Instagram feed widgets compared: Social Feed, Behold, Elfsight, SnapWidget and Smash Balloon

Free plans

If you need a free feed for a small site, Social Feed by grip space has the highest monthly view limit of the hosted tools here. Elfsight’s free plan allows 200 views a month, which a site can use up quickly. Smash Balloon’s free plugin has no view limit stated, but it works only on WordPress, and the lightbox, captions and like counts are Pro features.

Entry paid plans

What to look at when you choose

1. Views a month. Hosted tools count how many times your feed is shown. Estimate your monthly page views for the pages with the feed, and choose a plan with room to spare. Check what happens when you go over: Elfsight says going over the limit temporarily deactivates your widget. Behold’s paid plans (with “surge protection”) and Social Feed by grip space pause the feed only after you go over two months in a row.
2. How quickly new posts appear. On free plans, new posts usually appear once a day. If you post often and want new posts on your site right away, look at paid plans.
3. Your platform. Smash Balloon is a WordPress plugin and does not work on other platforms. The hosted tools (Social Feed, Behold, Elfsight, SnapWidget) work on any site where you can paste code, such as WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace and Webflow.
4. The features you need. If you need hashtag feeds, hiding or reordering posts, or feeds for email, compare the higher plans of Behold, Elfsight, SnapWidget or Smash Balloon. Social Feed by grip space does not offer hashtag feeds or hiding individual posts; it focuses on showing your own account’s posts as a grid or a slider, with a lightbox and a follow button.
5. Renewal price. Some tools show a lower price for the first year. Check the renewal price as well.

Which one fits you?

1. A free feed on a small or medium site: Social Feed by grip space (3,000 views a month and up to 16 posts for free).
2. New posts right away for a low price: Social Feed by grip space Light ($8 a month, updates right away) or SnapWidget Lite ($8 a month, every 5 minutes, unlimited views, 1 widget).
3. Many feeds and advanced curation: Behold’s higher plans, which include more feeds and pinning, hiding and reordering posts on the Business plan.
4. Only WordPress, managed inside WordPress: Smash Balloon.

Sources

Pricing pages checked on October 12, 2026: Behold, Elfsight, SnapWidget, Smash Balloon (free version: WordPress.org). Social Feed by grip space: pricing.