Absolute Relative URLs

Early reviewers loved how it handled relative URLs across staging and SSL moves, but the recent ones say it does nothing on WP 5.8 and won't convert URLs in existing posts.

How well this listing is tuned to rank in WordPress.org search, on the factors an owner controls. Not popularity, optimization.

Directory searches this plugin turns up in, and which way each one is moving. WordPress.org publishes no history of search positions, so this starts the day we first tracked a keyword and never backfills.

Not enough tracked days yet to call a direction. Momentum needs at least three keywords measured a week or more apart.

wp.org is where the directory puts the plugin for that search. On merit is where it would sit if results were ranked on rating, support and updates, without the install boost. The last column is how far the wp.org position moved, from our first reading in the last 90 days to the latest.

1 search this plugin appeared in over the last 90 days, 0 listed. 1 left out as unrelated or noise (years, numbers, stray words). 5 of its tags aren't in the top 24 for their own search.

Directory rank vs rivals

wp.org popularity rank over time · higher is better · when a rival's line climbs above yours, they've overtaken you

How often this plugin actually ships. A steady rhythm is the maintenance signal a single "last updated" date can't show.

Share of active installs on each version of this plugin · 95% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.

Crossed into this band 7 days ago and the previous band took 3.5 years to cross, so the real count is still just under 1K.

1. ★★★★★ tsf999

   4.9y ago

   Not doing anything with WP 5.8.

   Read on wp.org ↗
2. ★★★★★ tsf999

   4.9y ago

   Not doing anything with WP 5.8

   Read on wp.org ↗
3. ★★★★★ amihaita

   5.4y ago

   Not working on already saved post so for me is useless.

   Read on wp.org ↗
4. ★★★★★ Annonnimmo

   6.8y ago

   I switched to https, so I tried to use this plugin to change images urls to relatives (in pages and posts), but it doesn’t change anything: urls remain absolutes.

   Read on wp.org ↗
5. ★★★★★ dichternebel

   7.6y ago

   <!– wp:paragraph –> <p class=””>Awesome! Thanks for this plugin!<br>I’m still asking myself how one could work without a plugin like this one? WordPress out of the box does not support staging or even switching from a subdomain-blog to a FQDN. Adding SSL support to pages afterwards would be a disaster without this plugin!</p> <!– /wp:paragraph –> <!– wp:paragraph –> <p class=””>I’ve been using >Root Relative URLs for ages but that is no longer maintained and does not work e.g. with Google’s reCaptcha. This one is a great successor and does the job very well and even better.</p> <!– /wp:paragraph –> <!– wp:paragraph –> <p class=””>—</p> <!– /wp:paragraph –> <!– wp:paragraph –> <p class=””>As of WP v.6.4.1 (2023-11) this still works like a charm. And I still highly recommend this plugin!</p> <!– /wp:paragraph –> <!– wp:paragraph –> <p class=””>A hint to people having trouble understanding what this plugin does:<br>It will remove the base url from links when saving e.g. a page and adds it back when being loaded or viewed.</p> <!– /wp:paragraph –> <!– wp:paragraph –> <p class=””>That means: <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>After you activated it, it will do nothing.</span></p> <!– /wp:paragraph –> <!– wp:paragraph –> <p class=””>This is a nice behavior, because the plugin doesn’t know what you want. And instead of trying to do magic that might fail, you have to update your content by yourself.</p> <!– /wp:paragraph –> <!– wp:paragraph –> <p class=””>This can either be done by re-saving every page/post manually or by using  your DB tool and doing a simple string replacement that removes the base url from internal links like this:</p> <!– /wp:paragraph –> <!– wp:paragraph –> <p class=””>update wordpress.wp_posts set post_content = replace(post_content,'https://www.example.com','') where post_content like '%https://www.example.com%';</p> <!– /wp:paragraph –> <!– wp:paragraph –> <p class=””>And in fact, you won’t see a change on your page or post and this is good. It’s just important that you get rid of the absolute URLs in the database to be able to do staging, migration etc. without any hassle.</p> <!– /wp:paragraph –> This topic was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by Jan Dembowski. This topic was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by Jan Dembowski. Reason: Removed link as links are not for reviews

   Read on wp.org ↗
6. ★★★★★ zalexua

   9.4y ago

   If disable plugin (or when it’s missing) – existing relative URLs are still working in both modes – editing and viewing. So, enabling/disabling plugin can be used to test actual plugin working, if you don’t have access to DB to check what actually stored. Thanks! This topic was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by zalexua.

   Read on wp.org ↗
7. ★★★★★ simp13

   10.6y ago

   Plug in and it works

   Read on wp.org ↗

Automated install-time checks, tested on PHP 7.4.8 · WP 5.7

Whether ChatGPT and Claude name this plugin when asked the category question, and whether the readme gives them something to quote.

Not measured yet for this plugin’s topics. Its tracked searches are not among the measured topics. See the topics measured so far.

Growth timeline

Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow

1. 2026-10-24 1K+ → 900+ down after 1270 days in tier
2. 2023-05-03 2K+ → 1K+ down after 511 days in tier
3. 2021-12-08 200+ → 2K+ up

Competes with

The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach, closest match first. The letter on the right is each plugin's health grade (A best, F worst).

Embed this report card

Drop a live Pulse card for Absolute Relative URLs into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.

Absolute Relative URLs: 900+ active installs, 3.0★ (6 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-10-31. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/absolute-relative-urls