an Alfred alternative that is not a launcher
updated · by Anton Shakirov
Alfred is a launcher: a hotkey, a search field, results as you type, and workflows built on top. hop is eighteen tools behind a menu bar icon, and exactly two of them touch what Alfred does. if you are here for the workflows, this is not the page — and the sooner that is said, the less of your evening it costs.
hop does not replace Alfred. it replaces one or two lines on Alfred's feature list, and on macOS 26 Spotlight covers most of those for nothing. read on only if the Powerpack was on your list mainly for clipboard history.
what Alfred is built for, and what the Powerpack costs
a keyboard-first Mac. Alfred has been built around that shape for about two decades, and the shape is the product: your hands stay where they were, a hotkey brings up a field, and what you wanted is two or three letters away. the core app is free. the Powerpack is what adds workflows, clipboard history, snippets and deeper file search.
there are two licences, and pages quoting one price are quoting half of it. checked on 10 September 2026 in the vendor's own shop: a Single License is £34 — one user, two of your own Macs, current version only, so a future major release is a paid upgrade. a Mega Supporter licence is £59, with free updates for the lifetime of the app. at that day's rate, roughly $46 and $80 — the dollar figures repeated around the web were converted when the pound was cheaper and run low.
the free-versus-subscription argument does not apply here
kill this one early, because almost every list of alternatives reaches for it. the Powerpack is a one-time purchase: no renewal, and no month where the tool stops working because a card expired. «free instead of a subscription» is an argument you can make against plenty of Mac software, and not one you can honestly make against this.
so this page will not. what is left is narrower and duller: on the one or two things that overlap there is nothing to pay, and on everything else Alfred is simply the tool for the job.
what hop has in place of a launcher is a list you click, not a field you type into — the shape of it, in full: app launcher
where Alfred is better than anything here
the longest section here, on purpose: you came looking for a replacement, and the useful thing is to say early how much of what you would be replacing is missing.
workflows are the reason people pay
a workflow is a small automation: an input, a chain of actions, a keyword or hotkey to fire it, assembled in a visual editor. people build them for the chore they do six times a day — pulling a ticket number out of a branch name, running a script against whatever is selected — and shared ones install in a click.
there is nothing of that here. no scripting surface, no keyword triggers, no editor, and no plan to build one. if workflows are what sent you to a Powerpack page, stop reading now: that is the honest answer, and no table further down is going to soften it.
snippets and text expansion sit in the same bracket — Powerpack, not here. neither is file search: Alfred indexes your disk and searches it from the same field, and hop does not look at your disk unless you hand it a file.
typing versus pointing
under the feature list there is a plainer difference. Alfred assumes your hands are on the keyboard and that you would rather learn a keyword than hunt for a button. hop assumes the opposite: a panel drops out of the menu bar and you click what you want. neither is better in general, and people are split on it — but it does mean «alternative» here cannot mean «the same thing, cheaper». someone who switched expecting the same muscle memory would be disappointed within the hour, and would be right to be.
we have not audited Alfred feature by feature, so none of this is a claim about what it lacks. it describes what is missing on our side.
the one thing here that does answer to a hotkey rather than a click is window snapping, on ⌃⌥: window manager
what macOS 26 already took off this Alfred comparison
part of the overlap stopped belonging to either of us. macOS 26 Tahoe moved a clipboard history and an apps screen into Spotlight: ⌘Space, then ⌘4 for what you copied, or ⌘1 for the apps on the machine. two of the reasons people bought the Powerpack are now a keystroke on a stock Mac.
Apple documents the four Spotlight modes and the shortcut for each: narrow your search results in Spotlight
two things about the clipboard half that Apple's page does not say, checked in the interface on 10 September 2026, macOS 26.6.2. it is off until you turn it on — System Settings → Spotlight, at the bottom of a long panel, a switch named «Results from Clipboard» — and the same section carries the horizon: eight hours on a Mac nobody has changed, with a stepper beside it.
