Sharethis vs addthis

[EricPacifico]

We currently use Sharethis, but I've noticed many sites using Addthis for sharing. Is there any preference or reason to use one more than the other?

[zharriet]

We are a small business that tried both and use neither because the code was javascript and slowing down our page loading speed.

The solution for us (and taking a look at how SEOmoz did it) was to use icon images with hyperlinks to our FB page and Twitter--pure and simple.

We use Facebook and Twitter. SEOmoz has those plus Feedburner and LinkedIn.

I am guessing that people who regularly Digg, Technorati, and so on, probably have an app pinned to their browser for quickly sharing.

Except for the speed issue, I liked Addthis better because more websites I look up to used it.

[brycebertola]

The most common services we see through addthis are actually facebook and email.

zharriet has a good point. You could really do the same thing with a few icons and skip the javascript.

[RyanKent]

I was also looking for a social sharing solution earlier this year. I researched AddThis and ShareThis, and decided to go with AddThis. I've been very pleased with that decision.

AddThis has fantastic customer service. Each time I posted a question in their forums, a solid answer was provided within hours. AddThis also offers URL tracking, access to 300+ social sharing networks along with fast, responsive updates. When Google+1 was introduced I went to their site and they already had it set up and ready to work with their system.

I probably sound like a salesman. I am merely a satisfied customer who is very pleased with their service.

[echo1]

Ryan, is there no downside for having AddThis button with 4 -5 outbound links especially if they are placed high up on the page? Did you apply the no-follow attribute?

[RyanKent]

The nofollow attribute generally would only be applied to an external link if the target was either unknown or not trusted. I would not nofollow any social sharing links.

With respect to adding additional outbound links, as a best practice you always want to minimize links on a page. Social sharing links offer a tremendous amount of value and are welcome on any page of mine.

[echo1]

Thank you!

[GKLA]

Our recent experience with the AddThis buttons/script - is that it slowed our page load time down tremendously, so we removed it.  Did not try loading it asynchronously, which may have helped.