The Best UI Addons for WoW (Classic & Dragonflight)

ElvUI

• Download: TukUI
• Plugins: TukUI, CurseForge
• Profiles: Wago
• Command: /elvui

ElvUI is a complete UI overhaul. It was originally developed as a modified version of its sister addon, TukUI, but has evolved into a monster of an addon in its own right. ElvUI touches just about every element of the user interface and is deeply customizable.

Some users will find that it’s much more than they need, with an intimidating number of options in its settings menu. But for those who like to tweak every facet of their interface (like me!), ElvUI can combine the functionality of a large number of addons into one convenient and cohesive overhaul.

The massive popularity of ElvUI has led to the development of several plugins for it which extend its functionality even further. Profiles can also be shared, and downloading one can save you a lot of time in getting it to look how you want it to.

By default ElvUI has a sleek, minimalist look, giving every UI element a semi-transparent dark gray background with an unobtrusive square border. It stands in stark contrast to the heavily stylized look of the default UI, and it will be a matter of personal taste if you prefer it or not. The colors, border, and transparency of every element can be changed in the settings. There is also an edit mode that allows you to move everything around on your screen. But that’s just scratching the surface of the deep customizability of this addon.

Shadowed Unit Frames

• Download: CurseForge
• Command: /suf

For those who want custom unit frames, but don’t want the complete overhaul offered by ElvUI, there is Shadowed Unit Frames. With this addon, you can customize the size, position, and appearance of every unit frame in the game: player, target, party, raid, arena, boss frames, and more.

The addon’s options are extensive, and it also allows you to show or hide any element based on where you are. So if you want to hide pet frames when you’re in a raid, or hide your reputation bar when you’re in an arena, you can do that.

If Shadowed Unit Frames isn’t quite what you’re looking for, you can also try Z-Perl Unit Frames, which is similar.

WeakAuras

• Download: CurseForge
• Profiles: Wago
• Command: /wa

WeakAuras is one of the most powerful and widely used addons available for World of Warcraft. It’s a framework for tracking everything from buffs and debuffs to resources to cooldowns. You can track auras with timers, icons, progress bars, text, and animations in all sorts of styles and layouts.

Like any complex addon, WeakAuras can be intimidating to get started with. Luckily it’s easy to import auras from other users, and there’s an entire website for sharing them. There you’ll find WeakAuras for rotation assistance, useful warnings for bosses, displaying your party’s cooldowns or healer mana, and just about anything else you can think of.

If you’re too overwhelmed by all the options in WeakAuras, TellMeWhen is a good alternative that is almost as powerful, though not quite as customizable.

Quartz

• Download: CurseForge
• Command: /quartz

Quartz lets you customize your cast bars, and also has options for adding progress bars to a few things that don’t normally have them, like buffs, flightpaths, and swing timers. You can customize the appearance, size, and positioning of the bars. You can also see when a cast has been interrupted, and by whom, as well as seeing your latency and global cooldown on your player cast bar.

Plater Nameplates

• Download: CurseForge
• Profiles: Wago
• Command: /plater

Plater Nameplates lets you customize nameplates, which sounds simple, but this addon is incredibly powerful. It’s a kind of sister addon to WeakAuras, and has similarly robust customization and scripting options, as well as the ability to share profiles.

If Plater doesn’t turn out to be quite what you’re looking for, KuiNameplates is a similar addon. One thing to note with any nameplate addon is that blizzard doesn’t allow addons to modify friendly nameplates inside of instances. So no matter what you do with those nameplates through addons, they won’t work inside of a dungeon or raid. Enemy nameplates do still work, however!

OPie

• Download: CurseForge
• Profiles: Wago
• Command: /opie

OPie lets you bind almost any ability in the game to customizable radial menus. This includes spells, items, professions, battle pets, equipment sets, macros, and raid or world markers. There are a few premade rings included by default, such as a ring that displays all of your quest items.

This addon is incredibly useful for cleaning up your interface. No need to clutter up your action bars with abilities you don’t use in combat. Now you can bring up a radial menu when you want to access those abilities, and they don’t have to take up space on your screen the rest of the time. Personally, I use it for consumables, buffs, hearthstones, and portals, among other things. OPie’s buttons can be customized with the Masque addon, which is also included in this list.

Bartender4

• Download: CurseForge
• Command: /bartender

Bartender4 replaces your action bars with customizable ones. This also includes your stance bar, pet bar, bag bar, micro menu, and XP/reputation bar. You can change the appearance, size, positioning, and transparency of these bars, and even set conditions for them to fade or hide.

If Bartender4 isn’t your cup of tea, there’s also Dominos, which does a lot of the same things in a slightly different way. You can further modify the look of Bartender buttons with the Masque addon, which is also included in this list.

Bagnon

• Download: CurseForge
• Command: /bagnon

Bagnon adds some useful features to your containers, including showing their contents in a single window, highlighting important items, sorting, and searching. These features apply to your personal inventory, your bank, your void storage, and your guild bank. Some of these features have been added to the game itself for Dragonflight, but Bagnon still has more customizability than the default bag system. It’s especially useful in WoW Classic, where the UI is a little more old-school.

A similar addon that’s also worth mentioning is AdiBags, which offers an alternative method of sorting for your inventory. AdiBags doesn’t have the same scope as Bagnon, though. For example, it doesn’t include guild banks.

Masque

• Download: CurseForge
• Skins: GitHub
• Command: /masque

Masque is a skinning addon that lets you change the look of your buttons, be they action bar buttons, bag buttons, or auras. It plugs into addons like ElvUI, OPie, Bartender4, and Bagnon, letting you create a consistent custom look across all of your buttons. There are a lot of different skins available for Masque, all linked on the addon’s GitHub.

Prat

• Download: CurseForge
• Command: /prat

Prat is a deeply customizable chat addon. With it, you can change just about every aspect of your chat window’s appearance and functionality. You can add class colors and character levels to players’ names, as well as timestamps. Your chat history can also be saved between sessions. You can copy text, including URLs. Chat windows can be resized and re-positioned, and their fonts and coloring changed.

Another chat addon that’s worth mentioning is WIM (WoW Instant Messenger), which creates a new chat window for every conversation you have in whispers. It’s a good way to keep track of multiple conversations for all you social butterflies out there. You’ll never find yourself accidentally replying to the wrong person again!

Titan Panel

• Download: CurseForge
• Command: /titan

Titan Panel adds a bar to the top and/or bottom of your screen to which you can add all sorts of data texts. Data texts offered by default include bags, clock, gold, location, repair status, volume control, and XP. Other addons can add their own data texts as well. For example, you can have an addon’s options menu available at a click.

The bar(s) can be customized in terms of scale, font, and background skin, among other things.

SexyMap

• Download: CurseForge
• Command: /sexymap

SexyMap lets you customize your minimap, including size, positioning, and border. You can also modify the clock, coordinates, and zone text, as well as which buttons appear and when.

If you don’t want to change how your minimap looks, but do want to be able to hide all those little addon icons that get added to it, you can try Minimap Button Button instead. It gives you one button to toggle all the others so they don’t clutter up your minimap anymore.