![]() Ueli is also completely open source and free of charge.īutler is for those who value flexibility and a large amount of options more than anything else. To use DuckDuckGo, you can typeĭ before the query to automatically grab results from DuckDuckGo instead of Google. Unlike Spotlight, Ueli easily lets you search through different engines too. And of course, it provides access to all the standard trappings like web search, file lookup, and similar. With Ueli, you can also execute system commands (like restarting) from the search bar. But it builds on top of the default option with a bunch of supplementary features such as custom abbreviations, themes, terminal integration, and more. Ueli is largely identical to Spotlight both in looks and functionality. If you only want a little more control and personalization options over Spotlight, Ueli is for you. LaunchBar has a free trial, after which you will have to pay a one-time fee. There’s also a clipboard manager, emoji search, and like Alfred, third-party extensions. LaunchBar has a ton of other handy tools you won’t find on Spotlight. Just like that, you can go through folders or view a file’s details, right from LaunchBar itself. Tab key and begin typing the destination folder’s name. Once LaunchBar has pulled it up, you can press the ![]() All you need to do is fire up LaunchBar and locate the file. So for instance, say you’d like to copy a file to another folder. It does so through intelligent links and sub-interfaces. ![]() While the rest of these apps guide you to the right location, LaunchBar wants you to carry out your task entirely at the search bar. But if you are hunting down lost files more often than not, it’s the way to go. The one feature where Spotlight takes the lead is that Find Any File cannot fetch results from a file’s content.įind Any File, of course, is not a Spotlight replacement. The app can even extract results from inside packages and bundles, which is entirely absent from Spotlight.įind Any File also gives you a file management window so you can manually browse the directory, unlike Spotlight which directly opens the file. In addition, Find Any File takes advantage of your machine’s file system drivers to execute queries more quickly. It lets you combine multiple fragments like this as well to narrow down the criteria even further. So for instance, you can specify a keyword the file name should end with. But if you’re someone looking for a more comprehensive platform, try Find Any File.įind Any File comes with a multitude of filters you can employ to search your drives. Spotlight’s ability to scour your computer for a file is sufficient for the majority of users. While the essentials are free to use, you’ll have to pay to unlock most of Alfred’s advanced features. Similarly, you can browse through your passwords on 1Password and LastPass.įor people who are heavily dependent on their browser,Īlfred can be a sophisticated web searching tool as well. ![]() The app has an active community and marketplace from where you can download and integrate new extensions.įor instance, installing the Slack add-on will allow you to search your conversations and files right from Alfred. You can build workflows to perform repetitive tasks through a single command without having to code anything. If you spend enough time learning its core functionalities, Alfred can be an incredibly powerful utility. That includes overhauling the appearance with themes, create custom phrases for searching specific files, and more. You can tweak nearly every aspect of it and search your computer or the web however you want. The draw of Alfred lies in its customizability. It retains the efficiency of macOS’s native tool, but comes with a vastly superior set of capabilities. Think of Alfred as Spotlight on steroids. If you’ve found Spotlight lacking or want to try a new universal search for your Mac, here are the best alternatives. Thankfully, the competition has caught up. And while Apple has consistently updated it, Spotlight still has a few features missing. You can look up files, perform basic calculations, keep tabs on the weather, and search a whole lot more by simply hitting the iconicĬmd + Space shortcut. Spotlight search has been a trusty and reliable assistant to Mac users for years.
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