Mikko Saari

Relevanssi replaces the standard WordPress search with a better search engine, with lots of features and configurable options. You’ll get better results, better presentation of results – your users will thank you.
This is the free version of Relevanssi. There’s also Relevanssi Premium, which has added features. For more information about Premium, see <a href="https://www.relevanssi.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Relevanssi.com</a>.
Do note that using Relevanssi may require large amounts (hundreds of megabytes) of database space (for a reasonable estimate, multiply the size of your <code>wp_posts</code> database table by three). If your hosting setup has a limited amount of space for database tables, using Relevanssi may cause problems. In those cases use of Relevanssi cannot be recommended.
<h4>Key features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Search results sorted in the order of relevance, not by date.</li>
<li>Fuzzy matching: match partial words, if complete words don’t match.</li>
<li>Find documents matching either just one search term (OR query) or require all words to appear (AND query).</li>
<li>Search for phrases with quotes, for example “search phrase”.</li>
<li>Create custom excerpts that show where the hit was made, with the search terms highlighted.</li>
<li>Highlight search terms in the documents when user clicks through search results.</li>
<li>Search comments, tags, categories and custom fields.</li>
<li>Multisite friendly.</li>
<li>bbPress support.</li>
<li>Gutenberg friendly.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Advanced features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Adjust the weighting for titles, tags and comments.</li>
<li>Log queries, show most popular queries and recent queries with no hits.</li>
<li>Restrict searches to categories and tags using a hidden variable or plugin settings.</li>
<li>Index custom post types and custom taxonomies.</li>
<li>Index the contents of shortcodes.</li>
<li>Google-style “Did you mean?” suggestions based on successful user searches.</li>
<li>Support for <a href="http://wpml.org/" rel="nofollow ugc">WPML multi-language plugin</a> and <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/polylang/" rel="ugc">Polylang</a>.</li>
<li>Support for <a href="http://www.s2member.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">s2member membership plugin</a>, <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/members/" rel="ugc">Members</a>, <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/groups/" rel="ugc">Groups</a>, <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-membership/" rel="ugc">Simple Membership</a> and other membership plugins.</li>
<li>Advanced filtering to help hacking the search results the way you want.</li>
<li>Search result throttling to improve performance on large databases.</li>
<li>Disable indexing of post content and post titles with a simple filter hook.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Premium features (only in Relevanssi Premium)</h4>
<ul>
<li>Indexing attachment content (PDF, Office, Open Office).</li>
<li>Improved spelling correction in “Did you mean?” suggestions.</li>
<li>Searching across multiple sites in the same multisite installation.</li>
<li>Search and index user profiles.</li>
<li>Search and index taxonomy term pages (categories, tags, custom taxonomies).</li>
<li>Search and index arbitrary columns in wp_posts MySQL table.</li>
<li>Assign weights to any post types and taxonomies.</li>
<li>Assign extra weight to new posts.</li>
<li>Let the user choose between AND and OR searches, use + and – operator (AND and NOT).</li>
<li>Export and import settings.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.relevanssi.com/user-manual/wp-cli/" rel="nofollow ugc">WP CLI commands</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.relevanssi.com/knowledge-base/related-posts/" rel="nofollow ugc">Related posts</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.relevanssi.com/user-manual/redirects/" rel="nofollow ugc">Redirects for searches</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Thanks</h3>
<ul>
<li>Cristian Damm for tag indexing, comment indexing, post/page exclusion and general helpfulness.</li>
<li>Marcus Dalgren for UTF-8 fixing.</li>
<li>Warren Tape for 2.5.5 fixes.</li>
<li>Mohib Ebrahim for relentless bug hunting.</li>
<li>John Calahan for extensive 4.0 beta testing.</li>
</ul>

Relevanssi – A Better Search

I cannot understand why Relevanssi does not have more active installs, since the years it's the best plugin to sort the WP search results by Relevancy.

I would like to see 1 million installs soon, it deserves.

Best Plugin to improve the WordPress Search Engine

I rarely find a plugin that does exactly what I need, clearly and efficiently (therefore, I usually build it myself). The various but smooth settings allow a perfect fine tuning: nothing more and nothing less than what is really needed. My compliments!

Just perfect!

Relevanssi replaces the default search with a partial-match search that sorts results by relevance. It also indexes comments and shortcode content.

