With hundreds of WordPress popup plugins available, choosing the right one for your website can feel overwhelming. While some plugins offer powerful features capable of transforming your site into a conversion powerhouse, others might be outdated, slow, or missing crucial functionalities.
This guide aims to navigate you through the popup plugins landscape of 2024, highlighting options that deserve your attention. Whether you’re in search of a plugin to boost your sales, get more subscribers or simply engage your visitors more effectively, this comprehensive overview will assist you in finding the perfect fit for your website’s needs.
Popup Maker
Popup Maker stands out as a premier WordPress plugin, tailor-made to enhance your subscriber base, decrease cart abandonment, and drive sales.
Its exit intent feature is a game-changer, grabbing users’ attention just as they’re about to leave your site. Offering discounts or bundled deals at this critical moment can significantly lower cart abandonment rates.
Moreover, Popup Maker is adept at creating upsell opportunities. Its flawless integration with WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads allows for targeted upselling, utilizing users’ cart contents and browsing behavior. Imagine enticing a customer with a coffee maker bundle as they consider a bag of coffee beans, thereby increasing the overall value of their purchase.
What truly distinguishes Popup Maker is its simplicity and ease of use, welcoming beginners with open arms. Setting up effective campaigns is a breeze, requiring only a few clicks to create campaigns that can significantly boost your site’s conversion rate.
The plugin offers extensive targeting options, allowing you to reach users based on a wide range of criteria, from their purchase history and cart contents to their current page, referring site, location, and beyond. With a variety of triggers available for popup display—including clicks, impending page exits, page loads, and more—Popup Maker equips you with the tools needed to capture your audience’s attention at just the right moment.
Bloom
Bloom is a part of the Elegant Themes subscription. It’s a popup builder that allows you to create basic popup campaigns. It allows you to create Fly-Ins, In-Line forms, below content forms, and widget area forms. It’s a great plugin to use if you want to get more subscribers.
Although this plugin packs a punch, it lacks in several areas. It lacks a lot of advanced targeting features including Exit-Intent, which triggers a popup when a user is about to leave your website. It can be a great way to reduce cart abandonment.
It also comes with handy A/B testing tools to help you improve the conversion rate of your popup campaigns. It also offers built-in analytics to help you measure the effectiveness of your campaigns.
If you’re already thinking of buying the Elegant Themes membership for the Divi builder or the Divi theme, then using this plugin is a no-brainer. However, I wouldn’t recommend buying the $89 per year Elegant Themes subscription just to get this one plugin. You can get a much bigger bang for your buck going for other plugins in the same price range.
Popup Domination
Popup Domination, a SaaS-based tool easily integrated into WordPress, is tailored to enhance your website with an array of popup campaigns. Designed to boost subscriber numbers and increase sales, it offers a user-friendly platform to achieve your marketing goals.
This tool provides several triggers for popup activation, including user engagement with specific pages, total site visit duration, clicks on links/buttons, scrolling behavior, and more. While it might not boast the extensive trigger list found in plugins like Popup Maker, Popup Domination covers the essential triggers needed for effective user engagement.
A critical aspect to note is the view limit imposed on popups. With the starter plan restricting to only 10,000 views, Popup Domination introduces a cap that is not commonly found in other plugins. This limitation is vital to consider when planning your site’s popup strategy.
BDOW (Formerly Sumo)
BDOW (Formerly Sumo) is well-known for its popup builder, but it’s actually a full package for eCommerce sites looking to increase their revenue. It doesn’t stop at popups.
Sumo also brings in email marketing tools, letting you handle a big chunk of your online sales funnel all in one place. You can boost your subscriber list with popups and convert those subscribers into customers with automated email campaigns.
Compatible with all kinds of websites, including WordPress, Sumo is easy to integrate thanks to its handy WordPress plugin. This makes it a great all-rounder for your marketing and sales efforts online.
But if popups are all you need, Sumo’s wide range of features and its price tag—$49 a month or $468 a year—might be more than you’re looking for. It’s ideal for businesses wanting a tool that does a lot more than just create popups.
Elementor Popups
Elementor, a leading name in page building, has expanded its repertoire with a popup builder feature. This new addition allows users to craft diverse popup campaigns directly using the Elementor editor, including full-screen, bottom/top bars, slide-ins, and modals.
The flexibility to deploy popups across all or specific pages of your website, coupled with a variety of triggers—such as page load, clicks, inactivity, exit intent, and scrolling—offers comprehensive control over how and when your popups appear. Further customization is possible through targeting options based on device type, site engagement, and user behavior.
However, if you’re committed to a different page builder, switching to Elementor primarily for its popup capabilities might not be practical. Transitioning your entire site to Elementor could require significant time and effort without guaranteeing a proportional return on investment.
For those not already using Elementor, or who don’t require a full-scale page builder, opting for a dedicated popup plugin like Popup Maker could be more beneficial. It avoids the potential for increased website load times associated with adopting a comprehensive tool like Elementor Pro for a single feature.
Elementor’s popup builder is best suited for existing users looking to leverage their current setup for enhanced popup marketing strategies.
Poptin
Poptin is a WordPress plugin for creating popups and contact forms with ease. Thanks to its user-friendly drag-and-drop editor, crafting engaging designs requires no coding expertise.
This plugin isn’t just about creating popups; it’s about creating effective popups. Poptin offers exit intent technology even in its free plan, allowing for unlimited exit popups to engage visitors precisely when they’re about to leave.
Poptin’s advanced targeting options are a standout feature, enabling highly customized popup campaigns. Whether it’s based on the visitor’s behavior, location, device, or even the time they spend on your site, Poptin gives you the control to display popups that resonate with each unique visitor.
While Poptin’s breadth of features is impressive, it might be more than what some businesses need. The wealth of options and customization might overwhelm those looking for simpler popup solutions. And for those mindful of website speed, the extensive features could potentially affect load times.
Popup Builder
Popup Builder stands as a comprehensive solution for WordPress popups, offering extensive customization. With the freedom to create unlimited popups, you can tailor the design, opening, and closing animations to suit your brand’s style and make a lasting impression on your visitors.
Specializing in email list growth, Popup Builder turns site visitors into leads with ease. Its fully responsive design means popups display beautifully across all devices, ensuring a seamless experience for mobile users without sacrificing your site’s UX.
The plugin supports a variety of triggers for displaying popups, such as click, hover, and exit intent, adding flexibility to how and when your messages are shown. Furthermore, Popup Builder’s targeting capabilities are robust, offering customization based on user location, operating system, and device type, enabling the creation of tailored popup experiences.
Popups for Divi
Popups for Divi is a free WordPress plugin designed for sites using the Divi Builder or theme. This plugin leverages the power of Divi to create various types of popups including popup, fly-in, inline, and hover campaigns.
With triggers for popups on click, hover, scroll, and exit-intent, plus targeting based on page visits, device type, and user role, it offers a versatile set of features. It’s an excellent tool for Divi users looking to boost their email subscriber list without any additional cost. Ideal for beginners eager to explore popup marketing.
However, for those looking to maximize their popup strategy for increased sales or subscribers, turning to a more comprehensive solution like Popup Maker might be necessary, even for Divi users.
Popup Anything
Popup Anything is a newcomer to the WordPress plugin scene, boasting around 50,000 users according to WordPress.org. Despite its relatively small user base, it’s equipped with a suite of features, capable of launching nine different types of popup campaigns, including full-screen popups, lightboxes, and floating bars.
The plugin provides a variety of triggers for displaying popups, such as clicks, scrolling, inactivity, page load, and exit intent, offering versatility in how you engage your visitors.
However, while Popup Anything is feature-rich, many of these features are quite basic. The designs and the editor lack advanced customization options, which might limit how much you can tailor the popups to fit your brand’s unique style.
Another significant consideration is the plugin’s premium version, which is only available as part of a larger plugin bundle offered by its developer. This means you can’t purchase Popup Anything on its own; you must invest in the entire bundle, potentially adding unnecessary costs if you’re only interested in this specific plugin.
Hustle by WPMU DEV
Hustle by WPMU DEV is designed to elevate your site’s engagement and lead conversion strategies. It’s a part of the WPMU DEV bundle.
Hustle stands out with its smart triggers for converting visitors into leads, backed by a comprehensive suite of designer templates that are both beautiful and responsive. Integration is seamless across all email apps, making it incredibly versatile for any email marketing strategy.
Hustle is packed with powerful targeting conditions to ensure your campaigns reach the right audience at the right time. With the ability to schedule campaigns, track display numbers, and even manage submissions directly through WordPress, it offers a comprehensive overview of conversion rates and user engagement.
While Hustle’s extensive feature set and integration capabilities make it a powerhouse for user engagement and lead generation, it’s worth noting that it comes as part of the WPMU DEV bundle. This means access to Hustle requires an investment in the bundle, which could be a consideration for those specifically seeking a standalone plugin.
Advanced Popups
Advanced Popups is a straightforward, completely free plugin accessible via WordPress.org, catering to those looking to dip their toes into the world of popup campaigns. It allows you to decide on the visibility of your popups, offering the flexibility to showcase them across all pages or tailor them to specific ones.
The plugin supports basic triggers for displaying popups, such as time delays, page views, completion of page reading, exit intent, scroll position, and when an element is clicked. Editing popup content is seamlessly integrated with the Gutenberg editor, though it’s important to note the customization options are quite limited.
While Advanced Popups provides the essentials for crafting basic popup campaigns, it falls short in delivering the advanced features required for truly impactful popups. Furthermore, one significant drawback is the lack of documentation. Because there’s no documentation, you’ll have a hard time understanding how to use the advanced features.
New users, especially, might find themselves at a loss, as there’s virtually no guidance available online—not even on its WordPress.org page, which consists of only two brief paragraphs.
For those just starting with WordPress or popups, navigating the setup and execution of your first campaign could be a time-intensive process. Given these limitations, those seeking a more user-friendly and comprehensive popup solution might consider alternatives like Popup Maker, which offers extensive features and robust documentation to support users through every step of creating effective popup campaigns.
Popup Box
Popup Box is a user-friendly popup builder for WordPress that allows you to create 15 diverse types of popup campaigns, such as cookies disclaimers, iframe integrations, custom content, Google Maps, Yes or No options, and contact forms.
The plugin includes essential popup triggers like click, page load, exit intent, inactivity, page visits, scroll into view, and hover, covering the basic needs for deploying popups effectively.
While Popup Box might not boast the most extensive set of features or designs—offering five different popup styles—it provides fundamental functionalities. Other plugins, including Popup Maker, offer more advanced targeting capabilities, like role-based and location-based targeting, even allowing for user targeting based on past purchases or cart contents.
Popup Box serves well for those new to popup campaigns, offering a straightforward starting point. However, the premium version, despite being affordable, may not meet the growing needs of your site due to its lack of advanced features.
MailOptin
MailOptin stands out as an all-encompassing email marketing solution for WordPress users. Beyond creating engaging popup campaigns, it enables sending basic automated emails and newsletters directly from your WordPress dashboard.
The interface of MailOptin is notably user-friendly, echoing the familiar theme customization interface many WordPress veterans will remember. This ease of use extends to the creation of various popup campaigns including lightbox popups, notification bars, slide-ins, sidebars, and in-content displays.
With a range of triggers like exit intent, time spent on site, click actions, and scroll detection, MailOptin offers flexibility in how and when your popups appear to visitors. Its targeting capabilities are equally robust, allowing for customization based on the visitor’s referring website, cookies, URL query strings, and even AdBlock presence.
MailOptin goes beyond the typical popup plugin, catering to users in search of a broader set of email marketing tools. For those looking to not only capture leads through popups but also engage them with automated email campaigns, MailOptin presents a compelling solution.
FooBox
FooBox distinguishes itself from other popup builders featured on this list by aiming to serve as a versatile popup builder for a variety of uses, not just for boosting sales and subscriber counts.
A notable feature of this plugin is that it effortlessly integrates with your website, enabling modals to pop up whenever an image is clicked, showcasing the full version of the image within the popup. It’s compatible with numerous image gallery plugins, including FooGallery, Envira Gallery, and JetPack Tiled Gallery, enhancing its utility.
FooBox doesn’t stop at images; it also supports the inclusion of social share buttons in popups, and offers a broad canvas for your popup content that can range from videos and HTML code to iframes.
Despite its extensive customization possibilities, FooBox might not be the prime choice for those specifically aiming to elevate their sales or expand their email list. For such objectives, a plugin specifically designed for marketing purposes, like Popup Maker, could offer more targeted functionality.
Popup by Supsystic
Popup by Supsystic has been a staple in the WordPress plugin community for nearly a decade, boasting over 10,000 active installations. While its popularity has waned in the face of newer competitors, it remains a viable option for crafting popup campaigns thanks to its straightforward interface and a broad selection of 60 templates. Despite the templates’ basic appearance, the variety ensures users can find a suitable match for any campaign.
A standout feature of Popup by Supsystic is its A/B split testing capability, enabling users to fine-tune their conversion strategies by comparing different versions of a popup to determine the most effective.
The plugin’s flexibility extends to its targeting options, allowing popups to be displayed based on specific criteria such as user role, URL, referrer, country, language, and more. Additionally, a range of triggers, including page load, clicks, exit intent, scroll detection, and AdBlock detection, ensures that popups reach the audience at the most opportune moments.
While Popup by Supsystic offers a solid foundation for popup campaigns, its struggle to keep pace with newer plugins may make it less appealing to those seeking cutting-edge features or more sophisticated design options. For users focused on maximizing sales and growing their email lists, exploring more specialized plugins like Popup Maker might yield better results.
ComboBlocks Popup Maker
ComboBlocks enhances the Gutenberg Editor for WordPress by adding a suite of additional blocks, including post grids, customizable forms, breadcrumbs, content sliders, and more. This plugin is a boon for anyone leveraging the Gutenberg editor who wishes to expand its capabilities.
Among its offerings, ComboBlocks introduces a “Popup Maker” block, enabling the creation of popup campaigns right within the Gutenberg interface. This feature allows precise control over who sees the popups—with options based on user role, login status, URL parameters, and cookies—and when they appear, thanks to triggers like time delay, scroll percentage, exit intent, and clicks on specific elements.
While the Popup Maker block within ComboBlocks provides a rich array of features, it falls short in delivering advanced functionalities, such as targeting based on purchase history or cart contents. For users primarily seeking to enhance their Gutenberg editor with additional blocks, ComboBlocks presents a valuable solution. However, if your main objective is to find a comprehensive popup builder, the full subscription may not justify its cost given the lack of certain sophisticated features.
MailMunch
MailMunch distinguishes itself as a comprehensive email marketing platform, offering more than just popup campaign creation. This versatile tool supports a variety of popup campaigns, including Popup, Embedded, Top Bar, Scroll Box, and Sidebar options, all of which are available in modern, responsive templates suitable for any device.
Designed with beginners in mind, MailMunch’s campaign customization interface is straightforward, focusing on simplicity over complex customization. Users can easily set where and when their popup campaigns appear, ensuring they target the right audience at the right time.
However, the dual nature of MailMunch as a full-fledged email marketing solution is both its strength and limitation. On one hand, it provides a seamless experience for managing the entire email marketing funnel—from subscriber signup to the automation of emails—all within a single dashboard.
On the other hand, this comprehensive approach comes with a cost of $20 per month, making it a significant consideration for those primarily interested in popup campaigns. For users in search of an all-in-one email marketing tool, MailMunch offers compelling value, but for those focused solely on popups, the subscription cost may necessitate exploring more specialized solutions.
Brave Popups
Brave steps into the WordPress plugin scene with an intuitive visual editor, making popup creation a breeze. This drag-and-drop builder eliminates the need for coding, appealing to users of all skill levels.
The plugin doesn’t stop at simple popups. It allows for the creation of advanced forms for newsletters, and feedback, all within minutes. Brave’s integration with WooCommerce offers a path to potentially boost store revenue through strategic popup use, such as upselling and cross-selling.
Targeting options in Brave are straightforward, ensuring your popups reach the right audience at the right time. The plugin also introduces customization in display frequency to prevent visitor annoyance by repetitively showing the same popup. Notably, Brave caters to mobile users by allowing separate popup designs for desktop and mobile, enhancing the user experience across devices.
The standout feature of Brave Popups is its Figma-like design interface, which allows for custom designs without being confined to specific templates. However, this impressive capability might not be fully utilized by all businesses. For those not accustomed to design tools, navigating this feature could end up being more time-consuming than beneficial.
OptinMonster
OptinMonster is one of the oldest and most popular popup plugins for WordPress. It started out as a WordPress plugin, but now it’s a SaaS tool that works with all websites including WordPress.
OptinMonster is packed with powerful features that can help you get more sales, and improve your website’s overall conversion rates. It comes with easy A/B testing tools that allow you to create multiple variations of the same popup with different copy to find the one that works the best.
It comes with dozens of templates you can customize. This gives you a headstart when creating new popup campaigns. Just choose a template that fits your campaign, customize it, and hit the publish button!
Although OptinMonster can be a great tool for some businesses, it’s pricing is one of the biggest detractors. It costs $9 per month just to get started if you pay annually. And if you want access to all the features, you’d need to pay $588 per year.
Conclusion
In this article, we explored the diverse landscape of WordPress popup plugins, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each to help you make an informed decision for your website’s needs.
For those still weighing their options, Popup Maker stands out as a highly recommended choice. Marrying potent conversion capabilities with user-friendly operation, it caters to both novices and seasoned professionals. With Popup Maker, optimizing your site for increased engagement and sales becomes a straightforward task, solidifying its status as the go-to plugin for elevating your online presence.