15+ Excellent WordPress Slider Examples (Showcase)
Website sliders have a bad reputation, but plenty of big brands still use them on their homepages. The difference is that the good ones are deliberate: a few slides, a clear message on each one, and controls that put the visitor in charge.
Most slider showcases online are full of screenshots from years ago, and many of those sliders are long gone. So in October 2026, we visited every site on this list and confirmed that each one is still running a slider or carousel today. Then we took a fresh screenshot of each.
In this article, we’ll share 16 website slider examples you can still visit right now, what to borrow from each one, and how to build your own WordPress slider in minutes.
What Makes a Good Website Slider?
Before we get to the examples, here’s what we looked for. The best sliders in this list share a few habits:
- One message per slide: a single headline and one button, not a wall of text
- Controls you can see: arrows, dots or thumbnails, plus a pause button when the slider moves on its own
- Readable text: captions sit on a solid panel or outside the image, so busy photos don’t swallow them
- A short rotation: most of the sliders here run between three and six slides
- Room to breathe: the rest of the page is still useful if nobody touches the slider
If you’d like to go deeper on any of these, see our guide on slider best practices.
CBS
CBS opens with a full-screen slide for whatever show matters most this week, with one bold title, a single line of copy and a Watch Live button. A row of live news streams sits right below it as a second, smaller carousel.
What to borrow: Progress-bar indicators. Instead of plain dots, each bar fills as the slide plays, so visitors can see how long they have before it moves on.
Captured October 2026.
Xbox
Xbox gives each slide one game, one headline and two clear buttons: subscribe or buy. The artwork carries the mood, so the copy can stay short.
What to borrow: The pause button next to the dots. Auto-moving content needs a way to stop it, and Xbox puts that control where people already look for navigation. For more on controls like this, see our guide on how to optimize Soliloquy sliders for accessibility.
Captured October 2026.
Nintendo
Nintendo puts the caption below the artwork instead of on top of it, so the image stays clean and the text is always readable. Small icons under the slide show which game is coming next.
What to borrow: Thumbnail-style navigation. Icons tell visitors what’s on the other slides, which gives them a reason to click instead of waiting. You can build the same idea with a slider with thumbnails in WordPress.
Captured October 2026.
PlayStation
PlayStation runs a large hero slide with a row of thumbnails underneath, one for each featured game. The active thumbnail is outlined, so you always know where you are.
What to borrow: A visible thumbnail strip. It turns the slider into a menu: visitors can jump straight to the slide they care about.
Captured October 2026.
Smithsonian
The Smithsonian uses its slider for stories rather than sales. Each slide is a single illustration with a short headline, and the whole slide links to the story behind it.
What to borrow: Big arrows on both edges. They’re easy to hit on any screen, and they make it obvious that there’s more to see.
Captured October 2026.
Smithsonian’s National Zoo
Smithsonian’s National Zoo plays short video clips inside its slider and keeps the message on a solid overlay card. The card stays readable even while the footage moves behind it.
What to borrow: The overlay card. If you use video or busy photos, a solid panel behind your text keeps the headline and button legible. See our guide on how to create a responsive video slider in WordPress to try it.
Captured October 2026.
Louvre
The Louvre’s homepage slideshow rotates through photos of the museum and its collection. Practical details like today’s hours and the ticket button sit in a fixed panel beside it.
What to borrow: Keep essential information outside the slider. Opening hours and booking shouldn’t disappear when a slide changes. If you’re deciding whether your own slider should move at all, see our guide on whether your slider should autoplay.
Captured October 2026.
Guggenheim
The Guggenheim uses a full-width slider of exhibition scenes, including video, with small pause and mute controls in the corner. There’s almost no text on the slides themselves.
What to borrow: Let strong visuals do the talking. When your images are the product, a quiet slider with simple controls can say more than a headline.
Captured October 2026.
NASA
NASA’s homepage leads with its top mission story, a short summary and a Ways to Watch button. Instead of dots, labeled tabs below the slide name each mission it rotates through.
What to borrow: Labeled tabs instead of dots. Words like “Active Mission” tell visitors exactly what each slide is before they click.
Captured October 2026.
Red Bull
Red Bull treats its slider like a magazine cover. Each slide is a story with an action photo, a headline, an author and an estimated read time.
What to borrow: Editorial slides. If your site publishes content, a slider of your best stories can work better than a slider of ads.
Captured October 2026.
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola uses a card-style carousel where the next and previous slides peek in from the edges. Each card has its own headline and one button.
