Are you looking for an easy way to add a notification bar with a countdown timer on your website to grab the visitors’ attention? If yes, then a good WordPress notification bar plugin is all you need.
While running a limited-time sale, creating scarcity will help you improve the conversion rates. By default, when a store runs a limited-time deal, they send a newsletter to their existing customers, and that’s it. If you have a popular WooCommerce store, you might get hundreds or thousands of website visitors daily.
These people come with only one aim – to purchase something from your store. But in some cases, they will add the product to the cart and leave without completing the purchase – known as cart abandonment.
If you want the best strategy to reduce cart abandonment, creating scarcity to generate more sales will be up there!
You can do this with a dedicated WordPress notification bar plugin with a countdown timer.
This article will show you the best WordPress notification bar plugins. But first, let’s learn what a notification bar plugin is, why you need it, and factors to consider before choosing one.
What Are WordPress Notification Bar Plugins, and Why Use Them
A WordPress notification bar plugin allows you to set up non-intrusive notification bars on your website in a few clicks. You can utilize these bars for alerting visitors about exciting offers and events on your website.
The best WordPress notification bar plugins ensure that your notification bars sit perfectly on the web pages without interrupting the user experience on your site. They even let you add dynamic elements like call-to-action buttons and countdown timers to boost conversions.
You’ll find well-equipped notification plugins that let you integrate two types of countdown timers that work differently. First is the static countdown timer that counts down to a fixed time for every visitor. It is used mainly for promoting upcoming events, festive sales, and website launches.
The other one is called the evergreen timer or the dynamic countdown timer. It is specific to each visitor and starts the countdown after they land on your site. You can use this to create a sense of urgency and encourage users to snatch the best deals and offers on your site before they expire.
What to Look for In a WordPress Countdown Timer Plugin?
Before choosing a WordPress countdown timer plugin for your website, you must consider these crucial factors:
- Ease of use: All types of website owners who aren’t tech-savvy should also be able to set up the plugin and utilize its functionalities.
- Customization: Look for a plugin that offers various countdown timer templates, animation effects, and call-to-action buttons.
- Targeting and cookie settings: A good notification bar plugin allows you to customize the message for different sections of your website and provides cookie functionality to remember the user preferences on their last visit. These settings help you enhance user experience further.
- Newsletter integration: If you want to add notification bars to build your email list, you’ll need a plugin that integrates smoothly with popular email marketing services.
- Responsive design: Ensures the notification bars are responsive and display well on different devices such as desktops, mobile, and tablets.
- Good customer support: The plugin should provide reliable customer support that helps fix customer issues and queries. Ultimately, this can save users a lot of time and money.
Now that you know what factors to consider, let’s move towards our detailed list of the top 7 WordPress Countdown timer plugins.
Best 7 WordPress Countdown Timer Plugins
We’ve handpicked the best WordPress countdown timer plugins to increase conversion rates on your website. They are:
- Thrive Ultimatum
- Countdown Timer Ultimate
- OptinMonster
- Countdown, Coming Soon, Maintenance
- HurryTimer
- Ultimate Blocks
- Countdown and CountUp, WooCommerce Sales Timer
Each plugin in this list provides different features that make them unique. Based on your requirements and preferences, you can choose an option.
Now, we’ll explore each of these WordPress countdown timer plugins and what they offer.
1. Thrive Ultimatum
Thrive Ultimatum is undoubtedly one of the best countdown timer plugins for WordPress. It allows you to create eye-catching notification bars with countdown timers to create scarcity and engage users to take action on your site.
The plugin has a collection of countdown timer designs that help you get started in no time. With its easy drag-and-drop builder, you can customize these designs by adding images, changing the color scheme, and editing the text on the timer labels.
You can create notification banners with both fixed and evergreen countdown campaigns. You also get a recurring campaign option that automatically starts, stops, and repeats the countdown timers for you. Additionally, you can automate updating the countdown campaign design and message as you wish.
Features
- Unlimited and multiple campaigns across your entire website
- Custom behavior after the expiry time
- Displays countdown campaigns in any time zone and language
- 100% mobile responsive campaign designs
- Round-the-clock customer support team
Pricing
Thrive Ultimatum has two pricing plans: the Thrive Ultimatum plan for $199/year and the Thrive Site plan for $599/year.
2. Countdown Timer Ultimate
Countdown Timer Ultimate is a simple WordPress countdown timer plugin with many customization options. It lets you create circle countdown timers and easily add them to your site using shortcodes or widgets.
The free version lets you set up a scheduled countdown timer between two fixed dates for upcoming events. With the pro version, you can embed countdowns with your digital coupons to promote end-of-sale offers and make the customers believe they are running out of time.
Amazingly, the plugin gives you 13 countdown styles with appealing and responsive designs to get started. It also has a built-in editor to help you change the countdown circle size, expiry date, background, and animation.
Features
- Edit the countdown timer label and message
- Unlimited countdown timers
- Works with Gutenberg shortcode block
- Fully responsive design
- Compatible with site builders like Elementor, SiteOrigin, Divi, and more
Example:
Pricing
Countdown Timer Ultimate is a freemium plugin. The free version is available for download on the WordPress repository. The pro version is available on their official website at $159/year.
3. OptinMonster
One of the popular WordPress countdown timer plugins is OptinMonster. It lets you add static and dynamic countdown timers on floating bars to generate more leads. You can also create popup campaigns to alert the visitors.
