Spotlight is good
until the name is all you remember
This is not a "Spotlight replacement" manifesto. Spotlight is an excellent general search — but it has to serve contents, mail, the web, dictionaries and Siri suggestions all at once. Locseek takes one of those facets and drives it to milliseconds.
What each one is good at
| Scenario | Locseek | Spotlight |
|---|---|---|
| You remember the name, or part of it, and want it now | ✓ Milliseconds | Sometimes spins, or mixes in other categories |
| Files on external drives, USB sticks and NAS | ✓ All in scope (Pro) | Coverage varies by volume and settings |
Hidden files and the inside of .app bundles | ✓ In scope by default | Usually not shown |
node_modules, .git, build artifacts | Excluded by default; Pro can allow | Usually not shown |
| Filtering by regex, size, date and path together | ✓ One line (Pro) | — |
| Finding files by their contents (full text) | Out of scope | ✓ |
| Mail, messages, web, dictionary, conversions | Out of scope | ✓ |
We put the "out of scope" rows in plain sight: because Locseek's index holds only names and metadata, it is lighter on your disk, friendlier to your privacy — and faster at the one thing it does.
Because it is the shortest path
Small index, therefore fast
Nothing is parsed, so both index size and memory stay tiny — around 24 MB of physical memory just after launch, and no more than 150 MB of index at a million entries (internal benchmarking, terms here). It barely disturbs your Mac.
Clear boundaries, therefore accurate
Results come only from file and folder names, ranked transparently: exact > prefix > word-start > contains, with recent modification breaking ties. No algorithmic black box.
Data stays put
No network, no telemetry. What you searched for, and what files you have, is known only to this Mac.
The pairing we suggest:keep using Spotlight for broad retrieval (⌘Space), and put Locseek on ⌥Space for going straight to a file by name. They do not interfere with each other.
Give Spotlight a name-search specialist
The free tier is free forever; requires macOS 12 or later.