As your WooCommerce store grows, so will its product catalog. It’s not uncommon for stores to have hundreds of varied items for sale. With such a wide variety, it can be challenging for customers to find the exact items that they’re looking for.
That’s where WooCommerce product filters come in. By adding this filtering functionality, you enable customers to browse your products according to their preferences.
This article will look at how WooCommerce product filters work and why you should use them. We’ll then review some of the best plugins for adding product filtering. Let’s get to it!
Check Out Our Video Guide to The Best WooCommerce Product Filter Plugins
What Do WooCommerce Product Filters Do?
Every online store should include search functionality. Without it, you force users to navigate page after page of products to find what they’re looking for.
Depending on what type of products you sell, you may also want to enable customers to filter products by attribute. When we say “attribute,” we mean characteristics such as color or size:
WooCommerce enables you to add product attributes out of the box. You can create as many as you want and divide them into unique characteristics. For example, if you add the color attribute to your store, you can specify different colors:
However, you might want to use a product filter plugin instead. This can offer more customization options and advanced filtering functionality.
Whatever tool you go for, you must add any available product attributes. Attributes are the linchpin of any proper product filtering tool. Without a comprehensive product taxonomy, customers won’t be able to use any filtering tools that you offer them.
Why Use WooCommerce Product Filters?
One of the critical components of a successful store is User Experience (UX). By providing a pleasant shopping experience, you can help boost your conversions and retain your customers.
An effective way to enhance your store is to add product filters. This will enable shoppers to navigate your catalog according to their preferences.
For example, some users may prefer to look at products available in particular sizes or colors, rather than viewing the entire catalog. With product filters, they can select their preferred size and color, and only browse through the items that meet their criteria.
Therefore, product filters make it easier for users to navigate your store and find what they’re looking for. This efficiency can increase sales and encourage shoppers to return to your store for additional orders.
8 Best WooCommerce Product Filter Plugins
There are a lot of WooCommerce product filter plugins to choose from. This section will show you both premium and free options and discuss what sets each plugin apart. Let’s get to it!
1. Advanced AJAX Product Filters
Advanced AJAX Product Filters is a plugin that enables customers to filter products by attributes, price, custom taxonomies, and tags. The plugin adds a user-friendly filtering sidebar that you can customize to match your store’s style.
With this plugin, you can offer visual cues for users to understand specific types of product attributes. For example, you can add clickable color swatches, checkboxes, icons, and even price sliders:
Moreover, the plugin comes with multiple product filtering widgets that you can place anywhere on your website. You can mix and match widgets and change their order depending on what type of filters you want to prioritize.
Finally, Advanced AJAX Product Filters is compatible with multiple page builders. This includes Divi and Elementor.
Key Features:
- Filter products by attributes, tags, price, and custom taxonomies
- Use filtering widgets to choose what options to display to customers
- Include visual elements, checkboxes, icons, and price sliders within your product filters
- Use the product filter widgets with popular page builder plugins
Price: The base Advanced AJAX Product Filters plugin is free and includes all the discussed features. There’s also a premium version available which adds new filtering options. Licenses start at $44 per year.
2. WOOF – Products Filter for WooCommerce
WOOF – Products Filter for WooCommerce (or WOOF for short) is a developer-friendly product filtering plugin. With this tool, you can offer customers filters that enable them to sort products by price, categories, attributes, tags, and custom taxonomies.
The plugin enables you to place the filters that you want using shortcodes or widgets. You can also choose between checkboxes, radio buttons, and dropdown menus for your filters:
One feature missing from the free version is the option to add images and other visual elements for filtering menus. However, WOOF makes it easy for developers to add new filters thanks to its API. Plus, it offers some features that other product filtering plugins don’t. For instance, you can display the number of results dynamically as users add filters.
Key Features:
- Filter products by price, category, tags, price, and custom taxonomies
- Place product filters using shortcodes or widgets
- Use checkboxes, radio buttons, and dropdown menus to filter products
- Dynamically display the number of items that a filtered search will return
Price: WOOF – Products Filter for WooCommerce is free. There’s also a premium plugin version that includes additional filters and features. Pricing starts at $39.
3. YITH WooCommerce AJAX Product Filter
YITH is one of the biggest WooCommerce plugin sellers. It offers dozens of unique WooCommerce tools, including YITH WooCommerce AJAX Product Filter. This plugin lets you add a highly-customizable product filter sidebar (or horizontal bar) to your store.
This sidebar can include options to filter products by attribute, category, tag, price, and rating. You can also enable customers to sort through items that are on sale, which should help you sell more products with discounts:
Since we’re talking about an AJAX plugin, the product selection will update without customers needing to submit a search request or reload the page. That makes it faster for users to run more searches.
This plugin offers a broad range of styling options to match the filters to your store’s design. You can also create multiple product filter presets, and place-specific configurations throughout your store using shortcodes.
Key Features:
- Filter products by category, tag, price, rating, attribute, and discount status
- Place product filter sidebars or horizontal bars on your store
- Customize the style of the product filters
- Enable customers to see filtered results without updating the page
- Create multiple product filter presets with unique shortcodes
Price: There is a free version of the YITH WooCommerce AJAX Product Filter plugin with limited functionality. We recommend using the premium version, which starts at $89.99 per year.
