Comparisons
Raycast is excellent at what it is for. File search is not the thing it is for.
A command launcher: apps, window management, clipboard history, snippets, calculations, extensions, and a genuinely good extension store. Free for individuals, with a paid Pro tier.
File search is one command among many, backed by Spotlight's index.
Raycast's file search inherits Spotlight's exclusions — ~/Library, package contents, unmounted volumes. It is also deliberately narrow in scope, because file results competing with app and command results would make the launcher worse at launching.
One thing: a complete filename index, searched by scanning, with results between keystrokes. No launcher features, no extensions, no clipboard history.
No. Different hotkeys, different indexes, no shared state. A common setup is Raycast on ⌘Space for launching and commands, Everywhere on ⌥Space for finding files.
If you mostly open apps and occasionally find a recent document, Raycast alone is enough and free.
Add a dedicated index when you hit its limits: files inside ~/Library, files inside app packages, external drives that are not attached, or a disk large enough that Spotlight-backed search has become slow.
If you have not hit those, you do not need a second tool, and it is worth saying so plainly.
No. Its file search uses Spotlight's index and inherits the same exclusions.
They coexist fine on different hotkeys. Whether you need both depends on whether you hit Spotlight's limits.
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