Zack Tollman

Surprisingly, WordPress does not provide a mechanism for sorting taxonomies by a custom defined order. Taxonomies can only be sorted by name or id. Custom Taxonomy Sort allows the average user a mechanism to define and display terms in a specified order. After installing Custom Taxonomy Sort, each taxonomy term will have the ability to have a “tax-order” value associated with it. This order is specified by doing the following:
<ol>
<li>Go to any taxonomy add or edit screen (e.g., wp-admin/edit-tags.php?taxonomy=category)</li>
<li>Fill in a numeric value for the “Order” field. By default, the order will be ascending, meaning it will sort from low to high (e.g., 1, 2, 3). These values can be added on the Add Taxonomy screen, the Edit Taxonomy screen, or through the Quick Edit panel.</li>
<li>Observe all of your terms automagically being sorted in the order you specified</li>
</ol>
Custom Taxonomy Sort automatically applies the sort order to all instances in which the terms are displayed. All you need to do is define that order.
<h4>Manual Mode</h4>
In addition to automatically sorting the terms, Custom Taxonomy Sort allows developers to override the automatic sort to offer finer control over how terms are displayed in different parts of WordPress. Manual mode can be started by changing “Automatic Sort” to “Off” in the Custom Taxonomy Sort Settings page (wp-admin/options-general.php?page=custom-taxonomy-sort-settings). Once “Automatic Sort” is switched to “Off”, the terms will no longer be sorted automatically by the custom order. Instead, the custom sort order can be envoked with a new parameter for the “orderby” argument. Custom Taxonomy Sort allows you to use the following argument to access a custom sorted list of terms using “get_terms”
<pre><code><?php get_terms('orderby=custom_sort'); ?>
</code></pre>
Voila! Now, your terms will only be sorted by the specified order in the places that you want it sorted in this order. All other instances of displaying terms will revert to WordPress’ default of sorting the terms by name. Additionally, you can specifically have the terms sort in ascending (‘ASC’; default; e.g., 1, 2, 3) or descending (‘DESC’; e.g., 3, 2, 1) order by adding the “order” argument.
<pre><code><?php get_terms('orderby=custom_sort&order=ASC'); ?>

<?php get_terms('orderby=custom_sort&order=DESC'); ?>
</code></pre>
<h4>Acknowledgements</h4>
<ul>
<li>Thanks to Jacob M Goldman for his excellent <a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/simple-term-meta/" rel="ugc">Simple Term Meta plugin</a>, which made programming the term meta quite simple. </li>
<li>Thanks to hydrowire <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-custom-taxonomy-sort-error-in-quick-edit-post" rel="ugc">for pointing out a bug</a> fixed in 1.1.1</li>
<li>Thanks to “Mosey” for pointing out a bug with a situation in which order did not work for a custom taxonomy</li>
<li>Thanks to DUCK__BOY1981 for pointing out a bug where the column values where overridden inappropriately</li>
<li>Thanks to @martindj for pointing out a bug where the column value returned incorrectly</li>
</ul>

Custom Taxonomy Sort

Nice idea, but the plugin is quite severely broken and triggers nasty errors.
The problems do go away if you remove the function name clashes which are in the simple-term-meta.php file.
I'm guessing the errors have been occurring since WordPress 4.4 was released. So based on how long ago that was created, I'm assuming this plugin will never be updated :/



Broken

Custom Taxonomy Sort allows you to explicitly control the sort order of all taxonomy terms.

