Are you looking for the best WordPress search plugin to improve your site search?
We all know that the default WordPress search feature is quite limited. However, there are several WordPress search plugins that can help you improve the default search experience.
In this article, we will highlight the best WordPress search plugins to improve your site search.
Why Use a WordPress Search Plugin?
WordPress comes with a built-in search feature, which is quite limited and not very good in finding the relevant content.
If you are making a new WordPress website or blog, then you may not need a better search feature right away.
However, as you add more content, you would want to help users easily find articles or products. A lot of folks rely mainly on SEO best practices, hoping that users will find things through search engines.
Adding a site search helps users who are already on your website. For instance, they may be looking for an older article that they didn’t bookmark or a particular product on your WooCommerce store.
Site search helps users stay on your website, boosts engagement, and ultimately leads to higher conversions and sales.
The good news is that there are several WordPress search plugins that can help you do that. Some of these plugins are built for specific purposes like WooCommerce product search and some improve search experience across your website.
That being said, let’s take a look at some of the best WordPress search plugins that you can try.
1. SearchWP
SearchWP is one of the best custom search plugin for WordPress. It is very easy to use and the search results are relatively more accurate.
It allows searches for your keyword in post/page title, content, slug, categories, tags, taxonomies, excerpts, and even comments. You can control the algorithm by assigning weight to each content type from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest.
Upon activation, the plugin automatically indexes your content and replaces the default search feature in WordPress. See our article on how to improve WordPress search with SearchWP for more detailed instructions.
Pricing: Starting from $99 per year.
2. ElasticPress
ElasticPress is a hosted WordPress search service built on ElasticSearch.
Instead of running on your WordPress site, it runs the search queries on the cloud and shows results at a lightening speed. It is extremely easy to use and integrate on any WordPress site and works with all top WordPress hosting providers.
It has built-in Ajax search which shows instant results as users start typing. It also works well with WooCommerce and shows users the products they are looking for much quicker.
It is a hosted service and a lot more expensive than any other search solutions on this list.
Pricing: $79 per month
3. Ivory Search
Ivory Search is another excellent WordPress search plugin to replace the default WordPress search.
It allows you to create multiple custom search forms. Each form can have its own custom search settings which allows you to create dynamic forms for different areas of your website.
It works with popular WordPress multilingual plugins and WooCommerce. To improve search results, Ivory Search looks into post types, images metadata, custom fields, and more.
You can also use Ajax to show live search results without reloading a page. It comes with shortcodes and a search widget allowing you to easily display search forms anywhere on your website.
Pricing: The base plugin is free. Premium version starts at $19.99 per year.
4. WP Google Search
WP Google Search allows you to easily replace default WordPress search feature with Google Custom Search.
It is really simple to use, you’ll need to create a Google Custom Search for your site. After that, you can copy the search engine ID and paste it in plugin settings.
The plugin also comes with a widget which allows you to display Google Custom Search in your WordPress sidebar. You can also use a shortcode to display the search form.
For more details, see our step by step guide on how to add Google custom search in WordPress.
Pricing: Free
5. SearchWP Ajax Live
SearchWP Ajax Live is an addon plugin for SearchWP but would work with any WordPress search form that uses the built-in WordPress template tags to display the search form.
It enhances your existing WordPress search with live Ajax search results as soon as user starts typing. This offers a better user experience and does not require a page reload.
The plugin also offers flexible customization option for advanced users. Allowing them to cutomize the results template and integrate Ajax functionality into any search form.
Pricing: Free
6. YITH WooCommerce Ajax Search
YITH WooCommerce Ajax Search is a great WooCommerce product search plugin that helps customers quickly find products on your store. It allows you to let customers search SKUs, search within specific product categories and filter the results without reloading a page.
YITH WooCommerce Ajax search is highly customizable. You can show thumbnails, badges, prices, and promotions in live search results. You can also add a search bar to different product categories or shop pages.
The plugin works with WooCommerce stores in any language and is fully compatible with multilingual stores.
Pricing: Starting from $69.99 per year.
7. Ajax Search for WooCommerce
Ajax Search for WooCommerce is another excellent WooCommerce search plugin. It allows you to instantly fetch search results using Ajax without reloading a page.
It comes with a powerful product SKU search, category and tags filters, and easy implementation in the navigation menu, sidebar, or shortcode.
You can easily add product search to any product category or shop page. The plugin also works on multilingual stores out of the box.
Pricing: Base plugin is free. Premium version starting at $49 per year with additional features.
8. WOOF Products Filter for WooCommerce
WOOF Products Filter for WooCommerce is a very useful search companion for WooCommerce stores. It allows your customers to filter products using a number of options including categories, colors, size, and more.
You can use a shortcode in a sidebar widget to display the search and filtering options. You can also choose to use Ajax for sorting products without leaving the page.
It is easy to set up for beginners and offers tons of customization options for developers who may want to implement it into custom product templates.
Pricing: Free
9. Relevanssi
Relevanssi is another popular WordPress search plugin that improves WordPress search by fetching more relevant results.
It can search for PDF contents, shortcode outputs, custom fields, user profiles, categories and tags, WooCommerce products, and more.
One thing that you need to look for is compatibility issues. Ralevanssi has compatibility issues with popular page builder plugins, BuddyPress, NextGen Gallery, and a few more.
Pricing: Base plugin is free. You can upgrade to the premium version for $99 per year.
