Title: Better Search – Relevant search results for WordPress Author: Ajay Published: March 20, 2009 Last modified: February 21, 2026 --- Search plugins ![](https://ps.w.org/better-search/assets/banner-772x250.png?rev=2923937) ![](https://ps.w.org/better-search/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=2988729) # Better Search – Relevant search results for WordPress By [Ajay](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ajay/) [Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/better-search.4.2.4.zip) * [Details](https://scn.wordpress.org/plugins/better-search/#description) * [Reviews](https://scn.wordpress.org/plugins/better-search/#reviews) * [Installation](https://scn.wordpress.org/plugins/better-search/#installation) * [Development](https://scn.wordpress.org/plugins/better-search/#developers) [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-search/) ## Description Supercharge your WordPress site search with **[Better Search](https://webberzone.com/plugins/better-search/)**– a powerful replacement for the default WordPress search engine that delivers more relevant results and a richer search experience. Better Search gives you complete control over your site’s search results. Fine-tune relevance, search across different fields and post types, track popular queries, and customise the output — all without writing a single line of code. Make your search more intuitive and engaging with a search heatmap of popular queries, display results as users type with AJAX Live Search, and tailor the look to your theme with custom templates and styles. Built with performance in mind, Better Search includes its own caching system and works smoothly with popular caching plugins like WP Super Cache and W3 Total Cache. It also features a profanity filter and is translation-ready for global use. Here are some of the main features of **Better Search**: * **Automatic**: Just activate the plugin and enjoy better search results right away * **Seamless integration**: No need to edit any code or create custom search templates * **Relevance**: Sort the results by relevance or date, and assign different weights to title and content * **Control the results**: Search within title, content, excerpt, meta fields, authors, tags and other taxonomies and comments * **Popular searches**: Show a heatmap of the most popular searches on your site, either as a widget or a shortcode * **AJAX Live Search**: Show search results as you type in any search form on your site * **Customisation**: Use your own template file and CSS styles for the ultimate look and feel * **Supports cache plugins**: Works seamlessly with caching plugins like WP-Super- Cache and W3 Total Cache * **Profanity filter**: Filter out any words that you don’t want to appear in search queries * **Translation ready**: Use the plugin in any language If you want to improve your site search, download Better Search today and experience the difference for yourself. ### Features in Better Search Pro [**Better Search Pro**](https://webberzone.com/plugins/better-search/pro/) gives you even more control and performance: * 🔍 [Multisite Search](https://webberzone.com/support/knowledgebase/multisite-search/) * ✨ [Fuzzy Matches](https://webberzone.com/support/knowledgebase/fuzzy-matches/) * 🎯 [Relevance Threshold](https://webberzone.com/support/knowledgebase/better-search-settings-search/#minimum-relevance-percentage-pro-only) * 🔗 [Search Post Slugs](https://webberzone.com/support/knowledgebase/better-search-settings-search/#search-post-slug-pro-only) * ⚙️ [REST API Integration](https://webberzone.com/support/knowledgebase/better-search-rest-api/) ### MySQL FULLTEXT indices Better Search adds the following MySQL FULLTEXT indices to the `wp_posts` table: * `post_content` * `post_title` * `(post_title, post_content)` On multisite, these are added to each blog upon activation. These indices power the relevance-based search and are required for full functionality. ### Contribute Better Search is also available on [Github](https://github.com/WebberZone/better-search). If you’ve got some cool feature you’d like to implement into the plugin or a bug you’ve been able to fix, consider forking the project and sending me a pull request. ### Plugins by WebberZone Better Search is one of the many plugins developed by WebberZone. Check out our other plugins: * [Contextual Related Posts](https://wordpress.org/plugins/contextual-related-posts/)– Display related posts on your WordPress blog and feed * [Top 10](https://wordpress.org/plugins/top-10/) – Track daily and total visits to your blog posts and display the popular and trending posts * [Knowledge Base](https://wordpress.org/plugins/knowledgebase/) – Create a knowledge base or FAQ section on your WordPress site * [WebberZone Snippetz](https://wordpress.org/plugins/add-to-all/) – The ultimate snippet manager for WordPress to create and manage custom HTML, CSS or JS code snippets * [Auto-Close](https://wordpress.org/plugins/autoclose/) – Automatically close comments, pingbacks and trackbacks and manage revisions on your WordPress site ## Screenshots * [[ * Better Search Dashboard * [[ * Better Search Popular Searches table in Admin * [[ * Better Search widget ## Installation #### WordPress install 1. Navigate to Plugins within your WordPress Admin Area. 2. Click “Add new” and enter “Better Search” in the search box. 3. Find the plugin in the list (usually the first result) and click “Install Now”. #### Manual install 1. Download the plugin 2. Extract the contents of better-search.zip to wp-content/plugins/ folder. You should get a folder called better-search. 3. Activate the Plugin in WP-Admin. 4. Goto **Settings > Better Search** to configure ## FAQ If your question has not been covered here, please create a new post in the [WordPress.org support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-search). I monitor the forums regularly. If you want more advanced _paid_ support, please see [details here](https://webberzone.com/support/). ### Will this work with any WordPress theme? Yes! It replaces the default WordPress search and integrates with most themes out of the box. ### Does it support WooCommerce or custom post types? Yes, you can enable searching in any public post type from the settings. ### How does it affect performance? Better Search uses MySQL FULLTEXT indexes and includes internal caching. It also works well with external caching plugins. ### Can I customise the search results template? Yes, you can override the results template by copying the file to your theme directory. More info in the [documentation](https://webberzone.com/support/knowledgebase/better-search-templates/). ### What is the Profanity Filter? It filters out selected keywords from being searched. Handy for family-safe sites. Better Search includes a very cool profanity filter using the script from [Banbuilder](https://github.com/snipe/banbuilder). You can customize which list of words you want to filter out from the Better Search settings page. Find the setting called “Filter these words:”. The plugin will automatically strip out partial and complete references to these words. You can turn the filter off by emptying the list. ### How can I report security bugs? You can report security bugs through the Patchstack Vulnerability Disclosure Program. The Patchstack team help validate, triage and handle any security vulnerabilities. [Report a security vulnerability.](https://patchstack.com/database/vdp/better-search) ## Reviews ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/cc00a2d6f3a86e210c826fd49ebedcb85d661e3bc22eab110c20453a9f447c0c? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[Excellent plugin](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/excellent-plugin-9813/)󠁿 [Blake – Infinite Uploads](https://profiles.wordpress.org/blakeinfiniteuploads/) February 28, 2026 1 reply Better Search not only made our WordPress search better very easily, but looking under the hood, the developer writes very clean, structured, and optimized code! Very rare to see these days. Better Search is a must have for WordPress! ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/a97c6d8cd8010260b50730a0f264ed409a693383597661306a6873acd54dbc54? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[Creator Got Greedy, No Longer Recommend This Plugin](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/creator-got-greedy-no-longer-recommend-this-plugin/)󠁿 [Jupiterus](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jupiterus/) February 7, 2026 1 reply Used to be great, but then the creator got greedy and made it into a subscription service. There’s a free version but it’s so heavily limited and will break search functionality – specifically try searching for words like “to” or “from” in it and it won’t pick up those search queries (you can’t disable this either without paying for that subscription service).Was a good plugin, but owner got greedy. There’s other free plugins out there to improve WP’s search functionality, shame. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e60805580b09abb0bcbb3bfc9da2039e3864473ed8be6f9141439890f26a6374? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[Excellent plugin and fantastic support](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/excellent-plugin-and-fantastic-support-24/)󠁿 [James Woodcock](https://profiles.wordpress.org/glidem/) July 31, 2025 1 reply I was desperate to experiment with this Better Search plugin when I read the features. After installation I realised some incompatibilities with my existing mega menu plug-in I already had installed that had an unusual way of featuring a search box within it. I pretty much felt it was game over at that point however I persevered and contacted the support for the better search plugin and to my amazement had a response very quickly. After a few emails back and forth the developer sent me test files to try and after a few attempts they managed not only to get the Search working correctly along with the existing mega menu solution I had installed, but also made an additional improvement based on some of my own testing. It’s a really satisfying feeling knowing that there is support out there of this high standard that matches the quality of this search plugin that not only gives good search results, but also adds live search so as the visitor types their search query, results instantly start to appear to aid discovery of your content. Really pleased how everything worked out! Thank you! ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/358150ad0695b7e14ad0db23f4af4c68fd8e428d97ec1956b8c4dba745cd3210? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[Totally Improved Search Results](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/totally-improved-search-results/)󠁿 [anneellis11](https://profiles.wordpress.org/anneellis11/) July 10, 2025 1 reply This plugin definitely improved the search results on my site. It’s easy to use and support has been great! ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c6e837543fbc2ba78f90ba3fa7b3fb891cbeb1d128e0d9eb134d6f955bdcd9ab? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[Better Search does the job](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/better-search-does-the-job/)󠁿 [electricbob](https://profiles.wordpress.org/electricbob/) June 28, 2025 I’ve been using this plugin for a while… and it just works. Easy to install, very little setup, and now I’ve tested support (I had an issue with an update, in less than a day my site was back up and in a couple days had a new release with the fix inside) successfully. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/4d7122bcc9194c189411c4e13f3c6b0a224f877c079dfd7f62a02178cc6b245f? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[Support was Great!](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/support-was-great-18/)󠁿 [redsage](https://profiles.wordpress.org/redsage/) May 1, 2025 1 reply Purchased this plugin to use on a college website – had some issues getting it setup initially – but support was quick to respond and stayed with the ticket until it was resolved. They were helpful, and fast. Highly recommend if you need to up your site search game! [ Read all 59 reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-search/reviews/) ## Contributors & Developers “Better Search – Relevant search results for WordPress” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin. Contributors * [ Ajay ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ajay/) * [ WebberZone ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/webberzone/) “Better Search – Relevant search results for WordPress” has been translated into 3 locales. Thank you to [the translators](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/better-search/contributors) for their contributions. [Translate “Better Search – Relevant search results