Ultimate Cursor
Custom cursors & animated backgrounds for WordPress
Replace the WordPress mouse pointer with text, image, icon, shape or animated cursors, and add animated backgrounds — with a live preview and no code.
- Free on WordPress.org
- 3,000+ active installs
- Version 2.5.0, updated Oct 11, 2026
Works with any theme and page builder · Accessible and translation-ready
What is Ultimate Cursor?
Ultimate Cursor is a WordPress plugin that replaces the default mouse pointer with a custom cursor and adds animated backgrounds. Pick one of five cursor types or eight animated effects, style it in a live-preview dashboard, and publish. The free plugin gives you one cursor and one background across the whole site, with nothing locked or disabled. Ultimate Cursor Pro adds Interactive Hover, multiple cursors, page and element targeting, 20 more shapes, circular text, and full control over every effect.
Loads Only When Needed
A 1.5 KB loader checks whether a cursor will show before anything else is downloaded. Touch visitors with the cursor hidden get nothing more.
Never Hides the Pointer by Accident
If an effect cannot load, or the visitor prefers reduced motion, the normal cursor stays visible.
Free Plugin, Nothing Locked
Every cursor type and effect works in the free version. Pro features are shown on one page, not as disabled controls.
Cursors, Effects and Backgrounds
Five cursor types, eight animated effects and two animated backgrounds in one plugin — styled in a live preview, loaded only where they are used. Features marked Pro come with Ultimate Cursor Pro.
5 Cursor Types
Text, Image, Icon, Shape, or Animated — replace the native pointer with your own text label, any uploaded image, one of 113 built-in icons, a geometric shape, or a motion effect.
8 Animated Effects
Bubble, Splash, Snowflake, Trail, Character, Rainbow, Click Spark, and Click Particles. Every effect is free and runs with a ready-made style; Pro adds the settings to restyle each one.
Interactive Hover (Pro)
The cursor reacts to links, buttons, and form fields: it grows, changes color, glows, snaps magnetically toward the element, and can show a label such as “Open” or “Play”.
Animated Backgrounds
Antigravity Particles and Light Pillar, rendered with Three.js behind your content. Colors, particle count, size, and shape are free; motion, placement, and targeting controls come with Pro.
25 Shape Cursors
Five clean shapes are free — dot, ring, and their variations. Pro adds 20 more: heart, star, diamond, arrow, blob, squircle, sparkle, seal badge, pin, shield, and others.
Circular Text (Pro)
Wrap your text around the cursor as a rotating badge, with presets, radius, direction, rotation speed, and an optional circular background.
Page & Element Targeting (Pro)
Show a cursor only on chosen pages, or only over the elements you pick with a CSS selector or an HTML tag. Backgrounds can be limited to pages or a selector the same way.
Multiple Cursors (Pro)
Run several cursors side by side — one across the site, another over your portfolio grid, a third on buttons — and several backgrounds at once.
Settings for Every Effect (Pro)
Trail and snowflake emojis, sizes, counts, and speed; splash colors, radius, and force; spark and particle options; rainbow colors; custom characters; and the image hotspot that decides which point follows the mouse.
Performance-First Loading
A 1.5 KB loader decides in the browser whether a cursor will show. Touch visitors with the cursor hidden never download it, each effect is its own code-split chunk, and animation pauses while the pointer is still.
Accessibility Built In
Honors prefers-reduced-motion, hides on touch devices, keeps the native text cursor in form fields, and never leaves a visitor without a pointer if an effect fails to load.
Builder & Developer Friendly
Works on pages built with Gutenberg, Elementor, Divi, WPBakery, Bricks, and others, stays out of their editing canvases, and offers documented PHP and JavaScript hooks.
Free vs Pro
The free plugin is complete on its own: every cursor type, every effect and both backgrounds, for one cursor and one background across your site. Pro is for when you want the cursor to react to the page, appear only where you choose, or look exactly the way you want.
All 5 Cursor Types
Text, image, icon, shape and animated cursors, with color, size, border and spacing controls.
All 8 Animated Effects
Bubble, Splash, Snowflake, Trail, Character, Rainbow, Click Spark and Click Particles, each with a ready-made style. Bubble size and colors are adjustable.
113 Icons and 5 Shapes
The whole icon library, plus five clean geometric shapes with a ring that grows over links and buttons.
2 Animated Backgrounds
Antigravity Particles and Light Pillar with color, count, size and shape settings.
Live Preview and Presets
See every change as you make it, or start from a one-click preset.
Performance and Accessibility
Conditional loading, reduced-motion support, hidden on touch devices, native text cursor kept in form fields.
Interactive Hover
The cursor grows, changes color, glows, snaps magnetically and shows a label over links, buttons and fields.
Multiple Cursors and Targeting
As many cursors as you need, each shown on chosen pages, CSS selectors or HTML elements.
20 More Shapes
Heart, star, diamond, arrow, blob, squircle, sparkle, seal badge, pin, shield and more.
Circular Text and Image Hotspot
Text that rotates around the cursor as a badge, and control over which point of an image follows the mouse.
Settings for Every Effect
Emojis, sizes, counts, speed, colors, radius, force and custom characters for all eight effects.
Background Motion and Placement
Magnet, wave, pulse, glow and quality controls; position, stacking order and opacity; page or selector targeting; several backgrounds at once.
Why WordPress Users Choose Ultimate Cursor
What sets Ultimate Cursor apart from other WordPress plugins
See It Before You Publish
Every change shows in a live preview inside the dashboard. Start from a one-click preset or build from scratch.
A Free Plugin That Is Complete
All five cursor types, all eight effects, and both backgrounds work in the free plugin. Nothing in it is locked, disabled, or badged.
