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404page – your smart custom 404 error page

By Peter Raschendorfer

Description

With 100,000+ active installations the 404page plugin is the most used plugin to create a customized 404 error page in WordPress.

Bringing visitors to your website takes time and effort. Every visitor is important. The default 404 error page of most themes do not provide any information on what to find on your site. A first tme visitor, who does not know you, is left in a dead end and leaves your website. Set up a helpful custom 404 error page to keep him on your site.

This handy plugin allows you to easily create your own 404 error page without any effort and it works with almost every theme.

Usage

Create your custom 404 error page just like any other page using the WordPress Page Editor. Then go to ‘Appearance’ -> ‘404 Error Page’ and select the created page as your custom 404 error page. That’s it!

Why use this plugin?

Different from other similar plugins the 404page plugin does not create redirects. That’s quite important because a correct code 404 is delivered which tells search engines that the page does not exist and has to be removed from the index.

Different from other similar plugins the 404page plugin does not create additional server requests.

Requirements

The only requirement for this plugin is that you change the Permalink Structure in ‘Settings’ -> ‘Permalinks’ to anything else but ‘Plain’. This also activates the WordPress 404 error handling.

Docs & Support

Plugin Manual

Support Forum

Videos

A brief Introduction to the free WordPress Plugin 404page

A quick Overview over the Advanced Settings

“Force 404 error after loading page” explained

“Disable URL Autocorrecton Guessing” explained

“Send HTTP Status Code 410 for trashed objects” explained

“Compatibility Mode” explained

Compatibility

The 404page plugin was sucessfully tested by the author with the following themes

The 404page plugin was sucessfully tested by the author with the following starter themes

The 404page plugin was sucessfully tested by the author with the following plugins

For developers

Action Hook

The plugin adds an action hook 404page_after_404 which you can use to add extra functionality. The exact position the action occurs after an 404 error is detected depends on the Operating Method. Your function must not generate any output. There are no parameters.

Constant

If the 404page plugin is installed and activated it defines the PHP constant PP_404. Check existence of it to detect the 404page plugin.

Functions

The Plugin provides the following functions:

  • pp_404_is_active() to check if there is a custom 404 page selected and the selected page exists
  • pp_404_get_page_id() to get the ID of the 404 page
  • pp_404_get_all_page_ids() to get an array of page IDs in all languages

Read more

Native Mode

If you are a theme developer you can add native support for the 404page plugin to your theme for full control. Read more.

Do you like this plugin?

I spend a lot of my precious spare time to develop and maintain my free WordPress plugins. You don’t need to make a donation. No money, no beer, no coffee. If you like this plugin then please do me a favor and give it a good rating. Thanks.

Plugin Privacy Information

  • This plugin does not set cookies
  • This plugin does not collect or store any data
  • This plugin does not send any data to external servers

Peters’ Plugins Privacy Information Page

ClassicPress

This plugin is compatible with ClassicPress.

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Screenshots

  • The default 404 error page of the Twenty Twenty theme
  • Creating a custom 404 error page
  • Select the created page as 404 error page
  • The custom 404 error page in action
  • The advanced plugin settings

FAQ

Will it work with the theme I’m using?

This plugin is designed to work with as many themes as possible. It uses the WordPress Template System to detect and handle 404 errors. If your theme makes use of this Template System this plugin will work properly. If it does not the plugin offers a so called Compatibility Mode, which uses its completely own method to detect and handle 404 errors. If this plugin does not work properly, try to activate Compatibility Mode.

Are 404 errors redirected?

No, there is no redirection! The chosen page is delivered as a ‘real’ 404 error page. This results in a HTTP 404 code and not in 301 or 302, which is important for Search Engines to tell them, that the page does not exist and should be deleted from the index.

Is it possible to add custom CSS to the 404 page?

The 404page plugin adds a CSS class error404 to the <body> tag which can be used for extra styling.

Where can I get help?

Please use the Support Forum.

Reviews

404Page

October 7, 2021
The best WordPress plugin for 404 Page, worth downloading, thank you very much.

Excellent plugin

September 26, 2021
I have been using for a while this plugin and so far it does the job very well. Many thanks.
Read all 1,010 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“404page – your smart custom 404 error page” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

“404page – your smart custom 404 error page” has been translated into 15 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “404page – your smart custom 404 error page” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

11.3.0 (2021-01-06)

  • new option to always send an 410 instead of an 404
  • Plugin Foundation updated to PPF07

11.2.6 (2020-08-23)

  • Plugin Foundation updated to PPF06

11.2.5 (2020-08-22)

  • minor UI adjustments

11.2.4 (2020-08-16)

  • bug fix for Flamingo (see topic) plus potentially other plugins (thanks to garfiedo for supporting me to find the reason)

11.2.3 (2020-07-05)

11.2.2 (2020-03-28)

  • changes to the notification for hopefully better compatibility
  • Plugin Foundation swtiched to PPF04

11.2.1 (2020-01-04)

  • if W3 Total Cache is installed and caching is active URLs that result in an 404 error are automatically excluded from caching

11.2.0 (2020-01-01)

  • if WP Super Cache is installed and caching is active URLs that result in an 404 error are automatically excluded from caching

11.1.4 (2019-12-29)

  • urgent bug fix for PPF03

11.1.3 (2019-12-29)

