Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Oversight VS LaunchBar

Compare Oversight VS LaunchBar and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Oversight logo Oversight

Get notified when an app accesses your Mac's camera or mic

LaunchBar logo LaunchBar

Start with a single keyboard shortcut to access and control every aspect of your digital life. Use LaunchBar and improve your workflow now.
  • Oversight Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-12-16
  • LaunchBar Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-03

Oversight features and specs

  • Real-Time Monitoring
    Oversight provides real-time monitoring of your Mac's webcam and microphone, alerting you whenever they are activated. This can help protect your privacy by ensuring that you are aware of any potential unauthorized access.
  • User Notifications
    The application notifies users with a pop-up alert whenever the webcam or microphone is activated. This allows users to immediately know when these features are in use, providing peace of mind and control over their devices.
  • Lightweight Application
    Oversight is designed to be lightweight, meaning it won't significantly impact your system's performance or battery life while running in the background.
  • Free to Use
    The application is freely available for download and use, making it accessible to a wide range of users who are concerned about their privacy.

Possible disadvantages of Oversight

  • Limited to Mac OS
    Oversight is only available for Mac users, which limits its audience to those who use Apple computers and excludes Windows or Linux users.
  • Basic Functionality
    While Oversight provides key privacy features, it lacks comprehensive options and advanced customization that might be found in more robust security solutions.
  • Reliance on User Reaction
    Oversight relies on users to respond to the notifications actively. If a user ignores or misses the alert, the application does not take any automatic action to stop unauthorized access.
  • Potential Compatibility Issues
    Updates to macOS may temporarily affect Oversight’s performance or compatibility, requiring quick updates from the developers to address any issues.

LaunchBar features and specs

  • Efficiency
    LaunchBar allows fast access to applications, documents, bookmarks, and more, significantly increasing productivity and reducing the time you spend searching for files.
  • Integration
    The tool integrates well with numerous macOS applications and services, providing a unified interface for various tasks.
  • Customizability
    Users can customize keyboard shortcuts and create their own scripts and workflows, tailoring the tool to their specific needs.
  • Feature-rich
    LaunchBar includes numerous features such as clipboard history, quick calculations, and contact search, offering comprehensive functionality beyond simple app launching.
  • User-friendly Interface
    Provides a clean and intuitive interface that reduces the learning curve for new users while maintaining efficiency for experienced users.

Possible disadvantages of LaunchBar

  • Learning Curve
    While it offers many features, new users might find the initial setup and understanding of all its functionalities somewhat complex.
  • Cost
    LaunchBar is a paid application, which might be a deterrent for users seeking free alternatives for application launching and management.
  • Overwhelming for Basic Users
    Users looking for a simple application launcher might find its broad set of features excessive and overwhelming.
  • Resource Usage
    Running in the background, it might use more system resources compared to a standard application launcher, which could be a concern for those with older hardware.

Oversight videos

Asemblance: Oversight Review

More videos:

  • Review - Asemblance 2: Oversight - Quick Game Review | The Ruby Tuesday
  • Review - 20161208 - Oversight Review of the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Program (ID: 105447)

LaunchBar videos

Launchbar - My #1 Time Saver

More videos:

  • Review - Mac Productivity: Launchbar 6 vs. Alfred 2
  • Review - Be More Productive with LaunchBar, Part 1

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Oversight and LaunchBar)
Monitoring Tools
72 72%
28% 28
Productivity
0 0%
100% 100
Security & Privacy
100 100%
0% 0
Mac
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Oversight and LaunchBar

Oversight Reviews

We have no reviews of Oversight yet.
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LaunchBar Reviews

4 Best Spotlight Alternatives to Increase Your Mac’s Functionality
LaunchBar lets you look up documents, apps, and bookmarks using short abbreviations, albeit it isn’t as fast at returning results as the other two app launchers. In addition, it has a powerful file manager, which lets you query file metadata and perform operations like copying, moving, and renaming files and folders easily.
Source: techpp.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Oversight should be more popular than LaunchBar. It has been mentiond 21 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Oversight mentions (21)

  • Little Snitch: Network Monitor and Application Firewall for macOS
    See also: Patrick Wardle's excellent (and free) Lulu firewall: https://objective-see.org/products/lulu.html. He has a bunch of other excellent macOS security tools: Rei Key - identify keyloggers: https://objective-see.org/products/reikey.html Block Block - get an alert before an auto-start program gets registered: https://objective-see.org/products/blockblock.html Oversight - identify when the mic or camera is... - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • Picked up this beauty for college.
    Yup good advice! Instead of covering it physically you can use a trustworthy software solution OverSight https://objective-see.org/products/oversight.html. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • My wife said she could never tell if I was on a call in our home office.
    Something like https://objective-see.org/products/oversight.html proves you can detect applications that open a microphone session on macOS. Could set something up that listens to that, filters by process and toggles it on/off based on active microphone sessions. Source: about 2 years ago
  • What is this SUS orange dot????
    You can use Oversight to do that, but I'm a little confused by the location of the dot. Which OS version are you running? Source: over 2 years ago
  • Why is my camera coming on every ~30 minutes? MBP-16" 2021
    I am using OverSight ( https://objective-see.org/products/oversight.html ). Source: over 2 years ago
View more

LaunchBar mentions (9)

  • macOS Tips and Tricks
    Launchbar[0] is also still around - not actively developed, but actively maintained. Happy user since 10 years already, even though I own a lifetime Alfred license. [0]: https://obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.html. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • You're using function keys wrong
    I've been doing this for >10 years with https://manytricks.com/butler/. Works great! You can also bind snippets of text, scripts, etc. I can't overstate how important it is to have a keyboard that groups function keys into "islands" of (generally) 4 so you can touch-type them. An ergonomics consultant once observed that the source of my neck pain was that I looked at the keyboard while typing. As a touch-typist, I... - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Maccy is an open source lightweight and searchable clipboard manager for macOS
    LaunchBar[0], which predates Alfred but is similar in function, also has a fantastic searchable clipboard manager. LaunchBar's manager includes a feature that I've not been able to find in any other clipboard manager: a push/pop stack. With this feature you can, for example, copy a bunch of different items from a web page on to the stack, then paste them sequentially in a web form and pop them from the stack so... - Source: Hacker News / almost 3 years ago
  • What apps do you install on your MacBook Pro to improve performance and usability?
    LaunchBar is something I personally find a more useful and better considered tool than Alfred, though they're aimed at doing the same thing. It also comes with a great clipboard persister and manager. Every time you start doing things in LaunchBar, you can type a couple of letters to filter the list of candidates down, which means juggling a 100 item clipboard history becomes very easy to manage. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Clipboard app for regularly used text
    I use the one integrated into Launchbar. Source: almost 4 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Oversight and LaunchBar, you can also consider the following products

Micro Snitch - Micro Snitch is an ultra-light menu bar application that operates inconspicuously. It helps figuring out if someone’s spying on you.

Raycast - Fastest way to control Jira, GitHub and other web apps

AppZen - Artificial Intelligence for Real-Time T&E Fraud Detection

Alfred - Alfred is an award-winning app for macOS which boosts your efficiency with hotkeys, keywords, text expansion and more. Search your Mac and the web, and be more productive with custom actions to control your Mac.

Camcovr - Stylish webcam covers that protect your privacy

Keypirinha - A lightning fast and flexible keystroke launcher for Windows. No installation required (portable).