Launchbar is available at Bundlehunt for half price-ish… before I take the plunge, what is the difference between that and Alfred, and is one better than the other?
Both Launchbar and Alfred are nice. I once was a Launchbar user. I switched to Alfred eventually. Both have their strengths. Without going into too much detail, there are a lot of topics about that - and even MPU episodes to listen too:
When reading older comparisons, note that Alfred had a big upgrade to v4.5 in August of this year. Brought in Universal Actions which is their approach to instant send. I use them everyday.
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I used to be Alfred and Launchbar user, then I switched to Raycast. Raycast is a great new launcher, and is currently free to use.
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More info: Raycast appears to be aimed at certain kinds of software developers. That’s not a fit for me so I’ll be sticking with Alfred.
If the deal lasts long enough, I’d first try to the free trial of LaunchBar and the free version of Alfred, and see which groks with your mind after a while, because they each have a bit of a different mental model (For example, in LaunchBar you generally start by typing the object, such as a file name, and then what you want to do with it). I suspect this forum is littered with examples of me switching between each, back and forth, but I’ve finally accepted that LaunchBar clicks with me better and offers the least resistance. But it could be the opposite for you.
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Raycast is worth checking out too. It’s free.
(Didn’t see the other posts in my excitement, but leaving since it has a link.)
Tried both and decided to go for Alfred, but one has to put up with condescending Dean on Alfred forum though if need help with scripts.
I use both.
Alfred’s recent Universal Actions is good but don’t yet do everything possible with LaunchBar’s Instant Send.
Ex.: we can’t send highlighted text to Alfred to act on it. I use this several times a day with LB.
Alfred is my primary launcher though since it feels snappier.
I use LB for Instant Send (the key I set for this is Alt) mainly and for resizing image (this is built-in) actions.
I love Alfred and am curious about Launchbar. Then, I read that using Launchbar, you need to type what you want within a timeframe i.e. if you need time to think as you type, the search will come out differently. That’s like needing to have a really agile, sub second thinking. I don’t do search that way. I need time to think of what I am typing. So no, I didn’t even try Launchbar.
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I love Alfred and have no plans to switch, but I actually had the opposite experience. Launchbar’s incorporation of timing really intrigues me! I thought about trying to mod it into Alfred for a few queries. I do see the accessibility problem and would hope Launchbar would make the timing configurable.
Alfred is so fast. What would you gain?
I’m not sure I’m understanding the request exactly, but if I am, LaunchBar already has the ability to change the timing.
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You understand right. That’s good, but based on the complaints from slower typers (not just here), I think they should allow more than three seconds. Or provide a modifier key to disable the expiration.
Other than identical retype support, tot totally sure. One thought I had was to have Alfred show the old query while typing a new one, either letting them stack up like cards or splitting the top several results between old and new to support the cmd+number shortcuts. Another was to have Alfred branch queries based on a delay. A keyboard shortcut would probably be better, though, and more Alfred-like.
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