Best Instagram Plugin for WordPress: 8 That Still Work

The best Instagram plugin for WordPress depends on the job. If you want a grid of your latest Instagram posts on a page, you want a feed plugin, and Smash Balloon’s Instagram Feed is the safe default. If you want each Instagram post to become a real WordPress post, with the images in your media library, you want an import plugin like our Intagrate Lite. And if you want the opposite, your WordPress posts shared to Instagram, you want an auto-posting plugin. This guide covers eight plugins across those three jobs, all of which still work with Instagram today.

We make Intagrate, so we have an obvious interest in one of these categories. We’ve tried to be straight about it: most people asking for an Instagram plugin want a feed, and Intagrate isn’t one.

What changed for every Instagram plugin

On 4 December 2024 Meta shut down the Instagram Basic Display API, the API that let plugins read personal Instagram accounts. Since then, every plugin on this list needs a professional Instagram account (Creator or Business). Switching is free, in the Instagram app, and doesn’t change your posts, followers or username. Our guide to the Basic Display API shutdown walks through it.

Two things follow from that:

• Plugins that weren’t updated have stopped working. Many older roundups, including the first version of this one, still recommend plugins that haven’t been updated since before the change.
• Hashtag feeds are now limited. Only some plugins can show other people’s posts by hashtag, and they need more setup: Smash Balloon, for example, needs your Business account linked to a Facebook Page for them.

We checked every plugin below on wordpress.org on 5 October 2026: all were updated in the last two months and are tested up to WordPress 7.1.

How to choose an Instagram plugin for WordPress

Start with what you want visitors to see:

For a single post, our guide to embedding an Instagram post on WordPress shows how to do it without a plugin.

Instagram feed plugins

A feed plugin shows your recent Instagram posts in a block, widget or shortcode, and updates it as you post. Nothing is created in WordPress: the feed is a live window onto your Instagram account. It’s what most sites want, and these plugins do it better than Intagrate would.

Installs, ratings and dates are from wordpress.org; prices are from each plugin’s own site. All checked 5 October 2026.

Smash Balloon Instagram Feed

Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed is the most installed Instagram plugin for WordPress by a wide margin, and the top result on wordpress.org for most Instagram searches. The free version is generous: multiple accounts, as many feeds as you like, a block and a widget, a visual customizer, a header and a “Follow on Instagram” button. It also powers Instagram oEmbeds, which brings back pasted Instagram links that WordPress can no longer embed on its own.

Instagram Feed Pro adds hashtag feeds, carousel posts, a lightbox for photos, videos and Reels, captions with like and comment counts, moderation and shoppable feeds. It’s $49 for the first year on one site, renewing at $98.

Smash Balloon offers two ways to connect. Its “Business Basic” connection uses your Instagram login with no Facebook Page; “Business Advanced” needs the account linked to a Facebook Page, and is what hashtag feeds require.

Best for: most sites that want a feed. It’s the one we’d point a friend to first.

Social Feed Gallery

Social Feed Gallery by QuadLayers (formerly Instagram Feed Gallery) offers gallery and carousel layouts, a lightbox, like and comment counts, and both a block and an Elementor block in the free version. Premium adds multiple accounts, masonry and highlight layouts, a “Load more” button, Instagram Stories and tagged posts.

It’s sold as a lifetime license as well as yearly: $49 a year or $99 once, for one site.

Best for: Elementor sites, and anyone who’d rather pay once.

Spotlight Social Feeds

Spotlight Social Feeds has the most capable free version on this list for agencies: unlimited accounts, unlimited feeds, combined feeds from several accounts, photos, videos, Reels and carousel posts, a lightbox and pre-designed templates. It includes oEmbed support for single posts too, and an access token generator so clients don’t have to share their Instagram login with you.

Paid plans are Essentials ($59 a year: all templates, layouts and customization options, and Stories), PRO ($99 a year: hashtag feeds, tagged posts, filtering, moderation, a link in bio page and WooCommerce shoppable feeds) and Agency ($199 a year for up to 20 sites, adding Instagram insights and analytics).

Best for: agencies and anyone who needs several accounts without paying.

WPZOOM Social Feed Widget

WPZOOM Social Feed Widget & Block is a lighter alternative, and pitches itself as one. The free version gives you unlimited feeds, a block, shortcode and widget, a lightbox, lazy loading and a Stories ring on your profile picture. Pro adds multiple accounts, masonry and carousel layouts, a “Load more” button, moderation, follower counts, Instagram insights and WooCommerce product tagging, from $39 a year for one site.

WPZOOM’s own page says it plainly: the Instagram API it uses supports only Business and Creator accounts.

Best for: a simple, fast feed on a single site.

Social Slider Feed

Social Slider Feed (once Social Slider Widget) shows Instagram, Facebook and YouTube feeds as sliders, grids, masonry or thumbnails, with a lightbox and separate layouts for desktop and mobile. Its wordpress.org listing doesn’t advertise a paid version, and its rating is the lowest of the five.

Best for: sliders, or showing Facebook and YouTube alongside Instagram from one plugin.

If you’d rather not install a plugin at all, hosted widget services and Instagram’s own embed code are covered in our guide to embedding an Instagram feed on any website.

Importing Instagram posts into WordPress: Intagrate

A feed shows your Instagram posts. An import plugin copies them into WordPress, so each Instagram post becomes a WordPress post with its own URL, title, categories and tags, and its images saved in your media library. They’re indexed as your pages, appear in your archives, RSS feed and site search, and stay on your site if you delete your Instagram account or Instagram changes its API again.

That’s the job we built Intagrate for. Feed plugins don’t do it: some cache images locally for speed, but none of them creates posts. We’re not aware of another maintained plugin on wordpress.org that does.

Intagrate Lite (free)

Intagrate Lite connects one Instagram account and creates a WordPress post each time you post a photo. Under Settings, then Intagrate Lite, you choose:

• Last Image: where to start, so you can bring some recent posts across straight away
• Select Image Saving: Save Image to Media Library or Link to Instagram Image
• Featured Image Config: set the image as the featured image, put it in the content, or both
• Post Category, Post Author, Post Status (publish or draft) and Custom Post Type
• Custom Title Text and Custom Body Text: wrap the caption and image in your own words with %%title%% and %%image%%

It checks for new Instagram posts when someone visits your blog page or the category it posts into.

Intagrate Pro

Intagrate Pro is for when you need more control, or more than one account:

• Any number of Instagram accounts, each with its own settings, under Intagrate, then All Accounts (see the accounts guide)
• Videos, Reels and carousels, with a Media Filter for images, videos or both, and a Carousel Style of a slider or individual images and videos
• Your full history, not just new posts
• Moderation: tick Moderate Images and each post waits for you to approve it, or set it to Ignore
• Grouping: one WordPress post per Instagram post, several grouped together, or all added to the same post
• A schedule: Constant, Scheduled (hourly to monthly), a real Cron Job, or Manual
• Templates for the title, content, excerpt and custom fields, using template tags
• Hashtags: filter which posts are imported by the hashtags in your caption, and turn them into WordPress tags with Convert Media Hashtags to
• Any post type, and WordPress Multisite

Where Intagrate is weaker

• It isn’t a feed widget. If you want a gallery in your sidebar, use one of the plugins above. You can build a gallery from imported posts with your theme, but it’s more work.
• No hashtag feeds of other people’s posts. Intagrate connects through Instagram Login, which only gives access to your own posts. Smash Balloon and Spotlight Pro can show hashtag feeds.
• Smaller install base. The feed plugins above are used on far more sites.

Plugins that share WordPress posts to Instagram

If what you searched for was the reverse, publishing your WordPress posts on Instagram, you want a social auto-posting plugin. Instagram support is a paid feature in both of the main ones, and both need a business account.

• Revive Social (formerly Revive Old Post) shares new posts as you publish them and keeps your evergreen posts circulating on a schedule, to Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Instagram and more. Instagram is in the Pro version.
• Blog2Social posts and schedules to more than 20 networks, including Instagram Reels and Stories. Instagram posting to a business account starts with its Smart plan.

Which Instagram plugin should you use?

• A feed on your homepage or sidebar: Smash Balloon. Spotlight if you need several accounts for free.
• Every Instagram post as a WordPress post, saved on your site: Intagrate Lite, or Intagrate Pro for videos, several accounts and your full history.
• WordPress posts shared to Instagram: Revive Social or Blog2Social.
• One post, once: Instagram’s embed code, no plugin needed.

Some sites use two: a feed plugin for the homepage grid and Intagrate to keep a permanent copy of every post. They don’t conflict.

To see everything Intagrate can do with your Instagram posts, take a look at the features.