WordPress Table Plugins : 5 Ways to Create Awesome Grids (2023)

A WordPress table plugin lets you present information on your website in a structured format. Strangely, WordPress has no built-in function for creating such displays. You can create them without a plugin by writing your own HTML, but this is very fiddly and above the skillset of most website owners. It's much easier to use a good quality extension.

WordPress Table Plugin

WordPress makes this easy if you use the right extension - you can quickly display complex information in a visual form without any technical know-how. The best plugins are mobile-friendly and let you create fully responsive displays in WordPress. This is far simpler than writing your own code. Some WordPress responsive table plugins even let you control how the rows and columns behave on different screen sizes.

This article from CollectiveRay will walk you through the process of choosing the right product for you. First, we'll help you to choose the right product based on your specific requirements. We'll then provide detailed instructions on how to create your content in different formats using 5 different options.

Read more posts about WordPress plugins by clicking on the menu above.

Which WordPress table plugin?

Choosing the best table plugin for WordPress requires a bit of thought. There are plenty of good options out there - you need to choose the one that best fits your requirements. First, write a list of all the features you need. Think about:

  • Type of content - Do you want to display static or dynamic information from your website? For example, will you add the data manually? Or do you want to list posts, pages or other items from your WordPress website, or even WooCommerce products?
  • Responsiveness - Does your website use a responsive WordPress theme? If your overall website is responsive then you need responsive features too - otherwise, the grid will break on mobiles and smaller screen sizes.
  • Design - Do you have any specific requirements for the design of your grids? As a minimum, you'll want to make sure the content inherits the styles from your theme so that the fonts, colours etc. in the grid match the rest of your website. Some WordPress table plugins also include extra styling options.
  • Flexibility - How much control do you want over how the rows and columns work?
  • HTML support - Do you need to display formatted data in the grid such as shortcodes, icons, buttons or links?
  • Multimedia content - Will you be displaying plain text? Or do you want to add images, embedded audio or video files, media playlists or other special information?
  • Plugin compatibility - Does the content in the grid need to integrate with any other WordPress plugins on your site? For example, do you want to display information from other extensions such as WooCommerce or The Events Calendar in a grid? Does it work with page builders such as Divi or Elementor?
  • Extra features - Write a list of any extra features you need. Does the data need to be sortable, for example by clicking the column headers? Does it need a search box? Do you need to add multiple grids to your website or just one? If you have lots of data, do you need the ability to divide the information into multiple pages? Do you need to add filters in a dropdown list above the display?

Armed with this list, you can look at the products featured in this article and choose which one is right for your website.

Best WordPress Table Plugins 2023

The best responsive WordPress table plugins are:

  • TablePress - the most popular choice, perfect for displaying static data in rows and columns.
  • Posts Table with Search & Sort - perfect for creating an index of blog posts.
  • Posts Table Pro - perfect for displaying dynamic data such as custom post types, portfolios, images, audio, video, products, events, documents or publications.
  • WooCommerce Product Table - perfect for creating a grid of WooCommerce products.
  • Go Pricing - perfect for website pricing tiers.

There are lots of good products with similar features to TablePress including EasyTable, wpDataTables and UltimateTables.

However, we think that TablePress is the clear winner which is why this is the only static grid plugin we're featuring in this article. The other products in this article work in different ways so this will give you a good selection to choose from, whatever your requirements.

1. TablePress - Display static data in a grid

TablePress

TablePress is by far the most popular product, so it deserves to be featured first in this list. The free version has over 400,000 active users.

If you need more features, various premium extensions are available. It's a shame that the free version of TablePress doesn't include responsive features, but this is available as a paid add-on.

Apart from that slight gripe, we would recommend this to anyone who wants to display static information in a grid. TablePress makes it easy to create content in grid form for your website. It provides a simple spreadsheet-style interface where you can enter the data.

You can also import it from Excel if you're looking for a WordPress - Excel table plugin. Once you have added the data, TablePress instantly converts it into rows and columns. TablePress is based on the jQuery DataTables plugin, which provides lots of interactive functionality such as a search box and clickable column headers.

The makers of TablePress have expanded it into a fully featured product which lets you store static information in a user-friendly view.

