Ajax Search Lite vs Swiftype 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 | Swiftype Search v2.0.5 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free + paid · ★ 3.7/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 70,000+ | 400+ |
| Last updated | October 19, 2026 | September 15, 2021 |
| Editions | Ajax Search Lite · Ajax Search Pro ($) | Swiftype Search |
| Pros | Live results as visitors type; Custom post types, custom fields and categories searched; Free, with WooCommerce price fields in results | Replaces the default search without changing the theme template; Posts re-index automatically when saved; Relevance tuning and search analytics in the Swiftype dashboard |
| Cons | Pro features need a paid licence; Upgrade prompts appear in the admin menu and sidebar; Google keyword suggestions call an external Google endpoint | Needs a Swiftype Site Search account and API key; Search runs on an external service, so results depend on its availability; Last tested against WordPress 5.8 and not updated since 2021 |
| 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 | Replaces WordPress search results, Re-indexes posts on save, Bulk indexing of existing posts from the admin, Search facets configuration, WP-CLI commands for indexing |
| Integrations | ||
| E-commerce | WooCommerce | — |
| Plugins | WPML, Polylang, BuddyPress, Divi | — |
| Other | Google Suggest | Swiftype Site Search API |
| Requires WordPress | 3.5 | 3.3 |
| Requires PHP | 7.4 | — |
| Tested up to | 7.1 | 5.8.1 |
| Phones home | No | No |
| External services | suggestqueries.google.com | api.swiftype.com |
| Blocks | 1 | — |