If you aren’t building an email list, you’re missing out on one of the most powerful and consistent ways to drive visitors and customers to your website or blog. From day one, Optin forms are a great way to generate more leads from the traffic you already get. It’s simple because once you set it, It works on autopilot.
When you start as a beginner, Two things are necessary:
- An email marketing service solution
- An opt-in form for users to genuinely opt-in to your list
There are enormous benefits to building an email list, some of which you already know. An email list like an asset. Once you have plenty of subscribers on your list, you can start with a series of autoresponders that will make more money every time you send them.
The best part, It’s all automated, which is why email marketing has become so important.
Now once you select an email service to start with, you may probably want to use the old, not so good looking, and lame HTML optin forms that come free with your email service. There’s nothing wrong with them except:-
- They look pathetic
- They don’t perform well
- They aren’t user-friendly and are not optimized for multiple devices
- They aren’t fully customizable
Everything which makes an optin form lesser effective comes with these pre-made forms. So, here’s the thing:
- You want to build an email list that converts
- You want an easy way to get more leads, thus more subscribers
- you want to make more money with powerful email marketing funnels
- and you want to do it fast.
Thankfully, WordPress users can choose from many different types of optin form plugins that are openly available. Out of so many plugins choosing the best one and that too without experimenting and brainstorming can be a daunting task.
So, This post will tell you about some of the best optin form plugins (free and premium) that you can use right away to get more email subscribers from your WordPress blog.
If you haven’t started list building yet, check out our detailed tutorial on how to start an email list.
- Every plugin in this list is GDPR compliant and supports user consent agreement collection, so you don’t have to worry about that part.
Let’s get started.
1. Icegram
Icegram is one of the most feature-packed WordPress plugins you will ever see. Upon installing the plugin, you can feel the power to have so many different forms and formats with excessive customization capabilities. Phew!!
Icegram is one of the most trusted lead generation plugins that can help you collect emails at a very high speed. One of the most common issues beginners face is designing a subscription form right from scratch. Many plugins completely ignore this. However, Icegram can be a beneficial tool for you if you are not so good with CSS.
Icegram comes with more than 100 templates ready to choose from. Simply select a design, pick a ready-made format, and you can start collecting emails in a minute.
Some of its great features include:-
- Pre-written messages to attract visitors
- Pre-made optin form template and other designs
- Exit Intent
- Insight reports and analytics data
- Advanced level targeting
With Icegram, you can create every possible type of optin form such as toast, popups, inlines, overlays, bar, badge, ribbons, and many more formats, all in one single plugin.
No other plugin is as versatile as Icegram is. All you need to do is give it at least one-hour to understand this plugin and its function. That way, you can use it at its full potential. It can be overwhelming at the start but be patient. Start with creating simple forms, and tweak with different styles.
You can create an unlimited number of forms with Icegram, so don’t hesitate to do experiments with different forms as it also comes with A/b testing!
It integrates with every email service provider, including Aweber, Getresponse, InfusionSoft, and Campaign Monitor. It also has a pro version in which you get more advanced features and full dedicated support from the Icegram team. You can also install another plugin by the rainmaker team known as “Email Subscribers,” with which you can send campaign emails and newstellers to your subscribers right from your WordPress dashboard.
Let’s check out how optin forms made with Icegram looks:
Here’s how the forms look here on BforBloggers’s home page:-
If you look closely at the image, you’ll see four pre-made optin types: Lightbox popup, notification bar, slidein, and a toast bar. If you are using the Icegram plugin, you don’t need to install any other plugin to add any extra style or format. This one plugin is more than enough to speed up your list building and conversion rates.
2. Thrive Leads
Thrive Leads is one plugin that supports pop-up lightbox, ribbon, 2-step opt-in form, exit-intent lightbox, slide-in, screen filler, widget, mat, and every other type of optin form you’ll ever need. Thrive Leads comes from the house of Thrive themes.
With Thrive Leads you can easily create a whole set of targeted optin forms that can be triggered with a number of preset rules such as click trigger, exit intent, user behavior and user location as well. Thrive leads smartly displays different optin forms to people who have already subscribed to your list, generation more after optin conversion.
Some of its features include:
It integrates with almost all email marketing services. Moreover, You can access your insight reports on how your optin forms are performing on different page levels. Thrive Leads come with more than 30+ predesigned optin templates you can use right from the beginning.
With its advanced A/B testing and smart reports, you can experiment with different forms finalizing what works the best and what doesn’t.
Thrive Leads helps you create mobile-friendly optin forms with its smart drag and drop optin-form builder. Use its smart links feature to display any form anywhere on your WordPress site. Thrive Leads is a premium option at $19/month. In$19/month, It’s an insane deal because you get access to all to thrive member’s themes and plugins including list building tutorials.
We did a comparison between Bloom & Thrive Leads, check the results here.
3. OptinMonster
Optinmonster is one of the most famous WordPress lead capture and list building plugin with over a 7,00,000 installation.
OptinMonster comes with a whole new level of features that make list building and conversion easier for newbies. However, OptinMonster is packed with many advanced level features, making it the best choice for business websites and E-commerce stores.
Some of its popular features are:
- MonsterLinks (Link trigger popups)
- Geo-Location traffic targetting
- Exit-Intent trigger
- Drag & Drop optin template builder
- 8 different types of campaigns, including the notification bar.
- Inactivity sensor
- Abandoned cart sensor
All of which makes OptinMonster a complete set of tools to convert your regular visitors into subscribers. Optin Forms created with OptinMonster can be used on any HTML based websites. For WordPress, we have a great plugin that handles everything. You simply need to activate it with the API key.
OptinMonster is a cloud-based tool that means you can customize your forms and optin models right through your optinMonster dashboard from any device. That way, you don’t need to go to your WordPress dashboard each time to make an edit or launch something new.
OptinMonster is the best plugin if you need a powerful set of features along with ease of use. Not only it makes creating optin forms easier, but Its smart features are focused on conversion optimization. The subscription forms created with OptinMonster are both fast and mobile-friendly. These popups and other forms load asynchronously, which means it doesn’t affect your WordPress website’s overall speed.
I enjoy using the drag and drop optin-form builder that comes with OptinMonster. Just like a page builder works, you can easily customize and make your optin form more branded. They also give a free 7-day trial so make sure you use it. Here’s how It looks inside OptinMonster:
This is the subscription campaign builder. Here you can design your new campaigns. A Campaign in OptinMonster means different forms such as popups and their subtypes, such as lightbox and modal popups. You can see how easy it is to customize each and every element of this pre-designed template.
OptinMonster is not a free plugin, so beginners might keep themselves from it. It is a value for money for sure, as the plan starts from $9/month, but if you are serious about blogging or look at your website as a business, you might want to just go and get it.
A detailed analytics report is available right into your OptinMonster dashboard. Use it to gain insights about how well different types of forms work with your visitors.
4. WP Subscribe
WP Subscribe is a WordPress plugin by MyThemeShop. If you are a regular visitor of BforBloggers, you may have seen the orange subscription in the sidebar a month ago. I created that form with WP Subscribe.
It is the one simple plugin that needs no customization at all. Simply install it and activate it. Then sync your mail chimp list with it and place it on your sidebar, posts wherever you like. It’s that simple.
It is a pure beginner and no-fuss approach to optin forms. It can be used easily on lifestyle, travel, and related niche blogs. If you don’t want to bother with many customizations from day one, use WP Subscribe and give your users a chance to subscribe to your blog.
WP Subscribe comes with a pro version as well. The pro version gives you access to advanced customization options where you can change typography, Colour, and forms fields of your optin forms.
Some of its notable features are:-
- MailChimp, Aweber or FeedBurner integration.
- Responsive and mobile-friendly.
- It can be easily customized using custom CSS.
- It can be used more than once in different sidebars using shortcodes.
- lightweight.
- Compatible with popular caching plugins.
- High CTR design.
WP Subscribe loads very quickly, and in most cases, it is visible before other elements appear on your web pages. That’s because of the advanced cache triggering and lightweight design of its optin forms. This plugin has been neatly coded by developers at MyThemeShop.
5. SUMOme
Need a variety of tools to build and grow your email list? You should be using SUMOme plugin. SUMOme is a bunch of powerful conversion optimization tools that help site owners to grow their email list, build a community, and collect more leads.