How to format your content with TablePress:

  1. Log into your WordPress Dashboard and go to Plugins > Add New.
  2. Search for 'TablePress' and install and activate it.
  3. You will see a new 'TablePress' link appear on the left-hand side of the WordPress admin. Click on this to start creating your display. You can do this by following the simple onscreen instructions or use the documentation for further guidance.
  4. Once you've added the data, you can add this to any page, post or widget by inserting a shortcode. This should be in the format: [table id=<your-table's-ID> /] -Replace the text between the <-> with the ID for the content you just created.

The styling for the display will be taken from your theme where possible, for example, to match the fonts and colours. There's a custom CSS box which lets you add any custom code to further style your content using the plugin, but most people won't need this.

2. Posts Table with Search & Sort - Display blog posts in a grid

Posts Table with Search and Sort

Posts Table with Search & Sort is another free responsive WordPress table plugin.

It creates dynamic content without you having to enter any data - specifically, your WordPress blog posts. It caters to a different market to static content products such as TablePress and is ideal for creating an index of posts on your website. It's ridiculously easy to use and much simpler than manually listing your blog posts.

Like TablePress, it's a WordPress version of the jQuery DataTable plugin. This means that the formats created by both products look fairly similar and have similar interactive features such as search and sort. However, unlike TablePress, the free version of this extension is fully responsive and mobile-friendly.

How to create content using Posts Table with Search & Sort:

  1. Log into your WordPress Dashboard and go to Plugins > Add New.
  2. Search for 'Posts Table with Search & Sort' and install and activate.
  3. Add the shortcode [posts_data_table] to any page, post or widget.

And that's it! The product will automatically create a responsive grid listing all your blog posts. It takes the styling of your theme so the fonts and colours will match the rest of your site and look professional. The default content has most of the features you need such as search box, sortable column headers and the ability to filter by category or tag. You can further configure the content using the options on the plugin page. For example, you can choose which columns display, how many posts appear per page before pagination buttons appear at the bottom, the sort order and more.

There's also a Posts Table Pro version, which we will discuss further below.

3. Posts Table Pro - Display posts, pages and custom post types in a grid

Posts Table Pro WordPress Plugin

Posts Table Pro is the premium version of PT with Search & Sort.

It's much more sophisticated than the free version and lets you display different types of content - not just blog posts.

You can create content listing pages from your website, media files or any of your custom post types. If you think creatively about how this extension can be used, you'll be amazed at the different types of grids you can create.

This is because custom post types are used to store so many different types of information in WordPress. Whether your website uses custom post types to store portfolio posts, testimonials, case studies, audio files, documents, videos, media playlists, events from an events extension, products from an e-commerce product, real estate properties or something else, you can display this information in a searchable, sortable grid.

This means that this version of the product has many more possible uses than the free plugin. As a general rule, we'd recommend that if you want to create a grid displaying information that is stored on your website, it's best to do this dynamically using Posts Table Pro. A lot of people do this manually using static content solutions like TablePress, not realising that they could save time by doing it automatically.

How to create content with Posts Table Pro:

  1. First, you need to buy the plugin. Download the files and copy your license key.
  2. Log into your WordPress Dashboard and go to Plugins > Add New.
  3. Upload the files and activate it.
  4. Go to WooCommerce > PostsTablePro and enter your license key.
  5. Add the shortcode into any page, post or widget: [posts_table]. The product will instantly create a responsive table listing all your WordPress posts.

You can use the plugin documentation to configure your rows and columns - for example, to show pages or a custom post type instead of standard posts.

This tells you how to select which post type to display in the grid. It also tells you how to control various elements of the grid such as which columns are displayed and the default sort order and how the responsive content behaves on smaller screen sizes.

There are a lot of options and the documentation is very comprehensive, so read it carefully and plan the best way to create your dynamic content.

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Visit website to download Posts Table Pro

4. WooCommerce Product Table - Display products in a grid view

WooCommerce Product Table

WooCommerce Product Table is the WooCommerce-specific version of PT Pro.

It deserves its own mention because of the popularity of WooCommerce, as it's the only item that lets you display products in an interactive grid-style view. Over 30% of ALL e-commerce websites worldwide run on WooCommerce.

This means that a lot of people need to display WooCommerce data in rows and columns, to have a good way to compare various items which are for sale.

