The Elfsight Instagram Feed widget is a cloud-based widget that helps you display your Instagram content on just about any website, including WordPress sites. It works a bit differently from a typical WordPress plugin, in that you manage it through an online editor rather than directly in your WordPress dashboard. Still, it presents itself as an interesting alternative you can consider if you're looking for a straightforward way to display an Instagram gallery on your website.
Let's take a closer look at how it operates and whether its unique approach aligns with your needs for displaying Instagram content.
Supported Feed Types and Integration
Elfsight Instagram Feed takes a somewhat different approach than some other solutions, particularly in its integration method. First, let's talk about the various feed types it supports.
Elfsight's widget is flexible in terms of where it can pull your Instagram content from. You get a couple of options, such as:
- Public Account: You can display content from any public Instagram account just by entering the username. Unlike other solutions, this doesn't require you to log into Instagram or generate an access token. It can even show public details like post counts, follower numbers, and engagement metrics like likes and comments.
- Hashtag: You can also feature content based on specific hashtags, again, from public profiles. This is a great way to showcase content related to a campaign or a specific topic.
One handy feature it includes is that you can combine different source types within a single feed. You could add posts from several usernames, multiple hashtags, or even a combination of both into one unified Instagram gallery, a key feature to look for in the best WordPress Instagram gallery plugins.
In terms of content, it supports standard Instagram posts, profiles, carousels (posts with multiple images), and Reels.
Unlike a plugin that installs directly into your WordPress dashboard and lives there, the Elfsight Instagram feed widget is cloud-based. Once your feed is ready, just get a unique HTML code snippet that you can copy and paste into your desired area within WordPress. This could be done using:
- Gutenberg Block: To add it within a Post or Page, you can use the "Custom HTML" block to paste the code.
- Classic Editor: For those using the Classic Editor, you can switch to the Text view of your editor to paste the code.
- Widgets: You can also paste the code into a custom HTML widget in your WordPress sidebar or footer areas via the Appearance > Widgets section.
- Page Builders: Popular WordPress page builders like Elementor and Divi include an "HTML" or "Code" element that you can add into your layout and paste the Elfsight code there.
Once the code is embedded, the widget then loads asynchronously from Elfsight's servers.
Ease of Use
The primary difference in working with Elfsight is that it's a cloud-based widget, rather than a native WordPress plugin. This means you'll manage your feed through the Elfsight website.
While the HTML embedding is simple, some users might prefer the integrated feel of a dedicated WordPress plugin that operates entirely within their site's backend.
The general setup process starts by going to the Elfsight online editor. Here, you can pick a pre-made template that catches your eye, specify the username or hashtags you want to display. You’ll find various customization options categorized into different tabs accessible from the left sidebar. If you want to achieve a very specific look, there’s a dedicated field provided to add custom CSS.
Once you’ve finished customizing your widget in their online editor, you can click the publish button, and Elfsight will provide you with a unique HTML code.
You can copy this code and paste it into the desired area of your WordPress site using the various options we discussed in the previous section.
After you've embedded the code, managing your feed is still done through your Elfsight Apps account. If you decide to change the layout, colors, or content filters later, you simply log back into Elfsight, make your adjustments, and those changes should then update automatically on your website. This means you don't need to go back into your WordPress site to re-embed code every time you want to make a tweak.
While the "no-coding required" aspect is a definite plus for many, it's important to consider how this "ease" might feel for different WordPress users. For some, the idea of managing a widget outside of their familiar WordPress dashboard might feel like an extra step or a slight disconnect.
Customization Options
Elfsight's Instagram widget offers a good range of customization options, all accessible from the same online editor.
When it comes to layout and design, you get a variety of choices. You can opt for a Grid layout, which arranges photos into columns and rows with a "Load More" button.
You also get a Slider layout that displays a set number of photos with navigation arrows.
You can adjust the number of columns and rows in both layouts, and also set the spacing between images. By default, the widget automatically adjusts to different screen sizes, but you can set a fixed width if you prefer that.
Elfsight also provides a couple of predefined templates that offer instant looks for your feed.
Additionally, you can choose from a range of predefined color schemes, or if you need something more specific, you can manually select custom colors for various individual elements of the widget's interface.
For those who are comfortable with coding, you can also add custom CSS for more in-depth design tweaks.
The widget also offers control over which elements to show. You can choose to show or hide various details on each post, such as user information, like counts, comments, or the post text itself.
If you enable popups, the widget displays full-sized photos or plays videos when a user clicks on a post. You can also add customizable Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons to individual posts within these popups, which is great for linking to products or specific content.
