Alfred
The launcher veteran
freemiumProductivity
Alfred is the granddaddy of macOS launchers: search, snippets, and clipboard history long before Raycast existed. Its hallmark is the visual Workflows builder (in the paid Powerpack) powering automations of any complexity. One-time purchase instead of a subscription.
// Install
Your MacHomebrew in /opt/homebrew
brew install --cask alfred// What it is for
- Workflows are built visually from blocks and can do nearly anything, from batch renaming to calling APIs
- Configurable deeper than any competitor — result ordering, per-action hotkeys, everything
- Over a decade old and reliably stable across macOS upgrades
- Universal file actions straight from the search results
// Common questions
What does the Powerpack add?
The Powerpack is the paid add-on that unlocks workflows, clipboard history, snippets, and file actions. Plain app launching is free, but nobody installs Alfred for that alone.
Should I switch from Alfred to Raycast?
With no workflows built up, Raycast starts faster and costs nothing. If your workflows are load-bearing, moving means rewriting them from scratch — the ecosystems are not compatible.
