Algolia doesn’t query your database.
It searches a copy of your data, stored as in an .
After you’ve structured your data into records,
choose how to send them to Algolia.
Choose how to send your data
Start with two questions.
Where is your data stored?
How to send it to Algolia?
If your data is in one of these platforms,
use an integration:
Shopify, Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce, commercetools, Salesforce B2C Commerce, or Zendesk.
Each integration copies your catalog to an index and sends the changes.
Shopify and BigCommerce also provide a search UI and can send click and conversion events.
Let Algolia get your data
If Algolia can get your data directly,
use a connector.
Examples are a hosted JSON or CSV file, MySQL, Elasticsearch, BigQuery, Supabase, or an Algolia index.
Algolia keeps the schedule, the retries, and the transformations.
Configure them in the Algolia dashboard without deploying code.
Index a website
If your content is only web pages, and you don’t have an API or database export,
use the Crawler.
The Crawler extracts content from your pages and turns it into records.
Send records from your app
If your app controls which records to send and when, use code.
If your records need an Algolia-managed transformation,
use the Push to Algolia connector.
If your records don’t need a transformation,
use an API client
or a web framework integration.
Test with a local file
To test Algolia with sample data,
upload a file in the Algolia dashboard
or use the Algolia CLI.
For a source that changes, use one of the other methods.
Update your data
After the first import, send the changes from your source to your index.
Last modified on September 14, 2026
