espanso Reviews

1. Tomas

   · Customer Service at HPA · over 3 years ago
   SO much better than PhraseExpress!

   This setup is a little more hands on to install and setup, but it is worth it. No weird glitches, crashing or other issues, it just a simple system works as it should.

   It doesn't have all the same features as PhraseExpress, but if you are like me and just want a text expander, they are features you will never need or use anyway.

   The setup instructions are clear and concise. They do take a minute to get your head around compared to other software installs that I am used to, but as the instructions are on point, it is not difficult.

   I am using this on macOS and will be trying it on Windows soon too.

   🏁 Competitors: PhraseExpress

   👍 Pros:    Works perfectly|Cost effective|Great, clear setup instructions

   👎 Cons:    Requries some more setup beyond the usual 'double click' and done

Medium Reviews

espanso mentions (104)

• Life after the merge: why publishing an Obsidian plugin is just the beginning

  Espanso is the dominant system-wide text expander — the one you reach for when you want expansion to work in any app, not just the editor you're in. It also has something Obsidian plugins almost never have: a packages ecosystem. Espanso users share package.yml files publicly, and the community has been growing that catalog for years now. Every text-expansion plugin I tried in Obsidian treated snippets as something... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago

• TextExpander Alternatives for Mac in 2026: An Honest Comparison

  If you have a few dozen frequently-used phrases and you're tired of paying TextExpander's subscription, you can probably leave. QUICOPY ($9.99 lifetime) and Espanso (free) cover most personal use cases. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago

• When espanso breaks on long replacement strings (and how to fix it)

  I’ve been using espanso for a while now (it’s a neat little open-source text expander that makes typing repetitive stuff a breeze). All was fine and dandy—until I tried adding a longer replacement string, something like:. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago

• KiCad and Wayland Support

  The first google result for 'autokey wayland' is someone recommending https://espanso.org/ , that looks like it has good Wayland support. And you only need look at OBS to see screen video capture is perfectly possible on Wayland. Who is saying those are impossible use cases? I think those two apps are just not updated, that happens often with software. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago

• macOS Tips and Tricks

  A shout-out for https://espanso.org a wonderful and free text expander configurable in a YAML file. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago

Medium mentions (3108)

• Show HN: Tried some experiments with architecture for Long term memory for LLM

  I also wrote a short overview of the project if you are interested:https://medium.com/@faisaliitian/i-built-an-ai-memory-system-because-just-retrieve-more-wasnt-working-0b1dc9a60c01?postPublishedType=initial. - Source: Hacker News / about 24 hours ago

• US hires over 2k video gamers as air traffic controllers

  I'd suggest looking at Admiral Cloudberg's recent analysis of the Jan. 2025 airliner/military helicopter collision in Washington DC. It's a study in the difficulties of air traffic control in the 21st century and the reality of transponder usage, complicated by an overwhelmed airport and legislative indifference. Transponders aren't universally used, technology and people aren't perfect. This one is long; I... - Source: Hacker News / 2 days ago

• Mother of all VPNs v2 release: Same 16 protocols, rebuilt underneath

  Here's also the medium article (same copy as the X thread): https://medium.com/@sbetamc/moav-v2-is-out-ab2fff44a9d8 no time for X thread or articles:. - Source: Hacker News / 2 days ago

• Ask HN: My dev blog has 11k followers. I stopped writing it. What would you do?

  * Memory management + how to handle 4 common memory leaks: 421K / 77K The blog is at ~11K followers now, almost all developers. Back then every article ended with a plug for my startup, which was the actual reason I was writing them. My company got acquired, I kept the blog, and I took the plugs out. When the blog was active, I had a couple of people/companies ask to buy it and a few more wanting to advertise in... - Source: Hacker News / 4 days ago

• Leopold Aschenbrenner Turned $100M into $45B Betting on AI – It Almost Blew Up [video]

  Luck disguised as genius aura, cult of the potential of "young geniuses", similar to Elizabeth Holmes. https://medium.com/@trendguardian/rigged-networks-1d5ad5c6f825. - Source: Hacker News / 5 days ago