FindAstra vs Savanto – AI Search & Chat

FindAstra is AI product search for WooCommerce. It helps your store understand what shoppers actually mean, not just the exact words they type. Someone searching for “comfortable shoes for hiking” will find your “Trail Running Sneakers” even when the title never mentions comfort or hiking. Ordinary keyword search only matches products that literally contain the words a shopper types. So a customer who describes things in their own way lands on a “no results” page and leaves. FindAstra closes that gap. It reads the intent behind each search, puts the most relevant products first, and offers helpful suggestions instead of dead ends. And the free version runs completely on its own. There are no API keys to paste, no account to create, and no monthly fees. The AI runs right inside the shopper’s browser, so nothing about your catalog or your customers is sent to an outside server, and you can index your entire catalog with no product limit. What your shoppers get Answers, not just matches. Searches are understood by meaning, so shoppers reach the right products even when their wording differs from yours. Live suggestions as they type. A search-as-you-type dropdown attaches to your existing search bar, with no theme editing. A results page that makes sense. Your normal WooCommerce results page is simply re-ordered by relevance, keeping your theme’s design exactly as it is. No more empty pages. When nothing is a strong match, shoppers see popular products instead of a dead end. What you get as a store owner Set up in minutes. Activate, click index once, and AI search is live. No keys, no account, no configuration headaches. Private by default. Your products and your customers’ searches stay on your own site. Fits your store. Works with classic and block themes, and includes a search block, a shortcode, and a sidebar widget. Developers also get filter hooks and a REST endpoint to build on. How it works, in plain terms When you click index, FindAstra reads each product and builds a small understanding of what it is. When a shopper searches, it compares their wording to that understanding and lists the closest products first. The first time it runs, the browser downloads a small AI model (about 33 MB) and reuses it from then on, so searches stay fast. FindAstra Pro (optional) A separate paid version is available at findastra.com for stores that want more. It adds optional server-side engines for very large catalogs (using your own OpenAI or Hugging Face key), multilingual search for WPML and Polylang, and built-in search analytics. The free version here is complete on its own, and nothing in it is locked or time limited. External services Which external service (if any) FindAstra contacts depends on the search engine you choose during setup. Each is described below, including what data is sent and when. Hugging Face model hub (huggingface.co) Used by the default Local engine. The first time the Local engine runs (when you index products in wp-admin, or when a shopper performs a search), the browser downloads a roughly 33 MB open-source AI model from the Hugging Face model hub and caches it locally for later visits. Only the model files are fetched. No store, product, shopper, or site data is ever sent. After the download, all search runs entirely in the browser. Hugging Face terms of service: https://huggingface.co/terms-of-service . Privacy policy: https://huggingface.co/privacy OpenAI API (api.openai.com) Used only if you select the OpenAI engine and enter your own API key. At index time, the text of each product (its title and the fields you choose to include) is sent to OpenAI to generate an embedding; at search time, the shopper’s query text is sent. Requests are authenticated with the API key you provide and are made only while the OpenAI engine is the active provider. OpenAI terms of use: https://openai.com/policies/terms-of-use . Privacy policy: https://openai.com/policies/privacy-policy Hugging Face Inference API (router.huggingface.co) Used only if you select the Hugging Face engine and enter your own access token. The same data as the OpenAI engine (product text at index time, query text at search time) is sent to the Hugging Face Inference API to generate embeddings, authenticated with the token you provide, and only while the Hugging Face engine is the active provider. Hugging Face terms of service: https://huggingface.co/terms-of-service . Privacy policy: https://huggingface.co/privacy

A visitor searches your site for “comfortable shoes for hiking” and gets nothing back. WordPress search matches words, not meaning, so anything phrased differently to your product titles returns an empty page. Savanto replaces that search. It understands what people are asking for, adds a chat assistant that answers from your own content, and suggests related products. You do not need an OpenAI account, an API key, or any technical setup. Install the plugin, activate it, and click Connect to Savanto. You sign in or create a free account, approve the connection, and your site is live. There is no key to copy. Savanto runs the AI on its own servers, so you never manage tokens, usage limits, or billing with OpenAI, Anthropic, or anyone else. How Savanto Differs From Other AI Plugins Most WordPress AI plugins are toolkits. They connect your site to an external AI provider, but you bring your own API key, configure embeddings, choose models, and build the experience yourself. That suits developers. It does not suit a store owner who wants better search. Savanto is a finished product rather than a toolkit. There is no API key from OpenAI, Anthropic or Google to supply, no third-party AI account to manage, no vector database to stand up, and no prompts or models to choose. Everything runs on Savanto’s own infrastructure, so there are no usage bills arriving from providers you did not sign up with. Savanto uses different models for different jobs, each chosen and tuned for the task: ranking search results, holding a conversation, matching products. You get that work without configuring any of it. Other AI plugins need your own keys and some developer knowledge before they do anything. Some support platforms sell AI as an add-on from around $29 a month. Savanto gives you search and chat on a free plan that does not expire, with nothing else to set up. Paid plans start at $9 a month when you need higher limits. Semantic Search Replaces WordPress search with search that reads intent. Someone types “something warm but not too bulky” or “gifts under $50 for someone who likes cooking” and gets sensible results. Typos, vague descriptions and full questions all work without tuning. Chat Assistant An assistant on your site that answers questions from the content you have synced, suggests products, and points people to the right page. It works from your own material, so it is not guessing at what you sell. Recommendations Suggestions drawn from what a visitor is actually looking for, rather than from cookies or browsing history. Related products, posts and pages that a category-based list would have missed. Live Agent Handoff The assistant recognises a question it should not answer alone and hands the visitor to your support team, so nobody reaches a dead end. Automatic Sync Publish a page, product or post and Savanto picks it up. Nothing to re-index by hand, and search results stay current as your content changes. Built for WooCommerce Savanto reads your whole catalogue: titles, descriptions, prices, categories and custom fields. Visitors search in their own words and still find the right product, which means fewer searches that end in nothing. Privacy Savanto indexes only publicly available content. It does not touch private posts, drafts, user accounts or personal data. Performance Search runs on Savanto’s infrastructure with global edge delivery, so it adds no load to your WordPress hosting. Responses typically return in under 100ms. Enterprise plans include a contractual uptime SLA with service credits. Compatible With WordPress WooCommerce Elementor Gutenberg Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) Developer API available at savanto.ai/docs/api for custom integrations. Getting Started Install the plugin, activate it, and click Connect to Savanto. You are live once you have signed in and approved the connection, and Savanto begins indexing your content. Most sites are fully searchable within minutes. Guides for installation, search, chat, recommendations and troubleshooting are at savanto.ai/docs/wordpress. The free plan needs no credit card and does not expire. Paid plans start at $9 a month. Use of Third Party Services This plugin connects to Savanto’s servers to provide its search and chat features. When activated, your publicly available site content (pages, posts, and products) is sent to Savanto’s servers for indexing and processing. Savanto – Terms of Service | Privacy Policy No data is shared with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or any other third party AI provider. All AI processing is handled through Savanto’s own infrastructure. Privacy This plugin connects to the Savanto cloud service (savanto.ai) to provide its search and chat features. Data Sent to Savanto When you connect and sync content, the following data is transmitted to Savanto servers: Post and page content (title, body, excerpt, permalink) Product information for WooCommerce (name, description, price, SKU, categories, images) Taxonomy terms (categories, tags, product attributes) Post meta that is marked as public Data NOT Collected User personal information (emails, names, addresses) Order details or customer data Passwords or authentication credentials Private or draft content (only published content is synced) Comments or user-generated content Chat Widget The chat widget loads from Savanto’s CDN (cdn.savanto.ai). When visitors use the chat: Their questions are processed by Savanto’s AI No personally identifiable information is collected Chat conversations are not stored unless you enable analytics in your dashboard MCP Server (WooCommerce) If you enable the MCP Orders domain for WooCommerce: Order lookups are performed locally on your WordPress server Order data stays on your server and is not sent to Savanto The Savanto cloud only routes requests to your server How Order Lookups Work: When a customer asks about their orders through the chat: The question is analyzed by Savanto’s AI in the cloud If it’s an order question, Savanto sends a request back to YOUR WordPress site Your WordPress plugin looks up the order using WooCommerce Only the relevant order summary is returned to complete the AI response The full order database is never accessed by or copied to Savanto servers. Data Retention Synced content remains in Savanto’s cloud until you disconnect or delete it Disconnecting removes all your indexed content from Savanto servers You can request complete data deletion by contacting [email protected] External Service This plugin connects to the Savanto cloud service to provide its search and chat features. The plugin and cloud service are developed by the same team. By using this plugin, you agree to Savanto’s: Terms of Service Privacy Policy GDPR Compliance Savanto is designed with privacy in mind. Since no personal user data is collected or transmitted, standard GDPR consent mechanisms for visitor data are not required. However, you should update your site’s privacy policy to disclose that content is processed by a third-party AI service.