Paste is one of the best-known clipboard managers for Mac. It turns everything you copy into a visual, searchable history, syncs through iCloud, organizes reusable items into pinboards, and extends the same workflow to iPhone and iPad.

It also faces strong alternatives. Maccy is fast, local, open source, and deliberately minimal. Raycast includes clipboard history inside its free productivity launcher. Alfred combines searchable history, snippets, and clipboard merging through its Powerpack.

This comparison focuses on the clipboard experience itself: history limits, search, organization, Apple-device support, privacy controls, rich content, pricing, and whether a dedicated app is better than a feature inside a broader launcher.

Quick Verdict

Choose Paste if you want the most polished visual interface, effectively unlimited history, iCloud sync across Apple devices, reusable pinboards, content previews, and multi-item workflows.

Choose Maccy if you want a lightweight, keyboard-first clipboard manager that stores data locally, is open source, and can be downloaded free outside the Mac App Store.

Choose Raycast if you already use Raycast or want clipboard history alongside app launching, window management, snippets, extensions, and other productivity tools.

Choose Alfred if you prefer Alfred's established launcher workflow and want clipboard history, text expansion, snippets, and clipboard merging under one lifetime license.

Feature Comparison

Do You Need a Dedicated Clipboard Manager?

A clipboard manager solves a simple macOS limitation: the system clipboard normally remembers only the most recent item. Copy something else before pasting, and the previous content is no longer directly available.

Every app here adds searchable history, but they represent two different approaches.

Paste and Maccy are dedicated clipboard managers. Their interfaces open directly into copied content, and their design decisions revolve around making clips easy to find and reuse. Paste goes further with visual previews, pinboards, editing, multi-item pasting, and Apple-device sync. Maccy stays intentionally small and fast.

Raycast and Alfred are broader productivity launchers. Clipboard history is one feature among app search, commands, snippets, calculations, file navigation, and automation. That consolidation is useful if you already keep the launcher open all day, but it can be excessive if you only want a better clipboard.

Paste

Paste provides the richest dedicated clipboard experience in this comparison. Its visual timeline makes copied text, links, images, colors, and files easier to recognize than a plain list, while search handles older items.

Pinboards separate reusable content from temporary history. You can keep code snippets, email replies, addresses, design assets, links, or project material in named groups. Paste also supports shared pinboards for collaboration, though most individual users will get more value from personal organization.

The app can paste several selected clips in sequence, preserve original formatting or switch to plain text, preview links and files, and edit copied text before using it. Custom rules let you exclude apps that may place sensitive information on the clipboard.

Paste's strongest advantage is cross-device continuity. It runs on Mac, iPhone, and iPad and syncs through the user's private iCloud. The iOS keyboard provides access while typing on a mobile device, and Siri Shortcuts can automate common actions.

Privacy is handled through local storage and private iCloud rather than a vendor-hosted clipboard account. Even so, any clipboard manager can collect sensitive text from ordinary apps, so configuring exclusion rules is important.

The standalone annual plan is currently $29.99 per year, equivalent to $2.49 per month. Paste also advertises monthly and lifetime purchasing options, with final prices varying by region and checkout selection.

Paste is also currently included with Setapp, whose Mac membership starts at $14.99 per month after a seven-day trial. Buying Paste directly is cheaper if it is the only app you need; Setapp makes sense when you will use several apps from its catalog.

Choose Paste if visual browsing, deep organization, and iPhone or iPad access are worth paying for.

Maccy

Maccy is the opposite of a feature-heavy clipboard workspace. Press its shortcut, type to search, choose an item, and return to the active app. The native popup is designed for keyboard use and stays out of the way.

The project is open source under the MIT license. The direct version is free, while the $9.99 US Mac App Store version supports development and provides App Store installation and updates. Both approaches avoid a recurring subscription.

Maccy stores history on the Mac and does not provide its own cross-device sync. It respects clipboard items that password managers mark for removal, and its App Store description says password-manager copies are not logged. Users can also control stored content and customize shortcuts, appearance, search, and history behavior.

Recent versions support text, images, and files, pinned entries, source-app information, previews, paste without formatting, macOS Shortcuts actions, and text search inside images through OCR. That is a capable feature set, but the interface remains a compact list rather than Paste's visual timeline and pinboard system.

