Social media is everywhere these days, so it’s imperative that your website has the ability to link your social media platforms on the site. This makes it easier for users on your website to follow your social platforms and allows you to easily make your content seen on your site. But with so many different social share plugins for WordPress, it can be quite overwhelming trying to figure out which one to choose.
Of course, you’ll want to choose the best one and the easiest one to install, but you might feel lost if you don’t know what to look for in a quality WordPress social media plugin. Honestly, the main problem many have is performance.
Since many of these plugins have to load extra stylesheets and scripts, you’ll see a difference in how slow your site might load. Because of this, you’ll need to find a balance between performance of your site and features. If you choose a social share plugin with loads of features, it might be great, but it will also most likely slow down your site and affect user experience.
Next, you’ll need to decide which social networks you’ll want featured more prominently on your site. Fewer options can reduce all the clutter and provide a better user experience overall.
To help you find the best social sharing WordPress plugins, here is my list of the best options for your website.
Feel free to download and use one of them in your WordPress to engage & obtain users.
Originally Published Feb 19 2019, updated Feb 16 2023
1. AddToAny Share Buttons
Total downloads: 500,000+
Five Star Ratings: 1,000+
The #1 social sharing plugin provides various ways to share posts, pages, products on over 100 social media websites.
Features:
- Custom placement and appearance.
- Standard and floating social share buttons with counters.
- Mobile friendly and retina ready.
- Optimized for the latest WordPress.
- Custom social icons & buttons.
2. Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons
Total downloads: 200,000+
Five Star Ratings: 5,200+
A WordPress social sharing which let’s you add share icons for RSS, Email, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, Youtube, ‘Share’ (covering 200+ other social media platforms) and upload custom share icons of your choice.
Features:
- Pick from 16 different designs for your social media share icons
- Give several actions to one social media share icon (e.g. your facebook share icon can lead visitors to your Facebook page, and also give visitors the opportunity to like your page)
- Decide to give your social media icons an animation (e.g. automatic shuffling, mouse-over effects) to make your visitors aware of the share icons, increasing the chance that they follow/share your blog
- Make your social media icons ‘float’ or ‘sticky’
- Allow visitors to subscribe to your blog by Email
- Add ‘counts’ to your social media buttons
- Decide to display a pop-up (on all or only on selected pages) asking people to follow/share you via your social media icons
- Decide to display sharing-buttons and social media icons at the end of every post
- Select from many other customization features for your social media icons!
3. Sassy Social Share
Total downloads: 100,000+
Five Star Ratings: 450+
Sassy Social Share enables your website users to share the content over Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, Whatsapp, Tumblr, Pinterest, Reddit and over 100 more social sharing and bookmarking services.
This is the Simplest and Smoothest Social Sharing plugin with optimized and great looking vector icons.
Features:
- GDPR Compliant
- Compatible with Gutenberg editor
- Compatible with myCRED (append myCRED referral ID at the end of the url being shared)
- Around 100 Social Sharing/Bookmarking services
- Social Media follow icons (Redirect website visitors to your Social Media pages)
- Share counts are supported for Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Buffer, Reddit, Pinterest, Odnoklassniki, Fintel and Vkontakte
- FREE Icon Customization options
- Options to specify sharing icon shape – Square, Round and Rectangular
- Options to specify sharing icon size – minimum 16 pixels, no upper limit
- Options to specify sharing icon backround color and logo color
- Share counter customization options
- Enable share count cache with option to control cache refresh time-frame
- Enable/Disable vertical/floating sharing interface on mobile device
- Url Shortening Service integration
- Standard and Floating layout for Social Share icons
- Customizable Target Url for Social Sharing
- Rearrange Order of Social Share icons
- Specify Position of Social Sharing Bar with respect to content – Top and Bottom
- Enable/Disable Social Sharing on default/custom post types
- Enable/Disable Social Sharing on individual pages/posts
- Enable/Disable total/individual social share count(s)
- Mobile Responsiveness
- Compatible with AMP
- Enable Social Sharing at WooCommerce products
- Official Like Buttons (Facebook Like, Twitter Tweet, Google +1 etc.)
- Widgets and Shortcodes
- Compatible with BuddyPress, BBPress, WooCommerce
- Multisite Compatible
- Supports HTTPS enabled websites
4. Addthis
Total downloads: 100,000+
Five Star Ratings: 610+
The Free WordPress Share Buttons Plugin from AddThis makes it easier than ever for your audience to spread your content around the web. Our quick-loading Share Buttons Plugin lets you connect to over 200 social channels including Messenger, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and many more.
5. Simple Share Buttons Adder
Total downloads: 80,000+
Five Star Ratings: 620+
The Simple Share Buttons Adder does exactly what it says – adds share buttons to all of your posts and pages, simply.
6. Buttonizer
Total downloads: 80,000+
Five Star Ratings: 60+
From WhatsApp Chat, Facebook Messenger, Floating contact form, WhatsApp widgets (New: WhatsApp Business), Click to Chat, Call, Email etc. Buttonizer is the most versatile Smart Floating Action (Sticky) Button plugin for WordPress.
