Easy Search Replace – Find & Replace Text/HTML/URLs, Remove Footer Credit
Real-time search & replace for text, HTML, and URLs. Target by post type, ID, or URL. Safely remove footer credit — no database changes.
4.5
(4 ratings)Will this break my store?
What the WordPress.org registry says about keeping Easy Search Replace – Find & Replace Text/HTML/URLs, Remove Footer Credit running.
Tested to 7.0.4 — 1 branch behind 7.1
Tested against the WordPress branch in use today.1 month ago
At least 5.1 releases a year since launch. WordPress.org only lists versions still available for download, so the real number may be higher.7.2
Your host must be running at least this version.5.0
1
A single maintainer. Worth knowing if the plugin is load-bearing for your store.Maintenance & trust
Scored on how Easy Search Replace – Find & Replace Text/HTML/URLs, Remove Footer Credit is looked after — not on how many stores run it.
91
out of 100Maintenance
35 / 35WordPress compatibility
20 / 20Support responsiveness
Not enough dataMerchant satisfaction
10 / 15Listing transparency
7 / 10Ratings
4.5
4 ratingsThe Easy Search Replace plugin lets you find and replace any text, HTML, or URL across your WordPress site in real time — without editing files or touching the database.
It’s the safest way to do search and replace on front-end output. Update branding, fix old links, swap outdated content, or remove footer credit with a few clicks.
Target replacements precisely with:
- Post Types (Posts, Pages, WooCommerce Products, any CPT)
- Specific Post IDs (comma separated)
- Exact URLs (one per line)
Why it’s safe:
All changes are applied dynamically at render time. Your posts, pages, and database stay untouched. Disable the plugin or toggle a rule off and your original content is back instantly.
Popular use cases
- Remove footer credit — delete or replace any theme footer text, copyright notice, or “Powered by” link.
- Replace company names — rebranding? Update every mention of your old name site-wide in seconds.
- Fix old links — swap broken URLs, redirect HTTP → HTTPS links, or update moved resources.
- WooCommerce text changes — rename “Add to cart” buttons, change checkout labels, or translate WooCommerce strings without code.
- Hide plugin or theme branding — remove “Built with Elementor”, “Jetpack stats”, or any injected text.
- Conditional content — show different text to logged-in users, mobile visitors, or during specific date ranges (Pro).
Features
Free version (up to 10 rules — existing installs with more keep them all):
- Real-time search and replace for text, HTML, and URLs — no database changes.
- Enable or disable each rule with a toggle (no need to delete and recreate).
- Limit rules by post type, post ID, or URL (one per line).
- Case-insensitive matching (Ignore Case option).
- “Don’t match if page contains” safety switch — add a marker to any page you want to leave untouched.
- Configurable “Skip HTML tags” setting — protect
<script>,<style>, or any tag from being modified. - Multiple rules, executed in the order you define.
- Lightweight: buffer filtering only starts if you have active rules.
Pro features (Easy Search Replace Pro):
- CSS selector targeting — restrict replacements to elements matching
.footer,#main,h1, or any CSS selector. Inspect the element in your browser and paste the class or ID. Perfect for removing footer credits from a specific element without affecting the rest of your page. - Regex patterns — full PHP regex with smart defaults.
.matches newlines and patterns are UTF-8 aware by default. Write<div class="x">.*?unwanted.*?</div>and it just works. - Match text between two markers — replace everything between a “starts with” and “ends with” snippet without writing regex. Safer because it stops at the first end marker.
- Scheduled rules — activate rules only within specific date ranges, times of day, or weekdays. Perfect for seasonal banners, holiday promotions, or timed content swaps.
- Audience & device targeting — show different replacements for logged-in users vs guests, target specific user roles, or serve different content to desktop, mobile, or tablet visitors.
- Exclusion rules — apply a rule everywhere EXCEPT specific post types, post IDs, or URLs.
- Import / Export — export rules as JSON or CSV for backups. Bulk import hundreds of rules at once from CSV for agency migrations.
- Live Preview — test any rule against a real page (even before you save it) and see exactly how many matches it will make, so you’re never guessing.
- Rule Analytics — see how many times each rule has actually matched, right in the Analytics tab. Spot rules that never fire and clean them up.
- Visual selector picker — click an element on your own site and Easy Search Replace fills in its CSS selector for you — no browser dev tools or CSS knowledge required.
- Recipe Library — one-click templates for common jobs like removing “Powered by WordPress”, renaming WooCommerce buttons, or forcing HTTPS links. Each recipe is added disabled so you can review it first.
- Regex Tester — write and test regular expressions inside the plugin with live match highlighting before you apply them to your live site.
- Rule Sync between sites — pull your rules from one site into another with a secure sync key. Perfect for agencies keeping staging and production in step.
- Cache-Aware Mode — scheduled, role, and device rules keep working with page caching, and known caches (WP Rocket, LiteSpeed, and more) are purged automatically when you change a rule.
- Debug badge — logged-in admins see a small “ESR” badge listing which rules ran on the current page, making troubleshooting effortless.
- Unlimited rules — the free version covers up to 10 rules; Pro removes the cap entirely.
Usage
- Open Settings → Easy Search Replace.
- Find: Enter the text/HTML/URL to search.
- Replace with: Enter the replacement (leave empty to remove — great for footer credits).
- (Optional) Limit by Post Types, Post IDs, or URLs (one per line).
- Enable Ignore case if needed.
- Add multiple rules and Save Changes.
