Sumo Alternatives for Email Pop-ups and Opt-in Forms

Sumo, the list-building tool behind the old SumoMe WordPress plugin, now goes by BDOW!. Its team announced the rename on April 24, 2024, explaining that they had acquired Sumo the previous December and that The Sumo Group, which still runs AppSumo and KingSumo, kept the sumo.com domain. Existing accounts still load at sumome.com. The site footer now says BDOW! is part of the Showit family.

The WordPress plugin, now titled Website Pop-up Builder by BDOW!, was updated two weeks before November 6, 2026, has more than 10,000 active installs and is tested up to WordPress 7.1.4. So the product is alive. People still look for alternatives because of its contact caps and a rename that left many users unsure who runs it. The seven tools below all capture emails with pop-ups, bars or forms, and their prices were read on each vendor's site on November 6, 2026.

Our method is on How we review tools.

Quick comparison

OptiMonk

OptiMonk gives away more than the others here. Its pricing page lists a free plan with 10,000 pageviews a month, one domain and 1,000 AI credits, with no expiry and no card required. No plan shows OptiMonk branding on pop-ups, which is not true of most free tiers.

The paid tiers are aimed at e-commerce, and the AI credits go toward features such as generated copy and personalised messages. Essential covers two domains, Growth four and Premium ten. Yearly billing saves 25%.

Best for: Shops and content sites that want pop-ups free on one domain and room to grow.

Pricing:

• Free: $0, 10,000 pageviews a month, 1 domain
• Essential: $29 per month, or $19 per month billed yearly ($228)
• Growth: $99 per month, or $69 billed yearly ($828)
• Premium: $249 per month, or $179 billed yearly ($2,148)
• Master: custom

Watch out for:

• Campaigns pause when you hit the pageview cap, and subdomains count as separate domains.
• The plan cards and comparison table list different pageview limits for Essential (20,000 against up to 50,000), so confirm the figure before you pay.

Official site: OptiMonk.

OptinMonster

Exit-intent pop-ups, floating bars, slide-ins, full-screen welcome mats and inline forms all come from one builder in OptinMonster. It runs as a WordPress plugin or as a script on any other site.

Plans are capped by impressions rather than subscribers. The pricing page gives Basic 2,500 impressions a month on one site and Growth 100,000 across five. If you go over, campaigns keep running and you may be upgraded automatically.

Best for: WordPress publishers who want every pop-up format and targeting rule in one tool.

Pricing:

• Basic: $9 per month billed yearly ($108 first year, renews at $210)
• Plus: $27 per month ($324 first year, renews at $570)
• Pro: $37 per month ($444 first year, renews at $870)
• Growth: $67 per month ($804 first year, renews at $1,470)
• 14-day money-back guarantee

Watch out for:

• There is no free plan. The trial gives 500 impression credits and then auto-upgrades you to Plus.
• Renewals roughly double. Basic goes from $108 in year one to $210 after.

Official site: OptinMonster.

Poptin

Poptin's free plan is small but usable: 1,000 visitors a month on one domain, with unlimited pop-ups and API access. The pricing page keeps a "Powered by Poptin" credit on free pop-ups, which disappears from Basic upward.

It also sells email plans, so a small site can collect and mail subscribers without a second tool. The free email tier covers 250 active contacts and 500 emails.

Best for: Small sites and side projects that want to start free and pay only when traffic grows.

Pricing:

• Free: $0, 1,000 visitors a month, 1 domain, Poptin branding
• Basic: $240 billed yearly, 10,000 visitors, 1 domain
• Pro: $564 billed yearly, 50,000 visitors, 4 domains
• Agency: $1,140 billed yearly, 150,000 visitors, unlimited domains

Watch out for:

• Only yearly prices are shown for the pop-up plans, so the monthly-billing cost is not clear from the pricing page.
• The 1,000-visitor free cap is reached fast. A blog with a few hundred readers a day passes it in under a week.

Official site: Poptin.

