dmenu is described as 'Dynamic menu for X, originally designed for dwm. It manages large numbers of user-defined menu items efficiently' and is a application launcher in the file management category. There are more than 50 alternatives to dmenu for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Linux, Mac, File Explorer and Wayland apps. The best dmenu alternative is Vicinae, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like dmenu are Raycast, Listary, Alfred and Keypirinha.
Rofi started as clone of simpleswitcher, written by Sean Pringle a popup window switcher roughly based on superswitcher. Simpleswitcher laid the foundations and therefor Sean Pringle deserves most of the credit for this tool.
it's more exstensible and more powerful, yet light
Albert is a C++/Qt based desktop agnostic keyboard launcher that helps you to accomplish your workflows in a breeze. Its goals are usability and beauty, performance and extensibility.
This macOS tool leverages fighting game style key combinations to expedite app launches, execute commands, or even activate fun features like confetti, providing a faster alternative to launchers like Spotlight, Alfred, and Raycast. It supports customization and seamless integration with existing tools.
GNOME Do allows you to quickly search for many items present on your desktop or the web, and perform useful actions on those items.
Seek, peek, and preview to find your work instantly — even if it's buried in folders, or you've lost track of it over the months.
Quicksilver is a fast and free macOS productivity application that gives you the power to control your Mac quickly and elegantly.
Floating macOS keyboard enables app and shortcut binding to any key, features customizable trigger key, theme and animation options, live previews for show and hide effects, quick access to automation workflows, single-tap AI tool launching, and Dock-free app launch.
Create customizable launch modes to group apps and websites on macOS, launch them instantly with shortcuts or menu bar access, open multiple browser tabs at once, streamline workflows for different contexts like work, design, or study, all in a minimal interface.
Walker is a highly extendable application launcher that doesn't hold back on features and usability. Fast. Unclutters your brain. Improves your workflow.
ASuite is a simple open source portable launcher for Microsoft Windows. Designed to run portable applications, you can start anything runnable (software, documents and other file types) from removable storage media (USB keys, hard drives, iPods, etc.).
LaunchBar is a smart and powerful, keyboard driven productivity utility that lets you access and control every aspect of your digital life. Whatever you want to get done on your Mac – with LaunchBar it’s only a few keystrokes away.
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It's just like UI component to show filterable list without much other logic, it's possible to simply create launcher with custom behavior.