Site search is a plan decision, not a build decision
It sits on the Premium plan, not Basic, and it is a search box rather than a faceted catalogue browser. Both facts belong in the proposal, not in a mid-project surprise.
Site search is the feature clients ask for last and use first. It is also, on Webflow, a plan decision rather than a build decision, which makes it one of the few features worth settling before the project starts.
It lives on Premium
On the current lineup, site search sits on the Premium site plan alongside the CMS, code components, form file upload and well-known files. The Basic plan, which handles 300 static pages and a custom domain, does not include it. That matters when a client has been quoted a Basic plan and later asks why the search box does not work, so the plan tier belongs in the proposal rather than in a surprise invoice.
What it does and does not do
Native search indexes your pages and CMS content and returns matches. What it is not is a faceted catalogue browser. If the requirement is filtering by three attributes at once, sorting by price, remembering the filter in the URL and loading results without a page change, that is a filtering interface, not a search box, and conflating the two is how a scope doubles mid-project. Deciding which one the client actually wants is a twenty-minute conversation that saves a fortnight.
Read the queries
Whatever you install, the queries people type are the most honest content research you will ever get. They are your own audience telling you in their own words what they came for and could not find, and on most sites nobody reads them. Wire the search box to your analytics, look at the list monthly, and write the page that half the queries are asking for.
