Recoll
Recoll is an open source desktop search application for Linux and Windows. It indexes files and documents to allow fast searching from your computer. Recoll has advanced search features like boolean operators, wildcards, and regex.
Recoll: Open Source Desktop Search for Linux & Windows
Advanced file indexing and searching for fast results, boolean operators, wildcards, and regex support make Recoll a powerful desktop search tool.
What is Recoll?
Recoll is a powerful open source desktop search application designed for Linux, Windows, and macOS operating systems. It allows you to quickly find files, documents, emails, and other content stored on your computer by indexing the content and metadata of your files.
Some key features of Recoll include:
- Full-text indexing of many file types including PDF, Word, Excel, emails, source code, images, and more
- Support for over 200 different file formats
- Fast boolean, wildcard, regex, and fuzzy searches
- Advanced GUI for easy access and custom queries
- Indexed content is stored in a database for speedy searches
- Cross-platform - works on Linux, Windows and macOS
- Local privacy - no cloud searching, keeps your data secure
- Customizable filter blacklist to exclude certain folders or files types
- Portable app for Windows makes it easy to run from external drives
- Multi-user support allows different profiles and permissions
With its robust indexing and customizable searches, Recoll allows you to instantly find what you're looking for across a variety of file types and formats stored locally on your computer.
Recoll Features
Features
- Full text indexing and search
- Support for many file formats including PDF, Word, Excel, emails
- Boolean, wildcard and regex searches
- GUI and command line interfaces
- Web browser plugin for searching from browser
- File preview
- Saved queries
Pricing
- Open Source
- Free
Pros
Powerful search capabilities
Intuitive user interface
Good performance
Cross-platform - works on Linux and Windows
Open source and free
Cons
Setup can be complex for novice users
Limited file format support compared to proprietary alternatives
No online sync or collaboration features
Reviews & Ratings
Login to ReviewThe Best Recoll Alternatives
View all Recoll alternatives with detailed comparison →
Top Office & Productivity and Search Tools and other similar apps like Recoll
Here are some alternatives to Recoll:
Suggest an alternative ❐
Everything
Everything is a powerful file search utility for Windows that can quickly locate files and folders on local hard drives or external devices. It creates an index of all files on specified drives and searches against this index, providing nearly instant search results. Some key features of Everything include:Extremely fast...
DocFetcher
DocFetcher is an open source desktop search application designed for individual personal use. It indexes documents stored on your computer, including PDFs, Office documents, ebooks, images and more, and allows you to quickly search the content by keyword or phrase.Some key features of DocFetcher include:Full text search of document content,...
X1 Search
X1 Search is a new privacy-focused search engine that aims to protect users' privacy and prevent tracking or profiling. Unlike other major search engines, X1 Search does not retain search history, create personalized profiles, or serve targeted ads.Some key features that X1 Search highlights include:Search anonymization - Searches are anonymized...
Windows Search
Windows Search is the built-in desktop search capability in Windows operating systems. It allows users to quickly find files, emails, applications, settings and other items stored on their Windows devices.Some key features of Windows Search include:Indexing of local content on the device such as documents, media files, emails, contacts, calendar...
AndroSearch
AndroSearch is a powerful file search application designed specifically for Android devices. It provides an easy way for users to locate files stored on their phone's internal storage or external SD card.Some key features of AndroSearch include:Intuitive interface for quickly finding files by name, type, date modified, and moreSupport for...
Archivarius 3000
Archivarius 3000 is an open-source electronic document management and records management system. It provides organizations with the ability to centrally store, search, retrieve, and manage documents and other digital content.Some of the key features of Archivarius 3000 include:Document storage with version controlAdvanced search and retrieval optionsAccess controls and user permissionsDigital...
FileSearchEX
FileSearchEX is a free and open source desktop search application for Windows. It allows you to quickly search for files, emails, contacts, and other data stored on your computer or connected drives.Some key features of FileSearchEX include:Fast indexed searching that returns results as you typeSupport searching files content in addition...
Lookeen Desktop Search
Lookeen Desktop Search is a desktop search application for Windows that indexes the contents and metadata of files on your computer to enable fast and flexible searches. It goes beyond basic file name searches by scanning documents, emails, notes, images, music files, and more to index their contents for text...
Catfish
Catfish is a free, open source web scraping and website accountability tool. It allows users to enter a website URL and Catfish will search across the internet to find scraped, duplicated, or otherwise copied content from that site. It works by comparing the entered website against its databases of crawled...
Search Monkey
Search Monkey is a free alternative to paid feed readers and search engines like Feedly and Google Search. It enables users to search multiple websites, blogs, news feeds, and more from a single interface and save frequent searches for quick access later.Some key features of Search Monkey include:Search through thousands...
FileSearchy
FileSearchy is a powerful file search software that makes it easy to find files no matter where they are located. It provides a one-stop solution to search across both local drives as well as cloud storage services.FileSearchy works by indexing all files in real-time, cataloging information like file name, size,...
TextSeek
TextSeek is a versatile text search application designed to help users efficiently find and extract information from documents, text files, code, logs, and more. Some key features include:Fast indexing and search across multiple file types - TextSeek quickly scans text and documents for searchable content so you can instantly search...
