Catalog search quietly fails on the queries real customers type — typos, specs, plain descriptions. We tested nearly thirty distributors and found the same four failure patterns on every class of platform. Dartfind is the engine you spec in when you want the search in your build to actually hold up: same speed and quality as the incumbents, at a fraction of the cost, on a compiled program the client owns outright. One-time license, not a subscription. You get a clean line in the SOW and the integration billed as your services.
For agencies building for distributors, wholesalers, e-commerce and B2B portals — catalogs from 10,000 to 100 million records.
The incumbents pass the demo query and fail the real ones. In our field test of nearly thirty distributors: zero-results pages on typos at a handful, results collapsing from 121 to 2 at others, specs ignored, accessories outranking the product. Dartfind reads broken input as a property of the matching math, so the search you spec in is the search that still works at the client's counter a year later.
In any client cost comparison, a one-time license beats a subscription that runs forever and grows with traffic. Put it in the analysis and let the client do the math.
Whatever the client doesn't sink into search subscriptions stays in the build — more scope for your design, development and support work.
On-prem and offline by default. Clients with data-residency rules, security policies or plain distrust of per-query metering — the deals cloud search vendors are locked out of, you can now take.
In July 2026 we ran the same queries against the on-site search of nearly thirty North American distributors. Four failure patterns stood out.
Run any of these on a client storefront before your next call. A broken search result is a conversation that starts itself — and it is a scope of work you bill, whether or not the engine underneath is ours. Read the full audit →
| Dartfind | Subscription platforms | |
|---|---|---|
| Client pricing | One-time license, owned outright | Subscription forever / grows with traffic |
| Infrastructure | An ordinary x86 server | Cluster and engineer / vendor cloud |
| Deployment | Live in days, two connections | Weeks of setup, tuning, dependencies |
| Broken queries | Typos and partial SKUs land natively | Dictionaries and rules someone writes |
| Spec queries | “20A” ranks 20 A products first — the spec in the query drives the ranking | Parsed for autocomplete, ignored for ranking at sites we tested |
| Data location | Client network, works fully offline | Leaves the network / cloud only |
Two connections and the component is live: a sync script feeds the client catalog into the engine and keeps it updated on schedule, and a query endpoint answers searches — the storefront calls it instead of the platform default.
Works alongside Adobe Commerce, SAP Commerce, Oro, BigCommerce or fully custom builds. No plugin lock-in — the storefront just calls a different endpoint.
The engine reads broken input natively — typos, partial part numbers, glued words — with no dictionaries or rules to configure. The search works the way the client's customers already expect, on day one.
Once your team has wired it in once, it's a repeatable module: every project where a catalog needs finding gets a better search and a better margin. Days of work, not months.
The client price never grows with catalog size or traffic — which is exactly why it wins the comparison. Your margin lands upfront on every deal, and the integration, customization and support around the license are quoted and billed as your services. Partner terms are simple and we walk through them on the first call.
Send any client catalog export — real or synthetic, anonymized is fine. Two days later you are demoing a working search to your client on their own queries. If it wins the vendor analysis, we close it together. If not, it cost you nothing.
We walk through the engine, the pilot mechanics and partner terms. You decide if it belongs in your vendor shortlist.
Pick a client project with a catalog. We stand up the pilot in 2 days; you run the demo under your own flag.
License lands as one line in your SOW. Integration, customization and support are quoted as your services — your revenue, upfront.
Prefer email? Write to hello [at] dartfind [dot] com — or use the form: