Do you find yourself constantly typing the same phrases over and over again? Are you tired of spending hours crafting the perfect email response, only to realize you've said the same thing a million times before? 

Well, fear not, because there’s a solution to all your typing woes: a text expander app. Since you’re here, it’s likely you know how one works and are looking for the best alternative out there.

Multiple options exist, each with great features to streamline your typing. A lot of people swear by PhraseExpress as the king of text expanders while many vouch for OSlash as the go-to text expansion app. 

So, which of these is the answer you’re looking for? This blog will offer you a detailed comparison of both text expansion apps and rate them on a host of features and functionalities to let you make the right choice. Let’s dive straight in!

PhraseExpress vs. OSlash text expander at a glance

Before comparing the two popular text expansion apps, let us quickly summarize how they work and what problems they are trying to solve for users.

What is PhraseExpress?

PhraseExpress is a license-based text expander and autotext solution that’s designed for Windows, macOS, and iOS. It expands text abbreviations into long phrases in order to save time spent on manual typing. Its USPs include a Macro Recorder that helps automate repetitive tasks (in addition to everyday typing) and a Document Generator that can create entire documents from scratch based on text templates.

What is OSlash text expander?

OSlash, on the other hand, is a SaaS-based text expander and custom keyboard shortcuts tool designed to skyrocket workplace productivity. OSlash helps knowledge workers eliminate busywork and the extremely high costs that come with it. 

First, it allows you to replace long and complex URLs with custom, human-readable link shortcuts such as o/roadmap or o/allhands, that can be accessed, shared, and recalled far more easily. 

Second, its text expander feature lets users transform commonly-used words, phrases, sentences, and even paragraphs into snippet shortcuts, which expand into the full/original text on cue. This impacts productivity positively by reducing repetitive typing and copy-pasting of text.

OSlash text expander vs PhraseExpress: A quick comparison 

With this overview, let’s head to a quick comparison between PhraseExpress and OSlash text expander. This is the only checklist you’ll need when deciding which of these popular text expansion productivity apps fits your use-case in the best possible way. 

Now that you’ve an idea about both the apps, let’s take a detailed look at their individual features, strengths, limitations, and pricing options.

OSlash text expander: An overview

If you’re looking for the best text expander that comes with a built-in suite of productivity enhancing features, OSlash should be your choice. You can use OSlash to auto-type text using shortcuts everywhere you work. But that’s not all. 

OSlash bestows upon you the powers of text expansion together with a link management solution that also doubles (or triples) up as a knowledge management platform for your company. How? By letting you find, access, and organize your links seamlessly, in addition to your snippets. 

Naming your links and snippets is the first step toward transforming confusion into clarity. It helps establish a single source of truth for important organizational resources, encourages the adoption of uniform nomenclature for such documents (and snippets) so that they can be easily found and accessed by everyone, and ends up saving each individual productive time that can be devoted to higher value-generating activities than simply searching for the right information. 

Recommended reading: A complete guide to knowledge management for your company

With OSlash by your side, you are armed with a productivity compounder that can save you ~30 hours per employee per month, translating into $1176 of savings per employee per month, on average. 

Case Study: How HeadsUp saved 250+ hours every week by simplifying link management

You essentially get the best of two worlds for the price of one. The equation reads something like:

OSlash = PhraseExpress + URL Manager + Knowledge Hub 

PhraseExpress: An overview

For keyboard warriors who want to invest in an extremely user-centric text expansion app and are ready to pay a premium, PhraseExpress can prove to be a good fit. The feature it shares with OSlash (and which we admire most) is the autocomplete and point-and-click insertion of the right snippets at the right place. Instead of making you memorize cryptic abbreviations, PhraseExpress acts like a personal writing assistant who anticipates your every move and knows exactly what you want to say before you even say it.

Not only does it give you the flexibility to assign the same shortcut to multiple snippets, but it also has a smart dropdown menu that lets you choose the best fit for the context. So whether you're replying to a routine email or typing out a goodbye message on a call, you can do it with just one keystroke.

The capabilities of PhraseExpress aren’t limited to text expansion. If you're someone who also wants to automate everyday tasks like opening websites, clicking your way to the desired destination page, filling in forms etc. this app is a game-changer. PhraseExpress’ Macro Recorder records your mouse movement, clicks, program changes, and text input for ‘infinite playback’. You can comfortably edit the recorded action steps in the macro editor as well.

