A powerful and customizable search is critical for any substantial WordPress website. It helps users easily discover relevant content without having to leave your site for an external search engine.
Algolia has been a popular SaaS search option over the years. But since they discontinued their official WordPress plugin in 2019, webmasters have been exploring alternatives with similar capabilities.
In this 2800+ word guide, we will cover the top 16 Algolia alternatives for WordPress along with their key capabilities, pricing models and ease of use.
Why You Need a Powerful Search for your WordPress Site
Here are some key reasons why a basic WordPress search is often not good enough:
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Limited features – The default WordPress search lacks advanced functions like typo tolerance, filters, suggestions etc. This leads to sub-optimal user experience.
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Irrelevant results – Default WordPress search uses limited factors to rank results. So users may not find what they need, sending them to other sites.
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No customization – You have very little control over how default WordPress search looks, functions and displays results.
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Slow performance – As your posts/pages grow, default WordPress search starts slowing down due to unoptimized queries.
Having a robust, customizable search plugin mitigates these problems. Your users stay happier finding relevant content faster on your site. Let‘s look at some top alternatives to choose from.
Ajax Search Pro – Powerful Custom Search Engine
Ajax Search Pro is a highly flexible, customizable search plugin for WordPress. With a one-time payment, you get a lifetime license and unlimited site usage.
Key Features
- Multiple customizable search instances
- Real-time results powered by AJAX
- Autocomplete suggestions
- Synonym and stemming support
- 30+ search widget designs
- Boolean search
- PDF and attachment search
- WooCommerce integration
- Cache support for faster searches
- Detailed analytics
For a premium search plugin, Ajax Search Pro is fairly affordable compared to SaaS alternatives. It works well for sites of any scale and complexity. The free version has adequate features for basic WordPress sites.
Pricing
Ajax Search Pro has 3 pricing tiers:
- Free version
- Pro Personal – $39 one-time payment
- Pro Business – $69 one-time payment
The Pro licenses allow full access to all advanced features and lifelong updates. This predictable pricing model is suitable for most website owners.
SearchWP – Intelligent Site Search Option
SearchWP takes WordPress‘ default search capabilities to an enterprise level. It uses advanced algorithms to deliver highly relevant results in milliseconds.
Why SearchWP Stands Out
Here are some unique advantages of SearchWP:
- Cross-site search – Retrieve results from multiple WordPress sites in a network.
- Boolean modifiers -Fine-tune searches using modifiers to exclude words.
- Sorting – Enable custom sort orders like title, date, relevance etc.
- PDF search – Indexes PDF content for search.
- Shortcode filters – Add advanced filters using shortcodes.
In addition, SearchWP has top-notch technical support and detailed documentation. These make integration straightforward for developers and site owners alike.
Pricing
SearchWP has 2 core paid plans:
- Starter – $199 per year for up to 15k searches/month
- Professional – $299 per year for up to 100k searches/month
There are also higher-volume Enterprise options. Compared to other advanced WordPress search tools, SearchWP offers strong capabilities at reasonable rates.
ElasticPress – Leverage the Power of Elastic Search
ElasticPress integrates Elastic Search‘s industrial-grade search capabilities into WordPress. Top global websites like Microsoft, Adobe, T-Mobile, Audi etc use Elastic Search to manage huge volumes of data.
Why Choose ElasticPress?
Some unique advantages of ElasticPress include:
- Blazing fast queries – Delivers results in milliseconds by distributing search load.
- Easy distribution – Seamlessly scales across servers using Elastic Search‘s distributed nature.
- Developer-friendly – APIs and documentation aid complex customization.
- Hosted option – Optionally have ElasticPress handle hosting and management.
In a nutshell, ElasticPress brings enterprise-level speed, scalability and flexibility to WordPress search. Large and complex WordPress sites can benefit tremendously from its capabilities.
Pricing
You can self-host ElasticPress or use ElasticPress.io‘s fully-managed plans:
- Self-hosted – Free. Pay only for Elastic Search infrastructure.
- Cloud Basic – $20 per month for up to 100k documents.
- Cloud Pro – $125 per month. Up to 1 million documents.
The hosted plans provide an efficient hands-off approach to enjoy Elastic Search‘s power easily.
AWS CloudSearch – Fully Managed Search Service
Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers a robust SaaS search product called AWS CloudSearch. It provides enterprise-level features without needing to run any infrastructure.
Key Advantages
Here‘s an overview of AWS CloudSearch‘s strengths:
- Fully managed service – No servers to manage. AWS handles it all.
- High availability – CloudSearch runs across multiple AZs for high uptime.
