Stream Non-stop: 11 Powerful WordPress Video Player Plugins

Videos are everywhere! If you’re running a WordPress site, the right video player plugin is a must to keep your audience hooked. 

Sure, embedding a video works, but why settle for basic when you can level up with a plugin? 

In this post, we’ve rounded up the best WordPress video player plugins for 2024.

These tools will make your videos shine and boost your site’s performance. Ready to enhance your video game and engage your audience? Let’s jump in!

Why Use a WordPress Video Player Plugin When You Can Simply Embed a Video?

Before we show you the video plugins, let’s first expand on what we said in the introduction.

Why do you need a video player plugin when you can just embed one straight from YouTube or elsewhere?

• Embedded video is boring – You can embed a YouTube video on your page and call it a day, but everyone does that.
• Customizable video player – Stand out from the crowd with a fully customizable player. Bring it on brand or make it unique.
• Higher engagement – Create the right first impression with muted autoplay, sticky video and adjustable playback.
• Supports multiple video hosts – A WordPress video player can support self-hosted video, Amazon S3, Google Drive, Dropbox or a dedicated video host.
• Improved performance – Smooth video playback and optimized video player for the best user experience.
• Video for marketing – Add email opt-ins, calls to action and other marketing features with the right video player.
• Extra features – Could you use playlists, chapters, analytics, an audio player, lockable videos, dynamic or customer video URLs or other features?

There are lots of other benefits to using a WordPress video player, but this should be enough for now!

Here’s an example of what we mean.

This first video is embedded straight from YouTube. It’s okay, but doesn’t stand out in any particular way or look particularly professional.

Here’s a video that uses Presto Player, one of the WordPress video players we’re going to discuss shortly:

While you can see a difference in how they look on a page, the real power of using a video player plugin is in what else it can do.

We’ll discuss that more in a little while…

Video in Your Marketing Strategy

There are more reasons to use video on your website than those statistics quoted in the introduction.

Fortunately, WordPress makes it extremely easy to integrate and display videos on a website.

You could use video to entertain, show testimonials, product demos, infomercials or whatever you like.

With a little practice, a decent camera and an online video editor, you can create professional-looking content in no time.

There are two main ways to make video pay, use video to promote products or sell videos as products.

Video To Promote Products

Using video to market a product or service can be very effective when done right.

You can use video as part of your sales funnel to create awareness, interest, desire and to promote action.

For example, videos are great for testimonials, product demos, service walkthroughs, how-tos and post-sales.

Sell Videos As Products

There’s also a scenario where the video is the product. Think online courses, training videos, royalty free videos or short films.

Rather than using video to promote another product, you’ll charge to access the video itself as the whole product, or part of it.

What We Look For in a Video Player Plugin

You probably have a good idea of what to look for in your video player plugin already.

If it helps, here’s what we look for:

• Supports multiple video hosts – Self-hosted and hosted video support is essential. WordPress supports some hosts, a plugin should ideally support all.
• Allows extensive customization – We want the video player to sit seamlessly within a design.
• Supports chapter markers, playlists and other features – Playback features can be useful in many situations, for eLearning videos, series and more.
• Delivers an optimized video experience – Smooth playback is essential, as are simple controls and ease of use.
• Marketing options – Marketing options such as adding calls to action and email opt-ins can help make videos work harder.
• Analytics and report tools – If you can analyze video performance to see what works and what doesn’t, all the better!

That list of what we look for isn’t exhaustive but it gives us a place to start when comparing video player plugins.

Top 3 Video Players

With the above criteria in mind, here are what we think are the top 3 contenders:

	Presto Player	Videopack	ARVE
Multiple hosts?	✅	❌	✅
Customization	✅	✅	✅ (Premium only)
Playback features	✅	✅	✅
Optimized video	✅	❌	✅
Marketing options	✅	✅	❌
Analytics	✅	❌	❌

Each player offers different features and benefits, so let’s look at all of them in a little more detail.

The 11 Best Video Players for WordPress

Here are what we think are the top 11 WordPress video players.

1. Presto Player – Best Video Player Plugin for WordPress

Presto Player is a feature-packed plugin that helps leverage video on WordPress websites.

Whether video is your core product or part of a marketing campaign, Presto Player has a lot to offer.

It works with all hosting solutions and comes with dedicated blocks for YouTube, Vimeo, and Bunny.net to make life even easier.

There’s support for playlists, video chapters, restricted videos, podcasts, and is fully customizable too!

You can use Presto Player with any page builder and add email opt-ins and calls to action at any point in a video. There’s also support for analytics so you can assess how your marketing performs.

Features

• Create video playlists that captivate your audience and align with your brand.
• Use overlays to present additional information.
• Add captions and chapters (ideal for course creators and coaches).
• Customizable presets help you create a preferred combination of features.
• Includes an audio player.

Pros

• Ideal for course creators, marketers, and bloggers.
• Works with your email marketing software and LMS.
• Supports playlists and video chapters for easy navigation.
• Private video setting for full control over who can and cannot view.
• Supports highly customizable playlists.

