ACE Product Filters – AJAX Filters for WooCommerce

ACE Product Filters started after years of testing other WooCommerce filter plugins, including paid options, and still not finding one that handled the full workflow cleanly. It began as a filter system built to cover real storefront needs end to end, and once it proved reliable, it was shared so other store owners and builders could use the same approach.

ACE Product Filters gives you a practical way to build WooCommerce filters once and reuse them across your storefront — and now also an instant product search you can drop into headers, homepages, and landing pages.

Create saved filter sets for categories, global attributes, product taxonomies, price ranges, on sale, stock status, rating, and featured products. Style them to match your store, and place them individually or inside reusable filter panels. When shoppers need to jump straight to a product instead of narrowing a grid, add a dedicated Product search: typeahead matching on product name and optional SKU, with a dropdown that shows image, name, and price.

Whether you are building a shop sidebar, a top bar, a header search, or a custom Elementor layout, you can keep the experience consistent without rebuilding the same setup for every page.

Instant product search (new in 1.3)

• Separate dashboard object — not mixed into filter sets or panels
• Own shortcode: [acewpf_product_search id="..."]
• Own Elementor widget: ACE Product Search
• Typeahead dropdown with product image, name, price, and optional SKU
• Match by title and/or SKU, with debounce and a “View all” link to your theme’s product search results
• Optional catalog limit: keep a search box inside chosen categories, tags, attributes, or other product taxonomies
• Full appearance controls for the search box and dropdown so it matches your store branding

Filters and panels

The free plugin already includes:

• Unlimited saved category, attribute, product taxonomy, and price filter sets
• On sale, stock status, rating, and featured filters that query WooCommerce product data (not taxonomies)
• Saved filter panels for sidebars, top bars, and grouped storefront layouts
• Instant product search for headers, homepages, and landing pages, with an optional limit to chosen categories or taxonomies
• AJAX filtering with a shared results selector, URL filter state, and browser history
• Price range filtering with optional Min / Max inputs
• Support for product tags, brands, manufacturers, and other registered product taxonomies
• Single-select and multi-select, with optional AND or OR matching
• Auto-include child terms when a parent is selected, plus optional nested term indentation
• Changeable shortcode IDs for saved filter sets, filter panels, and product searches
• Product counts and labels, with static or contextual count modes and optional panel-wide overrides
• Hide terms with no matching products, per filter or as a panel override
• In-filter term search for long lists, with a search box option and a panel override
• Colour swatches for any taxonomy filter, with square or circle chips, spread or column layout, a hex colour per term, and an optional background behind the chips
• Panel headings, grouped heading blocks inside panels, and collapsible filters
• Empty-results messaging
• Horizontal or vertical layout, plus styling controls for filters and panels, including responsive and mobile presentation
• Live appearance preview in the filter editor
• Theme-font inheritance by default, with optional Google Fonts loading when you explicitly enable it
• Mobile panel toggle, close button, and per-panel text for the Filters label and Clear all action
• Elementor widgets for saved filters, saved panels, and product search, plus shortcode placement
• Reusable output for shop pages, category archives, Elementor templates, and custom storefront sections

Use one saved filter when you need a focused control, or combine multiple saved filters into a panel for a complete storefront filtering experience. Product search is separate on purpose: place it where shoppers should find a product quickly, without changing how your shop grid filters work.

Placement options:

• Elementor widgets for saved filters, saved panels, and product searches
• Shortcodes for Wonderblocks and other website builders
• Block editor, widgets, and theme template areas

Need filters for posts, pages, or custom post types as well? ACE Content Filters is a separate free plugin for site content — taxonomy, search, author, and date filters, plus instant content search. You can find it at https://wordpress.org/plugins/ace-content-filters/

Usage

1. Create a filter set and choose whether it should use categories, attributes, product taxonomies, price, on sale, stock, rating, or featured.
2. Configure the behavior, labels, counts, layout direction, and design settings.
3. Enable AJAX when you want in-place product updates and set one shared results selector.
4. Place the saved filter directly, or create a filter panel and combine multiple saved filters into one reusable block.
5. Insert the result through the matching Elementor widget or shortcode wherever your storefront layout needs it.

Shortcodes:

• [acewpf_filter id="your-filter-id"]
• [acewpf_filter_panel id="your-panel-id"]
• [acewpf_product_search id="your-search-id"]

Instant product search

1. Open ACE Product Filters and create a Product search.
2. Choose matching (title and/or SKU), optionally limit results to selected categories or other product terms, then set dropdown content and appearance.
3. Place it with [acewpf_product_search id="your-id"] or the ACE Product Search Elementor widget.

Shoppers type a product name (or SKU), pick a match from the dropdown, and go straight to the product page. Optional “View all” opens your theme’s WooCommerce product search results. This does not filter the shop grid, and it is separate from in-filter term search inside long filter lists.

External services

ACE Product Filters can optionally load Google Fonts stylesheets only when a site owner enables Google Fonts loading in the plugin settings and uses Google Font families in filter designs, product search designs, or live preview.

By default, ACE Product Filters does not request Google Fonts on the frontend or in the plugin admin.

These requests can happen on ACE Product Filters admin pages and on frontend pages where ACE Product Filters output is rendered.

Service provider:

• Google Fonts API: https://fonts.googleapis.com/
• Google Fonts static files: https://fonts.gstatic.com/

What may be sent:

• The site visitor or admin user’s IP address
• Browser and device information
• The requesting site URL through normal HTTP request metadata

Service terms and policies:

• Google Fonts Terms of Service: https://developers.google.com/fonts/terms
• Google Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

1. Upload the plugin folder to /wp-content/plugins/ or install the zip from the Plugins screen.
2. Activate ACE Product Filters.
3. Make sure WooCommerce is active.
4. Go to ACE Product Filters in the dashboard.
5. Create your first filter set, then optionally group filters into a panel or add a product search.
6. Place the saved filter, panel, or product search with the matching Elementor widget, the block editor, a shortcode widget, or a template area.

Is the free version actually powerful enough to use on its own?

Yes. The free plugin already includes unlimited saved category, attribute, product taxonomy, price, on sale, stock status, rating, and featured filters, saved filter panels, instant product search, AJAX updates, styling controls, mobile panel settings, and Elementor support.

Does it work only with Elementor?

No. Elementor is supported through dedicated widgets for filters, panels, and product search. The plugin also works with shortcodes in regular site pages, widgets, and template areas.

Does it support AJAX filtering?

Yes. Enable AJAX and enter one stable CSS selector for the shared results wrapper.

Can I combine multiple saved filters together?

Yes. Create saved filter sets individually, then group them into saved filter panels for sidebars, top bars, or multi-filter layouts.

Can I use it with product category archives?

Yes. It is designed for WooCommerce archive filtering and can also be placed on custom pages.

Can I add a product search box to a header or homepage?

Yes. Create a Product search from the dashboard, then place it with [acewpf_product_search id="your-id"] or the ACE Product Search Elementor widget. Shoppers type a product name or SKU and choose a match from the dropdown. This is separate from shop filters and from in-filter term search.

Can I limit a product search to one category?

Yes. In the Product search editor, use Limit results to, choose a taxonomy (categories, tags, attributes, or another product taxonomy), and tick the terms this box should stay inside. Leave it on All products to search the whole catalog.

Can I filter posts, pages, or custom post types with this plugin?

No. ACE Product Filters is built for WooCommerce product catalogs — price, stock, attributes, and shop archives. For posts, pages, and other site content, use ACE Content Filters, a separate free plugin at https://wordpress.org/plugins/ace-content-filters/

Can I use it alongside ACE Content Filters?

Yes. They are two separate free plugins with different jobs. When both are active, the admin sidebar shows ACE Filters with Products and Contents children.

Does uninstall delete my saved filters?

No. At the moment, deleting the plugin does not automatically remove saved filter sets, filter panels, product searches, or related display settings from the database.

1.3.0

• New: Instant Product Search — typeahead search for headers, homepages, and landing pages, with a styled dropdown showing image, name, price, and optional SKU.
• New: ACE Content Filters is now available as a separate free plugin for posts, pages, and custom post types. When both plugins are active, they share one ACE Filters menu.
• New: Dedicated product search shortcode and Elementor widget, managed separately from filter sets and panels.
• New: Match by title and/or SKU, choose what the dropdown shows, and style the search box and results.
• New: Optionally limit search results to chosen categories, tags, attributes, or other product taxonomies.
• New: Filter by on sale, stock status, product rating, and featured products.
• New: Product rating filters can use custom labels or star icons — the included star or your own — with colours, size, empty stars, and an optional “& up” suffix.
• Improved: The filter set editor is easier to use — star, price slider, swatch, and term search settings only appear for the filter type you selected.
• Fixed: changing filter type on settings now automatically updates the selectable filters in the respective section

1.2.2

• New: Hide terms with no matching products, per filter set, with a panel override (inherit / hide / show).
• New: In-filter term search for long lists — search box or terms-only, customizable placeholder and styles, plus a panel override.
• New: Colour swatches for taxonomy filters — square or circle chips, spread or column layout, a hex colour per term, and an optional chip background.

1.2.1

• Verified compatibility with WP 7.1.
• New: Per-filter match logic — multi-select filters can require all selected terms (AND) or any one term (OR).
• New: Parent select-all — checking a parent term in a multi-select filter also selects its children from the same set.
• New: Grouped filter headings inside panels — add, remove, and drag heading blocks, then style them from panel appearance.
• Improved: Optional nested term indentation so hierarchical filters can show children under parents, or stay in a flat custom order.
• Other minor improvements.

1.2

• New: Per-filter count display modes, plus an optional panel-wide override so grouped filters stay aligned.
• New: Custom per-panel text for the mobile Filters label and the Clear all action.
• New: Changeable shortcode IDs for saved filter sets and panels, with safe auto-generated fallbacks.
• Improved: Filter-set preview refresh so styling updates reliably from the editor without saving first.
• Improved: Full UX overhaul of the dashboard and the filter set / panel editors for a cleaner workflow.

1.1.2

• Fixed: Show Count could not be properly disabled.
• Fixed: Incorrect contextual product counts when using multiple filter sets.
• Fixed: Count values bleeding between filter sets during AJAX filtering.
• Improved: Filtering logic now preserves filter-set boundaries, including when multiple sets use the same taxonomy.
• Improved: Saving and persistence of Show Label, Show Count, and AJAX settings.
• Improved: Contextual count recalculation when multiple filters are active.
• Improved: Admin interface polish — colours, spacing, and visual consistency.
• Updated branding from Ace Products Filters to ACE Product Filters.
• General stability and usability improvements.

1.1.1

• New: Global setting to enable or disable Google Fonts loading.
• Improved: Google Fonts are disabled by default.
• Improved: With no font selected, the plugin inherits your theme typography instead of loading defaults.
• Improved: Admin preview respects the Google Fonts setting.
• Improved: Clearer font settings descriptions.

1.1.0

• New: Product taxonomy filter support for WooCommerce catalogs.

1.0.2

• Verified compatibility with WP 7.0.

1.0.1

• Fixed: Mobile filter-set and panel collapse — closed states now work correctly on small screens.

1.0.0

• Initial stable release — AJAX filtering, filter panels, price filters, Elementor-friendly selectors, configurable empty states, and improved contextual count performance.