Spotlight Alternatives for Linux

Spotlight is not available for Linux but there are plenty of alternatives that runs on Linux with similar functionality. The best Linux alternative is Vicinae, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to Spotlight and many of them are available for Linux so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Linux alternatives to Spotlight are DocFetcher, Ulauncher, ueli and Cerebro.

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Alternatives list

  1. Zazu icon
     15 likes

    Zazu is a new open source productivity app, that allows developers to be in the drivers seat. Unlike other solutions, there is no built-in integrations, so every plugin has the full scope of what Zazu has to offer.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  2. Baloo icon
     1 like

    Baloo is not an application, but a daemon to index files. Applications can use the Baloo framework to provide file search results.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
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    1
    Baloo vs Spotlight Comments
    Temak
    Negative
    0

    It's not a search bar app for productivity. It is a file indexer. And by the way isn't the best.

    • Baloo is Free and Open SourceSpotlight is Free and Proprietary
  3. File Find icon
     1 like

    A macOS file search utility that helps you find files easier.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  4.  Like

    Tiny dynamic menu for Wayland.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
  5.  Like

    rga is a line-oriented search tool that allows you to look for a regex in a multitude of file types. rga wraps the awesome ripgrep and enables it to search in pdf, docx, sqlite, jpg, zip, tar.*, movie subtitles (mkv, mp4), etc.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Mac
     
  6.  1 like

    Application launcher for wlroots based Wayland compositors, similar to rofi's drun mode.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
  7. gnome-search-tool is a utility for finding files on your system. To perform a basic search, you can type a filename or a partial filename, with or without wildcards. To refine your search, you can apply additional search options.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • GNOME
     
  8.  2 likes

    Dynamic menu library and client program inspired by dmenu.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
  9. Rocket is an application launcher for KDE Plasma. It sorts all of your applications in a horizontal grid alphabetically, so you will always find what you are looking for at first glance. No more menu navigation, only scrolling.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • KDE
     
  10. File Brain icon
     1 like

    File Brain is a desktop application that helps you find files instantly using natural language. Instead of remembering exact filenames, you can ask questions like "flight ticket invoice", and File Brain uses semantic search to understand the meaning and show the...

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux
     
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