The best WordPress plugin for videos? Supports close to everything you can imagine, still keeping it easy & simple.
It is very likely the one and only plugin you will ever need to handle video embeds on your WordPress site(s). It goes far beyond just making your videos responsive!
Features
Classic Editor
Adds “Embed Video” button to help you create very powerful [arve] shortcodes.
Takes over WordPress embeds with URLs on their own line and shortcodes.
Can take over WP’s default video file embeds.
Gutenberg
Works with Embed, YouTube, Vimeo, Shortcode … blocks.
Provides it’s own powerful ARVE Block with all the features the [arve] shortcode offers, with a nice UI and detailed settings descriptions.
Both
Magically makes videos responsive you already embedded with WordPress default features.
SEO friendly, lets you specify title, description, upload date to provide search engines with the schema.org data they like to have for better indexing. Pro can autofill this for you.
No ‘lock in’ if you do not use the ARVE Gutenberg Block or [arve] shortcodes.
Responsive embeds with CSS, much better than with JavaScript.
Tries to be as unobtrusive as possible, sets ‘hide brand’ variables if supported, disables related videos from other channels at the end … to help keep people on your site rather then going to YouTube or keep watching videos.
Limited Autoplay (for providers that support it, they may mute it. Mobile browsers prevent autoplay with audio so ARVE will automatically mute HTML5 videos set to autoplay)
Custom URL parameters to use all options providers offer.
Optional maximal width.
Video alignment.
Detailed description of options in-place.
Automatic detected and custom aspect ratio.
Supported Providers
All providers with iframe embed codes
Alugha, Archive.org, Banned.video, Bitchute, Brightcove, Brighteon, cantcensortruth.com, Comedy Central, Dailymotion, Dailymotion Playlist, DTube, Facebook, Gab TV, Google Drive, mp4 or webm video files, ARVE general iframe embed, IGN, IMDB, Kickstarter, kla.tv, Livestream.com, Mail.ru, Metacafe, myspace, ooyala, v.qq.com, Rumble.com, RuTube.ru, Snotr, TED Talks, TikTok, Twitch, Viddler, Vimeo, VK, Wistia, XTube, Yahoo, Youku, YouTube, YouTube Playlist
Reviews
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Great plugin, great support
I’ve been using this plugin (free version and pro add-on) for a few years now. It works very well for my purposes (mainly lazyload and lightbox functionality). Recently I had a support issue with the new version which required some intervention – it was a conflict with my theme. Nico, the developer, went above and beyond to get a fix promptly sorted out for me. Thank you Nico.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The best there is – I have tried many…
Have downloaded and paid for at least 4 other video players that use lightbox. Each one has major flaws. This products works perfectly. If you use the OnSite Editor, then just copy the short code and it works great.
For speed, the product uses the thumbnails from the server. So many of the other products do NOT do this and it slows the page rendering. This product should appear first on the WordPress search. Spent 3 days of my life wasted on other products, only to delete each one. review by jodani
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Finally something that works
So I have a responsive theme but on pages with you tube videos it wasn’t making the you tube videos fit in the mobile screen. I have spent the last hour trying many plugins and researching on google and finally I installed this. And I didn’t have to update any settings or anything just refreshed a post with videos and all the sudden it is beautiful and responsive on my mobile phone!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!! review by happyecho
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Only Plug-in that worked
I used a lot of high ranking plug-ins but they still broke my design. Downloaded this and worked right away. Thanks! review by crconnell89
This plugin is financed by purchases of ARVE Pro. The development and support of this plugins has become a job for me, so I hope you understand that I can not make all features gratis and that you purchase it to get extra features and support the development.
Disable links in embeds (killer feature!)
For example: Clicking on a title in a YouTube embed will not open a new tab. Prevent video hosts to lead your visitors away from your site!
Lazyload
Make your site load faster by loading only an image instead of the entire video player on pageload.
Lightbox
Shows the Video in a Lightbox after clicking a Lazyload preview image
Link ⇾ Lightbox
Use simple links as triggers for opening Video Lightboxes
Auto pause videos when another video is played
Automatic or custom thumbnail images
Automatic or custom titles on top of your thumbnails
‘Expand on click’ feature
2 hover & 3 play icon styles
Responsive thumbnails (srcset)
Feel good about yourself
for supporting my 8+ years work on this plugin. Tons of hours, weekends … always worked on improving it
Show the latest video of a YouTube channel by using the channel URL (updated/cached hourly)
I’m experiencing these errors on Google Search Console
Best option to resolve these errors is to get ARVE Pro as it fills these in for you hassle-free, only activate the add-on – done. For more options, please see the detailed answer.
