The market for twitter plugins on WordPress is fierce.  With no less than five stand-alone twitter plugins (Considering there are really only two caching plugins I’d say this is a testament to the tweeters).  Today let’s take take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of the best of these plugins.

Throwdown Prerequisites

To be considered for this smackdown, a plugin must be considered a twitter only plugin.  Plugins that don’t work with the latest version of WordPress were also excluded.  This was done to exclude the many other all-in-one or no longer supported plugins which were deemed to be outside the scope of the throwdown.

Twitter Widget Pro version 1.2.2

Screenshot of Twitter Widget Pro

Twitter Widget Pro lives up to its name.  Of all the plugins I tested its execution of a widget was nearly flawless.  I love plugins like this.  The authors seem to better understand when to add a feature and when to omit one.  If you’re just looking for a sidebar widget to display your feed, look no further.

Twitter Widget Pro options

It also includes this ominous option in Settings:

A few things of note, the title links to your twitter homepage and @ posts link to your friend’s twitter page.  I would have liked the option to exclude @username and RT posts.  The former is available in Twitter Tools, but the latter is currently not an option for any of these plugins so that’s a moot point.

Twitter Tools version 1.5.1a

If you’re looking for a little bit more twitter integration into your blog, might I suggest Twitter Tools.  Twitter Tools provides several ways to interact with your twitter account right from WordPress.  It includes a sidebar widget, a post to twitter tool, and an option to include all of your tweets as posts on wordpress.  This plugin offers the most features of any of the other plugins and yet still manages to do each task right.  That doesn’t mean that it’s without it fault.

Unfortunately the widget title doesn’t link to your twitter account.  Instead there is a link at the bottom of the module for “More updates…”.  Which I suppose does the job, but adds to the clutter and breaks up the flow of information.  This is really my biggest gripe about the plugin.  Perhaps I’m nitpicking.

Twitter Tools in action

You’ll find the post to twitter tool is found under Posts > Tweet.

Here are a few screenshots of the settings page.  As you can see Twitter Tools is vastly more customizable than the other options.

Twitter for WordPress version 1.9.2

Simplicity is the name of the game here.  Twitter for WordPress is very simple to use.  In fact there isn’t even a Settings page to configure it!  All configuration is done in Appearance > Widgets.  Just because its simple doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have any tricks up its sleeve.  It also features support for multiple twitter widget feeds.

Twitter for WordPress widget options in all thier glory

As you can see below, the user experience is nearly identical to Twitter Widget Pro.  Its greatest shortcoming is that the title doesn’t link to your twitter homepage.  I would have liked to see the option for including your profile pic as well.

Twitter for WordPress is better for users preferring a simple approach.

Summary

There’s a lot out there for the WordPress community to choose from regarding twitter integration: Twitter Widget Pro is a superb widget module, Twitter Tools provides users with just a little bit more, and Twitter for WordPress is perfect for the functional minimalist in all of us.  None of these plugins are perfect, but you should be able to live with one them.

In the end, I decided to go with Twitter Tools here on jpgrace.com for a number of reasons.  I was looking for a tool to both post tweets to the sidebar and to notify twitter when I post a new blog.  The fact that it appears to be one of the more actively developed plugins of those reviewed definitely weighed heavily as well.  The fact that @username reply can be excluded was important as well.  So there you have it, Twitter Tools is crowned king of the Twitter Widget throwdown!

In closing, just a word of caution.  These plugins don’t all play nice together.  You’re better off picking the plugin that closest suits your needs than trying to mix and match.

UPDATE:

To follow me on twitter, visit: http://twitter.com/jpgrace and click follow.