for WordPress” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/better-search) ### Interested in development? [Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/better-search/), check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/better-search/), or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/better-search/) by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/better-search/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss). ## Changelog #### 4.2.4 * Features: - Better Search form: The “any” post type option label can now be customised when the post type dropdown is enabled. * Fixed: - Fixed an issue where selecting “any” post type would search through all post types instead of respecting the configured post types from settings. - [Pro] Custom table searches now include post slug matching when “Search post slug” is enabled. - [Pro] Fixed SQL syntax error in multisite search queries when custom tables are disabled, caused by malformed GROUP BY clause stripping. - Fixed improper stripping of boolean mode operators in LIKE clauses, ensuring consistent behavior between FULLTEXT and LIKE searches. #### 4.2.3 * Modifications: - [Pro] Added WooCommerce product indexing and custom meta field support. - Modernized Tom Select implementation for taxonomy and meta key searches. - Enhanced seamless mode logic and form generation. - Improved tracker response handling with better regex patterns. - Standardized Hook_Registry validation across WebberZone plugins. * Fixed: - Some users would see no search results when seamless mode is off. #### 4.2.2 * Modifications: - Updated Freemius SDK to v2.13.0. - Upgraded Settings API. - Improved text highlighting. - The Settings screen’s “Create Fuzzy Search Indexes” button now deletes and recreates the Fuzzy Search functions. - The Cache key is now created by eliminating unnecessary variations to improve cache efficiency. - New WebberZone Admin banner on Better Search admin screens for quick access to admin pages. * Bug fixes: - Fixed an issue where the setup wizard notice could display on the wizard page. - Fixed parsing of excluded category slugs. - Fixed a translation string in the settings form. - Fixed handling of `<` and `>` in boolean search mode. - Fixed Boolean mode didn’t work in some cases even when enabled in the Settings page. * Security: - Fixed a stored XSS vulnerability. #### 4.2.1 * Modifications: - Updated Freemius SDK. - Handle `post_type` when passed through as a query variable. - Added REST API support for custom post type search queries. * Bug fixes: - HTML entities are now decoded in the Live Search results. - Phrases with double quotes are correctly handled. #### 4.2.0 Release post: [https://webberzone.com/announcements/better-search-v4-2-0/](https://webberzone.com/announcements/better-search-v4-2-0/) * Features: - [Pro] New: Efficient Content Storage and Indexing – Custom tables implementation for better performance and query optimization while maintaining the same relevance algorithm. - [Pro] New: MAX_EXECUTION_TIME hint for MySQL queries. - [Pro] New: LIKE fallback search. - New: Wizard to guide users through the setup process. - Copy to clipboard functionality for SQL queries in the Tools page. * Modifications: - Improved caching in Core Query to catch score and blog ID. - New function: bsearch_get_blog_option() to get a Better Search option for a specific blog. - New network settings/tools page. - [Pro] A new button to fix any collation issues has been added to the Network Admin Settings page. - Updated Freemius SDK. - Live search displays a loading state while results are being fetched. - Fulltext indexes are now named `wz_title_content`, `wz_title`, and `wz_content` to ensure compatibility and optimize database space, especially when using Contextual Related Posts. After updating to this version, please recreate the indexes to benefit from the changes—until then, the plugin will use the previous index names. - Media Handler now supports the FIFU WordPress plugin for featured image detection. * Bug fix: - Fixed an issue where the Live Search conflicted with Mega Menu Pro. - Fixed an issue where activating the Pro plugin while the Free plugin was active, or vice versa, would cause a fatal error. For previous changelog entries, please refer to the separate changelog.txt file or [Github Releases page](https://github.com/WebberZone/better-search/releases) ## Meta * Version **4.2.4** * Last updated **2 months ago** * Active installations **5,000+** * WordPress version ** 6.6 or higher ** * Tested up to **6.9.4** * PHP version ** 7.4 or higher ** * Languages * [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-search/), [German](https://de.wordpress.org/plugins/better-search/), [Persian](https://fa.wordpress.org/plugins/better-search/), and [Spanish (Costa Rica)](https://es-cr.wordpress.org/plugins/better-search/). * [Translate into your language](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/better-search) * Tags * [better search](https://scn.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/better-search/)[relevance](https://scn.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/relevance/) [relevant search](https://scn.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/relevant-search/)[search](https://scn.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/search/) * [Advanced View](https://scn.wordpress.org/plugins/better-search/advanced/) ## Ratings 4.5 out of 5 stars. * [ 45 5-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-search/reviews/?filter=5) * [ 7 4-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-search/reviews/?filter=4) * [ 3 3-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-search/reviews/?filter=3) * [ 0 2-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-search/reviews/?filter=2) * [ 5 1-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-search/reviews/?filter=1) [Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-search/reviews/#new-post) [See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-search/reviews/) ## Contributors * [ Ajay ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ajay/) * [ WebberZone ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/webberzone/) ## Support Got something to say? Need help? [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-search/) ## Donate Would you like to support the advancement of this plugin? [ Donate to this plugin ](https://wzn.io/donate-wz)