We launched the first-ever ACF Annual Survey earlier this year, and now we’re ready to share the results! Our sincere thanks to everyone who participated in the survey and helped us to discover how you’re using ACF’s fields and features. You’ve helped to focus the development team’s efforts on what matters most to you.
In addition, the survey data has helped us create a more complete picture of our users and how you’re using ACF to build WordPress sites.
The final results reveal interesting insights about ACF and how you’re using it, but it doesn’t stop there. We also took the opportunity to ask you about your preferred deployment methods, favorite page builders, and much more.
Dive into the results below.
Results
What best describes your role with using ACF?
| Answer |
# |
% |
| Developer/Engineer |
1,650 |
81.24% |
| Business Owner |
142 |
6.99% |
| Designer |
156 |
7.68% |
| Editor/Marketer |
25 |
1.23% |
| Other |
58 |
2.85% |
| TOTAL |
2,031 |
|
Many of the “Other” responses to this question were combinations of existing choices, such as “Designer/Business Owner/Developer,” and “Developer/Designer.”
Which of the following best describes how often you use ACF when building WordPress sites?
| Answer |
# |
% |
| I use ACF for all of my sites |
1,426 |
70.23% |
| I use ACF for some of my sites |
605 |
29.77% |
Which of the following best describes your work?
| Answer |
# |
% |
| I work at an agency |
929 |
45.74% |
| I am a freelancer |
765 |
37.67% |
| I work at a brand |
248 |
12.21% |
| Other |
89 |
4.38% |
How many developers work at your company?
| Answer |
# |
% |
| Sole developer |
148 |
11.7% |
| 1 – 3 |
662 |
52.38% |
| 4 – 10 |
313 |
24.76% |
| 11 – 20 |
61 |
4.83% |
| More than 20 |
80 |
6.33% |
| TOTAL |
1,264 |
|
How many sites do you maintain ongoing client support for in a given month?
| Answer |
# |
% |
| 0 – 10 |
597 |
35.79% |
| 11 – 50 |
713 |
42.75% |
| 51 – 200 |
305 |
18.28% |
| 201 – 500 |
43 |
2.58% |
| More than 500 sites |
10 |
0.6% |
What types of WordPress sites are you typically building?
| Answer |
# |
| Classic WordPress – PHP templates with the block editor disabled |
1,143 |
| Block based using a block theme |
668 |
| Full site editing theme with the block editor |
382 |
| Hybrid – Some FSE, some block editor, some classic |
786 |
| Page Builder sites, using a page builder |
675 |
| Headless WordPress sites |
292 |
| Other |
114 |
Please note that respondents could enter more than one answer for this question, so the total number of replies is greater than the number of people who participated in the survey.
The “Other” option drew an eclectic mix of responses, such as “Heavy utilization of ACF for creating equivalent blocks, but allow focus on content instead of design/formatting,” “I build custom themes and use a mix of custom blocks and core blocks for page layouts,” and “I create custom themes from scratch for my clients.”
How would you rate your most recent support experience with ACF?
| Answer |
# |
% |
| 1 – Not at all helpful |
11 |
1.59% |
| 2 |
16 |
2.31% |
| 3 |
104 |
15.03% |
| 4 |
233 |
33.67% |
| 5 – Very helpful |
328 |
47.4% |
How important is ACF to your development workflow?
| Answer |
# |
% |
| 1 – Not at all important |
12 |
0.74% |
| 2 |
30 |
1.84% |
| 3 |
125 |
7.67% |
| 4 |
290 |
17.79% |
| 5 – Very important |
1,173 |
71.96% |
| TOTAL |
1630 |
|
How do you typically use the block editor for your sites?
| Answer |
# |
% |
| Building custom blocks with ACF Blocks |
634 |
55.52% |
| Building custom blocks with React |
52 |
4.55% |
| Using WordPress native blocks |
320 |
28.02% |
| Other |
136 |
11.91% |
| TOTAL |
1,142 |
|
A deeper look into the “Other” category provides interesting insights into how people are using ACF Blocks and the block editor.
Of the 154 respondents who selected “Other,” 82 indicated they use ACF Blocks in some way, usually in combination with WordPress native blocks or custom blocks built with React. Adding these to the respondents building exclusively with ACF Blocks, we find that a total of 62.7% of respondents (716 people) are using ACF Blocks to create custom blocks.
Which third-party ACF plugins have you used?
| Answer |
# |
| ACF Extended |
527 |
| Advanced Custom Fields: Gravity Forms Add-on |
427 |
| ACF Content Analysis for Yoast SEO |
389 |
| ACF: Better Search |
355 |
| ACF to REST API |
309 |
| Advanced Custom Fields: Table Field |
239 |
| ACF Field For Contact Form 7 |
153 |
| ACF Quick Edit Fields |
150 |
| ACF Columns |
136 |
| ACF Theme Code Pro |
132 |
| ACF Options Page Admin |
126 |
| ACF Custom Database Tables |
115 |
| Advanced Forms Pro |
113 |
| Advanced Custom Fields: Nav Menu Field |
102 |
| ACF Photo Gallery Field |
96 |
| ACF Options For Polylang |
95 |
| ACF Post-2-Post |
93 |
| ACF RGBA Color Picker |
88 |
| ACF qTranslate |
41 |
| Frontend Admin by DynamiApps |
20 |
How often do you use the following ACF fields?
For this question, we asked ACF users to rank how often they used each field (Never, Sometimes, Frequently, or Always). The table below shows the results of the “Always” score for each field, ranked by number of respondents.
| Field |
# |
% |
| Text |
1,246 |
76.21% |
| Text Area |
1,002 |
61.89% |
| Image |
960 |
59.55% |
| Repeater |
845 |
52.98% |
| WYSIWYG Editor |
758 |
47.11% |
| True / False |
628 |
39.50% |
| Link |
617 |
39.00% |
| Select |
582 |
36.74% |
| Checkbox |
528 |
33.00% |
| URL |
527 |
32.92% |
| Number |
511 |
32.16% |
| Radio Button |
480 |
30.17% |
| Email |
460 |
29.02% |
| Flexible Content |
444 |
28.19% |
| Post Object |
418 |
26.44% |
| Group |
394 |
25.21% |
| Tab |
396 |
25.16% |
| File |
346 |
21.86% |
| Relationship |
339 |
21.44% |
| Page Link |
319 |
20.29% |
| Taxonomy |
287 |
18.12% |
| Button Group |
268 |
17.22% |
| Clone |
267 |
17.06% |
| Gallery |
238 |
15.08% |
| Message |
183 |
11.75% |
| Date Picker |
174 |
11.04% |
| Accordion |
155 |
9.92% |
| Date Time Picker |
144 |
9.17% |
| oEmbed |
138 |
8.91% |
| Range |
131 |
8.49% |
| Color Picker |
125 |
8.01% |
| Time Picker |
121 |
7.71% |
| Password |
86 |
5.59% |
| User |
88 |
5.66% |
| Google Map |
77 |
4.93% |
Which page builder do you typically use?
| Answer |
# |
| Elementor |
298 |
| Divi |
91 |
| Bricks Builder |
60 |
| Beaver Builder |
54 |
| WPBakery |
52 |
| Oxygen |
52 |
| Avada Builder |
11 |
| Breakdance |
9 |
| Cornerstone |
7 |
| ACF Flexible Content fields |
5 |
| Brizy |
4 |
| Cwicly |
4 |
How long have you been using ACF?
| Answers |
# |
% |
| 0 – 6 months |
34 |
1.91% |
| 6 months – 1 year |
30 |
1.68% |
| 1 – 3 years |
207 |
11.62% |
| 3 – 5 years |
606 |
34.03% |
| Since its early days and beyond |
904 |
50.76% |
| TOTAL |
1,781 |
100% |
How comfortable are you with updating your WordPress site with the latest ACF version?
| Answer |
# |
% |
| 1 – Very uncomfortable |
21 |
1.28 |
| 2 |
20 |
1.22 |
| 3 |
80 |
4.88 |
| 4 |
280 |
17.07 |
| 5 – Very comfortable |
1,239 |
75.55 |
How likely are you to continue building sites with WordPress?
| Answer |
# |
% |
| 1- Very unlikely |
19 |
0.98% |
| 2 |
32 |
1.66% |
| 3 |
115 |
5.96% |
| 4 |
292 |
15.12% |
| 5- Very likely |
1,473 |
76.28% |
Do you typically use version control in your site development?
| Answer |
# |
% |
| Yes |
1,020 |
62.50% |
| No |
612 |
37.50% |
| TOTAL |
1,632 |
|
Do you currently work on any WordPress multisites?
| Answer |
# |
% |
| Yes |
807 |
41.79% |
| No |
1,124 |
58.21% |
| TOTAL |
1,931 |
|
Do you use Composer for your site builds to manage dependencies?
| Answer |
# |
% |
| Yes |
447 |
27.39% |
| No |
1,185 |
72.61% |
| TOTAL |
1,632 |
|
What tool do you typically use for local site development?
| Answer |
# |
% |
| Local |
648 |
39.71% |
| I don’t use a tool for local development |
292 |
17.89% |
| MAMP |
238 |
14.58% |
| Docker |
127 |
7.78% |
| Valet |
70 |
4.29% |
| Other |
64 |
3.92% |
| XAMPP |
42 |
2.57% |
| Laragon |
37 |
2.28% |
| WAMP |
36 |
2.2% |
| Vagrant |
25 |
1.53% |
| Lando |
22 |
1.35% |
| DDEV |
8 |
0.49% |
| Homebrew |
8 |
0.49% |
| DevKinsta |
8 |
0.49% |
| LAMP/LEMP |
7 |
0.43% |
| TOTAL |
1,632 |
|
Which of the following deployment methods do you use? Select all that apply.
| Answer |
# |
| FTP |
1,018 |
| Git Push on WP Engine |
290 |
| WP Migrate |
404 |
| All-in-One WP Migration |
369 |
| GitHub Action |
266 |
| Bitbucket pipelines |
157 |
| Local MagicSync |
66 |
| Other |
240 |
| None – I work directly in a site environment |
223 |
| Duplicator |
214 |
| WPvivid |
59 |
| Migrate Guru |
36 |
| DeployHQ |
31 |
| GitLab |
20 |
| Git Push (non-WP Engine) |
17 |
| UpdraftPlus |
16 |
| Local |
13 |
| Git Pull |
7 |
| Circle CI |
7 |
| Beanstalk |
6 |
| ManageWP |
6 |
| DeployBot |
5 |
