Kept vs Clipy
Clipy shows your history as a plain Mac menu: press ⇧⌘V, a menu appears at the pointer, click a line, it pastes. It also has snippets. Kept keeps that menu as an option on the menu bar icon and adds a card with a full preview, search, and images.
One of the Kept, compared pages.
| Kept | Clipy | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free, open source |
| Source | Private | Public, MIT |
| Open with | ⇧⌘V for the card, ⌥⇧⌘V for the panel, or click the menu bar icon | ⇧⌘V main menu, ⌃⌘V history, ⇧⌘B snippets |
| Where it opens | At your text cursor; the panel under the menu bar icon | A menu at the pointer |
| Return or click | Return pastes into the app you were in | Choosing a line pastes when "paste after selecting" is on |
| Preview | The full item above the list | One menu line per item |
| Search | Full text, as you type, in the card and the panel | None; scan the menu |
| What it keeps | Text, links, code, colours, files, images and screenshots | Text and images |
| Snippets | Pinned items, shown first in the card | A snippets menu with folders |
| Sync | None, on purpose | None |
| Terminal | The kept command lists, searches and copies history | None |
Keep Clipy if
- Your snippet folders are organised just so.
- A plain menu is exactly what you want, nothing more.
- You want open source.
Switch to Kept if
- You have more history than a menu can show and want to search it.
- You want to see the whole item before it pastes.
- You copy screenshots and files, not only text.
- You still want the menu: Kept has a Clipy-style history menu on the icon as a setting.
Switching
In Kept's welcome window, or in Settings › General, choose "Clipy" under "Use the shortcut from". Kept then opens with the shortcut your hands already know. Your Clipy history stays in Clipy; Kept starts collecting from the moment it runs. Download Kept, free, for macOS 14 or later.
Facts as of October 2026, from Clipy's own documentation. Something wrong or out of date? Say so and it gets fixed.