espanso config to replace HTML entities with the unicode character.
First install and set up espanso.
Run build.py (no dependencies). This outputs html.yml. Place this yaml file in .config/espanso/match/packages/html.yml.
Now you can type HTML entities like ✓ and espanso will convert them to the right character: ✓
See HTML: The Living Standard - 13.2: Named character references for a list of available shortcuts.
The list is also available as a json file.