However, the countdown timer option is only available for users on the pro plan or higher. These premium users can access exclusive features such as cookie targeting, exit-intent technology, device targeting, and more.
Furthermore, you can run unlimited countdown timer campaigns and display them on the top or the bottom of your web pages. The plugin also allows you to automatically display your campaigns based on the current date, time, day, or month. You can use this to showcase your Black Friday sale offers, festive deals, and discount codes.
Features
- Option to display countdown timer notification to specific visitors
- Drag-and-drop builder to customize the countdown timer designs
- Pre-made templates fit for every occasion
- Dedicated support team
- Email marketing integration
Pricing
OptinMonster is a premium WordPress plugin. The pricing plans start at $9/year for the Basic plan.
4. Countdown, Coming Soon, Maintenance
If you want a free countdown timer plugin that is easy to set up and use, then Countdown, Coming Soon, Maintenance is the best solution. It is a simple plugin that allows you to create attractive and functional countdown timers within minutes. You can display these timers on your posts and pages via shortcodes.
This plugin gives you all the essential tools for customizing your countdown notification bars to your website design. You get an easy-to-use countdown builder with settings to change the timer label, text color, circle background color, animation type, and more.
Besides this, it offers multiple timer formats such as circle countdown, flip clock countdown, and WooCommerce countdown that you can use based on the type of offers and upcoming events on your site.
Features
- Simple and responsive countdown timers
- Integrates WooCommerce coupon code
- Multiple countdown and clock templates
- Utilize countdown bars for coming soon and maintenance pages
- Email opt-in function and subscriber management
Example:
Pricing
Countdown, Coming Soon, Maintenance is a free plugin available on the WordPress repository.
5. HurryTimer
HurryTimer is a powerful WordPress countdown timer plugin that helps you create a FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) effect to drive more clicks and increase sales. You’ll need the pro version of the plugin to add your countdown timers on a sticky bar and display them across your site.
The plugin offers three countdown campaign types: One-time, Evergreen, and Recurring. You can schedule the recurring countdown timer minutely, hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly per your requirements. It even has an Auto-Restart option that restarts the countdown timer immediately after an action or at the user’s next visit.
Along with this, you get the option to integrate the plugin with WooCommerce and add conditions to display the countdown timer on a product page.
Features
- Option to expire a WooCommerce coupon code after the timer reaches 0
- Live customizer lets you change the countdown timer designs
- Tigger multiple actions when the timer expires
- Works well with all page builders
- 24/7 email and chat support
Example:
Pricing
HurryTimer has a free version that you can find in the WordPress repository. And the premium pricing plans start at $39/year for the Personal plan.
6. Ultimate Blocks
Ultimate Blocks is the best free countdown timer plugin for WordPress that lets you add stunning countdown timers to your posts and pages. Besides the Countdown Block, the plugin offers other types of blocks like the Call to Action Block, Testimonial Block, Progress Bar Block, and more.
What’s great is that you don’t need to spend a penny to add a countdown timer to your website. It’s all free. The plugin offers three beautiful countdown styles and even has the option to customize the timer however you like.
It is a perfect option for bloggers, marketers, and small business owners because of its smooth integration with the Gutenberg editor. Even with so many features and functionalities, the plugin doesn’t slow down your site or affect its performance.
Features
- User-friendly design
- Shortcodes are not required
- Add fixed date and time for countdown timers
- Optimized for speed
- The pro version comes with the coupon code option
Example:
Pricing
It is a free plugin available to download from the WordPress repository. The pro version is also available, and the pricing plans start at $49/year for a single site license.
7. Countdown and CountUp, WooCommerce Sales Timer
Countdown and Countup is the best WooCommerce timer plugin for promoting products and growing your online business. It enables you to create a countdown timer to instill a sense of urgency and get users to take action.
With this plugin, you can generate a timer showing the number of seconds, minutes, hours, days, and weeks until the expiry date and time. The free version allows you to select an action or show a message after timer expiration, change the time zone, use a translation file, and more.
The pro version gives you access to pre-designed themes, a repeating timer feature, a redirect option, and many animation effects. You can also create a count-up timer to show the time passed after a product launch, an event, or the start of a business.
Features
- Highly customizable and responsive
- Unlimited countdown timers
- Tested for compatibility with popular WordPress themes
- Supports different time zones
- Ability to use countdown timers in popup
Example:
Pricing
Countdown and Countup, WooCommerce Sales Timer is a freemium plugin. The free version is available to download on the WordPress repository. The pricing for the extended version starts at $13 for the Personal plan.
Conclusion
Above, we have discussed the top 7 WordPress countdown timer plugins in the market. Each of these plugins offers some noteworthy features or integrations. According to the needs of your website, you can pick a plugin and move forward.
To summarize, plugins like Countdown Timer Ultimate and Ultimate Blocks are beginner-friendly and offer many free features for setting up countdown timer notification bars.
If you want more than the basic options like multiple actions after expiration, email integration, and recurring timers, you can go with the Thrive Ultimatum, OptinMonster, and HurryTimer plugins.
Similarly, Countdown, Coming Soon, Maintenance, and Countdown and CountUpCountdown and CountUp are great plugins for WooCommerce businesses that want to create countdown campaigns to improve product sales.
No matter which plugin you choose from this list, you can easily set up professional-looking notification bars on your site with a countdown timer.
We’d love to hear about your experiences with these plugins. You can comment below in the comment box and suggest other countdown timer plugins we didn’t list.
