diff --git a/cmd/helm/search.go b/cmd/helm/search.go
index 73fef9401..ebbcaa768 100644
--- a/cmd/helm/search.go
+++ b/cmd/helm/search.go
@@ -34,6 +34,21 @@ const searchDesc = `
 Search reads through all of the repositories configured on the system, and
 looks for matches.
 
+It will display the latest stable versions of the charts found. If you
+specify the --devel flag, the output will include pre-release versions.
+If you want to search using a version constraint, use --version.
+
+Examples:
+
+    # Search for stable release versions matching the keyword "nginx"
+    helm search nginx
+
+    # Search for release versions matching the keyword "nginx", including pre-release versions
+    helm search nginx --devel
+
+    # Search for the latest patch release for nginx-ingress 1.x
+    helm search nginx-ingress --version ^1.0.0
+
 Repositories are managed with 'helm repo' commands.
 
 To look for charts with a particular name (such as stable/mysql), try
@@ -59,6 +74,7 @@ type searchCmd struct {
 	out      io.Writer
 	helmhome helmpath.Home
 
+	devel    bool
 	versions bool
 	regexp   bool
 	version  string
@@ -89,6 +105,7 @@ func newSearchCmd(out io.Writer) *cobra.Command {
 	f := cmd.Flags()
 	f.BoolVarP(&sc.regexp, "regexp", "r", false, "Use regular expressions for searching")
 	f.BoolVarP(&sc.versions, "versions", "l", false, "Show the long listing, with each version of each chart on its own line")
+	f.BoolVar(&sc.devel, "devel", false, "use development versions (alpha, beta, and release candidate releases), too. Equivalent to version '>0.0.0-0'. If --version is set, this is ignored")
 	f.StringVarP(&sc.version, "version", "v", "", "Search using semantic versioning constraints")
 	f.UintVar(&sc.colWidth, "col-width", 60, "Specifies the max column width of output")
 	bindOutputFlag(cmd, &sc.output)
@@ -97,6 +114,7 @@ func newSearchCmd(out io.Writer) *cobra.Command {
 }
 
 func (s *searchCmd) run(args []string) error {
+	s.setupSearchedVersion()
 	index, err := s.buildIndex()
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
@@ -122,6 +140,22 @@ func (s *searchCmd) run(args []string) error {
 	return write(s.out, &searchWriter{data, s.colWidth}, outputFormat(s.output))
 }
 
+func (s *searchCmd) setupSearchedVersion() {
+	debug("Original chart version: %q", s.version)
+
+	if s.version != "" {
+		return
+	}
+
+	if s.devel { // search for releases and prereleases (alpha, beta, and release candidate releases).
+		debug("setting version to >0.0.0-0")
+		s.version = ">0.0.0-0"
+	} else { // search only for stable releases, prerelease versions will be skip
+		debug("setting version to >0.0.0")
+		s.version = ">0.0.0"
+	}
+}
+
 func (s *searchCmd) applyConstraint(res []*search.Result) ([]*search.Result, error) {
 	if len(s.version) == 0 {
 		return res, nil
diff --git a/cmd/helm/search_test.go b/cmd/helm/search_test.go
index 12824407c..0a52e831d 100644
--- a/cmd/helm/search_test.go
+++ b/cmd/helm/search_test.go
@@ -33,6 +33,12 @@ func TestSearchCmd(t *testing.T) {
 			args:     []string{"maria"},
 			expected: "NAME           \tCHART VERSION\tAPP VERSION\tDESCRIPTION      \ntesting/mariadb\t0.3.0        \t           \tChart for MariaDB",
 		},
+		{
+			name:     "search for 'alpine' with --devel, expect one match with newest development version",
+			args:     []string{"alpine"},
+			flags:    []string{"--devel"},
+			expected: "NAME          \tCHART VERSION\tAPP VERSION\tDESCRIPTION                    \ntesting/alpine\t0.3.0-rc.1   \t3.0.0      \tDeploy a basic Alpine Linux pod\n",
+		},
 		{
 			name:     "search for 'alpine', expect two matches",
 			args:     []string{"alpine"},
diff --git a/cmd/helm/testdata/helmhome/repository/cache/testing-index.yaml b/cmd/helm/testdata/helmhome/repository/cache/testing-index.yaml
index e18e90d29..92c7da93d 100644
--- a/cmd/helm/testdata/helmhome/repository/cache/testing-index.yaml
+++ b/cmd/helm/testdata/helmhome/repository/cache/testing-index.yaml
@@ -27,6 +27,18 @@ entries:
       maintainers: []
       engine: ""
       icon: ""
+    - name: alpine
+      url: https://kubernetes-charts.storage.googleapis.com/alpine-0.3.0-rc.1.tgz
+      checksum: 0e6661f193211d7a5206918d42f5c2a9470b737d
+      home: https://helm.sh/helm
+      sources:
+        - https://github.com/helm/helm
+      version: 0.3.0-rc.1
+      appVersion: 3.0.0
+      description: Deploy a basic Alpine Linux pod
+      keywords: []
+      maintainers: []
+      icon: ""
   mariadb:
     - name: mariadb
       url: https://kubernetes-charts.storage.googleapis.com/mariadb-0.3.0.tgz
diff --git a/docs/helm/helm_search.md b/docs/helm/helm_search.md
index e90c9faa8..acf60b37d 100644
--- a/docs/helm/helm_search.md
+++ b/docs/helm/helm_search.md
@@ -8,6 +8,21 @@ Search for a keyword in charts
 Search reads through all of the repositories configured on the system, and
 looks for matches.
 
+It will display the latest stable versions of the charts found. If you
+specify the --devel flag, the output will include pre-release versions.
+If you want to search using a version constraint, use --version.
+
+Examples:
+
+    # Search for stable release versions matching the keyword "nginx"
+    helm search nginx
+
+    # Search for release versions matching the keyword "nginx", including pre-release versions
+    helm search nginx --devel
+
+    # Search for the latest patch release for nginx-ingress 1.x
+    helm search nginx-ingress --version ^1.0.0
+
 Repositories are managed with 'helm repo' commands.
 
 To look for charts with a particular name (such as stable/mysql), try
@@ -34,6 +49,7 @@ helm search [keyword] [flags]
 
 ```
       --col-width uint   Specifies the max column width of output (default 60)
+      --devel            use development versions (alpha, beta, and release candidate releases), too. Equivalent to version '>0.0.0-0'. If --version is set, this is ignored
   -h, --help             help for search
   -o, --output string    Prints the output in the specified format. Allowed values: table, json, yaml (default "table")
   -r, --regexp           Use regular expressions for searching
@@ -57,4 +73,4 @@ helm search [keyword] [flags]
 
 * [helm](helm.md)	 - The Helm package manager for Kubernetes.
 
-###### Auto generated by spf13/cobra on 24-Sep-2019
+###### Auto generated by spf13/cobra on 25-Oct-2019
diff --git a/pkg/repo/index.go b/pkg/repo/index.go
index ac19528fa..12f3308de 100644
--- a/pkg/repo/index.go
+++ b/pkg/repo/index.go
@@ -147,7 +147,8 @@ func (i IndexFile) SortEntries() {
 
 // Get returns the ChartVersion for the given name.
 //
-// If version is empty, this will return the chart with the highest version.
+// If version is empty, this will return the chart with the latest stable version,
+// prerelease versions will be skipped.
 func (i IndexFile) Get(name, version string) (*ChartVersion, error) {
 	vs, ok := i.Entries[name]
 	if !ok {