How to Create Best Looking Mega Menu in WordPress: Simple Guide

When designing a WordPress website, it’s essential to focus on creating the best-looking mega menu in WordPress. This is significant, especially for e-commerce or big business websites that aim to show a wide variety of products or categories on their website. 

A WordPress mega menu helps organize these categories so that users can navigate through them easily. How? A WordPress mega menu is a great way to organize and display a lot of content in a single, easy-to-navigate menu. It lets you lay out menu items in multiple columns or rows, so users can quickly find different sections of your site without endlessly clicking through pages. 

This can make a big difference in how visitors experience your site by making navigation smoother and more accessible in web design. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the simple steps to add a mega menu to your WordPress site, making it easy for everyone to find what they’re looking for. 

Understanding Mega Menu in WordPress?

Now, what might be a mega menu in WordPress, and why do I really need it? You might be thinking this. A WordPress mega menu allows WordPress site owners to add a variety of columns, media content, and customization to how they style their website menu. Earlier, the traditional mega menus were complex to navigate, but with time, it has become easier to structure and organize multiple categories with mega money in WordPress. 

Generally, WordPress includes a drag-and-drop builder that makes it easy to create different types of menus, such as dropdowns, header menus, and more. Plus, there are plugins that let you customize navigation menus in WordPress themes.

But if your site has a lot of content, a regular menu might not cut it. In that case, a mega menu is a great option. With a mega menu, you can add multi-column dropdowns to your WordPress menu, helping you organize content under various headings and subheadings. This way, visitors can quickly find what they’re looking for without getting confused. 

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How to Create Best Looking Mega Menu in WordPress 

Now, there is no rocket science behind creating the best-looking mega menu in WordPress. All you need is Max Mega Menu Plugin, and your mega menu will be ready. 

However, if you are familiar with the technical side of creating a mega menu, you can also create it manually. In this section, we will cover both the plugin and the manual method for the best results. 

So, let’s get started: 

How to create the looking mega menu in WordPress with the plugin

The simplest way to add a mega menu to your WordPress site is with the Max Mega Menu plugin. This tool lets you enhance your menus by adding rich content like videos, image galleries, search bars, and more.

With Max Mega Menu, you can create menus that are organized, visually engaging, and helpful for your visitors.

Step 1: Install and Set Up the Max Mega Menu Plugin

To get started, log in to your WordPress dashboard and go to Plugins → Add New. In the search bar, type “Max Mega Menu,” then click Install Now and Activate.

Quick Tip: Before diving in, make sure you’ve published all essential pages and created a custom navigation menu with them.

Once activated, navigate to Mega Menu in the left sidebar to access the settings. To set up a menu location, follow these steps:

• Head to Appearance → Menus.
• Select Menu Locations and click Add another menu location.
• Choose where you want your menu to appear (e.g., header, footer, sidebar).
• Assign your custom menu, then click Add menu location.

In the General Settings, enable your mega menu and set how it will open. You can choose between:

• Hover Intent: Opens after a slight delay, which prevents accidental clicks.
• Hover: Opens instantly when hovered, creating a smooth experience.
• Click: Requires a click or tap, ideal for touchscreen devices.

If you go with “Click,” explore options under Advanced → Click Event Behavior to control what happens on subsequent clicks.

You can also add some animation effects under the Effect settings. Options include fade, slide, or fade up, with speed settings from fast to slow.

Step 2: Customize the Menu Layout and Appearance

Max Mega Menu comes with a default theme, but you can also design your own. To create a custom look:

1. Go to Menu Themes in Max Mega Menu settings.
2. Click the three-dot icon to select the theme and choose to add a new theme.
3. In General Settings, customize things like arrow style, line height, and menu shadow.

Under Menu Bar, personalize the top-level menu’s Appearance by adjusting height, background color, padding, and adding borders. For each menu item, set options like:

• Alignment: Position items to the left, center, or right.
• Font Style: Match the typography to your site’s design.
• Background & Spacing: Set background colors, margins, padding, and borders for a polished look.

Step 3: Add Content to Your Menu

Adding content is simple with Max Mega Menu’s drag-and-drop interface. You can include text links, WooCommerce products, images, and even search filters.

1. Go to Appearance → Menus to create or edit a menu.
2. In the Max Mega Menu settings on the left, check Enable for your chosen location.
3. Add pages, posts, categories, and products to the menu structure.
4. Drag and drop items to organize them in multiple levels.

To create a mega menu, hover over a page and click Mega Menu. Set the display mode to Grid Layout for multi-column organization or Standard Layout for simpler menus. For added flair, use widgets like a search bar, image gallery, or product filter. You can even add icons to each item by selecting them in the Icons section.

After customizing everything, click Save Menu to make your mega menu live!

Read: How to Migrate from Drupal to WordPress: Complete Guide

How to Create a Mega Menu in WordPress Manually

In the first method, we saw how to create a mega menu in WordPress with the help of the Max Mega Menu Plugin. Now, we will explore creating a good-looking mega menu in WordPress using CSS code. 

This method can be beneficial for those who want more flexibility and control over their menu design elements. However, you’ll need good CSS knowledge to get the best results from this method. 

