Do you want to find the best WordPress popup plugin? A good WordPress popup plugin aids in the conversion of website visitors into email subscribers and paying customers.
There are dozens of WordPress popup plugins available to assist you in increasing conversion rates.
However, the majority of them will either slow down your website or provide inaccurate statistics, or both.
In this article, we’ll compare the most popular WordPress popup plugins on the market so you can decide which one is the best.Three Things to Avoid When Using WordPress Popup Plugins
Popups must be used with caution. WordPress popups that are poorly designed can quickly become annoying, destroying the user experience as well as your brand’s reputation.
You must select a solution that includes proper behavior interaction, targeting, and personalization features in order to provide the best user experience while maximizing conversions.
Another issue with most WordPress popup plugins is their performance. Because many WordPress popup plugins use WordPress to track analytics, the server load is significantly increased and your website is slowed. As you may be aware, a slow page speed has a negative impact on your SEO rankings.
This is why you require a WordPress popup plugin that provides powerful conversion features while not slowing down your site.
Last but not least, ensure that the WordPress popup plugin you select is compatible with your WordPress hosting environment. Because many popup plugins are poorly coded, advanced features such as A/B testing and reporting will not work with the majority of advanced caching solutions that many hosting companies are now using.
The main goal of using WordPress popup plugins is to help you capture leads and increase your email list subscribers.
When selecting a WordPress popup plugin for your website or online store, keep the three points listed above in mind.
Candidates for Best WordPress Popup Plugins
You can use the common problems with most WordPress popup builders as a criterion to evaluate all popular WordPress popup plugins now that you know what they are.
Because there are dozens of popup plugins available, this process can be time consuming.
That is why we conducted the research for you. Here are the top WordPress popup plugins we’ll be comparing in our guide:
- OptinMonster
- TrustPulse
- Bloom
- Sumo
- Thrive Leads
Let’s take a closer look at each of them to see which one is the best WordPress popup plugin to help you grow your website.
1. OptinMonster

The most popular lead generation software on the market is OptinMonster. It makes it simple to convert website visitors into subscribers and customers.
It includes the most comprehensive set of targeting and personalization features as well as a powerful WordPress popup builder. Simply put, it enables you to maximize your conversion potential as if you were a marketing pro.
Features

OptinMonster has the most comprehensive set of targeting and personalization features available on the market. They enable you to create a variety of campaigns, such as popups, full-screen welcome mats, floating bars, scroll boxes, and so on.
Their targeting features allow you to target users based on the page they are visiting, their activity on your site, their geo-location, and dozens of other factors.
You can create your own rules for displaying a popup, making it more personalized and effective.
Some of the most notable features of OptinMonster are as follows:
- Non-intrusive lightbox popups that are beautifully designed
- Exit-intent popups appear when a user is about to leave your site.
- Page level, geo-targeting, on-site retargeting, device-based targeting, and other powerful targeting options are available.
- Device targeting with mobile-friendly campaigns that look good on smaller devices Adblock detection to display targeted messages to users
- Trigger exit intent popups, scrolling, inactivity sensors, time-based triggers, and more.
- Dozens of beautiful popup templates that are ready to use
- To easily create popups with your own images, fonts, and style, use the drag and drop popup maker.
- There are numerous campaign types available, including inline/after post optins, floating notification bars, countdown timers, fullscreen welcome mats, coupon wheel popups, and more.
- Monster-links popups, which are triggered by clicking on a link.
- Yes/No popups, two-step popups, and success message customization are all available.
- Integrates with all major email marketing services, contact form plugins, eCommerce platforms, and other platforms.
We can confidently say that it is the most comprehensive WordPress popup builder on the market based on all of its features. It includes everything you’ll need to start growing your email list and increasing conversions right away.
Performance
The most significant advantage of using OptinMonster is its performance. Because it is a SaaS application, it does not consume any of your WordPress hosting resources.
It loads asynchronously, so it does not affect your perceived page load speed. Not only is this important for user experience, but it is also important for SEO.
Last but not least, because OptinMonster does not store analytics in WordPress, your stats will be the most accurate, and it will work with any hosting environment.
Ease of Use
OptinMonster includes a simple drag-and-drop popup builder. You can easily create your own popups by adding a background, selecting colors, images, and fonts, and adding your own text and sign up form.

If you don’t want to do that, there are beautiful pre-made popup templates to choose from. Each of these templates is completely editable with a simple point-and-click interface.
It is also very simple to incorporate popups into your website. You do not need to make any changes to your WordPress files or add any code to your website. Simply download and install their WordPress connector plugin.
Pricing begins at $9 per month (billed annually).
You can also try out the free plan, which is only available through the OptinMonster WordPress plugin. WPBeginner users can save even more money by using our OptinMonster coupon.
The popup plugin that we use on WPBeginner is OptinMonster. Many well-known bloggers and businesses use OptinMonster, including Social Media Examiner, Michael Hyatt, the NBA, and others.
Syed Balkhi, the founder of WPBeginner, is also the co-founder of OptinMonster. He created this plugin to assist us in increasing our email subscribers. He now works as a consultant for the company.
2. TrustPulse

TrustPulse is a WordPress popup plugin that uses social proof to help you increase website conversions.
It displays social-proof notifications on your website to help build user trust, induce FOMO (fear of missing out), and encourage more users to sign up or make a purchase.
Features
TrustPulse helps you gain user trust quickly by sharing social proof through less intrusive but highly effective popups. Here are some of the features that set it apart from the rest of the best WordPress popup plugins on our list.

