The short answer
Pick Maccy if you want the lightest tool and often paste plain text. Pick Clipboard History if you sort clips by project or copy a lot of files in Finder. They open with different shortcuts, so you can run both for a week and keep the one you reach for.
Choose Maccy if you want
- A lightweight menu you can drive entirely from the keyboard
- To paste without formatting, with ⌥⇧⏎
- To search copied screenshots by the text in them, and copy that text out
- Pinned clips, each with its own letter shortcut
- To install Maccy with Homebrew or from the Mac App Store
Choose Clipboard History if you want
- Named groups as well as favorites, with a clip in as many groups as you like
- Finder files with thumbnails, ⌘R to reveal the original and a ⚠ flag when it can’t be found
- A bigger default history: 1,000 clips, adjustable up to 10,000
- Search that also matches the app you copied from
- A menu-bar pause that ends on its own after 5 minutes to 8 hours
About this comparison: Clipboard History is our app, so read this as a first-party page. Every statement about Maccy links to Maccy’s own README, source, release notes or store pages, checked on September 24, 2026, and we say plainly where Maccy is the better choice.
Maccy and Clipboard History side by side
| Topic | MaccyVersion 2.7.1 | Clipboard HistoryVersion 0.0.27 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free on GitHub and HomebrewThe maccy.app download is pay-what-you-want from $4.99 and the Mac App Store edition is $9.99, both sold to support development. maccy.app download App Store | FreeNo paid edition, trial or account. |
| Source code | Open source, MIT license. GitHub | Open source, MIT license. License |
| Requires | macOS 14 Sonoma or later. README | macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple silicon and Intel Macs. |
| Open it | ⇧⌘C, or click the menu-bar icon. README | ⇧⌘V from any app (you can change it in Settings), or Open Clipboard History in the menu bar. |
| Use a clip | Return copies, ⌥Return pastesReturn, a click or ⌘ plus a number puts the clip on the clipboard; ⌥⏎ or ⌥ plus a number pastes it. The “Paste automatically” setting makes pasting the default. README | Return pastesReturn or a click pastes into the app you were using, and ⌘1–9 paste one of the first nine clips. Auto-paste needs the optional Accessibility permission; without it you press ⌘V. Right-click → Copy only copies. |
| Plain text | Yes⌥⇧⏎ pastes a clip without its formatting. README | No optionA formatted clip pastes with its formatting and a plain-text version; the app you paste into picks one. |
| Keep clips | Pins⌥P pins a clip to the top of the list and gives it a random but permanent letter shortcut. README | Favorites and named groups⌘D stars a clip. Groups are tabs you name, and a clip can be in several. Neither counts toward the history limit. |
| History size | 200 by default, adjustable from 1 to 999. Source | 1,000 by default, adjustable from 100 to 10,000. The list shows your 100 most recent clips; search reaches the rest. |
| Search | Matches a clip’s text, a copied file’s full path and, since 2.4, text recognized in images. Case-insensitive exact matching by default, with Fuzzy, Regex and Mixed modes in Settings. Search.swift HistoryItem.swift 2.4.0 notes | Matches the start of words, ignoring case and accents, in text, links, file and folder names and the source app’s name. Best matches first. |
| What it keeps | Text, rich text (RTF or HTML), PNG, TIFF, JPEG and HEIC images, and copied files; you choose which in Settings. Source | Plain text, links, formatted text (RTF or HTML), PNG and TIFF images, and Finder files and folders. |
| Images | OCR search and previewText in copied images is searchable since 2.4. Since 2.7.0, a slide-out preview (⌃Space) with a button that copies an image’s OCR text. Releases | Preview, no OCRThumbnails in the list and a full-size preview with ⌘Y. It doesn’t read text in images, and images can’t be searched by what they show. |
| Files | Keeps copied files in the history with your other clips. Source | Saved by reference with a thumbnail. ⌘R reveals the original in Finder. Files that can’t be found (deleted, on a disconnected drive or moved to another disk) are flagged ⚠, and pasting one gives you its name as text. Moves and renames on the same disk are followed. |
| Delete | ⌥⌫ deletes the selected clip; Clear in the menu removes everything that isn’t pinned. README | The trash button on a row, or right-click → Delete. Settings → Storage → Clear all history removes everything, favorites included. |
| Privacy | History stays on your Mac. Ignores clipboard types marked confidential or transient and apps you choose. ⌥-click the menu-bar icon to pause; ⌥⇧-click to skip only the next copy. README | A local database with no account, sync or telemetry. Skips 7 password managers by default (the list is editable) and items marked concealed, transient or auto-generated. Pause from the menu bar, indefinitely or for 5 minutes to 8 hours. |
| Language | Translated into dozens of languages. Source | English only. |
| Where to get it | maccy.app, GitHub, Homebrew (brew install maccy) or the Mac App Store. Maccy warns that maccyapp.net and maccyapp.com are fake sites spreading malware. README | A DMG from the download page or GitHub Releases; the app inside is Developer ID-signed and notarized by Apple. Not on Homebrew or the Mac App Store. |
Where Maccy is ahead
- Plain text on demand. ⌥⇧⏎ pastes any clip without formatting. Clipboard History has no plain-text option.