Lastly, depending on your widget template, you can customize the header and title of your feed. You can create a custom title by typing directly into the editor and choosing which specific elements, like the number of posts or followers, are displayed in the header area.
Performance
Since Elfsight's Instagram widget is a cloud-based widget that uses embedded code, its performance is directly managed by Elfsight itself. It comes with a number of performance features that help improve the user experience.
It automatically adds lazy loading as a built-in feature, which is a good practice for performance.
You also get the option to limit the initial number of visible posts and add a "Load More" button, which allows users to load additional content only if they choose to.
The widget also offers real-time content updates, meaning your posts refresh automatically. To balance this with performance, the widget uses caching to pull new posts at regular intervals and store them on the Elfsight CDN server. However, this still creates an additional external request, which is worse than serving resources from your own server.
SEO
Elfsight Instagram gallery widget uses JavaScript, which injects the Instagram feed directly as live HTML content. It adds captions, usernames, and dates, right into the page's underlying code. For Google and most modern search engines, this content becomes eligible for indexing alongside your static page content.
This also means that any keywords or schema markup within your feed content benefits your specific web page, with the SEO credit flowing to your site, not to Elfsight's service.
Pricing
Elfsight uses a tiered pricing approach, which includes a free option alongside various paid plans. These plans vary based on the number of views, widgets, and the sources you can add to a widget.
It's important to understand that their pricing covers access to their full range of widgets, and you won't find an option to buy the Instagram feed widget as a standalone product.
Here’s a clear look at their pricing structure:
| Plan | Monthly Cost (Billed Annually) | Monthly Views Limit (per app) | Widgets (per app) | Sources (per widget) |
| Free | $0 | 200 | 1 | 5 |
| Basic | $4 | 5,000 | 3 | 15 |
| Pro | $8 | 50,000 | 9 | 45 |
| Premium | $16 | 150,000 | 21 | 105 |
There are also Enterprise plans available that include higher monthly views, more widgets, and additional sources, starting from $360 per year.
As you can see, Elfsight's pricing model is based on monthly views per app. This can be a bit annoying and will require you to estimate your website traffic and how many times you expect your Instagram widget to be viewed each month. Exceeding those limits can temporarily deactivate your app, which is not what you’d want to happen on a live website.
Summary: Is Elfsight's Instagram Feed Plugin Right For You?
So, after taking a detailed look at the Elfsight Instagram Feed widget, we've explored its strengths and how it operates.
It is a feature-rich and flexible solution for adding your Instagram content to your WordPress website. It truly shines in its ease of use for creating and customizing feeds without touching any code, and it smartly integrates using the block editor as well as page builders.
So, why isn't it higher up on a list of the best WordPress Instagram plugins? The main reason for this is its cloud-based nature. While this offers flexibility, it means you'll manage your Instagram feed directly through the Elfsight website rather than having it natively integrated within your familiar WordPress dashboard.
However, if you're comfortable with managing your widgets from an external site, and especially if you operate multiple websites across different platforms, Elfsight's Instagram feed widget proves to be a real time-saver.
Elfsight Instagram Feed — Frequently Asked Questions
Does Elfsight work with WordPress?
Elfsight works seamlessly with WordPress. While it's a cloud-based widget and not a traditional plugin that installs directly to your dashboard, you can embed its HTML code into any WordPress page, post, or widget area. This makes it fully compatible with your WordPress site and popular page builders like Elementor.
Is Elfsight safe to use?
Elfsight is considered a safe solution. It doesn’t require you to connect to your Instagram account or generate access tokens to display a feed from a public Instagram profile or hashtag. However, if you choose to connect a business profile for more advanced features, Elfsight uses official APIs with read-only access, ensuring your account isn't compromised.
Why is my Elfsight Instagram feed not updating?
If your Elfsight Instagram feed isn't updating, it's often due to an expired access token or permissions issue, especially for Business API connections. Another reason might be due to a longer cache cycle (around 46 hours). You'll typically need to log into your Elfsight Apps account and re-authenticate or check your source connection settings there.
Can you add an Instagram feed to WordPress?
You can add an Instagram feed to WordPress using a dedicated plugin. Elevated Instagram Feed makes this process straightforward with a guided wizard and simple shortcode embedding. Once generated, you can add the feed to any page, post, or area of your site in minutes.
How to embed an Instagram feed on WordPress without plugins?
You can embed an Instagram feed on WordPress without a traditional plugin using a cloud-based solution like Elfsight. You simply copy and paste the unique HTML/JavaScript embed code Elfsight provides into your page, making it a lightweight alternative to typical plugins.
