Comparisons
Every roundup of these apps compares feature lists. The only question that matters is which of them behaves like the app you are missing.
For someone coming from Everything, one thing decides it: does it maintain its own complete filename index, or does it ask Spotlight?
If it asks Spotlight, it inherits every exclusion, and ~/Library stays invisible no matter how good the interface is. That is not a small caveat — it is the main reason Spotlight felt broken in the first place.
Find Any File (~$8) — no index at all. Searches live, every time, and genuinely finds everything including places Spotlight will not go. Complete and correct; the cost is paid per search rather than once, so large volumes are slow. Can search as root for system areas.
HoudahSpot (~$34) — a powerful front-end over Spotlight. Superb for multi-criteria research: combine content, metadata, dates and location, save the query, refine it. Because it is Spotlight underneath, it does not see what Spotlight does not see.
EasyFind (free) — live search like Find Any File, older interface, no index. Still works, still free, still slow on big volumes for the honest reason.
Alfred (~£34 Powerpack) / Raycast (free tier) — launchers first. Excellent at apps and recent documents, extensible, fast for what they cover. Neither aims to be exhaustive, and both lean on Spotlight's index for file search.
Everywhere ($19, ours) — builds its own filename index, keeps it current with FSEvents, searches by scanning it. About 31 seconds for six million files, then under 2 ms per keystroke. Sees ~/Library and package contents, and keeps records for unplugged drives.
| Own index | Sees ~/Library | First run | Per search | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Find Any File | no | yes | none | seconds |
| EasyFind | no | yes | none | seconds to minutes |
| HoudahSpot | no (Spotlight) | no | none | instant |
| Alfred / Raycast | no (Spotlight) | no | none | instant |
| Everywhere | yes | yes | ~31 s | ~2 ms |
You search occasionally and hate waiting for setup — Find Any File. It is cheap, complete, and there is nothing to configure.
You do research across content and metadata — HoudahSpot. Nothing else in the list comes close for that, and Spotlight's exclusions rarely matter for documents.
You want Everything's actual behaviour — the bottom row is the only one architecturally the same: complete index, kept current, scanned per keystroke.
You mostly launch apps — you already have Alfred or Raycast and probably do not need anything else.
We built the last one, so read the table rather than the prose. The comparison points are all checkable: install any two of these, search for something inside ~/Library, and see which ones find it.
EasyFind, and the built-in find and mdfind commands. The free GUI options all search live rather than from an index, so they are slower on large volumes.
Different trades. Find Any File has no setup and no index to maintain; Everywhere pays about 31 seconds once and is instant afterwards.
For launching apps and opening recent files, yes. For exhaustive filename search across the whole disk, no — it uses Spotlight's index.
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.
Download for Mac