The Best Clipboard Managers for Mac in 2027: 10 Apps, Ranked 📋

macOS Tahoe finally has a clipboard history built into Spotlight (⌘ Space, then ⌘ 4), and since 26.1 it can remember for 30 minutes, 8 hours or 7 days (MacRumors, MacMost). For a lot of people that is enough. 🎉

If you copy things on Monday that you need on Friday, paste five fields in a row, or want your history on your iPhone, you still need an app. Here are the ten worth considering, rated on four things: price, design, features and security. Stars go from ★☆☆☆☆ to ★★★★★; how they were given is explained at the end.

Disclosure: I built Whisk, the app in first place. Its stars come from being free, open source and local-only, and from a panel I am obviously fond of; it has no sync, and the Features column says so. Read it with that in mind, and skip to PastePal or Paste if your history must follow you to an iPhone. 🙏

1. Whisk 🥇

Free, open source, native Mac app. Whisk is a Paste-style bottom panel without the subscription: copy anything, press ⇧⌘V, find the card, press Return. Version 1.0 shipped in September 2026, via Homebrew, a signed DMG or the Mac App Store.

What you get

• 🪟 A Liquid Glass panel on macOS 26 that rises on the screen you are working on. Every card shows what it holds: a link with its title and picture, a colour as a swatch, code highlighted, files with a thumbnail.
• 🔍 Search as you type, filter by app or by kind with one click, or type app:mail or type:color to narrow down.
• 📚 A paste stack: queue several cards, then pop them one by one into successive fields with ⌥⌘V.
• ✂️ Paste as plain text, upper or lower case, trimmed, URL or base64 encoded, formatted JSON.
• ⌨️ Made for the keyboard: ⌘Y previews any card full size, ⌘Z undoes, every shortcut can be rebound, and any card drags straight into another app.
• 🔒 Everything stays on your Mac. No account, no analytics. Passwords copied from a password manager are never recorded.

What's missing

• ☁️ No sync and no iPhone app yet; both are on the roadmap.
• 🗂️ Pins, but no pinboards or collections. No OCR.
• 🐣 A 1.0 from a single developer: expect rough edges.
• 🖥️ macOS 14 or later.

brew install --cask nathan-poncet/tap/whisk

Sources: GitHub, changelog, website.

2. PastePal 🥈

$14.99 once, for Mac, iPhone and iPad. The best value among the paid apps by a wide margin: one universal purchase, iCloud sync, and a feature list that rivals Paste.

What you get

• ☁️ Optional iCloud sync across Mac, iPhone and iPad, with real iOS apps, a share sheet extension, widgets and Siri Shortcuts.
• 🗂️ Custom collections, pins, quick grouping by source app or content type, search by type or date range.
• 📚 A paste stack, link previews, and "75+ built-in text transforms" (case conversion, JSON, Base64, URL encoding) per the App Store listing.
• 🧠 Smart content detection: text, rich text, hex colours, emoji, links, images, PDFs, single and multiple files.
• 🔒 No data collected by the developer; you choose whether passwords and sensitive data are saved.

What's missing

• 🔐 Closed source.
• 🧹 Reviews mention rough edges and ask for better keyboard shortcuts around the paste stack; polish is a step below Paste.
• 🔤 No OCR.
• 🖥️ macOS 14 or later.

Sources: indiegoodies.com/pastepal, App Store listing, TechTippr review.

3. Paste 🥉

$29.99 a year, $3.99 a month, or $89.99 lifetime. The app that invented the bottom panel, and still the most polished one. It sits third only because it is the one app here you cannot own for less than the price of two competitors.

What you get

• 🎨 The best-looking cards on the platform, unlimited history ("an hour ago or a year ago, it's still there").
• 🗂️ Pinboards you can share with a team, search across the whole history.
• ☁️ iCloud sync across Mac, iPhone and iPad, with first-class iOS apps.
• 📚 A paste stack, plain-text paste, rules that ignore passwords and sensitive apps.
• 🔒 "Never touches our servers": history stays on your devices and in your private iCloud. A decade of releases.

What's missing

• 💰 A subscription for a clipboard manager. The lifetime option costs more than PastePal, Pastebot and Maccy's App Store build combined.
• 🔐 Closed source.
• ✂️ Transforms stop at plain-text paste; no OCR.
• 🖥️ macOS 14 or later.

Sources: pasteapp.io, pricing, App Store listing, Macworld review.

4. Raycast

Free with capped history; Pro at $8 a month billed yearly. Raycast is a launcher, but its clipboard history is a complete product and the only one here with OCR built in.

