The 5 Best WordPress Instagram Plugins (Free & Premium)

In the ever-evolving landscape of social media, Instagram remains a powerhouse for visual storytelling and audience engagement. For WordPress users looking to harness this potential, integrating Instagram into their websites can be a game-changer.

Take your site to the next level by using a WordPress Instagram plugin to seamlessly bridge the gap between WordPress content and Instagram’s dynamic feed, creating a more interactive and visually appealing website.

In this article, we’ll dive into the 5 best WordPress Instagram plugins, comparing the features, ease of use, and pricing of both free and premium options. Whether you’re a blogger, a small business, or you build sites for clients, we’ll help you find the right plugin that best fits your needs.

Why Integrate Instagram with WordPress?

You might be wondering, why bother embedding Instagram in WordPress when there is already an easy way to add an image gallery to your site. There are a few additional advantages to using Instagram with WordPress over just adding a photo gallery.

• Upload once, view everywhere. Simply upload to Instagram and display them on both IG and your website.
• Reach more people. By also sharing your images on Instagram, you can reach more people than simply including photos on your website.
• Free image editing & filters. Quickly improve the quality of your photos with Instagram’s filters. This is something you can’t do easily with WordPress.
• Easier app for uploading. Instagram makes it easy to upload photos right from your phone. WordPress has a mobile app but it’s not as user friendly.
• Display other’s photos. Quickly & easily display photos from other users/businesses, without the need to download them, then re-upload.
• Sell products via photos. Photo galleries just display static images. A shoppable Instagram feed provides buy buttons with your images.

Things to Consider

It’s important to think about the specific features you need for your site. Here are the most common things to consider before choosing an Instagram plugin for WordPress:

• Connect multiple accounts: Does the plugin allow you to connect multiple Instagram accounts, both personal & business?
• Various layouts & design customization: Can you display posts in a grid, multiple columns, or a carousel? Can you customize colors, borders, image sizing, spacing, etc.?
• Inserting feeds: Can you insert your feeds easily in the block editor? Can you use a shortcode? Sidebar widgets? What about integrations with specific page builders like Elementor?
• Filtering feeds: Can you display hashtag feeds? What about photos that you’re tagged in? Can you manually select specific posts?
• Shop feeds for WooCommerce stores: Can you embed shoppable Instagram feeds to highlight your products?
• Insights & analytics: Does the plugin provide data on views, clicks, and engagement of your feeds?

Obviously your budget also plays a factor. There are a few good free options, but if Instagram plays a big role in your business, you’ll want to consider paying for a premium solution. This not only provides you with better features, but also helps ensure the plugin is actively developed and can provide adequate support.

Now let’s get into the plugins.

The Best Instagram Plugins for WordPress in 2023

Our top recommendation, Spotlight, was the clear winner.

Disclaimer: WP Mayor’s parent company, RebelCode, is the developer of the Spotlight plugin.
Author note: That relationship doesn’t impact its rating. I rated it #1 because it is hands-down the best option.

1. Spotlight Instagram Feeds (Recommended)

Spotlight is the easiest to use and fastest-growing Instagram feed plugin for WordPress. It can do everything from embedding a stylish Instagram gallery to an automated shoppable Instagram feed.

It offers a super helpful live interactive preview editor right in your WordPress dashboard and is incredibly easy to use in the block editor. It also lets you create your Instagram feed directly in Elementor with its Elementor integration.

The onboarding process is quick and the plugin lets you connect multiple accounts and set up unlimited feeds. You can even connect your client’s Instagram accounts using Spotlight’s Access Token Generator to avoid sharing login details and display multiple Instagram feeds across your website.

The free version allows you to display your feed in a grid layout, adjust sizing, number of photos, and order by date, popularity, or at random. You can also use your feeds for social proof by showing your Instagram like and comment counts when hovering over images or displaying them in a popup lightbox.

Spotlight is completely responsive by default. It gives you the option to design your feed for different device sizes, and it works great with popular page builders like Elementor, Beaver Builder, and Divi.

Spotlight’s premium plans include many more options, such as the ability to display hashtag feeds, filter by keyword, phrase, or hashtag, moderate the posts manually, create shoppable Instagram feeds, create a custom Instagram link in bio page, and even track performance with its analytics and engagement metrics.

Read our complete Spotlight review here →

Spotlight Feature Breakdown

Another useful feature of Spotlight is that you can easily embed singular Instagram posts with its Instagram oEmbed support, which WordPress no longer provides by default. No more copying HTML embed codes and using the “Custom HTML” block 🎉.

