Social Wall 
Feed Analytics 
A table of every Feeds for YouTube setting and whether it is available in the free or Pro version of the plugin.
Would you like to know which YouTube Feed features come with the Free version and with each paid license level?
This guide lists the feed types and features available at each license level, and the shortcode options for feeds created before version 2.0.
Before you get started, make sure YouTube Feed is installed and activated on your WordPress site.
Here is what we will cover:
- How the License Levels Work
- Choosing a Feed Type
- Comparing Features
- Using Shortcode Options
- Using the Legacy Custom Search
- Frequently Asked Questions
How the License Levels Work
YouTube Feed licenses come in 4 levels. Each level includes everything in the level before it. The Elite level includes every feature.
| License level | What it adds |
|---|---|
| Free | Channel feeds, and the Grid, Gallery, and List layouts. |
| Basic | Everything in Free, plus Shorts, Playlist, and Single Videos feeds, and the Carousel and Swipe View layouts. |
| Plus | Everything in Basic, plus Search feeds, Call to Action, feed templates, and the Single Videos page. |
| Elite | Everything in Plus, plus Live Streams feeds and Filters and Moderation. |
Note: Older Personal, Business, and Developer licenses keep every feature, including Search, Live Streams, and Filters and Moderation.
Choosing a Feed Type
The feed builder lists the feed types on its Select Feed Type screen. It marks every type except Channel with a rocket icon.
| Feed type | Free | Basic | Plus | Elite |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Channel | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Shorts | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Playlist | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Single Videos | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Search | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Live Streams | No | No | No | Yes |
Shorts feeds were added in version 2.10.0. To build one, follow our guide to creating a YouTube Shorts feed with Swipe View.
Social Wall is not a YouTube Feed feed type. It combines feeds from other Smash Balloon plugins.
Favorites feeds are only available through the type attribute in the shortcode of a feed created before version 2.0.
Note: In the feed builder, every feed type asks you for a YouTube API key before you continue. A Channel feed can use a connected YouTube account instead.
Comparing Features
This table shows which features come with the Free version and which need a paid license level. Features that are not in your license appear in the builder with a lock or an upgrade message.
| Feature | Free | Basic | Plus | Elite |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grid, Gallery, and List layouts | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Load More button | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Subscribe button below the feed | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| “When does video play?” and Player Size Ratio | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Carousel and Swipe View layouts | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Subscriber count in the header | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Video information, such as the title, username, date, description, views, and likes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Information shown when hovering over a video | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Subscribe link and comments in the video player | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Call to Action | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Feed templates | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Single Videos page | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Filters and Moderation | No | No | No | Yes |
The Single Videos page is the page under YouTube Feed » Single Videos. To learn how to use it, see our guide to converting YouTube videos to a WordPress custom post type.
Using Shortcode Options
Note: Shortcode attributes only apply to feeds created before YouTube Feed version 2.0. For newer feeds, use the options in the feed customizer.
To change a legacy feed, add the attributes below to the [youtube-feed] shortcode. None of them are required.
If you leave one out, the feed uses the value from your plugin settings. The plugin ignores any attribute it does not recognize, so check the spelling.
For example, this shortcode shows 5 videos in a list.
[youtube-feed layout="list" num="5"]
Feed Source
| Attribute | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
type | The feed type. Use channel, playlist, favorites, live, single, or search. Playlist, favorites, and single need the basic license level or higher, search the plus license level or higher, and live the elite license level. | type="channel" |
channel | The YouTube channel to show. | channel="smashballoon" |
playlist | The playlist to show. | type="playlist" playlist="PLLLm1a2b3c4D6g7i8j9k_1a" |
favorites | The “favorites” playlist of a channel. | type="favorites" favorites="smashballoon" |
live | The channel whose upcoming and currently playing live streams to show. | type="live" live="UC1a2b3c4D5F6g7i8j9k" |
showpast | Include past live streams in a live stream feed. | showpast="true" |
single | A comma-separated list of video IDs. | type="single" single="ahL3sbPK1U8" |
search | The search terms for a search feed. For the legacy custom search box, see Legacy Custom Search. | type="search" search="cats" |
Layout and Size
| Attribute | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
layout | How the videos are laid out. Use grid, gallery, list, or carousel. Carousel needs the basic license level or higher. | layout="list" |
num | The number of videos in the feed. | num="5" |
height | The height of the feed container, with a unit such as px or %. | height="500px" |
background | The background color of the feed. | background="#f00" |
itemspacing | The space around the videos, with a unit such as px or %. | itemspacing="5px" |
class | Adds your own CSS class to the feed, so you can style it with custom CSS. | class="myfeed" |
gridcols | The number of columns on desktop for the Grid layout. It needs layout="grid" in the same shortcode. | layout="grid" gridcols="3" |
gridcolsmobile | The number of columns on mobile for the Grid layout. It needs layout="grid" in the same shortcode. | layout="grid" gridcolsmobile="2" |
