If only Instagram would design an official widget for embedding grams on your site. But they don't, and that leaves us sorting through dozens of third-party apps to get the job done.

If you want to display Instagram photos from a specific user or related to a particular hashtag on your website, you'll want to do it with a widget that is both functional and beautiful. But there are so many options out there — it's impossible to even know where to start.

So, let's compare three of the most popular hashtag widgets for Instagram so you can choose the one that best meets your needs.

SnapWidget

SnapWidget is the most popular Instagram widget, with more than 100,000 websites using it daily. It offers both free and paid versions — the "Pro Widget" plan offers additional functionality for $6.99/month.

snapwidget

The free version allows you to pull photos from an Instagram user or hashtag and display them in one of four formats: grid, board, scrolling, slideshow, or map. You can customize the thumbnail size, specify a layout (e.g. 3x3, 4x4, etc.), and add a border.

You can also customize the background color, photo padding, hover effect, and whether sharing buttons show up alongside your photos. There is even an option to make the widget responsive for mobile-optimized styling. The free version is ad-supported, so each thumbnail links to a page on SnapWidget.com where the photo is displayed with their ads.

The premium version offers all of the above, plus some extra features. Paid users can create up to 10 widgets, filter by username and hashtag, link to Instagram or any other page, and add custom CSS. It also offers photo popup functionality, pagination controls, Google Analytics integration, and more advanced customization options.

Pros

  • Easy and powerful display options
  • Responsive
  • Five display options
  • Slideshow support
  • Facebook support
  • Lots of customization available for premium users

Cons

  • Requires monthly subscription ($6.99) for full functionality
  • In the free version, photos link to an ad-filled page on SnapWidget.com

Live Preview of SnapWidget

Instansive

Instansive is another popular widget generator for Instagram. It offers both free and paid versions — the free version only refreshes the photos once per day, while the premium version ($5 one-time payment) is always up to date. That's the only difference between the two versions, though; the free version offers all other features.

instansive

Instansive is a great solution, but it doesn't offer quite as many customization options as SnapWidget. With Instansive, you can pull photos from a user or a hashtag and display them in one of three formats: gird, slideshow, or columns (Pinterest style). You can then customize the number of columns and rows and add a hover effect if you want. You can also choose to show or hide the image captions. Instansive also offers native support for both WordPress and Drupal.

Pros

  • Mostly full-featured free version
  • Premium version is only a $5 one-time fee
  • Responsive
  • Slideshow support
  • Photos link directly to Instagram
  • No ads
  • Native WordPress and Drupal support

Cons

  • Free version only refreshes once per day
  • Fewer customization options
  • Only three display formats

Intagme

Intagme, our final contender, is very simple — but it gets the job done. It allows you to pull photos from a user or a hashtag and display them in one of two formats: grid or slideshow.

intagme

You can customize the image padding, thumbnail size, and layout. You can then add photo borders and/or a background color and choose whether to show sharing buttons with your photos. Each of the thumbnails links to a page on Intagme.com where the photo is displayed — but it's worth noting that there are no overly obtrusive ads at the time of this writing.

Pros

  • 100% free
  • Slideshow support

Cons

  • Not responsive
  • Only two display formats
  • Few customization options
  • Photos link to a page on Intagme.com

Live Preview of Intagme

Which Widget Should I Choose?

It all comes down to your individual situation and what you're looking for. For most people, Instansive would probably be the best option because its free version isn't heavily limited, and its premium version only costs $5 (one-time).

If you feel that you really need more control over the appearance and behavior of your widget, you may want to consider SnapWidget's $6.99/month subscription. Intagme doesn't offer any compelling features that outweigh the other two options, but it is a perfectly viable free option.

Have you used any of these Instagram widgets? Which one do you prefer? Are there any others we should know about? Share your thoughts in the comments below!