Maxwell Morgan

Pratik Barvaliya

Rareview®

Damir Tahiri

Simon Dickson

Take control of your site’s 404 Page Not Found error response with this simple, lightweight and core-friendly plugin.
Out of the box, WordPress treats 404 pages as a technical matter, with themes encouraged to include a hard-coded <code>404.php</code> template. But that means it’s difficult for site owners to make changes.
404 pages have become a space for websites and publishers to have a little fun, putting a smile on visitors’ faces as their journey is halted. They can also serve a useful navigational purpose, guiding users to the site’s latest or most popular content, or offering a search box.
By using WordPress’s built-in Pages feature, you can design and serve a feature-rich 404 page, making full use of WordPress content and navigation blocks. And you can edit and maintain it as easily as any other Page.
Just activate this plugin, then select your desired Page from the dropdown list on the Settings &rarr; Reading page.
Developer documentation and source code are available on GitHub.
<h3>Development</h3>
This plugin uses modern build tooling for development.
Source code is publicly available at: 
https://github.com/rareview/page-as-404
<h3>Build process</h3>
JavaScript and CSS assets are compiled for distribution. 
The uncompiled source code and build instructions can be found in the repository above.
Typical development workflow:
<ul>
<li><code>composer install</code></li>
<li><code>composer lint</code></li>
<li><code>composer format</code></li>
<li><code>npm install</code></li>
<li><code>npm run watch</code> or <code>npm run build</code></li>
</ul>
PHP dependencies are managed with Composer for development purposes only. 
The distributed plugin includes only the compiled assets required at runtime.

Page as 404


Something so simple that's often overlooked. Much easier than having to modify the theme. It's also nice that if you're logged it, you can edit the page directly.






Works great, surprised this isn't in core


I love that it’s lightweight, core-friendly, and works seamlessly with the block editor. Being able to design a custom 404 page using blocks in the editor is incredibly useful.


A must-have plugin for better 404 pages


It is very rare to see a plugin that solves a common problem in a native WordPress way. I like how Page as 404 doesn’t overload the dashboard with custom branding, upsell popups, or unnecessary UI. It just solves a very common problem. This should be a core feature.


Solves a Real Problem Without the Noise


It does exactly what it says and covers all best practices (sitemap, robots, etc.). Code looks solid and trustworthy.



Should be part of WordPress.


Simple but very useful

The lightweight and core-friendly way to manage your site's 404 response using a standard Page within your site

jfkconsulting

This plugin allows you to take full control over how your WordPress site handles 404 (Not Found) errors. Instead of the default theme’s 404 page, you can:
<ul>
<li>Display a Custom 404 Page: Choose any published page on your site to serve as your 404 error page.</li>
<li>Log 404 Errors: Keep track of which URLs are causing 404 errors, including the referring URL, IP address, and user agent. This helps identify broken links or malicious activity.</li>
<li>Analyze Logs: View statistics like the most frequent 404 URLs and top referrers directly in your WordPress admin.</li>
<li>Create Automatic Redirects: Easily set up 301 (permanent) or 302 (temporary) redirects for specific 404 URLs to send visitors to the correct content. Track redirect hits.</li>
<li>Export Logs: Download your 404 error logs as a CSV file for external analysis.</li>
<li>Optionally Redirect All 404s to Homepage: A simple option to redirect all 404 errors directly to your site’s homepage.</li>
<li>Add <code>noindex</code> Tag: Automatically add a <code>noindex, follow</code> meta tag to your 404 pages (custom or default) to prevent search engines from indexing them.</li>
</ul>

Custom 404 Handler

Customized 404 page, error logging with analysis, automatic redirects and export functionality.

Page as 404 vs Custom 404 Handler