Advanced Custom Fields (ACF)

by WP Engine
Tested with WP 7.1.3 Free, GPLv2

Our take

ACF is the standard tool for turning WordPress into a structured content system, and the free version is enough for many projects: dozens of field types, custom post types and taxonomies from the admin. The most powerful field types, Repeater and Flexible Content, plus options pages and ACF blocks, require ACF PRO.

Good

  • Dozens of field types with a clean interface
  • Registers post types and taxonomies from the admin
  • Simple functions to show fields in templates
  • Widely documented and supported

Watch out

  • Repeater, Flexible Content and options pages are PRO
  • Showing fields on the site needs some template code

Advanced Custom Fields lets you add your own fields to WordPress edit screens: a price on a product, a date on an event, a rating on a review. You build field groups with a visual editor and choose where they appear, such as on a post type, a page template, users or categories.

Content modeling in the admin

Besides fields, ACF can register custom post types and taxonomies from its own interface, so you can build things like a book catalog or a team directory without writing registration code.

What you get for free

  • Text, number, image, file, link, select, date, relationship and many more field types
  • Location rules for where each field group appears
  • Custom post types and taxonomies
  • Developer functions such as get_field() for templates
  • REST API support

ACF PRO adds Repeater, Flexible Content, Gallery and Clone fields, options pages and ACF Blocks.