WordPress 301 Redirect Plugins: The 6 Worth Using
Redirection is the WordPress 301 redirect plugin most sites should install. It is free with no paid tier, it has more than 2 million active installations, and it covers the three things that decide this purchase in one plugin: it logs every 404 your site throws, it matches URLs with regular expressions, and it imports rules in bulk from .htaccess, an Nginx config, CSV or JSON.
Before you install anything, know what a redirect plugin costs you. A rule in your server config is handled by Apache or Nginx before PHP starts. A rule in a plugin is handled by WordPress, which means booting PHP and querying the database on a request that would otherwise have been thrown away cheaply. On a site with a handful of permanent redirects, or a whole-domain move, the server config is the faster and better answer.
A plugin earns its place when you cannot edit server config on managed hosting, when the person managing redirects is not comfortable in a terminal, when redirects change often, or when you need to see which URLs are actually failing before you can decide where to send them. That last one is the real reason most people end up with a plugin, and it is why 404 logging matters more than the redirect feature itself.
How do these redirect plugins compare?
| Plugin | Price and free tier | Active installs | Rating | 404 log, regex, bulk import or export | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Redirection | Free, no paid tier | 2 million+ | 4.4 (703 ratings) | 404 log yes; regex yes; imports .htaccess, Nginx, CSV and JSON | Cleaning up after a migration |
| Rank Math SEO | Free; redirections and 404 monitor included | 4 million+ | 4.8 (7,498 ratings) | 404 log yes; regex yes; exports to .htaccess and Nginx config | Sites already running Rank Math |
| 301 Redirects, Redirect Manager | Free; regex and wildcards need the paid PRO tier | 300,000+ | 4.7 (578 ratings) | 404 log yes; regex PRO only; CSV bulk import and export | Non-technical people managing redirects |
| 404 to 301 | Free, with no paid tier or feature paywall | 100,000+ | 4.7 (311 ratings) | 404 log yes; regex yes; CSV bulk import and export | Sites drowning in 404s |
| Safe Redirect Manager | Free, no paid tier | 40,000+ | 4.7 (78 ratings) | 404 log no; regex yes; no bulk import | High-traffic sites that want redirects only |
| Yoast SEO Premium | $118.80 a year excluding VAT for one site | 10 million+ (free Yoast SEO) | 4.8 (27,819 ratings) | 404 log no; regex yes; CSV bulk import and export | Sites already paying for Yoast |
Prices checked September 2026.
Which redirect plugin should most sites install?
Redirection, at version 5.10.0 and tested up to WordPress 7.1, is the one to reach for by default. Its 2 million-plus active installations make it the most widely used redirect tool for WordPress by a long way, and it is free with nothing held back for a paid version.
It logs 404s, groups them so a hundred hits on one dead URL appear once, and lets you turn a group into a redirect without retyping anything. Regex is fully supported, and it will import your existing rules from an .htaccess file, an Nginx config, CSV, JSON or a rival plugin’s export.
The distinguishing capability is conditional matching. Redirection can send a URL to different destinations depending on login status, user capability, browser, referrer, cookie, HTTP header or IP address, which no other free plugin here does. It also creates redirects automatically when you change a permalink, so the common cause of self-inflicted 404s stops happening.
The honest limitation is the logs. Redirection records everything by default, and on a busy site with a lot of bot traffic those tables grow fast. Set a log retention period on day one, or you will find the plugin has quietly become the largest thing in your database.
What if you already run an SEO plugin?
Rank Math SEO includes a redirections module and a 404 monitor in the free plugin, which for most sites removes the need for a separate redirect plugin entirely. Rank Math sits at version 1.0.277.2, is tested to WordPress 7.1, has 4 million-plus active installations and a 4.8 rating from 7,498 users, the highest score of anything on this page.
It supports five redirect types, several source-matching methods and full regex, and the 404 monitor feeds it the URLs worth redirecting.
The distinguishing capability is the exit route. Rank Math exports your redirects to an .htaccess file for Apache or a config file for Nginx, which means you can build and test rules in a friendly interface and then move them to the server where they cost nothing to run. Nothing else here offers that path.
The honest limitation is that redirects become part of your SEO plugin. If you later switch SEO plugins, the redirects are one more thing to migrate, and Rank Math warns that very large redirect tables slow the plugin down.
Which one is easiest for a non-technical person?
301 Redirects, Redirect Manager by WebFactory is the friendliest interface in this category. It is at version 2.85, tested to WordPress 7.1, with 300,000+ active installations and a 4.7 rating from 578 users.
The free version gives you 301, 302 and 307 redirects, a 404 error log with a dashboard widget, redirect hit statistics, query string retention and CSV bulk import and export.
The distinguishing capability is the destination picker. Instead of pasting a URL and hoping you typed it correctly, you choose the target from a dropdown of your posts, pages, custom post types, category archives and term archives. On a site where several people manage content, that one design decision prevents most redirect mistakes.
The honest limitation is that regex and wildcard matching are held back for the paid PRO tier. If you need to redirect a whole folder pattern rather than named URLs, the free version cannot do it and you should look at Redirection instead.
301 Redirects on WordPress.org
Which plugin is best when 404s are the actual problem?
404 to 301 is a 404 tool that happens to redirect, rather than a redirect tool that happens to log. It is at version 4.0.4, tested to WordPress 7.1, with 100,000+ active installations and a 4.7 rating from 311 users, and every feature is free with no licence keys or upsells.
