Choosing the wrong WordPress popup plugin can negatively impact your conversion rate.
Some of them can even significantly increase page load time and damage user experience, while some plugins may have cybersecurity vulnerabilities and lead to reputation issues and downtime.
We’ve done the research WordPress popup plugins to find the best ones available for a variety of needs.
The choices in our top six list are trusted, affordable and user-friendly plugin options to help increase your eCommerce website conversion rates.
By the way, if you don’t have a WordPress site yet, use our Wondersuite to customize and set up your online store quickly.
What is a WordPress popup plugin?
A WordPress popup builder plugin is an add-on that enables you to create and add popup functionality to your WordPress website.
They are installed in the plugins section of your WordPress dashboard and give you the ability to add popups with features like different start and end triggers, locations, designs, animations and buttons.
Note that WordPress plugins usually work only on self-hosted WordPress websites. You need to use a WordPress hosting service like Bluehost to ensure popup plugins can be installed.
How WordPress popup plugins help conversions
Popups actively engage with your visitors and motivate them to take a particular action by putting a message on top of the base website design. Some try to convert users directly into buyers, and others work to move visitors to the top or middle of the sales funnel. For example, discount popups try to sell your product directly, but email opt-in popups collect visitors’ contact information so you can later offer them your products in a newsletter or email.
Common ways popups help conversions
- Offer a personalized discount or coupon codes to try to close a sale.
- Provide personalized product recommendations to keep shoppers interested.
- Keep visitors from leaving your website with special offers if they buy now.
- Boost signups to demos, free trials, email lists or newsletters.
- Upsell loyal customers.
- Promote lead magnets such as gated content and free tools to turn visitors into subscribers.
- Invite website visitors to an event to increase engagement.
WordPress popup plugins typically include templates for many of these types of plugin actions.
What to look for in a WordPress popup plugin
Good popup plugins have four notable features you will need to increase a website conversion rate: triggers, targeting capabilities, analytics and integrations with other plugins or tools. Popup plugins mainly differ in how they implement these features.
Here are brief instructions on how to understand what you need from this or that popup feature for your website. And as a result, choose the best popup plugin.
Security
Popups sometimes have a bad reputation for serving malicious code. Be sure to choose a reputable popup plugin that protects its coding against vulnerabilities that could cause you to give hackers access to your customers unknowingly.
Popup trigger options
Triggers are the actions that control when a popup appears and then disappears. For example, exit-intent trigger popups detect when the user’s cursor moves toward the browser’s close button, and a scroll trigger activates when someone scrolls to a certain point.
Targeting options
Some popups need to show personalized offers. Targeting options help you personalize popups for your visitors and boost conversions. For example, you can offer product discounts based on a user’s cart contents. When choosing a WordPress popup plugin, be sure to pick one that allows the targeting options you need. An entertainment eCommerce website might need very different targeting options than a lawn care service that only serves a certain area.
Built-in analytics
Analytics help a website owner to understand what popups or popup elements perform better so you can continuously improve popup conversions. Popup plugins with integrated analytics and A/B testing opportunities help you track what is working and what isn’t by collecting data about how visitors interact with your popups.
Integration
Your choice of popup plugin needs to play well with the other plugins in your toolbox. Email marketing tools, customer relationship management (CRM) tools, other WordPress plugins that need a popup plugin to work properly and even your choice of eCommerce platform (such as WooCommerce or Shopify) can make a difference on how popup plugs work with each tool.
Best popup plugins for WordPress
For our top picks of the best WordPress popup plugins we looked at functionality, if it is customizable and plugin integration. We chose plugins that offer a wide variety of popups, such as overlay (modal), inline, fly-ins, slide-in, opt-in forms and popup forms, along with popup trigger types so you can find the right popup plugin for your website to help with conversions and sales.
Popup Maker
Popup Maker is a popular simple popup tool used on over 600,000 websites. It is a perfect fit if you are new to popups and is one of the few choices with a free version option. The tool is great for experimenting with popups as a lead generation tool and has great features such as a visual theme builder, image and video integration and doesn’t require coding.
Key features
Triggers:
- Auto open with time delay.
- Click open.
- Form submission.
- Exit intent.
- Scroll open.
Targeting options based on:
- The user’s cart contents (WooCommerce Popup).
- Specific pages.
- User roles.
- Referring website.
- Device specifications, such as manufacturer, browser, screen size and OS.
- Countries, regions and postal codes.
Customization options:
- Customization to match your website colors, fonts and images.
- Size.
- Positioning.
- Animation effects.
- Video popups.
Integration:
- Form plugins such as WPForms or Mailchimp for WordPress.
- BuddyPress.
- Aweber.
- MailChimp.
- Gravity Forms.
- Ninja Forms.
Analytics: Track popup performance on each page, including open rates and conversion rates.
Support: Via support tickets.
Best for: Beginners and those who have a limited budget.
Price: Free plan allows popup creation but has a limited feature set. Paid plans with fuller features range from $87/year to $247/year.
OptinMonster
OptinMonster is one of the most popular plugins for good reason. It balances strong features and good pricing. It also includes lead verification options and blocks risky email addresses based on criteria such as IP addresses, temporary email addresses, role-based emails (help@, support@, contact@, etc.), characters, strings and patterns in an address and free email addresses. OptinMonster also avoids damaging website performance and speed.
Key features
Triggers:
- Auto open.
- Click-based.
- Exit intent.
- Scroll open.
- Inactivity sensor.
- Specific dates and times.
Targeting options based on:
- The user’s cart contents, order value and cart abandonment.
- Specific pages.
- User behavior.
- Referring website.
- Device type, such as tablet, desktop or mobile.
- Countries, regions and postal codes.
- AdBlock detection.
Customization:
- Drag-and-drop popup builder to customize popup templates.
Integration:
- Most prevalent email marketing services and CRM tools such as Mailchimp, AWeber, GetResponse, HubSpot, Drip, Sendinblue, Sendloop, MadMimi, MailerLite, ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, Customer.io and Klaviyo.
- Most popular eCommerce platforms and form builders such as Contact Form 7 Popup, WPForms Popup, Shopify Popups, Ninja Form Popup, Magento Popups, WooCommerce Popups, Gravity Forms Popup, BigCommerce Popups, and ManyChat.
Analytics: Tracks conversion rates and revenue attribution. Includes tracking for A/B testing.
Support: Via multiple channels, including a private Facebook group, knowledgebase with tutorials and live support.
Best for: Website owners needing strong support and help getting campaigns set up.
Price: Plans range from $9/month to $49/month when billed annually.
Sumo
Sumo is a WordPress popup plugin for a broader marketing focus rather than just collecting email lists. The powerful tool has several marketing apps within one WordPress popup plugin, such as social media share buttons and one-off marketing emails.
Key features
Triggers:
- Auto open.
- Click detection.
- Exit intent.
- Scroll open.
Targeting options based on:
- Referring website.
- The user’s cart contents.
- Specific pages.
- Cart abandonment.
Customization options:
- Drag-and-drop popup builder to customize popup templates.
Integration:
- Most popular email service providers including Klaviyo, GetResponse, ActiveCampaign, Drip, MailChimp, Aweber, ConvertKit, Campaign Monitor, Mad Mimi, MailerLite, Constant Contact, MailJet and Vero.
- WooCommerce.
Analytics: Dashboard to review impressions, number of emails collected and click conversion rate. Paid plans include an A/B testing module.
Support: Via email.
Best for: Website owners who need an affordable WordPress popup plugin with marketing features beyond collecting email lists.
Price: Free plan adds Sumo branding. Pro plan removes branding, includes advanced analytics and costs $49/month or $468/annually.
Icegram
Icegram is an all-in-one email marketing solution that helps you personalize campaigns at scale. It is a family of three powerful plugins: Express, Engage and Collect. Together they allow you to create and manage popups for newsletters, call-to-action popups and contact forms to help create a smooth workflow within one connected family of plugins. However, each plugin is sold separately, so you can opt for a free plan on the plugin you use least and pay for an upgrade on the plugin you need most to customize your experience.
Key features
Triggers:
- Auto open.
- Click open.
- Exit intent.
- Scroll open.
Targeting options based on:
- Referring website.
- The user’s cart contents.
- Specific pages.
- User behavior, e.g., special offers for returning visitors.
- Device type, such as tablet, desktop or mobile.
- Countries, regions, postal codes.
Customization options:
- Customization to match your website colors, fonts and images.
- Positioning.
- Animation effects for messages, sidebars, ribbons, and buttons.
Integration:
- Although Icegram has its own email marketing tool, it integrates with popular email marketing services such as MailChimp, Hubspot, AWeber, Campaign Monitor, GetResponse, InfusionSoft, ActiveCampaign, AWS, Sendgrid and Sparkpost.
- WooCommerce plugins.
Analytics: Dashboard to check impressions, number of conversions and conversion rate. Possible to run A/B testing campaigns.
Support: Via email for premium plan members.
Best for: Marketers and bloggers needing to create a polished email marketing experience at scale.
Price: Free plans include limited integrations and features. Premium plans start at $129/year for each plugin with additional features and support options.
