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/ Scriptless Social Sharing

Scriptless Social Sharing

By Robin Cornett

Marketing & Advertising / Social Media Marketing

Reviewed by Omar Dabbas

Trusted WordPress expert with 20+ years of experience evaluating plugins for the WP ecosystem.

Scriptless Social Sharing Review - In-Depth Analysis

This plugin adds super simple social sharing buttons to your content. It helps readers share your posts on social networks easily.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

6.95/10

User Rating

5/5 (based on 69+ reviews)

Active Installations

10,000+

Update Frequency

Below Average It is calculated using the weighted average of same category plugins.

Security Score

5 / 10 (Medium Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

Scriptless Social Sharing is a wee plugin to add buttons to your posts/pages, to make it easier for your readers to share your content on social networks.

The sharing links use the most basic methods provided by each network. There is no JavaScript, nothing fancy included in this plugin, so if you want fancy, this is not the plugin you are looking for. It just builds a set of links.

The sharing buttons are accessible even if you choose the Icons Only button styles, the network names are still part of the buttons, just hidden in an accessible-ready manner.

There is a small settings page, so you can make decisions about which content types should have sharing buttons and where, what buttons should be added, and whether or not to use the plugin's styles. Beyond that, developers may like to make use of filters throughout the plugin.

Comparing to Alternatives

Scriptless Social Sharing stands out in the social sharing plugin space with its minimalistic and script-free approach, offering a unique value proposition compared to other popular plugins.

Top alternatives

Strengths

Extremely lightweight and minimalistic, reducing site load times.
Highly flexible for developers, allowing custom theme integration.
Accessible social icons with no color contrast issues.
Simple and straightforward settings for easy use.
No bloat, focusing solely on essential social sharing features.

Weaknesses

Has had medium severity stored XSS vulnerabilities in past versions, now fixed.
Lacks a pro version with advanced premium features.
May require some developer knowledge to fully customize.
Limited out-of-the-box styling options compared to more feature-rich plugins.

User Sentiment Analysis

With a near-perfect 5-star rating from 69 reviews and no negative feedback, users overwhelmingly praise the plugin's simplicity, reliability, and accessibility.

Positive highlights

'Perfect for Developers' highlighting flexibility and custom theme support (greggorymark).
'Fantastic plugin! Simple, well done, and no bloat' with great support (Asterios76).
'It works flawlessly and takes up very little space' (aga2442).
'Accessible social icons with no color contrast issues' (redkite).
'Lightweight, accessible, and just works' praised after five years of use (Pawel Slabiak).

Common complaints

Weaknesses

Past security vulnerabilities related to stored cross-site scripting, though fixed.
No premium version limits advanced feature availability.
Minimal styling options may not suit users wanting rich visual customization.
Some customization may require developer skills.

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Developers and site owners seeking a lightweight, accessible, and script-free social sharing solution that integrates well with custom themes and prioritizes performance.

Not ideal for

Users looking for a feature-rich social sharing plugin with extensive styling options or premium features may find this plugin too minimalistic. Also, those uncomfortable with occasional developer-level customization might prefer more user-friendly alternatives.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version offers all core social sharing features with a focus on minimalism, accessibility, and performance without any bloat.

Final Verdict

Scriptless Social Sharing excels as a lightweight and accessible social sharing plugin, earning near-perfect user ratings for its simplicity and reliability. It is especially well-suited for developers and users who value performance and minimalism over extensive features.

While past security issues have been addressed, users should keep the plugin updated. The lack of a pro version and limited styling options may deter those seeking advanced customization, but overall, it remains an excellent choice for efficient social sharing without unnecessary bloat.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Scriptless Social Sharing plugin.

Sharing Buttons

Social Networks

Social Sharing

Screenshots

FAQ

Scriptless uses SVG files to display the social network icons, or you can revert to using the old FontAwesome webfont.

Text only buttons are an option as well.

Yes, using a filter, you can change which SVG icons are used. The plugin provides SVG alternatives for social networks if they are available.

