What is the difference between Popupsmart and OptinMonster?
Popupsmart and OptinMonster are both no-code popup builders that run on any website from one script, with a WordPress plugin and Shopify support. OptinMonster bills on campaign impressions, has no free plan and unlocks features plan by plan: exit intent and traffic-source targeting from its Pro plan, location and new-visitor targeting on Growth. It also has more campaign formats, among them inline and sidebar forms, content lockers and follow-up campaigns. Popupsmart bills on pageviews, has a free plan for 5,000 pageviews a month, and puts every targeting rule, campaign type and integration on every plan; its plans differ by traffic, websites, analytics and A/B testing.
Is OptinMonster cheaper than Popupsmart?
In the first year on annual billing, OptinMonster is often cheaper than Popupsmart; on monthly billing, and from the second year, it isn't. OptinMonster's smallest plan is $21 a month for 2,500 campaign impressions, or $7 a month for the first year billed annually and $17.50 after; Popupsmart's smallest paid plan is $39 a month, $32.50 billed annually, for 50,000 pageviews. Sized the way OptinMonster's pricing FAQ advises, with 20% more impressions than pageviews, a site with 20,000 pageviews needs Pro: $87 a month, or $29 for the first year and $72.50 after, against Popupsmart's $39 ($32.50 billed annually). At 50,000 pageviews it needs Growth: $147 a month, or $49 and then $122.50, against $39. These are the prices both pricing pages showed on 26 Sep 2026.
Does OptinMonster have a free plan?
No, OptinMonster has no free plan. It offers a 14-day money-back guarantee instead: a full refund if you don't see a positive return in the first 14 days. Popupsmart has a free plan for 5,000 pageviews a month with every campaign type, targeting rule and integration, one popup live at a time and Popupsmart branding.
What is an OptinMonster campaign impression, and how many do I need?
OptinMonster counts an impression each time a visitor sees one of its campaigns and bills by the number a month; Popupsmart counts pageviews on your site. OptinMonster's pricing FAQ recommends "a plan with 20-30% more impressions than you have website pageviews". How many you use depends on how many campaigns you run and where they show: across Popupsmart's 2026 benchmark, 28,674 campaigns recorded 499.6 million popup displays on 1.98 billion page views. If you go over, OptinMonster moves you up to the next plan, and above Growth's 100,000 impressions to a custom plan.
Which OptinMonster plan includes exit intent?
OptinMonster includes exit intent on Pro and Growth: $87 and $147 a month, or $29 and $49 a month for the first year billed annually. Basic and Plus don't include it. On Popupsmart, exit intent is on every plan, including the free one, along with inactivity, scroll, time on page, traffic source, location and new-or-returning targeting.
Does exit intent improve popup conversion?
Not reliably, in Popupsmart's data. In its 2026 benchmark, 28,674 campaigns from January 2024 to September 2026, popups on the most sensitive exit-intent setting converted 1.10% vs 0.78% without exit intent (median campaign), a gap that could be chance. Who sees a popup showed clearer differences: popups targeted at new visitors only converted 1.13% vs 0.77% for popups shown to everyone, and visitors arriving from an email or SMS campaign converted at 1.81% vs 0.74% for visitors from organic search. The benchmark measured Popupsmart popups, not OptinMonster's.
Which one has more integrations?
OptinMonster. Its integrations list has 35 email, CRM and automation tools, against the 19 destinations in Popupsmart's help center. Both connect to Mailchimp, Klaviyo, HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, MailerLite, Brevo, Customer.io, Drip, EmailOctopus, Ontraport, Sendloop, Zapier, webhooks and Google Analytics. Only Popupsmart lists Salesforce, SendGrid, Sendy, Make and Meta Pixel; only OptinMonster lists AWeber, ConvertKit, GetResponse, Omnisend, Constant Contact, Keap and 16 more. The plan matters too: on OptinMonster, HubSpot, Klaviyo, Zapier, webhooks and Google Analytics start on Pro; on Popupsmart every integration is on every plan.
Which one has more campaign types?
OptinMonster has more ways to place a form: lightbox popups, floating bars, fullscreen welcome mats, slide-ins, inline and sidebar forms inside your pages, content lockers, coupon wheels and countdown timers, plus follow-up campaigns that react to an earlier one. Popupsmart has popups, floating bars, fullscreen and side popups, spin-to-win and other gamified popups, countdown timers and multi-step forms, and campaign types OptinMonster doesn't list: cookie consent, click-to-call and an autoresponder email. Popupsmart has no inline forms or content lockers.
Which one is better for WordPress?
Popupsmart and OptinMonster both install on WordPress through a plugin and build campaigns in their own web app. OptinMonster suits a blog that wants forms inside its posts: inline forms, sidebar forms and content lockers. Popupsmart's campaigns show as popups, bars and fullscreen views, and all of its targeting is on the free plan, where OptinMonster's starts on paid plans and grows with them.
Which one is better for a Shopify store?
On Shopify, Popupsmart targets by cart value, cart contents, purchase history and customer tags, creates a unique Shopify discount code for each visitor, can show products from a product feed, and reports the revenue its popups drive. OptinMonster lists Shopify among its integrations; its cart targeting and store integrations come with the Growth plan ($147 a month), coupon wheels too, and it measures revenue per campaign from Pro.
How do G2 reviewers rate Popupsmart and OptinMonster?
On 26 Sep 2026, OptinMonster was rated 4.3 from 108 reviews and Popupsmart 4.5 from 141. Both sets praise ease of use first. OptinMonster's reviewers then credit the leads and sales it brings and its support, and complain most about a learning curve and missing features; Popupsmart's praise setup without developers and complain most about design limits and missing features. Most of OptinMonster's reviews were written between 2019 and 2023, and G2 labels about two in three organic; most of Popupsmart's came through its own invitations.
Can my own AI agent build campaigns in Popupsmart or OptinMonster?
In Popupsmart, yes. Its MCP server and CLI give an AI agent everything the app does: it generates the popup from a template, sets the targeting and triggers, connects your email tool and publishes, in under a minute, on every plan, the free one included. Inside the app, the Popupsmart AI agent does the same from a chat, on every plan. OptinMonster's pages list no MCP server or CLI, and we found no public API documentation for creating campaigns. Its AI, Smart Optimizations, suggests copy for a campaign you build yourself.
Can I switch from OptinMonster to Popupsmart?
Yes, you can switch from OptinMonster to Popupsmart. Popupsmart installs with one line of JavaScript on any website, or through its Shopify app or WordPress plugin. Rebuild your best campaign on the free plan first and upgrade once it converts. Connect the same email tool in Popupsmart, and new leads go to the list your OptinMonster campaigns fed.
Which one should I choose?
Choose OptinMonster if you need forms inside your pages, content lockers or follow-up campaigns, if you manage client sites and want sub-accounts, or if your site is small and its first-year price decides it. Choose Popupsmart if you want exit intent, location, traffic-source and new-visitor targeting and every integration on every plan, a free plan to start on and a lower price from the second year, cookie consent, click-to-call and an autoresponder email, or your own AI agent to build and publish campaigns over MCP or the CLI.
Popupsmart
