livecanvas

The Purpose: allowing your users to search differently
Ajaxed search engines are all over the place ? literally. 
Whenever a large amount of items is available, be it houses for rent 
or computer spare parts, providing your users with a fast, structured, faceted search 
can be one thousand times more efficient, rather than letting your visitors sink into hundreds of web pages, 
hoping they?ll find what they need ? almost by chance. 
This tool does not replace or try to extend the build in textual search feature of WordPress; 
it aims to provide a quick bootstrap to an ajaxed search engine, demonstrating how easy it can be to turn 
your website into a powerful search tool, without installing a huge and bloated code.
It is easy to hack and to extend at your will. 
You can read here the original article about why <a href="http://www.dopewp.com/searchy/" rel="nofollow ugc">Searchy</a> was built.
<h3>Main Features</h3>
Let your users search combining different criterias: Filter by name, category, tag, or custom field (=1). 
Sort results by date, name or custom field (numeric)
<h3>Typical usage</h3>
Searchy is a customizable search engine composed of two elements: the search filters – typically a filters column, and the search results.
Use the searchy_filter shortcode or the built-in widget to show the filters column. 
Place the searchy_results shortcode in a WordPress page to show the sort bar and the search results. 
Of course those go in square brackets in a chosen Page. 
You can place them one after the other, having searchy_filter and searchy_results close, 
Or get fancy building your custom layout, placing some do_shortcode calls wherever you want.

Searchy

An AJAX Search Engine allowing different criterias for sorting and filtering your posts. Use via simple shortcodes and few settings.

Jason Crist

Twenty Bellows

thezenith

stevepfisterer

Make your WordPress site more interactive by adding taxonomy filters to Query Loop blocks. This plugin provides a simple block that lets visitors filter posts by categories, tags, or any custom taxonomy—perfect for Full Site Editing (FSE) themes.
Key Features:
<ul>
<li>Works with Any Taxonomy – Filter by categories, tags, or custom taxonomies</li>
<li>Full Site Editing Ready – Built specifically for FSE and block-based themes</li>
<li>Preserves Query Settings – Maintains pagination and other Query Loop configurations</li>
<li>Flexible Filtering – Works with AJAX or page reload depending on your Query Loop settings</li>
<li>Easy to Style – Standard markup and CSS classes for custom styling</li>
<li>Dropdown Enhancer Compatible – Works seamlessly with dropdown enhancement libraries like Select2</li>
</ul>
Perfect For:
<ul>
<li>Recipe sites (filter recipes by cuisine, dietary type, or cooking method)</li>
<li>Portfolio websites (filter artists by specialty or medium)</li>
<li>Restaurant menus (filter menu items by category or dietary options)</li>
<li>Product catalogs (filter by product type or category)</li>
<li>News archives (filter articles by topic or tag)</li>
<li>Any custom post type with taxonomies</li>
</ul>
How It Works:
Simply insert the Taxonomy Query Filter block inside any Query Loop block, select your taxonomy, and visitors can instantly filter the displayed posts. The plugin updates the URL with query parameters, making filtered views shareable and bookmark-friendly.
Open Source:
This plugin is open source and actively maintained on <a href="https://github.com/Twenty-Bellows/taxonomy-query-filter" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub</a>. Contributions welcome!

Taxonomy Query Filter

Add interactive taxonomy filtering to Query Loop blocks for categories, tags, and custom taxonomies.

Searchy vs Taxonomy Query Filter