An insider’s look at the 10 best WooCommerce filter plugins: Increase user experience and sales

As it comes, WooCommerce provides five basic filtering options for products: popularity, average rating, latest, lowest price, and highest price. Although this works fine for stores offering a few items, more is needed for stores with more extensive product catalogs.

Enter WooCommerce filter plugins. 

Product filter plugins enable shoppers to browse your catalog and quickly find the products they want.

If you're a WooCommerce store owner looking to improve your site's shopping experience — and revenue — you've come to the right place. Here's a roundup of the best WooCommerce filter plugins, their benefits, and top tips to optimize them on your site.

Ready? Let's begin with the basics.

What are WooCommerce filter plugins used for?

Product filter plugins improve your WooCommerce site's navigation by allowing shoppers to refine their search and quickly find products that match their specific criteria. When implemented well, filters streamline the browsing experience and improve product findability and discoverability on your website. 

How WooCommerce filter plugins enhance product findability

Think of product filters like your store's personal shopping assistants. They help shoppers narrow down their options and find precisely what they're looking for.

To illustrate this, imagine your store sells electronic gadgets. Customers looking for the latest iPhone within a certain price range can use filters for 'Brand,' 'Price,' and 'Release year' to narrow down variations and swiftly place their orders instead of combing through the choices one by one.

How WooCommerce filter plugins enhance product discoverability

A secondary benefit of filters is that they expose shoppers to a broader range of products they might be interested in. Continuing with the example of a WooCommerce store that sells electronic gadgets, if a customer is browsing for laptops and filters by 'Processor Speed,' they may discover higher-performing models or even accessories they hadn't initially considered and decide to buy them.

Benefits of using a WooCommerce filter plugin

WooCommerce sites that use product filter plugins can expect to see the following benefits:

1. Lower bounce rates: Without robust filters, customers are forced to navigate page by page to locate the items they need, which can be frustrating. With this in mind, product filter plugins enable customers to refine their searches based on categories, tags, price ranges, and other options, reducing the likelihood of them bouncing off your site.
2. Higher average order value: Filters show customers related products they might not have discovered on their own, encouraging upsells and increased average order value.
3. Improved customer experience:Navigating through an extensive catalog can overwhelm and frustrate customers. Product filters enhance your site's overall shopping experience by making it more efficient and tailored to individual customer preferences.

The top 10 WooCommerce filter plugins

Here are the best product filter plugins for WooCommerce at a glance:

1. WooCommerce Product Filters by Barn2
2. UpFilter - Product Filter for WooCommerce
3. Advanced AJAX Product Filters
4. ​​Etoile Ultimate WooCommerce Filters
5. JetSmart Filters
6. WooCommerce AJAX Product Filters (WCAPF)
7. Filter Everything
8. HUSKY - Products Filter for WooCommerce
9. Product Filters for WooCommerce
10. Themify WooCommerce Product Filter

1. WooCommerce Product Filter by Barn2 Plugins 

Barn2's WooCommerce Product Filter does everything you'd expect a product filter plugin to do exceptionally well — which is why it comes in as the best product filter plugin overall.

You can add filters to let customers filter products with virtually any parameter, including categories, tags, product data, custom taxonomies, price, attributes (like color, materials, sizes, etc.), stock, rating, and more. There are two layouts to display the filter on your site's front end: sidebar widget or on top of products. Also, each filter comes with several style options similar to those used on Amazon, eBay, and other major e-commerce sites, including:

• Filter dropdowns.
• Checkboxes.
• Radio buttons.
• Labels.
• Color swatches.
• Range sliders.
• Images.
• Star ratings.
• Lots more.

Also, considering that customers' shopping habits differ based on the device they're using, it allows you to set different filter options for desktop and mobile. 

WooCommerce Product Filter uses AJAX-based filtering for faster results; it works well for all kinds of sites, including those with thousands of products. It's beginner- and developer-friendly and comes pre-installed with standard product filters, so you can set it up and launch it on your site in less than ten minutes. 

WooCommerce Product Filter pairs nicely with all other plugins in the Barn2 suite and is especially useful when combined with WooCommerce Product Table.

2. UpFilter - Product Filter for WooCommerce 

UpFilter is a budget-friendly product filter plugin with the core features to enhance your WooCommerce site's filters. 

Like most plugins on the list, UpFilter uses AJAX-based filtering to allow customers to filter based on taxonomies (categories and tags), attributes (like color, weight, materials, etc.), a search field, price ranges, and sorting options. You can add multiple filters and sub-filters and present them hierarchically.

