It’s been quite a year for the ACF team and our users in the WordPress community. We’ve released new capabilities and features, stayed in touch through ACF Chat Fridays, and introduced new ways to install and update ACF.

TL;DR – Releases in 2024 allowed developers to install the free version of ACF with Composer, validate fields in ACF Blocks and store field data in the post meta table, launched a new Icon Picker field type, and included security enhancements and other improvements into a total of 25 releases throughout the year.

Let’s look back on the ACF highlights in 2024:

Achievements

ACF earned three different awards in 2024, all of them in competitions voted on by users.

The first award came in April, when ACF was named the top competitor in Torque’s Plugin Madness, a ladder-style tournament that starts with 64 plugins. This year’s competition means back-to-back wins for ACF, as we also clinched the top spot in 2023.

ACF was also voted the winner in the Best WordPress Dynamic Plugin category in the 2024 Monster’s Awards, an annual competition of the best WordPress products organized by TemplateMonster.

Finally, ACF was voted the best “Dynamic Data Plugin” in the 2024 WP Awards, as well as receiving the most votes in any category.

It’s always good to see ACF honored in these competitions, but we also love when users leave us glowing reviews:

Screenshot showing two recent reviews of the ACF plugin. The text reads: “One of the Best WordPress Plugins, lucidstudios, December 17, 2024: One of the best plugins I have ever used. ACF has helped me extend WordPress in lots of different ways and helped me build lighting fast websites.” and “Great Plugin, fantastic team!, Dan D, December 16, 2024, ACF is a fantastic plugin, with a great team behind it!”

Plugin Releases

We had a total of 25 releases in 2024, including 8 security releases and 1 major version release, ACF 6.3. This introduced validation support for fields in ACF Blocks and the ability to store ACF Block field data in the post meta table, as well as enhancements to the experience of selecting the menu icon for custom post types and ACF Options Pages, and improvements to the experience of selecting relational fields in conditional logic rules. It also included a brand new field type, the Icon Picker field.

ACF Blocks enhancements

Field validation is a powerful ACF feature, and the release of ACF PRO 6.3 brought this power to ACF Blocks. Introducing validation for fields within ACF Blocks allows rules like required fields, minimum and maximum values, and custom rules. This validation works the same as for post-wide fields and is enabled by default. Existing posts with ACF Blocks will be validated upon editing, and saving is prevented if validation fails. Validation can be disabled by adding validate: false to the block.json file.

An example of field validation in an ACF Block. In this case, a value is required for a field named "Quote," but it has not been supplied. The block will not save until all of the required fields have valid inputs.

By default, WordPress stores block field data in the post_content column. Starting with ACF PRO 6.3, ACF allows storing this data in the post meta table using the usePostMeta: true attribute in the block.json file. This facilitates easier querying and can be used to create custom post types with structured data entry.

Block Bindings API support

ACF PRO 6.2.8 included support for the WordPress Block Bindings API, introduced in WordPress 6.5. The Block Bindings API allows linking block attributes to external data sources such as custom fields (post meta) or custom PHP logic. This integration enables dynamic data display within existing blocks, complementing ACF Blocks by surfacing post or page meta in the block editor without the need for creating separate custom blocks for each field.

You can see a demo of how to use ACF Blocks with the Block Bindings API in the April 26th session of ACF Chat Fridays.

Icon picker

The past year also included the introduction of the first new field type in quite some time: the Icon Picker. This field gives developers a way to provide a user-friendly interface for choosing icons and supports various return formats, including string and array, to accommodate different use cases.

A view of the Icon Picker field in the WordPress admin.

Enhanced conditional logic controls

Significant improvements have been made to the conditional logic feature. ACF allows you to set conditional logic rules to show and hide fields based on the value of another field in that group, empowering you to create dynamic forms. However, the previous experience could be challenging, as you needed to know the ID of the field to enter in the rule.

Now, whenever a Taxonomy, User, Relationship, Post Object, or Page Link field is used in a conditional logic rule, you can actually select from the data in the field without having to know the IDs. One of our ACF Chat Fridays sessions included a demo of the new conditional logic improvements.

