63
Embed Plus for YouTube Gallery, Livestream and Lazy Loading with Facades
A versatile embedder that spends too much time asking for money.
DecliningPoor rating
63/100
Flexible embedding options are offset by aggressive upgrade prompts and technical bugs.
Active installs
~150,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 100k+
Rating
4.6★
571 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
-17%
Declining
718 → 600 installs/day
What to watch out for
- MINORverified rating is 3.72★
- MINORreviews unevenly distributed over time
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 · -17% in the last year
718/day a year ago→600/day today
Reviews
what people actually sayEmbed Plus for YouTube is a capable and flexible YouTube embedding plugin that works well for small projects, but is held back by key features locked behind a paid tier, inconsistent support quality, and reports of bugs causing site-wide breakage.
What people like
- +Flexible configuration with a wide range of display options×2
- +Works reliably for YouTube playlist embedding×2
- +Pro version users report prompt and effective support when issues arise
Common complaints
- −Core features such as YouTube channel embedding require the paid Pro version×2
- −Cannot bulk-replace or retroactively apply settings to existing YouTube links across a site — only works via its own shortcode
- −Free-tier support is slow or entirely unresponsive×3
- −Reported to cause broken image errors spread across the entire site after installation
- −Deprecated PHP errors (get_class() without arguments) appear under PHP 8.3
- −Notifications in the dashboard appear designed to pressure users into upgrading to Pro, raising trust concerns
- −General bugginess reported with no resolution from support
Review trustMostly organic
- 3.72★Verified rating — drops from 4.60★ once one-shot reviewers are removed
- 32%One-shot reviewers — single-review accounts (common for popular plugins, but worth noting)
Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower
2023-07-202025-01-102026-06-04
5★ reviews1–4★ reviews
All-time ratings · 571 total
Latest reviews · 90 analyzed
- 2026-05-28★★★★★Thank God – What a workflow saver and viewer experience enhancer.pumpkinhorn1-shot
- 2025-12-09★★★★★great but a big a feature is missingfff654
- 2025-11-19★★★★★Best for YouTubeSerena Zehlius
- 2025-09-08★★★★★Perfect pluginBestRanger
- 2025-05-16★★★★★Great YouTube Plugin with service reply within 24 hours.extoljasonwp1-shot
- 2025-05-15★★★★★need a pro version for youtube channelsemgraphics
- 2024-11-07★★★★★Unsure about notifications true meaningmark ball
- 2024-10-22★★★★★Goodmarcosgn
- 2024-10-19★★★★★Very useful!thiagopck
- 2024-04-23★★★★★Buggy and support is not doing anything.oliverhekmatara
Releases
recent versions from WordPress.org SVNAlternatives to Embed Plus for YouTube Gallery, Livestream and Lazy Loading with Facades
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.
527
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
591
Prior 7-day baseline
461
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
2,070
Mean release-day peak (30d)
563
Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)
-10.8%
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.
18%
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
1.62
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
72%
5★ share in analyzed sample
32%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
—
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
4.13 → 3.72★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered