spacebar Install

A Free Peek Alternative

A paid Quick Look extension from the Mac App Store, and a free, open-source one, compared

  • Code and Markdown work without the Space helper
  • Free and open source
  • macOS 13+
Peek
  • 7.99 USD on the Mac App Store
  • Closed source
  • macOS 10.15 and later
  • Latest: 2.6.4, 2 April 2022
spacebar
  • Free, a .dmg or one Terminal command
  • Open source, MIT
  • macOS 13 and later
  • Latest: 0.5.0
The two at a glance, from the table below. Drawn in HTML.
orbitTry it: press space
  • budget.csv
  • invoice-0042.pdf
  • landing-page.html
  • orbit-0.4.0.zip
  • orbit-demo.mp4
  • package.json
  • README.md
  • todo.txt

Select a file and press space to preview it; space or esc closes it. On a phone, tap a file twice.

Try it: the demo folder in a Finder list. With the Space helper on, Space opens the file in spacebar’s own preview page, running in your browser.

Peek (opens in a new tab), by Big Z Labs, is a paid Quick Look extension for source code and Markdown, “500+ file extensions” by its developer’s count, with more than 70 themes, find and jump-to-line. spacebar is free, and adds the folder in a sidebar, editing in place and, with its optional Space helper, every file. If Peek serves you well, there is no need to switch.

At A Glance

FeaturespacebarPeek
PriceFree7.99 USD
Open sourceYes, MITNo
InstallA notarized .dmg, or one Terminal commandMac App Store
Latest version0.5.0, 2.6.4, 2 April 2022
Oldest macOS1310.15
CodeHighlighted with line numbers, edited in place with a clickHighlighted, with language detection, jump to line and scroll restore
MarkdownRendered with Mermaid and KaTeX, a table of contents, edited in placeGitHub-style, with an optional table of contents, MathJax and Mermaid; code blocks by highlight.js or Prism
ThemesSix, each light and dark, plus your own CSSMore than 70, light and dark
What Space opensWith the optional Space helper, every file except apps, packages and .rtfd documents. Without it: folders, Markdown, code, config, plists, archives, disk images, logs and files with no extensionMarkdown, source code and config, TextBundle and PostScript; not plain text, HTML, TypeScript, PDFs, CSV, Office or iWork files, which its developer lists as out of reach; XML on macOS 12 and later
Folders and zipsA sidebar with the whole folder; zip contents listed without extractingNo folder view mentioned; zips not on its list
AccessibilityOnly for the optional Space helperNeeded for its keyboard shortcuts in the preview

Checked against Peek 2.6.4 on the Mac App Store and the developer’s page, and spacebar 0.5.0, on 2 October 2026. Spot a mistake? Tell us on X (opens in a new tab).

Which To Pick

Pick Peek If

  • You buy and update apps on the Mac App Store
  • You need 191 highlight.js or 273 Prism languages in Markdown code blocks, per its listing
  • You want many themes, or scroll positions remembered
  • You’re on macOS 10.15 to 12, which spacebar doesn’t support

Pick spacebar If

  • You want it free and open source, to read the code that sees your files
  • You read a file beside its folder, with the arrow keys
  • You fix typos in notes, scripts or config without an editor
  • You want Space on PDFs, photos, CSV and text too, with the optional Space helper (it needs Accessibility; apps, packages, .rtfd and ⌘Y stay Apple’s)
  • You open zips, binary plists and JSON trees in the same pane

Both ask for Accessibility because a Quick Look extension gets no keys of its own: Peek’s helper delivers its shortcuts to the preview, spacebar’s opens files in the Space window. spacebar’s Quick Look extension works without it. Compare Quick Look apps sets Peek, QLMarkdown, Syntax Highlight and Apple’s Quick Look side by side.

Questions

Is Peek still updated?

The Mac App Store lists version 2.6.4, released on 2 April 2022, as its latest, as of 2 October 2026.

Can Peek and spacebar both be installed?

Yes. Quick Look uses one previewer per file type, so where both claim a type, one wins. Turn off the one you don’t want in System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions › Quick Look (on macOS 13 and 14, System Settings › Privacy & Security › Extensions › Quick Look). spacebar’s Settings shows other previewers that are on, with a Turn Off button.

Does spacebar record what I type?

No. The Space helper acts only on a plain Space in Finder and the keys that drive the Space window, and it has no network code. Without the helper, spacebar never asks for Accessibility.

Install It

Download for Mac

Or paste this in Terminal

curl -fsSL https://spacebar.patebryant.com/install.sh | sh

The script downloads the latest notarized release from GitHub, checks its SHA-256 and installs to ~/Applications, no sudo. Read the script.

Sources

Fetched on 2 October 2026: