Not that fancy, but light and handy

ARI Soft has made a light and efficient lightbox based on fancybox 3 – thus, the name. Nevertheless, it’s not “fancy” in the sense of “elaborate” or “extravagant.” That’s both a strength and a weakness. I, for one, don’t need “bells and whistles” in a plugin.
On the other hand, despite its positive features, ARI Fancy Lightbox comes in an unpolished package:

• ARI Soft’s website is unorganized, you can hardly find your way to the WordPress lightbox. The site also looks like a 5-minute rush job by an amateur.
• Even worse are the minimalistic description and the instructions for the lightbox. It seems that many users don’t understand how the lightbox works, how to properly integrate it in their sites.
• There is no really good list of the true advantages of the lightbox – ARI Soft is throwing away money.
• There are no easy-to-follow instructions, built didactically from scratch to the more intricate points with examples and explanations.
• The text is in poor, hard-to-understand English – ARI needs to get a native speaker to text this stuff.
• The questions on the support forums are not converted into a help or FAQ page. If users have a problem, they must go through each single question until they find an answer – if at all.
• The handling and ordering of the pro version is a catastrophe. After downloading and activating, you can’t even tell that you have the pro version – except by the functions. Nowhere does it say “pro.”
• More styling options should be available, such as for fonts, font size, horizontal lines (or not), background (not just color), etc. Not a deal breaker, but a quick way to adapt the lightbox to one’s site, without adding ballast.

There’s lots of room for improvement, especially of what I call the “package” – from the ARI website to the description and instructions.
So why a five-star rating? This is why:

• The ARI Fancy Lightbox works out of the (light) box – immediately.
• It has no unnecessary ballast – no “bells and whistle” stuff.
• The pro version is very inexpensive – especially considering that you’re getting a lifetime license.
• It provides exactly what I was looking for: a means to show the pictures on my website in screen- and full-size, without the need for galleries, carousels, or rollercoasters.

Dear ARI Soft team, I wrote you a mail with some presales questions, which you never answered – not even a confirmation of receipt. I used the contact page on your website. Many would take down a star or more for that. I won’t because I think it’s a website glitch (part of the poor package) or perhaps an oversight. I see on your forums that you try to help solve problems quickly.
Get it together people. Implement my suggestions and turn ARI Fancy Lightbox into the best lightbox for WordPress. You’ve developed a great product. Sell it.