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5 Best WordPress Popup Plugins Compared in 2020 (Free & Paid)

Searching for the best WordPress popup plugin? Popups are a versatile tool that you can use for everything from email opt-ins, to promos, forms, social media, and more. To help you find the best tool for your site, we’ve collected five great WordPress popup plugins, each of which has something unique to offer.

Let’s dig in and then I’ll help you pick the right tool for your site at the end.

Best WordPress Popup Plugins in 2020

1. Elementor Pro (Popup Builder)

Elementor Popup Builder WordPress plugin

Elementor is the most popular WordPress page builder plugin. But while it started as a page builder, Elementor has since expanded into theme building and…popup building!

The benefit of this approach is that Elementor gives you the most flexibility when it comes to the design of your popups.

Basically, you get access to a world-class page builder to design your popups. While some of the other WordPress popup plugins give you nice drag-and-drop interfaces as well, none of them come close to offering what Elementor does.

You can use all of the Elementor widgets, which gives you a good deal of flexibility. For example:

  • Form widget – create email opt-in forms or contact forms. Can connect your forms to popular email marketing services, Zapier, or Slack/Discord.
  • Login widget – create login popups.
  • Share Button widget – create social share popups.
  • Etc.

You can also create different popup types including:

  • Centered popup
  • Full-screen popup
  • Notification bar
  • Slide-in

To display your popups, you get a solid set of targeting/triggering rules including:

  • Exit-intent trigger
  • WordPress-specific targeting, like targeting logged-in users

The one area where Elementor Popup Builder doesn’t match other tools is analytics and A/B testing. There just aren’t any built-in tools for A/B tests or analytics. So if that’s important to you, you might be better off with another WordPress popup plugin.

Basically:

  • If you value design flexibility, Elementor is probably the best option on this list.
  • If you value analytics and A/B tests, Elementor is not your tool.

You can learn more in our full Elementor review.

Elementor Pro starts at just $49 for use on a single site. That includes Popup Builder as well as all of the other premium Elementor features.

Get Elementor Popup Builder

2. Convert Pro

Convert Pro Popup Plugin for WordPress

Convert Pro is a flexible WordPress popup plugin from Brainstorm Force, makers of the popular Astra WordPress theme (our review).

There’s a lot to like about Convert Pro.

First off, you get a bunch of well-designed templates and a drag-and-drop builder to control the design of your popups. You can choose from:

  • Centered popups
  • Notification bars
  • Full-screen fillers
  • Welcome mats

You can connect your popups to 30+ popular email marketing services and, unlike Elementor Popup Builder, you get integrated analytics. The analytics are powered by Google Analytics, but you can view the data inside your WordPress dashboard. You can also spin up A/B tests to compare different popup variants against one another.

One area where I think Convert Pro excels is in the targeting rules – you get a ton of generic and WordPress-specific targeting rules including:

  • Page-level targeting
  • Logged-in status
  • Referrer detection

You also get a bevy of triggering rules, including exit-intent.

At $99, Convert Pro is a little pricey for a single site, but it offers a ton of value if you plan to use it on multiple sites because the license allows use on unlimited websites.

Get Convert Pro

3. OptinMonster

OptinMonster

When it comes to popups, OptinMonster is probably one of the best-known options. It started as a dedicated WordPress popup plugin before morphing into a flexible SaaS tool that you can use with any platform.

Still, OptinMonster hasn’t forgotten its roots and it’s easy to integrate into WordPress thanks to a dedicated WordPress plugin.

Thanks to a recent shift, OptinMonster now offers a convenient visual, drag-and-drop builder to help you design your popups. You can create different types of popups, covering everything from centered popups to notification bars, welcome mats, and more.

Where OptinMonster really shines is the targeting rules. You get rules for everything from page-level targeting to referrer detection, device usage, geolocation, and more.

