Comparisons
Raycast replaced the launcher for a generation of Mac users, and its file search is genuinely good — within the boundary it inherits from the index it queries.
The built-in Search Files extension does the work. In Raycast Settings → Extensions, give it an alias (f is common) or a hotkey, so f invoice searches files directly. Grant Full Disk Access when prompted, or results skip everything the sandbox cannot see.
Results navigate entirely by keyboard: ↵ opens, ⌘↵ reveals in Finder, ⌘K opens the action menu — copy path, open with, move to Trash — and Quick Look sits on Space, mirroring Finder.
fast on generic names.
root results, so plain typing checks files after apps.
case, faster than any Finder route.
Raycast's file search stands on the system's Spotlight metadata index. The consequences are inherited exactly: instant results for indexed locations, and silence for ~/Library, package contents, Spotlight-excluded folders and volumes, and any drive not currently plugged in. When Raycast returns nothing, it is reporting the index, not the disk.
That makes the division of labour clean. Raycast: the fastest route to files in normal folders, plus everything else a launcher does. An independent-index tool: the second opinion for the files Spotlight's worldview omits — which, on a working Mac, is a larger share of the disk than most people expect until the day the file they need is in it.
Functionally close — both ride the Spotlight index with keyboard-first interfaces. The choice is ecosystem taste; the coverage limits are identical.
The file sits outside the Spotlight index — Library, packages, excluded or unplugged volumes. No launcher riding that index can return it.
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 MacVersion 2.15.7 · macOS 13+ · 3.8 MB · notarised