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Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to Fast Incremental Plaintext Searcher

A program I used stopped getting updates, so I made my own version of it. It's a fast plaintext search utility in a GUI. It's great for finding text in code projects, log files, configs, anything plaintext! Available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Free version limitations are a splash screen and limited history entries.

Fast Incremental Plaintext Searcher is a search tool available for macOS and Linux. The macOS version is distributed as a signed disk image, while the Linux version comes as a Debian package but can run on any Linux… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Fast Incremental Plaintext Searcher launched in 2024; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

  1. 1SC
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    Code search made fast

    2025 · grep.app · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    Quickly and easily search text in files on your computer

    2021 · seekfast.org · its alternatives →

  4. 4

    A simple, fast and user-friendly alternative to 'find' - sharkdp/fd

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    Upgrade your Browser ✨

    2022 · sigmaos.com · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    The ultimate search engine for GitHub repositories

    2024 · codefinder.dev · its alternatives →

  7. 7

    Near instant text recognition for Mac!

    2020 · owlocr.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8

    Impossibly fast web search, built for static sites.

    2020 · stork-search.net · its alternatives →

  9. 9

    A lightweight full-text index server with a focus on speed and efficiency. - GitHub - f-prime/fist: A lightweight full-text index server with a focus on speed and efficiency.

    2019 · github.com · its alternatives →

  10. 10
    Tasks.txt▲147

    Plain text task manager for macOS

    Jul 2026 · taskstxt.app · its alternatives →

  11. 11
    CotEditor▲102

    The free plain-text editor for OS X

    2014 · coteditor.com · its alternatives →

  12. 12

    A Swiss Army knife for plain text.

    2021 · retina.studio · its alternatives →

  13. 13

    A polyglot tool for code searching, linting, rewriting

    2023 · ast-grep.github.io · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    I initially built cs (codespelunker) as a way to answer the question, can BM25 relevance search work without building an index? Turns out it can, and so I iterated on the idea, building it into a full CLI tool. Recently I wanted to improve it by adding relevance of tools like Sourcegraph or Zoekt but again without adding an index. cs uses scc https://github.com/boyter/scc to understand the structure of the file on the fly. As such it can filter searches to code, comments or strings. It also applies a weighted BM25 algorithm where matches in actual code rank higher than…

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15
    Tantivy▲68

    A full-text, horse-speed search engine library in Rust

    2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

  16. 16GF

    I kept re-Googling the same flags, so I built a tiny, fast directory of copy-ready CLI commands. It’s static (vanilla JS), instant search, keyboard nav (↑/↓ + Enter), favorites (localStorage), and linkable queries. Examples: • grep errors → https://www.greppers.com/?q=grep%20error%20logs • list open ports (macOS) → https://www.greppers.com/?q=list%20open%20ports • show git branch graph → https://www.greppers.com/?q=git%20graph • tail with colors → https://www.greppers.com/?q=tail%20colors Tech notes: static site on Netlify, no…

    2025 · greppers.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    Fast text search tool with advanced algorithms, SIMD acceleration, multi-threading, and regex support. Designed for rapid, large-scale pattern matching with memory-mapped I/O and hardware optimizations. - davidesantangelo/krep

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    A decentralized search engine for IPFS and Filecoin

    2021 · dweb-search.on.fleek.co · its alternatives →

  19. 19

    Search multiple documents insanely fast

    2017 · pdfsearchapp.com · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    Cloud-native OSS search engine for observability. Contribute to quickwit-oss/quickwit development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2021 · github.com · its alternatives →

  21. 21

    Online tool for searching through documents. CTRL+F on crack

    2019 · its alternatives →

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    Snap any image, screenshot, or webpage into plaintext. No GPU. No cloud. One command. - kouhxp/textsnap

    Jun 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    I made this site for myself, SimpleSearch.info, as new default browser page. I’m not sure if it actually _saves_ time or clicks (though, for me, it saves at least one click per search), but I find the search experience more pleasant. On desktop, it’s nice to just have these search bars as the first thing that pops up in a new window or tab vs clicking bookmarks in the toolbar or elsewhere then searching. Similarly, on mobile, I like just clicking on one icon for all my searches. The vast majority of my web browsing begins with a search or LLM query. I’m curious if this is helpful to anyone…

    2025 · simplesearch.info · its alternatives →

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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →