Having a nearly ubiquitous presence around the web, lightboxes are a must have for most websites. But there are so many different flavors that it can be difficult to find the perfect one. In this post we hope to highlight some of the best lightbox scripts available that don’t rely on a third party Javascript Library, and list some of their best qualities for your consideration. Hopefully this will help you find what you are looking for.

 1: Floatbox

Floatbox starts off our top 10 list, for it’s amazing features and overall finesse. This clone is also amazingly configurable, and stylable, so you can match it to the look and feel of your website.

Floatbox supports:  Images, Image Sets, Inline Elements, Iframes, AJAX Content, Flash, Video

 

2: Greybox

Greybox sports a very simple yet elegant interface, it beautifully displays your content. It has a limited scope, with images and iframes, but it’s simplicity also ensures some low overhead clocking in at only 22K

Greybox Supports: Images, Image Sets, Iframes

 

3: EnlargeIt!

 

Enlargeit! is a pretty slick lightbox clone. It has some amazing customizability allowing you to change almost every aspect of the look and feel

EnlargeIt! Supports: Images, Image Sets, Iframes, Ajax Content, Video

 

4: Highslide

 

Highslide like EnlargeIt! has a sweet zooming animation, and a small footprint, as little as 8.5K. This clone has some unique features that make it a good nitch clone.

Highslide supports: Images, Image Sets, Inline Elements, Iframes, AJAX Content, Flash

 

5: Slidewindow

 

Slidewindow is a pretty good all around lightbox clone. And it is extremely small, weighing in at a minisqule 9.4K. It is a good choice for many, especially if you want to keep your overhead low

Slidewindow supports: Images, Image Sets

 

6: Lytebox

 

Lytebox has a gorgeous interface and some great features. And although it isn’t as lightweight as some of it’s friends on this list, it makes up for that with it’s great features.

tinyLightbox supports:  Images, Image Sets, Inline Elements, Iframes, AJAX Content, Flash, Video

 

7: ShadowBox

 

ShadowBox is another unique lightbox, unlike most other lightboxes this script uses not one single javascript library, but rather has the ability to run on many different javascript libraries, jQuery, Mootools, Prototype, and others. It also sports some great features and customizability.

ShadowBox supports: Images, Image Sets, Inline Elements, Iframes, AJAX Content, Flash, Video

 

8: Lightbox+

 

Lightbox+ is another highly customizable lightbox clone, that as you can see from the screenshot above can even add overlay images on top of your lightbox content.

Lightbox+ supports:  Images, Image Sets

 

9: Lighterbox

Lighterbox is a very quick and dirty lightbox script with no frills, but that translates into low overhead, and it clocks in at just 7.7K. This is a great script for sites that are concerned abou their page load speed.

Tinybox supports: Images

 

10: SubModal

 

Submodal finishes up our list of Lightbox Clones with it’s simple design and great utility. It has the common feel of a window in your operating system, so it is easy to use, and familiar to your site visitors.

pirobox supports: Ajax Content

 

Thanks for joining us for this rundown on Lightbox clones that use their own Javascript libraries. And a big thanks to planetozh.com for publishing The Lightbox Clones Matrix which helped considerably with our research.