Meta Box

Description

You want to add events, team members, testimonials, or listings to your WordPress site. But the standard editor only handles posts and pages. You need something more, but you don’t want to overcomplicate things or slow down your site.

Meta Box gives you everything you need to build dynamic WordPress sites – with over 40+ field types for adding custom fields to posts, pages, custom post types, taxonomies, settings pages, users, and comments. It’s lightweight (no bloat), flexible (works with any theme or plugin), and fast (uses native WordPress storage). No lock-in, no extra baggage.

Any type of custom fields, anywhere

Add custom fields to any part of WordPress:

  • Posts & Pages – Add extra fields to regular content
  • Custom post types – Use with our free CPT UI plugin to create custom post types and taxonomies
  • Taxonomies – Categories, tags, and custom taxonomies via MB Term Meta
  • Settings pages – Theme/plugin options via MB Settings Page
  • Users – Profile fields via MB User Meta
  • Comments – Comment fields via MB Comment Meta

40+ field types (and you can add your own)

Meta Box ships with 40+ built-in field types: text, textarea, WYSIWYG, image, file upload, post select, checkbox, radio, date/time picker, taxonomy, user, oEmbed, and more. You can also create custom field types. Most fields support cloning and repeatable groups.

Developer-friendly by design

  • Lightweight API – Won’t bloat your site
  • Modular – Add only what you need
  • Native storage – Uses WordPress meta tables by default for speed and compatibility, and can be extended to custom tables for advanced setups
  • Composer support – Integrates with modern PHP workflows
  • Hooks – Extensive actions and filters for customization
  • Integration-ready – Works with any theme or plugin

Get more with Meta Box

Meta Box Lite is the UI version of Meta Box that helps you manage everything visually – custom fields, post types, taxonomies, and more – without touching code.

Meta Box AIO is an all-in-one plugin that bundles all free and premium extensions, giving you everything from conditional logic to frontend submissions, custom tables to Gutenberg blocks – all in one package.

Documentation

Full documentation and tutorials are available to get you started:

You might also like

If you like this plugin, you might also like our other WordPress products:

  • Slim SEO – A fast, lightweight and full-featured SEO plugin for WordPress with minimal configuration.
  • Falcon – A lightweight companion for making WordPress faster, cleaner, and more secure.
  • GretaThemes – Free and premium WordPress themes that clean, simple and just work.
  • Auto Listings – A car sale and dealership plugin for WordPress.

Screenshots

Installation

To install Meta Box:

  1. Visit Plugins > Add New inside your WordPress dashboard
  2. Search for Meta Box
  3. Click the Install Now button to install the plugin
  4. Click the Activate button to activate the plugin

Get started.

FAQ

Where do I report security bugs found in this plugin?

Please report security bugs found in the source code of the Meta Box – WordPress Custom Fields Framework plugin through the Patchstack Vulnerability Disclosure Program. The Patchstack team will assist you with verification, CVE assignment, and notify the developers of this plugin.

Reviews

July 6, 2026
I purchased the basic agency and then 2 extensions at separate times. I realized I should have purchased the ultimate agency instead and asked if I would be pro-rated if I did so. Anh Tran came in and pro-rated all purchases and the upgrade was done beyond what I had hoped. I was blown away by the fast response and the solution to my request. Plus the software does so many thing so very well. Totally recommended.
June 26, 2026
Although I admittedly don’t have extensive experience with alternatives, I have tried Pods, Toolset, and ACF, and Meta Box will for me always be the GOAT. Love this software. Makes WordPress the best CMS in the world. Try it and you won’t look back. The support, community, and docs are top notch. Disclaimer: I am a pro tier customer; but if you use and find value from this software, then you, too, should consider paying it forward and buying pro, even if you don’t need it. Happy hacking to all.
March 12, 2026
I love this as an alternative to ACF – it’s much more intuitive and takes a healthier modular approach; much more adaptable when working with various frameworks and much better gui for the non technical clients.
October 26, 2025
The performance is impressive, and the plugin is constantly maintained. It’s especially nice that it works seamlessly with Breakdance Visual Builder. Thanks to sample code from Metabox (thanks for the excellent documentation), I was finally able to configure a relationship I hadn’t been able to get past on my own.
July 5, 2025
MetaBox has been a game-changer for my WordPress development workflow. The usability is intuitive and highly functional — everything just makes sense and works seamlessly. What truly sets MetaBox apart, though, is the customer support. It’s hands down some of the best I’ve ever experienced. Fast, knowledgeable, and genuinely helpful. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a powerful and flexible custom fields plugin.
November 15, 2024 2 replies
Looks like it’s free to use in the admin but you have to pay for that.
Read all 164 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Meta Box” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

“Meta Box” has been translated into 22 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “Meta Box” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

5.13.1 – 2026-07-14

  • Fix missing authorization check in ajax_delete_file for enhanced security
  • Allow HTML in switch on/off and button group labels (e.g., Dashicons)

5.13.0 – 2026-07-06

Highlights:

This release introduces Abilities, enabling you to manage custom post types and taxonomies, as well as create, retrieve, update, and delete posts and terms.

