ueli icon
ueli icon

ueli

 65 likes

Developed with the Electron framework, ueli is the type of tool that adopts simplicity, leaving out any unnecessary options and configuration settings. It creates an icon in the system tray at startup, where it sits silently throughout its runtime, without disturbing you with...

ueli screenshot 1

License model

  • FreeOpen Source

Platforms

  • Mac
  • Windows
4.4 / 5 Avg rating (10)
65likes
10comments
0news articles

Features

Suggest and vote on features

Properties

  1.  Support for Themes

Features

  1.  Application Launchers
  2.  File Search
  3.  Custom commands
  4.  Portable
  5.  Fast file and folder search
  6.  Launcher
  7.  Extensible by Plugins/Extensions

ueli News & Activities

Highlights All activities

Recent News

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Recent activities

  • App icon
    POX added ueli as alternative to Quick App Launcher
    3 days ago
  • App icon
    Fenn added ueli as alternative to Fenn
    about 1 month ago
  • thelovelyluxi and alexcoere liked ueli
    2 months ago
  • App icon
    POX added ueli as alternative to Leader Key
    3 months ago
  • App icon
    Maoholguin added ueli as alternative to QuickFind
    5 months ago
  • App icon
    POX added ueli as alternative to Hook
    7 months ago
  • POX added ueli as alternative to Rocket Launcher
    8 months ago
  • App icon
    Maoholguin added ueli as alternative to Walker
    8 months ago
  • forcemajore liked ueli
    11 months ago
Show all activities

ueli information

  • Developed by

    Unknown
  • Licensing

    Open Source (MIT) and Free product.
  • Written in

  • Rating

    Average rating of 4.4
  • Alternatives

    79 alternatives listed
  • Supported Languages

    • English

AlternativeTo Categories

File ManagementOffice & ProductivityOS & UtilitiesOnline Services

GitHub repository

  •  3,924 Stars
  •  252 Forks
  •  62 Open Issues
  •   Updated Apr 15, 2025 
View on GitHub

Our users have written 10 comments and reviews about ueli, and it has gotten 65 likes

ueli was added to AlternativeTo by magdygamal on Jul 25, 2018 and this page was last updated Nov 12, 2021.

Comments and Reviews

   
 Post comment/review
Top Positive Comment
hced
Aug 31, 2020
2

As of this exact date, 2020-08-31, this is my current favorite launcher. Past history of favorites in chronological order: LaunchBar (when using macOS), Keypirinha (when starting using Windows), Wox, then Listary. Reason for switching over from Listary (which I liked a lot) is because of its current stale development. Also, who doesn't love free and open-source. Something that I was wary about when it comes to ueli was the use of Electron, but that doesn't seem to affect things badly.

Plus points for ueli that I love:

  • Portable release!
  • Low memory footprint AFAICT
  • Very friendly UI & settings
  • Reset to Default button on each setting/plugin – very nice (every program should have this)
  • Can be used in pretty powerful ways, if needed, but comes quite simply set up out-of-the-box
  • Actively developed

[Edited by hced, August 31]

dkshsat
Dec 1, 2022
1

It is a usable launcher that is faithful to the basics. Unfortunately, it does not support plugins. Users' request for plug-in support has been going on for three years. https://github.com/oliverschwendener/ueli/issues/96

nowhere
May 18, 2022
0

Trying to start ueli on Mac Monterey gives an error "'ueli.app' cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified"

Too bad because it sounds like a great app.

Spout
Feb 9, 2021
0

I never got the hang of any of the other Spotlight alternatives. As my computer has both aged and become more complex, Spotlight struggles to do anything.

Having ueli for a narrow, more common range of tasks (launch apps, system preferences etc) and leaving Spotlight for times when I need to run some huge search has been an OK compromise.

Only problem with ueli is that sometimes it is indexing when you want to use it, in which case you have to wait til it's done. I just set indexing to occur pretty infrequently so I rarely encounter it anymore.

sming
Jun 17, 2020
0

really, really fast but partially broken

allieh
Jun 3, 2020
1

What I believe to be the best free keystroke launcher for macOS. It's not as fully featured as Alfred (can create workflows, but not with the beautiful visuals), but it works well with quicker features than others such as quick web searching (i.e., !g BLANK when compared to Lacona's feature where you have to type in "search google BLANK)

luckyshot
Jun 2, 2020
0

Works great and it is free & open source, great alternative for Alfred on Mac OSX too.

Show more comments
7 of 10 comments

What is ueli?

Developed with the Electron framework, ueli is the type of tool that adopts simplicity, leaving out any unnecessary options and configuration settings. It creates an icon in the system tray at startup, where it sits silently throughout its runtime, without disturbing you with popup messages or reminders like other applications.

Double-clicking the tray icon doesn't do anything. It would've been helpful if ueli displayed the shortcut that can be triggered for bringing up its search window, though, because this isn't obvious without reading the documentation on the developer's website. Press Alt+Spacebar to make searches

You can use Alt+Spacebar to access the ueli search bar, then type the full or partial name of any installed software product or Windows tool (like Windows Media Player or Windows PowerShell). ueli conducts the search operation instantly, creating a list of matches. Also, the hotkey is global, so it works no matter the environment you're currently working in.

Once you've set your eye on the program, all you have to do is launch it. Keep in mind that the mouse cannot be used for making this happen. Instead, you have to navigate the list with the arrow keys and hit Enter to access a program. Easy-to-use app launcher

There are no kind of configuration settings available for this app, and that includes changing the global hotkey for activating the search bar. ueli is simple and straightforward, offering a convenient solution for instantly locating and launching apps.

Official Links