Clipy does not try to be flashy, and that is exactly why people like it. It is a small, free, open-source Mac app with a clipboard history and tidy snippet menus, descended from the classic ClipMenu. It sits in your menu bar, stays out of the way, and just works. If you want something light and dependable on a single Mac, Clipy is a solid, well-loved choice.
Relic is built for a different set of needs: keeping everything forever, encrypting it so only you can read it, and syncing it across your devices. On one Mac the two apps overlap. The gap opens up once you add a second device or start worrying about who else could read your clipboard.
At a glance
| Relic | Clipy | |
|---|---|---|
| Keeps everything | ||
| Search | ||
| Syncs across devices | ||
| Works on Windows | ||
| Works on Mac | ||
| Works on Linux | X11 | |
| Works on phone | ||
| End-to-end encrypted | ||
| Open source | ||
| Free tier |
A couple of fair notes. Clipy is menu-driven, so it leans more on quick browsing and snippets than on deep search. And Relic’s Mac app is a direct download, signed and notarized, and it needs Apple Silicon. On phones, Relic is browse-and-search rather than a background recorder. More on that below.
When Clipy is the better pick
Clipy is the right call for plenty of Mac users, and here is when.
- You only use a Mac.If one Mac covers your whole workflow, Relic’s cross-device features do not buy you anything, and Clipy gives you a clean local history for free.
- You love snippet menus.Clipy’s reusable snippet menus are quick and genuinely useful for text you paste over and over.
- You want free, open source, and light. Clipy is all three, with a tiny footprint and almost nothing to configure.
- You prefer strictly local. Clipy keeps everything on your machine and never syncs anywhere, which some people genuinely prefer.
When Relic is the better pick
Relic pulls ahead the moment you care about more than one device, or about privacy and permanence.
- You use more than one device. Clipy stays on one Mac. Relic syncs your history so a copy from one device shows up on the others.
- You want end-to-end encryption. Relic encrypts every item on device with XChaCha20-Poly1305 and Argon2id and stores only ciphertext we cannot read. Clipy is local and unencrypted by design.
- You want everything kept and searchable. The free tier keeps the last 500 copies inside 250 MB and Pro keeps everything forever inside 25 GB, all backed by fast local search.
- You want screenshot search. Relic runs OCR on device so the text inside images is findable too.
Honestly: Clipy has years of quiet reliability on the Mac and the Relic Mac app is newer. Relic sits in your menu bar on Apple Silicon, captures in the background, and pastes on select once you grant the Accessibility permission, and the same history shows up on Windows and Android. On phones, Relic is a browse-and-search lens rather than a background recorder, because phone operating systems block apps from capturing the clipboard in the background. And like Clipy, Relic never writes to your clipboard on its own. It only puts something back when you pick it.