The plugin allows you to modify the search icon color, primary and secondary price range colors, and other visual elements. Also, you can display sorting options, taxonomies, and attributes using radio buttons, checkboxes, and 'select' options.

UpFilter is beginner-friendly. It supports shortcodes and widgets, making it easy to embed a filter almost anywhere on your website.

3. Advanced AJAX Product Filters

The Advanced AJAX Product Filters plugin offers a user-friendly visual focus for both site admins and shoppers. For admins, you can assemble your group of filters using a sleek, drag-and-drop interface.

As the name suggests, Advanced AJAX Product Filters has AJAX filters, pagination, and sorting built into it, making it suitable for sites with thousands of products. It also comes with additional useful features. For instance, you can replace the default URL IDs with custom URLs and slugs, which is beneficial for SEO. You can also display options with various layouts, including checkboxes, radio buttons, color/image swatches, sliders, and more.

However, I wish certain features were baked into the main plugin instead of being offered as add-ons. For example, you must get their 'brands' plugin to enable customers to filter via name brands while shopping on your site. Granted, the 'Brands' add-on is one hundred percent free, but considering that every add-on you install adds more code to your site, I don't love that the developers built the plugin this way.

4. Ultimate WooCommerce Filters by Etoile Web Design

If you're looking for a simple product filter plugin, you may want to check out Ultimate WooCommerce Filters. It's a freemium plugin that lets customers filter products based on categories, tags, and attributes like colors and sizes.

Ultimate WooCommerce Filters also includes a search box with an autocomplete feature to help customers find products faster. This works in tandem with the other filters, so only products that match your customers' queries are displayed.

While its feature range is quite basic, users on their premium plan get two unique features: premium filtering and WooCommerce scheduling.

The premium filtering feature lets you display attributes below the thumbnails (close to the rating stars) on your site's 'Shop' page. This feature gives customers a quick and easy way to know which colors, sizes, and attributes apply to each product. Its WooCommerce scheduling feature lets you decide when your shop should be open for ordering. You can temporarily turn off purchasing and hide prices from the archive, product, and shop pages when the ordering feature is disabled.

5. JetSmart Filters

Designed to work with Gutenberg, Bricks, and Elementor visual builders, JetSmart Filters offers a slick, modern, and highly responsive user experience for building product filters.

This plugin works a bit differently than other WooCommerce filter plugins. It has a bunch of widgets which you can combine as you prefer. You get 17 filter widgets in total, including alphabet, date period, date range, sorting, rating, radio buttons, etc. 

JetSmart Filters lets you organize the filters hierarchically so that you can combine filters based on category and subcategories. It also comes with a map listing integration that enables you to merge two separate filters into one and add them to your Google Maps listing, which can be beneficial for SEO. 

6. WooCommerce AJAX Product Filters

WooCommerce AJAX Product Filters (WC APF) is a budget-friendly freemium filter plugin with a generous feature set. In addition to search and custom sorting options, it offers a plethora of product filters, including:

• Categories, tags, and custom taxonomies.
• Attribute values like color, weight, size, style, material, etc.
• Price range.
• Customer ratings.
• Product Status, e.g., featured or in-stock items.
• Post-Author.
• Custom post metadata values like text, number, or date.

WooCommerce AJAX Product Filters allows you to create filters with a drag-and-drop option. Once created, you can easily customize the filter settings, reorder them, and remove them as desired. It also lets you add your store name as a filter option label so customers can easily filter products from specific stores or vendors, making it excellent for multi-vendor sites.

7. Filter Everything

Filter Everything is a freemium plugin that lets users filter, well, almost everything.

In addition to enabling filtering for WooCommerce products, you can add filters for WordPress content, including posts, pages, and custom post types.

Filter Everything offers plenty of filtering options. However, its layout and styling options are minimalist by default, which doesn't match every store's aesthetic and may not provide the best user experience. If you want to customize the styling options further, you'll need to use CSS.

You can turn AJAX filtering on or off based on your preferences. If you turn it off, shoppers will have to reload the page to see the results of their searches. 

8. HUSKY - Products Filter for WooCommerce

Formerly known as WOOF, the HUSKY - Products Filter for WooCommerce plugin empowers shoppers to quickly search and filter products based on categories, tags, attributes, meta fields, custom taxonomies, and product prices. 

It has a built-in visual builder — aptly named the filter front builder — that lets you combine filters directly from your site's front end. 

