CopyClip Is Fine. Until You Need Anything Else.
CopyClip does one thing: clipboard history inside a menu bar dropdown. It's the app you download when you Google "mac clipboard history" and don't look further. But the moment you need code syntax highlighting, image previews, pinned items, or encrypted storage — you've hit CopyClip's ceiling.
Pasty is what comes next. A full-featured clipboard intelligence system with syntax-highlighted code view, inline video previews, AES-256 encryption, 120Hz Liquid Glass animations, and a cursor-anchored hotkey panel — all in ~70 MB of RAM.
CopyClip vs Pasty — The Full Picture
| Feature | Pasty | CopyClip |
|---|---|---|
| Clipboard History | ✓ | ✓ |
| Menu Bar Access | ✓ | ✓ |
| Search & Filter | ✓ | ✗ |
| Syntax-Highlighted Code View | ✓ | ✗ |
| Video / Image Previews | ✓ | ✗ |
| Screenshot Capture to List | ✓ | ✗ |
| Pin Items & Always-on-Top | ✓ | ✗ |
| AES-256 Encrypted History | ✓ | ✗ |
| 120Hz ProMotion / Liquid Glass | ✓ | ✗ |
| Cursor-Anchored Hotkey | ✓ | ✗ |
| File & App Copying | ✓ | ✗ |
| Memory Usage | ~70 MB | ~30 MB |
| Price | $9.99 once | Free / $7.99 |
CopyClip 📋
The Bare Minimum: CopyClip stores your clipboard history in a menu bar dropdown. That's it. No search, no previews, no code highlighting, no encryption. It's a text list — functional but featureless.
You Get What You Pay For: The free version is extremely limited. CopyClip 2 costs $7.99 for what amounts to a marginally prettier text list. No GPU acceleration, no modern macOS design patterns.
Pasty ⚡
8 Features for 40 MB More: For just 40 MB more RAM than CopyClip's bare-bones text list, Pasty gives you syntax highlighting, video previews, AES-256 encryption, screenshot capture, pinning, and 120Hz Liquid Glass animations.
A Real Upgrade: Pasty isn't just a clipboard history — it's a creative workflow tool. Code snippets are highlighted. Media files show thumbnails. Screenshots go straight to your paste queue. Everything is encrypted at rest.
One-time purchase · macOS Ventura and later · Native Swift + Metal