Looking for an alternative to dtSearch?
Get to know Lookeen. If you are looking for a dtSearch alternative, you need powerful full-text research: reliable indexing technology, complex queries and large document collections.
Why Lookeen for full-text research
What Lookeen does differently and what that means for your daily work.
Research without detours
Combine phrases, proximity, fuzzy search and wildcards, narrow results by type, path and date, review hits in the preview and mark them with tags.
Precise search syntax
Exact phrases, proximity and fuzzy search, wildcards, AND/OR/NOT, document properties and date ranges – plus filters by type, path, size, sender and date.
Almost 100 file formats
Office and LibreOffice, PDF, text, images, CAD files, archives and source code – Lookeen searches files by content, not just by name. You decide which types are indexed.
Scanned documents become searchable
OCR makes text in scans, faxes and image PDFs findable without changing the originals. With Lookeen Server, recognition can run locally.
Typical use cases
This is where Lookeen plays to its strengths, each with its own page and details.
File servers & network drives
Find documents by content, with filters for path, type and date.
Frequently asked questions
What to know before you switch from dtSearch to Lookeen.
Is Lookeen an alternative to dtSearch?
Lookeen offers index-based full-text search with complex query syntax, almost 100 formats and OCR – ready to use for end users, with Outlook integration and a central server for teams.
Is Lookeen suited to research and investigations?
Yes. Search syntax, discovery filters, a preview with highlighted hits, and tags and comments make Lookeen a tool for internal research, audits and data subject requests.
Does Lookeen support complex queries?
Yes: exact phrases, proximity (e.g. "contract termination"~5), fuzzy search, wildcards, AND/OR/NOT, searches in document properties and by date – combinable with filters.
Which file formats does Lookeen search?
Almost 100 formats, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, LibreOffice, RTF, HTML, images, CAD files, archives and source code. File names are always searchable; you decide which types are indexed by content.
Does Lookeen work with network drives and file servers?
Yes. Lookeen Desktop searches local and network drives; Lookeen Server indexes file servers centrally for all users and respects file permissions.
How much effort is switching?
Little: Lookeen indexes your data where it already lives – nothing has to be migrated. After installation you choose your sources and indexing runs in the background.
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