Instead of creating your WooCommerce grids manually, this product creates instant responsive rows and columns containing data about your products. It supports all the main WooCommerce data such as featured image, product name, short description, long description, categories, tags, stock status, product attributes, reviews etc. It also features multimedia content such as embedded video, audio and playlists.

You can use this plugin as an alternative to the traditional category view (popular with online catalogs and wholesale sites). You can even use it as a complete one-page order form, with 'Add to Cart' buttons directly in the content.

How to create content with WooCommerce Product Table:

  1. First, you need to buy the plugin. Download the files and copy your license key.
  2. Log into your WordPress Dashboard and go to Plugins > Add New.
  3. Upload the product and activate it.
  4. Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Product Table, enter the license key and click Save Changes.
  5. Add the shortcode into any page, post or widget: [product_table]. This will create your content instantly listing all your WooCommerce products.

If you want to change the default content, you can use the documentation to configure the shortcode in more advanced ways.

There are plenty of options - you can include or exclude products from specific categories or tags, control which columns are displayed and what they are called, which columns contain links, change the sort order and much more. The WooCommerce product grids are automatically responsive. You can use the documentation to further control how the content behaves on mobiles.

For example, you can change the breakpoints and choose which columns take priority on small screen sizes.

(Looking to find the lowest price? We've got the lowest price from the vendors of this plugin, until May 2023 - click on the link below now to get the best price).

Visit WooCoomerce Product Table

5. Go Pricing - Create responsive pricing displays

Go Pricing

Go Pricing is the best WordPress pricing table product.

There are good free pricing plugins such as Easy Pricing Tables, but we have to recommend Go Pricing because of the sheer number of built-in styles.

Go Pricing is used on over 24,000 websites and comes with a whopping 250 pricing designs to choose from. This makes it easy to create eye-catching pricing comparisons that integrate nicely with the rest of your website.

The interface is easy to use and you can preview your changes before making them live. It's compatible with popular products such as Visual Composer and you can add as many pricing displays as you like to your website. You can even add PayPal buttons directly within your pricing. The pricing grids are fully responsive and the developer has thought carefully about the best way to create fantastic pricing tables on mobile devices.

How to show your various pricing tiers with Go Pricing:

  1. First, you need to buy the Go Pricing plugin.
  2. Download the files.
  3. Log into your WordPress Dashboard and go to Plugins > Add New.
  4. Upload and activate it.
  5. Use the documentation to create your pricing. The product provides several methods such as importing one of the demo pricing designs or creating your own from scratch.

 

Check out Go Pricing Tables Demo

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WordPress Table Plugins Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best table plugin for WordPress?

One of the best options on the market to create tables is TablePress as mentioned even in this article. This WordPress table plugin is user-friendly, highly customizable, and offers a wide range of features for creating and managing tables. TablePress can easily import and export table data, add pagination and sorting, and even include formulas for calculations. The plugin is fully responsive, ensuring that your tables look great on any device.

How do I create a dynamic table in WordPress?

Creating a dynamic table in WordPress can be done using a WordPress table plugin such as TablePress. Once the plugin is activated, you can create a new table by going to the TablePress menu in your WordPress dashboard and clicking on "Add New Table." To make the table dynamic, you can use the "Import" option to import data from a CSV file or other source. This will automatically update your table whenever the source data changes. You can then use the "Shortcode" feature to embed your table in a post or page, allowing you to display different tables on different pages of your site.

Which WordPress table plugin will you use?

We hope you found this list of responsive WordPress pricing table plugins useful. We've tried to cover different types of products so that you can find the right solution whether you want to display static information, pricing, posts, pages, products or something else. Last but not least - we would be really happy if you shared this article with your favourite web design groups and with anyone who would like to add this type of content to their own website.

About the Author
David Attard
David has been working in or around the online / digital industry for the last 18 years. He has vast experience in the software and web design industries using WordPress, Joomla and niches surrounding them. As a digital consultant, his focus is on helping businesses get a competitive advantage using a combination of their website and digital platforms available today.

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Disclosure: This page may contain links to external sites for products which we love and wholeheartedly recommend. If you buy products we suggest, we may earn a referral fee. Such fees do not influence our recommendations and we do not accept payments for positive reviews.

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