Everyone hates popup plugins, but everyone uses them! The truth is that popup plugins amplify your thoughts about a site. If you appreciate the content, you are inclined to perform the actions required by a popup. Usually, these ask you to subscribe to a newsletter or download a freebie. Conversely, if you don’t like the content of that site, the popup is terribly annoying.
We aren’t in control of your content quality and how your site visitors think about it, so we can’t lend you a hand in that regard. However, we searched for the best popup plugins to attract and delight people. Here are our picks:
OptinMonster
OptinMonster is one of the most complex popup plugins. It’s a mighty tool that has the potential to exponentially grow your business. OptinMonster does a lot more than creating popup plugins. You can use it to create:
- Coupon wheels. These are high converters because everyone loves tournaments and prizes. People will give you their email addresses for a chance to win a prize!
- Countdown timers. These urge people to take action so they don’t miss the chance of getting an advantage like access to a well-researched report, an ebook, or a discount.
- Inline forms. Go for this solution if you don’t like obtrusive popup forms. All you have to do is to insert a form within the content – usually within a blog post.
- Floating bars. A nice modality of keeping a message visible, such as a discount, a breaking news article, or a product update.
- Lightbox popups. These are common popups asking you to subscribe to a newsletter.
Do you believe that OptinMonster is only for marketers with technical knowledge? You are wrong! Despite its complex set of features, OptinMonster is super user-friendly! You have to check the documentation when you face an issue – everything is clearly explained and backed by short videos.
If you are on a tight budget and don’t want to invest money in a popup plugin, go to the WordPress repository and download the free version of OptinMonster.
Thrive Leads
Similar to OptinMonster, Thrive Leads does a lot more than a simple WordPress popup plugin. Purchasing a Thrive Leads subscription only for a simple popup on your site is not a good idea. There are free plugins for that, and Thrive Leads is way too complex for this job.
This tool is the perfect choice for webmasters and marketers who run medium to large websites. Thrive Leads bases its strategy on four pillars.
First, the large array of popup options. Lightbox popups, inline forms, slide-in, opt-in widget, screen filler overlay, content lock, and multiple-choice forms are just a few types of popups generated by Thrive Leads.
Second, the advanced targeting options allow displaying the most relevant forms to the users. Consequently, the conversion rate skyrockets. Third, Thrive Leads streamlines A/B testing, so you can constantly refine your forms. The fourth pillar is the advanced reporting and insights system. It provides analytics data about your campaigns, how the forms performed, and how users consumed your content.
You can purchase an individual Thrive Leads subscription or buy it as a part of the Thrive Suite, a large collection of tools for webmasters and marketers.
Hustle Pro
WPMU Dev, the makers of Hustle Pro, is a known name in the WordPress space. It should be enough to convince you about the potential of the plugin. Hustle Pro works for a lot of marketing campaigns, but its selling point is the outstanding design of the forms. Each pixel of each form generated with this plugin looks more polished than any other form of the competitors. Confidently use any of the templates of the plugin and personalize them for your projects.
Hustle Pro works for unlimited campaigns on your site, and you decide the behaviors and triggers of the popup forms. For instance, the popup form is displayed after a set period of time, when the user scrolls, or on exit. Also, you can choose to enable/disable the popup for particular pages or posts and specific days of the week.
Don’t worry about Hustle Pro compatibility with your favorite email service because it’s compatible with all of them. Hustle Pro works smoothly with MailChimp, AWeber, Getresponse, Campaign Monitor, CovertKit, HubSpot, and many others.
Go to the WordPress repository and download the free version of the plugin. It has its limitations, but it’s enough to get an idea of its potential.
Bloom
Bloom has many things in common with Hustle Pro. The same as WPMU Dev, Elegant Themes, the agency behind Bloom, is one of the famous names in the WordPress industry. Besides the many technical and marketing features, both plugins impress with their design quality. Elegant Themes engineers have pushed the envelope and developed a user-friendly interface. Therefore, even non-technical marketers can realize successful campaigns with the Bloom plugin.
100+ templates in addition to countless customisation options are enough to design the best form and drive the best marketing campaigns. Importing/exporting data is a breeze, and Bloom integrates with all major email services. The dashboard is intuitive and has all the data you need to attract and delight the subscribers.
