Title: Custom Post Type vs. Custom Table
Last modified: March 11, 2021

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# Custom Post Type vs. Custom Table

 *  Resolved [rockiger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rockiger/)
 * (@rockiger)
 * [5 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-post-type-vs-custom-table/)
 * Hello,
 * I want to create a Kanban board and I have trouble to decide using CPT or custom
   tables.
 * The extension has 4 entities:
 * * Board
    * Task * Column * Project
 * I researched for advice, the best recommendation I found was this [Stackexchange answer](https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/47915/should-i-use-custom-post-types-or-a-custom-database-tables-for-plugin-developmen).
   But I am still torn between CPTs and custom tables.
 * Peeking into other project management extensions didn’t help either. Some are
   using CPTs with ACF and some are rolling their own tables.
 * I could imagine using a CPT for board and the task. Additionally, a custom taxonomy
   for column and project. I worry, that I could run in a dead end with this solution,
   that is too inflexible?
 * Could somebody give me advice, if the solution with CPTs is sufficient or is 
   this solution a dead end? Any opinions appreciated!

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  Moderator [Steven Stern (sterndata)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sterndata/)
 * (@sterndata)
 * Volunteer Forum Moderator
 * [5 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-post-type-vs-custom-table/#post-14167681)
 * Using a CPT means that you can use a wider variety of WP’s “normal” functionality
   to create, modify, fetch, and display your content.
 *  Thread Starter [rockiger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rockiger/)
 * (@rockiger)
 * [5 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-post-type-vs-custom-table/#post-14169197)
 * Thank you. That is what I am thinking, too.
 * I am only worried, if I could run in performance problems if I use taxonomies
   a lot. But maybe my thinking is a case of premature optimization.
 *  Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * (@bcworkz)
 * [5 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-post-type-vs-custom-table/#post-14169400)
 * The WP taxonomy schema works reasonably well. Where you can have performance 
   issues is with complex meta queries when there are a very large number of records
   in the DB. If you anticipate a large DB where there are frequent complex meta
   queries, I’d recommend at least the frequently queried meta data be located in
   a custom table that’s optimized for the data schema. This table can be joined
   to the normal posts table containing your CPT data. It’ll perform much better
   than the postmeta table would. You can still avail yourself of much WP code for
   posts, except where custom table data is involved.
 *  Thread Starter [rockiger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rockiger/)
 * (@rockiger)
 * [5 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-post-type-vs-custom-table/#post-14182959)
 * Thank you. Your approach seems very promising.
 * In my first implementation I was going away from custom post types. Especially
   for the tasks, since I have to load a lot per board/page. And using post_meta
   for that is probably quite slow, if you have to load 500 tasks + metadata.
 * I will definitely try your approach!

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘Custom Post Type vs. Custom Table’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [customposttypes](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/customposttypes/)
 * [database](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/database/)
 * [development](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/development/)
 * [extensions](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/extensions/)

 * In: [Developing with WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/wp-advanced/)
 * 4 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [rockiger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rockiger/)
 * Last activity: [5 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-post-type-vs-custom-table/#post-14182959)
 * Status: resolved

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