Popup WordPress Plugin – What To Look For In a Lightbox Popup Plugin

In the last few years, almost every webmaster has started using WordPress for hosting and building web pages.

In order to customize your web page and enhance functionality, you need to start installing WordPress plugins. And let me tell you, there are a lot to choose from in the ever-expanding marketplace. Today we’re going to focus on popup WordPress plugins.

PopUp WordPress plugins play a very important role to help you build a larger subscriber base and help generate more leads. These days, you can choose from many different WordPress popup plugins.

According to many design-savvy webmasters and industry experts, PopupAlly is the best choice because of it’s design flexibility and mobile responsiveness.


Popups are an excellent choice when it comes to building your list.

Exit-intent popups have proven to be amongst the most effective popups found on websites, allowing website owners to capture those potentially lost visitors as the viewer is about to close the webpage… PopUp WordPress plugins like PopupAlly have shown a conversion rate of about 300% with the use of exit-intent popups.

Screenshot of popup example

Important Considerations When Choosing A Popup WordPress Plugin

In most instances, a WordPress plugin is chosen based on the desired functionality a webmaster is trying to obtain. Here are the most important things to consider while choosing a WordPress popup plugin.

Functionality – First of all, it is important to determine your specific needs and understand why you need a particular plugin to find a solution that can best achieve the functionality you desire.

Starting Your Search – Finding the best plugin for your needs can be a little daunting if you’re not sure where to begin or what to look for. We suggest referencing the highest ranking and most popular plugins on WordPress.org as a starting place.  The plugins are reliable and have the best reviews so you know they can be trusted.

Rating – Ratings give you an idea about the quality of a particular WordPress plugin. You can simply click on a star link and read reviews from people who have used the plugin. Read both the good and bad reviews to get a full understanding of what you may experience when using the plugin.

Plugin Author or Developer – Check out the developer’s profile to get a better understanding of their background, expertise and credibility. Their profile will tell you about their previous works in the plugin repository and recent activity. This information is crucial to know about recent development activity around a particular plugin.

Support – One of the most important things to consider while choosing a PopUp WordPress plugin is the Plugin support. When you visit the plugin support forum, you get an idea about how many questions have been asked about the plugin and how many of them have been resolved. You should also check if fellow users have tried to resolve issues with a plugin. This indicates a healthy community building around the plugin. Some developers will even offer email support to troubleshoot and resolve any issues on a case by case basis like we do with PopupAlly Pro.

Compatibility – You need to choose a plugin which is compatible with the version of WordPress you are currently using. If it’s not compatible, you may need to upgrade your current version, this is usually a good idea anyway to keep your site secure and achieving optimum performance.

Be sure to check for any additional minimum requirements that may be needed to use the plugin as well.

Trustworthiness – It is always better to download a plugin from a trustworthy plugin repository. You need to make sure that the plugin has been checked for any malware, malicious code, spam links and so on. Moreover, a trustworthy plugin repository makes sure you don’t experience any problems with updates. In simple words, a plugin repository should give you exactly what has been promised.

Version Number & Last Update – As mentioned above, you need to be informed about the recent activity regarding a WordPress plugin. Version number and the date of the last update will give you a better idea about how much work has been done on a particular plugin after it was publically released. It also tells you if the developers have taken an interest in fixing issues related to the plugin.

Design Flexibility – Some plugins take the wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) approach when it comes to customization, whereas others understand that design flexibility is becoming more and more of a demand as more and more users and developers enter the marketplace. If you’re anything like us, you want to be in control when adding functionality to your site and don’t like to be limited to font, layout or color selections.  There’s nothing more frustrating than finding the perfect plugin to give you the functionality you desire and later finding out you can’t control the way it looks and behaves on your site.

It’s like being told you can’t have your cake and eat it too, but where’s the fun in that.  With PopupAlly we give you both! Can it get any better than that?  You bet.  Not only can you fully customize the design, but you don’t have to be well-versed in html and css to do so. Oh, and the icing on the cake is that it’s mobile friendly too!

Free vs Paid Plugins – Last but not the least, you need to determine if a free or paid version of a plugin is most suitable for your needs.

Experts tend to argue that  paid plugins are the best route to go as they provide exceptional features and support. Moreover, most of the paid plugins offer lifetime updates. However, this does not mean you always have to spend money on paid plugins.  We run a combination of both paid and free plugins on our sites and all are selected based on our current needs.

Which popup plugin is right for you?

We only recommend and share plugins that we personally use and have tested.  When it comes to popup plugins we struggled to find a solution that best addressed our needs so we built our own.  Do your research and find a plugin that best fits your needs and if you find yourself struggling to find the perfect solution as well, you may want to check out PopupAlly.

Screenshot of PopupAlly Pro display settings

PopupAlly provides many excellent features you won’t find in your typical popup.  Not only do we provide 1 year of free support with your purchase, but the plugin does more than your average popup.  We want this plugin to feel like an extension of your site and brand so we put a lot of thought and care into its functionality and design.

We know how intrusive popups can be for your viewers when not presented at the most ideal time so we’ve added extensive functionality to PopupAlly for you to choose when and where your viewers will be prompted to enter their name and email for your updates and offerings. We like to refer to it as the polite popup!

This plugin has been downloaded by over 40,000 WordPress users to generate more leads and conversions of viewers to subscribers on their websites.