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Include Exclude vs Show Hide vs Conditional Logic

We have 3 extensions that can help you control the visibility of a meta box for a certain post/page:

That might be confused as you don't know which extension is the right choice for you. So the main difference between them is the following: Meta Box Include Exclude hides meta boxes by PHP, meaning:

  • Meta boxes are removed completely from the editing screen, no HTML markup is outputted at all
  • Since meta boxes are removed completely, there are no inputs at all and thus, there are no meta values are saved at all
  • There is no way to show the meta boxes again unless reloading the page

Both Meta Box Conditional Logic and Show Hide hide meta boxes by Javascript, meaning:

  • The HTML of meta boxes are outputted, inputs are only hidden and the meta values are submitted when saving post and are saved in the database
  • You can show them without reloading the page

The Meta Box Conditional Logic differs from Show Hide: it has more advanced options which allows you to show/hide not only meta boxes but also fields and specific HTML elements. The Show/Hide extension can show/hide only meta boxes. Besides, the number of conditions in Conditional Logic are more than Show/Hide extension (greater, less than, not equal, etc.).