Compare software

ack vs The Silver Searcher: catalog facts
ack	The Silver Searcher
Best for: Programmers searching large source trees from the terminal	Best for: Developers searching source code from the command line
Free Free and open source.	Free Free and open source under the Apache 2.0 license.
Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line	Command line
Built for searching source code rather than general text Full Perl regular expressions All 3 strengths for ack Built for searching source code rather than general text Full Perl regular expressions Boolean --and, --or and --not options	Searches code across project files Respects common repository ignore files All 3 strengths for The Silver Searcher Searches code across project files Respects common repository ignore files Uses multiple CPU cores for searching
Needs a Perl interpreter Newer tools such as ripgrep are typically faster on very large trees	Requires a terminal to use
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: Artistic-2.0	License: Apache-2.0
No account needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Offline features available	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Sources for ack beyondgrep.com Catalog checked September 23, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Sources for The Silver Searcher github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher Catalog checked October 8, 2026

“Not stated” means we have not confirmed it. Features can vary by device and plan.