Best Alfred Alternatives for Mac in 2026: 11 Tools Compared

Alfred has been a staple of the Mac power user toolkit since 2010. It bundles app launching, file search, clipboard history, Snippets, workflows, and system commands into a single keyboard-driven interface. But not everyone wants a Swiss army knife. Some people want a scalpel.

Maybe you prefer free and open-source tools. Maybe you work across Mac and Windows and need cross-platform coverage. Maybe you only use one or two of Alfred’s features and would rather have a dedicated tool that goes deeper. Or maybe Alfred’s Powerpack price tag of £34, roughly $46 USD, feels steep for an app launcher when Spotlight comes free with your Mac.

Whatever the reason, there’s no shortage of alternatives. The best Alfred alternatives in 2026 include Raycast as the closest all-in-one replacement, TextExpander for dedicated text expansion, Keyboard Maestro for deep Mac automation, Maccy for lightweight clipboard management, and Rectangle for window management. Here’s a quick look at the full lineup:

Raycast: Free all-in-one launcher with extensions, clipboard history, and Snippets

LaunchBar: Veteran Mac launcher with adaptive search and instant send

Quicksilver: Free, open-source Mac launcher with the classic subject-action-object interface

macOS Spotlight: Built-in search that has improved significantly in recent macOS releases

TextExpander: Cross-platform text expansion with team sharing and fill-in fields

Typinator: Fast, Mac-native text expansion with a one-time license

Espanso: Free, open-source, cross-platform text expander written in Rust

Maccy: Free, open-source clipboard manager for macOS

Paste: Visual clipboard manager that mirrors your history across Apple devices via iCloud

Keyboard Maestro: Powerful macro engine for automating anything on your Mac

macOS Shortcuts: Apple’s built-in automation tool, improving with every release

Each of these tools replaces a different piece of what Alfred does. The rest of this guide breaks them down by category so you can pick the right tool for the job.

What Alfred does and what to look for in alternatives

Alfred packs at least five distinct tools into one app. Before evaluating alternatives, it helps to understand which of those capabilities you actually use. Most Alfred users rely heavily on two or three features and rarely touch the rest.

Here’s what Alfred covers:

App launching and file search: Type a few characters to open any app, find any file, or run a web search. This is the feature people try first.

Clipboard history: Alfred stores everything you copy and lets you search through past clipboard entries, including text, images, and file paths.

Snippets and text expansion: Alfred’s Snippets feature lets you type a short abbreviation that auto-expands into longer text. It supports date and time placeholders, clipboard content insertion, and cursor positioning.

Workflows and automation: The workflow editor chains triggers, actions, and scripts into automated sequences. A large community library extends Alfred into a general-purpose automation platform.

System commands and utilities: Quick access to emptying trash, ejecting drives, toggling system settings, controlling music playback, and running terminal commands.

The Snippets and text expansion feature is part of the Powerpack. Alfred’s free version only covers app launching and basic search. Knowing which features you actually use makes finding the right alternative much easier.

TextExpander lets you save any text you type repeatedly as reusable Snippets — and share them across your whole team. See how TextExpander Snippets work

Best Alfred alternatives for app launching

Raycast

Raycast is the app that comes up in every “should I switch from Alfred?” thread on Reddit. It’s a free launcher for macOS that does everything Alfred’s free tier does and most of what the Powerpack does, without charging for the core experience.

The launcher is fast. Noticeably fast. It indexes your apps, files, and bookmarks and returns results as you type with minimal lag. The interface looks more modern than Alfred’s, which still carries some visual DNA from the early 2010s. Speed and appearance only get you so far, though. What sets Raycast apart is its extension ecosystem.

The Raycast Store has over 1,500 extensions built by the community. You can manage GitHub pull requests, control Spotify, search Linear issues, translate text, manage Homebrew packages, and interact with dozens of other developer tools without leaving the launcher. Alfred has workflows, but Raycast’s extension system feels more polished and easier to browse.

