Replacement for AddThis

I have to agree with jamk. the new update is starting to look bad, and just not ideal for us web developers who has many different customizations with the Addthis toolbar on so many WordPress websites.

Infact I am still controlling the settings from within the WordPress Admin (touch wood – no problem arises so far) and not from your Addthis Dashboard, with fear that the toolbars will not appear on non-single post/page templates. for example, if i want the toolbar to appear only once at the footer of the category, archive, search, and custom-posts templates, is it still possible with the latest version?

Bradaddthis,

I’m sorry, but I agree with both above. You’ve had a fantastic plugin up to this point, but the “Smart Website Tools” is anything but. I also run a multi-site network as well as manage many individual sites and AddThis has always been my “go-to” for social sharing. Unfortunately, I can’t do this plugin. To upgrade and integrate this into my sites would be nothing but absolute chaos. I simply can’t do it. I will hold on to the earlier gen as long as I possibly can (hopefully that will be a long time).

The heart of the issue is the reliance on the AddThis dashboard and website for configuring the tools. I realize that you believe this method will make things easier for users — but it doesn’t. It makes them infinitely more difficult. Simple testing of this new version resulted in such negative feedback it nearly cost me paying customers — I reverted the test case immediately and this version will not be implemented in any of the sites I manage. To go this direction was a horrible misjudgement, one I hope you rectify immediately. Plugins need to be controlled from the admin dashboard — reliance on external site and server sent code is NOT ok, not when it comes to site configuration and average user use.

Please change your development course and go back to your roots with this plugin. I’ve been using your service steadily since 2009. I’d like to continue using it until 2029.

When it comes to pro services, I don’t want server sent formatting options — I want more in depth analytics and service for multi-site. I would love to pay you for your services — I rely on them heavily — but you are not offering a product worth paying for. I want better insights! Offer me that — in a form factor/toolset that I can actually use on my network and for my customers — and I will gladly pay for services. I can’t pay for this.

This plugin, as it stands, is ten times more work for no improvement. I don’t get better information, I don’t get more control (much less, in fact), and it quadruples my support costs.

Please, do not continue down this development path.

Here is what I WOULD pay for:

– Multi-site compatible. As the Network owner/admin, I would like to have network wide analytics in my AddThis dashboard, as well as notifications of any hot posts/pages. Even better, I would like the analytics in my site’s Network Admin dashboard — having to keep going to external sites to get information about my network is a total pain. I would pay to work less, not to work more.

– Each site controlled individually in the individual site’s dashboard (not at the AddThis tools webpage). Under the current method, to have different configurations I need to have a unique profile ID for each site — that is NOT ok. My sites have different owners, different themes, and different needs — which means I would need to have different profiles for each one to get them to look and function properly. That is way too much work. Also, it means I can’t help my multi-site clients, as the controls rely on an external service with unique account details. Again, I would pay to have my problems solved, not to make them worse.

– AddThis data in the site dashboard, with the ability to tunnel down to the individual post level. I can’t tell you how powerful and valuable this is. I want my users to be able to get analytics in their dashboard, just as they do with Google Analytics. Site and post level data. No muss, no fuss. Make it easy for them. The existing AddThis dashboard doesn’t allow for this, because it only provides data to the profile holder, and it complicates access because you have to go elsewhere to get it. Don’t make it complicated — make it easier. I pay for easy.

– Improvements to Facebook Meta Data. I want to be able to map post information to Facebook Open Graph. Your tools provide for a method to map specific information to OG, but not general. For example, I want to ensure that the WordPress Featured image, title, and excerpt are used by Facebook when sharing, so the ability to map those is valuable. While we’re at it, I want the return of the via option for twitter sharing, which is now missing from this generation of plugin.

– More control over recommended content. Take a lesson from the YARPP plugin and put the control in the users hands, at the site level. Let my users and I decide how we want our content recommendations to be generated based on how we classify our posts (tag, category, etc). I cringe whenever I hear “we will give your readers your best content recommendations.” You won’t, because your algorithm doesn’t understand our business’ growth, plan, or intention. I pay for more control, not less.

– Easier Implementation. Currently, I don’t know how to get Follow and Conversion data, because I’m too busy to spend all day navigating your support site to figure it out. For me, a premium data plugin should handle that for me, much like how Google Analytics plugins do. I don’t want to have to track down individual code snippets from your site and attach them to the body tags of every post and page — I want a plugin to do it via the header tag so I’m covered everywhere without any additional effort on my part.

– Parent/Child Relationships. This goes back to Multisite implementation. As the network holder, I want information about the entiretly of my network, but each site owner also wants that data — maybe even Pro-Level data/services of their own. The WPMU Google Analytics plugin allows for the network holder to get all site details, but also lets the individual site user have their own analytics code, so they can get better access to the data via their own GA account. This is a highly desirable feature — one certainly worth paying for.

The bottom line here is simple: make my life easier, and I will gladly pay you for it. I pay thousands each year for premium plugins. I have no qualms about paying for services. But, those services have to provide tangible benefits. You are going in the wrong direction with this plugin.

I completely agree with Robmcclel and his points above.

I manage many client sites, all with different social media needs and after using AddThis plugin for many years it has now become almost unusable for me and I am looking for an alternative.

I think the key point here has been lost.

We are an agency who are AddThis Pro users and in desperate need of an alternative since the release of version 4 (having same issues as above users).

Does anyone have a decent more WordPress-focused alternative they’d like to share?

Found another plugin that is worthy of a looksee..
https://wordpress.org/plugins/mashsharer/

Google Analaytics integration is a commercial add-on to the base plugin:
https://www.mashshare.net/downloads/google-analytics-integration/