- FOMO is triggered – It uses urgency and social proof to cause the FOMO effect (fear of missing out). Users are encouraged to sign up or make a purchase as a result of this.
- Real-time Tracking – It displays purchases, activity, and signups in real time.
- Smart-targeting – Display a social proof popup to the appropriate users at the appropriate time.
- Popup customization – Use the default design or create your own with simple customization options.
Performance
If you run an eCommerce business, speed is essential for increasing sales on your website. TrustPulse has no effect on page load speed while also improving user experience.
Because it is a SaaS app, it does not consume any of your WordPress hosting resources. The code for displaying popups is loaded asynchronously from the cloud servers.
Ease of Use
TrustPulse has a ridiculously simple setup process. The default social proof popup works with very few changes.

It has a simple interface that allows you to customize popups, set up targeting, view statistics, and run customized campaigns on your online store.
Pricing: The first 500 sessions are free, and after that, pricing begins at $4 per month (billed annually).
3. Bloom

- Popup lightbox that appears automatically
- There are a variety of optin forms available, including sidebar, slide-in, and below-the-post signup forms.
- Targeting at the post or page level is the most basic form of targeting.
- Basic time delay, scroll, and form submission events
- Popup templates that are ready to use and can be easily customized
- Integrates with a variety of email service providers.
Performance
Bloom is a stand-alone WordPress plugin, which means it loads all of your WordPress site’s code. This means it consumes server resources and has an impact on page load time.
It makes an attempt to mitigate by optimizing the code and employing WordPress best practices. However, if you have a busy site on a server with limited resources, this will slow down website performance.
Reporting stats and features such as A/B testing may behave incorrectly depending on the settings of your WordPress caching plugin.
Ease of Use
Bloom’s drag-and-drop popup maker makes it extremely simple to use. Bloom makes it simple to create new optins, and the user interface is simple to understand.

The issue arises when configuring display settings. The user interface is a little confusing because there are too many options to choose from.
Pricing: Elegant Themes membership starts at $89 per year.
4. Sumo

Sumo is a free WordPress popup plugin that allows you to add popups to your website. They have a premium version with more options.

Features
- Creates a free WordPress popup and opt-in form.
- You can use a variety of opt-in forms.
- Connects to well-known email marketing platforms
- It comes with a variety of styles and templates to choose from.
- Basic A/B testing and form statistics are included.
The free version has fewer features and includes Sumo branding in your popups.
Performance
Sumo loads code asynchronously, which improves performance. The effect on performance may differ depending on the design of your campaign.
Ease of Use
Sumo connects to your WordPress site. However, you must manage your account through their website and design your campaigns through the Sumo dashboard.

It has a bit of a learning curve. The campaign builder is not the easiest to use, but you’ll get the hang of it. We found it a little more difficult to use, especially when it came to integrations and targeting.
5. Thrive Leads

Another popular WordPress popup plugin is Thrive Leads. It includes beautiful popup templates as well as an easy-to-use popup builder.
Features
Thrive Leads is a WordPress plugin that will help you capture leads and grow your email list. Here’s a quick rundown of its features.

- There are various optin types available, such as lightbox popups, inline forms, 2-step optins, slide in forms, and more
- Sign-up forms can be customized using a simple drag-and-drop editor.
- A/B testing and analytics for your forms at a basic level
- Page-level targeting includes categories, tags, post types, and other features.
- Compatible with all popular email services
- Popups that are mobile-friendly for small devices
Performance
Thrive Leads makes an effort to balance performance and features. It is, however, slower than some of the other solutions on our list.
Because it is a standalone WordPress plugin, all of the code resides on your WordPress site and uses your hosting resources.
This also implies that, similar to Bloom, features such as reporting and A/B tests may not function properly on certain hosting companies or with popular caching plugins.
Ease of Use
Thrive Leads is simple to use and comes with a variety of templates. It also includes a basic popup maker with drag-and-drop functionality to allow you to customize your popup form.

Displaying optins on your website requires a minor learning curve. When it comes to setting up a popup, many beginners will struggle.
Without much explanation, you’ll see various options for Lead groups, Lead shortcodes, Thrive boxes, and other features. This means that users will have to investigate them to find out what they do.
Pricing: A single site license starts at $67 per year.
Top WordPress Popup Plugins Performance Comparison
For this article, we decided to test each WordPress popup plugin’s impact on website performance and speed.
Essentially, we built a demo website and used the default settings of each plugin to create a basic WordPress popup. Following that, we used Pingdom to test the page load speed.
The results of our tests are listed below.
Popup Plugin | Page Load time | Requests | Page size |
---|---|---|---|
OptinMonster | 1.03s | 17 | 225KB |
TrustPulse | 894ms | 14 | 130KB |
Bloom | 1.23s | 22 | 188.8KB |
Sumo | 1.24s | 41 | 575.5KB |
Thrive Leads | 1.38s | 26 | 736.4KB |
According to our findings, OptinMonster is the fastest WordPress popup plugin with the least impact on performance.
Conclusion: Which Is the Best WordPress Popup Plugin?
Based on the criteria we established, OptinMonster is the best WordPress popup plugin. It is the quickest popup builder and includes incredible tools for increasing conversion rates.
It’s also the most user-friendly, with lovely popup templates and a powerful drag-and-drop editor. It is compatible with all popular CRMs, email marketing platforms, best WordPress form plugins, custom HTML forms, and other applications.
The ability to display your popups at the right time to the right users is what makes them more effective. OptinMonster offers powerful page-level targeting, personalization, and event-based triggers.
If you have an eCommerce store, we recommend OptinMonster and TrustPulse. With social proof and OptinMonster’s powerful cart abandonment features, you can maximize conversions.
We hope that this article has assisted you in selecting the best WordPress popup plugin for your website. You might also be interested in our article on tried-and-true methods for growing your email list.
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