There is no hiding the fact that native WordPress search is weak. It’s neither relevant, customizable, nor fast. In other words, it just doesn’t work the way it should and This is by design. Many aspects of the WordPress ecosystem are left to custom codes and plugins. This is in part to not expand the core WordPress for something that might not benefit all WP users. There are other reasons as well but let’s not go down into that rabbit hole. A quick search in the WP plugin directory reveals many different search plugins.
In this article, we want to compare some of the prominent options. The main questions we aim to answer are:
- What are the differences between them?
- Who is the targeted audience for each plugin?
- What are the features they offer?
- What is their pricing?
Table of Contents
How does WP search plugins work?
Search is a two part process: indexing contents and searching for user queries.
Indexing is the process of fetching and preparing all the relevant data of a post/page/product. The item being processed — whether it’s a post, page, product, or another custom type — is called an indexable. The process of indexing is triggered when an indexable is created/deleted or modified.
The second part is the searching itself. It is triggered when an end-user enters a query in the search box. All the indexed content is then searched for the query keywords.
How and what is compared?
The following plugin versions are compared. These are among the most famous WordPress search plugins on the market and are the latest versions of the mentioned plugins at the time of writing this article.
- Relevenssi: WordPress search doesn’t search everything, and doesn’t give you enough control over what is searched and how. Relevanssi gives you full access and full control, with plenty of filters and ways to make Relevanssi work the way you want your search to work. Version 4.25
- Relevenssi Premium: Version 2.28
- Fibo search: WooCommerce live search to power your sales. Version 1.31
- Fibo search Personal: Version 1.31
- Ivory search Free and Pro: Ivory Search is a simple to use advanced WordPress search plugin. It enhances the default WordPress search and also allows you to create new custom search forms. Version 5.5
- Ajax Search Lite: Ajax Search Lite is a live search plugin for WordPress. This responsive live search engine, which will boost your user experience by providing a user friendly ajax powered search form – a live search bar. Version 4.13.
- Ajax Search Pro: Version 4.27
- SearchWP Standard and Pro: SearchWP makes creating your own smart WordPress website search quick and easy. Version 4.5.
- ElasticPress (Enterprise): A fast and flexible search and query engine for WordPress, enables WordPress to find or “query” relevant content extremely fast through a variety of highly customizable features. WordPress out-of-the-box struggles to analyze content relevancy and can be very slow. ElasticPress supercharges your WordPress website making for happier users and administrators. The plugin even contains features for popular plugins. Version 5.2.
- ElasticProbe (Enterprise): A fork of ElasticPress, built for affordable prices. Version 1.4
- WP Search with Algolia (Enterprise):
Built and supported by WebDevStudios, the website agency behind Custom Post Type UI, WP Search with Algolia immediately improves search on your website. Your users will be impressed! Version 2.10
To write this article we have installed each plugin separately and tested its functionality. Each plugin may target a different audience with varying priorities, but for clarity, we have divided them into two categories: general and enterprise search plugins.
Plugins that are categorized as general search are targeted for smaller and medium sites of up to 50k products/pages/posts. And “enterprise” includes anything above 50k. Of course the limit is not strict – many plugins aim to expand their audience and perform beyond these boundaries. However, it is important to note that the number of products/pages/posts directly affects performance and speed. To maintain stable performance, developers must make design choices that influence pricing. It would be unreasonable for a small business to invest in a plugin that it doesn’t need or for a large website to rely on a low-performing solution. Considering all these factors, we believe the distinction is necessary.
TL;DR; What are the results?
For those who can’t wait for the detailed answer, here are the tables of features. We have divided the plugins into to table for better visual representation. Table 1 shows general plugins and Table 2 shows enterprise plugins. In these tables, purple backgrounds represent enterprise algorithms or features.
Table 1
| Features | Fibo Search | Fibo Search Personal | Relevanssi | Relevanssi Premium | Ivory Search | Ivory Search Pro Plus | Ajax Search Lite | Ajax Search Pro | SearchWP Standard | SearchWP Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Autosuggestion | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Autocomplete | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Fuzzy Search | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Ajax Results | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| WooCommerce | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ |
| Pin Results | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Custom Weights | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Search by custom fields | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Search by Custom Type | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Synonyms | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| File Search | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Did you mean? | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Offloaded search | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Analytics | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | 3rd-party | 3rd-party | 3rd-party | 3rd-party | ✘ | ✔ |
| Multisite | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ |
| WP CLI | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Price | Free | 59$/y | Free | 120$/y | Free | 49.99$/y | Free | 39€/y | 99$/y | 199$/y |
| Price per month | Free | 4.9$ | Free | 10$ | Free | 4.16$ | Free | 3.25€ | 8.25$ | 16.58$ |
Table 2
| Features | WP Search with Algolia | WP Search with Algolia Pro | ElasticProbe | ElasticPress |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Autosuggestion | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Autocomplete | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ |
| Fuzzy Search | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Ajax Results | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| WooCommerce | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Pin Results | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Custom Weights | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Search by custom fields | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Search by Custom Type | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Synonyms | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| File Search | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Did you mean? | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Offloaded search | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Analytics | ✔ | ✔ | 3rd-party | 3rd-party |
| Multisite | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| WP CLI | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Price | Algolia sub | 99$/6m + Algolia sub | 6€/m | 79$/m |
| Price per month | Algolia sub | 16.5$+Algolia sub | 6€ | 79$ |
While the tables sum up the WP search plugins’ features in 2025, it doesn’t tell the whole story. Not every feature is implemented equally across different plugins — read on to explore the details.
Lastly, features are not the only decision factor when shopping or installing a plugin. Ease of use and performance are the other important ones.
General Features
Let’s check the features.
Autosuggestion
Autosuggestion is the act of suggesting posts/products/pages that match the search query while typing. These are usually shown in a box under the search textbox. The aim of autosuggest is to shorten the search process for the user and help them find the desired product/post/page without going to the search results page.
In many plugins this feature is called autocomplete but the name is a little misleading as autocomplete better describes another feature.
Except Ajax Search Lite and Fibo Search all the other mentioned plugins have this feature.
| Features | WP Search with Algolia | WP Search with Algolia Pro | ElasticProbe | ElasticPress | Fibo Search | Fibo Search Personal | Relevanssi | Relevanssi Premium | Ivory Search | Ivory Search Pro Plus | Ajax Search Lite | Ajax Search Pro | SearchWP Standard | SearchWP Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Autosuggestion | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Autocomplete
Autocomplete is the process of completing a partially-typed query word with the most probable word from the indexes. Its purpose is to reduce typos for the end-user. Autocomplete is not commonly implemented by the plugins. Only ElasticProbe, WP search with Algolia and Ajax Search Pro include the feature.
| Features | WP Search with Algolia | WP Search with Algolia Pro | ElasticProbe | ElasticPress | Fibo Search | Fibo Search Personal | Relevanssi | Relevanssi Premium | Ivory Search | Ivory Search Pro Plus | Ajax Search Lite | Ajax Search Pro | SearchWP Standard | SearchWP Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Autocomplete | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ |
Fuzzy search
Fuzzy search or fuzzy matching is the ability to search even when there are typos. For example, “Aternative” would still match documents containing “Alternative”.
Although not exactly the same, another term sometimes used instead of fuzzy search is “partial matching”. In partial matching, when a user searches for “alternat”, it can also match documents with the word “alternative” but it wouldn’t match a typo like “aternat”. What we are looking for in this article is fuzzy matching and not just partial matching.
WP search with algolia, ElasticProbe, ElasticPress, Fibo personal and above, Relevenssi, Ajax Search Pro and SearchWP offer this feature.
| Features | WP Search with Algolia | WP Search with Algolia Pro | ElasticProbe | ElasticPress | Fibo Search | Fibo Search Personal | Relevanssi | Relevanssi Premium | Ivory Search | Ivory Search Pro Plus | Ajax Search Lite | Ajax Search Pro | SearchWP Standard | SearchWP Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fuzzy Search | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Ajax Results
When searching, there are times that the end-user doesn’t leave the current page and it is possible to show the results on the same page. These results are loaded asynchronously using AJAX. It is one of the most useful features that results in faster search and all the search plugins support it.
WooCommerce Compatibility
WooCommerce is an ecommerce and shopping plugin. If you are running an online shopping website, WooCommerce compatibility is a must.
WP search with Algolia free and SearchWP standard doesn’t support this feature and are not recommended for online shopping websites.
| Features | WP Search with Algolia | WP Search with Algolia Pro | ElasticProbe | ElasticPress | Fibo Search | Fibo Search Personal | Relevanssi | Relevanssi Premium | Ivory Search | Ivory Search Pro Plus | Ajax Search Lite | Ajax Search Pro | SearchWP Standard | SearchWP Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WooCommerce | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ |
Pin results
Sometimes a website owner/administrator might want to promote a certain post/page/product or custom type in the search results and rank it higher manually. This is where pinning results becomes useful.
Plugins support the feature in at least two ways:
- Promoting an indexable item all the time.
- Promoting an indexable item on certain searches.
