Top 10 Best Mac Cleaner to Boost Your Mac’s Performance: Updated 2024

If you own a modern Mac, you’re likely enjoying its impressive performance and self-maintenance features. However, if you have a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air with a 128GB SSD, you may find it slowing down and displaying “your disk is almost full” messages after just a few months. To restore speed and free up storage, a Mac cleaner can help eliminate junk files and optimize your system.

Why Use Mac Cleaner Software?

Some users argue that Mac’s built-in features are sufficient, but real-world experience tells a different story. Here are a few reasons why a Mac cleaner is beneficial:

  1. Safari Issues: Cookies can linger even after deletion, and HTML5 storage accumulates.
  2. Residual Files: Uninstalling apps by dragging them to the trash often leaves behind traces in various system folders.
  3. Duplicate Files: Cleaning up duplicates can free up valuable space.

Additionally, system apps generate cache and log files, while the Photos app can accumulate large amounts of temporary data, including backups and thumbnails. Mail attachments from old messages can also take up space, leading to performance issues.

Using a Mac cleaner can quickly remove gigabytes of cache and temporary files without the hassle of manual deletion, ultimately saving you time and restoring your Mac’s efficiency.

Is a Mac Cleaner Safe?

To ensure the safety of your Mac cleaner, download it from the official website. Scan the application with antivirus software to detect any potential threats. Look for a cleaner that reviews tasks before processing, supports undo actions, and provides alerts before cleaning. Additionally, check user ratings and reviews to gauge reliability and effectiveness.

You own a modern Mac computer and are enjoying its awesome performance and great self-maintenance features. While you will be annoyed if you are a Mac user with a 128GB SSD MacBook pro or MacBook Air, because you will notice that your Mac computer is running slower and slower, or you’re getting the “your disk is almost full” error message after a few months of use. You want to know how to make it faster, and clean up the overloaded junk files to get more storage space. What you need is a Mac cleaner software to help you clean up all those junk files and make the most use of every gigabyte. Here, we have picked 10 of the best Mac cleaner software for you to clean up your Mac and speed it up in a matter of minutes.

The Best Mac Cleaner Tools: Our Unbiased Top 10 Picks

The best value and easy-to-use Mac Cleaner: CleanMyMac X

Price: $39.95, FREE download available
Official Page: https://macpaw.com/cleanmymac

CleanMyMac X is the best valuable Mac cleaner tool developed by MacPaw can help you scan Mac hard drive, clean all the junk files and logs, uninstall unwanted apps that occupy memory space on your Mac, more than just cleaning, it can protect your Mac far away from viruses, adware, and spyware, optimize and maintain your Mac health & performance, speedup your Mac with ease. It helps you cleaning and maintaining your Mac system, fine-tune your whole Mac in clicks. If you are constantly annoyed with insufficient memory and want to get more storage space by cleaning your Mac, CleanMyMac X could be the best Mac Cleaner choice. And if you also want to clean duplicate files on your Mac, CleanMyMac + Gemini would be your best choice.

CleanMyMac is loved and reviewed by many Mac Industry Experts, you can read the reviews on Macworld, VentureBeat, iMore, MacStories, TechCrunch, etc. Lots of Mac users who have used Mac over 10 years also commented that CleanMyMac is the best cleaning app on the market to all Mac users alike from Professionals to Beginners.

Watch this Video to learn how CleanMyMac X works on cleaning, speeding up, and fine-tuning your whole Mac.

Where It Excels
1. Quick to scan your Mac and find all junk files including: system junk, Photo junk, iTunes junk, browser caches, mail attachments, and more.
2. Remove large and old files from your Mac.
3. Smart clean up tons of junks and free up hard drive spaces in mins.
4. Speed up your Mac with Maintenance module, repair disk permissions.
5. Uninstaller helps removing app leftovers and other caches.
6. Give an estimate of how much space it will free before you approve the cleaning.
7. Detect and remove viruses, adware, and spyware.
7. Works with 12 languages: English, Deutsch, Français, Italiano, Nederlands, Español, Português do Brasil, 繁体中文, 日本語, Polski, Русский, Українська.
8. Phone calls and email customer supports, refund if not satisfied.

Where It Falls Short
1. It opens automatically when you turn on the Mac, as it adds itself to startup items.
2. Some alerts such as warnings of potential issues are a bit annoying.
3. Trial version only allows you to clean up to 500 MB of junk files.

