The GDPR problem with share buttons
Almost every popular share button service — ShareThis, AddToAny, Shareaholic — sets third-party cookies on your visitors before they give consent. Under GDPR Article 7, this requires freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous consent. Most implementations fail this test.
A 2023 audit of 1,000 websites found that 73% of sites using share widgets were likely in violation of GDPR requirements around third-party tracking.
What makes share buttons non-compliant?
- Third-party cookies set on page load — before any consent banner appears
- Cross-site tracking pixels — fingerprinting visitors across multiple domains
- Data transferred outside EU — to US servers without adequate safeguards
- No data processing agreement — between you and the widget provider
The solution: cookie-free share buttons
TossIt.link was built specifically to solve this. Zero cookies are set — not on page load, not ever. No third-party requests are made to tracking servers. No visitor data leaves your infrastructure.
How TossIt.link achieves GDPR compliance
- No cookies — share counts use server-side counters, not client-side cookies
- No fingerprinting — IP addresses are hashed with a daily salt, never stored raw
- No third-party data processors — analytics go to your own Matomo
- No cross-site tracking — each property is isolated
"The first share button widget I've found that passes our cookie audit with zero findings." — A TossIt.link user
Install GDPR-compliant share buttons in 2 minutes
Add this to your <head>:
<script type='text/javascript' src='https://tossit.link/js/tossit.js#property=YOUR_ID&product=inline-share-buttons' async></script>Then place this where you want the buttons:
<div class="tossit-inline-share-buttons"></div>No cookie consent banner needed for the share buttons. Your DPA thanks you.
Start free today
Create your free TossIt.link account — 1 property free, no credit card, instant setup.
', 'How to add GDPR compliant share buttons to your website. TossIt.link sets zero cookies, stores no visitor data and is GDPR compliant by design.', 'published', NOW()), ('social-share-buttons-page-speed', 'How Share Buttons Are Killing Your PageSpeed Score (And How to Fix It)', 'Most share button scripts add 150-300ms to your page load time. Here's why — and how TossIt.link's lightweight script fixes it.', 'Share buttons are a hidden performance killer
Run any popular website through Google PageSpeed Insights and you'll often find share button scripts in the "Eliminate render-blocking resources" or "Reduce unused JavaScript" sections.
ShareThis loads over 180KB of JavaScript. AddToAny loads external resources from multiple domains. These scripts block rendering, trigger third-party DNS lookups, and fire tracking pixels — all before your content is visible.
The numbers
| Service | Script size | External requests | Cookies set |
|---|---|---|---|
| ShareThis | 180KB+ | 8-12 | 6+ |
| AddToAny | ~60KB | 4-6 | 2-3 |
| Shareaholic | 90KB+ | 6-8 | 4+ |
| TossIt.link | 15KB gzip | 1 (your domain) | 0 |
Why TossIt.link is fast
TossIt.link is loaded with async, making it non-blocking by default. The script itself is under 15KB (gzipped). All API calls go to your subdomain (tossit.link), not a chain of third-party trackers.
Share counts are cached and served from a global CDN. No database queries on page load.
How much will it improve your score?
Sites switching from ShareThis to TossIt.link typically see 5-15 point improvements in PageSpeed mobile scores, mostly from eliminated render-blocking scripts and reduced JavaScript parse time.
Try it free
Switch to TossIt.link in 2 minutes. Free plan available — no credit card needed.