Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed – Easy Social Feeds Plugin vs Timeline Express

As the most powerful and easiest to use Instagram plugin for WordPress, Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed helps you create, customize and embed Instagram feeds on your website in just a few clicks! Absolutely no coding needed. Designed for both WordPress beginners and advanced users, you can use Social Photo Feed to seamlessly integrate your Instagram widgets and keep your site effortlessly updated. Explore the Pro Version | See Pro in Action Over 1 million users worldwide trust Social Photo Feed to easily showcase Instagram content on their websites. Embed Your Instagram Feed in 3 Steps Smash Balloon Instagram Feed makes it a breeze to set up your feeds on your site: Create your feed and choose an Instagram widget source Customize your feed in a few clicks Add your Instagram feed to your site Check Out the Pro Version | Try the Pro Demo Free Features NEW! Supports local WebP image format for faster loading times oEmbed Support Automatically powers your Instagram oEmbeds Setting Up is Simple: Get started in seconds, no hassle, no fuss Showcase Multiple Accounts: Display photos from various Instagram accounts in one unified feed or separate them into individual feeds Multiple Feeds Anywhere: Add as many feeds as you want on the same page or spread them across different pages on your site Responsive & Mobile-Ready: Your feeds will look stunning on any screen size, on any device and in any container width Fully Customizable Feeds: Adjust the width, height, number of photos, number of columns, image size, background color, image spacing and more Visual Customizer: Customize your feed layout, color scheme, header style, post settings, lightbox, and much more – in just a few clicks Photo Display Options: Choose to display thumbnail, medium, or full-size photos directly from your feed Beautiful Feed Header: Add a striking header to top off your feed beautifully “Follow on Instagram” Button: Increase followers by adding a “follow on Instagram” button at the bottom of your feed Flexible Photo Order: Display your Instagram photos in chronological order or mix it up with a random arrangement Infinite Scroll: Keep your visitors engaged by loading more of your Instagram photos with a handy “Load More” button Built-in Block: Easily add your feed to posts and pages with our convenient block for the block editor Instagram Widget: Embed on your site’s widget-ready areas such as sidebar and footer in seconds GDPR Compliant: Automatically integrates with many of the popular GDPR cookie consent plugins and includes a 1-click easy GDPR setting Designed for All Users: Perfect for beginners and advanced users alike Advanced Customization: Add your own custom CSS and JavaScript for advanced customizations Page Builder Compatible: Fully compatible with Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder and other popular page builders Get More with Instagram Feed Pro Want to truly maximize your Instagram content and make it work harder for your brand? While Smash Balloon’s Social Photo Feed offers a free way to get started, our Pro version offers advanced features to help you get complete control over the way you show your Instagram photos and videos to your website visitors. The Pro version, known as Instagram Feed Pro, allows you to: Display hashtag feeds – Curate dynamic content around specific Instagram hashtags Check Out Instagram Hashtag Feed Demo Show stunning lightboxes – View photos, Instagram reels and videos in a popup lightbox directly on your site Add interactive elements – Display captions and show the number of likes and comments for each post Embed Instagram carousel – Showcase eye-catching carousels from your posts See Instagram Carousel Feed Demo Choose from multiple layout options – Use “Masonry” or “Highlight” layouts View “Highlight” Layout in Action Use advanced feed moderation – Hide or show specific posts in just a few clicks Filter Instagram posts – Display Instagram content based on hashtags, keywords or specific user posts Create shoppable feeds – Add customized links to each post, like link in bio, so you can direct your site visitors to the page you’d like Use professionally-designed themes – No need to start from scratch! Design beautiful feeds in minutes with pre-made feed themes to instantly create beautiful and unique feeds Plus, enjoy these Pro benefits: Priority Support: Get quick and dedicated help from our support team Regular Updates: Benefit from continuous plugin improvements and new features Check Out the Pro Version | Try the Pro Demo Why Over 1 Million Users Love Smash Balloon Trusted by over 1 million websites, Smash Balloon is the leading solution for seamlessly integrating Instagram feeds onto your site. Our 4.9/5 star average rating from 4,000+ glowing reviews speaks for itself. What Our Users Are