Popup Zen – Small, Simple, Lightweight Email Optin
A WordPress popup that is ultra lightweight, simple to use, and small.
Consider an alternative
Popup Zen shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites, is rated 4.9/5 and was last updated 7 years ago, and scores 35/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (10+ active installs)
- No update in 7 years
- Only tested up to WordPress 5.2 (latest is 7.1)
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 Popup Zen stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| email opt in | >100 |
| lead generation | >100 |
| Optin | >100 |
| pop up | >100 |
| popup | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 from 7 reviews
About Popup Zen
From the official readme · v0.0.3Description
The Popup Zen Box is a cleaner, simpler way to collect emails with a popup.
It looks great, works great, and stays out of the way of your site visitors.
Integrate your email provider, choose where to show it, customize the colors, and publish. Done!
No complex settings or 3rd party SaaS dependencies.
Features
- Customize the text, image, and colors
- Choose where it displays – posts, pages, taxonomies, etc.
- Integrate your email provider: MailChimp, ConvertKit, MailPoet 3, Drip, Active Campaign, or send to your email address
Why Popup Zen?
Popup Zen is clean, fast, and simple. It’s also non-intrusive.
Obnoxious popups may have a good opt-in rate, but they could be damaging your brand. Popup Zen is a new way to get high quality leads without pissing off your site visitors.
- Simply collect emails
- Minimalist design, easy to use
- Ultra-lightweight codebase
We built Popup Zen because we just couldn’t bring ourselves to put that horrible popup in front of our site visitors. We wanted something that represented our brand better.
Instead of damaging your brand just to get a higher opt-in rate, Popup Zen believes in building trust.
Popup Zen gets high-quality leads by asking permission before displaying a popup. This builds trust with your site visitors, and keeps your brand image intact.
What it won’t do
- Create obnoxious spinning and shaking animations
- Choose from 100 different designs
- Create insanely complex rules for how to display it
- Block the screen without permission
Learn more at getpopupzen.com
Developers can contribute on Github
Installation
Install and activate this plugin.
Visit Popup Zen => Settings, and add the API key for your chosen email provider (if necessary). Some providers only require that you have their plugin installed, such as Drip or MailPoet 3.
Next, visit the Popup Zen menu item, and add a new item.
Options
Choose to display your item at the bottom right or bottom left of your website.
Next, choose Zen Box or Popup. This is what your opt-in will look like when someone chooses to open it. The Zen Box is the default, it’s a small vertical box. If you choose Popup, it will show a screen blocking popup, but only after the user clicks to show it.
Customize
Choose your colors, text content, and image. Save as a draft and then click the Preview button to see what it looks like. You can also click “View on site” to preview the popup on your site.
Email Integrations
Choose an email provider.
You must have an API key saved in the Popup Zen settings for MailChimp or Active Campaign.
For Drip, MailPoet 3, and others you must have the plugin installed.
Note, we do not support MailPoet 1 or 2, only version 3.
Display Settings
- Pages: choose all pages, or select certain pages and begin typing a page title. It will automatically populate a drop down list, simply click the page title or enter page titles comma separated like this: Home, Features, Pricing
- New or returning: show to only new visitors (since you activated the plugin), or returning visitors. Tracked with the hwp_visit cookie.
- When should we show: after the page loads, show immediately, with a delay, or based on user scroll.
- When should it disappear: if you want the notification to show briefly and then disappear automatically, enter a delay here.
- How often show we show it: a visitor will be shown your message, then you can choose to continue showing it, or hide it based on number of days or user interaction. Interaction is either submitting an email, or clicking a link with a class of hwp-interaction.
- Show on devices: choose mobile, desktop, or both.
Screenshots
For developers
Is this your plugin? Show off the numbers.
Add a live badge to your site, docs or GitHub README. It updates on its own — no account needed.
Best Popup Zen alternatives
All email opt in plugins →
FAQ
Popup Zen: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 9, 2026
Is Popup Zen free?
Yes. Popup Zen is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Popup Zen safe to use in 2026?
Popup Zen shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites, is rated 4.9/5 and was last updated 7 years ago, and scores 35/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Popup Zen?
Popup Zen is active on 10+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 2,278 times since it launched in March 2019. It was downloaded 78 times in the last 30 days.
Does Popup Zen work with WordPress 7.1?
Popup Zen is officially tested up to WordPress 5.2.29, while the latest release is 7.1.3. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
When was Popup Zen last updated?
The latest version, 0.0.3, was released on May 30, 2019 (7 years ago).
Who makes Popup Zen?
Popup Zen is developed and maintained by Scott Bolinger.
What are the best alternatives to Popup Zen?
The most popular alternatives to Popup Zen are Instant Popup Builder (100+ installs), WP Tactical Popup (50+ installs) and Gated Downloads (30+ installs).
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