Easy Social Share Buttons For WordPress
Pros
- After share actions
- Speed optimization options
- Various locations for sharing buttons
- Localization ready
- Many templates
- Avoid negative social proof feature
- Mobile optimized sharing positions
Cons
- Sometimes navigating through the tabs and options can be pretty overwhelming
- It takes a while to familiarize yourself with every feature this plugin has to offer
- Too much features for someone who only needs a few sharing options
Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress is social sharing plugin that allows to share, monitor and increase the social popularity of your WordPress site. Social media has been integrated into every part of the internet.
Whether you are viewing a video on YouTube or reading an article, you will see a section on the page that allows you to share content. The reason behind using social media sharing is potential of traffic that can be generated in that way.
If you do not place social media sharing buttons on your website, you are less likely to have your content shared by others. This means you are missing a lot of traffic and probably money.
Sharing content via social media platforms should be part of every marketing strategy. Backlinks from social networks like Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest…etc are nofollow. Despite that, Google still uses data from social networks to rank websites in the search engine.
When someone shares your content, the link will be considered as a vote of trust. But making people share content is not an easy task. The user will not share your blog posts unless they like it and have reason to do so.
The visitor will ignore ugly social sharing buttons on WordPress site. The latest trend is using flat design and big bold icons like share buttons on Mashable and Upworthy.
They look great and offer nice features as well. There are many WordPress share plugins. Free and paid. Finding the perfect one which works well and blends with the design of your website is a complicated task.
Finding a good social sharing plugin for a multilingual WordPress site is even more challenging. The problem is that most social share buttons are usually generic and give no control over internationalization, localization and translation features.
I have used various free WordPress social share button plugins since I started blogging. But I never found a single plugin that had everything that I need.
One day I was browsing Codecanyon plugin repository. I had no idea that I will find a most featured packed social sharing plugin for WordPress.
It was Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress. The price was right, and plugin looks amazing. So I gave it a try. Here is my review and reasons why I think Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress is best paid WordPress share plugin and much more.
Easy Social Share Buttons vs Monarch vs Social Share & Locker
- Social Sharing NetworksNumber of social sharing sites plugin supports.
- After Share Actions
- Like, Follow, Subscribe Option
- Mobile OptimizedSharing buttons look good on handheld devices
- Google Analytics Tracking
- Social Media MetricsProvides post/page information about top social networks, most commented and shared content
- Image Sharing
- Video Sharing
- Button Templates
- Avada Theme Integration
- AffiliateWP Integration
- Sharable Quotes
- Social Fans Counter
- Social Share Optimization
- Customize TextAbility to customize text for network on each button
- Sharing Buttons LocationLocations you can choose to place sharing buttons
- Multiple Display LocationsCombine available display locations
- Mobile Display MethodsSpecial mobile optimized display methods
- Avoid Social Negative ProofHide counters till the value of shares is reached
- Share Buttons as PopUp
- Timed Delayed SharingShowing share buttons or custom message after set time
- Upon % ScrollShowing share buttons or custom message after % of content has been shown
- After CommentingShowing share buttons or custom message after visitor has commented
- After WooCommerce PurchaseShowing share buttons or custom message after visitor has made purchase
- Visual Composer Integration
- Social ProfilesLink to your social profiles
- Ready Made StylesPre configured social sharing buttons styles
- Quick Setup WizardSet sharing buttons faster skipping advanced options
- Button Style CustomizationCustomize buttons by position and post type
- Post Share CustomizationPersonalize share information for each post for better results
- myCred Integration
- Style CustomizerChange look of your sharing buttons
- ShortcodesPlace sharing buttons using shortcodes
- WidgetsPlace sharing buttons using widgets
- Cache ModuleOptimize sharing buttons load using cache
- Access ControlSet how will have access to plugin settings (user roles)
- LocalizationTranslate and localize sharing buttons
- Short URL Support
- Automatic Updates
- Ability to Reorder ButtonsYou are able to reorder sharing buttons as you wish
- Animations
- Counter StylesAbility to change look of counters
- Social Privacy Option
- JigoShow Integration
- WP e-Commerce Integration
- iThemes Exchange Integration
- bbPress Integration
- BuddyPress Integration
- Cache Plugins Compatible
- Event Calendar Compatible
- Import/Export Data
- Floating Sidebar Option
- After InactivityIf a user is inactive page for too long, plugin can be triggered
- Lock Content OptionAbility to lock content until visitor shares
- Support
- More than 35In addition you have Love this button, Comments button, Send to mail and Print.
