# Search Engine

The plugin offers two separate search engines, the **regular** and the **index table** engines.

![](/files/X85V6tGPqsv7XscM2zBd)

We generally recommend using the [Index Table engine](/index-table.md) for all installations, the regular engine will do just fine for regular use-cases.

Please check the [Index Table](/index-table.md) documentation on how to configure it.

| Regular Engine                                                | Index Table Engine                                                                |
| ------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Okay for smaller databases (>1000 items)                      | For any database size, but excellent for performance for bigger ones              |
| Slower, as it uses the WordPress tables for search            | Very Fast - as it uses the custom generated database for the keyword search       |
| Can do Exact Matches on consecutive keywords                  | Exact matches are only possible per keyword                                       |
| Can **not** search shortcode contents                         | **Can extract and search** shortcode contents                                     |
| Only simple relevance calculation due to database limitations | Excellent relevance calculation - as matched keyword occurences can be calculated |


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# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://documentation.ajaxsearchpro.com/general-settings/search-engine.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.