Comparison
Drobu vs Spotlight Clipboard
macOS 26 added a built-in clipboard to Spotlight. It's free and handy, but it forgets your clips within days, can't edit them, and only runs on macOS 26. Drobu keeps far more, for longer, lets you crop and trim what you copied, and runs on macOS 14 too.
Download Free Trial
Drobu is $14.99 one-time. Spotlight's clipboard is free, but it's built into macOS 26 only and clears your clips within days.
Drobu vs Spotlight, feature by feature
| Feature | Drobu | Spotlight |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $14.99 one-time | Free, built into macOS 26 |
| Retention | Up to a year, configurable | 7 days at most |
| Formatting | Preserved | Stripped from text |
| Long clips | Stored in full | Capped at ~16,000 characters |
| Source app per clip | Shown on every item | Not tracked |
| Screen capture (GIF/video) | Yes | None |
| Inline editing | Edit text; crop and trim media | None |
| Platform | macOS 14+ | macOS 26 only |
Where Drobu wins
- Keeps clips for up to a year
- Records your screen to GIF and video, with crop and trim
- Full-text search across your whole history
- Shows the source app on every clip
- Keeps formatting and long clips in full
- Works on macOS 14 and later
Where Spotlight wins
- Free and built into macOS 26
- Nothing to download or install
- Always a keystroke away inside Spotlight
The honest verdict
Pick Drobu if you want clips that stick around, keep their formatting and media, and work on macOS 14 and later. Spotlight's clipboard is a fine free buffer for the last few days if you're on macOS 26 and don't need more.
Try Drobu free for 14 days.
$14.99 once, then it's yours. No subscription, no account.
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