Magento search feature is one of the crucial elements to help you to provide a great shopping experience for customers. In this article, we will introduce everything you need to know about the main search tool available to Magento merchants including Elasticsearch, SOLR, Sphinx, and MySQL. Also, we examine the pros and cons of each and offer recommendations depending on merchant requirements.
Magento search: Which Technology to Choose?
There are a lot of search engines to choose from, but, if you are seeking a trusted and efficient solution for your web application, we would like to recommend one of the following three: Elasticsearch, Solr, Sphinx, and MySQL that are the top for 2021.
All three are reliable search solutions, well-supported by their communities of contributors. They can provide high performance, scalability, and flexibility, though they all still have their peculiarities. However, each of them has specific functions that can be effective for your project. Now, let’s take a look at which option can be best suitable for your business.
1. Elasticsearch
Magento 2 equips you with two different search engines to use for the Magento 2 catalog search including MySQL and Elasticsearch
Firstly, ElasticSearch is an open-source, highly scalable, and enterprise-grade search engine that is based on Apache Lucene. Besides, this search tool was designed in such a way that it can easily use in distributed environments by offering scalability and flexibility.
ElasticSearch basically enables anyone to combine and perform different kinds of searches irrespective of their data types like structured, unstructured, geo, and metric. This feature is extremely beneficial for both customers as well as shop owners because ElasticSearch comes with much faster and more real-time relevant search results to visitors, which ultimately increase the conversion rate for eCommerce businesses. At the moment, Elasticsearch is used by high-volume sites such as eBay, Foursquare, Wikipedia, and GitHub.
Currently, Elasticsearch is highly recommended by Magento. One of the top reasons for this is that it’s easy to set up. On Nexcess accounts, it can be turned on under the Environment tab in your Client Portal. The endpoint can then be transferred into Magento by following this guide.
Pros
- Has become the default replacement for the default Magento MySQL Search Engine
- A little faster than SOLR
- More aligned with modern web development practices (so likely easier to use)
- Ready to go out of the box with the Nexcess Elasticsearch Container solution
- Near real-time indexing
Cons
- It will take up space due to indexing
- Can cost extra for hosting space
- Requires lengthy indexing
2, MySQL Catalog Search in Magento 2
MySQL is the default search engine used by Magento. While competent in its own right, it doesn’t compare to the other options available. Moreover, the MySQL search tool for Magento has now been
2. MySQL Catalog Search in Magento 2
MySQL is the default search engine used by Magento. While competent in its own right, it doesn’t compare to the other options available. Moreover, the MySQL search tool for Magento has now been deprecated. Instead, Magento 2 is now configured to use the Elasticsearch search option by default.
The default MySQL search doesn’t support some other features you’ll find with SOLR or Elasticsearch, such as suggestions, clustering, attribute weights, and tips when zero results are returned.
MySQL search options through the Magento Catalog
For this reason, we suggest you avoid the default MySQL search option.
Pros
- It’s free
Cons
- It’s not nearly as powerful as other options
- It has been deprecated
Read more:
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3. SOLR
If you are not familiar with Solr, it is an open-source, blazing-fast, enterprise-level solution. Besides, it is another search engine based on Apache Lucene and, thus, it supports a lot of common features with Elasticsearch. However, they are different in architecture.. It is famous for such unique features as:
- dynamic clustering
- support for hit highlighting
- Search term suggestions based on a misspelling
- Weighted search results
- Layered navigation
- Powerful autocomplete
- Relevancy management
- Support for synonyms and stop words
For a long time, SOLR dominated the Magento search market for high-traffic sites. Not only does it offer a number of important features search admins are looking for, but it’s also a scalable solution capable of handling heavy traffic loads. Currently, Cnet and Netflix use SOLR.
Pros
- A popular search option for Magento 1 stores
- Does not require a massive indexing process
- Truly open source
Cons
- Harder to implement
- No longer the latest and greatest in Magento Search
4. Sphinx search
Sphinx, is ranked only 5th among the search engines in 2018, though it is still a powerful and popular technology, having given way to Elasticsearch and Solr in terms of ranking. If you are not familiar with Sphinx search, it is a powerful Magento search tool capable of indexing multiple content types and offers multiple written languages. While not as popular as the options above, it’s favored by a lot of Magento 1 stores due to the ease of integration. Currently, Sphinx is used by Mozilla, Craiglist, and Dailymotion.
Pros
- A robust search engine used by a lot of large, popular sites
- Years of development have made it stable
- Support very relevant results
- Provide very fast search autocomplete
- Support the Spell-correct ability
- Different content type search
Cons
- Not as well supported as alternatives
- Lacks the speed of Elasticsearch and SOLR
Expand Magento Search Function via Extensions
Instant Search Magento 2
If you own a smaller online business and don’t want to invest in a dedicated search engine, then it’s also possible to expand the search functionality of Magento 2 through extensions. Let’s instant Search extension to help you! Instant Search for Magento 2 is an effective solution to make your website more optimized and flexible in searching for products as well as improve customer satisfaction and boost your online store sale.
Sum It Up
For any Magento 2 store, the search function is undoubtedly one of the most essential functions. An effective search can help customers easily find their needed items in the store, this helps to improve significantly a better customer experience and stimulate purchases. We have shown comprehensive information about Magento search tools. If you have any questions, then feel free to contact our Support Team. We’re very pleased to support you with our Magento Website Development service.
