Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

dmenu VS Alfred

Compare dmenu VS Alfred and see what are their differences

dmenu logo dmenu

dmenu is a dynamic menu for X, originally designed for dwm.

Alfred logo Alfred

Alfred is an award-winning app for macOS which boosts your efficiency with hotkeys, keywords, text expansion and more. Search your Mac and the web, and be more productive with custom actions to control your Mac.
  • dmenu Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-27
  • Alfred Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-09-19

dmenu features and specs

  • Lightweight
    dmenu is known for its minimal use of system resources, ensuring fast performance even on older hardware.
  • Flexibility
    dmenu can be easily integrated into scripts and customized to fit specific workflows, making it adaptable to various user needs.
  • Minimalism
    Its minimalist design aligns with the philosophy of simplicity and efficiency, allowing for a straightforward user experience.
  • Keyboard Driven
    dmenu is designed for efficiency with keyboard input, enabling quick navigation and selection without the need for a mouse.
  • Scriptability
    Due to its simplicity and flexibility, it can be easily scripted and paired with other command-line tools for extended functionality.

Possible disadvantages of dmenu

  • Limited Features
    Compared to more comprehensive launchers, dmenu lacks advanced features such as fuzzy searching or GUI configuration options.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    For users unfamiliar with command-line tools or scripting, setting up and customizing dmenu can be challenging.
  • Aesthetic Limitations
    The minimalist interface may not appeal to users who prefer more visually rich interactions or customization options.
  • Dependence on External Scripts
    To extend its functionality, users often need to rely on additional scripts, which might require extra maintenance and setup.
  • No Built-in Menu Structure
    dmenu does not support a predefined hierarchical menu structure out of the box, which might be a drawback for users looking for an organized menu system.

Alfred features and specs

  • Efficiency
    Alfred significantly speeds up searches and workflows with keyboard shortcuts, reducing the time spent navigating through files and applications.
  • Customizability
    Users can create custom workflows, scripts, and hotkeys tailored to their needs, enhancing productivity through personalization.
  • Clipboard History
    Alfred maintains a history of clipboard entries, allowing users to quickly retrieve recently copied items, which is highly useful for multi-tasking.
  • Integrations
    It integrates seamlessly with other macOS features and apps, like Contacts and Safari, providing a cohesive user experience.
  • File Management
    Alfred offers robust file management through quick commands, making it easier to move, copy, and open files without relying on Finder.
  • Snippets
    Users can create and manage text snippets for frequently used phrases, speeding up repetitive typing tasks.

Possible disadvantages of Alfred

  • Learning Curve
    Despite its benefits, Alfred can be complex for new users, requiring time and effort to learn and fully utilize its features.
  • Premium Features
    Many advanced features, such as custom workflows and clipboard history, are only available through the paid Powerpack version.
  • Resource Usage
    Alfred can consume a significant amount of system resources, particularly when using complex workflows, which may affect the performance of older Macs.
  • Inconsistent Results
    Search results and functionality might occasionally be inconsistent, requiring users to refine queries or adjust settings to achieve desired outcomes.
  • Dependency on Spotlight
    While Alfred extends Spotlight's capabilities, it remains dependent on Spotlight indexing. Any issues with Spotlight can affect Alfred's performance.

Analysis of Alfred

Overall verdict

  • Alfred is considered an excellent choice for anyone looking to boost their productivity on a Mac. Its feature-rich environment, combined with a user-friendly interface and robust customization options, makes it a favorite among many Mac enthusiasts.

Why this product is good

  • Alfred is widely regarded as a powerful productivity tool for macOS users. It enhances the user experience with features like a quick keyboard launcher, a comprehensive search functionality, clipboard history, and customizable workflows. Users often praise its ability to speed up daily tasks, integrate with various applications, and automate repetitive processes.

Recommended for

  • Mac users who want to improve their efficiency.
  • Individuals looking for advanced search and application-launch capabilities.
  • Users interested in automation and creating custom workflows.
  • Anyone who frequently works with text snippets and clipboard history.

dmenu videos

dmenu: Your own Custom Script Menus!

