Launchers — LaunchBar, Alfred, and Raycast — are amongst the most popular productivity utilities for macOS. Have you ever wondered which launcher is the most popular? We don’t know the definitive truth about this. However, we did a survey in which we asked Hookmark users several questions regarding their use of launchers.
1. Launcher usage
We asked our users:
Which of the following launchers do you currently use ?
- Launchbar
- Raycast
- Alfred
- None
We got these results:
So 100% of respondents told us that they use a launcher. That tells us something interesting about Hookmark and its users. Hookmark is a tool that contextually facilitates access to information. Launchers are tools to access information in a context-free manner. Hookmark works well with launchers, adding functionality that launchers lack, as discussed in our previous post.
Alfred was preferred, followed by Raycast, and then Launchbar. This is not a scientific study, but the data are interesting nonetheless.
2. Most popular Hookmark launcher extensions
We were curious how many people use a Hookmark launcher extension. So we asked them:
Which of the following have you installed?
- the Launchbar action for Hookmark,
- the Alfred workflow for Hookmark, or
- a Raycast extension for Hookmark?
71% of users installed at least one of these extensions. The installation rates were as follows:
3. Should CogSci Apps improve existing extensions?
Currently the Alfred workflow for Hookmark and the LaunchBar Action for Hookmark only allow users to browse Hookmark’s bookmarks. The Raycast extension for Hookmark has more commands, but is still incomplete (and is not designed by CogSci Apps Corp.). So we asked our users:
Would you like to access Hookmark’s commands (
Copy Link,Copy As Markdown Link,Hook to Copied Link, etc.) directly through your favorite launcher?
Here are the results:
So, clearly many of our users love launchers and want to access Hookmark functions through them. This suggests we should consider improving the Launchbar action and Alfred workflow, while improving upon the existing Raycast extension. (We think the Raycast extension should also be renamed. It’s currently called “Hookmark Search”, but it does a lot more than that.)
4. The Raycast extension for Hookmark
Based on data from Raycast’s website, we know that as of 2024-09-05, The Raycast extension for Hookmark has been installed by 866 users.
5. How popular is the Quicklinks feature in Raycast?
Raycast has a Quicklinks feature that allows you to create custom shortcuts to quickly access websites and files, or run scripts directly from Raycast. It’s designed to streamline workflows by reducing the number of steps needed to open frequently used resources.
We were curious about the popularity of the Quicklinks, so we asked our users:
Do you use the Quicklinks feature in Raycast?
Here are the results:
As you can see, 64.7% of users who answered this question said they use the Raycast Quicklink feature.
Note that LaunchBar has a similar but more limited feature set for this: aliases and abbreviations.
Hookmark enables users to rename links, which they can access either in a contextual manner or in the search window.
A note about terminology
Somewhat confusingly, whereas Raycast calls its extensions “extensions”, Launchbar refers to them as “actions” and Alfred calls them “workflows”. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.