- Paid addon
- 22
- 19
- Supports 80 most popular sites
- More than 10 most popular like Mashable, AddThis, Upworthy...
- 4 ready to use animations
- Comes with 11 counter styles and 6 total counter styles that you can use
- Free for 6 monthsYou can extend support to 12 months for $5.70
- More than 20
- 5Plus 3 icons shape
- 5
- Just few options
- Monarch Follow Widget
- But it will work
- But it will work
- But it will work
- But it will work
- But it will work
- But it will work
- But it will work
- Year or LifetimeIt depends which membership plan purchased
- 28
- Paid addon $8
- 10You can buy 20 more for $9 as addon
- 7
- Plugin has option to set fake initial share counts
- Just few options
- Free for 6 monthsYou can extend support to 12 months for $4.50
Why Easy Social Share Buttons For WordPress?
While many other social sharing plugins have useful functionality, they often have layout issues. You’ll often see sharing icons that are all slightly different sizes which look untidy and unprofessional.
This is because they use the embedded code from each social media platform. Most social share buttons WordPress plugins let you choose what buttons to display.
Do you want to show the buttons at the top or bottom of posts? On which pages or posts to display? That’s about it.
Easy Social Share Buttons plugin for WordPress goes much farther. It allows you an insane amount of customization. It is a plugin with a clean, customisable layout which looks amazing on any WordPress website.
With this plugin, your visitors can share on more than 35 main social networks. In addition you also have love this button, comments button, send to mail, print and subscribe option.
Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress includes 12 native social like, follow and subscribe buttons to help you increase social following and social proof.
The plugin gives you the freedom to control almost every aspect of the display. It has 18 build in automated display button methods and seven types of shortcodes.
You can easily add social media buttons to your WordPress site/blog and even optimize sharing buttons for display on handheld devices.
Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress comes with build-in modules for Click log analytics, Google Analytics Tracking, Social Media Metrics, modules for social image share (included for free) and social video share (paid addon).
This WordPress social share buttons plugin has 22 beautiful templates and template customizer. Easy Social Share Buttons WordPress plugin includes Social Fans Counter and Social Profiles modules.
These modules let your visitors see your social networks profiles, follow counts, and quickly become a follower. The plugin comes bundled with robust analytics, Click Log and access to other statistics.
You will be able to know exactly how your readers are sharing your content, from which posts and to which social platforms. There is lot more features this plugin offers.
Social Share Plugin For Multilingual Website
It supports social networks from Russia, China, Germany or Spain:
- Vkontakte – It is very popular among Russian-speaking users around the world, especially in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan
- Weibo – One of the most popular social networks in China
- Xing – It is very popular in countries like Germany, Austria and Switzerland
- Odnokkassniki – It is very popular in Russia and former Soviet Republics
- Menéame – It is a Spanish social news site based on community participation
Localization Settings allows you set buttons to appear in your native language. You can provide language code for native social networks and localized message that will appear when you point share button.
If you have multilingual WordPress site, Easy Social Share Buttons plugin will be a great choice for you.
Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress Review
After purchasing and activation of Easy Social Share Buttons plugin, the first thing that you will notice is how many configuration options it offers.
The settings area is split into eight different tabs, and most tabs contain several sub-tabs and different sections. All this can be a little daunting at first. But don’t worry, there is so-called Easy Mode.
Beginners can use the unique easy mode, which will turn off the advanced options while you get used to the plugin. I had to spend at least four hours and carefully read the documentation to set and test all features.
After that, I needed few days to get to know the plugin to its fullest. I also had to contact the author of plugin several times to fix some issues. Luckily support is excellent, and the author was able to provide solutions to fix bugs and conflicts.
There is also Quick Setup Wizard option which will speed setting things up. I always prefer going through each setting and bring the fullest options from it. Especially if I paid for it.
