Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

LaunchBar VS TextExpander

Compare LaunchBar VS TextExpander and see what are their differences

LaunchBar logo LaunchBar

Start with a single keyboard shortcut to access and control every aspect of your digital life. Use LaunchBar and improve your workflow now.

TextExpander logo TextExpander

TextExpander: Communicate Smarter. Gather, Perfect, Share Your Knowledge. Recall your best words instantly, repeatedly.
  • LaunchBar Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-03
  • TextExpander Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-12

LaunchBar videos

Launchbar - My #1 Time Saver

More videos:

  • Review - Mac Productivity: Launchbar 6 vs. Alfred 2
  • Review - Be More Productive with LaunchBar, Part 1

TextExpander videos

My favourite productivity tool - Textexpander Review

More videos:

  • Tutorial - TextExpander Simply Saves Time! - Quick Tutorial
  • Review - One of the Best Productivity Tools Out There: An Overview of Textexpander [Quick Review]

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to LaunchBar and TextExpander)
Productivity
100 100%
0% 0
Writing Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Mac
100 100%
0% 0
Automation
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using LaunchBar and TextExpander. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare LaunchBar and TextExpander

LaunchBar Reviews

4 Best Spotlight Alternatives to Increase Your Mac’s Functionality
LaunchBar lets you look up documents, apps, and bookmarks using short abbreviations, albeit it isn’t as fast at returning results as the other two app launchers. In addition, it has a powerful file manager, which lets you query file metadata and perform operations like copying, moving, and renaming files and folders easily.
Source: techpp.com

TextExpander Reviews

Best Text Expander apps for MacOS
Well, the Text Expander is often regarded as a classic text Automator and is arguably one of the best names in this business. Despite its soaring popularity, the Text Expander users were baffled when the makers moved to a subscription service and offered the same at an annual rate of $40. Other cheaper alternatives offered similar experiences at a much lower price....
Source: techwiser.com
What's a good alternative to Textexpander for Mac?
10aTextView ProductMichelle NickolaisenOwner, Bombchelle Industries · Written 4y agoI use aText and I've had 1-2 very minor issues with it over the years, but nothing major. It's definitely worth the $5 fee if you just want something that does text shortcuts & don't necessarily want or need TextExpander's other features.🙏 helpful 4Comments (1)ShareAllan CaegFounder,...
Typing shortcut utilities: 6 alternatives to TextExpander
If TextExpander’s subscription service rubs you the wrong way, you have several options that you can buy—and one that’s free.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, TextExpander should be more popular than LaunchBar. It has been mentiond 25 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

LaunchBar mentions (8)

  • You're using function keys wrong
    I've been doing this for >10 years with https://manytricks.com/butler/. Works great! You can also bind snippets of text, scripts, etc. I can't overstate how important it is to have a keyboard that groups function keys into "islands" of (generally) 4 so you can touch-type them. An ergonomics consultant once observed that the source of my neck pain was that I looked at the keyboard while typing. As a touch-typist, I... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Maccy is an open source lightweight and searchable clipboard manager for macOS
    LaunchBar[0], which predates Alfred but is similar in function, also has a fantastic searchable clipboard manager. LaunchBar's manager includes a feature that I've not been able to find in any other clipboard manager: a push/pop stack. With this feature you can, for example, copy a bunch of different items from a web page on to the stack, then paste them sequentially in a web form and pop them from the stack so... - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • What apps do you install on your MacBook Pro to improve performance and usability?
    LaunchBar is something I personally find a more useful and better considered tool than Alfred, though they're aimed at doing the same thing. It also comes with a great clipboard persister and manager. Every time you start doing things in LaunchBar, you can type a couple of letters to filter the list of candidates down, which means juggling a 100 item clipboard history becomes very easy to manage. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Clipboard app for regularly used text
    I use the one integrated into Launchbar. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • What is the best clipboard archiving utility for macbook?
    Launchbar will persist up to 100 clipboard items, with full-text search and access. I use it constantly. The rest of Launchbar is horrendously useful - the best of the 'accessory' tools, IMO. Source: almost 3 years ago
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TextExpander mentions (25)

  • You don't have to type faster to type faster
    If you are already using Alfred[1] (with PowerPack), then snippets are your friend. Combine this with macOS's own Text Replacement[2], can cover most needs. You add up your snippets as you go along and sync/backup it so you won't have to re-do on each install/upgrade. I also found out that it is easier to use "," as a deliminator as there is no way I will type a normal English word with a comma then a character... - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Show HN: I automated 1/2 of my typing
    First, I have to make a personal confession — I never liked the SMS short-hand thingy that worked with pre-iPhone phones. That was one of the reason I use SMS/Text-Messages unless I really need to. I have been using text-expansion since the early days of TextExpander[1], an app that works on iOS and macOS. However good the iPhone keyboard was, it was always not convenient to type and retype details such as home... - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
  • Getting faster at plug and play motions and using templates
    There is an app called TextExpander that you can use to store frequently used text selections and then type a shortcut to have it automatically insert into any Microsoft document. It is extremely helpful for busting through routine motions or correspondence. For example, if I want my atty’s signature block, I have it set up to insert when I type /sigblock. I have whole letters and pleadings saved in there and I... Source: about 1 year ago
  • Suggest a text expander/ Clipboard app for my use case
    TextExpander: The reference, but is also subscription based. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Tip: Use Text Snippets
    To help me save time and avoid distractions, I’ve been using prompts through the TextExpander app. These prompts are shortcuts that I’ve created to quickly add little instructions I feel I have to repeat often. For example, I’ve created a prompt to “stamp all code snippets you produce with a unique identifier,” which has made it much easier to ask GPT3 to go back and retrieve the code I’m referencing. Source: over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing LaunchBar and TextExpander, you can also consider the following products

Alfred - Alfred is an award-winning app for macOS which boosts your efficiency with hotkeys, keywords, text expansion and more. Search your Mac and the web, and be more productive with custom actions to control your Mac.

PhraseExpress - PhraseExpress is one of the best and most fully featured text expansion apps available to Windows users.

Keypirinha - A lightning fast and flexible keystroke launcher for Windows. No installation required (portable).

Beeftext - Beeftext is an open-source text substitution tool for Windows.

Raycast - Fastest way to control Jira, GitHub and other web apps

espanso - An Open Source, Cross-platform Text Expander on steroids