Comparisons
This is the most common question about Cling, and the answer is a clean no. It is a design decision, not an omission.
Cling's product page describes its search as name-based rather than content or metadata driven. It matches filenames and paths. It does not read inside your documents.
A filename index is small, fast to build, and cheap to keep current. A content index is none of those things. Extracting text from every PDF, Word file, spreadsheet and email on a disk is expensive to do once and expensive to maintain — and Spotlight already does it.
An app that does one thing in under 100 ms is a better product than one that does two things slowly. Cling picked the fast half deliberately.
Most of the time. Most searches are filename searches — you know roughly what the file is called, or what folder it is in, and a name index answers instantly.
When the filename carries no information. Real examples:
Scan_2019_04_11.pdf — a scanned contract, named by the scannerIMG_4471.pdf — a receipt photographed on a phoneDocument (3).docx — a download that collided with two earlier onesUntitled.pages — every Pages document nobody renamedFor these, the filename is noise. The only route in is the text inside.
Spotlight, when it works. Its importers cover more formats than any third-party extractor ships with. Genuinely the best content search on the Mac when its index is healthy.
HoudahSpot, if you want to express complicated content queries over that same index.
Everywhere, if you want a filename index like Cling's *and* content search: it extracts text from PDFs and Office documents in folders you nominate, and contains: then searches it. Scoped on purpose — you pick the folders, so it never reads your whole disk uninvited. Ours, $19, and the reason this page exists on this site.
Nothing stops you keeping Cling for filenames and Spotlight for contents. Many people do, and it costs €12 rather than a decision.
No. Its documentation states search is name-based rather than content driven — it indexes filenames and paths only.
Spotlight when its index is healthy, since its importers cover the most formats. Everywhere extracts PDF and Office text in folders you choose, as a scoped alternative.
Yes, and it is a sensible arrangement: Cling for filenames, including the places Spotlight excludes, and Spotlight for contents.
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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