Clipman vs PastePaw

Clipman is a free, open-source clipboard manager for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iPhone, and iPad. Its history can be searched, named, grouped, pinned, edited, and pasted without opening the app first. It handles text, links, formatting, images, and files, with optional views for links and rich text. The app is designed for keyboard and screen-reader use, with predictable keyboard behavior and concise spoken feedback. History can stay on a device, use a shared folder, or be stored on an optional self-hosted Clipman Server. Windows and Mac can synchronize through a cloud-synced folder or network share; the server supports encrypted synchronization across supported platforms. Privacy controls include history encryption, excluding selected apps, and honoring clipboard privacy signals. Quick Paste provides global hotkeys and templates, while Quick Clip saves an entry directly. A command-line tool can manage server-backed text history on Windows, macOS, and Linux. The project releases Clipman under the MIT License.

PastePaw is a clipboard history application for macOS with a local MCP server that lets compatible agents search, read and write clips. Search checks the first 300 characters of each clip and any note attached to it. Eighteen clip tools cover formats and tasks including JSON, Base64, URL, YAML, XML, Markdown, HTML, JWT, QR and OCR. The macOS interface provides horizontal and vertical layouts, 20 themes, 29 looks, and light or dark modes. Clipboard history remains in a local SQLite database and is not uploaded, although anonymous usage statistics are enabled by default and can be disabled. Secure Collections encrypt stored clips, unlock with Touch ID or a Mac password, and stay unavailable to MCP clients; the main history database is not encrypted. Triggered AI features send selected content to the chosen provider. macOS requires version 14 or later on Intel or Apple Silicon. A separate Windows app is free and open source but omits several macOS features.