# Quicksilver

8 Hacker News commenters recommended Quicksilver and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free Mac app launcher people call a revelation and fondly remember. Common caveat: it crashed some users a couple of times a week.

## Why people recommend it

- Remembered fondly as a revelation (2 comments): "Loved Quicksilver back in the day." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47147618)) "Quicksilver was a revelation." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46217049))
- Works well as a Spotlight alternative (2 comments): "alfred and quicksilver etc. all work surprisingly well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49708822)) "I use Quicksilver and I have Spotlight disabled." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46650840))

## What people warn about

- Crashed a couple times a week (1 comments): "it was the best , even though it crashed my computer a couple of times a week" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49897186))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Raycast](https://hackerapproved.com/p/raycast.md): 95 recommend
- [Alfred for macOS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/alfred.md): 55 recommend
- [Spotlight](https://hackerapproved.com/p/spotlight.md): 43 recommend
- [Tuna launcher for macOS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tuna.md): 10 recommend
- [Vicinae](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vicinae.md): 9 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Quicksilver", https://hackerapproved.com/p/quicksilver/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).