WP Extended Search

76 Quality Score

Active Installs

19/30

With 20,000 active installs and a popularity score of 64 out of 30, this plugin is overperforming its weight and serving a meaningful niche audience.

Update Freshness

20/25

Updated December 2025 against WordPress 6.9.4, the maintenance signal is strong, suggesting the developer is actively keeping pace with core releases.

User Rating

15/15

A 98 out of 100 rating from 72 reviewers is exceptional, though the small sample size means the rating should be read as indicative rather than definitive.

Support Health

8/15

The single open support thread and 0 percent resolution rate is a concern; it may simply reflect low support demand, but it also means there is little public evidence of responsive help.

WP Compatibility

15/15

Tested with WordPress 6.9.4 and requiring only PHP 7.0 and WordPress 4.9, compatibility is broad and forward-looking, working on virtually any modern hosting setup.

Scores higher than 51% of indexed plugins

About

Extend search functionality to search in selected post meta, taxonomies, post types, and all authors.

Active Installs 20k+

Rating ★★★★½ 4.9/5

Last Updated 2025-12-07 6:12pm GMT

Requires WordPress 4.9+

Tested Up To 6.9.7

Requires PHP 7.0+

Security History

1 known vulnerability, all patched

1 Medium

Most recent: January 5, 2023

View details ▸

What It Does

WP Extended Search expands WordPress's default search to include custom post types, taxonomies, author archives, and specific post meta fields. It provides an admin settings panel where you can choose exactly which content types and fields get included in search results, without writing custom queries. The plugin targets sites where visitors expect to find content through keyword searches across non-standard fields.

Who It's For

This plugin is a good fit for small to mid-sized WordPress sites running custom post types, such as real estate listings, job boards, restaurant menus, or local business directories. It is best suited for site owners who want to improve native search without moving to a heavyweight solution like Relevanssi or ElasticSearch. Developers building lightweight membership or catalog sites where meta-driven content needs to be discoverable will also benefit.

Who Should Skip It

If you already use WooCommerce and need fast, AJAX-powered product search with filters and live results, FiboSearch is purpose-built for that job and will serve you far better. You should also skip this plugin if you want fuzzy matching, synonym handling, or search analytics, none of which it offers.

The Bottom Line

WP Extended Search delivers a focused, lightweight solution for making custom post types and meta fields searchable in WordPress without bloating your site with a full search engine. The high user rating and very recent update are real positives, but the near-empty support track record means you should not count on fast answers if you hit an edge case. For straightforward meta and taxonomy search needs, it earns its 79.67 quality score and is worth a try before reaching for heavier alternatives.

Related Plugins

Relevanssi – A Better Search 85/100

Pick Relevanssi if you need fuzzy matching, search result weighting, indexing, and synonym support for content-heavy blogs or membership sites.

FiboSearch – Ajax Search for WooCommerce 85/100

Pick FiboSearch if WooCommerce product search with live AJAX results and filters is your primary need, as it is purpose-built for stores.

Ivory Search – WordPress Search Plugin 85/100

Pick Ivory Search if you want to build multiple custom search forms with rule-based filtering and place them in different menus or pages.

Search Regex 84/100

Pick Search Regex if your real goal is to find and replace content across posts, custom fields, and comments rather than improve visitor-facing search.

YMC Filter 86/100

Pick YMC Filter if you need visual AJAX-driven filtering grids rather than text-based keyword search across meta fields.