Apple's own page on the clipboard section, and how to clear it: search your clipboard history in Spotlight
the short version, before the details. if you want the launcher, buy the Powerpack or keep Alfred's free core — nothing here helps. if the Powerpack was on your list mainly for clipboard history and you are on Tahoe, try ⌘4 first: it costs nothing and it is already installed. read the rest only if eight hours is shorter than the way you work, or if the Mac in front of you is older than Tahoe, where none of this exists.
the horizon argument in full, including what the built-in panel does and does not let you set: clipboard manager for Mac
the clipboard was not the only thing that release moved, if you have just updated and things are not where you left them: what macOS 26 changed for menu bar apps
where an Alfred alternative like hop actually overlaps
two tools out of eighteen: clipboard history, and a list of the apps you open. an earlier version of this page said one, which was flattering to us and wrong.
the clipboard side keeps the last hundred things you copied, up to three hundred if you raise it — text, images and files. copied files are held by name, several at once showing as «name +N», and pasting puts the actual file back rather than a path. passwords and other concealed input are never written down. it is a count, not a clock, and that is the whole difference with what Tahoe gives you.
| what you are doing | Alfred, or the built-in route | with hop |
|---|---|---|
| you want workflows, snippets, or a hotkey that runs a chain of steps | Alfred with the Powerpack. this is what it was built for | hop does not do this and is not going to. buy the Powerpack |
| you want to open an app by typing three letters | Alfred's free core, or Spotlight ⌘1 — both cost nothing | there is a list of apps in the panel, but you click it |
| you copied over the address you were about to paste, this morning | ⌘Space, ⌘4. free, and already on the machine | not needed. use Spotlight |
| the snippet you want is from Tuesday | the built-in window is a clock — eight hours unless you move it | the last hundred entries, three hundred if you raise it |
| the Mac in front of you is on Sequoia or earlier | no built-in history at all; the Powerpack starts at £34 | works on macOS 14 and up, at no cost |
switching the built-in one on, and what to do when ⌘4 opens something else — the procedure end of this: find something you copied earlier
one thing the count buys: text hop lifts off the screen lands in the same history. read a serial number off a paused video and it sits in the list beside what you copied by hand.
where that text comes from, and what it can be pulled off: text recognition
the sixteen tools Alfred was never about
two of eighteen overlap. the other sixteen sit outside what a launcher does at all, and listing them is the only way to stop this being read as a feature-for-feature comparison.
- text recognition — pull text off a paused video or a locked pdf
- system monitor — cpu and gpu temperatures, memory, battery health
- archives — open rar, 7z and tar, and pack files back up
- file converter — images, video, audio and documents, offline
- colour picker — hex, rgb and hsl without a screen recording permission
- window layouts, keep-awake, a timer, a time tracker, a speed test and more
the one people arrive for most often, usually because a form rejected a file: file converter
none of that is a criticism of Alfred: a launcher is not supposed to read your gpu temperature, and marking it down for that would be arguing in bad faith. it is only that «alternative» here means a different set of tools, not a smaller version of the same one.
the other one people notice first, usually when the fans come on: system monitor
trying an Alfred alternative without deciding anything
- keep Alfred running — the two do not conflict, and nothing here needs it gone
- on macOS 26, turn on «Results from Clipboard» in System Settings → Spotlight and live with ⌘4 for a week. it is free, and it settles the question for most people
- if eight hours keeps running out before you do, download hop — about 6 mb, no account, macOS 14 or later
- for a week, reach for its clipboard instead. what you are testing is the horizon, not the features
- if the Powerpack was on your list mainly for clipboard history, that is £34 you have now tested against — and Spotlight tested it for free first
running both is the ordinary outcome, not a compromise: Alfred for launching and for everything built on the keyboard, hop for the clipboard and the sixteen things you look at rather than type.
frequently asked questions
- does hop replace Alfred?
- no. Alfred is a launcher with workflows and snippets; hop is a menu bar panel of eighteen tools. two overlap — clipboard history and a list of apps — and nothing here replaces the rest.
- does hop have workflows or snippets?
- neither, and both are core to what the Powerpack is for. if that is what you are shopping for, the Powerpack is the answer and this page will not pretend otherwise.
- how much is the Alfred powerpack?
- two licences, checked on 10 September 2026: a Single License at £34 for one user on two of your own Macs, current version only, and a Mega Supporter licence at £59 with free lifetime upgrades — roughly $46 and $80 at that day's rate. a one-time purchase, not a subscription.
- is clipboard history free in Alfred?
- no, it is part of the Powerpack. but on macOS 26 your Mac keeps one anyway — ⌘Space, then ⌘4, once you switch «Results from Clipboard» on in System Settings. try that before paying anyone.
- why would i use hop's clipboard instead of the built-in one?
- one narrow reason: the built-in history is a clock — eight hours by default — while hop keeps a count, the last hundred entries and up to three hundred. that, and it does not exist at all before macOS 26.
- can i run both?
- yes, and most people who end up here should. they do not conflict — one for launching and automating, one for the tools you point at.
the hop side of this
clipboard history — everything you copied — text, links, screenshots and whole files.
about the author
Anton Shakirovmakes hop
makes hop and every page on this site. eighteen tools under a single menu bar icon, MIT licensed and open source. reads and answers issues and email himself.