Raycast includes clipboard history and Snippets in its free plan, both of which require Alfred’s paid Powerpack. The Pro plan ($8/month billed annually) adds AI chat with GPT-4 and Claude access, settings backup across devices, and custom themes. Advanced AI models cost another $8/month. But the free tier covers launching, clipboard, Snippets, window management, and the full extension library.

Raycast launched a Windows beta in late 2025, making it the rare launcher that may deliver cross-platform coverage in the near future. Alfred remains Mac-only with no Windows plans.

Price: Free (Pro: $8/month billed annually)
Platform: macOS, Windows (beta)
Best for: Developers and power users who want a modern, extensible launcher at no cost

LaunchBar

LaunchBar predates Alfred. Objective Development has been building it since the late 1990s, and it shows. The search algorithm adapts to your habits, reranking results based on what you actually select. The more you use it, the faster it gets.

The standout feature is Instant Send. Select a file or text in any app, tap a shortcut, and LaunchBar presents a list of actions you can take on that item: open with a specific app, email it, move it, compress it, or run it through a custom action. It turns LaunchBar into a context-aware command palette that operates on whatever you’re working with right now.

LaunchBar is $35 as a one-time purchase. The free trial never expires, though after 30 days it adds a brief delay between uses — enough to nudge you toward a license without cutting you off entirely. If you like Alfred’s launcher but want something that adapts more aggressively to your patterns, LaunchBar deserves a look.

Price: $35 (one-time)
Platform: macOS only
Best for: Long-time Mac users who value adaptive search and contextual actions

Quicksilver

Quicksilver is the Mac launcher that started it all. Originally released in 2003, it pioneered the keyboard-driven launcher concept that Alfred, LaunchBar, and Raycast all built on. After its original developer moved on, it was open-sourced and is now maintained by a small volunteer community on GitHub.

The defining feature is the three-pane interface: subject, action, object. You activate the launcher, pick an item, press Tab to choose an action, Tab again to pick a target. “Send this file to this folder.” “Email this text to this contact.” Alfred and Raycast use a simpler search-then-act model that handles most tasks but lacks this kind of chaining.

Quicksilver also supports plugins for web searches, music control, clipboard history, and app-specific actions. The plugin library is smaller and less actively maintained than Raycast’s extension store or Alfred’s workflow gallery, but the essentials are there.

The trade-off is age. The interface looks dated, updates are infrequent, and you’ll occasionally hit compatibility rough edges on newer macOS. But Quicksilver still runs on current macOS, costs nothing, and sends zero telemetry anywhere. For anyone who wants a free, open-source launcher or who prefers the subject-action-object model, it’s a solid pick.

Price: Free (open source)
Platform: macOS only
Best for: Users who want a free, open-source launcher with the classic three-pane interface

macOS Spotlight

You already have a launcher on your Mac. Spotlight has been part of macOS since 2004, and Apple’s been expanding it steadily. The current version handles app launching, file search, calculations, unit conversions, dictionary lookups, weather, and web search. Recent versions added Shortcuts, messages, and calendar events directly from the search bar.

Spotlight’s good enough for most people. If you only use Alfred for launching apps and running the occasional calculation, switching to Spotlight saves you an install and a menu bar icon. Alfred’s search is indexed by the same Spotlight engine under the hood anyway.

Where Spotlight falls short is customization. There’s no custom workflow, no text Snippets, no web search shortcuts, no themed interface. No clipboard history either. Spotlight handles the 80% use case and ignores the rest. For casual use, that’s fine. For anything more, you’ll need a dedicated tool.

Price: Free (built into macOS)
Platform: macOS only
Best for: Anyone who only needs basic app launching and search

Best Alfred alternatives for text expansion

Alfred’s Snippets feature provides basic text expansion: type an abbreviation, get stored text. It supports date and time variables, clipboard content insertion, and cursor positioning. For simple text replacement, it works. But dedicated text expansion tools go much further, especially for teams and cross-platform workflows. If Snippets are the main reason you use Alfred, one of these three dedicated alternatives will serve you better.

TextExpander

TextExpander is built for teams where text expansion isn’t a side feature but a core communication tool. It handles the same abbreviation-to-text replacement that Alfred Snippets covers, then goes several layers deeper.

Fill-in fields turn static Snippets into interactive forms. You can create templates with dropdown menus, optional sections, date pickers, and multi-line text inputs that prompt you for information at expansion time. A customer support team can build a single Snippet that generates personalized responses by filling in the customer name, issue type, and resolution steps on the fly. Alfred’s Snippets can’t do this.

Team sharing is the other area where TextExpander pulls ahead. Shared Snippet libraries let an entire organization standardize its messaging, from sales emails to legal disclaimers to medical documentation. Admins control who can view, edit, or create Snippets, and usage analytics show which Snippets get the most traction. For a solo user who types the same three email signatures and a handful of code blocks, Alfred Snippets are fine. For a 50-person customer support team that needs consistent messaging across every ticket, TextExpander is built for the job. See the detailed Alfred vs TextExpander comparison for a full breakdown.

TextExpander runs on Mac, Windows, Chrome, iPhone, iPad, and Android with enterprise-grade encryption. Snippets follow you across every device. Alfred’s Snippets only work on your Mac.

Price: From $3.33/month billed annually ($39.96/year) for individuals; Business plan at $8.33/user/month billed annually
Platform: macOS, Windows, Chrome, iOS, iPadOS
Best for: Teams that need shared Snippet libraries, fill-in forms, and cross-platform text expansion

TextExpander’s shared Snippet libraries keep every teammate on the same message — from sales to support to legal. See how team Snippets work

Typinator

Typinator is a Mac-native text expander from Ergonis Software that takes a no-nonsense approach. It runs quietly in the background, expands abbreviations the instant you type them, and stays out of your way. The expansion speed is the fastest I’ve tested on any text expansion tool, which matters if you’re a fast typist who gets annoyed by even a 200-millisecond delay.

Beyond plain text, Typinator supports rich text expansions, image insertion, date and time math, and auto-correction sets that fix common typos as you type. It ships with predefined sets for hundreds of common English misspellings. Alfred doesn’t offer this at all. The pricing is a one-time $39.99 license for up to two Macs, with minor updates included. For the full breakdown, read the Typinator vs TextExpander comparison.

Price: $39.99 (one-time, two Macs)
Platform: macOS only
Best for: Solo Mac users who want fast text expansion without a subscription

Espanso

Espanso is free, open source, and written in Rust. It covers macOS, Windows, and Linux, making it the only free text expander that works on all three desktop platforms. Configuration lives in YAML files: you can version-control your Snippets in Git, store them in any backup service, and diff changes over time.

The privacy model is a genuine selling point. Espanso processes everything locally, stores only the last five typed characters in memory for trigger detection, and sends nothing to external servers. For anyone in a security-conscious environment who can’t use server-hosted tools, Espanso is worth a serious look. A built-in package manager lets you install community-maintained expansion sets for everything from emoji shortcuts to programming boilerplate. For a full feature comparison, see Espanso vs TextExpander.

The trade-off is the lack of a GUI. Everything goes through config files and the terminal. If you’re comfortable editing YAML, that’s fine. If you need to onboard non-technical teammates, Espanso will be a harder sell.

Price: Free (open source, GPL-3.0)
Platform: macOS, Windows, Linux
Best for: Developers and privacy-focused users who want free, cross-platform text expansion

Best Alfred alternatives for clipboard management

Alfred’s clipboard history is one of the Powerpack’s most-used features. It stores everything you copy and lets you search, filter, and paste from your recent clipboard entries. If clipboard management is the main reason you use Alfred, these two tools do the job without the rest of Alfred’s overhead. For a broader roundup, see our guide to the best clipboard managers.

