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Relevanssi vs SearchWP

Updated 13 Oct 2026. 18 features compared side by side.

Relevanssi

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 (406)

Free relevance-based search replacement for WordPress with custom field indexing, synonyms and search logs; Premium adds document search and pinning.

Free installs100K+
From€120/yr
UpdatedOct 2026
Visit site Full profile
VS

Premium WordPress search engine that indexes custom fields, taxonomies, PDFs and documents, with adjustable relevance weights and live results.

Est. installs~27K
From$199/yr
ModelPremium
Visit site Full profile

Choose Relevanssi if…

  • You want to start with a free version
  • You prefer the more widely used option

Choose SearchWP if…

  • You want the more complete feature set (95/100 vs 82/100)

Relevanssi and SearchWP include the same 17 of the 18 features we track, so the choice comes down to pricing, approach and ecosystem.

At a glance

Relevanssi
SearchWP
82/100
Feature score
95/100
17 of 18
Features included
17 of 18
4.8/5
WordPress.org rating
—
100K+
Active installs
n/a
69%
Support threads resolved
n/a

Feature comparison

Click a screenshot to see both plugins side by side.

Feature
Relevanssi
SearchWP
Relevance & indexing7/77/7
Relevance weighting KeyControl how much titles, content, fields and terms count in results.
Relevanssi Included

Free weights titles, content, comments and tags; Premium adds any post type or taxonomy.

SearchWP Included

Weight sliders per attribute (title, content, fields, taxonomies) for each engine.

Custom field search KeySearches ACF and other custom fields.
Relevanssi Included

Free version indexes all or selected custom fields.

SearchWP Included

Indexes custom post meta and ACF fields on all plans.

Category, tag & taxonomy searchMatches categories, tags and custom taxonomies.
Relevanssi Included

Indexes categories, tags and custom taxonomies; term pages as results need Premium.

SearchWP Included

Categories, tags and custom taxonomies can be added to any engine.

PDF & document search KeyIndexes the content of PDFs and office documents.
Relevanssi Paid version Premium

Text-based PDFs, Office, ODT, RTF and ePub via an external extraction service; no OCR.

SearchWP Included

Indexes PDF and Office document content from the Standard plan; Xpdf integration available.

Partial & fuzzy matching KeyFinds partial words and tolerates typos.
Relevanssi Partial

Matches partial words when full words fail; typos handled only via 'Did you mean?'.

SearchWP Included

Partial matches plus a Closest Match option that finds similar-sounding words.

Synonyms & stemmingTreats related words and word forms as matches.
Relevanssi Included

Synonym settings in the free version; Premium adds English stemming.

SearchWP Included

Synonym rules in Global Rules (single words); keyword stemming also included.

Exclusions & rulesExclude posts, pages or post types and pin results.
Relevanssi Included

Choose indexed post types and exclude posts or categories; pinning results needs Premium.

SearchWP Included

Excluded and priority results on all plans; full custom results order needs Pro.

WooCommerce2/22/2
Product search (SKU & attributes) KeySearches SKUs, attributes and product data.
Relevanssi Partial

SKUs and product fields searchable after adding them to the index; no product-specific UI.

SearchWP Paid version Pro

WooCommerce integration indexes SKUs, attributes and product data from Pro.

Variation searchFinds individual product variations.
Relevanssi Partial

Variations can be indexed or folded into the parent with a snippet; setup is manual.

SearchWP Partial

Variation data and SKUs indexed into the parent via a code snippet; parent product is returned.

Search experience5/55/5
Live (AJAX) search KeyShows results as visitors type.
Relevanssi Via add-on

Free official Relevanssi Live Ajax Search plugin adds as-you-type results.

SearchWP Included

Live AJAX results as visitors type, plus a modal search form.

Filters & facets KeyFilter results by category, price, attributes or fields.
Relevanssi Partial

Searchform shortcode adds taxonomy dropdowns/checkboxes; faceting relies on FacetWP or similar.

SearchWP Paid version All Access

Faceted filters come from the bundled WPFilters product in the All Access plan.

Custom search formsMultiple search forms with their own settings.
Relevanssi Included

Searchform shortcode limits each form to post types or categories.

SearchWP Included

Embeddable search forms and multiple engines with their own settings.

Term highlightingHighlights the search term in results.
Relevanssi Included

Highlights terms in custom excerpts and on the destination page.

SearchWP Included

Highlight terms setting builds excerpts and wraps matches in mark tags.

Did you mean? suggestionsSuggests corrections for misspelled searches.
Relevanssi Included

Suggestions based on successful searches, plus a block; Premium improves spelling correction.

SearchWP Included

With Closest Match on, zero-result searches are corrected and a notice is shown.

Insights & scale3/43/4
Search analytics KeyShows what visitors search for and which searches return nothing.
Relevanssi Included

Logs queries, shows popular searches and recent searches with no hits.

SearchWP Paid version Pro

Metrics extension shows popular terms, no-result searches and insights.

External or hosted indexUses Algolia, Elasticsearch or a vendor cloud index for large sites.
Relevanssi Not included

Index is stored in the WordPress database; no hosted option.

SearchWP Not included

Index lives in the WordPress database; no Algolia or Elasticsearch option.

Multilingual supportWorks with WPML, Polylang or similar.
Relevanssi Included

Supports WPML and Polylang in the free version.

SearchWP Paid version Pro

WPML and Polylang integrations are included from the Pro plan.

Multisite searchSearch across sites in a network.
Relevanssi Paid version Premium

Free works per site on multisite; cross-site searching needs Premium.

SearchWP Paid version Pro

Cross-site multisite search is a Pro feature.

Statuses: Yes Pro Add-on Partial 3rd-party No ?

Pricing compared

Relevanssi Freemium

Free$0
FreeFree per year, Unlimited
Premium Annual€120 per year, Unlimited
Premium Permanent€402 lifetime, Unlimited

SearchWP Premium

Standard$199 per year, 1 site
Pro$399 per year, 3 sites
All Access Bundle$699 per year, 100 sites

Downloads trend

Relevanssi

114,138 downloads last week

SearchWP

No WordPress.org download data (premium-only plugin).

Verdict

Based on our feature data Checked 13 Oct 2026

SearchWP scores higher on our feature checklist (95/100 against 82/100). Only Relevanssi has a free version. Check the features you rely on in the table below before deciding.

Written from the feature, pricing and install data on this page, not from hands-on testing. How we compare.

Which would you choose?

0 votes so far. Vote to see the results.

FAQ

Which is better, Relevanssi or SearchWP?

SearchWP scores higher on our feature checklist (95/100 against 82/100). Only Relevanssi has a free version. Check the features you rely on in the table below before deciding.

Which has more features?

They are level: both include 17 of the 18 search plugins features we track.

Is Relevanssi free?

Relevanssi has a free version on WordPress.org. Paid plans start at €120/yr.

Is SearchWP free?

SearchWP is premium only. Paid plans start at $199/yr.

Feature data last changed 13 Oct 2026. Spotted something wrong? Suggest an edit to Relevanssi or SearchWP. Some links are affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no cost to you; it never affects our data or rankings.