Building an email list is important.
We all know the saying that “money is in the list”.
And to build your email list, you need to create forms that look very good and place them at the right positions.
A great way to do so is to create popups which pop up on your visitors’ screen, ensuring that they see it and they do not get blinded to it like sidebar forms can do.
If you are worried that you need massive coding skills to create those powerful popups that appear on your posts, all of them or on specific pages, then don’t worry.
With WordPress, you can use plugins to help you do anything. The same is true with popups. In this post, we are going to see top email subscription popup plugins available and which one may be great for you and your business.
So, without further ado, let’s get started.
1. OptinMonster
OptinMonster is a tool that helps you get more leads and increase your revenue.
It is more than just popups. You can create inline forms, floating bar, full-screen welcome mat, sidebar forms, content locker, and more.
But it became known for its Lightbox Popup.
A drag-n-drop builder allows you to create great-looking opt-in forms with ease. There are templates for every form type, so you don’t need to get started from scratch.
The great part about this tool isn’t the different campaign types and the ability to create stunning forms with ease, but the triggers and targeting options available.
OptinMonster was one of the first companies that adopted Exit-Intent Technology, which targets visitors as they start scrolling to click the back button.
Monsterlinks, which enables you to convert any link into an opt-in form, is a cool feature.
You can also trigger it based on % of page scrolled and time spent on the page.
After that, you have control for which visitors to display a form. You can show forms for people coming from specific sources, or visiting specific page, or visiting from a specific location, and so on.
You could use your forms to drip campaigns based on their interaction. Thus, you could retarget them with cool offers and discounts after visiting a specific page.
And it integrates with ease and includes 30+ email marketing tools.
After that, you have actionable insights that show you what is working and what isn’t and give you options to optimize it like A/B testing, real-time behavior automation, and so on.
As you can see, OptinMonster is one of the advanced solutions available. Everything is on the cloud. Yes, it integrates with WordPress beautifully, but it is a SAAS program.
Subscription starts at $108 yearly and can cost you up to $585 if you want to benefit from all their sophisticated features.
It may be a lot of money if you are starting out, but if you want the best and you already have a lot of traffic coming to your site, then it might be a great option to consider.
2. Thrive Leads
Thrive Leads is my favorite tool to help you get more subscribers and build stunning forms within WordPress itself, including popup forms.
Created by Shane Melaugh, who was one of the first people to create a premium opt-in plugin, Thrive Leads is a premium WordPress plugin that you could purchase for a one-time fee or get it with your Thrive membership with other cool plugins and themes.
It is characterized by their powerful drag-and-drop builder that makes creating the form that you want a breeze. Add to that the countless form templates already available for every type, and you are in for a treat.
You can create different forms like the popup Lightbox, sticky ribbon, in-line forms, 2-step optin, slide-in, screen filler overlay, scroll mat and more.
You can use SmartLinks to make sure you don’t show opt-in forms to already subscribed users, and maybe show them a more targeted form asking them to take the next step, like applying to your services or purchasing your products.
Add to that the different triggers and page targeting options that you have to display the form on the exact pages, at the exact time you want to show it.
The ability to see everything in a detailed reporting section is a great plus, especially if you do A/B testing, which you can do with ease using this plugin.
It offers the best value that you can get. It is what I use and recommend to most people who want to get the most amount of subscribers from their site.
3. Convert Pro
Convert Pro is another WordPress plugin that has grown rapidly. It’s from the team who created the Astra WordPress theme.
Convert Pro helps you create different types of forms, including traditional popup forms, multi-step popups like the yes/no popups, on-click popups that appear when clicking on an image or text, and of course, other traditional ones.
Cloud technology enables you to see all the templates that you could use, which are constantly updated, and download and install the ones you need on your website.
Their drag-and-drop editor helps you customize it with ease to suit your website.
You can trigger your popups with different advanced triggers like:
- Exit-Intent Trigger: as soon as they are exiting your website
- User Inactivity Trigger: display your popup after a specified time period
- Well-Timed Trigger: display your form at the right time
- After Scroll Trigger: display the form after the user reaches a certain level
- Welcome Trigger: display the form as soon as they arrive on your page
- After Content Trigger: display your form after they reach the end of your content/page
You have advanced A/B testing capabilities where you can test different variants or different styles.
And you have different targeting options to show the right message to the right person. You can target people who land on specific pages, who come from specific sources, who use specific device(s), who have seen the form before based on their cookie, who are new vs old visitors, and more.
And their analytics dashboard is a great one to check out. They integrate well with Google Analytics.
It is a solid plugin. After all, it’s created by the team who created the WP Astra theme. You can’t go wrong if you choose it.
4. Popup Builder by Elementor
Elementor is known for its great drag-and-drop page builder that makes creating a good-looking page without touching a line of code as easy as cutting a piece of cake.
They added a pro version where you can use it to build different types of popups using their powerful page builders.
You can create popups like Full Screen, Hello Bar, Slide-In, Fly-In, and more.
You can use it for different purposes like capturing leads, letting users login, showing different offers or upsells/downsells to current offers, and more.
It comes with different templates for every type so that you don’t need to get started from scratch.
You can use their advanced targeting options to show pop-ups on the exact pages you want, whether you want to show popups on specific posts, post categories, tags, author, archives, search pages, your Woocommerce page, and more.
You can also trigger popups whether you want them to show up on page load, when clicking on an image/text, scrolling to a certain extent, scrolling to a specific element, or after inactivity.
You can even set rules where you show popups after your visitors meet certain requirements, like visiting a certain amount of pages, arriving from a specific source, and so on.
