WordPress Popup Plugin – The Best To Engage Your Traffic
Why should you use a WordPress popup plugin? How do you select the best for your needs? Find out in this article.
Conversion rate is an important metric to keep an eye on when looking to set up a website. But how exactly do you go about converting casual website visitors to subscribers and paying customers?
One great way is with a popup form!
Popup forms have grown in popularity recently, and chances are you’ve seen them countless times. Like or hate them, popup forms (or opt-in forms) work very well. They can deliver results way beyond what you can imagine.
As such, if you haven’t given it a shot before, it’s about time you do.
To create a popup form on WordPress, you will need a popup plugin, unless you are a web guru.
There are several WordPress popup plugins out there you could try. However, not all of them are worth your time. For this reason, we’ve curated the best popup builders that get the job done.
In this article:
- Do you really need a popup form?
- Features to look out for in a popup form plugin
- 7 best WordPress popup plugins
- Conclusion
Do You Really Need a Popup Form?
Before jumping unto the idea of having an opt-in form, it’s good to understand the drawbacks it comes with.
If not implemented properly, a pop form can ruin your WordPress site user experience. The reason is, these forms can be invasive and annoying so you need to get the implementation right. Otherwise, you risk driving your visitors away.
But despite this drawback, there are numerous potential benefits opt-in forms have to offer. Popup forms are a great support to your other methods of email marketing.
And they afford you the means to grow your subscriber base quickly. Of course, the bigger your subscriber base, the bigger the revenue you stand to make.
Popup forms can also serve as an analytic tool to help you keep track of visitors coming to your website.
Features to Look Out for In a Popup Form Plugin
Okay, not all form plugins are worth trying. Some will make a mess of your website, right off the bat. Others will be very hard to use.
To this end, here are important features to look out for before installing a popup plugin:
- Simplicity
- High performance
- Let’s you put your forms wherever you choose
- Compatible with your WordPress hosting
- Has triggers. That is to say, the form pops up when users perform a certain action
7 Best WordPress Popup Plugins
In this section, we will be reviewing the best plugins for WordPress that you can use to create opt-in forms.
While some are free, some others are premium. Let’s jump in!
OptinMonster
OptinMonster is one of the most popular and powerful popup solutions in the market. As a matter of fact, it brought some of the major innovations we see in popup forms today.
One of such innovations is the Exit-intent technology; a feature that fires up your popup form when a user attempts to leave your website.
One thing you must know about OptinMonster is that it’s not explicitly a WordPress plugin, but a Saas product. That is to say, it can be used on WordPress as well as other web platforms like Joomla and plain HTML/CSS websites.
With that said, let’s now go over some of the features that make this Saas product worth giving a shot.
Features
One of the really cool features of OptinMonster is its intuitive drag-and-drop builder that lets you create beautiful popup forms.
With this tool, you can customize your popup forms just the way you want it. If you’ve ever used WordPress page builders like Elementor, you wouldn’t have any problems using this tool.
However, if you are pressed for time, or don’t have good design skills, you can select a popup template of your choice and use it.
In addition to its drag-and-drop feature, OptinMonster gives you several targeting options. They include page-level targeting, Geo-location targeting, onsite retargeting, etc.
Other interesting features include time delay, conversion analytics, A/B testing, and lots more.
Pricing
Unfortunately, there are no free plans with OptinMonster. To use this software, you would have to pay at least $9/month, billed annually, which is the basic plan. The other plans are Plus, Pro, and Growth; they go for $19, $29, and $49 per month, respectively.
Sumo – WordPress Popup Plugin
This is another popup maker that is equally popular and powerful. In addition to popularity, Sumo is super easy to use.
Unlike OptinMonster, Sumo has a free plan which has much of what you need to successfully convert web traffic to subscribers. Of course, you can always upgrade to the premium version whenever you choose.
Let’s now go over the many features Sumo has to offer.
Features
Since most of the traffic to your website will be coming from mobile devices, you need a plugin solution that works excellently well on mobile. This is where Sumo shines.
The popup forms you create with the plugin will be super responsive. As such, you won’t have to worry about losing precious leads.
What if you wanted to send a thank you message each time someone subscribes to your email list, how would you go about it? Thankfully, Sumo has an automated response feature that lets you do this.
Additionally, this plugin lets you customize popups on your WordPress website just the way you want them. What’s more, it has a drag-and-drop builder, which is easy to use.
Other advanced features include AB tests, advanced targeting, good customer support, etc.
Pricing
Sumo is free, and will probably remain so for the foreseeable future. However, to enjoy AB testing, advanced targeting, and more, you would have to upgrade to the pro version. It costs $39/month.
Thrive Leads
From the stables of Thrive Themes, Thrive Leads is a conversion-focused popup maker. This means if you are looking to convert as many visitors as possible to paying customers, this plugin is your best bet.
But conversion isn’t the only metric Thrive Leads is centered on; it takes into account aesthetics as well. Like the other two popup builders we earlier reviewed, Thrive lead also comes with customizable pre-designed templates.
Features
If you run an online store, for instance, Thrive leads’ attention-grabbing lightbox popups can help you turn uncommitted visitors to paying customers.
With this plugin, you can create a sticky ribbon, which sticks to the browser screen of a visitor as she/he scrolls up and down. You can use it in different ways, such as to collect emails, make an announcement, etc. Unlike popup boxes, sticky ribbons are non-invasive.
