Do you want to add stunning popups to your site that get visitors to take action?
Popups are a great way to grab your visitor’s attention to persuade them into becoming email subscribers, buyers, and returning customers.
The best way to create popups on your site is by using a WordPress plugin. You can create beautiful popups with targeting rules, all without touching a single line of code.
In this guide, we’ve picked out the best popup plugins for WordPress so you can find the right one to suit your marketing goals.
Here’s a list of the popup plugins we’ll be covering. Feel free to skip ahead to the plugin you’re most interested in:
Before we detail every plugin, let’s quickly look at what makes a great popup plugin.
What to Look For in a Popup Plugin?
Popups give you the power to bring the user’s attention to what you want them to do or know.
It’s important to note that over the years, popups have been misused and abused making them annoying. This led to visitors leaving the website and never returning just out of sheer frustration.
But popups have proven time and time again to work – if done right!
You need to make sure you choose the right popup plugin that will give you all the features and tools you need to create high-converting popups that appear at the right time and place.
When selecting a popup plugin, here’s what you should look for:
We’ve selected the plugins in this list based on these factors. We’ve also taken into account their pricing and customer support options so that you can make the best choice.
Best Popup Plugins for WordPress
Below you’ll find the best popup plugins in the market for WordPress sites along with their features, cons, and cost. We’ll also tell you what platforms they work on and how they compare to other popup plugins.
1. OptinMonster
OptinMonster is #1 popup plugin for WordPress. It has powerful features that make creating a popup a breeze. Plus, there are tons of advanced options to grow your subscriber list and increase conversions.
OptinMonster comes with beautiful templates and a drag-and-drop builder so you can easily create customized popups that match all WordPress themes. What’s more is that you get to create all sorts of campaign types like lightbox popup, floating bars, slide-ins, coupon wheels, and inline forms.
Take a look at these example campaigns to get an idea of how creative you can be with OptinMonster:
The best part about OptinMonster is its powerful targeting rules. Inside the campaign builder, you can add campaign triggers and target rules to control where, when, and to whom your popup appears. The popular rules include:
OptinMonster also lets you connect your popup to popular email service providers like Constant Contact, Aweber, and Mailchimp. So all new leads will automatically be sent to your email account.
After you create your popup, OptinMonster makes it incredibly easy to publish it on your site without any hassle. There’s a readymade widget you can embed into pages, posts, sidebars, and more.
Then you can track popup performance and get all the important stats inside your dashboard. You can see how different popups are getting views, clicks, and conversions.
To sum it up, OptinMonster has all the features you need to make your popup campaigns a success. You can read more about OptinMonster in our extensive review: OptinMonster Review: Is It the Best Optin & Conversion Tool?
Highlights
Cons: OptinMonster doesn’t offer a free version. However, there’s a 14-day 100% risk-free moneyback guarantee so you can get started without making a commitment.
Cost: OptinMonster starts at $9 per month.
Platforms: OptinMonster works on any website including WordPress, WooCommerce, Shopify, BigCommerce, and even HTML sites. If you ever decide to migrate your site to a different web platform, OptinMonster seamlessly integrates with any site so you’ll never lose your popups and marketing progress.
Comparison: OptinMonster is packed with features to create stunning popups that actually bring results. They also have tons of case studies and tutorials to help you make the most of it. It’s used by over 1.2+ million websites across the world. And when compared to other popup plugins, it’s reasonably priced and worth every penny.
TrustPulse is the best popup notification tool to increase conversions using social proof.
When you add TrustPulse to your site, it will automatically track the activity and interests of your visitors. It then creates non-intrusive popups showcasing this activity for other visitors to see.
You can customize and control what activity is tracked and displayed. So for instance, you can showcase recent newsletter signups, sales, webinar/event registrations, and more.
Social proof popups can drive sales and conversions by building trust and confidence in visitors. It also adds a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) on your site so visitors will be more likely to take action as they see others doing the same.
Now TrustPulse lets you do more than display social proof. You can create your own customized message to promote your newsletter, flash sales, products, and more. And the popup notifications are clickable so you can add a link that will take them straight to your signup form, contact form, promotion page, checkout, or any other page you like.
Read our complete review to learn more about this plugin: TrustPulse Review: Driving Conversions With the Social Proof App
Highlights
Cons: The plugin adds its branding to the popups though it’s very small and usually doesn’t pose any problem. If you want to remove the branding, you’ll want to subscribe to the Growth plan.
Cost: TrustPulse offers 4 pricing plans starting at $5 per month. Each of these plans includes a 14-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked. For an exclusive discount, use our TrustPulse coupon.
Platforms: TrustPulse works with any website platform. For WordPress sites, you can use the TrustPulse plugin to easily add and manage your social proof popups.
Comparison: TrustPulse is the most affordable social proof popup plugin in the market. It offers the same features at a fraction of the cost compared to its competitors.
Bloom is a WordPress popup plugin built by Elegant Themes. It allows you to create beautiful popup forms right from your WordPress dashboard.
Bloom comes with 100+ premade popup templates and 6 display options to create customized popups. Although, on closer inspection, most of the templates are look-alikes with a few minor changes.
Next, Bloom integrates with popular email services so you can sync your email account with your lead generation popups.
Added to that, the popup designs are mobile-friendly so they’ll look great for mobile users as well.
Want to know more about this popup maker? See our Bloom review.
Highlights
Cons: Bloom is not a standalone popup plugin. Instead, it’s bundled along with an Elegant Themes subscription. If you don’t renew your license for the bundle, you’ll lose access to your popups as well.
Added to that, Bloom’s popup builder isn’t a visual one. You’ll need to click on the preview button to view the changes you make to your form.
You’ll also need to keep an eye on your site speed as the plugin can put a load on your site and slow it down.
Cost: Bloom is available inside the Elegant Themes bundle that starts at $89 per year or $249 for lifetime access.
There’s no trial period available. If you want to test Bloom before purchasing it, you can make use of their live plugin demo site.
Platforms: Works on WordPress sites.
Comparison: Bloom is a good option if you’re already using Elegant Themes. But the popup builder is not as feature-rich as other plugins like OptinMonster. It only has very basic targeting options which may not be enough after a while.
Get started with Bloom!
4. Thrive Suite
Thrive Suite is a bundled WordPress plugin similar to Elegant Themes. Inside the suite, you’ll get access to Thrive Leads plugin which allows you to build popups for your site.
ThriveLeads has a drag and drop editor that makes it easy to create popups. You can add targeting rules based on posts, categories, and tags.
It also has actionable reports so you can see how your optin forms are performing over time and where your most valuable traffic comes from.
See our ThriveLeads review for more on this plugin: Thrive Leads Review 2021: Is It the Best WordPress List Building Plugin?
Highlights
Cons: There’s a learning curve with this plugin. This means you may find it difficult in the beginning to get used to the dashboard.
And similar to Bloom, you’ll need to renew your license for the entire suite to get updates for the popup builder.
Cost: Thrive Suite costs $99 per quarter. You can also opt for annual payments at $299 per year.
Platforms: ThriveSuite works only with WordPress.
Comparison: ThriveSuite lets you create beautiful popups without touching any code. They have a decent amount of targeting options, too. It’s an excellent alternative to the Bloom plugin but doesn’t match up to what OptinMonster has to offer.
Get started with ThriveSuite!
5. HubSpot
HubSpot has a free WordPress popup plugin that makes it easy to add simple popups to your website.
HubSpot’s popup builder has a user-friendly interface and it comes with many pre-built templates you can use. You can create multiple different types of popups including drop-down banners, slide-in boxes, and more.
You can also customize how your popups look, when they appear, and who sees them.
