"Cloud Search" goes free to replace "Instant Search", the latter being deprecated.
 

Hello everyone,

I'm here to announce that the "Cloud Search" goes free to replace "Instant Search", the latter is being deprecated.

Compared to the "instant Search" module, the "Cloud search" is much more powerful and effective. Taking it into account we took decision to discontinue the development of the former and offer a free plan for the latter. Thus you're getting a better product, and we, instead of supporting two alike features, focus on the other improvements you're all longing for. Below are some clarifications on how this change affects you:

Users of X-Cart 5 ( Business, Business Premium and Free Edition)

- The users of a Free edition and the new users of Business Edition are welcome to signup for a free plan of the Cloud search products. This plan is good for up to 100 products, with the unlimited number of search queries per store per month, without access to search statistics. For those, who have 100+ products, or wants to see the search statistics (what your store visitors searched for, what search terms were the most popular and what popular queries returned no results), we offer several paid plans.

- Those who purchased Business Edition before the announcement, are getting a one-year subscription for the Gold plan of the Cloud search - this plan is the maximum possible one, with the support of up to 50,000 products.
Starting from version 5.2, the Instant search module will not be available for the installation. But as long as you're using a Business Edition of version 5.1, you can find it and install via the built-in Marketplace. You may feel free to use it now, however we recommend that you switch to a much more powerful and effective Cloud Search - in many cases, the free plan, limited to 100 products, will be sufficient, and the paid plans are quite affordable too.
With this announcement we're updating the pack included into the Business edition, so the Instant Search will no longer be included into the premium package for the new users.

Users of X-Cart 4 Classic (Gold, GoldPlus and Platinum)

- For the existing users of the X-Cart 4 Classic, subscribed for the Cloud Search, nothing changes. The Bronze plan will no longer be available for sale, but the existing users of the Bronze plan will keep using it ( and get search statistics as a bonus) - or please contact us to get switched to a free plan without the statistics.
- Those X-Cart 4 users who only consider the Cloud Search service, are invited to study the plans and select the most appropriate for their needs.


Please visit this blog article with side by side comparison, more detailed description of the Cloud Search, as well as screenshots and the interview with a talented developer, product manager Nikita about the past, present and future of the module: http://blog.x-cart.com/cloud-search-goes-free-to-replace-instant-search.html

Re: "Cloud Search" goes free to replace "Instant Search", the latter being deprecated.
 

Two years ago I guess I suggested such of change I read today. Well done. CloudSearch is very powerful, you can offer it for free. In case someone needs something different, features, you can ask for a price. But for basic instant search it should be free.

Re: "Cloud Search" goes free to replace "Instant Search", the latter being deprecated.
 

Great job, this is the first time I would consider using it.

I however would need the service for 20.000 - 25.000 products but think $34.90 per month is just too much for this, could I get a special quote?

I would also like to see the "Search results delivered by CloudSearch" removed, is that a possibility?

I'm currently on the trial to test it out, but already really negatively dislike the CloudSearch link in the search results. I do hope there's a possibility to remove that or I wouldn't even consider using it on my website.

If I'm paying for the service, I'm not going to display ads for it.

Re: "Cloud Search" goes free to replace "Instant Search", the latter being deprecated.
 

Hello,

Thank you for your feedback.

We absoultely agree with the idea that paid customers should not "pay" with ads or something like that.

Please do not worry about the link stating that the CloudSearch is in the free trial mode. It is only displayed when on the free trial. Moreover paid users can customize the overall look of a search widget as much as they want using CSS.

As for the price, please pay attention to the annual payment option. For the Gold plan it is effectively $29.08/month, which is 17% less.

Re: "Cloud Search" goes free to replace "Instant Search", the latter being deprecated.
 

Thanks for your answer Nikita.

Please see the attached screenshot: the demo website still has the warning, so that's what I expect to see when I'm going to use the paid version and I don't want that. What CSS file do I have to edit in order to remove that message?

Regarding the annual payment plan:
I've seen that it is indeed cheaper, however my point was that I would prefer a tailor made price plan:
Let me enter how much products I have/expect to have (20.000 - 25.000 in my case) so I don't need to pay for 50.000 products.
The most expensive license is simply too large for me, and the cheapest one too small.

Re: "Cloud Search" goes free to replace "Instant Search", the latter being deprecated.
 

Yes, our demo has this link. But as I said, paid users do not have this text, no CSS modifications are needed here.

Also, I've sent you a PM.

Re: "Cloud Search" goes free to replace "Instant Search", the latter being deprecated.
 

I agree, please make it flexible, so everyone can benefit from it.
For instance, I have less than 1000 items, I will not pay for the service where I won't use 80% of allocated resources.

Re: "Cloud Search" goes free to replace "Instant Search", the latter being deprecated.
 

Hello Stizerg,

First of all I would like to emphasize that it's not that 20% of products means 20% of allocated resources. The real correlation is slightly more complex and its implication you can see in our pricing table.

The very important thing is that CloudSearch helps our customers to increase their conversion rates. CloudSearch has proven its ability to drive revenue way much more its usage cost. Some examples can be found in Ksenia's blog post.

If you are interested you may wish to contact our sales via HelpDesk to see what price we can offer for a custom-tailored plan.

Re: "Cloud Search" goes free to replace "Instant Search", the latter being deprecated.
 

Hi guys,

For those of you, who may have missed the announce of the new feature - Promotions, please have a look: http://forum.x-cart.com/showpost.php?p=376860&postcount=228

Re: "Cloud Search" goes free to replace "Instant Search", the latter being deprecated.
 

May I just leave it here?

5 reasons why you will like CloudSearch in Infogrtaphic!

http://blog.x-cart.com/sites/default/files/blog/CloudSearch_.png