10 Best Lightweight Social Icons Alternatives in 2026
Updated September 7, 2026 · Ranked by how closely each plugin matches, from WordPress.org data · How this works
Lightweight Social Icons has 30,000+ active installs on WordPress.org. These 10 plugins share its category or its tags on WordPress.org, are actively maintained, and each has at least 100 active installs. They are ordered by how closely they match, not by our opinion.
The 10 closest alternatives to Lightweight Social Icons
- 1
Simple Social Icons
Closest match4.3 (92) 100,000+ active installsDisplay icons linking to your social profiles, via the classic widget or the core Social Icons block variations.
Shares the social media, social networking, social profiles tags on WordPress.org. About 3.3 times the installs, rated 4.3 against 4.7, last updated July 27, 2026.
- 2
4.6 (58) 10,000+ active installsThis plugin allows you to add social media floating sidebar icons connected with your social media profiles.
Shares the social icons, social media tags on WordPress.org. About a third of the installs, rated 4.6 against 4.7, last updated July 2, 2026.
- 3
4.4 (84) 20,000+ active installsUpload your own social media icons or choose from font-awesome. Use widget|shortcode to place icons anywhere(sidebar, header, footer, page) in theme.
Shares the social icons tag on WordPress.org. About half the installs, rated 4.4 against 4.7, last updated November 9, 2025.
- 4
WPZOOM Connect: Social Icons Widget, Share Buttons & Click to Chat
4.9 (144) 90,000+ active installsSocial icons, share buttons & a floating Click to Chat button for WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger & Viber. Gutenberg block, widget & Elementor.
Shares the social icons tag on WordPress.org. About 3 times the installs, rated 4.9 against 4.7, last updated 10 days ago.
- 5
AddToAny Share Buttons
4.7 (1,113) 300,000+ active installsShare buttons for WordPress including the AddToAny button, Facebook, Bluesky, Mastodon, WhatsApp, Pinterest, Reddit, many more, and follow icons too.
Shares the social media tag on WordPress.org. About 10 times the installs, last updated May 22, 2026.
- 6
Buttonizer – Social Media Share Buttons, Social Icons, & Social Feeds
4.8 (396) 40,000+ active installsFloating Social Media Icons, Sticky Share Buttons, Facebook Feeds, & Popup builder. Also, create Call, Email, SMS, & Contact buttons to increa …
Shares the social media tag on WordPress.org. A similar number of installs, rated 4.8 against 4.7, last updated 25 days ago.
- 7
4.8 (5,334) 100,000+ active installsShare buttons and pop up share icons for social media sharing
Shares the social media tag on WordPress.org. About 3.3 times the installs, rated 4.8 against 4.7, last updated 13 days ago.
- 8
OG — Better Share on Social Media
4.8 (216) 30,000+ active installsThe simple method to add Open Graph metadata to your entries so that they look great when shared on sites.
Shares the social media tag on WordPress.org. A similar number of installs, rated 4.8 against 4.7, last updated May 15, 2026.
- 9
Social Sharing Plugin – Sassy Social Share
4.8 (522) 100,000+ active installsThe Simplest and Optimized Social Share buttons. Facebook, X, Reddit, Pinterest, Whatsapp, Grok, ChatGPT, Gab, Gettr and over 100 more.
Shares the social media tag on WordPress.org. About 3.3 times the installs, rated 4.8 against 4.7, last updated September 15, 2025.
- 10
Hubbub Lite – Fast, free social sharing and follow buttons
4.7 (173) 30,000+ active installsYour content is worth sharing. Let's makes it easier!
Shares the social media tag on WordPress.org. A similar number of installs, last updated July 24, 2026.
Switching from Lightweight Social Icons: common questions
What is the best alternative to Lightweight Social Icons?
Simple Social Icons is the closest match: it shares the same WordPress.org tags and has 100,000+ active installs with a 4.3 out of 5 rating.
Which Lightweight Social Icons alternative has the most users?
AddToAny, with 300,000+ active installs reported by WordPress.org.
Which Lightweight Social Icons alternative is rated highest?
WPZOOM Connect, rated 4.9 out of 5 by 144 reviewers. Only plugins with at least 50 reviews are counted.
Are these Lightweight Social Icons alternatives free?
Every plugin listed here is free to install from WordPress.org. Where WordPress.org marks a plugin as commercial, the developer also sells a paid version or add-ons, and that is shown on each plugin.
How are alternatives chosen?
Automatically, from WordPress.org data: plugins that share a category top 10 with Lightweight Social Icons score highest, then plugins that appear in the same WordPress.org rankings, then plugins with the same tags, weighted so rare tags count more than common ones. Plugins by the same author and plugins rated under 4.0 are left out.
How we choose these alternatives
Nothing on this page is picked by hand. Every day we walk the whole WordPress.org directory, then score every plugin against Lightweight Social Icons on three signals: sharing a category top 10 counts most, then appearing in the same WordPress.org rankings, then carrying the same tags, with rare tags counting for more than common ones like "wordpress". Plugins by the same author are excluded, so an author's own add-ons cannot fill the list, and so is anything rated below 4.0 or with fewer than 100 active installs. The ten highest scores are what you see, in that order. Full methodology.
The bottom line
Simple Social Icons is the closest match to Lightweight Social Icons by the data we track, and AddToAny has the widest reach with 300,000+ active installs. WPZOOM Connect shipped the most recent release, on August 28, 2026. The list is rebuilt every day from WordPress.org, so a plugin that stops being maintained drops out on its own.
Weekly · free
What moved this week
One email a week, built from the same daily snapshots these rankings come from: the plugins that climbed, what launched, and one ranking worth a look.