88% of online users are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience. You know well, what you should do in order to avoid bad UX mistakes. After all, we keep writing about practices you may use when doing online business.
One of the interesting writing on this subject is a cycle of articles about special custom modules for your website. In particular, we keep gathering the information to show all available Magento 2 extensions specific to certain functionality in one place.
Thanks to these posts, it assures you to see a solution what you are looking for a whole lot easier. Today let's talk navigation menu. This is the website element crucial for user experience. And, yes, it does cost your conversion.
First, let’s see what navigation menu Magento 2 offers by default.
Magento 2 navigation menu
We see a drop-down menu right under the top navigation category, a simple collection of links for different categories of products, and the pretty organized block of subcategories which contains a total of 10-12 top-level categories.
But honestly, is that enough to attract more customers to your store? We believe the navigation menu should be a kind of inspiring call to action element.
So, what is expected of really engageable navigation menus?
- designed for sites with hundreds of pages and complex structure
- the display of the available store categories as much as possible right in the menu
- the display of promotions, visual branding elements, and banner within the menu
- the user-friendly website navigation both on the desktop, tablet, and mobile
- the customizable menu with a unique look on different themes
- using of labels with icons for quick and relevant search
Now let's check the Magento 2 navigation extensions with advanced custom functionality. Continue to read if you don’t feel yourself experience enough to create your own navigation menu.
13 Magento 2 custom menu modules
Let’s begin with free navigation menu tools for Magento 2.
Mega Menu by BSScommerce
The module Mega menu supports adding a custom link or category link to created sub-items. The extension provides 3 types of sub-menu: classic, category listing, and content, which can be arranged in 3 sub-menu levels. In case you choose a content type, the module allows you to arrange new blocks in 5 positions under the sub level. With a module, you can also customize Menu URL and highlight category name with Hot, New, Sale labels.
Paid installation - 50$.
Easy Mega Menu by IBNAB
The Easy Mega Menu extension allows creating a horizontal menu with custom category labels. The developers also say it is possible to add a dynamic or static HTML content to the navigation menu block. Among other features of the module, you can see the drop-down menu with a hover item option, as well as responsive design for any type of navigation menu.
Installation fee is available upon request.
The next and some of the following modules focus only on creating a mega menu. They will come in handy if you have a store with a huge number of product catalogs. If you are not a fan of the mega menu solution, pay attention to the extension with a set of advanced menus at the end of the post.
Magento 2 Mega Menu by Weltpixel
This module supports the display of CMS blocks or HTML content in the submenu. The module has a Mobile Menu configurable breakpoint or in other words the ability to set a screen resolution where the mobile menu kicks in. When it comes to other features, you can see the option to add custom links in the Mega Menu, the availability of different display modes for each category, a configurable number of columns in the dropdown menu, and a configurable CMS Block position. The extension also provides the ability to overwrite category links with other internal or external links.
Paid installation. Total cost 99$.
Mega Menu by Magedelight
Using a Mega menu module you will easily show images and videos in the navigation menu. Moreover, you can apply a visually appealing animations effect. The extension includes different design types such as horizontal, vertical, drill down. It supports adding static blocks, external links, categories or pages as menu items. Please note, the module includes the advanced settings to customize a menu look.
Paid installation. Total cost 179$.
Mega menu by CMSmart
Mega menu extension allows building both horizontal and vertical menus for your Magento 2 site. With a module, you can arrange the position of menu items, configure the color settings for each navigation menu element, and add labels in product listing menu.
Paid installation. Total cost 106.85$.
Mega Menu by Land of coder
The following mega menu solution offers to use a drag and drop menu builder to help you save time and effort in creating improved Magento 2 navigation menu. As the one more good usability element is a mega menu structure preview feature. The extension provides up to 7 submenu types, multiple animation effects, RTL support, and 3 mobile menu types: Off-canvas mega menu, Accordion Menu, Drilldown menu. The developers promise you can also use a custom menu for mobile.
Paid installation. Total cost 45$.
Mega Menu Pro by Rootways
Mega menu Pro module enables adding icons and labels to the categories. You are also allowed to add custom links to the mega menu and add the dropdown with custom content for the custom link. You can also show sub-categories in full width and add featured content on the left side of the sub-categories. The extension supports delay dropdown hover feature and categorization in up to 4 levels.
Paid installation. Total cost 79$.
Mega Menu by CMSideas
Magento 2 Mega Menu solution by CMSideas is a rather new module. The developers allow you to use a custom design for navigation block. The extension also supports adding HTML content to your navigation menu.
Paid installation. Total cost 59$.
Mega Menu by Magezon
With the next mega menu extension, you will generate unlimited multi-level navigation menus. The module allows you to show a menu in horizontal, vertical or accordion style. Via drag and drop feature you will easily add the columns and rows. The extension supports 7 elements to improve website navigation like anchor links, container, image, heading, HTML, etc. The advanced Design Options tab will help you easily stylish the navigation menu.
Free installation. Total cost 99$.
Mega Menu by Uber
UB Mega Menu module allows adding either horizontal and vertical menus. The module includes the visual and friendly user and innovative backend interface as Drag & Drop. The extension supports 3 menu types like Custom Link, CMS Page, and Categories. Among other features, you can see 605 icons available in Fontawesome 4.5.0, and 13 types of animation effects.
Paid installation. Total cost 139$.
Magento 2 navigation menu by Magenest
Visual mega menu builder supports adding pages, categories, links and texts into the navigation menu. It also allows you to organize a better look of a menu by changing the display information, location, and style of the menu items.
Paid installation. Total cost 149$.
Responsive navigation menu by Mageants
The second-to-last Magento 2 menu extension in our list allows adding a promotional static block to the menu. You can apply a static block for promotion at any place of the menu bar. In order to help you highlight the navigation menu items, the extension provides easy to set all style changes like text color, background, and font size.
Paid installation. Total cost 49$.
More than a simple Magento 2 navigation extension
Now the module we talked about earlier. The feature-rich admin panel of this extension will help you get the most out of the Magento navigation menu. The module is not a provider of the mega menu only, but a whole set of navigation menu elements that help you to build user-friendly navigation through your Magento 2 website.
Navigation Pro by SwissUpLabs
The Navigation Pro module is about creating up to 14 navigation menu. Whatever you use when doing e-commerce the laptop, tablet or smartphone, with the extension you will pick up the menu type mostly matching user demands. The module supports adding:
- Menu with simple and complex dropdown contents
- Mega menu
- Amazon Menu (top and sidebar)
- Stacked Dropdowns
- Iconic Menu (top and drop down)
- Ribbon Menu
- Apple Menu
- Link Bar on Mobile devices
- Easy Catalog Images menu with category images
- Sidebar menu
- Single row menu
- Sticky menu
Among other features, you can see the overlay for the dropdown, the advanced widget functionality, the category labels, a variety of themes for the top navigation block, and the opportunity to implement different UI elements within an extension.
Free installation. Total cost 79$ with unlimited access to 70+ extensions and templates for M1 & M2.
Conclusion
The best website navigation is what has a great impact on user experience. It is thus all the more important that we listed so many navigation menu solutions today.
We may have missed an extension at the marketplace. Let us know about it in the comments, please.
