Last updated: December 2, 2025

Acquia Search (powered by SearchStax)

1. Introduction

1.1. High level overview of Product and/or Service

Acquia Search powered by SearchStax is a Solr search service delivered as Software as a Service (SaaS) for Cloud Platform, Site Factory, and Acquia Source. This service empowers Drupal marketers to improve site search experiences with agile tools so that Drupal website visitors can find and discover relevant content faster.

Acquia Search powered by SearchStax features are available within the following Cloud Platform Standard, Cloud Platform Enterprise, and Site Factory subscription tiers with additional premium features, such as advanced search analytics and marketing tools in the Premier search plans. The Product and Services Guide governs such Acquia Search powered by SearchStax features.

1.2. Product and Subscription Tiers

The following table lists the Cloud Platform and Site Factory subscription tiers that include Acquia Search powered by SearchStax features. All of the Cloud Platform subscriptions listed below include access to Acquia Search powered by SearchStax Basic features. To utilize any of the advanced features, Customers must purchase or upgrade their Acquia Search subscription to the appropriate plan (Premier or Premier Plus). Refer to the detailed feature list and tiers in section 2.1.

1.3. Definitions and Terminology

For purposes of this section, the following definitions are used:

• Acquia Search powered by SearchStax: A Site Search solution for Drupal delivered to Customer as a SaaS solution.
• Search App: Represents the search index, auto-suggest, popular search and related search datasets made up of documents and where they live in the customer’s Drupal website.
• Search Query: Represents a single Solr request made by Drupal to retrieve specific content from the customer’s Search App.
• Document: A Solr data entity representing structured website entities (content or file attachments) sent to Solr from Drupal during an indexing request.
• Environment: Represents where a Drupal website or application is managed within the Acquia platform while the website is progressing through its development, integration test, and live delivery lifecycle. Also known collectively as dev, stage, and prod.
• Database: Represents the persistent, structured storage of content for a unique Drupal website or application instance within a respective environment.
• Website: Represents a location on the Internet or intranet with a unique URL providing a group of World Wide Web pages.
• Document size limit: The maximum size of data for an individual record being indexed, including all field names and values. Determined by the fields selected for indexing in Search API.
• Payload size limit: The maximum size for a batch of documents. Limits: 100 KB per document; maximum 10 MB per batch.

2. Product and/or Service Descriptions

2.1. Features and Functionalities

Highlighted features of Acquia Search powered by SearchStax that are available across different tiers include:

• No-code tools for marketing agility
  • Search configurations
  • Relevance controls
  • Testing and optimization
  • AI-powered recommendations
  • Multilingual websites
• Reliable infrastructure with global region availability
• Scalable search APIs
• Advanced insights & search analytics
• Google-like search page features
• Advanced crawler and data ingestion capabilities
• Developer-friendly support for headless front-end frameworks

The table below outlines the features offered by Acquia Search Powered by SearchStax across its 3 subscription tiers: Basic, Premier, and Premier Plus.

2.1.1 Feature Definitions

Search Features

• Instant Synonyms
  Enhance search relevance by automatically suggesting synonyms for a user's search query, ensuring they find the content they are looking for even if they don't use the exact keywords
• Auto-Suggest (Data + Dictionary Driven)
  Provides real-time, in-line suggestions as users type, helping them find results faster and reducing the number of queries that return zero results. Auto-Suggest can be dictionary-driven (based on a pre-defined list of words) or data-driven (based on historical user behavior and analytics data). Data+Dictionary-Driven feature is available for use if purchased by Customer, as indicated in the Order.
• Multi-Language
  Enables search capabilities for content in multiple languages, ensuring global audiences can find the information they need
• AI-enhanced Features
  Leverages machine learning and data analysis to improve search results. These features are available for use if purchased by Customer, as indicated in the Order.
  • Smart Match Assist: Addresses "no results" queries by using AI to automatically adjust a user's search query to a similar query that has historically returned successful search results. This ensures users find the most relevant content even with typos or inexact phrasing.
  • Smart Ranking: Uses advanced algorithms to reorder search results dynamically based on a variety of factors, including content relevance, user behavior, and business goals.
  • Smart Answers: Provides direct, concise answers to user questions, displaying them prominently in the search results to eliminate the need for users to click through to a document.
  • Popular Searches: Displays a list of frequently used and trending search queries, helping users discover popular content and guiding them to relevant topics.
  • Related Searches: Suggests additional search queries that are semantically similar to the user's current search, helping them refine their query or explore related topics.