Maccy

Maccy does one thing: it keeps your clipboard history accessible. Press a shortcut, search through what you’ve copied, hit Enter, and the entry goes to your clipboard. That’s the entire feature set, and it’s exactly enough.

The app is open source, free, and stores everything locally. No remote servers, no account, no telemetry. It sits in your menu bar, uses minimal resources, and starts up with your Mac. Maccy supports text, images, and file references. You can pin frequently used entries, set how many items to retain, and exclude specific apps from being recorded.

Compared to Alfred’s clipboard history, Maccy is lighter and more focused. Alfred’s version adds merge, Snippet conversion, and richer preview options that Maccy doesn’t attempt. But if you want a clipboard manager that launches in under a second and never makes you think about configuration, Maccy is the pick.

Price: Free (open source)
Platform: macOS only
Best for: Anyone who wants lightweight, private clipboard history with zero setup

Paste

Paste takes the opposite approach from Maccy. It treats your clipboard history as a visual timeline. Every text clip, image, link, and color you copy appears as a card that you can browse, search, and organize into pinboards. If Maccy is a plain text list, Paste is a mood board.

The killer feature for Apple ecosystem users is iCloud integration. Paste mirrors your clipboard history across your Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Copy a link on your phone, paste it on your Mac a few minutes later. Alfred’s clipboard history stays local to the Mac where you copied it, so this goes well beyond what Alfred offers.

Paste is $29.99/year, or available through Setapp if you already subscribe. Worth noting: Maccy and Alfred’s clipboard both work without recurring fees, so the subscription is a real consideration.

Price: $29.99/year
Platform: macOS, iOS, iPadOS
Best for: Apple ecosystem users who want visual clipboard management mirrored across devices

Best Alfred alternatives for automation and workflows

Alfred’s workflow editor is its most powerful feature. It connects triggers to actions in a visual editor, building automated sequences that manipulate files, query APIs, process text, and control apps. Replacing that capability requires a dedicated tool.

Keyboard Maestro

Keyboard Maestro is where Alfred power users end up when workflows aren’t enough. It can do everything Alfred workflows can do and a long list of things they can’t: control any app’s UI elements, manipulate windows, read and write files, interact with web pages, process images, run OCR, manage variables across macros, and trigger actions based on conditions like Wi-Fi network, time of day, or USB device connection.

The macro editor is a visual canvas: drag and drop actions into sequences, loops, and conditional branches. No scripting required for most tasks, though you can embed AppleScript, JavaScript, shell scripts, or Swift where needed. The learning curve is steeper than Alfred workflows, but the ceiling is much higher. I have Keyboard Maestro macros that handle everything from renaming batches of screenshots to reformatting data between apps. For more on how it compares, see the Keyboard Maestro vs TextExpander comparison.

Keyboard Maestro is $36 for a one-time license that works on up to five Macs. Upgrades to major versions run $25. For what you get, it’s one of the best values in Mac software.

Price: $36 (one-time, up to five Macs)
Platform: macOS only
Best for: Automation enthusiasts who need deeper control than Alfred workflows provide

macOS Shortcuts

Apple’s Shortcuts app came to Mac with macOS Monterey and has gotten more capable with every release since. It’s a visual automation builder that works with system features, Apple’s own apps, and any third-party app that supports the Shortcuts framework. Chain actions, add conditional logic, accept user input, trigger from the menu bar or Spotlight.

Shortcuts has a couple of genuine advantages over Alfred workflows. It runs on iPhone and iPad alongside Mac, so automations can span your whole Apple ecosystem. And since Apple expands the action library with every OS update, Shortcuts gets more capable every year without requiring anything from you.

