Local backend
The Local (built-in) backend stores its search index in your site's own database and uses MySQL full-text search. There's no account to create and no keys to enter.
Turn it on
- Go to Settings → Tangible SearchSync → Connection Setup.
- Under Search Backend, set Backend to Local (built-in).
- Click Save Settings.
That's it. Searches go to your site's own REST endpoint (/wp-json/searchsync/v1/search).
How it compares
| Algolia | Meilisearch | Local | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account needed | Yes | Yes (or self-host) | No |
| Facets and filters | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Typo tolerance | Yes | Yes | No |
| Per-user access control | Secured API keys | Tenant tokens | Checked in the database on each request |
| Sorting | Replica indexes | Any sortable field | sort_text, sort_date and sort_number only |
Things to know
- No typo tolerance. A search for "wordpres" won't find "WordPress". If fuzzy matching matters, use Algolia or Meilisearch.
- Sorting is limited to three indexed columns:
sort_text,sort_dateandsort_number. Sorting on any other field quietly falls back to relevance. - Sorting with a search term reorders the most relevant results rather than the whole index: the top 1,000 by default. Developers can change that with the
tangible_searchsync_local_relevance_capfilter. - Staging mode doesn't apply. The Local backend only writes to your own database, so there's no live index for a staging copy to overwrite.
- Uninstalling the plugin keeps the Local index tables unless they're removed on purpose. See the FAQ.