Clipboard Doctor vs PasteBar
Both are free Mac clipboard managers that keep everything on your device with no cloud sync and no account. The difference: Clipboard Doctor runs OCR on every screenshot you copy so you can search for words inside images. PasteBar does not.
Short answer: If you want open-source code you can inspect, and you work across Mac and Windows, PasteBar is worth a look. If you copy screenshots, receipts, UI captures, or anything in Arabic — and want text inside those images to be searchable — Clipboard Doctor does something PasteBar cannot.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Clipboard Doctor | PasteBar |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Open source | No | Yes (GitHub) |
| Platform | macOS only | macOS + Windows |
| Native macOS app | Yes — SwiftUI | No — cross-platform |
| Text clipboard history | Yes | Yes |
| Image history (store screenshots) | Yes | Yes |
| Search text inside screenshots | Yes — on-device OCR | No |
| Arabic OCR | Yes | No |
| Account required | None | None |
| Cloud sync | No — local only | No — local only |
| Tags and pinning | Yes | Yes (boards/collections) |
| Snippets (reusable text) | Yes | Yes |
| Auto-updates | Yes — downloads & installs itself | Manual |
| macOS requirement | macOS 13+ | macOS 12+ |
Where PasteBar wins
PasteBar is open source — every line of code is on GitHub, so you can audit exactly what the app does. It also runs on Windows, which matters if you share a clipboard workflow across machines. Its boards and collections system is more visual than Clipboard Doctor's tag-based layout, which may suit users who like to curate clips rather than search for them.
Where Clipboard Doctor wins
The moment you copy a screenshot, Clipboard Doctor runs Apple's Vision OCR framework on it — entirely on-device, using the Neural Engine — and indexes the recognised text. Later you can search "error code" or "invoice total" and find screenshots whose content contains those words. PasteBar saves images but cannot read them.
For Arabic — or mixed Arabic–English content — both OCR languages run simultaneously, right-to-left and left-to-right. No other free clipboard manager for Mac offers this.
Clipboard Doctor is also a native SwiftUI application written specifically for macOS, which means it uses standard macOS conventions: menu bar, keyboard shortcuts, and system dark/light mode all behave exactly as you'd expect. Cross-platform apps built on shared frameworks sometimes feel subtly off on Mac. Since version 1.8.0 it also downloads and installs its own updates automatically (via Sparkle), so you never need to fetch a new DMG manually.
Download Clipboard Doctor — freemacOS 13+ · 2-minute install guide
Questions
Does PasteBar have OCR or screenshot text search?
No. PasteBar stores images from your clipboard but cannot read the text inside them. Clipboard Doctor uses Apple Vision OCR on every copied image, making the text content searchable just like copied text.
Does PasteBar support Arabic?
PasteBar will store any Arabic text you copy from other apps. But it has no OCR — so Arabic text inside a screenshot, a scanned document, or a UI capture is invisible to it. Clipboard Doctor recognises Arabic inside images and makes it searchable alongside your copied text.
Is Clipboard Doctor lighter than PasteBar?
Clipboard Doctor is a native SwiftUI app compiled specifically for macOS. Cross-platform apps carry the overhead of a shared runtime. In practice, native apps tend to use less memory and start faster, though both are light enough for daily use. If this is a priority, try both and check Activity Monitor.
Can I use both at the same time?
Technically yes, but two clipboard managers running simultaneously often produce duplicated entries or conflicts. Most users pick one. Install, use it for a week, then decide.
Also see: search text inside screenshots · Arabic clipboard manager · vs Maccy · offline & private