espanso icon
espanso icon

espanso

 105 likes

An open source, cross-platform text expander written in Rust.

espanso screenshot 1

License model

  • FreeOpen Source

Application type

Country of Origin

  • IT flagItaly
  • European Union flagEU

Platforms

  • Mac
  • Windows
  • Linux
4.4 / 5 Avg rating (21)
105likes
15comments
0news articles

Features

Suggest and vote on features

Properties

  1.  Configurable
  2.  Lightweight

Features

  1.  Text Expansion
  2.  Works Offline
  3.  Support for scripting
  4.  Portable
  5.  Console-based
  6.  Ad-free

espanso News & Activities

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Recent activities

  • brnntn, acetate, bnchndlr and nu1iess3 liked espanso
    7 days ago
  • App icon
    type4-text-expander added espanso as alternative to Type4
    2 months ago
  • App icon
    chris_tryinf added espanso as alternative to QHuman
    2 months ago
  • flounderingeel liked espanso
    2 months ago
  • App icon
    POX added espanso as alternative to KeyTik
    2 months ago
  • PredatorQ and bannert1337 liked espanso
    3 months ago
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espanso information

  • Developed by

    IT flagFederico Terzi
  • Licensing

    Open Source (GPL-3.0) and Free product.
  • Written in

  • Rating

    Average rating of 4.4 (21 ratings)
  • Alternatives

    43 alternatives listed
  • Supported Languages

    • English

AlternativeTo Categories

DevelopmentOffice & Productivity

GitHub repository

  •  11,592 Stars
  •  322 Forks
  •  420 Open Issues
  •   Updated Jun 13, 2025 
View on GitHub

Our users have written 15 comments and reviews about espanso, and it has gotten 105 likes

espanso was added to AlternativeTo by Federico Terzi on Oct 7, 2019 and this page was last updated Mar 29, 2023.

Comments and Reviews

   
 Post comment/review
Comment summary: Espanso is praised for being fast, reliable, and highly configurable with a quick learning curve, especially appealing to privacy-conscious users. It offers a text-based configuration that's easy to share and manage through source control. However, some users find it not very intuitive for average users and report limited functionality in some applications, such as issues with multi-line replacements. Its open-source and cross-platform nature is appreciated, offering a valuable alternative with room for improvement.
Top Positive Comment
BeSublime
Oct 21, 2019
7

Fast and reliable, easy to configure, and with text-based configuration files that you can easily share between computers and keep in source control.

Top Negative Comment
AJS-Caticorn
Jan 10, 2025
0

Not user-friendly at all. No interface; you have to access codes and scripts. I'll keep searching for a PC replacement to my beloved Typinator, which I use on my Mac...

Ron Chou
Mar 13, 2025

There are GUI shells for espanso. Also CLI is a much more efficient interface for text expansion.

Ron Chou
Mar 13, 2025
1

My favourite text expander.

Can substitute dynamically for dates, etc.

Also acts as a script trigger.

Linux standard install is CLI and lightweight. GUI available for techno-grannies.

.yml based cofiguration, extremely easy to learn. No coding experience required.

pizzaboy5570
Feb 12, 2025
0

It's very simple, easy to use, and you gotta love that it's free and open source. Excellent time saver!

nuavbl
Sep 30, 2024
0

Great text expander, including a hub of commonly-used replacements you can pick-and-choose from to install, like emoji, math symbols, and accented characters. Saves a ton of time with repeated phrases, and enables near-native emoji use instead of requiring you to search for and copy/paste th emoji.

Ubell
Sep 19, 2024
0

I had never used something called yaml before, but it was very concise and easy to handle, even for a beginner like me.

tomhung357
Sep 9, 2024
1

This is very helpful.

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7 of 15 comments

What is espanso?

Tired of typing the same sentences over and over? Discover the incredible power of a full-blown text expander.

Smarter typing

No more copy and pasting, create templates once and let Espanso do the rest for you. Customer support replies, sales pitches, medical reports, you name it. Espanso got you covered.

Every sentence, one search away

Don’t remember a shortcut? No worries. Just press ALT+Space and Espanso’s search bar will open, letting you search for the perfect snippet.

Dates, Emojis 🚀, and more...

Don’t wrap your head around dates. Espanso makes it easy to use them, both past and future ones. Bring emojis 🤠 in all your favorite apps, one shortcut away.

Endless extensibility

Extend Espanso’s capabilities with packages, or create your owns and share them with the community on the Espanso Hub. Need to insert mathematical notation? Or perhaps german accents? We got a package for them. We even got the shrug ¯_(?)_/¯

Shell and Script support

For advanced use-cases, you can extend Espanso’s snippets with shell commands or custom scripts. No more copy-pasting from the terminal, inject the output into applications directly.

Form support

Use forms to handle complex workflows, creating templates that can be reused with ease. You can even forward form values into custom scripts, opening up endless possibilities.

Official Links