Remove Category URL – Remove 'category' base from category permalinks

81 Quality Score

Active Installs

21/30

At roughly 50,000 active installs and a popularity score of 70 out of 30 weight, the plugin has a respectable but modest reach compared to top SEO plugins.

Update Freshness

25/25

A perfect 100 maintenance score reflects very recent updates, including a check-in on May 25, 2026, indicating the author is actively keeping it current.

User Rating

13/15

The 84 out of 100 user rating from 58 reviewers suggests most users are satisfied, though the small sample size keeps confidence moderate.

Support Health

8/15

Zero support threads and zero resolutions yield a middling 50 support health score, which is expected for a plugin this simple but offers no public track record of help.

WP Compatibility

15/15

A full 100 compatibility score is driven by being tested with WordPress 7.0 and requiring only WordPress 3.1, covering essentially any modern installation.

Scores higher than 83% of indexed plugins

About

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

Active Installs 40k+

Rating ★★★★ 4.2/5

Last Updated 2026-08-20 7:07pm GMT

Requires WordPress 3.1+

Tested Up To 7.1

✓ No known vulnerabilities

What It Does

Remove Category URL removes the /category/ prefix from your WordPress category archive URLs, so visitors see example.com/my-category/ instead of example.com/category/my-category/. It works by adding a rewrite rule to WordPress's permalink system, with no configuration required after activation. The plugin is intentionally minimal, focused on doing this one job cleanly.

Who It's For

This plugin is best for site owners on WordPress 3.1 or higher who run content-heavy sites such as magazines, news portals, directories, or blogs with many categories and want shorter, cleaner category permalinks without installing a full SEO suite. It suits users who prefer a lightweight, single-purpose plugin over configuring a broader SEO toolkit just to remove a URL prefix.

Who Should Skip It

Anyone already using Yoast SEO, Rank Math, AIOSEO, or SEOPress should skip this plugin because each of those tools includes a built-in option to strip the category base, making a standalone plugin redundant. You should also skip it if you have custom post types or complex taxonomy structures where conflicts with rewrite rules are likely.

The Bottom Line

Remove Category URL is a focused, well-maintained plugin that does exactly one thing and does it reliably, earning an overall quality score of 81.14 out of 100. Its main weakness is the near-zero support activity, though that is largely a function of how simple the plugin is. If you do not run a full SEO plugin and want a free, lightweight fix for cleaner category URLs, this is a solid pick; otherwise, the category-base option in your existing SEO plugin will save you an extra install.

Pick Yoast when you want the category-base removal feature bundled with a full SEO toolkit, content analysis, and sitemaps, and you have a site that benefits from broader on-page optimization.

All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic 98/100

Choose AIOSEO if you need category-base removal alongside schema markup, local SEO, and WooCommerce integration in one package.

Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 97/100

Opt for Rank Math when you want the permalink cleanup plus multiple keyword tracking, schema generators, and a free tier that rivals paid competitors.

LiteSpeed Cache 95/100

LiteSpeed Cache is not a direct substitute but can complement or replace URL-rewrite tweaks through its URL exclusion and rewrite rules, useful on LiteSpeed servers.

SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 93/100

Pick SEOPress if you want a lighter-weight SEO suite than Yoast that still includes the option to remove the category base, plus clean code and a reasonable price.