Final Word: In addition to its features, Spotlight is regularly updated and backed up with 5-star support, making it the best plugin for integrating any type of Instagram feed in WordPress.

2. WPZOOM Social Feed Widget

The WPZOOM Social Feed Widget provides you with a WordPress widget, block, or shortcode that you can place anywhere on your website. The free version is easy to use, but lacks the features of the Spotlight Instagram plugin.

With the free version, you can embed unlimited feeds, but you are limited to only one Instagram account. Choose between a full-width widget area to display a banner of photos across your page, or a 1, 2, or 3-column layout that mimics Instagram’s interface.

As with most Instagram plugins, you can choose the number of photos to be displayed, their size and spacing, as well as whether or not to display a “View on Instagram” button. Once you set your options, your feed can then be displayed in your header, footer, sidebar, or directly on any page using a block or shortcode.

WPZOOM Social Feed Widget Feature Breakdown

This plugin has a large user base and decent reviews, but its limited features prevent it from being the #1 Instagram plugin for WordPress.

Bottom Line: The WPZOOM Social Feed Widget works well, but you simply get more features with Spotlight, in both the free and pro versions. Not being able to connect multiple Instagram accounts in the free version, and not having any tagged or hashtag feeds at all, could be dealbreakers.

3. WP Social Ninja

WP Social Ninja actually started out as a social reviews plugin, displaying Google & Facebook reviews within WordPress. It has since evolved to support 30 different platforms including social media feeds, review sites, and chat platforms.

A Word of Caution: Plugins with this many integrations can more easily lead to plugin conflicts and/or performance issues. We have not experienced that with WP Social Ninja, but if all you need is an Instagram gallery on your WordPress site, this plugin could be overkill. On the flip side, if you have a massive social media presence and use several platforms, this could be an excellent choice.

The plugin is developed & maintained by a reputable WordPress company, WPManageNinja, who also makes the popular plugins Fluent Forms, FluentCRM, and other Fluent-branded products.

Since this plugin does so many different things, we’re just going to focus on its Instagram feed features.

WP Social Ninja – Instagram Feed Features

As with many plugins in the WordPress ecosystem, the features in the free version are quite limited. However, the premium version has a lot to offer.

Bottom Line: If you want to integrate multiple social platforms on your site, this is worth considering. If you’re just looking for an Instagram feed plugin, we’d recommend starting with Spotlight’s free version.

4. Intagrate

NOTE: Intagrate is different from all the other WordPress Instagram plugins on this list.

Instead of embedding Instagram on WordPress, Intagrate pulls images from Instagram to your WordPress Media Library and creates a new piece of content within WordPress. From there, you can save the post as a draft, publish it immediately, or add additional text & images.

Key Benefit: SEO

One thing that most small businesses struggle with is publishing new content on their blog. But if you’re already posting on social media, why not instantly turn those images & captions into blog content. Google rewards sites with fresh, constantly updated content. The Intagrate plugin provides a hands-off way to keep your blog fresh, improve your SEO, and acquire more customers as a result.

Intagrate Features

The free version is somewhat limited, but the pro version is packed with awesome features. Pricing starts at $55/yr. for one site. You can check out a review of Intagrate (with screenshots) here.

Sidenote: If you’re looking for a way to pull another website’s content into your own site, consider a news aggregator plugin instead.

5. Feed Them Social

Feed Them Social has been around since 2013, making it one of the older Instagram plugins on our list. A majority of the reviews are positive, but there are 50+ 1-, 2-, and 3-star reviews, which is a little concerning. However, the developers are very active in the support forum on wordpress.org, and many of the reviews in the past 6 months (June-November 2023) are positive.

Like WP Social Ninja & Intagrate, Feed Them Social’s free plugin is very limited in features.

Free Version Limitations

• Only display latest 6 posts
• No “load more” button
• Can’t display photos in popup/lightbox
• No color customization options

Premium Version Features

• Unlimited posts
• “Load more” button
• User account & hashtag feeds
• Display posts in a popup/lightbox
• Custom button colors

As you’ll see from the features above, even with premium, they are still somewhat limited. The top 3 Instagram WordPress plugins on our list offer much more in their premium versions, and Spotlight has several features in its free version that Feed Them Social is lacking. I was surprised to see that there isn’t even a block to add a feed using the block editor (Gutenberg). You’ll need to use a shortcode block.

I tested the free version out myself (Nov 2023), and it is very easy to set up and configure. Unfortunately, that alone is not enough to move it up the list. Feed Them Social Premium starts at $50/yr. for one site.