Except Fibo and Relevanssi lite all the other plugins support this feature.
| Features | WP Search with Algolia | WP Search with Algolia Pro | ElasticProbe | ElasticPress | Fibo Search | Fibo Search Personal | Relevanssi | Relevanssi Premium | Ivory Search | Ivory Search Pro Plus | Ajax Search Lite | Ajax Search Pro | SearchWP Standard | SearchWP Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pin Results | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Search by custom fields
It’s usually not a good idea to index all the fields of a type, as this can lead to poor performance. However, there are cases where a user might want to add a specific field—such as GTIN, ISBN, or SKU—to the indexes to make it searchable. This is where adding a custom field comes handy.
This feature is available in all enterprise search plugins and non-free ones.
| Features | WP Search with Algolia | WP Search with Algolia Pro | ElasticProbe | ElasticPress | Fibo Search | Fibo Search Personal | Relevanssi | Relevanssi Premium | Ivory Search | Ivory Search Pro Plus | Ajax Search Lite | Ajax Search Pro | SearchWP Standard | SearchWP Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Search by custom fields | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Search by custom post type
Many plugins create custom post types in the WP database. These types includes events, movie reviews or other custom content. To make these custom types searchable, the search plugin must be able to add them to its index. This feature is typically required for more customized websites.
This is also considered an advanced feature that is available in enterprise and non-free plugin versions.
| Features | WP Search with Algolia | WP Search with Algolia Pro | ElasticProbe | ElasticPress | Fibo Search | Fibo Search Personal | Relevanssi | Relevanssi Premium | Ivory Search | Ivory Search Pro Plus | Ajax Search Lite | Ajax Search Pro | SearchWP Standard | SearchWP Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Search by Custom Type | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Synonyms
Sometimes, it makes sense to include the search results for a similar word in addition to the original query. For example, consider a scenario where a user searches for “shoes”. Depending on the type of website, it might also make sense to also include the search results for “snickers” and “heels”. This is known as synonyms feature.
Once again this is available in enterprise and non-free plugin versions. In addition some plugins don’t support this feature altogether.
| Features | WP Search with Algolia | WP Search with Algolia Pro | ElasticProbe | ElasticPress | Fibo Search | Fibo Search Personal | Relevanssi | Relevanssi Premium | Ivory Search | Ivory Search Pro Plus | Ajax Search Lite | Ajax Search Pro | SearchWP Standard | SearchWP Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Synonyms | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Did you mean or typo correction
Unlike autocomplete that completes the rest of the typed query, “Did you mean” is triggered after the results (or more precisely, no results) are shown. This behavior is similar to that of major search engines such as Google or Bing.
ElasticProbe, ElasticPress Relevanssi, Ajax search and SearchWP support this feature.
| Features | WP Search with Algolia | WP Search with Algolia Pro | ElasticProbe | ElasticPress | Fibo Search | Fibo Search Personal | Relevanssi | Relevanssi Premium | Ivory Search | Ivory Search Pro Plus | Ajax Search Lite | Ajax Search Pro | SearchWP Standard | SearchWP Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Did you mean? | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Custom weights
Custom weights is one of the more advanced features, as they allow the website owner to fine-tune the search algorithm. It can give more importance to certain fields. For example, one might feel that finding the search query keywords in the product title to be very important. With custom weights it’s easy to give the product title higher weight and rank the matching products higher.
All enterprise plugins (WP search with Algolia, ElasticProbe and ElasticPress) support this feature. Some premium plugins also have this feature.
| Features | WP Search with Algolia | WP Search with Algolia Pro | ElasticProbe | ElasticPress | Fibo Search | Fibo Search Personal | Relevanssi | Relevanssi Premium | Ivory Search | Ivory Search Pro Plus | Ajax Search Lite | Ajax Search Pro | SearchWP Standard | SearchWP Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Custom Weights | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
File search
As the name suggests, file search is the ability to search within the contents of text files such as PDFs, Microsoft Office docs or simple .txt files. Each plugin supports a different set of file extensions to index. The feature is most useful for websites that are document banks.
The feature is supported by ElasticProbe, ElasticPress, Relevanssi Premium, Ivory search pro, Ajax search pro and SearchWP.
| Features | WP Search with Algolia | WP Search with Algolia Pro | ElasticProbe | ElasticPress | Fibo Search | Fibo Search Personal | Relevanssi | Relevanssi Premium | Ivory Search | Ivory Search Pro Plus | Ajax Search Lite | Ajax Search Pro | SearchWP Standard | SearchWP Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| File Search | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Enterprise features
Enterprise features are the ones that are typically required for larger and more complex websites. →Some of these features may not be useful in certain hosting environments. Let’s check these out.
Offloaded search
Offloaded search is a feature that delegates the search functionality to a separate service and server. This has the benefits of faster search performance and reduced load on your websites’s hosting servers. These advantages are particularly important when search is used frequently or when the number of products is very high, such as on news websites or online shops.
All the enterprise plugins support offloaded search.
| Features | WP Search with Algolia | WP Search with Algolia Pro | ElasticProbe | ElasticPress | Fibo Search | Fibo Search Personal | Relevanssi | Relevanssi Premium | Ivory Search | Ivory Search Pro Plus | Ajax Search Lite | Ajax Search Pro | SearchWP Standard | SearchWP Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offloaded search | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
WordPress CLI
CLI is short for Command Line Interface. WordPress CLI consists of commands to manage WP itself such as upgrading, removing or installing themes or plugins, managing users and performing many other tasks. Compared to the UI, CLI commands are much faster. Many WP agencies and developers rely on this feature.
WP CLI is extensible. It can be extended by plugins and themes to include custom commands for managing that particular plugin or theme. In a search context, one might want to reindex all of its database which is a time consuming task for large websites with a high volume of article/product. This is a perfect scenario for CLI commands.
All the enterprise plugins (ElasticProbe, ElasticPress and WP search with Algolia) support this feature. In addition SearchWP and Relevanssi Premium also support this feature.
| Features | WP Search with Algolia | WP Search with Algolia Pro | ElasticProbe | ElasticPress | Fibo Search | Fibo Search Personal | Relevanssi | Relevanssi Premium | Ivory Search | Ivory Search Pro Plus | Ajax Search Lite | Ajax Search Pro | SearchWP Standard | SearchWP Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WP CLI | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ |
Multisite
When WP is installed on multiple websites in multisite mode, its management can be aggregated to some extent in a single dashboard. Some search plugins support this mode and enable aggregated search. For example, consider a company that operates both a wiki website and its brands website in multisite mode. It wants to end users to be able to search across both websites from its main site.
All the enterprise plugins (ElasticProbe, ElasticSearch and WP search with Algolia) support this feature. In addition Ajax Search Pro and Relevanssi Premium also support this feature.
| Features | WP Search with Algolia | WP Search with Algolia Pro | ElasticProbe | ElasticPress | Fibo Search | Fibo Search Personal | Relevanssi | Relevanssi Premium | Ivory Search | Ivory Search Pro Plus | Ajax Search Lite | Ajax Search Pro | SearchWP Standard | SearchWP Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multisite | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ |
Analytics
For an online shop, it’s crucial to analyze its search statistics and extract insights about users’ search habits. This can lead to SEO improvements with new and actual search keywords or provide insights into the need for defining synonyms.
There are two approaches to implement this feature:
- Third-party analytics utilization. With this approach, the search plugin emits signals to a third-party analytics service such as Google Analytics. This approach can give very detailed info about search habits but requires some custom setup from the website admin/owner to configure the integration between analytics service and search plugin.
- Onsite analytics dashboards. Some search plugins internalize the analytics functionality and provide a customized dashboard for this need. While it requires no setup and doesn’t disclose information to a third-party (think about cookie consent laws in Europe/US), its analytics are simpler and provide fewer details.
WP search with Algolia (through Algolia’s dashboard, not on WP website), Fibo and SearchWP support custom dashboards. ElasticProbe, ElasticPress, Ivory and Ajax search support third-party analytics.
| Features | WP Search with Algolia | WP Search with Algolia Pro | ElasticProbe | ElasticPress | Fibo Search | Fibo Search Personal | Relevanssi | Relevanssi Premium | Ivory Search | Ivory Search Pro Plus | Ajax Search Lite | Ajax Search Pro | SearchWP Standard | SearchWP Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Analytics | ✔ | ✔ | 3rd-party | 3rd-party | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | 3rd-party | 3rd-party | 3rd-party | 3rd-party | ✘ | ✔ |
Price
Lets check the price points. Some products might offer additional pricing plans as well, be sure to visit their websites for the latest details. Be careful, if you choose a different plan, its features might not match those mentioned in this article.
- WP search with Algolia: the plugin needs an active Algolia subscription which must be purchased separately. The plugin itself has a free version and a pro version at 99$/6month.
- ElasticProbe: All pricing plans include the same features, but differ in query count and other details. Prices start at €6/month.
- ElasticPress: All pricing plans include the same features, but differ in query count and other details. Prices start at €79 / month.
- FiboSearch: Its base plugin is free and its personal pricing plan is at 59$/year.
- Relevanssi: The base plugin is free and its pro plus pricing plan is 120$/year.
- Ajax Search: The lite version is free and the pro version costs 39€/year.
- SearchWP: The standard plan costs 99$/year and its pro plan costs 199$/year.