by Themeisle 4.3 (61 reviews)

Remove Category URL – Remove ‘category’ base from category permalinks

Name: Remove Category URL – Remove ‘category’ base from category permalinks
Rating: 4.3 (61 reviews)
Author: Themeisle

Remove Category URL strips the /category/ base from your category URLs, turning something like /category/my-category/ into simply /my-category/.

Remove Category URL ranks #832 among WordPress.org plugins with 40,000+ active installations, is #50 of 4,265 in the SEO & Marketing category, a 4.3/5 rating from 61 reviews, and was last updated Oct 19, 2026. Data from WordPress.org, refreshed twice daily — see methodology.

Compatible with WP 7.1.4

v1.2.5 Current Version v1.2.5

Updated 1 week ago Last Update on 19 Oct, 2026

Refreshed 19 hours ago Last Refreshed on

#50 of 4,265 in SEO & Marketing Top 1% by installs Downloads -75.5% this week Actively maintained

View on WordPress.org

Rank

#832

— No change

Active Installs

40K+

— No change

KW Avg Position

22.8

— No change

Downloads

567.1K

+42 today

Support Resolved

— No change

Rating

86%

Review 4.3 out of 5

4.3 (61 reviews)

Next Milestone 50K

Total Progress 68.3%

40K+ 50K+

Ranks to Climb

Growth Needed

8,000,000

Active Installs

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Rank Changes

Current #832

Change

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Active Installs Growth

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Active Installs 0,000,000+

Growth +0.0%

Peak 0,000,000

Downloads Growth

Downloads

Growth

Peak

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Reviews & Ratings

4.3

61 reviews

Overall 86%

48 (79%)

2 (3%)

0 (0%)

1 (2%)

10 (16%)

Security History

Source: WPVulnerability

No known vulnerabilities on record for Remove Category URL. Checked 1 week ago.

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Plugin Details

Version: 1.2.5
Last Updated: Oct 19, 2026
Requires WP: 3.1+
Tested Up To: 7.1.4
PHP Version: N/A
Author: Themeisle

Support & Rating

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 4.3
Reviews: 61
Support Threads: 0
Resolved: 0%

Keywords

category base permalinks seo slug taxonomy

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TL;DR

AI summary of the plugin's readme

This plugin is for WordPress site owners who want cleaner category page URLs. It removes the '/category/' base from category permalinks and 301-redirects old URLs to the new structure.

Removes /category/ base from URLs
No configuration needed
Supports multiple sub-categories
Automatic 301 redirects
Sitemaps automatically updated
WordPress Multisite support
WPML compatibility
Compatible with sitemap plugins

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Remove Category URL – Remove ‘category’ base from category permalinks

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/.

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.

No, this plugin only affects the built-in WordPress category taxonomy. For WooCommerce, you'd need a different solution.

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. Note that after deactivation, links pointing to the shortened URLs will no longer work unless you set up your own redirects.

You'll need to manually refresh your permalinks. Go to Settings → Permalinks and click Save Changes. This will restore the default /category/ base.