If you ever liked tools like Raycast and Alfred, but wanted to own them and tweak them yourself, then SOL is the tool for you. All the affordances of complex tools now made open source.
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Spotlight Alternatives
Spotlight is described as 'The system-wide desktop search feature built into Apple's OS X operating system since version 10.4 (Tiger). Backed by an index of all items and files on the system, it's designed to allow the user to quickly locate a wide variety of items on the computer' and is a application launcher in the file management category. There are more than 50 alternatives to Spotlight for a variety of platforms, including Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone and iPad apps. The best Spotlight alternative is Everything, which is free. Other great apps like Spotlight are Flow Launcher, Alfred, Vicinae and Raycast.
Alternatives list
83 Copernic Desktop Search alternativesIndexes and quickly searches over 170 file types and emails, including attachments and multimedia files, on desktops, external and network drives, as well as cloud environments, offering sub-second results and a 75,000 file index size limit in the free version.
Mage, originally a Raycast clone, is a lightweight and fast app launcher for Windows, built with Electron, Vite, and Vue 3. It features custom applications, live activities, a modern UI and a batteries-included SDK for developers.
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Work smarter with files on macOS with fast search, easy navigation, and integrated file actions all in one apps.
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Lightning-fast sidebar for macOS. Access your files, folders, and websites instantly with keyboard shortcuts and smart organization.
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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.
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104 TextSeek alternativesTextSeek is a professional full-text desktop search tool for Windows and MacOS. It supports PDF, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, RTF and other formats.
Cost / License
- Freemium (Pay once or Subscription)
- Proprietary
Application type
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
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60 EasyFind alternativesEasyFind is an alternative to (or supplement of) Spotlight to find files, folders, or contents in any file without indexing.
Comments about EasyFind as an Alternative to Spotlight
- EasyFind is Free and Proprietary
- EasyFind is Lightweight
Productivity tool that allows to launch everything (e.g. switch the next song, connect Bluetooth device, set a timer, etc.) so you can stay focused on your current task.
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61 Desktop Docs alternativesDesktop Docs is the all-in-one platform to browse, edit, and export your media files.
Lacona is a docker app for Mac OSX that accepts natural language commands. Call up Lacona with a keyboard shortcut and type whatever you want to do. It gives intelligent suggestions as you type and then follows your orders.
LaunchMenu is a free, open source, cross-platform search-based productivity software with similarities to Alfred and Cerebro. LaunchMenu focuses on customisability and extensibility , while also being easy to use through it's one slick interface.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
Comments about LaunchMenu as an Alternative to Spotlight
TemakHasn't received updates since beta from 2021.
- LaunchMenu is Free and Open Source
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... because it finally finds stuff Spotlight doesn't! You can also use wildcards like *.jpg, and similar. (although you have to first choose "wildcard mode" with the radio buttons) It works and searches quite fast, too, I wonder if it uses Spotlight's index database with a much better interface a search results list. Recommended.