Social Buttons
Social Sharing Optimization and Settings
In the Social Sharing settings area, you can choose the button design, social networks that you will use or change how social networks are listed.
Other features of the plugin, such as social media counters, social media likes, and statistics, can be configured here too. Easy Social Share Buttons supports an impressive 31 templates to choose from.
You’ll see a preview of each button set, so go through them all and pick a favorite. You can also choose to activate animations or even make extra button customization settings.
This includes button alignment, width, and the gap between buttons. You can also choose whether you want to display the social networks icon and/or network name on your buttons.
Next, you can choose which networks you want to show. This screen supports drag-and-drop, making it easy for you to configure the order of your buttons. If wanted, you can set up Additional Network Options.
This includes: Twitter share short URL, Provide default Twitter username and hashtags to be incorporated into messages, Twitter message optimization, Facebook Advanced Sharing, Pinterest sniff for images, Email button send options, Antispan CAPTCHA Verification, Customize default mail message and many more options for Print, Comments, StumpleUpon, Buffer, WhatsApp, Flattr.
Here you can set Subscribe button which is a new feature for Easy Social Share buttons. This unique functionality provides the integration with MailChimp. No other social share WordPress plugin will allow you that.
When subscribe button is pressed by the user, the form will be loaded. Depending on the display position the form loads as slide under the button or as a pop-up at the center of the screen.
The form can also be used with shortcode or as a widget. The subscribe button works with other mail services other than MailChimp.
Also, there is option custom design for the mail form to be used. Shortcode from any other subscribe plugin can be integrated with the subscribe button of Easy Social Share Buttons.
Counters screen gives you the opportunity to display the number of times the post has been shared on each network. This is an excellent way to encourage more clicks by leveraging social proof. Often shared posts encourage further shares.
If you choose to display counters, there are a few extra settings to configure. This includes the position of the counter (12 options), and settings for the Total counter (the sum of all shares).
There is also an option to Avoid Social Negative Proof. That means you can hide your button or total counter until a number of shares are reached.
In Network Names settings you can set different texts that will appear instead of social network names inside buttons. Social Share Analytics settings provide an option to turn on Click statistics handle.
You are then able to see a detailed view of user activity. Note that plugin log clicks of buttons. Social Sharing Optimization section provides some sharing optimizations for Facebook, Twitter, and Google.
If you already have a plugin which automatically generate and insert open graph meta tags for post/pages and Twitter cards, like Yoast SEO (check Yoast vs All In One SEO), then you can skip this section.
Custom Share Message tab allows customizing message, URL, image and description for all the buttons available on your site.
If you have myCRED plugin installed, which is a points management system that lets you award / charge your users for interacting with your WordPress website, you can set it up in myCred Integration section of Easy Social Share Buttons plugin.
The plugin can be integrated with AffiliateWP. It will automatically append an affiliate’s ID to Easy Social Share Buttons sharing links that are generated.
Like, Follow & Subscribe
This section is for setting Native-Like, Follow & Subscribe Buttons.
If you activate this module you will be able to display Facebook like/follow button, Google +1/follow button, Twitter tweet/follow button, YouTube channel subscribe button, include Pinterest pin/follow button, LinkedIn button, ManagedWP.org upvote button and Include VK.com like button.
You will also be able to set various settings for each one.
Customization of native buttons is also available as well as the option to activate social privacy. This option is connected with the privacy of personal information of the users.
If you choose Yes, no information will be shared without user’s permission. Be noted Social Privacy is not compatible with cache plugins or build-in cache module for now.
Social Following (Fans Counter)
Social Following buttons are icons with counters connected to your accounts on each social network. The counters display how much people have been followed or liked your social profiles pages.
If using this option be prepared for a lot of work. Preparing and setting Social Fans Counter takes time and effort. Especially if you are setting more than one social network.
It supports displaying counters of people which follow you on various social and other sites.
Currently, it supports 36 sites like Facebook, Google, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, GitHub, Vimeo, Dribble, Envato, SoundCloud, Behance, MailChimp, Delicious, Instagram, YouTube, Steam, VK, RSS, Vine, Flickr, WordPress, etc.