You can read the full review of CleanMyMac X to learn detailed information about CleanMyMac X.

It’s that simple to clean your Mac by using CleanMyMac X
Step 1: Download the trial version of CleanMyMac X and install it on your Mac.
Step 2: You can use Smart Scan to quickly start cleanup, detect potential threats and speed up advice, then it will find all the junk files, including: System junk, photo junk, mail attachments, iTunes junks, Trash bins, etc. And give you the alert about malware and speedup tasks.

CleanMyMac X scanning scr
FYI: Usually only system junk files will be automatically removed; the other files won’t be removed unless you reviewed them. And you also could use Deep Cleaning to check and remove specific types of unneeded files.
Step 3: Click “Run” and it will smartly clean the selected junk files, remove detected malware, and speed up your whole Mac. (Based on your choice or pre-setting).

P.S. If you are using a Windows PC and would like a similar cleaner for it, you can get the CleanMyPC from MacPaw to help you clean your Windows computer.

>>Get CleanMyMac X to clean your Mac now<<

Top 2 Best light weight Mac Cleaner: DaisyDisk

Price: $9.99, Available on Mac App Store
Official Page: https://daisydiskapp.com/index.html

DaisyDisk is a lightweight Mac cleaner that excels in analyzing disk usage, helping you quickly locate and remove forgotten files on your Mac. The latest version enhances its functionality, making it even easier to identify and clean up large, space-hogging files with just a few clicks. While it doesn’t offer features for junk file cleanup or system maintenance, DaisyDisk is an excellent choice for users seeking a straightforward tool for visualizing and managing disk space.

Learn how to clean up storage on Mac with DaisyDisk from this video

Key Features of DaisyDisk

  1. Enhanced Disk Space Analysis: Efficiently identifies large and unwanted files for easy removal.
  2. Fast Scanning Process: Quickly scans your drives, presenting results in a clear and visually appealing format.
  3. Intuitive Cleanup: Drag and drop unneeded files to reclaim disk space effortlessly.
  4. Support for Multiple Drives: Works with all connected disks, including macOS drives, Thunderbolt drives, flash drives, and network storage.
  5. Integrated QuickLook: Preview files directly within the app to assess their contents before deletion.
  6. User-Friendly Interface: Designed for simplicity, making it accessible for users of all experience levels.

Considerations

  1. Single-Functionality: Primarily offers an overview of data and file sizes, requiring manual deletion of items.
  2. Limited File Information: Important attributes like creation or modification dates must be checked in Finder, as they aren’t displayed in the app.
  3. Temporary Scan Results: Scanned data is not saved; a rescan is necessary each time you open the app.

DaisyDisk is perfect for users looking for a clean, efficient way to manage their disk space without unnecessary complexity.

>>Get Daisy Disk now<<

Top 3 CCleaner Pro

Price: $24.95
Official Page: http://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner-mac

CCleaner is a popular cleaning tool known by many Windows users, and Piriform created the Mac cleaner version in 2011, comes with functions of finding and removing junk files & unwanted files, clean your Mac of old clutter, clear up macOS recycle bin, temporary files and folders, broken permissions and more on your Mac hard drive. CCleaner is an outstanding Cleaner for Mac on finding and cleaning temporary files, corrupted cache, permission error logs that may cause issues in Mac.

Editor Note: As the free version of CCleaner for Mac only offers limited features, so we are talking about the Pro version here.

Where It Excels
1. Works quite well on finding web browser cache files, history, cookies, etc and removing them.
2. Can help Mac users to uninstall third-party apps, disable or remove startup items under “Tools” section.
3. Provide the ability to whitelist some cookies and clean the rest.
4. Simple, easy to use interface.

Where It Falls Short
1. You’ll have to select what kind of junk to remove and which apps to scan manually.
2. You can’t deselect files from the scan results before cleaning once it done the scanning.
3. Haven’t been updated for a long time, the cleaning on High Sierra runs a bit slow.

>>Get CCleaner Pro now<<

Top 4 MacBooster 8

Price: $39.95 for 1 Mac, 14-day trial Available ($10 OFF Coupon: IOBITMLIBS )
Official Page: https://www.macbooster.net/

MacBooster 8 is an all-in-one Mac optimization software designed to enhance system performance, free up storage space, and ensure device security. It offers various features, including junk file cleaning, memory optimization, startup item management, and uninstalling unnecessary applications, allowing users to manage their Macs efficiently.

Mac Cleaner-MacBooster 8

Pros

  1. Multi-Functionality: Integrates various tools, such as junk file cleaning, memory optimization, and system monitoring.
  2. User-Friendly Interface: Simple and intuitive, suitable for users of all skill levels.
  3. Quick Scanning: Rapidly identifies and cleans unnecessary files to free up storage.
  4. Privacy Protection: Offers features to clear sensitive information and browsing history.
  5. Performance Boost: Enhances system speed by optimizing settings and removing unneeded applications.

Cons

  1. Feature Limitations: Some advanced features require a paid upgrade, which may impact the overall experience.
  2. Risk of Deletion: Automatic cleaning might delete files that users wish to keep.
  3. Resource Usage: Can consume significant system resources during operation, potentially affecting other applications.
  4. Update Frequency: Some users have noted that software updates may be infrequent, limiting access to new features.

MacBooster 8 is a powerful Mac cleaning tool for users looking to optimize and protect their Macs, but it requires careful use, especially regarding automatic cleaning functions.

Top 5 MacClean 3

Price: Personal license $29.99, Family license $39.99.
Official Page: https://www.imobie.com/macclean/

MacClean 3 is a great Mac cleaning app developed by iMobie, it can works as an all-in-one cleaning suite for Mac including clean malicious cookies, kinds of junk files, and find & delete duplicate files, keep your Mac away from potential security risks via scanning your Mac Downloads folder and apps. It is should be considered as a great value Mac cleaning software as it competitive price – $29.99 for personal license and $39.99 for a family license (which allows you to install the software on up to five Macs and earns you priority support).

imobie Mac Clean

Where It Excels
1. Can detect and delete Internet Junk, User Junk, System Junk, Development Junk, and Application Junk files from Mac hard drive to free up space quickly.
2. Support malicious cookies, virus and malware scanning.
3. Most scanning can complete in seconds.

Where It Falls Short
1. Scan not all-inclusive, it may fail to find some large, old files on your Mac.
2. Additional scanning tools like virus scanning could be improved.
3. Performance has improvement space, crash may occur when scanning and cleaning.

Top 6  Drive Genius 6

Price: $79
Official Page: https://www.prosofteng.com/drive-genius-mac-protection-software/

Made by Prosoft Engineering, Drive Genius also is a great Mac cleaner; it can clean your Mac hard drive and combines many other features such as malware scan, find duplicates, Defragment, DrivePulse. It’s a fine application which not only works as a Mac cleaner to clean and optimize Mac, but also can protect your Mac from potential malware, virus attack, disk errors, crashes, and help you make disk clone and recovery, and more.

Drive Genius clean Mac

Where It Excels
1. A full service mechanic for your Mac, combines a collection of Mac cleaning tool, Malware Scans, defrag tool, physical checks, data repair & recovery, etc.
2. Help you keep up-to-date on potential hard drive issues and get alerts in advance.
3. DrivePulse feature will scan your Mac system automatically & identify malware/ viruses when in idle mode.
4. Find duplicate & large files, delete ones you don’t need in clicks.
5. Check for possible file & folder corruption to prevent data loss.

Where It Falls Short
1. A little complicated to use, requires serial number authenticated to install and proceed every time.
2. Malware scanning is slow, takes time.
3. APFS support is minimal on High Sierra.
4. Poor communication on customer feedback and support.

Editor note: Drive Genius was used and recommended by the tech geeks at Apple Genius Bar about 5 years, but since from 2017, Drive Genius is no longer being used by Apple Genius Bar.

Top 7 Intego Mac Washing Machine X9

Price: $40
Official Page: https://www.intego.com/mac-cleaner

Intego Mac Washing Machine X9 is Mac cleaning software mainly focus on finding and deleting duplicate files and old programs you never use on your Mac. It can help you reclaim storage space on Mac hard drive and let your Mac computer running more smoothly.

best cleaning software for Mac Intego Mac Washing Machine X9

Where It Excels
1. Cleans Mac hard drive by deleting duplicates and unnecessary app and files.
2. Automatically organize desktop files into the right folders.
3. Easy-to-use interface and nice pre-defined scanning options.