Follow the 3 easy steps you get with the purchase receipt. It is basically downloading a arve-pro.zip and installing it through your WordPress Admin panel.
After that you may want to switch your default mode to Lazyload or Lightbox on the ARVE settings page.
Why are my videos not filling their container?
You may need to adjust your ‘Maximal Width’ setting to your liking.
You are most likely use align, this plugin has a option for limiting video width with alignment. If you want your videos to fill their containers then you should not use the align shortcode attribute.
Can you add a video provider?
Feel free to ask.
How do I embed videos from a unlisted providers / iframes?
This plugin not changes anything to usual HTML <iframe> embed codes you have to use the shortcodes or the Gutenberg Block. They will become [arve url="https://..."]. The url represents what is the src in HTML embeds. It works as simple as this, if the [arve] shortcode does not detect a known URL structure then it will treat the URL as a src for the iframe.
Why does my YouTube video not repeat/loop?
This plugins embed is considered as ‘custom player’ by YouTube so you have to pass the video ID as playlist parameters to make the loop work.
Fix: Reduced changelog site and tags for correct display on wp.org
2024-02-29 9.10.14
Fix: Wrongly displayed message about outdated PHP version.
2024-02-29 9.10.13.1
Cut development files from the distribution.
2024-02-29 9.10.13
Improved: Make Admin notice dismiss without jQuery. May fix an extremly rare issue of dismiss failing.
Tested with latest WP 6.5-nightly
Plugin is no longer being tested with PHP versions below 7.2+, in theory the 9.x versions should work with PHP 5.6+.
2023-09-16 9.10.12
Tested with latest WP 6.5-nightly
Updated warning that next major version will required php 7.4+.
2023-05-17 9.10.9
Fix: Styles not loading correctly in latest Gutenberg versions.
2023-04-12 9.10.3
Fix: Yoast SEO compatibility and other possible issues.
2023-04-11 9.10.2
Fix: Fatal error with WordPress 5.8.6
2023-04-11 9.10.1
New: Warning massage that ARVE will require PHP 7.2 soon.
New: Support for extra classes (Advanced section) on the ARVE block.
New: You can align left/right the ARVE block now.
Fix: Styles were not applied inside new Gutenberg versions.
Improved: Videos are no longer playble in the Block editor, instead the block is selected when clicking on them.
Improved: Some minor code changes.
2023-02-05 9.9.7
Fix: WP Courseware Course Builder meta box was always collapsed. (Could not get the ARVE button to work for the Course Description)
2023-01-25 9.9.6
Fix: Rumble videos not work correctly on all cases correct oembed data.
2023-01-11 9.9.4
Fix: Invisble Shortcode creation dialog content.
Fix: Hide the dialog when the WP image upload dialog is opened.
2023-01-10 9.9.3
Fix: Issue when browser does not support <dialog>.
2022-01-08 9.9.2
Fix: Incompatibility with Accelerated Mobile Pages by removing the jquery-ui depedancy and using a native <dialog> for the shortcode creator modal. This may also fix layering (z-index) issues with other plugins.
2022-10-28 9.8.0
New: TikTok support.
Improved: Removed deprecated message because it broke the WP login when debug output was enabled.
2022-10-14 9.7.17
Fix: Give errors and prevent php 8.0 and 8.1 from having errors when the aspect ratio contains non integer numbers like 0.9:1 only integers are allowed like 9:10.
Improved: Update EDD updater class.
2022-09-01 9.7.16
Fix: Divi endless reload issue is hopefully finally fixed. ARVE Pro users please note this is a workaround that causes previews inside the Divi builder not have the correct data. Most noticable thumbnails and titles. If you provide a fallback thumbnail in ARVE Pro settings it will show that while you using Divi. The plugin works correctly on the frontend. However the “Video (ARVE)” button currently does not work in Divi.
2022-08-30 9.7.15
Fix: Shortcode Creator dialog with Advanced Custom Fields plugin active.
2022-08-22 9.7.14
Improved: Simplyfied and reduced debug info.
Improved: Adjustments for updated ARVE Pro version.
