Looking for the best WordPress search plugins?
A good search plugin helps visitors search for their queries and easily navigate through your website. It makes content accessible and increases user engagement on your site.
In this article, you’ll discover some of the most popular WordPress search plugins to improve search performance on your website.
List of the Best WordPress Search Plugins
This list consists of free as well as premium search plugins. Go through this article and you’ll find the best search plugin that matches your requirements.
Let’s get started.
1. SearchWP
SearchWP is the most popular WordPress search plugin available on the market.
You can search for keywords, and SearchWP will find all the matching results from posts/pages, categories, tags, taxonomies, excerpts, slug, and even comments.
SearchWP automatically replaces the default WordPress search functionality and you don’t have to worry about integrating the plugin with your existing search form and results. Be it your favorite theme or a page builder, SearchWP takes care of the integration for you in minutes.
The default WordPress search ignores custom fields, but that’s not the case with SearchWP. In fact, you’re in complete control of including and excluding search results, so your visitors get relevant output.
The best part is you can even customize the ranking of results and find out what exactly visitors are searching for on your website.
Features:
- PDF and office document indexing
- Automatic integration with native WordPress search
- Keyword stemming feature
- Multiple search engines
- AJAX live search
- Search insights and analytics
Pricing:
SearchWP plugin comes in three different packages- standard, pro, and agency. The standard package starts at just $99/year.
2. JetPack Search
JetPack Search is a WordPress search plugin that you can use to create customized search experiences for your visitors.
The plugin comes with instant search and filtering options to prioritize results. There is a spelling checker as well to correct the misspelled words.
It’s a premium upgrade to the Jetpack plugin, so if you’re not interested in using the bulky Jetpack on your site, this might not be the right fit for you.
Features:
- Filtering options
- Real-time search indexing
- Quick and accurate spelling correction
- Flexible payment
Pricing:
JetPack offers you flexible payment options. The introductory pricing starts at $2.5 per month for 100 search records.
3. YITH WooCommerce Ajax Search
YITH WooCommerce Ajax Search is a search plugin that requires little to no experience in coding.
YITH WooCommerce Ajax Search is a good option for retailers looking for stylish search options and who already have an established e-commerce site.
This plugin helps customers quickly find products in your store, allowing you to let customers search SKUs, search within specific product categories and filter the results without reloading a page.
Features:
- Compatible with WooCommerce plugins
- Thumbnail support in search results
- Customizable labels for highlighting results
- Extend search in tags, and categories
Pricing:
The basic version is free. You can upgrade to the premium version by paying $69.99 per year.
4. Better Search
Better search is a powerful search plugin that replaces the default WordPress search widget.
While it does not include many features, it’s beginner-friendly as no configurations are required. You just need to install the plugin and start offering better results to the visitors.
Better Search provides some settings to fine-tune the search results with filters and WordPress actions.
Features:
- Search heatmap
- Inbuilt cache
- Relevance based search results
- Admin interface
Pricing:
The plugin is free for use.
5. Ivory Search
Ivory Search is quite an advanced search plugin for WordPress.
It’s a powerful plugin that lets you customize the way search results are displayed. It also lets you build custom search forms on your website.
Using a simple shortcode, you can display the search form in the header, footer, sidebars, or any website area.
Ivory Search can exclude specific posts, pages, and images from the search results.
Features:
- Easy to use
- Compatible with WooCommerce
- Search exclusion feature
- Integration with popular translation plugins
- Supports multimedia in search results
Pricing:
The plugin is free with limited features. Ivory Search Pro plan starts at $19.99/year.
6. Ajax Search Lite
Ajax Search Lite is a free WordPress search plugin.
It feels like a live search engine because the result responses are fast and boost the overall user experience. The plugin provides filters on the front end that users can use to narrow down the search results.
Ajax Search Lite has many customization options to let you match the look of the search bar with your website.
Features:
- Image search
- Image caching feature in repeated results
- Search in Woo products
- Built-in templates for color adjustments
- Search exclusion feature
Pricing:
The plugin is free for use. However, there is a pro version available on Codecanyon, starting at $36 for a single year.
7. ACF Better Search
Unlike other plugins, ACF Better Search doesn’t replace your default search functionality but enhances it.
This plugin lets you search by content from selected fields of the Advanced Custom Fields plugin.
Since it lets you search for whole phrases, it gives you better results. It’s absolutely beginner friendly because everything is done automatically without any additional configuration.
Features:
- Support for phrases
- ACF compatible
Pricing:
The plugin is completely free.
