Frontend choices

You have two main approaches to building a search UI for your Shopify store.

When implementing Algolia on your store front, you have to decide between two main approaches:

1. You can use the widgets provided by the Algolia AI Search & Discovery app.
2. You can handle the implementation yourself, using Algolia’s InstantSearch libraries.

Depending on your needs, one method will likely prove more convenient than the other.

Here is what you should know to make the right choice.

Using widgets provided by Algolia AI Search & Discovery

Algolia AI Search & Discovery comes with one-click install widgets:

• Autocomplete widget: an Algolia real-time search bar and menu which replaces Shopify’s default search bar.
• InstantSearch Page: an Algolia powered search results page, which comes pre-configured with features such as filtering and sorting.

You can enable the Autocomplete widget and the InstantSearch widget from the Search options tab.

Using InstantSearch libraries

To set up a custom Algolia InstantSearch on your Shopify site, you need to know how to code. A personalized implementation can yield a more customized search UI, but will take more time.

• InstantSearch
• Custom hook events