react-player vs react-youtube vs react-lite-youtube-embed
React Video Player Libraries Comparison
1 Year
react-playerreact-youtubereact-lite-youtube-embedSimilar Packages:
What's React Video Player Libraries?

These libraries provide React components for embedding and controlling video playback from platforms like YouTube. They simplify the process of integrating video content into React applications, offering various features and customization options to enhance user experience. Each library has its own strengths, catering to different needs in terms of performance, ease of use, and feature set.

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react-player1,022,7119,5911.5 MB95a year agoMIT
react-youtube444,5151,87074.2 kB83-MIT
react-lite-youtube-embed50,935274123 kB28a year agoMIT
Feature Comparison: react-player vs react-youtube vs react-lite-youtube-embed

Lightweight Design

  • react-player:

    react-player is more feature-rich, which can lead to a larger bundle size. However, it provides extensive functionality that may justify the additional weight for applications requiring multiple media sources and advanced features.

  • react-youtube:

    react-youtube balances lightweight design with functionality, providing a straightforward way to embed YouTube videos without excessive overhead. It is optimized for simplicity while still offering essential features.

  • react-lite-youtube-embed:

    react-lite-youtube-embed is designed to be minimalistic, ensuring fast loading times and a small footprint. It avoids unnecessary dependencies and focuses solely on embedding YouTube videos, making it an excellent choice for performance-sensitive applications.

Customization Options

  • react-player:

    react-player offers a high level of customization, allowing developers to control playback options, styles, and events. This makes it suitable for applications that require a tailored video player experience.

  • react-youtube:

    react-youtube provides basic customization options, such as player parameters and event handling, making it easy to adapt the player to specific needs without overwhelming complexity.

  • react-lite-youtube-embed:

    Customization options are limited in react-lite-youtube-embed, focusing on the core functionality of embedding videos. It is best for developers who prefer a straightforward implementation without the need for extensive customization.

Ease of Use

  • react-player:

    react-player has a steeper learning curve due to its extensive features, but it is well-documented, making it manageable for developers willing to invest time in understanding its capabilities.

  • react-youtube:

    react-youtube is user-friendly and straightforward, making it easy for developers to get started with embedding YouTube videos. Its API is intuitive, allowing for quick integration into projects.

  • react-lite-youtube-embed:

    react-lite-youtube-embed is extremely easy to use, with a simple API that allows developers to quickly embed YouTube videos with minimal setup. This makes it ideal for beginners or projects that prioritize speed of implementation.

Event Handling

  • react-player:

    react-player excels in event handling, providing a comprehensive set of events that can be listened to, such as onPlay, onPause, and onEnded. This makes it suitable for applications that require detailed tracking of user interactions with the video.

  • react-youtube:

    react-youtube provides essential event handling features, allowing developers to listen for events like play, pause, and end, making it a good choice for applications that need to respond to user actions.

  • react-lite-youtube-embed:

    react-lite-youtube-embed offers basic event handling capabilities, allowing developers to respond to video interactions, but it is limited compared to other libraries.

Support for Multiple Media Sources

  • react-player:

    react-player supports a wide range of media sources, including YouTube, Vimeo, and custom URLs. This versatility makes it an excellent choice for applications that need to handle various types of media content.

  • react-youtube:

    react-youtube is focused solely on YouTube, providing a dedicated solution for embedding YouTube videos. It is not suitable for applications that require support for other media platforms.

  • react-lite-youtube-embed:

    react-lite-youtube-embed is specifically designed for YouTube videos and does not support other media sources, making it less versatile for applications that require multi-source support.

How to Choose: react-player vs react-youtube vs react-lite-youtube-embed
  • react-player:

    Select react-player if you require a versatile and feature-rich player that supports multiple media sources, including YouTube, Vimeo, and custom URLs. It is suitable for applications that need extensive control over playback options and a customizable interface.

  • react-youtube:

    Opt for react-youtube if you want a straightforward and easy-to-use library specifically designed for YouTube videos. It offers a simple API for embedding YouTube videos with built-in controls and event handling, making it a great choice for projects focused solely on YouTube content.

  • react-lite-youtube-embed:

    Choose react-lite-youtube-embed if you need a lightweight solution that focuses on minimalism and performance, especially for projects where loading speed is critical. It is ideal for simple use cases where you want to embed YouTube videos without additional overhead.

README for react-player

ReactPlayer

Latest npm version Test Coverage Become a sponsor on Patreon

A React component for playing a variety of URLs, including file paths, YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, SoundCloud, Streamable, Vimeo, Wistia, Mixcloud, DailyMotion and Kaltura. Not using React? No problem.


Using Next.js and need to handle video upload/processing? Check out next-video.

✨ The future of ReactPlayer

Maintenance of ReactPlayer is being taken over by Mux. The team at Mux have worked on many highly respected projects and are committed to improving video tooling for developers.

ReactPlayer will remain open source, but with a higher rate of fixes and releases over time. Thanks to everyone in the community for your ongoing support.

Usage

npm install react-player # or yarn add react-player
import React from 'react'
import ReactPlayer from 'react-player'

// Render a YouTube video player
<ReactPlayer url='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXb3EKWsInQ' />

By default, ReactPlayer supports many different types of url. If you only ever use one type, use imports such as react-player/youtube to reduce your bundle size. See config keys for all player keys.

import React from 'react'
import ReactPlayer from 'react-player/youtube'

// Only loads the YouTube player
<ReactPlayer url='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXb3EKWsInQ' />

If your build system supports import() statements, use react-player/lazy to lazy load the appropriate player for the url you pass in. This adds several reactPlayer chunks to your output, but reduces your main bundle size.

import React from 'react'
import ReactPlayer from 'react-player/lazy'

// Lazy load the YouTube player
<ReactPlayer url='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysz5S6PUM-U' />

Demo page: https://cookpete.github.io/react-player

The component parses a URL and loads in the appropriate markup and external SDKs to play media from various sources. Props can be passed in to control playback and react to events such as buffering or media ending. See the demo source for a full example.

For platforms without direct use of npm modules, a minified version of ReactPlayer is located in dist after installing. To generate this file yourself, checkout the repo and run npm run build:dist.

Autoplay

As of Chrome 66, videos must be muted in order to play automatically. Some players, like Facebook, cannot be unmuted until the user interacts with the video, so you may want to enable controls to allow users to unmute videos themselves. Please set muted={true}.

Props

Prop | Description | Default ---- | ----------- | ------- url | The url of a video or song to play
  ◦  Can be an array or MediaStream object playing | Set to true or false to pause or play the media | false loop | Set to true or false to loop the media | false controls | Set to true or false to display native player controls.
  ◦  For Vimeo videos, hiding controls must be enabled by the video owner. | false light | Set to true to show just the video thumbnail, which loads the full player on click
  ◦  Pass in an image URL to override the preview image | false volume | Set the volume of the player, between 0 and 1
  ◦  null uses default volume on all players #357 | null muted | Mutes the player
  ◦  Only works if volume is set | false playbackRate | Set the playback rate of the player
  ◦  Only supported by YouTube, Wistia, and file paths | 1 width | Set the width of the player | 640px height | Set the height of the player | 360px style | Add inline styles to the root element | {} progressInterval | The time between onProgress callbacks, in milliseconds | 1000 playsinline | Applies the playsinline attribute where supported | false pip | Set to true or false to enable or disable picture-in-picture mode
  ◦  Only available when playing file URLs in certain browsers | false stopOnUnmount | If you are using pip you may want to use stopOnUnmount={false} to continue playing in picture-in-picture mode even after ReactPlayer unmounts | true fallback | Element or component to use as a fallback if you are using lazy loading | null wrapper | Element or component to use as the container element | div playIcon | Element or component to use as the play icon in light mode previewTabIndex | Set the tab index to be used on light mode | 0 config | Override options for the various players, see config prop

Callback props

Callback props take a function that gets fired on various player events:

Prop | Description ---- | ----------- onReady | Called when media is loaded and ready to play. If playing is set to true, media will play immediately onStart | Called when media starts playing onPlay | Called when media starts or resumes playing after pausing or buffering onProgress | Callback containing played and loaded progress as a fraction, and playedSeconds and loadedSeconds in seconds
  ◦  eg { played: 0.12, playedSeconds: 11.3, loaded: 0.34, loadedSeconds: 16.7 } onDuration | Callback containing duration of the media, in seconds onPause | Called when media is paused onBuffer | Called when media starts buffering onBufferEnd | Called when media has finished buffering
  ◦  Works for files, YouTube and Facebook onSeek | Called when media seeks with seconds parameter onPlaybackRateChange | Called when playback rate of the player changed
  ◦  Only supported by YouTube, Vimeo (if enabled), Wistia, and file paths onPlaybackQualityChange | Called when playback quality of the player changed
  ◦  Only supported by YouTube (if enabled) onEnded | Called when media finishes playing
  ◦  Does not fire when loop is set to true onError | Called when an error occurs whilst attempting to play media onClickPreview | Called when user clicks the light mode preview onEnablePIP | Called when picture-in-picture mode is enabled onDisablePIP | Called when picture-in-picture mode is disabled

Config prop

There is a single config prop to override settings for each type of player:

<ReactPlayer
  url={url}
  config={{
    youtube: {
      playerVars: { showinfo: 1 }
    },
    facebook: {
      appId: '12345'
    }
  }}
/>

Settings for each player live under different keys:

Key | Options --- | ------- youtube | playerVars: Override the default player vars
embedOptions: Override the default embed options
onUnstarted: Called when state changes to unstarted (usually when video fails to autoplay) facebook | appId: Your own Facebook app ID
version: Facebook SDK version
playerId: Override player ID for consistent server-side rendering (use with react-uid)
attributes: Extra data attributes to pass to the fb-video element soundcloud | options: Override the default player options vimeo | playerOptions: Override the default params
title: Set the player iframe title attribute mux | attributes: Apply element attributes
version: Mux player version wistia | options: Override the default player options
playerId: Override player ID for consistent server-side rendering (use with react-uid) mixcloud | options: Override the default player options dailymotion | params: Override the default player vars twitch | options: Override the default player options
playerId: Override player ID for consistent server-side rendering (use with react-uid) file | attributes: Apply element attributes
forceVideo: Always render a <video> element
forceAudio: Always render an <audio> element
forceHLS: Use hls.js for HLS streams
forceSafariHLS: Use hls.js for HLS streams, even on Safari
forceDisableHLS: Disable usage hls.js for HLS streams
forceDASH: Always use dash.js for DASH streams
forceFLV: Always use flv.js
hlsOptions: Override the default hls.js options
hlsVersion: Override the hls.js version loaded from jsdelivr, default: 0.13.1
dashVersion: Override the dash.js version loaded from cdnjs, default: 2.9.2
flvVersion: Override the flv.js version loaded from jsdelivr, default: 1.5.0

Methods

Static Methods

Method | Description ------ | ----------- ReactPlayer.canPlay(url) | Determine if a URL can be played. This does not detect media that is unplayable due to privacy settings, streaming permissions, etc. In that case, the onError prop will be invoked after attempting to play. Any URL that does not match any patterns will fall back to a native HTML5 media player. ReactPlayer.canEnablePiP(url) | Determine if a URL can be played in picture-in-picture mode ReactPlayer.addCustomPlayer(CustomPlayer) | Add a custom player. See Adding custom players ReactPlayer.removeCustomPlayers() | Remove any players that have been added using addCustomPlayer()

Instance Methods

Use ref to call instance methods on the player. See the demo app for an example of this.

Method | Description ------ | ----------- seekTo(amount, type) | Seek to the given number of seconds, or fraction if amount is between 0 and 1
  ◦  type parameter lets you specify 'seconds' or 'fraction' to override default behaviour getCurrentTime() | Returns the number of seconds that have been played
  ◦  Returns null if unavailable getSecondsLoaded() | Returns the number of seconds that have been loaded
  ◦  Returns null if unavailable or unsupported getDuration() | Returns the duration (in seconds) of the currently playing media
  ◦  Returns null if duration is unavailable getInternalPlayer() | Returns the internal player of whatever is currently playing
  ◦  eg the YouTube player instance, or the <video> element when playing a video file
  ◦  Use getInternalPlayer('hls') to get the hls.js player
  ◦  Use getInternalPlayer('dash') to get the dash.js player
  ◦  Returns null if the internal player is unavailable showPreview() | When using light mode, returns to the preview overlay

Advanced Usage

Light player

The light prop will render a video thumbnail with simple play icon, and only load the full player once a user has interacted with the image. Noembed is used to fetch thumbnails for a video URL. Note that automatic thumbnail fetching for Facebook, Wistia, Mixcloud and file URLs are not supported, and ongoing support for other URLs is not guaranteed.

If you want to pass in your own thumbnail to use, set light to the image URL rather than true.

You can also pass a component through the light prop:

<ReactPlayer light={<img src='https://example.com/thumbnail.png' alt='Thumbnail' />} />

The styles for the preview image and play icon can be overridden by targeting the CSS classes react-player__preview, react-player__shadow and react-player__play-icon.

Responsive player

Set width and height to 100% and wrap the player in a fixed aspect ratio box to get a responsive player:

class ResponsivePlayer extends Component {
  render () {
    return (
      <div className='player-wrapper'>
        <ReactPlayer
          className='react-player'
          url='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysz5S6PUM-U'
          width='100%'
          height='100%'
        />
      </div>
    )
  }
}
.player-wrapper {
  position: relative;
  padding-top: 56.25%; /* Player ratio: 100 / (1280 / 720) */
}

.react-player {
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
}

See jsFiddle example

SDK Overrides

You can use your own version of any player SDK, assuming the correct window global is set before the player mounts. For example, to use a local version of hls.js, add <script src='/path/hls.js'></script> to your app. If window.Hls is available when ReactPlayer mounts, it will use that instead of loading hls.js from cdnjs. See #605 for more information.

Standalone player

If you aren’t using React, you can still render a player using the standalone library:

<script src='https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/react-player/dist/ReactPlayer.standalone.js'></script>
<script>
  const container = document.getElementById('container')
  const url = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d46Azg3Pm4c'

  renderReactPlayer(container, { url, playing: true })

  function pausePlayer () {
    renderReactPlayer(container, { url, playing: false })
  }
</script>

See jsFiddle example

Adding custom players

If you have your own player that is compatible with ReactPlayer’s internal architecture, you can add it using addCustomPlayer:

import YourOwnPlayer from './somewhere';
ReactPlayer.addCustomPlayer(YourOwnPlayer);

Use removeCustomPlayers to clear all custom players:

ReactPlayer.removeCustomPlayers();

It is your responsibility to ensure that custom players keep up with any internal changes to ReactPlayer in later versions.

Mobile considerations

Due to various restrictions, ReactPlayer is not guaranteed to function properly on mobile devices. The YouTube player documentation, for example, explains that certain mobile browsers require user interaction before playing:

The HTML5 <video> element, in certain mobile browsers (such as Chrome and Safari), only allows playback to take place if it’s initiated by a user interaction (such as tapping on the player).

Multiple Sources and Tracks

Passing an array of YouTube URLs to the url prop will load them as an untitled playlist.

<ReactPlayer
  url={[
    'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUFJJNQGwhk',
    'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNgP6d9HraI'
  ]}
/>

When playing file paths, an array of sources can be passed to the url prop to render multiple <source> tags.

<ReactPlayer playing url={['foo.webm', 'foo.ogg']} />

You can also specify a type for each source by using objects with src and type properties.

<ReactPlayer
  playing
  url={[
    {src: 'foo.webm', type: 'video/webm'},
    {src: 'foo.ogg', type: 'video/ogg'}
  ]}
/>

<track> elements for subtitles can be added using config.file:

<ReactPlayer
  playing
  url='foo.webm'
  config={{ file: {
    tracks: [
      {kind: 'subtitles', src: 'subs/subtitles.en.vtt', srcLang: 'en', default: true},
      {kind: 'subtitles', src: 'subs/subtitles.ja.vtt', srcLang: 'ja'},
      {kind: 'subtitles', src: 'subs/subtitles.de.vtt', srcLang: 'de'}
    ]
  }}}
/>

Migrating to v2.0

ReactPlayer v2.0 changes single player imports and adds lazy loading players. Support for preload has also been removed, plus some other changes. See MIGRATING.md for information.

Supported media

Contributing

See the contribution guidelines before creating a pull request.

Thanks


Jackson Doherty

Joseph Fung