Safe Paste
WordPress do a great job by default filtering potentially dangerous code inside your content. So this plugin is NOT about security.
Consider an alternative
Safe Paste shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 100+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 6 years ago, and scores 37/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (100+ active installs)
- No update in 6 years
- Only tested up to WordPress 5.4 (latest is 7.1)
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 Safe Paste stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| editor | >100 |
| html | >100 |
| post content | >100 |
| strip tags | >100 |
| tinyMCE | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 5 from 5 reviews
About Safe Paste
From the official readme · v1.1.9Description
WordPress do a great job by default filtering potentially dangerous code inside your content. So this plugin is NOT about security.
But people can break your site design without compromising your security… That’s the purpose of this little plugin.
Do you have users that creates content for you?. Do you own an online Magazine?
If you answer yes to at least one of the above questions, I’m sure you have minor design troubles in your site because of your users using copy/paste (ofcourse without using TinyMCE buttons to remove code) while not being aware of all the HTML tags they are pasting…
This plugin simply removes a lot of HTML tags (and non breaking space HTML entitie) from post and page content before inserting it to database. Preventing users (including you) to paste undesired HTML tags to the content.
It only does his work while you’re editing your post/page (it can be in any status). So it’ll do the job on the new post/pages you create after the activation of the plugin and in old content that you edit after the plugin activation.
These are the HTML tags that stays:
<p>
<a> (allowed attributes: href, title).
<img> (allowed attributes: src, alt, class).
<h1>
<h2>
<h3>
<h4>
<h5>
<h6>
<blockquote>
<ol>
<ul>
<li>
<em>
<strong>
<del>
<code>
<ins>
Any other HTML tag (or attributes) and (non breaking space) should be removed.
Users with ‘unfiltered_html’ WP core capability (by default administrator and editor roles), will be excluded from the filter.
NOTE: This program is distributed under GPL2 licence in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY. I’m not responsible of ANY trouble or damage your site may have due to the use of this plugin. YOU and only YOU are responsible of your site and having backups and restoration plans. If you use this plugin you’re accepting this.
Features
- KISS philosofy 🙂
Requirements
- WordPress 4.x or higher.
Installation
- Extract the zip file and just drop the contents in the
wp-content/plugins/directory of your WordPress installation (or install it directly from your dashboard) and then activate the plugin from Plugins page. - Nothing more! No settings page (for the moment), just activate or deactivate it.
Changelog
Replaced function that removes all HTML entities with a previous one that only removes &nbsp; (non breaking space) to fix issue reported at http://de.forums.wordpress.org/topic/wordpress-loscht-aus-links-von-aspx-seiten?replies=6#post-403093
1.1.9
- Improved code syntax to make it 100% compliant with WordPress Coding Standards. This doesn’t represent any change in the plugin functionality, it’s just cosmetic.
1.1.8
- Minor code change to get the post ID directly from $postarr
- Some code formatting cleanup
1.1.7
- Checks for ‘unfiltered_html’ WP core capability to exclude certain users/roles from the cleanup.
- Added filter safepaste_post_types to set the post types where the cleanup will take place, by default is applied to post and pages.
- Added filter safepaste_allowed_tags to allow customization of the allowed tags.
- Added filter safepaste_allowed_protocols to allow customization of the allowed protocols.
- Added code tag to allowed HTML tags.
1.1.2
- Replaced function that removes all HTML entities with a previous one that only removes &nbsp; (non breaking space) to fix issue reported at https://de.forums.wordpress.org/topic/wordpress-loscht-aus-links-von-aspx-seiten?replies=6#post-403093
1.1.1
- Changed: Allow ‘width’ and ‘height’ for img tag. This allow to resize images in the WP editor.
1.1
- Changed: Now using WP function wp_kses instead of generic PHP strip_tags. This change also allow to use cforms plugin, that uses HTML comments to insert their forms (a very bad method by the way, should use shortcodes instead).
- Added: Allow only http and https protocols in post/page content.
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 Safe Paste alternatives
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FAQ
Safe Paste: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Sep 28, 2026
Is Safe Paste free?
Yes. Safe Paste is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Safe Paste safe to use in 2026?
Safe Paste shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 100+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 6 years ago, and scores 37/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Safe Paste?
Safe Paste is active on 100+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 5,608 times since it launched in September 2012. It was downloaded 62 times in the last 30 days.
Does Safe Paste work with WordPress 7.1?
Safe Paste is officially tested up to WordPress 5.4.23, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
When was Safe Paste last updated?
The latest version, 1.1.9, was released on April 10, 2020 (6 years ago).
Who makes Safe Paste?
Safe Paste is developed and maintained by Samuel Aguilera.
What are the best alternatives to Safe Paste?
The most popular alternatives to Safe Paste are Elementor Website Builder (10M+ installs), Classic Editor (8M+ installs) and Classic Widgets (2M+ installs).
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