Summary: Still worry about your insufficient Mac storage? Want to speed up Mac but don't know how? Get the 6 free Mac cleaners to clear disk space, clean junk or duplicate files to free up your Mac.
Many of us know exactly how to clean Windows computer or Android phone, but when it comes to cleaning Mac, few people know about it. Many Apple users think that, there is no need to clean Mac.
However, with more and more junk files occupying your Mac storage, your Mac will slow down and offer a bad performance. You have to rely on some Mac cleaner software to remove all useless data.
CCleaner for Mac! Clean up your Mac and keep your browsing behaviour private with CCleaner, the world's favourite computer cleaning tool. When it comes to Mac cleaners, you would be hard-pressed to find a more popular solution than CleanMyMac X by MacPaw. This feature-packed app boasts a polished user interface and a whole host of useful cleaning features, making it possible to get rid of junk in all corners of your macOS with a single click.
Best Free Mac Cleaners
A free junk cleaner for Mac, AVG Cleaner has only two modules — disk cleanup and duplicates finder. The former will help you get rid of log files, downloaded file history, caches, and uninstall leftovers. The latter saves your storage space by deleting photo, movie, and file duplicates. App Cleaner 7 – The best app to remove applications service files on macOS and uninstalling applications. Delete application’s service files. Make sure they aren’t eating up precious space on your Mac with this helpful app that does the legwork for you. CCleaner for Mac! Clean up your Mac and keep your browsing behaviour private with CCleaner, the world's favourite computer cleaning tool.
With so many Mac cleaner tools offered on the market, which one you should use? Do you know how to choose a great Mac cleaner? We have tested more than 20 Mac cleaners and select the 6 best ones for you to choose from. You can pick your preferred Free Mac cleaner to speed up your Mac easily and quickly.
No.1 Free Mac cleaner: CCleaner - Free junk file cleaner
CCleaner is one free and top Mac cleaner to delete cookies, search history, temporary files and junk files from Mac. The specific functions are below:
1. Find and remove useless/junk files with the click of a button so your Mac can run faster. Speed up boot times with easy management of Startup items.
2. Clear up your recycle bin, temporary files and folders, broken permissions and others. If you want to remove installed programs, just click one button.
3. Erase your browser search history and cookies so you can browse any Internet confidentially and your identity remains anonymous.
No.2 Free Mac cleaner: Disk Inventory X – Free disk cleaner for Mac
Disk Inventory X is one disk cleaning software and disk usage utility for Mac. With this free Mac cleaner, you can know where your disk space has gone and clean it safely. Just see more about Disk Inventory X.
1. Disk Inventory X shows the sizes of files and folders in a special graphical way.
2. With this Mac cleaner, you can see different files marked with different colors, to help you easily find what you want to delete.
No.3 Free Mac cleaner: AVG Cleaner – Free hidden clutter cleaner
AVG Cleaner is one free Mac cleaner to clean hidden clutter and forgotten duplicates. You can see the detailed information below:
1. Clear more hidden garbage, log, download history and trash bin for freeing up more space on your Mac.
2. Search more duplicate files, including images, music, videos and folders.
3. Created for Mac and easy to use.
4. There is an anti-virus software called AVG AntiVirus for Mac, you can use it to protect Macs on your and your families.
No.4 Free Mac cleaner: OmniDiskSweeper - Free hard drive cleaner
OmniDiskSweeper is one free Mac cleaner to find and delete big files that taking up hard drive space and also it can help you recover lost disk space.
1. OmniDiskSweeper helps you sort every file on your Mac by size and you can identify the biggest file to delete it.
2. After deleting, remaining space and folders are recalculated.
No.5 Free Mac cleaner: Dr. Cleaner – Free memory, disk, system cleaner
Dr. Cleaner is one free Mac cleaning app to offer Memory Optimization, Disk Cleaning and System Monitoring to keep your Mac optimized for the best performance.
1. Smart and accurate selection for duplicates scan and remove on Mac with OS X 10.6.6 or later.
2. Scanned big files and junk files will be deleted easily from your Mac.
3. You can easily view real-time network usage and CPU usage in the Menu bar.
No.6 Free Mac cleaner: Disk Drill
Disk Drill is one very popular free Mac cleaner app. Actually, it is a professional data recovery tool for Mac, which carries some disk cleaning functions. It has the capability to analyze Mac storage space, locate unused, large, and duplicate files and so on. In this way, it enables you to free up your Mac storage effortlessly.
1. Monitor the health of your Mac storage and offer timely alerts.
2. Find and remove duplicate files in multiple locations on Mac.
3. Analyze disk space, locate unused files and space hogs, free up storage.
Professional Mac cleaner recommendation:
With the best 6 Mac cleaner apps above, you can handily remove some junk files and optimize your Mac performance. But some of them only offer trial features. Here you are recommended to directly choose the professional Mac cleaner below:
Mac Cleaner- Scan and delete junk files including cache data and logs, email attachments, unwanted iTunes backup and app localization.
- Delete large and old documents and selectively remove worthless files.
- Clean duplicated files or folders on Mac.
