Custom 404 Pro vs 404 to Search

It redirect every 404 response to the search page with a default result on what is in the url. It allow the visitor to have something he was looking for, without forcing a redirect to a page he didn’t ask for.

Custom 404 Pro replaces WordPress’s default 404 behaviour with a proper redirect. Instead of leaving visitors on a dead-end error page, you can send them to any page on your site or an external URL — with the HTTP status code of your choice. Redirect Modes WordPress Page — pick any published page from a dropdown; the plugin redirects to it automatically. Custom URL — enter any absolute URL to redirect 404s off-site or to a specific path. HTTP Status Code — choose 301, 302, 307, or 308 to match your SEO or caching requirements. 404 Logging When logging is enabled, the plugin records every 404 hit to a database table so you can see exactly what is broken: Request path Visitor IP address (can be disabled for privacy/GDPR compliance) Referrer URL User agent Timestamp Logs are searchable and can be deleted individually, in bulk, or all at once. They can also be exported as a CSV file. A configurable retention policy lets you automatically cap the table by row count, by age, or both — with a daily background cleanup and an on-demand Prune Now button. Email Notifications Optionally receive an admin email each time a 404 is logged. Designed for low-traffic monitoring — if you expect high 404 volume, keep this off to avoid inbox flooding. Multisite Support Works correctly on WordPress Multisite installations — activation creates the logs table for each site in the network. Multilingual Support Compatible with Polylang and WPML. The redirect page is resolved to the correct language variant for the current visitor automatically.