- Text in images. Maccy recognizes the text in copied images, so you can search screenshots by what they say (since 2.4) and copy the text out (since 2.7). Clipboard History keeps the image but can’t read it.
- More image formats. Maccy also keeps JPEG and HEIC images from the clipboard; Clipboard History keeps only PNG and TIFF.
- More ways to install. Homebrew and the Mac App Store are both official Maccy routes; Clipboard History is a direct download only.
- Keyboard housekeeping. Maccy deletes the selected clip with ⌥⌫ and can skip just the next copy. In Clipboard History, deleting takes a click.
- Your language. Maccy is translated into dozens of languages; Clipboard History is in English only.
- A long public track record, with regular releases and a large community on GitHub.
Where Clipboard History is ahead
- Groups, not just pins. Make a tab per project or client (“Launch”, “Invoices”), switch with ⌥1–9 and keep clips in more than one. Favorites and grouped clips are never removed to make room.
- Finder files and folders. Copied items keep their thumbnails, show where they live, reveal in Finder with ⌘R and are flagged ⚠ when the original can’t be found (deleted, on a disconnected drive or moved to another disk). The files and images guide shows how it works.
- Search by source app. Type “safari” to find what you copied in Safari. Maccy’s search looks only at the clip itself.
- Password managers skipped by app. Copies made while 1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane, KeePassXC, LastPass, Apple Passwords or Keychain Access is in front are never saved, even if the app doesn’t mark them as confidential.
- Room for more. Keep up to 10,000 clips (1,000 by default); Maccy stops at 999.
See everything it does on the features page.
Clipboard History’s limits
- No OCR and no search inside images. Images are kept when an app copies them as PNG or TIFF; JPEG, HEIC and PDF clipboard data isn’t captured on its own.
- No paste-as-plain-text option and no way to edit a clip.
- No sync, and no iPhone or iPad app: history stays on one Mac.
- Copied files are references, not backups. If you delete the original or disconnect its drive, the clip pastes the file’s name instead.
- A direct DMG download only, with no Homebrew cask or App Store listing yet.
If any of these matter every day, Maccy is likely the better fit.
What changed in Maccy recently
- Maccy 2.7.0 redesigned its image and text preview as a slide-out panel with a toolbar (⌃Space), added a button that copies OCR text from an image, and shows image dimensions in the preview.
- Maccy 2.7.1 fixed bugs, including paste without formatting.
Both come from Maccy’s release notes. We update this page when either app changes something covered above.
Trying Clipboard History alongside Maccy
Maccy opens with ⇧⌘C and Clipboard History with ⇧⌘V, so both can run at once while you decide. Each keeps its own history: Clipboard History can’t import Maccy’s, and it starts recording once you finish its short setup. If you moved Maccy to ⇧⌘V, give one of them a different shortcut.
To remove whichever you don’t keep, see how to uninstall Clipboard History or Maccy’s own instructions.
Sources
Maccy facts were checked on September 24, 2026. Clipboard History facts come from its source code.
- Maccy README: requirements, shortcuts, pins, ignored types, installation and the fake-site warning
- Maccy releases: 2.4.0 (July 20, 2025, OCR search), 2.7.0 (July 28, 2026) and 2.7.1 (August 10, 2026)
- Maccy on the Mac App Store: $9.99 price and why it is sold there
- Maccy source: search modes and what search matches, history size, supported clipboard types and translations
- maccy.app, Maccy’s official website, and its pay-what-you-want download