- Scalability – Auto-scaling to handle traffic spikes.
- Speed – Ultra-fast queries via indexed search.
- Cost efficiency– Pay only for usage without overhead.
To use AWS CloudSearch with WordPress, you can utilize plugins like WP CloudSearch.
Pricing
AWS CloudSearch has a pay-as-you-go model based on instance hours and data storage/transfer. Costs start from around $0.26 per hour and lower with higher usage.
The managed capabilities and relatively low costs make CloudSearch an appealing Algolia alternative. You avoid managing any search infrastructure.
Search with Typesense – Open Source Alternative
Typesense is a fast, typo-tolerant open source search engine. The Search with Typesense plugin integrates it neatly into WordPress.
Here are some notable features:
- Fast autocomplete and searches
- Spelling correction
- Filters like date ranges, categories etc
- Custom branding and theming
- Detailed analytics dashboard
- Page search results
Being open source, Typesense is free to use. You simply need hosting infrastructure to run the search server. This provides a low-cost alternative to SaaS options.
There are also managed Cloud hosting options by third-party Typesense providers. So you don‘t need to run any servers yourself.
Overall, Search with Typesense provides a compelling open source alternative to commercial solutions like Algolia.
12 More Algolia Alternatives for WordPress
Here is a quick overview of 12 additional powerful and customizable search alternatives for WordPress:
Relevanssi
A fast, customizable plugin with features like synonyms, stopwords, content indexing and more. Pricing starts at $99 for 1 site.
AddSearch
An enterprise-grade search service used by leading brands. 14-day free trial available. Custom pricing.
Search & Filter
Lets you create advanced custom search forms with AJAX capability. Pricing from $15 per site.
Ivory Search
Enhances default WordPress search with additional features. Free version available. From $27 for 1 site.
Swiftype
An enterprise search platform with custom plugins for WordPress. Free trial + usage-based pricing.
Jetpack Search
A default WordPress search replacement. Advanced features like filters, typo tolerance etc. Free.
Elfsight Search Widget
A customizable search widget for WordPress powered by Google Custom Search Engine. Free and paid plans.
Search in Place
Makes search boxes interactive showing results as you type. Great for blogs. Free.
Site Search 360
Drop-in replacement for WordPress search with insights and customization. Free and $35 per site pricing.
ACF: Better Search
Improves relevance and speed of WordPress search for ACF field content. Free with basic ACF.
Better Search
Enhances default search behavior in WordPress with weights, filters etc. Free.
Search Everything
Indexes all WordPress content and metadata for accurate results. Free plugin.
This expands your options to choose an advanced WordPress search plugin perfectly matched to your needs and budget.
How to Select the Best Algolia Alternative
With so many alternatives to evaluate, here is a framework to narrow down your options systematically:
Step 1: Define Must-Have Features
Start by creating a list of the mandatory search functionality you need like:
- Fast autocomplete suggestions
- Synonym support
- PDF content search
- Multi-site capability
Keep the list focused on truly essentials vs. nice-to-haves.
Step 2: Shortlist Matching Plugins
Next, map your must-have feature list to the alternatives mentioned above.
Eliminate ones clearly lacking those capabilities. You should now have a shortlist to compare further.
Step 3: Evaluate Support & Pricing
Now deeply assess thesupport SLA, documentation quality, pricing and transparency for each shortlisted plugin.
Filter further to plugins best fitting your budget, site scale and capabilities.
Step 4: Test the Finalists
Install the final 2-3 shortlisted search plugins on a staging WordPress site.
Test them comprehensively with your actual content to directly compare user experience.
Select the one delivering the right blend of features, performance and ease of use. Integrate into your production site.
While the above steps need some effort, finding the right search alternative is very worthwhile. It directly improves your user experience and builds lasting loyalty.
Conclusion
We‘ve covered a diverse selection of capable Algolia alternatives here. These plugins give you enterprise-grade customizability minus the cost or reliance on an external SaaS service.
While Algolia itself was very feature-rich, viable options now exist no matter your specific needs and budget.
So if default WordPress search isn‘t cutting it anymore, do explore alternatives like:
- Ajax Search Pro – For an affordable yet powerful all-round option.
- SearchWP – When you need in-depth customization capabilities.
- ElasticPress – To leverage industrial-strength Elastic Search at scale.
- TypeSense – For a free, open-source alternative.
Weigh your must-have features, site search traffic, growth plans and budget to pick the right fit.
Move your WordPress site‘s user experience to the next level with one of these Algolia alternatives! Feel free to share any feedback or queries in the comments section.
