Better Search Replace

by WP Engine

Description

When moving your WordPress site to a new domain or server, you will likely run into a need to run a search/replace on the database for everything to work correctly. Fortunately, there are several plugins available for this task, however, all have a different approach to a few key features. This plugin consolidates the best features from these plugins, incorporating the following features in one simple plugin:

Serialization support for all tables
The ability to select specific tables
The ability to run a “dry run” to see how many fields will be updated
No server requirements aside from a running installation of WordPress
WordPress Multisite support

Time-saving features available in the Pro version:

View exactly what changed during a search/replace

Backup and import the database while running a search/replace

Priority email support from the developer of the plugin

Save or load custom profiles for quickly repeating a search/replace in the future

Support and updates for 1 year

Learn more about Better Search Replace Pro

The search and replace functionality is heavily based on interconnect/it’s great and open-source Search Replace DB script, modified to use WordPress native database functions to ensure compatibility.

Supported Languages

English
French
German
Spanish

Want to contribute?

Feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request on GitHub.

Installation

Install Better Search Replace like you would install any other WordPress plugin.

Dashboard Method:

Login to your WordPress admin and go to Plugins -> Add New
Type “Better Search Replace” in the search bar and select this plugin
Click “Install”, and then “Activate Plugin”

Upload Method:

Unzip the plugin and upload the “better-search-replace” folder to your ‘wp-content/plugins’ directory
Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress

Screenshots

The Better Search Replace page added to the "Tools" menu
After running a search/replace dry-run.

Faq

Using Better Search Replace

Once activated, Better Search Replace will add a page under the “Tools” menu page in your WordPress admin.

Is my host supported?

Yes! This plugin should be compatible with any host.

Can I damage my site with this plugin?

Yes! Entering a wrong search or replace string could damage your database. Because of this, it is always advisable to have a backup of your database before using this plugin.

How does this work on WordPress Multisite?

When this plugin is installed on a WordPress multisite network:

Subsite administrators can only search and replace within tables that belong to that subsite by visiting Dashboard > Tools > Better Search Replace from WP Admin of the subsite.
Network administrators (i.e. Super Admins) and administrators of the primary site can search and replace across all tables in the multisite network by visiting Dashboard > Tools > Better Search Replace from WP Admin of the primary site.

To change which users have access to the plugin, the user capability can be modified via code using the bsr_capability filter.

How can I use this plugin when changing URLs?

If you’re moving your site from one server to another and changing the URL of your WordPress installation, the approach below allows you to do so easily without affecting the old site:

Backup the database on your current site
Install the database on your new host
On the new host, define the new site URL in the wp-config.php file, as shown here
Log in at your new admin URL and run Better Search Replace on the old site URL for the new site URL
Delete the site_url constant you added to wp-config.php. You may also need to regenerate your .htaccess by going to Settings -> Permalinks and saving the settings.

More information on moving WordPress can be found here.

Reviews

Simple and efficient

By Oliver Junior (webde5igner) on September 14, 2025

Simple and efficient, ways working good thanks!

So helpfull

By Behrouz (nwm2006) on September 13, 2025

This plugin helped me a lot after migrating my website from staging to live.

5 Stars for sure

Excellent !!!

By nhowarth on July 2, 2025

Following a change of server and security certificates, I used the plugin to change the URLs of my website to remove the 'www.'

I had to do this as new security certificates were not generated for www. URLs.

The plugin worked flawlessly!

Title title title (title)

By ArtZ91 on June 8, 2025

Nice plugin… if you want to replace ALL database values to the same string.

worked great

By joshmacd on May 3, 2025

super simple - worked first try

The Best Find and Replace for WP

By brandedpixel on April 14, 2025

This is the standard for Find-and-Replace functions on your WordPress site.

The 'Dry Run' setting is awesome, allowing you to see how many items will be updated prior to replacing 'Live'.

If you know of a more developer friendly and robust plugin, we want to know!

Doesn't work with links and bad support

By migueltic on March 27, 2025

It doesn't find some or all URLs apparently (doesn't work for me and there are many open issues about that).

I've posted about this in a support thread opened by someone with the same problem, but they decided to remove my post (apparently it's a problem if 2 people with the same issue post in the same thread), so I would have to write again from scratch all the explanation of my problem to open another thread. I'm going to use another plugin instead.

Functional and stays in its lane

By kpolljonker on March 11, 2025

Does what it says it does (5 stars)

A rare occasion where a good plugin stays good and doesn't clutter its own pages or worse; the entire site with upsells and advertisements.

Oh right, and it refrains from opting you in for the frequent, unsollicited bulk spam that so many freemium plugins waste your time with these days

Nice plugin

By readysite on February 20, 2025

Nice plugin always helps out

Essential for Migrations and Database Adjustments

By MCD Diseño Web (tmacarreras) on February 19, 2025

This plugin is a must-have for any WordPress user who needs to make bulk database changes without hassle. Its interface is simple yet powerful, allowing you to search and replace across tables safely and efficiently.

I've used it multiple times to update URLs after migrations and fix database entries, and it has always worked flawlessly. Plus, the dry-run option before executing changes is a great feature.