- Uninstall apps and clean associated files safely.
- Monitor Mac system in disk utilization, battery status, memory performance and CPU usage.
- Compatible with iMac, Mac Pro, MacBook (Air/Pro) in the latest macOS Monterey.
FAQs of Free Mac Cleaner
How do I clean and optimize my Mac?
Download and install Aiseesoft Mac Cleaner. Click Cleaner and you can clean up your Mac by cleaning system junk, iPhoto junk, email junk, similar photos, iTunes junk, trash bin, large & old files and more.
Why is my Mac so slow?
The reason that why is your Mac so slow may includes there is no enough hard drive or RAM on Mac. Or there is too many startup items or icon clutter on desktop. Perhaps your macOS is outdated and you should update it.
Does Catalina slow down your Mac?
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No. Catalina won’t slow down an old Mac. You can check to make sure if your Mac is compatible with macOS Catalina.
By now, 6 free Mac cleaners have been shared here. You can choose your preferred Mac cleaner according to your need. Please share it in comment if you have any better Mac cleaner recommendation. Check ere if you want to speed up your slow iPhone.
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December 29, 2020 17:50 / Updated by Louisa White to Mac Cleanup
System cleanup in one click
When you work hard, you get dirty. True of humans, true of Macs. Over time, even the most powerful Mac generates lots of clutter — from caches to outdated apps to system files and leftovers. If you do nothing about it, your Mac’s performance will start deteriorating. In this guide, we discuss how to choose the best cleaner for Mac to optimize storage and keep your computer in a good shape.
What is a Mac cleaner and why do you need it?
Mac cleaners help clean Macs, as easy as that. Their primary feature is disk cleanup — removing unnecessary stuff from your drive to free up storage. By unnecessary stuff we mean system log files, user caches, language files, Xcode junk, and more. All of that clutters your disk and, in many cases, makes your Mac slower.
There are advanced Mac cleaners with extra capabilities such as malware tracking, real-time junk monitoring, duplicate finder, Mac cache cleaner, and more. We’ll discuss the full set of those in a moment. Before we get there, there’s one question that might have naturally popped up in your head.
Can’t I clean my Mac manually?
There’s a native feature in macOS that allows you to delete the files you haven’t used for a long time, empty Bin, and optimize storage. To access it, go to the Apple menu > About this Mac > Storage > Manage.
The problem with manual storage optimization is that you have to go through long lists of files and different folders to decide what can be deleted. First, you waste a lot of time. Second, you might accidentally delete something important.
What’s more, this feature doesn’t allow you to get rid of system files — and these are usually the trickiest. If you look at “Other” in the left sidebar in the screenshot below, you’ll see that “Other” files take the biggest chunk of space. You can’t remove them without a good Mac cleaner, unfortunately. Read the full article about mac disk cleaning.
The top 10 best Mac cleaner software in 2021
People who’ve had a Mac in their life for quite some time know how much value a good Mac disk cleaner brings. Modern tools offer automated storage cleaning combined with a malware cleaner for Mac, optimization recommendations, and lots of other stuff that saves your time and helps Macs live longer. Here’s our top 10 list.
1.CleanMyMac X
We’ll start with a market leader, the best disk cleaner for Mac, CleanMyMac X. It’s sleek, clever, and extremely protective of your Mac. CleanMyMac X’s Smart Scan not only detects all the files and system junk you should delete, it also finds malware and analyzes your Mac’s overall performance. If there’s anything hampering your work, CleanMyMac X will suggest a couple of tasks like flushing DNS or running maintenance scripts to speed up your Mac.
The app does a great job revealing all the tricky system files that are typically hard to find. But it’s so much more than that. Maybe your Mac is running slow because of some apps? CleanMyMac X will help you uninstall or update those. Maybe you’ve accidentally downloaded a malicious file? CleanMyMac X will let you know. It’s a modern maintenance and optimization assistant that every Mac power user should own.
Price: $39.95 or $9.99 per month with 200+ other apps in Setapp
Free trial: Available here
2.DaisyDisk
If you want to better understand what is cluttering your storage, try DaisyDisk. This system cleaner for Mac scans your disk (including any connected disks) and puts your storage on an interactive visual map. Different colors represent different types of files. It’s easy to notice what prevails and identify unusually large files.
While DaisyDisk has an awesome approach to showing your storage clutter, it’s not as good with cleaning it up. You’ll have to hand-pick what you want to delete, which is not an easy task for someone who doesn’t know what system files can be deleted.
Price: $9.99
Free trial: Yes
3.Gemini
Looking for a Mac storage cleaner that can free you from gigabytes of almost identical photos? Gemini is the best of its kind. Essentially a duplicate finder, this app not only removes copies, it can also detect files that look similar to each other and offer to delete them.
Gemini takes care of your storage on a long-term basis, with its powerful Duplicate Monitor. Whenever a new duplicate or similar file pops up on your disk, Gemini will ping you. This way, you can prevent files from piling up in the first place. Gemini doesn’t solve the problem with under-the-hood system junk, but it can be very useful as a storage optimization tool.