10. WP Extended Search
WP Extended Search is a light weight and simple WordPress search plugin that allows you to easily extend the functionality of the default WordPress search.
You can simply go to the plugin settings and select the options that you want to include in the search. You can search in author name, taxonomies, post types, meta data, and more.
You don’t need to add any shortcode or widget. The plugin extends the default WordPress search so if you are already using it, then you are good to go.
Pricing: Free
11. Better Search
Better Search is another great way to replace the default WordPress search with a slightly better search engine.
It allows you to search across all post types and find more relevant results. You can also assign a weight to items and improve the quality of search results.
It automatically replaces the default WordPress search. If your theme doesn’t already add a search form, then you can use the default search widget to add the search feature to your website.
Pricing: Free
12. Search Exclude
Search Exclude allows you to simply exclude items you don’t want to be displayed in the WordPress search.
It adds a simple checkbox for posts, pages, and WooCommerce products that you can check if you want to exclude it from the search results. You can also go to the plugin’s settings page to see all the items that you have excluded from the search.
Pricing: Free
Which WordPress Search Plugin is The Best?
SearchWP is the best WordPress search plugin for most websites.
It offers a nice range of features, quality of search results is great and is affordable for small businesses. It has a WooCommerce addon and a free live search addon, both of them make your WooCommerce product search incredibly powerful.
However, if you are looking for a free and more powerful search then WP Google Search allows you to add Google Search to your WordPress site.
We hope this article helped you find the best WordPress search plugin for your website. You may also want to see our list of the must have WordPress plugins for small businesses, and the best WooCommerce plugins for all online stores.
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Malik Ifraan says
Which plugin do you use for WPBeginner’s search?
WPBeginner Support says
At the moment we are using Google Search:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-add-google-search-in-a-wordpress-site/
Admin
Roy Ren says
good article, thanks.
WPBeginner Support says
Thank you, glad you liked our article
Admin
Deni says
Hello! I have been looking for a plugin for searching users and searching the site for a long time. Two in one. Help me please!!!
Trace MacGregor says
Can anyone help me setup search form? I am not a programmer and my skillset is limited. We are a judicial website and i have created two different advanced search forms but cant get them to work. Please visit to see what i mean. Thank you for any assistance.
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Trace,
Which search plugin you are using?
Admin
Rizky says
Does anyone know how any plugins to enhance the search UI itself? this post mostly shows the search engine, but i could use some tips on improving the UI. for example making ajax-based search, or a popup search widget.
Piyush says
hello sir i am making a social networking website and i want my search result should search page, post and also users. i am using ajex search plugin for that when i type name of the person then it shows user in search dropdown but there are only 3 name are shown and when i type name in search box and press enter they only show pages and posts i want to add users also in search results.
is there any way to do this.
jon says
It would be nice to see a mention of search by colour… there was a plugin for this but it was discontinued. Adding a colour picker and allowing and searching for media by level of match to the colour is interesting.
Dick Sijtsma says
Interesting info. Thanks! However, since this site is targeting WP beginners (it’s even in the url) i think it is strange that only premium search plugins are listed. Are there no free alternatives available for SearchWP (49 dollar) or Swiftype (starting form 299 dollars a month!).
These are no beginners prices.
I know adding Google Search is an option, and it’s free, but i think it is impossible to get rid of the branding of Google. The other plugins are nice add-ons. Thanks. but I hope there is more on ‘search’ to find.
Dave Mackey says
No mention of Relevanssi?
Allan Mantaring says
This is nice post. Very helpful to me and for many marketers.
Connor Rickett says
The exclude plugin may be the most useful of the bunch, really. Sure WordPress’ inbuilt search is lackluster, but it’s also a fairly secondary concern for most sites, especially beginning ones. Running a host a plugins to add minor improvements to the search results (like highlighting) is a waste of resources. Although, if you’re using custom types, that search form is definitely pure gold!
Hmmm. I really can’t imagine a situation where I want to search by voice but the option doesn’t already exist. My phone will fill in voice searches without needing a plugin, and I hardly need it for a non-mobile machine. Anyone who does need voice commands to operate a computer will certainly already be using dedicated software vastly faster and superior to a plugin on some distant server. Maybe I’m just missing something obvious here?
Steve Diện says
I want to have a plugin that it’s only search in one post similar to search feature on google chrome when press ctrl+F. Some people don’t know this function on google chrome. So, I want have one plugin similar to search feature on google chrome sothat I can put it on my post, only one post, don’t all post. Can you help me?
Wes says
Did you ever find this out? I need to have a search like that as well for 1 page on my site
margmacd says
Could someone kindly advise on whether or not there is a solution on offer of relevance to Steve Dien’s query of 17 May 2015.
Many thanks!
Ella Jones says
Great plugins. I really wanna integrate add voice search plugin in my website. Nice list of search plugins.Thanks for sharing .
Rakesh Suthar says
Hello Sir ,
how can i disable responsible system of my wordpress theme ?
It mean i want to make my wordpress website Irresponsible in mobile , tablate etc…
What should do me ? Plz help me !
thanks
Dick Sijtsma says
Hi Rakesh, try to search or google for ‘Responsive Theme’ instead of ‘Responsible’.
Idi Oumarou Ibrahim says
Another great post, as always! Thank you for all you do, and keep up the good work!
I have currently the Swiftype Search and Google Custom Search plugins installed to my site & blog. After reading your post, I wonder if I have to keep only one of them or it is okay to continue using both.
Thank you again!