---
title: "Scaling and configuring search"
slug: "scaling-and-configuring-search"
abstract: ""
---
# Scaling and configuring search

When you configure servers, you must select and configure a [search and indexing provider](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/92/platform-administration-and-architecture/configure-a-search-and-indexing-provider.html "Configure a search and indexing provider"). You can select Solr or Azure, depending on your business purpose and the type of server architecture you want to implement.

> [!note]

## Search frameworks

The Sitecore Experience Platform has three search frameworks:

- **Content Search**, which is used by various components primarily to search and index Sitecore items.

    Sitecore provides you with several options for configuring [search results](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/92/platform-administration-and-architecture/configure-search-results.html "Configure search results") and [indexing](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/92/platform-administration-and-architecture/configure-indexing.html "Configure indexing") for content search.

- **xConnect Search**, which is used to search and index [experience data](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/92/sitecore-experience-platform/the-xdb-search-index.html).
- **Commerce Search**, which is used to search and index [customers and orders](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/92/sitecore-experience-commerce/en/search-service.html).

The following table summarizes the differences between the three search frameworks:

|  | Content Search | xConnect Search | Commerce Search |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| API | Sitecore Content Search API | xConnect Client API | [Commerce Search Service](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/92/sitecore-experience-commerce/en/search-service.html) |
| Providers | <ul><li>Solr</li><li>Azure Search</li><li>SolrCloud</li></ul> | <ul><li>Solr</li><li>Azure Search</li><li>SolrCloud</li></ul> | <ul><li>Solr</li><li>Azure Search</li><li>SolrCloud</li></ul> |
| Indexes | <ul><li>sitecore_core_index</li><li>sitecore_master_index</li><li>sitecore_web_index</li><li>sitecore_marketingdefinitions_master</li><li>sitecore_marketingdefinitions_web</li><li>sitecore_marketing_asset_index_master</li><li>sitecore_marketing_asset_index_web</li><li>sitecore_testing_index</li><li>sitecore_suggested_test_index</li><li>sitecore_fxm_master_index</li><li>sitecore_fxm_web_index</li><li>social_messages_master</li><li>social_messages_web</li></ul> | <ul><li>xdb</li><li>xdb_rebuild</li></ul> | <ul><li>Customers Scope index</li><li>Orders Scope index</li><li>Catalog Items Scope index</li></ul> |
| Indexer | indexCrawler (run on the core Sitecore application) | xConnect Search Indexer (run as Windows Service or Web Job) | Commerce Minions |

Many components that use the Content Search have their own API layer on top of the Content Search API. For example, the Marketing Operations API has a method for searching the `sitecore_marketing_*` and `sitecore_marketingdefinitions_*` indexes that references the Content Search API further down the stack.

> [!note]
> In Sitecore 9.0 and later, Sitecore Content Search no longer manages `sitecore_list_index` and `sitecore_analytics_index` . The xDB collection index replaces both of these indexes.