Saying “Awesome plugin and support – Awesome plugin that just works! Contacted support this week and they’ve quickly given a custom solution for a specific query I had! Very happy customer!” – @tomteaweb “The best Instagram feed plugin – Whenever I need to display the Instagram feed in a WordPress site, I choose this plugin. It is not only easy to set up, but even in the free version you have enough features to have a nice feed. Do not spend more time looking for another Instagram feed plugin: This is the best!” – @yordansoares “Simple and concise – Excellent plugin. Simple and non-bloated. I had a couple small issues with the plugin when I first started using it, but a quick comment on the support forums got a new version pushed out the next day with the fix. Awesome support!” – @joshjones “Great plugin, greater support! – I’ve definitely noticed an increase in followers on Instagram since I added this plugin to my sidebar. Thanks for the help in making some adjustments…looks and works great!” – @bnotp Fast, Professional and Helpful Support At Smash Balloon, we’re dedicated to providing the most customizable, robust, and well-supported Instagram plugin available. Have a question, need help with a feature, or want to request a new feature? Our dedicated support team is just a quick message away, ready to provide top-notch assistance for both free and premium versions: Documentation Free Support – Please open a ticket in the Support forum Premium Support – Premium users can reach out to us via this Contact Support form You can instantly unlock priority support when you upgrade to Instagram Feed Pro now. 7 Reasons Why You Need Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed Boost Social Engagement – Increase engagement between you and your Instagram followers Save Time – Automatically display your Instagram photos on your website Display Your Content Your Way – Customize your feeds to blend seamlessly with your site Keep Your Site Looking Fresh – Automatically push new Instagram content to your site Super Simple Setup – Get started in 30 seconds with no Developer account needed Powers Instagram oEmbeds – Maintain working Instagram embeds across your site Professional Feed Themes – Use ready-made themes for quick, beautiful displays What Can It Do? Display Instagram photos from any account you own Completely responsive and mobile ready Display multiple feeds on the same page Display posts from multiple Instagram User IDs Built-in customization options Infinite scroll with ‘Load More’ button Plus more features added regularly! Completely Customizable Feeds Set number of photos to display Choose number of columns and photo sizes Show/hide feed elements (header, buttons) Control width, height and background color Set spacing between photos Display photos in chronological or random order Customize button text and colors Add custom CSS or JavaScript Style multiple feeds differently Plus more options added regularly! Check Out the Pro Version | Try the Pro Demo What’s Next If you like our WordPress Instagram plugin, then consider checking out our other projects: OptinMonster – Get more email subscribers with the most popular conversion optimization plugin for WordPress. WPForms – #1 drag & drop online form builder for WordPress (trusted by 5 million sites). AIOSEO – The original WordPress SEO plugin to help you rank higher in search results (trusted by over 3 million sites). MonsterInsights – See the stats that matter and grow your business with confidence. Best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. SeedProd – Create beautiful landing pages with our powerful drag & drop landing page builder. WP Mail SMTP – Improve email deliverability for your contact form with the most popular SMTP plugin for WordPress. WPCode – must have WordPress code snippet management plugin to help you future-proof website customization (trusted by 1.5 million sites). Duplicator – popular WordPress backup and migration plugin used by over 1 million websites. WP Simple Pay – #1 Stripe payments plugin for WordPress. Start accepting one-time or recurring payments without a shopping cart. 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All data retrieved from the Meta API is used solely for the purpose of displaying your feed on your WordPress site. =External Connections= This plugin connects to three external sites: Smashballoon.com: Used for connecting and authenticating your sources. Occasionally, it sends dynamic notices to users. These notices can include information about major API changes, critical updates, and marketing messages. Instagram.com and Facebook.com: Used to fetch posts so your visitors can view them directly on your site without needing to leave. =Data Usage= All data retrieved from the Meta API is used solely for displaying your Instagram feed on your WordPress site. No personal data is collected, stored, or shared beyond this purpose.

