If you want to save a few extra bucks, you might consider investing in an open-source social media aggregator instead of a regular tool. But is this option worth it in the long run?
Let’s discuss all the pros and cons.
What is an open-source social media aggregator?
An open-source social media aggregator is a type of open-source software. Open-source software programs make their source codes freely available to the public, allowing anyone to view, modify, and distribute the code.
Overall, open-source software gives users more options. But to use it successfully, users need a basic understanding of coding and how certain software works.
Are there open-source social media aggregators out there?
The answer is yes and no.
There are open-source social media aggregators available for free, offering their source code to change and implement on your site. Here are a few examples:
- LightWidget is a responsive widget for Instagram. LightWidget can generate various widgets with multiple options like hover effects, captions, padding, square crops, hashtag filtering, and more.
- Instafeed.js is a dead-simple way to add Instagram photos to your website. No jQuery is required; just plain ol’ javascript.
- SnapWidget makes it easy to display Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube content on your website.
The challenge with open-source social media aggregators
Open-source aggregators are great if you’re willing to learn about implementing the source code needed to use them on your site. But here’s the challenge: the code needed for aggregating needs to be constantly updated.
Since using open-source software means taking the code from a period in time and implementing it on your website, your code will be out-of-date after a social media platform goes through a significant change — rendering your aggregator obsolete. Say you’ve connected your open-source aggregator to Twitter, and a Twitter update happens; you’ll need to start from scratch.
Ask yourself if you’re willing to learn how to set up an open-source program, then figure out how to update the code accordingly, all to save a few extra bucks on a social media aggregator platform.
The better option: Free social media aggregators
Free social media aggregators like Juicer have more features than their open-source counterparts. For example, you can include posts from various social platforms, including LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, Giphy, Slack, Vimeo, Yelp, and more!
You can customize the type of social media content you want to display on your social media feed.
You also enjoy features like:
- Social media filtering to remove spam and irrelevant content
- Social wall to display your feed on a website or public wall (like a digital signboard)
- Analytics to track social content performance
See the full list of Juicer’s features.
Our verdict
The choice is entirely up to you. If you are an experienced programmer and are able to modify and change open-source code to fit your needs and to fit the compatibility of new social media platform updates, then using open-source social media aggregator code is likely worth your time.
But if you are unfamiliar with coding and open-source software, getting into a situation where you’re using open-source code on your website instead of a free social media aggregator is most likely not worth the time and headache.
See how businesses can use Juicer to showcase their product offering and drive engagement.
