Block Editor and FooGallery. By the end, you will know what FooBox can do, how it behaves in a real site, and whether it fits your workflow as an agency, freelancer, or DIY site owner.

How to Get the Best Deal on FooBox

InfluenceWP has an exclusive FooBox deal.

FooBox—First Look Video

Discovering FooBox on the FPlugins Site

The FooBox product page puts the main benefit front and center: a sleek, responsive lightbox for images, videos, and content that looks appealing on every device. The core message is simple. FooBox lets us lightbox almost anything in WordPress.

Our first impressions from the page:

• The focus is clearly on visual content, not just images but also video and HTML.
• The site strongly encourages us to view demos, which is smart for a visual tool.
• The feature list hints at both ease of use and depth for power users.

If you want to explore directly, you can visit the FooBox plugin page and access the demos and feature list from there. From the start, we knew the demos would tell the real story, so we headed there next.

Seeing FooBox in Action: Front-End Demos

Image and Gallery Lightbox

The image and gallery demos give a quick feel for how FooBox behaves on the front end.

We click a thumbnail, and a clean lightbox slides into view. The image is centered on a dark backdrop, and a small caption area sits at the bottom. We can close that caption, then bring it back by clicking near the bottom again. It is a small touch, but it keeps the focus on the image when we want a cleaner view.

Key details in the gallery demo:

• Captions appear along the bottom and can be shown or hidden.
• Navigation arrows let us move through multiple images in a gallery.
• A slideshow play button triggers an automatic cycle through the images.
• The layout feels modern and readable without any setup on our end.

There are also social sharing icons within the lightbox. In the video, the browser adds its own sharing controls, so it is important to note that FooBox itself provides its own sharing bar.

Overall, the gallery demo makes FooBox feel like a natural part of the site, not a clunky add-on.

Video Lightbox

Next up are the video demos. FooBox can open YouTube and Vimeo videos directly in the lightbox. We click a thumbnail, and instead of going to a new page, the video loads in the same lightbox frame.

From the video demo:

• YouTube plays cleanly within the lightbox, with no strange sizing issues.
• Vimeo behaves the same, which is handy if we mix platforms.
• Social sharing icons remain available, so visitors can share content without leaving the page.

There is also a mention of self-hosted video inside FooBox. The video skips that example, but it confirms support for that use case.

For anyone running video tutorials, product demos, or course content, this setup keeps visitors on the page and in context.

Other Content Types and Integrations

FooBox is not limited to media files. The demos also show:

• Inline HTML opened in a lightbox.
• Iframe content displayed in a lightbox.
• A Gravity Forms example intended to open a contact form in FooBox.

FooBox Feature Highlights

The public feature list on the FooBox site covers the essentials, and the plugin settings reveal much more. We highlight the main features here.

• Mobile ready: The lightbox is responsive and adapts to different screen sizes.
• Social sharing: Built-in share icons for major networks, plus email sharing.
• Video lightboxes: Support for YouTube, Vimeo, and self-hosted video content.
• Zero configuration: It can work out of the box for standard WordPress galleries.
• Multi-plugin support: Works with FooGallery, Gravity Forms, WooCommerce, and more.
• Built-in slideshow: Image galleries can auto-play through items.
• Complete toolkit for content: Handles images, video, HTML, iframes, and forms.
• PhotoMoto integration: Helpful if we sell digital photos through PhotoMoto.

From inside the plugin, we learn even more:

• There are 85+ settings available for fine-tuning behavior and design.
• There are 12 different opening animations, such as zoom in, slidefall, and fold down.

As new users, we appreciate when marketing and product match closely. FooBox largely does that, and there are even more options inside than the site highlights.

Documentation, About Page, and Changelog

Before we trust a plugin for client work, we like to see solid documentation and a transparent team behind it. FooBox does well on both fronts.

The documentation is:

• Searchable, which makes it easy to find topics.
• Supported by screenshots, so we can see where settings live.
• Broken into clear sections that line up with plugin features.

The About page shows the people behind the product. We see real faces, names, and a short history of the company. This does a lot for trust, especially when we plan to use the plugin across many client sites.

For the changelog, we find entries by searching the site. Version numbers and changes are available, though we would personally like a more visible changelog link with dates and notes. As agencies and pros, we rely on that when planning updates.

