Simple Social Icons vs Social Icons
Compare WordPress plugins and tools side by side. Pick products with “Compare” in the software directory.
| Feature | Simple Social Icons v4.1.0 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 4.3/5 Visit Details | Social Icons v1.7.4 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 4.5/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 100,000+ | 10,000+ |
| Last updated | September 17, 2026 | February 8, 2021 |
| Editions | Simple Social Icons | Social Icons |
| Pros | Widget with icon size, colour and alignment settings; Extra icons added to the core Social Icons block; Lightweight CSS and SVG output | Widget and shortcode placement; Large bundled icon set with drag-and-drop sorting; Free with no outside requests |
| Cons | Block variations need WordPress 6.9 or later; Only links to profiles, with no follower counts or sharing; Icon styling changes can break older custom CSS | Icon set is limited to the bundled socicon library |
| Mentioned in our posts | 2 | 1 |
| More features | ||
| Other features | Social icons widget, Icon size, colour and hover settings, Extra icons for the core Social Icons block, Block editor assets for the icon variations, Icon CSS printed on the front end | Social icons widget for sidebars, social_icons_group shortcode, Icon groups stored as a social_icon post type, Drag-and-drop ordering of icons in admin, Large bundled set of social network icons |
| Integrations | ||
| Other | WordPress core Social Icons block | — |
| Requires WordPress | 4.0 | 4.7 |
| Requires PHP | 7.4 | — |
| Tested up to | 7.1 | 5.6 |
| Phones home | No | No |
| Shortcodes | — | 1 |