Should you use PowerToys Run or Flow Launcher? Here’s how they stack up

For most people, opening apps with the Start menu and desktop icons works totally fine. But if you’re someone who spends a lot of time on the computer and you want to do things as efficiently as possible, a custom launcher becomes almost a necessity as it speeds things up a lot.

In the past, I’ve written about

Flow Launcher
as my go-to replacement for the Start menu, one of the most popular keyboard-based launcher and search apps out there. But when I did so, I saw some readers recommend PowerToys Run as a great alternative. So I thought it would be interesting to compare these two tools and see the benefits that each one offers over the other and what makes more sense to use on your PC. They both have strengths and weaknesses, so let’s break them down and see what makes the most sense.

PowerToys has a lot more than Run

You get a lot of tools in just one package

One of the main benefits of PowerToys Run compared to Flow Launcher, in my opinion, is actually not related to PowerToys Run directly. See,

PowerToys
is a suite of numerous productivity tools, and PowerToys Run is just another tool in the arsenal. That means that by installing PowerToys, you’re getting not just a great keyboard-based launcher, but you’re also getting a ton of other benefits with just a single app.

Between tools like FancyZones, Image Resizer, Mouse utilities, Workspaces, and so on, PowerToys does a lot to boost your productivity, and if you’re someone who wants to install as little software as possible on your PC, there’s probably no reason to use something like Flow Launcher when PowerToys has all of this right there. It’s not like PowerToys is a particularly heavy app, either, so it’s not going to make your computer feel bloated or slow.

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Flow Launcher has a bigger ecosystem of plugins

And they’re easier to install

While it’s easy to describe PowerToys Run and Flow Launcher as just app launchers, both of these tools live and die by their extensibility, too. It’s not just about launching apps, there’s a ton more than can be done with them by using plugins, such as killing running processes, running shell commands, uninstalling apps, or converting units.

In this regard, Flow launcher is very far ahead of PowerToys Run. Both tools offer a strong selection of plugins right out of the box, and PowerToys does have one I even prefer with its unit converter. But overall, there are far, far more plugins available to install for Flow Launcher, and it’s easier to install them, too. All plugins for Flow Launcher are available within the Plugin store within the app’s settings, while PowerToys Run links you to a GitHub page to download more plugins from a list. Flow Launcher has built-in search tool and handles the installation in a very smooth process, so it’s a lot easier to add new capabilities.

But even more importantly, Flow launcher just has so many more options for plugins you can install. There’s a search engine for YouTube specifically, along with a video downloader. There’s a Pokédex if you want to look up information about a Pokémon of your choosing online. There’s a tool for uninstalling apps from your PC, one for controlling Spotify, one for changing monitor brightness, and so much more. Flow Launcher has a such a wide range of plugins available that it’s very hard for PowerToys Run to compete.

PowerToys Run has a better unit converter

Oddly specific? Maybe

One strangely specific advantage I’ll give to PowerToys Run is that the included unit converter works a bit better than what’s available for Flow Launcher. For one thing, it’s installed and enabled by default, while Flow Launcher requires you to look for a third-party plug-in for this effect.

More importantly, of the two available unit converters on Flow Launcher’s plug-in store, neither of them works quite as conveniently as I’d like. PowerToys Run automatically copies the converted unit result when you press Enter, but the plug-ins in Flow Launcher do nothing when you press Enter, simply dismissing the search bar with no other effect. Now, you can still copy the conversion result with Ctrl + C, but this isn’t made very clear, and I’d say it’s not the expected behavior in this situation.

What’s more, of the two unit converters in Flow Launcher, one of them copies a whole string of text showing the original and target unit, rather than just including the target number after the conversion. If unit conversions are something you want to do often, I have to give it to PowerToys Run for ease of use.

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Flow Launcher is more customizable visually

But PowerToys also has some strengths

Both Flow Launcher and PowerToys Run give you plenty of freedom for how the program and plugins operate. You can change the activation keyword for each plug-in to make things easier for yourself, and many plug-ins include other settings that let you make things work even better for your needs. Flow Launcher actually has a benefit here when it comes to searching your files, as you can set it to a custom search indexer like Everything, rather than relying on Windows Search.

But Flow Launcher also excels when it comes to customization for itself, especially in terms of visuals. There’s a wide range of built-in themes right out of the gate, so you can get the look you prefer for the search bar, including options based on Windows 11, 10, and Ubuntu, and a ton of original themes with different designs. There are even more options if you want to visit the theme gallery on GitHub, too. Plus, you can tweak whether you want to see the time and date, animations, and more.

On the flip side, PowerToys Run has some interesting options for customizing search results and how they’re prioritized and loaded. You can change the behavior to wait for slower plug-ins if needed, change whether the search result priority should be weighted (and how much) based on previously used commands, and more. It’s pretty advanced stuff you might not need, but it’s nice to have the option.

Which do you choose?

Both of these tools excel at something that the other one may not be as good at, and so the decision ultimately comes down to your personal preference and what you value more in your custom launchers. For me, I think Flow Launcher still offers more things I care about more, especially because there are so many plug-ins available that I love using. PowerToys Run is just way more limited in that sense, and not as easy to use.

That being said, I do wish there was a unit converter in Flow Launcher that behaved a bit more like the one in PowerToys Run, so there are sacrifices to be made with either choice. But the strong ecosystem of plugins in Flow Launcher gives me confidence that new options are more likely to appear there, so maybe sometime in the future that problem I have will be fixed.

Either way, you can check out both of these programs below. It’s worth noting that even though I prefer Flow Launcher, I do still have PowerToys for its other tools like FancyZones. It’s an app worth checking out even if you on’t care about PowerToys Run.