Want to show a popup only…
- On specific blog posts?
- To mobile users?
- If they’re located in a specific region?
- Have spent a certain time on a page?
You can do all that – and much more when you’re using a feature-rich popup builder.
Two popular choices for WordPress users are WowOptin and Popup Maker. While both can help you grow your email list, reduce cart abandonment, or promote special offers, they differ in terms of functionality.
In this article, I’ll compare WowOptin vs. Popup Maker side-by-side based on hands-on testing – to help you decide which popup plugin is the right fit for your site..
Comparison Table for WowOptin vs. Popup Maker
Check out the side-by-side comparison between WowOptin and Popup Maker:
| Feature | WowOptin | Popup Maker |
|---|---|---|
| Drag-and-drop builder | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| Ready-made templates | ✅ 700+ templates | ❌ Only basic presets |
| Live preview | ✅ Yes (desktop, tablet, mobile view) | ❌ No |
| Smart triggers | ✅ Exit intent, on-scroll, click, inactivity | ✅ Exit intent, time delay, click |
| Audience targeting | ✅ Advanced targeting with multiple filters | ✅ Decent targeting |
| Display rules | ✅ Combine multiple page-level rules | ✅ Works with limitations |
| A/B testing | ✅ Built-in A/B testing tools | ❌ Not available |
| Custom elements | ✅ Image, video, countdown, form, shape, and many others. | ❌ Limited to heading, text, image, and a few others. |
| Pricing | ✅ One-time lifetime pricing available, great free version | ✅ Subscription-based, some free options |
| Unlimited page views | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
From this overview, you will notice that WowOptin is a great alternative to Popup Maker because it offers a fully drag-n-drop interface, a wide library of templates, A/B testing, targeting rules, and other advanced features.
In the next sections, you will learn more about each comparison factor with examples.
Also exploring other alternatives? Check our WowOptin vs Mailmunch comparison to help you decide faster.
What Makes A Great Popup Builder Plugin?
First, let us identify: what really makes a plugin great for creating popups?
When choosing a popup builder tool, there are several key factors you should take into consideration:
i. Drag and drop interface: A good popup builder should allow you to design without much manual work. If you’re a beginner, a drag-and-drop interface should give you more flexibility and control – so you can make popups live without spending hours.
ii. Design Elements: You’ll want to create visually appealing popups that don’t look outdated or generic. So, you need essential popup elements like a countdown timer, shapes, and so on. Also, customization flexibility is essential here: from font and button styling to spacing and animation.
iii. Audience Targeting: Showing the right popup to the right person at the right time is crucial. A great plugin should support advanced targeting by traffic source, device, location, referral URL, and user behavior (like first-time vs. returning visitors).
iv. Custom triggers: Triggers like on scroll, exit-intent, time delay, on-click, and inactivity detection help you control exactly when your popup appears.
v. Page-level targeting: Want to show a specific offer only for specific products? Or a newsletter signup only on blog posts? That’s where page-level targeting and display rules come in.
vi. Live preview: Seeing what your popup looks like before publishing saves you time and ensures a consistent user experience.
vii. Prebuilt templates: Ready-made templates save hours. Just choose the design that you like, make some changes if needed, publish the popup, and you are ready to get leads.
viii. Analytics and A/B testing: Knowing what works helps you improve conversions. You should be able to test versions of a pop-up and view performance reports easily.
WowOptin vs. Popup Maker: Which is the Best Popup Builder for WordPress?
In this section, I describe my detailed findings about both plugins. So you can decide which one better serves your requirements.
✨ Drag-n-drop Experience
WowOptin has an intuitive and modern builder: very easy to use for a beginner. You can easily drag and drop necessary elements like text, image, video, countdowns, or forms directly from the builder and instantly create a beautiful popup.
On the other hand, Popup Maker does not include a visual drag-and-drop interface.
From my testing, I found the interface a lot to be desired. While WowOptin allows you to visually edit and customize each element, Popup Maker feels outdated and rigid. Customizing each part of the popup became time-consuming and unintuitive.
Moreover, I found the element options in Popup Maker to be quite limited when trying to design a high-converting popup.
Winner: WowOptin – for a robust drag-n-drop interface
✨ Essential Popup Elements
Popup elements directly impact how your popup will look – and perform. It’s not just about an email subscription form; a compelling image or video can instantly capture attention and increase engagement.
WowOptin gives you the flexibility to add a variety of elements like: Forms, Text, Images, Videos, Countdown timers, Buttons, Coupons, Social icons, Shapes, and so on. You can fine-tune every element – from color, font, spacing, alignment, to size.
What’s even better is the availability of pre-designed layouts for each element type. You don’t have to build from scratch. For instance, the stock image and video library lets you simply pick the visual elements you need and drop them into your design.
In comparison, Popup Maker’s customization capabilities are basic. From my hands-on experience, I was limited to adding only simple elements like headings, paragraphs, and images.
There are some presets, but they offer a few visual customizations. Also, I couldn’t find essential high-converting features like countdowns or coupon elements.
Winner: WowOptin – for essential popup elements
✨ Advanced Audience Targeting
WowOptin takes audience targeting seriously. It gives you pin-point control over who should see your popups.
