Tag Archives: Instansive

Instagram Widgets Overview

Instagram Widgets Overview

Recently I was looking for Instagram widget for some of our sites. We wanted to display images grabbed from Instagram by hashtag and from particular account. But which one to choose? Instagram doesn't provide any widget like Facebook or Pinterest. But from the other side Instagram has very powerful API that can extract images from their database. But why bother to write something like that when You have few quiet nice plugins? Let's do short overview.

SnapWidget | Instagram Widget

http://snapwidget.com/

Personally I used it a few times. It has the basic functionality which most of the widgets have. You can extract images from Instagram by username and hashtag. They have 5 basic types of displaying images. As a grid, slideshow, map, board and scrolling slider. Each of them are customizable in some way.

Widget, as all of them, come as an iframe that You have to embed on Your website anywhere You want. "Installation" is super easy if You know HTML a little bit. But non-geek people that are using ready WordPress installation for instance could have a problems in installation.

Widget is free for all users, but there's also non-free version, with some additional bonuses. But for most of users features that comes with free version will be enough.

Instagram Widget | Intagme.com

http://www.intagme.com/

Actually it's a copy of SnapWidget, but with little less options. You can generate widget from Instagram username or hashtag. It generate an iframe. It's completely free, doesn't have any paid version.

Don't know why, but few times we get nginx errors instead of our pictures. That's the only one issue that I found with Intagme. Problem was solved quiet fast and we were able to see our pictures again. Hopefully that won't happen again:)

Instagram Widget and TOOLS | Webstagram

http://web.stagram.com/tools/

Webstagram is more advanced than other websites. I mean, they have much more tools, than simple gallery. They also have follow us button and so on. Number of options in gallery is somewhere between Intagme and SnapWidget. It generate the iframe as all widgets that You can easily post into Your website. And it's free:)

In general, gallery widget is cool add-on to Webstagram website, which is quiet integrated with Instagram.

 Slidagram | Free Instagram Slideshow Widget

http://www.slidagram.com

Very nice website, with exactly the same features as previous widgets. It's free, comes as an iframe, so it can be putted almost everywhere. Not so intuitive interface thought, but still, it offers the same functions as previous one.

Instansive | Responsive Instagram Widget for Your website or blog

http://instansive.com/

Last, but not least - Instansive. Personally I think that it's the best Instagram widget available. I mean, it doesn't have that much options. Let's say that even less than Instagme. You can generate widget from username or from hashtag, like on previous one. The only type is grid, but for our purposes it was enough:)

The biggest advantage of this plugin is that it is RESPONSIVE. Previous widgets unfortunately are not responsive. There are of course number of hacks where You can hide and show certain iframe, but i think it's not the best idea. One missing thing for me was changing the number of pictures when I reach certain break-point, but I can live with that.

I wrote an email to creator of Instansive, with questions about the features and future development. Response came quiet fast and was more than satisfying. I can't tell You much about the upcoming features, but I was allowed to inform here that new types like scrolling widgets, better mobile support, multiple styling options, break point manager (may be quiet interesting thing!), Instansive as WordPress and Drupal plugins and many more.

I think it worth to check this plugin. It has also quiet good support. Questions are answered pretty fast via email.

 

Which one Instagram Widget  should I choose?

For me choice was simple. If I need slideshow or more customization options I suggest use SnapWidget. But if You don't need multiple functions and Grid type is good enough for You + You have responsive website, Instansive is obvious choice as Your Instagram Widget.

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