Embedly
The Embedly Plugin extends WordPress's auto-embed feature to give your blog more media types and style options.
Use with caution
Embedly works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. It runs on 2K+ sites, is rated 3.5/5 and was last updated 7 months ago, and scores 53/100 on our health check.
- Only tested up to WordPress 6.9 (latest is 7.1)
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Embedly stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| embed | >100 |
| image | >100 |
| oembed | #43 |
| >100 | |
| video | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 3.5 from 20 reviews
About Embedly
From the official readme · v4.9.3Description
Enhance the default WordPress embedding to get previews for any article,
including your own blog posts. You also get embeds for YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch,
Google Maps, and Embedly’s growing list of 1000+ supported
providers.
You can customize the style of the embeds, to optimize for darker WP themes,
alignment, and width. In addition, social buttons can be added around the embeds
to make it easier to share content from your blog posts.
If you have an Embedly Cards account, you can link it to the plugin with your Embedly API key. Not only does this remove branding from the cards, it also gives you access to analytics and viewer behaviors for most popular music and video player embeds (YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, SoundCloud). Find out how many people viewed your embeds for how long. To learn more about Embedly Cards please visit our website.
Using it is as simple as the default WordPress embedding. Embed media by pasting its URL in a single line when writing a post.
The plugin automatically displays an embed of the media in the WordPress post editor.
Fair Warning: This plugin generates static HTML content for your posts. After you deactivate
the plugin, that HTML will still remain behind in all posts where the plugin was used to create
embeds.
Installation
Using the Plugin Manager
-
Click Plugins in the WordPress Dashboard sidebar.
-
Click Add New.
-
Search for Embedly.
-
Click Install
-
Click Install Now
-
Click Activate Plugin
-
Create a new post and paste a URL. It will automatically turn into an embed.
-
(optional) Save your Embedly API key to link your Embedly Cards account for analytics and unbranding
Manually
-
Upload
embedlyto the/wp-content/plugins/directory -
Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
-
Go through the sign up flow as described above.
Multi-Site
-
Navigate to My Sites -> Network Admin
-
Follow Steps 1-5 in Using the Plugin Manager setup above,
Do not Network Activate -
Go to each site’s dashboard and activate Embedly in Plugins section
-
Go through the sign up flow as described above.
Changelog
Maintenance update: fixes capability check, null-safety on admin screens, HTTPS API calls, and deprecated hook. Requires WordPress 5.0+ and PHP 7.4+.
4.9.3
- Tested and confirmed compatible with WordPress 6.9.1.
- Fixed settings page capability check (manage_options instead of activate_plugins).
- Fixed potential fatal error when get_current_screen() returns null during AJAX requests.
- Moved admin stylesheet enqueue from deprecated admin_print_styles to admin_enqueue_scripts.
- Fixed API key validation call to use HTTPS.
- Updated minimum requirements: WordPress 5.0+, PHP 7.4+.
- Removed leftover WP 3.x compatibility code.
4.7.0
- Having an active app.embed.ly account is now optional to use the plugin! Users who want access to unbranded
card embeds and/or analytics can elect to input their Embedly API key in the plugin settings, but users who just want
to get started embedding no longer need to create an embedly account and activate the plugin.
4.0.9
- Improved plugin security.
4.0.6
- Embedly is not currently supporting historical analytics for embeds, but you can still see realtime views.
- Improves the implementation of javascript dependencies via the wp_enqueue_script api.
4.0
- Removed Embedly TinyMCE Button.
- Added Editor Preview URL functionality for all URLS (WP v4.0+)
- Redesigned Embedly Admin page
- All embeds will be generated as Embedly Cards
3.2
- Embedly TinyMCE dialog and dependencies managed server side.
- Refactor code to use class structure.
- Clean up deprecated SQL generation to make compliant with WP3.6 and above.
Screenshots
For developers
Is this your plugin? Show off the numbers.
Add a live badge to your site, docs or GitHub README. It updates on its own — no account needed.
Best Embedly alternatives
All embed plugins →
FAQ
Embedly: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Sep 26, 2026
Is Embedly free?
Yes. Embedly is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Embedly safe to use in 2026?
Embedly works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. It runs on 2K+ sites, is rated 3.5/5 and was last updated 7 months ago, and scores 53/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Embedly?
Embedly is active on 2K+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 206,214 times since it launched in May 2010. It was downloaded 321 times in the last 30 days.
Does Embedly work with WordPress 7.1?
Embedly is officially tested up to WordPress 6.9.9, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
What PHP version does Embedly need?
Embedly requires PHP 7.4 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.
When was Embedly last updated?
The latest version, 4.9.3, was released on February 20, 2026 (7 months ago).
Who makes Embedly?
Embedly is developed and maintained by Embedly.
What are the best alternatives to Embedly?
The most popular alternatives to Embedly are EmbedPress (100K+ installs), iframe (60K+ installs) and Advanced iFrame (40K+ installs).
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