SUMOme can be used on WordPress with a free SUMOme account. Every tool comes with a free set of functionality, and once you have grown a little bit, you can upgrade to premium plans for more power.
In the SUMOme plugin dashboard, There many different pre-made sets of subscription boxes available that are ready to use, and all you need to do is:
- Pick a design
- Customize it as per your taste
- And use it on your blog
To begin with, You can use SUMOme to display several different formats of optin forms, some of which are:
- Welcome mat
- Sidebar format
- Slide-in format
- popup optin form
- Notification bar format
SUMOme is a very beginner-friendly plugin.
The only drawback of this plugin is speed and loading time. It’s not so fast and when you use all of its tools at once, every element load one by one. This doesn’t affect your blog’s overall loading speed, so it’s not going to affect your SEO in any way.
You can also set the optin form to prompt downloading content upgrade, one of the best ways to get more leads. Let me show you how it’s done.
Step 1: Make a form
Once you install the SUMOme plugin, go to the SUMO dashboard and click on forms and select list building.
From here choose the type of form you want to create. The most effect optin forms are PopUp and slide-ins so here, I’ll select PopUp form as my new one. After that the select your goal menu, click on the collect email and continue.
Then,
Customize your form and click on save. In the visibility, section select the manual mode and continue. You can change the fields, background color, etc. to match the design of your blog. Make sure to make it attractive.
Step 2: Add a content upgrade
In the success tab, you can automatically display a content upgrade to the user once he/she completes the signup action.
SUMOme integrates with all leading email marketing services like MailChimp, Aweber, GetResponse, Convertkit, Sendinblue and just to name a few.
6. Hustle by WPMUdev
Hustle is one of the very few plugins which are completely free to use with premium features given.
The moment you install Hustle, you will notice that you can create every basic type of optin form, including the sidebar, Slidein, and PopUp.
Not just it lets you create them, it also gives you full control over how you can display them to your visitors. There are multiple triggers, including exit intent, that make this one plugin so powerful for turning abanding visitors into subscribers.
Some of its features are:-
- Ad-block resistant
- Fully Customizable Forms
- Exit Intent
- Mobile-Friendly optin forms
- Analytics
- Built-in layouts and animations
- Powerful triggers
You can use time, on-click, scroll, location, position, page, post, login, category, tag, referral link, and device type to reach more visitors.
It also comes with a test mode and a local email list feature.
Hustle integrates with Aweber, Infusionsoft, MailChimp, MailerLite, HubSpot and every other popular email marketing service. It comes with a pro version as well, where you can create an unlimited number of forms with extra layouts and friendly support.
Have a look at how Hustle’s optin forms look and work:
After popup or sidebar optin form closes, you select from either keep showing the form or redirect them to another link where they can get access to their lead magnet or ethical bribe.
Learn more about Hustle by WPMUdev
7. MailMunch
MailMunch is another popular optin form builder plugin. MailMucnh is popular because it can be used on any website platform, including WordPress.
MailMunch comes with several different types of themes to choose from, and you can make every type of optin form including, PopUp, Embedded, top bar, slideIn, and others.
Some of MailMunch’s features are:
- Beautiful optin form designs
- A/b testing
- Page-level targetting
- Exit-intent and scroll trigger
- Analytics & Insights report
MailMuch integrates with every popular email services such as MailChimp, Constant Contact, ActiveCampaign, and others. Also, MailMunch is fairly easy to use. You simply have to install the plugin, connect it with your email list and watch your email subscribers grow.
8. Optincat by FatCat Apps
Finally, Here they come. You see an optin form place in this blog’s sidebar, and the one below at the end of this post, and the one on my subscribe page? Each of these optin forms is created with OptinCat by FatCat Apps. I use them because of three simple reasons:
- Pre-made form layout
- Automatic distribution of published forms
- fairly customizable forms
Optin Cat is a free plugin. You can upgrade to the pro version if you would like to get your hands on more different types of layouts and designs.
In the free version, you can make PopUps and embedded subscription forms. You can choose from 5 different styles available, including flat, ribbon, and inline styles. Optin cat has a dedicated plugin for popular email services such as MailChimp, Aweber, and GetResponse.
