Cleat vs Spotlight

Spotlight is on every Mac, it is free, and in macOS 26 it grew up: clipboard history, actions, quick keys. For many people it is enough. This page is about the gap that is left, written by the person who makes Cleat.

The short version

Stay with Spotlight if you open apps and files, do the odd sum, and never wished it did more.

Pick Cleat if you want clipboard search that sees images and the text inside screenshots, window snapping, timers that cannot hide, sums and dates that read like speech, an assistant you can keep on the Mac, extensions of your own, and a launcher that understands German, Spanish, French or Macedonian.

What both do

Open apps and files by name, run sums and unit conversions, search the web, and on macOS 26, search clipboard history and run actions from the field. Both open with ⌘Space; Cleat’s first-run tour offers to take that key over, or you can keep both and give Cleat another.

Where they differ

	Cleat	Spotlight (macOS 26)
Price	Free	Free, built in
Clipboard	Text and images, text inside screenshots searchable, pinning, paste into the app you came from	Text history with search
Windows	Halves, thirds, sizes by number, saved layouts	None
Sums and dates	tip 20% on 85, 3 hours ago, days until 25 dec, time in tokyo, 1 btc to usd, ans	Calculator, conversions, time zones
Timers	Timers, alarms, Pomodoro, ringing on top, menu bar countdown	Through Shortcuts or the Clock app
Tasks	task buy milk tomorrow, remind me in 20 min to call bob	Reminders through Siri or actions
Assistant	Apple Intelligence, a bundled local model, a local server, or your own key, in a chat	Siri and Apple Intelligence
Extensions	Any executable printing JSON	App Intents and Shortcuts
Browser tabs and history	Safari, Chrome, Arc, Brave, Edge and more	Safari history in results
Query languages	English, German, Spanish, French, Macedonian in the queries themselves	Follows the system language
Appearance	Eleven themes, accents, corners, typefaces	System look

What “answers before you finish typing” means

Spotlight searches. Cleat answers: 12 km to mi is a row with the number in it, left half is a row that moves the window, timer 25m is a row that starts counting, remind me in 20 min to call bob is a row with the time already parsed. Return does the thing; nothing else opens. That is the difference in feel, and it is easier to try than to describe: the front page has a browser simulation of the palette.

Frequently asked questions

Does Cleat replace Spotlight? It can take over ⌘Space and does everything Spotlight does, plus the list above. Spotlight’s index keeps running underneath; Cleat uses it for file search.

Does Cleat need the internet? No, except for cloud models and live currency rates. Everything else, the bundled model included, works offline.

Does Cleat send my searches anywhere? No. There is no account and no analytics. Cloud models see only what you send to ask after choosing one.

Is it worth installing next to something built in? If two or three rows on this page describe something you do every day, yes; if none do, no. Both are free, so the answer can come from using it.