Best Free Website Widgets

By Brynne Adamson

Freshening up your website can take time and money that you don't have. That's why we recommend you try some free online widgets that can quickly improve the look and capability of your website.

You may be wondering: What is a widget? Here's our definition.

What's a widget?

A widget is a coded program that you embed or place into a website, typically from a third-party. You can usually click on a widget and be directed to a website or the full version of the program.

Why use a widget?

Well, widgets enhance a user's experience while visiting your site without you having to do a lot of work. They draw attention to different parts of your website, along with providing greater functionality for users. Though, be aware that using too many widgets can cause your website to slow down.

Now that you know what a widget is, here are our top choices of free widgets on the web.

Most of these widgets we're about to list will require you to make an account for the widget to work. Be sure to read the terms of use and privacy policy of each widget before installing them. We don't advise signing up for a free widget if you have to put in a credit card number to have access to the widget.

You can test these widgets at Tryit Editor if you're worried they'll break your website.

Our top picks for free website widgets

Create Personalized Slideshows: Bannersnack

Bannersnack is a great online application to use if you're looking for easy templates to make banners, video covers, album covers, menus, business cards and more. While the free version only allows you to make 10 projects total (and deleting previous projects doesn't let you make more), the application is easy to use and has awesome designs to choose from.

If you're looking for a new slideshow with unique buttons to add to your website, you can easily design it on your computer with Bannersnack and then export it as an HTML code to your website. However, this means if you want to add a different picture or change the formatting of the slideshow, you have to go back into Bannersnack, edit it there and copy over the HTML code again.

Though, if you have Adobe Photoshop or a similar program, you probably don't need Bannersnack unless you're looking for new format ideas for projects.

Generate Quotes: Laura's Widget Warehouse

If you're looking for something fun to add to your website, then try Laura's Widget Warehouse. The widgets from this website populate random comics or quotes about a topic, like reading or writing. This added content can help entertain your customers, hopefully keeping them on your site for longer. You could also create your own randomizer, like the Magic 8-Ball randomizer.

Publicize your Schedule: Google Calendar

Keeping an up-to-date schedule on your website can allow you to meet with customers easily and effectively. To add your Google Calendar to your site, simply find the code you need to embed for that calendar and post that onto your website. We suggest you create a business Google Calendar that's separate from your personal one to help with your privacy.

Start an Event Countdown: TimeandDate

Have a big event coming up that you want visitors to be aware of? Embed a countdown clock to your site with TimeandDate. TimeandDate also has a free clock that you can add to your site if you have international or out-of-state guests who want to know what your time zone is.

Embed a Post: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Embedding a post from your social media can help customers take note of your online brand and see that you're active on social media. Or you can embed a post from someone else's social media to emphasize their point or to highlight a good review.

For Facebook, the post has to be public to be embedded into your site. Twitter allows you to customize the post you want to embed. Instagram is embedded similar to the other two, although making the post centered takes a little more coding.

Have a Social Media Wall: SocialMediaWall.io

A social media wall is a congregation of social media posts that your customers can easily scroll through. We suggest you use a social media wall because your customers will be able to see your involvement online, and, if they post on your social media, they'll be able to see their own posts appear there.

SocialMediaWall.io was our choice of social media wall widget because it's easy to use and the free version has a lot of cool features.

Know the Current Weather: Weatherwidget.io

If visitors want to know what the weather is like before coming to your store or inn, then the Weatherwidget.io is a good fit for your website. Weatherwidget.io is a banner that goes across your website and displays the weather of whatever city you set it for. The best part about this widget is that you can customize the colors and font of the widget to match your website without having to sign up for anything.

Get Comments and Reviews: Widget Pack

Having a comment section or reviews section on your website, whether it be for an article or product you're selling, is a wonderful way to drive engagement and traffic to your site. People like to have their voices heard, especially on blogs.

Additionally, having a comment or review section will build trust between you and new customers because new customers will be able to see why people like your company. Negative reviews will also help you to showcase your customer service skills to other customers.

Widget Pack provides embeddable code for you to install a comment section, review section, rating section or Google Reviews section to your site. All you need to do is sign up with them.

Although, you will get an email with every comment or review someone makes when using Widget Pack, along with that commenter's IP address. That may make this widget somewhat of a nuisance, or it could be helpful because you will be able to quickly reply to reviews and comments.

Make a Timeline: knight lab

If you're writing an article for your site with multiple events, then maybe you should use a timeline widget, like the one knight lab made. Timelines are good visuals to help readers to see when events happened, so they can get the big picture.

For this widget, you just put in the information and pictures you want on a Google Sheet template, and then publish that Google Sheets publicly (if you're fine with your document being readable online for everyone). Then you put the URL for that public document into knight lab's embed page, and your widget is good to go.

Let's take a look at these widgets in summary.

Answer Frequently Asked Questions: Squarespace Forum

Customers tend to ask a lot of questions, and if you're sick of answering them, then you should consider using a frequently asked question widget. This widget is good for helping your customers navigate your website and what you have to offer them.

To use this widget, you need to enter in this code from a Squarespace forum:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="//code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.4/themes/smoothness/jquery-ui.css">
<script src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.js">
</script>
<script src="//code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.4/jquery-ui.js">
</script>

<script>$( ".accordion" ).accordion();
$(".accordion").accordion({ header: "h3", collapsible: true, active: false ,heightStyle: "content" });
});
</script>

<div class="accordion">
<h3>question goes here</h3>
<div>
<p>Answer goes here</p>
</div>
</div>

You'd need to change the text for "question goes here" and "answer goes here" in the code. Then, if you want to add more questions, you copy and paste the code from <div class="accordion"> to </div> after the last </div>.

There's also this style of FAQ from Coolest Guides on the Planet if you're looking for a different look.

In Conclusion

Even if these widgets aren't for you, having these features on your site may be a good idea. To recap, some of the features you could consider for your site include:

Slideshows
Public schedule
Randomly generated quotes
Event countdown
Embedded social media posts
Social media wall
Current weather
On-site comments and reviews
Timeline
FAQ

We hope these widgets and features will help you drive increased traffic to your website. Or at the very least, your site will become more fleshed out and interesting for customers to explore.

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