Relevanssi – A Better Search
Relevanssi replaces the default search with a partial-match search that sorts results by relevance. It also indexes comments and shortcode content.
4.8(404 reviews)
·100K+ active installs·Updated 2 weeks agoAs of April 2026, Relevanssi is a WordPress search plugin with 100K+ active installations and a 4.8/5 rating from 404 reviews. It has been downloaded 7.7M+ times in total. Requires WordPress 4.9+ and PHP 7.1+. Available on WordPress.org since 2009. Actively maintained — updated within the last month. Downloads are down 24% this week. Support resolution rate: 50%. Top alternative: Search Regex.
4.8/5404 reviews
100K+active installs
50%resolved
17 yearssince 2009
Overview
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 Relevanssi.com.
Do note that using Relevanssi may require large amounts (hundreds of megabytes) of database space (for a reasonable estimate, multiply the size of your wp_posts 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.
Key features
- Search results sorted in the order of relevan…
Screenshots
Ratings & Reviews
4.8404 reviews
5 ★
368
4 ★
12
3 ★
4
2 ★
4
1 ★
16
Recent Reviews
Best Support for a very useful plugin for foodblogs
by Vivien Bullert·2 weeks ago
I was really at my wits’ end because the keyword ‘pasta’ couldn’t be found. So I got in touch with support and Mikko helped me straight away. I’d tried to sort it out on my own beforehand, but without success. I’m so glad it’s finally worked out! Thank you so much, Mikko, for your quick help! Brilliant!!!!
- This topic was modified 1 week, 6 days ago by Vivien Bullert.
buen plugin pero….
by nnicosalvador·1 month ago·1 reply
es un excelente plugin pero debería hacer búsqueda por número de parte del producto
Maybe for small sites
by egocefalo·1 month ago·1 reply
Not if you have 200,000 plus posts and add a few more everyday.
The search WordPress should have had
by andrewwalkertechinsights·2 months ago
This plugin fixes WordPress search instantly. It finds results the default search misses, including custom fields. Essential for any serious site.
Truly one of the best made wp plugins ever.
by jhtjards·4 months ago
Been using it for years on various big sites, multisite networks, etc that I’ve developed and it will always be my go-to search plugin. Works fantastically out of the box!
– Great search results
– Fast and light on your server resources
– So many useful customisation options available in admin
– PDF/Doc Indexing in Premium is ♥️
But where it really comes into its own league, is when you have special requirements that no plugin could serve out of the box. There are loads of useful filters and actions to hook into, all super well documented.
The Plugin code itself is very clean and readable, so if your requirement is really obscure you can always look under the hood and see what’s possible. (Usually anything is possible one way or the other.)
And if you still get stuck, the support is the best.
Hands down one of true unicorns in a world of plugin enshittification.
Never change, Mikko!
Download Trends
Today: 1KYesterday: 2KThis week: 11KPeriod total: 680K
Compatibility
| WordPress | 4.9+ requiredTested up to 6.9.4 |
| PHP | 7.1+ required |
Version Adoption
v4.26
59.3%
Other
21.4%
v4.24
10.6%
v4.25
8.8%
Top Alternatives to Relevanssi – A Better Search
Frequently Asked Questions
Changelog
4.26.1
- Changed behaviour: The
relevanssi_resultsfilter hook gets the search query as a second parameter. - Changed behaviour: Exact match bonus was added to posts once per search term. Now it’s applied once per post.
- Minor fix: Exact match bonus is now significantly faster when processing large posts.
- Minor fix: Post part targeting with phrases is now more precise and doesn’t include false matches. New post part tag ‘media’ is available to target attachment content.
Contributors
Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Analysis and metrics by PluginSift.