There are no restrictions on how many forms you can create with the Optin Cat. You can display any form automatically below any post based on tag and categories on your WordPress blog. It also comes with impressions and conversions graph analytics shown right on your WordPress dashboard. Optin Cat has been beneficial for me.
9. Optin Forms By FancyThemes
Optin Forms is your good to go solution if you hate popups. Popups convert extremely well when compared to sidebar Options, but it may be annoying for some users.
This plugin comes with 6 different layouts of optin forms ready to be customized. You also get a naked optin form that can be used within page builders like element to show optin forms on landing pages with other elements.
Optin Forms easily integrates with MailChimp, GetResponse ConvertKit, and other popular services. Optin Forms comes with only inline optin forms that can be shown anywhere on your WordPress blog through the shortcode [optinform].
If you browse this blog on a mobile phone, scroll down, and you’ll see an optin form. That is made with this Optin Form plugin. It loads quickly as well. It’s lightweight. With an impressive 4.5 star rating and quick support, Optin Forms is really a simple, easy solution for non-techies.
Learn more about the Optin Forms plugin
10. Optin Hound
Optin Hound is yet another simple way to give your users an opportunity to signup for your newsteller. It is developed by devpups, and the very best thing about this plugin is custom optin templates and ease of use. Some of its great features are:-
- Unlimited email optin forms – Easily customize as many optin popups, widgets, and sidebar forms as you need to match your email marketing strategy and start subscribing to users to your newsletter.
- Display rules – Select where the popup optin forms should appear. Whether it is on the front page, on all posts/pages, or on single blog posts/pages, you can customize this in any way you want.
- Trigger rules – You can select the exact moment when to show the popup to your users. Show popups on page load, show popups after a certain time, or you can enable exit intent.
- Save new email subscribers In the WordPress database – Once a new user subscribes from any of your email optin forms, they will be saved in your own database, and you can access them right from your WordPress dashboard.
- Export your mailing list to a CSV file – Export saved email subscribers to a CSV file so that you can import them into the email marketing service of your choice.
Optin Hound has a collection of pre-built designs of subscription form templates you can use straight away after installing it. It supports shortcodes, which means you can use shortcodes to display each email subscription form anywhere on your WordPress blog.
One of the major drawbacks of optin hound is integration. In the free version, you cannot integrate your optin forms with any email services. Instead, all your subscribers are stored in your WordPress database, and you have to manually export them to your email list through the CSV list.
Learn more about the Optin Hound plugin
Every plugin is unique, and it seriously depends on the personal experience and choice of which plugin works the best. I use OptinMonster (The full screen) as well as Icegram (the black popup you see) and Thrive Leads (The slide-in you see).
You can start with any of these plugins. The best choice for a beginner will be Thrive Leads or Icegram.
Share which plugin you like to use on your WordPress in the comments section below, and don’t forget to share this with your WordPress enthusiast friends.
I was wondering if you did any speed tests to see which of these plugins produce drag on load speed? I currently use Thrive Leads but it is consistently the last thing to load on my site sometimes taking 2-4 seconds even with a caching plugin and a CDN so I am looking for something that loads quicker. I am going to try Icegram and I am considering Optin Monster but I don’t want to pay for a plugin that is slow.
Hi Rob,
Yes, I did use SUMO, Icegram, optin hound, and other except for thrive leads and optin monster so I can give you some light on their speed.
Over a number of times, SUMO has been very slow so I don’t think you would love that. As far as Icegram is concerned, Its really fast. It loads, asynchronously so your loading speed (overall) won’t get affected.
I’ve heard OptinMonster does the same. Its fast as well as mobile friendly. If I would have to choose from these according to speed, (I would be going ascending): OPtinCat, Icegram, OptinForms, WPSubscribe Pro and then OptinMonster.
Hope it helps Rob.
So, Rob Here’s an update- I started to use Thrive leads. Currently, no speed issues while the lazy load is on via advanced settings options. I also tested Bloom and its certainly one of the fastest solution here for WordPress. OptinMonster is script based so no speed issues on that too.
I also ended up testing both live, see here – https://bforbloggers.com/7-days-of-thrive-leads-and-bloom-how-they-performed/