What you get

• 🧠 Text, images, files, links, emails and colours, with the original formatting kept; switch between rich text, plain text, RTF and HTML when pasting.
• 🔍 Filter by type with ⌘P, rename entries, pin them.
• 🔤 "Copy Text from Image" runs on-device OCR; "Copy Text from QR Code" reads QR codes.
• 🔒 A disabled-apps list with Passwords and Keychain Access excluded by default.
• 🚀 Shared with the rest of Raycast: if it is already your launcher, there is nothing to install.

What's missing

• ⏳ Retention is capped on the free plan (the pricing page says 3 months); unlimited history and cloud sync need Pro, which is $96 a year for a lot of things you may not want.
• 📚 No paste stack.
• 📱 Sync is between Macs, there is no iPhone app.
• 🔐 Closed source, and a large app to run for one feature.

Sources: Clipboard History manual, pricing.

5. Pastebot 3

$39 direct with a year of updates, then an optional $19 a year; or $24.99 a year on the App Store. Tapbots rebuilt Pastebot around automation in July 2026, and nothing else here files and rewrites clippings this well.

What you get

• 🗂️ Pastebins with colours and icons, plus Smart Pastebins that fill themselves from rules ("every link copied from Safari").
• ✂️ Stacked text filters with live preview, each assignable to a shortcut. Sequential paste with ⌃⌘V.
• 🤖 Apple Shortcuts actions and a command-line tool for scripting.
• ☁️ iCloud sync between Macs, and Universal Clipboard import from your iPhone.
• 🔒 A per-app blacklist that can block an app entirely or ignore just its images or just its text. Fourteen years of releases behind it.

What's missing

• 🖥️ Requires macOS 26 Tahoe. If you are on Sonoma or Sequoia, it is not an option.
• 📱 No iPhone app; sync is Mac to Mac.
• 💰 Two pricing models that confuse people, and the App Store route is a subscription.
• 📎 The official page lists text and images; no rich link previews, no OCR.
• 🔐 Closed source.

Sources: tapbots.com/pastebot, MacRumors, MacStories review.

6. CopyQ

Free, open source, on version 16. The veteran power tool, and the only one here that runs the same on Linux, Windows and macOS all the way back to 10.15.

What you get

• 🗂️ Tabs, notes and tags on items, sorting, drag and drop between tabs.
• ✏️ Edit any item in place with a Vim-like editor.
• 🤖 A command-line interface, system-wide shortcuts bound to custom commands, and a scripting engine that can do anything to your clipboard.
• 🔒 Ignore rules by window or by text pattern; everything local.

What's missing

• 🍎 It is a Qt app and looks like one on a Mac. No bottom panel, no Liquid Glass, no Quick Look.
• 📚 No paste stack, no rich previews, no OCR, no sync.
• ⏱️ Configuration is an evening project.

Sources: hluk.github.io/CopyQ, releases.

7. EcoPaste

Free, open source, cross-platform. A modern-looking alternative to CopyQ, with a Rust-first rewrite in 2026.

What you get

• 🧠 Plain text, HTML, RTF, images, files and folders; full-text search on content and notes; filters by source app and by type.
• 🗂️ Favourites, pins, notes and custom groups.
• 🔒 Skips high-confidence secrets (private keys, AWS keys, JWTs); configurable retention and size limits; encrypted backups; everything local.
• 🪟 Same app on Windows and Linux.

What's missing

• 🍎 A web view in a native shell: it never quite feels like a Mac app.
• 📚 No paste stack, copy-as-plain-text only, basic previews.
• 🔤 The OCR advertised in earlier versions is not in the current feature list.
• ☁️ Sync is export and import of backup files.

Sources: GitHub, ecopaste.cn.

8. Maccy

Free and open source; $9.99 on the App Store if you want to fund the developer. The minimalist reference, rewritten in SwiftUI for 2.x and still shipping (2.7.1 in August 2026). It does one thing and it does it in a few megabytes.

What you get

• 🪶 A search-as-you-type popup with pins, paste-without-formatting, and letter shortcuts for pinned items.
• 🔒 "If your password manager removes a copied password from the clipboard, so will Maccy." Transient and concealed pasteboard types are ignored out of the box.
• 🏛️ Seven years of releases, 21k+ GitHub stars, an issue tracker that answers.

What's missing

• 🗂️ A list, not cards: no collections, no rich link or file previews.
• 📚 No paste stack, no transforms beyond plain text, no OCR.
• ☁️ No sync.
• 🖥️ macOS 14 or later.

