A hero slider that still sells on mobile.
Most hero carousels look great on desktop and fall apart on mobile — cramped text, images that feel awkward in a narrow viewport, and buttons that are impossible to tap. Aha Hero Slider is built differently: on phones and small tablets, each Default slide becomes a clean, self-contained card — image on top, then badge, headline, subtitle, and call-to-action buttons on a solid content area below. Your message stays readable, on-brand, and conversion-friendly on the device your visitors actually use to browse.
Free and Pro versions available. The core plugin includes everything you need: a dedicated slide library, a groups taxonomy, global design controls, three transition types (slide, fade, vertical), optional autoplay progress indicators, and accessible dot pagination. Upgrade to the Pro version to unlock premium layouts like Centered text (perfect for clean, centered hero messaging) and Text-on-right alignment.
What You Get
- Mobile-Smart Card Layout — The Default template renders a standard full-width hero on desktop. On phones and small tablets, it automatically switches to a stacked card: image on top, content area below. The mobile content background color is configurable from Settings → Design.
- Hero Slides Custom Post Type — Each slide is a dedicated post with fields for: desktop image, mobile image (optional override), badge text, headline, subtitle, primary button (text, URL, colors, border radius), and secondary button (same options). A clean, structured library you can manage like any other post type.
- Two Slide Templates — Default (text + buttons, with the mobile card behavior) and Image Only (full-area image with an optional link for the whole slide — ideal for promotions and banners).
- Slide Groups Taxonomy — Create hierarchical Slide groups and assign slides to one or more groups. Use the shortcode with a group filter to show different sliders on different pages of your site.
- Shortcode Embedding — Place
[aha_hero_slider]on any page, post, widget, or page builder shortcode block. Optional group filter:[aha_hero_slider group="homepage"]. Multiple groups:[aha_hero_slider group="home,sale"]. - Three Transition Types — Choose between horizontal slide, fade, or vertical slide via the shortcode
transitionattribute. Seamless loop supported for slide and vertical; fade falls back to a classic loop. - Autoplay & Controls — Configurable autoplay speed, arrow navigation with subtle hover reveal, and accessible round dot pagination. Autoplay pauses on hover on pointer devices.
- Optional Autoplay Progress Indicator — Add a progress bar or progress circle to give visitors a visual cue about the autoplay timing. Enable via
progress="bar"orprogress="circle"on the shortcode. - Global Design Settings — Configure default colors for arrows, bullets, text, buttons, and an optional overlay mask for better text contrast over images — all from Aha Hero Slider → Settings → Design.
- Per-Slide Style Overrides — Override global defaults on any individual slide: badge color, headline color/size, subtitle color/size, button colors and border radius. Fine-grained control without touching CSS.
- Slide Ordering — Set the display order using the standard WordPress Order field (Page Attributes). Lower values appear first.
- Vanilla JavaScript — The front-end carousel runs on pure JavaScript with no jQuery carousel dependency. Swipe gesture support for touch screens; keyboard navigation for accessibility.
- Works with Any Page Builder — Fully compatible with Elementor, Bricks, Divi, Oxygen, and any other builder that supports shortcodes.
- Multilingual Ready — English, Brazilian Portuguese (pt_BR), and Spanish (es_ES) translations included out of the box.
- Clean Uninstall — An Uninstall settings tab lets you choose whether slides, groups, and plugin options are removed from the database when the plugin is deleted. Media library files are never deleted automatically.
Who It’s For
- Businesses and agencies that care about lead generation and clarity on mobile, not only a polished desktop mockup.
- WordPress users who want a complete, shortcode-first hero slider without locking features behind a paywall.
- Marketers who need different hero sliders for different pages (homepage, campaign pages, product pages) and want an easy way to manage and swap them.
- Developers who prefer predictable, clean markup and no jQuery carousel dependency.
Featues
- 100% free — complete feature set, no Pro upsell
- Mobile card layout — Default slides reflow into a clean card on phones
- Hero Slides CPT — desktop image, mobile image, badge, headline, subtitle, two action buttons
- Two templates: Default (text + buttons) and Image Only (full-slide image with link)
- Slide groups taxonomy — assign slides to groups for different pages
- Shortcode
[aha_hero_slider]withgroup,transition,autoplay,arrows,infinite,progress, and more - Three transition types: horizontal slide, fade, and vertical slide
- Optional autoplay progress bar or circle indicator
- Global Design settings — arrows, bullets, text, buttons, overlay mask, mobile background
- Per-slide style overrides (badge, headline, subtitle, buttons)
- Slide ordering via Order field (Page Attributes)
- Vanilla JavaScript carousel — no jQuery dependency
- Swipe gesture support for touch screens
- Keyboard navigation for accessibility
- Autoplay pauses on hover (pointer devices)
- Compatible with all major page builders (Elementor, Bricks, Divi, Oxygen)
- Multilingual: EN, pt_BR, es_ES translations included
- Optional data removal on plugin delete (Uninstall settings)
- WordPress 5.9+ / PHP 7.4+ compatible
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, it is 100% free. All features described here are included at no cost. There is no Pro version or paid tier for Aha Hero Slider. We built it as a quality showcase for Aha Plugins — everything ships in one free plugin.
For Default slides, the layout automatically switches to a stacked card on narrow screens: the slide image appears on top, followed by the badge, headline, subtitle, and action buttons on a solid content area. This keeps your text readable and your buttons easy to tap — instead of squeezing a desktop hero into a small viewport. You can configure the mobile content background color under Aha Hero Slider → Settings → Design.
Yes. Create Slide Groups under Aha Hero Slider → Slide Groups and assign each slide to one or more groups. Then use the shortcode with a group attribute: [aha_hero_slider group=”homepage”] on the home page and [aha_hero_slider group=”products”] on your products page. You can also combine groups: [aha_hero_slider group=”home,sale”].
Yes. Place the shortcode [aha_hero_slider] inside any shortcode widget or block in your page builder of choice. It works with Elementor, Bricks, Divi, Oxygen, and any builder that supports shortcodes.
No. The front-end carousel runs on 100% vanilla JavaScript — no jQuery or any third-party carousel library is bundled. This means no conflicts with themes that remove jQuery, and better performance for your visitors.
Yes. Use the progress attribute on the shortcode to add a visual progress indicator: [aha_hero_slider progress=”bar”] for a progress bar below the slider, or [aha_hero_slider progress=”circle”] for a circular indicator. Autoplay automatically pauses when the visitor hovers over the slider on desktop devices.
Both. In Settings → Design you can set global defaults for arrow colors, bullet colors, text colors, button colors, and an overlay mask for better text contrast. Then, on each individual slide, you can override any of these defaults — badge color, headline color and size, subtitle color and size, and button colors and border radius.
