Cleat vs Alfred

Alfred has been the Mac launcher for people who care about keyboards since 2010, and its workflow ecosystem is the deepest there is. I used it for years before building Cleat. This page says where the two overlap and where they part, written by Cleat’s maker; take it as one side of the story.

The short version

Pick Alfred if you rely on workflows other people have built, want a mature product with a long track record, or prefer a one-time Powerpack with a free base.

Pick Cleat if you want sums, dates and timers that read like speech, clipboard search that sees inside screenshots, an assistant built in and kept local, queries in four languages, and window snapping without a workflow.

What both do

Launch apps and files, search clipboard history, expand snippets, run system commands, search the web with keywords, and extend the launcher with scripts. Both are native, neither needs an account, and Cleat is free with the full feature set.

Where they differ

	Cleat	Alfred
Price	Free, every feature	Free base; Powerpack one-time, with a paid upgrade per major version
Extensions	Any executable printing JSON, one file, no store	Workflows built visually or in scripts, large community gallery
Clipboard	Text and images, text inside screenshots searchable, pinning	Text, images and files with search and snippets, on Powerpack
Sums and conversions	12 km to mi, tip 20% on 85, 100 usd to eur, 1 btc to usd, 3 hours ago, time in tokyo	Basic calculator built in; conversions through workflows
Windows	Halves, thirds, sizes by number, saved layouts	Not built in; workflows exist
Timers	Timers, alarms and Pomodoro built in, ringing on top, menu bar countdown	Workflows
Assistant	Apple Intelligence, bundled local model, local server, or your own key	Workflows that call an API
Query languages	English, German, Spanish, French, Macedonian	English, with localized workflows
Shortcuts app	Eleven App Intents	Workflow triggers
Mac support	macOS 15+, Apple silicon	Older macOS and Intel supported

Workflows against extensions

Alfred’s workflows are a visual canvas of triggers, scripts and outputs, and the gallery holds years of community work: nearly anything you want has been built. That ecosystem is Alfred’s strongest argument and Cleat cannot match it.

Cleat’s extensions are deliberately smaller: an executable that prints JSON rows. There is nothing to wire up and nothing to learn beyond your own language, and the trade is that you build what you need rather than browse for it.

What Cleat has built in that Alfred leaves to workflows

Window snapping, timers and alarms, tasks and Apple Reminders from plain words, browser tabs and history, time zones and date maths, currency and crypto, a QR code, a password generator, an on-device translator, and the assistant. In Alfred each of these is a workflow you install and maintain; in Cleat they are rows that ship with the app and get tested with every release.

Frequently asked questions

Can Cleat import my Alfred data? Snippets and clipboard history, yes, from Settings › Snippets and Settings › Clipboard. Workflows, no.

Does Cleat run on Intel Macs? No. Alfred does, and if you have an Intel Mac that settles it.

Can I keep Alfred for its workflows? Yes. Many people run Cleat on ⌘Space and Alfred on its old key for the two or three workflows they cannot live without.

Is Cleat cheaper? Yes. Cleat is free, every feature and every update included, where the Powerpack is a one-time purchase with a paid step at each major version.