Aslam Doctor

Take Full Control of Your WooCommerce Product Sort-Order
Do you want to decide which products appear first in your WooCommerce shop? 
Rearrange Products for WooCommerce gives you full control over product ordering so you can highlight your best-selling, featured, or new products exactly where you want them.
This plugin is built specifically for WooCommerce stores and helps improve both customer experience and store performance.
With an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface, you can:
<ul>
<li>Reorder/Rearrange products on your main Shop page.</li>
<li>Set custom product order for specific categories and sub-categories.</li>
<li>Select multiple products at once and move them together.</li>
<li>Manage product display without touching any code.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Why Choose Rearrange Products for WooCommerce?</h3>
1. 🛒 Better Shopping Experience 
Help customers find the right products faster by displaying them in a logical and attractive order.
2. 👀 More Visibility for Key Products 
Promote best-selling, featured, or seasonal products by placing them at the top.
3. 📈 Higher Conversions 
Showing the right products first can lead to more clicks and increased sales.
4. ⚡ Bulk Sort in One Click (<a href="https://www.rearrangeproducts.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Pro</a>) 
Sort all your products at once by best-selling, ratings, price, stock status, and more — no need to drag them one by one.
5. 💾 Never Lose Your Work (<a href="https://www.rearrangeproducts.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Pro</a>) 
Save your product arrangements as reusable presets. Switch between different layouts instantly — perfect for seasonal promotions and A/B testing.
<h3>Free Features</h3>
<ul>
<li>Fully compatible with WooCommerce.</li>
<li>Simple drag-and-drop product sorting.</li>
<li>Multi-select products and move them together.</li>
<li>Custom sorting for categories and sub-categories.</li>
<li>Works with WooCommerce shortcodes.</li>
<li>Lightweight plugin with fast performance.</li>
<li>No coding knowledge required.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Pro Features</h3>
Unlock the full power of product management with <a href="https://www.rearrangeproducts.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Rearrange Products for WooCommerce Pro</a>:
⚡ Smart Sort — Bulk Sort Products in One Click 
Stop dragging products one by one. Smart Sort lets you reorder your entire catalog or a specific category in one shot based on:
<ul>
<li>Best Selling — Put your top sellers front and center.</li>
<li>Most Rated — Showcase products with the best reviews.</li>
<li>Price (Low to High / High to Low) — Organize by price for easy browsing.</li>
<li>In Stock First — Always show available products at the top.</li>
<li>Latest / Oldest — Highlight new arrivals or evergreen products.</li>
<li>On Sale — Push sale items to the top to drive conversions.</li>
<li>Shuffle — Randomize your product display for a fresh look.</li>
</ul>
💾 Sort Presets — Save and Reuse Arrangements 
Create, save, and switch between different product arrangements effortlessly:
<ul>
<li>Save your current product order as a named preset with a description.</li>
<li>Apply any saved preset with a single click to instantly rearrange products.</li>
<li>Duplicate presets to create variations without starting from scratch.</li>
<li>Search and filter through your presets for quick access.</li>
<li>Works with both global and category-specific arrangements.</li>
<li>Perfect for seasonal layouts, holiday promotions, flash sales, and A/B testing different product orders.</li>
</ul>
🔄 Import / Export — Portable Product Arrangements 
Move your product arrangements between sites or share them with your team:
<ul>
<li>Export global, category-specific, or preset arrangements as JSON files.</li>
<li>Import arrangements on any site — products are matched by SKU for cross-site compatibility.</li>
<li>Migrate your product order when moving to a new domain or staging environment.</li>
<li>Detailed import reports showing matched, skipped, and total products.</li>
<li>Supports files up to 10MB for large catalogs.</li>
</ul>
🚀 <a href="https://www.rearrangeproducts.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Get Rearrange Products for WooCommerce Pro</a>
Make your WooCommerce store easier to browse and more effective at selling. Start organizing your products the way you want and give your customers a better shopping experience.
Note: WooCommerce must be installed and activated before using this plugin.
<h3>Important Notes</h3>
<ol>
<li>If you deactivate this plugin, any product rearrangements you’ve made will be turned off. You can restore them at any time by reactivating the plugin.</li>
<li>If you delete or uninstall this plugin, all product rearrangements will be permanently removed and cannot be recovered.</li>
</ol>
<h3>Troubleshooting</h3>
If your custom product order is not showing on the Shop page:
<ol>
<li>Go to Admin → Appearance → Customize</li>
<li>Select WooCommerce → Product Catalogue</li>
<li>Find Default Product Sorting</li>
<li>Set it to “Default sorting (custom ordering + name)”</li>
</ol>
If you have a large number of products and changes are not saving
This may be due to server limits. 
Ask your hosting provider to increase:
<ul>
<li>memory_limit</li>
<li>max_execution_time</li>
</ul>
After updating these settings, try saving the product order again.
If you are using a page builder plugin (Elementor, Divi, WPBakery, etc.)
Page builder plugins often have their own product query settings that work independently of WooCommerce’s default sorting.
To use custom sort order with page builders:
<ol>
<li>Check your page builder’s product widget/module for sorting options</li>
<li>Look for a “custom order” or “menu order” option in the product display settings</li>
<li>If you need help, contact your page builder’s support team for guidance on their specific settings</li>
</ol>
Note: This plugin works seamlessly with standard WooCommerce shop pages, category pages, and WooCommerce shortcodes.
Filing a support request?
Go to Admin → Rearrange Products → Troubleshooting and open the “System Status / Diagnostic Info” section. Click “Copy to Clipboard” and paste the information into your support ticket. This helps us diagnose issues much faster.
<h3>Plugin Demo</h3>
<iframe loading="lazy" class="youtube-player" width="750" height="422" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZZS-jXK_GJE?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent" allowfullscreen="true" style="border:0;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox"></iframe>

Rearrange Products for WooCommerce

Rearrange Woocommerce Products is the best solution if you need to customize the product sorting in WooCommerce.

Kudos to this amazing plugin.

great plugin to customize the product sorting in WooCommerce

The plugin does exactly what it says, but -1 star because the products to be rearranged don't include a thumbnail, which would make things a lot easier

Show me a thumbnail for 5 stars


This is great but I would love it to work with tags, could you add that?


Great but would love it work with tags!

Boost WooCommerce sales with the Rearrange Products for WooCommerce plugin. Easily reorder products with a simple drag-and-drop tool!

Custom Taxonomy Sort vs Rearrange Products for WooCommerce