Text Blaze vs TextExpander: Which Text Expansion Tool Is Right for You?

Text Blaze and TextExpander both save you from typing the same things over and over. They share a core promise: type a short abbreviation, get a full block of text. But they take different approaches to delivering on that promise, and the right choice depends on where you work, what devices you use, and whether you need to share templates with a team.

Text Blaze started as a Chrome extension and has since expanded to Windows and macOS desktop apps. It appeals to individual users who spend most of their day inside a browser and want a free way to get started with text expansion.

TextExpander is a native text expansion app built for Mac, Windows, Chrome, iPhone, iPad, and Android. It runs at the operating system level, works offline, and is designed for both individuals and teams that need to share Snippets across an organization.

This comparison breaks down the differences that matter so you can pick the tool that fits your workflow. If you want to try TextExpander while you read, there is a free trial available with no credit card required.

Here are the key differences at a glance:

Text Blaze offers a permanent free plan with 20 snippets. TextExpander requires a paid subscription after its free trial.

TextExpander runs on Mac, Windows, Chrome, iPhone, iPad, and Android. Text Blaze covers Chrome, Edge, Windows, and macOS but has no mobile apps.

TextExpander holds SOC 2 Type II certification and offers HIPAA compliance with a BAA. Text Blaze does not carry these certifications.

Text Blaze’s Pro plan starts at $2.99 per month. TextExpander’s Individual plan starts at $3.33 per month.

What is Text Blaze?

Text Blaze is a text expansion tool built by Dan Barak that launched as a Chrome extension and now offers desktop apps for Windows and macOS. It has over 700,000 users and a 4.9-star rating on the Chrome Web Store.

The tool lets you save text templates as snippets, assign keyboard shortcuts to them, and insert them wherever you type. Beyond plain text replacement, Text Blaze supports form fields, dropdown menus, conditional logic, date calculations, and basic automation commands that can simulate clicks or key presses.

Where Text Blaze works

Text Blaze runs as a Chrome extension, an Edge extension, and works in other Chromium-based browsers like Brave, Opera, Arc, and Vivaldi through the Chrome Web Store. The company also offers native desktop apps for Windows and macOS, though the Windows app lacks some features available in the Chrome extension, such as the {site} command for reading data from web pages.

Text Blaze does not have mobile apps for iOS or Android. The company’s FAQ states that mobile support is on its roadmap, but there is no estimated timeline.

What Text Blaze does well

The free tier is genuine and useful. You get 20 active snippets with unlimited daily usage. That is enough for someone who has a handful of canned responses or standard email signatures they type repeatedly. You can also test premium features like form fields up to five times per day on the free plan, which gives you a real sense of the tool before paying anything.

Text Blaze’s conditional logic and automation commands go deeper than you might expect from a browser extension. You can build snippets that include if/then rules, dynamic formulas, and even simulated keystrokes. For someone whose entire workday lives inside Chrome, this is a strong combination of features at a low price.

Where Text Blaze falls short

The lack of mobile apps is a notable gap. If you draft emails on your phone, send messages from an iPad, or work across devices throughout the day, your Text Blaze snippets will not follow you to mobile.

The Windows and macOS desktop apps are newer and do not yet have full feature parity with the Chrome extension. Security-wise, Text Blaze encrypts data in transit with TLS and at rest with AES-256, and its infrastructure runs on Google’s servers and Digital Ocean. However, the company does not hold SOC 2 certification or offer HIPAA compliance with a Business Associate Agreement, which matters for healthcare organizations and enterprises with strict vendor requirements.

What is TextExpander?

TextExpander is a text expansion tool that has been around since 2006, originally built for the Mac. Today it runs natively on Mac, Windows, Chrome, iPhone, iPad, and Android. It operates at the system level on desktop, meaning it works in every app where you type, not only inside a web browser.

The tool centers on what it calls Snippets: saved blocks of text tied to short abbreviations. Type the abbreviation anywhere, and the Snippet expands. Snippets can include fill-in-the-blank fields, nested references to other Snippets, date and time math, formatted text with images, and even JavaScript or AppleScript for advanced automation.

Where TextExpander works

TextExpander runs on Mac, Windows, Chrome, iPhone, iPad, and Android. Snippets stay up to date across all your devices automatically, so the customer response template you create on your Mac laptop is available on your iPhone during your commute and in Chrome when you log into a shared workstation. The app also works offline on desktop and mobile.

What TextExpander does well

Cross-platform coverage is TextExpander’s defining strength. Having the same Snippets available on every device you own eliminates the friction of switching between desktop and mobile or between Mac and Windows machines throughout the day.

