A Maccy alternative only earns its place once you have a second Mac

Stay on Maccy if you work on one Mac

Maccy's own site describes an app that does one job: keep your copy history close and let you search it from the keyboard. Press Shift-Command-C, type a few letters, press Return. It uses native macOS UI, it drops a copied password when your password manager clears it, and it installs from GitHub releases or Homebrew. If your whole day happens on one Mac, none of that needs replacing.

Deskferry would be a step sideways there. It keeps local history too, but the Free plan opens and copies only the 20 most recent entries in full; older ones show a summary until you move to Pro or Max (compare plans). If an open-source license matters to you, Maccy already has one. Paying for history you already get free in Maccy makes little sense unless you also need what happens between Macs.

Why you start looking for a Maccy alternative: the second Mac

Picture a MacBook on the desk and an iMac beside it. You copy a paragraph on the laptop and need it on the big screen. Maccy on each machine remembers what was copied on that machine. It does not carry anything across, and it never set out to.

Apple's Universal Clipboard can bridge the gap when both Macs sign in to the same Apple Account with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Handoff turned on. Maccy's README even explains how to ignore copies that arrive through Universal Clipboard, which shows where the moving happens: in macOS, not in Maccy. AirDrop covers files, one confirmed send at a time. When the Macs use different Apple Accounts, or Handoff is off on a work machine, Universal Clipboard stops working. AirDrop still delivers files if the receiving Mac is set to Contacts Only or Everyone for 10 Minutes, but someone has to accept every transfer on that Mac, and it does nothing for the clipboard. That gap is what syncing text between Macs is about.

How Deskferry moves the copy

Deskferry lives in the menu bar on macOS 14 or later, the same minimum Maccy's README lists. On one Mac the group administrator chooses Add Mac. The other Mac joins with a 6-digit code that lasts 120 seconds and allows three tries, then waits for approval. Once both Macs show the same current group as connected, a new copy on one is ready to paste on the other.

The Free plan covers text, links and images copied straight to the clipboard. Nothing passes through a Deskferry cloud relay, so the Macs have to reach each other on the local network. Guest Wi-Fi with client isolation can block that even when both Macs show the same network name.

Files are the other half of the wall. With the group administrator on Pro or Max, copy a file or video in Finder and paste it into a folder on the other Mac to get an independent copy. Whole folders, including subfolders and empty ones, need Max. Members of the group do not need the administrator's plan for this; the tiers are on the pricing page.

What does not change: history stays on each Mac

Deskferry does not merge history across machines. Each Mac keeps and searches its own record, and there is no shared library where one Mac browses what another copied. Pick an older item from history and copy it again, and that new copy syncs under the current group's rules. The difference between the two jobs is laid out in clipboard history vs clipboard sync.

If your comparison is really about history features on one Mac, the wider field is in our roundup of Mac clipboard managers. Still deciding between Maccy and Paste? Our Paste vs Maccy comparison sets the two side by side. For install status, check the Deskferry download page, since availability can change.