Clipnest keeps everything you copy in one searchable history and puts it on every device you own: Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. They sync straight to each other over your own Wi-Fi, encrypted end to end, with nothing parked on our servers. It knows what a secret looks like. $19.99 once, five devices, updates forever.
Card numbers, one time codes, API keys and private keys are recognised the instant they are
copied, kept out of the search index, and shown only as a typed preview like
CARD: 4111••••. On Mac and Windows, apps you exclude are never captured, and
copies your password manager marks as private are skipped. On Mac, iPhone and Android you can
require Touch ID, Face ID or your passcode before a hidden item is pasted or revealed. And on
every device the whole database is encrypted at rest with SQLCipher: the key
stays in that device's secure storage and never syncs. The only copy that can leave is the
recovery key you choose to write down.
Scan a QR code with your phone or type an address on a computer, then match the six digits that appear on both screens. From then on your Mac, your Windows PC, your iPhone and your Android phone share the same history, talking to each other directly over your Wi-Fi. There is no account to create and no bucket to configure.
Images sync too, not just text. From your iPhone you can share into your history straight from any app's share sheet, without opening Clipnest first. Pin something on Windows and it is pinned on the Mac. Delete something, or let Auto-delete history age it out, and it disappears from every paired device. A device that was offline catches up the moment it reconnects. Today both devices need to be on the same network; sync across the internet comes later.
A Spotlight-style panel drops down over whatever you're doing, even over full-screen apps. Full-text FTS5 search runs through everything you've copied as you type, pinned clips first, and on the Mac a typo-tolerant pass catches near misses. Arrow keys to move, ↵ to paste, ⌘1–9 for the first nine. Change the shortcut whenever you like. On Windows the same list opens from the tray or with Ctrl⇧V.
On Mac and Windows, Clipnest quietly captures everything you copy: text, screenshots and images (read with on-device OCR so you can search the words inside them), and real files you can paste straight back into Finder or Explorer. Everything is auto-sorted into link, code, email, text, image and file. On iPhone and Android, add what is on your clipboard with one tap, or share into Clipnest from any app. No accessibility service and no background service.
Promote any clip to a reusable snippet: email signatures, boilerplate replies, that one shell command you always forget. Snippets are independent copies, so they never expire with your rolling history. They live in their own list, one click from the panel, on every platform.
Choose any item and Clipnest re-focuses the app you were just in and fires ⌘V for you (CtrlV on Windows), no manual switching. On the Mac, Shift-select several clips and paste them in one go. Pin what matters, and on Mac and Windows bring back a clip you deleted by mistake. And Auto-delete history clears the old stuff on a schedule you pick (never, 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 30 days, 2 months or 3 months); what it deletes disappears on every paired device, while pinned clips are always kept.
No account, no setup. Install, copy something, search.
Clipnest lives in your menu bar on the Mac and your tray on Windows. No Dock icon, no clutter. It starts capturing what you copy right away.
One optional macOS permission lets Clipnest paste straight back into your apps. Skip it and it still copies for you.
Press ⌘⇧V (Ctrl⇧V on Windows), type a few letters, hit ↵. That's it.
Scan a code or type an address, match the six digits, done. Up to five devices share one history over your own Wi-Fi.
Copying text between machines is free everywhere now. What nobody hands you for free is a history worth keeping: secrets masked, screenshots readable, snippets to hand, no account behind any of it, and one payment instead of a renewal date.
| Feature | Paste | Octoclip | Relic | Clipnest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mac + Windows + iPhone + Android | Apple only | ✓ | ✓ (+Linux) | ✓ |
| Nothing to sign up for, no service in the middle | ✕ (iCloud) | nearby ✓; cloud needs your own S3/WebDAV | their sync service, or self-host one | ✓ |
| End to end encrypted | ✕ | nearby only | ✓ through their server | ✓ device to device |
| Whole history encrypted at rest, device-bound key | ✕ | not documented | not documented | ✓ |
| Secrets masked and kept out of search | ✕ | not documented | not documented | ✓ |
| Never captures from apps you exclude | ✓ | not documented | not documented | ✓ Mac, Windows |
| OCR search inside screenshots | ✕ | not documented | ✓ on-device AI | ✓ Mac, Windows |
| Snippets | ✓ | ✓ (aliases, collections) | not documented | ✓ |
| Auto-paste into the app you left | ✓ | not documented | not documented | ✓ Mac, Windows |
| Auto-delete history on every device | ✓ | not documented | not documented | ✓ |
| Sync across the internet | ✓ (iCloud) | via your own bucket | ✓ | later |
| Price for 5 devices | $29.99 / yr, or $89.99 lifetime | $39.99 once, 1 year of updates | $60 / yr | $19.99 once, updates forever |
| Free tier | 7-day trial | 1 nearby device, recent clips | 500 clips, 3 devices | 200 items |
Based on each product's published pricing and documentation, September 2026. "Not documented" means we could not find the feature described; tell us if we missed it.
