Why EmbedLite?
YouTube's embed iframe loads scripts, tracking, and heavy assets even if the user never presses play. This hurts load times, SEO, and the overall user experience.
EmbedLite swaps the heavy iframe for a lightweight placeholder that loads the real YouTube player only on demand.
Here's how it works:
-- <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/..."
++ <iframe src="https://www.embedlite.com/embed/..."Yes, that's literally it.
Playground
Paste a YouTube URL (short or long) and get a ready-to-copy
embedlite.com iframe.
Demo
Usage
Simply swap the domain in any YouTube iframe:
-- <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/..."
++ <iframe src="https://www.embedlite.com/embed/..."All other query params are passed straight to the YouTube player.
Examples
https://www.embedlite.com/embed/dQw4w9WgXcQ?controls=0&mute=1&start=30&end=120
https://www.embedlite.com/embed/dQw4w9WgXcQ?autoplay=true&title=Rick%20AstleyWhat about loading="lazy" ?
The native attribute loading="lazy" only tells the
browser to postpone the initial network request for the full
YouTube iframe until it scrolls near the viewport — nothing more.
- Payload unchanged. The moment the iframe enters view, the browser still downloads ± 500 KB-1.3 MB of player JavaScript, CSS and tracking assets
- CPU & main-thread cost. Those scripts parse and execute right away, blocking the main thread and hurting interaction timing.
- Tracking still fires. YouTube's analytics beacons and cookies load even if the visitor never hits “Play”.
- Many videos ≈ many hits. On pages with several embeds, a quick scroll can trigger all of them simultaneously, spiking bandwidth and jank.
EmbedLite keeps the page lightweight by serving nothing but a static thumbnail (≈ 15 KB) until the user clicks, so no large downloads or trackers run without real intent.
Disclaimer
EmbedLite is not affiliated with YouTube or Google. It uses the official YouTube embed player and complies with YouTube's Terms of Service by loading the standard YouTube iframe only after user interaction.