Every WordPress user knows well how quickly the media library can become cluttered and difficult to navigate when it hosts a lot of media files. The default media library of WordPress is sufficient for a basic need. But when the collection of media files continues to increase, searching and organizing them can take up a considerable amount of time.
Luckily, there is a good collection of media file manager plugins out there by which you can sort, edit, manage, and organize your media files. These plugins are great for changing your media library appearance and increasing efficiency and productivity.
In this post, we’ve compiled a list of the 7 best WordPress media file manager plugins to keep your website’s media library neat, efficient, and easy to navigate. Without further ado, let’s dive in!
7 Best WordPress Media File Managers You Can Consider
Media files are the heart of the visual content of any website. Not being able to manage them well can create a frustrating experience when you fail to find the exact media files when needed. But with the right tools, you can transform this frustration into clarity and productivity. In this section, we’ll list and discuss the seven best WordPress media file manager plugins.
1) HappyMedia
HappyMedia is a powerful WordPress plugin by which you can manage and organize any type of files and media files in the library using folders and sub-folders. The plugin allows you to organize the files by dragging and dropping. It has integration with Unsplash, Pexels, and Pixabay.
Users can directly upload images from these repositories to their websites. As a result, no need to waste time downloading images to the local drive and uploading them to your website. Moreover, the plugin has an image compression feature to save your site from getting heavier.
If ever you think any images in the media library or on posts/pages are irrelevant, you can easily replace them with the plugin. Moreover, HappyMedia supports you in creating different types of multi-grid image galleries. Developers behind the team are constantly working to come up with more exciting features in the coming days.
Key Features of HappyMedia
- Organize your media files by creating folders and subfolders
- With the drag-and-drop feature, transfer files and folders without any struggle
- Build beautiful image bundles that feature a grid structure
- Upload SVG files without compromising the look of your site
- Quickly locate a media file or folder using keywords
- Directly upload from Unsplash, Pexels, and others
- Works equally well with Gutenberg and Elementor
Pricing and Plans
| Annual Plans | Lifetime Plans |
| Personal: $49 for one website | Personal: $199 for one website |
| Professional: $99 for up to 10 websites | Professional: $399 for up to 10 websites |
| Business: $199 for 1000 websites | Business: $899 for 1000 websites |
Note: HappyMedia doesn’t have a free version available. Only a premium version is available so far.
Check how to clean unnecessary files from the WordPress media library with HappyMedia.
2) Folders
To streamline content organization on your website, Folders can be a versatile and user-friendly option. It simplifies navigation by introducing a folder structure. Therefore, it becomes effortless to sort and locate content. Its drag-and-drop functionality and tree-view layout ensure intuitive management.
On top of that, its advanced customization options let you personalize the interface to match your preferences. Hence, users can manage pages, posts, media files, and even custom post types with ease. Beyond media libraries, the plugin supports organizing WooCommerce products. This makes Folders ideal for bloggers, e-commerce store owners, and large websites.
Key Features of the Folders Plugin:
- Create unlimited folders for organizing posts, pages, and media files
- Resizable folder menus for better navigation
- Replace existing media files without breaking links
- Search folder names and sort content quickly
- Customize folder icons, colors, and sizes for a tailored interface
- Keyboard shortcuts, bulk operations, undo actions, and import/export capabilities
Pricing and Plans
- Basic: $49/year for a single site with all premium features.
- Plus: $109/year for up to 5 sites with advanced functionality.
- Agency: $179/year for up to 50 sites, perfect for large-scale management.
3) Filebird
FileBird allows you to sort the uploaded media content into folders in the WordPress media library. Apart from adding files, you can create, rename, or remove a folder with the help of a drag-and-drop operation. Additionally, there is the right-click context menu for actions for the folders.
FileBird works in harmony with WordPress. It also works fine when dealing with significant media files in the Media Library. What’s more, it is compatible with popular page builders and multilingual plugins like WPML and Polylang and supports multiple languages, including English and German.
FileBird has free and premium versions with strong features. It is a great tool for simplifying any WordPress site that is loaded with content.
Key Features
- Organizational layout of uploads with the help of the built-in drag-and-drop interface.
- Smart startup folder that gives access to the preferred directories with a few clicks.
- Delete folders in bulk without disturbing the files.
- Supports WordPress Multisite and folder creation within user space.
- More options for search and sorting based on criteria selected from the Media Library.
- Save folder structures in the export folder as ZIP files (paid version).
Pricing and Plans
- Free Version: Basic folder management.
- Paid Version: $49 / single payment with lifetime access to updates and additional functions.
4) Media Library Organizer by Optimole
Media Library Organizer enhances the use of images and their optimization for WordPress users. This plugin is fitted to compress, scale, and optimize images in real time without altering the quality. Also, it decreases server burden by implementing cloud-based processing. With Optimole, your images are delivered all over the world through the CDN (Content Delivery Network).
This plugin has sophisticated characteristics, such as the lazy-loading mechanism, which is useful for image loading. You get lossy and lossless formats that use AI to compress files while maintaining the quality and size. Regarding image copyright, there is the option of watermarking to secure your images from illegitimate use. For advanced users, there are optimization statistics where they can check the stats of optimization, track the bandwidth savings, and handle media effectively.
Thus, you have relatively responsive images for the screen devices or sizes, together with high site speed. Optimole is a perfect solution for users who care about the performance, storage, and visual appeal of the website.
