69
Search & Filter
Helpful support cannot fix the heartbreak of the version three upgrade.
HealthyDeclining
69/100
Excellent support helps many users but the version three rewrite has caused significant frustration.
Active installs
~55,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 50k+
Rating
4.5★
174 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
-12%
Declining
217 → 192 installs/day
What to watch out for
- MINORreviews unevenly distributed over time
Downloads over time
real new installs per day · release spikes shown separately from the trend2025-04-302025-08-082025-11-162026-02-232026-06-03
organicrelease spikerelease tailorganic trend · 14d rolling median
Declining · -12% in the last year
217/day a year ago→192/day today
Reviews
what people actually saySearch & Filter is a capable post-filtering plugin with a loyal user base and well-regarded support, but the version 3 rewrite has drawn serious criticism for removing or regressing features that existed in version 2, leaving long-time users frustrated.
What people like
- +Support team is consistently praised as responsive, knowledgeable, and willing to dig into individual site issues×6
- +Effective at filtering posts and pages by a wide range of parameters including custom taxonomies and ACF fields (pro)×4
- +Pro version offers useful ACF and Elementor integrations×2
Common complaints
- −Version 3 removed or severely restricted features present in version 2, particularly the ability to combine multiple search targets (title, content, multiple taxonomies) in a single text search field (since 3)×3
- −No proper migration path from version 2 to version 3; upgrading can trigger database errors for logged-out users (since 3)×2
- −Version 3 is considered a regression by long-time users, not an upgrade (since 3)×2
- −UI is outdated and styling the filter form requires manual CSS with no built-in styling support or HTML template customization×2
- −Plugin can be very slow on some sites, with no resolution offered by pro support
- −Version 3 reported to have significant bugs (since 3)
- −No Gutenberg block support noted; configuration relies on shortcodes
Review trustReviews look organic
- 4.16★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 4.50★
- 12%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower
2023-09-182025-02-092026-06-04
5★ reviews1–4★ reviews
All-time ratings · 174 total
Latest reviews · 90 analyzed
- 2026-02-21★★★★★The instructions on how to change the settings to version 3.X are insufficient ashinji
- 2025-11-13★★★★★Could be developed.saksaksak
- 2025-07-10★★★★★The Support is Excellent!lisalindeman
- 2025-05-31★★★★★Where did the functionality go?chavesd1-shot
- 2025-04-02★★★★★Great Supportmikeyinglis
- 2025-02-12★★★★★Severly lacking in featurespcarqueville
- 2024-10-25★★★★★Exceptional in Many Waysjaessi
- 2024-10-24★★★★★Works Wellname1user
- 2024-03-25★★★★★Excellent PluginFrank Gomez
- 2024-01-26★★★★★Tag errorpetenka
Releases
recent versions from WordPress.org SVNFor developers & the curious
the raw signals behind the grade — none of this is on the friendly summary aboveDownload signals
Baselines are computed on organic days only — release spikes and their tails are excluded, so they're not inflated by the auto-update wave.
195
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
188
Prior 7-day baseline
158
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
195
Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)
+3.7%
Week-over-week organic trend
Review signals
Concentration and drive-by metrics drive the review-burst and fake-review flags. 30–40% solo reviewers is normal; we only flag the extremes.
18%
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
1.63
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
74%
5★ share in analyzed sample
12%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
—
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
4.22 → 4.16★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered