Want to create a website that offers a bunch of video content? If yes, YouTube is the best place to host your videos. Hosting your videos to YouTube will save lots of resources, storage in particular. Plus, there are chances that you will get more views from YouTube video suggestions. Can you add the videos you hosted on YouTube to your WordPress? Of course, you can.
The default block editor of WordPress — a.k.a. Gutenberg — has a block that you can use to effortlessly embed a YouTube video to a blog post or page. Unfortunately, you can only embed individual videos. There is no option to embed a playlist or channel. If you want to embed your playlist or channel, you can use a plugin. What plugin?
We have curated the best WordPress YouTube plugins that you can use to embed your YouTube playlists or channels. One thing. You need a YouTube API to embed your own YouTube playlists or channels. You can read this article to learn more about how to get a YouTube API. By the way, if you use Newspaper theme, you don’t need to install any additional plugin as the theme comes with a built-in feature to create a YouTube playlist.
Best WordPress YouTube plugins
1. JetBlog
If you use Elementor on your WordPress site, there is no better plugin to embed a YouTube playlist than JetBlog. You can use JetBlog either to create a playlist from YouTube videos or embed your own playlist. Or, if you have a YouTube channel, you can also embed it. JetBlog itself is technically a premium Elementor add-on. Meaning that it requires Elementor to work (you can use Elementor Free). If you want to embed your YouTube playlist to a blog post or regular page (a page created with Gutenberg), you can use the Blocks for Gutenberg plugin.
JetBlog offers many customization options. You can, for instance, set playlist height, thumbnail width, change the playlist background, show/hide item duration, and so on.
2. YouTube Embed Plus
If you don’t use Elementor, you can use YouTube Embed Plus to embed a YouTube playlist or channel to your post or page using Gutenberg block editor (also supports classic editor). Once the plugin is installed and activated, you will have a new block on Gutenberg called YouTube Wizard. You can use this block to embed YouTube content. Not just a playlist or channel, you can also embed a single video, live stream, or premiere video. YouTube Embed Plus allows you to style up the embedded playlist or channel to turn into a gallery style. Some key features offered by YouTube Embed Plus include:
- Autoplay
- Modest branding
- Fullscren button
- Progress bar
- Simultaneous playback control
YouTube Embed Plus is released as a freemium plugin. The pro version of the plugin offers more advanced features like caching, YouTube live chat, and automatic tagging for video SEO.
3. Essential Grid Gallery
Essential Grid Gallery is a premium plugin that you can get on CodeCanyon. It is not designed specifically to embed YouTube playlists or channels. Instead, you can also use the plugin to create an Instagram gallery, embed a Vimeo playlist, and so on. Essential Grid Gallery is especially a great option if you want to embed a YouTube playlist or channel and display the videos in a grid style. It comes with a live skin editor to make it easier for you to customize the look of your YouTube grid gallery.
4. Yottie
Yottie is a bit similar with Essential Grid Gallery. It is a paid plugin that is available on CodeCanyon and it is not designed specifically for YouTube. Instead, you can also use Yottie to embed a playlist from Dailymotion and Vimeo. Yottie is a feature-rich WordPress YouTube plugin. It offers lots of customization options to allow you to match the embedded playlist with the color scheme of your WordPress site. You can, for instance, customize the playlist header to change its color. Here are some key features offered by Yottie:
- Playlist header customizer
- Ability to customize the interface of the playlist
- Video preview (you can choose 3 different preview layouts)
- Popup
5. Youtube Video Gallery
Youtube Video Gallery is another paid plugin that is available on CodeCanyon. This plugin is developed for WPBakery. So, if you use one of those page builder plugins, Youtube Video Gallery is a great option. You can use the plugin to embed a YouTube playlist to your WPBakery page.
6. YouTube Embed
YouTube Embed is another plugin that you can use to embed a YouTube playlist. However, you need to use the pro version to be able to embed a YouTube playlist with the plugin. The free version of YouTube Embed only allows you to embed individual YouTube videos. YouTube Embed comes with features like popup view and the ability to customize the playlist appearance.
7. Envira Gallery
Envira Gallery is a popular enough gallery plugin for WordPress. Turns out, you can also use it to embed a YouTube playlist to your WordPress site although you need to install an add-on as the native features offered by Envira Gallery don’t allow you to do so. Not just YouTube, the Video add-on of Envira Gallery also allows you to create a video gallery from other sources such as Vimeo, Dailymotion, even self-hosted videos.
8. YourChannel
YourChannel is another WordPress YouTube plugin that you can use to embed either a playlist or channel to your WordPress site. It is released as a freemium plugin. The free version only allows you to embed one playlist/channel. At the time of writing (September 16, 2020), the developer of the plugin is developing a visual shortcode editor. Until then, you can use the following format to embed your YouTube playlist or channel.
[yourchannel user="your username" channel="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnOTVWVaIh3NoJsbwq4Tucg"]
Since YourChannel use shortcodes to embed YouTube content, you should be able to embed a YouTube playlist on any page builder plugin. If you want to unlock features like the ability to embed multiple channels, create a custom playlist, and enable pagination, you can upgrade to the pro version