Price: $19.95 or $9.99 per month with 200+ other apps in Setapp
Free trial: Available here
4.CCleaner
CCleaner is one of the pioneers on the market of computer cleaner software. Developed by Piriform in 2004, it’s a cross-platform tool that was originally released on Windows computers and later expanded to Macs. It’s not as fancy and macOS-friendly as CleanMyMac X or Gemini, but it does what it says.
A paid version of CCleaner can find and remove system files, scan your Mac for duplicates, and even monitor and alert you about junk in real time.
Price: $19.95
Free trial: Yes
5.Cleaner One Pro
Another all-in-one cleaner solution is called Cleaner One Pro. It has a dedicated module for detecting large files — in case you want to quickly achieve the effect of clean storage by removing everything that is too heavy for your Mac. Cleaner One Pro can also scan Mac for malicious files, duplicates, and system junk, as well as suggest optimization tasks.
Unfortunately, you can’t test the app because it offers no free trial. You can download the free version but it’s very limited in functionality and doesn’t give you any well-rounded insights.
Price: $14.99 per year
Free trial: No
6.MacBooster
MacBooster is another Mac hard drive cleaner and optimization tool that looks similar to CleanMyMac X. You can remove system clutter and malware, and run optimization tasks upon the results of one scan. We compared the amount of system junk found by CleanMyMac X and MacBooster on the same Mac, and saw that CleanMyMac X does a way better job.
Still, MacBooster works as a budget tool to remove some of the system junk automatically. Plus, the app can detect malicious cookies.
Price: Starting at $2.49 per month
Free trial: Yes
7.OnyX
You could call OnyX a more advanced version of Apple’s native storage optimization feature. It can run a deep scan on your storage, remove system junk, and even help rebuild some broken indexes and databases. The app doesn’t offer any fancy scanning options, there’s no real-time junk monitoring or automatic cleaning. You’ll have to do it all manually.
OnyX is free and can be very useful for people who know the ropes. In other words, if you can differentiate between types of system files and love optimizing stuff on your Mac, OnyX is a must-have. For non-technical folks who just want a clean Mac that works, the learning curve is too steep.
Price: free
8.MacFly
MacFly goes beyond scanning and cleaning your Mac. It claims it can analyze how you work and provide tailored recommendations on how to optimize your storage. This could be both an advantage and disadvantage. The good thing is you don’t have to run scans often. The bad thing is MacFly might miss something if you change how you do things on Mac.
We’ve tested MacFly and it seems to have all the essentials — disk cleanup, shredder, uninstaller, and duplicates detection. The first smart scan was painfully slow, but you could probably bear with it since MacFly asks you to run a thorough scan only once.
Price: $115.70
Free trial: No
What Is The Best Free Mac Cleaner App
9.Parallels Toolbox
Parallels Toolbox is an all-in-one toolkit with many optimization options for your Mac. From custom alarms to hiding desktop icons to disabling notifications, Parallels Toolbox was created to make your daily flow a bit more productive. The arsenal includes a disk cleaner and a duplicate finder, both available in the menu bar.
Seasoned Mac users might argue that many of the Parallels’ tools are available in macOS. And they are right. The app just adds a few extra things on top and brings the essentials into one spot. Still, its disk cleaning feature works. So if you need something basic for system junk cleanup, you might want to consider it.
Price: $19.99 per year
Free trial: Yes
10.AVG Cleaner
A free junk cleaner for Mac, AVG Cleaner has only two modules — disk cleanup and duplicates finder. The former will help you get rid of log files, downloaded file history, caches, and uninstall leftovers. The latter saves your storage space by deleting photo, movie, and file duplicates. You can either choose the files you want to delete manually or follow the app’s recommendations.
Free Mac Cleaner Software Download
AVG Cleaner will make your Mac a few gigabytes lighter, but we can’t call it a full-featured optimization tool. Without a malware scanner and performance monitor, the app will not help you figure out what’s wrong with your Mac, why it’s getting slow or acting strangely.
Price: free
Bonus app: iStat Menus
We usually start looking for the best disk cleaner for Mac only after things get dirty. Low storage notifications, loud fan noise, Mac freezing, or getting slow — these are all very good reasons to run a thorough cleanup on your disk. But why not prevent the trouble in the first place?
iStat Menus constantly monitors your system performance in the background. From CPU to memory load to disk space usage. If there’s any kind of unexpected behavior, the app will help you get to the root of the problem immediately.
Price: $11.99 or $9.99 per month with 200+ other apps in Setapp
Free trial: Available here
Conclusion
The best cleaner for Mac for all people, from beginners to experts, is CleanMyMac X. OnyX works great for geeky folks who love optimizing stuff manually. And if you’re looking for a very basic disk cleanup feature along with other Mac utilities, Parallels Toolbox might be your thing.
The best deal is to use CleanMyMac X and iStat Menus through Setapp — a perfect combo that guarantees complete security and cleanness of your Mac. Plus, Setapp has Gemini.
Setapp is a productivity suite with the best Mac and iOS apps for your flow. As of now, it has around 220 apps on board, all available for $9.99 per month. Give it a try with a 7-day free trial.