Rea is a standalone HTML5 and CSS3 horizontal navigation menu with animated dropdown submenus, sold on ThemeForest for $4. It is a front-end code package rather than a WordPress plugin, so it suits developers and freelancers who need a finished navigation bar they can drop into a hand-coded site, a static template or a custom build. Anyone expecting to install it through a WordPress dashboard should look elsewhere, because Rea css is not built for that workflow.
The listing does not disclose a sales figure, so there is no meaningful purchase history to report. What can be assessed is the code itself: what it includes, how it behaves across browsers and screen sizes, and where its limits sit.
What Rea css actually delivers in the browser
The core of the package is a horizontal navigation bar built with semantic HTML5 markup and styled entirely with CSS3. Submenus open on hover on desktop, and the animation between states is handled by CSS transitions rather than JavaScript wherever the browser supports it. That matters for performance: fewer script calls means less work on the main thread and a menu that stays responsive even on pages carrying other scripts.
Four animated effects are included, which gives a choice of how the submenu reveals itself rather than a single fixed behaviour. Five themes ship with the download, so the colour and typographic treatment can be swapped without rewriting the stylesheet from scratch. Both are cosmetic options rather than structural ones, but they reduce the amount of restyling needed to make the menu match an existing design.
Responsiveness is handled deliberately rather than left to chance. jQuery is loaded only to control the menu on tablets and phones, where hover does not exist as an input method. On desktop the script stays out of the way. This is a sensible split: touch devices get a tap-friendly interaction, and desktop visitors get pure CSS animation.
Typography and iconography are covered by bundled assets. The menu uses the Bebas Neue font and Font Awesome for icons, both of which are free to use. Because they are included rather than referenced from a third-party CDN, the menu renders consistently without depending on an external service staying online.
The code is described as clean and commented, which is the claim that matters most for anyone who intends to modify it. A navigation menu is rarely used exactly as shipped; it usually needs an extra level, a different breakpoint or a brand colour. Commented markup and stylesheets make that editing work faster and less error-prone.
Where a standalone CSS menu like this fits, and where it does not
The clearest fit is a static or hand-coded website where the developer controls the markup directly. Landing pages, small business sites, portfolio pages and marketing microsites all need navigation, and building a responsive animated menu from scratch takes longer than most people expect. Buying a finished one for the price of a coffee is a reasonable trade.
It also suits agencies and freelancers who maintain a reusable starting point. A menu that works across browsers and screen sizes, with five themes to choose from, can be adapted across several client projects without rebuilding the interaction each time. The licence terms on ThemeForest govern how many projects that covers, so buyers should check them rather than assume unlimited reuse.
A third fit is prototyping. Dropping in a working navigation bar early lets a client see and click the real thing instead of a static mockup, which tends to surface feedback sooner.
The wrong choice is any WordPress site where the menu needs to be managed through the admin. Rea css is not a plugin, so it cannot be installed, activated or edited from the dashboard. It also will not integrate automatically with WordPress’s built-in menu system, which means a developer would have to hard-code the links and update them in the template files every time the navigation changes. For a site where non-technical staff manage content, that is a maintenance problem waiting to happen. A dedicated WordPress menu plugin is the correct tool in that scenario.
A second poor fit is a project that requires deep multi-level navigation. The listing describes a horizontal menu with submenus, not an arbitrarily deep tree, and complex mega-menu layouts with columns, images and grouped links are beyond what this package is presented as doing.
Setting Rea css up in practice
Installation is a file-copy exercise rather than a guided process. The download contains the HTML structure, the CSS, the jQuery dependency and the font and icon assets. The workflow is to copy the stylesheet and script references into the target page’s head section, paste the menu markup where the navigation belongs, then adjust the link hrefs and labels to match the site.
The prerequisites are modest but real. The page needs to be able to load an external stylesheet and a jQuery build, and the developer needs enough familiarity with HTML and CSS to edit list markup and override colours. No build tool, package manager or server-side language is involved, which keeps the barrier low.
Browser support is where the one genuine caveat sits. The listing states that the main structure renders identically in Internet Explorer 9 and 8, but that animation and some other CSS3 features do not work in those versions. In practice that means an older browser shows a functional but static menu. For most projects in 2024 and beyond this is irrelevant, since those browsers are long out of support, but a developer maintaining a site for an audience still on legacy Windows machines should know the animation will not appear for them.
