# Tinycast

A tiny native macOS launcher that also runs Raycast extensions.

HTML: https://softbests.com/software/tinycast
Markdown: https://softbests.com/software/tinycast.md
Website: https://tinycast.dev

- Category: [Developer utilities](https://softbests.com/category/developer-tools)
- Pricing: Open source
- Platforms: macOS
- Underrated

## Best for

Raycast users who want a lighter native launcher, and anyone who prefers a fast command palette without a subscription.

## Why it deserves attention

Tinycast is written in SwiftUI and AppKit with zero third-party dependencies, no Electron, and no telemetry, yet stays under roughly 100 MB of memory. It covers app launching, global and per-app hotkeys, searchable clipboard history, file search, dictionary lookup, inline calculator and currency conversion, quicklinks, Apple Shortcuts, snippets, shell commands, 39 window actions, calendar join links, Markdown notes, an emoji picker, local dictation, and an optional bring-your-own-key AI chat. It can run existing Raycast extensions natively and import a Raycast setup. It is AGPL-3.0 with about 9,000 GitHub stars and free. The trade-off is that it requires macOS 26, is still on 0.12.x beta releases, and some features need extra macOS permissions.

## Can replace

- [Raycast](https://softbests.com/software/raycast)

## Related and alternatives

- [Alfred](https://softbests.com/software/alfred)
- [Hammerspoon](https://softbests.com/software/hammerspoon)