Fenn vs HoudahSpot: Best Mac Search in 2025
Sep 15, 2025
Fenn vs HoudahSpot: Best Mac Search in 2025
TLDR: If you mainly filter filenames and metadata, HoudahSpot is great. If you need the exact page, frame, or timestamp inside files for a given concept or keyword, choose Fenn.
Who this comparison is for
Professionals who live in PDFs, slides, screenshots, recordings, or long docs
Teams that value on-device privacy and need to jump straight to answers
Power users who already push Spotlight and Finder to the limit
What HoudahSpot does well
HoudahSpot is a respected Mac search utility that builds on the macOS Spotlight index to deliver very fast, highly filterable searches across filenames, text, dates, tags, and more. It adds powerful templates, result filters, and a flexible interface on top of Spotlight’s index.
It runs on Apple Silicon and current macOS releases and requires Spotlight indexing to be enabled.
Since it uses Spotlight’s index, it is extremely quick for metadata-driven work and does not maintain a separate content index.
Note on Mail: searching Apple Mail messages from HoudahSpot is not available on Sonoma and newer because Mail no longer supports plug-ins.
Pricing context: one-time license pricing is typically around 34 USD, with upgrade and family options available.
What Fenn does differently
Fenn is a private, AI-powered file search engine for macOS. Instead of stopping at filenames and metadata, Fenn indexes the content itself so you can search and jump to the exact PDF page, slide, image frame, audio or video timestamp given the concepts or keywords you remember. It is on-device by default for privacy, with optional cloud indexing for speed and scale.
That precision matters when your memory is a clause on page 37, a figure on slide 9, or a quote at 42:17 in a video briefing. Fenn opens directly at the match, so there is no manual scrubbing.
Honest head-to-head
Capability | HoudahSpot | Fenn |
|---|---|---|
Core approach | Interface on top of Spotlight index | Own content index with semantic, keyword, and hybrid modes |
Best at | Fast, filterable searches on names, dates, tags, kinds, and standard text Spotlight already indexed | Finding exact moments inside PDFs, slides, images, audio, and video; opens at the page, frame, or timestamp |
Content coverage | Anything Spotlight indexes. Scanned PDFs without OCR or non-indexed image text may not be searchable | Text in many scans and images, long PDFs and office docs, frames in video, moments in audio |
Precision of result open | Opens files and shows previews | Find content at the exact page, frame, or timestamp |
Query styles | Boolean, attributes, templates, result filters | Semantic, keyword, or hybrid search with contextual snippets |
Privacy model | Uses system Spotlight index; no separate cloud service | On-device by default; optional cloud indexing for speed and scale |
Apple Silicon support | Yes | Yes; Apple Silicon required |
Email search | Apple Mail plug-in not supported on Sonoma and newer | Focused on files and media on disk. (Email search is coming soon) |
Pricing | One-time license around 34 USD plus optional upgrades | Local 9 USD per month billed annually, Cloud 29 USD per month billed annually, Lifetime 199 USD one-time |
Why the differences matter:
If your PDFs are scanned without OCR, Spotlight typically will not expose their text. That means HoudahSpot may not find what is inside those scans. Fenn makes much of this content discoverable and jumps to the page you need.
If your work spans screenshots, images with embedded text, slide decks, and recordings, Fenn’s jump-to-the-moment workflow collapses minutes of manual hunting into a click.
Real workflows side by side
1) Legal clause recall inside a binder of PDFs
HoudahSpot: filter by kind:PDF and date; open candidates; use in-document Find repeatedly.
Fenn: search the clause once, review snippets, open directly at the page with the clause.
2) Academic literature hunt across 1,000 PDFs
HoudahSpot: combine author, date, and name filters; great for narrowing by metadata across folders.
Fenn: search concepts and jump to the exact page where the term appears in context.
3) Pull the right slide from last quarter’s deck
HoudahSpot: filter to .key or .pptx, sort by date, open several decks, and navigate slides.
Fenn: search the idea and open at the matching slide.
4) Find a spoken quote in a recorded meeting
HoudahSpot: file-level filters help you find the recording, then you scrub manually.
Fenn: search the idea, then open at the timestamp where it occurs.
Pros and cons
HoudahSpot:
Pros
Powerful filter interface, templates, and saved searches on top of Spotlight
Fast when searching metadata and text Spotlight already indexed
Cons
Bound to Spotlight’s index; scanned PDFs without OCR and some image text may not be searchable
No find/open-to-the-moment in media or long documents
Fenn:
Pros
Finds and opens the exact page, frame, or timestamp inside your files
Works across PDFs, office docs, images and screenshots, audio, and video
Private by default on device, optional cloud indexing for speed and scale
Cons
Slower indexing
Which should you pick?
Choose HoudahSpot if your day is mostly:
I already know the exact filename, date range, tag, or kind
I want a better Spotlight UI with strong filters and templates
Choose Fenn if your day is mostly:
I just remember the concept or some keywords
There is text inside scans and screenshots
I need the precise moment in a meeting or demo recording
Privacy matters. Keep it on my Mac
How Fenn works in 3 steps
Pick folders or apps to index
Let Fenn index locally so the content becomes searchable
Search in Semantic, Keyword, or Hybrid mode and open directly at the answer
On Apple Silicon Macs, this is fast and private by default.
Pricing quick view
HoudahSpot: one-time license around 34 USD plus upgrades
Fenn: Local 9 USD per month billed annually, Cloud 29 USD per month billed annually, Lifetime 199 USD one-time