{"id":29173,"date":"2019-08-16T08:13:38","date_gmt":"2019-08-16T08:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elementor.com\/blog\/?p=29173"},"modified":"2025-12-05T01:02:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T23:02:48","slug":"best-search-filter-plugins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elementor.com\/blog\/best-search-filter-plugins\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Search Filter Plugins for Elementor"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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If you want to build advanced websites like eCommerce or real estate listings, you\u2019ll need to add search filters to provide smooth navigation for your users. We scoured the internet for the best search & filter plugins for WordPress out there, offering you a guide to their pros and cons.<\/p>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The more products and posts you have on your site, the more difficult it becomes to navigate through it all. It’s especially true for websites that deal with real estate<\/a>, e-commerce and restaurant listings, amongst others. <\/p>\n

Imagine you’re browsing a restaurant catalog in your area to locate a pizza place. It would be disappointing if you had to browse through each restaurant listing individually, only to discover that the restaurant doesn’t offer pizza, or that it has bad reviews, or is too expensive. Yet, with a filtering capability, you can choose all these parameters and browse only restaurants that offer just what you need.<\/p>\n

In today’s world, the option to filter posts and products is an absolute must for any website that aims to be successful. Adding this option improves the user’s experience and makes life a whole lot easier; consequently enhances the user’s satisfaction. WordPress has a native filtering option, but it falls behind on what it offers in comparison to other filters. This limitation has given rise to numerous filtering plugins. We\u2019ve chosen to discuss three that work well with Elementor. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCheck Out This List of the Best WordPress Search Plugins<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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What Are Filter Plugins<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Filter plugins allow you to filter posts and products on your page. They come with various filtering options and different designs. These plugins are customizable and enable you to make your users\u2019 experience truly unique and in line with your vision. Some of these plugins work well with Elementor and make your interaction with them much easier. Additionally, you may discover that there are two types of filtering systems, and while the terms \u2018filter\u2019 and \u2018facet\u2019 are often used interchangeably, they are, in fact, different.\u00a0<\/p>

Filters<\/strong>, as a rule, are more general and broad in their category configuration and upon selection, they eliminate other results on the site. They stay constant and don\u2019t change between searches. A good example of this is Amazon\u2019s Avg. Customer Review. Let\u2019s say you are looking at books. Once you choose the Avg, customer Review filter (let\u2019s say 4 stars and more), every consequent search would be 4 stars and more. It won\u2019t matter if you change the genre or the language or anything else. The 4 stars and more review will be constant.\u00a0<\/p>

Facets <\/strong>are also filters; only they are way more specific and interactive, and directly correlate to the search query. Let’s say you are looking for books on Amazon; you go to the book department, choose a genre – History. Once you click on it, you get further suggestions and options like region, whether it\u2019s military or economic history and more. Now, based on your search query (history) you will get further facet filtering options (region, type of history, and more) and with more choices, you\u2019ll get even more facet options. This lets users narrow down their search results by applying multiple filters. When your website has hundreds of posts or products, facet filters drastically improve the browsing experience for your customers and visitors.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Why Do You Need Filter Plugins?<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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So, now that you know what they are let\u2019s discuss why you need filtering plugins.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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WordPress Native Filters<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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WordPress offers limited filtering options where you can filter by categories, tags, date, and the author. Coding is required to take care of any additional filtering. In coding terms, Filters are one of the two types of Hooks, the other being Actions, and they provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. Hooks are a way for one piece of code to interact with or modify another piece of code. Unlike Actions, however, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner.\u00a0<\/p>

To add a Filter, you\u2019ll have to go through two steps:\u00a0<\/p>

  1. Create a Callback (custom) function which will be called when the Filter is run.\u00a0<\/li>
  2. Add your Callback function to a Hook which will perform the calling of the function.<\/li><\/ol>

    This may make sense to our developer friends, but to the coding-challenged rest of us, this is very confusing.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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    More Filtering Options\n<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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    Filter plugins give you the freedom to present information the way you want it to be presented and, in terms of website experience, offer your users as much liberty as possible. As we\u2019ve mentioned, WordPress has some default filtering options, like categories and tags, which give you a way to sort content. However, you can only view one category or tag at a time and can\u2019t do much else. A filter plugin, on the other hand, can help you add more filtering options and make your users\u2019 experience far smoother richer.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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    Design<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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    Filter plugins come with numerous design options, from colors to shapes, you can change the way they look. Furthermore, you can choose different types of filters like slide filters, checkbox filters, drop-down filters, and more. The more design options you have at your disposal, the more customized a website you can create.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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    Before we move on to the plugins, we\u2019d like to note that organizing and determining how your products should be categorized is very important. You need to understand terms like taxonomy, categories, tags, and more to plan accordingly. Create a plan and draw it out if you need.\u00a0<\/p>

    Imagine that you are an ecommerce website and you sell shirts. Are you going to sell them by size only? By color? By the type of neck? By the brand? You will have to add to each of your shirts (products) the following values: shirt, color, size, type of neck, brand and more And so, when your user filters the following: Black V-Neck, Size M, Brand X, they\u2019ll get only what they are looking for.\u00a0<\/p>

    If you already have a website with posts or products, then this may be a little more time consuming, since you\u2019ll have to go to each of them and add information and values to fit your filtering desires. Some products or posts will have multiple values, and you have to understand what you want the end filtering result to be and add values respectively.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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    The Plugins<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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    We\u2019ll discuss three plugins. We will explain what their strengths and weaknesses are as well as how to install and use them.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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    FacetWP<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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    FacetWP is an advanced filtering plugin for WordPress, which allows you to use your site’s existing post types, fields, and taxonomies to give your users what they are looking for by only showing the relevant filtering choices. It’s based on the facet system, and it enhances WordPress’ default search functionality. FacetWP includes twelve facet types like checkboxes, dropdowns, date ranges, and sliders to choose from. It allows you to add faceted search to your WooCommerce<\/a> sites, listing pages, resources pages, search pages, and directories, and since it\u2019s AJAX-based, it doesn\u2019t require the page to be refreshed to filter it, making it extremely fast. FacetWP works well with Elementor, allowing you to integrate lots of UI choices with your design.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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    The first step is to install the plugin. Download it from the official website<\/a>. You can try the trial version or buy the full version. To integrate it with Elementor, you\u2019ll also need the FacetWP Elementor plugin<\/a>. Once you\u2019ve installed and activated it, you can start using it.\u00a0<\/p>

    Setting it up is not that difficult. You\u2019ll have to create a new facet, or a new label, define the type and the data source, save the changes, and re-index the page. Once done, it\u2019s a simple matter of enabling FacetWP in the posts <\/strong>widget, copying the shortcode and pasting it into the shortcode <\/strong>widget that comes with Elementor.\u00a0<\/p>

    Now, you can play with the design a little more by pressing on the shortcode widget and editing it. Go to the advanced options and play with the borders, background, and more to your heart’s content. Not everything works perfectly, and you\u2019ll have to play with the options a little to learn what you can and cannot do, but ultimately, this gives you decidedly more design options.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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    The Pros<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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