Plus, whenever someone fills out your popup form, their information will automatically be added to the built-in CRM. This makes it easy to manage your contacts, segment them into lists, and keep track of every interaction they’ve had with your site.
Highlights
Cons: HubSpot offers fewer features and popup design options compared to other popup plugins like OptinMonster.
The free plan also includes the HubSpot branding on your forms and popups. You’ll have to upgrade to a premium plan to get rid of it.
Cost: The HubSpot WordPress plugin is free and includes popups, forms, live chat, email marketing, CRM, and more. Paid plans are available starting at $45 per month.
Platforms: HubSpot has a WordPress plugin as well as an online popup builder that works on any site.
Comparison: If you’re on a budget and need a free all-in-one marketing plugin to create popups, send emails, and more, HubSpot is a great choice.
But, the popup builder is not as feature-rich as some of the other plugins on this list, and paid plans are expensive. If you are looking to create eCommerce popups and overlays, you’ll get more functionality and advanced targeting that you need with OptinMonster.
Get started with HubSpot!
6. Hello Bar
Hello Bar is a popup builder that lets you create popup bars, modals, alerts, sliders, and more. You can customize every element of the popup to match your WordPress website style.
There are 100+ prebuilt popup themes you can choose from. And there’s a design assistant that automatically detects your site design and matches colors, fonts, and styling. This makes things a whole lot easier, especially for beginners.
Highlights
Cons: The free plan limits you to 10 popups and 5,000 views per month. You’ll also see the Hello Bar branding on your popups. If you want to remove the branding, you’ll need to upgrade to a premium plan.
Cost: Hello Bar offers a forever-free plan for up to 5,000 sessions per month. The pro version starts at $29 per month.
Platforms: Hello Bar works on all platforms.
Comparison: Hello Bar is a great option for those looking for a free plan for small websites. But as your site grows, you’ll need to create more campaigns and get more pageviews. When you switch to a premium plan, it’s quite an expensive tool.
Added to that, it doesn’t offer as many targeting features and designs as you’d expect for this price.
If you’re serious about growing your leads and sales, then you’ll need to switch to a more powerful popup builder like OptinMonster which is only 1/3rd the cost.
Get started with Hello Bar!
7. Elementor Pro
Elementor Pro is the best drag-and-drop page builder for WordPress. It is loved by millions of website owners around the world mainly on account of its feature-rich free plan.
If you’re already using Elementor Pro on your website, then you can create popups at no extra cost.
Elementor lets you build different types of popups including email subscriptions, login forms, promotions and sale banners, welcome mats, and more.
Added to that, you can add effects like fly-in, full screen, help bar, bottom bar, slide-in, and more.
Highlights
Cons: You need to buy the Elementor page builder to get access to the popup builder.
Cost: Elementor Pro starts at $59 per year.
Platforms: Elementor is a WordPress page builder.
Comparison: Elementor Pro is mainly a drag-and-drop page builder and the best one out there. It’s incredibly easy to use and a great choice for popups if you’re already using Elementor Pro.
Get started with Elementor Pro!
Popup Press lets you create elegant popups for your WordPress site. It goes beyond lead generation and lets you create any popup you like.
For instance, you can showcase custom messages, disclaimers, forms, ads, products, and more. Popup Press lets you embed any content you want including image galleries and videos.
It’s a great choice for beginners too because it comes with a popup builder that’s easy to use so you can build your website popups fast.
Popup Press offers 4 targeting rules to show popups on click, hover, page-load, or exit. This means you’ll have plenty of options to display the popup at the right time to your users.
Highlights
Cons: Popup Press is built to create generic popups. It won’t be of much help in increasing leads and conversions.
There’s also no free version or trial period to test the plugin. You can check out the demo available to see how Popup Press works.
Cost: Popup Press costs $39 for 6 months of support (not including taxes). You can extend your license to 12 months at $12.75 extra.
Platforms: Popup Press works only with WordPress.
