64
FV Top Level Categories
A tiny permalink fix that refuses to let you go.
Healthy
64/100
The plugin removes category slugs but leaves broken links if you ever deactivate it.
Active installs
~25,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 20k+
Rating
4.4★
23 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
+2%
Holding steady
21 → 21 installs/day
What to watch out for
- MINORnot updated in 9 months
Downloads over time
real new installs per day · release spikes shown separately from the trend2025-04-302025-08-082025-11-162026-02-232026-06-03
organicrelease spikerelease tailorganic trend · 14d rolling median
Holding steady · +2% in the last year
21/day a year ago→21/day today
Reviews
what people actually sayFV Top Level Categories is a simple, well-regarded plugin that reliably removes the /category/ slug from WordPress URLs, though it carries real caveats around deactivation cleanup, occasional 404 errors, and no support for WooCommerce product categories.
What people like
- +Reliably removes /category/ from WordPress category URLs as advertised×6
- +Does not break pagination when used with custom permalink structures like /%category%/%postname%/×2
- +Zero configuration required — install and it works×2
Common complaints
- −Does not clean up after itself on deactivation — category URLs break and redirect to the homepage, effectively locking users into keeping the plugin active×2
- −Occasionally causes 404 errors on category and post pages for some users
- −Does not work with WooCommerce product category URLs (/product-category/)
- −Known issues with non-Latin (non-ASCII) URLs
Review trustReviews look organic
- 4.52★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 4.40★
- 9%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower
Not enough review history.
All-time ratings · 23 total
Latest reviews · 23 analyzed
- 2020-09-16★★★★★It worksthepiper
- 2020-06-26★★★★★PerfectADigitalMark
- 2018-05-21★★★★★Works Perfectly :: If you have your other permalinks correct!aplusdesign
- 2017-05-29★★★★★Worked for me :)Pt
- 2016-05-27★★★★★Quick Fix for Pesky Problembamajr
- 2016-05-11★★★★★Work perfectlySuzuKube
- 2016-03-29★★★★★Do what it saysgreguh
- 2015-09-10★★★★★Beware: Leaves mess after being deactivateddushonok
- 2015-05-07★★★★★Simply workssilkway
- 2015-04-03★★★★★Doesn't work for WooCommerce shops?Rookie
Releases
recent versions from WordPress.org SVNFor developers & the curious
the raw signals behind the grade — none of this is on the friendly summary aboveDownload signals
Baselines are computed on organic days only — release spikes and their tails are excluded, so they're not inflated by the auto-update wave.
23
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
21
Prior 7-day baseline
16
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
56
Mean release-day peak (30d)
25
Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)
+9.5%
Week-over-week organic trend
Review signals
Concentration and drive-by metrics drive the review-burst and fake-review flags. 30–40% solo reviewers is normal; we only flag the extremes.
—
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
—
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
83%
5★ share in analyzed sample
9%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
—
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
4.39 → 4.52★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered