[2] This species is native to the shores of the North Atlantic Ocean, including Hudson Bay, Baffin Island, Greenland, and the Barents Sea, south along the American East Coast to Chesapeake Bay, and along the European coast to the Straits of Gibraltar.

This species has also been introduced to San Francisco Bay, on the West Coast of the United States, where it was first observed in 1992.

[4] In the exposed Galician coast in the Northern Spain, two well differentiated ecotypes are adapted to different shore levels and habitats.

[5] The SU ecotype (Smooth and Unbanded) is found at the lower shore living on mussels.

The marine snail Littorina saxatilis has separate sexes, internal fertilization, and a brood pouch with non-planktonic shelled embryos.