GravitySearch

It is not a search box for your visitors: it is for you

This is worth saying in the first line because the name misleads. GravitySearch does not add a search box to your website. It is not a field where visitors type and find things. It works only inside the WordPress dashboard, and what it searches is the answers people have already sent you.

If what you needed was for visitors to search your content, this is not the tool and it is better to know before buying.

That said, if your problem is the other one, this solves it at the root. Because Gravity Forms stores entries form by form, and once you have fifteen live forms, finding one person means opening fifteen different screens looking for the same thing.

What it does

• Searches all entries at once, across every form, from a single screen.
• Says why each result appeared, showing the matching field and its value.
• Visual filter builder combining conditions with AND and OR, and allowing them to be grouped.
• Filters on any form field and on entry properties.
• Full preview in an overlay panel, without opening entries one by one.
• Bulk actions: mark as read, star, approve or send to trash.
• Search within a single form also improved, on its own entries screen.

Where it shows: when somebody asks about themselves

The case that justifies this tool always arrives the same way. Someone writes saying they filled something in months ago, they cannot remember which, and they want to know what came of it. Or they ask you to delete everything you hold on them.

Without a cross-form search, that means opening form after form looking for their email. With fifteen forms and the clock running, the answer ends up being "I cannot find it", which makes nobody look good.

And there is a point beyond convenience: if you handle data on European Union residents, they have the right to access their data and to ask for it to be erased, with a deadline for replying. Being able to find everything about one person in a single search is, in practice, what makes that right serviceable without giving up half a morning.

What each thing is, to avoid confusion

An entry is a submission: somebody filled in your form and it got saved. Searching entries means searching people who wrote to you, not pages on your site.

Combined filters are what make the search genuinely useful. Looking up an email is not the same as asking who ticked a particular option, within a date range, and has not been approved yet. That is where a list of a thousand submissions becomes manageable.

Bulk actions close the loop: you find the group and act on it without opening them one at a time.

Requirements and what it does not do

It needs Gravity Forms 2.5 or higher. According to the maker, nothing else is required.

It does not work on the public side. It is not a site search, it does not search blog posts, pages or products: form entries only, and only from the dashboard.

The documentation also does not explain how it indexes or how it behaves with very large databases. If you accumulate hundreds of thousands of submissions, test it against a copy of your data before relying on it.

Alternatives in the catalogue

From the same Gravity Forms ground, Populate Anything is the add-on that most changes what can be done with the data, and Entry Blocks lets you show entries on the site, which is the opposite of what this one does.

If what you wanted was a search for your visitors, that is different ground: Super Speedy Filters for filtering a catalogue, or the step filter if you sell.

Frequently asked questions

Is it a search box for my site?
No. It works only in the dashboard and searches form entries, not site content.

Does it need Gravity Forms?
Yes, version 2.5 or higher. It is not a standalone plugin.

Does it search all forms at once?
Yes, that is its whole purpose: one screen for every entry.

Can I act on the results?
Yes, in bulk: read, starred, approved or trashed.

Does it help with a data deletion request?
It helps a lot in finding everything about one person. The deletion is still yours to do.

Does it hold up with hundreds of thousands of entries?
It is not documented. At that volume, test it against a copy first.