Sticky WooCommerce Category Menu
Floating Product Category for WooCommerce adds a sticky category panel to your online store. Shoppers tap a floating button to open a full product category menu from anywhere on your site — shop pages, product pages…
Use with caution
Sticky WooCommerce Category Menu works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. It runs on 10+ sites and was last updated 4 months ago, and scores 51/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (10+ active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Sticky WooCommerce Category… stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| category menu | >100 |
| Product Categories | >100 |
| shop navigation | >100 |
| sticky sidebar | >100 |
| woocommerce | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
About Sticky WooCommerce Category Menu
From the official readme · v1.1Description
Floating Product Category for WooCommerce adds a sticky category panel to your online store. Shoppers tap a floating button to open a full product category menu from anywhere on your site — shop pages, product pages, blog posts, or landing pages.
Help customers find products faster, reduce bounce rate, and improve WooCommerce navigation without touching your theme or writing code.
Why use a floating category sidebar?
Most WooCommerce themes bury category links in the main menu or hide them on mobile. A floating category button keeps your product catalog one click away on every page, which helps shoppers discover categories they might otherwise miss.
Key features
- Floating sticky category button — fixed on the left or right edge of the screen
- Slide-out category panel — opens over the page without a full reload
- Unlimited sub-category nesting — accordion expand/collapse for deep category trees
- In-panel category search — filter long category lists instantly
- Active category highlighting — shows the current category and auto-expands its branch
- Breadcrumb trail — context on category and shop archive pages
- Display targeting — all pages, shop & product pages only, or everywhere except Cart & Checkout
- Remembers open/closed state — panel state persists as shoppers browse
- Two layouts — simple text list or category cards with thumbnail images
- Product count — optional count next to each category name
- Product tags & brands — optional flat lists below categories (WooCommerce Brands supported)
- Preserve shop filters — optionally keep price and rating filters when switching categories
- Keyboard accessible — Escape to close, click-outside to close, ARIA states
- Fully customizable — colors, position, layout, and behavior via the WordPress Customizer
- No theme changes — works with any WooCommerce-compatible theme
Perfect for
- WooCommerce stores with large or deeply nested product category structures
- Shops that want mobile-friendly category navigation without a hamburger menu rebuild
- Store owners who need category access on non-shop pages (home, blog, landing pages)
- Sites using product tags or WooCommerce Brands alongside categories
Customization
All settings live in Appearance → Customizer → Floating Product Category. Change background and text colors, button style, float position (left or right), layout, category order, maximum depth, empty-category visibility, and where the panel appears — with live preview.
Performance
The category tree is built from a single cached query, so large catalogs stay fast even with many parent and child categories.
Installation
- Upload the plugin folder to
/wp-content/plugins/floating-product-category-for-woocommerce, or install it from the WordPress Plugins screen. - Activate the plugin. WooCommerce must already be installed and active.
- Go to Appearance → Customizer → Floating Product Category to configure colors, position, and display options.
The floating category button appears automatically once your store has at least one published product category with products assigned.
Frequently asked questions
Does this plugin require WooCommerce?
Yes. WooCommerce must be installed and active. The plugin does not load without it.
Where do I customize the floating category sidebar?
Go to Appearance → Customizer → Floating Product Category. You can change colors, layout, float position, display scope, search, and more with live preview.
Why don’t I see the floating category button?
The panel only renders when your store has at least one published product category with products assigned. Check that categories are not empty and that your display scope setting includes the current page.
Can I show the category menu only on shop pages?
Yes. Under Show On in the Customizer, choose “Shop & product pages only” to limit the panel to WooCommerce browse pages.
Does it work with sub-categories?
Yes. The plugin supports unlimited nested sub-categories with accordion expand/collapse. You can also set a maximum depth if you want to limit how deep the tree goes.
Can shoppers search categories inside the panel?
Yes. Enable Category Search in the Customizer to add a live filter box — useful for stores with dozens of categories.
Does it support product tags and brands?
Yes. You can optionally show a flat product tag list and/or WooCommerce Brands list below your category tree.
Will it slow down my store?
No. Categories are loaded from a single cached query rather than one database call per parent category.
Is the category panel accessible?
Yes. The panel supports keyboard navigation (Escape to close), click-outside to dismiss, and proper ARIA expanded/hidden states.
Changelog
1.1
- Fix: Fatal error on fresh install when Customizer settings have not been saved yet.
- Fix: Product count toggle stops working after first Customizer save.
- Fix: Mobile sidebar list could not be scrolled by touch.
- Fix: Script version passed incorrectly to wp_register_script.
- Fix: Text domain now matches plugin slug for WordPress.org compatibility.
- Fix: WooCommerce dependency guard re-enabled.
- Fix: Empty category guard and deprecated shop_catalog image size.
- Fix: Setting sanitization for layout, position, and product count options.
- Add: Display targeting (all pages / shop & product pages only / everywhere except Cart & Checkout).
- Add: Live in-panel category search and filtering.
- Add: Unlimited sub-category nesting with an accordion toggle.
- Add: Active-category highlighting with auto-expanded branch on category archives.
- Add: Panel remembers its open/closed state across page loads.
- Add: Keyboard accessibility – Escape to close, click-outside to close, ARIA states.
- Perf: Category list now built from a single cached query instead of one query per parent.
- Fix: Reveal animation now slides from the correct edge when positioned on the right.
- Fix: Close animation is now visible (panel hides after the animation, not before).
- Fix: Parents with stocked sub-categories but no direct products are no longer hidden.
1.0
- Add: Initial release.
Screenshots
For developers
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Best Sticky WooCommerce Category M… alternatives
All category menu plugins →
FAQ
Sticky WooCommerce Category Menu: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Sep 30, 2026
Is Sticky WooCommerce Category Menu free?
Yes. Sticky WooCommerce Category Menu is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Sticky WooCommerce Category Menu safe to use in 2026?
Sticky WooCommerce Category Menu works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. It runs on 10+ sites and was last updated 4 months ago, and scores 51/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Sticky WooCommerce Category Menu?
Sticky WooCommerce Category Menu is active on 10+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 1,402 times since it launched in June 2022. It was downloaded 47 times in the last 30 days.
Does Sticky WooCommerce Category Menu work with WordPress 7.1?
Sticky WooCommerce Category Menu is officially tested up to WordPress 7.0.6, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
What PHP version does Sticky WooCommerce Category Menu need?
Sticky WooCommerce Category Menu requires PHP 7.2 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.
When was Sticky WooCommerce Category Menu last updated?
The latest version, 1.1, was released on June 9, 2026 (4 months ago).
Who makes Sticky WooCommerce Category Menu?
Sticky WooCommerce Category Menu is developed and maintained by UserElements.
What are the best alternatives to Sticky WooCommerce Category Menu?
The most popular alternatives to Sticky WooCommerce Category Menu are Automatically Hierarchic Ca… (2K+ installs), WP Spry Menu (50+ installs) and NBTech Woomenu (10+ installs).
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