About this plugin
Smart Product Sort is a free WooCommerce plugin that changes the default order products appear in on your shop page and product category pages. You create sorting rules in the WordPress admin — sort by price, name, date, popularity, rating, stock status, review count, sale price, menu order or random — and apply each rule to your whole shop or to one product category. No theme edits and no code are required.
WooCommerce only lets you set one default catalog order for the entire store. Smart Product Sort replaces that single setting with per-category rules, so your Sale category can lead with discounts while your New In category leads with the newest arrivals.
The Problem
WooCommerce’s built-in sorting is limited. Store owners often need to:
- Show newest products first in one category
- Show best sellers first in another
- Prioritize higher-priced items in premium collections
- Apply a consistent default sort across the entire shop
- Change sorting quickly without editing theme files
Smart Product Sort solves all of this through a straightforward admin interface.
Features
- 10 sort criteria — Name, price, popularity, rating, date, random, menu order, stock status, review count, and sale price.
- Up to 3 sort rules — Create up to three rules on the free plan. Pro removes the limit.
- Global or per-category — Apply a rule to the whole shop or assign it to a specific product category. Category rules override global ones automatically.
- Priority system — Lower number means higher importance. When multiple rules exist, the priority system determines which one wins — no conflicts.
- On/off toggle — Activate or deactivate any rule instantly. Test changes or handle seasonal sorting without deleting anything.
- Customer choice preserved — When a customer manually selects a sort option from the WooCommerce dropdown, their choice always takes priority.
- Lightweight — Runs a single database query per page load. No heavy operations, no performance impact.
- HPOS compatible — Fully compatible with WooCommerce High-Performance Order Storage.
How It Works
- Navigate to WooCommerce > Smart Product Sort in your admin dashboard.
- Click Add Sort Rule.
- Choose the sort criteria (price, name, date, popularity, rating, random, menu order, stock status, review count, or sale price).
- Optionally assign the rule to a specific product category.
- Set a priority number and activate the rule.
Sorting applies automatically on the frontend from that point on. Category-specific rules take precedence over global rules. When a customer visits a category with its own rule, that rule applies.
Otherwise, the global rule is used as a fallback.
Pro Features
- Unlimited sort rules — No cap on how many rules you create.
- Scheduled rules — Give a rule a start time, an end time, or both. Ideal for sales and seasonal merchandising.
- Auto-expiring rules — Rules deactivate themselves once their end time passes.
- Custom field / ACF sorting — Sort by any product meta key, with text or numeric ordering.
- Tiebreaker sorting — Add a secondary criterion that decides order when products tie on the primary sort.
- Rule duplication — Clone an existing rule as a starting point.
- Import / export — Move rules between sites as JSON.
Free vs Pro at a glance
The free version includes 3 sort rules, all 10 sort criteria, per-category rules, the priority system and the on/off toggle. Pro adds unlimited rules, scheduled and auto-expiring rules, custom field and ACF sorting, tiebreaker sorting, rule duplication, and rule import/export. Nothing in the free version is time limited, and your rules stay in your own database either way.
Use Cases
- Sort out-of-stock products to the bottom of every category page
- Show discounted products first in a Sale category during a promotion
- Lead a New In category with the newest arrivals while the rest of the shop sorts by popularity
- Rank products by a custom field such as a margin, badge or ACF priority value
- Schedule a Black Friday or seasonal sort order that turns itself off afterwards
- Give a large catalog a different sort order in each of its categories