Title: Smart Categories for WooCommerce – Automatic Product Category Rules Author: erenlabs Published: July 30, 2026 Last modified: August 28, 2026 --- Search plugins ![](https://ps.w.org/smart-categories-for-woocommerce/assets/banner-772x250.png? rev=3628950) ![](https://ps.w.org/smart-categories-for-woocommerce/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev =3628950) # Smart Categories for WooCommerce – Automatic Product Category Rules By [erenlabs](https://profiles.wordpress.org/erenlabs/) [Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/smart-categories-for-woocommerce.1.0.3.zip) * [Details](https://wordpress.org/plugins/smart-categories-for-woocommerce/#description) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/plugins/smart-categories-for-woocommerce/#reviews) * [Installation](https://wordpress.org/plugins/smart-categories-for-woocommerce/#installation) * [Development](https://wordpress.org/plugins/smart-categories-for-woocommerce/#developers) [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/smart-categories-for-woocommerce/) ## Description WooCommerce categories are manual: you add each product by hand and re-check them every time a price, stock level or attribute changes. **Smart Categories for WooCommerce** makes a category _define itself_ — you describe the products with rules, and matching items are added automatically and kept in sync forever. * **Unlimited nested rules.** Combine AND, OR and NOT in nested groups — e.g. _( Colour is Black OR Red) AND price < 50 AND on sale_. * **35+ fields to match on.** Title, SKU, price, sale price, discount %, stock status/quantity, attributes, tags, brand, product type, ratings, all-time sales, dates, custom fields, dimensions and more. * **Live preview.** As you build the rules you see exactly which products match, and how many, before you save. * **Always up to date.** Membership refreshes automatically when a product, price or stock level changes, and on a daily sweep — no cron babysitting. * **Manual assignments are respected.** Products you added to a category by hand are never removed by the engine. * **Categories or tags.** Point a rule set at a product category or a product tag. * **Storefront sorting & stock.** Order a smart category’s shop page by best-selling, newest, price or rating, and push out-of-stock products to the end (or hide them). * **Gutenberg block + shortcode.** Drop a smart category’s products anywhere with the “Smart Category Products” block or `[scwc_products id="12" limit="12" columns ="4"]`. Works with WooCommerce global product attributes and is HPOS-compatible. #### See it work [Read the full documentation](https://erenlabs.net/smart-categories-for-woocommerce/docs/)— getting started, the rule reference (every field and operator), nested AND/OR/NOT groups, storefront sorting, the block and shortcode, performance on large catalogs, the Pro subcategory generator and troubleshooting. #### How it works 1. **Create a category.** Pick a ready-made template (On Sale, New Arrivals, Low Stock…) or write your own rules. The live preview shows exactly which products match, and how many, before you save. 2. **Products flow in.** Matching products are assigned immediately when you create the category. 3. **It stays current.** Membership refreshes when a product, price or stock level changes, plus a daily sweep — a product that stops matching leaves on its own. 4. **Your manual picks are safe.** The plugin only ever removes memberships it created itself. #### Free vs Pro The complete rule engine is free, with no limits on the number of categories, rules or products. **Free — everything you need to organise a catalog** * Unlimited nested AND / OR / NOT rule engine * 35+ match fields, live preview and daily auto-refresh * Category and tag rule sets * Storefront sorting and out-of-stock handling * Products block + `[scwc_products]` shortcode * Ready-made templates and in-admin Help & FAQ **Pro — automation for growing stores** * Auto-generate a subcategory per attribute value (Colour, Size, Brand…) * Combine two attributes into a cross-product of subcategories * Editable name templates, e.g. `{value1} {value2} {parent}` * New attribute values grow new subcategories on their own, daily * Sales-intelligence fields: units sold 7 / 30 / 90 days, revenue, velocity, days since last sale * Trending and stale-product auto-collection templates * Category Tree overview page * Priority support **Smart Categories Pro** is a separate download distributed through Freemius. Full comparison and pricing: [erenlabs.net/smart-categories-for-woocommerce](https://erenlabs.net/smart-categories-for-woocommerce/) ### External services This plugin can connect to Freemius (freemius.com) to power the optional Pro upgrade: licence activation, automatic updates for the paid version, and the checkout/upgrade screens. **Nothing is sent unless you opt in.** If you click “Allow & Continue” during the optional opt-in, non-sensitive environment data (site URL, WordPress and PHP versions, active theme/plugins and your admin email) is sent to Freemius to enable licensing and updates; if you skip it, no data is transmitted. Freemius is only contacted for these upgrade/licensing actions. * Freemius Terms of Use: https://freemius.com/terms/ * Freemius Privacy Policy: https://freemius.com/privacy/ ## Screenshots [⌊Start in one click — ready-made collections built from your own catalog, each showing how many products are waiting.⌉⌊Start in one click — ready-made collections built from your own catalog, each showing how many products are waiting.⌉[ Start in one click — ready-made collections built from your own catalog, each showing how many products are waiting. [⌊Describe products with rules: combine AND, OR and NOT in unlimited nested groups, with a live preview of what matches.⌉⌊Describe products with rules: combine AND, OR and NOT in unlimited nested groups, with a live preview of what matches.⌉[ Describe products with rules: combine AND, OR and NOT in unlimited nested groups, with a live preview of what matches. [⌊Created and populated — matching products are assigned immediately, then kept in sync automatically.⌉⌊Created and populated — matching products are assigned immediately, then kept in sync automatically.⌉[ Created and populated — matching products are assigned immediately, then kept in sync automatically. [⌊Every smart category at a glance, with live product counts and one-click refresh.⌉⌊ Every smart category at a glance, with live product counts and one-click refresh .⌉[ Every smart category at a glance, with live product counts and one-click refresh. [⌊Turn any existing product category into a smart one; products you assigned by hand are never removed.