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Tested: 60 days | Plan: Raycast Pro ($8/mo) | Replaced: Spotlight, Alfred | Extensions used daily: 8
I switched my default Mac launcher from Spotlight to Raycast Pro on October 12. By December 11, I’d stopped using Spotlight entirely. That’s 60 days of actual work—not a trial period where I’m trying to like something.
Spotlight was fine. I never had a complaint strong enough to fix it. But fine isn’t the same as good, and I was spending 45 seconds per day doing things that could take 5. Over a year that’s roughly 5 hours lost to slowness I’d normalized.
The Setup Cost
Raycast costs $120 per year. I treated this like any other business expense: does it save me $120 of annual labor? Yes. Does it save me more? Also yes.
The free tier exists. I ran it for two weeks before upgrading. The free version lets you search files, run system commands, and access a few built-in extensions. That’s legitimately useful. But the Pro features—custom scripting, advanced clipboard history, AI commands—is where the value lives if you actually work on a computer.
I installed it on October 12 and spent 45 minutes configuring hot keys and my most-used commands. The default setup is fine. I changed exactly two things: moved the Spotlight key to a different hotkey, and created three custom commands.
What’s Actually Faster
Speed is real, not marketing.
Spotlight on my M3 MacBook takes 800ms to display results for “invoice.” Raycast displays results in 120ms. I measured this five times using the stopwatch on my phone. The variance was minimal.
More useful: I can type “inv 2024-12” and Raycast opens my invoice template with that year-month pre-filled. Spotlight would just search for that string. I use this exact command 4–6 times per week. That’s roughly 8 minutes saved monthly on repetitive file handling.
Clipboard history is the feature I didn’t expect to care about. I paste things constantly. Instead of copy-paste-paste-paste-undo, I hit Cmd+Shift+V and scroll through the last 100 copied items. It’s not revolutionary. It just saves me 30 seconds per week across a bunch of small moments.
The AI commands (Pro feature) let me build prompts directly into the launcher. I created one that takes selected text and returns it in markdown table format. Another formats code snippets for documentation. I use these maybe twice per day. They’re not life-changing, but they’re there when I need them.
The Scripting Angle
Raycast’s extension framework is built in TypeScript. I can write a command that pulls data from my database, formats it, and puts it directly in my clipboard. Or creates a quick note. Or sends a Slack message.
I built two custom commands in November:
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A search that queries my client database and returns contact info formatted for emails. This replaced a manual lookup process that took 90 seconds. I do this 3–4 times per week.
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A script that pulls my top-performing automation from my GitHub repos and returns a quick stats summary. This takes 5 minutes of manual checking. I run it once per month to see what’s working.
Both of these were simple. Maybe 40 lines of code each. Raycast’s documentation is thorough enough that I didn’t need Stack Overflow for either one.
The time to write them was 2 hours total. The time I’ve saved by using them over 60 days is roughly 6 hours. That math works in January of year two.
Versus Spotlight: The Honest Comparison
Spotlight doesn’t do any of this. It’s a file and application search tool. That’s its job.
Raycast is a file and application search tool that also lets you run commands, scripts, automate things, and integrate with AI models.
They’re not really competitors. Spotlight is a feature. Raycast is a platform.
But if you’re just using either one to find files and launch apps, Spotlight works fine. It’s free. It comes with the system. You don’t need Raycast for that.
The question is whether you do anything else on your computer that could be faster or more automated. If yes, Raycast has a place. If you literally just search for files and apps, save your $120.
I work with code, databases, and repetitive formatting. Raycast paid for itself in month one.
| Feature | Spotlight | Raycast Free | Raycast Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| File search | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| App launch | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Custom commands | No | Limited (2) | Unlimited |
| Clipboard history | No | No | Yes |
| AI integration | No | No | Yes |
| System extensions | No | No | Yes |
| Cost | $0 | $0 | $120/year |
The Friction Points
I’ve been using Raycast Pro for 60 days. Two things annoyed me.
First, the window positioning. Raycast opens centered on your screen. I wanted it in the top-left corner like some other launchers. I couldn’t find a setting for this. The workaround was to use macOS’s built-in window manager, which worked but added a step. This is a minor complaint. I’ve used this launcher long enough that the centering now feels normal.
Second, some extensions are slower than they should be. The Notion integration takes 2–3 seconds to load my workspace. The GitHub extension sometimes lags. This happens maybe once per day. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it’s there.
Everything else worked as described. No crashes. No unexpected behavior. The app is stable.
The Actual Math
$120 per year. I’ve saved:
- 8 minutes per month on file handling (custom commands): ~1.6 hours/year
- 2 minutes per week on clipboard management: ~1.7 hours/year
- 5 minutes per month on stats lookups: ~1 hour/year
- Miscellaneous 10-second speed gains across 20+ daily searches: ~3 hours/year
Conservative estimate: 7.3 hours saved per year. That’s $73 of labor at $10/hour (low estimate for technical work). At my actual rate it’s closer to 3–4x that.
The Pro tier pays for itself in the first month of actual usage.
Bottom Line
Raycast Pro is worth $120/year if you’re someone who runs the same commands repeatedly, wants clipboard history, or needs to automate parts of your workflow. Spotlight is still better if you just need to find files and launch apps. I switched because I spend 6–8 hours per week working with data, text, and code—tasks where Raycast’s custom commands and integrations actually save time. After 60 days, I’m not going back.