  • Plugin Foundation updated to PPF03, no functional changes

11.1.2 (2019-11-19)

  • exclude 404 page from XML sitemap generated by Jetpack

11.1.1 (2019-11-16)

  • from now on it is not only detected if Yoast SEO Plugin is active, but also if the sitemap feature is activated

11.1.0 (2019-11-10)

  • now uses Plugin Foundation PPF02 for plugin compatibility
  • introduces two new functions for developers pp_404_get_page_id() and pp_404_get_all_page_ids()

11.0.5 (2019-10-22)

  • bugfix for Yoast SEO XML Sitemap (see topic)
  • added a note to settings page if Yoast SEO is active

11.0.4 (2019-10-06)

  • bugfix for WPML

11.0.3 (2019-09-01)

  • bugfix for REST API call (see here)

11.0.2 (2019-08-30)

11.0.1 (2019-08-13)

  • fix for PHP 7.1 – __construct() access level in subclass – this is an PHP error that was fixed in PHP 7.2, but I’ve changed my code to also work with PHP 7.1

11.0.0 (2019-08-13)

  • mostly rewritten based on my own newly created Plugin Foundation

10.5 (2019-04-01)

  • some more security improvements

10.4 (2019-03-31)

  • security vulnerability in AJAX call fixed (thanks to Julio Potier for pointing me to this)

10.3 (2019-02-21)

  • fix for compatibility with iThemes Sync (ticket)

10.2 (2019-02-19)

  • just another small change to prevent from potential problems with version 10

10.1 (2019-02-14)

10 (2019-02-14)

  • workaround for WordPress Permalink bug #46000
  • code improvement
  • performance tuning

9 (2019-01-24)

  • Gutenberg note added

8 (2019-01-11)

  • fixed compatibility issue with latest WPML version
  • code improvement
  • UI improvements

7 (2018-07-16)

  • corrected wrong image path
  • added video links to admin page
  • code improvements

6 (2018-06-18)

  • exclude 404 page from XML sitemap generated by Yoast SEO
  • further UI-improvements

5 (2018-03-05)

  • show an indicator if the currently edited page is a 404 error page
  • minor code- & UI-improvements

4 (2018-03-05)

3.3 (2017-11-16)

  • support for right-to-left-languages added
  • faulty display in WP 4.9 fixed

3.2 (2017-10-05)

  • new feature to send an HTTP 410 error for deleted objects

3.1 (2017-07-24)

  • bugfix for Polylang (see topic)
  • bugfix for CLI (see topic)
  • add debug class to body tag
  • also add body classes for Customizr theme
  • do not add error404 class if already exists
  • further redesign admin interface

3.0 (2017-07-05)

  • new feature to force 404 error after loading page
  • new feature to disable URL autocorrection guessing
  • finally removed Polylang stuff disabled in 2.4
  • redesigned admin interface
  • code improvement

2.5 (2017-05-19)

  • hide 404 page from search results on front end (if WPML is active, all languages are hidden)
  • do not fire a 404 in Compatibility Mode if the DW Question & Answer plugin by DesignWall is active and a question has no answers

2.4 (2017-03-08)

  • ensure that all core files are loaded properly (see topic)
  • Polylang plugin does no longer require Compatibility Mode (see topic)
  • hide all translations if WPML is installed and “Hide 404 page” is active (thanks to the WPML guys for pointing me at this)
  • post status fix (see topic)
  • Enfold theme issue fix (thanks to the guys at Kriesi.at for supporting me)

2.3 (2016-11-21)

  • a few minor bugfixes solve some problems with page templates in certain combinations

2.2 (2016-09-26)

  • automatic switch to Compatibility Mode for several plugins removed
  • enhanced support for WPML and Polylang
  • remove the 404 page from search results (for all languages if WPML or Polylang is used)
  • remove the 404 page from sitemap or other page lists (for all languages if WPML or Polylang is used)
  • bugfix for author archives
  • confusing admin message removed

2.1 (2016-04-22)

  • introduction of selectable Operating Methods
  • several changes to Compatibility Mode for improved WPML and bbPress compatibility plus compatibility with Page Builder by SiteOrigin
  • Polylang compatibility
  • automatic switch to Compatibility Mode if WPML, bbPress, Polylang or Page Builder by SiteOrigin is detected
  • completely new Customizr Compatibility Mode (automatically enabled if Customizr is detected)
  • firing an 404 error in case of directly accessing the 404 error page can now be deactivated
  • WP Super Cache support
  • option to hide the 404 error page from the Pages list
  • 404 error test
  • plugin expandable by action
  • delete all settings on uninstall

2.0 (2016-03-08)

  • WPML compatibility
  • bbPress compatibility
  • Customizr compatibility
  • directly accessing the 404 error page now throws an 404 error
  • class error404 added to the classes that are assigned to the body HTML element
  • the settings menu was moved from ‘Settings’ to ‘Appearance’
  • translation files removed, using GlotPress exclusively
  • Read more

1.4 (2015-08-07)

  • edit the 404 page directly from settings page
  • Portuguese translation

1.3 (2015-01-12)

  • technical improvement (rewritten as class)
  • cosmetics

1.2 (2014-07-28)

  • Spanish translation
  • Serbo-Croatian translation

1.1 (2014-06-03)

  • Multilingual support added
  • German translation

1.0 (2013-09-30)

  • Initial Release

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