Ohara

WordPress plugin · Free & Pro

Build a YouTube feed you can actually see while you build it.

Build a YouTube feed you can actually see while you build it. Ohara is a YouTube feed WordPress plugin that gives you a live, visual editor for your channel. Pick a channel, shape the layout in a live preview, then embed it with a shortcode or a block — server-rendered, cached, and readable by search engines.

Free core, forever · Works with any theme · No page builder required

The Problem

Three ways a YouTube feed goes wrong.

Most feed plugins hand you a settings form and wish you luck. Here is what that costs you.

Shortcode roulette

Change an attribute, save, refresh, squint, repeat. You are designing blind in a form field, guessing what a column count and a handful of toggles will actually look like.

Invisible to Google

A feed that renders after page load is not in your HTML. Crawlers index an empty container, and visitors without JavaScript see nothing at all.

Quota burn

Every uncached page view is another call to the YouTube Data API. Traffic spikes, the daily quota runs out, and the feed goes blank.

The Builder

A four-step wizard, then a live editor.

No blank canvas and no attribute reference open in another tab. Answer four questions and you have a feed; refine it in a two-pane editor that updates as you type.


1. Type2. Source3. Layout4. Review

Layouts

Five layouts. One feed.

Change the shape without rebuilding anything. Your channel, your settings and your styling all carry over.

Grid List Masonry Carousel Gallery

Grid

The default. Even columns that collapse cleanly from three to two to one as the viewport narrows.

Locked layouts still preview here — you can see exactly what Pro adds before you decide.

Feedtypes

Start with a channel. Grow into everything else.

The free plugin does the job most sites need. Pro adds the sources you reach for once one feed is not enough.

Channel Live streams Single videos

Shortcode roulette

Change an attribute, save, refresh, squint, repeat. You are designing blind in a form field, guessing what a column count and a handful of toggles will actually look like.

Invisible to Google

A feed that renders after page load is not in your HTML. Crawlers index an empty container, and visitors without JavaScript see nothing at all.

Quota burn

Every uncached page view is another call to the YouTube Data API. Traffic spikes, the daily quota runs out, and the feed goes blank.

Show what is live now and what is scheduled

Embed anywhere

Build once. Embed everywhere.

One feed, as many placements as you need. Edit it in one place and every embed updates with it.

Shortcode Block PHP

Block

Search the inserter for Ohara YouTube Feed, drop it in, and choose a saved feed from the sidebar.

Inserter › Ohara YouTube Feed
  Feed: Channel — Grid — 12 videos

Performance & SEO

Your videos are in the HTML, not injected after it.

Ohara renders the feed in PHP first, so the markup that leaves your server already contains the videos. React then hydrates it into an interactive app. Search engines and no‑JavaScript visitors get real content either way.

Key benefits

  • Server‑rendered markup on the first byte
  • Hydrated into a React app after load
  • Responses cached with the WordPress Transients API
  • Cache lifetime you choose, per feed

Request flow

Request

  • Browser hydrates React
  • PHP renders the videos into HTML
  • Interactive

No JavaScript? The videos are still visible.

Server‑rendered first

The feed markup is generated in PHP before the page is sent. Nothing waits on a script to appear.

Cached via WordPress Transients

API responses are stored with the Transients API on a schedule you control, so ordinary traffic never touches your quota.

Clear one feed, or all of them

Flush a single feed after an edit, or clear the whole cache from the dashboard when you want a clean slate.

Make It Yours

It should look like your site, not like a plugin.

Override the background, text and accent colours, switch the pieces you do not want off, and drop in your own CSS or JavaScript when you need the last five per cent.

Customization options

  • Background, text and accent colour overrides
  • Toggle the channel header, titles, dates and Subscribe button
  • Load More on or off
  • Custom CSS and custom JavaScript per feed
Appearance

ACCENT COLOUR

#255.5eb


Channel header

Off

Video titles

On

Published dates

On

Load More button

Off

Subscribe button

On


Custom CSS

Edit

MANAGE EVERYTHING

One dashboard once you have more than one feed.

