Does Alfred's clipboard history cost extra?

Yes, clipboard history is part of Alfred's paid Powerpack. Alfred is primarily a launcher, so you are buying the whole tool, not just clipboard features.

Is Paste a subscription?

Paste uses a subscription model. If you prefer paying once, ClipHistory is $19.99 one-time with no auto-renewal.

Can ClipHistory replace both Paste and Alfred's clipboard?

For clipboard work, yes — it offers history, snippets, boards, a paste stack, and AI transforms. It is not a launcher, so it does not replace Alfred's app-launching role.

Do any of these keep clipboard data local?

ClipHistory keeps everything local, with outbound calls only when you trigger an AI transform to your own provider key.

Paste vs Alfred Clipboard: Which Is Better?

Paste and Alfred both manage your clipboard history on the Mac, but they come at the problem from opposite directions. Paste is a dedicated clipboard app. Alfred is a launcher and automation tool that happens to include clipboard history. Which is "better" depends entirely on what you already use and how you work.

Paste: clipboard-first

Paste treats the clipboard as the main event. Your copied items appear as cards on a horizontal board, and you can pin frequently used items to pinboards. The design is visual and tactile — good if you think in terms of seeing your clips laid out.

The trade-off is the pricing model. Paste is a subscription, which not everyone wants for a utility that lives in the menu bar.

Alfred: launcher-first

Alfred's primary job is launching apps, running searches, and executing workflows. Clipboard history is one feature among many, available with the paid Powerpack. If you already trigger Alfred dozens of times a day, having your clipboard in the same window is genuinely convenient — one keystroke covers launching, searching, and pasting.

If you do not use Alfred for anything else, buying it for clipboard history alone is more tool than you need.

How to choose between them

Choose Paste if you want a dedicated, visual clipboard experience and are comfortable with a subscription.
Choose Alfred if you are already a heavy Alfred user and want clipboard history folded into a tool you live in.

The deciding factor is rarely the clipboard features themselves — it is whether you want a specialized app or a feature inside a generalist one.

A third option: ClipHistory

If neither model fits — you want a dedicated clipboard app but not a subscription, and you do not need a full launcher — ClipHistory sits in between.

What it does

ClipHistory opens with Cmd+Shift+V and keeps 150 unpinned clips plus unlimited pinned ones. It adds features that neither Paste nor Alfred's clipboard offers:

AI transforms — summarize, rewrite, translate, or clean up any clip via five providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek, Google, or a custom endpoint) with your own API key.
Snippets for reusable text.
Boards for grouping clips by project.
Paste stack to queue and paste clips in sequence.

Pricing and privacy

ClipHistory is $19.99 one-time, with a 12-month license and no auto-renewal — a different model from Paste's subscription and from Alfred's launcher-bundle approach. Everything stays local on your Mac; the only network calls happen when you run an AI transform, sent directly to your provider.

Bottom line

Between Paste and Alfred, the better choice is whichever matches your existing habits: Paste for a dedicated visual clipboard, Alfred if you already automate everything through it. If you want a dedicated clipboard app with AI transforms, snippets, and a one-time price, ClipHistory is worth a look — it runs on macOS 12+ as a universal binary, signed and notarized by Apple.

Ready to try it? Get ClipHistory for macOS ($19.99) — a one-time payment, 12-month license, no auto-renewal. Signed and notarized by Apple, runs on macOS 12+ (Apple Silicon and Intel).