At a glance
Pastebot, from Tapbots, is a paid Mac clipboard manager known for its paste filters — rules that transform text as you paste it. Maccy is the free, open-source minimalist. If your paste needs are mostly “give me that thing I copied,” the gap narrows fast.
Paste filters: Pastebot's edge
Pastebot's signature is filters: strip formatting, find-and-replace, change case, run multiple transforms in sequence, and preview the result live before you paste. If you regularly clean up copied text — say, pasting code or reformatting messy quotes — that's a real time-saver, and you can bind filters to shortcuts.
Maccy doesn't transform text beyond an option to paste as plain text. It assumes you want what you copied, returned instantly.
Rule of thumb: if you find yourself reformatting pasted text by hand several times a day, Pastebot's filters may pay for themselves.
Everyday recall
For the core loop — copy a few things, recall one — both are excellent. Maccy's ⇧ + ⌘ + C + type-to-filter is about as direct as it gets, and ⌘ + 1–⌘ + 9 paste recent items by number. Pastebot has a quick-paste window, search, and sequential paste of queued clips.
Pastebot — strengths
- One-time price, no subscription
- Powerful, chainable paste filters
- Custom pasteboards for saved clips
- iCloud sync between your Macs
✕ Pastebot — trade-offs
- Paid and closed source
- Heavier than a minimal tool
- Mac-only (no iPhone app)
Our take
Pick by your paste habits
If you transform text as you paste — formatting, case, find-replace — Pastebot's filters justify the one-time price.
If you mostly need fast, private recall of what you copied, Maccy does that for free.
Get Maccy freeFrequently asked questions
Is Pastebot a subscription?
No — Pastebot is a one-time purchase on the Mac App Store (about $12.99). Maccy is free.
Does Maccy have paste filters?
Not in the transform sense. Maccy can paste as plain text, but it doesn't do find-replace or multi-step filters the way Pastebot does.
Do either sync to iPhone?
Neither has an iPhone app. Pastebot syncs between Macs via iCloud; Maccy stays local on one Mac.