Every Mac user always wants their machine to run at an optimal level, and for it to do that, you need to use cleaning software from time to time.
However, there is some cleaning software that does way more than just clean and is known to offer a wide array of other great solutions.
Two of the best examples are MacKeeper and CleanMyMac. Both provide thorough cleaning services that help enhance the performance of your Mac, as well as give you access to extra tools to help keep your device both safe and secure.
This article will review both products, compare them with one another and find out which software is better.
CleanMyMac vs MacKeeper: Introduction
What is CleanMyMac?
CleanMyMac is cleaning software that declutters Mac operating systems to help them run better.
Believe it or not, temporary files often end up taking up all the space on your Mac, making its configuration and systems sub-optimal. CleanMyMac’s set of tools makes sure that users never have to manually clean their systems again.
Besides cleaning your operating system, CleanMyMac also promises malware detection and protection. It also has a wide range of tools to help speed up your machine.
With that said, this software is all about efficiency and smoothness when it comes to making Macs run better. Below you’ll find the different features that help make it such a great tool.
What is MacKeeper?
This Mac-dedicated cleaning software provides a unique and advanced set of security settings that help keep protection up-to-date. The cleaner has many privacy and security features that are great for fighting viruses and malware.
Using MacKeeper means you have access to an adware cleaner, an antivirus, an in-built VPN, etc. These features will protect your Mac and boost its performance.
MacKeeper is no doubt one of the best security suites for Mac devices. It may be a bit pricier than most of its competitors, but it provides its customers with very flexible pricing options, and each one has a 30-day or 14-day money-back guarantee.
CleanMyMac vs MacKeeper: Sign Up
CleanMyMac
Go to the MacPaw store and then click ‘Get and Open’ on the CleanMyMac tab. And that’s that, you now have the app on your tab. To activate it, go to your window’s low-left corner and click Unlock Full Version.
Purchase the full version by following all the instructions that follow.
MacKeeper
Even if you’re using the free plan of MacKeeper, you can’t use its tools and applications without an account. And even with the free version, you’ll need to activate the whole paid account at some point.
When signing in from the site’s account page;
- Enter a valid email address
- Create a secure password and confirm it
- Verify that you’re not a robot
- Press ‘Create Account’ when done
CleanMyMac vs MacKeeper: User Interface
CleanMyMac
Your Mac’s dashboard is where the app’s drop-down menu is and it gives you easy access to all the app’s interesting features. You’ll get to see how much space you have left, what’s stored on the space that’s occupied, and a list of your hard drives.
The drop-down menu has several other tabs that show your battery level, available RAM, CPU usage, the files you have left on your Dropbox, network speeds, etc. It basically acts like some type of status overview.
MacKeeper
MacKeeper has a very user-friendly interface that’s both aesthetically pleasing and intuitive. It has everything you’d need to optimize the performance and security of your Mac, and it allows you to manage and spot any issues quickly.
All the security options are on the screen’s left side. When you enable a certain security option, it’ll be displayed on the entire screen, so you’ll see what is going on.
MacKeeper generally has a fairly excellent and easy-to-understand user interface. You have fast and easy access to nearly everything, and you don’t have to stress about finding the tool’s important features.
It’s also a well-designed program, meaning even though you might need to spend some time learning the ropes, it’ll be an entertaining experience. Remember, if you start with the free version, at some point, you’ll get a prompt to upgrade so you can enjoy all the app’s security features.
CleanMyMac vs MacKeeper: Cleaning
CleanMyMac
With the rapid advancements in technology currently in the world, people have more options where they can store their files. Most people these days currently use SSD tech to get faster computing experiences.
However, this enhanced computing experience will come at a substantially higher cost than what you’ll get with the more standard disk drives. That being said, it doesn’t make sense to occupy limited drive space with files you will probably never need again.
CleanMyMac solves this problem by getting rid of these temporary saved files.