Timeline Express is the best WordPress timeline plugin, which allows you to create a beautiful animated vertical timeline on your site. Populate your site with announcements, set the date and Timeline Express will load the latest and greatest announcements in proper chronological order. Use the included shortcode ([timeline-express]) to place Timeline Express timeline anywhere on your site. If you’re looking for power, flexibility and top tier support – look no further. View the Timeline Express Demo Timeline Express Features Easy to use shortcode to place the timeline anywhere on your site ( [timeline-express] ) Responsive timelines, that look great on all devices. Cross browser tested, and mobile friendly. Hundreds of Font Awesome icons included. Specify a different icon for each announcement. Beautiful CSS3 animations. Specify the timeline announcement excerpt length. Hide the date of the announcement on the timeline. Hide the ‘read more’ link for each announcement on the timeline. Specify a custom image to display for each announcement on the timeline. Specify ‘Ascending’ vs ‘Descending’ display order for announcements on the timeline. Powerful extensions (both free and paid). Localized date formatting, for international users. i18n ready – Translated for international users. Pro Features Setup multiple timelines and assign announcements to any, or all, of the timelines. Tighter layout, less distance between each announcement on the timeline. Create and assign categories to your announcements. Timeline sorting features. Sort timelines by categories, timeline or a combination of the two. Priority support, code snippets provided when needed etc. Full Feature List Timeline Express has been successfully used on a number small and large scale sites. Our users have created a number of amazing things with our plugin. Timeline Express has been used to create: Company History Timeline Personal Achievement Timeline Product Announcement Timeline (Roadmap/Release Cycles) Event Timeline Police/Fire History Twitter Feed Timeline Post/Page/Custom Post Timeline Customer History Timeline The small list above demonstrates the flexibility and power behind Timeline Express. Check out our documentation for some helpful code snippets, Timeline Express Add-Ons We have built out some powerful add-ons that extend Timeline Express beyond it’s core capabilities. Many of the add-ons have been user requested features, which we’ve spun off into add-ons. If your looking for some advanced feature that you don’t see in the base plugin, checkout a list of our add-ons. Timeline Express – HTML Excerpts Timeline Express – No Icons Timeline Express – White Label Branding Timeline Express – Single Column Timeline Timeline Express – Timeline Post Types Timeline Express – Historical Dates Timeline Express – AJAX Limits Timeline Express – Twitter Feed Timeline Express – Toolbox View All Add-Ons Timeline Express Translations Timeline Express comes ready for translation! With all of the proper i18n functions in place, 100% of our plugin is ready for translation. If you’re multi-lingual, and interested in translating the plugin into one of the languages not yet available, we’re willing to pass a long Single Site license of Timeline Express Pro, which is good for one full year. We’re huge fans of the open source community, and believe that this plugin should be available to everyone, in their native language. If this is something you would be interested in, please get in touch with us on our Contact Page. The Timeline Express polyglot project can be found here. View the Timeline Express Demo Looking for additional documentation? Check out the knowledge base. Multi-lingual Sites & Timeline Express Timeline Express has been thoroughly tested with some of the top rated, and widely used translation plugins. Two multi-lingual plugins which we are fully, 100% compatible with are WPML and Polylang. Timeline Express may be compatible with other multi-lingual plugins, we just haven’t thoroughly tested it with otheres. If you find it’s compatible with other plugins, please get in touch and let us know and we can add it to this list. This plugin was originally inspired by the great folks at CodyHouse.io. Have an idea for a feature you want to see added to Timeline Express? We love hearing about new ideas! You can get in contact with us through the contact form on our website, WP Timeline Express. Developer Documentation Hooks + Filters Use Custom Images Instead of Font Awesome Icons (New v1.1.6.7) Users can now use the custom announcement image in place of the font awesome icons by using the following filter. Huge thanks to Pete Nelson for the pull request and making this possible and available for everyone. Filter – timeline-express-custom-icon-html Usage Example: https://gist.github.com/EvanHerman/6bbc8de82f34b4cb3c5c Use Alternate Image Size For Announcements (New v1.1.5.5) By default Timeline Express generates a custom image size to use within the timeline. If you would like to use another image size, you can use the following filter. Example: function change_timeline_express_announcement_image_size( $image_size ) { $image_size = 'full'; return $image_size; } add_filter( 'timeline-express-announcement-img-size' , 'change_timeline_express_announcement_image_size' ); Define your own custom fields to use in Announcement posts (New v1.1.5) Users can now add custom fields to Timeline Express announcement posts. This allows for greater control over the announcements and the front end display. Using this hook in conjunction with a custom single announcement template will give you the greatest control. Example: function add_custom_timeline_express_field( $custom_fields ) { $custom_fields = array( array( 'name' => __( 'Example Text Field', 'timeline-express' ), 'desc' => __( 'this is an example user defined text field.', 'timeline-express' ), 'id' => 'announcement_user_defined_text', 'type' => 'text_medium', ), array( 'name' => __( 'Example WYSIWYG', 'timeline-express' ), 'desc' => __( 'this is an example wysiwyg field.', 'timeline-express' ), 'id' => 'announcement_user_defined_wysiwyg', 'type' => 'wysiwyg', ), array( 'name' => __( 'Example Email Field', 'timeline-express' ), 'desc' => __( 'this is an example user defined email field.', 'timeline-express' ), 'id' => 'announcement_user_defined_money', 