Where It Falls Short
1. Since it finds duplicates, but there is no quick-look files preview.
2. The trail version has very limited functions, can’t get any real functionality before purchase.

Top 8 AppZapper

Price: Single Lisense $19.95
Official Page: https://www.appzapper.com/

AppZapper is a Mac app cleaner software that does one thing well: uninstall apps and delete additional files such as preference files and package receipts that app related. More functions along with AppZapper are it can protect Mac system files and user designated applications from being deleted and a log of uninstalled applications. If you just want to gain more storage on your Mac by removing unwanted apps completely, AppZapper could be a good Mac app cleaning tool for you.

mac cleaning app AppZapper

Where It Excels
1. Uninstall apps and get rid of all the related files entirely so you can get more memory back for Mac hard drive in one fell swoop.
2. Easy-to-use by drag-n-drop the unwanted apps into it.

Where It Falls Short
1. Unstable and the search engine can’t find all the files.
2. The trial version only supports uninstall 5 applications.
3. With the offered functions it’s a little expensive.

Top 9 Onyx

Price: Freeware
Official Page: https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html

Onyx is a popular free Mac cleaning and maintenance tool able to run miscellaneous maintenance and cleaning tasks on your Mac. It also can clean caches, find and remove certain problematic folders and files, and then rebuild various databases and indexes for your Mac.

mac cleaner tool onyx

Where It Excels
1. Keeps Mac running smoothly by clearing caches & temporary files purging un-needed system files etc.
2. Runs in the background.
3. Totally free.

Where It Falls Short
1. Easy to mess things up royally with an ill-judged click.
2. It freezes on verifying disk.

Top 10 Nektony MacCleaner Pro

Price: $21.95 for 2 Macs 1-month subscription
Official Page: https://nektony.com/mac-cleaner-pro/

Nektony Mac Cleaner Pro is a powerful application designed to help users efficiently clean and optimize their Macs. It provides a comprehensive suite of tools for removing junk files, duplicates, large files, and other unnecessary data that can clutter your system. With its user-friendly interface and detailed scanning capabilities, it aims to improve system performance and free up valuable storage space.

Nektony MacCleaner Pro App

 

Pros

  1. Thorough Cleanup: Effectively identifies and removes various types of junk files, including cache, logs, and temporary files.
  2. Smart Scan Options: Offers quick and deep scanning options to efficiently locate files that can be removed.
  3. Duplicate File Finder: Helps identify and eliminate duplicate files, freeing up additional space.
  4. Large File Management: Quickly locates large files that may be taking up unnecessary space.

Cons

  1. Occasional False Positives: May flag certain files for deletion that users might want to keep, requiring careful review.
  2. Performance Variability: Scan speed and effectiveness can vary depending on system specifications and the amount of data.
  3. Resource Usage: Like many cleaning apps, it can consume system resources during scans.

>>Get Nektony MacCleaner Pro now<<

Bottom line

Here are the top 10 best Mac cleaning tool to optimize and maintenance your Mac hard drive, you can select the application you prefer to clean and gain back storage space in clicks. I really recommend the CleanMyMac X cleaner, as it offers a number of cleaning utilities to efficiently get rid of all kinds of junk files, large & old files, unnecessary apps and more. With a flat price, you get full access to the app and a cleaning Mac.

If you have suggestions for something different, sound off in the comments!

The following inforgraphic summarises the advantages and disadvantages of each mac cleaner.

Mac cleaner comparison inforgraphic

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This Post Has 42 Comments

  1. I use Nektony Maccleaner pro, and it helped me to delete unwanted and large files quickly, but note that check manually before delete.

  2. thanks for this informative post, I got cleanmymac, it helped me out of the slow mac!

  3. I have CleanMyMac X and Dasiy Disk on my Mac, they are great partners to clean junks and speed up my mac! Thanks for your beat mac cleaners review.

  4. Great post. I was checking continuously this blog and I’m impressed!
    Extremely useful info on choosing the best mac cleaners to stune my Macbook 🙂
    I care for such info much. Thank you and best of luck.

  5. Iwould like to recommend CleanMyMac X, app is working fine, it’s much better than other mac cleaners such as Mackeeper.

  6. iMobie MacClean works quite well for me, thanks for your roundup review and glad that I got it on my Mac.