PhraseExpress: Core features

• Automate repetitive tasks with Macro Recorder
• Create full documents easily using custom templates in the Document Generator
• Use the AI writing assistant integration to summarize or rewrite your phrases in different styles
• Embed external data into phrases to create dynamic templates
• Store and share snippets locally or via the cloud or shared folders, and sync them between multiple Windows and Mac computers
• Organize and share snippets in a folder hierarchy (tree structure) for easy identification and location
• Create snippets that adapt to the gender of the recipient automatically
• With multi-language support, instantly translate individual snippets or the entire phrase library into other languages

Positives of PhraseExpress

• It offers a free forever plan for individual users
• It offers automation capabilities for everyday repetitive tasks in addition to typing
• Also comes with a portable version that can be used on any device without native installation
• Provides built-in auto-correction for spellings across multiple languages 
• Offers good cross-platform support 

What could be better with PhraseExpress

• It offers limited flexibility for teams as they have to pay a one-time, non-refundable license fee
• The license fee starts at $95 for the basic plan which can be a limitation for small teams just wanting to experiment with a text expander
• Does not come with URL management functionality like OSlash

PhraseExpress pricing

All PhraseExpress pricing plans provide a lifetime license with one year of free updates & upgrades. Post that you have to pay for maintenance renewal each year. 

• For personal use: Free

For commercial use (prices without taxes as of March 2023):

• Standard: $80.62
• Professional: $120.96
• Enterprise: $201.63

By now, you should have almost all the information you need to decide if OSlash is the PhraseExpress alternative that fits your needs and budget.

If you’re still unsure, take a look at the section below for a feature-by-feature comparison and an overall rating of both the applications. 

PhraseExpress vs. OSlash text expander: Snippet shortcuts

If you’re simply looking for a text expander that offers the best in terms of snippet shortcuts, PhraseExpress is the clear winner since it offers an array of advanced features missing in OSlash. These include:

• The flexibility to assign the same shortcut for multiple snippets
• Using a multi-level folder hierarchy for organizing snippets
• Automating repetitive tasks using Macro Recorder
• Multiple language support
• Automatic spell-checking
• Performing date & time math in snippets
• Existing iOS and Windows support (which is still in pipeline for OSlash)

However, OSlash can prove to be more affordable and risk-free of an investment if you simply need a no-fuss text expander for automating typing everyday phrases, emails, messages etc on your browser and Mac.

PhraseExpress vs. OSlash text expander: URL shortcuts

Since PhraseExpress doesn’t come with the ability to transform URLs into clickable shortcuts, OSlash wins this round, hands down. 

You can still expand link shortcuts into URLs in text, emails, and the address bar, but they will neither be hyperlinked automatically nor take you to the destination page instantly. 

A consequential downside is that you cannot create a central repository of important online documents for the entire org with PhraseExpress which severely limits its use-case for enterprise knowledge management. 

PhraseExpress vs. OSlash text expander:  Knowledge management capabilities

Since you can use PhraseExpress to create, store, organize, and manage your snippets, it can double up as a repository of commonly used snippets for various teams in your company, including Sales, Customer Support, IT Support, HR, and others. Shared snippets make it possible for teams to access functional and cross-functional knowledge instantly, using PhraseExpress. 

However, PhraseExpress cannot meet all your knowledge management needs for the simple reason that it has no features to support accessibility of shared documents and links. This is a crucial gap that OSlash fills by bringing in URL shortcuts such as o/prd for your product requirement documentation, o/call-notes for a central record of all customer calls taken up by your Sales team, or o/memo for quick access to the company memo for all departments.  

OSlash also lets you create variable shortcuts to quickly scan through various websites and search engines (and even your email) for the right information, without wasting time in complex navigational labyrinths. Take a look!

No brownie points for guessing which app fares better with respect to knowledge management capabilities!

PhraseExpress vs. OSlash text expander: Task automation capabilities

Both PhraseExpress and OSlash excel at automating things you type out repeatedly. 

Where PhraseExpress goes a notch further is automating other repetitive tasks too such as performing actions on websites you visit everyday or filling in forms with the same set of details. You can program as well as edit repetitive workflows—and save a whole lot of minutes—using PhraseExpress’ Macro Recorder, a feature OSlash has yet to offer. 

PhraseExpress vs. OSlash text expander: Platform support

When it comes to platform support and compatibility, PhraseExpress performs better because it offers native apps for Windows and iOS as well in addition to the macOS and multi-browser support offered by OSlash. 

PhraseExpress or OSlash text expander: Which should you choose?

So, what’s the final verdict? 

We rated PhraseExpress and OSlash on a scale of 1-5 (1 being the lowest and 5, the highest) after a detailed evaluation of all the above features. And boy, was it a close contest!

Check out the ratings below. OSlash scores a 3.79 while PhraseExpress logs a 3.35 on our scale. 

That said, the final decision (and even the rating) can be an extremely personal judgment call to make, depending on your needs and priorities. If you’re convinced OSlash text expander is the answer to your productivity problems, we couldn’t be happier, of course.

The next step? Trying OSlash out for free, today, and experiencing the magic of text that types itself, 30x faster ⚡️Get OSlash now!