Epsiloncool

🚀 Supercharge Your WordPress Search with WP Fast Total Search (WPFTS)!
Tired of the standard WordPress search that doesn’t find what you need? Are your users struggling to find content hidden in meta fields, shortcodes, or even files?
WP Fast Total Search (WPFTS) is the solution that revolutionizes search on your site, making it truly fast, accurate, and comprehensive.
Why WPFTS is Exactly What You Need:
✨ Searches EVERYWHERE:
Unlike standard search, WPFTS indexes and finds information not only in post titles and content, but also within:
<ul>
<li>Meta fields (Custom Fields)</li>
<li>Custom Post Types</li>
<li>Text inside shortcodes</li>
<li>Content of attached files (PDF, DOCX, etc. in the Pro version)</li>
<li>Dynamically generated content</li>
</ul>
⚙️ Simplicity and Compatibility:
<ul>
<li>No External Dependencies: Doesn’t require installing heavy external services (like Elasticsearch or Solr). Perfect for standard shared hosting!</li>
<li>Enhances, Doesn’t Replace: WPFTS enhances the standard WordPress search (<code>WP_Query</code>), it doesn’t break it. All your plugins and themes using standard search will automatically work better with WPFTS.</li>
<li>Works Out-of-the-Box: Just install and activate.</li>
</ul>
🎯 Flexibility and Control:
<ul>
<li>Customizable Relevance: Control what matters most in search results! Assign “weights” for title, content, and each meta field using an improved TF-IDF algorithm.</li>
<li>Live Search (AJAX): Let users see search results instantly as they type. Easily added via the widget or shortcode <code>[wpfts_widget]</code>.</li>
<li>Phrase Search Support: Find exact matches.</li>
<li>Flexible Sorting: Sort results by relevance, date, title, and many other parameters.</li>
</ul>
Key Advantages of WPFTS:
<ul>
<li>✅ True Indexed Search: Fast and efficient.</li>
<li>✅ No External Libraries or Services Required: Everything works right inside your website.</li>
<li>✅ HTML Cleanup: Correctly indexes content by removing tags and comments (important for Gutenberg).</li>
<li>✅ Language Support: Ready translations (English, German, Dutch, Russian, Ukrainian) and easy to add your own.</li>
<li>✅ API and Documentation: Extend and customize the plugin to fit your needs.</li>
<li>✅ Compatibility: Works great with PHP 5.6 up to PHP 8.2+.</li>
<li>✅ Extensibility: Supports add-ons, with a large library available and the ability to create your own.</li>
</ul>
💎 Get Even More with WP Fast Total Search Pro!
The Pro version unlocks powerful features:
<ul>
<li>📄 Search Inside File Content: Indexes text within PDF, DOC, DOCX, and other formats.</li>
<li>🔍 Filter Search by File Type (MIME-type).</li>
<li>💡 Smart Excerpts: Displays PDF content snippets directly in search results.</li>
<li>☁️ Optional External Service for text extraction from files (license included).</li>
<li>🤝 Priority Technical Support: Help with installation, configuration, and conflict resolution.</li>
<li>🔄 Regular Auto-Updates: Just like plugins from the WordPress repository.</li>
<li>🧩 Premium Add-on Bundle: Integrations with popular plugins (WordPress Download Manager, Filebase Pro, Delicious Downloads, etc.) to index their content and files. Ability to request custom add-on development.</li>
</ul>
<a href="https://fulltextsearch.org/evaluation/" title="WP Fast Total Search Pro Evaluation License" rel="nofollow ugc">TEST DRIVE – TRY FOR FREE</a> | <a href="https://fulltextsearch.org/buy/" title="Download WP Fast Total Search Pro" rel="nofollow ugc">GET PRO</a> 💎
🌍 Translations
We are grateful to the translators who made the plugin accessible worldwide:
<ul>
<li>torkeller (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/torkeller/" rel="nofollow ugc">@torkeller</a>) for German and German_formal </li>
<li>Peter Smits <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/users/psmits1567/" rel="ugc">@psmits1567</a> for Dutch</li>
<li>Lera Suhanova for Ukrainian</li>
<li>epsiloncool <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/epsiloncool/" rel="nofollow ugc">@epsiloncool</a> for Russian</li>
</ul>
Join us in translating the plugin into your language! Let’s make it useful for everyone.
📚 Documentation
Detailed information can be found in the <a href="https://fulltextsearch.org/documentation/" title="WP Fast Total Search Documentation" rel="nofollow ugc">Documentation</a>.
<h3>Security Policy</h3>
<h4>Reporting Security Bugs</h4>
Please report security bugs found in the WP Fast Total Search plugin’s source code through the <a href="https://patchstack.com/database/vdp/fulltext-search" rel="nofollow ugc">Patchstack Vulnerability Disclosure Program</a>. The Patchstack team will assist you with verification, CVE assignment, and notify the developers of this plugin.

WP Fast Total Search – The Power of Indexed Search

I evaluated WPFTS on a few demo and staging sites with an eye toward buying pro. I really wanted it to beat out the other options I've been testing.

I gave it 3.5 stars and round down because the review interface says 3 stars is "Good" and 4 stars is "Great," and for my use cases, that's what it is.

I really like that WPFTS uses the standard WP Query loop. This should ensure compatibility with pretty much every page builder and other plugins.

WPFTS indexed 2383 items on a site with a few hundred posts, and it took a very, very long time. Hosted on Flywheel.

The plugin needs options to select post types for indexing. It's not good to balloon the index with posts that should not appear in search results. There's no need to index media files, for example, if attachment pages are disabled (e.g., with an SEO plugin). This is a standard option in the UI of other search plugins.

I like the "cluster" search weighting scheme for customization, but a cluster for each taxonomy should probably be included by default. This is a standard option in the UI of other search plugins.

The option to index taxonomy terms would also be good. Indexing archive pages can be important if your theme is set up like that. Relevanssi Pro will index taxonomy terms (categories, tags and custom taxonomies). Searching for taxonomy term name will return the taxonomy term page.

Custom field integration with ACF/Meta Box requires custom coding. Other search plugins have this built in.

Good not great, for my sites anyway

Extends the default fulltext search with relevance, jet speed and ability to search any posts, metadata, taxonomy, shortcode content and more data.

Relevanssi – A Better Search vs WP Fast Total Search – The Power of Indexed Search