Product facts on this page were checked against publisher documentation on . Software changes. Confirm important details with the publisher before you rely on them.
Where they overlap
Free Alfred already searches the Mac, runs web searches, calculates, and runs system commands. Free Raycast adds clipboard history, snippets, window management, Quicklinks, and an extension store to its own free examples. Alfred moves clipboard history, snippets, and workflows into the Powerpack. The overlap is real on a Mac. The packaging is different.
Where the purchase differs
Alfred's shop, reviewed on 21 October 2026, showed a Single User v5 license at £34 and a Mega Supporter license at £59. The license page says the single-user license covers one person on two of their Macs for the current major version, and the Mega Supporter license includes future updates. Corporate licenses exist at unpublished prices in the pages reviewed. There is no monthly AI credit in those help pages.
Raycast's paid plans were subscriptions in US dollars, with AI credits. You cannot buy Raycast from RaycastWork. You also should not treat a pound price and a dollar price as a simple arithmetic contest. They buy different things, and either price page can change tomorrow.
Workflows and extensions
Alfred's Powerpack is built around a workflow editor, Automation Tasks, and community workflows. Raycast's equivalent split is the Store, a React and TypeScript API, and lighter script commands. Someone who already maintains Alfred workflows has a switching cost that a feature table cannot erase. Someone who needs the same extension on Windows does not have an Alfred path in the documentation reviewed.
AI
Raycast documents a multi-model assistant with plan limits. Alfred's official feature pages reviewed for this comparison do not. A community workflow might call another service. That possibility is not a first-party AI plan, and this site did not audit the Alfred forum.
Who should lean which way
Lean Alfred if you are on a Mac, prefer a one-time license, and want the Powerpack workflow editor. Lean Raycast if Windows matters, or if the Store and the documented AI plans are the point of the purchase. Lean neither if Spotlight already opens what you need. Neither lean is a verdict that one app is universally superior.