Hot off the press! @Raycast for iOS just got "its biggest update yet." Dictation, AI commands, Snippets, and Quicklinks are now accessible from the keyboard.
Reviews hail Raycast for speed, keyboard-first flow, and an extension ecosystem that replaces multiple utilities. Many switch from Spotlight and Alfred, citing polished UX, reliable updates, and generous free features, with Pro praised for seamless AI access. Makers of
say it underpins daily dev workflows and accelerates shipping. Users commend clipboard history, snippets, notes, and integrations; some want broader platform support, cheaper AI, or easier remote setup. Overall, a beloved productivity hub that becomes hard to live without.
fast performance (17)AI integration (14)productivity boost (37)macOS integration (13)
I love Raycast. It's probably the single best app I've discovered in the past couple of years. You see, I've always been someone who preferred the convenience and speed of the command line - which is hard to find nowadays. Raycast allowed me to have the same experience inside my Mac. I use it for everything. It even fixed the slowness of the Apple's in-built emoji add-on. Also, I don't like to pay for AI but my company gave me a Claude API key I can use. Guess what? Now I have an AI-enabled Spotlight inside my very OS. I even started playing with locally hosted models thanks to that; just so I can have more privacy. All in all, Raycast is amazing and I'm not even paying for the subscription. I don't think I can go back to the vanilla MacOS spotlight.
What needs improvement
I had trouble setting up remote MCPs, but that could just be me. Also, the iOS app doesn't let me use my Claude API code.
I started with Raycast because of a friend who recommended it to me. And although I tried similar apps like Alfred and Monarch, I kept coming back to Raycast. Not necessarily because it's better (the other two are incredibly powerful too), just because at that point I had already developed a habit. So yeah, just be careful which one of these do you try first. There might not be a way back.
I use Raycast for everything. It's what I expected from Apple and their OS, but instead, we get something much more robust than Apple would ever dare attempting to integrate. My team and collaborators live in different cities, and I have saved so much time and cognitive load just using Raycast to find out the time difference between where I am, and where the person I'm writing an email to is. Not to mention, I have integrated Raycast with Linear, and it is super helpful to create issues without having to leave the context window I'm in.
I started using Raycast around 3 months ago. It now serves as my general software interface for macOS. My productivity gains have been considerable.
- Saved time: I'd estimate Raycast saves me at least 30 mins per day by accelerating hundreds of my small interactions (combined with the custom scripts that I've written, which Raycast calls).
- Extra functionality: Raycast's AI provides extra functionality. It is my mode way to communicate with LLMs. I send 10s of request per day, which I activate with a shortcut.
While very good, Raycast AI could be improved. I'd like Raycast to allow the user to specify which model the AI can use with more control (e.g., allow the user to specify the AI endpoint, so allowing the user to use the latest model as soon as the model is released).
In short, Raycast is superb. I recommend Raycast to anyone with a macOS do wants to do more in less time.