Popupsmart vs Popup Maker: a hosted popup tool or a WordPress plugin

Popupsmart vs Popup Maker: who should pick which

Pick Popupsmart for a site that is not on WordPress, or to get exit intent without paying. Exit intent shows a popup when a visitor seems about to leave. Pick Popup Maker for a WordPress site that wants a free plugin with no traffic limits. Popupsmart loads on your site from one line of embed code. Popup Maker is a WordPress plugin.

Popup Maker fits a WordPress site that can work with Click Open and Auto Open, or can pay yearly for Pro. Popupsmart fits any site that takes its embed code, and a WordPress site that wants exit intent for free.

Prices: a monthly plan or a yearly Pro license

Popup Maker's core plugin is free. Pro is $99 a year for one site and Pro+ is $249 a year for one site, as read on October 23, 2026. Licenses renew yearly.

Popupsmart prices by pageviews, one count each time any page of your site loads, whether or not a popup shows. Free is $0 for 5,000 pageviews. Basic is $39 a month, billed monthly, or $32.50 a month, billed annually ($390 a year), for 50,000 pageviews.

On a yearly basis, Basic is $390 a year and Popup Maker Pro is $99 a year. They are different purchases: a plan with a pageview allowance against a license that adds triggers to a plugin.

Triggers in the free versions

Popup Maker's free plugin opens a popup with Click Open or Auto Open, or when a form is submitted. Its WordPress.org listing says the exit-intent and scroll triggers require Popup Maker Pro.

Popupsmart ticks every trigger on every plan, the free one included: after X seconds, after scroll, exit intent, inactivity, after X page visits and on click. The free plan runs one live popup at a time with Popupsmart branding, but one popup can carry several triggers and shows when the first is met. Is Popupsmart free covers the rest of the free plan.

Traffic limits and where each runs

Popup Maker runs on WordPress only, and its listing says no monthly fees and no traffic limits. Popupsmart's pageview allowance resets monthly. With auto-extend on, each extra 10,000 pageviews costs $10.

A Squarespace, Wix or Shopify site cannot use Popup Maker, because it is a WordPress plugin. On Squarespace, Popupsmart's embed code is pasted once in Code Injection, Footer, which Squarespace offers on Core, Plus, Advanced and some legacy plans.

Setting each up on WordPress

Popupsmart installs on WordPress through its free plugin, where you paste your Account Id, or through one line of embed code in the theme's footer.php. A block theme has no footer.php, so use the plugin or Google Tag Manager. The plugin's WordPress.org page carries a notice that it has not been tested with the latest three major WordPress releases.

Popup Maker's free core installs through Plugins, Add New, Install Now and Activate, as WordPress's documentation describes. The Popupsmart steps are in how to add a popup on WordPress, and best popup builder for WordPress sets more plugins side by side.