Introduction to Mass Custom Fields
3 min read
Mass Custom Fields adds your own data to WordPress: extra fields on posts, pages, users, terms, comments and options pages, plus custom post types, taxonomies and site-wide values you can print anywhere. It is built by WPMass.
What sets it apart is where the data lives.
Database-first, explained simply
Most custom field plugins store every value as a row in WordPress's postmeta table. That table is a long list of "name, value" pairs, and every value is stored as text. A site with 10,000 products and 20 fields has 200,000 rows to search through, and "price is under 500" has to convert text to a number on every query.
Mass Custom Fields works like a spreadsheet instead:
Typical custom fields | Mass Custom Fields | |
|---|---|---|
Storage | One row per value in | One table per field group, one column per field |
Value types | Everything is text | Numbers are numbers, dates are dates |
Filtering and sorting | Slow on large sites | Fast, because you can index the columns you filter by |
Where to look | One shared table with unrelated data | A table named |
A field group is a set of fields plus location rules (the rules that decide which edit screens show the group). Each group is backed by one database table, and each field is a column in that table. Values are linked to the post, user, term or comment by its ID.
You never have to touch the database. You build groups and fields on a normal admin screen, fill them in on the edit screen, and print them with a shortcode, a block, a page builder tag or a PHP function. The database design only matters when you have a lot of data or want to query it.
What is in the free plugin
- 30+ field types, including repeater, relationship and map.
- Custom post types, taxonomies and options pages.
- Global Data: site-wide values such as a phone number or opening hours.
- Variables: a small, safe template language such as
{{ glb.phone }}. - Blocks, page builder dynamic tags and a PHP API.
- Import and export as JSON, local JSON for version control, WP-CLI, and migration from Advanced Custom Fields.
Each of these is covered in its own section of this documentation: Field groups, and the other sections linked from the documentation home.
What Pro adds
Mass Custom Fields Pro is a paid upgrade. It adds Programmatic SEO (generating thousands of pages from a dataset), data tables, front-end forms, AI content with your own API key, WooCommerce order fields, admin column tools, advanced field types (gallery, flexible content, clone) and page builder widgets. Higher plans add scheduled sync, comparison pages, several data sources per task and multilingual support. See Plans and licensing.
Structure is free, workload is paid. Everything you build with the free plugin keeps working if you never buy Pro, and keeps working if a Pro license ends.
Where to go next
- Check the requirements and install the plugin.
- Walk through the setup wizard or skip it.
- Learn your way around the dashboard and the settings.
- Build your first field group: Field groups.
Getting help
- Free users: use the plugin's support forum on WordPress.org.
- Pro customers: email support. Open the plugin's Contact option or visit wpmass.com.
- Refunds: see the refund policy. Refund requests within 14 days of purchase are covered by it.
Include the plugin version, your WordPress and PHP versions, and any entry from WPM Fields › Settings › Health when you ask for help. See Health and troubleshooting.
Still stuck? Contact support