HoudahSpot vs Open Semantic Desktop Search
HoudahSpot
houdah.comOpen Semantic Desktop Search
opensemanticsearch.orgSide by side
| Figure | HoudahSpot | Open Semantic Desktop Search |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 3 |
| Spec score · Desktop Search Software | 7.8 (#16) | 8.5 (#2) |
| Intended users | The maker describes HoudahSpot as an app for professionals and power users who work with thousands of files and have outgrown Finder and Spotlight. | The desktop virtual machine is described for single users, while the separate server installation is aimed at organizations and research teams. |
| Notable limitation | Apple Mail search is unavailable on macOS Sonoma or newer. | The download page lists the German desktop virtual machine as “Coming soon” and provides the multilingual image as a 4 GB download. |
| Purpose | HoudahSpot searches Mac files using advanced criteria and Spotlight indexing. | Free open-source desktop search software for full-text search, exploratory search, text analytics and text mining across large document sets. |
Plans
HoudahSpot
- Single-User License (upgrade)$24, paid once
- Family License (upgrade)$39, paid once
- Family LicensePrice not published
- Single-User LicensePrice not published
- Site LicensePriced on request
Open Semantic Desktop Search
- Open Semantic Desktop SearchFree
- Open Semantic Desktop SearchFree
- Open Semantic Search ServerPriced on request
In their own words
Open Semantic Desktop Search
Open Semantic Desktop Search is free, open-source software for full-text and semantic search, text analytics and mining across large document sets. Its desktop edition comes as a virtual machine appliance for import into VirtualBox; configured shared folders point to documents, and indexing starts when the machine launches. Search supports wildcards, Boolean AND/OR/NOT and fuzzy matching. Multilingual semantic search uses a thesaurus to find synonyms, narrower terms and aliases, while stemming helps find other word forms. Interactive facets group metadata such as authors, organizations, people, dates, tags and document types. Previews can display PDFs, extracted text, table rows and images. Analysis tools include date charts, word clouds, word lists, network graphs and interactive maps. OCR can recognize text in images and scanned PDFs. Connectors include files, feeds, websites, SQL databases, MediaWiki and IMAP email. The desktop appliance is for a single user; a separate server installation is aimed at organizations and research teams. The multilingual virtual machine image is a 4 GB download, and the German desktop image is listed as coming soon.