You can choose between 5 ready templates (Color, Grey Metro, Flat, Dark), option to display in 1, 2, 3, or 4 columns, show fans with ready-made widget included or with shortcode call.
Social Profiles
Social Profile buttons are icons with a connection to your accounts on each social network. For these buttons, there are no counters available, and this is the main difference from Social Fans Counter.
Letting your users see your social networks profiles and easily become a follower is more than important for any business or individual.
Some settings for this include:
- Button style – choose style outlook for your profile buttons
- Button color style – choose if color style for your buttons
- Remove spacing between buttons
- Button size – choose size for your buttons
- Automatic display of profiles – choose if you wish to make Social Profiles buttons show automatically
- Position of social profiles – choose where your profile buttons to appear
- Deactivate social profiles on mobile – choose if you want to disable profile buttons on mobile devices
Social Profiles module supports 80 of most popular networks and has different button styles, color styles and sizes. You can also easy change the colors using the style settings of the plugin.
After Social Share Actions
After share actions are another way to engage the social active users with your site. They are ideal for increasing your social following, mailing list or putting your own code.
After Social Share Actions allows you to encourage the user to perform an additional action after he shares your content (example: like or follow after share, subscribe to email, etc.).
You can choose not display after social share action for mobile devices and/or where after share action buttons are deactivated. You can set width of custom message and how often you wish it to appear
After close action types:
- Like/Follow Box – box with social share buttons on it
- Custom HTML message – box with any message you want. For example, subscribe form, important announcement…
- Custom user code – make possible adding any personal JavaScript code
Social Metrics Lite
Easy Social Metrics Lite tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress Dashboard. It provides information per post/page.
Like top social network lists, top social content, top commented content and statistic information about total shares by social networks for selected content to monitor. You will get a separate tab in WP dashboard above Easy Social Share Buttons.
The plugin comes with a lite version of Metrics package, for more options check PRO version which is available as a standalone product.
Short URL
In this section, you can activate usage of short URL for all social networks. Using short links will generate unique short links for pages/posts.
If you have shared till now full address of you current post/pages, using short link will make counters of sharing to start from 0. If you choose to use this option, you will be able to pick from built-in WordPress short URL function, bit.ly and goo.gl.
Display Settings
Where to Display
The display settings tab is all about where your social media sharing buttons are shown. You can exclude your buttons from a particular area of your website and change what is displayed in other areas.
Setting options:
- Where to display buttons – Choose post types where you wish buttons to appear
- Display in post excerpt – Activate this option if your theme is using excerpts and you wish to display share buttons in excerpts
- Exclude automatic display on – This will deactivate automated display of buttons on selected posts/pages but you can use shortcode on them
- Disable plugin on – Deactivating plugin will make no style or scripts to be executed for those pages/posts
- Deactivate buttons display on homepage – Choose this option if you wish to hide buttons from your homepage
For WooCommerce, WP e-Commerce, JigoShop, iThemes Exchange, bbPress, BuddyPress there are additional buttons display settings.
They can help you locate more precisely the buttons according to the specific of plugins you use.
Display Positions
Here you choose default method that will be used to render buttons inside content and additional button display positions that will work along with the default one.
For each position you can customize display settings. Depending on where you pick social share buttons to display on your WordPress site using Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress, you will have less or more additional options to configure. If you wish, you can have different button position for various post types.
Mobile Display Options
Activate this option to personalize display share buttons positions on mobile devices. You can choose not to apply mobile settings for tablets, customize the default share bar text, customize share buttons bar….
There are several positions you can use to customize the display of social sharing buttons on mobile devices. Three are specially optimized for handheld devices. Those are Share buttons bar, Share bar and share point.
Depending on which one you pick, you will have less or more additional options to configure for each. You can also use custom message before share buttons.
In this section, you can also find Client side mobile detection feature. Client side mobile settings should be used only when you have a cache plugin that cannot be configured to work with both mobile and desktop version of the site.
Advanced Settings
This settings tab is not for everybody. It requires some knowledge, reading documentation and testing. In Optimization Options, you make tweaks to improve load of the plugin on your site.
Like minify CSS and javascript files, load scripts in the head element, activate build in cache functions to improve the speed of load.
NOTE: If you use a site cache plugin activation of built-in cache is not needed as cache plugin will do the cache work.