See our blog post for an overview or the documentation for usage details.

Other changes:

  • Fix unable to scroll in full screen mode for the block_editor field (#1689)
  • Use WP_Query‘s search_columns instead of custom search_by_title filter
  • Fix autocomplete dropdown z-index in map/osm field inside MB Blocks

5.12.1 – 2026-06-10

  • Update style to match WordPress 7
  • Fix wp_style_add_data issue for OSM field
  • Fix: prevent invalid JSON in media field data attributes
  • Fix: escape $object->label with esc_html() in input-list walker

5.12.0 – 2026-04-22

  • New field type link that allows you to add a link with native WordPress experience (similar to ACF)
  • Auto add child blocks for allowed blocks for the block_editor field

5.11.4 – 2026-03-30

  • Add an internal hook for enqueuing custom blocks’ assets for block_editor field

5.11.3 – 2026-03-24

  • Add toolbar_position option for the block editor field, which accepts value top (default) or contextual. This option is for where to display editing toolbar for blocks.
  • Fix saving an empty paragraph in the block editor field
  • Fix validation error persisting after removing duplicate blocks
  • Fix extra empty clone saved when calling set_post_data() during validation

5.11.2 – 2026-03-05

Improvements for the block editor field:

  • Add breadcrumbs
  • Fix compatibility with Block Visibility plugin
  • Fix not loading 3rd-party blocks
  • Improve the CSS

Other changes:

  • Fix save time format for the datetime field
  • Fix icon field dropdown broken display when SVG contains double quotes
  • Fix path traversal in ajax_delete_file for security
  • Fix timestamp should not be set for the time picker field

5.11.1 – 2026-02-02

Improvements for the block editor field:

  • Add block inspector sidebar
  • Add structure panel to show the list view of blocks
  • Add fullscreen mode
  • Add height settings (default is 300px) and allow resizing the editor

Fixes for the block editor field:

  • Fix cannot upload images for the image block
  • Fix blank site editor when using the block editor field
  • Fix custom rich text formats not working
  • Fix conflicts with image_advanced and file_advanced fields

Other changes:

  • Fix cannot create new terms with required date/time fields

5.11.0 – 2026-01-15

5.10.19 – 2025-11-24

  • Fix the use statement with non-compound name has no effect

5.10.18 – 2025-11-24

  • Fix deprecation message for datetime field

5.10.17 – 2025-11-07

  • WPML integration: fix error when filtering value for helper functions when no fields are found.

5.10.16 – 2025-11-05

  • WPML integration: filter helper functions to get the translated IDs for post field
  • Fix cloning post field not clearing the value

5.10.15 – 2025-10-06

  • Add marker_draggable option for map/osm fields to disable changing the pin on the map.

5.10.14 – 2025-09-15

  • Update dependencies

5.10.13 – 2025-08-14

  • Fix get_current_screen() error for term meta

5.10.12 – 2025-08-13

  • Fix Open Street Maps field not showing (sometimes) with conditional logic
  • Enqueue assets for the iframed editor, to make all fields are rendered properly in the iframed editor

5.10.11 – 2025-07-15

Fix validation for blocks

5.10.10 – 2025-05-21

  • Fix datetime field returns null
  • Fix single image field not working with Polylang Pro
  • Fix reveal password icon not working

5.10.9 – 2025-05-08

  • Add button to toggle password (#1630)
  • Add gesture handling support for OSM field (#1631)
  • Datetime & select2: use user’s locale instead of site’s locale

5.10.8 – 2025-03-14

  • Redesign the dashboard

5.10.7 – 2025-02-25

  • Fix: max clone with clone empty start

5.10.6 – 2025-01-11

  • Fix validation for dash ids
  • Fix datetime fields not showing inline picker inside groups
  • Fix label_description not working for fieldset_text
  • Fix field label div still show when no field name but with label_description
  • Remove image_select field’s JS, styling with CSS only
  • Add gap for key value inputs

5.10.5 – 2024-12-16

  • Make validation for add new terms work
  • Improve styling of meta boxes on the sidebar in the block editor
  • Improve style of input with prepend and append
  • Fix maps/osm fields and geolocation not working with subfields in groups
  • Fix select advanced becomes normal select with cloneable setting
  • Fix validation

5.10.4 – 2024-11-20

  • OSM/Map fields: add support for select field type
  • Add $url to rwmb_oembed_not_available_string filter
  • Small CSS improvements for file input, background & button group
  • Fix not returning value for helper functions for images saving in a custom folder and using a custom table

5.10.3 – 2024-10-30

  • fix: std after saving
  • fix: field set text save empty values
  • fix: subfield’s id

5.10.2 – 2024-09-26

  • Fix issue with conditional logic
  • Fix error when removing default taxonomy meta box in the front end or with the block editor
  • Fix missing .hidden on the front end for checkbox_tree
  • Fix required attribute for select_tree

5.10.1 – 2024-09-07

  • Fix issue with clone_empty_start (validation, now showing data for the 1st clone, broken text_list field, etc.)

See full changelog here.