LaunchBar vs Alfred

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I see 137 actions in LaunchBar, which you can list by launching it, then entering “Actions” and browsing into the category. You can send things to these actions, and they all have names that make their functionality obvious. As I did with Alfred workflows repositories, I browse them all every once and a while to see if there’s anything I can use, and those few get memorized through frequent usage, just like Alfred’s workflows. For example, I use “Send via AirDrop” all the time, and wish there were an Alfred workflow/File Action that would do that from Path Finder, not just finder.

It just seems like at every turn, the functionality of LB and Alfred converge so that whatever you can do in one, you can do in the other. Generally speaking, LB is always a little more streamlined, with Alfred spending that efficiency on an interface that persistently displays more guidance. Plus, it’s far easier to develop your own Alfred workflows–Alfred’s kind of all about that–than write your own LB scripts.

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On calculations, if you are a Soulver user, know that you can now use Alfred and do a Soulver calculation from the search bar, so things like “days to 1 august 2020” to return 5 days or “21km in miles” or “2*0.67kg in grams”

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Wow! didn’t know that, but I did a quick search and found these instructions. Going to install the workflow tonight.

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This is really cool and will replace a significant minority of my Soulver 3 opens. Glad you mentioned it!

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I’d like to thank you for writing this. Of course, I’m in my bubble just like everyone else is in their own bubbles.

Being an app junkie, and a Mac user for fifteen years, I’m always searching for better ways to tweak my Mac experience. Hilariously, I also find myself doing self serving searches like this:

“Why would I switch to Alfred from LaunchBar?”

I’ve purchased the Powerpack for Alfred years ago. And I just feel like you. The moment I pause any new attempt to get along with Alfred, and resume my use of LaunchBar — it’s like coming home again. It’s like growing out a lost limb.

There are so many great applications, but I do think LB would be the one application I really could measure a serious loss in efficiency/productivity (and I think, fast usage resulting in less context switching).

I don’t feel at home in Alfred and it’s not built into my muscle memory like LaunchBar is. More important is I’m pretty confident it can’t become built in the way LB is.

LaunchBar isn’t a new app. It doesn’t look super modern to the average user. I also think it’s not a great first time experience for the average users — but for most of you reading this, LB is just unparalleled.

I use the clipboard manager hundreds of times per week (and it’s saved me from losing important information many times).

The calculator and the insanely smart parentheses is so fast, intuitive and powerful. These two features alone, alongside the launching of apps, would be enough for a great Mac utility app. But it doesn’t stop there.

On a subjective note, LaunchBar feels like (very) Fast Software™. Objectively it is, and maybe Alfred is too, but LB feels instant. Not very fast. Instantly fast. It gets you faster than you type.

But it’s built-in smartness is just enormous. I probably use a minority of all big features. And sure, it’s no longer as hyped or frequently name dropped as Alfred, but I don’t care.

Alfred looks so modern and “friendly”. But just the fact that small verbs, or keywords, is needed to execute things… it’s just not intuitive — the way Objective Development has created LaunchBar is incredible.

Also, we’ve got the equally good documentation and user guide. Also, shirt but very useful ebooks like “Take Control of LaunchBar”.

Is there any reason why you would switch to Alfred in 2021, if you’re perfectly happy with LaunchBar? I’d wish, because that would mean more hidden superpowers are out there. But I doubt it.

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46

Launchbar user here, recently decided to give Alfred an honest try. I’ve been jotting down the differences in a spreadsheet to help wrap my mind around the different workflows, functionalities, and pros & cons.

So far, almost definitely considering going back to Launchbar. It’s tough to change one’s muscle memory, but it seems like the deficits I’m finding in Alfred go beyond muscle memory differences.

If anyone’s curious, here’s that spreadsheet. And if anyone has any good comparison to add, please say so, especially for stuff Alfred clearly does better that I’m missing.

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I use to have both about 7 or 8 years ago. I use to go to town on LaunchBar.

But Alfred very sweetly let me download it again as I just quite recently got a MacBook Air. Either that or they are giving it away which I doubt. I think it had the arrow thingie.

It located a photo I had added info to within seconds so I shall keep with it- at least for a while as I was impressed.

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Have you tried this workflow for emoji?

Also, I’ve never had scrolling issues in 10+ years with Alfred.

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Your comparison is right, but here’s something that’s hard to capture in a point-by-point way: you can operate Launchbar on muscle memory much more than Alfred, and very often fewer keystrokes than the equivalent action in Alfred. Launchbar is the much faster interface once you’ve learned both well. Alfred’s workflows, though, are irreplaceable. I have 24 workflows mapped to two-key chords (via Karabiner), such as various web site searches, often used bookmarks, etc., so that’s 1-stroke operation for a lot of the things I do repetitively. I never open Alfred’s interface, with one lone exception: to use Alfred’s calculator because I keep Launchbar’s calculator pre-loaded with a calculation I frequently do (just tweak the numbers a bit each time).

The upshot of all this is that it pays off to keep using both to hone the best combination of uses that suit you best. Alfred and Launchbar have always co-existed on my Macs without bumping into each other, and I’m happy to have both.

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First, a word of caution: I have never used LaunchBar but have used Alfred for many years. Thus, most of what I know of LaunchBar comes from this thread.

