Meta vs. Table Storage

In most cases, you don’t really need to think about the storage type you choose when creating a Pod. But if you’re curious as to what the differences are, this comparison is for you.

Note: We’re going to be re-running the tests below against latest version of MySQL soon, let us know if you’d like to help.

Availability

CONTENT TYPEMETATABLE
Post Types
Taxonomies
Media
Users
Comments
Advanced Content TypesNo

Database Impacts (from Pods 1.x testing)

DATABASE IMPACTMETATABLE
JOINs per extra field in QueryYesNo
Average Index Length per field31.69 bytes0.7168 bytes
Average Data Length per field72.9 bytes32.4 bytes
MySQL rows per item (Y = # of fields)1 x Y1
MySQL ALTER TABLE when adding / removing fields
DB definitions per field
No CAST() needed

Database Testing (from Pods 1.x testing)

Examples assume 50k items with 20 custom fields.

DATABASE TESTMETATABLE
JOINs for Query filtering by 20 custom fields201
Index Length31,690,752 bytes716,800 bytes
Data Length72,800,000 bytes32,400,000 bytes
MySQL rows1,000,00050,000

Other Helpful Documentation on Creating & Editing Pods

Add New Pods [Pods Admin]

Explains the Add New Pods Wizard which allows you to create new Custom Content Types or Extend Existing ones.

Compare Content Types

ContentsOverviewCompare WordPress Content Types Overview With Pods, you can choose from a variety of content types to create and extend in WordPress. It’s important to know what your choices are, and to make the best decision based on your needs. Pods lets you create new Post Types and Taxonomies, or extend any existing content type …

Read more

Creating a Custom Post Type [CPT]

Creating a Custom Settings Page

Create a Custom Setting Page for storing information that can be entered once and used everywhere on your site.

Creating a Custom Taxonomy

Explains how to create and manage your Custom Taxonomy within Pods Admin.

Extend Existing Post Types, Taxonomies or WP Objects

Within the Pods Admin, you can Extend Existing Custom Post Types & Taxonomies created by other plugins, or you can extend WordPress Objects like Users, Media, Categories or Tags.