#409 by installs
Custom Permalinks
A powerful WordPress plugin for full URL control. Set custom permalinks, auto-redirects, and use dynamic tags for ideal site structure and SEO.
- Installs
- 100,000+
- Rating
- 4.1 (116)
- Updated
- 18 days ago
Remove Category URL – Remove ‘category’ base from category permalinks
Remove Category URL strips the /category/ base from your category URLs, turning something like /category/my-category/ into simply /my-category/.
- Active installs
- 40,000+
- #831 of 1,000
- Downloads, all time
- 566.9K
- 566,860
- Downloads, 30 days
- 16.3K
- 3K in the last 7
- Rating
- 4.3 / 5
- 61 reviews
- Last updated
- 12 days ago
- Oct 19, 2026
- Version
- 1.2.5
- 14 releases
Upkeep and compatibility
| Last updated | October 19, 2026Updated in the last 3 months |
|---|---|
| Tested up to | WordPress 7.1.4Covers WordPress 7.1.4, the current release |
| Needs WordPress | 3.1 or newer |
| Needs PHP | Not stated |
| First published | July 2, 2014 |
| Support, last two months | No threads opened |
Reviews
4.3 / 5 from 61 reviews
| 5 stars | 48 |
|---|---|
| 4 stars | 2 |
| 3 stars | 0 |
| 2 stars | 1 |
| 1 star | 10 |
Downloads, last 30 days
What the author says it does
Remove Category URL strips the /category/ base from your category URLs, turning something like /category/my-category/ into simply /my-category/.
Just activate, and you’re done. No configuration needed.
Features
- Creates cleaner URLs like mydomain.com/my-category/ and mydomain.com/my-category/my-post/
- Works out of the box with no settings to configure
- Supports multiple sub-categories
- Automatically 301 redirects old category URLs to the new structure (SEO-friendly)
- Sitemaps are automatically updated with the new URLs after activation
- Compatible with WordPress Multisite, WPML, and popular sitemap plugins
Why remove /category/ from URLs?
The /category/ base in WordPress URLs is there by default, but it doesn’t help your visitors or search engines understand your content any better. When you remove /category/ from URLs, you get cleaner paths like mydomain.com/news/ instead of mydomain.com/category/news/. They’re shorter, easier to remember and share, and more consistent with how your pages are already structured.
Shorter URLs also tend to look better in search results and make your site feel more polished overall. Removing the category base is a small change that makes your whole URL structure cleaner.
Support
We’re here to help. Feel free to open a new thread on the Support Forum.
Useful Resources
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
Will this break my existing links?
No. The plugin automatically redirects your old category URLs to the new shorter ones using 301 redirects. So if someone visits mydomain.com/category/my-category/, they’ll be seamlessly redirected to mydomain.com/my-category/.
What happens if a page or other content has the same slug as a category?
The category will take priority. So if you have both a category and a page with the slug travel, visiting mydomain.com/travel/ will load the category archive, not the page. To avoid conflicts, make sure your categories don’t share slugs with pages, posts, or other content on your site.
Does this remove the base from other taxonomies like WooCommerce product categories?
No, this plugin only affects the built-in WordPress category taxonomy. For WooCommerce, you’d need a different solution.
What happens if I deactivate the plugin?
If you deactivate the plugin, your category URLs will revert to the default WordPress structure with /category/ in the path.
If you only deactivate the plugin without uninstalling it, you will need to flush permalinks manually. You can do this by going to Settings > Permalinks and clicking Save Changes.
If you uninstall the plugin, permalinks are flushed automatically.
I uninstalled the plugin, but /category/ didn’t come back. Why?
You’ll need to manually refresh your permalinks. Go to Settings → Permalinks and click Save Changes. This will restore the default /category/ base.
Latest changelog entry
Remove Category URL plugin has been acquired by Themeisle 🎉
We’re happy to announce that Themeisle is now the new owner of Remove Category URL. This acquisition will help ensure the plugin’s continued development, better support, and exciting new updates in the future.
Your existing setup will continue to work as usual — no action is required on your part.
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Where this page's numbers come from
Read from the WordPress.org plugin API on , when WordPress 7.1.4 was the current release. WordPress.org rounds active installs into buckets. These are the directory's figures, not my verdict, and I haven't tested this plugin.