Open source alternative to Paste, Alfred, Raycast AI, CleanClip and ClipBear
Last verified
Manage your macOS clipboard history with fast keyboard search, privacy-aware filtering, and native UI. MIT licensed and free forever.
Switching between documentation, terminal output, Stack Overflow, and an editor means copying multiple items before you need them. Maccy keeps a reachable history so earlier copies survive new ones without interrupting the flow.
If you work primarily with images, file attachments, or rich-formatted clipboard content rather than text snippets, Maccy may not capture the entries you need most.
Pulling quotes, links, and phrases from multiple source tabs before assembling a draft means losing earlier copies with every new one. Maccy's search lets you retrieve any copied text from the session without manually tracking it.
If you need clipboard history across devices or across sessions longer than a single working day, a tool with cloud sync or persistent long-term history is a better fit.
Maccy respects NSPasteboard concealed types, which means password manager entries that clear themselves from the clipboard are also cleared from Maccy's history. Clipboard history stays local with no network transmissions.
If your workflow requires a clipboard manager with direct password manager UI integration or team-shared clipboard access, a dedicated tool with deeper integration is more appropriate.
Users paying for Paste, CleanClip, or the clipboard history feature inside Alfred or Raycast will find Maccy covers the core workflow: capture history, search, paste by keyboard. The savings are the full subscription cost.
If you use rich media capture, tagging, rule-based organization, or multi-device sync from your current clipboard manager, those features are not available in Maccy.
macOS has a single clipboard slot. Copy a URL, and the code snippet you copied thirty seconds ago is gone forever. Developers switching between documentation, terminals, and editors hit this limit constantly: by the time you realize you need something you copied earlier, it has been overwritten.
The workarounds are worse than the problem. Some users open a scratch document to stage clipboard contents before pasting; others rely on launcher apps like Alfred or Raycast that bundle clipboard history inside a tool whose main purpose is something else. Paid clipboard managers like Paste and CleanClip exist, but they carry subscription fees and features most users never touch.
Open the history popup with Shift+Cmd+C, type to filter, and hit Enter to copy or Option+Enter to paste directly. The full history is searchable in a fraction of a second without reaching for the mouse.
Maccy automatically ignores clipboard entries flagged as transient or concealed by apps like 1Password and KeeWeb, using standard NSPasteboard types. If your password manager clears a copied password from the clipboard, Maccy removes it from history too.
Press Option+P on any history item to pin it to the top of the list with a permanent keyboard shortcut. Pinned items survive the Clear command, so frequently used snippets stay available across sessions.
Option+Shift+Enter pastes the selected history item as plain text, stripping rich text, HTML, or markdown formatting. Useful when pasting into editors or forms that inherit styles from clipboard content.
Configure Maccy to ignore all copies during sensitive workflows, or add custom NSPasteboard type identifiers to permanently exclude clipboard content from specific applications such as Adobe InDesign or proprietary business tools.
Both Maccy and Paste manage macOS clipboard history, but they target different users. Paste is a paid application with a richer feature set; Maccy is MIT-licensed and stores history locally with no subscription.
| Feature | Maccy | Paste |
|---|---|---|
| License | MIT | Proprietary |
| Cost | Free | Paid |
| Cloud sync | None | Yes |
| Self-hosting | Local app | Local app |
Maccy wins for users who want zero cost, local privacy, and fast keyboard access to text history. Paste is the better choice if you need clipboard history to sync across multiple Macs or want rich media capture and visual pinboard organization.
CleanClip is a newer macOS clipboard manager with AI-powered organization, a paste queue, and a main window for browsing history. It offers a freemium model with paid tiers for full features.
| Feature | Maccy | CleanClip |
|---|---|---|
| License | MIT | Proprietary |
| Cost | Free | Freemium |
| AI organization | No | Yes |
| Paste queue | No | Yes |
| Self-hosting | Local app | Local app |
Maccy is better for users who find AI categorization unnecessary or who want guaranteed free access with no feature limitations. CleanClip is worth considering if you want AI-powered grouping, a paste queue for ordered insertion, or a visual interface for browsing and organizing saved history.
Alfred is a macOS productivity launcher with a clipboard history module included in the paid Powerpack license. Maccy is a dedicated clipboard tool that is free and MIT licensed.
| Feature | Maccy | Alfred Clipboard |
|---|---|---|
| License | MIT | Proprietary |
| Cost | Free | Powerpack required |
| Dedicated clipboard tool | Yes | Module in a launcher |
| Snippet expansion | No | Yes (Powerpack) |
| Text merging | No | Yes |
Maccy is the better choice when clipboard history is your only requirement and you want a purpose-built app rather than a module inside a launcher. Alfred is worth its Powerpack cost if you already use it for launching, file navigation, or workflow automation and want clipboard history in the same tool.
Install Maccy via Homebrew or download the latest release directly from GitHub.
```bash
brew install maccy
```Yes. Maccy is MIT licensed and free to download from GitHub or the App Store. There are no paid tiers, subscription plans, or feature paywalls. The MIT license also lets you inspect the source code, modify it, and distribute your changes.
No. Maccy stores all clipboard history locally on your machine and makes no network calls. The product website confirms everything is stored on your computer. There is no account, no sync service, and no telemetry.
Maccy needs Accessibility permissions to paste automatically. Go to System Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Accessibility and add Maccy. Once granted, selecting a history item with Option+Enter will paste it into the active application. This step is covered in the project README FAQ.
Yes. Maccy supports NSPasteboard concealed and transient types that password managers use to flag sensitive clipboard content. By default it ignores entries from 1Password, KeeWeb, and other common managers. If your manager removes a copied password from the clipboard, Maccy removes it from history automatically.
Maccy requires macOS Sonoma 14 or higher. Older macOS versions are not supported by the current release. If you need clipboard history on an older system, you would need an older Maccy release or a different tool.
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