Synapse is described as 'Semantic launcher written in Vala that you can use to start applications as well as find and access relevant documents and files by making use of the Zeitgeist engine' and is a very popular application launcher in the os & utilities category. There are more than 50 alternatives to Synapse for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, File Explorer and Xfce apps. The best Synapse alternative is Listary, which is free. Other great apps like Synapse are Alfred, Keypirinha, Wox Launcher and ueli.
Filezo (Formerly known as RecentX) is an innovative launcher that gives you instant access to your files, folders & programs. It automatically remembers your favorite & recent items so that you can launch them even faster.
Filezo is the most popular commercial alternative to Synapse.
Quicksilver is a fast and free macOS productivity application that gives you the power to control your Mac quickly and elegantly.
Spotlight is 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...
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.
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.
MaxLauncher is a simple tabbed launcher that was designed to reduce the amount of time to find and run a program. It is capable of creating multiple data files, each of which can have a maximum of 10 tabs. Each tab and button is assigned a key(eg. F1-F10, 0-9, A-Z, etc.
Butler's purpose is to ease all those routine tasks you do every day: controlling iTunes, opening programs and documents, switching users, searching for stuff on the web, and more.
Hotkey-activated desktop toolbar for launching files, folders, and websites, searching online resources, managing notes and reminders, pasting custom text, automating tasks with macros, handling clipboard history, performing calculations, and keeping windows on top.
dmenu is a dynamic menu for X, originally designed for dwm. It manages large numbers of user-defined menu items efficiently.
Skylight is an experimental keyboard launcher. It lets you quickly find and open anything on your computer or the web. Start apps, documents or search websites with a few keystrokes, it even learns from your habits.
SlickRun is a free floating command line utility for Windows. SlickRun gives almost instant access to any program or website. SlickRun allows you to create command aliases (known as MagicWords), so C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn.exe becomes MAIL.
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Two decades old (well seasoned) and still frequently updated. Completely free, Slickrun is highly configurable and comes with several useful add-ons. Can launch both programs and web pages. And, then there is the Secret Feature....