The key boxes are checked: documentation is solid, the team is visible, and the plugin history is available.

Installing FooBox and Getting Started

In our test site, we went straight into the settings. FooBox is designed to work with any gallery, including the default WordPress block editor and third-party gallery plugins such as FooGallery.

The “Getting Started” area inside FooBox introduces the three built-in themes:

• Rounded
• Metro
• Flat

Each theme has its own inline demo, so we can click through and see the lightbox style, navigation, and slideshow behavior. These mini-demos also show the social sharing bar, including the option to share via email, not just social networks.

Right under that, we find the animation options, which allow 12 different ways to animate how the lightbox opens. This feature doesn’t stand out on the marketing site, but it makes a strong first impression when we try it.

Deep Dive into FooBox Settings

FooBox has a fairly rich settings panel, but it is organized well. We will walk through the main tabs and what they offer.

General Settings

The General tab controls where FooBox is active in WordPress.

Highlights include:

• WordPress galleries: Enable FooBox for all core WordPress image galleries.
• Images with captions: Apply FooBox to images that use the attachment caption.
• Attachment pages: Decide how images with attachment pages behave.
• All media images: Turn FooBox on for all media images across posts and pages.
• CSS class targeting: Trigger FooBox for links or elements with specific CSS classes.
• All image links: Enable FooBox for all image links site-wide if they are not already handled above.
• Justified Image Grid support: Add full support if we use the Justified Image Grid plugin.

In many cases, we can leave the defaults in place and be fine. For more complex sites, the options let us control where the lightbox should and should not appear.

Look and Feel

The Look and Feel tab is where FooBox becomes a design tool, not just a utility.

Key settings:

• Themes: Rounded, Metro, and Flat, each with a distinct style.
• Color schemes: Option to pick different color palettes for the lightbox.
• Icons: Choose the icon set used for navigation and controls.
• Loader icons: Pick a loading spinner or custom style while content loads.
• Navigation buttons: Decide if arrows sit on the sides of the modal, stick to the screen edges, or use full-height styles.

For animations, FooBox gives us:

• Opening and closing animation styles.
• The option to disable animations if we prefer a simpler look.

Captions also get detailed control:

• Show or hide captions for images, video, and HTML.
• Adjust caption position and animation.
• Override image caption titles or descriptions when needed.
• “Prettify” captions, which cleans up generated captions and makes them read more naturally.

This mix of visual options lets us match FooBox to many different theme designs without touching code.

Functions and Behavior

The Functions tab controls how FooBox behaves on the page from a user-experience angle.

Important options include:

• Fit to screen: Force smaller images, video, or HTML to fit the screen dimensions.
• Hide page scrollbars: Remove scrollbars while the lightbox is open.
• Hide navigation buttons: Turn off navigation if we only show single items.
• Deep linking: Manage URLs that point directly to a specific lightbox item.
• Fullscreen modes: Configure when the lightbox can enter full-screen.

For galleries and media, we also get:

• Slideshow controls, including enabling, auto-start, and timing.
• A counter message, such as “Image 1 of 5”.
• Preloading options for images to improve perceived speed.
• Image protection that blocks right-click to make it a bit harder to save images.

Social sharing is handled in detail here as well:

• Toggle the social sharing bar on or off.
• Decide whether to include an email share icon in addition to social networks.
• Choose networks like Facebook, X, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and others.
• Add optional Bitly link shortening if we connect a Bitly account.

We appreciate that we can strip this back to the basics or turn on a more complete sharing setup, depending on the client.

Advanced, JS/CSS, and Integrations

For more technical control, FooBox offers Advanced and JS/CSS tabs.

In Advanced we can:

• Disable swipe features.
• Deregister other lightbox scripts to avoid conflicts.
• Load scripts in the footer for better performance.
• Enable debug mode for troubleshooting.
• Force script delays or exclude assets if needed.

In the JS/CSS tab we can:

• Add custom CSS directly, without editing theme files.
• Add custom JavaScript snippets.
• Choose where that JavaScript should fire, such as pre or post content.

There are also integration options:

• PhotoMoto settings for those who sell photos using that service.
• Google Analytics tracking for lightbox events, such as social shares or deep link views.

