Software Alternatives & Reviews

Spotlight VS Quicksilver

Compare Spotlight VS Quicksilver and see what are their differences

Spotlight logo Spotlight

With Spotlight, you can find apps, documents, and other files on your Mac. And with Spotlight Suggestions, you can also get news, sports, movies, weather, and more.

Quicksilver logo Quicksilver

Quicksilver is a fast and free Mac OS X productivity application that gives you the power to control your Mac quickly and elegantly. Quicksilver learns your habits, making your everyday chores simple and efficient.
  • Spotlight Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-01
  • Quicksilver Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-03-13

Spotlight videos

Spotlight - Movie Review

More videos:

  • Review - Spotlight Official Movie Review
  • Review - How Spotlight Dramatizes Good Journalism

Quicksilver videos

CAPITAL ONE QUICKSILVER REVIEW 2020

More videos:

  • Review - Capital One Quicksilver Card Review | Best Credit Card For Beginners?!
  • Review - 2019 Capital One Quicksilver Real Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Spotlight and Quicksilver)
Productivity
50 50%
50% 50
App Launcher
38 38%
62% 62
Music
100 100%
0% 0
Mac
27 27%
73% 73

User comments

Share your experience with using Spotlight and Quicksilver. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

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

Spotlight Reviews

Looking For Spotlight for Windows 10? Here Are Five Alternatives
However, Spotlight comes inbuilt with MacOS and I do really miss it on my Windows laptop. But, the problem is Windows works with NTFS and indexing on Apple File System (APFS) is far better. So it’s not possible to get a perfect replacement for Spotlight. But that doesn’t stop me and in the scout to get Spotlight for Windows 10, I found out some solid alternatives apps.
Source: techwiser.com

Quicksilver Reviews

7 Best Alfred Alternatives To Maximize Your Productivity
Quicksilver is a macOS productivity app that helps users perform everyday tasks much faster. It helps you keep track of your files and allows for the usage of various useful plugins.
Source: blaze.today
4 Best Spotlight Alternatives to Increase Your Mac’s Functionality
In terms of usability, searching for items in QuickSilver is a little different than most application launchers. Rather than entering your query in the search window, here, you need to first enter the query in the search tab and then enter an action you want to perform on it in the action tab. Then, based on the available options, choose an action and hit return to perform...
Source: techpp.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Quicksilver should be more popular than Spotlight. It has been mentiond 13 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.

Spotlight mentions (5)

  • Just bought my first Mac/Apple device (Macbook Air M2)
    I want to add another tip: learn to use Spotlight Search to launch apps, search for files or make google queries. To do so, type COMMAND + SPACEBAR. Down the road, once you get comfortable with Spotlight Search, you can replace it with alternative apps like Alfred or Raycast. Using the keyboard to launch apps and open files, from anywhere, takes macOS to another level of mind-meld. Highly recommend. Source: about 1 year ago
  • First time at a Mac/Google shop - teach me your ways
    Spotlight Search - The equivalent of searching in the start menu on a PC, but it actually works. Source: over 1 year ago
  • macOS using 7 cores and 19 gigs of ram to perform subtraction
    It seems they are using it as intended. Apple lists what op does as a supported usecase.. https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/spotlight-mchlp1008/mac. Source: over 2 years ago
  • App disappeared on Mac
    Hi there, sorry to hear that. It's possible that the app has disappeared from the dock after updating to the latest stable version that was released today (v3.8.0) but should still be in the list of apps that you have installed or discoverable via Spotlight. If it's still not there, please let us know. You should be able to install it from the downloads page and it should retain your preferences, but create a... Source: almost 3 years ago
  • The right way to use Finder?
    One other thing I forgot to mention is Spotlight. As long as you know the name of file or folder (or other details) you can find it quickly with Spotlight. Just click the magnifying glass in the menu bar, or press CMD + Space. Source: almost 3 years ago

Quicksilver mentions (13)

  • Should I worry about using Raycast on MacOS?
    There are these open source alternatives, I haven’t checked their privacy policies or their code Maybe try and report back? Https://www.cerebroapp.com Https://qsapp.com Https://ueli.app Https://github.com/ParthJadhav/Verve. Source: about 1 year ago
  • The best Mac Apps to unlock your max potential (recommended by users of r/MacOs )
    Should add Quicksilver. It's the first app I install on my Macs. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Boomer Wants to Learn Mac
    Spotlight-esque apps for enhanced keyboard driven productivity (pick one): Raycast Alfred Quicksilver. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Resolving the Great Undo-Redo Quandary
    For a browsable clipboard history on macOS, I recommend LaunchBar (https://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/; docs at https://www.obdev.at/resources/launchbar/help/ClipboardHistory.html). I used to use the Clipboard Plugin of the free and open source app Quicksilver (https://qsapp.com/), which worked fine but was slightly less streamlined. Some people prefer Alfred (https://www.alfredapp.com/help/features/clipboard/). - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Shortcat – Manipulate macOS masterfully, minus the mouse
    This is great. Reminds me of QuickSilver[1]. I'm evaluating HomeRow[2] for a VIM driving the Mac OS, will try this as well. I love how: a. Accessibility features are making the OS more accessible for everyone through automation b. Good the accessibility implementation is on the Mac that most applications are inherently compatible with solutions like this. [1]: https://qsapp.com/ [2]: https://www.homerow.app/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Spotlight and Quicksilver, you can also consider the following products

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

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

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.

eesel - The new tab for work

Listary - Listary is a revolutionary search utility for Windows

Slapdash - Fastest way to work across your cloud apps ⚡️