An average WooCommerce store can host hundreds of inventory items and product variants. As a store owner, you might believe that offering a vast selection increases the chances that visitors will find items of interest and complete a transaction.

However, consider the visitor’s perspective: who has time to sift through long lists to find the desired product?

For many visitors, it’s quicker to switch to another store than to wade through an endless list of product variants.

This is where a simple WooCommerce product filter plugin becomes invaluable, significantly enhancing the user experience by allowing users to see a much shorter, more relevant product listing.

The Importance of WooCommerce Product Filters

Let me illustrate the role of WooCommerce filters with an example:

A typical clothing store might have about 30 tank top variants. When a visitor searches for “tank top” in the store’s search bar, the results page will list all 30 variants. The visitor now has to go through the entire list to find a tank top that meets their requirements.

Now, imagine the store offers a way to filter out tank tops that don’t match the user’s criteria. This would reduce the number of results the user has to sift through, significantly increasing the chances of a successful purchase.

Product filters are crucial for enhancing your store’s user experience. Without a filtering option, customers face a long list of products, which can be overwhelming and off-putting. Conversely, a good product filter improves the shopping experience, encouraging visitors to return for future purchases.

Another key benefit of product filters is product discovery. If visitors find items similar to what they originally searched for, they might be inclined to buy those as well, boosting sales and revenue.

Choosing WooCommerce Product Filter Plugins

There are various WooCommerce product filter plugins available, both free and paid. The choice of plugin depends on your specific needs and budget.

To help you save time and avoid frustration, I have compiled a list of free and paid WooCommerce product filter plugins that can enhance your store’s user experience and delight your visitors.

Let’s discuss these options…

1. Advanced AJAX Product Filters

This plugin is packed with features, offering impressive capabilities even in its free version. For instance, you can set up conditional visibility for each filter and adjust visibility settings based on the device type. Additionally, you can choose between different filter types and easily add images or colors to the filter options.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Versatility: The plugin allows you to add various filter types effortlessly, organize them into groups, and set conditional visibility.
• Advanced Features: The Pro version supports custom URL structures, custom taxonomy support, and other advanced features.
• Value for Money: Considering its features, it offers excellent value for its price.

Cons:

• Learning Curve: Despite efforts to create a user-friendly interface and provide a setup wizard, the plugin can feel overwhelming for new users.
• Customization Complexity: Beginners might find it challenging to add custom styles using CSS.

Pricing

• Free Version: Available with core features.
• Pro Version: $44 for a lifetime license for one site.

2. Product Filter by WBW

This plugin may not boast a modern interface design on the back end, but it integrates well with your theme’s style on the front end. The setup process is straightforward: you select filter criteria from a list and proceed to adjustments. With numerous settings for each filter, you can tailor the plugin to create the exact look and functionality you want. Features include search by category name (great for large stores), the ability to add images, exclude certain categories, show hierarchy, display result count, and much more.

A notable feature of this plugin is the instant front-end preview, which saves a lot of time during setup.

While some advanced features are reserved for the Pro version, the free version is quite functional, offering essential tools and settings.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Highly Customizable: Offers extensive settings for each filter, allowing for precise customization.
• Instant Preview: The ability to see a front-end preview instantly saves time.
• Theme Integration: Inherits the theme style on the front end, ensuring a cohesive look.

Cons:

• Back-End Design: The back-end interface isn’t modern.
• Customization: Customizing the design primarily relies on CSS.
• Limited Free Features: The free version does not support filtering by custom fields.

Pricing

• Free Version: Offers core features.
• Pro Version: $99 per year, or a lifetime license for $149 for one project.

3. YITH WooCommerce Ajax Product Filter

YITH, a well-known player in the WooCommerce market, offers a product filtering solution with an intuitive interface. This plugin allows you to create not just individual filters but also filter presets (or sets) for use on different pages, providing a smart and flexible filtering system.

You can display categories hierarchically and hide empty or inapplicable attributes. By default, the filters adopt the theme’s styles for typography and colors.

While there is a limited free version, most users will likely need the Premium version to access features such as sorting, icons, and filtering by price.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Well-Designed: The plugin is aesthetically pleasing and integrates well with theme styles.
• Responsiveness: Significant attention has been paid to ensuring the plugin is responsive across devices.
• Intuitive Interface: The interface is user-friendly, making it easy to create and manage filters and filter presets.

Cons:

• Support Issues: According to user reviews, the support provided by YITH can be inefficient.
• Limited Free Version: Essential features like sorting, icons, and price filtering are only available in the Premium version.

Pricing

• Free Version: Offers basic features.
• Premium Version: $89.99 per year.

4. JetSmartFilters

This plugin is termed “smart” because it offers highly flexible settings, allowing you to create different filter sets for various containers on a single page. It supports hierarchical taxonomies and full customization, including automatic indexing to show post counts by any filter and URL structure adjustments.

When used with JetEngine, the plugin can leverage users’ geolocation, display predefined filter results, and even make dynamic loops function as filters, taking the filtering capabilities to another level.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• High Customizability: Supports Block Editor, Elementor, Bricks, ACF, Toolset, Pods, and more. Filter logic and styling can be adjusted visually without coding.
• Flexible Filter Logic: Offers AJAX-powered filtering with options for page reload or mixed mode.
• Advanced Features: Works seamlessly with JetEngine for geolocation-based results, predefined filter results, and dynamic loops as filters.

Cons:

• Learning Curve: While the plugin is user-friendly, complete beginners may need some time to learn how to use it effectively.

Pricing

• Annual License: $43 per year.
• Crocoblock Suite: $199 per site for the entire Crocoblock suite.

5. Husky Product Filter

This plugin is an easy-to-use solution designed exclusively for WooCommerce, allowing users to filter products by the most popular features. By default, it supports filtering by categories, tags, ratings, and meta fields, as well as sorting by price, rating, and text search.

The plugin includes a set of unique extensions, such as the Filter Messenger, which allows users to subscribe to updated search results and receive email notifications.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Beginner-Friendly: The free version offers basic functionality and is easy for beginners to use.
• Unique Extensions: Features like the Filter Messenger are quite innovative, enhancing user engagement.
• Basic Filtering Options: Default filtering by categories, tags, ratings, and meta fields, with sorting by price, rating, and text search.

Cons:

• Limited Free Version: The free version has noticeable limitations in settings, design, filter choices, and AJAX usage (applicable to only a few filters).
• Pro Version Needed for Full Functionality: To access features like “Reset Filters” and more comprehensive functionality, the Pro version is required.

Pricing

• Free Version: Basic filtering features.
• Pro Version: $42 for a lifetime license available on CodeCanyon.