Let’s face it, there are an endless number of competitors vying for the website creation market. In order to stand out from the crowd, you must go above and beyond by creating an extraordinary website not just a nice-looking websites. That is where plugins can help. With the correct plug-ins, you can create a visually stunning and immersive websites. Here are some of the best JQuery Lightbox plugins that will help you create a website that will keep them coming back for more:

1. Chillbox – Allows you to overlay a main image with a second one. This works great for rendering text, but could take more time than you’d like getting the transparency optimized.

2. jQuery lightGallery – Creating picture galleries and YouTube videos is easier with this plug-in. The number of effects is small but the quality is wonderful.

3. JackBox – Responsive Lightbox – The JackBox stylesheets and scripts will only load into your web page if the page contains a lightbox item. This means that on the pages where no lightbox items are used, no unecessary plugin files are loaded. When JackBox CSS and JavaScript filesare loaded, they load asynchronously, helping your web pages to load faster.

4. MetroBox – Responsive LightBox – MetroBox is a jQuery plugin for displaying photos/videos or anything you want with visitor/user comments ( like social network features ). This plugin does not have comment system. It only show comments you have.

5. Visual LightBox – This wizard creates pop-up galleries without needing to know code. The free version is limited, however, and you need to renew your license for the business version yearly.

6. Smoothbox – This plugin makes CSS3 transitions smoother. The only con is that there are no options related to javascript so you have to work with what is there.

7. Fancybox – Creates a floating “box” to display pictures and other media. This can be good for showing detailed images, but can potentially slow down loading time for a page.

8. Image Lightbox – A no-frills lightbox that works well with touchscreens or keyboards. It only works for images, however, not other media.

9. Tosrus – Creates slide galleries that are very easily accessed on desktops as well as portable devices. This only works on Windows 8 or above, however.

10. Colorbox – This slideshow creator is dependable and is in use on two million websites, The learning curve can be strong, but help files are available.

11. Nivo Lightbox – One of the most advanced lightbox plugins, this integrates easily with a variety of other plugins. It is free to use but the support license is a bit pricey.

12. Venobox – This plugin is responsive to the maximum width of an image and makes it possible to scroll and see the entire height. Other than that, it doesn’t have any stand-out differences.

13. iLightBox – One of the most advanced lightbox plugins out there. This one has all the bells and whistles you could wish for. It may be too intensive for most websites, however, and best saved for media intensive ones.

14. Swipebox – Great for touch screen devices but requires detailed knowledge of coding to properly install.

15. Magnific Popup – One of the few plugins that allow you to adjust images within the popup itself. Unfortunately, will not work on Windows 7 and below.

16. asPopup – Simple and responsive, but brings nothing new to the table.

17. Lightbox 2 – Updated version of the original lightbox plugin. Works on newer operating systems but doesn’t have any bells and whistles.

Regardless of your needs, jQuery has a lightbox plugin that will meet your needs. From the minimalistic asPopup to the bells-and-whistles laden iLightBox, and everything in between, you will find something that works to make your website professional-looking and a step above the rest.