Sources: maccy.app, GitHub releases, App Store listing.

9. CleanClip

Free tier, $12.99 one-time Pro. Paste's look stripped to the essentials, from a single developer.

What you get

• 🗂️ Unlimited collection lists and smart lists, per-app history.
• 📚 A paste stack and "Split Copy" (⌘⇧C) for filling forms field by field.
• ✂️ Preset paste formats, plain text among them.
• ⌨️ A quick menu on ⌘;, number keys 0 to 9 to paste, 14 interface languages.

What's missing

• 🔐 Closed source, one developer, and the site says little about where data lives.
• ☁️ No sync, no iOS app, no OCR.
• 📎 The official page lists text and images.
• 🖥️ Minimum macOS not stated.

Sources: cleanclip.cc, TechTippr review.

10. Alfred 5 Powerpack

£34 once for a single licence, £59 with lifetime upgrades. Clipboard History is one Powerpack feature among many. Buy the Powerpack for workflows and snippets; the clipboard comes along.

What you get

• 🔍 A searchable viewer on ⌥⌘C for text, images and file links.
• 🔗 Merge: hold ⌘ and double-tap C to append to the previous clip.
• 🔒 Keychain Access and 1Password ignored by default, more apps by drag and drop; retention you set yourself.
• 🏛️ Fifteen years of a very stable app, macOS 10.15 or later.

What's missing

• ⏳ Retention tops out at 3 months.
• 🗂️ No pins, no collections, no paste stack, no transforms, no rich previews, no OCR, no sync.
• 💰 Poor value if the clipboard is the only Powerpack feature you would use.

Sources: Clipboard History help, Alfred free vs Powerpack.

At a glance

#	App	Price	💰 Price	🎨 Design	🧰 Features	🔒 Security
1	Whisk	Free, open source	★★★★★	★★★★★	★★★★☆	★★★★★
2	PastePal	$14.99 once, Mac + iOS	★★★★☆	★★★★☆	★★★★★	★★★★☆
3	Paste	$29.99/yr or $89.99 lifetime	★★☆☆☆	★★★★★	★★★★★	★★★★☆
4	Raycast	Free tier, Pro $8/mo	★★★☆☆	★★★★★	★★★★☆	★★★★☆
5	Pastebot 3	$39 + optional $19/yr	★★★☆☆	★★★★☆	★★★★☆	★★★★☆
6	CopyQ	Free, open source	★★★★★	★★☆☆☆	★★★★☆	★★★★☆
7	EcoPaste	Free, open source	★★★★★	★★★☆☆	★★★☆☆	★★★★☆
8	Maccy	Free, open source	★★★★★	★★★☆☆	★★☆☆☆	★★★★★
9	CleanClip	Free tier, $12.99 Pro	★★★★☆	★★★★☆	★★★☆☆	★★☆☆☆
10	Alfred 5 Powerpack	£34 once	★★★☆☆	★★★☆☆	★★☆☆☆	★★★★☆

Which one for you? 🎯

• Copy and paste within the day: Spotlight, already installed.
• Free, open source, native, and you can wait for sync: Whisk.
• Your history must follow you to an iPhone: PastePal for a one-time price, Paste for the most polished version if the subscription is fine.
• You rewrite text on the way out and want rules to file things, on Tahoe: Pastebot 3.
• You need OCR or already live in a launcher: Raycast.
• The smallest possible thing: Maccy.
• You also work on Linux or Windows: CopyQ, or EcoPaste for a friendlier interface.

How this ranking was made

Four criteria, one to five stars each, from the vendors' own documentation, App Store listings and the reviews linked in each section, checked in September 2026.

• 💰 Price: five stars for free with every feature, four for a one-time purchase under $20 or a one-time price with a usable free tier, three for a one-time price around $40 or a capped free tier with a subscription on top, two for subscription-first pricing.
• 🎨 Design: native AppKit or SwiftUI interface, card-based history with real previews, and adoption of the current macOS look. A plain text list or a Qt or web-view window loses stars; the screenshots are there so you can disagree.
• 🧰 Features: what the app does beyond keeping history: collections, filters, paste stack, transforms, previews, OCR, sync, mobile apps.
• 🔒 Security: where the history is stored, whether password-manager content is ignored automatically, whether the source can be audited, and how much leaves the Mac.

Apps are ordered by their total; ties go to Features, then Design. The author of Whisk did the scoring. If a vendor page proves a star wrong, tell me in the comments and I will fix it.