Realistically, a developer comfortable with HTML and CSS can have the menu rendering in a page within fifteen to thirty minutes. Matching it precisely to an existing brand palette and type scale takes longer, and that styling work is where most of the time goes.
Strengths and limitations
Strengths
- Genuinely lightweight: CSS handles the animation on desktop, so jQuery is only loaded for tablet and phone control.
- Five themes and four animation effects provide real variation without additional cost.
- Bundled Bebas Neue and Font Awesome assets remove any dependency on external CDNs.
- Commented, editable code makes customisation practical rather than theoretical.
- At $4 the cost is negligible against the time saved building a responsive menu from scratch.
- Works across all major browsers, with a documented fallback behaviour for older Internet Explorer.
Limitations
- It is not a WordPress plugin and does not connect to the WordPress menu system, so links must be edited in code.
- Animation and some CSS3 effects do not function in Internet Explorer 8 and 9; those browsers show a static menu instead.
- The listing does not state how many submenu levels are supported, so anyone needing deep nested navigation should verify before buying.
- No sales count is published, which means there is no independent purchase history to weigh.
- Because the package is code rather than a plugin, updates and support depend entirely on the author rather than an automatic update channel.
- Five themes is a modest starting set; sites with unusual brand requirements will still need custom CSS work.
How Rea css compares with the alternatives
The realistic alternatives fall into three groups. The first is building a horizontal menu by hand. That gives total control and no dependency, but it costs hours of development time and typically produces something less polished than a purpose-built package on the first attempt.
The second group is WordPress menu plugins. These win decisively on manageability: menus are edited in the dashboard, they integrate with the theme’s registered menu locations, and non-technical staff can change links without touching code. They lose on weight, since a plugin carries admin-side code and database overhead that a static stylesheet does not. For a WordPress site, the plugin route is almost always the right call, and Rea css is not competing in that space.
The third group is CSS frameworks and component libraries, which include navigation patterns alongside dozens of other components. Those make sense when a project already uses the framework, but adopting an entire framework to get one menu is disproportionate. Rea css is narrower by design: it does one job, and the question is whether that job matches the project.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Rea a WordPress plugin?
No. The vendor states plainly that Rea is not a WordPress plugin. It is a standalone HTML5 and CSS3 menu package that has to be integrated into a site’s template files by hand. WordPress users who want a dashboard-managed menu should choose a dedicated menu plugin instead, because Rea will not appear in the WordPress admin or connect to the theme’s menu locations.
Does the Rea css menu work on mobile phones?
Yes, and it is handled deliberately. jQuery is loaded specifically to control the menu on tablets and phones, where hover interactions are unavailable. Desktop visitors get the CSS-driven animated version, while touch devices get a script-controlled alternative. That split keeps the desktop experience lightweight while still giving mobile users a menu they can actually operate with a tap.
Which browsers does the horizontal submenu support?
All major browsers are supported. The vendor notes one exception: in Internet Explorer 8 and 9 the main structure renders identically, but animation and some other CSS3 features do not work. Visitors on those legacy browsers see a functional but static menu. Given how long those versions have been out of support, this affects very few projects today.
How much customisation does the package allow?
Customisation is straightforward for anyone comfortable with CSS. Five themes and four animation effects are included as starting points, and the code is described as clean and commented, which makes overriding colours, spacing and typography practical. The bundled Bebas Neue font and Font Awesome icons can be swapped or removed. Deeper structural changes, such as adding extra submenu levels, depend on editing the markup directly.
Verdict
Rea css is worth buying for developers building hand-coded or static sites who want a responsive horizontal menu with animated submenus and do not want to write one from scratch. At $4, the time saved on a single project covers the cost many times over, and the bundled themes, font and icons reduce the setup work further. Freelancers and agencies who build several small sites a year will get the most out of it as a reusable starting point.
It is the wrong purchase for WordPress users who need a menu managed from the dashboard, and for anyone whose navigation requires deep, complex submenu structures that the listing does not confirm are supported. Those buyers should look at menu plugins or a framework component instead. For everyone else, the trade-off is clear and the price makes the decision easy.
