Category Order and Taxonomy Terms Order
View on WordPress.orgScores higher than 97% of indexed plugins
About
Drag-and-drop ordering for Categories & any taxonomy (hierarchically) using a Drag and Drop Sortable JavaScript capability.
Security History
What It Does
Category Order and Taxonomy Terms Order adds a drag-and-drop interface to the WordPress admin that lets you manually reorder any taxonomy, including categories, tags, and custom taxonomies. Reordering is recursive, so nested hierarchies can be sorted without losing parent-child relationships. Once arranged, terms display on the front end in the exact order you set, overriding the default alphabetical or ID-based sequence.
Who It's For
This plugin is ideal for site owners running content-heavy sites where term display order matters: news outlets with topic sections, WooCommerce stores with product categories, directories organized by region or service, and educational portals with course taxonomies. It works especially well for anyone managing large custom taxonomies who needs precise control over navigation menus, archive pages, and front-end listings. Developers building client sites with bespoke taxonomies will also save significant time over writing custom orderby queries.
Who Should Skip It
If your site has fewer than a dozen terms per taxonomy and you are fine with the default alphabetical or ID order, this plugin is unnecessary weight. Sites already using a page builder or theme that ships with its own term ordering controls should avoid stacking redundant tools.
The Bottom Line
Category Order and Taxonomy Terms Order is the de facto choice for taxonomy reordering in WordPress, backed by 500,000 installs and a near-perfect maintenance and compatibility profile. The weak support thread resolution rate is the one notable downside, so users with complex hierarchies should test on a staging site first. Overall, with a quality score of 86.52 out of 100, it is a safe and proven pick for the majority of term-ordering needs.
Related Plugins
Pick Custom Taxonomy Order if you want a lighter-weight alternative with 50,000 installs and a similar feature set, accepting a slightly lower overall score of 82.68.
Choose Post Terms Order when you need to order terms assigned to individual posts rather than ordering the taxonomy itself, a different use case this plugin does not cover.
WP Sort Order is worth considering only if you need ordering for posts and pages alongside terms, but its lower 57.18 score and 6,000 installs suggest a smaller, less proven option.