Clipbud
Clipbud is a private, lightweight clipboard manager for iPhone. It lets you save and organize snippets, links, and bits of text you often copy and share, and grab them again with a single tap. No ads, no subscriptions, no data collection.
Get to know Clipbud
Who’s behind Clipbud?
Hey, I’m Adam – designer, developer, and the maker of Clipbud, Twodos, and a few other tools.
I’ve been designing products for years, but only got into app development after my first kid was born in 2020. I had some time off work and wanted to finally learn how to build my own apps. I started with UIKit, which felt completely unapproachable at the time, so I gave up pretty quickly. Then, when my second kid was born in 2022, I decided to try again, this time with SwiftUI. That clicked.
Before that, I’d been coding on the web side for years – HTML, CSS, some React, Ruby, and JavaScript. So when SwiftUI finally clicked, it felt like home.
I’ve always been the kind of person who learns by doing. I can’t just read tutorials; I need to write code, build something real, and figure it out as I go. Back then, it was before ChatGPT was around, so I’d post on Stack Overflow and wait days for replies. It was slow, but it helped me really remember what I was learning.
My first app, Joey, was a baby tracker I built because the ones on the App Store were either filled with ads or locked behind subscriptions. I wanted something private and simple, so I made it myself. From there, I just kept building small tools that solved problems I had in my own life.
What’s Clipbud and what’s so cool about it?
Clipbud came from a small frustration.
Whenever I wanted to send someone my PC specs, a recipe, or something from a home project, I’d have to dig through Notes, find the right entry, copy the text, and paste it back into Messages. It felt like way too many steps for something that should be instant.
So I built Clipbud – a place to keep all those little reusable snippets, ready to copy at a moment’s notice. It’s built for speed and privacy: everything lives locally on your device and syncs through iCloud if you want, but I never see your data.
It also has a few small touches I just enjoy making, like the parallax pattern in the settings sheet that moves with your device’s gyroscope, and a hidden little game in the welcome screen. I love adding details that make using the app feel delightful, even if no one explicitly asked for them.
People use Clipbud for all sorts of things, from storing favorite recipes and contact templates, to managing PC specs or design references. I always tell people not to use it for passwords (it’s not meant for that), but it’s fun to see how everyone makes it their own.
Tool Stack of Clipbud
What’s under Clipbud’s hood? Which technologies were used and why did you chose them?
Everything I build is fully native.
Clipbud is written in SwiftUI, with Core Data for persistence, iCloud for optional backups, and WidgetKit for widgets. I don’t use analytics, crash reporting, or any external databases – I want users to fully own their data.
I do all my development in Xcode, and manage Git commits through Terminal (the default macOS one, nothing fancy).
When I need a second pair of eyes, I use Claude for “rubber ducking” – basically explaining my code out loud to figure out where I went wrong.
My website runs on GitHub Pages using Jekyll, so it’s simple, fast, and free.
I’m also pretty allergic to Firebase and other external services. If something can live on-device, it does.
Do you use any other tools to run the business?
Design work happens in Figma, though interestingly, most of my apps are designed directly in Xcode these days. With SwiftUI, I can prototype ideas live, tweak visuals, and solve design problems as I’m building.
Figma is mostly for icons, layout sketches, and smaller graphic details. I find it more efficient to solve design problems while coding, rather than designing in anticipation of problems and adjusting later. With SwiftUI previews, I can prototype faster than any design tool.
What’s your personal stack? Which apps do you and your team love?
My personal stack is simple, and, honestly, mostly made up of my own apps.
I use Twodos to stay on top of things I need to do, Boltnotes (another app I built) for jotting down ideas, Clipbud for sharing snippets, and Snapjot for screenshot management, so my camera roll stays clean.
Work happens mostly in Slack, and everything else runs in Safari or Gmail in the browser. I used to be an Arc user, but lately it’s been feeling a bit forgotten. I don’t have social apps installed on my phone; I just open them in the browser when I need to.
I don’t run analytics, so I honestly don’t know how many people use my apps. I just hear from folks in reviews and emails. Last time I checked, Twodos had around 813+ reviews and a solid five-star rating.
I also have a bad habit of spinning up tiny “private” apps for friends – building them, plugging their phones into my Mac, and installing them straight from Xcode. On my own phone, I’ve usually got about seven builds floating around – four full apps and three on TestFlight.
Anything else you’d like to share?
I’ve been quietly working on a new health-related app, something I use every day myself. It’s still early and not quite ready for release, but it’s shaping up to be a big one for me.
On April 1, I joked about turning Twodos into a screen full of sticky notes you could rearrange freely, and people actually loved it. It might just become its own thing one day.
In the meantime, if you try any of my apps and enjoy them, a nice review or a few kind words on the App Store always go a long way.
Now, discover Clipbud for yourself
Huge thanks to Adam for sharing the story behind Clipbud and the thoughtful details that make it such a joy to use. Go give it a spin and see how it fits into your own workflow.