Search Insights

• Search Analytics
  Provides insights into user search behavior, including popular queries, top searches, and click-through rates, helping to optimize your content strategy and improve search performance, and is available for use if purchased by Customer, as indicated in the Order.
• Custom Reports
  Allows for the creation of custom reports to track specific search metrics, providing deeper insights tailored to your business needs, and is available for use if purchased by Customer, as indicated in the Order.

Developer Tools

• APIs
  A comprehensive set of APIs to seamlessly integrate search into your web applications.
  • Search API: A foundational API for requesting basic and advanced search results.
  • Ingest API: An API that allows developers to add, update, and delete documents in the search index.
  • Discovery API: An API that drives the information for Popular Searches and Related Searches, and is available for use if purchased by Customer, as indicated in the Order.
  • Analytics API: An API that captures user search behavior and populates the search analytics dashboard with tracking and reporting data, and is available for use if purchased by Customer, as indicated in the Order.
  • Analytics Reporting API: An API for retrieving analytics data to generate custom reports on search metrics, and is available for use if purchased by Customer, as indicated in the Order.
• UI Kits
  Offers pre-built user interface components to accelerate the development of search interfaces, ensuring a consistent and polished user experience.
• Crawler/DAM Connector
  A suite of tools that automatically indexes website content and digital assets from Acquia-hosted and non-Acquia hosted sites for search, ensuring your search index is always up-to-date and comprehensive, and is available for use if purchased by Customer, as indicated in the Order.

Advanced Configurations

• Data Filters
  Allows you to apply filters to narrow search results based on specific criteria or field values, giving users more control over their search, and is available for use if purchased by Customer, as indicated in the Order.
• Location-based Search
  Enables searching and filtering of content based on a user's geographical location, providing a more relevant and localized search experience, and is available for use if purchased by Customer, as indicated in the Order.
• Rules
  Gives you the ability to manually include or exclude specific content from your search results, providing fine-grained control over what is discoverable, and is available for use if purchased by Customer, as indicated in the Order.

Marketing Tools

• Promotions
  Allows you to create and manage search promotions, boosting specific content or products in the search results to align with marketing campaigns or business goals, and is available for use if purchased by Customer, as indicated in the Order.
• Profiles
  A profile is a named collection of search configurations, including Promotions, Search Fields, Ranking, and Rules. This feature allows you to manage multiple search experiences for your website for different types of queries or content and is available for use if purchased by Customer, as indicated in the Order. 

Notes

¹ Basic plan includes Dictionary driven Auto-Suggest. Paid plans include Dictionary & Data Driven Auto-Suggest.

² Basic plans include Search and Ingest APIs. Paid plans include Analytics APIs. Premier Plus includes Discovery and Analytics Reporting APIs.

2.2. Modules & Integrations

2.2.1.  Drupal Integration

Customers must install the appropriate version of the SearchStax Studio module for Drupal and other dependent modules using Composer available from Drupal.org to connect the versions of Drupal supported by Acquia to Acquia Search Powered by SearchStax.

SearchStax Studio Site Search: https://www.drupal.org/project/searchstax 

2.2.2. Solr Access

Acquia Search powered by SearchStax is a Solr Search & Discovery solution accessed solely through Drupal modules and the SearchStax Site Search interface. Customer does not have direct access to the Solr administration user interface or the Solr APIs. The Acquia Search API endpoint URLs supported are:

2.2.3 Secure login with AcquiaID

Acquia Search powered by SearchStax supports phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication for Acquia ID logins. This feature supports FIDO2 (WebAuthn) authenticators, such as security keys (like YubiKey) and biometric methods (like fingerprint or facial recognition).

Product privacy notice for Acquia ID.  

2.3. Limitations and Implications

2.3.1. Real-time Search

Acquia Search powered by SearchStax does not support real-time or near-real-time search. Regardless of how frequently the customer indexes documents into Acquia Search, Acquia Search powered by SearchStax requires a variable number of minutes before the documents are searchable through the Search App.

2.3.2. Acquia Search powered by SearchStax Entitlements

Acquia Search Powered by SearchStax entitlements are available through Cloud Platform and Site Factory subscriptions. Entitlement limits are based on the sum of all queries and the maximum indexed items/documents/records per subscription. Additionally, all Acquia customers can upgrade to or purchase a Premier plan to leverage additional features that includes advanced search analytics and marketing tools to enhance their search experiences.

Acquia Search Powered by SearchStax for Cloud Platform Professional, Cloud Platform Enterprise, and Site Factory Subscriptions for Customers who had entitlements for Acquia Search prior to Jan 31, 2025 shall continue to receive the Maximum Search Queries and Maximum Document Counts that are reflected in their most recent Order. Application-specific usage and subscription details can be accessed following the instructions for viewing usage information.

2.3.2.1. Acquia Search Powered by SearchStax for Cloud Platform Professional and Cloud Platform Enterprise Subscriptions (For new customers)

2.3.2.2. Acquia Search Powered by SearchStax for Site Factory Subscriptions (For new customers)

The limit on Queries and the Document Count are per Subscription, not per Search App.

2.3.2.3. Acquia Search Powered by SearchStax Premier plans (Purchase or upgrade)

The following table highlights the maximum number of queries per month and maximum number of documents for Paid plans.

2.4. Acquia Search powered by SearchStax Add-ons Entitlements

Acquia Search powered by SearchStax entitlement limits can extend through add-ons if purchased by the customer, as indicated in the order. 

2.4.1. Acquia Search powered by SearchStax Add-ons

The Acquia Search add-ons increase the maximum document count that is allowed and the number of queries that are permitted per month.

2.5. Search App Entitlements

Acquia Search Powered by SearchStax plans include the following Search App entitlements and Add-on availability.

2.6. Technical Service Limitations

Acquia Search powered by SearchStax includes technical limitations as defined below for Cloud Platform and Site Factory subscriptions. For customers who have purchased or upgraded to a Premier plan, the technical limitations for these plans can be found here.

2.6.1. Technical service limitations for Premier plans

3. Service Level Agreement (SLA)

This service level policy governs the use of Acquia Search under the terms of the applicable order between Acquia and customer available at Service Level Policy - Product Guide, with the exception of the following other service commitment exclusions:

• Any unavailability caused by customer exceeding their Acquia Search entitlement
• Any unavailability caused by the customer’s Drupal modules
• Any unavailability in the customer’s non-Production Acquia Search indexes

In the event of any outages described above, Acquia will use commercially reasonable efforts to minimize any disruption, inaccessibility and / or inoperability of the website in connection with outages, whether scheduled or not.

For any partial calendar quarter during which the customer subscribes to the services, availability will be calculated based on the entire calendar quarter, not only the portion for which the customer subscribed.

3.1. Support services

Customer’s subscription to Acquia Search includes unlimited diagnosis support as described in the Acquia Search Support Scope in the Support Users Guide. Customer can contact Acquia Support in accordance with the Support Users Guide and in accordance with stated Urgency Levels. Initial response times for support requests vary on the urgency level and customer’s subscription tier as described in the Support Users Guide.

3.2 Supported versions

Acquia Search powered by SearchStax provides support for the following Drupal versions through Drupal  modules until Acquia’s Drupal version support has reached end-of-life as outlined in the Software End-of-Life Schedule. 

• Drupal 7
• Drupal 8
• Drupal 9
• Drupal 10
• Drupal 11

3.3. Support scope

Acquia Support scope includes assistance with the following request or incident types:

• Incident Support - Identifying
• Identifying and creating bug reports for Acquia Search powered by SearchStax APIs, Web Dashboard, API clients, front-end libraries and our extensions and integrations
• Troubleshooting upgrades for Acquia Search powered by SearchStax API clients, front-end libraries and our extensions and integrations
• Assistance with Acquia Search powered by SearchStax product-related questions
• Assistance with interpretation of product documentation found at www.searchstax.com 

Customers are responsible for other scope including the following but not limited to:

• General implementation guidance, development questions or requests
• Questions related to customized versions of Acquia Search powered by SearchStax’s API client, front-end libraries, extensions, and integrations (“Customized” means original code has been modified)
• Third party plugins or applications (other than Acquia or SearchStax developed and supported)

4. Data Security

4.1. Data Portability

Upon request made by Customer within 7 days of termination or expiration of the Subscription Services, Acquia will make Customer Data and Customer Applications available to Customer for export or download. At the end of such a 7-day period, Acquia will delete or otherwise render inaccessible any Customer Data and Customer Applications, unless legally prohibited. Acquia has no obligation to retain the Customer Data for Customer purposes after this 7-day post termination period.

4.2. Data Centers

Acquia Search powered by SearchStax is delivered to the customer’s environment from one of the following Data Centers:

• US East (Northern Virginia)
• US West (Oregon)
• Canada Central (Montreal)
• EU Central (Frankfurt)
• EU West (Ireland)
• AP Southeast (Sydney)
• AP Northeast (Tokyo)

Each data center is physically remote from Acquia’s office facilities. A disaster affecting one or more of SearchStax’s offices would not impact the availability of Acquia Search powered by SearchStax.

4.3. Backups

A backup is taken once daily of all current Search App data. In the event of a customer-caused loss of data, a recent backup may be requested to restore the Search App. In order for data to be fully up-to-date, Customers must reindex their site to regenerate the Search App.

5. Capacity Management

5.1. Search Queries Limits

Acquia enforces maximum search per month limits on customer applications as set forth in the product documentation (each a “Search Queries Limit”).

5.2. Search Queries Limits Notifications

Customer users registered within the Acquia Search powered by SearchStax interface will be notified by email when their entitlements reach 60%, 80% and 100% of the maximum search per month limit. Customers can notify Acquia to request an add-on increase to the maximum search per month limit. 

5.3. Emergency Search Queries Limit Increase

In the event Acquia becomes aware a customer’s application is exceeding its allocated search queries limit as described in Section 5.1 above, Acquia will notify the customer and will take reasonable actions to increase such search queries limits in an effort to maintain website search availability. Customer agrees that Acquia, in its reasonable discretion, may unilaterally increase search queries limits to the best appropriate Acquia Search tier. Unless otherwise agreed, such additional search queries limits will remain provisioned for the remainder of the subscription term. The customer agrees to pay for such additional limits for the remainder of the term.

Acquia reserves the right to rate limit or disable Acquia Search powered by SearchStax if the customer has exceeded the search queries limit and has any outstanding amounts due.

5.4. Document Count Limits

Acquia enforces maximum search per month limits on customer applications as set forth in the product documentation (each a “Document Count Limit”).

5.5. Document Count Limits Notifications

Customer users that are registered within the Acquia Search powered by SearchStax interface will be notified by email when their entitlements reach 60%, 80% and 100% of the maximum document count limit. Customers can notify Acquia to request an add-on increase to the maximum document count limit.

5.6. Emergency Document Count Limits Increase

In the event Acquia becomes aware that the customer has reached, or may reach, its maximum document count limit as described in Section 5.4 above, Acquia will notify the customer and will take reasonable actions to increase the capacity in an effort to maintain website availability. Customer agrees that Acquia, in its reasonable discretion, may delete data from the customer’s non-production Search Apps and / or unilaterally increase document count limits to the best appropriate Acquia Search tier available at Acquia’s then current rates. Such increased document count limits will remain provisioned for the remainder of the applicable subscription term and the customer agrees to pay for such increased document count limits for the remainder of such subscription term. Acquia reserves the right to not increase document count limits if the customer has any outstanding accounts receivable due under its account.

Acquia Inc. reserves the right to change the Products and Services Guide based on prevailing market practices and the evolution of our products. Changes will not result in a degradation in the level of services provided during the period for which fees for such services have been paid.

Document ChangeLog

Acquia Search powered by SearchStax Product Guide