The app’s System Junk cleaner is responsible for cleaning all the temporary files you’ve installed in your apps and all the ones left behind by your OS. When the cleaner removes these files, not only will you have smoother experiences, but you’ll also have more free space to work with.
System Junk cleanup will ask for permission to access the drive. Once you have given it permission and pressed ‘Scan,’ the temporary files are deleted, and you get the space these files occupied, and their details.
After you scan, when you press ‘Run,’ the cleaner will request you save any work you have open and quit the apps it tells you to. Ignoring this prompt may lead to the crashing of those applications, which might result in you losing all your changes and unsaved data.
Now, as the cleaning software runs, it’ll perform a thorough junk file cleanup, find all the malicious files and remove them, and close all the background applications that slow down the machine and use up too much memory.
When CleanMyMac is done, it will give you your system’s new status, including the amount of free space you now have, how many malicious files it has removed, and the tasks it shut down that minimize performance.
Uninstaller is a great application that both CleanMyMac and MacKeeper provide. Uninstalling apps on Mac devices isn’t as simple as most people usually think.
Why? Because even though all you need to do is send them to your Trash bin, moving them to the Trash tab only removes the app’s folder. Furthermore, if the application creates other additional files, which most applications do, these files will stay in the directories forever.
Okay, in most cases, these files are completely harmless, but sometimes they just idle there occupying a lot of your Mac’s valuable space. CleanMyMac offers effective uninstall processes for all your existing applications and will make sure all the chosen files and apps are completely removed.
MacKeeper
The Safe Cleanup feature scans the whole device’s “junk” files that occupy a lot of your Mac’s valuable space. The junk file cleaner on this app is easy to use, fast, and it won’t take you even a minute before you find all the junk files on your device.
The only downside of Safe Cleanup is that it doesn’t have anything that prompts users to review their saved files before they press ‘Clean.’ Ensure to click all the categories, review the different files, and remove those you don’t want to delete from the list before you hit ‘Clean.’
The ‘Trash’ category is the only place you get a warning before you make a decision. The files on the list will be removed as soon as you press ‘Clean.’
Memory Cleaner shows how you’re using your Mac’s RAM and allows you to free up the machine’s occupied space to help enhance overall performance.
When you click Memory Usage, you’ll see how you’re using your memory, and you can clear the memory by hitting ‘Clean Memory.’ The Apps and Processes tab lists all the apps using a lot of your memory.
CleanMyMac vs MacKeeper: Protection
CleanMyMac
This software from MacPaw is a safe and secure utility that Apple has notarized, claiming it’s free from malware. However, you’re probably wondering whether it can protect your Mac from all the classic MacOS viruses.
This software will allow you not to worry too much about security because of its Protection package. If you click the ‘Protection Tab’ and run ‘Scan,’ the app will check all the new apps you’ve installed for any suspicious activity.
MacKeeper
If the main thing you want to do is protect your Mac from malware and viruses, then MacKeeper may not be the best choice for that. Although it provides a wide array of great features that can help enhance your Mac’s performance and security, it still needs to get many vital antivirus applications.
Moreover, if you get MacKeeper for the sole purpose of protection, then you’ll be paying for overpriced antivirus software. It could still do a lot to the set of security solutions it offers, especially considering how much you’ll have to part with for it.
With that said, it still offers a useful and rich suite of security solutions. In other words, you’ll be able to scan your Mac for malware and viruses whenever you want, data breach tracking over online platforms, and even hide browser histories from your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
It also has Find & Fix, a system scan feature that will scan your device for junk files, security threats, malware, and viruses harming your device.
However, even though you have a custom scan option that allows you to select the files you want to scan, there’s no option for quick scans. Also, the app doesn’t give you the number of files it has scanned, so it’s hard to be certain that the whole system has been checked.
CleanMyMac vs MacKeeper: Performance Optimization
CleanMyMac
Most people don’t know that many apps run as soon as they start up their machine. So regardless of whether one is using them or not, they will start running as soon as the Mac user starts their device.
