Creating a great first impression is crucial if you’re trying to build trust and credibility amongst your WordPress visitors.

The very first thing that determines whether your visitors will stick around to your site is the loading speed of your site.

While keeping an optimized loading speed is a must, a preloader plugin helps distract visitors for the duration your site takes to load optimally. It will also contribute to lower bounce rates.

Now, if you want to create visually stunning and highly responsive preloaders for your WordPress site, you’re in the right place.

We’ve compiled a list of the top preloader plugins out there!

Let’s learn more about these plugins.

1. LoftLoader

LoftLoader offers a gorgeous preloader with 7 loading animation effects. You can add your logo or an existing animation within the preloader, giving your webpage the time it needs to load. 

Once you pick the animation you like, this plugin lets you choose a color and opacity to show your content underneath. This helps you give users a glimpse of what lies underneath the preloader, like an exciting trailer before a film release. 

Can’t pick just one preloader? Choose multiple preloaders! LoftLoader’s pro version lets you enable a loop to your preloader animation and display a unique message (great for heavy pages). You can enable and disable your favorite preloaders across your web pages!

Check: How to Add Preloading Animating Using LoftLoader

Key Features:

7 Loading Animation Effects
4 Ending Animation Effects
Translation-ready Preloader
Close Button to skip the Preloader
Lightweight and Loads Quickly 
Progress Bar to Show Loading Progress (Pro)

2. WP Smart Loader

WP Smart Preloader is a spinner tool that helps display your site’s loading progress. It is lightweight and fast, simultaneously adding zero loading time and a ton of value to your WordPress site. 

You can display it only on your homepage or all across your website. It lets you add a preloader duration and fade-out time, ensuring you have full control over your loading period. It comes with both pre-designed preloaders and custom animations (via HTML code), granting you the flexibility of customizing your preloader’s look and feel. 

Also Read: 7 Best Animation Plugins for WordPress 

Key Features: 

6 Ready-made Preloaders
Lightweight and Fast-loading
Set Preloader Duration
Custom CSS and Animation 
Display on only the homepage or all pages
Mobile and Touchscreen Responsive

3. PageLoader

PageLoader is a sleek and stylish preloader plugin. With 10 customizable animated icons, it can be used as an extension of your branding. 

Its functionality includes adjusting animation speed, adding blur/fade effects, and configuring a progress bar. You can add images or animations to your pages with full control over the loading time. You can set 5 different preloader messages to be displayed at random to users, keeping their attention span right on your pages. 

Apart from the preloader, it can also add animations to various sections of your page. PageLoader ensures a smooth transition for users throughout your WordPress site — it perfectly captures and delivers a first-class experience to your users. 

Also Read: 7+ Best Progress Bar Plugins for WordPress

Key Features:

10 Ready Slick Animations 
Blur and Fade Effects
Maximum Customization Tools
Display Message and Progress Bar
Preloader Close Button for Users
Post-loading Features are available too!
Selection of which Devices to display preloader on

4. Preloader Awesome

By offering 10+ loader designs and 14 transition effects, Preloader Awesome has easily become a leading creative preloader designer. Each transition is unique and fun to watch, welcoming your website visitors with style.

It lets you select multiple preloaders for multiple pages. Like other plugins, it offers a progress bar and animation duration setting. You can choose your own images and GIFs to represent your brand and configure the loader settings. Some of its settings include adjusting loader size, counter size, colors, loader placement, and progress bar colors. 

The plugin promises a quick setup in less than 5 minutes, so it is a definite recommendation for first-time preloader users. 

Key Features:

Variety of Loader Styles
Supports all Themes
Animation and Effect Templates
No-code Preloaders
Progress Bar and Counter
Maximum Customization 
Different Loaders for Different Webpages

5. Preloader for Website

Want to set up a treat for the eyes of your WordPress visitors? Preloader for Website offers 17 preloader effects to keep your visitors entertained. It is simplistic and minimalist with a few choice customization settings, and comes in a discounted package deal with a few other plugins from its developers. 

This plugin is relatively lightweight. It lets you customize the spinner size and image. You can adjust the preloader visibility on different web pages, and set a preloader runtime duration. Its designs resemble late 2000s computer graphics — which adds a touch of nostalgia to your websites. 

Key Features:

17 Preloader Effects
2 Spinner Styles
Enable/Disable Loader
Customize Content Font and Color
Add Custom Loader Image
Top-notch Customer Support

Conclusion 

 According to research, 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. A preloader plugin helps you hold your audience’s attention span for at least a couple of seconds, thereby saving you precious visitors in today’s demanding digital world. 

If you want to boost conversions and lower bounce rates, give our recommended preloader plugins a try. If you’ve used any of these plugins before, don’t forget to share your experiences with us!

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