Can you imagine a world without social media? Ten years ago, we weren’t even sure what social media was, but in 2015, social media is a thing we can’t live without. I mean it: There are people out there who would commit suicide if their Facebook and Twitter accounts were shut down.
In this “social era of internet”, social sharing widgets are kind of obligatory elements in our pages with content. And in this article, we’re going to have a look at seven free and premium WordPress plugins on social sharing widgets.
Let’s begin!
AddThis Sharing Buttons (Free)
Being one of the most popular social share widgets provider, AddThis has an official WordPress plugin since 2007. And boy oh boy, they really know their business: Not only you get a set of social sharing buttons with great design, but also you’ll be provided with an awesome backend where you’ll be able to track your sharing analytics via the AddThis Dashboard.
Almost too good to be free, right?
Ultimate Social Deux (Premium)
Ultimate Social Deux is one of the top selling social share widgets for WordPress on CodeCanyon. It really has an impressive number of options you can play with, so you can create floating social widgets, utilize shortcodes, and even use those native share buttons that social networks provide.
Naked Social Share (Free)
Looking for something simpler? This one’s so simple that the buttons don’t even have any styling (if you choose to, of course). Aimed to serve for developers, Naked Social Share provides a set of social sharing buttons that you can style it any way you want. It has some basic styling options (as seen in the image above) but you can choose to disable that styling and use your own CSS and icons if you want. And that’s why this plugin is my favorite in this article.
Monarch (Premium)
Let’s get to the big guys now. Elegant Themes, one of the biggest WordPress theme shops around, released Monarch this year. It’s probably the biggest plugin ever created on social sharing buttons. It has so many options and areas of utilization that the plugin’s landing page is also one of the biggest landing pages you’ll ever see.
Having said that, you need to think if you really need this massive plugin. After all, bigger isn’t always better in web – especially in terms of data and resource usage.
Shareaholic (Free)
Ah, this one reminds me of Web 2.0. Why? Well, because Shareaholic was probably the most popular WordPress plugin on social sharing widgets! Sadly, their design still reminds that Web 2.0 era; but the plugin has grown beyond social sharing buttons. If you need a sweet package of social sharing widgets, social analytics and even a “Related Posts” widget, Shareaholic is your guy.
Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress (Premium)
Another plugin from CodeCanyon is Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress. I have to say that it’s probably the best premium option that I’ve covered in this article. It has 18 built-in automated display options and 7 types of shortcodes for you to use the buttons freely in your website.
And I really, really like the plugin’s design taste.
Jetpack’s Sharing Module (Free)
Jetpack has grown so big that in plugin roundups in any category, there’s a Jetpack module that you need to mention. That’s the case in social sharing widgets as well: Jetpack’s “Sharing” module is another powerful alternative to the plugins above. Even though it has a big CSS footprint in the front-end, you can count on this module if you’re already a Jetpack user.
Although, I wish they’d also display sharing analytics in their Stats module *sigh*.
Conclusion
It’s always nice to start off a WordPress-related blog with a roundup of popular plugins. Hope you enjoyed this article!
Do you have anything to add to this post? Don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments section below.