Some of the applications known for this are Skype, Dropbox, Google Photos, Adobe, and Spotify. However, other apps don’t fully terminate their services and will have some things running in your background.
CleanMyMac will identify all the processes and apps that burden your device and give you the chance to decide whether to keep these processes and applications running or not. In fact, not many apps can help optimize as well as this app does.
Your hard disk’s logical and physical condition can also determine how well your Mac performs. Your hard disk uses pre-built scripts designed to help maximize its performance.
These pre-built scripts can reindex a user’s database on Spotlight, ensuring they enjoy glitch-free online searches, and fix all app permissions to ensure all their applications are running well.
Some of the options you can expect from CleanMyMac are, speeding up email, freeing up RAM, reindexing the Spotlight database, repairing disk permissions, verifying the startup disk, and flushing the DNS cache.
MacKeeper
Sometimes, you may not know about all the processes and the apps running in the background. These apps and processes can help slow down your machine.
Another thing that helps worsen the situation is when you’ve got too many applications. However, uninstalling applications from a Mac isn’t as straightforward as most people think, and moving them to ‘Trash” does not completely uninstall them.
Smart Uninstaller scans the device for unused and unnecessary apps, plugins, widgets, and browser extensions, and then gives you the chance to completely uninstall unwanted files, programs, and apps.
Adware is a danger that can easily latch onto your Mac, cause damage (including malware and viruses), and even crash the machine. Avoiding malicious ad blockers and ads is essential if you want your Mac to perform well, hence why there’s the StopAD feature in MacKeeper.
CleanMyMac vs MacKeeper: Mobile Application
CleanMyMac
CleanMyMac can clean your iPhone and does have a mobile app. You can easily download and install it from the App Store on your iPhone or Mac device just like any other app.
MacKeeper
Currently, you can only get MacKeeper on MacOS. You’ll have to look elsewhere if you want cleaning software that supports all of your Mac devices.
CleanMyMac vs MacKeeper: Customer Support
CleanMyMac
At the bottom of the webpage, there’s a Support option that tries to cover all areas of the application by offering the user an extensive Knowledge Base. The Support tab highlights all the app’s features, subscriptions, optimization hacks, licenses, discount options, etc.
And, of course, it also gives you the chance to directly contact the company to ask them to help you resolve any problems you might be facing using CleanMyMac.
The ‘Contact Us’ option mentions 24/7 Sales and Technical support. You’ll get a response in the live chat tab within around three minutes or so, which is quite good.
MacKeeper
There are numerous customer support solutions that come with MacKeeper, including the MacKeeper community blog, FAQs, email, and 24/7 live chat. It’s always good to have options, don’t you think?
It used to provide its customers with phone support, but that feature was removed during the Coronavirus pandemic and has not come back yet.
The live chat option is on the dashboard on the user interface’s right-hand side. The main site also has a live chat option, and both features work incredibly well.
The live chat team on both the app and site will respond to your queries in a few minutes or so. The responses will all be helpful, friendly, and, most of the time, the team will be able to resolve your issues.
Email support isn’t as efficient as the rest of the solutions, but it also gets the job done. The support team won’t respond to your queries via email as fast as they would on live chat.
CleanMyMac vs MacKeeper: Pricing
CleanMyMac
This paid cleaning software has licenses and subscriptions that are a little pricier than most of its competition.
However, CleanMyMac also has a free version that gives users unlimited scans but offers other features through a limited scope. For example, you can only double your start speed, remove up to about 500MB of junk, and so on.
Other features on the free version are either partially or fully blocked, or you can only use them once.
When it comes to getting the paid options, the cost will depend on how many systems you intend to subscribe to or buy.
For instance, if you’re going to be using CleanMyMac for a year, you’ll have to pay:
- $34.95 (1 device)
- $54.95 (2 devices)
- $79.95 (5 devices)
A one-time purchase will cost you:
- $89.95 (1 device)
- $134.95 (2 devices)
- $199.95 (5 devices)
There’s a 30-day money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied with their services and instant activation upon payment.
