diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 76fd8b83..1859caab 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -10,6 +10,6 @@ doc/html
 data/
 /static/
 sith/settings_custom.py
-sith/whoosh_index/
+sith/search_indexes/
 .coverage
 coverage_report/
diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 57f7f4ec..216837bc 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -5,7 +5,10 @@ test:
   stage: test
   script:
   - apt-get update
-  - apt-get install -y gettext
+  - apt-get install -y gettext python3-xapian
+  - pushd /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/xapian && ln -s _xapian* _xapian.so && popd
+  - export PYTHONPATH="/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages:$PYTHONPATH"
+  - python -c 'import xapian' # Fail immediately if there is a problem with xapian
   - pip install -r requirements.txt
   - pip install coverage
   - ./manage.py compilemessages
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index f8eed93d..fb459574 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -30,14 +30,14 @@ generate a complete HTML documentation that will be available in the *./doc/html
 ### Dependencies:
 See requirements.txt
 
-You may need to install some dev libraries like `libmysqlclient-dev`, `libssl-dev`, `libjpeg-dev`, or `zlib1g-dev` to install all the
+You may need to install some dev libraries like `libmysqlclient-dev`, `libssl-dev`, `libjpeg-dev`, `python3-xapian`, or `zlib1g-dev` to install all the
 requiered dependancies with pip. You may also need `mysql-client`. Don't also forget `python3-dev` if you don't have it
 already.
 
 You can check all of them with:
 
 ```
-sudo apt install libmysqlclient-dev libssl-dev libjpeg-dev zlib1g-dev python3-dev libffi-dev python3-dev libgraphviz-dev pkg-config
+sudo apt install libmysqlclient-dev libssl-dev libjpeg-dev zlib1g-dev python3-dev libffi-dev python3-dev libgraphviz-dev pkg-config python3-xapian
 ```
 
 The development is done with sqlite, but it is advised to set a more robust DBMS for production (Postgresql for example)
diff --git a/core/views/site.py b/core/views/site.py
index 55c26608..282156d6 100644
--- a/core/views/site.py
+++ b/core/views/site.py
@@ -71,12 +71,7 @@ def notification(request, notif_id):
 
 
 def search_user(query, as_json=False):
-    res = (
-        SearchQuerySet()
-        .models(User)
-        .filter(text=query)
-        .filter_or(text__contains=query)[:20]
-    )
+    res = SearchQuerySet().models(User).filter_or(text__contains=query)[:20]
     return [r.object for r in res]
 
 
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 0d3d01ac..2efe3c6d 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ phonenumbers
 django-ajax-selects
 reportlab
 django-haystack
-whoosh
+xapian-haystack
 django-debug-toolbar
 libsass
 django-ordered-model
diff --git a/sith/settings.py b/sith/settings.py
index 2991efe8..07532a4c 100644
--- a/sith/settings.py
+++ b/sith/settings.py
@@ -184,8 +184,9 @@ TEMPLATES = [
 
 HAYSTACK_CONNECTIONS = {
     "default": {
-        "ENGINE": "haystack.backends.whoosh_backend.WhooshEngine",
-        "PATH": os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "whoosh_index"),
+        "ENGINE": "xapian_backend.XapianEngine",
+        "PATH": os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "search_indexes", "xapian"),
+        "INCLUDE_SPELLING": True,
     }
 }