A shopper types a supplier code, a misspelled brand or a phrase your merchandising team never uses. The catalog contains the right product, yet the results do not make that clear. Choosing a Magento search extension starts with this relevance problem, rather than a promise that a different engine will automatically increase sales.
Amasty Elastic Search, Mirasvit Search Ultimate and Smile ElasticSuite are three different Magento extensions for improving catalog search. They differ in packaging, merchandising controls and who carries the ongoing engineering work. This comparison uses official documentation checked on October 20, 2026. It is a documentation-based buying guide; we have not benchmarked these products or installed them on a common test store.
What a catalog search extension changes
A search extension sits between Magento catalog data, an underlying search service and the storefront. Attribute weighting, synonyms, query interpretation and result presentation all influence what shoppers find. Buying an extension does not include a managed search cluster unless the vendor explicitly says so. Hosting, indexing, monitoring and relevance maintenance need their own budget.
Search and category filtering also overlap. Decide which module owns aggregations, filters and category merchandising before combining packages. Our layered navigation comparison covers the separate filtering decision. Two individually supported modules can still conflict when both replace the same result collection or frontend component.
| Product | Useful starting point | Cost and implementation boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Amasty Elastic Search | Merchants wanting configurable relevance and autocomplete within an Amasty module stack | Paid plans; confirm edition, renewal and subscription-only compatibility packages |
| Mirasvit Search Ultimate | Teams needing search across products and additional content sources | Observed Open Source base: $249 first year, then $150 annually for support and updates; Commerce costs differ |
| Smile ElasticSuite | Engineering-led stores wanting an open-source search and merchandising foundation | OSL-3.0 community code; infrastructure, integration and optional premium services are separate |
Amasty Elastic Search
Amasty Elastic Search provides attribute-level query settings, synonyms, stop words, spelling correction, autocomplete and promotional relevance rules. Its configuration guide documents important interactions: wildcard search and spelling correction cannot operate together for the same setting, and some synonym behavior depends on the correction configuration. That is a useful reason to evaluate actual catalog queries rather than enable every switch.
Basic, Pro and Premium are editions of this one product. The guide separates their suggested Composer packages and subscription entitlements. Hyvä integration involves amasty/module-elastic-search-hyva-compatibility and GraphQL support; autocomplete has its own Hyvä package. Adobe Commerce Shared Catalogs also have a specific compatibility package. An API capability alone does not supply a finished PWA search component.
Amasty’s June 2026 release notes report Magento 2.4.9 and PHP 8.5 compatibility. That statement does not remove the need to match your exact Open Source or Commerce patch, search engine and module release. We could not establish one stable plan-specific checkout price and renewal amount from the reviewed public page, so request both in writing, including the entitlement needed for your frontend.
The practical advantage is configuration depth with documented integration packages. The limitation is dependency management: a feature seen in a demonstration may require a higher plan or active subscription. Ask the implementer to turn your shortlist into a concrete package list and a renewal quote before treating it as the least expensive option.
Mirasvit Search Ultimate
Mirasvit Search Ultimate combines relevance controls, autocomplete and multiple search content sources. The vendor lists Magento Open Source and Commerce from 2.3 through 2.4.9, Elasticsearch 7, 8 and 9, and OpenSearch. Those are vendor coverage statements, not permission to use any engine with any Magento patch.
The settings manual explains engine selection and connection configuration. Search weights, synonyms and stop words make this a candidate when the problem is inconsistent catalog vocabulary. Content-source coverage is useful for stores where shoppers also need buying guides or support material. Confirm the specific third-party content connector you need; a supported source name is not a guarantee for every version of another extension.
The observed base Open Source purchase was $249 for the first year, followed by $150 per year for updates and support. Commerce and Commerce Cloud selections add cost. The license agreement ties a license to one Magento installation and the purchased edition; the initial fee includes one year of updates and support. Verify the selected edition and current renewal at checkout.
Mirasvit advertises Hyvä and GraphQL coverage. For a custom PWA, ask your developer to validate query responses, result cards and caching rather than infer a complete integration from that badge. We did not confirm a single product-specific PHP matrix for every supported Magento patch. Require Composer constraints and an exact PHP compatibility answer for the release you will install. The main tradeoff is commercial convenience versus continued reliance on a vendor-maintained module and its integration contracts.
Smile ElasticSuite
Smile ElasticSuite is an open-source Magento search and merchandising extension. Its community repository is licensed under OSL-3.0. The repository distinguishes community functionality from premium behavioral optimizers and recommendations, so “open source” should not be read as every feature in the product family being free.
The official compatibility table is unusually useful. Magento 2.4.6–2.4.7 uses the 2.11 release line; Magento 2.4.8 needs 2.11.13 or later within that line; Magento 2.4.9 moves to 2.12. The table also maps Elasticsearch and OpenSearch versions. Use that mapping with the installation guide and the selected release’s Composer requirements, including PHP, rather than installing the newest branch into an older store.
The community package has no per-store commercial purchase or paid-code renewal fee. This does not include an engineering service agreement. Hosting, relevance work, upgrades and any premium service remain real costs. Adobe Commerce B2B has separate documented integration considerations. Obtain confirmation for the exact Commerce capabilities your catalog relies on, especially customer-specific visibility.
ElasticSuite is attractive when your team wants to own the search architecture and can maintain it. That ownership is also its constraint. Hyvä, Luma customizations and headless storefronts require an explicit integration plan; the core repository is not evidence that your chosen frontend module already works. Budget a developer for release selection and module conflicts instead of comparing a zero license fee directly with an installed commercial package.
Choose with a query set and a support budget
Prepare a small acceptance set before purchase: exact SKU, partial SKU, a typo, a synonym, a plural, an accented word and a phrase with no matching product. For each, record the intended result and whether a category or content page should appear. This is a proposed evaluation method, not a claim about results obtained by Magentrio.
Repeat that exercise for customer groups and store views. A result that reveals a restricted item can be more serious than an irrelevant ranking. Ask who maintains synonyms, how reindex failures are detected, and what happens while an index is rebuilt. Include the actual search service version, PHP version, Magento edition and patch, language analyzers, theme and checkout in the implementation specification.
For total cost, compare the initial license, annual updates, engine hosting, integration work and recurring relevance maintenance. Get the number of Magento installations and staging rights confirmed. A multi-website Magento instance is not automatically the same licensing unit as several independent installations.
Which product fits your needs?
Shortlist Amasty when its plan structure and documented compatibility packages fit an existing Amasty stack. Shortlist Mirasvit when cross-content search and a commercial configuration workflow match your requirements. Shortlist Smile ElasticSuite when your engineering team wants an open-source foundation and can take responsibility for ongoing integration.
There is no measured speed winner here. The strongest choice is the product whose supported release, frontend integration and ownership model you can specify clearly before implementation. Keep the theme decision separate: our storefront foundation comparison explains why frontend architecture changes the integration work.
Official sources and research scope
Reviewed October 20, 2026: the linked product pages, manuals and license terms, plus Amasty’s June release notes and installation licensing policy. Prices are dated observations for the stated selection. Unconfirmed PHP, renewal or integration details need vendor confirmation. The featured artwork is an AI-generated conceptual illustration, not a product screenshot or test result.