What if you wanted to make your popup forms less invasive so that you do not annoy your visitors? Thrive leads’ Slide feature can help. Technically, the Slide is still a popup box, only that it occupies a small portion of a viewer’s screen.
Another intuitive feature of this WordPress form maker you might like is its content locking. It works like this: you lock a certain content – like a blog post. To access that particular post, a user would have to put in his/her email address, which you would capture at the backend.
Pricing
Thrive Leads is a premium Saas solution that starts at $67/annum. The other advanced plans go for $97 and $147 per annum.
Bloom – WordPress Popup Plugin
Created and managed by Elegant Themes, Bloom is one lead generation plugin you can bank on.
A really cool feature of Bloom is that you can choose the event that will trigger your opt-in form. And there are lots of options you can select from. For instance, you can set your form to fire up when a user starts scrolling, makes a comment, completes a purchase, etc.
Additionally, you can set where and how your forms will appear.
Talking about ease of use, Bloom shines!
Features
Bloom has 6 different display options you can choose from. As such, you can set your form to appear in the widget area, below your content, or fly in automatically after a certain time delay.
Also, you are at liberty to select what event gets your form triggered. Scrolling, making a purchase, leaving a comment; these are some of the trigger events you can select from. You can also set your opt-in form to fire up after a certain period of inactivity.
As for design, Bloom has over 100 predesigned templates you can choose from and they are all 100% customizable.
Last but not the least, Bloom comes with an intuitive dashboard from where you can manage your opt-in forms, track your conversion rate, and do lots more.
Pricing
Bloom’s pricing starts at $89/year. This basic plan comes with lots of other packages like Divi, Extra, etc.
Popup Builder
Most of the popup plugins compared so far don’t even offer a free version. Popup builder, however, offers a functional free version.
The free version can do a lot for you. For instance, you can create as many popups as you please, and have them displayed on different sections of your website.
With Popup builder, you can make your popups appear repeatedly after a given period of time. As an example, you can have them show up after every 5 minutes, and stop after a user has signed up to your email list.
In the premium version of the plugin, you can embed video from YouTube and Vimeo right into your popup modals.
Features
Popup Builder is compatible with multi-sites. It’s also compatible with most WordPress page builders like Divi and Visual Composer.
Further, there are a number of popup animation effects you can select from. Slide, fade, wobble, etc. are some of them. You also have the option of making your popup appear when a user hovers over a certain section/element on your website.
Interestingly, you can embed just about any type of file/media into your popups: PDF, images, Facebook, HTML, video, etc. You can as well embed contact forms such as Contact Form 7 and Ninja Forms.
Popup Builder, like OptinMonster, supports Exit-intent technology. That is, you can set it to fire up when a user attempts to leave your website.
Pricing
As earlier mentioned, you don’t have to make any upfront financial commitment to use this plugin. However, you will need the pro version if you want advanced features.
The pro version starts at $31.95/annum. It comes with all extensions you would ever need to make your email marketing campaign a success.
Ninja Popup – WordPress Popup Plugin
Ninja popup is another popular WordPress plugin that delivers. First released some 8 years ago, this plugin has proven itself an effective email marketing solution.
For less than $30, you can enjoy unlimited customization options. And that’s not all; you can integrate Ninja popup to any email marketing tool of your choice, MailChimp, InfusionSoft, JetPack, etc.
So, if you are looking for an inexpensive lead conversion tool you can trust, Ninja Popup is a great option.
Features
Like most of the popup plugin we’ve reviewed thus far, Ninja popup comes with an easy to use drag and drop builder. It lets you build, customize, and align your popups just the way you want them.
Additionally, there are several predesigned templates you can choose from. At the time of this writing, there are over 60 of them. Also, the plugin comes with 74 different animation effects you can select from.
What’s more, with this plugin you can integrate your popup with any social media platform: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. It can be integrated with most email marketing software like MailChimp, Aweber, etc.
Pricing
To get up and running with Ninja Popup, you would have to make a one-time payment of $27.
Elementor Popup Builder
Elementor is one of the largest and most popular website page builder plugins. What many don’t know is that it doubles as a WordPress popup plugin, too.
With Elementor popup, you can create as many stylish, responsive popups as you please. As a matter of fact, there are over 100 popup templates available.
Features
Elementor Popups supports 5 different sets of triggers: Scroll, Inactivity, Click, Page load, and Exit intent. That means you can set your popup to fire up whenever a user performs any of the above actions.
But if these 5 triggers don’t meet your criteria, you can use advanced triggers. For instance, you can make your popups show only on certain types of devices. You can also make them show only to users arriving from a particular URL.
Other interesting features include unlimited page views, integration with email marketing software, etc.
Pricing
Elementor’s starting price is $49/annum. This basic plan comes with the Elementor’s page and popup builder and you are only allowed to use it on one website.
If you have more than one site, you can go for the Plus or Expert plans. They cost $99 and $199/year, respectively.
Conclusion – WordPress Popup Plugin
So there you have it; 7 best popup plugins for WordPress. These are tested and trusted plugins guaranteed to deliver maximum results.
Beside lead capture, another way to grow your site is SEO. We have a number of guides in our WP Tutorials on how to improve SEO. You may start with this article – WordPress SEO: The Definitive Guide for Beginners.
