EcoPaste vs Edge Drop: Features, Platforms and Footprint

EcoPaste and Edge Drop are both free, Apache 2.0-licensed clipboard managers that keep your history on your own PC, but they're built for different habits. EcoPaste is a conventional, full-featured manager: a searchable list with notes, groups, secret skipping and backups, for Windows and macOS. Edge Drop is a Windows-only shelf that slides out from the screen edge, built around clicking cards to paste and dragging images and files into other apps. Pick EcoPaste if you search old copies or use a Mac too; pick Edge Drop if you mostly move screenshots and files between apps with the mouse.

Edge Drop is made by the team behind this site. Everything about EcoPaste below comes from its own README and release page.

At a glance

Where EcoPaste is stronger

Search and organisation. EcoPaste's README lists SQLite FTS5 search over clipboard content and your notes, filters by source app and content type, and favourites, pins, notes and custom groups. Edge Drop's search matches text, links and file names, but for long text it only searches the first 300 characters, and images are hidden while a search is active.

More than one computer or operating system. EcoPaste has macOS builds and Windows builds for both x64 and ARM64. Edge Drop runs only on x64 Windows 10 and 11, so it won't install natively on an ARM64 Windows laptop.

Backups and settings. EcoPaste can export and import its history, including to an encrypted backup file, and lets you tune capture order, size limits, retention, density and sorting. Edge Drop has no export, and its settings are deliberately few: history capacity (100 to 1,000 items, 250 by default), an auto-delete timer, and options for where and how the shelf opens.

Secret detection by content. EcoPaste says it skips copies that look like high-confidence secrets, such as private keys and JWTs, even if the app that copied them didn't flag them. Edge Drop relies on the flags apps set: Windows' standard "exclude from clipboard history" formats and the formats used by known password managers. What Edge Drop does with password manager copies lists them. Neither approach catches a password you copy from a plain text file.

Where Edge Drop is stronger

Getting things out by dragging. Edge Drop is designed around drag-out. Images and files stay on the shelf as cards, and you can drag an image or file out of Edge Drop into Explorer, chat apps, email or design tools. You can merge up to 10 images or files into one stack and drag them together. EcoPaste also supports dragging items out, from its list window.

Opening without a shortcut. The shelf opens when the cursor rests at the screen edge, and closes when you move away. It doesn't take focus, so clicking a card pastes into the app you were just using. If you'd rather use the keyboard, Alt+C toggles it and can be remapped.

A screen-edge layout. The shelf slides out over a maximised app without switching windows, and hides again when you move the cursor away.

Which uses less memory?

Neither project publishes a memory measurement, so there's no fair number to quote. The architecture does point one way:

• EcoPaste is built with Tauri, which uses the operating system's own web renderer rather than shipping a browser engine.
• Edge Drop is built with Electron, which runs a Chromium-based renderer alongside a Node.js main process. Sukarth's Clip vs Edge Drop compares it with another Electron clipboard app.

Expect Edge Drop to use more memory than EcoPaste on the same PC. Edge Drop does take steps to limit it: GPU acceleration is turned off, cards use 240-pixel thumbnails, and long text is kept on disk rather than in the history index. Actual use depends on how many images you keep, so check it with your own history. How to measure a clipboard app's idle RAM and CPU yourself gives a repeatable method, and Electron or Tauri for a clipboard overlay? explains the trade-off between the two frameworks.

If memory is your main concern, lightweight clipboard managers that stay under 50 MB covers smaller options such as Ditto.

Privacy and storage

Both apps keep history on your PC and need no account. EcoPaste's README says clipboard data, resources and settings stay local. Edge Drop has no telemetry. Its only network requests are update checks and downloads on the GitHub build (automatic checks can be turned off) and fetching an image if you drag a web image onto the shelf.

Edge Drop encrypts its history index with Windows DPAPI; captured images and long-text files are stored as ordinary files. EcoPaste's README doesn't describe encryption of its local database, only of backup files. Whichever you choose, stop clipboard managers from saving secrets with the exclusion options each one offers.

Which should you choose?

Run one or the other, not both. Two managers recording at once store every copy twice.

FAQ

Is EcoPaste free and open source?

Yes. EcoPaste is licensed under Apache 2.0 and published on GitHub, with Windows and macOS builds on its releases page.

Does EcoPaste work on Windows?

Yes. Its v1.1.0 release includes Windows installers for x64 and ARM64.

Can Edge Drop paste as plain text?

No. Clicking a text card pastes it with its original formatting where HTML was captured. If you need plain text, paste without formatting using the target app's own option.

Related reading

• Best Open-Source Clipboard Managers in 2026
• Electron vs Tauri for Overlay Apps: Drag-Out, Focus, Memory
• How to Measure a Clipboard App's Idle RAM and CPU Yourself
• Edge Drop vs Ditto: Visual Shelf or Searchable History?

Sources

• EcoPaste (GitHub) — features, platforms, licence and latest release.
• Edge Drop (GitHub) — licence, releases and source.
• Tauri — Tauri apps use the operating system's native web renderer.
• Process model (Electron docs) — Electron's Chromium-based multi-process architecture.

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