ThatPrompt vs text expanders

The short answer

Text expanders like TextExpander, Espanso and Alfred paste fixed text when you type an abbreviation, which suits signatures and boilerplate. ThatPrompt is a $39 desktop prompt manager. You find a prompt by typing any few letters of it, the ones you use most come first, and a model on your computer rewrites rough prompts into precise ones.

At a glance

When a text expander is the better choice

• You want text to appear the moment you type a short abbreviation, with no window at all. ThatPrompt doesn't watch what you type.
• Your snippets need fill-in fields, today's date, the clipboard or a script. All three do this, and ThatPrompt doesn't.
• You're on Linux, where Espanso runs, or you want snippets on your iPhone, which TextExpander supports.
• Your team shares one snippet library. TextExpander does that.
• Most of what you reuse is email replies, addresses and signatures rather than prompts.

When ThatPrompt is the better choice

• Most of what you reuse is prompts, and you can't remember an abbreviation for each. Type any few letters of the title or the text, in order. crt finds Code review template.
• You want the prompt improved, not only pasted. Enhance adds the role, context and shape of answer a rough prompt is missing, on a model on your computer.
• You want the prompts you use most to come first. ThatPrompt ranks by how often and how recently you use each one.
• You'd rather pay once for a tool made for prompts. ThatPrompt is $39, with every update.

Using both

A text expander and ThatPrompt work fine together. Keep signatures and boilerplate in the expander, and keep prompts in ThatPrompt, where Enhance can work on them and search can find them without an abbreviation.

Questions

Is ThatPrompt a text expander?

No. It doesn't watch what you type for abbreviations. You open it with a shortcut, type a few letters of the prompt you want, and press Enter to paste it. It also rewrites prompts with a model on your computer, which no text expander does.

Does ThatPrompt support fill-in fields like TextExpander?

No. ThatPrompt pastes a prompt as you saved it. A placeholder you write, like [topic], stays as text for you to replace.

Can I bring my snippets into ThatPrompt?

Yes, through a Markdown file. Each prompt starts with a # Title line, with --- between prompts. Espanso keeps its snippets in plain files, so you can copy them across. See Back up and restore your prompts.

Are Alfred snippets free?

No. Alfred itself is free, but snippets and text expansion are part of the Powerpack, a one-off payment from £34.

Sources

What this page says about TextExpander, Espanso, Alfred comes from their own pages, read on 21 October 2026. Prices and features change. If something here is out of date, email hello@blacklabstudios.com and we'll fix it.

• TextExpander pricing
• TextExpander: the future of TextExpander AI
• Espanso
• Espanso docs: extensions
• Espanso docs: sync
• Alfred Powerpack
• Alfred help: snippets
• Alfred help: syncing
• Alfred OpenAI workflow

What it says about ThatPrompt comes from the help pages:

• Bring a prompt back from any app
• How search finds and ranks your prompts
• Enhance a prompt
• Back up and restore your prompts