Trawl vs Spotlight: what is the difference?

Spotlight is free, built into every Mac, and best for opening apps and finding files by name or by exact words inside documents. Trawl is a searchable memory of your Mac: it finds documents by what they mean, photos and screenshots by what is in them, the moment something was said in a recording, pages and YouTube videos from every browser, text you copied, and what you did hour by hour. It also searches hidden and system folders that Spotlight skips. Trawl costs $20 once; Spotlight is free.

The built-in way (free)

1. Use Spotlight (⌘ Space) when you know the file name or an exact word inside it.
2. Use Spotlight to open apps, settings and quick calculations. Trawl does not replace it.
3. Spotlight also shows some Safari history and, on macOS 26, a short clipboard history.

With Trawl

1. Press ⌥ Space and describe what you remember: "the lease for the Grand Baie flat", "the video about neural networks".
2. Press ⌘ D or type "what was I doing tuesday afternoon" to see your day.
3. Limits: Apple silicon and macOS 26 or later only; meaning search works best in English; $20 once, no free trial (14-day money-back).

Questions

Can I use Trawl and Spotlight together?

Yes. Trawl opens with ⌥ Space and leaves ⌘ Space to Spotlight.

Is Trawl faster than Spotlight?

Both answer name searches in under a second. On the maker's Mac, Trawl searches its own index in milliseconds and the whole disk by name in about half a second.

Related

• How do I find a file on my Mac when I don't remember its name?
• How do I search inside PDF files on a Mac?
• Can I search my Mac by meaning instead of keywords?
• How do I search inside Excel, PowerPoint, Pages, Numbers and Keynote files on a Mac?
• How do I find which zip file has a certain file in it?

Updated 2026-10-12.