Here’s an example of how you could switch to using the “square” icons for each network (not all networks have one):

add_filter( 'scriptlesssocialsharing_svg_icons', 'rgc_use_square_icons' ); /**  * Change the Scriptless Social Sharing SVG icons to use the square versions when available.  *  * @param $icons  *  * @return array  */ function rgc_use_square_icons( $icons ) {     $square_icons = array(         'email'     => 'envelope-square',         'facebook'  => 'facebook-square',         'pinterest' => 'pinterest-square',         'reddit'    => 'reddit-square',         'twitter'   => 'twitter-square',         'whatsapp'  => 'whatsapp-square',     );      return array_merge( $icons, $square_icons ); }

Want to use an icon not provided by the plugin? Load your own icons in your theme. As of version 3.2.0, the plugin uses SVG files directly, instead of sprite files. To use your own SVG files instead of the plugin’s, add them to your theme, in assets/svg. The plugin will use the theme icons in preference of the plugin.

Buttons can be added in multiple places, or easily add support so you can add buttons anywhere you like. The default button locations are:

Before Content: at the beginning of the post/entry, within the post/entry content.
After Content: at the end of the post/entry, within the post/entry content.
Manual: select this if you are adding buttons with your own code (this ensures that the necessary styles are loaded, and some other housekeeping).

To take advantage of the new location options, you must visit the plugin settings page and update your settings.

Note: if you have code that removes the original buttons output and adds it back by hand, make sure that you select Manual for the location for each affected content type.

The best way to change the button output location is by using a filter. This example changes the locations from using the_content filter (with hook set to false) to using action hooks instead.

add_filter( 'scriptlesssocialsharing_locations', 'prefix_change_sss_locations' ); function prefix_change_sss_locations( $locations ) {     $locations['before'] = array(         'hook'     => 'genesis_before_entry',         'filter'   => false,         'priority' => 8,     );     $locations['after'] = array(         'hook'     => 'loop_end',         'filter'   => false,         'priority' => 8,     );      return $locations; }

If you use the Genesis Framework, there is a setting to tell the plugin to use Genesis hooks instead.

As of version 2.0.0, you can add sharing buttons directly to your content with a shortcode. You can tweak the output, too. For example, to add the buttons to your content, exactly as you have them set up in your settings, just use this shortcode:

[scriptless]

If you want to remove the heading, try it this way (or customize the heading by adding text):

[scriptless heading=""]

Want to only show certain buttons in the shortcode? Add them as a shortcode attribute (separate with commas, no spaces). This will show just the email and facebook buttons:

[scriptless buttons="email,facebook"]

Yes. First, you have to tell the plugin that it can, in fact, run, even on the relevant archive page:

add_filter( 'scriptlesssocialsharing_can_do_buttons', 'prefix_add_buttons_archives' ); function prefix_add_buttons_archives( $cando ) {     if ( is_home() || is_tax() || is_category() ) {         $cando = true;     }     return $cando; }

Then you can add the buttons to the individual posts (this example works only with the Genesis Framework):

add_action( 'genesis_entry_content', 'prefix_scriptlesssocialsharing_buttons_entry_content', 25 ); function prefix_scriptlesssocialsharing_buttons_entry_content() {     if ( ! function_exists( 'scriptlesssocialsharing_do_buttons' ) ) {         return;     }     $is_disabled = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), '_scriptlesssocialsharing_disable', true );     if ( ! $is_disabled && ! is_singular() ) {         echo wp_kses_post( scriptlesssocialsharing_do_buttons() );     } }

It has always been possible to add a custom sharing button with custom code, but version 3.2.0 makes this a little easier by creating a new helper function. You’ll access the helper function by using a filter. Here’s an example of how to add a button to share a post to Tumblr:

add_filter( 'scriptlesssocialsharing_register', 'prefix_scriptless_add_tumblr_button' ); /** * Adds a custom sharing button to Scriptless Social Sharing. * * @return void */ function prefix_scriptless_add_tumblr_button( $buttons ) {     $buttons['tumblr'] = array(         'label'    => __( 'Tumblr', 'scriptless-social-sharing' ),         'url_base' => 'https://www.tumblr.com/share/link',         'args'     => array(             'query_args' => array(                 'name' => '%%title%%',                 'url'  => '%%permalink%%',             ),             'color'      => '#35465c',             'svg'        => 'tumblr-square', // Use this with the SVG icons and add the SVG file to your theme's `assets/svg` folder             'icon'       => 'f173', // Use this when using the FontAwesome font for icons         ),     );      return $buttons; }

The %% are used to designate placeholders for the attribute variables that the plugin will apply when building the button.

Note that there is both an svg and an icon argument in the code sample. svg is preferred, but only applies if you are using the SVG option for the sharing icons. To add a new icon, upload it to your theme’s assets/svg directory and the plugin will use it automatically. If you are using the older FontAwesome option, use icon to add the CSS unicode for the icon.