PopClip
pop-up bar of actions on any text you select
Perpetual
The $12 Standard licence is the same app with a two-year update window — you keep what you have, but a newer version means paying again, so the $26 Lifetime key is the one that matches this site's premise. PopClip left the Mac App Store in 2024 (the last build there was 2023.9), so today the only routes are a direct licence key or a Setapp subscription. Because pricing is set per country, the $26 and $12 figures are what a US checkout returns rather than a universal list price; the developer's own legacy-upgrade page quotes a higher list price, which is worth a glance before you buy. Licences are for personal use only. The free trial is fully functional but starts nagging after 250 actions.
Cost over five years
$26 once = 3 months of Setapp. Over five years that is $540 rented against $26 owned — $514 kept, and you still have the app.
Setapp priced at $108 a year — Mac plan billed yearly, before tax; bundles 300+ apps, PopClip among them. Checked 2026-09-22.
PopClip does one thing. When you select text, a small bar appears above it with the actions that make sense for that text: cut, copy, paste, search, spelling. The reason people keep it for a decade is the extension list — translate the selection, append it to a note, open it as a URL, pipe it through a shell command, hand it to an app you already use. You install four or five, forget the other two hundred exist, and it turns into muscle memory.
Nick Moore has shipped it since 2011, which is the kind of record that makes the word "lifetime" mean something. The $26 Lifetime key gets every future update and works on up to five of your own Macs. The $12 Standard key is the identical app, but updates stop after two years; you keep the version you have and pay again for a newer one. If you are buying at all, buy the Lifetime one — the gap is $14 and it is the entire difference between owning the app and renting it slowly.
Skip it if you already live in Raycast or Alfred and have keyboard-driven versions of these actions, or if almost all your text work happens inside one app that already does what you need. One practical note: it is not on the Mac App Store any more, so a direct licence key or Setapp are the only ways in.
What it looks like
What it does
- Action bar over any text selection, in any app
- Large extension library, including shell and script actions
- Up to five personal Macs per licence, with iCloud sync of settings
- Lifetime-updates tier sold alongside the cheaper two-year one
- Maintained by one developer since 2011
Cancel instead
Also bought outright in automation
The facts
- Price
- $26
- Licence
- Buy once, own forever
- What you get
- One payment. Updates included, indefinitely.
- Details
- Two one-time tiers, sold direct as licence keys: for a US buyer the checkout returns Lifetime at $26 and Standard at $12. Standard includes two years of free updates and you then keep the last version you received; Lifetime is described as "lifetime free updates" and "never expires". Both cover up to five personal Macs with free iCloud sync. The developer prices regionally, so a European session shows euro figures with VAT added, and what you pay may differ from the US numbers. Students can buy a half-price two-year Standard licence, which carries 25% off a later Lifetime upgrade. Teams need a quoted multi-user key. Also included in Setapp.
- Free trial
- Yes
- On Setapp
- Yes
- Minimum macOS
- not stated
- Developer
- Pilotmoon Software
- Price checked
- 2026-09-22 (medium confidence)
Check it yourself - Price band
- $15 to $30