Ajax Search Lite vs Category Wise Search
Compare WordPress plugins and tools side by side. Pick products with “Compare” in the software directory.
| Feature | Ajax Search Lite v4.14.7 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free + paid · ★ 4.8/5 Visit Details | Category Wise Search v1.3 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 4.8/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 70,000+ | 400+ |
| Last updated | October 19, 2026 | March 26, 2019 |
| Editions | Ajax Search Lite · Ajax Search Pro ($) | Category Wise Search Widget |
| Pros | Live results as visitors type; Custom post types, custom fields and categories searched; Free, with WooCommerce price fields in results | Category dropdown in a search widget; Default category and excluded categories per widget |
| Cons | Pro features need a paid licence; Upgrade prompts appear in the admin menu and sidebar; Google keyword suggestions call an external Google endpoint | Uses create_function, removed in PHP 8, so it fails on current PHP; Last tested with WordPress 5.1.1; not maintained |
| Mentioned in our posts | 1 | 1 |
| More features | ||
| Other features | Live AJAX search results as the visitor types, Search by custom fields, Category and taxonomy search, Google keyword suggestions, Cached search results with hourly retention cron, WooCommerce price field in results, Upgrade to Pro menu item | Category dropdown in the search form, Default category selection from the query string, Exclude categories and their children |
| Integrations | ||
| E-commerce | WooCommerce | — |
| Plugins | WPML, Polylang, BuddyPress, Divi | — |
| Other | Google Suggest | — |
| Requires WordPress | 3.5 | 2.9 |
| Requires PHP | 7.4 | — |
| Tested up to | 7.1 | 5.1.1 |
| Phones home | No | No |
| External services | suggestqueries.google.com | — |
| Blocks | 1 | — |