BRADsearch vs JoliSearch

What JoliSearch Does

JoliSearch improves the visual presentation layer over PrestaShop's default MySQL search. It delivers a better autocomplete UI with product card display in the dropdown, cleaner result presentation, and some basic relevance improvements over what ships with PrestaShop out of the box.

For stores with simple catalogues and consumer buyers who search in everyday language, JoliSearch is a genuine improvement and a reasonable option. It's quicker to implement than a full search replacement, and the UI upgrade alone is noticeable.

The JoliSearch Ceiling

JoliSearch does not replace the underlying relevance engine. It makes PrestaShop's MySQL search look better - but the same basic matching logic runs underneath. That distinction matters more than it sounds.

For B2B merchants, professional buyers, and anyone with a technically complex catalogue, the ceiling arrives quickly:

• No synonyms - a buyer who types "trainers" won't find products you tagged "sneakers"
• Buyers searching by product code, part number, or SKU get inconsistent or failed results
• No merchandising - you can't promote or boost the products you actually want to sell
• Analytics are Google Analytics only - you can't see which queries fail, which products are missed, or the revenue coming from search
• No zero-result recovery, and no cookieless option, which creates friction for GDPR-conscious setups
• Search slows down on large catalogues

Merchants Who Hit That Ceiling

Three independent merchants reached the same conclusion after using JoliSearch on PrestaShop.

All three independently hit the same ceiling: a catalogue or buyer base that outgrew what a visual overlay over MySQL can deliver. One store that switched from JoliSearch to BRADsearch cut zero-result searches from 20% to 6% and lifted search conversion by 30% in a verified A/B test.

How BRADsearch Goes Further

Replaces the relevance engine, not just the UI. BRADsearch doesn't sit on top of MySQL search - it replaces it entirely, with smart matching that handles typos, synonyms, word order, and product codes that plain string matching cannot.

Synonyms and merchandising built in. "Trainers" finds "sneakers," and you can promote, pin, or boost the products you actually want to sell - neither of which JoliSearch offers.

B2B product code matching. SKUs, part numbers, and product codes are first-class search objects. Professional buyers who know what they want by code find it immediately.

Full analytics, GDPR-native, and it stays fast. A complete search dashboard - zero-result queries, top terms, and revenue from search - all cookieless by default, and it stays fast on catalogues to 200k+ products where a MySQL overlay slows down.