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Cleat vs Raycast
An honest comparison of Cleat and Raycast for the Mac: what each does, how extensions and AI differ, what each costs, and who should pick which.
Raycast is the launcher most people compare Cleat with, and for good reason: it is polished, fast and mostly free. This page is for the person deciding between the two. It is written by the person who makes Cleat, so read it with that in mind, and correct me by email if a line is wrong.
The short version
Pick Raycast if you want the largest extension store, team features, cloud sync across Macs, or a free tier that covers most of what a launcher does.
Pick Cleat if you want no account and no telemetry, an assistant that can be fully local, extensions that are plain executables, queries in more than one language, and no price at all.
What both do
Open apps and files by name, search clipboard history, snap windows, do sums and unit conversions, run snippets, search emoji, and expose an AI assistant. Both are native Mac apps, both support Apple silicon, and both open in a keystroke.
Where they differ
| Cleat | Raycast | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, every feature | Free core; Pro subscription for AI, sync and more |
| Account | None | Required for Pro, sync and AI |
| Telemetry | None | Yes, with opt-out |
| Assistant | Apple Intelligence, a model bundled in the app, a local server, or your own API key | Raycast AI with cloud models on Pro; bring-your-own-key options |
| Extensions | Any executable that prints JSON, no SDK, no store | TypeScript SDK, curated store with thousands of extensions |
| Clipboard | Text and images, text inside screenshots is searchable, pinning | Text, images, links, with search and pinning |
| Windows | Halves, thirds, sizes by number, saved layouts | Window management with more presets and a hotkey per position |
| Timers | Timers, alarms and Pomodoro that ring on top of everything, menu bar countdown | Timers through extensions |
| Query languages | English, German, Spanish, French, Macedonian in the queries themselves | English |
| Shortcuts app | Eleven App Intents | App Intents |
| Team features | None | Team extensions and shared quicklinks on Pro |
| Sync | None; settings are files you can copy | Cloud sync on Pro |
Extensions, in practice
Raycast extensions are TypeScript projects built with a React-like UI kit and published through a review process. The result is a large, consistent store, and a real barrier for a one-off script.
A Cleat extension is a file in a folder that prints one JSON object per line: a title, a subtitle, and what to do on Return. Bash, Python, Swift, anything. The bundled currency converter is a forty-line shell script. There is no store; you copy a file. If you want to browse a thousand community extensions, Raycast has them and Cleat does not.
AI, in practice
Raycast AI is a subscription feature with cloud models, well integrated across the app. Cleat’s ask opens a chat where you choose the model: Apple Intelligence, a model bundled inside the app that runs on the Mac, a local server such as Ollama or LM Studio, or your own OpenAI, Claude or Grok key. The default never leaves the machine, and there is no extra charge beyond whatever your own key costs. Translation and dictation are on-device too.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use both? Yes. Give one of them ⌘Space and the other a different key. Nothing conflicts.
Does Cleat import from Raycast? Snippets, yes. Extensions, no, since the formats have nothing in common.
Is Cleat faster? Both open in a keystroke. Cleat’s index lives in memory and the app has no web view, so the palette appears in under a frame on every Mac I have tried. I have not benchmarked Raycast and will not claim numbers I have not measured.
Which is better? For most people who already use Raycast and are happy, Raycast. For people who left it over the account, the telemetry, the subscription, or who want their assistant local, Cleat. Cleat is free, so the choice costs nothing to test.