Are you looking for the best WordPress search plugin to improve your website’s search functionality?
The default WordPress search is quite limited. It often delivers inaccurate results, lacks filtering, and doesn’t support instant suggestions — all of which can frustrate your visitors and lead to missed opportunities.
In this post, we’ve handpicked the 10 best WordPress search plugins in 2025 to supercharge your site’s search experience. Whether you run a blog, online store, directory, or membership site — these tools will help your users find what they’re looking for faster.
1. SearchJet – Instant Ajax Search for WordPress
SearchJet is a lightweight, high-performance plugin that adds live AJAX search to your WordPress site. As users type, SearchJet shows real-time results without refreshing the page.
It’s perfect for blogs, portfolios, product listings, or any site with lots of content — and is designed for speed and simplicity.
Features:
- Live AJAX results with no page reload
- Works with posts, pages, and custom post types
- Fully compatible with Elementor
- Mobile-friendly and blazing fast
- Clean minimal UI
- Easy to customize with CSS
Best for: Lightweight, no-bloat instant search on modern WordPress sites.
2. Relevanssi
Relevanssi is one of the most popular search plugins for WordPress. It replaces the default search with a more advanced, relevance-based search engine.
Features:
- Fuzzy matching and partial keyword search
- Search across custom fields, taxonomies, and comments
- Highlight search terms in results
- Multisite compatible
- Extensive developer options
Best for: Blogs and content-heavy websites that need more accurate search results.
3. WP Fastest Site Search by Expertrec
Expertrec provides a fast, Google-like search experience with filters and real-time suggestions.
Features:
- Lightning-fast AJAX search
- Search filters (by tags, categories, post types)
- PDF and image search
- Voice search support
- Drag-and-drop UI customization
Best for: Larger websites, documentation portals, or knowledge bases.
4. Ajax Search Lite
Ajax Search Lite is a beautiful and responsive live search plugin that adds autocomplete and real-time search filtering to your WordPress site.
Features:
- Real-time results in a dropdown
- Custom post type support
- WooCommerce integration
- Google Analytics integration
- Retina-ready UI
Best for: Sites needing modern search boxes with autocomplete and live filters.
5. Ivory Search
Ivory Search allows you to create custom search forms and place them anywhere on your site, including headers, footers, or menus.
Features:
- Multiple custom search forms
- WooCommerce product search support
- Search within specific content (titles, meta, taxonomies)
- AJAX-based live results
- Easy shortcode integration
Best for: Sites with different content types or custom search forms.
6. FiboSearch – AJAX Search for WooCommerce
FiboSearch (formerly AJAX Search for WooCommerce) is built specifically for WooCommerce-powered stores.
Features:
- Instant product search with thumbnails and prices
- SKU search support
- Smart product suggestions
- Mobile-first design
- Lightweight and fast
Best for: WooCommerce stores looking to improve product discoverability.
7. SearchWP
SearchWP is a powerful premium search plugin for WordPress that lets you customize how search works across your entire site.
Features:
- Index and search PDFs, custom fields, ACF, shortcodes, and more
- Weight different content types by importance
- Custom search engines (e.g., limit by category)
- WooCommerce and bbPress support
- Keyword stemming and advanced logic
Best for: Developers and large content sites needing full control over search.
8. Better Search
Better Search replaces the default WordPress search with a more relevant results engine using SQL full-text search.
Features:
- Search post content and titles with relevance sorting
- Display popular searches
- Seamless integration with your theme
- Customizable search results template
- Lightweight and easy to use
Best for: Content-heavy blogs that want better relevance without too many options.
9. WP Extended Search
WP Extended Search enhances the native WordPress search system by allowing you to control exactly what content is searched.
Features:
- Include/exclude post types, taxonomies, and custom fields
- Works with the default search form (no new UI needed)
- Lightweight and bloat-free
- Developer-friendly settings
Best for: Minimalist users who want to improve native WordPress search without UI changes.
10. Swiftype Site Search (Cloud-Based)
Swiftype offers a hosted search solution with intelligent features and analytics. It requires connecting your site to their cloud search engine.
Features:
- Autocomplete, synonyms, typo tolerance
- Powerful analytics and insights
- Drag-and-drop result ranking
- Instant crawler-based indexing
Best for: Businesses and enterprise sites that want a scalable external search solution.
Final Thoughts
Improving your WordPress site search can drastically enhance user experience and help visitors find what they need faster — leading to better engagement, lower bounce rates, and increased conversions.
If you’re looking for a lightweight and modern live search plugin, we highly recommend starting with SearchJet. It’s easy to use, lightning-fast, and designed to work out of the box.
