What Maccy is
Maccy keeps a list of what you copied and lets you search it from the keyboard. Its own site says it “does only one job”. It is open source under the MIT licence, and the site states that it “is and will always be free”. You can get it from GitHub or Homebrew at no cost. The same app is $9.99 on the Mac App Store, where the listing says it is sold to support development.
It is small, it is still being updated, and since version 2.4 it can search the text inside images. If a quick list of recent copies is what you are after, stop reading here and install Maccy.
Where the two part ways
| Maccy | SSPaste | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free from GitHub. $9.99 on the Mac App Store | Free. Pro is $9.99, once |
| Source code | Open, MIT licence | Closed |
| History | 200 items by default, 999 at most (its settings code) | No limit, in the free version too |
| Keeping things | Pin an item to the top of the list | Spaces, a Favorites Space, notes on clips |
| Text inside images | Searchable, free | Searchable, in Pro |
| Runs on | macOS 14 or later | macOS 13 or later |
The history limit is the practical difference. Maccy is built around the last few hundred things you copied. SSPaste keeps everything until you delete it. That matters on the day you need a link from three months ago, and not at all if you never look back that far.
The other difference is what you see. Maccy is a compact list you drive from the keyboard. SSPaste shows cards: a picture as a picture, a PDF as its first page, a colour as a swatch. Cards take more room on screen and tell you more at a glance. Which of those you prefer is taste, not a ranking.
What SSPaste charges for
Unlimited history, the tray, the popover beside your pointer, search with filters, a Favorites Space and backups are free. Pro adds more Spaces, a locked Private Space for passwords and keys, the library window with its canvas, searching the text in pictures and documents, and typed words that turn into filters.
Maccy searches text in images without charging for it. If that is the one Pro feature you would have paid for, count it for Maccy.
Two things to know about SSPaste
It is not on the Mac App Store yet. And it is closed source: you cannot read its code the way you can read Maccy’s. What it does with your data is written down in the privacy policy, and the Private Space has a security note of its own.
Which to pick
Keyboard first, a short history, open source, free: Maccy. A long history you can look through and sort into Spaces, or a locked place for secrets: SSPaste.