gallerycols | The number of columns on desktop for the Gallery layout. It needs layout="gallery" in the same shortcode. | layout="gallery" gallerycols="3" |
gallerycolsmobile | The number of columns on mobile for the Gallery layout. It needs layout="gallery" in the same shortcode. | layout="gallery" gallerycolsmobile="2" |
carouselcols | The number of videos on desktop for the Carousel layout. It needs layout="carousel" in the same shortcode. | layout="carousel" carouselcols="3" |
carouselcolsmobile | The number of videos on mobile for the Carousel layout. It needs layout="carousel" in the same shortcode. | layout="carousel" carouselcolsmobile="2" |
carouselarrows | Show arrows on the sides of the carousel. | carouselarrows="false" |
carouselpag | Show dots below the carousel. | carouselpag="false" |
carouselautoplay | Move to the next slide automatically. | carouselautoplay="true" |
Video Information
| Attribute | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
infoposition | Where the video information appears. Use below, side, or none. | infoposition="side" |
include | A comma-separated list of the information to show. The values are icon, title, user, views, date, stats (likes and comments), description, and countdown. | include="title, description, date" |
hoverinclude | A comma-separated list of the information to show when hovering over a video thumbnail. It uses the same values as include. | hoverinclude="title, stats, date" |
descriptionlength | The maximum number of characters in the description. | descriptionlength="300" |
descriptiontextsize | The size of the description text. The other text is sized relative to it. | descriptiontextsize="13px" |
Video Player and Call to Action
| Attribute | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
playvideo | When the video plays. Use onclick (play when clicked) or automatically. | playvideo="onclick" |
playerratio | The height of the player relative to its width. | playerratio="9:16" |
cta | What viewers see when a video pauses or ends. Use related (related videos), link (custom link), or default (the YouTube default). Needs the plus license level or higher. | cta="link" |
linkurl | The address the call to action button opens. Needs the plus license level or higher. | linkurl="https://my-site.com/buy-now/" |
linkopentype | Whether the link opens in the same window (same) or a new one (newwindow). | linkopentype="newwindow" |
linktext | The text on the call to action button. | linktext="Buy Now" |
linkcolor | The background color of the call to action button. | linkcolor="#0f0" |
linktextcolor | The text color of the call to action button. | linktextcolor="#00f" |
Header and Buttons
| Attribute | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
showheader | Show the feed header. | showheader="false" |
showdescription | Show the channel description in the header. | showdescription="false" |
showsubscribers | Show the subscriber count in the header. | showsubscribers="false" |
subscriberstext | The text after the subscriber count. | subscriberstext="followers" |
showbutton | Show the Load More button. | showbutton="false" |
buttoncolor | The background color of the Load More button. | buttoncolor="#0f0" |
buttontextcolor | The text color of the Load More button. | buttontextcolor="#00f" |
buttontext | The text on the Load More button. | buttontext="More Videos" |
showsubscribe | Show the Subscribe button below the feed. | showsubscribe="false" |
subscribecolor | The background color of the Subscribe button. | subscribecolor="#0f0" |
subscribetextcolor | The text color of the Subscribe button. | subscribetextcolor="#00f" |
subscribetext | The text on the Subscribe button. | subscribetext="Subscribe to My Channel" |
Moderation
| Attribute | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
includewords | Only show videos with this text or hashtag in the title or description. Needs the elite license level. | includewords="#cat, dog, #nice" |
excludewords | Hide videos with this text or hashtag in the title or description. Needs the elite license level. | excludewords="rabbit, #dog, purple" |
Text Translations
| Attribute | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
viewstext | The text after the number of views. | viewstext="times viewed" |
agotext | The text after relative dates in the past. | agotext="prior" |
beforedatetext | The text before live stream dates. | beforedatetext="Watch Live" |
beforestreamtimetext | The text before relative live stream times. | beforestreamtimetext="Starting in" |
minutetext | The word for “minute”. | minutetext="minuto" |
minutestext | The word for “minutes”. | minutestext="minutos" |
hourstext | The word for “hours”. | hourstext="horas" |
watchnowtext | The text shown while a live stream is playing. | watchnowtext="Now Playing" |
thousandstext | The text after statistics over one thousand. | thousandstext=" thousand" |
millionstext | The text after statistics over one million. | millionstext=" million" |
Using the Legacy Custom Search
Legacy feeds can search YouTube with your own query. To do this, add usecustomsearch="true" to a search feed. Then put the query in the customsearch attribute.
The plugin adds your text to the end of its search request without changing it. The query must start with &q=, followed by your search terms and any other YouTube search parameters.
Here is an example.
[youtube-feed type="search" usecustomsearch="true" customsearch="&q=gooseberry falls&order=viewCount"]
Note: Feeds made in the feed builder don’t use this attribute. To search from the builder, see our guide to creating a custom search.
That’s it! You now know which feed types and features each YouTube Feed license level includes and how to change a legacy feed with shortcode options. Next, you can learn how to create a Shorts feed with Swipe View.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below, we’ve answered some of the most common questions about YouTube Feed license levels and shortcode options.
Which feed types does the Free version support?
The Free version supports Channel feeds only. Playlist, Shorts, Single Videos, Search, and Live Streams feeds need a paid license.
Which license level do I need for a Search feed?
You need the Plus license level or higher. Live Streams feeds need the Elite license level.
Do older Personal, Business, and Developer licenses include every feature?
Yes. See the How the License Levels Work section above.
Can I use shortcode attributes with feeds I made in the feed builder?
No. See the Using Shortcode Options section above.
