Best social networking plugins for WordPress
The most popular social networking plugins for WordPress in November 2026, in WordPress.org’s own popular order, which follows active installs. Simple Social Icons leads with 100K+ active installs, ahead of Lightweight Social Icons (20K+) and Socials Ignited (2K+). All 28 plugins tagged “social networking” are below, with figures from WordPress.org that update every day.
Installs aren’t everything: a recent release, a “Tested up to” that matches the current WordPress, and support threads that get resolved show a plugin is looked after. Open any plugin for its downloads, rank history and alternatives.
Research this niche or see all plugins.
Top 10 social networking plugins
- 1.
Simple Social IconsThe most installed social networking plugin, with 100K+ active installs. Rated 4.3 from 92 reviews, updated 1 month ago.
- 2.
Lightweight Social Icons20K+ active installs. Rated 4.7 from 63 reviews, last updated 6 years ago. Tested only up to WordPress 5.4.25.
- 3.
Socials Ignited2K+ active installs. Only 4 reviews so far, last updated 1 year ago. Tested only up to WordPress 6.8.12.
- 4.
The Social Links2K+ active installs. Rated 4.4 from 7 reviews, last updated 4 years ago. Tested only up to WordPress 5.8.19.
- 5.
BuddyPress Edit Activity700+ active installs. Rated 4.6 from 17 reviews, last updated 6 years ago. Tested only up to WordPress 5.4.25.
- 6.
WPSocialite200+ active installs. Rated 4.7 from 21 reviews, last updated 13 years ago. Tested only up to WordPress 3.6.1.
- 7.
Candy Social Widget200+ active installs. Only 2 reviews so far, updated 7 months ago. Tested only up to WordPress 6.9.11.
- 8.
News100+ active installs. Only 3 reviews so far, last updated 4 years ago. Tested only up to WordPress 6.0.18.
- 9.
BuddyKit100+ active installs. Only 1 review so far, last updated 7 years ago. Tested only up to WordPress 4.9.35.
- 10.
Social Toolbar100+ active installs. Rated 3.3 from 16 reviews, last updated 12 years ago. Tested only up to WordPress 4.0.38.
All 28 plugins tagged “social networking”
Simple Social Icons
Up in the last 7 days:2#440by OsomPress1 month ago
Display icons linking to your social profiles, via the classic widget or the core Social Icons block variations.
- Installs
- 100K+
- Rating
- 4.3(92)
- Downloads
- 359/day
Lightweight Social Icons
Down in the last 7 days:2#1,091by Tom6 years ago
Looking to add simple social icons to your widget areas? Choose the size and color of your icons, and then choose from 47 different social profiles.
- Installs
- 20K+
- Rating
- 4.7(63)
- Downloads
- 28/day
Socials Ignited
Down in the last 7 days:7#4,672by Anastis Sourgoutsidis1 year ago
The Socials Ignited plugin gives you a widget, allowing you to display and link icons on your website of more than 50 social networks.
- Installs
- 2K+
- Rating
- 4.3(4)
- Downloads
- 11/day
The Social Links
Down in the last 7 days:4#4,811by seagyn5 years ago
The Social Links plugin adds a widget and shortcode to your WordPress website allowing you to display icons linking to your social profiles.
- Installs
- 2K+
- Rating
- 4.4(7)
- Downloads
- 12/day
BuddyPress Edit Activity
Down in the last 7 days:51#7,767by Syed Balkhi6 years ago
BuddyPress Edit Activity allows your members to edit their activity posts on the front-end of your BuddyPress-powered site.
- Installs
- 700+
- Rating
- 4.6(17)
- Downloads
- 11/day
WPSocialite
Up in the last 7 days:38#11,518by Tom Morton13 years ago
Long page loads aren't fun for anyone. Use WPSocialite to take control of heavy social sharing links and load them how you want!