If we do not want any tracking from FooBox, we can turn those analytics options off and keep things simple.

Built-In Demos Inside the Plugin

FooBox includes a Demos tab in the admin that lets us test the lightbox against different scenarios:

• A standard image.
• A 404 page image.
• An inline HTML element.
• A form example.

These demos are useful when tuning settings before we roll FooBox out across a live site.

Using FooBox With FooGallery

Many of us already work with gallery plugins, so we tested FooBox with FooGallery. The two are designed to work together.

Here is how we set it up:

1. Insert a FooGallery block into a page.
2. Select an existing gallery with several images.
3. In the gallery settings, change the lightbox type from the default FooGallery lightbox to FooBox.
4. Update the page and view it on the front end.

Once we switch the gallery to use FooBox, the lightbox immediately changes style. Our chosen theme, colors, icons, and animations carry through without extra work.

In the test, we:

• Switched to a Metro theme, then to Flat and Rounded.
• Changed arrow styles and loader icons, including a star-style loader.
• Tried sticky, full-height navigation buttons.
• Set a fold down opening animation to see the motion.

Every change in the FooBox settings reflected in the FooGallery gallery on refresh. Captions displayed along the bottom, we could toggle them, and the built-in slideshow worked as expected.

We also tested responsiveness by using the browser’s inspect tool and switching to different device sizes. The lightbox resized cleanly, images stayed centered, and the navigation stayed usable on smaller screens. This supports the claim of being fully responsive.

Using FooBox With the WordPress Block Editor

WordPress Block Editor support is a must for new builds, so we spent extra time there. FooBox does work with the block editor, but there is an important detail: images and gallery items must link to the media file.

Single Images in the Block Editor

To get FooBox working with a single Image block, we followed these steps:

1. Add an Image block in the editor.
2. Select an image from the media library.
3. Click the link icon in the block toolbar.
4. Choose Media File as the link target.
5. Save or update the page.

At first, when we did not set the link target, clicking the image on the front end did nothing. After we changed the link to Media File, FooBox kicked in and opened the image in the lightbox with the caption at the bottom.

This matches the guidance in the FooBox docs, which explain that the image must link to the media file or attachment for the lightbox to pick it up.

Gallery Block in the Block Editor

We then repeated the process for a Block Editor Gallery block:

1. Add a Gallery block.
2. Select several images from the media library.
3. For each image, make sure it links to Media File.
4. Publish or update the page.

On the front end, clicking any image opened FooBox, and we could move through the gallery using the lightbox navigation. Captions appeared under each image, and our chosen theme, arrows, and animations all applied.

This confirms that FooBox works well with the block editor, as long as we remember to set the link behavior correctly.

Responsiveness and Social Sharing in Practice

One of FooBox’s main selling points is that it is mobile ready. In our test, we opened the browser inspector and toggled between several device sizes.

We saw that:

• Images and galleries stayed centered and scaled to fit the viewport.
• Navigation arrows adjusted location so they remained easy to tap.
• Captions stayed readable without hiding important content.

Social sharing appears as a bar inside the lightbox. It can include:

• Major social networks like Facebook, X, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
• An email icon for people who prefer to share links by email.
• Optional tracking through Google Analytics if we enable it.

For sites where we care about engagement data, that tracking is helpful. For more privacy-focused builds, we can disable it in the settings and still use the lightbox without analytics.

Final Thoughts on FooBox

FooBox comes across as a mature, flexible responsive lightbox plugin that works across a wide range of use cases. It handles images, galleries, videos, HTML, iframes, and even form content, while staying friendly enough for non-developers.

For WordPress agencies and professionals, the key strengths are:

• Strong support for both the WordPress Block Editor and FooGallery.
• A deep set of settings without feeling overwhelming.
• Responsive, mobile-ready layouts that look good out of the box.
• Social sharing, email sharing, and optional analytics tracking.
• Integrations with tools like Gravity Forms, WooCommerce, Justified Image Grid, and PhotoMoto.

We find FooBox to be a solid option when we want one plugin to handle lightboxes across an entire WordPress stack. It is flexible, it respects design, and it gives us the control we need without getting in our way.