Maccy is the first clipboard manager a lot of Mac users install. It is free, open source, fast, and gets recommended constantly on Reddit and Hacker News. If you are comparing it to reClip, you are probably wondering whether the paid option is worth it. Fair question.
What Maccy does well
Maccy does one thing and does it well: it keeps a list of text you have copied. Press a hotkey, a dropdown appears, you pick an item. Done. It uses almost no memory, starts instantly, and the source code is on GitHub for anyone to read.
If your clipboard use is 95% text, Maccy covers you. I used it for about a year before I started building reClip, and I had no complaints for what it was.
Where Maccy stops
The limitation is straightforward: Maccy handles text. That is it. Copy an image, a screenshot, a file from Finder, some formatted text from a web page? Maccy ignores all of it.
There is also no sync between devices. Your clipboard history is on the Mac where you copied it. If you use two Macs, you have two separate histories with no connection between them.
And there is no search beyond basic substring matching. With a large history, finding a specific clip means scrolling through a long list.
What reClip adds
I built reClip because I kept running into the edges of what Maccy could do. Here is what is different:
- Images and screenshots. reClip saves images with thumbnails. When I screenshot an error message or copy a design asset, it shows up in my history with a preview.
- Files. Copy a file in Finder, and reClip saves the path and metadata. You can paste it again later without finding the file again.
- Rich text and HTML. Copy formatted text from a browser or document and reClip keeps the formatting.
- Hex colors. Copy a hex code like
#0ea5e9and reClip shows a color swatch next to it. - iCloud sync. Your full clipboard history syncs between Macs through Apple's private CloudKit database.
- Sensitive content detection. reClip automatically skips passwords, API keys, and OTP codes. Maccy saves everything.
- Pinboards. Organize clips into named groups with custom colors.
Privacy comparison
Both apps are privacy-focused, but in different ways. Maccy stores everything locally and the code is open source. You can verify exactly what it does. That is a real advantage.
reClip also stores locally by default. If you enable iCloud sync, your clips go through Apple's private CloudKit database, which is encrypted and tied to your Apple ID. The code is not open source, so you have to trust the app. On the other hand, reClip actively detects and skips sensitive content, which Maccy does not do.
If open source is a hard requirement for you, Maccy wins. If you want automatic sensitive content filtering, reClip wins.
Price
Maccy is completely free. reClip has a free tier (20 clips, text only) and a Pro subscription ($2.99/month or $17.99/year) for unlimited history, images, and files.
Honestly, if you only copy text and work on a single Mac, there is no strong reason to pay for reClip over Maccy. The value of reClip Pro shows up when you need images, files, sync, or organization.
Who should use which
Use Maccy if: you only copy text, you work on one Mac, open source matters to you, and you do not want to pay for anything.
Use reClip if: you copy images and files regularly, you want your history across multiple Macs, you want automatic password/key detection, or you want to organize clips into groups.
I do not think Maccy is a bad choice. I used it happily for a year. I just found myself wanting more, and that is why reClip exists.