When searching for products or services in another country using a multilingual website, users expect searches in their language to be returned immediately. For example, if a Spanish user searches in Spanish but only gets English results or uses a term that isn’t recognized by your search engine, they will likely leave before they have found what they need because of language barriers.

As such, multilingual site search has become an increasingly important part of the overall user experience on any type of website (i.e., e-commerce, Software as a Service (SaaS), Knowledge Base, or Content-heavy). Therefore, when selecting a multilingual site search solution for your site, it is important to select a solution that will improve user engagement and conversions.

For those of you who would like more information on these three popular multilingual site search solutions, check out the comparison chart below.

Why Multilingual Search is More Important than Most Website Owners Realize

Many businesses spend thousands of dollars on translations to make their site multilingual, but then leave out the search side.

Imagine a user in Germany uses a German expression to search for a certain product; if the user types only the exact English keyword into your search engine, they will not find what they are looking for, even though you have the product.

Modern-day multilingual search is also more than simply translation, as search engines should be able to recognize spelling alternate forms, local terminology, synonyms, and the intent of users in all languages. There has been more focus on the intent of a search than on translating the words when doing industry research on multi-lingual search as of late.

This is when you can see where the differences are between ExpertRec, Algolia, and Site Search 360.

ExpertRec: Built for Businesses That Want Multilingual Search without Complexity

There are numerous challenges associated with selecting a search engine. Among these, choosing an effective search engine that doesn’t require an army of developers to manage can be particularly challenging.

With ExpertRec, our goal is to provide multilingual AI-powered search as easily and quickly as possible through simple implementations. Our multilingual search solution enables businesses to deliver search functionality in over thirty different languages and includes features such as semantic search, typo correction, synonyms, filtering, and AI-driven search experiences.

The fact that ExpertRec has no limits on coding or technical expertise required to implement the software makes it a perfect fit for all types of multilingual websites. From the backend perspective, businesses can deploy ExpertRec to search all types of content (web pages, products, blogs, PDFs, and documentation without writing a single line of code. Our integrated crawling and indexing capabilities also simplify keeping search results up to date automatically.

For expanding companies that are looking for a solution that can be implemented quickly to support global users without enterprise-level challenges, ExpertRec offers the balanced approach they are looking for.

Algolia: Powerful but Often Best for Developer-Led Teams

Algolia is an excellent search service provider with many configurable options and the ability to perform searches across a large number of platforms and languages. Algolia also provides some of the most effective search functions available today, including typo tolerance and faceting features, as well as support for synonyms, personalized searches, and relevance features.

Many organizations employing a full-time team of developers have turned to Algolia to provide complete control over their searchable website, and Algolia has proven to be a preferred source of search capabilities for large commercial websites and applications because of its ability to scale and perform exceptionally well.

Businesses of all sizes have found that developing and implementing or maintaining their owned and operated instances on Algolia has been far more involved than they originally envisioned, particularly in relation to creating and managing multilingual search across highly complex websites. As a result, numerous member forums have been created by the Algolia community and regularly visited to discuss the difficulties many users of Algolia have had with balancing the flexibility of their Algolia accounts against the costs associated with implementing and supporting their accounts in the future.

Site Search 360: Easy Setup with Strong Crawling Features

Site Search 360 is an ideal search solution for companies looking for an easier way to set up a search engine on their websites. Site Search 360 offers website crawling, typo tolerance, synonym management, facetted searches, and configurable search interfaces. Site Search 360’s no-code design tools allow for easy customisation by non-technical groups.

For websites that provide primarily traditional keyword searches, Site Search 360 can offer a viable solution. Companies looking for a more sophisticated AI-driven multilingual intent interpretation may wish to seek more advanced features in the future.

MULTILINGUAL AI SEARCH FOR GLOBAL WEBSITES

Help visitors find results in 30+ languages

ExpertRec delivers multilingual AI-powered search with semantic understanding, typo correction, synonyms, autocomplete, and advanced filtering—helping international visitors find exactly what they need regardless of language.

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30+ Languages • AI Search • No Coding Required

Which Search Solution Is Best for Multilingual Websites?

If you’ve got a large team of developers and need a lot of customization, Algolia will be a good option.

If quick deployment and simple Search Functionality are most important to you, consider Site Search 360.

However, if you’re looking for a Multilingual AI Search that offers ease of use, semantic understanding, personalisation, advanced filtering options, and the ability to support over 30 languages, then ExpertRec has one of the best-balanced solutions currently available.

Final Thoughts

The search function of a multilingual website determines its overall effectiveness.

The visitors will not need to guess which words your search engine expects at all if they can perform natural searches with their own language and get relevant results in an instant.

For this reason, many businesses are progressing past just basic matching of keywords to using AI-based services such as ExpertRec, thus allowing companies with multilingual websites to increase the ease of discovering something via searching, decreasing search frustration, and enabling the visitor to find the information they are seeking, no matter what language they choose to use to search.