No Category Base (WPML)

83 Quality Score

Active Installs

23/30

100,000 active installs is a strong adoption signal for a single-purpose utility, though it remains a niche tool compared to broad SEO plugins.

Update Freshness

25/25

A recent update dated June 2026 and tested against WordPress 6.9.4 indicates the author is actively maintaining compatibility with current core releases.

User Rating

14/15

A 90 out of 100 score from 34 ratings is solid, though the small sample size means the average is more sensitive to individual reviews.

Support Health

8/15

Zero support threads opened and zero resolved is a neutral signal: it can mean the plugin just works, or it can mean users have nowhere to turn when something breaks.

WP Compatibility

15/15

Tested with WordPress 6.9.4 and requiring only WordPress 5.0 shows broad version compatibility, and the WPML-specific design is its core compatibility strength.

Scores higher than 92% of indexed plugins

About

This plugin removes the mandatory 'Category Base' from your category permalinks. It's compatible with WPML.

Active Installs 100k+

Rating ★★★★½ 4.5/5

Last Updated 2026-08-27 5:26pm GMT

Requires WordPress 5.0+

Tested Up To 7.1

✓ No known vulnerabilities

What It Does

This plugin strips the default /category/ segment from your WordPress category URLs, producing cleaner permalinks such as yoursite.com/news/ instead of yoursite.com/category/news/. It is specifically built to keep working when WPML is translating categories across multiple languages, so the base removal applies consistently on every language version of the site.

Who It's For

This plugin is best for multilingual site owners running WPML who want shorter, more shareable category URLs across every language. It suits content-heavy international blogs, news outlets, ecommerce catalogues, and publishing brands where clean category slugs matter for SEO and user experience.

Who Should Skip It

If your site is monolingual, or you already use a different plugin that strips the category base (or a permalink structure that does not include /category/), this plugin adds no value. You should also skip it if you rely on a page or post whose slug collides with a category slug, since removing the base removes that disambiguation.

The Bottom Line

No Category Base (WPML) does one thing and does it well for a specific audience: WPML users who want category slugs free of the /category/ prefix on every language. The 83.39 overall quality score and 100,000 installs back its reliability, but the lack of any support history and the narrow use case mean monolingual sites have no reason to install it.

Related Plugins

Remove Category URL 81/100

Pick this if you do not need WPML compatibility, as it covers the same category base removal for monolingual sites with 50,000 installs of its own.