- Installs
- 200+
- Rating
- 4.7(21)
- Downloads
- 0/day
Candy Social Widget
Down in the last 7 days:44#11,848by AJ Clarke8 months ago
Social Widget plugin for displaying links to your social media in any widget area. Created by WPExplorer, this plugin allows you to add colorful icons …
- Installs
- 200+
- Rating
- 5.0(2)
- Downloads
- 11/day
News
Down in the last 7 days:27#14,422by smplug-in4 years ago
This plugin will show latest news from Mashable
- Installs
- 100+
- Rating
- 5.0(3)
- Downloads
- 11/day
BuddyKit
Down in the last 7 days:7#14,612by Joseph G.7 years ago
BuddyKit adds several features like Live Notifications and Media Activities to your BuddyPress powered websites.
- Installs
- 100+
- Rating
- 5.0(1)
- Downloads
- 0/day
Social Toolbar
Down in the last 7 days:62#15,775by Daddydesign12 years ago
Plugin for adding a highly customizable toolbar with color selection, social network icons, recent tweet and share buttons into footer.
- Installs
- 100+
- Rating
- 3.3(16)
- Downloads
- 0/day
Social Media Engine
Down in the last 7 days:129#22,729by kvasnyi10 years ago
Social follow links shortcode. Built on FontAwesome icons. 30 social networks supported: 500px, behance, bitbucket, delicious, deviantart, digg, drib …
- Installs
- 40+
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day
BuddyPress Elevator Pitch
Up in the last 7 days:25#24,866by SK8 years ago
Choose which fields appear on the "member cards" on member list pages, such as Groups.
- Installs
- 30+
- Rating
- 5.0(1)
- Downloads
- 0/day
Buddypress Sidebar
Down in the last 7 days:181#27,822by Adam Nowak15 years ago
This plugin enables you to have multiple sidebars for Buddypress. Create new sidebars that are unique to each page.
- Installs
- 20+
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day
WP Responsive Lightbox
Up in the last 7 days:58#28,041by Daddydesign10 years ago
Plugin for adding a customizable, responsive lightbox pop-up AD, banner or call of action on home page or any page of your liking.
- Installs
- 20+
- Rating
- 4.0(3)
- Downloads
- 0/day
xBooster Social Icons with Counter
Down in the last 7 days:993#34,494by acbaltaci13 years ago
xBooster social icons with counter is providing, icons for social network sharing and social profile links as widget, shortcode and autoplacement in c …
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- 4.5(2)
- Downloads
- 0/day
What's Hot Activity Tab for BuddyPress
Up in the last 7 days:8,255#38,324by edwardtownend11 years ago
Adds a What's Hot tab to the BuddyPress activity stream.
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- 5.0(2)
- Downloads
- 0/day
Buddypress Friends
Up in the last 7 days:6,625#40,513by Adam Nowak15 years ago
This plugin adds a widget to Buddypress that displays the friends for the current user that is logged in.
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day
SX Social Icons
Up in the last 7 days:5,350#41,840by RedWeb.tn10 years ago
SX Social Icons provides you with an easy way to display various popular social icons via widgets.
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day
Gigya Wildfire for WordPress
Down in the last 7 days:864#41,870by nickohrn17 years ago
This plugin integrate the Gigya Wildfire bookmarking service into your blog posts quickly and easily.
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 1/day
Draugiem.lv Pase
Up in the last 7 days:2,296#43,205by girts_u9 years ago
Provides authentication for WordPress with "Draugiem pase" authentication method provided by draugiem.lv social network.
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 1/day
Nova's Gallery
Up in the last 7 days:23#46,465by elrond136911 years ago
Nova's Gallery places your photos from social networks & media library into your websites
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day
Name
#47,638by mudssar2 years ago
Amazing Neo is one of the best icon font by Amazing Team. This plugin allows you to insert brands/social icons in any widget area.
- Installs
- 10+
- Rating
- 5.0(1)
- Downloads
- 0/day
Idea Publisher
#69,333by CodingNagger3 years ago
This plugin allows you to share posts to Minds when they get published. Will support more platforms in the future.
- Installs
- <10
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 1/day
Super Simple Social Tags
Down in the last 7 days:19,449#74,299by Beefy Software8 years ago
Super Simple Social Tags is a super lightweight plugin to add social media meta tags for Facebook and Twitter. Adds tags to posts.
- Installs
- <10
- Rating
- –
- Downloads
- 0/day