Open Semantic Desktop Search vs WizFile

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.

WizFile is a Windows file finder that searches by name, path, size and date. Results appear almost instantly and update in real time as file changes are detected. On NTFS drives, it reads the Master File Table directly to build its file database; it also supports non-NTFS hard drives, network drives, USB drives and individual directories. Search options include whole-path matching, multiple terms, customizable filters and regular expressions. File data stays in RAM rather than an external database file, and WizFile is described as portable. If Seer or QuickLook is running, pressing Space on a selected file opens a preview. The free version is for personal use and does not include support; commercial use requires a supporter code for each business site, with license type based on staff size. The Individual plan costs $20.00 USD once and includes a perpetual license and upgrades for versions released within one year. Business plans range from $80.00 USD once for up to five staff to $1,400.00 USD once for unlimited use at any number of business locations. The maker was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Papamoa Beach, Tauranga, New Zealand.