Recommendations are an emerging technology today, often used in e-commerce or video streaming. If you wish to equip your WordPress or Woocommerce website with recommendations, there are quite a few plugins available. However, not all of them are created equal. Some may be limited in functionality, while others may lack compatibility with certain themes or other plugins.
Here are the top 5 :
1. WPSolr
WPSolr is a complete search and recommendations WordPress plugin that integrates countless search engines & recommenders into your WordPress website. Apache Solr, Elasticsearch, Opensearch, Weaviate, Algolia, Recombee, Google Retail are all compatible (check out our engine features comparison). It is versatile and can be used for multiple purposes : blog website, e-commerce website, news website, etc…
| Utilizes full capabilities and features of multiple word-class AI recommenders | Utilize all of the models of Recombee and Algolia have available. Use all of the events Recombee and Algolia have available. |
| Place search & recommendations anywhere | By utilizing the power of shortcodes, your recommendations can be placed anywhere. Each recommendation you create (how many you want) has it’s own shortcode that you can place anywhere in your website (in any text field, section, any theme, etc…). |
| Countless templates to choose from | WPSolr has countless templates to choose from for recommendations so that they will fit right into your themes. Templates can also be done on demand by the WPSolr theme after a purchase (no additional costs) and they are all easily customizable by the customers since they are twig templates. |
| Index any WordPress data type | WPSolr is powerful because it can index any and all post-types and their taxonomies. |
| Cron and real-time indexing | With real-time indexing everytime your users post or update a post-type, it will be sent to the search engine or recommender to be indexed. This ensures that your users will view content that is the most relevant since it is always kept up to date. With cron indexing on the other hand, you can set whenever the indexing will take place. This gives you total control to how your indexing takes place. |
| A fully-fledged search plugin | WPSolr is first and foremost a search plugin. When buying the enterprise edition you also get access to all it’s search features for no additional costs with the added benefits of recommendations. It includes search, Ajax search, facets and even recommendations.
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| Includes personalized search | WPSolr is compatible with Algolia, Recombee and Google retail all of which come included with personalized search, which WPSolr also fully utilizes. |
| How many configurations you want | With the Views add-on exclusive to WPSolr, you can have multiple configuration for your multiple indexes. Each view you create uses an index (multiple views can use the same index). Within this view you can set any configuration you want for this index. For example, the first view uses the index Weaviate so you create an Ajax search and set it’s search bar target. The second view uses the Recombee index, so you create a recommendations for it and place it anywhere. |
| Real-time analytics | Since WPSolr utilizes third party engines (search & recommendations), they all come with top of the class real time analytics to evaluate their effectiveness on your website. |
| Re-ranking | Combine any WPSolr searches and recommendations. This way you can make your own personalized search. |
2. Pureclarity
Pureclarity is explicitly an e-commerce recommendation plugin. It isn’t exclusively a WordPress plugin since it works with a variety of CMS.
| Limited indexed data | With this plugin you can only send products, users, categories and order history. This severly limits Pureclarity’s uses to e-commerce. |
| Cron & real-time indexing | This allows you to have your data automatically sent whenever a post is updated or choose to only updated in specific intervals. |
| Place recommendations anywhere | Can place recommendations in specific default “Zones” (Product Page, Product Listing Page, Search Results, Cart Page, Order Confirmation page, ) or anywhere using shortcodes. |
| Pureclarity plugin makes use of it's own recommendation engine | Pureclarity is limited to items to item (no item to user available). This means that suggesting related products to the one the user is currently viewing works well but it cannot suggest products user may like outside of a product detailed view page. |
| Not limited to Wordpress | |
3. Woocommerce Product Recommendations
Woocommerce Product Recommendations is a Woocommerce specific plugin. It is a simple keyword (content-based, no collaborative filtering) recommendation plugin that is very easy to setup and has a large number of recommendation algorithms to choose from. It also has the advantage of being made by the Woocommerce team so it works perfectly well with Woocommerce.
| Deploy recommendations anywhere | Deploy recommendations anywhere using shortcodes or at standard locations. |
| Multiple recommendation algorithms | Choose between "Recommend Best Selling Products", "Recommend New Arrivals", "Recommend Top Rated Products", "Recommend Popular", "On-Sale Products", “Frequently Bought Together”, "Complete the Look", "Up-Sells by Category", "Cross-Sells by Category", "Out-of-Stock Product Alternatives" and countless other recommendation algorithms. |
| No AI/machine learning | The filtering algorithms are based on specified rules instead of adapting to the users' habits using machine learning. |
You could check out our Woocommerce Product Recommendations vs WPSolr comparison.
4. Upsells for Woocommerce
Upsells for Woocommerce is a popular plugin specialized in up-sell recommendations. It aims to increase conversion rate (or sales) by recommending products that are similar but a bit pricier.
| Specialized in upselling | Place upsell recommendations in checkout, product detailed view pages ('Frequently bought together), cart, etc... |
| Detailed analytics & A/B testing | Measure your recommendations' success using the plugin' detailed analytics & A/B testing. |
You could check out our Flycart vs WPSolr comparison.
5. Related Products for WooCommerce
This Woocommerce editor is a very simple and easy to use WordPress plugin that works exclusively with Woocommerce. It recommends related Woocommerce products using the taxonomies.
| Content-based filtering | Relate products by categories or tags. |
| No AI | "Related Products for WooCommerce" plugin suggests related content by simply matching their taxonomies. No AI (or machine learning) is involved. |
You could check out our “Related Products for WooCommerce” vs WPSolr comparison.
