A mega menu is an extended dropdown. A plain dropdown shows 5-10 links; a mega menu shows 50-100+ at once.
When you need it
E-commerce, corporations, education, news.
Structure
Columns, visual + text, tabbed. Columns work best.
Hover vs click
Hover is classic; click is modern. Mobile lacks hover.
Open delay
200-300ms.
Search bar
At the top of the mega menu. Real-time filter.
Featured/banner
Marketing opportunity.
Mobile
Accordion or drill-down.
Performance
HTML/CSS pre-render, lazy-load images.
Accessibility
aria-haspopup, aria-expanded, keyboard navigation.
Mistakes
Too many categories, hover problems, mobile mismatch, no search, slow load.
Examples
Apple, Microsoft, Walmart.
WordPress plugins
Max Mega Menu, UberMenu.
A/B testing
Hover vs click, column counts, visuals.
Sayt.uz
Currently a simple nav. Mega menu is on the roadmap as the catalog grows.