Key Features of Media Library Organizer:
- Crop and scale your images instantly so that there is no server impact
- Reduce server overhead and utilize online processing to decrease the server load
- Lazy loading enhances page performance by loading the images only when they are visible
- Provides information about options with lossy and lossless compression with artificial intelligence
- Define particular dimensions for pictures on some devices and browsers
- Add custom watermarks to images
Pricing and Plans
- Starter: $22.52 per month (handles 40,000 monthly visits and unlimited images)
- Business: $46.12 per month (covers 100,000 monthly visits with the possibility to use unlimited websites and custom domains)
- Custom: Get a quote (for over 10 million visits and personal assistance)
5) Wicked Folders
Wicked Folders help you manage and organize the great amounts of content on your website. It permits the user to create a new page, media files, and custom post types. Similar to the WordPress media file management plugins, this also contains the drag-and-drop option. As a result, working with the content becomes easier to group. Hence, users can sort the folders according to preference.
More to the plugin, it is also possible to adjust the size of the folder pane based on users’ preferences. Users can also create dynamic folders that will intelligently group file types, like PDFs or images.
Wicked Folders works well with Visual Composer and Gravity Forms. However, it doesn’t explicitly support newer page builders like Elementor or Divi. This plugin is a good compromise between minimalism and practicality. Thus, it can be used as a tool for improving content within the site.
Key Features for Wicked Folders
- Organize files or folders instantly by quickly rearranging icons through drag-and-drop
- Organize documents for specified formats or extensions, like PDFs or JPEGs
- You can make an unlimited number of subfolders, which can help you organize your content better
- Provide access to pages and media folders to some users only
- Adjust the size of the folder pane to help create a unique mused experience
- Has seamless interoperation with Gravity Forms and Visual Composer
Pricing and Plans
- Free Version: Basic and essential feature for folder management operations
- Personal Plan: $49 per year per site, includes all features and lifetime, unlimited support
- Agency Plan: $149 per year for unlimited sites with no restrictions. All the updates and features are included
6) File Manager Pro – Filester
Filester comes with plenty of customization options. Both entry-level and professional users can use it. Users no longer have to use FTP when they start to use the clean and smooth interface of Filester. This plugin allows users to manage directories and files directly from the control panel. They can also copy, paste, move, delete, and create archives.
Filester has right-to-left language support for Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian. Therefore, it is accessible for users around the world. It also supports code editors like ACE, CodeMirror, and TinyMCE. Being a free plugin, it has drag-and-drop features that make it user-friendly.
Yet, it suitably offers complex tools for the greater control of website directories. All in all, one will face no difficulty in managing the files and folders with the help of Filester.
Key Features of Filester:
- Easy to use drag-and-drop capabilities for file and folder management
- Specify the type of files and extensions that the users can upload based on their roles
- Perform copying, pasting, moving, and erasing of files, and create new archives
- Consists of ACE, CodeMirror, and TinyMCE for editing files directly within the dashboard
- To view standard file formats, users don’t require help from other tools
- Supports right-to-left-orientated languages, such as Hebrew and Arabic
Pricing and Plans
Absolutely free to install in addition to having no consignment charges.
7) Real Media Library
Real Media Library makes it simple for its users to categorize thousands of files. You can arrange images, videos, and docs in structured folders, collections, and galleries. It also gives the power to create file shortcuts. Therefore, the storage space of this system can be reduced without data redundancy. Plus, data can be shared between different applications.
Sorting through media becomes fast and feasible with Real Media Library, as it comes with a user-friendly drag-and-drop feature. Its customization includes sophisticated upload management for adding files directly into specified folders.
All in all, it can be underlined that the Real Media Library is an essential tool for managing file libraries that should be easily searchable and sorted. It makes media management easier for those site owners who are likely to host large amounts of files. Therefore, it is perfectly suitable for personal blogging or professional websites.
Key Features
- Reduce the number of files by creating shortcuts instead of duplicating files.
- Sort your media files using folders, collections, as well as galleries, without stress.
- It works seamlessly with multisite WordPress installation.
- Reorder images as required for better presentation.
- Check the time taken to upload files into the cloud, along with the speed limitations.
- It has a simple organization system as part of its designed framework.
Pricing and Plans
- Free Version: It provides basic features for media organization
- Single: €39 for a single site, including lifetime updates and 1-year support
- Starter: €79 for 3 sites, with a lifetime license and all features
- Professional: €119 for 5 sites, lifetime updates, and all features
- Business: €199 for 10 sites with all available features
- Agency: €299 for 25 sites, lifetime license, and complete feature set
Wrapping Up the Best WordPress Media File Managers
When you start a WordPress site, it is common to suddenly find an unorganized media library that is difficult to manage. Fortunately, the aforementioned best WordPress media file manager plugins offer easy and efficient ways to file your media files. These tools are helpful because they organize a media library in a way that doesn’t take nearly as much time or effort as it would otherwise.
You may seek drag-and-drop functionality, superior folder structure, or bulk editing capabilities. Regardless of your need, there’s a plugin on our list to fill it. Furthermore, most of the above options come with free plans. This means that you have a chance to try their facilities before opting for a premium subscription.
With the right plugin in place, you learn that you are not helpless. You can take charge, remain on top of all activities, and reduce your workload on other, more productive tasks.
