Stella
A local, on-device natural language search app for macOS that indexes your documents and lets you find files by meaning rather than filename.
A local, on-device natural language search app for macOS that indexes your documents and lets you find files by meaning rather than filename.
Starting price
--
Best for
Mac
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Stella is a practical fit for buyers evaluating Mac, Productivity, and Search tools.
- What is Stella?
- A local, on-device natural language search app for macOS that indexes your documents and lets you find files by meaning rather than filename.
- Who is it for?
- Mac power users who need to find files by vague description; better than Spotlight for natural-language queries and offline privacy.
- Pricing
- unknown
Product information
What this product does
You know the file exists. Spotlight can't find it. Stella can. Just describe it, "my cheat sheet for the final exam," "the product spec from last week's meeting" and Stella finds it. Then drag it straight into Gmail, open it, or launch any app from the same bar. One shortcut for your whole Mac. Free. Private. No account. Bad filenames welcome.
Sourced from trystella.co
Works With
Platforms
- Web
- Mac
- iOS
Problem Solved
What problem does Stella solve?
It's for Mac users who keep years of PDFs, notes, docs, and spreadsheets on their machine and can never find the right one. Spotlight only matches filenames, so a file named finance_2024_v3.xlsx is invisible when you search for 'Q3 revenue report'. Stella indexes your chosen folders on-device and lets you describe what you're looking for in plain language, then returns the right file. Example: you need last quarter's revenue deck but only remember it was about Q3 numbers, not what you named it.
Company & Maker
Who built Stella?
- Product
- A local, on-device natural language search app for macOS that indexes your documents and lets you find files by meaning rather than filename.
- HQ
- Waterloo
- Live since
- Jun 2026
- Founders
- Robert Webb - Creator
Some facts above are based on publicly available information and may have changed.
The maker hasn't published a public statement we can verify yet.
See It In Action
Does Stella have a demo?
Yes — watch the walkthrough below.
Researched with AI · Data refreshed 15 minutes ago · How we score
Full Report Access
Unlock the verified intelligence before you decide
Stella is a free, private Mac search bar that uses natural language to find local files by description rather than filename. It is used by Mac users who want to locate PDFs, notes, docs, and spreadsheets without cloud indexing or accounts.
Who should use
Buyer-fit is derived from approved personas and use-case evidence. Search-volume noise stays labeled separately.
Best-fit workflows
- Find a report by meaning when the filename is meaningless
- Search local PDFs, notes, docs, and spreadsheets by content
- Search files offline without sending data to the cloud
- Finds a PDF cheat sheet by typing 'my cheat sheet for the final exam' without knowing the filename.
- Locates a product spec from last week's meeting by describing its content, then drags it into Gmail.
- Searches across notes, docs, and spreadsheets offline for a specific phrase or topic.
Pricing reality
Vendor stated
Free to use with no subscription
Actual cost
No pricing page found; product appears free with no paid tiers.
Hidden costs
2 hidden cost warnings — unlock to view
Pricing reality
Verified Oct 2026 / Vendor pricing evidence only
Starting price
--
Mindber only shows named plan cards when they come from linked pricing evidence. If the tier data is incomplete, this page falls back to the verified starting price instead of fabricating plan names or $0 tiers.
What pricing pages often hide
True cost for your case
LIVE ESTIMATEEstimated spend
--Starting price has not been verified from a linked pricing source yet.
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Engagement signals (30d)
Based on 6 linked public signals.
Mindber Activity Score™
Score locked
HOW THIS TOOL SCORES
Scores compare this tool with 59 similar tools in Mac. Use it to judge Innovation and Capability before you shortlist.
Innovation Index™
Is it new, different, and easy to understand?
Functionality Score™
Does it cover the jobs buyers expect, and can it keep up?
Medium confidence (60%) - some sub-scores have thin evidence.What this means →
Data sources
Traffic & search proof
Public view keeps the ratio story. Paid view unlocks exact monthly visits, full region coverage, and CPC-level keyword intelligence.
Google Trends live interest
Live Google Trends data for Stella: interest over time, regions, topics, and related queries.
Tracks 12-month Google search interest on a 0-100 relative interest scale.
Includes regional demand, so readers can see where search interest is strongest.
Includes related topics and related queries to surface adjacent demand and search intent.
FAQ
Only linked Q and A rows are shown. Empty FAQ data stays hidden.
Social mentions
Only linked public mention evidence is shown here.
Sources and methodology
Only evidence with a linked source record or explicit feature provenance is shown here. Data without provenance stays off the page.
COMMUNITY CREDITS
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Community audits
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