Additionally, it has other nifty features designed to help you improve your site's filtering options and overall revenue. For example, its 'Statistic' feature collates search data, which you can analyze to identify search trends on your website. Its 'Products Messenger' feature enables customers logged into your site to subscribe to be notified if their product filter combinations are back in stock. Its 'Saver of Search query' option lets customers save specific search combinations for future reference with a few clicks.

9. Product Filters for WooCommerce

Product Filters for WooCommerce is a popular plugin created by WooCommerce. It uses AJAX to enable quick product filtering and lets shoppers paginate and sort without reloading the page, making it suitable for stores with large product catalogs. 

You can add filters based on categories, tags, taxonomies, attributes, stock status, and prices. It also has plenty of styling options for filters, including price slider, radio list, checkbox list, color list, box list, dropdown, text list, etc.

It's important to mention that the reviews on this plugin are pretty mixed. Some users say it's a fantastic product filter plugin. Others claim that it caused JS and PHP errors and are unhappy with the customer support experience. If you choose to get this plugin, make sure to test it on a staging site before publishing.

10. Themify WooCommerce Product Filter

The Themify WooCommerce Product Filter plugin is a free extension with basic product filtering features.

You can add filters for price range, categories, tags, attributes, product titles, SKUs, etc. Shoppers can combine multiple filters to narrow down options further and quickly find their desired items.

There are two layouts to choose from: vertical and horizontal, and both look great on the front end. It's also beginner-friendly; it integrates well with Elementor, Divi, and the Themify Builder product module, so you can use a drag-and-drop visual page builder to assemble your filter form.

One thing to note: like Product Filters for WooCommerce, this plugin has mixed reviews. While there are many positive reviews, other users complained that it doesn't work well. However, considering it's 100% free, you may want to try it if you're on a tight budget — remember to test it on a development site first to be safe.

Tips to optimize your WooCommerce store's product filters

Once you've installed your desired product filter plugin on your WooCommerce site, these tips will help you make the most of them:

1. Display filters prominently on your website: Customers shouldn't have to hunt for the filters to locate them (after all, one of the main reasons for upgrading WooCommerce's default filters is to improve your site's navigation). Show the filters prominently on your site, ideally above the product listings or as a sidebar. 
2. Use relevant filter options: Product filters work best when customized for your WooCommerce site. Ensure that the filter options align with your product catalog. Include filters that your customers commonly use and find relevant. For example, if you sell electronics like smartphones, you may want to include filters for 'brand,' 'operating system,' and 'storage capacity,' as these are vital considerations for shoppers.
3. Add clear and concise labels: Shoppers shouldn't have to think twice to decipher what the labels mean. Avoid technical jargon that might confuse customers and stick to clear, straightforward filter labels. Continuing with the electronics example above, instead of 'RAM Size,' use 'Memory' to make it more accessible to everyone.
4. Prioritize filters: Arrange filters based on importance and relevance. Place high-impact filters near the top of the filter form to guide customers efficiently. For instance, if your target customers are price-sensitive, consider displaying 'price range' as one of the first filters.
5. Set up custom product filters for different pages: This tip applies to sites with multiple archive pages. Think critically about how customers will use filters on different pages and create filters to match that purpose. For instance, if your site sells apparel and accessories and a customer is already on the category page for underwear, there's no reason for them to scroll through filters that only apply to snow boots. 

Which WooCommerce filter plugin is best for your online store?

If your WooCommerce store has a vast product catalog, it can be challenging for customers to find the products they're looking for without a product filter plugin. With this in mind, adding a WooCommerce filter plugin will help shoppers find the items they want faster, discover more products, and proceed to the checkout page more quickly.

In this post, I've listed the top product filter plugins worth considering. Feel free to check out each option, evaluate their features, and choose the one that best suits your specific needs.

Amongst these plugins, my top recommendation is Barn2's WooCommerce Product Filter. It’s easily my favorite filter plugin in terms of user experience. Its setup wizard breezes you through the configuration options. Also, it comes with a built-in set of product filters you can select and further customize for your site. It automatically inherits theme styles and looks great on any website.

To recap, Barn2's WooCommerce Product Filter plugin comes with:

1. AJAX-based filtering for speedy results, so it works great on all sites, even those with thousands of products.
2. Filtering options like categories, tags, custom taxonomies, price range, attributes (like color, materials, weight, sizes, etc.), stock, customer rating, product data, etc. 
3. Plenty of styling options for filters, including dropdowns, radio buttons, checkboxes, color and image swatches, labels, star ratings, range sliders, and more.
4. Two layouts — on top of products or sidebar widgets — to showcase the filter form on the front end of your website.
5. The option to use custom filter options for mobile and desktop shoppers.