The OptinMonster team has announced big changes to the popular lead generation plugin.
Going forward, OptinMonster will be exclusively available as a stand-alone SaaS lead generation software—the OptinMonster App.
The changes mean that OptinMonster can now be used by non-WordPress users—Drupal, Joomla, Shopify, and Magento users can all install OptinMonster on their websites. (Of course, WordPress users will still be able to use OptinMonster, too.)
Current OptinMonster users should be aware that the existing WordPress plugin will remain fully supported until the end of 2015, when it will be phased out. If you want to migrate over to the OptinMonster app, you can do so, with a support team on-hand to make the transition as smooth as possible.
With ‘tens of thousands’ of users, OptinMonster is a major player in the premium plugin market, and this move will surprise many. It represents one of the first big names to move away from a dedicated WordPress solution.
In the announcement, founder Syed Balkhi confirmed that OptinMonster’s new direction was inspired by the challenges of working with self-hosted WordPress environments—‘shared hosting usage restrictions, plugin and theme conflicts, integration problems on slower hosts, scalability issues on larger sites, lack of a clear upgrade path, etc.’
By hosting the software on their own servers, OptinMonster promises to be bigger, better, and more powerful than ever before.
New Features
Of course, no major update would be complete without a new set of features, and the OptinMonster App is no different. Let’s take a brief look at some of the biggest changes.
Single Dashboard
If you run OptinMonster on several WordPress websites, you will now be able to track all of your opt-ins using a single, centralized dashboard.
Analytics
The upgrade to the OptinMonster App sees the return of detailed analytics—this feature was originally removed because of shared hosting restrictions.
With the OptinMonster App now hosted on powerful, dedicated servers, these restrictions have been lifted.
The new analytics function features tight integration with Google Analytics on top of the usual click, view, and conversion tracking.
Scroll Detection
The two words synonymous with OptinMonster: Exit intent.
Exit intent is still there, of course, but the new OptinMonster App adds a new pop-up trigger: scroll detection. This allows you to display pop-ups when a user scrolls to a pre-configured point in an article.
This means OptinMonster supports three pop-up triggers—exit intent, time delay, and scroll detection. This gives you greater control over your pop-ups.
MonsterLinks
The OptinMonster App allows you to turn any link into a pop-up trigger. This allows you to seamlessly add call-to-action triggered opt-in forms within your content.
This feature was available in earlier versions but has been improved, re-named, and made more prominent.
Final Thoughts
The new direction for OptinMonster is an interesting one, which could give us an insight into the future of the WordPress platform.
Will we see more large plugins developing cross-platform solutions? And if so, what will that mean for WordPress?
If the best WordPress plugins become available on all platforms, for me that will nullify one of WordPress’s biggest strengths—the availability of high quality, WordPress-only plugins supporting important functionality. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!
What are your thoughts on these developments? Share your thoughts in the comments space below!
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