The 50 Most Useful jQuery Plugins for Frontend Development

There are many other JavaScript frameworks available, but jQuery has been the most popular and has had the most impact on web design and development.

The purpose of jQuery is to make many of those JavaScript functions that typically need many lines of code easier to manage and write by bundling them into methods that can be called upon with just a single line of code.

jQuery is lightweight, and because it is extendable, there are free plugins for almost every functionality you can think of.

jQuery Plugins for Web & Mobile Layouts

pagePiling.js

pagePiling.js is a jQuery plugin for ‘piling’ your layout sections over one another and accessing them by scrolling.

fullPage.js

fullPage.js is a simple plugin for creating fullscreen scrolling websites.

gridscrolling.js

gridscrolling.js is a plugin for positioning sections and asides in a grid & allowing for easy cursor key navigation.

Flickerplate

Flickerplate is a responsive, touch-enabled and lightweight plugin that allows you to ‘flick’ through content.

jInvertScroll

jInvertScroll is a lightweight plugin that allows you to move horizontally with a parallax effect while scrolling down.

Animsition

Animsition is a simple plugin for adding page transitions with CSS animations.

Brick Work

Brick Work is a lightweight (15kb) and feature-rich plugin for creating responsive dynamic layouts.

ScrollMe

ScrollMe is a lightweight plugin that allows you to add simple scrolling effects to webpages.

smoothState.js

jquery.smoothState.js is a plugin that progressively enhances pages to behave more like a single-page application.

multiscroll.js

multiscroll.js is a simple plugin for creating multi-scrolling websites with two vertical scrolling panels.

matchHeight.js

matchHeight.js is a more robust equal heights plugin for jQuery.

jQuery Navigation & Menu Plugins

Slidebars

Slidebars is a lightweight (2kb) plugin for creating an app-style push-menu.

scotchPanels.js

scotchPanels.js is a jQuery off-canvas menu and panel plugin.

jQuery Plugins for Media (Images & Video)

Focuspoint

Focuspoint is a plugin for dynamically cropping images to fill the available space without cutting out the image’s subject.

Fluidbox

Fluidbox is a replication of the Medium.com lightbox module, with some added improvements.

GifPlayer

GifPlayer is a small plugin that allows you to control when to play and stop animated GIFs.

rowGrid.js

rowGrid.js is a plugin for placing images on a grid with support for infinite scrolling.

SVGMagic

SVGMagic is a simple SVG fallback plugin that finds SVG images on your site and creates PNG versions if the browser doesn’t support them.

Vide jQuery

Vide is a jQuery plugin for quickly adding video backgrounds to your webpages.

Dense.js

Dense.js is a plugin for easily serving retina-ready images.

Covervid

Covervid is a simple plugin that will allow you to make HTML5 video behave like a background image.

jQuery-Cropbox

jQuery-Cropbox is a handy plugin for in-place image cropping (zoom & pan, as opposed to select and drag).

Face Detection

Face Detection is a powerful jQuery/Zepto plugin that detects faces on images, videos, and canvases.

BttrLazyLoading

BttrLazyLoading is a plugin that allows your web app to only load images within the viewport as the user scrolls.

jQuery Slider, Carousel & Gallery Plugins

Simple jQuery Slider

Simple jQuery Slider is a lightweight jQuery Slider that does precisely what a slider should do: ‘slide slides.’

FSVS

FSVS is a simple fullscreen vertical slider using CSS3 transitions with jQuery fallback.

anoFlow

anoFlow is a feature-rich and responsive lightbox/gallery plugin.

nanoGALLERY

nanoGALLERY is a responsive, touch-enabled and easy-to-use image gallery plugin.

Justified.js

Justified.js is a plugin that creates a justified image grid of images.

Shuffle Images

Shuffle Images is a jQuery plugin that allows you to display and shuffle multiple images within a gallery by moving or shaking the cursor.

Skippr

Skippr is a super simple and lightweight slideshow plugin for jQuery.

jQuery Text Effect Plugins

fontFlex.js

fontFlex.js is a lightweight plugin for dynamically changing font sizes.

Typewriter

t.js is a lightweight jQuery plugin for typewriter-like text effects.

Morphext

Morphext – An Animate.css powered jQuery carousel plugin for text phrases.

Splitchar

Splitchar is a jQuery plugin that allows you to style and design the first, second or both halves of a character.

jQuery Form Element Plugins

BootstrapValidator

BootstrapValidator is a jQuery plugin for validating Bootstrap forms.

Labelauty

Labelauty – An excellent and lightweight jQuery plugin that gives beauty to checkboxes and radio buttons.

Guardian

Guardian is a flexible and easy-to-extend all-purpose form validation jQuery plugin.

fontIconPicker

fontIconPicker is a lightweight plugin that allows you to include a simple icon picker (with search and pagination) within any form.

HideSeek

HideSeek is a simple yet customizable jQuery plugin for live search.

ClockPicker

ClockPicker is a clock-style timepicker for jQuery or Bootstrap.

jQuery Utility Plugins

jQuery Confirm Mailto

jQuery Confirm Mailto is a plugin to Confirm with users before opening any mailto: link through their default email client.

jNottery

jNottery is a plugin that allows you to add notes to a page.

Responsive Tabs

Responsive Tabs is a plugin that offers responsive tab functionality.

adaptive-backgrounds.js

adaptive-backgrounds.js is a fantastic plugin that extracts the dominant color from the images on your web page and applies the color to their parent.

…and finally…

Planetarium

Planetarium is a jQuery plugin that allows you to construct interactive planets and build the Universe!

table-dragger

table-dragger allows you to easily add drag-and-drop sorting to your table without jQuery.

Selector

Selector is a micro JavaScript library used as a replacement for jQuery, weighing in at nearly 5KB.

wanker.js

jquery.wanker.js is a humourous jQuery plugin that reveals a public service announcement when people start excessively resizing their desktop browser as they try to see your responsive breakpoints. As they say, ‘The web is meant to be read, not squished!’