Full documentation with examples: fluxpress.io/docs/easy-search-replace
Examples
Replace text globally
Find: Old Company
Replace: New Company
Remove footer credit
Find: Powered by MyTheme
Replace: (leave empty)
Remove “Powered by WordPress”
Find: Powered by WordPress
Replace: (leave empty)
(Optionally set CSS selector to .site-info in Pro for precision)
Replace URL site-wide
Find: http://oldsite.com
Replace: https://newsite.com
Change WooCommerce button text
Find: Add to cart
Replace: Buy now
Only on specific posts
Find: Coming Soon
Replace: Launching Now
Post IDs: 25,47,88
Case-insensitive
Enable Ignore case to match “WordPress”, “wordpress”, “WORDPRESS”, etc.
Privacy
The free version of Easy Search Replace collects no data and makes no external connections — it runs in anonymous mode.
Licensing for the Pro edition is handled by Freemius. When you activate a Pro license, Freemius records only the site URL needed to bind the license to your site; any diagnostic data is optional and never shared without your explicit consent.
No site content, emails, IP addresses, usernames, or passwords are ever collected.
No. All replacements happen in the output buffer at runtime. Your posts, pages, and theme files stay completely untouched. Disable the plugin and everything reverts instantly.
Better Search Replace and similar tools rewrite your database — a permanent, one-time bulk change. Easy Search Replace works differently: it replaces text on your site’s output in real time and never touches the database. So every rule is instantly reversible (just toggle it off), safe to experiment with, and can do things a database tool can’t — like targeting by CSS selector, user role, device, or schedule. Use a database tool for permanent migrations; use Easy Search Replace for safe, ongoing, conditional replacements.
Yes. Put the exact footer text in Find, leave Replace empty. With Pro, you can also use a CSS selector (e.g., .footer-credit, .site-info) to target only the footer element — so identical text elsewhere on your page stays untouched.
Yes. Set “Powered by WordPress” as the Find text and leave Replace empty. It works with any theme. If your theme wraps it in a specific class, use that as a CSS selector in Pro for even more precision.
Yes. The plugin works on the final rendered HTML output, so it’s fully compatible with Elementor, Divi, WPBakery, Beaver Builder, Bricks, GeneratePress, Kadence, and any theme or builder that produces standard HTML.
Yes. You can replace WooCommerce-generated text like button labels, checkout fields, product descriptions, or any front-end string. For example, change “Add to cart” to “Buy now” globally or only on specific product pages using Post ID targeting.
Yes. Clear your cache after adding or updating rules so the cached version picks up the new replacements. Compatible with WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache, LiteSpeed Cache, WP Rocket, and others.
Yes, with Pro’s Cache-Aware Mode. Because a cached page is served to everyone, conditional rules could otherwise show the wrong version to some visitors. Cache-Aware Mode automatically keeps affected pages out of the cache (or simply warns you — your choice) and purges known caches — WP Rocket, LiteSpeed, and others — whenever you change a rule.
Same principle — purge your CDN cache after making changes. Once the cache refreshes, your replacements appear normally. The plugin itself adds negligible overhead.
Minimal. Plain text replacements add just a few milliseconds. DOM parsing only kicks in if you use CSS selector-based rules (Pro). With page caching enabled, the replaced output is cached like any normal page, so returning visitors have zero extra processing.
Yes — regex is available in the Pro version. Patterns use smart defaults: . matches newlines (dotall mode) and patterns are UTF-8 aware, so common HTML patterns work out of the box. Useful for replacing complex HTML structures, cleaning up shortcode remnants, or pattern-based URL rewrites.
Yes, with Pro. The built-in Regex Tester lets you write a pattern and see exactly what it matches on sample text, right inside the plugin — so you can get it right before it ever touches your live site.
Yes. Any text that appears in your site’s HTML output can be replaced. This makes it a lightweight alternative to translation plugins when you just need to change a few strings — like renaming “Cart” to “Bag” or changing “Reviews” to “Testimonials”.
Yes, with Pro. The Schedule feature lets you set a date range, time of day, and specific weekdays. Useful for holiday banners, event countdowns, sale announcements, or any content that should appear only during a specific window.
Yes, with Pro. The Audience section lets you target by login state, specific user roles, or device type (desktop, mobile, tablet).
Your rules are fully preserved. Pro-only fields (regex, CSS selector, schedule, audience, etc.) stop being applied but remain saved. Reactivate Pro later and everything picks up where you left off — nothing is deleted.
Yes. The plugin can be activated network-wide or on individual sites. Pro licenses are per-site.
Yes, with Pro. Export as JSON (full fidelity) or CSV (spreadsheet-friendly). Import on any other site running Easy Search Replace Pro. Great for agency workflows or migrating rules across staging and production.
Yes, with Pro. Beyond JSON/CSV export, Rule Sync lets you pull rules directly from one site into another using a secure sync key — ideal for agencies keeping staging and production, or a whole fleet of sites, in step.
Yes, with Pro. Live Preview runs any rule — even one you haven’t saved yet — against any page on your site and shows the exact number of matches, so you can confirm it works before publishing.
Yes — turn on Rule Analytics (Pro) and the Analytics tab shows how many times each rule has matched. It’s the easy way to find rules that never fire so you can fix or remove them.
Yes, with Pro. The Recipe Library offers one-click templates for common tasks — remove “Powered by WordPress”, rename WooCommerce buttons, force HTTPS, and more. Each recipe is added as a disabled rule so you can review and tweak it before switching it on.
Yes, with Pro. The Visual Selector Picker lets you click an element on your own site and the plugin fills in the correct CSS selector for you — no dev tools or CSS knowledge needed.
The free version supports up to 10 rules. Upgrade to Pro to remove the limit entirely. If you already had more than 10 rules from an earlier version, they all keep working — nothing is removed.
Visit Easy search replace docs for detailed guides, examples, and troubleshooting.
Plugin details
Tags on WordPress.org