4. WooCommerce Product Filters
The WooCommerce Product Filters plugin by Barn2 is designed to add professional-level filtering to WooCommerce. Its drag-and-drop filter builder makes it easy for online store owners to create custom filters for their products To design this plugin, the team at Barn2 analyzed the product filters in the world’s top ecommerce sites and brought these techniques to WooCommerce for the first time.
As a result, it provides a powerful and flexible tool for improving the product filtering capabilities of any WooCommerce-powered store. This helps customers find the products they are looking for more easily, which can lead to increased sales and customer satisfaction.
Key Features
- Filter products by any type of product data including price, rating, attributes, color, size, categories, tags, and custom taxonomies.
- Choose from a wide range of filter styles, such as dropdowns, checkboxes, radio buttons, clickable images, color swatches, word clouds, and range sliders.
- 2 filter modes: AJAX filtering or button click.
- Easily add filters to any page where products are listed, either automatically or via a shortcode or widget.
- Integration with Elementor, Divi, Gutenberg, and other WooCommerce plugins, such as WooCommerce Product Table and WooCommerce Restaurant Ordering.
- Regular updates and support from the Barn2 team.
Price: WooCommerce Product Filters licenses start at $79, depending on the number of sites and whether you want an annual or lifetime license. They come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
5. Product Filter for WooCommerce
Product Filter for WooCommerce is a premium plugin that uses AJAX filtering to enable customers to sort through your catalog. The plugin gives you the option of filtering products by price, category, availability, discounts, ratings, and custom taxonomies.
With Product Filter for WooCommerce, you can use a comprehensive builder to create multiple filter presets. You can use those filters anywhere on your website and configure each one to have a unique style:
The plugin supports multiple types of elements for filtering, including icons, colors, images, checkboxes, dropdown menus, and sliders. Customers can use those elements to narrow their search to the exact items they’re looking for.
Key Features:
- Filter products by price, category, availability, discounts, ratings, and custom taxonomies
- Enable users to see the results of their searches without reloading the page
- Use a builder to create product filter presets
Price: Product Filter for WooCommerce licenses start at $19 for six months.
6. JetSmartFilters
JetSmartFilters is a premium plugin designed to work with Elementor and the Block Editor. You can skip this entry if you’re using a page builder that isn’t Elementor.
The plugin works by adding new modules and blocks to Elementor or the Block Editor. Those elements include multiple types of filters, including date added, tags, categories, attributes, and more:
JetSmartFilters shows search results without customers needing to reload the page. It also displays the number of items that meet each filter’s criteria, so users can see what options are available.
The plugin integrates with another JetSmart tool called JetStyleManager, enabling you to configure filter styles using the Block Editor. With JetStyleManager, you can customize colors, font size, and more.
Key Features:
- Add new product filters to Elementor and the Block Editor
- Customize your product filter styles using the JetStyleManager plugin
- Filter products by alphabetical order, date added, tags, categories, attributes, and more
- Display results without users needing to reload the page
Price: JetSmart plugins are available on a subscription basis. An all-inclusive yearly subscription costs $130 per year, and it gives you access to a broad range of plugins, including JetSmartFilters.
7. WooCommerce Product Filter
WooCommerce Product Filter is a freemium plugin designed to work with Elementor and on its own. The plugin gives you access to a drag-and-drop builder that lets you put together any filter you want, using any layout you prefer.
This builder makes it easy to configure the look and feel of the filters you add to your store. If you’re using the premium version of the plugin, you get to play with elements such as images, skins, and customizable loading animations:
With WooCommerce Product Filter, customers can filter products by category, tag, attribute, price, date added, etc. Placing filters is simple, as the plugin generates a unique shortcode for each filter that you create.
Key Features:
- Use a drag-and-drop builder to create and style filters
- Enable customers to filter products by category, tag, attribute, price, date added, and more
- Place filters using shortcodes
Price: The plugin offers a free version that includes all the features discussed above. The premium version of the plugin provides additional filters and styling options. Licenses start at $49 for one site.
8. Filter Everything
Filter Everything doesn’t just enable you to filter WooCommerce products. The plugin also gives you the option to add filters for any WordPress content, including posts, pages, and custom post types.
With this plugin, you can filter products by attributes, categories, tags, custom taxonomies and fields, discount status, shipping class, and more:
You can turn AJAX filtering on or off depending on your preferences. With the feature off, customers will have to reload the page to see the results of their searches.
One downside of this plugin is that it doesn’t include a broad range of styling options. Filter styles are minimalist by default, and they look good with most stores. However, if you want to customize filter styles further, you’ll need to use CSS.
Key Features:
- Add filters for WooCommerce products and every other type of WordPress content
- Filter products by attributes, categories, tags, custom taxonomies and fields, discount status, shipping class, and more
- Enable AJAX filtering
Price: The free version of the plugin includes all of the features we just mentioned. If you opt for a premium license, you get compatibility with most WordPress page builders and enhanced Search Engine Optimization (SEO) options. Premium licenses start at $40 for six months.
Summary
Product filtering isn’t an option for large online stores – it’s a must. If you don’t offer customers tools to help them navigate an extensive product catalog, they might never find what they’re looking for. Even worse, they might buy those products from your competitors.
WooCommerce offers a robust taxonomy system for your products. However, you’ll need to use a plugin to add advanced filtering functionality to your store. Every plugin offers a different filtering implementation, so we recommend that you check out our top picks and test the ones that provide the features you need.
Do you have any questions about using WooCommerce product filter plugins? Let us know in the comments section below!
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