Ajax Search Lite vs Search Regex
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 | Search Regex v3.5.1 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 4.7/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 70,000+ | 100,000+ |
| Last updated | October 19, 2026 | October 6, 2026 |
| Editions | Ajax Search Lite · Ajax Search Pro ($) | Search Regex |
| Pros | Live results as visitors type; Custom post types, custom fields and categories searched; Free, with WooCommerce price fields in results | Regex search across posts, comments, users, terms, options and meta; Saved presets for repeat searches; WP-CLI command available for scripted runs |
| Cons | Pro features need a paid licence; Upgrade prompts appear in the admin menu and sidebar; Google keyword suggestions call an external Google endpoint | Bulk replacements write to the database; mistakes are hard to undo; Only the core WordPress data sources are covered |
| Mentioned in our posts | 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 | Regex search and replace, Choose sources: posts, comments, users, terms, options and meta, Save and import search presets, Tools screen for running searches, WP-CLI search-regex command |
| Integrations | ||
| E-commerce | WooCommerce | — |
| Plugins | WPML, Polylang, BuddyPress, Divi | — |
| Other | Google Suggest | — |
| Requires WordPress | 3.5 | 6.6 |
| Requires PHP | 7.4 | 7.4 |
| Tested up to | 7.1 | 7.1 |
| Phones home | No | No |
| External services | suggestqueries.google.com | — |
| Blocks | 1 | — |