Alternatives to Recoll

Full-text desktop search across documents and mail, built on Xapian. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.

Replacements

Listings that take over the same core job as Recoll.

  • DocFetcher

    Desktop search that indexes the text inside documents, not just file names.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    DocFetcher is also a free open-source indexed document search for Windows, macOS and Linux, runs as a Java application, searches inside archives and offers a portable mode.

  • AnyTXT Searcher

    Local full-text search across documents, PDFs, code and ebooks on Windows.

    FreeProprietaryWindows

    AnyTXT Searcher keeps full-text indexing local with wide format coverage and instant previews, but it is closed source and runs on Windows only.

  • FileLocator Pro

    Indexed content search for Windows with scripting and Office format support.

    PaidProprietaryWindows

    FileLocator Pro adds an optional index, Office and PDF extraction and scripting, but it is a paid per-user licence, closed source and limited to Windows.

  • dnGrep

    Search file contents, documents and archives on Windows.

    FreeOpen sourceWindows

    dnGrep searches text, documents and archives without Recoll's Xapian index, is open source under GPL-3.0, and is available for Windows only.

  • Agent Ransack

    Searches file contents on Windows with regular expressions and boolean queries.

    FreemiumProprietaryWindows

    Agent Ransack searches file contents with regular expressions and boolean queries without building an index, so it is slower on large volumes and runs only on Windows.

Also worth comparing

These listings name Recoll as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.

  • FSearch

    Find Linux files quickly through an indexed desktop search.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    Recoll moves from filename search to full-text indexing of documents and mail on Linux, Windows and macOS, relying on external helpers for some formats.

Similar software

Related functionality, not a direct replacement.