SearchWP
Premium WordPress search engine that indexes custom fields, taxonomies, PDFs and documents, with adjustable relevance weights and live results.
95
Relevanssi
Free relevance-based search replacement for WordPress with custom field indexing, synonyms and search logs; Premium adds document search and pinning.
Free installs100K+WordPress.org, active
Est. Pro installs~6KLikely 3K–12K
Vendor claims100K+Vendor's own figure
Rating4.8/5406 reviews
Price from€120/yrFreemium
Last updated30 Oct 2026Version 4.28.8
Overview
Relevanssi replaces the default WordPress search with its own index and sorts results by relevance rather than date. It has been a long-standing choice for blogs, publishers and documentation sites, and the free version on WordPress.org is genuinely capable. It is now stewarded by comesio solutions, with original developer Mikko Saari.
Free version
The free plugin indexes posts, pages and custom post types along with comments, categories, tags, custom taxonomies, custom fields and shortcode output. It supports partial-word matching, AND/OR logic and quoted phrases, synonyms and stop words, adjustable weights for titles, content, comments and tags, custom excerpts with highlighted terms, a ‘Did you mean?’ suggestion (now also as a block), and logging of searches including queries that return nothing. A searchform shortcode can restrict searches to post types or categories and add dropdowns or checkboxes. WPML and Polylang are supported.
Premium
Relevanssi Premium is sold for unlimited sites, either as a 12-month licence or a ‘permanent’ licence for the current major version. It adds PDF and Office document indexing through an external extraction service, weights for any post type or taxonomy, a recency boost, pinned results for specific queries, search redirects, multisite cross-site search, user profile and taxonomy term page results, English stemming, improved spelling corrections, related posts and WP-CLI commands.
Limitations
- No built-in live search; the free companion plugin Relevanssi Live Ajax Search adds it.
- The index can take several times the size of the posts table, which matters on hosts with small database limits.
- WooCommerce support is generic: SKUs and variations need indexing configuration rather than a dedicated product search UI.
- No visual faceted filters; it relies on FacetWP or similar for that.
Relevanssi is a strong pick for content sites that want better relevance, logs and synonyms for free, and Premium is good value for agencies thanks to unlimited-site licensing.
Best for: Blogs, publishers and documentation sites that want relevance-ranked search with logs and synonyms without paying.
Relevanssi's free version is one of the most capable no-cost search replacements, with synonyms, logs and 'Did you mean?' included. Premium adds document search, pinning and multisite search at a fair unlimited-site price. Stores wanting a polished product search bar will find dedicated WooCommerce tools easier.
Pros
- Free version covers custom fields, taxonomies, synonyms and search logs
- Built-in 'Did you mean?' suggestions and highlighted excerpts
- Premium licences cover unlimited sites
- Premium adds document indexing, pinning and cross-site multisite search
- Works with WPML and Polylang
Cons
- Live search requires a separate companion plugin
- Index can use a lot of database space
- WooCommerce SKU and variation search needs manual configuration
- No built-in faceted filters or visual search form builder
Key features
What Relevanssi highlights on its WordPress.org page and its own website, split by version.
Free version WordPress.org
- Relevance-ranked search results
- Partial-word matching
- AND/OR and phrase searches
- Custom field and taxonomy indexing
- Adjustable title and content weights
- Synonyms and stop words
- Highlighted custom excerpts
- 'Did you mean?' suggestions
- Search logs with zero-hit queries
- Searchform shortcode with dropdowns
- WPML and Polylang support
- Shortcode and comment indexing
Pro / paid adds From €120/yr
- PDF and Office document search
- Weights for any post type or taxonomy
- Recency boost for new posts
- Pinned results per query
- Search redirects
- Cross-site multisite search
- User profile and term page results
- English stemming
- Improved spelling corrections
- Related posts
- WP-CLI commands
- Unlimited-site licence
Feature checklist
17 of 18 features we track in Search Plugins, feature score 82/100
Relevance & indexing 7/7
Relevance weighting Key
Control how much titles, content, fields and terms count in results.
Free weights titles, content, comments and tags; Premium adds any post type or taxonomy.
Included
Custom field search Key
Searches ACF and other custom fields.
Free version indexes all or selected custom fields.
Included
Category, tag & taxonomy search
Matches categories, tags and custom taxonomies.
Indexes categories, tags and custom taxonomies; term pages as results need Premium.
Included
PDF & document search Key
Indexes the content of PDFs and office documents.
Text-based PDFs, Office, ODT, RTF and ePub via an external extraction service; no OCR.
Paid version Premium
Partial & fuzzy matching Key
Finds partial words and tolerates typos.
Matches partial words when full words fail; typos handled only via 'Did you mean?'.
Partial
Synonyms & stemming
Treats related words and word forms as matches.
Synonym settings in the free version; Premium adds English stemming.
Included
Exclusions & rules
Exclude posts, pages or post types and pin results.
Choose indexed post types and exclude posts or categories; pinning results needs Premium.
Included
WooCommerce 2/2
Product search (SKU & attributes) Key
Searches SKUs, attributes and product data.
SKUs and product fields searchable after adding them to the index; no product-specific UI.
Partial
Variation search
Finds individual product variations.
Variations can be indexed or folded into the parent with a snippet; setup is manual.
Partial
Search experience 5/5
Live (AJAX) search Key
Shows results as visitors type.
Free official Relevanssi Live Ajax Search plugin adds as-you-type results.
Via add-on
Filters & facets Key
Filter results by category, price, attributes or fields.
Searchform shortcode adds taxonomy dropdowns/checkboxes; faceting relies on FacetWP or similar.
Partial
Custom search forms
Multiple search forms with their own settings.
Searchform shortcode limits each form to post types or categories.
Included
Term highlighting
Highlights the search term in results.
Highlights terms in custom excerpts and on the destination page.
Included
Did you mean? suggestions
Suggests corrections for misspelled searches.
Suggestions based on successful searches, plus a block; Premium improves spelling correction.
Included
Insights & scale 3/4
Search analytics Key
Shows what visitors search for and which searches return nothing.
Logs queries, shows popular searches and recent searches with no hits.
Included
External or hosted index
Uses Algolia, Elasticsearch or a vendor cloud index for large sites.
Index is stored in the WordPress database; no hosted option.
Not included
Multilingual support
Works with WPML, Polylang or similar.
Supports WPML and Polylang in the free version.
Included
Multisite search
Search across sites in a network.
Free works per site on multisite; cross-site searching needs Premium.
Paid version Premium
Pricing
Free
$0On WordPress.org
Free
Freeper yearUnlimited
Free on WordPress.org.
Premium Annual
€120per yearUnlimited
One-time payment for 12 months of updates and priority support; renewal is manual.
Premium Permanent
€402lifetimeUnlimited
Updates and support for the lifetime of the current major version.
Prices are list prices from the vendor's site, checked 14 Oct 2026. Many vendors discount the first year.
How many sites use Relevanssi?
Free installs from WordPress.org, the vendor's own claim, and our estimate of paid installs.
Free version (WordPress.org)
100K+
Active installations reported by WordPress.org.
Vendor claim
100K+
Sites/users claimed on the vendor's website. source
Estimated Pro / paid installs
~6K
Our estimate, see method below.
How we estimated this: The vendor figure (100K+) is within WordPress.org's rounding of the free installs, so it says nothing about paid sites. About 150K free installs x 4% (the usual share of free sites that also run the paid version when most features are free) gives 6K. Likely range: 3K to 12K. This counts sites running the paid version, including sites whose licence has lapsed. Estimates are rough and based on public figures as of 14 Oct 2026.
Stats & health
Weekly downloads
114,138 downloads last week, 8.6M all time
Rating breakdown
| Version | 4.28.8 |
|---|---|
| Last updated | 30 Oct 2026 (4 days ago) |
| Tested up to | WordPress 7.1.4 |
| Requires | WordPress 4.9+, PHP 7.1+ |
| Support threads (2 months) | 9 of 13 resolved |
| On WordPress.org since | 30 Jun 2009 |
Company & policy
| Refund policy | 30-day money-back (source, 14 Oct 2026) |
|---|
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FAQ
Is Relevanssi free?
Yes. Relevanssi has a free version on WordPress.org. Paid plans start at €120/yr.
How many sites use Relevanssi?
WordPress.org reports 100K+ active installations of the free version. The vendor claims 100K+ sites in total. We estimate around 6K sites run the paid version.
Does Relevanssi have relevance weighting?
Yes: included. Free weights titles, content, comments and tags; Premium adds any post type or taxonomy.
Does Relevanssi have custom field search?
Yes: included. Free version indexes all or selected custom fields.
Does Relevanssi have pdf & document search?
Yes: paid version (Premium). Text-based PDFs, Office, ODT, RTF and ePub via an external extraction service; no OCR.
Does Relevanssi have partial & fuzzy matching?
Yes: partial. Matches partial words when full words fail; typos handled only via 'Did you mean?'.
Does Relevanssi have product search (sku & attributes)?
Yes: partial. SKUs and product fields searchable after adding them to the index; no product-specific UI.
Does Relevanssi have live (ajax) search?
Yes: via add-on. Free official Relevanssi Live Ajax Search plugin adds as-you-type results.
Does Relevanssi have filters & facets?
Yes: partial. Searchform shortcode adds taxonomy dropdowns/checkboxes; faceting relies on FacetWP or similar.
Does Relevanssi have search analytics?
Yes: included. Logs queries, shows popular searches and recent searches with no hits.
What does Relevanssi Premium add over the free version?
Document (PDF/Office) indexing, weights for any post type or taxonomy, pinned results, redirects, cross-site multisite search, stemming, better spelling corrections, related posts and WP-CLI.
Does Relevanssi include live (AJAX) search?
Not in the main plugin. The free Relevanssi Live Ajax Search plugin adds as-you-type results and uses Relevanssi automatically when it is active.
Can Relevanssi search WooCommerce SKUs?
Yes, by adding the _sku custom field to the index and rebuilding; variation SKUs can also be indexed into parent products with a documented snippet.
How much does Premium cost?
€120 for a 12-month licence or €402 for a permanent licence, both for unlimited sites, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Last updated 13 Oct 2026. Spotted something wrong? Suggest an edit.