Clipboard Doctor vs Raycast Clipboard
Raycast is an excellent app launcher — but its built-in clipboard history caps at 3 months on the free plan, has no image OCR, and costs $8/month for unlimited. Clipboard Doctor is a dedicated clipboard manager: unlimited history, free, and searches text inside screenshots in Arabic and English.
Short answer: Use Raycast for launching apps, running extensions, and replacing Spotlight. Use Clipboard Doctor for clipboard history — especially if you copy screenshots, work with Arabic text, or don't want a 3-month cap. The two tools complement each other; many users run both.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Clipboard Doctor | Raycast |
|---|---|---|
| Price for clipboard features | Free, always | Free (3-month cap) · Pro $8/mo |
| History limit | Unlimited | 3 months (free) · Unlimited (Pro) |
| Search text inside screenshots (OCR) | Yes — on-device, offline | No |
| Arabic OCR | Yes — bilingual AR+EN | No |
| Image / screenshot history | Yes — every screenshot stored | Text and links only |
| Account required | None | Optional (required for Pro/sync) |
| Fully offline (no network) | Yes — verifiable | Pro syncs to Raycast cloud |
| Text clipboard history | Yes | Yes |
| Tags and pinning | Yes | Quicklinks only (not clipboard tags) |
| Snippets / templates | Yes | Yes (Snippets feature) |
| Global hotkey | Yes (⌃⇧W) | Yes (⌥Space default) |
| App launcher / Spotlight replacement | No | Yes — core feature |
| Extension ecosystem | No | Yes — 1 000+ extensions |
| macOS requirement | macOS 13+ | macOS 12+ |
Where Raycast wins
Raycast is the best app launcher on macOS and far more than a clipboard manager. Its extension ecosystem (GitHub, Linear, Jira, 1Password, Figma, and hundreds more) turns it into a command palette for your entire workflow. If you need a Spotlight replacement with AI, quick-link runners, and extensibility, Raycast's free tier delivers that well. Its built-in clipboard covers basic text history for most users who don't need OCR or deep image search.
Where Clipboard Doctor wins
Clipboard Doctor's defining advantage is OCR. Every screenshot you copy is automatically indexed by Apple's Vision engine — text inside images becomes searchable the same way text in notes is. This works in both Arabic and English simultaneously, with full right-to-left support. Raycast has no image OCR in any plan.
History is also materially different. Clipboard Doctor keeps everything, forever, for free. Raycast's free plan drops entries older than 3 months — copying a code block or error message in January and searching for it in April won't work. Unlimited history in Raycast costs $96/year.
On privacy: Clipboard Doctor makes zero network requests during normal use. You can verify this with Little Snitch. Raycast Pro syncs clipboard to Raycast's cloud servers; if cloud clipboard data is a concern for your security policy or personal preference, local-only storage is safer.
Download Clipboard Doctor — freemacOS 13+ · 2-minute install guide
Running both together
Raycast and Clipboard Doctor cover different territory. A common setup: keep Raycast as your launcher and disable its clipboard feature (Raycast → Preferences → Extensions → Clipboard History → toggle off), then let Clipboard Doctor handle clipboard history with unlimited retention and OCR search. The hotkeys don't conflict, and you get the best of both tools without paying for Raycast Pro just for clipboard features.
Questions
Does Raycast clipboard history search text inside screenshots?
No. Raycast clipboard history indexes text and links. It does not run OCR on screenshots, so text visible inside an image — an error message, a terminal output, Arabic content — is not searchable. Clipboard Doctor indexes every screenshot automatically at copy time using Apple Vision OCR, covering both Arabic and English.
Is Raycast's clipboard history unlimited?
On the free plan, Raycast retains clipboard history for 3 months. Items older than that are dropped. Unlimited history requires Raycast Pro at $8/month ($96/year). Clipboard Doctor has no history cap and no subscription.
Do I need a Raycast account for clipboard history?
No account is needed for Raycast's local clipboard history on the free plan. An account is required if you subscribe to Pro for cloud sync, unlimited history, or AI features. Clipboard Doctor never asks for an account — there is no login, no registration, no email.
Can Clipboard Doctor and Raycast run at the same time?
Yes. They run independently and don't conflict. Many users keep Raycast for launching apps and extensions, then disable Raycast's clipboard feature and use Clipboard Doctor for clipboard history. Both run as menu-bar utilities with separate hotkeys.
Can either app search Arabic text in screenshots?
Clipboard Doctor can. It enables Arabic and English simultaneously in Apple Vision OCR, so mixed-language screenshots — common in Gulf region apps, bilingual documents, and Arabic web content — are fully indexed. Raycast does not offer OCR on clipboard images in any plan.
Also see: vs Maccy · vs Paste · search text in screenshots · Arabic clipboard manager