Seek alternative: Peekaboo vs Seek
By Vishva Variya · Updated
Seek is the closest thing to Peekaboo in spirit: a native Finder companion that finds files from plain-English descriptions, finds photos by what is in them, reads the text in screenshots and PDFs, renames new downloads with Apple Intelligence, groups downloads by where they came from, and clears duplicates and clutter to the Trash — all on your Mac. It costs $9 for its first 100 customers, then $19, then $29, on macOS 14 or later. The catch is that there is no free trial: you pay before you know whether its way of searching fits how you lose files.
Looking for Seek itself? It’s at useseek.app.
- Seek price
- $9 early bird (first 100), then $19, then $29
- Seek requires
- macOS 14 or later
- Peekaboo
- $24.99 one-time (launch price $9.99 until Nov 30), 14-day trial, macOS 14+
Seek figures from useseek.app, verified 2026-11-12.
Why pick Peekaboo over Seek?
Try before you pay
Seek sells the licence first — $9 early bird, rising to $29 — with no trial on its pricing page. Peekaboo gives you 14 days free, and only asks for a one-time payment once you know it finds your files.
The disk itself, explained
Seek tidies files. Peekaboo also explains the machine around them: App Caches with hundreds of caches explained one by one, a Mac Health score with reasons, Startup Items, and a Space Map of everything taking room.
Speaks your language
Peekaboo is translated into 44 languages, app and site alike. Seek's site and app present in English.
Peekaboo vs Seek, job by job
| Job | Seek | Peekaboo |
|---|---|---|
| Plain-English search | Seek: Yes — natural language turned into filters, on-device | Peekaboo: Yes — turned into editable filter chips, on-device |
| Photos by what they show | Seek: Yes (one-time model download at setup) | Peekaboo: Yes — labelled on-device, plus the text inside images and PDFs |
| Smart Rename for downloads | Seek: Yes — Apple Intelligence names new downloads | Peekaboo: No automatic naming; bulk rename with patterns and a live preview |
| Duplicates and cleanup | Seek: Exact duplicates by content; cleanup to the Trash | Peekaboo: Duplicates and look-alike photos, Space Map, App Caches, uninstaller — all undoable |
| Free trial | Seek: None listed — buy the licence first | Peekaboo: 14 days free |
| Price and macOS | Seek: $9 first 100 buyers, then $19, then $29; macOS 14+ | Peekaboo: One-time per Mac after the trial; macOS 14 or later |
The honest verdict
If finding photos by describing them and having downloads rename themselves are the two things you want, and $9 sight unseen is fine, Seek is a sharp, focused tool. If you would rather try the app for two weeks first, and want the disk explained as well as the files — caches, health, startup items — Peekaboo is the safer buy.
Seek vs Peekaboo: questions
How much is Seek?
- Seek costs $9 for its first 100 customers, then $19 for the next 100, then $29 — a one-time payment for one Mac, per useseek.app on November 12, 2026. During the early-bird period, 3 Macs cost $18 and 5 Macs $29.
Does Seek have a free trial?
- No trial is listed on Seek's pricing page; you buy a licence first. Peekaboo has a 14-day free trial.
Does Seek work on Intel Macs?
- Yes. Seek needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later and runs on Apple silicon and Intel. Photo search downloads an image model once during setup, and Smart Rename uses Apple Intelligence where the Mac supports it.