69
WP Video Lightbox
Desktop videos look great until they meet a mobile screen.
HealthyDeclining
69/100
It works well on desktop but fails to provide a responsive experience on mobile.
Active installs
~35,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 30k+
Rating
4.3★
67 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
-53%
Declining fast
110 → 52 installs/day
What to watch out for
- MINORdownloads down 53% vs a year ago
Downloads over time
real new installs per day · release spikes shown separately from the trend2025-04-302025-08-082025-11-162026-02-232026-06-03
organicrelease spikerelease tailorganic trend · 14d rolling median
Declining fast · -53% in the last year
110/day a year ago→52/day today
Reviews
what people actually sayWP Video Lightbox is a straightforward plugin that reliably embeds YouTube and Vimeo videos with a lightbox effect on desktop, but it has a persistent and well-documented reputation for poor mobile responsiveness that undermines its usefulness on modern sites.
What people like
- +Works reliably for embedding YouTube and Vimeo videos via shortcode on desktop×5
- +Easy to implement and does what it advertises without overcomplicating things×4
- +Flexible shortcode placement — can be used in various locations across a site×2
- +At least some users report fast and helpful support
Common complaints
- −Poor or broken mobile experience — lightbox is too small, doesn't resize, or causes infinite horizontal scrolling on mobile devices×5
- −Not responsive; considered unusable on modern, mobile-friendly sites×3
- −Dismissive developer support when mobile bugs were reported, with the developer acknowledging the plugin didn't even work on his own device
- −Causes CSS conflicts with other plugins (e.g. FAQ Accordion, Contact Form 7), distorting their layouts when activated
- −Does not work with the WordPress core YouTube block, requiring a custom block workaround
- −Opinionated default styling, including a prominent red button on video thumbnails, with limited customization options
- −JavaScript syntax error reported by at least one user
Review trustReviews look organic
- 4.44★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 4.30★
- 12%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower
Not enough review history.
All-time ratings · 67 total
Latest reviews · 67 analyzed
- 2022-10-12★★★★★Excellent!Sicut Unum
- 2022-01-07★★★★★Brilliant – Outshines othe youtube pluginsreplied
- 2021-08-13★★★★★Easy to use, works perfectdim0k
- 2020-07-11★★★★★Bad on mobile, does not support core YouTube blockjamieschmid
- 2020-04-21★★★★★Doesn't workmegosoft
- 2020-03-25★★★★★No Mobile support. i.e. Looks bad on Mobile!markpic1-shot
- 2020-03-25★★★★★Works perfectly, but conflicts with pluginsEdward Bedarev
- 2019-11-27★★★★★Easy to use!barbaradharris
- 2019-08-27★★★★★Cool Pluginwilliamharriss1-shot
- 2018-11-21★★★★★Works great – Didn't have to read a lot to figure out how!davidgordonart
Releases
recent versions from WordPress.org SVNAlternatives to WP Video Lightbox
Top Media plugins, ranked by score.For developers & the curious
the raw signals behind the grade — none of this is on the friendly summary aboveDownload signals
Baselines are computed on organic days only — release spikes and their tails are excluded, so they're not inflated by the auto-update wave.
48
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
52
Prior 7-day baseline
43
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
80
Mean release-day peak (30d)
68
Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)
-7.7%
Week-over-week organic trend
Review signals
Concentration and drive-by metrics drive the review-burst and fake-review flags. 30–40% solo reviewers is normal; we only flag the extremes.
—
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
—
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
70%
5★ share in analyzed sample
12%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
—
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
4.33 → 4.44★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered