The Best WordPress Smooth Scroll Plugins
Last Updated June 12, 2023
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WordPress themes are incredible because they give you so much by default. Beautiful designs, well-thought-out navigation, and perfect typography are all built into themes so you don’t have to worry. They are one of the big reasons WordPress has become so popular. of course, not all themes have everything you might need for your project. Sometimes you want to improve the user experience of a theme by improving things like scrolling or other means of navigation. For example, adding a smooth scroll to a WordPress theme can be as simple as installing a plugin. Today, we’re going to look at some of the best WordPress smooth scroll plugins available for you to use.
Popular WordPress Smooth Scroll Plugins
All of the WordPress smooth scroll plugins in this article are available, for free, from WordPress.org right now. You can download and install them by visiting their listings on the plugin repository. We’ve provided direct links for each plugin on the list. Alternatively, you can install and activate these plugins directly inside of the WordPress admin.
Page Scroll to ID
Page Scroll to ID improves your WordPress site’s experience by eliminating the “jumping” behavior when clicking links. This plugin replaces the jarring motion with a smooth scrolling animation. Although this may seem simple, the plugin comes with advanced customization options and features for:
- Single-page sites
- Navigation
- Go to top links
With over 30 easing types, you can adjust how fast or slow the scrolling animation duration and easing are. You can choose between vertical or horizontal scrolling, and insert links and target buttons through the post visual editor.
Using ready-to-use CSS classes, you can highlight target links, and custom expressions allow you to offset scrolling by pixels. Not limited to one page, you can even control scrolling from and to different pages. This means you can have them scroll to the target id once the page loads.
Something to note is that this plugin requires jQuery version 1.7.0 or higher. You also must make sure that your theme has wp_head() and wp_footer() functions.
Plugin Details
This product was originally published by its creator in June of 2012. It is actively on version 1.7.9 and last saw a revision on July 17th, 2024. The latest version operates on WordPress 6.6.1. This plugin is presently working on over 100,000 WordPress sites. It has had over 1,748,230 downloads. There have been 6 support requests with a 50% response rate. Page scroll to id has below average support from its owner. Reviews for Page scroll to id are very positive. Many of the end-users who left a piece of feedback found Page scroll to id to be useful.
Security Issues and Vulnerabilities
There has been one recorded security or vulnerability issue with Page Scroll to ID. The security problem was fixed and here are the details.
| Date | Description | Fixed? |
|---|---|---|
| 12/21/22 | Authenticated (Contributor+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting This was a medium concern issue that was fixed in version 1.7.5. | Yes |
MouseWheel Smooth Scroll
MouseWheel Smooth Scroll is a simple WordPress plugin that improves your average website by adding a scrolling animation. This provides a smoother scrolling motion while using a mouse wheel, touchpad, or arrow keys. In the plugin’s settings, you can adjust several values to tweak the animation to your liking. You can adjust:
- Frame rate
- Animation duration
- Size of steps the scroll takes
You can slightly adjust the “pulse”, which would be the ratio from the “tail” to “acceleration”. Finally, site owners can tweak the acceleration itself as well. You may even choose if you want it to support keyboard scrolling. This feature lets you dictate how many pixels one arrow keystroke would jump to on your page. If you are curious to see if the plugin is to your liking but don’t want to commit to installing it quite just yet, you can test out their online demo here.
Plugin Details
This piece of software was originally published by its developer in January of 2015. It is presently on version 6.5 and last had a change on March 22nd, 2024. The newest release runs on WordPress 6.5.5. This plugin is presently working on over 70,000 WordPress websites. It has had over 443,100 downloads. There have not been many support requests from end-users. Reviews for this plugin are very positive. Many of the customers who left an evaluation found this plugin to be useful.
Security Issues and Vulnerabilities
There has been one recorded security or vulnerability issue with MouseWheel Smooth Scroll. The security problem was fixed and here are the details.
| Date | Description | Fixed? |
|---|---|---|
| 10/18/21 | Plugin’s Setting Update via Cross-Site Request Forgery This was a medium concern issue that was fixed in version 5.6. | Yes |
Surbma Smooth Scroll
Surbma Smooth Scroll is a plugin that creates a smooth animation when scrolling to any anchor link on your WordPress site. Whether it is in the main menu or in a navigation section, the smooth scroll effect is active on a link as long as it is an anchor.
This plugin is simple and more of the type you would install and leave alone after as it just works perfectly by default. It contains no customization options. If you do need adjustments made, you would need to do so with Javascript and WordPress programming. If you are not knowledgeable enough, it is not recommended that you tweak things on your own. This plugin conveniently can be used on any WordPress site, even if you switch your theme.
Plugin Details
This product was first released by its developer in April of 2015. It is presently on version 1.2 and last underwent a change on November 26th, 2023. The most recent release runs on WordPress 6.4.5 and requires at least PHP 7.0 to run on your server. This plugin is currently functioning on over 3,000 WordPress websites. It has had over 23,120 downloads. There have not been many help requests from customers. Reviews for this plugin are very positive. Many of the customers who left a piece of feedback found this plugin to be worthwhile.
Top Smooth Scroll
Top Page Scroll is an all-encompassing plugin for all your smooth scrolling needs on a WordPress site. It covers adding a scroll to top button, smooth scrolling to an ID, and general smooth mouse scrolling throughout your whole page.
In the settings, there are many ways to beautifully transform your scroll to top button. You can choose a preferred icon from a given selection. From there, choose its size, radius, and color. There are more options to control colors for its background, hover, and background hover. You may also choose its position by placing it to the left, right, or center. You also have the option to enable and disable the plugin’s individual features to your liking. So you can either have all of them active or the ones you need.
Plugin Details
This plugin was first published by its creator in May of 2017. It is actively on version 1.0 and last underwent a change on May 31st, 2017. The newest release operates on WordPress 4.8.25. This plugin is presently operating on over 200 WordPress websites. It has had over 4,200 downloads. There have not been many assistance requests from end-users. Reviews for this plugin are very positive. Many of the end-users who left a piece of feedback found this plugin to be excellent.
WP Smoother
WP Smoother is an easy and elegant WordPress smooth scroll plugin. It allows you to give your site a smoother scrolling experience. The plugin features smooth mouse scrolling, anchor scrolling, and fade animations. All the features included can be edited, and also enabled, disabled, or adjusted however would benefit your site. For mouse scrolling, you can edit its scroll distance in pixels. You can even change the scroll animation time in milliseconds. The animation time may be adjusted the same way for your smooth anchor scrolling as well. As for the fade animations on page load, the duration can be chosen in milliseconds, and you have the option to enable it on your homepage only.
Plugin Details
This piece of software was first released by its developer in July of 2017. It is currently on version 1.1.0 and last saw an update on July 29th, 2017. The most recent release runs on WordPress 4.8.25. This plugin is presently running on over 300 WordPress sites. It has had over 5,720 downloads. There have not been many support requests from users. Reviews for this plugin are very positive. Many of the end-users who left a piece of feedback found this plugin to be excellent.
Find the Best WordPress Smooth Scroll Plugin
That brings us to an end at our look at the best WordPress smooth scroll plugins. Adding smooth scrolling to a website is an easy way to improve a user’s experience navigating content. These plugins, while fundamentally similar, each offer their own set of unique features and customization options. Remember, these plugins are all available right now for absolutely free at WordPress.org. We recommend you give several of them a try, in a test environment, before making your final decision.
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