The best Clop alternatives for Mac

Clop makes files smaller without you asking. While it runs, it watches the clipboard and optimises images as you copy them, optimises a screen recording the moment it stops, and gives you a drop zone for everything else. Its own page claims up to 90% off images, which it calls visually lossless, and up to 80% off PDFs. It also turns WAV into MP3, converts HEIC, TIFF and MOV to more common formats, writes JPEG XL, WebP, AVIF, AV1, WebM and HEVC, and can squeeze a file under a size you pick, like 8 MB for Discord. It says it uses no cloud services: everything runs on your Mac.

Clop Pro is €15 once, a lifetime license. After a 14-day Pro trial the app keeps working for free, but most features stop at 5 per session and a drop takes 5 files at most. Batch mode, for drops of more than 30 files, and its MCP server for AI agents are Pro only. It needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

We make Koi, so read this with that in mind. Koi is first below because it's ours, and it does less of this job than Clop: nothing in Koi compresses by itself in the background. Every fact about another app comes from that app's own site, checked October 21, 2026. We didn't run tests or benchmarks, so there are no size comparisons here.

• The free version stops at 5 files per session, and you compress more than that.
• You'd rather choose when a file is compressed than have the clipboard changed under you.
• You're on macOS 13 or older, and Clop needs Sonoma.
• You want something free and open source for images, like ImageOptim.
• You want the same drag to do more than compress: crop, redact, convert, trim a video or merge PDFs.

The free way, in Preview, from Apple's Preview guide:

1. Open the picture in Preview.
2. Choose File, then Export.
3. Pick JPEG in the Format menu and drag the Quality slider down. A PDF gets a Quartz filter instead: Reduce File Size.
4. Click Save.

With Koi:

1. Start dragging the picture from Finder, the desktop or any app, then press and hold Shift.
2. Drop it on Compress in the wheel that opens round the pointer.
3. Pick Light, Balanced or Strong, cap the size in pixels, or type a file size to stay under, in KB or MB.
4. Check the size before and after, then click Save compressed copy. The copy lands beside the original.

A video and a PDF work the same way, each with its own wheel. Our guide to compressing a PDF on a Mac walks through both the Preview way and Koi's.

The biggest difference is when compression happens. Clop is automatic: copy an image and the clipboard already holds a smaller one, stop a screen recording and it's optimised. Koi waits for you: nothing changes until you drag a file, hold Shift and drop it on Compress, and you see the size before and after before anything is saved.

• Pictures. Clop can convert to JPEG XL, WebP or AVIF as it compresses. Koi keeps the kind you'd expect: a photo becomes a JPEG, a HEIC stays a HEIC, and a PNG with see-through parts stays a PNG. Both can aim for a size you set.
• Videos. Clop optimises screen recordings on its own and can crop, change speed, mute or make a GIF. Koi's Compress has Light, Balanced and Strong and a size from 2160p to 480p, saved as HEVC, and the same wheel trims, crops, mutes and changes speed.
• PDFs. Clop claims up to 80% off. Koi's Light, Balanced and Strong keep the PDF's pictures at 220, 150 or 96 pixels to an inch and leave its words, links and pages as they were.
• The original. Koi always writes a new copy beside it, like “Beach compressed.jpg”, numbered when the name is taken, and never changes the original.

If you send a lot of screenshots to chat apps, Clop's clipboard watching saves real time and Koi can't match it. If you compress now and then and want to see what you're getting, or you want to crop or convert in the same move, Koi fits better.

Most don't. Clop says it uses no cloud services. ImageOptim, Optimage, HandBrake, Preview and Koi all run on your Mac, and Koi's wheel never uploads anything. Squoosh runs in your browser and says your image never goes to a server, though it counts visits and sizes with Google Analytics.

Two details are worth knowing. ImageOptim also sells a web service with an API, which is a different product from the free Mac app. And compressing isn't the same as cleaning: ImageOptim strips EXIF data, including GPS location, by default. In Koi that's a separate wedge, Metadata, where Remove all clears the camera, the date and where a photo was taken.

From each app's own site. “Not listed” means the site doesn't mention it.

• Free and open source, images only? ImageOptim.
• Many formats in one app, on an older Mac? Optimage.
• One image, tuned by eye, nothing to install? Squoosh.
• Video, free, every setting? HandBrake.
• Pictures, videos and PDFs compressed when you choose, with cropping, redacting, converting and trimming in the same drag? Koi.

If you compress screenshots before sending them, you may also want our Shottr alternatives page, and for moving files between apps, Dropover alternatives. Koi's wheel is on every plan; see the plans.