X1 Search Reviews

Summary: I could not live without this software.
After saying that it saves them many minutes or hours per day, other reviewers complain about the price (5 cents per day for renewal). Seriously?
I would gladly pay 5 dollars per day for something this valuable!

Positive: Finds any document, email, spreadsheet in a second or two simply by recalling a character string or sentence, shows results in any order I want (I prefer by date with most recent at the top). When I click on a result, it shows me a perfect image of it in the right window, and I can view and edit it right there!

Negative: Sometimes the indexing stops (not sure why), but I only reboot every week or two, and it always works after a reboot.

Summary: If (but only if) you have a big set of data files collected over the years, this is a must have program. It's much better than the built in Windows search feature.

Positive: X1 does what it should do, fast accurate searches of a big set of data files on my desktop computer. And when I see the list of "hits" based on my search parameters, I can quickly and easily see if those files are really what I need from the viewer built into X1. No need to open each file in its native application before deciding whether it's what I want.

Also, when I do find a file I'm looking for, I can double click it from within X1 and it opens in the correct application (like Microsoft Word if its a .docx file). Often, if I'm just looking for specific phrase or paragraph in a prior contract, I just block copy that specific wording to the clipboard from within X1 and never need to open the old contract in Word or PDF software.

I've been using X1 for many years (almost every day) in my law practice. It's one of about 5 programs I can't live without. I've tried other desktop search programs, none of which can compare to XI.

Another reviewer suggested that X1 needs a better GUI. Maybe. But my take is different on this point. X1 is not a light entertainment program. It's a tool--for work. Like a farmer's tractor. Doesn't need to be pretty. Just needs to be rock solid reliable, which XI is. It' not like buying a Porche to impress the girls. No need to get too worked up over the GUI. It's entirely adequate for my legal work.

Also, I appreciate the one time license fee. So much software, today, is sold on an annual subscription fee basis, which users should try to avoid. The price charged by XI is not a steal for the user, but it is reasonable. I wish I could easily provide so much value to my clients for that price.

Negative: It's a little tricky to set up X1 when you first install it. It helps to set up the search indexing with filters so that it searches only the kind of data files that are relevant to you. For example, in my case, I set up X1 to search Word files, PDFs, Excel files, and Outlook email files (PST) in certain folders on my main data drive. I don't want X1 spending time indexing or searching application files, or files like HotDocs templates, or duplicate backup files on backup drives. X1 can certainly do that, but getting it right took a little extra time on the front end. Clearly, though, it was worth the effort.

Summary: Superb but expensive. Super fast search - you can find items very quickly, especially information within files.

Positive: Easy when you get the hang of it, to find files that would be lost to you, amongst the mass of files and emails on your system, without X1. Top three softwares of all time for me. Saves me at least 30 min per day. 1.25 million emails and files on my system - along with a hazy memory - so can't do without it. I've used it for 15+ years

Negative: Cost - used to be a one time fee. Now it is an annual fee. Not justifiable for a utility. If doing annual then have to bring the cost down by two-thirds to around $30 per year. All they was kept it at the same price and made it annual! Very disappointing.

Summary: X1 Search is a powerful Search utility at a premium price. It excels in searching documents, emails or other files across your local disks, network drives and even cloud storage. It also integrates with MS Sharepoint making it good for enterprise use.

Positive: Fast search performance
Search documents & emails as well
Supports searching on major cloud repositories
Sharepoint Integrations
Light on system resource - low system requirements

Negative: Quite expensive license for such a basic utility.
Only available on Windows.

Summary: Overall the search feature is very good. The GUI and user experience is not very good. They should use the annual subscription to hire developers that know what they are doing.

Positive: The search features are fantastic. The application indexes and finds the search criteria quickly unless the index is large.

Negative: The GUI is terrible. There is no indication when the search is done searching or what it is doing. Scrolling too fast in the found items messes up the display. They are very slow to respond. Very slow during development. Very slow to fix any issues. I was told one time that I had too many search items and I should remove some data from my computer...REALLY? All this and there is an annual subscription cost.