Top Five WordPress Plugins For Integrating Your Instagram Feed

Instagram is quickly becoming the most engaging social network if it’s not there already. More media, less reading, it’s what Instagram is all about. Simple yet very addicting.

Fortunately, this translates very well for the web design industry. Being able to allow clients to quickly update their sites media without having to login to WordPress can be a major selling point.

Today, we will look at FOUR great plugins for integrating your Instagram feed (two free, two premium) as well as a more complex javascript method that requires more development work but has infinite flexibility. Let’s dive in:

The Instagram Feed

Probably the top free option coming straight from the WordPress repository. This plugin has tons of shortcode options for displaying your feed. You can pull in feeds from multiple users, and also offers “Load More” options that can display on the frontend. Easy to integrate with step by step instructions for securing your Instagram Client ID. Definitely worth checking out.

Alpine PhotoTile For Instagram

This was one of the original Instagram plugins for WordPress and I’ve probably used it over 50 times over the last few years. It’s easy to integrate and produces a simple yet effective output with built in lightbox. While it may not be the top contender anymore, it deserves to be on this list.   As with the before mentioned plugin, Alpine PhotoTile For Instagram has built in shortcodes for displaying on posts, pages, or as a widget.

InstaNOW

A great premium option available on CodeCanyon for $16 (at the time of this editorial). Very user friendly with tons of shortcode options. Responsive and compatible with VisualComposer, this plugin allows for a grid layout of your Instagram images or you can opt for the slider. Pre-packaged with iLightbox, a top lightbox script, this Instagram feed works right out of the box and delivers stunning results.

Instagram Gallery

Another great option from CodeCanyon for $11 at the time of this editorial. This plugin made the list due to its interactive jQuery motion elements on hover. It’s one thing to pull in a great Instagram feed which there are many options for these days. It’s another to make it beautiful while keeping the user interface clean and easy to use. This plugin does just that. While it has slightly less shortcode features versus the before mentioned InstaNOW, it’s got some great functionality that makes it a top contender.

Instafeedjs

Here is where we’re going to get more technical. If you’re strictly a WordPress plugin person, you can probably stop reading. However, if you’re looking to take the next step and get into some custom Instagram integration, this is the route for you. InstafeedJS is a powerful script for doing just about anything with Instagram. Simply enqueue the script in your functions.php file and then setup a new feed using some basic javascript in your footer.   Pull in users, hashtags, set the media size, there’s almost infinite possibilities. You can see how I’ve utilized the Instafeed script on my site at https://www.boldcitydesign.com.