Selecting a user for conditional logic field rules - before.

HPOS Support

The first alpha release for ACF 6.4 introduced support for WooCommerce High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS). The testing phase is now complete, and the alpha release is no longer available. Watch for the full release of ACF 6.4 in 2025. In the meantime, you can see a demo of HPOS support we conducted during a session of ACF Chat Fridays.

Security Enhancements

We rolled out a number of updates throughout 2024 to address vulnerabilities and improve the overall security of the plugin. Please see the changelog for a complete list. I’ll hit the high points below.

  • Unsafe HTML Handling: Starting with ACF 6.2.5, the plugin addressed the issue of unsafe HTML handling by running the ACF shortcode output through wp_kses to escape unsafe HTML. This change was extended to the_field and the_sub_field functions in subsequent updates, ensuring that these functions also output HTML-safe values by default. Users can opt-in to disable this automatic escaping using specific filters.

  • Field Value Access: ACF 6.3.6 introduced a security measure where newly added fields must be explicitly set to allow access in the content editor, enhancing the security around field permissions.

  • Shortcode Security: Starting with ACF 6.3, the shortcode is disabled by default for new installations, and users must enable it if necessary. Additional filters were introduced to limit the data the shortcode can access, such as the acf/shortcode/prevent_access filter.

  • External Security Audit and Fixes: ACF conducted an external security audit and released numerous versions with security fixes. For example, ACF 6.2.7 fixed several security issues, including enforcing alphanumeric characters for field and layout names, preventing HTML rendering in select2 fields, and introducing a filter to limit shortcode access. Later versions, such as ACF 6.3.2 and 6.3.9, continued to patch various security vulnerabilities, including issues related to AJAX-enabled fields, permissions verification, and preventing stored XSS vulnerabilities.

  • Minimum Version Requirements: Starting with ACF 6.3, the minimum required versions for PHP and WordPress were raised to 7.4 and 6.0, respectively, to ensure users keep their environments updated to the latest secure versions.

Website Enhancements

The ACF site at advancedcustomfields.com has been updated with our new logo and WP Engine branding. We’ve also created a new Downloads page to help our users make sure they’re downloading the latest version of the real ACF plugin.

The new ACF Downloads page.

On a somewhat related note, we introduced a new process for installing and updating to the latest version of ACF. We recommend using the new process going forward, as it will ensure you always have the latest copy of the real ACF plugin.

Speaking of installs, it’s always been possible to install ACF PRO with Composer, but in 2024 we made it possible to install the free version of ACF with Composer using our service as well.

Expanded ACF Blocks guides

We started pushing ahead on documenting how to get started with ACF Blocks in 2023, and we’ve continued to create tutorials and guides throughout 2024, including how to extend ACF Blocks with block supports, disable field validation, save ACF Block values to post meta, use block context with ACF Blocks, and compile multiple ACF Blocks with scripts.

Getting started with ACF

ACF is so powerful and flexible that you can use it to do practically anything. That can actually be a bit of a problem for new users, who might be confused about where and how to start. That’s why we introduced a video series in 2024 designed to get new users up to speed quickly. The series starts with an introductory video on how ACF works, moves on to custom fields and field groups, and then gives informative overviews of creating custom posts and custom taxonomies with ACF.

We also put out some more advanced guides in 2024, including a look at security best practices when using ACF, and a guide on how to improve ACF’s performance on your WordPress site.

ACF Community and Feedback

Following the success of our first annual user survey in 2023, we ran a similar survey 2024 to help chart changes in the ACF plugin over time and gather useful feedback. The 2024 survey helped to deepen our understanding of user preferences, development practices, and emerging trends within the WordPress ecosystem. Check out the results from the 2024 user survey and gain some insight into how developers like you are adapting to the latest advancements in WordPress.

Some results from the 2024 ACF user survey.


