--- title: Relic vs Maccy: A Clipboard Manager Comparison | Relic description: Maccy is a fast, free, open-source clipboard manager for Mac. Relic adds end-to-end encrypted sync and a permanent history across every device. Honest comparison. canonical: https://relic.space/vs/maccy source: https://relic.space/llms.txt --- Compare # Relic vs Maccy Maccy is the clipboard manager a lot of Mac people swear by: fast, free, and refreshingly simple. Relic plays a different game with encrypted history that syncs across your devices. Here is a fair comparison. Quick answer Maccy is a free, open-source Mac-only clipboard manager that keeps a local history on a single machine with no sync. Relic brings end-to-end encryption with XChaCha20-Poly1305 and Argon2id, cross-device sync, and a permanent history beyond a configurable item cap. Pick Maccy if you only ever use one Mac and want something lightweight and free. Pick Relic if you need your history encrypted and available across multiple devices. Maccy is excellent at what it sets out to do. It is a tiny, open-source clipboard manager for the Mac that opens with a keystroke, lets you search your recent copies, and gets out of your way. There is no clutter and no learning curve. If you want a no-nonsense history on a single Mac, Maccy is one of the best choices going, and we are happy to say so. Relic is aimed at the people Maccy does not quite serve: those who use more than one device, who want their history kept forever, and who care that a clipboard is full of passwords, codes, and private text. Relic keeps everything, encrypts it on your device, and syncs it. That extra reach is the whole point of the comparison. ## At a glance | | Relic | Maccy | | -------------------- | ------- | ------- | | Keeps everything | Yes | Partial | | Search | Yes | Yes | | Syncs across devices | Yes | No | | Works on Windows | Yes | No | | Works on Mac | Yes | Yes | | Works on Linux | X11 | No | | Works on phone | Partial | No | | End-to-end encrypted | Yes | No | | Open source | Partial | Yes | | Free tier | Yes | Yes | Two honest notes. Maccy keeps a configurable history, but it is tuned for recent items rather than holding everything forever. And Relic’s Mac app is a direct download rather than a Mac App Store install: a signed, notarized build for Apple Silicon. On phones, Relic is browse-and-search rather than a background recorder. We get into that below. ## When Maccy is the better pick For a single Mac, Maccy is a genuinely great answer, and here is when it is the right call. * **You only use a Mac.** If one Mac is your whole world, the cross-device features Relic is built around simply do not matter to you, and Maccy gives you exactly what you need. * **You want minimal and fast.** Maccy is light, quick, and keyboard-first. It does one thing and does it cleanly, with almost no settings to think about. * **You want free and open source.** Maccy is open source and free to build and run, with an optional paid App Store version to support the developer. * **You prefer strictly local.** Maccy never sends your history anywhere. If you want a clipboard history that physically cannot leave the machine, that is a feature, not a limitation. Give your clipboard a memory. Relic keeps everything you copy, makes it searchable on every device, and seals it with end-to-end encryption so only you can read it. The free plan holds 250 MB and 100 saved items across 3 devices. [Download forWindows](https://relic.space/download/windows)[Download formacOS](https://relic.space/download/macos)[Download forLinux](https://relic.space/download/linux)[Download forAndroid](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=relic.space.app&referrer=utm%5Fsource%3Drelic.space%26utm%5Fmedium%3Dwebsite%26utm%5Fcampaign%3Dcontent)[Download foriPhone](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/relic-clipboard-vault/id6800556025) ## When Relic is the better pick Relic pulls ahead the moment you have more than one device, or you want stronger guarantees about who can read your history. * **You use more than one device.** Maccy stops at the edge of your Mac. Relic syncs your history so a copy from your laptop shows up on your other devices. * **You want end-to-end encryption.** Relic encrypts every item on device with XChaCha20-Poly1305 and Argon2id. We store ciphertext we cannot read. Maccy is local and unencrypted by design. * **You want a permanent memory.** The free tier keeps the last 500 copies inside 250 MB and Pro keeps everything forever inside 25 GB. * **You search screenshots too.** Relic runs OCR on device, so the text inside an image is searchable, not just plain text snippets. To be straight with you: Relic on the Mac is new, and Maccy has years of polish behind it. The Relic Mac app lives in your menu bar, captures in the background, and pastes on select once you grant the Accessibility permission, and it syncs with the Windows and Android apps. 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 Maccy, Relic never writes to your clipboard on its own. It only does so when you choose an item. Short version: pick Maccy if you want a fast, free, local clipboard history on a single Mac. Pick Relic if you want that history encrypted, permanent, and synced across your devices. ## FAQ Is Maccy free?+ Yes. Maccy is free and open source, and there is a paid version on the Mac App Store that mostly exists to support development. It is fast, lightweight, and beloved for keeping things simple. Relic has a free tier too, plus an optional Pro plan at 7 dollars a month, or 5 a month billed annually. Does Maccy sync to other devices?+ No. Maccy is local only and Mac only. Your history lives on that one Mac and does not sync to another Mac, a PC, or your phone. Relic is built around encrypted cross-device sync, which is the main reason to choose it over Maccy. Is Maccy encrypted?+ Maccy stores your history locally and can ignore items copied from password managers, but it is not end-to-end encrypted. Relic encrypts every item on your device with XChaCha20-Poly1305 and Argon2id before it is saved or synced, so we only ever hold ciphertext. Which is faster?+ Maccy is famously quick and keyboard-driven, and that is exactly what its fans love. Relic is built to feel fast too, with local SQLite and FTS5 search, but it is doing more under the hood: encryption, sync, OCR, and tagging. If raw minimalism on one Mac is the goal, Maccy is hard to beat. Keep reading [What is a clipboard manager?the full guide](https://relic.space/clipboard-manager)[Relic vs Clipyanother simple Mac app](https://relic.space/vs/clipy)[Relic vs Flycutthe developer pick](https://relic.space/vs/flycut)[Relic vs Pastethe polished Apple pick](https://relic.space/vs/paste)[What is end-to-end encryption?the difference, explained](https://relic.space/blog/what-is-end-to-end-encryption)[How to copy and paste on Macshortcuts and tricks](https://relic.space/blog/how-to-copy-and-paste-on-mac)[Online notepada browser scratchpad](https://relic.space/tools/online-notepad)[Markdown editorwrite and preview in-browser](https://relic.space/tools/markdown-editor)