Search, filter and sort every feed on the site. Duplicate, grab an embed code, or delete in bulk. See at a glance whether the API is healthy and which feeds have lost their source.

  • 🔍 Search, filter and sort all feeds
  • 🏠 Bulk duplicate, embed and delete
  • 📄 API and system health at a glance
  • 🌐 Flags feeds that are missing a source

For Developers

Allow‑lists, filters, and a REST namespace.

Ohara is extensible on purpose. Layouts and feed types are allow‑listed server side, and a filter is the supported way to add your own.

// REST namespace
ohara/v1

// Filters
add_filter( 'ohara_allowed_layouts', $fn );
add_filter( 'ohara_feed_layout_renderers', $fn );
add_filter( 'ohara_allowed_feed_types', $fn );
add_filter( 'ohara_feed_type_sources', $fn );

ohara_allowed_layouts

Add a layout slug to the allow‑list, or take one away.

ohara_feed_layout_renderers

Map a layout slug to the callable that renders it.

ohara_allowed_feed_types

Register a feed type of your own, or restrict the ones on offer.

ohara_feed_type_sources

Describe where a feed type gets its videos from.

Free vs Pro

The free plugin is not a trial.

Channel feeds, the full visual builder and three layouts are free forever.
Pro adds the other sources, the other layouts, and a support queue.

FREE

Forever

  • ✅ Channel feeds
  • ✅ Grid, list and masonry layouts
  • ✅ The full visual builder and live preview
  • ✅ Shortcode, block and PHP embeds
  • ✅ Server-side rendering and transient caching
  • ✅ Colour overrides and display toggles
  • ✅ Custom CSS and JavaScript
  • ✅ Community support on WordPress.org

PRO

RECOMMENDED

Ohara Pro

Every source and every layout, plus a support queue with your name in it.

  • ✅ Everything in the free plugin
  • ✅ Playlist, search, live stream and single-video feeds
  • ✅ Carousel and gallery layouts
  • ✅ Bulk duplicate, embed and delete
  • ✅ API and system health reporting
  • ✅ Priority support

5 Pricing tiers are not published yet. When they are, they will be priced by the number of sites a licence covers – not by holding features back.

Questions

The things people ask before installing.

If yours is not here, the documentation goes deeper and the support forum is open.

Do I need a YouTube API key?

Yes. Ohara reads video data through the YouTube Data API v3, and Google issues those keys per project. Creating one in the Google Cloud console is free and takes a few minutes; the setup screen walks you through it. Using your own key means the requests, the quota and the terms stay yours rather than passing through us.

Will Ohara slow my site down?

The feed is rendered in PHP before the page is sent, so nothing blocks on a script fetching videos. API responses are cached with the WordPress Transients API on a schedule you set, which means ordinary page views are served from your own database rather than from Google.

Does it work with my theme or page builder?

Ohara ships a shortcode, a Gutenberg block and a PHP helper. Anywhere your theme or builder can run a shortcode — a page, a post, a widget area, a template file — the feed will render. There is no theme dependency.

Is the free version crippled?

No. Channel feeds, the four-step wizard, the live preview, three layouts, colour overrides, custom CSS and the caching layer are all in the free plugin, with no trial clock. Pro adds more feed sources and two more layouts; it does not switch the free ones off.

Can I use the same feed on more than one page?

Yes. A feed is built once and embedded as many times as you like. Change the feed and every embed changes with it — you are not maintaining five copies of the same shortcode.

Is the Social Wall available yet?

Not yet. It is registered in the plugin but the implementation is not finished, so it is listed as coming soon rather than sold as a feature. When it ships it will be announced properly.

Can I add my own layout or feed type?

Yes. Layouts and feed types are allow-listed on the server, and four filters let you extend both lists and point a slug at your own renderer. That is the supported extension path — there is nothing to patch.

Get started

Your channel, on your site, in about two minutes.

Install the plugin, paste a channel URL, pick a layout. Everything after that is refinement.

Ohara uses the YouTube Data API v3. Video data is requested from Google’s servers with the API key you provide, and your use of that data is governed by the YouTube Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy.