---
title: "Search and indexing overview"
slug: "search-and-indexing-overview"
abstract: "Overview of the three Sitecore Experience Platform search frameworks: Content, xConnect and Commerce Search."
---
# Search and indexing overview

Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) has three search frameworks:

- **Content Search**, which is used by various components primarily to search and index Sitecore items.
- **xConnect Search**, which is used to search and index experience data.
- **Commerce Search**, which is used to search and index customers and orders.

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

|  | Content Search | xConnect Search | Commerce Search |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| APIs | Sitecore Content Search API | xConnect Client API | [Commerce Search Service](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/93/sitecore-experience-commerce/en/search-service.html) |
| Providers | <ul><li>Solr</li><li>Azure Search</li></ul> | <ul><li>Solr</li><li>Azure Search</li></ul> | <ul><li>Solr</li><li>SolrCloud</li><li>Azure Search</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></ul> | <ul><li>xdb</li><li>xdb_rebuild</li></ul> | <ul><li>Customer Scope index</li><li>Order Scope index</li><li>Catalog Items Scope index</li><li>Promotions Scope index</li><li>Price Cards Scope Index</li></ul> |
| Indexer | indexCrawler (run on the core Sitecore application) | xConnect Search Indexer (run as Windows Service or Web Job) | Commerce [Indexing minions](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/93/sitecore-experience-commerce/en/predefined-commerce-engine-minions.html) |

> [!note]
> 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.

In 9.0, the following indexes are no longer managed by Sitecore Content Search:

- **sitecore_list_index** - replaced by the xDB Collection index
- **sitecore_analytics_index** - replaced by the xDB Collection index
- **social_messages_master**
- **social_messages_web**

<details>
<summary><h2>Content Search</h2></summary>

For information about configuring content indexes, see [Search and Indexing](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/93/platform-administration-and-architecture/configure-indexing.html "Configure indexing").

</details>

<details>
<summary><h2>xConnect Search</h2></summary>

For more information about xConnect Search and indexing, refer to the [xConnect Search Indexer documentation](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/93/sitecore-experience-platform/the-xdb-search-index.html).

</details>

<details>
<summary><h2>Commerce Search</h2></summary>

For more information about Commerce Search and indexing, see the [Commerce search and indexing](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/93/sitecore-experience-commerce/en/commerce-search-and-indexing.html)

</details>