Team features are built into the product at every tier above Individual. Organizations can maintain a central Snippet library, control permissions for who can view or edit, and push updates instantly to every team member. When a legal disclaimer changes or a product description gets updated, one edit propagates everywhere.

These team features translate to measurable time savings. Virta Health, a healthcare company using TextExpander across its organization, saved over 69,000 hours in a single year by standardizing templates across its teams.

For regulated industries, TextExpander holds SOC 2 Type II certification and is HIPAA compliant with a Business Associate Agreement available on request. This makes it a fit for healthcare organizations and enterprises that cannot adopt tools without documented compliance.

Where TextExpander falls short

TextExpander does not offer a permanent free plan. There is a free trial, but once it ends you need a paid subscription to keep using the tool. For someone who only needs a handful of text shortcuts and does not want to pay anything, this is a real barrier. The Individual plan starts at $3.33 per month billed annually, which is reasonable for a productivity tool, but it is not free.

TextExpander’s automation capabilities are different from Text Blaze’s approach. Where Text Blaze offers simulated clicks and keystrokes as part of its snippet engine, TextExpander focuses on text output and fill-in forms rather than browser automation. If your main goal is automating multi-step browser workflows, TextExpander is not designed for that.

Feature comparison

Feature | Text Blaze | TextExpander
Text expansion | Abbreviation-triggered snippets | Abbreviation-triggered Snippets with inline search
Fill-in fields | Text fields, dropdowns, dates, toggles | Text fields, dropdowns, dates, popup menus, optional sections
Dynamic content | If/then logic, formulas, site data commands | Date/time math, nested Snippets, JavaScript, AppleScript, shell scripts
Team sharing | Shared folders on Business plan and above | Central Snippet library with permission controls on Business plan and above
Platform support | Chrome, Edge, Chromium browsers, Windows, macOS | Mac, Windows, Chrome, iPhone, iPad, Android
Mobile apps | None | iPhone, iPad, Android
Offline support | Not documented | Yes, on desktop and mobile
Free tier | 20 snippets, unlimited usage | Free trial only
Automation | Simulated clicks and keystrokes | JavaScript, AppleScript, and shell script execution
Rich text and images | Pro plan and above | All plans
Security certifications | AES-256, TLS encryption; hosted on SOC-certified infrastructure | SOC 2 Type II certified, HIPAA compliant with BAA
SSO and SCIM | Enterprise plan only (SAML SSO + SCIM) | Growth plan and above

Which tool fits your situation

The best choice depends on your daily workflow, not on which product has more features. Here is how different situations map to each tool.

You work almost entirely in Chrome

If your job happens inside Gmail, Google Docs, Salesforce, and other web apps, Text Blaze is a strong option. The Chrome extension is mature and well-reviewed, the free tier lets you get started without a credit card, and the automation commands can handle browser-specific workflows that TextExpander does not attempt. This is Text Blaze at its best.

You switch between devices throughout the day

If you move between a Mac, a Windows PC, an iPhone, and a browser throughout your workday, TextExpander is the better fit. Your Snippets follow you across all of those platforms. Text Blaze cannot follow you to mobile at all right now, and the desktop apps are still catching up to the Chrome extension in feature coverage.

You need to equip a team with shared templates

Both tools offer team sharing, but TextExpander’s approach is more developed. A central Snippet library with granular permissions, usage analytics, and instant updates to every team member’s devices makes it easier to maintain consistency across a department or an entire company. Text Blaze’s team features work through shared folders and are more oriented toward small groups collaborating inside the browser.

For organizations with more than 10 people, TextExpander’s Growth plan adds usage-based billing, SSO, and SCIM provisioning, features that IT departments tend to require before approving a tool for company-wide rollout.

You work in healthcare or a regulated industry

TextExpander is the clear choice here. SOC 2 Type II certification, HIPAA compliance, and a signed Business Associate Agreement are table stakes for healthcare organizations. Text Blaze’s infrastructure is hosted on certified servers, but the product itself does not carry these certifications.

You want a free tool and your needs are basic

Text Blaze wins on this front, no contest. Twenty free snippets with unlimited daily use is enough for someone who reuses a handful of email templates, support responses, or code blocks. You will hit the limits eventually if your needs grow, but for a basic text expansion setup inside Chrome, free is hard to argue with.

