Posts Tagged → launchers

Why the Dedicated Launcher Still Wins

Jason Snell gave the new Spotlight a real shot. When he reviewed macOS Tahoe last September, he stopped using LaunchBar and stuck with Spotlight for months. He liked it. Then the betas got worse.

Spotlight got progressively slower for him. It missed entire categories of items, like Safari favorites. The new “Quick Keys” text shortcuts only work for Actions, which Jason called “completely beyond me.” In the linked post, Jason surrenders and goes back to LaunchBar.

I am really pleased to see Apple improving Spotlight annually, and I hope they continue to do so. For the vast majority of users, they are not going to buy a third-party application like LaunchBar, Alfred, or Raycast.

That said, I don’t see myself abandoning Alfred anytime soon. The dedicated launchers still (and always will) do things Spotlight doesn’t.

Raycast Pro

This week popular extensible app launcher and the new kid on the block, Raycast, released its pro version. Historically the application has been free for individual users, with a paid version for teams. That’s now changed. For $8/month (paid annually), you get a Pro version that includes all of the features you get historically with the free version, along with their AI text generation engine, cloud sync, custom themes, an unlimited clipboard, and a promise for new features in the future.

The price feels steep for that feature set. That said, there are a lot of people who love Raycast. Paying for the tool helps guarantee its future existence and evolution. 

I don’t feel like I’ve given it a fair chance. I’ve tried it several times, but I keep returning to my beloved Alfred. So I’ve decided to experiment and signed up for a few months of the Raycast Pro. I’ll be kicking the tires and reporting back. Stay tuned.