According to the Gravatar.com website, Gravatars are Globally Recognized Avatars, or an “avatar image that follows you from weblog to weblog appearing beside your name when you comment on gravatar enabled sites.” You register with the Gravatar server, and upload an image which you will use as your avatar. The gravatar image is keyed to your email address, so that it is unique to you.
But if you don’t want to use your avatars from Gravatars then you can use WordPress custom Avatar plugins which allow you to create your own custom avatars in minutes. This article includes 12 Best WordPress Custom Avatar plugins which you install and use on your blogs to show a custom avatar for your visitors to deliver a better experience to them.
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1. WP User Avatar
WP User Avatar enables you to use any photo uploaded into your Media Library as an avatar. This means you use the same uploader and library as your posts. No extra folders or image editing functions are necessary. This plugin also lets you upload your own default avatar in your wp user avatar settings, you can disable gravatar and use only local avatars. It also allows contributors and subscribers to upload their own avatars.
2. Simple Local Avatars
This plugin is simple and lightweight and adds an avatar upload field to user profiles if the current user has media permissions. Generates requested sizes on demand just like Gravatar! All you hae to do is edit a user profile, and scroll down to the new “Avatar” field. The plug-in will take care of cropping and sizing!
This plugin fully supports gravatar and default avatars if no local avatar is set for the user but also allows you turn of gravatar. It also lets you decide whether lower privilege users (subscribers, contributors) can upload their own avatar.
3. SVG Avatars Generator
With this WordPress plugin you can easy integrate the SVG Avatars Generator, which lets your visitors create custom avatars. This Generator is based on SVG (Scalable Vector Graphic), which is supported by all modern browsers and does not depend on screen resolutions. As a result your visitors can download their avatars as SVG file or as PNG one (2 size options) which is converted from vector graphic parts and also upload to Gravatar.com and use their created avatars as gravatars.
The integration of the SVG Avatars creator is quite simple too. This script has responsive interface and doesn’t use any usual images, like JPGs or PNGs (except for downloading), only vectors, which give us clean and perfect look on any devices including Retina.
4. WP First Letter Avatar
WP First Letter Avatar sets custom avatars for users without Gravatar. The avatar will be a first letter of the user’s name. You can also configure the plugin to use any other letter to set custom avatar.
WP First Letter Avatar includes a set of beautiful, colorful letter avatars in many sizes. Optimal size will be chosen by the plugin in order to display high quality avatar and not download, for example, big 512px avatars when only 48px is needed… PSD template for avatar is also included.
You can also create your own avatar set by creating new directory next to ‘default’ folder and following the naming convention from ‘default’.
5. WP User Avatar Pro
WP User Avatar Pro is avatar creation utility to setup profile images in a WordPress site. This plugin works with BBPress, BuddyPress is multisite friendly so it’s an all-in-one solution for user profile images. Store the avatar files in Dropbox, Amazon S3, Media Manager, or a custom folder.
You can choose a profile image from the file system, media manager, or webcam. We have created an easy to use interface to make the process simple. You can also crop and resize the profile image to your liking.
6. Avatar Manager
Avatar Manager for WordPress is a sweet and simple plugin for storing avatars locally and more. You can enhance your WordPress website by letting your users choose between using Gravatar or a self-hosted avatar image right from their profile screen.
7. WP Social Avatar
As the name suggests, this plugin allows you to use the social profile picture as your WordPress Avatar. This plugin provides option to the user to use Social media like Facebook and Google plus profile pictures as the gravatar instead of the one from en.gravatar.com.
After activating the plugin admin will see WP Avatar, under Users menu. Here the admin can set the minimum role/capabilities required to avail this feature. The allowed users will see the available options in their Your Profile sub menu under Users menu.
8. Uni Avatar
This plugin gives you an ability to enable fancy avatars for your users. The plugin includes predefined avatar images and gives an ability to upload your own set of avatar images as well.
9. Easy Gravatars
This plugin allows you to automatically add Gravatars for commenters to your theme, if your theme does not already support them. This plugin will display gravatars for the people who comment on your posts. You do not need to modify any of your template files — just activate the plugin, and it will add gravatars to your comments template automatically.
10. Easy Author Image
Easy Author Image gives you the option do you exactly that — easily add an author image to your profile page. Once you install this plugin, you’ll have a new option in the Your Profile tab (under Users) called Profile Picture, complete with a media uploader box that allows you to upload your very own author picture.
11. Add Local Avatar
This plugin adds local (private) avatars for your users. Maybe your users don’t want a global avatar, aren’t IT savvy enough to set a Gravatar up, simply want a private avatar for your blog, or any other reason too… Well, from WordPress 2.5 onwards, you can manage local and global avatars with this plugin. Plus you can use your Twitter avatar too!
12. Author Widget
This widget allows you to display your site authors with details description and avatar in the sidebar. Widget can be used multiple of times even in one sidebar area. Including or excluding authors becomes easy with the multiselect option. You can also arrange and order the authors by many selection types, showing a number of authors or even hiding the author without posts. All default author contact info can be hidden or displayed as an icon or text.
