Real-Time Find and Replace

This plugin allows you to dynamically (i.e. at the time when a page is generated) replace code and text from themes and other plugins with code and text of your choosing before a page is delivered to a user’s browser.

Because the find and replace happens in real-time no changes are needed to plugins or themes which means upgrades remain easy!

A pro version (a lifetime license is less than $15) with additional filtering options, setting export/import functionality, and the ability to modify admin pages is available.

Here are some common uses:

Want to selectively translate text that is being output by another plugin? You can do that.
Trying to tweak the text on a product or shopping cart page? No problem.
Hoping to remove footer text from a theme without modifying the theme? That’s easy.

Here are some more examples.

And some tips for those interested in on-page SEO.

Remember, all of the above can be done WITHOUT modifying themes or plugin files so you’ll always be able to upgrade them without having to worry about losing custom edits.

Where is data stored?

In an array in the wp_options table. Just one record regardless of the number of find and replace rules.

Will the find and replace slow my site?

Unless you’re using 50+ rules, you shouldn’t notice any performance impact. And if you’re using a caching plugin, even more rules won’t slow your site.

What does the regex checkbox do?

You can do a straight up find and replace where the plugin will look for an exact match of what you specified. You can also used advanced pattern matching that is available through regular expressions by checking the regex checkbox.

My web site is showing a blank page. What do I do?

This will happen if you are using a rule with regex enabled and the rule has an error. Regex is tricky so I recommend starting with a simple rule and adding to it to perform the replace you want.

Works & great Support

By bizguy on August 14, 2024

This plugin is easy to configure and does exactly what it says. It can change page content, before the browser creates the page. I needed to redirect a link to another website, and this plugin did it without issue. I also had to change the domain I'd registered the pro version to, and Marios support was great.

Definitely will recommend and use this plugin again.

At last ...

By RussWilley on March 21, 2024

This was the third find-and-replace plugin I'd tried, and I was about to give up with the whole idea. But unlike the previous two, this one actually worked. (Specifically, I wanted to change the color of some sub-headings, on a site that has nearly a thousand blog posts.)

Thank you!

Works as advertised

By ramon fincken on January 31, 2024

Works realtime and can parse regex

Handy note:
use / or ~ start AND end, use \1 \2 etc to replace with the ( ) groups

Perfect when plugins don't allow you to change wording

By Ben (blawjungchicago) on March 23, 2023

We have a few plugins that don't give the option to change terms and headings, so this plugin is perfect for removing standard e-commerce terminology and replacing it with terms for our sector (education).

Great

By giorgosm on November 14, 2022

Great Plugin! Simple and effective! Pro version worth it 1000%!

Great plugin, works perfectly!

By merida90 on July 5, 2022

Great plugin, very easy to use. I needed it to change the texts of the WooCommerce cart. Works perfectly!

Forgot to mention only 5 rules available in the free version...

By sivmil on May 8, 2022

Haven't seen it mentioned somewhere. Except that one, it's an excellent plugin

So simple yet so great

By JRD (jdhal) on March 2, 2022

This is so cool and fantastic. So simple yet so elegant and great. Checking on my QA site, can't wait to buy the pro version for my production site.

Didn't Work

By Duke Snoogens (MikeLoucas) on February 9, 2022

Installed, gave it a go, nothing happened. I tried RegEx and my site crashed… Weird Plugin…

I've finally found how I can change of an element I haven't found anywhere

By Dominik Kozmáli (dominokozmali) on February 3, 2022

I've finally found how I can change the text of an element I haven't found anywhere! THANK YOU! Nowhere have I been able to find how to change the name "Home" in breadcrumbs to my own "Name". Thanks thanks thanks. The most useful editorial plugin ever!

4.3

All Versions: Extra variable checking to eliminate PHP Warnings.
All Versions: Synced plugin version numbers.

4.0.3

All Versions: Updated info regarding the pro version.

4.0.2

All Versions: Added nonce security check to rules form.

3.9

All Versions: Security issue (cross-site scripting) fix applied. Discovered with DefenseCode WebScanner Security Analyzer by Neven Biruski.

3.8

Pro version: Can now make changes to the login form when the Admin check box is selected.

3.7

All versions: Additional checks for undefined variables.

3.6

All versions: Tweaks to documentation including the readme.txt.
Pro version: Updated Post Types drop-down to include custom post types such as WooCommerce’s Product post type.

3.5

All versions: Tweaks to documentation including the readme.txt.

3.4

All versions: Additional security to prevent direct access of plugin file.

3.3

All versions: More tweaks to conform to WordPress coding standards.
All versions: Plugin now requires at least WordPress v3.0.
All versions: Instructions added for how to update php.ini to support a large number of rules.
Pro version: Added rule-level control for when they should be applied to admin pages.
Pro version: Option to ignore case when performing non-regex searches.

3.2

All versions: Added a settings link in the main plugin page to help new users get started.

3.1

All versions: Corrected some typos. Minor code formatting and documentation tweaks.
All versions: Reworked interface to make layout more compact.
Pro version: Added simple settings export and import functionality.
Pro version: Added a notes field for a description and/or date.
Pro version: Added a post type filter.
Pro version: Find and replace now occurs on admin pages (except for this plugin’s admin page) in addition to public pages.

3.0

Code cleanup to more closely align with WordPress plugin coding standards.
Launch of pro version with additional filtering (referrer, useragent, querystring) options added. All functionality of free version remains.

2.1

Fixed PHP code that leaves $regex wrongly unset. Thanks to https://wordpress.org/support/profile/daniellandau for the fix.

2.0

Interface revamped.
New feature: Can re-order your rules via drag-and-drop.

1.6

Fixed problem with HTML character handling. Thanks to acub (https://profiles.wordpress.org/acub) for the code.

1.5

Fixed some jQuery bugs affecting the adding and removing of boxes.

1.4.2

Fixing contributor list format.

1.3.1

Missing files in 1.3 distribution.

1.3

Confirm that plugin works fine with WordPress 3.2 despite reports to the contrary.

1.2

Missing files in version 1.1 added back into distribution.

1.1

FAQ updates and confirming plugin works with WordPress 2.9.2.

1.0

Initial release.

Upload the real-time-find-and-replace folder to the ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory
Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
The find and replace rules are in the Tools sidebar menu.
Click on the Add link on the Find and Replace admin page to add as many rules as you want.