Disable Search

What the author says it does

This plugin prevents WordPress from allowing and handling any search requests from the front-end of the site. Specifically, this plugin:

• Prevents the search form from appearing if the theme uses the standard get_search_form() function to display the search form.
• Prevents the search form from appearing if the theme uses a searchform.php template
• Prevents the search item from appearing in the admin tool bar when shown on the front-end.
• Disables the search widget.
• Removes the Search widget from the list of available widgets
• Deactivates any search widgets currently in use in any sidebars (they are hidden, not deleted; they’ll reappear in their original locations if this plugin gets deactivated)
• Disables the search block.
• Removes the Search block from the list of available blocks
• Deactivates any search blocks currently in use, such as in posts or as a widget (they are disabled, not deleted; they’ll reappear if this plugin gets deactivated and the associated placeholder block doesn’t get deleted)
• With or without a search form, the plugin prevents any direct or manual requests by visitors, via either GET or POST requests, from actually returning any search results.
• Submitted attempts at a search will be given a 404 File Not Found response, rendered by your site’s 404.php template, if present.

The opening of the plugin's own description. The full text, installation notes and changelog are on its WordPress.org page.

Questions the author answers

Latest changelog entry

2.1.1 (2025-04-14)

• Change: Discontinue unnecessary explicit loading of textdomain
• Hardening: Ensure translated error message doesn’t contain markup
• Change: Note compatibility through WP 6.8+
• Change: Note compatibility through PHP 8.3+
• Change: Update copyright date (2025)
• Unit tests:
• Change: Use expectException() instead of @expectedException comment (for PHPUnit 9 support)