Free Social Share Button Plugins: The Best and Worst to Use

A good social sharing button plugin is a must have. But it shouldn’t drag down your site speed, or cookie track your visitors.

See a real side-by-side test for both fashion and function. You’ll clearly see which plugins to use and which to run away from.

Plugins Tested

In alphabetical order:

• Add to Any
• AddThis Share Buttons
• Sassy Social Share
• Scriptless Social Sharing
• Shared Counts
• Shareaholic
• Simple Social buttons
• Social Pug
• Social Warfare

Also see Best Paid Social Share Button Plugins for my comparison of Social Pug and Social Warfare

What Was Tested

Share button plugins are not all about looks and features.

They area also about the toll they can take on your site.

These plugins were tested for both function and fashion.

Testers – the two testers used were my workhorse, WebPage Test, and Google PageSpeed Insights (GPSI), as their Lighthouse results are more accurate now.

(See the section Full Testing Conditions below for more.)

For Function – Each plugin was checked on multiple points that affect speed, security, and any negative impact that could affect ranking, including:

• Number of requests added – extra elements required to load like CSS, JS, and fonts
• Page weight added – how many bytes those extra elements added
• GPSI score – how much the plugin dropped the score (my test site had a score of 100)
• GPSI criteria – in Opportunities, Diagnostics, and Audits passed

Other Functions – items that do not affect speed or security directly, but are important.

• GDPR compliance – if the plugin used any type of tracking on those who shared
• Extra Pinterest features – for setting specific images or other Pinterest-only functions

For Fashion – the top 4 plugins were checked for:

• Style options
• Placement options
• Turn on/off buttons
• Extra options

Full Report

The 120 page report, plus full spreadsheet of all critical data, is available to my Webmaster Training Level 6 members as a bonus. That includes:

• all speed data
• screenshots of all performance data
• the exact requests added
• any orphaned files/folders/database tables left after the plugin was deleted

Test Results

I won’t keep you in suspense any longer.

Here is a snapshot of the best performing free share button plugins based on my test criteria.

One is in the list twice, and I’ll tell you why in the review of it.

See below for a review on each plugin.

Plugin Review – Things to Know First

Here are a few things to know before you read through the plugin results.

A few acronyms used:

• CSS – Cascading Style Sheet – for how it looks
• JS – JavaScript – for how it works
• Font – could be Font Awesome from the outside, or a .woof font that is stored locally

About extra JS
Most of the plugins that contain JS files also invoke the two JS files native to WordPress. This way WP carries the bulk of the code library and the plugins can remain light.

However, it does increase the total number of requests and page weight. But, it’s likely that other plugins, or even your theme, will be calling in those two files too, so I didn’t hold it against any of the plugins in my evaluation.

Caching for more speed
A good local caching plugin, like WP Fastest Cache and WP Rocket, can help defer and speed up the extra CSS and JS and font files most of these plugins contain. But, no caching was used in these tests to keep everything on the same, raw level.

Share Counts
Displaying counts slows down the site, have not been accurate in 2 years, and no longer encourages more shares. For these tests, they were turned off.

Plugin Results and Reviews

Scriptless Social Sharing

https://wordpress.org/plugins/scriptless-social-sharing/

Yes, it is in the results list twice – for good reason!

The default settings give you the same look as several of the other plugins, like:

• Buttons colored by platform
• Platform icons

But, those things add weight and slow down page load.

Scriptless Social Sharing is the ONLY plugin that lets you take out all the weight, cause zero load drag, and keep a perfect GPSI score.

And it still looks good doing it too.

The plugin supports options for:

• Multiple settings that allow you to customize the look
• Placement – above/below/both on content
• Turn buttons off  for all pages/posts and on a per page/post basis
• Option to assign a custom Pinterest image. NO other free plugin has that

The plugin adds no tracking and is GDPR compliant.

Recommendation: This is my fave social share button plugin. I use it on BlogAid and recommend it to all of my clients who want to keep things fast and simple.

I’m also a big fan of the developer, Robin Cornett too. She is always improving everything she makes and is very responsive to suggestions and fixes.

