Today we’ll explore one of the many tools that could boost your Shopify stores’ sales – Mega Menus. But what is mega menu? Mega menu is essentially a tool that allows you to create tabs, drop downs or any other forms of menus on your web stores. This menu will display all of your products and collections, allowing customers to easily navigate through your store.
This is the reason why mega menus will have direct impact on a business’s revenue. They act as a map to guide potential customers to their destination – or product pages in this case. Keep in mind that the majority of customers will exit a website if they fail to find what they came for in the first 10 seconds.
In this article, we’ll try to better your understanding of the benefits of Mega menus, as well as the available options on the Shopify App Store. We’ll do so by analyzing the Top 3 most popular Mega Menu Apps on the platform.
Table of Contents
Top 3 Most popular Shopify Mega Menu Apps
Buddha Mega Menu by Zero Carbon SRL
The Buddha Mega Menu app by Zero Carbon SRL is the most popular Mega Menu app on the platform, with a total of 880 reviews. The app operates on the basis of simplicity, allowing its users to create any menus or sub-menus of their choosing. This attribute is also contributed by the instruction videos to guide users through the app usage.
Pros
- Create any menu you’d like, with a few simple selections
- Provides a contact menu (only in the paid version)
- Provides a countdown feature to boost sales
- Intuitive and easy to use, with the help of instruction videos
- Compatible with all Shopify themes
Cons
- Does not allow users to edit the Menus or sub-menus’ style
- Does not provide text alignment
- Only the Tree menus are available in the Free version.
Customer Reviews
Rating: 4.8/5 – 880 reviews (as of June 2020)
Al-Rashad Inc says: Not only is this app great for menus, but the customer service when you have something that needs fixing is top notch. Even though I am on the free plan the representative got a developer to help me in my situation and fixed in promptly with clear communications. Definitely recommend! (Overall rating: 5/5).
Market Spare Jewelers says: This app is great for simplifying Shopify’s drop down menu and categories, but if you are looking for customization (type of font, additional options for drop down, size of widgets, ability to create sub categories within the simple drop down menu, etc), then this may not be the best choice. The app is awesome for someone who wants to simplify and visualize their drop down menu. I would love to have Buddha apps offer further customization – even if it is for an additional fee. (Overall rating: 3/5).
Pricing
- Free: Tree sub-menu, up to 3 levels
- $4.95/month: Tree, Simple & Tabbed sub-menus
- $9.95: All sub-menus, Countdown, Contact form
All paid plans offer a 14-day free trial.
Mega Menu by Globo
The Globo Mega Menu app by Globo is a user-friendly, highly customizable, fully responsive Mega Menu for Shopify. The app prides itself in its rich features and simple user navigation, without much burden on the bank. The app does not have as many reviews as Buddha Mega Menu, but what it can offer is cheaper prices & strong customer support (Live chat during work hours).
Pros
- Strong customizability, with options to edit colors, images, fonts, etc.
- Provides many template options, from Tree (dropdown), Mega, Tabs & 1 special menu
- Provides badges, text alignment, contact form & Google Maps
- Allows users to see both mobile and desktop version while editing
Cons
- Branding in Free version
- The majority of features are only available in the most expensive plan
Customer Reviews
Rating: 4.8/5 – 328 reviews (as of June 2020)
OddGoods says: Terrific app with an amazing amount of customization options. Zero issue integrating it with my site, although it did take a little CSS wizardry on my part to get it to fit where the nav sits in my theme. My only complaint, and it’s not unwarranted, is that unlike the basic Shopify nav, Globo Nav cannot create a nav item/collection filtered with a tag. It can only display full collections, which means that it is necessary to create a specific collection for every friggin’ “subcategory” in order to fake a filter for the nav. So, instead of pulling three nav items like Men, Women, Teens from a single T-shirt Collection with tags, you have to create one collection for each: Men’s tees, Women’s tees, Teens tees. Multiply that out by garment type … holy moly. That being said, it’s still one of the best, if not the best, replacement nav in the app store … and it’s free. Just have to deal with the one rather big negative. Plan your nav strategy well. (Overall rating: 4/5)
Pricing
- Free: Limit of 3 published mega menus, unlimited drop-down menu
- $4.90/month: Unlimited published mega menus, remove watermark
- $8.90/month: Provide tabs menu, Badge, Import & export
Smart Menu – Free Mega Menu App by gikify
With the lowest prices among these 3 apps, Smart Menu – Free Mega Menu by Qikify stands tall as the option that can provide the most value to customers. The Free plan allows users to create an unlimited number of menu items, with various customization options. Moreover, it is the best Free plan among these 3 apps, making Smart Menu a very good option for beginners.
Pros
- Provides many template options, from tree (simple), mega to tabs. All these templates are shown with clear examples.
- Provides text alignment & prices comparison
- Options to hide headers or sub-headers on mobile and/or desktop version
- Allows users to adjust column width in any sub-heading and allows them to open link in a new tab
Cons
- Watermark in the free version
- Not compatible with all Shopify themes (Narrative & Pop)
- Tab menus only available in the paid plans
Customer reviews
Rating: 4.9/5 – 277 reviews (as of June 2020)
Klyki Store says: The app, even in the free to use solution, is well designed and provide a valuable alternative to standard menu design (that in Shopify is quite terrible). Unfortunately, the app doesn’t work well with all templates and particularly with Galleria it works only under certain conditions. As such, I would suggest everyone interested to verify in advance the compatibility with the template used in your shop. (Overall rating: 4/5).
OddGoods says: Overall, Smart Menu boasts the cleanest design, cleanest interface, and most technical flexibility of the mega menus I’ve tested. This menu’s killer feature is ability to create text link lists using collection tags—This feature alone is worth the subscription. There are a couple wish-list features I’d love to see added to improve this menu: 1) adding the ability to pull in recent blog articles and 2) adding the option to create lists from collections in order to make the process of creating and managing “Best Sellers” or “Editor’s Choice” type link lists significantly more efficient. Nonetheless, highly recommended if you find Shopify’s default navigation severely lacking and you are frustrated with the difficulty of competing mega menu apps. (Overall rating: 5/5).
Pricing
- Free: All basic features
- $3.99/month: Remove watermark and allow for Menu Animation
- $7.99/month: Add badge, tabs menu, contact form, Google Maps, Masonry Grid & Custom HTML
All paid plans offer a 7-day free trial.
Final words
We’ve carefully identified and analyzed the Top 3 Most popular Shopify Mega Menus Apps, with direct focus on their strengths, weaknesses, reviews & pricing. We believe that any of these apps will be able to bring you a great user experience, and help you create the perfect menus for your stores.
However, if we were to recommend one of these options based on features, cost or overall value, we must suggest you try Smart Menu – Free Mega Menu App by Qikify. It is the most well-rounded option, with cheaper prices, more features and customizability.
With that being said, none of these apps we analyzed is perfect. They all have their own flaws and weaknesses that need improving. Moreover, if you were to have a distinct need that is unique to your own business (which is very likely), these apps might not be able to satisfy you. If that’s the case, we suggest you look into Custom Apps – apps developed specifically for you. We’ve crafted this article about the benefits of custom apps, do check it out!
