Plugin URL:https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-search-replace/
Plugin Author: WP Engine
WordPress profile: WP Engine
Last updated: February 26, 2025 (2 weeks ago)
Tested up to (WP version): WP 6.7.2
Downloaded: 0
Rating: 5 (out of 5)
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
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.
FAQ
Once activated, Better Search Replace will add a page under the “Tools” menu page in your WordPress admin.
Yes! This plugin should be compatible with any host.
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.
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.
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.phpfile, 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.
Screenshots:
The Better Search Replace page added to the "Tools" menu
After running a search/replace dry-run.
Other notes:
Latest Change log entry:
- Fix: Improved security and stability
Tags:
search and replace, search replace, search replace database, update database urls, update live url
+ Jason's Comments
I have switched to an alternative Search and Replace plugin which gives more details of the search result.