Switching from Paste to Maccy
Thinking of leaving Paste — maybe to stop the subscription, or for a lighter, more private tool? Here is an honest guide to switching to Maccy: what changes, what you keep, and how to do it cleanly.
Why people switch from Paste
- Cost: Paste is a subscription; Maccy is free forever.
- Privacy: Maccy keeps everything local with no telemetry (security review).
- Simplicity & weight: a focused, featherweight tool versus a larger cloud app.
What you give up
Be clear-eyed: Paste’s cloud pinboards and full iPhone/iPad sync are genuinely good, and Maccy does not replicate them (it syncs only pinned items across Macs via iCloud). If those are central to your work, reconsider — see the head-to-head Maccy vs Paste.
What you gain
Free pricing, local privacy, instant search, a tiny footprint, and open-source transparency. For everyday “bring back what I copied” use, Maccy covers it fully.
How to switch, step by step
- Install Maccy (.dmg or
brew install --cask maccy) and grant Accessibility — see install and configure. - Rescue your key snippets. Clipboard history does not transfer between apps, so open Paste and re-copy the pinboard items you actually use; they land in Maccy instantly. (More: migrating history.)
- Pin them in Maccy with ⌥ P so they are permanent (pinning).
- Set your hotkey to ⌘ ⇧ C and learn the basics (shortcuts).
- Run both briefly if you like, then quit Paste once you are comfortable.
- Cancel your Paste subscription and, if desired, remove the app.
Settling in
Give it a few days. The muscle memory transfers quickly, and most switchers find they only ever needed a fraction of Paste’s features. If you decide you want pinboards back, nothing is lost — but most people stay.
Why people switch from Paste to Maccy
Paste is the most polished clipboard manager on macOS, with a beautiful visual timeline and iCloud sync across Mac, iPhone, and iPad. People switch to Maccy for a few specific reasons:
- Cost: Paste costs ~$30/year. After 3 years, that is $90+ for a clipboard manager. Maccy is permanently free.
- No iPhone needed: If you work exclusively on Mac, the cross-device sync that justifies Paste’s subscription has no value.
- Simplicity: Maccy’s keyboard-first dropdown is faster to use than Paste’s visual timeline for most workflows.
- Open source: Maccy is MIT-licensed and auditable.
What you lose by switching
Be honest about what Paste offers that Maccy does not:
- iPhone clipboard sync: Paste syncs your clipboard to iPhone. Maccy is Mac-only. If you paste between Mac and iPhone regularly, Paste’s value is real.
- Visual pinboards: Paste’s pinboard UI is more visual than Maccy’s list.
- Apple Intelligence OCR: Paste added image OCR search. Maccy does not have this.
If none of these matter to your workflow, Maccy is a straightforward upgrade in cost efficiency.
Migration steps
1. Install Maccy
brew install --cask maccy
# or download from maccymanager.com/download2. Move your pinboard items to Maccy pins
- In Paste, open your Pinboards
- For each item, click it to copy it
- In Maccy, open history and press Cmd+P to pin the newly-copied item
Work through your most important pinned items. Recent clipboard history cannot be directly imported but you can also selectively copy-and-pin items from Paste.
3. Disable Paste’s clipboard capture
In Paste Preferences, disable automatic clipboard history capture, or uninstall Paste. Running both simultaneously wastes memory and may cause shortcut conflicts.
4. Cancel your Paste subscription
In App Store → your account → Subscriptions, cancel Paste. Your access continues until the billing period ends.
Running both temporarily
You can run both during a transition week. Assign different shortcuts to avoid conflicts. Copy important items in Paste and they appear in Maccy history automatically. Once you have transferred what you need, disable Paste.