As each day goes by, an increasing number of brands are incorporating their Instagram feeds into their WordPress websites. This trend is driven by its dynamic ability to showcase your brand’s personality, engage your audience, and seamlessly drive traffic across different marketing channels and platforms.
But one major roadblock is choosing the right Instagram feed plugin. With so many options out there, it can be overwhelming to find one with the right features, functionality, user-friendliness, and price point for your brand’s budget.
That’s where Spotlight and Social Feed Gallery come into play. These two popular plugins have been making waves for their convenient capabilities and ease of use. In this article, we’ll dive into what each plugin has to offer so you can decide which is the perfect fit for you.
Feature comparison
Let’s take a look at some of the top features you should look for when choosing an Instagram feed plugin.
Instagram feed sources
Both Instagram feed plugins allow you to connect directly to Instagram, giving you the ability to pull content from Instagram into your website.
This means you can showcase your Instagram content from your personal account or business profile, or curate posts from a specific hashtag, such as your company’s branded hashtag or relevant industry ones.
The hashtag feeds feature incorporates user-generated content (UGC) posted by others, to showcase how your community interacts with your brand.
Spotlight
It’s worth noting that Spotlight offers a couple of additional feed source options that Social Feed Gallery doesn’t: tagged posts feeds and combined feeds.
Tagged posts feeds let you create a feed from posts your account has been tagged in, while combined feeds let you add content from multiple Instagram accounts. Displaying tagged posts showcases genuine interactions and endorsements from real users, which can build trust with potential customers.
Customization options
Spotlight
Customization is where Spotlight truly shines. It offers extensive control over the layout, design, and functionality of your Instagram feed. You can adjust font styles and colors, and add features like lightbox popups and follow buttons.
You can also filter posts based on captions, hashtags, and global filters for all your feeds, as well as moderate posts by hand — features that aren’t available on Social Feed Gallery.
Social Feed Gallery
This plugin also provides customization options, though it’s not quite as extensive as Spotlight. You can still tweak layouts and colors, display gallery or carousel sliders, and add interactive elements like lightbox popups. It offers enough flexibility to ensure your feed looks great on your site.
Keep in mind that a few basic customization options are only available on the paid version, like masonry and highlight layouts, the load more button, and feed color customization.
Responsiveness
Both Instagram feed plugins are fully responsive, meaning that the displayed feed adapts seamlessly to different screen sizes and devices. Whether visitors are viewing your website on a desktop, tablet, or smartphone, these responsive plugins ensure that your Instagram feed looks professional and functions perfectly across all platforms.
This adaptability enhances the user experience by making your feed display consistent and aesthetic at all times, which can lead to higher engagement and longer visits to your site. Responsive designs also contribute to improved search engine optimization (SEO) and better accessibility, allowing you to reach a broader audience.
Monetization features
Spotlight
If you’re looking to monetize your social presence by integrating shoppable Instagram feeds into your website, Spotlight has you covered. This feature allows you to turn the posts in your Instagram feed into clickable links that direct users to product pages on your website.
This helps to create a seamless shopping experience and minimize the friction that often causes users to abandon the purchasing process. In a nutshell, shoppable feeds make it easier to convert visitors into customers.
Here’s an example of how a shoppable feed might look on your website:
When a user clicks the image, a popup of the post displays, including a “Buy Now” button. You can link this button directly to the product page on your website for a smooth purchase.
Social Feed Gallery
Unlike Spotlight, Social Feed Gallery doesn’t support Instagram shoppable feeds. If you’re running an e-commerce store or otherwise selling products online, and this is an important feature to you, keep this in mind when choosing your ideal Instagram feed plugin.
Ease of use
Both Instagram feed plugins earn an A+ for user-friendliness. They both have a simple and intuitive setup process and minimal ongoing maintenance (if any).
Here’s how to install the free version of each plugin on your WordPress website. From your dashboard:
- Navigate to Plugins on the left side vertical menu
- Click Add New Plugin
- Search for the name of each plugin and click Install Now
- Once it’s installed, click Activate
Find the plugin in the left side menu and connect your accounts by creating an access token. Both apps take just a few clicks to authorize the connection, then you’re ready to start creating your feeds.
Spotlight
After creating a feed, customize and publish it using the five tabs highlighted below: Design, Filter, Moderate, Promote/Shop, and Embed.
Social Feed Gallery
After creating your new feed, customize and publish it using the side tabs: General, Profile, Box, Image, Image Mask, Image Popup, Button, and Load More Button.
Customer support
With both plugins, support varies depending on whether you’re using the free or paid version.
Spotlight
Free users can ask questions and look for answers via the WordPress support forum. If you’re a Premium user, you can speak directly with the support team by sending a message through the contact form on the Spotlight website.
Any user can visit Spotlight’s comprehensive Documentation, which offers more than 150 articles covering various support topics in the following categories: Getting Started, Features, Troubleshooting, Billing & Licensing, Developers, and FAQs.
Social Feed Gallery
Free users can research and submit support questions through the WordPress support forum. You can also access Social Feed Gallery’s Documentation on the QuadLayers website, which is the plugin’s parent company.
This documentation is 13 pages, covering topics like Installation, Account, Shortcode, API, FAQs, and more. Premium users receive personalized support through the company’s website.
Pricing
Each Instagram feed plugin offers free and premium versions with pricing tiers. Note that Spotlight’s pricing is based on features, while Social Feed Gallery’s pricing is based on how many websites you want to use it on.
Spotlight
The free version includes features like:
- Unlimited accounts
- Access to pre-designed templates (or make your own)
- 20+ design customization options
- Popup lightbox
- Customized header and buttons
Here’s a breakdown of the paid subscription tiers:
- Essentials ($59/year). Unlimited feeds and accounts, full customization and control of feed display, full design features including layouts, display of multiple engagement metrics, custom CSS, and more.
- PRO ($99/year). Everything from Essentials, plus features like the ability to display your tagged posts and hashtag posts, moderation and filtering features, promotion features, integrations, and some developer features.
- Agency ($199/year, or the Agency Lifetime one-time payment of $697). Everything from PRO, plus full development and integration features, and robust analytics for posts, accounts, clicks, shoppable feeds, and Link in Bio.
Social Feed Gallery
The free version includes fewer features than Spotlight’s free version. For example, users aren’t able to customize feed colors, or use masonry or highlight layouts. However, users will be able to pull in account or hashtag feeds and use basic customization.
Here are the paid subscription tiers:
- Personal ($49 annual or $99 lifetime). One site activation. Features include automatic updates, personalized support, masonry and highlight layouts, a load more button, and feed color customization.
- Agency ($99 annual or $199 lifetime). Five site activations, and includes the same features as Personal.
- Developer ($149 annual or $299 lifetime). Unlimited site activations, and includes the features as Personal and Agency.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, both plugins allow for a customized Instagram feed embedded on your website. The true difference lies in the level of customization and features you’ll have access to. Spotlight offers significantly more than Social Feed Gallery, giving you a greater ability to craft, curate, and manage your feeds. If this is important to you, Spotlight is the way to go.
It’s also important to keep in mind that Spotlight’s pricing is based on features, while Social Feed Gallery’s is based on the number of websites you connect. Also, Spotlight’s pricing is annual, while Social Feed Gallery offers lifetime subscriptions. These are priced at double the cost of the annual tiers, which could be well worth the expense if you plan to use the plugin for at least 3 years.
Have you had any noteworthy experiences with an Instagram feed plugin? Let us know in the comments.
