If you're looking for a Spotlight replacement on your Mac that can aid in productivity, there's no better option than Alfred. Alfred is a complete third-party replacement for Spotlight search. It offers a far more extensible and powerful platform with plenty of configuration, while retaining the same speed, ease of access, and sleek design that Spotlight is known for. While Apple's default Spotlight search is a powerful tool for accessing apps, files, or searching the internet, it pales in comparison to Alfred.

What is Alfred?

It's completely free

Alfred is a completely free tool that you can install on MacOS devices, though you can upgrade to a premium "powerpack" which adds even more features. You can tweak everything relating to search out of the box, such as the appearance, ordering, search directories, and more. Alfred isn't the only piece of software capable of doing this, but it's one of the best out there thanks to its lack of subscription model and "it-just-works" design.

Alfred is available as a regular MacOS application that you can download on the Mac App Store, or from the company's website. Once installed, Alfred is accessible via ALT + Space (or Option + Space). While you can disable Spotlight search entirely and just use Alfred, I keep both with my shortcuts being the following:

1. Alfred: Option + Space
2. Spotlight: CMD + Space (Default)

What features does Alfred have?

Built in web search

Alfred supports adding custom web searches using OpenSearch and SearchAction. This means you can set a custom hotkey (along with custom titles and icons) to easily select a custom search provider in your Alfred search. You don't just have to use the ones that it gives you out of the box.

When it comes to adding a web search to Alfred, you can add anything so long as the search term is encoded in the URL parameter. All you need to do is replace the relevant query parameter with `{query}` in the URL. For example, while Google is already supported, the format to add Google would be "https://www.google.com/search?q={query}".

To add these, simply go to Features > Web Search in the Alfred Preferences menu, and select Add a custom search. You can then create anything you want here, and it's entirely free. You don't need the Alfred Powerpack to do this.

Custom workflows

First and foremost, custom workflows do require the Alfred Powerpack, but you'll see why. These workflows are basically advanced plugins for Alfred that add extra features, like enabling system functions, installing applications with Brew, or kill running processes.

In the above example, we can run "dnd 1.5h" to enable do not disturb mode for an hour and a half. There are also workflows like Temporary Email that will make you a temporary email with SharkLasers by default.

You can create your own workflows from inside of Alfred with inputs, outputs, effects, and triggers. In a way, it's a little bit like Tasker on Android if you've ever used it, except integrated into the system and easily accessed from anywhere.

Complete terminal integration

If you prefix a command with ">", you can run a Terminal command that will automatically launch a terminal and execute it. If you want to quickly SSH to your NAS or home lab, or quickly get your connection information, or anything else, this is a powerful feature that you might find yourself using a lot. It's not saving you a lot of time, but it enables you to work quicker and more efficiently. This also requires the Powerpack, but for those who use the Terminal a lot, it might already be worth it.

To use this with alternatives like iTerm2 or Ghostty, you'll need to do a bit of work. There are custom Apple Scripts you can use to launch iTerm2 and Ghostty already, but it's worth it to keep using your Terminal Emulator of choice if you don't want to go back to the default Mac one.

Alfred can even replace your other apps

It has so much to offer

Alfred has a lot of power and can even replace other apps you may have installed on your machine. It can manage your clipboard, expand text, control Spotify, generate passwords, switch workspaces, and so much more. It's an incredibly powerful application that's made even better by its Powerpack, which is a simple one-time purchase. There's no subscription, and you own it for life when you buy it.

Spotlight is already fantastic in MacOS, but Alfred honestly manages to make it even better. I've not run into any problems with it, and I know other people who use it significantly more than me who swear by it. I don't even have the Powerpack and I love it, but it's probably about time that I purchased it at some point. Even as a free application it's better than Spotlight, and all of the features the Powerpack enables makes it a no-brainer for productivity. If you can work faster and more efficiently, what's not to love?