After years of steady iteration, 404 to 301 v4 is here — rebuilt from the ground up with a modern React admin, a full custom redirect manager, a faster database layer, a REST API, WP-CLI support, and a growing ecosystem of official add-ons. If broken links and 404 errors are costing you SEO equity and visitors, this release gives you precise control over every URL on your site.
Why custom redirects and 404 errors matter for SEO
Every 404 error on your WordPress site is a missed opportunity. When a visitor — or a search engine crawler — lands on a broken URL, they hit a dead end. The link equity built up by that URL evaporates, the visitor leaves, and your bounce rate climbs.
Custom redirects — specifically 301 permanent redirects — pass the full SEO value of an old URL to the new one. They are essential after a site migration, a URL restructure, a domain change, or any redesign that moves pages around. Without them, you quietly bleed organic traffic every day.
But redirects alone are not the whole picture. You need to know which links are broken before you can fix them. That is where 404 logging comes in — and it is what has always made 404 to 301 different from a plain redirect plugin.
A redirect plugin fixes broken links. 404 to 301 finds them too.
What’s new in v4
Version 4 is a complete rewrite. The old admin has been replaced with a fast, modern React-powered interface. The database layer now uses dedicated, indexed tables for both logs and redirects, so every operation — matching a redirect, logging a 404, running a bulk action — is faster at scale.
- Custom redirect manager with exact, prefix and regex matching
- Per-redirect type, active/inactive toggle, hit counter and last-hit timestamp
- Dedicated, indexed database tables for logs and redirects
- Modern logs and redirects tables with search, filters, bulk actions and pagination
- Per-log lifecycle status — open, ignored, or fixed
- Email notifications with a configurable hit threshold
- REST API at
/wp-json/404-to-301/v1/ - WP-CLI command set —
wp 404-to-301 logs|redirects|settings - GDPR-friendly logging with IP masking and path exclusions
- Official add-ons catalogue for free and premium extensions
Custom redirect manager
The headline feature in v4 is the built-in redirect manager. You can now create unlimited custom redirects directly inside 404 to 301 — no separate plugin needed.
Three matching modes
Every redirect rule uses one of three match types. Exact matching targets one
specific URL path and nothing else. Prefix matching catches any URL that begins
with the given path — useful after restructuring a section of your site, such as
moving everything under /blog/ to /articles/. Regex matching gives you full
regular expression support for complex, pattern-based rules, which is particularly
powerful for developers managing large URL sets.
Per-redirect control
Each rule carries its own redirect type — 301, 302, 307 or any other valid HTTP status — so you are not locked into a single site-wide setting. Toggle any redirect active or inactive without deleting it. A hit counter and last-hit timestamp on every row show you which rules are actually being used, so you can confidently clean up stale rules over time.
Global 404 fallback
For any 404 that does not match a custom rule, you can set a global fallback destination — your homepage, a custom page, or any URL — with the redirect type of your choice. It is the safety net that catches everything you have not written an explicit rule for.
The matching engine uses a hashed, indexed database lookup so redirect resolution stays fast even with thousands of rules in place. Normal, healthy page loads are never touched — the plugin only does work when a 404 occurs.
404 error logging
Knowing which URLs are broken is just as important as redirecting them. The v4 logs table is a significant upgrade.
Every 404 is recorded with the requested URL, referrer, user agent, IP address and timestamp. Repeat hits to the same URL are deduplicated — one row per unique URL with a running hit count, so a popular broken link does not flood your table with thousands of identical rows.
Each log entry carries a lifecycle status — open, ignored, or fixed — so you can triage and track your broken link backlog over time. Filter by date range and status, search by URL or referrer, and bulk-update or delete entries in a single action. You can also turn any logged 404 into a custom redirect in a couple of clicks; the URL pre-fills the redirect form so there is no copy-pasting involved.
Email notifications
You do not need to log into the dashboard to know when broken links appear. The built-in email notification sends an alert when a 404 is recorded, with a configurable hit threshold so busy sites do not flood your inbox with every single occurrence. Set the threshold to five hits and you will only hear about URLs that have genuinely failed multiple times — a real problem worth acting on, not a one-off crawler hiccup.
REST API and WP-CLI
Version 4 is built for developers and modern WordPress workflows. A full REST API at
/wp-json/404-to-301/v1/ covers every admin operation — querying and managing logs,
creating and updating redirects, reading and writing settings. If you are building
headless workflows, automating site maintenance, or feeding 404 data into external
dashboards or reporting tools, the API gives you a clean interface to work against.
The complete CLI command set is available via wp 404-to-301, with subcommands for
logs, redirects and settings. Multisite is fully supported — each site in the
network maintains its own separate redirects, logs and settings.
Official add-ons
v4 ships with an official add-ons catalogue — free and premium extensions that integrate directly with the parent plugin. Each add-on does one thing well.
Free add-ons
- Redirects Importer lets you bulk-import custom redirects from a CSV file, or migrate your existing rules directly from other redirect plugins — Redirection by John Godley and 301 Redirects by WebFactory are both supported. No manual re-entry, no copy-pasting.
- Logs Exporter adds a one-click CSV export to the 404 Logs page. The export is filter-aware, so you can export just the rows matching your current search or date range — ready for Google Sheets, Excel, or your SEO team’s reports.
Premium add-ons
- Logs Cleaner automatically prunes the 404 log table by age, by row count, or on a recurring schedule. Set it once and the database stays lean without any manual housekeeping — essential for high-traffic sites where the log table would otherwise grow without bound.
- Email Reports delivers scheduled digests of your 404 activity — daily, weekly or monthly — straight to your inbox, each with an attached CSV of the underlying log rows. Stay on top of broken links without logging into the dashboard.
- Telegram Alerts pushes a Telegram message the moment a 404 error is recorded. Alerts are dispatched in the background so visitors never wait on the Telegram API — you get real-time visibility into broken links with no front-end slowdown.
Get started
404 to 301 is free on WordPress.org. Install it from your plugins screen or download it directly. If you are upgrading from v3, back up your database first — v4 creates new dedicated tables and migrates your existing data on activation.
Frequently asked questions
How do I create custom redirects in WordPress with 404 to 301?
Open the Redirects screen in 404 to 301 and add a rule with a source path, a destination and a match type — exact, prefix or regex. Each rule carries its own redirect status (301, 302, 307 or any other valid code) and can be toggled active or inactive without deleting it.
What is the difference between exact, prefix and regex redirect matching?
Exact matching targets one specific URL path and nothing else. Prefix matching catches every URL that begins with a given path, which is useful after restructuring a section — for example moving everything under /blog/ to /articles/. Regex matching accepts a full regular expression for complex, pattern-based rules across large URL sets.
Does 404 to 301 slow down my WordPress site?
No. Redirect resolution uses a hashed, indexed database lookup, and the plugin only does work when a 404 actually occurs — normal, healthy page loads are never touched, even with thousands of redirect rules in place.
Can I upgrade to 404 to 301 v4 from version 3?
Yes. Back up your database first — v4 creates new dedicated tables for logs and redirects and migrates your existing data on activation.
Does 404 to 301 have a REST API and WP-CLI support?
Yes. Version 4 ships a REST API at /wp-json/404-to-301/v1/ covering logs, redirects and settings, plus a WP-CLI command set under wp 404-to-301 with logs, redirects and settings subcommands. Multisite is fully supported, with separate redirects, logs and settings per site.
