Stilou vs Raycast
Raycast is the best launcher on the Mac and we are not competing for that title. Two things can share a hotkey and still be unrelated.
Choose Raycast if you want to open things fast — apps, files, windows, clipboard history, a thousand community extensions. It is the best launcher on the platform. Choose Stilou's Bar when the thing you need is not to open something but to write something, or to ask a question whose answer lives in your own history rather than on the web.
Which one should you actually use?
Almost certainly both, on different keys. This is the one comparison on the site where we genuinely expect people to keep the other app.
Raycast, without hesitation. Fuzzy app launching, window snapping, clipboard history, snippets, calculator, a huge extension store. The Bar does none of this and is not going to.
Raycast has a real extension ecosystem, an API and a community publishing to it constantly. Stilou is one app with no plugin surface, deliberately, and that will not suit everyone.
Raycast Pro starts at $8 a month with access to models from several providers. Stilou is $29. If you want a chat box on a hotkey, we are the expensive way to buy one.
Select a paragraph anywhere on the Mac, press the key, say what you want, and the Bar replaces it in place, written in your voice rather than a house style. That is the Bar's actual job and it is a writing job, not a launching one.
“What did Alex say about pricing?” is not a web question or a file-name question. The Bar answers it from your dictations, meetings, screenshots, notes and threads — and remembers that you asked.
Running Raycast on ⌘Space and Stilou's Bar on another key is a completely normal setup and the one we would suggest. They do not conflict.
Czym jest Raycast?
Raycast is a launcher and productivity layer for macOS that most people install to replace Spotlight. You press a hotkey, a bar appears, and you type — to open an app, find a file, snap a window, paste from clipboard history, run a script, expand a snippet, or trigger any of a very large library of community extensions. It is fast, keyboard-native and extremely well built, and for a lot of Mac users it is the first thing they install on a new machine.
It has added AI over time: Raycast Pro starts at $8 a month and includes access to models from several providers, with more capable models available as a paid add-on, plus a team plan for organisations.
Stilou's Bar looks like Raycast — a field summoned by a hotkey — and that resemblance causes most of the confusion this page exists to clear up. It cannot open an app. It cannot find a file by name. It has no extensions. What it can do is act on the text you have selected, and answer questions about your own work.
The Bar vs Raycast, side by side
Raycast pricing and features checked on raycast.com on 10 August 2026.
| Stilou (the Bar) | Raycast | |
|---|---|---|
| Launch apps and find files | No — not its job | Yes, and it is excellent |
| Window management | No | Yes |
| Clipboard history and snippets | No | Yes |
| Extension ecosystem | No — one app, one brain | Yes, large and active |
| Act on the text you selected | Yes — replaces it in place | Limited, via AI commands |
| Writes in your own voice | Yes, learned from your writing | No — model default |
| Answers from your own history | Yes — meetings, notes, threads, screenshots | No |
| Answers about the world | Yes, in Connected mode | Yes |
| Remembers what you asked | Yes — kept as a dot, searchable | No |
| Dictate into it | Yes | Via system dictation |
| Works with no network | Yes, in Private mode | Local search yes; AI needs the network |
| Paid price | From $29/mo | From $8/mo, advanced models as an add-on |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes, with AI limits |
| Team plan | No | Yes |
Four of the first five rows go to Raycast outright. That is the correct result — they are a launcher and we are not.
One of these opens things. The other one writes things.
The command-bar shape has become so standard that it now hides what the thing behind it actually does. Spotlight, Alfred and Raycast are all the same fundamental tool: an index of what exists on your machine, with a fast way to reach it. They answer the question “where is it?”, and Raycast answers it better than the others.
The Bar answers a different question, which is “can you deal with this?” The paragraph is already in front of you; you do not need to find it, you need it to be shorter, or kinder, or in English. Or the question is “what did we decide?”, where nothing on disk has that filename and no web search can help, because the answer is spread across a call, a thread and a note you made in a taxi.
That second category is where the brain matters, and it is why the Bar cannot be an extension in someone else's launcher. Answering “what did Alex say about pricing” requires having captured what Alex said in the first place — from a meeting Joey sat in on, a Slack thread the connector read, a screenshot you took of the quote. A plugin bolted onto a launcher has access to none of that, no matter how good the model behind it is.
Where Raycast is the better choice
- It is a superb launcher and we are not oneIf your daily friction is reaching apps, files and windows, Raycast removes it and Stilou does nothing for you at all.
- The extension libraryHundreds of integrations written by people who needed them. Stilou has no plugin surface and no plans for one, which means if we have not built it, it does not exist.
- It is much cheaperFrom $8 a month against $29. For AI-on-a-hotkey alone, they are the sensible purchase.
- Model choiceSeveral providers, switchable, with more capable models as an add-on. Stilou picks for you.
- Teams and shared configurationRaycast has a team plan. Stilou has no team concept whatsoever.
- It is a known quantityYears of releases, a large user base and an active community. We are new.
If what you want is a better launcher — window snapping, clipboard history, a hundred extensions — install Raycast and keep it. Come to the Bar when the thing you keep needing is not to open something, but to write something.
Looking for a Raycast alternative?
If you are searching that because you want a better launcher, Stilou is the wrong recommendation and we would point you at Alfred or back at Raycast. We do not index your applications and we cannot open a file.
If you are searching it because Raycast AI keeps giving you competent answers that have nothing to do with your actual work — because it does not know your week — then the Bar is worth a look. That gap is not a model problem and a better model will not close it. It is a context problem, and context is the only thing we build.
Warto wiedzieć. Keep Raycast. Genuinely. Put the Bar on ⌥Space and let the two coexist for a fortnight before deciding anything.
Najczęstsze pytania
Can Stilou's Bar replace Raycast?
No. It cannot launch applications, find files by name, manage windows or run extensions, and those are the reasons most people install Raycast. It is a writing and asking surface that happens to share the command-bar shape. The intended setup is both, on different keys.
Is Stilou's Bar better than Raycast AI?
At general questions, no — Raycast gives you a choice of frontier models and we do not. At questions about your own work, yes, and by a wide margin, because the Bar is reading a memory of your meetings, notes, screenshots and threads while Raycast AI is reading your prompt. Different inputs, not different intelligence.
Which is cheaper?
Raycast, substantially. Pro starts at $8 a month against $29 for Stilou, and both offer a free tier.
Does the Bar work offline?
Yes, in Private mode, including rewrites and questions answered from your own brain. Raycast's local search works offline but its AI features need a connection.
Does Stilou have extensions?
No, and this is a deliberate limitation rather than a roadmap item. One app with one memory is easier to reason about for privacy, and a plugin surface would mean third-party code reaching your brain. It also means if we have not built the integration you want, you cannot add it yourself — which is a real cost and Raycast does not have it.
Skąd te informacje
Wszystko, co napisaliśmy wyżej o produkcie Raycast, pochodzi z jego własnej strony i dokumentacji, sprawdzonych w podanym dniu. Produkty się zmieniają — jeśli znajdziesz tu coś nieaktualnego, napisz na hi@stilou.app, a poprawimy.
- Raycast — Prosprawdzono 10 Aug 2026
- Raycast — official sitesprawdzono 10 Aug 2026