The platform has secure payment encryption and you can pay for services via:
- Debit or Credit Card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express)
- PayPal
MacKeeper
MacKeeper comes with four subscription plans. Okay, one option is free but allows you to try out the features only once.
Regular prices start at around $10.95 per month, but these prices vary depending on the location and season. Before you pay for the service, go to the MacKeeper website and check the current pricing plans.
But, the same set of security and cleaning settings will apply to all the other subscriptions. The only difference is the number of devices it’ll protect, the length of the subscription plans, and the price.
- 1-Month (1 device): $14.95
- 12-Month (1 device): $71.40/$5.95 per month
- 12-Month (Family Plan, 3 devices): $89.40/$7.45 per month
Speaking of price, at first glance, this app can seem a bit pricey considering what it provides its users with compared to what other Mac cleaners offer.
With that said, there’s a 14-day money-back guarantee which means if you don’t like what you’re getting from the application, you can quit it and get your money back. However, this is also a bit short compared to what other cleaners give, typically 30 days.
When it comes to paying for the service, you can only do this either by:
- Debit or Credit Card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and JCB)
- PayPal
The other payment methods for selected countries include:
- Alipay (China)
- WeChat (China)
- Carte Bleue (France)
- iDEAL (Netherlands)
MacKeeper vs CleanMyMac: Pros & Cons
CleanMyMac
PROS:
- Has a user-friendly interface
- Incredibly efficient
- Easy installation and download
- Great for private browsing
- Effective tuneup and cleanup tools
- Quick malware scan
- Vulnerability scanner
CONS:
- A bit on the pricey side
- Limited trial version
- You’ll need to pay extra for a duplicate file finder
- No phone support
MacKeeper
PROS:
- Has a wide array of optimization settings
- An in-built VPN
- An incredibly user-friendly interface
CONS:
- Has a spotty reputation because of past practices
- Lacking some critical features, for example, ransomware, web protection, and parental control settings
Similarities and Differences
| CleanMyMac | MacKeeper | |
| System Cleanup | Yes | Yes |
| Cleanup Customization | Yes | Yes |
| Trash Cleanup | Yes | Yes |
| Browser Cleanup | Yes | Yes |
| Photo Cleanup | Yes | No |
| Cache Cleanup | Yes | Yes |
| Mail Cleanup | Yes | Yes |
| iTunes Cleanup | Yes | No |
| Log Cleanup | Yes | Yes |
| Uninstaller | Yes | Yes |
| Shredder | Yes | Yes |
| Startup optimizer | Yes | No |
| Memory optimization | Yes | Yes |
| Privacy Protection | Yes | Yes |
| Reindex Spotlight | Yes | No |
| Mail Optimization | Yes | No |
| Duplicate File Removal | No | Yes |
| 24/7 Customer Support | Yes | Yes |
| Email Support | Yes | Yes |
| Live Chat | No | Yes |
Verdict: CleanMyMac vs MacKeeper – Which is Better for Cleaning your Mac?
Honestly, it’s really hard to pick between these two great Mac OS cleaners. MacKeeper’s dramatic improvements certainly help it stand out more, and its free VPN offering makes it even more appealing.
However, MacKeeper will cost you a very pretty penny, especially when you compare it to CleanMyMac. Although, that doesn’t mean the latter is an inexpensive budget option because it still offers plenty of great features like space visualization and malware removal.
The best advice would be to go and try both options because they all have a free version that allows you to test out some of the main features for yourself.
However, you’re probably here because you’re trying to decide on one, and if that’s the case, then you’ll want to clean your Mac using MacKeeper.
The main reason MacKeeper comes out on top is that it’s much easier to use, unlike CleanMyMac, which is truly not for everyone. With that said, they’re both outstanding cleaning software for Mac devices.
