Espanso
A text expander that watches for a keyword you type and replaces it with whatever you set, in any program.
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4 more ways to get Espanso
Package managers
- winget
winget install --id Espanso.Espanso - Chocolatey
choco install espanso - Homebrew
brew install --cask espanso - Snap Store
snap install espanso
About Espanso
Espanso runs in the background and swaps short triggers for longer text. Typing a few characters can produce an email signature, a code snippet, today's date, an emoji, or the output of a shell command. Because it works at the keyboard level it applies in every program, not just an editor.
Configuration is plain YAML files you can keep in version control, and a package manager pulls ready-made sets from the Espanso Hub. Everything runs locally with no account and no telemetry.
Strengths
- Works in almost any program because it operates at the keyboard level
- Configuration is plain YAML files, easy to sync or keep in git
- Triggers can run shell commands, insert dates or open a form
- Package manager with ready-made snippet sets from the Espanso Hub
Limitations
- Wayland support is still marked experimental
- Writing matches means editing YAML by hand; there is no visual editor
- Some applications with unusual text fields swallow the replacement
Details
- Pricing
- FreeFree and open source under the GPL 3.0.
- License
- GPL-3.0
- Developer
- Espanso
- Platforms
- Windows, macOS, Linux
- How it runs
- Downloadable app
- Account
- Not required
- Works offline
- Yes
- Best suited for
- Anyone who retypes the same paragraphs, addresses or snippets every day
- Categories
- Automation
- Last verified
- Added
- Provenance
- Selected from the TechWalrus downloads catalog (Automation); facts checked against the developer's own pages, 2 sources on file.
Alternatives to Espanso
Compare allSoftware that can replace Espanso for an important use case, and what changes if you switch.
AutoHotkey
A Windows scripting language for hotkeys, text expansion, key remapping and automating anything on screen.
AutoHotkey handles text replacement alongside hotkeys and a full scripting language, but it runs on Windows only, dropping Espanso's macOS and Linux support.
Beeftext
Expand short typed abbreviations into reusable text snippets on Windows.
Beeftext is a simpler MIT-licensed snippet manager for Windows only, and the project is in maintenance mode with no new features planned.
AutoKey
Desktop automation for Linux under X11: abbreviations that expand into text, and hotkeys that run Python.
AutoKey expands abbreviations and runs Python scripts from hotkeys on Linux, but it only works under X11 and its last tagged release was in 2022.
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