More videos:

  • Review - j4-dmenu-desktop - Faster Keystroke Launcher - Linux DMENU i3
  • Review - A Simple File Manager Using Dmenu

Alfred videos

Alfred for Mac [Tutorial] Basics

More videos:

  • Review - Alfred app review is Alfred worth your time?
  • Review - Alfred’s Basic Adult Piano Course [Method Guide + Review]

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to dmenu and Alfred)
Productivity
9 9%
91% 91
App Launcher
12 12%
88% 88
Mac
7 7%
93% 93
SSH
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare dmenu and Alfred

dmenu Reviews

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Alfred Reviews

7 Best Alfred Alternatives To Maximize Your Productivity
While Alfred is a great app, it works solely for macOS. If you get a new computer that doesn’t run on macOS, you won’t be able to use Alfred. There are many other options available that work on other operating systems.
Source: blaze.today
4 Best Spotlight Alternatives to Increase Your Mac’s Functionality
Raycast is a free application launcher for Mac. If you’re overwhelmed with Alfred and don’t want to spend on its powerpack to unlock all its features, Raycast is the best alternative to Spotlight and Alfred—albeit with a limited feature set—you must check out.
Source: techpp.com
6 Best Alfred App Alternatives for Windows to Be More Productive
Alfred app is like the swiss army knife for the macOS ecosystem. But what about Windows? Well, there is Windows Search but it’s not good enough. There are, however, a few Windows apps that can help ease your day-to-day workflows. Let’s see if we can replace Alfred on Windows using a combination of apps. Presenting some Alfred alternatives for Windows users.
Source: techwiser.com
Best Text Expander apps for MacOS
Earlier on I had heard a lot about Alfred, an award-winning Text expander app for the Mac. I tried it for a couple of days and I must say it does deserve the attention it is getting. Before we begin let me clear this up, the Alfred offers a ton of nontext expander features and yet it manages to deliver on its promise. With the Alfred, Mac users can search and browse...
Source: techwiser.com
What's a good alternative to Textexpander for Mac?
14Alfred 3View ProductRogin FarrerDesign Systems Engineer @Wayfair · Written 3y agoI used to use aText and Dash, and Alfred replaced both for me. The snippets have gotten a lot smarter over time, with support for smart variables, like date, time and cursor.🙏 helpful 2CommentsShare

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, dmenu should be more popular than Alfred. It has been mentiond 22 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

dmenu mentions (22)

  • Bspwm + Sxhkd + Polybar
    For dmenu modifications go to http://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/ and read about patching, or use some patched versions from github, like Luke Smiths https://github.com/LukeSmithxyz/dmenu. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Textual Web: TUIs for the Web
    Some features are nice to have. Give dmenu [0] a try, pipe it into other CLI utils and see how useful it can be to have drop-downs sometimes. [0] https://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Kera Desktop: open-source, cross-platform, web-based desktop environment
    This is a wonderful project! I've been thinking a lot about making such a unified desktop stack for a while now; web technology has matured to the point where I think it's feasible to build a complete environment a la Smalltalk/Symbolics but with a modern feature set. Obviously this has deficiencies but like it or not the web _is_ computing for the vast majority of people and exploring/pushing its limits of user... - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Is there an xfce equivalent to KDE's quick launch?
    I love simplicity of dmenu and it's quite powerful with some scripts. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Request for a distro based on a list of programs for a Windows user
    Everything is a fast file search tool for windows. OP can use dmrun by suckless or plocate (cli) . I don't know if there is any comparable gui available. Source: about 2 years ago
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Alfred mentions (6)

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What are some alternatives?

When comparing dmenu and Alfred, you can also consider the following products

Keypirinha - A lightning fast and flexible keystroke launcher for Windows. No installation required (portable).

Listary - Listary is a revolutionary search utility for Windows

Gnome Do - Simple, sleek, swift, smart. Do. GNOME Do allows you to quickly search for many items present on your desktop or the web, and perform useful actions on those items. GNOME Do is inspired by Quicksilver & GNOME Launch Box.

Wox - An effective launcher for windows. A full-featured launcher, access programs and web contents as you type. Be more productive ever since. Wox is free for use and open-sourced at Github, Try it now! Download .

Albert - Omnilauncher for Linux to help you quickly find and run apps and do other useful things.

Raycast - Fastest way to control Jira, GitHub and other web apps