FindAstra vs ICON SL – Smart AI Search

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

ICON SL – Smart AI Search adds an advanced semantic search experience to WordPress websites. Without an API key, searches fall back to the default local WordPress search behavior. To use Smart AI Search as intended, connect your ICON SL API key so the plugin can index public site content and return AI-powered semantic results. Clean admin page focused on search behavior, usage, and maintenance tasks. Shortcode [iconslsas_search] to show the Smart AI Search interface on any page. Optional integration to use the Smart AI Search page as the default WordPress search experience. Connect an API key to enable semantic indexing and AI-powered search results. Local/classic WordPress search remains available as the fallback when the API key is not configured or semantic search is unavailable. Semantic indexing keeps AI results in sync with your published content after the service is connected. External Services This plugin connects to ICON SL services to provide account management, setup, usage information, indexing, and AI-powered semantic search results. Without this connection, the plugin falls back to local WordPress search. Service provider: ICON SL, https://iconsl.com/ When connected, the service indexes only public, published, searchable site content and processes search queries so semantic results can be shown to visitors. Without an API key, searches are handled locally by WordPress and the external service is not used for visitor search queries. Data sent to this service: Search queries — When semantic search is enabled with an API key, visitor search text is sent to retrieve relevant results. Results are filtered again in WordPress before display so only currently public/searchable posts can be returned. Connection details — The saved account connection and site identity are used to authenticate the site with the service. Public content data — Public post titles, content, URLs, modification dates, and related indexing information may be sent to build or refresh the semantic search index. Private, draft, pending, future, trashed, auto-draft, password-protected, and non-public/non-searchable post types are excluded. PDF attachment data — PDF files are uploaded only when the attachment is public/searchable or attached to public searchable content. Private/protected media, uploads attached to private/draft/password-protected content, and local server file paths are not sent. Index cleanup data — When indexed content is deleted or is no longer public/searchable, the plugin asks the service to remove stale semantic index records. Usage/account data — When an administrator loads usage information or updates settings, the plugin may send the saved connection, site identity, and relevant non-secret search configuration values. This plugin does not send database credentials, admin-only settings, private metadata, account keys in frontend JavaScript, or personal data about site visitors to the external service. When semantic search is enabled, only the search query text is transmitted for each visitor search. Smart AI Search website and dashboard The admin screen links to the Smart AI Search website so administrators can connect the service and manage their plan. These links are opened only when an administrator clicks them. WordPress sends the normal browser request data for a clicked external link, such as IP address, browser user agent, and referring page, according to the external site’s own policies. Service Terms and Privacy: Terms of Service: https://smart-ai-search.iconsl.com/en/terms Privacy Policy: https://smart-ai-search.iconsl.com/en/privacy