How to Easily Embed Videos in WordPress without sacrificing performance

There are several ways to embed videos on your WordPress site. One method is to upload videos directly to your website, but that requires a lot of server resources and significantly reduces your sites loading speed.

To embed videos the right way, involves following two steps.

1. The first step: is to use a video hosting site such as Youtube, Vimeo or JetPack video to upload your videos and then embed them in WordPress.

However, even when you upload your videos to hosting sites, and embedding them, you are still taking a considerable performance hit. This is where the second steps comes in.

 2. The second Step: Leverage a Video embed plugin to help you embed your videos.

In this article, we will go over a list of the best performing Video Embedders on the market. We have done all the homework for you, and evaluated almost every product on the market and we only present you with the very best.

Performance Test of the leading Video Embed players

 The following lists the top performing video embeds plugins for WordPress. We conducted our Performance Test, using the Humming Bird Plugin. In addition, by leveraging Virtual Machines, all our tests were conducted at the same exact time, to factor in things such as server and network performance and congestion. These steps help ensure we give you the most fair and accurate performance evaluation of the best WordPress Embed plugins

1. Presto Player

Presto Player, a WordPress Video Player , to help every website owner embed videos in WordPress without sacrificing an ounce of performance. Presto Player is very powerful yet easy to use.

It is built specifically for the block editor. It Works with all page builder such as Elementor & Beaver Builder modules.

The player gives users the ability to have Multiple video presets, it also supports Multilingual Captions, Presto player allows user users the choice of selecting Custom poster images.

The Presto Player also supports Lazy load for HTML5 Youtube and Vimeo for outstanding performance.

The video player has both a free and a premium version. Most users should be fine with just using the Free version. But Users can also unlock additional powerful features by purchasing the pro version.

A partial list of additional features of The Presto Player Plugin

  • Public and private video via Bunny.net.
  • HLS Adaptive Streaming.
  • Video analytics.
  • CSS Formatting of Video

Presto Players Performance Test Results: Based on our testing, the Presto Player received the highest test scores. This plugin was the fastest to load embedded videos.

2. WP YouTube Lyte

WP YouTube Lyte allows you to “lazy load” your video’s, by inserting responsive “Lite YouTube Embeds”. These look and feel like normal embedded YouTube videos, but only call the playing functionality of the YouTube-player only when clicked on, thereby reducing download size & improving performance. substantially The plugin can be configured to cache YouTube thumbnails locally, also improving both performance and privacy.

This plugin also has a free and premium version. The premium version is very affordable.

A partial list of additional features of WP YouTube Lyte

  • It enhances your website’s overall performance, particularly when you have a huge collection of videos on a single page.
  • Because the plugin makes no requests to YouTube’s servers, it actually contributes to GDPR compliance
  • You can use shortcodes to swiftly embed optimized YouTube videos throughout your website.
  • The plugin has been tested on all mobile devices to verify that lazy loading does not impair YouTube’s mobile performance.

WP YouTube Lyte Performance Test Results: Based on our test, the WP YouTube lyte received the second highest scores. This is a definitely a solid choice for your video embedding needs.

3. The ARVE Advanced Responsive Video Embedder

ARVE is a strong video embedder; the plugin has a “Embed Video” button to assist you in creating extremely powerful shortcodes. Additionally, it can replace WordPress’s default video file embeds. One of the excellent aspects of the ARVE plugin is that it converts videos that are already embedded in WordPress and makes them responsive videos.

ARVE is also SEO-friendly; which allows you to select the title, description, and upload date, in order to supply search engines with the schema.org data they like for improved indexing.

It also support nearly every video hosting service that accepts iframe embed codes. CSS-based responsive embedding is far superior to JavaScript-based responsive embedding.

A partial list of additional features of the ARVE Advanced Responsive Video Embedder plugin.

  • Attempts to be as subtle as feasible; sets ‘hide brand’ variables if supported; at the conclusion, disables linked videos… to encourage visitors to stay on your site rather than visiting YouTube or continuing to watch videos.
  • Autoplay with restrictions (providers that support it may silence it. Because mobile browsers do not support autoplay with audio, ARVE automatically mutes HTML5 videos that are set to autoplay).
  • Optimnal Maximum width
    video. Alignment
  • Automatic aspect ratio detection and aspect ratio creation.

ARVE Advanced Responsive Video Embedder plugin Performance Test Results: Based on our test, the ARVE plugin received a score of 92. The number is pretty solid and you should consider it for your video embeds.

4. YouTube by EmbedPlus

This plugin simplifies the ever-increasing complexity of YouTube embedding. It has both basic and complex YouTube embedded player features and will have you posting videos in seconds after installation.

The free option should suffice for the majority of users, but there is also a very affordable premium option that adds additional features. This YouTube WordPress plugin can be customized in a variety of ways, with default options that are applied automatically to your embedded YouTube video, gallery, and/or live stream.

A partial list of additional features of YouTube by EmbedPlus

  • Automate the playback of your videos
  • You can have the Controls for the player to be shown/hidden.
  • By default, enable/disable closed captioning.
  • Create a responsive video, gallery, or live stream that adapts dynamically to all screen sizes (smart phone, PC and tablet)
  • Defer important and non-critical tasks JavaScript – reduce the time it takes for your pages to load initially
  • You can also embed your video, gallery, live stream, in nearly any other page builder that supports short code widgets by creating the short code in the plugin’s wizard and then pasting it into the page builder’s short code widget or text widget.
  • Confidentiality and Consent – Improved privacy and GDPR compliance features such as YouTube’s no-cookie policy, API limits, and an unique GDPR permission message.

YouTube by Embed Plus Performance Test Results: Based on our performance testing, the YouTube Embed Plus plugin, received a score of 89. Although it is the lowest score among the 4 plugins, this plugin is still an excellent choice and loads your page with excellent performance results. To put the scores in perspective, when users embed videos in WordPress without the help of any of the video embeders plug-ins, their performance test scores top out at a rating of 57.