The limitation is flexibility. Shortcuts can’t interact with arbitrary UI elements, the debugging tools are minimal, and some actions that take two clicks in Keyboard Maestro require elaborate workarounds. For automations involving Apple apps and services, Shortcuts is hard to beat. Push it toward the edges of macOS and you’ll find the walls fast.

Price: Free (built into macOS)
Platform: macOS, iOS, iPadOS
Best for: Apple ecosystem users who want simple automations without installing additional software

Best all-in-one Alfred alternative

Raycast

The short answer to “what one app replaces Alfred entirely?” is Raycast. Here’s why that answer holds up.

The free tier includes app launching, clipboard history, a built-in Snippets system, window management, a calculator, and 1,500+ community extensions. That covers Alfred’s free version plus most of the Powerpack. At no cost. Raycast also has a floating notes feature and a color picker that Alfred doesn’t.

The extension ecosystem is where Raycast pulls furthest ahead. Alfred’s workflows are powerful but involve hunting down GitHub repos and manual installation. Raycast’s curated store lets you browse, install, and update with a click. Extensions for GitHub, Jira, Linear, Notion, Slack, Homebrew, Docker, 1Password, and dozens more are community-maintained and reviewed before publication.

Where Alfred still holds an edge is the depth of its workflow system. The visual workflow editor supports complex multi-step automations with branching logic that Raycast’s script commands and extensions don’t fully match. Alfred also gives you more granular theming and interface control. Long-time Alfred users who’ve built a library of custom workflows will find the migration cost real.

But for anyone starting fresh, or anyone whose Alfred usage is mainly launching, searching, clipboard, and Snippets, Raycast delivers equal or better functionality for free. The Pro tier adds AI chat and cross-device settings backup, but the core tools are entirely free with no usage limits or feature gating.

Price: Free (Pro: $8/month billed annually)
Platform: macOS, Windows (beta)
Best for: Anyone who wants the closest single-app replacement for Alfred

Alfred alternatives comparison table

Tool | Primary function | Price | Platform | Best for
Raycast | All-in-one launcher | Free (Pro: $8/mo) | macOS, Windows (beta) | Full Alfred replacement
LaunchBar | App launcher | $35 (one-time) | macOS | Adaptive search and instant send
Quicksilver | App launcher | Free (open source) | macOS | Free launcher with three-pane interface
macOS Spotlight | App launcher and search | Free (built-in) | macOS | Basic launching and search
TextExpander | Text expansion | From $3.33/mo (annually) | macOS, Windows, Chrome, iOS, iPadOS | Team Snippet sharing and fill-in fields
Typinator | Text expansion | $39.99 (one-time) | macOS | Fast solo text expansion, no subscription
Espanso | Text expansion | Free (open source) | macOS, Windows, Linux | Cross-platform, privacy-first expansion
Maccy | Clipboard manager | Free (open source) | macOS | Lightweight clipboard history
Paste | Clipboard manager | $29.99/yr | macOS, iOS, iPadOS | Visual clipboard with iCloud integration
Keyboard Maestro | Automation | $36 (one-time) | macOS | Deep Mac automation and macros
macOS Shortcuts | Automation | Free (built-in) | macOS, iOS, iPadOS | Simple automations across Apple devices

How to choose the right Alfred alternative

Start with the feature you use most. If you opened Alfred’s preferences right now, which tab would have the most configuration? That’s the one worth replacing with a dedicated tool.

If you mainly launch apps and search files: Try Raycast first. It’s free, covers the same ground, and has a richer extension library. If you prefer something lighter, Spotlight handles the basics without any install. If you want a free, open-source option, Quicksilver is still a viable pick.

If you rely on Alfred for Snippets and text expansion: Evaluate whether you need team sharing and cross-platform support. If yes, try TextExpander for its shared libraries, fill-in fields, and support across Mac, Windows, Chrome, and mobile. If you’re a solo Mac user who prefers a one-time purchase, Typinator is fast and affordable. If open source and cross-platform matter, Espanso costs nothing and runs everywhere.