Privy

Privy is built for stores. Contacts collected from its pop-ups sync to Shopify, BigCommerce or Wix, and the pricing page links setup pages for Squarespace, Weebly and WooCommerce. The paid plan bundles pop-ups with email marketing and an SMS add-on, so capture, newsletters and texts run from one account.

The email plan is priced on mailable contacts only and sends are unlimited. 250 SMS credits are included and roll over to the next billing period. A pop-ups-only plan exists for stores that already use another email tool, such as Klaviyo.

Best for: Shopify and other e-commerce stores that want capture, email and SMS in one account.

Pricing:

• Pop-ups and displays only: from $24 per month, by monthly page views
• Email: from $30 per month, by mailable contacts
• SMS: add-on with 250 credits included
• 15-day free trial, no card required

Watch out for:

• No free plan is listed on the pricing page, only the 15-day trial.
• Prices for larger contact lists are not shown, so the cost past the entry tier is hard to estimate.

Official site: Privy.

Hello Bar

The thin sticky bar at the top of a page is what Hello Bar is known for, and it still covers that plus modals, sliders and page takeovers. Every plan on its pricing page allows multiple sites, with the view limit applied per site.

The free Starter plan gives 5,000 views in total, not per month, with basic targeting and no A/B testing. Paid plans add testing and higher monthly view caps, from 50,000 on Growth to 500,000 on Elite.

Best for: Site owners who want one announcement or opt-in bar without a complex campaign builder.

Pricing:

• Starter: free, 5,000 lifetime views
• Growth: $29 to $39 per month billed yearly, 50,000 views a month
• Premium: $49 to $69 per month billed yearly, 150,000 views
• Elite: $99 to $129 per month billed yearly, 500,000 views

Watch out for:

• The plan cards and feature table on the pricing page show different prices for the same plans, so check the checkout total.
• The free plan's 5,000 views are a lifetime total, which makes it a trial rather than a free tier.

Official site: Hello Bar.

ConvertBox

ConvertBox still sells what its homepage calls an early access lifetime deal: one payment of $495, no monthly fee. That covers 10 websites, 250,000 views a month and unlimited boxes, with no ConvertBox branding.

Its strength is segmenting. Multi-step forms, quizzes with scoring and conditional logic let you ask a visitor a question first and then show a different offer based on the answer. Targeting works on behaviour, referral source, location and device.

Best for: Bloggers and course creators who want quiz-style opt-ins and hate subscriptions.

Pricing:

• Lifetime deal: $495 one-time, 10 sites, 250,000 views a month
• Struck-through regular price shown as $99 per month or $1,188 per year
• 14-day risk-free trial advertised

Watch out for:

• The homepage warns the offer may close or rise in price without notice, and a one-time deal depends on the company keeping it supported.
• A PRO plan is mentioned at checkout with no public limits or price.

Official site: ConvertBox.

MailerLite

If Sumo was only ever feeding a newsletter, a separate pop-up tool may be one subscription too many. MailerLite bundles sign-up forms into every email plan. Its pricing page lists a free plan for up to 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month, two user seats and three active forms.

The paid plans are now called Comfort and Power, replacing the older Growing Business and Advanced names. Comfort starts at $12 a month, Power at $25, and annual billing takes 10% off.

Best for: Writers and small businesses that want forms and email sending from one free account.

Pricing:

• Free: up to 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month, 3 active forms
• Comfort: from $12 per month
• Power: from $25 per month
• Annual billing saves 10%

Watch out for:

• Removing the MailerLite logo is listed for paid plans only.
• Three active forms on the free plan is tight for a site that wants a pop-up, an inline form and a footer form on different pages.

Official site: MailerLite.

How to choose

When to stay with Sumo (now BDOW!)

Your Sumo account has become BDOW! and still works at sumome.com, so there is no forced move. Pro is $19 a month billed yearly or $25 monthly for one site and 1,000 stored contacts, with native email sends included, per the BDOW! pricing page. Stay if your list is small and you use its built-in email. Move if you run several sites or expect to pass a few thousand contacts, since Pro climbs to $68 a month billed yearly at 25,000 contacts.

Frequently asked questions