8. Highlight Search Terms
Highlight Search Terms is a lightweight plugin for searching terms within your WordPress website. It works by highlighting the number of times a term appeared in posts on the entire website.
The plugin is lightweight because it does not add CSS rules for highlighting results. It’s compatible with many popular themes, and you can even add the plugin to your theme’s header to make the searching experience easier for visitors.
Features:
- BuddyPress compatibility
- Support for searching phrases
- Caching compatibility
- Multiple hooks
- Plenty of filters provided
Pricing:
Highlight Search Terms is a free plugin.
9. ElasticPress
ElasticPress helps make every page of your website searchable. It has many features, including automatic meta-data analysis both site-wide and on individual posts and pages.
The plugin analyzes content relevancy super fast and manages millions of pages or posts within the same time frame.
Features:
- Fast results
- WooCommerce compatible
- Instant results
- Search support for related posts
Pricing:
ElasticPress is a free search plugin.
10. FacetWP
FacetWP is a search plugin with advanced filtering checkboxes for WordPress. It allows you to narrow your search with multiple checkbox options called facets.
The plugin offers a couple of user interface options. The search results load fast without any need to refresh the page. The only drawback is that it relies on external plugins, and therefore it’s not a good choice if you’re looking for a simple search plugin.
Features:
- Easy to use
- Plenty of hooks provided
- Fast filtering
- WooCommerce compatible
- Multiple integrations with other plugins
Pricing:
The basic plan starts at $99 per year. There is also a professional plan that will cost you $249 per year.
11. WP Extended Search
WP Extended Search is a lightweight search plugin with basic search features.
Using this plugin, you can customize the default WordPress search box to search keywords in posts, products, custom post types, and other archives. You can insert this search form anywhere on your site, using a widget, shortcode, PHP function, or HTML.
Features:
- Easy to use
- Search in archives
- Exclusion rules
- Customizable search options
- Compatible with translation plugins
Pricing:
It’s a free plugin.
12. Relevanssi
Relevanssi is a popular search plugin with lots of configurations. The plugin offers a better presentation of search results than the default WordPress search box.
It comes with many features, and you can see it even across multiple sites from a multisite installation. You’ll get the results from all custom post types, meta terms, and taxonomies.
Although the plugin is good, it might consume more bandwidth on your hosting. This might affect the speed of your website.
Features:
- Partial word matching feature
- Multisite friendly
- Restrict search results
- Gutenberg friendly
- Phrase search support
Pricing:
The plugin is available in free and paid versions. The premium version is available at $119 for a single year and $385 for lifetime access.
13. Search Live
Search Live is a free plugin that you can use by adding a shortcode anywhere on your website. It is a relatively new plugin in the search ecosystem and offers advanced features.
Search Live provides instant results and matching keywords in post titles and meta and post descriptions. The plugin is compatible with WPML and other popular translation plugins, so you can make a search in other languages.
Features:
- Easy to use
- WPML compatible
- Custom post type support
- Instant results
Pricing:
It’s a free plugin.
14. Search Exclude
Search Exclude is a search exclusion plugin. It enables you to exclude posts or pages from your search results.
Using the plugin, you can also bulk select the posts and pages which need to be excluded from the search results. This plugin just removes the post from the website search and does not impact the SEO of your website.
Features:
- Multiple filters provided
- Easy to use plugin
- Lightweight
- SEO friendly
Pricing:
Search exclude is a free plugin.
15. Reactive Search Pro
Reactive Search Pro is an advanced search plugin available on the Codecanyon marketplace.
The plugin is easy to install and it comes with a drag and drop builder interface. You can use the plugin to create a top bar search, homepage banner search, or map-based search.
Reactive Search Pro works fast as it is powered by react technology. It can search the keywords on posts, taxonomies, and meta terms.
Features:
- Autocomplete feature
- Drag and drop builder
- Support for custom post types
- Different layout styles
Pricing:
The plugin is priced at $29 and comes with six months of support from the plugin author.
Which WordPress Search Plugin is Best for You?
We have seen plenty of search plugins in this article and SearchWP stands out from the rest.
It automatically integrates with your native WordPress search and offers several customization options.
And that’s all for today!
We hope this article helped you find the right search plugin for your website. If you liked this article, we highly recommend you to check out these as well:
- 51 Best WordPress Plugins & Tools
- 11 Best WordPress Marketing Plugins (Compared)
- 6 Best WordPress Landing Page Plugins to Boost Sales
These articles will help you improve the overall user experience on your website.
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