Field Forge is a WordPress custom fields plugin built by a small team of WordPress developers who were tired of watching the category stagnate. We built the plugin we wished existed: modern architecture with custom table storage, AI schema generation, native headless WordPress tooling, full ACF compatibility, and honest pricing.
The WordPress custom fields category had been effectively frozen since 2014. The dominant plugin (ACF) was built on wp_postmeta storage and a pre-AI architecture. Alternatives (Meta Box, Pods, Toolset, CMB2, Carbon Fields) all had trade-offs but none brought fundamentally new architecture to the table.
Then October 2024 happened. WordPress.org forked ACF into “Secure Custom Fields” during a public dispute with ACF’s owner WP Engine. The WordPress custom fields market became confusing overnight. Users were left asking: “Which one should I use? Does it matter? What’s the safe choice for the next 5 years?”
We thought the right answer was to stop retrofitting old architecture and build something new. Not as another ACF fork. Not as a minor feature addition to an existing plugin. Something built from scratch for WordPress in 2026 — custom table storage, AI features, TypeScript/GraphQL support — with full backward compatibility so nobody has to rewrite their theme to use it.
That’s Field Forge.
wp_postmeta was designed in 2003. It’s a generic key-value store that works for WordPress core’s simple needs. For custom fields at scale — especially with repeaters and nested structures — it creates N+1 query problems that bottleneck large sites.
Field Forge uses a dedicated indexed table for field values. Queries run 3–10x faster on large sites. This isn’t a premium feature — it’s the foundation.
The biggest obstacle to switching custom fields plugins isn’t the admin UI or the pricing. It’s that changing plugins usually means rewriting every get_field() call in your theme. For a site with hundreds of template files, this is weeks of work and real risk.
Field Forge implements the full ACF template function API as a compatibility layer. Your theme code keeps working unchanged. Migration is a one-hour task instead of a one-month project.
This is the feature that makes Field Forge actually usable for real sites, not just greenfield projects.
“AI features” have become WordPress plugin marketing checkboxes. A button that calls OpenAI with a generic prompt. A field that “uses AI to generate content.” Most of it is decorative.
We think AI in WordPress custom fields should solve a specific problem: setting up field groups. Describing what you want in plain English and getting a working field group back is a real productivity improvement. Field Forge is the only custom fields plugin that does this.
If you’re building with Next.js, Astro, Nuxt, or SvelteKit, you know custom fields are the hardest part of headless WordPress. No type safety. Inconsistent API responses. Plugin-specific integrations that lag behind updates.
Field Forge generates TypeScript definitions and GraphQL schema automatically. Your headless frontend gets type-safe access to custom fields without hand-writing types or maintaining a separate integration plugin.
The WordPress custom fields market has gotten complicated. ACF has Pro + Agency tiers with a 5x price jump. Meta Box has add-on pricing that adds up fast. Toolset has four tiers at different prices.
Field Forge has three tiers: $35 (1 site), $99 (10 sites), $169 (unlimited). Every feature is in every tier. No upsells. No “AI add-on” subscription. Your price is on the pricing page — that’s what you pay.
Field Forge is part of Forge Suite, a bundle of four WordPress plugins built by the same team:
All four plugins share a unified design system, a shared AI backend, and cross-plugin integrations. SEO Forge auto-detects Field Forge FAQ repeaters for structured data. Lang Forge can translate Field Forge values. Form Forge can post submissions to Field Forge custom fields.
If you’re running WordPress at scale, Forge Suite Bundle is cheaper than any two plugins separately.
Field Forge is built by a small team of engineers and designers at Avakode, founded by Tigran Avakov after a decade of building WordPress sites for clients who deserved better tools.
Avakode operates as Individual Entrepreneur Darya Avakova, registered in the Republic of Uzbekistan. Support, development, and business operations all come out of the same small team. When you email support, you get a reply from the person who wrote the feature you’re asking about.
We don’t have a sales department. We don’t have a growth team. Every person working on Field Forge writes code, writes documentation, or answers support tickets — usually all three in the same afternoon.
Get Field Forge — from $35/year →
Or download the free version from WordPress.org.