9 Menu Plugins for WordPress: Both Free & Paid alternatives

Sticking with a default WordPress menu can almost always prove to be a big mistake. That’s because navigation is one of the crucial aspects that define a high-quality website and its SEO-friendliness

Unfortunately, the default WP menus highly limit functions and customization levels. These simple menus may not effectively guide the visitors and encourage engagement. Relying on them can contribute to a high bounce rate and wasted leads. 

Imagine landing on a website and struggling to locate the content you need. You’ll surely hit the button back to the search engine results pages to try another website. 

WordPress menu plugins can help you add professional and fully functioning navigation menus to your website and improve user experience. To help with the selection process, we will share some of the reliable menu plugins for WordPress — free and paid alternatives.

Let’s get started. 

1. Max Mega Menu

Price: Starting at $29 

Free version: YES

If you are looking for the most trusted and complete WordPress menu plugin, Max Mega Menu is arguably the best option in this category. 

Boasting over 400,000 active installations, this menu management plugin is loaded with excellent features to transform your default menu into a mega menu. The configuration of the free version with the native WP menu builder is super easy. 

You still access awesome starter features, such as adding flyouts and multiple menu locations. But as you would expect, upgrading to Max Mega Menu Pro comes with several advanced customization options. 

You’ll get features like sticky or floating menus, vertical menus, accordion menus, tabbed mega menus, menu logos, and custom item styling. Also, you access Google fonts, WooCommerce integration, and a search box. 

Since this plugin uses less than 2kb of JavaScript, you’ll get a fast and responsive menu. 

If you need Max Mega Menu on x5 sites, you’ll pay $49. In case it is x99 sites, the price is $99. 

2. Responsive Menu 

Price: Starting at $49 

Free Version: YES

More than 100,000 admins use the Responsive Menu. As the name says, this is a highly responsive menu with over 150 customization options. Creating the desired menu is straightforward, regardless of your WP coding skills. 

You can start with the 7-day free trial to test the functionality of this plugin for your peace of mind. With this version, you can accomplish several things on your menu. This includes changing text, background images, border color, and introducing menu animations, menu triggers, and a search box. 

The premium version lets you style your menu more effectively. For example, you can preview changes before implementing them, as well as integrate a header bar for announcements or sales. Also, it supports the multilingualism function. 

For one site, the price is $49. A license for 2 to 5 sites is $79. As for up to 100 sites, you’ll pay $95 to get the Responsive Menu. 

3. WP Mobile Menu 

Price: Starting at $6.49 

Free version: YES

Ecommerce, online store, or membership site owners looking to optimize their website menus should consider installing the WP Mobile Menu plugin. 

At premium level, you get some exciting features that enhance your menu functionality to the next level. You can add Ajax live search, logo, footer menus, and header banners. More interestingly, you get full WooCommerce support. 

With the WooCommerce tools, you can make your menu more functional with menu cart icons, sliding carts, checkout pages, chart buttons, and more. 

Another great thing about WP Mobile Menu plugin is that it lets you import or export your menus to other sites. 

The basic free version is worth trying out, but it may not meet your customization needs. 

WP Mobile Menu is available in three plans: professional, business, and enterprise. The professional package  which costs $6.49 per month  gives you access to all the premium features, excluding the WooCommerce functionality. 

The business plan offers WooCommerce tools at $9.99 per month, while Enterprise plan costs $29.99 per month. All premium plans have a 14-day money-back guarantee.

4. UberMenu 

Price: $26 one-time fee

Free Version: NO

While UberMenu does not give you a chance to test some of its features, this premium WordPress menu plugin deserves your attention. 

It has over 85,000 users. The low one-time investment is probably one of the reasons WP users gravitate towards UberMenu. 

If you renew customer support after expiration in the 6th month, you’ll pay $10.50 to continue using their support services. 

You can create a unique menu with UberMenu. Equipped with AJAX functionality, admins can easily save data with a click. 

The plugin has an admin dashboard, allowing you to control and customize menus as needed using over 50 style settings. Controlling transitions, background color, fonts, and menu orientation is a breeze. Also, you can feature images on your menus. 

The WP menu plugin supports uploading pictures from your computer device. Its advanced style generator allows you to configure custom HTML, shortcodes, and widgets to add maps, contact forms, and search bars to menus. 

5. WP Mega Menu 

Price: FREE

Themeum, the development company behind WP Mega Menu, was overly generous when creating this plugin menu. 

WP Mega Menu is a top-rated free menu plugin offering many features and customization options found in paid versions. For instance, it supports logo branding, a search bar, unlimited colors & options, widgets, and multiple themes/skins. 

The plugin is configured with drag-and-drop tools, enabling website administrators to create stunning and mobile-friendly mega menus. 

You can stretch menus, introduce social icons, Dashicons, Font Awesome icons, and Google fonts. Another thing worth highlighting is that  once you have created a beautiful menu theme, WP Mega Menu allows you to export and apply it elsewhere. 

The WP Mega Menu Pro version is available for admins whose sites demand more advanced features and professional support. It costs $19 per year. 

6. Mega Main Menu

Price: $16 regular fee

Free Version: NO

Priced at $16, Mega Main Menu is one of the cheapest premium WordPress menu plugins. It is a lightweight plugin with multifunctional capabilities for creating mega WordPress menus. 

You can develop floating navigation menus with Mega Main Menu. The plugin gives you access to over 1600 icons, giving menus high-quality graphics. 

It has over 600 Google fonts and allows you to customize the stunning dropdowns with images, text, links, widgets, and shortcodes. 

It is compatible with multilingual sites and supports adding branding logos and search functionality. 

7. Superfly

Price: $29 regular fee

Free Version: NO

Want to impress your visitors with eye-catching menus as they hang around your website? If so, Superfly could be an excellent plugin. Fly menus are gaining traction in the web design arena. 

The menu panel becomes concealed when a site loads for the time. It appears (from the side) when your visitors click or hover their mouse on a webpage. 

Superfly comes with tons of features, some of which you may not need. But it’s nice to know there’s pretty much everything you need to construct a mega vertical menu. 

You can add links to your Homepage, Contact Us, About Us, Purchase Page, and all other important website links. The menu container gives you a lot of freedom in styling with colors, background colors, icons, pictures, and animations. You can edit work thanks to the live customizer. 

Superfly works great  whether on desktops or mobile devices. However, it’s more useful when implemented for mobile devices because the screens have limited space. 

8. Sky Mega Menu 

Price: $6 regular fee

Free Version: NO

Not every website requires investing in highly advanced menu plugins. Some basic and budget-friendly WordPress menu plugins like Sky Mega Menu let you create a professional and responsive menu for your homepage. 

You can have floating or fixed menus. You can position them at any side. If you need to add commonly used website forms (contact, login, search, register, etc.), this plugin may be worth it. 

It includes 3 mobile layouts, 361 vector icons, a 6-column grid system, and 9 color schemes. 

9. Slick Menu

Price: $49 regular fee

Free Version: 14-day trial 

We wrap up our list of WordPress menu plugins with Slick Menu, a highly-rated product trusted by over 6,000 users. It allows admins to create multi-level push menus on their websites. 

Like most premium plugins discussed in this post, Slick Menu is responsive and spoils you with customization options. Whether you need to add icons, animation effects, background videos, search boxes, or social networks, Slick Menu supports it all. 

We also like this plugin because it features a built-in Live Customizer. With it, it’s easy to make maintenance changes and adjustments to the navigation options without taking down your site. 

You can buy bulky licenses to use on multiple sites. A Slick Menu license for 3 sites costs $99. A license for 30 WordPress sites costs $249. 

Conclusion 

WordPress menu plugins make a difference in fulfilling your website function. It doesn’t matter if you are using the free plugins. Upgrading to premium menu plugins can help you optimize your menus to the best possible level, but not every admin will need them. We have narrowed the options for you. We hope you can compare and see which menu plugin is useful before installing or investing your money.

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