Better Search is free to use and replaces WordPress search with relevance-ranked FULLTEXT results right out of the box. The Pro upgrade adds fuzzy matching, a custom search index, multisite cross-site search, and WP-CLI integration for those who need more control.
Free vs Pro
| Feature | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Core Search | ||
| FULLTEXT relevance-ranked search | ✅ | ✅ |
| Seamless mode (intercepts default WP search) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Search within title, content, excerpt | ✅ | ✅ |
| Search within meta fields, authors, taxonomies, comments | ✅ | ✅ |
| Title / content relevance weight configuration | ✅ | ✅ |
| Excerpt weight in relevance scoring | ❌ | ✅ |
| Boolean search mode | ✅ | ✅ |
| Custom post type support | ✅ | ✅ |
| Profanity filter | ✅ | ✅ |
| AJAX live search (results as you type) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Popular searches heatmap (widget + shortcode) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Custom search results template | ✅ | ✅ |
| Search query tracking (daily and total) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Feature Manager (toggle optional features on/off) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Search Quality & Relevance | ||
| Fuzzy / phonetic matching | ❌ | ✅ |
| “Did you mean” spelling suggestions | ❌ | ✅ |
| Search redirects (keyword → destination) | ❌ | ✅ |
| Minimum relevance threshold | ❌ | ✅ |
| Minimum characters before FULLTEXT search (configurable) | ❌ | ✅ |
| Taxonomy weight configuration (categories, tags, precomputed score) | ❌ | ✅ |
| LIKE fallback when FULLTEXT returns no results | ❌ | ✅ |
| Search post slugs | ❌ | ✅ |
| Cornerstone / pinned posts (fixed top results) | ❌ | ✅ |
| Exclude front page and Posts page from results | ❌ | ✅ |
| Performance & Indexing | ||
MySQL FULLTEXT indexes on wp_posts | ✅ | ✅ |
| Internal output caching | ✅ | ✅ |
| Custom high-performance search index table | ❌ | ✅ |
| InnoDB conversion tool with FULLTEXT index rebuild | ❌ | ✅ |
| Scheduled index reconciliation cron job | ❌ | ✅ |
MySQL MAX_EXECUTION_TIME query guard | ❌ | ✅ |
| Integration | ||
| REST API search integration | ❌ | ✅ |
| Dashboard search chart with daily drill-down | ❌ | ✅ |
| Multisite | ||
| Per-site search | ✅ | ✅ |
| Cross-site search across the entire network | ❌ | ✅ |
| Network admin dashboard and statistics | ❌ | ✅ |
| Developer Tools | ||
| WP-CLI commands (search, cache, db, stats, settings, ecsi, status, stopwords) | ❌ | ✅ |
| Support | ||
| Community forum | ✅ | ✅ |
| Priority email support | ❌ | ✅ |
Choosing the Right Plan
All paid plans include the same Pro features. The difference is the number of sites and who you can use them on.
| Pro | Pro Multi | Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| All Pro features | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Number of sites | 1 site | 5 to unlimited | Unlimited |
| Use on client sites | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Priority email support | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Better Search Pro CLI Overview
