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Sticky Menu & Sticky Header

By WebFactory

Design & Themes / Themes & Templates

Reviewed by Omar Dabbas

Trusted WordPress expert with 20+ years of experience evaluating plugins for the WP ecosystem.

Sticky Menu & Sticky Header Review - In-Depth Analysis

Sticky Menu or Sticky Header allows you to stick elements at the top of the screen when scrolling. Create floating menus or fixed widgets easily.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

6.87/10

User Rating

4.7/5 (based on 763+ reviews)

Active Installations

90,000+

Update Frequency

Below Average It is calculated using the weighted average of same category plugins.

Security Score

3 / 10 (Low Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

The Sticky Menu or Sticky Header On Scroll plugin allows you to make any element on your pages sticky as soon as it hits the top of the page when you scroll down. Although this is commonly used to keep menus at the top of your page to create floating menus, the plugin allows you to make any element sticky. You can create a sticky header, sticky menu, sticky widget, sticky logo, or a floating menu.

To make an element sticky, you just need to pick the right selector for the element you want to make sticky. It must be a unique selector. Sometimes a simple selector like 'nav', '#main-menu', or '.menu-main-menu-1' is enough. Other times, you may need to use a more specific selector.

Features include the ability to stick any element, set positioning from the top, enable stickiness for certain screen sizes, and select specific pages where the element should be sticky. You can also manage Z-index and use Debug Mode to troubleshoot issues.

Comparing to Alternatives

Sticky Menu & Sticky Header is a popular plugin with several alternatives available that offer similar sticky menu and header functionalities.

Top alternatives

Strengths

High user rating with 89% five-star reviews.
Works well on desktop and ClassicPress environments.
Simple and effective sticky menu and header functionality.
Good compatibility with many themes and setups.
Offers a pro version with additional features.

Weaknesses

Known issue with Astra hamburger menu on iPhone devices.
Some users report bugs preventing use in multiple projects.
Limited multilingual support and occasional plugin conflicts.
Has had a low-severity security vulnerability in the past, though fixed.

User Sentiment Analysis

The plugin enjoys overwhelmingly positive feedback with 94% of ratings being 4 stars or higher, indicating strong user satisfaction overall.

Positive highlights

'Great plugin' - zsoundproaudio
'Works Great on the Newest ClassicPress' - Sparkey
'Simply works' - stefanruckh1965
'Muy profesional. Gracias' - cesarlopez
'Very Useful & Practical' - rknight09

Common complaints

Does not work with Astra hamburger menu on iPhone devices.

Weaknesses

Issues with mobile menu compatibility.
Some bugs affecting deployment on multiple projects.
Limited language support.
Past security vulnerability (CSRF & XSS) fixed in version 2.21.

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Users seeking a reliable and straightforward sticky menu or header solution for desktop and ClassicPress sites, especially those who want a plugin with a strong track record and pro upgrade options.

Not ideal for

Users who rely heavily on Astra theme's mobile hamburger menu or need extensive multilingual support may find this plugin less suitable due to compatibility issues and limited language options.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version provides essential sticky menu and header features that satisfy most users' needs effectively.

Pro version (39 - 99 USD / year)

The pro version offers enhanced features and additional customization options beyond the free plugin capabilities.

Final Verdict

Sticky Menu & Sticky Header is a highly rated plugin that delivers dependable sticky menu and header functionality with a simple setup and strong user satisfaction. It supports ClassicPress and many themes well, making it a solid choice for most users.

However, it has some limitations, including a known issue with Astra's mobile hamburger menu and limited multilingual support. The plugin had a minor security vulnerability in the past, now fixed, so users should keep it updated. Overall, it offers good value, especially with its pro version for advanced needs.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Sticky Menu & Sticky Header plugin.

Sticky Menu

Sticky Header

Floating Menu

Screenshots

FAQ

Sure, WP Sticky PRO has that option. You can make as many elements sticky as you like and configure settings individually for each element.

This mode is only available in Legacy Mode, and to properly explain this, we’ll need to go a little deeper in the plugin’s functionality. So bear with me…

In Legacy Mode, when an element becomes sticky at the top of the page (and keeps its place regardless of the scrolling), it’s actually not the element itself you see, but a cloned copy of it, while the actual original element is out of view and invisible.

The original element always stays where it originally is on the page, while the cloned element is always at the top of the browser viewport screen. However, you will never see them both at the same time; depending on your scroll position, it always just shows either one or the other.

In the original plugin version, the clone would be created right the moment when you load the page (but not visible right away). Then when you would scroll down, it would become visible (and stick at the top), while the original element would disappear from view.

However, some themes use JavaScript to dynamically create elements (menus, mostly) for mobile sites. With this method, a menu doesn’t exist in the HTML source code when you load the page, but is created some time after the page is fully loaded — in many cases, these menus would just be generated ONLY when the screen is more (or less) than a certain specific width. With the original version of the plugin, the problem would be that the original element (that you want to make sticky) may not have been fully created upon page load, so the clone would also not be fully functional.

Enter Dynamic Mode. Now, a clone of the element is not created on page load — instead, it’s only created when the user scrolls and hits the “sticky” point. This ensures that the cloned element is an actual 1-on-1 copy of what the original element consists of at that specific point in time (and not at the “page is loaded” point, which may be different if the element was altered since).

Why don’t we use Dynamic Mode all the time then? This has to do with the fact that other plugins initialize themselves on page load and may need the full markup (including the cloned element) at that point. In Dynamic Mode, there is no clone available yet on page load, so that could cause an issue if that other plugin is looking for an element that doesn’t exist yet.

(This may all sound terribly confusing. And it is! So, much work was done to fix this nonsense: since v2.0 of the plugin, a whole different method is being used to make elements sticky, and Dynamic Mode is not even an issue anymore.)

Phew!