What is the Best Mega Menu for Elementor?

Mega Menu options in Elementor

Building an effective menu is very important to creating a website with a good user experience. There are two main types of menus that are best to use in Elementor: JetMenu and Elementor’s mega menu. Both menus achieve similar results but they have different setup processes and some features are only in one or the other. We will break down those differences and help you decide which menu to use when.

Building Mega Menus with JetMenu

JetMenu is great to use for mega menus and for a long time was the only option. The menu system is robust and utilizes the built-in menu structure of WordPress so setting it up will feel familiar. It can be used to create complex custom menu layouts that use the Elementor builder.

Building mega menus using JetMenu is pretty easy to do and using the regular WordPress menu system works with this menu system. So if you already have a menu set up, you can install JetMenu and get started with your existing menu structure. Another advantage is that on mobile, these menus will automatically switch to a slide-out menu that is very user-friendly, all you have to do is make sure that your menus are mobile-optimized.

Drawbacks of JetMenu

As you are using the Mega Menus from JetMenu, you may begin to notice that setting the width of the menu container is an unnecessarily complex process involving setting IDs on containers and matching width to them. Additionally, there are settings in the backend of WordPress and on the Elementor element which both change the same things, causing additional confusion. Aside from the confusing settings on JetMenu, using cache plugins can also cause conflicts with JetMenu and can cause menus to break completely. Sometimes updates for Elementor can break functionality as well until the Jet plugin has a chance to update.

Advantages of Elementor Mega Menu

The new Elementor mega menu system works differently than JetMenu. This menu system can all be built in one place and since it is made by Elementor, it is fully compatible and easily customizable. Building menus with this system is easy to understand and set up is simple. It uses containers and the width/positioning is set like it normally is in Elementor.

Disadvantages of Elementor Mega Menu

When using the Elementor Mega Menu, you will likely find that item alignment is not relative to the menu item above. This causes issues when you want a simple menu dropdown, you have to use some very precise positioning to get it to line up correctly. On mobile, the Elementor Mega Menus also provide a poor user experience with an expanding and collapsing menu system. As of now, a better solution is to build a popup menu just for mobile. The main drawback here is that you now have two separate menus—one for desktop and one for mobile—that will both need updating.

Which Mega Menu should I use?

If you want to use a single menu and aren’t using too many different plugins, JetMenu is the best option as it will only require one menu and can be configured easily for mobile. If you have more plugins and want to make sure that your menu is compatible and won’t break in a future update, the Elementor Mega Menu will be the better option. Just keep in mind that with the Elementor option, you will likely want to build a popup just for mobile. The main takeaways here are that they are both very useful mega menus, but which to use will depend on your needs.