# Copernic Desktop Search Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Is Copernic Desktop Search the right Portal solution for you? Explore 14 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/9020/Copernic-Desktop-Search/reviews --- Copernic Desktop Search 3.4 (14) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/9020/Copernic-Desktop-Search/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated March 13th, 2026 # Reviews of Copernic Desktop Search Ease of use 3.7 Customer Service 2.0 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-14 of 14 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Malcolm K. Editor Health, Wellness and Fitness Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Copernic is much better than the old Google Desktop " May 8, 2019 5.0 I had used Google Desktop successfully for many years in my business despite it being discontinued some time ago. Recently, it stopped working and I was forced to look for an alternative desktop search program. I run a media monitoring business and it is essential that earlier articles or sections thereof that have appeared in my prior reports are not repeated. Google Desktop was used to perform that checking task. After evaluating several options, I finally selected Copernic and it is now in daily use and works much better than the old Google Desktop. It has many advantages but also challenges. The company did not offer a trial, so it had to be purchased and then evaluated. The cost was reasonable so that was acceptable. It was difficult to set up compared to Google Desktop, but then again, perhaps my computer skills or lack thereof, was the problem! The indexing process was rapid, and I could readily identify the specific USB flash drive which needed to be searched. This had been a difficult task with Google Desktop. Copernic stopped working every few days and had to be re-indexed. I finally found out that this was my fault, as I had set up the indexing process not entirely correctly. This had never happened with Google and the indexing was simple never gave problems. I attempted to install Copernic on my second computer, but to my surprise discovered that the license was per computer. Pros The search results are rapid, accurate and comprehensive. The search findings are presented in date order, and useful search options are offered. I could readily set up the specific USB flash drive which needed to be searched. I do need my entire hard drive to be searched. Reasonable cost. It also updates regularly and easily. Cons Difficult to install and index and this was a long learning curve! A trial is not offered. The license is per computer. Review Source HF Henry F. Recruiting Mgr Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Close to fantastic but missing the obvious easy fix" July 21, 2023 4.0 Searching multiple sources is great, and we rely on tools like this, but since they upgraded from version 5 they eliminated showing all the keywords at the same time, so I am looking for alternative products. It's too bad too, since I have been using it for over 10yrs. One other comment. I read that their customer service is rated poorly, but I have NEVER waited more than a day to get something resolved. Pros Very useful for searching large quantities of resumes in our case. Ways to search and organize results are nicely execited. Saving and updating search results work great. Once indexed, it is lightning fast. Quicker than opening the actual file. Cons Great product if they change these 2 major flaws:1. Rather than show all keywords highlighted in the results window document (like the rest of the world does), they chose to show only the keyword selected. So in order to see all the keywords in a resume i.e. one must select each keyword from the drop down, then the next one and so on. This is an easy feature fix, I hope they see the importance soon.2. The indexing could easily start with the most current "create or modfy date" but instead it it re-indexing everything that gets indexed over and over each time, even though the file has not changed. This is not very efficient for the user who has to wait longer than needed to see new files ie. Review Source Sandor S. Writer Writing and Editing Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Copernic Poor Tech Support, Poor Recovery - There is a better choice." May 7, 2021 2.0 The software is ok. The index size is large and re indexing can take a long time. The real problems are when the software fails. You have to rebuild any custom setttings, and index everything again. There tech support is slow if they do respond and in several instances I have had to request support several times. If you are dependent on their software this can be a problem. Pros I liked the software because it allows me to easily search for documents. videos and audio production files. Cons I have owned Copernic Desktop for several years. It has two major problems. If Copernic crashes there is no way of recovering its settings and after you rebuild your settings you must re index. Rebuilding the settings can take time if you have added file types and changed update times. Also, when your index is large it can take many hours to rebuild. Unfortunately, Copernic has not added a recovery feature (even the ability to store current settings) after several years of customer requests. Coperninc's tech support is horrific. It takes a minimum of three days for them to answer. One week ago I had a system crash and had to rebuild the system. My Copernic license key was not accepted and I contacted Copernic for help. I still have not heard from Copernic. I did some research and installed Agent Ransack. It is quick, does not create a large index unless you wish and their tech support replies in a few hours rather than days. It costs more than Copernic, but I believe the cost is worth it based on the quality and speed of the product and their tech response time. They have a free version and I recommend if you want reliability and good tech support try them Review Source BM Bruno M. Senior Accelerator Physicist Think Tanks Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Very poor customer support for an excellent product" May 9, 2020 5.0 Probably the worst customer support I have ever encountered. Pros The search is fantastic and probably the best search engine I know. It goes through every single document to find all the words etc. It makes proper filing of downloaded files obsolete to a large extent because you can find anything on your computer with this search engine. Cons I had installed CDS many years ago, when they first came out. I started with the free version and then upgraded because I thought it was simply fantastic. After that, I had to change laptops and was unable to use it because it would not instal properly, however, I still had the license number for it. Recently, I had to change laptops again and gave it another try. Somehow it still did not work. I then contacted customer support almost three weeks ago. I am still waiting for an answer from them today ... Review Source BM Beth M. Managing Partner Airlines/Aviation Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Inexpensive destop search - but can really slow down processing times" July 29, 2019 4.0 Pros Searches in the background, by file type, with some control over what you do and do not wish to scan. Once everything is indexed, response times are fairly quick. Very good value for the price, especially if you don't need 100% accuracy with PDF files. Cons Indexing can really slow down processing times, even when it's set to run in a minimally intrusive way in the background. We had problems with false positives and false negatives - ie: thinking something was there, then when you went to look it wasn't the thing, and also missing strings that were clearly there. This was mostly a problem with scanning OCR'd PDF files. The OCR may be the problem, but other products come with a better OCR product included. Review Source Michael N. owner Public Safety Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Copernic desktop search used to be a good product, now it's defintely not worth the price." December 19, 2017 1.0 It was very good at first. But as the index grew, the performance and reliability of the application plummeted. Overall, the biggest benefit was uninstalling the application and finding another solution. Pros It used to be a decent replacement for Google desktop search. It makes it possible to search for all documents and emails on your pc. When it works correctly, it works well. Otherwise, it's just another program consuming electrons for no good reason. Cons The interface is clunky at best, the results are disappointing and support is non-existent. When we first purchased the product, I bought five licenses. Unlike most software applications, I actually received five separate licenses that were installed on each workstation. Unfortunately, I learned the the license is per "user" and not per PC. So when an employee would log into another pc which had Copernic installed and 'licensed', they were unable to use it because the license was tied to another user's login. This is a very poorly conceived configuration. Finally, after a few times seeking support, I could not get a reply from the creators in order to resolve numerous issues with the application. They were completely MIA. I highly discourage anyone from wasting their money on this program. Review Source BC Bert C. CTO Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Now became completely useless, waste of time, waste of money. After 12+ years of use." February 6, 2021 1.0 I need to search local files by name and contents, which quick contents preview. Pros On the paper, it offers key functions that I need : file search by name \_and\_ by contents, a quick preview. I have been using CDS for more than 12 years. Cons It now has recurrent indexing problems on basic things. I use it only to index local files (I have 20+ years of files). The current Indexer is unfortunately completely buggy. After reindexing from scratch (many hours of work using highest priority), it finds the expected files. After a while (no more than a couple of weeks) it only finds a few files. Older version didn't have this problem. I just reported (again) the situation : using a a small string in the file name find 6 files while Windows 10 find 20 files matching this string. Conclusion : it is a DANGEROUS tool (and indeed VERY frustrating). You may think you lost files while it's just a very buggy indexer. It is frustrating because there are very few tools who offer speedy search, contents indexing and preview. Moreover, this tool is EXPENSIVE. If you want it on your home desktop, your laptop, and your office desktop, you'll have to buy three licenses :-( for a basically unsuable program. How frustrating. Reason for choosing Copernic Desktop Search I failed to locate viable alternatives. Windows search is slow and UI isn't very efficient. Review Source Mary D. B. Author Publishing Used the software for: 2+ years ### "An excellent desktop search" December 5, 2018 4.0 Pros I love the fact it can index and search my desktop and I have used this software for over a decade. It's fast and reliable and although Windows has a decent search in Windows 10, I use Copernic instead. Cons Sometimes it can be a bit slow but that's more to do with how many files it has to search through. Review Source CP Corey P. Attorney Used the software for: 2+ years ### "The only way to search" February 7, 2018 5.0 Pros It is imperative in the law business to be able to keyword search for terms that you have encountered in the past to reduce your time. Copernic allows this to happen. Cons It seems that there are some issues with it searching emails that are not located on a server. I use google services and Copernic will not index them. Review Source BM Beth M. Managing Partner Airlines/Aviation Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Slows down the system and doesn't find everything. " June 25, 2018 3.0 Searches everything including emails, PDFs, photos and more. Pros This software is inexpensive, and it finds almost everything. If a user doesn't need to find every single instance of a word or phrase, this will do just fine. Cons Even when set NOT to run when other work is being done on the computer, this slows down the computer noticeably. It also doesn't find 100% of everything searched for, and in my work I need to find every instance, not just most of them. I've upgraded this software over and over (paid upgrades) hoping they'd solve these problems, but the issues remain for me and my team. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer co-founder Research Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Peu peut être convenir pour de petits volumes de données mais pas pour des pro !" August 24, 2025 1.0 depuis quelques temps, si je laisse cocher l'onglet voir l'indexation mon system génère régulièrement un écran bleu. Si je fais une recherche Copernic plante J'ai contacté le SAV pour signalé qu'il n'y avait pas de système de sauvegarde automatique de l'indexe. Car j'ai 50 To de diskqs à indexer. On m'a répondu que je devais sauvegarder moi même. Merci mais j'attendais au moins que l'on me dise la fonction n'existe pas je transmet votre demande au service concerné ??? Bref je suis sous l'impression que Copernioc vit sur sa renommée et que son produit ne correspond plus du tout a ce qu'elle était. Conclusion je désinstale definitivement et j'oublie Copernic ! Pros la recherche dans les documents mêmes et non seulement dnas les noms de ficihers. Est censé foncrtionné poru de gros volumes ??? Cons pas de sauvegarde automatique de l'indexe ce qui oblige à le faire soit même. C'est dommage qu'une fonctionalité si simple ne soit pas intégré ? Review Source BD Bo D. Owner Translation and Localization Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Atrocious customer support" February 12, 2019 3.0 I have a nonworking license file and customer support has done nothing to help. Dead silence! Pros It works well, when it does, but it suddenly failed and has not worked since, despite new install. Cons Unresponsive customer support. I have pointed out numerous times that the license files does not work. Review Source MM MARIA M. Office Manager / Lead Paralegal Legal Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Where have you been all my work life?" March 3, 2021 5.0 It has become one of the most useful tools in finding items that were done prior to my employment or from years past. Pros The search of not only documents but e-mails is quick and efficient. I only need to come up with 3 to 4 unique words and I get my document. Cons Having to put the unique words (identifiers) in order of priority because the search window allows visualization based on placement within search engine. Review Source EL Ecio L. Partner Management Consulting Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "An excellent product with no support or respect for its users" July 15, 2021 4.0 As the product became unusable after a couple of days and there is no support it was a waste of time and money! Pros It does well what is advertised... I would be happy if I could use it! Cons No support what so ever: they apparently don't exist since every mail or support ticket are not answered. Review Source Similar Products Featured