Popup Builder
Popup Builder is a super user-friendly WordPress popup plugin with various options to help increase your sales, such as gamification popups, social proof notifications, advanced closing control and a random popups option.
Key features
Triggers:
- Auto open.
- Hover open.
- Click open.
- Exit intent.
- Scroll open.
- User inactivity.
- Adding products to the cart.
Targeting options based on:
- Specific pages.
- A selected number of page visits.
- Referring website.
- The user’s cart contents.
- Specific user roles.
- Device type, such as tablet, desktop or mobile.
- Countries and regions.
- AdBlock detection.
Customization options:
- Customization to match your website colors, fonts and images.
- Video content.
Integration:
- Most other popular plugins and tools, including WooCommerce, MailChimp, Contact Form 7, WPML, Polylang, Ninja Forms, Gravity Forms, TablePress, Formidable Forms, WP Google Maps, HTML5 Maps, Review Builder and Divi Builder.
Analytics: Track popup performance based on trigger types and the most popular popups over a specified period of time.
Support: Via live chat and email.
Best for: Website owners who need advanced targeting and trigger options.
Price: Free plan includes four popup types but no support or updates. Single-purchase paid extensions to customize features are available. Premium plans start at $49.95/year and include all extensions plus one year of support and updates.
Convert Pro
Convert Pro is a high-quality and simple to use WordPress popup plugin with unlimited website usage. It includes a solid selection of trigger and targeting options along with a mobile optimization editor. It also has a large library of popup templates, so swapping to a different popup without designing from scratch is easy.
Key features
Triggers:
- Auto open.
- Exit intent.
- User inactivity.
- Scroll open.
- After content.
Targeting options based on:
- Page-level targeting
- Referring website.
- User behavior.
- Specific user roles.
- Device type, such as tablet, desktop or mobile.
- Countries and regions.
- AdBlock detection.
Customization:
- Drag-and-drop popup builder to customize popup templates.
- Mobile editor to customize popups for mobile use.
Integration:
- Most popular email providers and CRMs including, Klaviyo, MailerLite, Campaign Monitor, MailChimp, GetResponse, ActiveCampaign, Drip, AWeber, Mad Mimi, ConvertKit, Constant Contact and Mailjet.
Analytics: Tracks highlight impressions, conversions and conversion rates. Integrates with Google Analytics. Offers A/B testing, multi-variant testing, and inter-style testing to compare effectiveness between different popup types.
Support: Via support tickets.
Best for: Website owners who seek a one-time payment solution for email opt-in and lead generation.
Price: Annual paid plans start at $87/year, while one-time lifetime purchase plans start at $387.
Maximize conversions with WordPress popup plugins best practices
Once you have selected the best WordPress popup plugin for you, these best practices will help you set it up and use it to drive conversions effectively.
Adapt the popup look for your target audience
A popup plugin design should appeal to your target audience. For example, while bright and colorful animations might be effective for a younger audience, an older audience might want a more sophisticated look.
Try to sound more human
Salesy popup text will likely result in banner blindness for your visitors, while a conversational tone often proves to be far more engaging. Conversational popups convert 2x better than email popups.
Choose the right time to show a popup
Users will likely get annoyed and leave if websites display popups too quickly after the pages load. Let them skim your offer or content first. Once they have spent some time on the website, they are more likely to interact with a popup.
Popups that use a timer to open eight seconds after a visitor lands on your website are generally the popups with the highest conversion rate.
Set up mobile responsiveness
Popups designed for large screens don’t display well on mobile devices and will make it much harder for visitors to reach relevant website content. Google also monitors when elements block the view of websites on mobile devices and may penalize those websites.
To adapt your popup for mobile devices, reduce the size of the elements or simplify the design. You may also need to adjust positioning so that a popup doesn’t cover the entire page.
Make it easy for visitors to close pop-ups
If you try to force a user to opt in by hiding a close button, they are likely to leave your website. Make the close button easily visible and easy to navigate. Place it on one of the corners and choose the size and color to make it easy to see.
Continuously test and optimize your popups
A/B testing combined with analytics can help increase your conversion rate. With experiments, you can find out what design, copy, positioning, triggers and targeting options work best for your website.
Final thoughts: The six best WordPress popup plugins to get more conversions
Using a popup plugin that is reliable and easy to use helps you manage your eCommerce website. You can choose a plugin for your budget, integration requirements, trigger and targeting options and analytics features.
But if you need help with customizing the setup of a WordPress popup plugin, try our Pro Design Live support for expert assistance. Our team of experts will help you through the process and you can also expect well-rounded service on backup, account access issues, and many other challenges you might face on your way to creating a well-performing website.
