Finicky alternative

A Finicky alternative with a picker and no config file

Finicky is a free, scriptable router for developers, but it lives in a JavaScript config file with no picker. If you would rather click a profile than write code, Burly is the free alternative to try, with automatic profile discovery and Safari profile support.

By Matt Senter, who builds Burly

Why people switch from Finicky

Finicky is free and genuinely good, so people rarely leave it over money. They leave over the config file. Finicky expects you to write and maintain JavaScript, name every profile by hand, and redo it when a profile changes. That is a fine trade for a developer who wants routing to be code, and a bad one for anyone who just wants the right window to open. Burly needs no configuration at all: it finds your profiles itself, shows them under your cursor, and adds Safari profiles that Finicky cannot target.

Is Burly a good Finicky alternative?

The usual reason to look for a Finicky alternative is that you do not want to maintain a JavaScript config file. Finicky is powerful, but every routing decision lives in code you write and keep up to date. Burly is the opposite approach: it discovers your profiles automatically and shows a picker, so there is nothing to script. Both are free. The honest trade is control versus convenience, and Burly also reaches Safari profiles, which Finicky cannot. If you love your finicky.js, you will miss its precision; if you dread it, Burly removes it entirely.

How to switch from Finicky to Burly

1. Download Burly and drag it to Applications.
2. Set Burly as your default web browser in System Settings, under Desktop & Dock.
3. Skip the config step entirely. Burly discovers your browsers and profiles on launch, so there is no file to write and nothing to name.
4. You can leave your finicky.js in place; it simply stops being consulted once Burly is the handler.

What you give up

You are giving up programmability, and that is not a small thing. Finicky's rules are real JavaScript and TypeScript, so it can express routing logic Burly has no way to represent, and it is open source in a way Burly is not. If you enjoy having your routing in version control, stay with Finicky. Burly is the better choice only if you would rather never open that file again.

Want the full feature-by-feature breakdown, including where Finicky wins? Read Burly vs. Finicky.