2022-08-11 9.7.11
Fix: Block not registering.
2022-08-09 9.7.10
Improvents for Gutenberg Block
Introduces clickable area above the Block in the Editor.
Fixed Thumbnail image overflowing.
Removed maximal width setting when not aligned. This concept does not fit Gutenberg. Width should be controlled by setting the block to wide or full alignment.
Introduces a recommended block.json.
Some other minor improvements.
2022-08-04 9.7.8
New: Add new ‘Darken’ hover effect option for Pro Addon.
Removed Ustream from providers (not functional bought up by IBM)
2022-04-16 9.7.7
Improved browser support to display aspect ratio correctly on older browsers.
Improved: Make sure there is no ARVE pecific json left in the oemed caches after uninstalling the plugin.
2021-12-09 9.7.0
Fix: Partially reverse preload="none" on <video>. This causes thumbnails not to be generated from the video by the browser. preload="none" will be used only for Lazyload and Lightbox mode when there is a thumbnail image.
Improved: Seo data is now generated in json-ld.
2021-12-07 9.6.0
Deprecated: Shortcode UI dialog is no longer maintained but you can still use it by clicking on “Add Post Element” button when Shortcode UI is installed.
New: ARVE now has its own dependecy free Shortcode creator dialog in Classic Editor. It will pop up when you click the “Embed Video” button that previously opened up Shortcode UI dialog.
New: Support for tv.gab.com
Improved: Video files will be embedded with preload="none" to prevent desktop browsers from buffering videos without interaction.
Improved: Tested with WP 5.9 nighly and PHP 8.0
Improved: Make use of modern CSS aspect-ratio instead of padding hack.
2021-09-21 9.5.13
Fix: Vimeo color bar thumbnail issue. (they changed their URLs)
Fix: Vimeo chat can now be embedded with ARVE allow-forms will be added to sandbox attribute.
2021-04-22 9.5.12
Fix: Removed <template> tag that was causing AMP errors messages.
2021-04-04 9.5.11
New: Support for v.qq.com videos.
Fix: .m4v files not loading.
2021-03-25 9.5.10
Fix: ‘None numeric value’ errors in some situations.
2021-03-11 9.5.8
Fix: Scripts wrongly moved to the <head> with the “Always load assets” option turned on.
2021-03-11 9.5.7
Minor tweak: Load main.js in <head>.
Tested with WP 5.7.0
2021-03-09 9.5.6
Improved: Load scripts with higher priority.
Fix: Error related to removed notice script.
2021-03-08 9.5.5
Fix: JSON decode error appearing.
Fix: Error messages for no longer needed and not existing .js file.
Improved: Default width for sticky videos set to 500px.
banned.video & cantcensortruth.com mirror site. Works directly with their URLs, not their embed codes. ARVE works without using their JavaScript on your site.
Fix: Classic Video widget use with provider urls.
Fix: Filtered out link in new admin notices.
Improved: Caching system simplified and improved.
Improved: Added info if logged in user can not install plugins.
Improved: Make more tags filterable.
2021-01-28 9.4.2
Fix: Include new library for notices.
2021-01-28 9.4.1
Fix: (hopefully) Non dismissible admin notices. Also removed the notice that came with 9.0-beta completely.
Fix: rumble.com and other providers.
Improved: The tiny JavaScript of ARVE is now loaded in the <head> with <script async src= this will deal with edge cases when styles would get applied late.
2021-01-25 9.3.5
Fix: Avoid passing null to str_contains.
Improved: Code related to the above.
Improved: Added back Installation section to the readme.
2021-01-24 9.3.0
Improved:
* Simplified CSS and reduced size.
* Security related escaping and filtering HTML output on settings page.
* No longer show save buttons on Debug Info tab. Nothing to save there.
* Added back info text for URL Parameters settings. Found in the code from 8.0.
* Added in placeholders for text fields.
* General code improvements and removal of unused code.
2021-01-21 9.2.4
Fix: Missing ‘Normal’ mode select
2021-01-21 9.2.3
Revert some things that made latest Pro tests fail
2021-01-21 9.2.0
Fix: Compatibility with Astor Theme.
Improved: Added notes that Shortcode UI is not maintained to the button and readme.
Improved: Added notes about outdated PHP versions to settings page sidebar.
Improved: Classic Tabs, new settings section for upcoming ARVE sticky Videos.