Espanso vs Snippety

Espanso detects configured keywords as they are typed and replaces them with saved text. It supports reusable templates for customer support replies, sales pitches, and medical reports, while a search bar opened with Alt+Space helps users find and insert snippets. Snippets can also insert dates, including past and future dates, or emoji shortcuts. They may run shell commands or custom scripts, and forms can pass values to scripts. Users can install or build reusable packages through Espanso Hub, which includes a package manager and store. Espanso says it works with most applications and supports app-specific configurations. It is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, and costs nothing under the GPL-3 open-source license. Configuration is handled through YAML files; a graphical interface is described as planned for the future. Users can sync configuration through cloud storage such as Dropbox or Google Drive, or through GitHub, although the unmanaged-directory method is experimental. The software ships with very few built-in matches, and some trigger types remain unsupported.

Snippety expands short keywords into saved text in apps and text fields, and manages reusable snippets across macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. Its templates can include fill-in fields, dropdowns, dates, clipboard content, AI-generated text, and conditional blocks. On Mac, App Rules can vary which snippets appear by application; automation options include a command-line interface, Apple Shortcuts actions, Siri, and shell scripts inside snippets. Snippets can be stored as rich text, HTML, RTF, or Markdown, with syntax highlighting for more than 50 languages. On iPhone and iPad, a custom keyboard lets users browse and expand snippets while typing. Collections sync and can be shared through iCloud, and users can connect an AI provider with their own API key. Snippety has a free tier, a Mac license listed at $39.99 a month with pay-once ownership terms, an iPhone and iPad purchase at $19.99 as a one-time purchase, and an optional All Apple devices subscription at $2.99 a month. A standalone Mac license covers up to two Macs; the App Store version is sandboxed, limiting some script features.