If clipboard history is your main Alfred feature: Maccy gives you the same functionality for free. If you want your clipboard mirrored across Apple devices, Paste adds iCloud integration and a visual timeline.

If you’ve invested in complex Alfred workflows: Keyboard Maestro goes deeper with a one-time license. macOS Shortcuts handles simpler automations and spans iPhone and iPad.

If you want one app to replace Alfred entirely: Raycast is the answer. Its free tier covers launching, clipboard, Snippets, window management, and over 1,500 extensions.

You can also mix and match. A common stack is Raycast for launching and search, TextExpander for text expansion, and Keyboard Maestro for heavy automation. The tools stay in their lanes and don’t conflict with each other.

Frequently asked questions

Is Raycast better than Alfred?

For most users starting fresh in 2026, Raycast offers more value. Its free tier includes clipboard history, Snippets, and window management that Alfred locks behind the paid Powerpack. Raycast’s extension store is larger and easier to browse. Alfred’s strengths are its mature workflow system and the muscle memory of long-time users who’ve built extensive custom workflows over the years. If you don’t have an existing Alfred setup, Raycast is the stronger starting point.

What is the best free Alfred alternative?

Raycast, by a wide margin. It covers app launching, file search, clipboard history, Snippets, window management, and 1,500+ extensions with no cost and no feature gating on the free tier. macOS Spotlight is the runner-up if you want zero setup, but it lacks clipboard history, Snippets, and extensibility. Quicksilver is worth considering if you want an open-source option with a different interaction model.

Is Alfred Powerpack worth it?

It depends on which features you need. The Powerpack adds clipboard history, Snippets, workflows, custom file actions, and theming to Alfred’s free launcher. If you use even two of those features regularly, the one-time £34 (~$46 USD) license is reasonable since you pay once and own it for that major version. But many of the Powerpack’s individual features are available for free elsewhere: Raycast includes clipboard history and Snippets at no cost, Maccy covers clipboard management, and macOS Shortcuts handles basic automation. If you’d primarily use the Powerpack for one specific feature, a dedicated free alternative may be the better value.

Can TextExpander replace Alfred Snippets?

Yes. TextExpander covers everything Alfred Snippets does and adds fill-in fields, shared team libraries, usage analytics, and cross-platform support on Mac, Windows, Chrome, iPhone, iPad, and Android. The trade-off is that TextExpander is a subscription starting at $3.33/month billed annually ($39.96/year) for individuals, while Alfred Snippets come included with the one-time Powerpack purchase. If text expansion is your primary need, TextExpander is the more capable tool. If Snippets are a minor convenience alongside Alfred’s launcher, the Powerpack’s built-in Snippets may be enough. For a full comparison, see Alfred vs TextExpander.

Does Alfred work on Windows?

No. Alfred is macOS-only and the developers haven’t announced Windows plans. If you need a launcher on Windows, Raycast entered Windows beta in late 2025. Other Windows launcher options include PowerToys Run (free, from Microsoft), Wox, and Flow Launcher. For cross-platform text expansion, TextExpander and Espanso both support Windows alongside macOS.

Can I use multiple Alfred alternatives together?

Yes, and many Mac power users do. A common stack is Raycast for launching and search, TextExpander for team-based text expansion, and Keyboard Maestro for complex automation. These tools handle different tasks and don’t interfere with each other. Using specialized tools often delivers better results than relying on one app’s version of every feature.

Related resources

Alfred vs TextExpander: do you need both?

Typinator vs TextExpander

Espanso vs TextExpander

Keyboard Maestro vs TextExpander

Best macros software for productivity

What are text Snippets? A complete guide

Best clipboard managers

Best Mac productivity apps

Ready to see how dedicated text expansion compares to Alfred’s built-in Snippets? Start a free 30-day TextExpander trial — test your existing abbreviations across Mac, Windows, Chrome, and mobile with no credit card required.