Comparison: Popup Press is useful if you want to add content inside popups to improve user experience and engagement on your site. If you want to use popups to grow your subscriber list and drive sales, then we suggest looking for an alternative popup builder.
Get started with Popup Press now!
9. Sumo
Sumo is a WordPress plugin that lets you create popups with a focus on growing your email list.
The plugin is designed to help you build your email list and easily engage with these subscribers. You can use Sumo to set up autoresponder emails to connect with users as soon as they sign up.
You can also add share buttons on your website so visitors can easily share your content and products on social media.
Sumo will then show you the return on investment for every subscriber or sale through the popup.
You’ll also be able to show custom popups based on the traffic sources of your website visitors. For instance, if you get a lot of traffic from Facebook, you can create customized popups just for them. This feature is a part of the premium version.
Highlights
Cons: There are limited customization options. For advanced customization options, you’ll need to use CSS.
Cost: There’s a free version with basic features. The pro plan costs $49 per month for 100,000 visitors. There’s a 30-day money-back guarantee and you can save $120 if you pay annually for the plugin’s subscription.
The pricing of Sumo depends on the traffic your site attracts. With the free plugin, popups do not always appear if your site attracts tons of traffic.
Platforms: Works on WordPress.
Comparison: The free app is very limited in what it offers. Plus, it creates a blue menu bar on the side of your wp-admin panel. If you want to remove it, you’ll need to buy the premium version.
Keep in mind that Sumo is a broad product with a narrow focus on growing your email list. Compared to other popup plugins, it lacks several basic and advanced features and doesn’t have many targeting options.
Convert Pro is a powerful email opt-in and lead-generation plugin for WordPress. You can use it to increase conversions and grow your subscriber list.
The plugin comes with a drag-and-drop editor that lets you create popups and other lead-generation forms with ease. Then you can add targeting rules to display the form at the right time when visitors will be more likely to convert.
And the best part is that every form is mobile-friendly and optimized for speed.
Highlights
Cons: There are limited targeting rules.
Cost: Starts at $87 per year. There’s a lifetime bundle that starts at $387.
Platforms: Works on WordPress.
Comparison: Convert Pro offers its full-featured plan for much cheaper than plugins like OptinMonster. But you need to keep in mind that when you compare the two, Convert Pro’s full-featured plan doesn’t offer as much as OptinMonster’s full-featured plan.
Convert Pro also offers only a single-site license, whereas OptinMonster’s full-featured plan can be used on 5 sites. So that explains the price difference between the two.
With OptinMonster, you get to choose a pricing plan based on what features you want and how many sites you plan on using them on.
That’s our list of the top popup plugins for WordPress. For more options, check out Icegram and Ninja Popups. If you’re wondering which one is the best of the lot, we give you our verdict next.
Our Pick: Which is the Best Popup Plugin for WordPress?
If you want to use popups to drive conversions on your site, then OptinMonster is the best choice by far. Its performance, customization, and results are unmatched by other popup plugins.
OptinMonster is packed with features and powerful targeting options at an affordable rate. You can choose from a wide range of display rules like exit-intent popups, user device, geo-targeting, date and time, and more.
It’s also been proven to work, in fact, you can check out case studies of OptinMonster’s success with their customers.
The plugin is also backed by a friendly and professional support team. And, with any OptinMonster plan, you get access to OptinMonster University. It’s full of cheatsheets, templates, courses, and training on digital marketing, email marketing, and more.
So overall, it’s a good long-term investment.
To create your first popup with OptinMonster, see our guide: How to a Popup in WordPress (Step by Step).
If building popups is time-consuming and you want to hand off the work, the OptinMonster team will create done-for-you popup campaigns. You’ll save time and get professional high-converting popups for your site.
We hope this list helped you find the best WordPress popup plugin for your site. For your next steps, you’ll find these resources helpful:
These posts will give you more of the best WordPress plugins and services you can rely on to automate processes, get more leads, and drive growth.
This content was originally published here.