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Best WordPress Plugins for Loader

15 plugins compared · Updated August 2026 · Loader

All Free only 15 Premium only

Choosing a WordPress plugin for loader comes down to a few things: whether it is still actively maintained, whether real users rate it well, and whether it does the specific job you need without dragging the rest of the site down.

We ranked 15 plugins using our WPScore, which weighs the user rating (adjusted for how many people actually rated it), how many sites run it, how recently it was updated, and which WordPress version it is tested against. 15 of them have enough public data to be scored; the rest are listed below the ranked block, clearly marked, rather than being given a number we cannot justify.

How this list is funded. Some links here earn us a commission if you buy. It costs you nothing extra, and it does not move anything up the list — the order comes from the WPScore, which is calculated from public ratings, install counts and update history. See the method.

At a glance

  1. 1. Safelayout Cute Preloader Best overall 86/100
  2. 2. Preloader 82/100
  3. 3. Icons Font Loader 77/100
  4. 4. ionCube Tester Plus 72/100
  5. 5. WP Page Loading 66/100
  6. 6. Custom Preloader 63/100
  7. 7. Lazy Loader 60/100
  8. 8. Page Loader 57/100
  9. 9. Preloader Awesome 54/100
  10. 10. PageLoader Lite 49/100
  11. 11. Loading Bar 48/100
  12. 12. WP PleaseWait 47/100
  13. 13. Lazy Widget Loader 46/100
  14. 14. Smart Image Loader 46/100
  15. 15. Ultimate Preloader 44/100
1 Safelayout Cute Preloader
Best overall Free by safelayout

Safelayout Cute Preloader

Beautiful pure CSS animated preloader for your WordPress website. A highly lightweight, easy-to-use, and powerful site loader.

5★
from 83 ratings
10k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
86

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
2 Preloader
Free by Alobaidi

Preloader

The ultimate Preloader plugin for WordPress. Smart, flexible, and made for easy control. Add a preloader to your website easily in only 3 steps.

4.1★
from 41 ratings
10k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
82

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
3 Icons Font Loader
Free by bPlugins

Icons Font Loader

Load Flaticon webfonts into WordPress and use icons anywhere with simple HTML tags. Loads only the essential fonts for fast performance.

5★
from 1 ratings
2k+
active installs
Updated
Jul 2026
Tested to
WP 6.8.8
77

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
4 ionCube Tester Plus
Free by Robert Seyfriedsberger

ionCube Tester Plus

This plugin helps you to determine if the ionCube loaders are installed correctly on your web server. This plugin is sponsored by "Maps Marker Pr …

5★
from 2 ratings
300+
active installs
Updated
Jan 2026
Tested to
WP 6.9.7
72

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
5 WP Page Loading
Free by NTC

WP Page Loading

10+ layouts - Simple, light and great! Add preloader to your website easily, responsive and retina, full customization, compatible with all major brow …

4.3★
from 3 ratings
700+
active installs
Updated
May 2025
Tested to
WP 6.8.8
66

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
7 Lazy Loader
Free by Florian Brinkmann

Lazy Loader

Lazy loading plugin that supports images, iFrames, video and audio elements and uses the lightweight lazysizes script. With manual modification of the …

4.7★
from 49 ratings
9k+
active installs
Updated
Apr 2024
Tested to
WP 6.5.10
60

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
8 Page Loader
Free by tdevs

Page Loader

Page Loader is a free Wordpress plugin to show a loader animation while page is being loaded.

4.9★
from 8 ratings
2k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2024
Tested to
WP 6.6.7
57

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
9 Preloader Awesome
Free by themesawesome

Preloader Awesome

Preloader Awesome help You to create page loading animation WordPress with spinner or You can upload Your own GIF.

1★
from 1 ratings
1k+
active installs
Updated
Jun 2024
Tested to
WP 6.5.10
54

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
10 PageLoader Lite
Free by BonfireThemes

PageLoader Lite

Add a simple to use, lightweight loading screen to your WordPress site. Great for branding!

4.2★
from 5 ratings
700+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2022
Tested to
WP 6.0.14
49

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
11 Loading Bar
Free by Alobaidi

Loading Bar

Add loading bar to your website easily, like youtube loading bar! just one click and custom loading bar color and responsive.

4.9★
from 8 ratings
200+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2016
Tested to
WP 4.6.30
48

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
12 WP PleaseWait
Free by ngoclb

WP PleaseWait

Just an awesome splash screen for your website (or PWA), support 12+ spinner styles and many customizable things - message text, spinner size, backgro …

5★
from 5 ratings
100+
active installs
Updated
Nov 2020
Tested to
WP 5.5.20
47

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
13 Lazy Widget Loader
Free by itthinx

Lazy Widget Loader

Lazy Widget Loader provides lazy loading for widgets to improve page loading. Use on slow widgets with content from Facebook, Twitter, AdSense ...

5★
from 2 ratings
100+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2013
Tested to
WP 3.6.1
46

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
14 Smart Image Loader
Free by bypr.nils

Smart Image Loader

Smart Image Loader is a fire-and-forget priority and lazy loader for image sources. Can be a huge performance boost especially for one pagers.

5★
from 2 ratings
100+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2018
Tested to
WP 4.9.31
46

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
15 Ultimate Preloader
Free by enid.colic

Ultimate Preloader

Ultimate Preloader will create a preloading screen for your website before all your images (including the images in CSS) are fully loaded.

3.5★
from 6 ratings
60+
active installs
Updated
Feb 2013
Tested to
WP 3.5.2
44

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org