READ: Scriptless Social Sharing Plugin: Best Settings for Speed and Looks

Social Warfare

https://wordpress.org/plugins/social-warfare/

This plugin provides good looking buttons with lots of extra features.

It does add a little weight to the page in the form of its own:

• 1 CSS
• 1 JS
• 1 .woof font

But, it is done in a way that has zero impact on the GPSI score, even without extra caching help.

You don’t have many setting choices for the look of the buttons, but fortunately most folks like the default.

The plugin also supports choices for:

• Placement – above/below/both and shortcode for manual placement
• Turn on/off buttons by content type, including page/post/category – there is no setting to turn off on a per page/post basis. The only remedy is to maybe turn off for all pages and use the shortcode to add them only on the pages you want.
• Gutenberg blocks – affects the manually placed shortcodes
• Frame Buster – to stop scrapers from embedding your site into theirs as an iframe
• Full Content vs. Excerpts – if your theme and/or SEO plugin do not already support it (Genesis and Yoast SEO do)
• Floating share buttons – tracks down the side of the page as the visitor scrolls
• Click to Tweet
• Share counts – one of the few plugins that includes aggregation when switching from HTTP to HTTPS

The free version has no extra Pinterest support.

The plugin adds no tracking and is GDPR compliant.

Recommendation: This plugin is great when it works and offers more features for lighter weight and faster speed than any other.

My ONLY hesitation in recommending this plugin is that it has a reputation of breaking sites on update. I honestly don’t know if that’s only due to complexity of the paid version, or includes this free version too. The plugin has been rebuilt 3-4 times from scratch, including splitting off this free version, which must be used in conjunction with the paid version. Too many of my clients have jumped ship on it, never to return, even if the devs get the issues fixed permanently. The plugin not working is one thing. Breaking the whole site is another.

Shared Counts

https://wordpress.org/plugins/shared-counts/

This plugin is made by Bill Erickson, long known as a Genesis coding mentor.

Of all the plugins that adds requests and weight, it is the lowest, but it is done in such a way that it brings down the GPSI score by 3 points. Caching may fix that.

It adds its own:

• 1 CSS
• 1 JS

The plugin also supports:

• Multiple styling options and button types/shapes
• A large array of social platform buttons – more than most, and includes Yummly for foodie blogs
• Placement – above/below/both and shortcode for manual placement
• Turn buttons off  for all pages/posts and on a per page/post basis
• Share counts – one of the few plugins that includes aggregation when switching from HTTP to HTTPS

There is no native option to assign a custom Pinterest image, but there is a free add-on plugin.

The plugin adds no tracking and is GDPR compliant.

Recommendation: This is a pretty solid plugin and offers the most style button choices so far.

However, the Twitter button does not include your Twitter handle. Code has to be added for that.

And I wish they would put a preview of the style choices in the plugin, instead of a link to visit the plugin’s page to see them. But honestly, once you set your button look, you keep it. So this is a one-time thing.

I also wish they would include the Pinterest image option instead of making it an add-on. That’s especially important due to the attraction of having a Yummly share button, as foodie bloggers, and their site visitors, are usually big on Pinterest too.

Social Pug

https://wordpress.org/plugins/social-pug/

The official name is Social Sharing Buttons – Social Pug

This plugin is one of the lowest for weight and requests added, but it does them in a way that decreases GPSI score by 3 points.

It adds its own:

• 1 CSS
• 1 JS

The plugin also supports:

• Multiple styling options and button types/shapes
• A small array of social platform buttons on the free version
• Placement – above/below/both as well as floating buttons on the side – each can be styled separately
• Turn buttons off  for all pages/posts but no option to turn off on a per page/post basis
• Share counts – but no option to aggregate from HTTP/HTTPS

The plugin adds no tracking and is GDPR compliant.

Recommendation: This plugin is solid and the button style choices are totally customizable in many ways. However, this plugin has the least number of platforms available. There are only 5, and will soon be only 4 as Google+ is no longer an option. You have to go up to the paid version to get more.

When I first activated the plugin, there was a notice about Twitter counts being turned off due to the service providing them dragging down page load speed. That’s just one more reason to turn off share counts.