Its logs record IP address, user agent, referrer and timestamp, deduplicate repeated hits with a counter, and give each entry a status of open, ignored or fixed so you can work through a backlog. Redirects support 301, 302, 307, 410 and 451, with exact, prefix and regex matching.
The distinguishing capability is the reporting. It sends email alerts once a URL crosses a hit threshold you set, and can post you a daily, weekly or monthly report with the log attached as CSV. If a page starts 404ing at 3am you find out, rather than finding out in six weeks from a rankings drop.
The honest limitation is the other direction. Because it is organised around errors that have already happened, planning a large migration in advance is more awkward here than in Redirection, where the redirect list is the primary screen.
Which redirect plugin is lightest on a busy site?
Safe Redirect Manager, maintained by 10up, is deliberately the smallest tool here. Version 2.2.2, tested to WordPress 7.1, 40,000+ active installations and a 4.7 rating from 78 users.
You get a URL, a destination and an HTTP status code, with an option to enable regex on the path. That is close to all of it, and it is on purpose: the plugin was built for high-traffic and enterprise WordPress environments where every extra query on a page load is a cost.
The distinguishing capability is that restraint. Redirects are stored as a custom post type and cached, so the lookup does not grow into the kind of database load that a logging plugin creates on a site serving millions of requests.
The honest limitation is everything it leaves out. There is no 404 logging, so it will not tell you what to redirect, and no bulk import, so a migration means adding rules one at a time or writing code. Use it when you already know your redirect list.
Safe Redirect Manager on WordPress.org
Is the Yoast redirect manager worth paying for?
Only if you were buying Yoast SEO Premium anyway. It costs $118.80 a year excluding VAT for one site, and the redirect manager is not available in the free Yoast SEO plugin, which itself has 10 million-plus active installations and a 4.8 rating from 27,819 users at version 28.4.
What you get is bulk redirects with regex, CSV import and export for editing rules outside WordPress, and automatic prompts: delete a post and Yoast asks straight away what should happen to the old URL, with the usual choices ready to pick.
The distinguishing capability is that prompt at the moment of deletion. Redirects get created when the decision is fresh, by the person who made it, instead of being reconstructed months later from a 404 log.
The honest limitation is value. Redirection does regex, bulk import and automatic permalink redirects for nothing, and adds 404 logging that Yoast’s redirect manager does not include. Paying $118.80 purely for redirects makes no sense; paying it for Premium and getting the redirect manager included is a different question.
Are any redirect plugins unsafe to run?
Two names that used to appear in lists like this one should not be on your site.
SEO 301 Meta is closed on WordPress.org as of 15 February 2022, and the stated reason is a security issue. It receives no updates. If it is active on your site, deactivate and delete it, then rebuild those rules in Redirection, which imports from CSV if you can export the old list first.
Redirect List is still downloadable but carries WordPress.org’s warning that it has not been tested with the latest three major releases. Its last update was four years ago and it is tested only to WordPress 6.0.14. That is an abandoned plugin sitting in the request path of every page on your site.
So which should you pick?
For most people, install Redirection. It is free, it logs the 404s that tell you what needs redirecting, and it imports whatever list you already have. Set a log retention limit when you set it up.
For the harder case, a large site where performance is the constraint, use Rank Math to build the rules and then export them to .htaccess or an Nginx config. You get a usable interface for the work and a server-level redirect for the traffic, which is the fastest arrangement available.
Skip Safe Redirect Manager unless you already know exactly which URLs need redirecting. It is a good, lean plugin, but with no 404 log and no bulk import it cannot help you find the problem or fix it at scale.
Redirects are one part of keeping a site findable. If you are choosing between the two big SEO plugins, our Rank Math versus Yoast comparison covers the wider decision, and the Rank Math Pro review looks at what the paid tier adds. For the full picture there is our roundup of WordPress SEO plugins, and after a migration a clean XML sitemap helps search engines find the new URLs faster than waiting for them to recrawl the old ones.
Frequently asked questions
Is a redirect plugin slower than a server redirect?
Yes. A rule in .htaccess or an Nginx config is handled by the web server before PHP runs, while a plugin rule requires WordPress to load and query the database first. The difference is small on one request and meaningful across millions. Use a plugin for visibility and convenience, then move stable permanent rules to the server if performance matters.
Which free WordPress redirect plugin logs 404 errors?
Redirection, 404 to 301, Rank Math SEO and 301 Redirects all log 404s in their free versions. Safe Redirect Manager does not, and neither does the Yoast SEO Premium redirect manager. If your goal is to discover which URLs are broken rather than to fix ones you already know about, 404 logging is the feature to choose on.
Can I import hundreds of redirects at once?
Yes, with the right plugin. Redirection imports from .htaccess, Nginx configuration files, CSV and JSON, and can also read exports from competing plugins. 404 to 301 and 301 Redirects both accept CSV bulk imports, and Yoast SEO Premium supports CSV import and export. Safe Redirect Manager has no bulk import.
Does a 301 redirect pass SEO value to the new URL?
A 301 signals a permanent move and is the correct status code when content has moved for good. Google treats it as the instruction to transfer the old URL’s signals to the new one. Use 302 or 307 only for genuinely temporary changes, because a temporary code tells search engines to keep the old URL indexed.
Should I redirect every 404 to the homepage?
No. Sending unrelated dead URLs to the homepage gives visitors a page that does not answer what they clicked for, and search engines commonly treat those redirects as soft 404s anyway. Redirect a dead URL to the closest genuine replacement, and leave it as a 404 or a 410 when no replacement exists.
