Replacely – Bulk Content Find & Replace by URLs
Bulk find and replace exact text in post, page, and Elementor content by URL, with dry-run preview, results dashboard, and CSV export.
Use with caution
Replacely works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. It runs on 60+ sites and was last updated 4 months ago, and scores 53/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (60+ active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Replacely stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| bulk edit | >100 |
| content | >100 |
| find and replace | #43 |
| search replace | >100 |
| urls | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
About Replacely
From the official readme · v1.0.4Description
Replacely is an administration tool that lets WordPress site owners and developers safely find and replace exact text inside post, page, custom-post-type, and Elementor content across a curated list of URLs or paths.
Unlike search-and-replace tools that scan the whole database blindly, this plugin operates surgically: you provide the list of URLs you want to touch, the exact text to find, and the exact text to replace it with. Nothing else is modified.
Highlights
- Exact, case-sensitive matching. No regex surprises.
- Accept full URLs (e.g.
https://example.com/sample-page/) and relative paths (e.g./sample-page/). - Detect target post automatically via
url_to_postid(), supporting any registered post type. - Elementor-aware: also replaces text inside Elementor page content (
_elementor_data) and refreshes Elementor’s CSS cache afterward. - Dry Run mode shows what would change before any database write.
- Results dashboard with summary tiles, detailed table, status colors, dashicons, and replacement counts split by source (classic content vs. Elementor).
- One-click CSV export and Copy results to clipboard.
- Persistent activity log of every live replacement (page, post type, replacement count, user, timestamp, View/Edit links). Keeps the 200 most recent updates and can be cleared anytime. Dry runs are never logged.
- Hardened security: capability checks, nonces, sanitisation, escaping, direct-access protection.
- Skips revisions, auto-drafts, and trashed posts. Duplicate URLs are processed only once.
- Clean uninstall: deleting the plugin removes all of its data (activity-log option and per-user transients) from the database, multisite-aware. Your content changes are kept.
- Translation-ready.
Built for reliability
- Object-oriented architecture with namespaced classes.
- Modular file structure: bootstrap, plugin container, admin page, replacer service, helper utilities.
- Polished, responsive admin UI that complements the native WordPress design language.
Installation
- Upload the
replacelyfolder to/wp-content/plugins/, or install the ZIP via Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin. - Activate the plugin from the Plugins screen.
- Navigate to Tools → Replacely.
Frequently asked questions
Is matching case-sensitive?
Yes. Matching is exact and case-sensitive, so Hello and hello are not considered the same.
Can I use regular expressions?
No. By design, the plugin uses exact string replacement to avoid the typical foot-guns of regex-based replacements on production data.
Does it support custom post types?
Yes. Any post type whose permalink resolves through url_to_postid() is supported, including CPTs registered by other plugins or themes.
Does it work with Elementor?
Yes. Elementor stores its page content as JSON in the _elementor_data post meta rather than in post_content, so the plugin searches and replaces inside that data as well — decoding it, replacing the text safely, re-encoding it, and saving. After a live run it regenerates Elementor’s cached CSS so the change appears on the front end. Other page builders that keep content in their own storage are not covered.
Will my revisions be modified?
No. Revisions, auto-drafts, and trashed posts are skipped.
How do I undo a replacement?
There is no automatic undo. Always take a full database backup before running a live replacement, or use Dry Run first to verify the impact.
Where are results stored?
The most recent results are stored in a short-lived per-user transient (15 minutes) solely so the CSV export endpoint can stream them.
What is the Activity Log?
A persistent, on-screen audit trail of every page changed by a live replacement. Each entry records the page title, post ID, post type, resolved URL, replacement count, the user who ran it, and the timestamp, with View and Edit links. It keeps the 200 most recent updates (older entries are pruned automatically) and survives across sessions. Dry-run previews are never logged, since nothing is written to the database. It is stored in a single capped option and can be emptied with Clear log — clearing the log deletes only the log, not the underlying content changes.
What happens to my data when I uninstall the plugin?
The plugin cleans up after itself. Deleting it from the Plugins screen removes everything it stored in the database: the activity-log option and every per-user results/state transient (on multisite, this runs for each site in the network). The actual content changes made to your posts are intentionally left in place, since those are real edits to your site rather than plugin data.
Changelog
Plugin renamed to Replacely. No functional changes.
1.0.4
- Renamed the plugin to “Replacely – Bulk Content Find & Replace by URLs” and standardized internal prefixes, namespace, and admin asset identifiers. No user-facing functional change.
- Hardened the CSV export against spreadsheet formula injection.
1.0.3
- Added: replacement counts are now broken down by source — classic post content vs. Elementor content — across the results summary tiles, the results table, the “pages updated” panel, the activity log, and the CSV export.
1.0.2
- Fixed: dashicons in the Copy Results, Export CSV, View, and Edit buttons are now vertically centered with their button labels.
1.0.1
- Added: clean uninstall. Deleting the plugin now removes the activity-log option and all per-user results/state transients from the database (multisite-aware), leaving no plugin data behind. Content changes are preserved.
1.0.0
- Initial release.
For developers
Is this your plugin? Show off the numbers.
Add a live badge to your site, docs or GitHub README. It updates on its own — no account needed.
Best Replacely alternatives
All bulk edit plugins →
FAQ
Replacely: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Sep 26, 2026
Is Replacely free?
Yes. Replacely is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Replacely safe to use in 2026?
Replacely works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. It runs on 60+ sites and was last updated 4 months ago, and scores 53/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Replacely?
Replacely is active on 60+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 331 times since it launched in May 2026. It was downloaded 108 times in the last 30 days.
Does Replacely work with WordPress 7.1?
Replacely is officially tested up to WordPress 7.0.6, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
What PHP version does Replacely need?
Replacely requires PHP 7.2 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.
When was Replacely last updated?
The latest version, 1.0.4, was released on May 28, 2026 (4 months ago).
Who makes Replacely?
Replacely is developed and maintained by Ankur Patel.
What are the best alternatives to Replacely?
The most popular alternatives to Replacely are Quick Featured Images (50K+ installs), BEAR (30K+ installs) and ACF Quick Edit Fields (30K+ installs).
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