In Advanced Options, you can change default priority of buttons. Provide a custom value of priority when buttons are included in content (default is 10). This will make a code of plugin to execute before or after another plugin.
Other settings in this section include:
- Option to avoid buttons included in excerpts,
- Option to encode URL used for sharing – This is option is recommended when you notice that parts of shared URL are missing,
- Use encrypted version of texts for sharing – When you have special characters which does not appear in share,
- Avoid <!–nextpage–> and always share primary post address – Activate this option if you use multi-page posts and wish to share only main page,
- Make plugin always share HTTP version of page
- Do not load FontAwsome
- Add rel=”me” instead of rel=”nofollow” to social share buttons
- and many more settings
Administrative Options in Advanced Settings tab offers various features:
- Activate custom share by social network – User can set custom share message for each social network
- Disable menu in WordPress admin bar – This will hide the plugin’s menu from the WordPress bar at the upper side of the screen
- Remove post advanced visual settings meta box, remove post share customization meta box, remove post detailed stats metabox
- Plugin access – Choose user role, for which the Easy Social Share Buttons settings will be available
In Deactivate Functions and Modules tab you can deactivate each of plugins eight available functions per post and pages and Sharable Quotes module. This is very useful and will make no style or scripts to be executed for those pages/posts related to that function.
You can also import settings from previous versions of Easy Social Share Buttons plugin. You need to export them from your previous plugin installation and import them using this section.
Other tabs in this section are:
- Share Counter Recovery – allows you recover share counters when you move to secure server or from different domain,
- Translate Options – translate some words to the desired language,
- Twitter Counter Setup – Preload your Twitter share counter with value when a self-hosted counter is set to be used. You also have option on each post/page to modify the Twitter share counter value individually,
- Display Settings by Post Type,
- Display Settings for Plugin Integration.
Style Settings
In the styling area, you can customize the color scheme of each social media button. Sizes can be changed. Custom CSS can also be added to style buttons and counters.
Shortcode Generator
This section is for generating additional social share buttons shortcodes to be used on your site. You have default ready-made ones, but you can also make new ones based on your settings which can be set in this section. With Shortcode Generator section you can prepare shortcode without any code programming skills.
Analytics Dashboard
Analytics Dashboard provides statistic information about how many clicks are done on each button by social networks. There is no guarantee that these numbers are real shares on the networks.
The numbers in this statistic show how many times visitors clicked on one of your sharing buttons. But there is chance sharing window was closed by the visitor without actual sharing content. In this case, there is a click, but there is no share.
If for some reason the plugin is deactivated or even uninstalled, when you upload it again, data will be still available. The new clicks will be supplemented to the previous numbers.
You can also monitor how many clicks come from desktop and how many from mobile devices. Total number shows how many times the buttons have been clicked.
Not how many times content has been shared. For that, you have Easy Social Metrics Pro module which can be bought separately. Over time, this will give you a good picture of how visitors are sharing your content.
Statistics for each article are also integrated into the WordPress post editor. Each social media service is displayed with a percentage and value of the total social media shares for that articles.
Import/Export Settings
Setting up the plugin on your other website is easy as you can import and export your configuration settings. The import area also allows you to import default settings and a configuration for Mashable, UpWorthy and CopyBlogger style sharing buttons.
Automatic Updates
As long as you enter your license information, Easy Social Share Buttons can be updated automatically through the WordPress admin area. A valid purchase code qualifies you for support and enables automatic updates.
Purchase code may only be used for one Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress installation on one WordPress site at a time. If you previously activated your purchase code on another site, then you should deactivate it first or obtain new purchase key.
Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress Configuration Wizard
I have only briefly mentioned all the configuration options that are available via this WordPress social media buttons plugin. I always feel a little overwhelmed when a plugin throws so many options at me.
Luckily, Easy Social Share Buttons has Quick Setup Wizard feature. The configuration wizard allows you to set the plugin up in the way you want in couple steps.
There is also easy mode. Activating easy mode you will remove most of the advanced options. This will greatly the reduce the number of configuration options in every tab.
I highly recommend setting up the plugin using the configuration wizard initially as it only takes a minute to set up. You can then tweak your settings later.
Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress Key Features
Easy Social Share Buttons is plugin full of features. It is hard to mention them all. Despite so many features and modules this plugin manages not to have a significant impact on your site and servers.
If you are just looking for a simple plugin so your visitors can share your content, then ESSB will probably be too much for you.
1.Sharing counters
Easy social share button plugin can fetch counts with admin-ajax feature of WordPress or by calling the counter API of social networks. ESSB can display individual counters for individual sharing buttons. You can change the position where the counter appears.
2. Display positions
Some free WordPress plugins support just a few positions for sharing buttons. With ESSB, you can display sharing buttons on the various important location of your site.
You can change the configuration for mobile devices as well. It also supports shortcode placement.
3. Button Styles
To make buttons look attractive, the plugin offers many great looking templates. You can also activate animations and effects for buttons.
4. Statistics
To keep a track of shared content, WordPress Easy social sharing buttons plugin allows you to enable click statistics module. You can also enable tracking with Google Analytics.
5. Social share optimization
If you want to add an open graph, twitter card, and Google plus meta data to your blog posts, just activate the social sharing optimization feature.
You can even optimize Twitter message length optimization. Automatically truncate messages based on five possible methods when the message exceeds the 140 characters. Or automatically generate Twitter hashtags from post tags.
6. Caching and other useful options
To improve the loading time of pages plugin has the option to enable async, deferred loading of CSS and JS files, etc. To improve page speed score further, users should activate loading of minified/compressed resources.
If your hosting provider has reported high CPU or RAM usage, turn on the inbuilt caching module of this plugin.
7. Price
No monthly or year subscriptions. With a single payment of just $19, you get free lifetime updates and six months support and a huge aspect of settings and features.
8. E-Commerce ready
It is fully integrated with most popular e-commerce plugins with dedicated button display positions (WooCommerce, iThemes Exchange, Easy Digital Downloads).
9. Affiliate integration
The only social sharing plugin that is integrated with most popular affiliate plugins. You have tested and approved from plugin authors integration with AffiliateWP, myCred and Affiliates.
10. Much more various features
Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress Extensions
1. Self-Hosted Short URLs add-on for Easy Social Share Buttons ($14) – generate short addresses by your server.
In this way, you can avoid all short URL services that require tones of keys and APIs and work slow with a lot of limitations. Using Self-hosted Short URL your short addresses will be associated with your domain.
2. Hello Followers – Social Counter Plugin ($24) – Unique and innovative followers counter plugin for WordPress that will automatically display followers/fans/subscribers from your social networks.
3. Post Views Add-on for Easy Social Share Buttons (Free) – Track and display post views/reads with your share buttons and also display most popular posts with widget or shortcode.
4. Facebook Comments Add-on for Easy Social Share Buttons (Free) – Automatically include Facebook comments to your blog with moderation option below posts.
5. AMP Share Buttons Add-on for Easy Social Share Buttons (Free) – Include share buttons on your AMP pages if you use official plugin WordPress AMP
Easy Social Share Buttons Advantages
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Easy Social Share Buttons Disadvantages
- Sometimes navigating through the tabs and options can be pretty overwhelming
- It takes a while to familiarize yourself with every feature this plugin has to offer
- Too much features for someone who only needs a few sharing options and tweaks
- It can be because of my settings, but I noticed my site loads faster when ESSB plugin deactivated
- Waiting time for support questions is too long by my opinion
Other Worthy Paid WordPress Social Sharing Plugins
Here are some other social share plugins for WordPress which present an alternative for ESSB. Below plugins are for people who don’t need social sharing plugin full of features they might never use.
Monarch
Monarch is a new social sharing plugin created by the team at Elegant Themes. This plugin has some impressive features. It allows you to display share counts after they reach a certain number which is perfect for avoiding negative social proof.
Also, you can show social icons in your sidebar or other widget areas, and you can monitor social shares via the interface. There are also several placement options like triggered pop-ups and fly-ins.
The plugin is well optimized, but it still has all the important features you will need. For more info, check my Monarch review.
Price: $89/year is lowest option (cancel anytime and get access to other plugins as well as 80+ WordPress themes).
Social Warfare
This WordPress social media buttons plugin will allow you to add visually stunning sharing buttons to your blog. You will also get access to some powerful features that can give you a boost when it comes to social sharing content.
With Social Warfare, you can create a Pinterest-friendly images and upload it to your posts. This won’t interfere with your regular featured images. It has the option to add tweetable quote boxes within your content.
There are a bunch more features like custom tweets, hiding low share counts, floating share buttons, mobile responsive, social shares tracking….
Price: Starts from $24/year (you can cancel anytime).
Social Share & Locker Pro
This handy plugin comes with plenty of features to boost your social shares. It comes packed with eye-catching social share buttons to increase traffic to your posts and pages.
It also acts as a social content locker plugin which means you can offer bonuses and exclusive content in exchange for a tweet or like.
The plugin is compatible with WooCommerce, BuddyPress, and JigoShop. It is fully responsive and retina ready. You can display share counts and much more.
Price: $15.
Ultimate Social Deux
If you’re looking for a customizable, easy-to-use WordPress social plugin that won’t bog down your website, Ultimate Social Deux is a good solution. Unlike most WordPress social plugins, Ultimate Social Deux won’t slow your site down (at least that what author says).
Ultimate Social Deux is made taking WordPress best practices into consideration. It is compatible with all WordPress themes and renders correctly across all mobile devices.
You can insert social sharing network buttons directly into a post or page or use shortcodes. This plugin is the total package. It’s attractive, easy to use and very effective.
By allowing visitors to share your content with the click of the mouse button, you can increase visibility and put social signals to work for you.
Price: $15.
UPDATE: This plugin is no longer available.
Best Free WordPress Social Sharing Plugins
I have mentioned paid options. But what about best free social share buttons for WordPress plugins? If you are tight with money, consider below free options (most of them have paid versions too).
1. SumoMe
This isn’t your typical WordPress plugin. SumoMe is a suite of apps designed to help you grow your website traffic. While you can use these apps with any site that supports HTML, they have a particular WordPress plugin which makes setup easy.
There are two especially useful apps:
- Image Sharer – This app adds share buttons to the top of your images to encourage sharing. It supports Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter as well as providing URL shortening, and statistics. You can also disable/enable the Image Sharer across particular pages.
- Share – This app makes it easy to add share buttons to your blog. You get page level targeting, choice of a wide variety of social networks and more. The feature that stands out is how app changes the order of social share buttons based on which platforms are being used to share your content (on a per page basis).
To use SumoMe suite of apps, you will need to create an account. But the setup process is very straightforward and free. You can read more about SumoMe apps in my review: Free list building with SumoMe.
Price: Free with paid options available to remove branding.
2. Shareaholic
This is more than just a WordPress plugin. You have access to a variety of different looks for your social sharing buttons.
All of them are eye-catching than the usual native buttons. You will need to register for free account to access all of the features Shareaholic has to offer.
There is a lot of discussion about this social sharing button plugin. It seems after someone shares a piece of content, they may see an advertisement.
I have tested Shareaholic before and if I remember correctly you can turn this option off. If you decide to show advertisements on your site/blog, you split earning with authors of the plugin.
Features:
- Control whether or not share counts are displayed
- Support for WordPress, Tumblr, Drupal, Shopify and more
- Support for shortcode placement
- Support for social analytics
- Show related content
- Earn by showing advertisements
Price: Free.
WordPress Social Media Feather is a lightweight free social media WordPress plugin. It allows you to quickly and easy 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. The social media buttons can be automatically added to all your posts, pages or any other custom post types.
WordPress Social Media Feather authors like to say that this plugin has focus on simplicity, performance, and modest impact. To achieve higher performance, the plugin makes no use of JavaScript.
The plugin includes all major social sharing networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Reddit, Pinterest, Tumblr, LinkedIn and even e-mail.
I have used this plugin before on some of my sites. I can vouch it is safe, simple, free plugin to use as WordPress social share buttons.
Price: Free.
WPBeginner’s Floating Social Bar plugin is a sharing solution that supports Google+, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. It is a plugin that adds sharing buttons to the top of your blog posts. But it has other few nice features.
