10 Best Admin Columns Alternatives in 2026
Updated September 7, 2026 · Ranked by how closely each plugin matches, from WordPress.org data · How this works
Admin Columns has 100,000+ active installs on WordPress.org. These 10 plugins share its category or its tags on WordPress.org, are actively maintained, and each has at least 100 active installs. They are ordered by how closely they match, not by our opinion.
The 10 closest alternatives to Admin Columns
- 1
Pods
Closest matchPods – Custom Content Types and Fields
4.8 (418) 100,000+ active installsPods is a framework for creating, managing, and deploying customized content types and fields for any project.
Shares the custom fields tag on WordPress.org. A similar number of installs, rated 4.8 against 4.9, last updated 7 days ago.
- 2
Relevanssi – A Better Search
4.8 (405) 100,000+ active installsRelevanssi replaces the default search with a partial-match search that sorts results by relevance. It also indexes comments and shortcode content.
A similar number of installs, rated 4.8 against 4.9, last updated 21 days ago.
- 3
Meta Box – A Framework for Dynamic Websites
4.8 (165) 500,000+ active installsMeta Box plugin is a powerful, professional developer toolkit to create custom meta boxes and custom fields for your custom post types in WordPress.
Shares the custom fields tag on WordPress.org. About 5 times the installs, rated 4.8 against 4.9, last updated 4 days ago.
- 4
Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®)
4.5 (1,438) 2 million+ active installsACF helps customize WordPress with powerful, professional and intuitive fields. Proudly powering over 2 million sites, WordPress developers love ACF.
Shares the custom fields tag on WordPress.org. About 20 times the installs, rated 4.5 against 4.9, last updated 11 days ago.
- 5
4.6 (276) 1 million+ active installsAdmin UI for creating custom content types like post types and taxonomies
About 10 times the installs, rated 4.6 against 4.9, last updated July 14, 2026.
- 6
Royal Addons for Elementor – Addons and Templates Kit for Elementor
4.8 (611) 600,000+ active installsElementor templates, Header footer builder, Elementor Post Grid, Woocommerce Grid builder, Slider, Forms, Gallery, Nav menu addons, Elementor widgets.
About 6 times the installs, rated 4.8 against 4.9, last updated 21 days ago.
- 7
4.0 (24) 30,000+ active installsThe Custom Field Template plugin extends the functionality of custom fields.
Shares the custom fields tag on WordPress.org. About a third of the installs, last updated 27 days ago.
- 8
Custom Post Types and Custom Fields creator – WCK
4.7 (97) 10,000+ active installsA must have tool for creating custom fields, custom post types and taxonomies, fast and without any programming knowledge.
Shares the custom fields tag on WordPress.org. 10,000+ installs against 100,000+, rated 4.7 against 4.9, last updated July 15, 2026.
- 9
4.8 (64) 90,000+ active installsSecure Custom Fields boosts content management with custom fields and options. It deactivates Advanced Custom Fields to prevent duplicate code errors.
Shares the custom fields tag on WordPress.org. A similar number of installs, rated 4.8 against 4.9, last updated 17 days ago.
- 10
Elementor
Paid version availableElementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder
4.5 (7,297) 10 million+ active installsThe Elementor Website Builder has it all: drag and drop page builder, Atomic Editor, pixel perfect design, global and reusable style systems, mobile r …
About 100 times the installs, rated 4.5 against 4.9, last updated 7 days ago.
Switching from Admin Columns: common questions
What is the best alternative to Admin Columns?
Pods is the closest match: it shares the same WordPress.org tags and has 100,000+ active installs with a 4.8 out of 5 rating.
Which Admin Columns alternative has the most users?
Elementor, with 10 million+ active installs reported by WordPress.org.
Which Admin Columns alternative is rated highest?
Royal Addons for Elementor, rated 4.8 out of 5 by 611 reviewers. Only plugins with at least 50 reviews are counted.
Are these Admin Columns alternatives free?
Every plugin listed here is free to install from WordPress.org. Where WordPress.org marks a plugin as commercial, the developer also sells a paid version or add-ons, and that is shown on each plugin.
How are alternatives chosen?
Automatically, from WordPress.org data: plugins that share a category top 10 with Admin Columns score highest, then plugins that appear in the same WordPress.org rankings, then plugins with the same tags, weighted so rare tags count more than common ones. Plugins by the same author and plugins rated under 4.0 are left out.
How we choose these alternatives
Nothing on this page is picked by hand. Every day we walk the whole WordPress.org directory, then score every plugin against Admin Columns on three signals: sharing a category top 10 counts most, then appearing in the same WordPress.org rankings, then carrying the same tags, with rare tags counting for more than common ones like "wordpress". Plugins by the same author are excluded, so an author's own add-ons cannot fill the list, and so is anything rated below 4.0 or with fewer than 100 active installs. The ten highest scores are what you see, in that order. Full methodology.
The bottom line
Pods is the closest match to Admin Columns by the data we track, and Elementor has the widest reach with 10 million+ active installs. Meta Box shipped the most recent release, on September 3, 2026. The list is rebuilt every day from WordPress.org, so a plugin that stops being maintained drops out on its own.
Weekly · free
What moved this week
One email a week, built from the same daily snapshots these rankings come from: the plugins that climbed, what launched, and one ranking worth a look.