  7. ON cleaning junks and caches, CleanMyMac X works fine for me, recommend it to my friends. Thnaks!

  8. CCleaner free is a good tool, but I just give CleanMyMac X a try, and found it’s really worth a purchase!

  9. Got CleanMyMac and DaisyDisk for my Mac and they are great Mac cleaners that keep my Mac performing well.

  10. Thanks for sharing such a good thought, post is nice, I’ve search mac cleaner to clean my iMac computer, and I got CleanMyMac X and like it very much, easy to use and quickly help me clean the junk files.

  11. I have got CleanMyMac X and Daisy Disk on my Mac, both are great to do different cleanings. Definitely value bookmarking for revisiting.

  12. CleanMyMac works, a very useful Mac cleaner to speed up, And its customer service is great for new Mac users.

  13. I use CleanMyMac and DaisyDisk, both are great. CMM can do much great work that DaisyDisk don’t do.

  14. CleanMyMac works, thank you so much that help me find the best mac cleaner for my iMac.

  15. I use CleanmyMac and Gemini 2 on my Mac, they are great partners for cleaning Mac cookies and duplicates.

  16. Thanks, finally got the best Mac cleaner to clean Up my Mac, CleanMyMac X recommended!

  17. I am a mac user and I use CleanMyMac X most of the time to clean my mac, this is nice and provides a good solution.

  18. I am truly grateful to the owner of this web site who has shared this wonderful post at here. I am using CleanMyMac X on my iMac now, quite well so far.

  19. Hi! Someone in my Myspace group shared this website with us so I came to look it over.
    I’m definitely enjoying the information. I’m book-marking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Excellent blog and great design.

  20. Very nice post. I simply stumbled upon your blog and wanted to mention that I have really loved surfing around your blog posts. Get CleanMyMac and Gemini 2, both are good mac cleaners for my Mac air.
    In any case I’ll be subscribing on your feed and I hope you write again soon!

  21. A few things i have seen in terms of computer memory is the fact there are specs such as SDRAM, DDR and so on, that must go with the specific features of the motherboard. If the personal computer’s motherboard is rather current while there are no os issues, updating the memory literally requires under 1 hour. It’s one of the easiest laptop or computer upgrade procedures one can visualize. Thanks for discussing your ideas.

  22. Very well written, I have already used CleanMyMac 5 years, and it works quite well for me, helped me saving much time to clean junks by hands.

  23. Thanks for sharing this list of best Mac cleaners, I really like CMM and DaisyDisk, both works quite well on cleaning my Mac. Thank you.

  24. With thanks! I have CleanMyMac, Daisy Disk, and Dr. Cleaner on my iMac and Air, well, CleanMyMac X is a great upgrade, I really like it.

  25. great list of best Mac cleaner in 2018, I really like Daisy Disk, and recently got the new CleanMyMac X, so far works quite well for me.

  26. With million thanks! Valuable and comprehensive information on best mac cleaner to speed up Mac. I really appreciate that it helps me cleaning many junk files and some unused apps with CleanMyMac 3.

  27. I like the helpful info you provide in your articles. Well, I used to use Drive Genius, but really disappointed with the new version, now Im using CMM 3 on my iMac and would recommend it to my friends. I will bookmark your weblog and check again here regularly.

  28. Thanks for this collection of best Mac cleaner, I have used to use Drive Genius for years, but as you said, it is not so great on V5, and I also got CMM 3, so far it works well, and the support is better than Drive Genius.

  29. This is a really comprehensive list. I have CleanMyMac 3 and Gemini 2 bundle on my Mac, and they are really great Mac Cleaner, works for all kinds of cleaning task. glad to recommend it.

  30. With thanks! Valuable information! I am looking for the best Mac Cleaner and your article gives me ideas.

  31. I am using an old macbook, and would like to get an efficient yet best affordable Mac cleaner to help me sort my files and gain more spaces for hard drive, this informative list helps me, thanks.

  32. Thanks for the informative information! I have Onyx and CleanMyMac 3 on my Macbook air, they are best Mac cleaners for me and really helps me on cleaning and monitoring my Mac.

  33. I got what you mean, saved to fav, very decent site. Daisy Disk is the Mac Cleaner I am using, recommend it.

  34. I do agree with all the ideas you’ve presented in your post. They’re really convincing and will definitely work. I did get CleanMyMac 3 and tried it on my Mac, it’s really great on cleaning junks, caches, large and old files, maintain Mac system… Thanks for the post.

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