Rabbi Shimon Sofer was born in Pressburg on 13 Tevet 5581 (December 18, 1820). He was the son of the Chatam Sofer, Rabbi Moshe Sofer, chief rabbi of the city, and of Sarah, daughter of Rabbi Akiva Eger. At seventeen he married Miriam, daughter of Dov Ber Sternberg of Carei (Nagykároly), and then returned to live near his father in Pressburg.

He studied Torah with his father, who affectionately called him "Shimon Chassida." After the Chatam Sofer's passing, he and his elder brother, Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Binyamin, edited and published their father's writings, including the first volume of the Chatam Sofer responsa on Yoreh De'ah.

Around 5604 (1844) he became rabbi of Mattersdorf, a post his father had once held. Out of humility he declined several other rabbinates, among them Nikolsburg. In 5621 (1861) he accepted the rabbinate of Kraków, which he held for twenty-two years. A leader of Galician Orthodoxy, he founded the Machzikei Hadas association and its weekly of the same name, and in 1879 he was elected to the Reichsrat, the Austrian parliament. Emperor Franz Joseph decorated him for the care he arranged for the wounded of the 1866 war.

Deeply devoted to the Land of Israel, he helped found the Rosh Pinah society in Kraków. His works, sermons and responsa, bear the title Michtav Sofer.

He passed away in Kraków on 17 Adar II 5643 (March 26, 1883). His last words, spoken to his son-in-law Rabbi Akiva Kornitzer, who succeeded him, expressed his lifelong longing for the Holy Land. He is buried in the New Jewish Cemetery of Kraków.