'type' => 'text_email', ) ); return $custom_fields; } add_filter( 'timeline_express_custom_fields' , 'add_custom_timeline_express_field' ); This example would add 3 new fields below the ‘Announcement Image’ field on the announcement post. The first field is a simple text field. The second field is an example WYSIWYG, and the third is an email field. Note: You can add as many fields as you would like, and display them on the front end using the get_post_meta() function. Customize the ‘announcement’ slug (New v1.1.4) Users can now define their own slug for announcement posts using the provided filter 'timeline-express-slug'. This alters the URL structure of the announcement, possibly for SEO purposes. You would enter the following code into your active themes functions.php file. After you enter the code into the functions.php file, you’ll want to refresh your permalinks. You can do so by going to ‘Settings > Permalinks’ and simply clicking save. That will prevent the 404 page you may see upon altering the slug. Example: // alter '/announcement/' to be '/event/' function timeline_express_change_announcement_slug( $slug ) { $slug = 'event'; return $slug; } add_filter('timeline-express-slug', 'timeline_express_change_announcement_slug' ); This example would change the default /announcement/ slug, to /event/. Alter the ‘Read More’ button text (New v1.1.3.1) Users can now alter the ‘Read More’ button text using the provided gettext filter and the ‘timeline-express’ text domain. Example: // alter 'Read more' to say 'View Announcement' function timeline_express_change_readmore_text( $translated_text, $untranslated_text, $domain ) { switch( $untranslated_text ) { case 'Read more': $translated_text = __( 'View Announcement','timeline-express' ); break; } return $translated_text; } add_filter('gettext', 'timeline_express_change_readmore_text', 20, 3); This example would alter ‘Read more’ to say ‘View Announcement’. Add custom classes to the ‘Read More’ button (New v1.1.3.1) Users can now add custom classes to the ‘Read More’ announcement button. This allows for greater control in fitting the Timeline into your currently active theme. Parameters : $button_classes = default button classes assigned to the ‘Read More’ button Example: // add a custom class to the Timeline Express readmore link function timeline_express_custom_readmore_class( $button_classes ) { return $button_classes . 'custom-class-name'; } add_filter( 'timeline-express-read-more-class' , 'timeline_express_custom_readmore_class' ); This example would print the following ‘Read More’ button HTML onto the page : Read more Setup a custom date format for front end display (New v1.0.9) New in version 1.0.9 is the localization of dates on the front end. The date format is now controlled by your date settings inside of ‘General > Settings’. If, for one reason or another, you’d like to specify a different date format than provided by WordPress core you can use the provided filter timeline_express_custom_date_format. The one parameter you need to pass into your function is $date_format, which is (as it sounds) the format of the date. Some formatting examples: m.d.Y – 11.19.2014 d-m-y – 11-19-14 d M y – 19 Nov 2014 D j/n/Y – Wed 11/19/2014 l jS \of\ F – Wednesday 19th of November Example: function custom_te_date_format( $date_format ) { $date_format = "M d , Y"; // will print the date as Nov 19 , 2014 return $date_format; } add_filter( 'timeline_express_custom_date_format' , 'custom_te_date_format' , 10 ); d – Numeric representation of a day, with leading zeros 01 through 31. m – Numeric representation of a month, with leading zeros 01 through 12. y – Numeric representation of a year, two digits. D – Textual representation of a day, three letters Mon through Sun. j – Numeric representation of a day, without leading zeros 1 through 31. n – Numeric representation of a month, without leading zeros 1 through 12. Y – Numeric representation of a year, four digits. S – English ordinal suffix for the day of the month. Consist of 2 characters st, nd, rd or th. F – Textual representation of a month, January through December. M – Textual representation of a month, three letters Jan through Dec. view more date formatting parameters Load Your Own Single Announcement Template File (New v1.0.8) By default all single announcements will try and load a single.php template file. If that can’t be found, we’ve done our best to implement a template for you. If your unhappy with the template file we’ve provided you have two options. Your first option is to copy over the single-announcement-template directory contained within the plugin into your active themes root. This will trigger the plugin to load that file instead. You can then customize this file to your hearts content without fear of losing any of your changes in the next update. Your next option is to use our new filter for loading your own custom template file. If for whatever reason you’ve designed or developed your own single.php file which you would rather use, or you just want to use your themes page.php template instead, you can use the provided filter to change the loaded template. Here is an example ( you want to drop this code into your active theme’s functions.php file ) : Example: // By default Timeline Express uses single.php for announcements // you can load page.php instead // just change page.php to whatever your template file is named // keep in mind, this is looking in your active themes root for the template function custom_timeline_express_template_file( $template_file ) { $template_file = 'page.php'; return $template_file; } add_filter( 'timeline_express_custom_template' , 'custom_timeline_express_template_file' , 10 ); Specify Font Awesome Version (New 1.1.7.8) Users can now specify which version of font awesome to load from the font awesome CDN. Alternatively, if the font awesome version is not found – the bundled fall back (version 4.6.1) will be used. Example: // use a different version of Font Awesome function timeline_express_alter_font_awesome_version( $version ) { $version = '4.4.0'; return $version; } add_filter( 'timeline_express_font_awesome_version', 'timeline_express_alter_font_awesome_version' ); The above example will load font awesome version 4.4.0 instead of the current stable version from the font awesome CDN.