DocSearch+
DocSearch+ is a powerful yet easy-to-use document management and enterprise search application. It helps organize, search, access and share documents and files stored across an organization's network drives and content repositories.Key features of DocSearch+ include:Centralized search index for documents scattered across network folders, SharePoint sites, file servers, etc.Support for 300+...
RecentX
RecentX is a free, open-source alternative to WizTree for visualizing disk space usage. Developed by a small team of independent developers, RecentX provides many of the key features of WizTree in an easy-to-use interface.After a quick scan of your computer's drives, RecentX generates an interactive map that allows drilling down...
Exselo Desktop
Exselo Desktop is a free, open-source spreadsheet application with functionality comparable to Microsoft Excel. It can run on Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.Key features of Exselo Desktop include:Create and edit spreadsheets with formulas, functions, charts, etc.Import and export data in various formats like CSV, XLSX, ODS, etc.Analyze data using...
Index Your Files
Index Your Files is desktop search software that allows users to quickly locate files stored on their computers, external drives, network shares, cloud storage services, email, and more. It works by indexing the content and metadata of files in the background to enable nearly instant search results.Once installed, Index Your...
NTFS-Search
NTFS-Search is a free open source utility for Windows that allows fast searching and indexing of files, folders and drives on NTFS volumes. It has an intuitive interface that allows you to easily search for files by name, content, metadata, size, date modified and more.Some key features of NTFS-Search include:Fast...
MasterSeeker
MasterSeeker is a robust keyword research and backlink analysis tool designed to help digital marketers and SEO professionals optimize their websites. It's an excellent alternative to Ahrefs with competitive features and pricing.For keyword research, MasterSeeker provides search volume and competition data for millions of keywords along with optimization recommendations such...
Beagle
Beagle is an open source data analytics and visualization platform optimized for ad hoc data analysis and visualization. It provides a simple yet powerful web UI that allows users to quickly ingest, explore, visualize and share data insights.Some key capabilities and benefits of Beagle include:Fast data ingestion from CSV, JSON,...
SwiftSearch
SwiftSearch is a privacy-focused search engine that aims to provide accurate and relevant search results without tracking or profiling users. It was launched in 2021 as an open-source alternative to Google Search and other mainstream search engines that collect user data.Unlike Google, SwiftSearch does not create a personalized search profile...
CSearcher
CSearcher is a feature-rich desktop search application designed specifically for Windows computers. It allows you to instantly find documents, emails, contacts, multimedia files, and other data stored locally on your PC or on external drives connected to it.Some key features of CSearcher include:Fast and accurate searching of file contents and...
HQ.app
HQ.app is a popular mobile trivia game app developed by Intermedia Labs in 2017. It features twice-daily live trivia game shows hosted by quirky entertainers where players can win real cash prizes.To play, users must download the HQ trivia app on their iOS or Android device. When a game is...
VX Search
VX Search is an open-source, privacy-focused search engine and web crawler. Unlike mainstream search engines, VX Search does not track users or profile them to target advertising. Instead, it aims to provide highly relevant search results through an accurate web crawler while protecting user privacy.Some key features of VX Search...
SSuite Desktop Search Engine
SSuite Desktop Search Engine is a powerful yet easy-to-use desktop search tool for Windows. It indexes all kinds of data on your computer including documents, spreadsheets, emails, contacts, calendar entries, downloaded files, and more. This allows you to instantly find files, emails, notes, and other information stored locally on your...
AIKIN Desktop HyperSearch
AIKIN Desktop HyperSearch is a desktop search tool used for quickly locating files, documents, emails, chats, notes and more stored on a Windows PC. It builds comprehensive indexes of all content found on local hard drives and mapped network drives to enable nearly instant search results.Key features include:Full-text indexing and...
Exalead Desktop Search
Exalead Desktop Search is a free desktop search application for Windows operating systems. It allows users to quickly find files, emails, contacts, calendar events, notes, and other data stored locally on their Windows computer or indexed network drives.Key features of Exalead Desktop Search include:Fast and accurate search results - It...
Strigi
Strigi is an open source desktop search engine for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. It is designed to provide fast and efficient content searching across a user's personal files and documents stored locally on their computer.Strigi builds and maintains an index of file contents and metadata. This allows it...
Instant File Searcher Professional
Instant File Searcher Professional is a feature-rich Windows desktop search application designed to help users easily find their files and folders. It indexes the contents of your local, external, and network drives in real-time so you can instantly search through all your documents, images, videos, emails, and more from one...
DeskRule
DeskRule is a desktop organization and productivity software designed to help users manage their digital workflow more efficiently. It consolidates files, tasks, notes, bookmarks, and other work-related items into one centralized dashboard so everything important is accessible from one screen.Key features of DeskRule include:File Explorer - Browse files and folders...
Conjure Search
Conjure Search is a next-generation search engine that aims to revolutionize the search experience by providing users with more relevant, contextualized, and meaningful results.Unlike traditional search engines that rely on keyword matching and backlink analysis, Conjure Search utilizes advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning techniques to better understand the...
Search GT
Search GT is a privacy-focused search engine launched in 2021. Unlike other major search engines like Google and Bing, Search GT does not track or profile its users in order to target advertising. Search GT uses its own web crawler to index websites and generate search results. The results aim...
