Alfred review

Alfred is a Mac launcher, and its snippet and text expansion features come with the paid Powerpack. You can save a clipboard entry as a snippet with Cmd + S or build snippets in preferences, group them into collections and give a whole collection a prefix such as an exclamation mark to avoid accidental expansion. Dynamic placeholders insert the date, time, clipboard items and date arithmetic, and {cursor} sets where the cursor lands. Snippets can be rich text or plain text, can be exported for sharing, and can trigger Alfred workflows to run actions on the Mac. Alfred does not listen for typing in secure fields, so snippets never expand inside password boxes. Auto-expansion is disabled by default and must be switched on. The Powerpack is a one-time license, and current buyers get a free upgrade to Alfred 6. There are no Windows or iOS apps and no fill-in forms, so dedicated expanders offer more for template-heavy work.

Who it is for

Mac power users who already use Alfred workflows

Price

See vendor pricing (USD check pending).

US price check pending. See the vendor pricing page.

Key features

• Snippets organized in collections with collection-wide prefixes or suffixes
• Dynamic placeholders for date, time, clipboard content and cursor position
• Save a clipboard entry as a snippet with Cmd + S
• Snippets can trigger Alfred workflows
• Rich text or plain text snippets

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: Powerpack is a one-time license, and buyers of Alfred 5 get a free upgrade to Alfred 6
• Strength: Does not expand snippets in secure fields such as password boxes
• Strength: Snippets can be exported and shared with colleagues
• Weakness: Snippets and text expansion require the paid Powerpack
• Weakness: Mac only, with no Windows or mobile expansion
• Weakness: Auto-expansion is off by default and must be enabled in preferences

Key facts

• Platform: macOS
• License: Powerpack, one-time purchase
• Upgrade: Free upgrade to Alfred 6 for Alfred 5 Powerpack buyers
• Placeholders: {date}, {time}, {datetime}, {clipboard}, {cursor}

Where it ranks

Alfred is No. 8 in our Best Text Expanders verdict.