Privacy-Focused, Open-Source Alternative to Alfred for macOS?

Questions
1

I’ve been looking for a privacy-respecting, open-source alternative to Alfred for macOS. While Alfred is powerful, it’s not open-source, and I prefer software that aligns with privacy and transparency principles, as recommended by Privacy Guides.

What I’m Looking For:

  • A Spotlight-like launcher that is fast and efficient
  • Privacy-friendly (minimal telemetry, local processing preferred)
  • Open-source (transparency and community-driven development)
  • Supports extensions, workflows, or plugins (if possible)

Options I’ve Found So Far:

I’ve done some research and found a few alternatives, but I’d love to hear opinions from this community:

  1. Quicksilver – Open-source, highly customizable launcher
  2. Cerebro – Open-source, modern UI, plugin support
  3. Raycast (Extensions) – While Raycast itself is proprietary, its extensions are open-source
  4. Albert – Open-source launcher similar to Alfred, but more Linux-focused
  5. ueli – Cross-platform, lightweight, and privacy-friendly

Questions for the Community:

  • Has anyone here used Cerebro, Quicksilver, or Albert on macOS? If so, what was your experience like?
  • Are there other open-source alternatives that I may have missed?
  • How do these options compare in terms of speed, features, and privacy?
1 Like
2

Yeah, this is a great question. I’d like to know the answer to this too. But I have not found anything that would satify all those requirements/wants.

I used Alfred for a long time for almost a decade but I’m now on Raycast as its free and is equally as good especially with its extensions (not that I use a lot of them).

3

In my opinion, Quicksilver is the only viable open source alternative to Alfred. However, it lacks many features, is less stable, and has poor user interface—that’s why I personally continue to use Alfred. Depending on your needs, though, Quicksilver might be sufficient.

The only alternative to Alfred that offers a similar variety of features is Raycast. Unfortunately, Raycast does not measure up in terms of privacy [1] compared to Alfred [2], so I really wouldn’t consider it a privacy-friendly replacement.

4

It hasn’t been released yet, but Monarch might be worth checking out when it exits private beta. I don’t how it compares in terms of privacy friendliness, though.

5

Thanks for sharing. Will check it out. On first glance, it does look promising.

6

Do you disable Spotlight?

7

I just remap the keys.

8

LeaderKey seems private and fast. It’s coded in Swift, which I’ve heard is more secure than Objective-C! Unfortunately, the sandbox was removed not too long ago, but as it is open source, maybe someone could work on PRs for LeaderKey to have a .dmg installation to maximize privacy and sandbox security synergy!