When comparing ClipMate vs HovText, the Slant community recommends ClipMate for most people. In the question“What are the best clipboard managers for Windows?” ClipMate is ranked 5th while HovText is ranked 12th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Screen capture
Pro Stable and reliable
Pro Proper Shortcut Keys
This is, even in 2020, the only clipboard manager that allows you to set "Back" and "Next" clip keys, so you don't have to open the manager to change your selection.
Pro Clipbar toolbar
The Clipbar shows the last clip text and allows shortcut access to other commands for scree capture, etc
Pro Clip backup/archive
Pro Trusted signed executable and open source
HovText has existed for 20 years and has always been open source.
Pro Remove formatting from text copied
Copying text from the internet or from Office applications most often will include styles and formatting when pasting, but HovText can remove all this formatting, so only the raw unformatted cleartext will be pasted - this is a life-saver :-)
Pro Keeps the most used clipboard entries at top
Most recent entries copied/pasted are available from a top-down principle.
Pro Trim whitespaces and empty new-lines on copied text
When marking text with the mouse, it often adds a whitespace at the beginning or the end of the text or there are some empty lines above or below that gets copied too, but HovText has an option to remove whitespaces at beginning and end - very useful.
Pro Intuitive, fast and modern UI for finding previous copied texts or images
When viewing the list of previous copied clipboards, then it is easy to find the relevant text or image you need.
Pro Fully user configurable
All hotkeys can be configured and all layout, style and screen display can be tweaked, so there is a chance you can have it setup as you want.
Pro Portable and no installation needed
Fast, light, no installation process and no registration needed - just "click and use".
Pro Save clipboards on computer
The clipboards can be saved to local computer, so it can be reused after a computer shutdown.
Cons
Con Unicode not supported
Con Clipbar toolbar
The current edition of Win11 does not allow the use of toolbars in the Taskbar area. However, the program still remains one of the top clipboard utilities.