About Sharelet: a lightweight social share plugin for WordPress
Sharelet adds social share buttons to your WordPress posts and pages. It was built to stay out of your way. The free version loads zero JavaScript, has no trackers, and never asks you for a yearly subscription. The premium add-on is a one-time payment of $19 that you own for good.
This page explains what Sharelet does, which buttons it supports, why it is built the way it is, who it is for, and how to get started. If you have a question that is not answered here, the FAQ on the homepage covers the most common ones.
What Sharelet is
Sharelet is a WordPress share plugin built on one idea: a share button should not cost your site speed, and it should not cost your readers their privacy. Most share plugins treat performance as an afterthought. They load large scripts on every page, pull assets from other servers on each visit, and sometimes add tracking that you never asked for. Sharelet takes the opposite approach.
The buttons are drawn as clean SVG icons. You choose where they appear: above your content, below it, or on both sides. The plugin works with any theme, because it outputs plain HTML and CSS rather than depending on a particular theme's styles. If you want more control, you can place the buttons yourself with a shortcode. Sharelet works on both posts and pages.
The free plugin is listed on WordPress.org at WordPress.org. Premium is an add-on that extends the free plugin, so you install both. The premium add-on does not replace the free one. It needs the free plugin to be installed and active.
Social share buttons in the free plugin
The free plugin includes nine social share buttons. Each one opens the network's own share dialog with your post title and URL filled in:
- X (Twitter)
- Threads
- Bluesky
- Mastodon
- Telegram
Each button is a plain link. Clicking it opens the destination site in a new tab. Nothing is sent from your site or from Sharelet itself until a visitor chooses to share.
Utility and AI buttons in Premium
Premium adds four buttons to the nine social buttons. They cover the actions that social networks do not handle on their own:
- Copy Link copies your post URL to the visitor's clipboard and shows a "Done" confirmation. This is the only Premium button that adds JavaScript, about 347 bytes. That script loads only when you turn the button on.
- Email opens the visitor's default email client with your link already in the message body. It needs no external service.
- Ask ChatGPT opens ChatGPT in a new tab with your post title and URL pre-loaded, so a reader can ask it to summarise your article.
- Ask Perplexity does the same thing for Perplexity AI.
The AI buttons are useful because more readers now ask an AI assistant about an article before or instead of reading it. With one click, the question already contains your title and link.
Why Sharelet is built this way
Most share plugins were built when page speed mattered less. Many load a full JavaScript library, including jQuery, even to show a few buttons. Many pull scripts from their own servers on every page view, which lets them track your readers. Many charge every year or every month, and few offer a way to pay once. Sharelet makes a different choice on each of these points.
No JavaScript on the free version
The free plugin loads no JavaScript and only minimal CSS. Your pages get no extra script weight from the share buttons, which helps on slow connections and on mobile devices where every kilobyte counts.
No trackers and no external requests
Sharelet makes no external API calls and collects nothing about your readers. It does not set tracking cookies, it does not report usage back to a server, and it does not load fonts or scripts from a third-party CDN. The only outbound traffic is the link a visitor chooses to click.
Pay once, keep it forever
Premium costs $19 one time. There is no subscription, no renewal, no license key to enter, no activation server, and no expiry date. If development stopped tomorrow, your buttons would keep working. If something does not work on your site, you can request a refund within 7 days of purchase by replying to your Gumroad receipt email.
Open source licence
Sharelet is licensed under GPL-2.0, the same family of licence WordPress itself uses. You can read the code, adapt it for your own sites, and keep your copy.
How it compares to typical share plugins
Here is what you usually get from other plugins, and what Sharelet does instead:
- Scripts on every page: many plugins load a library on all pages. Sharelet's free version loads none.
- External requests on each visit: many plugins fetch assets from their own servers. Sharelet makes none.
- Yearly or monthly pricing: many plugins charge recurring fees. Sharelet's Premium is a single $19 payment.
- Feature bloat: many plugins offer dozens of networks you will never use. Sharelet includes the networks most sites actually get shares from, and a few utility buttons.
Who Sharelet is for
Sharelet suits bloggers, small publishers, and business sites that care about page speed and reader privacy. It is a good fit if you run a content site where articles get shared on social media, and you want share buttons that look clean, load fast, and do not send your visitors' data anywhere.
It is also a good fit if you are already careful about which plugins you install. Sharelet is small, does one job, and does not try to be a marketing suite.
Start with the free plugin. If you later need Copy Link, Email, or the AI buttons, upgrade to Premium. You do not need to change anything about how the free plugin is set up.
Who makes Sharelet
Sharelet is built and maintained by Minosh Wijayarathne. More about the work, including other projects, is at my website.
Get started
- Free: download the plugin from WordPress.org at WordPress.org, then install and activate it. Choose your placement in the settings.
- Premium: buy the add-on once for $19 at Gumroad. Install it after the free plugin is active. Copy Link, Email, Ask ChatGPT, and Ask Perplexity are unlocked after that.