Raycast showed me what Command Palette should have been all along

A hands-on comparison of Raycast and Windows PowerToys Command Palette as app launchers. Raycast wins on features like richer file search context menus, Quicklinks with aliases and data placeholders, Snippets, Script Commands, AI integration, a note-taking tool, and a mature extension store.

Command Palette is tightly integrated with Windows and PowerToys but remains basic and lacks aliases, advanced snippet management, and polish. The author concludes Raycast is the better launcher for users who want a refined experience, while Command Palette may improve over time.

Table of contents

• Raycast and Command Palette solve the same problem
• Raycast features are well-thought-out
• AI integration, extensions, and useful utilities