The NextGEN Facebook plugin was forked in 2014 and replaced by the WPSSO Core plugin — they’re both Free and available on WordPress.org, have the same author and developer, the same solid core features and code-base, but WPSSO Core is distributed without the social sharing buttons and their related features. Social sharing buttons are distributed separately, as optional extensions for WPSSO Core. WPSSO Core also provides several other useful and optional extensions:
- WPSSO Mobile App Meta
- WPSSO Schema JSON-LD Markup (recommended for best SEO)
- WPSSO Organization Markup
- WPSSO Place / Location and Local Business Meta
- WPSSO Ratings and Reviews
- WPSSO Ridiculously Responsive Social Sharing Buttons
- WPSSO Social Sharing Buttons
- WPSSO Strip Schema Microdata
- WPSSO Tweet a Quote
- WPSSO User Locale Selector
Until recently, NextGEN Facebook existed independently and in parallel to WPSSO Core, but in the last version of NextGEN Facebook (8.46.1), a notice has been added to the plugin’s description and in the WordPress admin interface (shown on the WordPress Dashboard and plugin settings pages after it has been active for 3 days). The description notice suggests using WPSSO Core instead, while the WordPress admin notice suggests uninstalling NextGEN Facebook and installing WPSSO Core instead (with an optional update button available within the notice). If you’re using the Free version of NextGEN Facebook, you should update to the WPSSO Core plugin as soon as possible.