10 Best ACF Photo Gallery Field Alternatives in 2026
Updated September 7, 2026 · Ranked by how closely each plugin matches, from WordPress.org data · How this works
ACF Photo Gallery Field has 60,000+ 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 ACF Photo Gallery Field
- 1
Gallery Custom Links
Closest match4.7 (206) 30,000+ active installsGallery Custom Links allows you to link images to a specified URL. Tested with WordPress Gallery, Gutenberg, the Meow Gallery and others.
Shares the custom, gallery tags on WordPress.org. About half the installs, last updated 18 days ago.
- 2
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 acf, fields tags on WordPress.org. About 33 times the installs, last updated 10 days ago.
- 3
Lazy Blocks
Paid version availableCustom Block Builder – Lazy Blocks
4.9 (80) 20,000+ active installsEasily create custom blocks and custom meta fields for Gutenberg without hard coding.
Shares the custom, fields tags on WordPress.org. About a third of the installs, last updated 7 days ago.
- 4
Advanced Custom Fields: Extended
4.8 (132) 100,000+ active installsAll-in-one enhancement suite that improves WordPress & Advanced Custom Fields.
Shares the acf, fields tags on WordPress.org. About 1.7 times the installs, last updated 11 days ago.
- 5
4.0 (24) 30,000+ active installsThe Custom Field Template plugin extends the functionality of custom fields.
Shares the fields tag on WordPress.org. About half the installs, last updated 27 days ago.
- 6
5.0 (91) 300,000+ active installsCMB2 is a metabox, custom fields, and forms library for WordPress that will blow your mind.
Shares the fields tag on WordPress.org. About 5 times the installs, last updated May 31, 2026.
- 7
4.5 (21) 10,000+ active installsCustom blocks for WordPress made easy.
Shares the fields tag on WordPress.org. 10,000+ installs against 60,000+, last updated April 20, 2026.
- 8
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 fields tag on WordPress.org. About 1.5 times the installs, last updated 17 days ago.
- 9
4.9 (20) 50,000+ active installsSmart Custom Fields is a simple plugin for managing custom fields.
Shares the custom tag on WordPress.org. A similar number of installs, last updated July 16, 2026.
- 10
MetaSlider
Paid version availableSlider, Gallery, and Carousel by MetaSlider – Image Slider, Video Slider
4.6 (738) 500,000+ active installsSlider, gallery, carousel plugin for WordPress. Build your image slider, video slider, post slider, YouTube slider, or WooCommerce product slider.
Shares the gallery tag on WordPress.org. About 8.3 times the installs, last updated 7 days ago.
Switching from ACF Photo Gallery Field: common questions
What is the best alternative to ACF Photo Gallery Field?
Gallery Custom Links is the closest match: it shares the same WordPress.org tags and has 30,000+ active installs with a 4.7 out of 5 rating.
Which ACF Photo Gallery Field alternative has the most users?
Advanced Custom Fields, with 2 million+ active installs reported by WordPress.org.
Which ACF Photo Gallery Field alternative is rated highest?
CMB2, rated 5.0 out of 5 by 91 reviewers. Only plugins with at least 50 reviews are counted.
Are these ACF Photo Gallery Field 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 ACF Photo Gallery Field 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 ACF Photo Gallery Field 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
Gallery Custom Links is the closest match to ACF Photo Gallery Field by the data we track, and Advanced Custom Fields has the widest reach with 2 million+ active installs. MetaSlider shipped the most recent release, on August 31, 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.