Real search built in, a dedicated engine when you need it
Most commerce platforms ship a basic SQL LIKE wrapper and tell you to bolt a paid search vendor on top. Two vendors, two indexes, a per-query bill that scales with traffic.
Vendure ships DefaultSearchPlugin out of the box: faceted, channel-aware product search backed by your database. When you outgrow the database index, Advanced Search swaps in a dedicated Typesense engine behind the same GraphQL API: your storefront queries don't change.
One search API, from the built-in index to a dedicated engine
Faceted search is built into every Vendure deployment. A dedicated Typesense engine and an admin command palette extend it behind the same API when your catalogue needs them.
Built-in search
Faceted, channel-aware, multi-language product search backed by your SQL database. Uses the same GraphQL API as the rest of Vendure. No extra infrastructure, no per-query bill.
Advanced search
Drops in a dedicated Typesense engine behind the same GraphQL API, so you upgrade without rewriting a query. Adds tunable relevance, multi-language indexes, and geo-aware search. Replaces the paid per-query vendor in your stack.
Global search
Cmd+K palette in the Admin Dashboard. Search products, orders, customers, collections, assets, and any custom entity your plugins define. No separate search infrastructure.
Merchandisers own relevance from the Admin Dashboard
Merchandising teams can tune relevance directly from the Admin Dashboard. Advanced Search gives merchandisers a control surface for curation, synonyms, and analytics, owned by the people who own relevance day to day.
Storefront, admin, and custom entities: one index
Advanced Search runs the storefront engine. It also exposes an external index API any Vendure plugin can hook into to define its own collection. Global Search uses it for the Cmd+K palette. Your own plugins use it the same way for custom-entity search.
One search instance per Vendure deployment. Self-host it, or have it managed on Vendure Cloud.
Two scenarios this category was built for
These are the use cases that push search past a basic product list. Each one uses the same engine and the same GraphQL API; the scenario is what changes.
Fast search across millions of SKUs
Advanced Search runs on a dedicated engine built for large, high-write catalogues, with the operational controls to keep it fast in production.
Isolated search infrastructure
Search runs on a dedicated Typesense instance, so search spikes and catalogue transaction spikes never contend for the same resources.
Reindex with zero downtime
Reindexing builds into a fresh collection and swaps atomically via collection aliases. No search outage during a rebuild. The job runs on the queue in the background.
Tuned for big, busy catalogues
Handles millions of SKUs and custom entities. For high-write catalogues, buffered-update mode defers index writes so frequent changes don't overwhelm the engine.
Trusted by complex B2B commerce and enterprise retail.
What teams ask about Vendure search and discovery
Questions we hear from engineering and product teams evaluating Vendure for a real catalogue.
Part of a wider enterprise feature set
Search and discovery spans both layers: a Core search foundation in every Vendure deployment, plus the Platform extensions in the Vendure Platform enterprise feature set. It covers B2B workflows, pricing and promotions, operations and automation, and governance and compliance alongside it.
