WP Plugin Animate It
Test report

Animate It!

Animate It! is a WordPress plugin developed by eLEOPARD Design Studios, that was released on 2014-09-12. With over 30 000+ active installations, it has established itself as a useful tool for adding dynamic CSS3 animations to posts, widgets, and pages. What makes Animate It special is the wide range of animations it offers - over 50 entrance and exit effects as well as attention-seeking animations are available. This makes it easy to increase a website's visual appeal. The ability to trigger animations on scroll, click, or hover, and the customizable control over duration and delay, also provide high flexibility. The primary audience is WordPress users who want to visually enhance their content with attractive animations. The plugin is listed in the official WordPress Plugin Directory with a rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars from 127 reviews. The following section looks more closely at the plugin's specific features.

"This plugin integrates great animations and is easy to use. Top!"

Features - Diverse animation options and controls

The "Animate It!" plugin offers an impressive variety of features that set it apart from other animation plugins. In addition to the aforementioned over 50 different entrance and exit animations and attention-grabbing effects, the plugin also allows detailed control of animation duration and delay. Another notable feature is support for custom CSS classes, which lets users tailor animations individually and thus create even more diverse design possibilities. This brings a higher level of flexibility to application development.

"This plugin is exactly what I was looking for - simple, lightweight, and with many useful options."

Free Features - Comprehensive tools for free use

• Apply CSS3 animations to posts, widgets, and pages - Apply animations to various content.
• 50+ entrance, exit, and attention-seeking animations - Different animation options for creative designs.
• Apply animations on scroll - Enables animations triggered by scrolling.
• Different scroll offsets for individual animation blocks - Control the animation start position.
• Apply animations on click and hover - Interactive animations triggered by user actions.
• Delay and duration control features for animations - Create engaging animation sequences.
• Editor button for creating animation blocks - Easily insert animations into posts.
• Apply animations to WordPress widgets - Use the Class Generator to create custom animations.
• Completely disable animations on mobile devices - Improve the mobile user experience.
• Support for Spanish and German - Multilingual support.
• Compatibility with Gutenberg blocks - Integrate animations into other block types.

License - Free to use with extensive functionality

The "Animate It!" plugin is free to use, making it a financially attractive solution for many WordPress users. Despite being free, it is generally rated as very valuable by users, especially compared to some paid alternatives. This appreciation is reflected in numerous positive reviews that praise not only the functionality but also the support. Although there is no Pro version, the free version offers an impressive amount of functionality that covers many needs.

"This plugin is easy to use, lightweight, and offers many useful options."

Technical details - Insights for developers

When developing the "Animate It!" plugin, care was taken to integrate technical tools that are important for both developers and technically proficient users. This includes support for shortcodes, hooks, and an API, which allow animations to be implemented flexibly. Additionally, the so-called Class Generator provides a way to efficiently create the required animation classes. This feature makes it easier for developers to manage custom animations by integrating them directly into the site's existing storage structure. Despite the large number of features, the plugin's advantage lies particularly in its lightweight design, which keeps the code footprint minimal and therefore does not unnecessarily increase page load times.

System requirements - Compatibility requirements at a glance

To successfully use the "Animate It!" plugin, it requires at least PHP version 7.4 or higher. The minimum required WordPress version is 4.7.0 or higher, ensuring that even older installations can benefit from the animation features. The plugin was thoroughly tested up to WordPress version 6.8.3, providing a high degree of reliability and stability. Since the last update in 2025-11, which carries plugin version 2.7, no significant changes to the system requirements have been made, indicating ongoing maintenance and development.

"The plugin impresses with its versatility and runs smoothly even on older WordPress versions."

Quality - Reliability and flexibility in use

The WordPress plugin "Animate It!" impresses with its high quality, which is especially evident in the reliability and flexibility of its animation features. The ability to precisely control animation duration and delay gives animated elements a balanced blend of visibility and usability. Users appreciate the plugin's resource-efficient design, which ensures the website's performance is hardly affected, even with complex animations. Another quality aspect is support for custom CSS classes, which increases flexibility when customizing animations. Taken together, this helps users have a high-quality experience without suffering longer page load times. Despite some occasional unclear distinctions between free and Pro features, the plugin overall offers a reliable and flexible solution for animation needs.

"Great plugin! It creates beautiful animations without slowing the site down!"

Support - Quick help and useful community assistance

Support for the "Animate It!" plugin is highly valued by users, especially for its fast response times and helpful assistance. Although the plugin description doesn't mention specific contact options or response times, many users report positive experiences with the developer team. The official support area in the WordPress Plugin Directory provides a platform for user questions and problem solving. In addition, some users also describe direct support from the developer as helpful.

"I had an issue with animations restarting after the page fully loaded. The author put a lot of effort into finding a solution. Now everything is fine."

Rating - High user satisfaction

The WordPress plugin "Animate It!" is very popular and has an impressive average rating of 4.9 from a total of 127 reviews. Users particularly praise its ease of use and the variety of animations offered. Many reviews highlight the straightforward usage and the high-quality animations.

A frequently mentioned positive aspect is the time savings the plugin provides compared to hand-coding animations. Users also appreciate the friendly and helpful support from the developer. The solid functionality and customization options of the plugin are regularly mentioned in reviews.

"This plugin offers great animations and is easy to use. Top!"

Despite the overall satisfaction, there are negative voices as well. Some users report occasional complications when integrating with certain themes and the lack of advanced features that might be expected in a paid version. Another less positive feedback refers to the learning curve at first use, mostly caused by previous uncertainty in implementing the shortcodes.

"At first I was confused by the shortcodes, but the developer was patient and helped me."

Overall, however, the positive aspects far outweigh the negatives, and many users are very satisfied with the performance and the easy customization options.

"This is a really nice plugin, well documented and easy to use! The time saved hand-coding these animations is amazing."

Criticism - User issues and potential for improvement

The "Animate It!" plugin, although praised for its positive qualities, has also received criticism related to certain usability aspects and missing features. A commonly voiced criticism is the unclear distinction between basic and Pro features, which has caused confusion for some users when using the plugin. Additionally, compatibility issues with the Gutenberg block editor are a significant point of criticism, as the plugin seems primarily optimized for the classic editor. Users report difficulties integrating animations into the newer editor, which can limit the plugin's use.

Security concerns or specific vulnerabilities were not explicitly mentioned in the available information, suggesting this has not been a dominant issue among users so far. Nevertheless, more detailed documentation and greater transparency regarding potential security aspects of the plugin could help further strengthen confidence in its safe use.

Suggestions for improvement include expanding compatibility to the block editor and clearer labeling of features to avoid unpleasant surprises. A more robust integration with the latest WordPress features and themes like Astra and Kadence could also be beneficial to gain broader acceptance.

"Some features are not clearly labeled as belonging to the free version or the Pro version; therefore I uninstalled it."

Conclusion - Versatility with room for improvement

The WordPress plugin "Animate It!" from eLEOPARD Design Studios offers an impressive variety of animation possibilities and proves to be a valuable tool for users who want to visually enhance their websites. Notable are the flexibility and the many control options the plugin provides. Especially the support for custom CSS classes and the ability to trigger animations by various user actions set it apart from other plugins. Despite the free model, "Animate It!" offers amazing functionality that is popular with many users, even though there is occasional confusion about the availability of certain features.

There is room for improvement in optimized support for the Gutenberg block editor and clearer communication of the available features. Positive reviews and excellent support from the developer team contribute to the plugin's popularity, which is reflected in high user satisfaction. Overall, "Animate It!" is a suitable choice for users who want powerful and flexible animations integrated into their WordPress websites.