All of that comes with the pro version of Elementor which you can get for $49/year for 1 site. It may be the best option for you if you already use and like the Elementor page builder and want to buy their pro version. Don’t purchase other tools and stick with their awesome popup builder.
5. Bloom
Bloom is a plugin created by the team at Elegant Themes which is available with their subscription.
It has 6 different display forms:
- Automatic Opt-In Popup: You can set it when it is triggered.
- Automatic Opt-In Fly-Ins: Less-intrusive forms at the bottom right of your pages triggers when you want as well.
- In-line Opt-In Forms
- Below Content Opt-In Forms
- Widget Area Opt-In Forms: whether on sidebars or footers
- Require Opt-In To Unlock Content
You can trigger the form in different ways like timed delay, bottom of post, after scrolling, after commenting (didn’t see this anywhere else), after purchasing, or after inactivity on your page. You can target specific post types and categories, and even down to post or page level targeting.
It seamlessly integrates with 19 email marketing tools. Most of the popular ones are already available.
And it comes with over 100+ premade templates that you can customize to make your life easier.
It has A/B testing capabilities as well with an excellent analytics dashboard to see how your forms are performing.
A great tool to check out if you already have the Elegant Themes membership, or if you consider using it because of its perfect price for beginners.
6. MailOptin
MailOptin is a powerful plugin that uses the WordPress customizer which many already use and love as it helps create beautiful forms that create high conversion rates.
You can create different types of forms including the Lightbox Popup, notification bar, slide-in, sidebar/widget, before or after post, and in-line forms.
And you can use their A/B testing functionality to know which forms convert best using the data output.
It also comes with advanced analytics and actionable reporting & insights. It integrates with Google Analytics to show you everything inside their account dashboard.
It has LeadBank which stores all data including lead referrer, time of conversion, and more, to show you more detailed insights that you can’t see inside your email marketing service.
It comes with different display rules like scroll trigger, click to launch, time elapsed on site, page views before triggering, AdBlock detection, new vs returning visitor, referral or device targeting, and more.
You can create an auto-responder with it or integrate with many of the popular email marketing service.
It comes with page lever targeting and user targeting. It has many beautiful themes predesigned that you can edit to suit your theme.
It is a lightweight option to consider.
7. Icegram
Icegram is a beautiful plugin that enables you to build your list using popup and other features for free. Yes, you heard that right. This plugin is available for free in the WordPress plugins directory.
It helps you create popups, sleek action bars whether in the footer or the header, toast notifications for alerts or multi-step CTAs, Slide-in messengers to welcome new visitors, recommend blog posts and so on.
There are more forms that you can create, but only with the premium version. But for many, you won’t need them especially if you have limited budget.
You can create unlimited optin forms and messages with different themes and designs already present, so you don’t get started from scratch.
It integrates with different email marketing services.
You can use it to time and sequence different messages as you want.
You can use their targeting rules to display your form on certain pages, categories or posts, or to certain users, and so on. Not only that, but you can target based on time and device and not just page level and user-based targeting.
It comes with a good analytics and reporting page that you can add with a free add-on.
If you want exit-intent feature and split testing forms with other forms types, then check out their premium version. But then, I would recommend you to go with other options like Thrive Leads or Convert Pro. They would be much better value.
8. Popup Maker
Popup Maker is a free WordPress plugin that is focused on creating powerful Popups for free.
It supports different types including slide out popups, floating sticky popups, notification popups, video lightboxes, and more.
It supports popular form building plugins like Ninja Forms, Gravity Forms, and more, to help place your forms inside the popup.
It also supports different email marketing services like Aweber, MailChimp, Get Response, and more.
You can use conditions to setup targeting as you want, so you show your popup or not show it in specific conditions like visiting a certain post, and so on.
You can also set up auto open triggers (timed-delay one), click triggers, and so on.
You can purchase extensions to support exit intent, popup analytics, advanced targeting conditions, age verification modals, or Ajax Login, but they are costly. Consider other options if you want these features.
It is a great free option to consider if you want to build popups and don’t want other fancy features available in other plugins.
9. Hustle
Hustle is a plugin created by the team at WPMU Dev to help you build your email list, build your social following, increase conversions, and grow your business.
It is more than just an email forms plugin.
You can easily add social sharing icons to your post.
It gives you complete control over your colors, animations, layouts, and so on.
It gives you targeted display settings to display your options on specific page or post, after scrolling or on-click, or after time has elapsed, and more.
It integrates with different email marketing services including Aweber, Convertkit, GetResponse, Infusionsoft, and more.
It comes with smart exit-intent, the only free plugin to do so. Recaptcha spam can be connected to your form.
It also measures performance and results and displays them to you in one page.
In the free version, you can have 1 free email opt-in, and 1 free social share bar, which may be enough if you are just starting out . If you want more, you can upgrade to the pro version or get other plugins.
10. Ninja Popups
One of the first popup plugins created. It has over 35k sales on the Code Canyon marketplace.
It comes with a drag and drop visual editor that helps you create your own popup. You have control over the alignment.
It comes with many different themes and templates that you could use right away or edit to suit your design. I am talking over 100+ themes.
It supports different email marketing services including Mailchimp, SendinBlue, Drip, Convertkit, and others.
And it costs just $25 to get it with future updates. It might be the best option if you are tight on option and want a plugin that helps you with everything related to popups only.
Conclusion
Popups are still effective to this date whether you consider it intrusive or not. It is great to help you get more leads to your business.
There are different options to consider, ranging from the more ultimate OptinMonster tool, to the Ninja Popups plugin which focuses on popups only.
You can also use free tools to help you do so like Icegram and Popup Maker.
And if you already use Elementor, then their popup builder may just be exactly what you need.
Tell us below which one you decided to go with and why.
Leave a Reply