Custom Field Template vs Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®)

Head-to-head on the signals that matter, from the public WordPress.org data.

Custom Field Template

by Hiroaki Miyashita

Health B83

Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®)

by WP Engine

Health A94

Active-install trajectory

Custom Field Template Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®)

Active installs, each indexed to 100 at the start of the window. A line above 100 is growing its install base, below 100 is shrinking.

Metric	Custom Field Template	Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®)
Active installs Modeled from the public "N+" band and recent downloads.	30K–40K	2M–3M ✓
Install trend Change in active installs across the charted window.	0%	0%
Overall health	B · 83	A · 94 ✓
Maintenance How recently the plugin was updated.	100/100	100/100
Rating quality Volume-adjusted review quality.	74/100	88/100 ✓
Support Share of forum threads marked resolved.	70/100	92/100 ✓
Rating (adjusted)	3.97★	4.46★ ✓
Reviews	24	1,438 ✓
Ranking optimization How well the listing is tuned to rank on wp.org.	81/100	96/100 ✓
Removal risk Maintenance signals that precede a wp.org closure. Not an official status.	Low	Low
Last updated	14d ago	6d ago ✓
Downloads · 30d	8.9K	1.5M ✓
Category	Uncategorized	Uncategorized

✓ marks the stronger plugin on each row. Rows where they're level show no marker.

Release activity

Custom Field Template Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®)

7-day average daily downloads. Downloads spike for about a week after each release as the install base re-downloads, so read this as release cadence, not growth.