Features:
- Choose from over 40 click actions and chat buttons
- Setup within 10 seconds + smart front-end interface (WYSIWYG Editor)
- Templates ready or choose from all possible styling options
- Build unlimited single floating buttons or interactive sticky menus
- Floating popups and contactforms
- Smart filters like show on scroll, device, pages and specific times
- Analytics dashboard to see all interactions, leads and conversions
7. Grow Social
Total downloads: 60,000+
Five Star Ratings: 160+
Grow Social is one of the easiest to use social sharing plugins available. It lets you add highly customizable social share buttons that will integrate beautifully with your website’s design, leading to increased interactions and social media shares.
Main Features:
- Before and After Content Social Share Buttons – Place the social share buttons right before your content, after your content or both
- Floating Sidebar Social Share Buttons – Make the social share buttons follow the user as he/she scrolls up and down your webpage by adding floating buttons on the left or right side of the screen
- Social Share Counts and Total Share Counts – Display social share counts for all social media networks, including Twitter
- Editable Button Labels – Edit the labels that appear in the share buttons, to maximize your engagement
- Retina Ready Sharp Share Icons – Grow Social by Mediavine uses an icon font to display the best looking social media icons on any screen
8. Super Socializer
Total downloads: 40,000+
Five Star Ratings: 640+
Integrate Social Login, Social Share and Social Comments at your website easiest and simplest possible way.
Features:
- GDPR Compliant
- Compatible with Gutenberg editor
- Compatible with myCRED (append myCRED referral ID at the end of the url being shared)
- Social Share from around 100 social networks
- Social Media follow icons
- Share counts are supported for Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Buffer, Reddit, Pinterest, Odnoklassniki, Fintel and Vkontakte
- FREE icon customization options
- Options to specify sharing icon shape – Square, Round and Rectangular
- Options to specify sharing icon size – minimum 16 pixels, no upper limit
- Options to specify sharing icon backround color and logo color
- Sharing counter customization options
- Enable share count cache with option to control cache refresh time-frame
- Enable url shortening to use in sharing
- Horizontal and Vertical (floating) layout for sharing
- Customizable target url for sharing
- Rearrange order of sharing icons
- Specify position of sharing icons with respect to content – Top and Bottom
- Enable/Disable sharing on default/custom post types
- Enable/Disable sharing on individual pages/posts
- Enable/Disable total/individual share count(s)
- Mobile responsive sharing interface
- Compatible with AMP
- Enable/Disable vertical/floating sharing interface on mobile device
- Social Login from 20 Social Networks – Facebook, Google, Linkedin, Twitter, Vkontakte, Line, Windows Live (Microsoft), Yahoo, WordPress, Dribbble, Kakao, Spotify, Github, Twitch, Instagram, Steam, Dropbox, Foursquare, Disqus and Reddit
- Enable Social Login interface at WordPress Login, Register pages and comment form
- Syncs user’s basic social profile data with WordPress profile
- Enable Social Login at WooCommerce checkout page and customer login form
- Enable Sharing at WooCommerce products
- Syncs user’s basic social profile data with WooCommerce profile
- Sync social profile data with BuddyPress XProfile fields
- Auto-approve comments made by users logged in using Social Login
- Use user’s social profile avatar as profile picture at your website
- Customizable login/post-registration redirection
- Enable Facebook Like/Recommend, Twitter Tweet, Yummly, Buffer, Xing buttons
- Enable Social Comments – Facebook Comments, Disqus Comments
- Widgets and shortcodes for Social Share, Social Login, Social Comments and Like Buttons
- Let your users link their social accounts to the account at your website
- Compatible with BuddyPress, bbPress, WooCommerce
- Multisite Compatible
- Supports HTTPS enabled websites
- 24/7 quickest customer support
9. Social Media Feather
Total downloads: 40,000+
Five Star Ratings: 500+
A lightweight free social media WordPress plugin that allows you to quickly and painlessly add social sharing and following features to all your posts, pages and custom post types.
The plugin supports adding of social buttons for sharing or following (that is, social buttons that link to your social network profiles pages). The social media buttons can easily and automatically be added to all your posts, pages or any other custom post types.
One of the few social sharing and bookmarking plugin with full support for the Retina and high resolution displays as used in the iPad, iPhones and other devices!
Feature List:
- Integrated WordPress social sharing for all your posts
- Full support for Retina and high resolution displays
- WordPress social sharing and following widgets
- Supports all major providers of social features
- Sharing with Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, Tumblr, Linkedin and E-mail
- Following on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin, YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram, Flickr, Foursquare, Vimeo or RSS Feed
- Each social provider can be enabled or disabled
- Ability to select what services each provider will be exposed for
- Full customization for titles and URLs for each provider
- Fast unobtrusive social bookmarks for your site
- Comes with a default modern icon set
- For further customization more social icons skins are available
- Available skins can be customized with cool effects like fading and greying out social icons
10. Social Warfare
Total downloads: 40,000+
Five Star Ratings: 180+
Get more social shares which can lead to more website traffic with the best WordPress social sharing plugin! Built by a group of social media marketing experts and world class developers who are obsessed with performance.
Conclusion:
Sharing your social media networks on your site is important and something every site should feature. To make things easier for you, there is an abundance of social share WordPress plugins to choose from.
However, some are better than others and hopefully you’ll find that my list made choosing the best one easier! But remember, just make sure the one you chose works with your site and doesn’t interfere with the users’ experience!
To view more social sharing plugins, check out our Social Media WordPress plugins.