⌉⌊Turn any existing product category into a smart one; products you assigned by hand are never removed.⌉[ Turn any existing product category into a smart one; products you assigned by hand are never removed. [⌊A full Help & FAQ inside the admin: matching, performance, storefront and troubleshooting.⌉⌊ A full Help & FAQ inside the admin: matching, performance, storefront and troubleshooting .⌉[ A full Help & FAQ inside the admin: matching, performance, storefront and troubleshooting. [⌊Free forever, Pro when you grow — the complete comparison and pricing.⌉⌊Free forever, Pro when you grow — the complete comparison and pricing.⌉[ Free forever, Pro when you grow — the complete comparison and pricing. ## Blocks This plugin provides 1 block. * Smart Category Products Display the products of a smart category as a grid — anywhere on your site. ## Installation 1. Upload the `smart-categories-for-woocommerce` folder to `/wp-content/plugins/`, or install the zip via Plugins Add New Upload. 2. Activate the plugin. 3. Open **Smart Categories** in the admin menu and create your first smart category. ## FAQ ### How is this different from WooCommerce’s built-in categories? Built-in categories are static lists you maintain by hand. A smart category is a rule set: any product that matches is added automatically and removed when it stops matching, so the category is always current. ### Does it move products I assigned to a category manually? No. The plugin tracks which memberships it created and only ever removes those. Anything you assigned by hand stays. ### Does it slow down my store? No. Matching runs in the background (Action Scheduler) and on product save; the storefront reads normal category relationships, so there is no query overhead for shoppers. ### Is it translatable? Yes. The plugin is fully internationalized (text domain `smart-categories-for-woocommerce`) and receives community translations through translate.wordpress.org — a complete Turkish translation is already prepared there. ### Can I show a smart category’s products on a page? Yes — use the “Smart Category Products” block in the editor, or the shortcode `[ scwc_products id="12" limit="12" columns="4"]` where `id` is the category ID. Products hidden from the catalog are skipped automatically. ### Where can I read more? The full documentation is at [erenlabs.net/smart-categories-for-woocommerce/docs](https://erenlabs.net/smart-categories-for-woocommerce/docs/)— a complete rule reference, worked examples, performance notes and troubleshooting. There is also a Help & FAQ page inside the plugin. ## Reviews There are no reviews for this plugin. ## Contributors & Developers “Smart Categories for WooCommerce – Automatic Product Category Rules” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin. Contributors * [ erenlabs ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/erenlabs/) [Translate “Smart Categories for WooCommerce – Automatic Product Category Rules” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/smart-categories-for-woocommerce) ### Interested in development? [Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/smart-categories-for-woocommerce/), check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/smart-categories-for-woocommerce/), or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/smart-categories-for-woocommerce/) by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/smart-categories-for-woocommerce/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss). ## Changelog #### 1.0.3 * Fixed: the Products block now carries its name, description and icon on the server too, so it is listed correctly as “Smart Category Products” everywhere (previously the WordPress.org listing derived a raw name from the block slug). #### 1.0.2 * Changed: every shared registry name now carries the plugin prefix to avoid collisions with other plugins — the shortcode is `[scwc_products]`, the block is `scwc/products`, the REST namespace is `scwc/v1` and the WP-CLI command is `wp scwc`. * Note: if you used the previous shortcode or block in your content, update them to the new names. * Fixed: the shortcode now matches the tag documented in the readme. * Fixed: the block and shortcode no longer count products that are hidden from the catalog towards the product limit, so they always show as many products as you asked for. #### 1.0.1 * New: first-run Smart Start onboarding — ready-made category suggestions computed from your own catalog, with live product counts and one-click creation. * New: a clear result screen after creating a category (products added, view-on- store link) and after generating subcategories (parent + children overview). * New: in-admin Help & FAQ page. * Pro: live generation preview — see every subcategory a template would create, with product counts, before generating. * Pro: Category Tree page — all smart categories and their generated children as a collapsible tree. * Pro: optional “Also create empty combinations” mode for pre-building a season’s structure. * Improved: clearer action hierarchy in the create flow, connection-error retry on generation, full Turkish translation refresh. #### 1.0.0 * First release: the unlimited nested AND/OR/NOT rule engine (35+ fields, live preview, daily auto-refresh, manual-assignment-safe), category and tag rule sets, storefront sorting & out-of-stock handling, and a products block — plus the Pro subcategory generator and sales-intelligence fields. ## Meta * Version **1.0.3** * Last updated **4 days ago** * Active installations **Fewer than 10** * WordPress version ** 6.6 or higher ** * Tested up to **7.1** * PHP version ** 7.4 or higher ** * Tags * [automation](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/automation/)[categories](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/categories/) [Product Categories](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/product-categories/)[Smart Collections](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/smart-collections/) [woocommerce](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/woocommerce/) * [Advanced View](https://wordpress.org/plugins/smart-categories-for-woocommerce/advanced/) ## Ratings No reviews have been submitted yet. [Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/smart-categories-for-woocommerce/reviews/#new-post) [See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/smart-categories-for-woocommerce/reviews/) ## Contributors * [ erenlabs ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/erenlabs/) ## Support Got something to say? Need help? [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/smart-categories-for-woocommerce/)