Step 1: Set Up Your Staging Environment

Before making changes to your site, it’s best to work in a safe space where you can experiment without affecting the live site. You can use any managed WordPress hosting that offers a staging tool that lets you create a copy of your website to test changes first.

To create a staging environment:

1. Log in to hPanel and select Websites.
2. Choose your domain and click Manage.
3. Go to WordPress → Staging in the left menu.
4. Click Create Staging under the Staging tab and follow the prompts to set up a subdomain for your staging environment.

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Step 2: Access and Edit Your Theme’s Stylesheet

Once you have your staging site ready, you can safely edit your theme’s stylesheet to customize your menu.

Note: If possible, create a child theme instead of editing the main theme to prevent losing your customizations when the theme updates.

To access the stylesheet in your hosting file manager:

1. Go to Files → File Manager in hPanel.
2. Select your domain’s public_html folder, then navigate to Staging → wp_content → themes.
3. Open your theme’s folder and double-click on style.css to edit it.

Add this code to make sub-menu items visible when hovered over:

.main-navigation ul: hover li ul,.main-navigation ul: hover li ul li ul {display: inherit;}

Learn: How to Push Staging Site to Live Without Overwriting Database in WordPress

Step 3: Customize Your Mega Menu

Now, let’s give the mega menu a unique style. Here are a few CSS snippets to get you started:

Create columns within the mega menu:

.mega-menu li.mega-menu-column {width: 25%; /* for a 4-column layout */float: left;padding: 10px;}

Customize menu item color, padding, and text style:

.mega-menu ul.mega-sub-menu li a {color: #555;padding: 8px 15px;display: block;text-decoration: none;}

Optimize for mobile:

@media screen and (max-width: 767px) {.mega-menu li.mega-menu-column {width: 100%;float: none;}}

These snippets are a great starting point, but be sure to test and adjust as needed to match your site’s design. Once you’re happy with your customizations, you can push your changes from the staging site to your live site. 

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Best Mega Menu Plugins to Create a Best Looking Mega Menu in WordPress

We bet you are now fully equipped with the knowledge to create a mega menu in WordPress, whether with a plugin or using CSS code. However, using a plugin is hands-down the best way to create a mega menu in WordPress. It’s easy, less time-consuming, and best for WordPress beginners.  

This is why we have picked a few top plugins you can use to create a better-looking mega menu for your WordPress website besides the Max Mega Menu plugin. 

UberMenu

UberMenu is a top choice among WordPress users for adding flexible, responsive mega menus and flyout menus. This premium plugin lets you fully control transitions, fonts, menu orientation (horizontal or vertical), and background color. Plus, its highly customizable options are all managed from an easy-to-use admin dashboard. 

Here, you can set column widths, add widgets, shortcodes, and custom HTML, and view changes in real-time with live preview mode. UberMenu is a powerful tool for anyone looking to create an engaging, dynamic menu layout.

QuadMenu

QuadMenu is an open-source WordPress mega menu plugin that’s packed with options and themes. With the free version, you can add a navigation widget, set custom breakpoints for menu collapse, and create diverse menu styles like off-canvas, sticky, horizontal, and vertical mega menus. This flexibility makes it easy to design a navigation experience that fits your site’s style without spending on a premium option.

GutenKit

GutenKit is a powerful Gutenberg plugin that simplifies creating a mega menu using blocks. It comes loaded with pre-built patterns and templates, allowing you to instantly pick a design and customize it to your liking. 

With full control over content, style, and advanced customizations, GutenKit’s user-friendly interface makes it a great choice for those who want to build and refine sites in a block editor. 

Alongside its mega menu feature, it offers 60+ blocks and 25+ modules for versatile customizations within Gutenberg—an ideal alternative to ElementsKit for block-based sites.

JetMenu

JetMenu is a premium plugin for crafting interactive WordPress mega menus with content-rich options like images, videos, and audio. For $43 per year, you get access to a drag-and-drop builder and multiple menu layouts, including hamburger, horizontal, and vertical orientations. 

A standout feature is the preset manager, which lets you save multiple templates for different menus—ideal for sites needing flexible, engaging navigation options.

Hero Menu

Hero Menu by Hero Plugins is a standout premium option for creating custom WordPress menus. It features a smooth drag-and-drop builder with a color-coded interface, making it easy to organize and visualize the hierarchy of menu items. Adding special elements like a logo, search bar, or icons is as simple as a click.

Hero Menu also comes with multiple menu styles and 60 preset color combinations, saving you time on design. Menus created with Hero Menu are fully responsive and compatible with WooCommerce, making it a great choice for e-commerce sites. 

Plus, it’s tested to work seamlessly with popular WordPress themes like Divi and Avada, ensuring smooth integration with your site’s design.

Wrapping Up

Now that you know how to create a mega menu in WordPress—even if your theme doesn’t come with one—you’re set to make navigating your content-rich site a breeze. Mega menus are perfect for organizing large amounts of content, helping visitors find what they’re looking for more easily, which boosts the overall user experience.

Before launching your WordPress site, it’s crucial to ensure navigation feels natural and intuitive. For eCommerce sites or websites with lots of pages, a mega menu can be a game-changer. Unlike standard menus, mega menus allow you to arrange complex information in a clear and visually engaging way.