Cons

• You need to buy the full version to see detailed analytics.

Price

There are three premium plans priced from $79 per year.

Get Started with Presto Player

2. Videopack – Responsive WordPress Video Player Plugin

If your primary goal is fantastic video presentation, Videopack is the right choice.

The plugin lets you create video galleries, thumbnails for videos, offer playback in multiple resolutions and generally help videos perform better.

The premium version supports ads to help you monetize videos, ideal if video is the product.

Features

• Add a custom thumbnail for all videos.
• Customizable HTML5 player.
• Embed single videos and galleries.
• Premium option to display skippable ads.
• Create popup video galleries.

Pros

• The player automatically selects a suitable video resolution.
• You can add custom video thumbnails.
• Fully responsive video player that works on all screen sizes.
• Ad-supported option for premium videos.
• Easy to set up and use.

Cons

• You’ll need the premium addon to serve ads.
• Doesn’t work with the block editor, you’ll need to use the classic editor.

Price

The core plugin is free to use. The Videopack Ads addon costs $5.99 per year.

Get Started with Videopack

3. YouTube Embed – Simple to Use WordPress Video Plugin

As the name suggests, YouTube Embed is a solution for embedding YouTube videos.

The plugin supports both custom playlists and the playlists on your YouTube channel. It also extracts video metadata to help improve search engine ranking.

The video player plugin supports playlists, profiles, dynamic video sizing, caching, and more.

Features

• Option to allow viewers to download videos.
• Enhances website performance with lazy loading.
• Use a separate shortcode to generate video thumbnails.
• Can play 4K videos.
• Videos are automatically resized to fit your WordPress theme.

Pros

• Play videos with a high frame rate (60 FPS supported).
• Ideal for videos hosted on YouTube.
• Supports playlists and downloading for extra flexibility.
• Works with playlists and viewer profiles.
• Has SEO features.

Cons

• Playlists don’t have thumbnails.
• Uses shortcodes rather than blocks which won’t suit everybody.

Price

The plugin is free to use.

Get Started with YouTube Embed

4. Easy Video Player

Although free, this WordPress video plugin comes with most of the features you’d expect from a premium product.

It supports self-hosted or hosted video as well as HTML5, muted autoplay, looped video and more.

Videos can be fully responsive and can be embedded anywhere using shortcodes. It’s a very simple plugin to set up and use.

Features

• Shortcode control so you can embed anywhere.
• Minimal interface that doesn’t clutter page design.
• Supports self-hosted or hosted videos.
• Use classes to extend plugin functionality.
• Supports responsive playback.

Pros

• Custom player template can be fully customized.
• Full control over player size and aspect ratio.
• Supports MP4 and HTML5 video.
• Muted autoplay function.
• Supports video loops and translation.

Cons

• Limited configuration options.
• Lots of shortcodes to learn and not everyone likes them.

Price

The plugin is free to use.

Get Started with Easy Video Player

5. ELEX WordPress Embed YouTube Video Gallery

The ELEX WordPress Embed YouTube Video Gallery plugin is a seamless solution to showcase YouTube videos on WordPress websites.

It allows you to effortlessly embed YouTube videos and create engaging video galleries to entertain visitors.

The plugin supports video syncing, automatic updates, video galleries, video subscriptions and more.

Features

• Embed individual videos, playlists or channels.
• Fully customizable layouts.
• Auto-sync galleries on a set schedule or manually execute for up-to-date content.
• Add an intro video to the gallery for a captivating introduction.
• WooCommerce integration for product videos.

Pros

• Automatic sync options to keep galleries up to date with YouTube content.
• Responsive gallery designs provide a uniform viewing experience.
• Powerful shortcodes for easy embedding and display.
• The playlist function.
• There’s a free version.

Cons

• Beginners may require some time to explore and fully utilize its capabilities.
• Premium is expensive compared to other video player plugins in this list.

Price

There’s a free version with essential features. The premium version costs from $79 per year for a single site license.

6. All-in-One Video Gallery

All-in-One Video Gallery supports all popular video hosting platforms and formats. The plugin can also set up video search and utilize custom posts to further categorize video content.

It supports standard formats like MP4, WebM, OGV, HLS, MPEG-DASH, and players such as YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Rumble, Facebook and others.

There’s also a progress bar, speed control, quality switcher, keyboard shortcuts and other essential features.

Features

• Responsive HTML5 player.
• Enable (or disable) social media sharing and subtitles.
• Set up a GDPR notification for visitors.
• Set up live streams.
• Host videos from popular hosting platforms and embed them.

Pros

• You can completely customize the appearance with brand colors and logos.
• An excellent plugin for serving testimonial videos and popup ads.
• Supports multiple video formats and sources.
• WebVTT support.
• Chapter markers and playlists.

Cons

• Aimed at more experienced users.

Price

There’s a free version, with premium plans from $47.88 per year.

Get Started with All-in-One Video Gallery

7. WP Video Lightbox

WP Video Lightbox fits the bill nicely if you need a simple solution for playing videos on your website. It is a very lightweight player that doesn’t seem to affect performance.

