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New in 3.4.0 8 new features and 16 fixes November special 20% off every Pro plan with code NOVEMBER20 Black Friday 50% off every Pro plan until Sunday 29 November
WP Extended Modular WordPress toolkit , home
Admin Columns Pro

Show the columns your team needs in WordPress lists

Add custom fields, thumbnails and dates to the post, page, media, comment and user lists, and remove the columns nobody uses. Editors find what they need without opening each item.

Get Pro from $29/year or read the Admin Columns docs

Included in every Pro plan, alongside all the other modules.

included in every Pro plan
Pro
settings to configure
8
developer hooks
15
updates since 2025
4
A developer working late with WP Extended Code Snippets open across two monitors

Why you need Admin Columns

WordPress list screens show the same few columns on every site. The information an editor actually needs, like a custom field, an event date or a product code, is hidden inside each item.

Teams end up opening record after record to check one value.

What Admin Columns does

  • Every list screen

    Configure columns for posts, pages, custom post types, media, comments and users.

  • Custom field columns

    Choose a data source and meta key to show any custom field as a column.

  • Rename and hide

    Change column titles, and disable built-in columns you don’t need.

Set it up

In WordPress, open WP Extended and find Admin Columns under Admin Tools.

Full setup guide
  1. 01 Turn on Admin Columns under Admin Tools.
  2. 02 Choose a content type, such as Posts or Users.
  3. 03 Add a column, give it a title, choose the data source and meta key, then save.

What you can configure

8 settings, all included with Pro.

  • Content Type Select the content type to configure admin columns for.
  • User Columns Add custom columns for users admin list.
  • Comment Columns Add custom columns for the comments admin list.
  • Column Label The label/key for this column.
  • Column Title The title displayed in the column header.
  • Data Source Select the data source for this column.
  • Meta Key Select the meta key to retrieve
  • Disable Column Check to disable this column.

Where Admin Columns helps

  • A freelance web designer on a sofa with WP Extended open on her laptop, her dog asleep beside her

    Events and listings

    Show event dates, locations or prices right in the list.

  • An agency team in a brick-walled studio reviewing WP Extended settings on a wall screen

    Membership sites

    Add plan or status columns to the Users screen.

  • A florist checking her shop website’s WP Extended settings on a laptop at the counter

    Editorial teams

    Show the fields editors check every day, such as reviewer or publish region.

WP Extended vs the Admin Columns plugin

The Admin Columns plugin has 100k+ active installs on WordPress.org. If you only need this one job, that’s a fine choice. If the site also needs other modules on this list, it’s one less plugin to update.

What Admin Columns covers
Custom and renamed columns, including custom fields, on posts, custom post types, media, comments and users.
When to choose the specialist plugin
If you need inline editing, filtering and exports from list screens, a dedicated admin columns plugin goes further.

For developers

Admin Columns has 15 hooks for changing its behaviour per project, without editing the plugin.

All Admin Columns hooks
filter functions.php or a Code Snippet
add_filter( 'wpextended/admin-columns/all_available_columns', function ( $value ) {
    // Return the value you want to use
    return $value;
} );
  • admin-columns/all_available_columns
  • admin-columns/available_post_types
  • admin-columns/columns
  • admin-columns/comment_columns
  • admin-columns/extra_columns
  • admin-columns/handle_column
  • +9 more

Recent changes

The latest updates to Admin Columns, from the WP Extended changelog.

Full changelog
  1. v3.4.1 4 Nov 2026
    • fixed

      The settings screen no longer fails to load (“The server returned an unexpected response”) on sites where a post type’s list screen had not been opened since the module was turned on [Pro].

  2. v3.3.0 10 Sept 2026
    • fixed

      A custom meta column did not escape its value.

  3. v3.1.1 26 Sept 2025
    • fixed

      Issue with the migration of custom columns.

    • fixed

      Meta field columns that were arrays caused a fatal error when trying to be output.

Admin Columns questions

Admin Columns documentation

No. Admin Columns is part of WP Extended Pro, from $29 a year for one site.

Yes. Choose the meta key that stores the field and it appears as a column.

Yes. Users and comments have their own column settings.

For adding, renaming and hiding columns, yes, and it comes with 50 other modules in one plugin. Admin Columns Pro goes further with inline editing, filtering and exports, so pick it if your team edits data from list screens. See our guide to custom admin columns.

Pairs well with

All Admin Tools

Get Admin Columns with WP Extended Pro

Every Pro plan includes Admin Columns and the rest of the toolkit, with updates and support.

Download free See Pro pricing

Pro from $29 a year · 14-day money-back guarantee