If you’ve been a developer on macOS for more than a few years, there’s a good chance you’ve used Flycut. It was one of those quiet, dependable tools that just worked. You installed it, it sat in your menu bar, and suddenly you had clipboard history. No frills, no learning curve, no cost.
But here’s the thing: Flycut’s last update was December 2020. That’s over five years ago. And if you’ve upgraded to macOS Ventura or later, you’ve probably already felt the consequences. Crashes, settings that don’t persist, paste operations that silently fail.
This post is for Flycut users who loved what it did and need somewhere to go next.
Quick overview
What made Flycut great
I want to be clear about something: Flycut was a genuinely good app. It was forked from Jumpcut, another well-loved clipboard tool, and it carried that same philosophy of doing one thing simply and doing it well.
It was completely free. Open source under the MIT license, no catch, no upsell. Just a developer sharing a useful tool with the community.
It was dead simple. Install it, press the shortcut, scroll through your history, paste. No onboarding flow, no account creation, no settings you had to wrestle with.
It was lightweight. Flycut used almost no resources. It sat in your menu bar and stayed out of your way. For developers who wanted clipboard history without complexity, it was the go-to recommendation for years.
One reviewer called Flycut “probably the best free clipboard manager you’ll ever find.” And for a long time, that was true.
If you were using macOS Catalina or Big Sur, Flycut was perfectly fine. The problem is that macOS kept moving, and Flycut didn’t.
What’s broken now
Flycut’s GitHub repository has gone silent. No commits, no releases, no responses to issues. And on modern macOS, the cracks are showing.
Flycut crashes on macOS Ventura (13.3+) and later versions. Multiple users report settings not being saved after restart, paste operations failing silently, and multi-monitor issues.
It crashes on Ventura and later. This is the big one. Multiple App Store reviewers confirm that Flycut crashes on macOS 13.3.1 and newer. One reviewer titled their review simply “No longer maintained” and noted they had to find an alternative.
Settings don’t persist. Users report that preferences reset after every restart. You configure it, reboot, and everything is back to defaults. One German-language review described it as “kaputtoptimiert,” settings broken and never fixed.
Paste doesn’t always work. A reviewer reported that pressing Return to paste simply doesn’t work in some contexts, with no documentation explaining why. When your clipboard manager can’t reliably paste, that’s a fundamental problem.
No app exclusion means passwords get captured. This is perhaps the most serious issue. Flycut has no way to exclude specific apps from clipboard recording. One reviewer flagged this explicitly: it captures passwords from 1Password, making it “unusable for anyone using a password manager.” In 2026, most of us use a password manager.
It breaks Universal Clipboard. Several users noticed that having Flycut active interferes with Apple’s Handoff and Universal Clipboard between Mac and iPhone. You end up choosing between clipboard history and the Apple ecosystem feature.
Despite all this, Flycut still holds a 67% five-star rating on the App Store. That’s not because the current version works well. It’s because thousands of people rated it years ago when it did.
What QuietClip adds
QuietClip picks up where Flycut left off, but built on modern foundations. It’s a SwiftUI app targeting macOS 15, using SwiftData for storage and making zero network connections.
What QuietClip does differently
- Actually works on modern macOS , built for macOS 15+ with active development
- Images, files, and rich text , not just plain text (Pro)
- Excluded apps , stop recording when you’re in 1Password, your banking app, or any sensitive application
- Sensitive clipboard filtering , automatically detects and skips sensitive content
- Pinned items , save frequently-used snippets for instant access
- Search , find anything in your history instantly
The excluded apps feature directly solves one of Flycut’s most-reported complaints. You add your password manager to the exclusion list, and QuietClip stops recording while that app is active. No passwords in your clipboard history, no manual cleanup.
QuietClip’s interface is also a generation ahead. Instead of a basic menu bar dropdown, you get a Spotlight-style panel with previews, search, and keyboard navigation. It appears when you press your shortcut, you find what you need, and it pastes.
And like Flycut, QuietClip is entirely local. No cloud, no telemetry, no analytics. Your clipboard history stays on your Mac. Period.
Switching from Flycut
There’s no import tool to bring your Flycut history into QuietClip, since the two apps store data in completely different formats. But honestly, clipboard history is ephemeral by nature. You don’t need last month’s clipboard contents. You need what you copied five minutes ago.
Here’s the switch in three steps:
- Download QuietClip from the Mac App Store or the website
- Complete the onboarding (it takes about 30 seconds and walks you through accessibility permissions)
- Remove Flycut from your login items or uninstall it
QuietClip starts capturing from the moment it launches. Within a day of normal use, you’ll have a full working history. The free tier gives you 25 items and 3 pins, which is enough to evaluate whether it fits your workflow.
If you were using Flycut because it was free, QuietClip’s free tier gives you a comparable experience with the added benefit of actually working on your current operating system. If you want images, files, more history, and unlimited pins, Pro is $8.99. Once. No subscription.
The verdict
This isn’t really a “versus” comparison. You can’t meaningfully compare an actively developed app with one that hasn’t been updated in over five years. Flycut was great for its era. It solved a real problem, it did it for free, and thousands of developers benefited from it.
But software that crashes on the current operating system, can’t exclude password managers, and has no one fixing bugs isn’t a tool you should rely on. It’s a tool you should thank and move on from.
Flycut earned its reputation. But in 2026, it crashes on modern macOS, captures passwords, and has no one maintaining it. QuietClip is the natural next step for Flycut users who want clipboard history that actually works, with the privacy features that modern workflows demand.
Ready to replace Flycut?
Try QuietClip free with 25 items and 3 pins. If you need images, files, and more history, Pro is $8.99 once. No subscription, no cloud, no telemetry.