The main requirements are macOS Sonoma 14 or later and a willingness to keep clipboard history on one Mac. There is no native iPhone or iPad companion.

Choose Maccy if speed, local storage, open-source code, and low cost matter more than visual organization or synchronization.

Raycast

Raycast Clipboard History is included in Raycast's free plan. It records text, images, colors, and links, provides search and content-type filters, and lets you pin items so they do not expire.

Copied content is encrypted on the local drive. Raycast ignores passwords copied from password managers and other transient clipboard data by default. Its free history can be retained for up to three months, which is enough for many users and more generous than macOS itself.

The appeal is integration. The same shortcut-driven interface can launch apps, search files, manage windows, expand snippets, run extensions, calculate values, and recall clipboard items. If Raycast already replaces Spotlight on your Mac, adding another menu-bar utility may not improve the workflow.

Raycast is less focused on manual clip organization than Paste. Pins cover frequently reused entries, while the separate Snippets feature is better for text that should become a permanent template. There is no equivalent to Paste's visual pinboards or shared clip collections in the core clipboard interface.

The individual plan is free forever and includes Clipboard History. Raycast Pro increases clipboard history from three months to unlimited and adds cloud sync, AI features, custom themes, and other paid capabilities. Pro costs $10 per month, or $8 per month when billed annually.

Choose Raycast if you want a free clipboard manager as part of a larger keyboard-driven productivity system. Paying for Pro solely to extend clipboard retention is harder to justify than using Maccy or buying another dedicated app.

Alfred

Alfred's Clipboard History is part of the paid Powerpack. It stores searchable text, images, and file links for a selected period: 24 hours, seven days, one month, or three months.

The clipboard viewer fits naturally into Alfred's launcher. Open it with a custom hotkey, type to filter the history, and select a result to paste into the frontmost app. A copied text item can be turned into an Alfred snippet, where a keyword expands it automatically in future.

Clipboard merging is Alfred's distinctive feature here. Double-tapping Command-C while holding Command can append selected text to the previous clipboard entry. It is useful when collecting several passages into one combined result without repeatedly switching to the destination document.

Alfred disables clipboard history by default for privacy. Once enabled, it ignores popular password apps such as 1Password and macOS Keychain Access, as well as data marked as concealed. Additional apps can be added to the ignore list.

The Alfred 5 Powerpack costs £34 for a single-user version 5 license. The £59 Mega Supporter license includes free lifetime upgrades. These are one-time purchases rather than subscriptions, but clipboard history is unavailable in Alfred's free edition.

Choose Alfred if you already prefer its launcher, workflows, and snippet system. New users interested only in clipboard history will get started more cheaply with Maccy or Raycast.

Which One Should You Use?

Use Paste if you regularly move copied material between Mac, iPhone, and iPad, want visual previews and pinboards, or reuse many different types of content.

Use Maccy if you want the fastest path to a previous clip, prefer local-only storage, value open-source software, or do not want a subscription.

Use Raycast if its launcher already anchors your workflow or you want a free three-month clipboard history beside many other productivity commands.

Use Alfred if you have invested in Alfred workflows and want clipboard history to connect with snippets, text expansion, and clipboard merging.

Before enabling any clipboard manager, review its ignore list. Password managers mark sensitive data appropriately, but ordinary websites, chat apps, terminals, and documents can still place private information into history.

Final Verdict

Paste is the best overall clipboard manager for people who want a polished, organized, cross-device product. Its unlimited history, visual interface, pinboards, previews, multi-item pasting, editing tools, and iCloud sync justify the price for users who copy and reuse content all day.

Maccy is the best dedicated value. It is fast, open source, local, free from the developer, and available as a modest one-time Mac App Store purchase.

Raycast is the best free all-in-one option. Its three-month encrypted local history is generous, and it avoids adding another utility when Raycast is already installed.

Alfred is the best choice for existing Powerpack users. Clipboard merging and close integration with snippets make it more than a basic history list, but the paid launcher is difficult to recommend for this feature alone.

My practical recommendation: start with Maccy for a focused local utility or Raycast if you already use the launcher. Choose Paste when organization and Apple-device sync matter enough to justify a paid plan, and consider Setapp only when several apps in its catalog are useful to you.

Note: Features and US or UK prices are current as of June 2026. App Store prices, regional taxes, plan details, system requirements, and feature limits can change. Verify current details on each app's official website before purchasing.

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