I’ve already mentioned ACF Chat Fridays a few times in this post, mostly linking to demos we’ve conducted during the sessions. We held a total of 16 of these open office hour sessions in 2024, with more to come in 2025. Everyone is welcome to attend, and it’s still one of the best ways to interact directly with the development team and other ACF users. You can see past sessions here or on YouTube, and make sure to register for the next session.

ACF was also a part of DE{CODE} 2024, WP Engine’s virtual developer conference. During the session, Rob Stinson and Liam Gladdy walked attendees through different examples of custom blocks that can be created using ACF. The session helped to showcase the versatility and power of ACF Blocks in combination with the WordPress block editor.

ACF in 2025

We’re hard at work on ACF 6.4, and should have another alpha release available for testing early in 2025. In addition to adding support for WooCommerce’s HPOS, ACF 6.4 will include a significant refactor of how ACF stores and retrieves field values, potentially reducing the number of queries needed. This refactor will make it easier to add future integrations.

ACF Blocks will likely see some new features and enhancements in 2025 as well, such as a new UI for registering ACF Blocks directly within the plugin, and inline editing for Text and Text Area fields within the block editor. Inline editing is primarily intended to make the content editing experience for ACF Blocks smoother and more aligned with native WordPress blocks. This would allow content editors to edit ACF fields directly in the block preview mode without switching to edit mode.

We’re also going to look into adding custom icon library support to the Icon Picker field. While this is a highly-requested feature, there are some implementation challenges, such as pagination and search functionality within large icon sets. If everything goes well, we may even expand the Icon Picker’s functionality to serve as a general purpose “media picker,” giving you the ability to allow content editors to choose from a pre-selected set of various media types: images, audio clips, video files, etc.

Development is proceeding at a rapid pace. Make sure to sign up for our mailing list for the latest news, and stay up to date by registering for ACF Chat Fridays.

Statistics

Let’s take a look at some of the stats from the past year.

Development

The engineering team has continued to do great work in 2024:

  • Shipped 1 major release
  • Shipped 16 minor releases, release candidates, and betas
  • Shipped 8 security releases
  • Pushed 2,257 commits of code

Support

The ACF support team continued their amazing work in 2024:

  • Answered a total of 10,765 tickets (+866)
  • Sent a total of 17801 replies
  • An average of 897 tickets per month (+72)
  • Average customer satisfaction score of 95.83% (+2.33%)

Community Engagement Stats

  • Held 16 sessions of ACF Chat Fridays
  • Surveyed 1,350 users in our annual survey
  • Published 75 blog posts, tutorials, and updated docs
  • Held 3 WP Engine Builder sessions dedicated to ACF

Usage

The free version of ACF is at 2 million+ installs, with WordPress.org reporting that over 50% of them are running ACF 6.3:

A graph showing installs of the free version of ACF by version number. 6.3 has the highest share at over 50%.

Let’s have a look at data about sites that activated ACF PRO in 2024:

ACF Major Version

ACF version % sites
6.3 68.4%
6.2 30.3%
6.1 0.4%

WordPress Version

WP version % sites
6.6.2 24.5%
6.6.1 12.5%
6.4.3 11.5%
6.7.1 10.5%
6.5.5 7.3%
6.5.3 5.9%

PHP Version

PHP version % sites
8.2 34.8%
8.1 25.3%
7.4 20.2%
8.3 8.5%
8 7.8%

I’m particularly pleased to see the increase in use of PHP 8+ this year. Last year, PHP 7.4 topped the chart with 37%!

Thanks

As I reflect on the past year, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to the ACF team and the wider WP Engine company. Your dedication and hard work have been instrumental in driving our progress and expanding the capabilities of ACF.

The last few months of 2024 were certainly challenging, but it was amazing to see such support for ACF from the community. We see you and appreciate you!

As we look forward to 2025, we are excited to continue building such a special plugin and we hope to make it even more awesome. Your continued feedback and participation are crucial in helping us shape the future of ACF. Please let us know in the comments what you would like to see from us in the coming year.

Thank you once again for being an integral part of our journey. Here’s to another year of innovation and collaboration!