Reviews paint Raycast as indispensable for Mac power users and teams, praised for speed, thoughtful design, and a thriving extension ecosystem. Makers of

Screen Studio

call it a must-have, while makers of

Central (YC S24)

highlight faster workflows, quick commands, and snippet sharing. Makers of

Novu

rely on it daily. Users report replacing Spotlight/Alfred, saving time with keyboard-first actions, clipboard history, snippets, window management, and AI chat. Frequent updates, easy customization, and generous free features round out the strong sentiment.

+145

Summarized with AI

Pros

productivity boost (37)

community plugins (20)

spotlight replacement (20)

fast performance (17)

AI integration (14)

macOS integration (13)

clipboard manager (9)

keyboard shortcuts (9)

active development (8)

customizable (5)

Cons

limited to macOS (2)

Pros

Cons

Reviews

All Reviews

Most Informative

•4 reviews

What's great

fast performance (17)AI integration (14)productivity boost (37)macOS integration (13)

I love Raycast. It's probably the single best app I've discovered in the past couple of years. You see, I've always been someone who preferred the convenience and speed of the command line - which is hard to find nowadays. Raycast allowed me to have the same experience inside my Mac. I use it for everything. It even fixed the slowness of the Apple's in-built emoji add-on. Also, I don't like to pay for AI but my company gave me a Claude API key I can use. Guess what? Now I have an AI-enabled Spotlight inside my very OS. I even started playing with locally hosted models thanks to that; just so I can have more privacy. All in all, Raycast is amazing and I'm not even paying for the subscription. I don't think I can go back to the vanilla MacOS spotlight.

What needs improvement

I had trouble setting up remote MCPs, but that could just be me. Also, the iOS app doesn't let me use my Claude API code.

vs Alternatives

Monarch

Alfred

I started with Raycast because of a friend who recommended it to me. And although I tried similar apps like Alfred and Monarch, I kept coming back to Raycast. Not necessarily because it's better (the other two are incredibly powerful too), just because at that point I had already developed a habit. So yeah, just be careful which one of these do you try first. There might not be a way back.

How much faster is Raycast than Spotlight in daily use?

About the same. The emoji selector is faster though!

Are there any conflicts with macOS system shortcuts?

Didn't encounter any conflicts.

Is the community extension library reliable and maintained?

Never had a problem, so I'd say yes.

Ratings

Ease of use

Reliability

Value for money

Customization

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103 views2mo ago

Fuser

•7 reviews

I use Raycast for everything. It's what I expected from Apple and their OS, but instead, we get something much more robust than Apple would ever dare attempting to integrate. My team and collaborators live in different cities, and I have saved so much time and cognitive load just using Raycast to find out the time difference between where I am, and where the person I'm writing an email to is. Not to mention, I have integrated Raycast with Linear, and it is super helpful to create issues without having to leave the context window I'm in.

What's great

context aware (3)productivity boost (37)spotlight replacement (20)

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122 views7mo ago

Stackfix

•7 reviews

I started using Raycast around 3 months ago. It now serves as my general software interface for macOS. My productivity gains have been considerable. - Saved time: I'd estimate Raycast saves me at least 30 mins per day by accelerating hundreds of my small interactions (combined with the custom scripts that I've written, which Raycast calls). - Extra functionality: Raycast's AI provides extra functionality. It is my mode way to communicate with LLMs. I send 10s of request per day, which I activate with a shortcut. While very good, Raycast AI could be improved. I'd like Raycast to allow the user to specify which model the AI can use with more control (e.g., allow the user to specify the AI endpoint, so allowing the user to use the latest model as soon as the model is released). In short, Raycast is superb. I recommend Raycast to anyone with a macOS do wants to do more in less time.

What's great

AI integration (14)keyboard shortcuts (9)productivity boost (37)macOS integration (13)script commands (5)

What needs improvement

limited to macOS (2)

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93 views1yr ago

Columns

•19 reviews

I've been using Raycast for a few months now, and it's freakin awesome... As a tech enthusiast with a knack for productivity tools, this app has drastically improved my workflow. One of the standout features for me has to be its speed. This thing is quick. It's impressive how snappy it responds to commands. This speed alone has saved me so much time during my workday. (less clicking around and searching for crap) The second feature worth mentioning is the Script Commands. I love how I can customize commands to fit my workflow better. It's like having a personal assistant on your computer, taking care of the nitty-gritty so you can focus on the big picture. Pumped to explore their new features.

What's great

fast performance (17)productivity boost (37)customizable (5)script commands (5)

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49 views2yr ago

•4 reviews

What a delightful little app. I made an extension to help with blockchain development (blockchain explorer search) and was surprised how easy local dev was. the review process also went well with a few helpful tips and got approved. The person I chatted with in slack was great and I'm a fan of their twitter presance as well. An essential mac app, and while there is now a paid plan, it's also free! How cool is that. H/t to the team, you've made a slick product!

What's great

free tier (2)easy setup (2)community plugins (20)excellent support (2)

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39 views2yr ago

Raycast

•1 review

Raycast Pro is definitely a game-changer, and it's great to finally be able to support the future of Raycast through upgrading from free to Pro. I’ve been using the free a long time now, and I’m already impressed with the features Raycast has, as well as the great support and community behind it. The addition of Raycast AI, Cloud Sync, and Custom Themes are amazing (I love the deeplinks for quickly setting themes), as well as Unlimited Clipboard History being something I’ve wanted for a while. Congrats on the launch!

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4 views3yr ago

•1 review

Terrible experience, sure there are a tons of useless features than less than 2% users will need but the basics (finding files and folders) are terrible. Couldn't find a single folder even with the proper extension (cause yes, you need an extension for that, it's like word asking you an extension to bold or underlining a text...) But even worse, even after I uninstalled it through app cleaner, the moment I restarted my mac, I got an endless influx of notifications from the finder telling me it couldn't open raycast.app cause it was in the bin and to remove it from the bin. There was one notification every 10 seconds interrupting everything I was doing and even if I left the old one opened it still kept on coming enlessly. I tried everything but in the end the only way I found to stop it was to reinstall raycast after 1 hour losing my sh*t over this. Ridiculous...

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31 views3yr ago

•3 reviews

By far my favorite productivity tool. Can do almost anything with tons of super powerful extensions for creating todos, github issues, starting/stopping Docker images, searching VS Code projects, control smart home lighting, quick access to meeting, on and on... All without ever leaving the app you're currently working with. And with Raycast Pro the quickest AI access there is, CMD + space -> type prompt -> tab and there you go. Love it!

What's great

AI integration (14)community plugins (20)seamless app-switching (3)

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26 views2yr ago

•8 reviews

Raycast is one of those rare tools that instantly feels essential. It’s fast, clean, and highly customizable. From launching apps to managing tasks and integrations, it streamlines everything. I’ve replaced both Spotlight and Alfred with it, and haven’t looked back. The steady updates and strong community make it even more valuable over time. It’s a must-have for anyone serious about productivity on macOS.

What's great

fast performance (17)productivity boost (37)customizable (5)community plugins (20)active development (8)spotlight replacement (20)

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25 views7mo ago

•10 reviews

Without a doubt, I use Raycast more than any other app in my daily workflow. This is because it replaces spotlight and turns it into a hub where you can interact with any app you have. All from cmd+space, just like spotlight without leaving whatever you're doing, you can search for and pull up a contact profile from hubspot, or use ChatGPT, read a PDF, update a task in Notion, and then find a file deep in your folders.

What's great

AI integration (14)keyboard shortcuts (9)spotlight replacement (20)seamless app-switching (3)

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22 views2yr ago

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