Comparisons
Every indexed finder caps its results, including ours. The number matters less than whether the tool tells you the truth about the total.
Cling free mode returns up to 500 results. Pro raises the ceiling to 10,000.
Not to sell licences. Rendering a result is expensive in a way that matching one is not.
Matching is a scan over a compact index — that is the part measured in milliseconds. For each row you actually display, the app must resolve a full path by walking the record's ancestors, build a string, look up an icon, and lay out a view. That is orders of magnitude more work per item than matching, and it is spent on rows nobody scrolls to.
So every finder in this category caps something. The interesting question is what it does with the count.
If 40,000 files match and the app shows 500, it must say 40,000. An app that reports "500 results" for a query matching forty thousand is not capping, it is lying, and you cannot tell a stuck counter from a real total.
We shipped that bug ourselves once — the result line read "10 results" for every query matching more than ten things, because it counted rows rather than matches. It reads as a broken counter, which is exactly what it was.
For the record, Everywhere shows 200 rows and reports the true total alongside. That is a lower row cap than Cling's, and it is stated here rather than omitted because a comparison page that hides its own numbers is worth nothing.
Add a second term. invoice 2026 instead of invoice. Two terms usually cut a result set by an order of magnitude.
Use extension filters. .pdf invoice in Cling, ext:pdf invoice in Everywhere.
Search a path fragment. Most files you want live in a folder you can half-remember.
A query returning ten thousand results is not a search, it is a survey — and no scroll list is the right tool for a survey.
If your searches are narrow, neither. If you routinely survey your disk by extension, the higher cap genuinely helps, and Cling Pro's 10,000 is the most generous in this category.
Rendering results costs far more per row than matching them. Free mode caps at 500, Pro at 10,000.
No, provided the app reports the true total. Matching is complete; only the rows shown are limited.
Add a second term, filter by extension, or include part of the folder path. Two terms usually reduce a result set by an order of magnitude.
Everywhere keeps track of every file on your Mac — including the folders Spotlight hides and drives you have unplugged. Free for a day, then $19 once.
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