Custom Fields or Advanced Custom Fields allow you to add content entries to theAdditional data or metadata beyond the default fields. For example, if you have a blog, the default fields might include post title, body content, author and date. With custom fields introduced in WordPress development, you can add additional fields such as featured images, excerpts, content ratings, video embeds, and more.

Why do you need the Custom Fields plugin?

Custom fields make it very easy to add extra data to content. They help you build content the way you want it in a user-friendly way. The best custom fields plugins have the following advantages that make creating, editing and displaying this extra data super smooth:

• Flexible content settings: Custom fields can add any additional data fields needed for the content, not just the title and body.
• Better front-end display: This additional structured data allows for the creation of more engaging content presentations on websites.
• Easy Editing: Top-level plug-ins seamlessly integrate custom field editing into normal content editing screens for easy data entry.
• Powerful Output Functions: They provide powerful methods for querying, filtering and exporting custom field data via templates or application interfaces for front-end use.

Top Custom Fields Plugin

1. Advanced Custom Fields (ACF)

Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) is a popular WordPress plugin used by over 1 million users. It makes it easy to add custom fields to your WordPress website, enhancing the way content is managed and displayed. With ACF, various types of fields can be added to posts, pages and other content types to create more dynamic content for them.

Key Features

• Wide range of field types: Supports many different field types, from basic text fields to advanced options such as date pickers.
• usability: Easy to use, just basic knowledge of form fields.
• Professional Edition Enhancements: The Pro version offers more field types and advanced features.
• Flexible display options: Custom fields can be displayed by editing template files or using page builder plugins such as Elementor, Divi Builder and Brizy.

Types of fields provided by ACF

• Text fields: text, textarea, email, URL, password
• Selectors: select, checkbox, radio button, button group, true/false
• Media: images, files, oEmbed, WYSIWYG editor
• Date and time: date picker, date time picker, time picker
• Advanced: scope, Google Maps, post objects, page links, relationships, categories, users
• User interface elements: color picker, info, collapsible, tab groups

Professional Editionfunctionality

Upgrading to ACF Pro gives you access to more features, including:

• Added 14+ ACF fields: Expanded choice of field types.
• Advanced Field Validation: Enhanced validation options for custom fields.
• Flexible Content as Page Builder: Create complex page layouts using flexible content fields.
• Performance mode: optimizing website metadata.
• ACF Forms Manager: Manages forms created using ACF.
• Options Page/Block Type Manager: Additional management tools for options pages and block types.
• Multi-language support: WPML and Polylang support multi-language websites.

2. Pods

Pods is an excellent choice for WordPress users who need a powerful and easy-to-use custom content management tool.Pods supports a wide range of field types and integrated features that can help you build a more dynamic and personalized WordPress website.Pods is a versatile WordPress plugin that provides multiple solutions for creating custom post types and custom field groups.

Key Highlights

• Customize post types and fields: Easily create and manage custom post types and custom fields.
• Flexible field group assignment: Assign custom field groups to existing post types or create new ones.
• Integration with other plug-ins:: In conjunction with the YARPP, Polylang, Elementor Pro and Brizy Pro and other plugins work together seamlessly.

Supported Field Types

• Text fields: plain text, plain paragraph text
• Contact information: website, telephone, e-mail
• Security field: password
• Editor: WYSIWYG editor, code (syntax highlighting)
• Date and time: date/time, date, time
• Numeric fields: general numeric, currency
• Media and relations: documents, relations, symbiosis
• User interface elements: checkboxes, color pickers

Pods are completely free to use!

3. JetEngine

JetEngine is a powerful WordPress plugin developed by Crocoblock and designed to work with Elementor. This versatile plugin not only creates custom fields, but also offers a range of features to enhance your WordPress website. Using JetEngine, you can create custom post types, custom forms, dynamic content, and more, making it a must-have tool for advanced WordPress website development.

Key Highlights

• Multi-functional customization: Create custom fields, custom post types, and custom forms to meet your specific needs.
• dynamic content: Add dynamic content to Elementor pages, including dynamic calendars and maps.
• List Site Features: Ideal for creating listing sites such as property listings or car rental sites.

Supported Field Types

• Basic fields: text, text area, numbers
• Date and time: date, time, datetime
• Media: press, galleries
• Editor: WYSIWYG Editor
• Selectors: checkboxes, radio boxes, selections, toggles, icon pickers, color pickers

4. Meta Box

Meta Box is a popular WordPress plugin used by more than 500,000 users to create custom fields. It is a free plugin, i.e. both free and paid versions are available. Unlike other custom field plugins, the free version of Meta Box requires the use of an online custom field generator. After creating a custom field online, you will get a PHP snippet to paste into the theme's functions.php Documentation.

Key Highlights

• Rich field types: Multiple field types are supported to meet different needs.
• Online Field Generator: Create custom fields using the online builder and then integrate them into your WordPress site via PHP code.
• Advanced Options: The paid version unlocks more features and an easier way to manage custom fields directly from the WordPress dashboard.

Supported Field Types

• Basic fields: text, textarea, number, URL, email, password
• Selectors: checkbox, checkbox list, radio, select, select advanced, autocomplete
• Media and Content: Image, Image Advanced, Video, File, File Advanced, File Input, WYSIWYG Editor, oEmbed
• Date and time: date, date time, time
• Special Fields: Google Maps, Color Picker, Slider, Range, Field Set Text, Text List, Post, Category, Category Advanced, User
• UI elements: buttons, hides, dividers, headers

5. Toolset (Toolset)

Toolset is a powerful WordPress plugin for creating custom fields, custom post types and custom forms. Unlike the other plugins mentioned above, Toolset is a paid plugin with no free version. As such, it is particularly suitable for web agencies and professionals who develop websites for their clients, providing a comprehensive set of features for advanced website customization.

Key Highlights

• Fully customized: Allows you to create custom fields, custom post types and custom forms, providing a versatile tool for web development.
• professional level: Ideal for networking companies and professionals to ensure robust and reliable functionality for client projects.
• user-friendly interface: Despite its power, Toolset is designed to be user-friendly, making it accessible to users of all skill levels.

6. Customized Field Suite (CFS)

Custom Field Suite (CFS) is a free and simple WordPress plugin that allows you to create custom fields for your website. It supports 13 different field types and provides flexibility and ease of use by allowing custom field sets to be assigned to default post types, pages, or custom post types.

Key Highlights

• free of charge: Powerful features are available to all users for free.
• Multiple field types: 13 field types are supported to meet a variety of content customization needs.
• Flexible allocation: Easily assign custom field groups to posts, pages, or custom post types.

Supported Field Types

• Basic fields: text, textarea, WYSIWYG editor, date, color
• Selectors: checkboxes (true/false), selections
• Relationships: relationships, terms, users
• Media and structure: file uploads, loops, tags

7. WCK Custom Field Creator

Custom Post Types and Custom Fields creator - WCK is a user-friendly WordPress plugin that provides a graphical interface for setting up custom meta boxes with custom fields for posts, pages or custom post types. It uses standard custom fields to store data and can display these custom fields using code or the Swift Templates module.

Key Highlights

• Easily create custom fields: Quickly create custom fields for any post type with support for a variety of input types such as text, text box, select, checkbox, radio box, WYSIWYG editor, upload, and more.
• Repeater field: Repeater fields and repeater groups are supported, and fields can be sorted using the drag and drop feature.
• Advanced targeting: Highly flexible with page-specific templates, customizable post types and unique IDs.

Supported Field Types

• Basic fields: text, textarea, selection, checkbox, radio box, number, HTML, time picker, phone, currency selection, color picker, title
• Advanced fields: WYSIWYG editor, upload (uploading images/files via WordPress media uploader)

Custom post types and taxonomies

• Customize post types: Create and edit custom post types from the admin UI with advanced tagging options.
• Customized Taxonomy: Create and manage custom taxonomies and attach them to built-in and custom post types.

8. Smart Custom Fields (Smart Custom Fields)

Smart Custom Fields is a simple and straightforward plugin designed to help you effectively manage custom fields on your WordPress site. It provides an easy way to enhance your content by adding various types of custom fields to your posts, pages or custom post types.

Key Highlights

• Support for field group loops: Easily manage groups of repeating fields, making the handling of complex data structures simple.
• Metadata revision support: Tracking changes made to metadata through revision support ensures that you can always revert to a previous version if needed.
• Support for metadata preview: Previewing metadata before saving helps you make sure everything looks right before enabling it.

Supported Field Types

• Basic fields: text, textarea, radio box, selection, check box
• Editors and media: WYSIWYG editors, images, files
• Relationships: related articles, related terms
• Selectors: color selector, date selector, datetime selector, boolean selector

9. WooCommerce Custom Product Plugin

WooCommerce Custom Product Addons is a lightweight plugin that simplifies the process of adding custom fields to WooCommerce product pages. By using the easy-to-use custom form builder, additional product options can be quickly added to personalize and diversify your product pages.

Key Highlights

• Easy customization: Use the drag-and-drop form builder to personalize WooCommerce product pages with custom fields and options.
• Enhanced order details: Additional form data submitted by the customer will be displayed in the backend and included in the order details.
• wide range of uses: Ideal for collecting additional information from customers such as notes, dates, colors and personalized text.

Supported Field Types

WooCommerce Custom Product Addons contains a variety of form elements to enhance product pages:

• Text field: collects text data.
• Numeric field: accepts numeric input.
• Radio bar: select one of several options.
• Checkbox field: select multiple options.
• Selection field: drop-down list for selection.
• Text Area field: Enter longer text details.
• Date fields: custom date picker and HTML5 default date picker.
• Color field: HTML5 color picker (browser dependent).
• Hidden Fields: Hidden inputs for administrators only.
• Password field: Secure collection of passwords
• Email field: validates the email address.
• Grid layout: two-column grid layout for fields
• Conditional Fields: Show or hide fields based on other field values.

Other supported HTML tags

• Paragraph (p) tags: Use HTML to set up descriptions on product pages.
• Heading (h) tags: Use HTML heading tags (h1, h2, h3) on product pages.

reach a verdict

Unleash the true potential of your WordPress website by using a custom field plugin. Choose plugins that offer multiple field types, intuitive editing interfaces, and seamless integration with popular page building tools. For e-commerce sites, prioritize plugins that allow you to easily add custom fields to product pages and enhance the shopping experience.