You can create popups based on:
- Traffic source (search engine, social media, paid ad, etc.)
- Referral URL
- Language and location
- Visitor type (new or returning)
- Operating system
- Device type
This is especially helpful for running personalized campaigns that convert better.
For example, you can show a discount popup only to users coming from Instagram or create a regional offer based on the visitor’s location.
Popup Maker also offers decent audience targeting, allowing popups to trigger based on referrer, page URL, or geo-location.
But you might find WowOptin’s audience targeting more intuitive because it is more organized and can be easily accessed under one tab.
Winner: WowOptin – for a feature-rich and intuitive targeting
✨ Smart Custom Triggers
Smart triggers determine when your popup is shown. This is essential for improving user experience while improving engagement.
WowOptin offers advanced triggering conditions like:
Exit intent, Timed Delay, On Click, On Hover, On Scroll, and User Inactivity. If you want, you can even combine multiple triggers to fine-tune exactly when the popup should appear.
Similarly, Popup Maker also supports several triggering methods like time delay, exit intent, and click activation. I also liked that it allows you to set cookie-based behavior — for example, not showing the popup again once the user dismisses it.
This behavior can be replicated in WowOptin using its interval settings, which give you full control over how often and when popups should appear again.
Winner: Tie – Both offer useful trigger options
✨ Advanced Display Rules
Do you want to show the same popup all over your site or a specific popup on a specific page that boosts conversion? This is why you need display rules for popups.
WowOptin gives you robust display conditions and advanced customization so you can create fully custom rules. Let’s say you only want to show the popup on the cart page, but only if there is a specific product customer is purchasing. You can easily implement this using WowOptin.
Now, moving on to the Popup Maker plugin, I tried to implement more than one rule, but for some reason, it didn’t work as intended. But applying only one rule was working fine.
Winner: WowOptin – for advanced display rules
✨ Smart A/B Testing
Don’t rely on guesswork. A/B test popups to find which one is performing well and bringing more leads. Based on the insights, you can strategize your popups.
You can easily identify what type of messaging, design, and CTA brings more attention. WowOption offers this feature, and it is very easy to set up.
On the other hand, Popup Maker does not have this amazing functionality.
That’s a major drawback if you’re serious about improving conversions through data-driven experimentation.
Winner: WowOptin – for A/B testing feature
✨ Live Preview
This is one of my favorite WowOptin features. You get a real-time preview of what your popup will look like on the live site – across desktop, tablet, and mobile views.
This helps you adjust spacing, fonts, and layout to ensure your design looks perfect on any device.
Unfortunately, Popup Maker does not offer a live preview mode. You’ll need to publish and then preview it manually on your site, which adds extra steps and makes the process slower.
Winner: WowOptin – for the Live Preview feature
✨ Ready-made Templates
WowOptin offers over 700+ professionally designed templates, covering everything from newsletter popups, special offers, announcement banners, to seasonal sales campaigns.
Even on the free version, you get 100+ high-quality templates that are responsive and customizable.
You can explore the templates here: https://wowoptin.com/templates/
Popup Maker, in contrast, provides a few presets that require manual tweaking. There’s no large template library – so most of the work must be done from scratch.
Winner: WowOptin – for a wide library of templates
✨ Pricing Plan
One key difference between WowOptin and Popup Maker is pricing flexibility.
Both tools allow unlimited pageviews, so you won’t be charged extra for growing your traffic!
However, WowOptin offers a one-time lifetime plan, which is perfect for users who dislike subscriptions. You pay once and keep using the plugin – no strings attached.
This makes it a more cost-effective solution in the long run.
For updated pricing, check:
Winner: WowOptin – for a very affordable lifetime plan
WowOptin vs. Popup Maker: Which Popup Builder Should You Choose?
Both plugins have their strengths.
Popup Maker is a solid option for basic popups and comes with some useful triggers and audience options.
WowOptin, however, brings a lot more to the table:
- A modern, drag-and-drop Canva-style builder
- Over 700 ready-made templates
- Advanced audience targeting
- Built-in A/B testing
- Live preview across devices
- One-time pricing with no pageview limits
If you want full control over popup design and behavior without a learning curve, WowOptin is the better choice.
And if you’re tight on budget or simply hate paying monthly fees, the lifetime deal from WowOptin is a must have.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Popup Builder Plugins Have A Drag-N-Drop Interface?
WowOptin, Poper, and Claspo are great popup plugins with drag-and-drop interface. If you need a completely Canva-like flexibility, you should try WowOptin. It has advanced features with a very user-friendly interface.
Can I Use Both Plugins Together?
Technically, yes. But using multiple popup plugins may cause conflicts or display issues. It’s better to stick to one robust solution like WowOptin.
Does WowOptin Work With WooCommerce?
Yes, it supports WooCommerce targeting. You can trigger popups based on cart products, total cart price, thank you page, and so on.
Can I Try WowOptin For Free?
Yes! WowOptin offers a free version with 100+ templates and essential features. You can upgrade anytime for more advanced tools.
Is Popup Maker Completely Free?
Popup Maker offers a free version with basic functionality. However, many advanced features are locked behind premium extensions.
