Searching for the best WordPress menu plugin to improve your site’s navigation?
Clear navigation is crucial for optimal user experience (UX). It could also be a contributing factor to your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. However, the default menu settings in WordPress can quickly become limiting, which is why it’s worth considering adding a WordPress menu plugin to your arsenal.
As your website grows, you’ll likely need a robust navigation system to display all your content and resources. A mega menu builder can help you organize your links and even apply various visual effects to make your website more eye-catching. It’s also essential that your navigation is fully responsive so that it’s accessible from any device.
In this article, we’ll give you an overview of our top five WordPress menu plugins, all of which happen to be free. Let’s dive right in!
Best WordPress menu plugins
Now that we’ve discussed the value of a WordPress menu plugin, let’s look at five popular alternatives. The one that’s the best fit for you will partly depend on the depth of customization you need, but they all offer a budget-friendly starting point.
Max Mega Menu is a popular WordPress menu plugin that enables you to create responsive mega menus for your site. It comes with a drag-and-drop builder, making it easy to rearrange items and add widgets without touching a line of code.
You can also fully customize the appearance of your menu thanks to the various styling options this plugin provides. Plus, you can control what your menu will look like on mobile devices as well.
Max Mega Menu also gives you several animation options to make your menu more visually interesting and user friendly. For instance, you can include hover effects, flyouts, or fading transitions. Besides that, it focuses on performance, so rest assured your menu will be lightweight.
Furthermore, it includes features such as:
- Grid layout builder
- Touch-enabled support
- Sub-menu options
- Multiple menu locations
- Menu icons
- Keyboard navigation
- Compatibility with Elementor
Pricing: Free. The Pro version includes eCommerce support and advanced styling options starting at just $29 for a single-site license.
As its name suggests, Responsive Menu is a tool that helps you create impressive menus that will look excellent on all devices. It also comes with a staggering number of customization options, giving you 22,500 setting combinations in total.
Designers will likely appreciate this plugin’s many styling elements. Besides basic color and text adjustments, you can also add a background image, apply various animations, and even control where your menu appears on your site. Plus, you don’t need any coding experience to make these changes, thanks to Responsive Menu’s intuitive interface.
Responsive Menu also comes with the following features:
- Multiple menu locations
- Choice of screen size
- Custom CSS support
- Sub-menu styling options
- Integrated search bar
- Translation support
Pricing: Free. The Pro version starts at $29.99 for a single-site license.
3. WP Mega Menu
WP Mega Menu is another excellent free WordPress menu plugin that can help you expand your navigation. It comes with a visual drag-and-drop builder, so you’ll be able to create your mega menu and add complex elements without any coding knowledge.
Besides that, you can choose from multiple menu themes and color skin options. WP Mega Menu also enables you to add your company logo and social sharing icons in just a few clicks.
Additionally, you can choose from several animation effects, which you can preview in the demo. Plus, you can also apply special badges to your menu items, such as ‘new’ or ‘hot,’ to make your offers stand out.
Other features include:
- Menu widgets
- Search bar
- Background image
- Responsive design
- Mobile menu options
- Dashicons and Font Awesome icon support
Pricing: Free. Or upgrade to the premium version for more advanced styling features. It costs $29 for a single-site license.
If you’re not looking for a mega menu builder, but you’d still like to elevate the look of your navigation, our own Menu Icons might be just what you need. This plugin enables you to choose from countless icons, which can dramatically boost your site’s UX.
This tool is straightforward to use. As soon as you install it, simply enable Menu Icons in Appearance > Menus so that you can start customizing your navigation items.
Currently, Menu Icons supports the following icon types:
- Dashicons
- Elusive Icons
- Font Awesome
- Foundation Icons
- Genericons
- Fontello
- TI Icons
- Image attachments
- SVG attachments
Pricing: Free.
5. ElementsKit
Our final recommendation is the ElementsKit, an excellent option if you use Elementor to create your website. This handy plugin comes with an extensive library of various modules that supercharge the popular page builder’s functionality.
It also comes with a Mega Menu Builder feature, which can help you create complex menus without leaving your editing screen. You’ll be able to use Elementor’s familiar drag-and-drop functionality to add various items and customize them to your liking. For instance, you can choose between a light and dark theme and several layouts.
Besides that, ElementsKit also gives you access to other useful modules such as the Header Footer Builder or LayoutKit, making it a must-have add-on for any Elementor user.
Plus, it also includes:
- Over 200 pre-designed page templates
- Various widget presets
- One page scroll
- Parallax effects
- Gallery layouts
- WooCommerce widgets
- Responsive design
Pricing: Free. Or upgrade to access its full features. Pricing starts at $19.50 per year for use on one site or $59.50 for a lifetime license.
Conclusion
A responsive and well-organized menu is a must if you want visitors to find your content easily. It can also help Google bots navigate through your site for more effective indexing. Moreover, a functional menu is often not enough to drive conversions, so it’s smart to enhance it visually with a WordPress menu plugin.
In this article, we’ve discussed our top five tools that can help you achieve these objectives. To recap, plugins such as Max Mega Menu will enable you to create stunning mega menu designs from scratch. Otherwise, you can enhance your existing setup with our Menu Icons or bring more menu-related options to Elementor with ElementsKit.
For some tutorials on how to improve your site’s menu, check out the following posts:
Do you have any questions about WordPress menu plugins? Let us know in the comments section below!
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Keep reading the article at ThemeIsle Blog. The article was originally written by John Hughes on 2021-01-12 04:39:29.
The article was hand-picked and curated for you by the Editorial Team of WP Archives.