Mail Optin
MailOptin helps you in two directions: capture the leads and delight them with quality newsletters. If you are looking for a tool to both collect email subscribers and send them emails from a unique dashboard, MailOptin is what you need.
MailOptin comes with a pretty similar set of features as the above plugins when it comes to capturing the leads. You have a few types of popups, a large array of styling options, and a few possibilities of inserting the popup into the site content.
Email automation is more interesting – collecting the email addresses is only half of the job. The cool fact is that you craft the newsletters directly from the WordPress dashboard, and you don’t need technical skills to design these. You have full control over the emailing strategy – you set up the newsletter format, its content, the sending time, and the list of recipients.
Check out the MailOptin free version, available on the WordPress repository, to get an idea about this plugin without opening your wallet.
Sumo
Generally, one of the biggest issues of popup plugins is their negative impact on the loading speed. This is not the case with Sumo – a well-known WordPress plugin for marketing purposes. It loads asynchronously and, as a result, Sumo doesn’t slow down your site.
Sumo plugin has two versions: a premium one that sets you back $468 per year or $49 per month and a free one available on the WordPress repository. The latter works for small to medium websites because it lacks only a few advanced features. As long as you aren’t overly bothered by the Sumo branding on all popups, the free version is a reliable solution.
Use Sumo popups to collect email addresses, inform users about your discounts, and give them freebies. Configuring the Sumo plugin is simple, and its dashboard is intuitive and simple to use.
Icegram
Icegram is a plugin that has two versions too. Try the free version and evaluate its features. Finally, if you need more options, consider purchasing a premium subscription. The plugin is simple to set up – start with one of the templates and personalize it for your needs. You have plenty of targeting options even with the free version. Chose where to display the popups – on posts, pages, categories, to specific groups of users, and on a particular schedule. Icegram is compatible with all important email services, so you don’t need to change your favorite one to start using Icegram.
Convert Pro
If you are in the WordPress industry, you must have heard about the fabulous Astra theme. Brainstorm Force is the team behind Astra and its engineers developed Convert Pro – a cool and highly customizable popup plugin. While ConvertPro doesn’t have the same success as Astra, it’s still a top-class plugin. You have plenty of templates for many purposes, such as webinar registration, shopping discounts, special offers, and ebook downloads. The visual composer allows everyone to style the templates or create a new popup from scratch. Finally, you have full freedom to chose the popup triggers and position.
Other features worth mentioning are:
- Device detection. Convert Pro detects the device of the user and delivers the popup for that screen size. The popup displayed on the desktop may differ from the one on mobile.
- Repeated vs. new visitors distinction. It’s pretty boring to display the same popup to a repeated visitor. A different popup may have a different result.
- Google Analytics integration. Correlate the data from Google Analytics and Convert Pro to manage high-converting campaigns.
Elementor Pro
Elementor doesn’t need any introduction, but it’s good to know that you can use the premium version to create popups. It’s another reason to switch to Elementor Pro if you were thinking about doing that. The same as all the above plugins, Elementor Pro lets you create stunning popups and trigger them whenever and however you want. In addition, you can integrate them with your favorite email service. A distinctive feature of Elementor Pro is the design consistency. You can create posts, pages, or layout elements with Elementor, but also popups. It helps in delivering a consistent message by using the same tool for building both the layout design and the popups.
Ninja Popups
Ninja Popups is one of the bestsellers on CodeCanyon – the biggest marketplace for WordPress plugins. It targets webmasters on a tight budget who want a popup plugin with a large set of features and templates. The plethora of animation effects helps marketers create unique popups that captivate the users’ attention.
Sadly, there is no free version to evaluate the plugin capabilities. Altogether, you should take a look at the demos that are relevant.
Improving Conversions using WordPress Popup Plugins
Finding the perfect way to improve conversions and lead generation for your online business can be a difficult task. Moreover, if you are not focusing on improving your strategies and using the best tools available at hand, then you won’t be able to get the desired outcome.
To improve your conversions and to make your online business grow, you must always focus on finding the best tools that will help you implement excellent strategies.
Over to You
No matter which popup plugins you like the most, all of the above suggestions may significantly improve the conversion rate. In plain English, the more subscribers you have, the more revenue you may generate. Some marketers have said that email is dead, but it’s still the most profitable marketing channel. Chose any of the above plugins and set up a few good-looking popups on your page. The results will appear in no time!