Paste App Alternative for Mac and Windows: Pasta vs Paste
Facts about Paste checked October 17, 2026
Short answer: Paste is a polished clipboard manager that has been on the App Store for about ten years. It keeps your history in sync across your Mac, iPhone and iPad through your own iCloud, with pinboards for things you reuse. Pasta turns every copy into a labeled card, syncs across Macs and Windows PCs, and locks passwords and keys on your Mac. If your history needs to be on your iPhone, pick Paste. If you work across Macs and PCs, or want your copies labeled for you, try Pasta.
Full disclosure: we make Pasta. We've kept to what each app does, using Paste's own site for its side. (The names are close, but they're separate apps by different teams.)
Side by side
| Paste | Pasta | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | 7-day free trial; $29.99 a year, a lifetime plan, family and team plans; also in Setapp | 7 days free, no card; then $5 a month |
| Runs on | macOS 14 and later, iPhone, iPad | macOS 13 and later, Windows 10 and 11 |
| Sync | Mac, iPhone and iPad, through your private iCloud | Macs and PCs, encrypted with your own key |
| History | Unlimited | Unlimited by default, or 1 day to 1 year |
| Organizing | Pinboards you set up, shareable with a team | Every copy labeled by what it is, automatically (nearly 8,000 kinds) |
| Search | Your whole history | As you type, forgives typos, plus similar cards |
| Smart features | Suggests what you'll paste next (Apple Intelligence, on your Mac); connects your history to AI tools like Claude and Cursor | Labels and link previews for every copy |
| Passwords | Rules to ignore passwords and sensitive apps | Skips password managers; detects passwords and keys anywhere else and locks them on your Mac |
Prices and features change; check pasteapp.io for the latest on Paste.
What Paste does well
- Every Apple device. One subscription covers your Mac, iPhone and iPad, and the trial unlocks all of them.
- Pinboards. Keep snippets, links, colors and templates you reuse a keystroke away, and share pinboards with your team.
- Your data in your iCloud. Paste says your clipboard stays on your devices and your private iCloud and never touches its servers.
- A long track record. About ten years on the App Store and a 4.5 rating from more than 16,000 people.
- Flexible buying. Yearly, lifetime, family and team plans, plus Setapp.
What Pasta adds
- Windows. Pasta runs on Windows 10 and 11 too, and one account syncs your history between your Mac and your PC.
- Organized without organizing. Each copy is labeled the moment you copy it: a git command, a tracking number, a Figma link, a stack trace. Links show the page's title and preview. You can search by those labels.
- Secrets caught anywhere. Beyond skipping password managers, Pasta spots passwords, API keys and tokens wherever you copy them and locks them on that Mac. They're never labeled, synced or sent.
- macOS 13. Pasta also runs on macOS 13 Ventura.
- Several cards at once. Select a few and press Enter to paste them in one go, one per line.
The privacy difference, plainly
Paste syncs through your own iCloud. Pasta syncs through our server, encrypted on your computer with your own key first, so our database only holds encrypted data. Pasta's labels and link previews also come from our server: while you're signed in, the text of each copy (up to 4,000 characters, with emails, phone numbers and link query strings removed) goes there for labeling, and nothing is stored or logged in readable form. Detected secrets are never sent. The details are in Privacy and safety and Sync and encryption.
Which should you pick?
- Pick Paste if you want your clipboard on your iPhone and iPad, you like building pinboards, or you'd rather keep everything in iCloud.
- Pick Pasta if you use a Windows PC as well as a Mac, you want your copies labeled for you, or you want passwords and keys kept out of your history automatically.
Trying Pasta alongside Paste
Both can run at the same time, though they'll both save each copy, and both may want ⌘⇧V: change one of the shortcuts in settings. Pasta starts saving from the moment it's running; it doesn't import Paste's history. See Getting started.
FAQ
Are Paste and Pasta the same app?
No. Paste (pasteapp.io) and Pasta (copypasta.info) are separate apps by different teams.
Does Paste work on Windows?
Paste is made for Mac, iPhone and iPad. Pasta runs on Mac and Windows and syncs between them.
Does Pasta work on iPhone?
Not yet. Pasta is for Mac and Windows today.
How much does Pasta cost?
Pasta is free for 7 days with every feature and no card. After that it's $5 a month. See pricing.