When comparing Magnet vs Paste, the Slant community recommends Magnet for most people. In the question“What are the best power user tools for macOS?” Magnet is ranked 51st while Paste is ranked 56th. The most important reason people chose Magnet is:
Easy to learn keyboard shortcuts.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Keyboard centric
Easy to learn keyboard shortcuts.
Pro Intuitive handling
Just drag the window to one of the sides of the screen and it snaps there. This is especially useful for those who can't be bothered remembering the shortcuts.
Pro Cheap
At $0.99, it is not that expensive.
Pro Mouse controllable
Supports dragging a window along the edges of the screen to activate.
Pro Do not have to learn or remember keyboard shortcuts
Pro It's often on sale
For example, at the writing of this pro it's currently at $1.
Pro Up to six external displays supported
Pro Available on Mac, iPhone, and iPad
Allows to copy and paste and keep clipboard history in sync across devices.
Pro iCloud sync
Syncs clipboard history across Mac, iPhone, iPad.
Pro Simple design and usage
Pro Offers free trial
14-days free trial.
Pro Actively maintained
Gets updated with new features constantly.
Pro Allows editing
You can edit clipboard history items in place.
Pro Offers "Copy as plain text"
Pro Allows sequential paste
Pro Offers named folders
Can be used to organize frequently used snippets like signatures etc.
Pro Offers search and filters
Fast and efficient search by content and metadata.
Pro Supports rich text data
Generates previews for any type of content.
Cons
Con Cannot setup custom sizes and window positions
Unfortunately, you can only move windows to preset positions.
Con Can only be purchased from the App Store
Magnet is only available in App Store.
Con Can't hide the menu bar icon
It would've been nice to be able to hide the icon so it doesn't clutter the menu bar.
Con Interference when switching between folders
Default Folder-X app "warns" that Magnet App may interfere with it's ability to switch between folders in Open and Save dialogue boxes.
Con Causes cursor bugs in IntelliJ IDEs
Unfortunately, Magnet causes the caret to bounce around in IntelliJ IDEs, this is very annoying.
Con Subscription based
Con Closed source
Con You shouldn't buy separately from a subscription like SetApp
Free/inexpensive options probably good enough for most users.
