5 Best Social Sharing Plugins For WordPress compared

There are hundreds of social media sharing plugins available in wordpress, so choosing the right plugin is quite difficult and sometimes we end up using a bad plugin which slows downs the website speed. 

Moreover, there are paid and free versions of the social sharing plugin and we want a free and premium-looking plugin for our wordpress website. 

But, free versions are generally not that responsive and in some other cases, these are not optimized for better performance. 

So, in this article, we will compare some of the best free and premium social share plugins in wordpress considering points like 

• Responsive social icons
• Required social icons support
• Optimize for speed
• Click to tweet support
• Pinterest save button on images

These are the basic features that a social sharing plugin must have. But there are several other premium features that are available like 

• Social auto poster
• Advanced Analytics
• Social login
• Automatic Pop-Ups

So, you have to choose what types of WordPress Social Media Plugins work best for you. Sometimes you need more than one plugin for your social media campaign. So, try to find one plugin which satisfies all your needs without hampering your page speed. 

So, if you are concerned about page speed then you should check our older post about core web vitals and how to improve them for better ranking. 

If you are new to blogging then you should go for the free version of a lightweight social share plugin with all basic features but the premium version is worth purchasing as it saves a lot of time and effort in social media marketing. 

Let’s dive in so that you can start getting more social shares in no time!

List of best social share plugins in WordPress

1. Social Snap

The most featured rich social media plugin in our list is Social snap which comes with both free and premium versions. 

You can find most of the features in its premium version but the free version is enough for beginners. In the social snap plugin, you will get different types of social icon placement like 

• inline buttons 
• floating sidebar
• share hub
• sticky bar
• On Media Buttons
• via Widget
• via Shortcode

It also supports various button sizes, colors, and styles in both free and premium versions. But, the Free version is not as customizable and sometimes not responsive as the pro version. 

It supports total and individual share counts and has the feature to recover the social counts if you move your site to another domain or change to an HTTPS version etc. 

The social snap plugin also supports Pinterest buttons on images which will increase the chances of image sharing on your website. 

In the free version, you will get the support of limited social media sharing icons like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Mix, Email, and copy link icons. This is more than sufficient for now. 

But in the pro version, you can choose Over 30 Most Popular Social Networks which include WhatsApp, telegram, tumbler, etc. 

Other functionalities of the social snap plugin are:

• Click to Tweet: Easy way to add click to tweet buttons on wordpress with 6 premade template
• Social login: It allows your members to log in to your website through social media like Google, Facebook.
• Social media auto-poster: Automatic share option to different platforms. 
• Boost old posts:  It will reshare older posts to social media platforms like Twitter & LinkedIn automatically. 
• Device targeting: It is one of the unique features in the social snap which allows you to show different social icons on different devices like desktops and mobile.  

Price: Pro version starts at $27 per year

Get Social Snap

2. Sassy Social Share

The second most popular social media plugin in our list is Sassy Social Share for wordpress. This is basically a free freemium plugin that you can use as an alternative to social snap. 

There is no restriction on social media icons here. You can use any social media icons you want and it also allows customization of social icons for different sizes, shapes, and colors. 

This is not that responsive in the free version and asked around $12 for the pro version. But if you choose small social icons then it is responsive and works perfectly fine on all devices. 

It also allows you to place share buttons in different methods like floating, inline share buttons, Widget, and Shortcode. It also supports social follow icons in the sidebar. 

It has also some performance-related settings like Load Javascript files in the footer, Load Javascript only when needed, etc. 

You can also track share counts and integrate bitly for url shortening. 

Price: Free, paid add-ons at ~$9.99 

Get sassy social share

3. Novashare

Novashare is a premium social share plugin in wordpress which is designed with a performance-focused approach. It’s a very easy-to-use plugin and the user interface of its admin panel is very simple. 

It has also the same basic customization like changing the icon color, size, and shape with limited and useful social share icons. 

This is because it is a very lightweight social share plugin with less than 5KB size in the frontend. It also uses inline SVG icons to minimize DNS lookups and increase the loading speed. 

Other features include:

• Click to Tweet block
• Social share count recovery
• Pinterest image hover pins
• Follow widget
• Analytics and link shortening
• GDPR-friendly

If you want to use a lightweight plugin for your social share in wordpress then this is the best option for you. 

Price: $29.95 per year

4. Social Warfare

Social warfare is a freemium social share plugin that comes with both free & premium versions. The free version of this theme is very limited and support only 4 social media platform. [Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin & Pinterest]

In the pro version, it supports other important social media icons like WhatsApp, tumbler, etc. 

Additional features

• Pinterest-specific images
• Minimum share counts to avoid negative social proof
• Customization
• Share count recovery
• Analytics and link shortening
• Shareable Quotes [Click-to-Tweet]

I don’t recommend you to buy the premium version of this plugin but if you just want a beautiful inline and floating share button then you can use its free version.

Unlike other free version plugins, it is super responsive and works perfectly fine across different devices.

Price: Limited free plugin. The Pro version starts at $29 for one site.

Get social warfare

5. Swifty Bar

This isn’t as much popular as other social share plugins but it has a unique approach of social share icons with other features. 

Swifty bar shows a sticky bar at the bottom which contains social sharing buttons along with reading time, author name, and the next/previous post button. 

This isn’t specifically designed for social sharing but it also fulfills multiple purposes in a single plugin. The best part of this plugin is that it is completely free and gives a better user experience to your readers. 

Major features in Swifty Bar include:

• Shows current post category, post title, and author’s first and last name.
• Estimated Reading time
• Share buttons & share counter
• Number of Comments and click to scroll to the comment form
• Previous/Next Post Links with a nice preview on hover
• Lightweight & easy customizable admin area

You should definitely try this plugin for your website and it can replace your reading progress bar plugin with unique share buttons. 

Price: Free

Get Swifty Bar

Which WordPress social sharing plugin should you choose?

If you want to just add the popular social media icons to your WordPress website then all the plugins should do the job for you. But when it comes to customization, looks, and performance you have to choose the best plugin available.

I highly recommend you to use the Social snap plugin as it comes with attractive social share buttons, a dedicated Pinterest pin button on images, and is very lightweight.

It also comes with a beautiful click to tweet functionality even it’s free version and the paid version really saves a lot of time for social media marketers & site owners.

If you want some unique way of sharing then you can try Swifty Bar along with other social share plugins. It will work both as a social share and a reading progress bar at the same time.

So, let me know what is your favorite social media plugin that you are currently using on your site and want me to suggest any other plugins to include in this list.