Worth Mentioning: 10Web Social – Instagram Feed

The 10Web Social plugin is another option for bloggers looking to display Instagram feeds on their website. The free version has over 30,000 active installations and 297 5-star reviews, however, we advise against using the free version for the following reasons:

• It was last updated in January of 2021
• They don’t keep an active changelog on wordpress.org
• It was last tested with a much older version of WordPress (5.0)
• 10+ of the most recent reviews are for 1-2 stars, citing the plugin no longer works

It does appear they are actively developing the pro version, however that has its own set of warning flags. The feature set looks great, but…

• You have to buy the company’s entire package of 15 plugins. There is no pricing for only the Instagram WordPress plugin.
• The pricing is $85 for 6 months, which equates to $170/yr.
• 10Web, the company that makes the plugin, has recently focused heavily on AI tools. That, combined with a portfolio of 15 unique plugins, makes us wary of how much attention their Instagram plugin will receive in terms of updates & new features.

If you have an interest in some of their other premium plugins, this could be an option to consider.

The pro version includes various styles for masonry & grid layouts. You can choose to display image metadata, which is a great way to gain social proof. It also allows you to display composite feeds of user accounts and hashtags, with fully customizable themes and popup transition effects.

Another unique feature is the ability to display filtered feeds based on the following conditions:

• username
• hashtag
• mention
• description
• media link

Their filtering logic lets you hide or display posts and choose the filtering source.

While we don’t consider this to be one of the best WordPress Instagram plugins out there, we’ve included it for those users who like to bundle plugins from a single company.

Worth Mentioning: Social Feed Gallery

The Social Feed Gallery plugin has over 80,000 active installations and quite a few positive reviews, but we included it at the bottom of our list for a reason. Many users have had issues connecting their site with Instagram. They have 23 1-star reviews, several of which are from Q4 2023.

While there are both free & premium versions of the plugin, their website states that they don’t provide support for the free version.

The free version is limited in features. You can’t customize colors or use a “load more” button. You’re also limited to a single, basic layout.

The premium version does include a nice feature set, but it still doesn’t compare to the other options on this list. And based on user feedback over the past several years, we’d be hesitant to choose this as our WordPress Instagram plugin of choice.

Overall Recommendation: Spotlight

Based on our extensive research & testing, the best Instagram plugin for WordPress is Spotlight, hands down. We had a hard time finding any downsides.

• There’s a free option with tons of features. This might be all you need, but if you want more, the premium version is excellent.
• Affordable price points for their premium options: $39 for all designs & layouts; $59 for hashtags, filtering, and moderation; $99 to add analytics & reporting
• Actively developed by a reputable WordPress plugin company
• The best reviews of any Instagram plugin we tested

Recommended: Spotlight

The fastest-growing of all the plugins we've tested in this comparison, and with good reason. From start to finish in less than 7 clicks!

Get Spotlight

Which WordPress Instagram Plugin is Best For You?

• Best overall: Spotlight
• Easiest to use: Spotlight or WPZOOM Social Widget
• Display multiple social media feeds: WP Social Ninja or Feed Them Social
• Most customizable: Spotlight
• Best reporting & analytics: Spotlight
• Create posts from your Instagram gallery: Intagrate

See Also: Once you’ve added Instagram to your site, you might be interested in our tips to gain Instagram likes & followers fast.

WordPress Instagram Plugins We’d Avoid

When searching for Instagram plugins, you’ll find many more that didn’t make our list. We only recommend plugins that are actively developed, have been updated recently, and have received positive user reviews. Installing an outdated plugin that is no longer being supported could cause issues on your site, or even worse, open you up to WordPress security vulnerabilities. Therefore, we suggest avoiding the following:

• Social Slider Feed by creativemotion: Last updated November 2022, has 28 1-star reviews citing many issues and awful support.
• Enjoy Social Feed plugin by Mediabeta Srl: Last updated May 2022 and has many 1-star reviews
• Instagram Theatre on Codecanyon: Last updated January 2022
• WP Instant Feeds by mnmlthms: Last updated September 2020 and has many 1-star reviews
• BlossomThemes Social Feed: Has not been updated for the block editor, and no mention of it on their website. In Nov 2023, their support team actually recommended that users use another plugin (source).

If you’ve used any of these plugins on your site, we’d love to hear your feedback in the comments. And if you have any questions about which WordPress Instagram plugin is best for you, just ask. Our team would be happy to help.