Sometimes simple wins. In Gutenberg, the best blocks get out of your way and let child blocks do the heavy lifting. Light Modal Block nails that: a lightweight modal that uses native block controls and lets you design the content entirely with child blocks. Trigger it from any block—via a quick setting or a custom class—and you’re done. With its tiny footprint and no-nonsense approach, it’s become our go-to modal for both client and in-house projects. Oh, and it’s free.
Overall score: 9.0/10
Overview
- Setup & Onboarding – 10/10
- Editor – 8/10
- Performance – 10/10
- Features – 9/10
- Docs & Support – 8/10
Setup & Onboarding – 10/10
Install the plugin. That’s it—no setup screens, no admin pages. You’ll find a new block in the editor.
Editor – 8/10
You’ll see a small toolbar indicator beside Preview that lists the modals on the current page. It adds a bit of visual noise, but it’s genuinely useful once you have several modals (ideally it would stay hidden until the first one exists). If you prefer, there’s an option to hide it (the star icon).
Editing is otherwise pure Gutenberg: native controls handle everything—from the trigger icon’s background color to the modal’s shadow. No theme packs, no custom design panels. Straightforward—and the default settings look good.
Performance – 10/10
The plugin keeps things lean by loading assets only on pages where the block is present. The frontend bundle is ~6.5 KB (about 2.6 KB gzipped). It is a modified version of the Micromodal js library (Github).
Features – 9/10
The block does what it does—and this is a case where fewer features is better.
Note: the close-button icon is fixed (no icon options – but looks OK).
- Works inside the Query Loop block
- Fully customizable using native block editor style controls
- Trigger modal on click for any element via CSS selector
- Trigger modal on page load after X milliseconds
- Set a cookie to hide the modal until X minutes have passed
- Option to set the cookie when the user interacts inside the modal
- Custom modal width
- Optional close button
- API enabled
- Accessibility enabled (focus trap, ESC/overlay close)
Docs & Support – 8/10
We haven’t find any documentation. It’s not really needed, a youtube video would be nice.
Pricing & Licensing -/10
Free plugin.
Final verdict
A simple block that nails its purpose. Light Modal Block delivers clean, native modals with just enough control—no clutter, no gimmicks. It’s small, fast, and genuinely useful. Probably the best modal option for modern Gutenberg setups (if you disagree – let us know!)
Overall score: 9.0/10