Beam Reference
Beam vs Raycast
An honest side by side. Raycast facts come from the Raycast Manual.
Raycast's manual covers Basics, Core Features, Power Features and AI. This table walks the same list against what Beam 0.1.0 does today.
| Area | Raycast | Beam |
|---|---|---|
| Launcher, aliases, hotkeys | Yes | Yes. Hotkey for almost anything. |
| Snippets | Yes, with tags, team sharing, import | Yes. Placeholders, rich text, per-app learning. No tags or sharing. |
| Quicklinks | Yes | Yes, plus shell and app-set commands. |
| Clipboard history | Yes | Yes. Pins, retention, search by source app. |
| Notes | Yes | Yes. Markdown, AI selection bar. |
| File search | Yes | Yes, by name via Spotlight. |
| Calculator and conversions | Yes | Yes. Dates, time zones, currency. |
| Calendar | Yes | Yes. Join links for 8 services. |
| Window management | Yes | 18 layouts, plus a Command-Tab replacement. |
| Emoji and symbols | Yes | Yes. |
| System commands | Yes | 14 commands, 35 Settings panes. |
| Script commands | Yes | Yes, reads Raycast headers. |
| Themes | Yes | 8 themes, glass, tint, density. |
| AI chat, commands, agents | Yes | Yes, with your own models or keys. No Beam account or credits. |
| MCP | Yes | Yes. |
| Dictation | Yes | Yes. On-device, cleanup styles, vocabulary. |
| Extension store | Yes | Not in Beam |
| Cloud sync | Yes (Pro) | Not in Beam. No accounts. |
| Teams and shared items | Yes | Not in Beam |
| Hyper Key, Auto Quit | Yes | Not in Beam |
| Settings export | Yes | Not in Beam |
Where Beam goes further
- An assistant with 19 tools that can create snippets, commands and scripts and arrange windows for you, with approval.
- Dictation, a Command-Tab replacement and contact search are built in.
- A Beam Story summary of your year.
- No account needed for anything.
See Limits for what Beam 0.1.0 cannot do.