WPThumbs
Themes Plugins By purpose By industry Best-of lists Fix it guides
Free Plugin by Embedly v4.9.3

Embedly

The Embedly Plugin extends WordPress's auto-embed feature to give your blog more media types and style options.

Embedly

The facts

Rating
3.5★ from 20
Active installs
2k+
Price
Free
Last updated
20 Feb 2026
Added
May 2010
Requires WP
5.0
Tested up to
WP 6.9.7
Requires PHP
7.4
Downloads
205,917

Our analysis

AI-assisted

Embedly is a WordPress plugin that enhances the default embedding capabilities of WordPress. It allows you to get previews for articles and supports embeds from various providers, including YouTube, Vimeo, and Google Maps. You can customize the style of the embeds and add social sharing buttons to your blog posts.

The plugin is straightforward to use; simply paste a media URL into the post editor, and it will automatically generate the embed. If you have an Embedly Cards account, linking it with your API key provides additional features, such as analytics for your embeds.

Best for: This plugin suits bloggers and content creators looking to enhance media embedding on their WordPress sites.

What it does well

  • Supports embeds from over 1000 providers
  • Customizable styles for embeds
  • Easy to use with simple URL pasting
  • Provides analytics for Embedly Cards users
  • Free to use from the WordPress.org directory

Where it falls short

  • Static HTML content remains after deactivation
  • Limited information on specific features or limitations

Verdict

Embedly offers useful features for embedding media, but users should be aware of the static content left behind after deactivation.

From the developer

Embedly's own description of Embedly, lightly tidied.

Enhance the default WordPress embedding to get previews for any article,
including your own blog posts. You also get embeds for YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch,
Google Maps, and Embedly’s growing list of 1000+ supported
providers
.

You can customize the style of the embeds, to optimize for darker WP themes,
alignment, and width. In addition, social buttons can be added around the embeds
to make it easier to share content from your blog posts.

If you have an Embedly Cards account, you can link it to the plugin with your Embedly API key. Not only does this remove branding from the cards, it also gives you access to analytics and viewer behaviors for most popular music and video player embeds (YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, SoundCloud). Find out how many people viewed your embeds for how long. To learn more about Embedly Cards please visit our website.

Using it is as simple as the default WordPress embedding. Embed media by pasting its URL in a single line when writing a post.

The plugin automatically displays an embed of the media in the WordPress post editor.

Fair Warning: This plugin generates static HTML content for your posts. After you deactivate
the plugin, that HTML will still remain behind in all posts where the plugin was used to create
embeds.

Read the full description on the official page →

Tagged as

Alternatives

Other plugins for video content.

WP YouTube Lyte

High performance YouTube video, playlist and audio-only embeds which don't slow down your blog and offer...

Free 20k+ installs 4.8★ (206)
All-in-One Video Gallery

Video gallery plugin for WordPress with a built-in HTML5 player. Embed YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Rumble, an...

Free 20k+ installs 4.8★ (135)
Video Gallery

Modern responsive YouTube video gallery helps your website getting noticed from visitors, increase the reach a...

Free 20k+ installs 4.7★ (322)
HTML5 Video Player

Responsive HTML5 video player for WordPress. Embed MP4, WebM, OGG, YouTube & Vimeo with shortcodes or bloc...

Free 20k+ installs 4.6★ (195)
Videopack

Makes video thumbnails, allows resolution switching, and embeds responsive self-hosted videos and galleries.

Free 10k+ installs 4.8★ (63)