Highly recommended! A must-have in my WordPress toolkit!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spanish

Este plugin es una herramienta esencial para cualquier usuario de WordPress que necesite realizar cambios masivos en la base de datos sin complicaciones. Su interfaz es sencilla, pero potente, permitiendo buscar y reemplazar en tablas de forma segura y eficiente.

Lo he utilizado en varias ocasiones para actualizar URLs tras migraciones y corregir datos en la base de datos, y siempre ha funcionado a la perfección. Además, la opción de prueba antes de ejecutar los cambios es un gran acierto.

Totalmente recomendado. ¡Un imprescindible en mi caja de herramientas de WordPress!

Changelog

1.4.10 – January 14, 2025

Fix: Improved security and stability

1.4.9 – October 4, 2024

Security: The plugin now uses its own update mechanism from WP Engine servers
New: Dependencies have been updated

1.4.8 – September 3, 2024

No changes as this was a pro-only release for Better Search Replace Pro

1.4.7 – May 30, 2024

Fix: The case-insensitive setting once again allows case-insensitive strings to be matched within serialized data, fixing a regression introduced in version 1.4.6

1.4.6 – April 17, 2024

Changed: Serialized text strings are now only deserialized when containing a match, resulting in faster performance
Security: Table names are now escaped when displaying search results

1.4.5 – January 18, 2024

Security: Unserializing an object during search and replace operations now passes 'allowed_classes' => false to avoid instantiating the object and potentially running malicious code stored in the database (thanks to Wordfence for responsible disclosure on December 18, 2023 followed by development and testing of the fix by WP Engine)
Fix: A regression in version 1.4.4 which caused some search results to be skipped has been fixed to ensure only numeric keyed objects are skipped

1.4.4 – December 14, 2023

Fix: Objects with numerical properties are now skipped to avoid causing errors

1.4.3 – September 5, 2023

New: Links to plugin documentation, support, feedback, and changelog are now available in the footer of WP Admin
Improvement: PHP 8.2 and Better Search Replace are now compatible

1.4.2 – January 11, 2023

Security: Arbitrary tab templates in the templates directory can no longer be loaded using a query parameter.

1.4.1 – July 25, 2022

Security: Selected tables are now confirmed to exist before processing the request

1.4 – April 7, 2022

New: Better Search Replace has a brand new user interface
Improvement: Default capability required to use the plugin has changed from “install_plugins” to “manage_options” for compatibility with DISALLOW_FILE_MODS

1.3.4 – December 7, 2020

Improvement: WordPress 5.6 and PHP 8 compatible
Fix: Strings that have been serialized twice showing up as false-positives

1.3.3 – February 26, 2019

Fix: Some special characters interfering with search/replace
Security: Pass template filenames through sanitize_file_name()
Security: Verify nonce when downloading diagnostic info

1.3.2 – January 3, 2018

Fix: Only one table searched on some environments (props @Ov3rfly)
Tweak: Update text in sidebar

1.3.1 – September 14, 2017

Security: Check if data is serialized before unserializing it
Improvement: Increased size of table select

1.3 – November 10, 2016

Improvement: Updated sidebar and added pro version discount
Fix: Outdated links to old website
Fix: Prevent requests to invalid tabs

1.2.10 – June 2, 2016

Fix: CSS not loaded on details page

1.2.9 – December 8, 2015

Fix: Bug with case-insensitive searches in serialized objects
Fix: Bug with early skip due to lack of primary key

1.2.8 – November 25, 2015

Fix: Bug with report details

1.2.7 – November 24, 2015

Fix: Untranslateable string
Tweak: Check BSR_PATH instead of ABSPATH to be consistent
Tested with 4.4

1.2.6

Removed unused code/small cleanup

1.2.5

Improved progress bar info and styles
Small cleanup

1.2.4

Added “Settings saved” notice when saving settings
Fixed bug with wp_magic_quotes interfering with some search strings

1.2.3

Fixed bug with searching for backslashes
Fixed potential bug with getting tables in large multisites
Fixed potential notice in append_report
Improved handling of missing primary keys

1.2.2

Fixed AJAX conflict with WooCommerce
Fixed a few issues with translations
Tweaked “System Info” to use get_locale() instead of WP_LANG constant
Updated German translation (props @Linus Ziegenhagen)

1.2.1

Fixed minor issue with display of progress bar
Updated translation file

1.2

Switched to AJAX bulk processing for search/replaces
Decreased minimum “Max Page Size” to 1000
Added “Help” tab with system info for easier troubleshooting

1.1.1

Added ability to change max page size
Decreased default page size to prevent white screen issue on some environments

1.1

Added ability to change capability required to use plugin
Small bugfixes and translation fixes

1.0.6

Added table sizes to the database table listing
Added French translation (props @Jean Philippe)

1.0.5

Added support for case-insensitive searches
Added German translation (props @Linus Ziegenhagen)

1.0.4

Potential security fixes

1.0.3

Fixed issue with searching for special characters like ‘\’
Fixed bug with replacing some objects

1.0.2

Fixed untranslateable strings on submit button and submenu page.

1.0.1

Fixed issue with loading translations and added Spanish translation (props Eduardo Larequi)
Fixed bug with reporting timing
Updated to use “Dry Run” as default
Added support for WordPress Multisite (see FAQs for more info)

1.0

Initial release