There is also no custom image for Pinterest support in the free version.

If you are okay with the limited number of platforms being only the top 4, this is a good plugin to use.

Honorable Mention

The following plugin didn’t quite make the cut for my recommendation, but it has so much to offer that I’m keeping an eye on it and hope to test it again in the future.

Sassy Social Share

https://wordpress.org/plugins/sassy-social-share/

This is actually a pretty cool plugin. It has many of the desired features, and a few extras that make it a real standout, as none of the other free plugins have some of them. They include:

• SVG icons that can be customized for free
• 100+ platform choices
• Lots of styling options
• Floating buttons
• Sharing of Woocommerce products
• GDPR compliance
• Gutenberg ready
• AMP ready
• And more

But, it adds too much weight and drops the GPSI score too much for me to recommend at this time.

However, if you need those special features, this may be the right plugin for you, especially considering that a good caching plugin may help.

I also liked that it had an option to cleanly uninstall itself.

I’ll be keeping my eye on this one to see if they can make all of that complexity a little faster.

Other Plugins

I would strongly suggest getting happy with one of the plugins above. The rest of the plugins I tested either added too much weight, dragged down the GPSI score, or were just plain too evil for me to recommend.

Please look through this list and see if you are using one of them and consider switching to a better plugin.

AddToAny

This plugin has come a long way since my last case study in 2014. But, it still has a way to go to make it into my recommended plugins list.

The plugin adds 3 JS files and 1 .html file from their site.

None of those can be cached, so no speed improvements are possible.

I also could not tell if it is still adding a cookie for their tracking purposes, as it did in my 2016 test. I did not find direct evidence of it, so perhaps they have removed it.

AddThis

Don’t use.

It adds multiple hidden elements and tracks folks who share. That practice is couched in the name of giving you extra analytics. Don’t fall for it.

Simple Social Buttons

Don’t use.

Way too much weight and drops your GPSI score by 20 points.

It’s super heavy on outside domain requests from Twitter (5) and Facebook (6) for counts. This is with share counts turned off.

And none of them can be cached, so there is no speed improvement available.

Shareaholic

Don’t use – in fact – run!

This is one of THE most evil plugins available.

Not only do they track your sharing visitors – they run their own ads in the background – LOTS of them.

You must agree to their Terms of Service before using the plugin. It clearly states that all of the data your are providing will be shared with 3rd party vendors. It’s very likely they are selling that data. This is also not at all GDPR compliant.

I literally burned my test site after removing it.

Even though I checked for orphaned stuff between each plugin deletion, I did not trust them not to hide something away in an unexpected place.

Want to see what’s slowing down your site?
Get a full site audit that checks everything!

Full Test Conditions

Webmasters – see the Bonus section for full test conditions.
Want to learn how to do tests like this?
Webmaster Training is for designers and devs.

The brief below has the most important aspects of my testing setup, if you want to recreate the tests for yourself, or check your variation in results against the ones given.

• Apache – This is the slowest type of server, compared to Apache/Nginix and Litespeed.
• No local caching plugin
• Cloudflare – for security
  • default caching on
  • all extra speed tweaks disabled like Brotli, Minify
  • Email obfuscation was turned off, but still gave an extra request inconsistently, which was ignored in the final request count
• WordPress 5.0.3
• Gutenberg active
• TwentyNineteen theme
• No active widgets that pulled requests
• Test post with FakerPress dummy content
  • Main body of content was imported into a Classic Paragraph block
  • Large featured image that also appeared as wide image at top of post
  • One image embedded in content
  • Neither image had extra optimization
• Share Counts were turned off on each plugin.
• Tests run on WebPage Test
  • Lincoln Nebraska, Chrome, Cable connection, First and Repeat Views (see this post for how to run a speed test on WPT)
• Tests run on Google PageSpeed Insights – Lighthouse version – base test site had perfect score of 100

Between Tests

Each tested plugin was deleted before a new plugin was added.

The hosting account was checked for orphaned:

• Files
• Folders
• Database tables
• Rows in wp_options table

Cloudflare cache was fully purged.

A new post was created for each test, to ensure the testers didn’t cache the results on any permalink.