In order not to slow down your page by loading official sharing buttons, the plugin displays fast loading icons. It will only load the official sharing buttons once a user hovers over an icon.
This means that the plugin adds no weight to the initial page load (the technique is known as asynchronous loading). Another nice feature is the ability to display sharing buttons at the top of the page once a user has scrolled down the page.
It ensures that the buttons are displayed to visitors at all times.
Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress Review Conclusion
Social media can do wonders for a website. That means a social media plugin is definitely under the category of “must have.” Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress is one of the best options available to add social media buttons to WordPress.
I use it on this site and haven’t found a plugin that has so many options like ESSB. It’s easy to use, comes loaded with features, and produces stylish results. Best of all plugin can be purchased from Envato Market for just $19!
The only downside of this plugin is thing what makes it so good. Too many features some may say.
You will, as I was, be confused the first time you activate the plugin. It will take time to get to know everything it offers. Luckily, you can disable most of the modules and ignore advanced features.
This plugin is not for people who just want basic sharing options. Because this plugin offers so much more. The developer has been updating the plugin regularly and providing support to all buyers. Support is free for six months. You can extend support to 12 months for $5.70. This is new Envato policy.
Documentation for the plugin is extensive, so you will find everything you need to know. New features are continuously added.
Option that I would like to see is option to lock content until visitors makes share. All in all, more than 15 000 buyers can’t be wrong. Be sure to check it out and let me know what you think.
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Hi, can you tell me if this plugin has a Snapchat share button? Because my site is Snapchat content related, and I want to share my content on Snapchat
Hi,
It doesn’t have option to share on Snapchat.
This is a good plugin for my technology site I guess and the price is reasonable for me. can I use this plugin on my all sites?
Hi,
One purchase is for usage on single site.
Hello,
Thank you for the solid review. Where can I find the Easy Social Metrics Pro module that you mention. I’m a little confused about the click counts versus the number of actual social shares. My understanding was that ESSB uses an API to retrieve the social share counts from the actual social networks.
Included below is the quote from your review that refers to the Easy Social Metrics Pro module
“NOTE: Total number shows how many times the buttons have been clicked.
Not how many times content has been shared. For that, you have Easy Social Metrics Pro module which can be bought separately. “
I am having a tough time setting up the mobile bar buttons, just a plus sign shows up. It would be great if you can help out.
I need more information as I don’t understand what your issue is.
Hey, I am using Easy social share button plugin 4.3.4. It works good but my Google+ button is not counting properly.
It is always showing 0. Please tell me solution.
Thanx
Hi,
You are using very old version of the plugin as the current version is 5.0.1.
Google+ share is showing 0 because Google depreciated that function. But ESSB authors managed to solve that issues in a newer version of the plugin.
Please update your plugin or contact ESSB support. But I guess you would already done that if you had a legit (purchased) copy.
Hey thanx for reply
And yes I will contact ESSB support but I have no solution so please tell me the solution. And one more thing the g+ count is automatic hide and show now it is not showing.
Thanx
If I remember correctly you just need latest version and count will be restored. Just make an update.
Hey now i have update version easy social shear button 5.0 but i have same issue the google+ count is not showing me and 2 another issue before some time the twitter count working well but not it working not good on page it not showing me count on pages when i shear.and one more issue is when i shear post on twitter it showing me same description on every post after twitted can please tel me solution. Please help me
Thanx
ESSB plugin has many options. I cant know what is causing your issue. Contact plugin support and they will be able to assist you.
First of all thank you for posting. The plugin I am looking for is the one you are having on your website. Could you please let me know what plugin are you using.???
Regards
It is Easy Social Share Buttons. The plugin I wrote in this post.
This is a great plugin and the price is quite reasonable. My problem with it too many options.
Great review by the way.
Yes, it is so easy to get lost in all options this plugin offers. If you need simple share buttons plugin, ESSB probably is not the right choice.
open social share is an free alternative for other social sharing plugins. have a try !
Hi Mirian,
Thanks for drawing attention on Open Social Share plugin but I also see many negative reviews and it doesnt come even close with ESSB features.
I just purchased this plugin and for one time low price payment you get tons of features. Probably my best investment so far.
Yes ESSB plugin has many options. Maybe too much for social sharing plugin.