Nextend Social Login Review: A Functionality and Ease of Use of This WordPress Plugin

Forcing people to fill out registration forms is so early-2000s. Type in the username and email. Type in the password. Confirm the password. Click the activation link in the email…

It’s a time suck. And as hesitant as I am personally about handing over my digital life to Facebook and Google, I do it anyway because I love the convenience.

And I’m not the only one. According to a survey of 600 consumers from Blue Research:

• 86% of those surveyed are bothered by registering at a website.
• 77% of those surveyed think websites should offer social login instead of forcing the traditional process of account registration.

But, as you’re probably aware, WordPress doesn’t give you an option to offer social login to your visitors by default. Instead, if you allow account registration on your WordPress site, your visitors are forced to do it the old-fashioned way.

Nextend Social Login changes that by offering a simple social login solution for your WordPress site. And in my Nextend Social Login review, I’ll share my thoughts and give you a look at the free version, as well as the Pro add-on.

Overall, I was impressed by both the simplicity and how well it looks and works out of the box.

Nextend Social Login Review: The Feature List

Like many WordPress plugins, Nextend Social Login is a free core plugin that you can extend with an optional Pro add-on.

Here’s what the free version that’s listed at WordPress.org lets you do:

• One-click social registration and social login
• Support for three networks – Facebook, Google, Twitter
• Option for existing users to connect their social media accounts
• Custom redirect URL options after login
• Pull in Facebook, Google, or Twitter profile picture as a user’s avatar
• Login widget and shortcodes to place social signup/login wherever you want
• Customizable text and design

And if you go Pro, you’ll also get:

• WooCommerce compatibility – I imagine this is a big one for eCommerce stores
• Support for LinkedIn, TikTok, Slack, Microsoft, PayPal, Twitch, and other providers
• BuddyPress plugin compatibility
• Comments support to add social login to WordPress comments
• Choose whether to ask for email address or username during registration
• More login layouts and button styles
• Display linked social networks in the Users table
• Sync data
• Assign specific user roles to users who register via social login (you can even set different user roles for each social network)
• Restrict social login to specific user roles (again, you can use different user roles for different social networks)

Now that you know what to expect, let’s take this Nextend Social Login review hands-on.

Hands-on With Nextend Social Login: Playing Around With The Free Version

I’m going to start with the free version on my test site. Then, in the next section, I’ll give you a look at some of the Pro features.

After you install and activate the plugin, you can head to Settings → Nextend Social Login to configure it.

Setting Up Your Social Networks

As is the case with any plugin that connects to a social network, you’ll need to do some offsite configuration at your chosen social network before you can start using social login.

This isn’t Nextend Social Login’s fault – it’s just the way things are.

What Nextend Social Login does do a good job of is providing instructions to make this unavoidable process as painless as possible.

If you click on the Getting Started button next to any of the available social networks, the plugin will give you detailed written instructions, as well as an embedded YouTube video with more visual instructions (you can’t see it in the screenshot, but the video is at the bottom of the page):

I’m not going to show you the process of setting up a Facebook app because it’s pretty tedious. But if you want to see it in all its glory, here’s a link to the tutorial video that’s embedded on the plugin’s page.

The entire process of creating my Facebook App took about four minutes. It might take you a little longer (I’ve already created a Facebook app for this purpose before – so I know my way around the interface), but you’re definitely not in for a huge time investment here.

Once you generate your App ID and App Secret via Facebook, you enter them into the plugin.

Then, Nextend Social Login gives you an option to test the configuration. And if everything “Works Fine”, you can enable social login for that network by clicking the button:

Once you click that Enable button, your social login will be active on your site. Here’s what the default style looks like on my test site:

Overall – a pretty slick implementation. It took me under ten minutes to go from “nothing” to “working Facebook social login”.

If you want to add additional networks, you’ll need to also complete a similar setup process for those networks (though the process is different for each network).

Configuring How Your Buttons Look

If you want to change your buttons, you can head to the Buttons tab to:

• Change the text that displays
• Use custom CSS styling on the button (the Pro version gives you more code-free controls for some styling, though in a different interface)

Using Social Login In Other Areas Of Your Site

Nextend Social Login adds social login to your regular wp-login.php page by default. But if you want to use social login in other areas of your site, you can head to the Usage tab to grab:

• Shortcodes
• Simple links

And if you go to your widget area, you can also make use of the Nextend Social Login Buttons widget to add social login in your sidebar or footer:

All in all, the plugin gives you a good deal of flexibility for how and where to display your social login buttons.

Setting Redirect Rules In The Global Settings Area

Finally, the free version also gives you two options for redirect rules that you can set in the Global Settings area:

These allow you to control what happens after a user signs up or logs in via your social login buttons.

Besides defining the redirect rules, you can also use the section’s General tab to enable or disable the Debug mode and adjust the Page for Register Settings options. 

However, you should only use this feature if you want to request an email address from a user or include Terms and Conditions in the login form. 

