Relic

Overview

Relic is a searchable clipboard vault for people who want copied material synced across their devices rather than stranded in one clipboard history. It suits users who value flexible retrieval and on-device processing, though phone capture takes more effort than desktop capture. Its free hosted tier is tightly capped; self-hosting is the no-cost route for users willing to bring their own hardware.

Relic also supports snippets and rich text, alongside a command-line tool for reading and searching a vault. Its maker, Ember Technologies, LLC, is based in Kalispell, Montana, and says the apps, sync server, encryption code, and self-host stack are open source.

Key features

Search and organization

Search can match text, meaning, date phrases, and text extracted from screenshots. Local OCR, image captioning, and tagging broaden the ways to find and organize material without sending those AI tasks to the cloud. Users can title, tag, annotate, save, and set reminders for vault items, which makes Relic more useful for keeping reference material than a history list alone.

Capture and access

Desktop apps capture copied items automatically. On phones, users must share content to Relic or use a shortcut or tile, an extra step that makes mobile capture less seamless. A command-line tool supports reading and searching the vault from a terminal, and the help guide describes connecting AI agents such as Claude Code to search, save, and retrieve items.

Privacy and control

Relic encrypts content on-device with XChaCha20-Poly1305 and uses Argon2id to derive the wrapping key; the server stores encrypted content. The maker says it cannot read content, titles, notes, or tags, while it collects service metadata such as account email and item counts. That distinction may appeal to privacy-conscious users, though the metadata collection remains relevant to anyone seeking to minimize account data. Self-hosting keeps the sync server on the user's own hardware and avoids a Relic account, at the cost of managing that setup.

Pricing

The hosted Free plan costs nothing, with no card or clock, and allows 3 synced devices, 250 MB, the last 500 copies, and 100 pinned keepsakes. Older copies return if you upgrade. That is a useful way to try the workflow, but the device and history caps make it a limited long-term option for people with several devices or extensive archives.

Self-host costs nothing, billed $0 forever, on your box. Your hardware sets the limits, there is no Relic account, and community support is available on GitHub. It removes hosted quotas but asks users to supply and maintain their own hardware; email support is listed separately for Relic users.

Pro is $5 a month, billed $5 /mo billed yearly, with $60 today, or $7 month to month. It includes 25 GB, files up to 100 MB, 10 synced devices, no item limits, and priority support. It fits users who need more capacity and devices without moving to self-hosting, but the annual option requires $60 upfront.

Max is $8 a month, billed $8 /mo billed yearly, with $96 today, or $12 month to month. It raises storage to 250 GB, file size to 500 MB, allows unlimited devices, and includes unlimited active share links. It is aimed at larger collections and broad device use; readers who do not need those higher caps can pay less with Pro. Relic has no free trial.

Platforms

Relic supports Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iPhone, and web, as well as API access and self-hosting. Desktop automatic capture and the phone share, shortcut, or tile workflow mean the experience differs by device.

Who it's for

Relic is a strong fit for people who move copied material among several devices and want to retrieve it by more than exact wording. Its local AI features, encrypted hosted sync, and self-host option also suit users who want more control over processing or infrastructure. It is less suitable for anyone who expects effortless automatic phone capture, wants a generous hosted free history, or does not want to manage self-hosted hardware.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Search across meaning, date phrases, and screenshot text helps recover items that ordinary text-only history can miss.
• Pro: On-device tagging, OCR, image captioning, and semantic search avoid cloud AI processing.
• Pro: Self-hosting is free under AGPL-3.0, with capacity determined by the user's hardware and no Relic account required.
• Con: Hosted Free is limited to 3 devices, 250 MB, 500 recent copies, and 100 pinned keepsakes.
• Con: Phone capture requires sharing or a shortcut or tile rather than the automatic capture offered by desktop apps.
• Con: Pro's annual billing charges $60 today, while the month-to-month option costs $7 per month.

Alternatives

For other options, browse Clipboard Manager Software. Pasteable is another freemium clipboard manager with a free plan and free trial; choose it if you want to compare a trial-backed alternative.

ClipboardFusion offers a free personal plan and a $19.00 USD once Pro Standard lifetime license covering all future versions; it may suit personal users who prefer a one-time purchase. Clipman is free and open source under MIT License, with an optional self-hosted server, making it a straightforward alternative for users who prioritize that model.

Octoclip has a free tier with cross-device copy and paste, Nearby Sync, clip history and quick search, Quick Input and alias preview, and a Cloud Sync experience; consider it if those workflows are the priority. Buddi is a free budgeting program, so it is not a clipboard-manager substitute.

OmniClip is free of charge currently, with storage limits that may apply; it is an option for users comparing a free clipboard tool. Qlipper is a free GPLv2+ option with prebuilt binaries through the QtDesktop repository. Ditto is a free GPLv3 clipboard history utility for Windows.

Verdict

Choose Relic if you want a cross-device clipboard archive with unusually flexible search, local AI processing, and a free self-hosting path. The main trade-off is that the hosted free tier is small and mobile capture is manual; look elsewhere if either is a deal-breaker or if you want a simpler clipboard history.