However, for those who yearn for the LaunchBar “instant send” feature (from what I understand of it) you may be interested to know what is in the Alfred 4.5 beta. It sounds similar to me, at least.

Stephen

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I use - and have used - Quicksilver for more years than I can count. :thinking:
Well, okay maybe I can count that high :stuck_out_tongue:

Yes, slightly off-topic but just showing some love for it. :slight_smile:

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Oh shoot this is killer, thank you for linking! This nearly levels the playing field on Emoji searching.

Launchbar still does has a slight leg up, showing more results for any given related/associative word, as well as changing all of the emoji in the list to the user-set skin tone (instead of only once you select an emoji), but I guess those are nitpicky things.

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Yeah, the workflows thing is making me think twice about it, there just seem to be so many more out there for Alfred.

Glad to get some validation from someone who’s extensively used both, that it’s not just me who finds Launchbar’s system to be better & quicker keystroke- and muscle memory-wise

I don’t think I personally want to juggle with both apps, but inspired to hear that you make that work!

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A general comment, even if a bit OT: I have to use Windows sometimes, and the best I can do to match my customized MacOS user interface is, subjectively speaking, about 75% as good. There’s just nothing to match Launchbar or Alfred, let alone my Launchbar/Alfred combo. I’ve tried them all on Windows, and the best I can do is Keypirinha, and then Autohotkey for MacOS’s Karabiner. That last one is the real joy-killer because my Autohotkey chords force me into a very careful typing style, fully separating every keystroke. Installing all this stuff makes Windows go much faster for me, but it’s so aggravating compared to Mac. I’m surprised that there’s no demand for something like Alfred on the Windows side. Alfred is a more user-friendly launcher than the geekier Launchbar, so I would think the Alfred devs might like to try to tap into the Windows market.

If it weren’t for this customized user interface issue, I might go back to Windows full-time. The two OS’s are otherwise almost totally interoperable for me, but I miss Windows’s greater variety of hardware options. I sometimes require an NVIDIA graphics card, which forces me to maintain at least one Windows box no matter what.

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Wow, that’s really fascinating and pretty ironic considering Windows is known as the OS that offers more user-control, customizability, less restrictions, and a larger development base.

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Looks like there’s a new version of LaunchBar! (v.6.15)

From the release notes:

New Features

  • Added support for shortcuts defined in the Shortcuts.app of macOS Monterey. Those shortcuts are indexed automatically and can be conveniently invoked from LaunchBar. If a shortcut requires text input, this text can be entered after pressing the Space bar or via Send-to.
  • Added „Giphy GIFs“ search template to search for GIFs on giphy.com.
  • When the Safari History indexing rule is selected in LaunchBar, pressing Command-Return now invokes the new “Show History in Safari” action, which opens the History page in Safari.
  • Added a new “iOS Applications” category containing all iOS apps that can be run natively on Apple Silicon Macs.

Appearance

  • The overall appearance has been improved and modernized in many areas of the application.
  • Dozens of newly designed or refined icons, meticulously fine tuned to be pixel aligned for a super crisp look.
  • Most categories now have dedicated icons instead of the generic cardboard box symbol.
  • Refined appearance of many UI elements.
  • Refined appearance of built-in Themes.
  • The text cursor shown during text input is now more pronounced for better visibility.

Improvements

  • Improved Instant Open behavior of indexing rules. For example, when you type EM to select the Emoji indexing rule and keep the M key pressed to trigger Instant Open, you now immediately get to the list of all Emoji symbols.
  • The Quick Look preview panel is now closed automatically when pressing Tab to invoke Send-to.
  • Improved support for 1Password.
  • Improved DuckDuckGo action for better compatibility with macOS Monterey.
  • Improved item list drawing performance.
  • Improved algorithm for determining plural forms used in category names.
  • Excluded duplicate Siri.app entry in applications index.
  • Script based custom actions that are selected in LaunchBar can now be opened in Action Editor using the new “Show in Action Editor” command from the context menu or by pressing Command-Return.
  • Improved layout of index window. The „Add Indexing Rule“ button has been moved to the bottom of the sidebar of the index window.

Bug Fixes

  • The “Skip Subfolders” indexing option is now properly considered for file packages when the „Search file package contents“ option is turned on.
  • Fixed: The color of Finder tags was no longer shown on macOS Monterey.
  • Corrected capitalization of some Emoji names.
  • Fixed: After invoking the “Clear Clipboard History” or “Clear Recent Items” actions, Instant Send was wrongly offered.
  • The “Mobile Phone” icon was too large in a pop-up menu of the Preferences window.
  • Fixed: Some icons were drawn with a shadow heading in the wrong direction.
  • Fixed: Thin grid lines in the search result list were not properly updated on selection changes.
  • Corrected text color in Usage window (some labels became invisible in Dark Mode due to their white text color).
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57

Thanks for the heads up, I might try it again then. I honestly thought it had become ‘abandon ware’ it was so glitchy on my Mac.

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Installing via LaunchBar’s “check for updates” failed. The OS complained that the app being replaced had a different name (“Launchbar” instead of the new “LaunchBar”). I updated by re-downloading from the web site. Then I had to manually quit Launchbar and manually launch the new version from inside Applications and verify the security prompt.

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Too little too late from my perspective.

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