Two states, not five tiers. Start free, and the day your history starts mattering, one payment covers every platform you own. No account, no renewal date, no cloud bill waiting for you next year.
Cloud Sync, for devices that are never on the same Wi-Fi, comes later as an optional subscription. Everything you paid for keeps working whether you take it or not.
Everything you might want to know before you download.
macOS 13 (Ventura) and later on both Apple Silicon and Intel, Windows as a tray app with a hotkey, paste-back and OCR, plus iPhone and Android. Every device you pair shares the same clipboard history.
Only to the devices you paired yourself, and only directly over your local network. The transfer
is encrypted end to end. There is no server in the middle and no account to create, so nothing
is ever uploaded to us. On every device the history itself sits in a database encrypted at rest
with SQLCipher.
Scan a QR code with your phone, paste a pairing link, or type a device's address (that is how a Windows PC pairs). Both devices then show the same six digit code and both of you confirm it. After that they talk to each other directly over Wi-Fi. Up to 5 devices, any member can add the next one, and a device that was offline catches up when it reconnects. Today both devices need to be on the same network; sync across the internet comes later.
Not just by being on your network. Every new device has to show the same six digit code as the device it joins, and both of you have to confirm it before anything is shared.
When you copy something that looks like a card number, a one time code, an API key or a
private key, Clipnest detects it on the spot, keeps it out of the search index, and shows only
a typed preview like CARD: 4111••••. You can still paste it; it is just never
displayed or searchable in full. You can mark any clip as a secret yourself, or unmask one the
detector got wrong. On Mac and Windows, apps you exclude are never captured at all, and copies
your password manager marks as private are skipped.
Only so it can paste for you: after you pick a clip, Clipnest re-focuses the app you were in and
presses ⌘V. If you'd rather not grant it, Clipnest simply copies the item to your
clipboard and you paste it yourself. Nothing is ever recorded.
Yes. Text, links, code, email addresses and images all sync to your paired devices. Copied files are a Mac and Windows feature: the file itself stays on the computer it was copied on and is not sent to your other devices.
Free for your first 200 items on one device, with every feature unlocked. After that, Clipnest Pro is $19.99 paid once: unlimited history, synced across up to 5 devices on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android, with updates forever. No account, no subscription. Cloud Sync for devices that are never on the same network comes later as an optional subscription.
No. One payment, five devices, every platform, and updates keep coming. The only thing that will ever carry a monthly price is Cloud Sync, because it is the only part that costs us anything to run, and it stays optional. Skip it and nothing you paid for changes.
Free tools move text between two machines, and if that is genuinely all you need, use one. What they do not give you is a history worth searching: secrets masked before they ever reach the screen, snippets, and the whole database encrypted at rest on all four platforms, plus screenshots readable by OCR and apps you exclude on Mac and Windows, with no account to create and no storage bucket for you to run. Pay us the day your clipboard starts holding things you would not want read over your shoulder.
Universal Clipboard only works between Apple devices and only carries the last thing you copied. There is no history, no search, and nothing at all for Windows or Android. Clipnest keeps a searchable history and syncs it to every device you paired, whichever platform it runs. See the guides on iPhone and Windows and Android and Mac.
No. Octoclip's published documentation says its cloud sync runs through a WebDAV or S3 bucket you supply and protect with a master password. Clipnest has no bucket to configure: paired devices talk to each other directly over your network.
Search everything you have ever copied, keep your secrets masked, and paste it back on whichever device you happen to be holding. One payment, and it is yours.