ClipBook vs Paste
The Paste alternative for Mac that you buy once
Paste is a great clipboard manager, but it's a subscription. ClipBook keeps everything you copy on your Mac, costs $9.99 once, and never asks you to sign in. Here's an honest comparison so you can pick the right one.
5-day free trial · $9.99 one-time · No subscription · Lifetime updates · 14-day money-back
No credit card, no account.
Prices and facts checked September 2026.
Choose ClipBook if you…
- Use one Mac and don't want another subscription
- Want your clipboard history to stay on your Mac, with no account and no cloud
- Merge, split, transform and multi-paste text a lot
- Prefer a keyboard-first app you can verify on GitHub
Choose Paste if you…
- Need your clipboard on iPhone and iPad too
- Want history synced between several Macs via iCloud
- Already pay for Setapp, where Paste is included
- Share snippets with a team through shared pinboards
- one-time payment for ClipBook. No renewals, ever.
- $9.99
- what three years of Paste's annual plan costs.
- $89.97
- accounts, logins or cloud uploads required by ClipBook.
- 0
- free ClipBook trial with every feature unlocked.
- 5 days
Side by side
ClipBook vs Paste at a glance
Prices, privacy, platforms and features, as of September 2026.
| Feature | ClipBook | Paste |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ||
| Price | $9.99 once | $29.99 / year |
| Monthly option | Not needed | $2.49 / mo, billed yearly |
| Lifetime license | Included | $89.99 |
| What you pay over 3 years | $9.99 | $89.97 |
| Free trial | 5 days, no account | 7 days |
| Money-back guarantee | 14 days | App Store rules |
| Updates | Free for life | While subscribed |
| Included in Setapp | No | Yes |
| Privacy | ||
| Where your history lives | Only on your Mac | Your devices and iCloud |
| Account required | No | Apple Account for sync |
| Open source | Yes | No |
| Ignore apps and sensitive content | Yes | Yes |
| Clear history on quit | Yes | No |
| Platforms | ||
| Mac | macOS 13+ | macOS 14+ |
| iPhone and iPad | No | Yes |
| iCloud sync between devices | No | Yes |
| Team sharing | No | Team plan |
| Features | ||
| Unlimited history | Yes | Yes |
| Search text inside images (OCR) | Yes | Yes |
| Sequential paste | Paste next item | Paste Stack |
| Paste several items at once | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-paste with a separator | Yes | No |
| Text transformations on paste | Case, trim, plain text and more | Plain text only |
| Copy and merge | Yes | No |
| Merge and split items | Yes | No |
| Organize | Tags and favorites | Pinboards |
| Import and export history | Yes | No |
| Pause and resume | Yes | Yes |
| Preview | Yes | Yes |
Based on public pricing pages, help docs and App Store listings as of September 2026. Prices in USD before tax. Paste is a trademark of its owner; ClipBook is not affiliated with it. Spotted something outdated? Let us know.
Where ClipBook goes further
Built for people who paste a lot of text
Paste focuses on a beautiful history and cross-device sync. ClipBook focuses on what happens to the text once you've copied it.
Transform text as you paste
Paste as plain text, change case, trim whitespace, strip formatting or remove line breaks without leaving the keyboard.
How it works →
Copy and merge
Copy several snippets one after another and ClipBook joins them into a single item, so you paste once instead of five times.
How it works →
Paste many items, your way
Select several items and paste them together, separated by a new line, a comma, a tab or anything you choose.
How it works →
Find text inside screenshots
ClipBook reads the text in every image you copy, so you can search for it later and copy it out as plain text.
How it works →
Privacy
No cloud, no account, no analytics
Paste stores your clipboard in your private iCloud so it can follow you across devices. ClipBook takes the opposite trade: your history is written only to your Mac and never leaves it. There are no user accounts, no built-in analytics and no tracking, and the source code is public so you can check for yourself.
- Stored locally on your Mac
- No account or sign-in
- No analytics or tracking
- Open source on GitHub
Why doesn't ClipBook have iCloud sync?
Sync would mean putting your clipboard, which regularly contains passwords, tokens, addresses and private messages, into a cloud database. ClipBook is built around the promise that this data never leaves your Mac, and that promise is easier to verify when there is simply no code path that uploads anything. If you need cross-device sync, Paste is a good choice. If you'd rather keep your clipboard offline, that's what ClipBook is for.
Honest take
When Paste is the better choice
ClipBook is not the right pick for everyone. Paste has been on the App Store for ten years and does some things ClipBook deliberately does not.
You copy on your Mac and paste on your iPhone
Paste has native iPhone and iPad apps and syncs history through iCloud. ClipBook is Mac-only and has no mobile app.
You work on several Macs
Paste keeps your history in sync between your desktop and laptop. ClipBook licenses cover several Macs, but each Mac keeps its own local history. You can export from one and import into another, but it isn't automatic.
You already have Setapp
Paste for Mac is part of the Setapp subscription. If you pay for Setapp anyway, Paste costs you nothing extra.
Your team shares snippets
Paste's Team plan lets you share pinboards with colleagues. ClipBook is a single-user app.
Sound like you? Get Paste. No hard feelings.
Switching from Paste takes about a minute
Download ClipBook
Grab the DMG, drag it to Applications and grant Accessibility access so it can paste into other apps. No account to create.
Set your shortcut
ClipBook opens with ⇧⌘V by default. If you're used to Paste's shortcut, change it in Settings so your muscle memory keeps working.
Bring over what matters
There's no importer for Paste's database. Copy the snippets you've pinned in Paste once with ClipBook running and mark them as favorites; everything new is captured from now on.
ClipBook vs Paste: FAQ
Yes, if you use a single Mac and want a clipboard manager without a subscription. ClipBook keeps unlimited history, searches text inside images, pastes directly into the active app and adds text tools Paste doesn't have, such as merging, splitting, transformations and multi-paste with separators. It is a one-time purchase of $9.99 with lifetime updates. If you need iPhone support or iCloud sync, Paste is the better fit.
As of September 2026, Paste costs $29.99 per year ($2.49 per month billed annually), or $89.99 for a lifetime license on the App Store. ClipBook costs $9.99 once for one Mac, $14.99 for two Macs and $29.99 for five Macs, with all future updates included. Over three years, Paste's annual plan comes to $89.97 while ClipBook stays at $9.99.
No. ClipBook is a Mac-only app and stores your clipboard history locally. There is no iCloud sync and no iPhone or iPad app. This is a deliberate privacy decision: your clipboard never leaves your Mac. Paste offers both iCloud sync and mobile apps.
Not directly. ClipBook can't read Paste's database. The practical approach is to copy the snippets you rely on once while ClipBook is running and add them to favorites. ClipBook captures everything you copy from the moment you launch it.
No. ClipBook is a one-time purchase. You pay once, get a license key and receive every future update for free. There is also a 14-day money-back guarantee. See the pricing page for the one, two and five-Mac licenses.
Paste for Mac is included in a Setapp subscription. ClipBook is not on Setapp; it is sold directly on this site and can also be installed via Homebrew.
ClipBook supports macOS 13 Ventura and later on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. Paste currently requires macOS 14 or later.
Every feature is unlocked for 5 days from the first launch. There is no credit card, no account and no sign-up. When the trial ends, your history stays on your Mac and is available again as soon as you activate a license.
Free download
Never lose what you copy
Keep your copy history, organize it, quickly find what you need and paste it directly to the active app.
Keyboard-first · Native app · One-time purchase · Lifetime updates