FV Top Level Categories

67 Quality Score

Active Installs

19/30

With 20,000 active installs it has a small but real user base, far below the 200,000+ installs of leading alternatives in the same space.

Update Freshness

16/25

Last updated in September 2025 and tested against WordPress 6.8.5, so it is clearly being kept compatible with current releases, though the changelog activity appears light.

User Rating

13/15

An 88 out of 100 from 23 raters is a strong score, though the small sample size means it should be read with some caution.

Support Health

8/15

Zero support threads opened and zero resolved is a neutral signal at best: there have been no complaints, but also no public evidence of an active support process.

WP Compatibility

11/15

Tested with WordPress 6.8.5 and requiring WP 3.2.1, giving it a very wide compatibility window, though no minimum PHP version is declared which is a minor transparency gap.

Scores higher than 18% of indexed plugins

About

This is a fix of Top Level Categories plugin for Wordpress 3.1. and above.

Active Installs 20k+

Rating ★★★★ 4.4/5

Last Updated 2025-09-03 8:24am GMT

Requires WordPress 3.2.1+

Tested Up To 6.8.8

✓ No known vulnerabilities

What It Does

FV Top Level Categories is a maintained fork of the original Top Level Categories plugin, designed to keep category bases out of WordPress permalinks on sites running WP 3.1 or later. In practice, it lets you structure URLs so a post appears at yourdomain.com/my-category/my-post/ instead of yourdomain.com/category/my-category/my-post/. The plugin is a narrow utility with a single job rather than a broader permalink or SEO suite.

Who It's For

This plugin suits site owners who want clean, short category-based URLs and do not need the category slug in the path, particularly on content-heavy blogs, magazines, and directory-style sites. It is also a good fit for users who have inherited an older site relying on the abandoned Top Level Categories plugin and need a drop-in replacement. Developers maintaining legacy permalink structures on long-running WordPress installations will find it useful.

Who Should Skip It

If you already use a full-featured permalink or SEO plugin like Custom Post Type Permalinks, Permalink Manager Lite, or Yoast, you do not need this. Anyone on a brand-new site using block themes or plain post slugs without category hierarchy can skip it entirely.

The Bottom Line

FV Top Level Categories does one thing, removes the category base from URLs, and does it well enough to earn an 88/100 user rating and a 70.09/100 overall quality score. It is a solid choice for legacy sites or anyone who specifically wants that single behavior without the overhead of a full permalink suite. For most new builds, a more full-featured alternative will be the better long-term investment.

Related Plugins

Custom Post Type Permalinks 86/100

Pick this if you need to control permalink structures across custom post types and taxonomies, not just the default category base.

Permalink Manager Lite 84/100

Pick this when you want a broader permalink editor that handles posts, pages, custom post types, and taxonomies from a single interface.

Media Library Assistant 84/100

Pick this if your category problem is really about organizing media or custom content, since it focuses on enhancing the media library and its taxonomies.

List category posts 84/100

Pick this if you mainly want to display posts from specific categories in pages or widgets rather than rewrite category permalinks.

Tag, Category, and Taxonomy Manager – Autotagger 82/100

Pick this if your priority is bulk-editing tags, categories, and taxonomies, with permalink control as a secondary feature.