Pricing comparison

Plan | Text Blaze | TextExpander
Free / Trial | Free forever (20 snippets) | Free trial, no credit card required
Individual | Pro: $2.99/mo (annual) or $3.49/mo (monthly) | Individual: $3.33/mo (annual) or $4.16/mo (monthly)
Team | Business: $6.99/user/mo (annual) or $8.39/user/mo (monthly) | Business: $8.33/user/mo (annual) or $10.41/user/mo (monthly)
Mid-market | No equivalent tier | Growth: $10.83/user/mo (annual) or $13.54/user/mo (monthly)
Enterprise | Custom pricing (SAML SSO, SCIM, audit logs) | Custom pricing (SSO, SCIM, unlimited analytics, custom support)

At the individual level, Text Blaze is about $0.34 per month cheaper on annual billing. That is a marginal difference. The real pricing distinction is the free tier: Text Blaze gives you a permanent free plan, while TextExpander requires a subscription after the trial ends.

At team pricing, Text Blaze’s Business plan comes in about $1.34 per user per month cheaper than TextExpander’s equivalent tier on annual billing. Over a 20-person team, that adds up to roughly $320 per year in savings. Whether that savings outweighs TextExpander’s deeper team management tools, mobile apps, and compliance certifications depends on what your organization needs.

TextExpander’s Growth plan at $10.83 per user per month has no Text Blaze equivalent. This tier adds SSO, SCIM provisioning, and usage-based billing, features that mid-size companies and IT-managed deployments tend to need. Text Blaze reserves SSO and SCIM for its custom-priced Enterprise plan.

How to switch from Text Blaze to TextExpander

If you have been using Text Blaze and want to move to TextExpander, the migration is straightforward. Text Blaze does not offer a direct export to TextExpander’s format, but you can build a CSV file and import it through TextExpander’s web-based import tool.

In Text Blaze, open your snippet list and copy each snippet’s abbreviation and content into a spreadsheet. Create columns with the headers “abbreviation” and “snippet.” Add an optional “label” column if you want to name each Snippet.

Save the spreadsheet as a CSV file. The filename becomes the Snippet group name in TextExpander, so name it something descriptive like text-blaze-imports.csv.

Sign up for a TextExpander free trial and install the app on your devices.

Log in to the TextExpander web app, go to Import/Export in the sidebar, and upload your CSV file. Review the imported Snippets on the confirmation screen, then finalize the import.

If you used Text Blaze form fields, recreate them using TextExpander’s fill-in field options. TextExpander supports single-line fields, multi-line fields, popup menus, and optional sections.

Test your migrated Snippets in the apps where you use them most. Pay attention to any that used Text Blaze-specific commands like {site} or simulated keystrokes, as these will need to be reworked using TextExpander’s scripting options or fill-in fields.

Once you have confirmed everything works, disable or uninstall the Text Blaze extension to avoid conflicts between the two tools.

Frequently asked questions

Is Text Blaze actually free?

Yes. Text Blaze offers a free plan with 20 active snippets and unlimited daily usage of those snippets. Premium features like form fields and images in snippets are limited to five uses per day on the free plan. The free plan does not expire.

Does TextExpander work on mobile?

TextExpander has native apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android. Your Snippets stay up to date across all devices, and the mobile apps support fill-in fields, search, and offline use. Text Blaze does not currently offer mobile apps.

Can I use Text Blaze outside of Chrome?

Text Blaze has desktop apps for Windows and macOS that work outside the browser. The Windows app supports most features, though some browser-specific commands are not yet available in the desktop version. Text Blaze also works in Edge and other Chromium browsers through extension installation.

Which tool is better for teams?

Both tools support team snippet sharing. TextExpander offers more granular controls: a central Snippet library, permission levels, usage analytics, and admin management. TextExpander also pushes shared Snippets to mobile devices and works offline, which matters for distributed teams. Text Blaze’s team features are functional and cost less, making them a decent fit for small teams that work primarily in a browser.

Do either of these tools support HIPAA compliance?

TextExpander is HIPAA compliant and offers a Business Associate Agreement on request. It also holds SOC 2 Type II certification. Text Blaze encrypts data with AES-256 and runs on infrastructure from hosting providers that hold SOC certifications, but Text Blaze itself does not carry HIPAA compliance or SOC 2 certification.

Try TextExpander free

If TextExpander fits your workflow, you can start a free trial with no credit card required. The trial includes full access to all features, including Snippet sharing, fill-in fields, and team management. Check the pricing page for current plan details.

Related resources

What are text Snippets and how do they work?

TextExpander features overview

TextExpander pricing plans

TextExpander for teams

TextExpander security and compliance

TextExpander for healthcare

TextExpander for enterprise

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