Maccy vs Pasta (2026): Free Open Source vs Freemium Grid

What is Pasta?

Pasta is a clipboard manager for macOS with a flexible grid interface that lays out your clipboard history visually. It supports text, images, links, colours, and more, with Touch Bar support, light and dark modes, drag-and-drop, and Universal Clipboard integration. The free version keeps only your latest 20 clippings; Pasta Pro raises that to thousands.

Pasta's appeal is a visual, grid-based way to browse recent clips, with a free tier to try before you buy the larger history.

What is Maccy?

Maccy is a free, open-source clipboard manager for macOS under the MIT license. It keeps an unlimited, searchable history (you set the size), opens with a keyboard shortcut, and pastes the item you pick — all with a tiny footprint. Every feature is free; there is no Pro tier.

Maccy's appeal is a fast, keyboard-first list with no cap and no upsell.

Maccy vs Pasta at a glance

Price and the free-tier cap

This is the decisive difference. Pasta's free version is limited to the latest 20 clippings — useful as a taster, but a real history needs Pasta Pro. Maccy is free with a configurable history limit you control, and there is no paid tier at all.

If you want a genuinely unlimited clipboard history without paying, Maccy delivers it out of the box. Pasta asks you to upgrade once you outgrow 20 clips.

Interface: grid vs keyboard list

Pasta's signature is its grid interface — clips laid out as cards you can scan visually, with enhanced previews for colours, links, and events. Maccy uses a compact keyboard-driven list with fuzzy search: you type to filter and press Enter.

If you prefer browsing clips visually and reaching for the mouse, Pasta's grid is attractive. If you want to keep your hands on the keyboard and never wait, Maccy is faster.

Search, recall, and formats

Both handle text, rich text, images, links, and colours. Pasta adds a grid layout and Touch Bar shortcuts; Maccy adds fuzzy search and pinned favourites. For recall speed, Maccy's type-to-filter is hard to beat; for visual scanning, Pasta's grid is nicer.

Pasta also visually hashes out passwords copied from managers like 1Password; Maccy goes further by not recording concealed items at all.

Privacy and security

Maccy stores history locally, respects the concealed-clipboard flag so passwords are never recorded, lets you exclude specific apps, and is fully auditable as MIT open source. Pasta keeps data on-device and visually masks copied passwords, but it is not open source.

For users who want provable, auditable privacy at no cost, Maccy's open-source model is the stronger guarantee.

Performance and footprint

Maccy is around 8 MB, native, and near-invisible at idle. Pasta is a polished native app too, but its grid UI and previews make it somewhat heavier. Both are responsive on modern Macs; Maccy is the lighter of the two.

Where Pasta is the better choice

Choose Pasta if you love a visual grid of your clipboard, want Touch Bar shortcuts, and do not mind paying for Pro to unlock a large history. Its enhanced previews and layout suit people who browse clips with their eyes rather than search by typing.

Where Maccy wins

Choose Maccy if you want an unlimited, free, open-source clipboard history with the fastest keyboard recall and the strongest privacy defaults. No 20-clip cap, no Pro upgrade, no recording of passwords — just instant search and pinned favourites.

What about the built-in macOS Tahoe clipboard?

macOS 26 Tahoe added a clipboard history to Spotlight (⌘Space, then ⌘4). It is free but caps history at seven days with no pinning and no per-app exclusion, so both Maccy and Pasta still do more. See how the Tahoe Spotlight clipboard works.

The bottom line

Pasta is a pretty, grid-based freemium clipboard manager — fine if you like the visual layout and will pay for Pro. Maccy is free, open source, unlimited, and faster for keyboard recall, with stronger privacy defaults. If the 20-clip free cap or the upsell bothers you, Maccy gives you more for nothing.