1. Four options at a glance
Native search: Magento 2.4 searches with OpenSearch or Elasticsearch on your server. You can maintain synonyms and search terms in the admin, see our Magento search guide.
Adobe Live Search: a SaaS search from Adobe for Adobe Commerce, at no additional charge. It replaces OpenSearch for the storefront search.
Self-hosted search extension: a module that extends the search on your own OpenSearch or Elasticsearch with autocomplete, spell correction and reports. The index stays on your server.
Hosted search: an external service keeps its own index of your products and delivers the search box and results. Magento sends product data to it, for example with a product feed.
2. Adobe Live Search
According to Adobe's documentation, Live Search requires Adobe Commerce 2.4.4 or later and is installed with Composer as magento/live-search. OpenSearch and Live Search cannot both be enabled on the same instance. Search as you type starts at two characters. Typos are handled in a second step: only if a search without typo tolerance finds nothing, Live Search runs a fuzzy search with a maximum edit distance of 1.
Adobe lists limits: no search in CMS pages, no native search term redirects and the Advanced Search form is disabled. For content search or attribute-based merchandising, Adobe itself suggests considering a third-party search solution. Live Search is part of Adobe Commerce; shops on Magento Open Source need one of the other options.
3. Self-hosted extension: Mirasvit Search Ultimate as an example
Mirasvit's Elastic Search Ultimate for Magento 2 is listed as compatible with Elasticsearch 7, 8, 9 and OpenSearch and with Community and Enterprise 2.3.* to 2.4.9; the page also lists Hyvä and Magento Cloud. Features named on the product page: autocomplete, “Automatic correction of typing errors”, synonyms with import, stopwords, search by SKU or ISBN, wildcard search, a fallback search for queries without results and reports by search terms and search volume.
Price on 4 November 2026: $249 for Open Source with support and updates for 1 year, then “Updates and support prolongation - $150”. Commerce and Commerce on Cloud editions cost more. As with every module, it runs on your server, so OpenSearch has to be operated and kept up to date by you or your host, and the module has to be updated with Magento.
4. Hosted search: Algolia, Klevu, Doofinder and Grumeria
Hosted services run the index on their own servers. Magento only has to deliver product data and load the search box. Before choosing one, check on the vendor's site whether its Magento connection is maintained for your Magento version and theme. Our comparisons list plans and features of Algolia, Klevu and Doofinder.
Grumeria connects with a product feed and a small widget. For Magento 2 the feed can come straight from your store's public product data via https://grumeria.com/api/magento-feed?shop=your-shop.com, so no feed extension is needed and nothing is installed in Magento. Typo tolerance, synonyms, filters, ranking rules and search statistics with a list of searches without results are part of every plan. The index runs in Frankfurt and the search works without cookies. Your OpenSearch stays in place for category pages and layered navigation. Plans start at €29 per month excl. VAT for 2,000 products, with a 14-day trial without a payment method.
5. How to choose: test with your own catalogue
On Adobe Commerce, start with Live Search and check its limits against your needs. On Open Source, compare a self-hosted extension with a hosted search: the extension keeps everything on your server but needs OpenSearch care and updates, a hosted search moves that work to the provider.
Whatever you pick, run the same queries before and after and note whether the expected product is among the first results.
- Take ten real queries from your search terms report, including two with typos, one SKU and one with a colour or size.
- Run them with the native search and note the first five results.
- Run them on a staging copy with the extension, or in the provider's trial.
- Check a configurable product: does the SKU of a single child product lead to the right product?
- After a week of real traffic, look at the queries without results.
Example test set
“hoodie gery” (typo) · “hoodie” (part of a longer name) · “MH01-M-Gray” (child SKU) · “hoodie grey medium” (name, colour and size).
Frequently asked questions
Does Magento 2 need a search extension?
Not always. The native OpenSearch search with maintained synonyms and search terms is enough for many small catalogues. An extension or hosted search helps when typos, SKUs or many queries without results are a problem.
Is Adobe Live Search available for Magento Open Source?
No. Adobe describes Live Search as available for Adobe Commerce, version 2.4.4 or later, on Cloud or on-premises.
Do I still need OpenSearch with a hosted search?
Yes. Magento 2.4 needs a supported search engine for category pages and layered navigation, even if the search box and results come from an external service.