If you use the WordPress plugin, you can also enable/disable your popups based on whether someone is logged into your WordPress site. There’s also a code snippet that lets you disable popups for certain user roles. However, this user role targeting is a blanket rule – you don’t get to set it on a per-popup basis.

OptinMonster also has a great set of trigger options, including exit-intent (which is a term that OptinMonster actually trademarked).

Like ConvertPro, OptinMonster integrates with Google Analytics for stats and lets you see that data inside your OptinMonster dashboard. You can also quickly spin up A/B tests to compare different popups against one another.

The only downside is the price. Because OptinMonster uses the SaaS approach, you’ll need to pay a recurring fee for as long as you want to use the plugin. Plans start at $108 per year for a single site, but you’ll need the $228 Plus plan for access to A/B testing.

Get OptinMonster

4. Bloom

Bloom

Bloom is a WordPress popup plugin from Elegant Themes, makers of the popular Divi WordPress theme and page builder (our review).

It’s not quite as flexible as the other tools because it doesn’t offer a drag-and-drop builder. Instead, you can only modify pre-existing templates.

Still, if you just want something simple like that, or if you’re interested in Elegant Themes’ other products, Bloom can offer a ton of value.

You can choose from six different display types including pop-ups, fly-ins, and in-content forms.

You can integrate your popups and opt-in forms with 19+ email marketing services and target them to specific content on your site.

One of my favorite parts of Bloom is the triggers. Bloom does not offer an exit-intent trigger, but it does offer two unique action-based triggers:

  • After leaving a comment
  • After making a purchase

These triggers give you a chance to connect with visitors when you know that they’re already engaged with your site.

Bloom is available as part of the Elegant Themes membership, which lets you use all of Elegant Themes’ products on unlimited sites for just $89. Again, if you plan to use Bloom on multiple sites and/or you’re interested in Divi or some of Elegant Themes’ other products, it’s tough to beat this value.

Get Bloom

5. WP Popups

WP Popups WordPress plugin

WP Popups is a freemium WordPress popup plugin that excels when it comes to targeting rules and flexibility.

It doesn’t give you a drag-and-drop builder, but it does give you a lot more flexibility than many of the other tools, excluding Elementor Popup Builder.

To control the content of your popup, you can essentially use the Classic WordPress TinyMCE editor. The neat thing here is that you’re also able to include shortcodes from other plugins, like your favorite WordPress form plugin.

To control the design of your popup, you get a visual editor with convenient built-in controls. You can also choose from different display options, including centered popups, full-screen fillers, notification bars, and more.

You also get a good set of trigger rules, including exit intent (in the premium version).

Again, I think the unique feature here is the targeting rules. You can mix-and-match general conditions and WordPress-specific rules. For example:

  • Content targeting
  • Referrer
  • Device
  • Logged-in status
  • WordPress user role
  • Whether someone has left a comment.

The paid version also comes with built-in statistics and A/B testing.

You can learn more in our full WP Popups review.

You can try the free version of WP Popups at WordPress.org. Paid plans start at $35.

Get WP Popups

Which is the Best WordPress Popup Plugin for Your Needs?

To finish things out, let’s go through some scenarios to help you choose the best WordPress popup plugin for your needs.

As I mentioned earlier, if you value design and content flexibility, then I think Elementor Popup Builder is your best option. There’s no other WordPress popup plugin that I know of that can give you that level of design freedom.

On the other hand, if you value more marketing-focused popups and analytics, Convert Pro and OptinMonster might be better options.

I think Bloom is great from a value perspective if you like the other Elegant Themes products, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it outside that situation as I think there are better options if you’re not going to invest in the Elegant Themes ecosystem.

Finally, I think WP Popups provides a good middle ground between a lot of these tools. It gives you flexibility in content, though the design isn’t as customizable because there’s no drag-and-drop. It also comes with tons of targeting rules and is the only free option on this list.

Do you have any questions about choosing the best WordPress popup plugin? Ask away and we’ll try to help!

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