A free Maccy alternative for Mac

On Hand vs Maccy: what each is good at, what they cost, and which one fits how you copy and paste.

The short version: Maccy is a great app, and it’s the closest thing to On Hand. Both are free, MIT-licensed, local-only, need macOS 14, and search text in images. The real difference is feel: Maccy is a compact popup you drive with ⇧⌘C, while On Hand is a menu bar window with previews, filters, and a keep-open mode.

On Hand vs Maccy at a glance

	On Hand	Maccy
Price	Free	Free on GitHub, $9.99 on the Mac App Store
Source code	Open source (MIT)	Open source (MIT)
Images	Yes	Yes
Search	Yes, by text or source app	Yes
Pinned clips	Yes, with named boards	Yes
Search text in images	Yes, on your Mac	Yes
Sync	No. History stays on your Mac	No
Skip password managers and apps	Yes. Password managers skipped; card numbers, SSNs, and 25+ kinds of keys never saved, concealed, and cleared after 90 seconds	Yes. 1Password ignored by default
Shortcuts	⌘⇧Space to open (changeable), ⌘1–9 to copy	⇧⌘C to open, ⌘1–9 to copy, ⌥1–9 to paste
Requires	macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon or Intel	macOS 14 or later

Checked October 6, 2026 against Maccy’s own site, release notes, or App Store listing. Prices and features change, so check before you buy. Something out of date? Open an issue.

Choose Maccy if

You want the most established free option, with years of releases and a large community.
You want to paste straight from the list with ⌥1–9, or paste without formatting from a shortcut.
You like tuning settings, such as ignoring specific clipboard types.

Choose On Hand if

You want a larger window that previews clips and filters by text, links, images, or pins.
You want history to stay open while you copy from it into several apps.
You want the free version everywhere. Maccy is free on GitHub but $9.99 on the Mac App Store.

Is Maccy still maintained?

Actively maintained. Version 2.7.1 shipped in August 2026.

Switching from Maccy

On Hand starts fresh. It doesn’t import history from Maccy, so pin anything you want to keep after you copy it again. Both apps can run at the same time while you try On Hand; give them different shortcuts. On Hand opens with ⌘ ⇧ Space, and you can change that in Settings.