The Privacy tab also lets you decide if you want to add Terms and Conditions to a website’s social login. The tab’s Store section offers First and Last Name, Avatar, Email, and Access Token options.

Checking Out The Nextend Social Login Pro Features

The Pro add-on is a separate plugin, so you can install and activate it without any hassle even if you’re already using the free plugin.

Remember that you cannot use the plugin’s pro version before installing and activating its free version. The addon won’t work if you don’t have WordPress 4.9 and PHP 7. 

Once you make sure your website meets the plugin’s system requirements, you’ll, first off, get the option to add LinkedIn and 15 other providers to your site:

And then you’ll also get a bunch of new options for each individual social network.

I laid out these options before, but you can also check them out below. Again, you can:

• Add a prefix to usernames
• Ask for email during registration (with multiple options)
• Ask for a username during registration
• Connect existing accounts based on email address
• Disable social login for certain user roles
• Set default user roles for people who use social registration

The Sync Data feature lets you store a user’s Facebook profile link or request different information from users who register with certain providers. However, you must provide an explanation for enabling this feature and allow a user to view and edit all information you request.

Beyond those settings, you also get even more new options in the Global Settings area that help you:

• Control your login form styling and layout
• Add social login to your comment form

And if you’re using WooCommerce, you’ll also be able to configure the WooCommerce integration in this area:

How Much Does Nextend Social Login Cost?

First off, the free version is pretty dang functional by itself. Depending on your specific needs, you might not even need the Pro version.

Nextend offers two pricing plans for the add-on’s Pro version. 

The Standard package includes the license to install the plugin on one WordPress website and it costs $52. The one-time payment will give you access to all plugin’s features including those that come with future updates. 

The cost of the Premium plan depends on the license you choose. The least expensive option includes a license to install the plugin on three sites and costs a bit over $100.

You must spend around $150 if you want to use this plugin on five websites, while the license to install Nextend Social on ten websites costs around $270.

But here’s the interesting thing about the pricing:

You get support and updates forever with those prices. That’s all-in – you’ll never need to pay more to keep getting updates.

That gives Nextend Social Login a pretty dang good value p

Regardless of the plan you choose, you get support and updates forever with those prices. That’s all-in – you’ll never need to pay more to keep getting updates. Still, Priority Support is only available in the Premium package.

That gives Nextend Social Login a pretty dang good value proposition.

What are the Nextend Social Login Alternatives?

The plugin’s free and pro versions can be limiting. For example, they don’t support Instagram logins. Moreover, the plugin’s free version supports only three providers and offers a handful of icon themes for social logins. 

Despite this, I firmly believe that Nextend Social Login is one of the best social login WordPress plugins you can get, but I also think that exploring its alternatives can help you decide if the plugin is the right solution for your website. 

That’s why I selected a few Nextend Social Login alternatives, so let’s take a quick look at them: 

• Social Login – I love everything about OneAll’s Social Login plugin except its surprisingly unimaginative name. The Freemium plugin supports over forty social platforms and allows users to connect multiple social media accounts with their WordPress accounts. 
• Super Socializer – This powerful plugin allows logins with account on 27 social networks including Spotify, Instagram, and YouTube. In addition, it allows you to enable social shares and comments on your website. 

AccessPress Social Login Lite – You can use the plugin’s free version to allow your website’s visitors to log in with their Facebook, Google, and Twitter accounts. Buying the Pro version will extend the social network support and unlock access to thirty login templates.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Nextend Social Login Plugin

How to Setup Nextend Social Login?

Nextend Social Login is featured in the WordPress Plugin Directory. Hence, you can install it automatically from the Plugins menu on your Dashboard. 

You can also download the plugin to a computer and upload it to your WordPress website from the Plugins menu if you want to install it manually. 

The Nextend Social Login’s free version only supports logins with Twitter, Google, and Facebook accounts. The configuration process is different for each provider. 

You can find the instructions on how to enable logins with Google, Twitter or Facebook accounts in the Nextend Social Login tab located in the Settings menu.

How Do I Enable Social Login in WordPress?

A WordPress website doesn’t have a social login option by default. You must install a plugin if you want to allow visitors to log in to your website with their social media accounts. 

Free versions of these plugins usually support only a handful of providers, so you may not be able to use them to allow visitors to connect their YouTube or Instagram accounts to your site. 

Consequently, you must check how many providers a plugin supports before installing it. Once you add a social login plugin to a website, you must configure the login for a specific provider.

Final Thoughts On Nextend Social Login

I think Nextend Social Login is a great way to add social login to your WordPress site.

It’s easy to set up and looks good out of the box. I was able to go from a fresh test site to a well-designed social login form for Facebook in under ten minutes.

If you’re interested, the free version is pretty flexible already, so I’d recommend getting started with that.

Then, if you decide you need the advanced features like social login for comments, user roles, more styling options, and WooCommerce support, it’s easy to upgrade to the Pro version later on because it’s an add-on.

Go To Nextend Social Login Free Get Nextend Social Login Pro Add-on