What to borrow: Peeking edges. Showing a sliver of the neighboring slides is a natural hint that the content scrolls sideways. Take a look at our carousel slider demo to see the effect in Soliloquy.
Captured October 2026.
GoPro
GoPro’s product slider puts everything a shopper needs on one slide: the cameras, the price, two buttons and a row of award badges. Arrows, slide indicators and a pause button frame the slide.
What to borrow: Proof on the slide itself. Pairing a product with its price and awards answers the shopper’s first questions before they click. For more ideas, check out our tips on using sliders for eCommerce.
Captured October 2026.
IKEA
IKEA doesn’t use a full-width slider at all. Instead, one large tile inside its homepage grid is a carousel with its own pause button, and the tiles around it stay put.
What to borrow: A carousel inside a layout, not on top of it. This keeps the rest of your homepage visible while still letting you rotate a few promotions.
Captured October 2026.
Woot
Woot’s deal slider shows one product bundle at a time with the price, a Shop Now button, and a countdown showing how long the deal has left. Arrows sit outside the slide so they never cover the product.
What to borrow: Urgency that’s real. A countdown works because the deal actually ends, so only use one when your offer has a real deadline.
Captured October 2026.
Magnolia Bakery
Magnolia Bakery’s slider is all about the season. Its Halloween slide pairs a playful headline with a close-up of the treats and an Order Now button, framed in the bakery’s signature shape.
What to borrow: Seasonal slides. Swapping in holiday promotions keeps your homepage fresh, and you can schedule them ahead of time. Here’s how to schedule your WordPress slider and images.
Captured October 2026.
SeaWorld Orlando
SeaWorld Orlando’s slider leads with its current ticket offer and a clear end date. The arrows, dots and pause button are grouped in one small cluster on the image.
What to borrow: One tidy control cluster. Grouping every control in one spot keeps the slide clean and makes the controls easy to find.
Captured October 2026.
How to Create Your Own WordPress Slider
Most of these sites are built on custom platforms, but you don’t need a development team to get the same results. With Soliloquy, you can build a fast, responsive slider in WordPress without writing any code.
First, you’ll need to install and activate the Soliloquy plugin. If you’d like a hand with this part, our doc on installing Soliloquy covers it step by step.
Next, go to Soliloquy » Add New to create a new slider. Give your slider a title, then drag your images into the Native Slider section.
From there, the Config tab lets you set your slider’s size, theme and transition, and the Mobile tab lets you adjust how it looks on phones. If you want the card-style look from Coca-Cola or the thumbnail strip from PlayStation, the Carousel and Thumbnails Addons come with the Developer plan or higher.
When you’re happy with your slider, click Publish and copy the shortcode from the Soliloquy Slider Code widget.
Now edit the page or post where you want your slider and paste the shortcode where it should appear. For every option along the way, see our guide on how to create an image slider in WordPress.
Pro Tip: Start with three slides. It’s much easier to add a fourth once you know your first three are working than to trim a slider nobody clicks through.
FAQs About Website Slider Examples
What is a website slider?
A website slider is a section of a page that shows several slides, usually images with short text and a button, one at a time in the same space. Visitors move between slides with arrows, dots or thumbnails, or the slider advances on its own.
Do big brands still use sliders on their homepages?
Yes. Every example in this article was running a slider or carousel on its homepage when we checked in October 2026, including CBS, Nintendo, PlayStation, NASA and IKEA. What’s changed is how they use them: fewer slides, clearer messages, and visible controls.
How many slides should a website slider have?
There’s no fixed rule, but shorter is usually better. Most of the sliders in this list run between three and six slides, which is enough to rotate a few messages without burying the last ones.
Should a website slider autoplay?
It can, as long as visitors can stop it. The W3C accessibility guidelines ask for a way to pause any content that moves automatically for more than five seconds, which is why so many of these examples include a pause button.
How do I make a slider like these in WordPress?
The easiest way is with a slider plugin. In Soliloquy, you create a slider, drag in your images, choose your settings, and paste the slider’s shortcode into any page or post.
That’s it! We hope these website slider examples gave you some fresh ideas for your own site. If you’re ready to build yours, check out these beginner-friendly guides:
- How to Add a Homepage Slider in WordPress
- How to Create a Hero Image Slider
- How to Create a Fullwidth Image Slider in WordPress
- How to Add an Image Slider with Captions in WordPress
- How to Change Slider Time in WordPress
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mike
nice deal to collect many slider into one page many website doing the same thing but i like one of them this example and some more cssfloor.com.
Jay
Which wordpress slider plugin can help emulate the Lonely Planet slider?
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