Q:

Is there an alternative jQuery menu plugin to Superfish?

While Superfish works, it's been around a while (it's packaged with jQuery 1.2.6!) and I'm looking for something a bit "fresher." Any suggestions? Simple and really easy/fast to set up, highly customizable, maybe with the ability to be a little flashier than Superfish.
EDIT: I suppose my issue is that it's a pain to configure. The CSS is not documented at all, and not laid out in a way where you can easily change the style of the nav and subnav separately. I have to use the Chrome inspector to figure out what to change. It should be simple than this to style.

A:

I disagree with Greg. I've been working with Superfish for a couple years, and each time I start a new project that uses it, I hate the part where I have to customize superfish. Try making variable width submenus? Or making menus more than 2 submenus deep? Or try making submenus pop out to the left (for a right aligned menu). The CSS is horribly written, as is the code itself. Sure it's lean, but a few more lines of code so that doesn't read like russian would be helpful. I'm not saying that it doesn't work... I am saying that I agree with the suggestion of the question... that if there were a better solution, I would use it. I too would like a menu plugin that's easier to work with and has more options, and for at least the next couple years, supports IE7 out of the box (superfish FAILS IE7 - requires a lame z-index fix).

A:

I think you would be hard-pressed. I just had a look at the code base for Superfish and it's pretty lean, while packing a tonne of functionality. Possibly the reason you don't see a lot of menu plugins is that Superfish is already doing a pretty good job for most. ;-) It's a graceful upgrade from pure CSS menus, detects hoverIntent, and just does the job.
In terms of looks, it comes with CSS but you're not married to it. And if you're talking about customizability, that's what you'll be doing anyhow: modifying or writing CSS. If you're looking for better appearances out of the box, that's one thing, but if you're talking about "customizable" and "ability to be flashier", it's already there.
So to answer the question: I suggest using Superfish. ;-)
Or even better, pure CSS menus. Delayed opening of sublevels is for the birds after the initial 'neat' factor goes away.
Or even better, menus that are designed to be less nested. Read an interesting article recently talking about how multi-level 'fly-out' menus are a UX nightmare that we're all just accustomed to, and after reading I tend to agree.

