Stop Paying $30/Year for a Clipboard Manager.
Paste by FiftyThree charges you $29.99/year for a clipboard manager that uses ~200 MB of RAM at idle — and it only gives you 3 core features: history, search, and iCloud sync.
Pasty gives you 8 premium features — including syntax-highlighted code view, video previews, AES-256 encryption, and 120Hz Liquid Glass animations — for just ~70 MB and a one-time purchase of $9.99.
That's 4× more features per megabyte, with zero recurring charges. Ever.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
Every feature. No marketing spin. Just facts.
| Feature | Pasty | Paste |
|---|---|---|
| Clipboard History | ✓ | ✓ |
| 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 | ✓ | ✗ |
| Resizable Panel | ✓ | ✗ |
| Cursor-Anchored Hotkey Panel | ✓ | ✗ |
| iCloud Sync | ✗ | ✓ |
| Memory Usage | ~70 MB | ~200 MB |
| Price | $9.99 once | $29.99/year |
| Built With | Native Swift + Metal | AppKit |
Paste 💸
Subscription Trap: Paste charges $29.99/year. That's £120+ over 4 years for a clipboard manager. If you stop paying, you lose access to your pinned history.
Bloated Memory: At ~200 MB idle, Paste uses nearly 3× the resources of Pasty — while offering significantly fewer features. No code view, no video previews, no encryption.
Pasty ⚡
One Price. All Features. Forever: Pay once, own it permanently. No subscriptions, no renewals, no "premium tiers." Every feature — code view, encryption, 120Hz animations — included from day one.
Native Metal Performance: Built entirely in Swift using Metal 3 GPU compositing and CoreAnimation spring physics. Every animation runs at buttery 120Hz on ProMotion displays, using just ~70 MB of RAM.
The Real Cost of Paste's Subscription Model
Paste by FiftyThree (now Paste by WeTransfer) costs $29.99 per year. Over three years, that adds up to nearly $90 for a clipboard manager. Over five years, $150. If you stop paying, you lose access to your pinned items and organised boards — the exact features you were paying for in the first place.
This subscription model made sense when Paste offered iCloud sync as a differentiator. You were paying for ongoing server infrastructure and Apple's iCloud API costs. But for users who work primarily on a single Mac — which includes the vast majority of developers and designers — iCloud sync is a feature you are paying for but rarely using.
Pasty takes the opposite approach with a one-time purchase of $9.99. There are no recurring charges, no premium tiers, and no features locked behind a paywall gate. Every feature — syntax highlighting, AES-256 encryption, 120Hz animations, video previews, screenshot capture — is included from day one and stays accessible permanently.
The resource efficiency gap is equally significant. Paste uses approximately 200 MB of RAM at idle, largely due to its iCloud sync engine and Electron-like WebKit rendering for its board interface. Pasty uses roughly 70 MB because it renders everything natively through Swift and Metal. That 130 MB difference matters when you are running Xcode, Docker, Chrome, and Figma simultaneously on a MacBook with 16 GB of RAM.
Perhaps the most telling difference is what each app prioritises. Paste focuses on visual organisation — colour-coded boards, pinboards, and a spacious grid layout. Pasty focuses on speed — a cursor-anchored panel that appears in under 100 milliseconds, lets you search, select, and paste without your hands leaving the keyboard. For productivity-focused users, the speed-first approach saves measurably more time than any amount of visual organisation.
How to Switch from Paste to Pasty
- Cancel your Paste subscription through Apple's Settings → Subscriptions menu before your next renewal date. Your existing Paste access will continue until the current billing period ends.
- Download Pasty from the Mac App Store for a one-time purchase of $9.99.
- Configure your hotkey. Pasty defaults to ⌥V — close enough to ⌘V that you will build muscle memory within a day.
- Uninstall Paste from Applications and revoke its Accessibility permissions in System Settings → Privacy & Security.
- Start copying. Every item you copy is encrypted, categorised by type, and instantly searchable. You will notice the speed difference immediately — Pasty's panel spawns at your cursor rather than in a fixed window position.
Frequently Asked Questions
One-time purchase · macOS Ventura and later · Native Swift + Metal