Light on Your Pages
Scripts load only where an effect will render, and only the effect you chose. Cursor animation stops when the pointer stops.
Safe by Design
If an effect cannot load, the normal pointer stays. Pro settings are kept in the database if a license lapses and return when it is renewed.
Fits Your Stack
Tested with popular cache and optimization plugins — LiteSpeed Cache, SiteGround Optimizer, Perfmatters, WP-Optimize, and Cloudflare Rocket Loader.
Ready for Any Language
The dashboard and the frontend are fully translatable, with right-to-left support.
Who Ultimate Cursor Is For
The sites and teams Ultimate Cursor is built for
Designers & Agencies
Give client sites a signature pointer and hover behavior that matches the brand, without writing or maintaining custom JavaScript.
Portfolios & Creatives
A “View” label over project thumbnails, a shape that reacts to links, or a subtle trail that makes a showcase feel crafted.
Stores & Landing Pages
Draw attention to calls to action with click sparks or a cursor that changes only over buttons and product cards.
Campaigns & Seasonal Sites
Snowfall for the holidays, confetti on launch day — switch an effect on for a campaign and off again in one click.
Works With the Tools You Already Use
Editors, themes and plugins Ultimate Cursor is built to work with
How to Install Ultimate Cursor
From the WordPress dashboard to your first custom cursors and animated backgrounds in a few minutes
In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Add New, search for “Ultimate Cursor”, then click Install Now and Activate.
Open the new Ultimate Cursor menu in your dashboard.
Choose a cursor type — Text, Image, Icon, Shapes or Animated — style it in the live preview, and click Save.
Optional: enable a background effect from the Background tab.
Optional: try every effect first in the live demo at cursor.wpxero.com, then set up the same one in your dashboard.
Ultimate Cursor at a Glance
Version and requirement details come straight from WordPress.org
- Latest version
- 2.5.0 (updated Oct 11, 2026)
- Requires
- WordPress 6.0+ · PHP 7.4+
- Tested up to
- WordPress 7.1.3
- Active installs
- 3,000+
- Price
- Free · Pro from $24.99/year
- Download
- WordPress.org plugin directory
Good to know
- Shows on devices with a mouse or trackpad
- Hidden on touch devices by default
- Translatable, with right-to-left support
Compatibility
- Any classic or block theme
- Gutenberg, Elementor, Divi, WPBakery, Bricks, Beaver Builder, Avada, Oxygen
- LiteSpeed Cache, SiteGround Optimizer, Perfmatters, WP-Optimize, Cloudflare Rocket Loader
Performance
- 1.5 KB loader, effects in separate chunks
- Animation pauses while the pointer is still
- Backgrounds skipped for reduced-motion visitors
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about Ultimate Cursor
All five cursor types (text, image, icon, shape, animated), five shapes, the full library of 113 icons, all eight animated effects with their ready-made styles, and both background effects with color, size, and shape settings — for one cursor and one background applied across the whole site. Nothing in the free plugin is locked or disabled.
Interactive Hover, multiple cursors, page and element targeting, 20 more shapes, circular text, the image and icon hotspot, settings for every animated effect, background motion and placement controls, multiple backgrounds, and priority support. Inside the plugin, the Pro Features page shows each of these with a preview.
A Pro feature that makes the cursor react when visitors point at links, buttons, and form fields. It can scale up, change color, glow, be pulled magnetically toward the element, and display a label such as “Open” or “Play” inside the cursor. You can also add your own CSS selectors for elements it should react to.
The only script loaded up front is a 1.5 KB loader. It checks whether a cursor will actually show for that visitor and only then loads the effect you chose, which is split into its own file. Visitors on touch devices with the cursor hidden download nothing more, and animation pauses while the pointer is still.
Touch devices have no pointer to replace, so the cursor is hidden there by default and its scripts are not downloaded. You can change this per cursor.
Yes. Ultimate Cursor works with any theme and on pages built with Gutenberg, Elementor, Divi, WPBakery, Bricks, Beaver Builder, Avada, and Oxygen. It stays out of the builders’ editing screens so it never gets in your way while you design.
With Pro, yes. Create as many cursors as you need and target each at specific pages, CSS selectors, or HTML elements — for example one cursor site-wide and a different one over your portfolio grid.
Nothing is deleted. Your Pro settings stay saved in the database, the site falls back to the free behavior, and everything returns when the license is active again.
Animations respect the visitor’s reduced-motion preference, form fields keep the normal text cursor, and if an effect fails to load the default pointer stays visible, so no visitor is ever left without a cursor.
Yes. Every cursor type and background effect has a live, interactive demo at cursor.wpxero.com — try each one in your browser, then choose the same effect in your WordPress dashboard.
What Users Say About Ultimate Cursor
Reviews of Ultimate Cursor quoted from WordPress.org.
Outstanding Support
I’m absolutely thrilled with Ultimate Cursor Pro! I especially want to highlight the amazing support from Afnan. He managed to implement my specific requirement into the plugin within just a few hours – it doesn’t get any faster than that. On top of that, he even rolled out a new version of the plugin that included my requested feature. …
Works Amazing On Our Site
This was a very easy plugin to use, has a ton of options on the free version, and you can upload the icon shape. Had to leave a positive reveiw! Used it on Doc Digital SEM and it looks fantastic, also used it for one of our clients, and it elevated the look to the site!
Works with limitations
I was after something that would allow for animations while still retaining the existing cursor. However, this outright replaces the entire cursor. …
BRAVO!!!
This is what i'm looking for!! THANK YOU SO MUCH! WORKING PERFECTLY
Ready to Get Started with Ultimate Cursor?
Install Ultimate Cursor free from WordPress.org, and upgrade to Pro when you need more.