Thanks to the lightbox-based design, the video player also sits well with the overall website design.

As the plugin uses a shortcode, you can host your videos on any popular video hosting platform and use public links to embed into pages.

Features

• Plays all content in a lightbox.
• Supports video autoplay on page load.
• Video thumbnails retrieved automatically.
• Supports animations and other media types.
• Enable (or disable) video titles.

Pros

• Customize animation playback speed.
• Lightbox opacity can be tweaked to fit the website design.
• Doesn’t slow down page performance.
• Lots of control over appearance and playback.
• Shortcodes may work for some.

Cons

• It is mainly just a lightbox-based player.
• Uses shortcodes rather than blocks.

Price

WP Video Lightbox can be downloaded for free from the official WordPress plugins page.

Get Started with WP Video Lightbox

8. Advanced Responsive Video Embedder (ARVE)

ARVE lets you embed any video hosted on any major video hosting platform.

It also has an ARVE block for page builders and a shortcode so you can use whatever method you’re most comfortable with.

The player can be customized to display videos with any aspect ratio in a customizable lightbox. Videos can also play automatically, muted or unmuted, after the page loads.

Features

• Works equally well with page builders and the WordPress editor.
• Thumbnails can be customized with hover effects.
• Shortcodes come with a long list of parameters to format the player.
• Improve website SEO with the ARVE’s support for video schema.
• Hide or show video titles.

Pros

• Works with blocks, page builders or shortcodes.
• Supports muted or unmuted autoplay.
• A great plugin for improving the overall website SEO.
• The lightbox can be configured to close automatically after the video finishes.
• Works with self-hosted and hosted videos.

Cons

• There are times when the video dimensions are not rendered correctly.
• You need to buy the full version to get the benefit of lazy video load.

Price

There’s a free version with premium plans starting at €40 per year.

Get Started with ARVE

9. Ultimate Video Player

Ultimate Video Player is a very accomplished plugin that gets a lot of things right.

It has a simple interface to embed videos and provides lots of customization options so you can tweak the design however you like.

The video player plugin also supports marketing with adsense, VAST, VMAP, non-Google ads, ads on pause and more.

Features

• Responsive player that simplifies embedding video playback.
• Detailed video metrics with support for Google Analytics.
• Embed entire playlists.
• Supports password-protected videos.
• Lots of marketing tools built-in.

Pros

• Video quality selector.
• Marketing options for promotion.
• Video protection tools including encryption.
• Supports 360 video.
• Lots of user settings including playback quality.

Cons

• The plugin appears to be aimed at more experienced WordPress users.

Price

Ultimate Video Player costs $59 per year.

Get Started with Ultimate Video Player

10. Video.js HTML5 Player

If you need a responsive player that supports any type of video, look no further than Video.js HTML Player.

It’s a lightweight plugin that works with popular video formats, including MP4, OGV, and WebM. There’s also playlist and subtitle support too.

It’s free and open source, so you can download it, customize it and do whatever you want with it.

Features

• Works with most video sources, including self-hosted.
• Upload a poster image for videos.
• Lots of styling options.
• Works with page builders and the WordPress editor.
• Combine multiple parameters to customize shortcodes.

Pros

• Supports most common video formats including HLS and DASH.
• The community has created hundreds of skins and addons.
• Tested with all current browsers.
• Fully responsive video player.
• Great documentation.

Cons

• Requires a little more work than other video player plugins.

Price

Video.js HTML5 Player is available for free.

Get Started with Video.js

11. FV Player

FV Player supports all popular video hosting platforms and self-hosted videos in MP4, WebM and OGV formats.

The plugin is very lightweight and allows you to customize the player to fit your design. It’s very flexible with lots of ways to bring it on brand.

The plugin supports marketing with pre and post-roll screens, video ads and video popup boxes.

Features

• Choose from 40+ shortcodes to define how videos appear.
• Supports playlists.
• User-configurable playback speed.
• Set up sticky or popup videos on pages.
• Supports all video CDN.

Pros

• Use HTML and CSS to customize the player to fit your design.
• Integrates with Google Analytics for detailed metrics.
• Supports intelligent ads and popups.
• Uses the open source Flowplayer 7.
• Supports video streaming.

Cons

• CDN integration is premium only.
• Some options are confusing.

Price

There’s a free version of FV Player with premium plans starting at $75 for a single site.

Get Started with FV Player

Conclusion

There are a lot of compelling reasons to use a WordPress video player plugin on your website.

They deliver more features, smoother playback, lots of user benefits and the option to secure, protect and monetize your videos.

If you’re currently just embedding YouTube videos on your website, one of these plugins could be a genuine game changer.

• Use Presto Player for the full experience, with a wealth of video features for any use.
• Use Videopack if you want to create video galleries and the ability to add advertising.
• Use ARVE for wide support and lots of formatting options.

Spend 5 minutes with Presto Player, see what it can do and we bet you’ll never go back to just embedding videos again!

Which is the best WordPress video player? Have you tried Presto Player yet? Like it? Love it? Share your thoughts below!