Which cleaning software is best for you: CleanMyMac X orMacKeeper?
- Open MacKeeper, and select Track My Mac from the left sidebar; Click the blue Install Track My Mac button at the bottom; Create your free MacKeeper account —if you already have an account, click Log In at the top-right corner of the window, and log in to your MacKeeper account; Click Install Track My Mac again, and select Agree in the next window.
- MacKeeper gives you powerful Mac security against phishing, malware, adware, and viruses. Plus, you can track your lost or stolen Mac with the Track My Mac mobile app!
- Many users will see references to an application called MacKeeper on various web sites and via pop-ups on their browser. Not only is it expensive for what it purports to do (freeware applications that do the same or more are readily available), it can sometimes install itself without the user realising it, and it can be very tricky to get rid of.
- Keep your Mac safe online. MacKeeper has your back, standing by to detect and squash viruses before they have a chance to ruin your day. Plus, it removes apps designed to bombard your Mac with annoying pop-ups.
The answer, as always it depends. Some will be quite happywith one of the tools, and some will be even happier without any of them. Grand theft auto mac download.
Let’s first compare what each software offers, and then wecan make a decision on which one is worth the money.
MacKeeper didn’t react to the download, or to the Mac opening the text file, but when I scanned the files it identified them as “Virus.” I concluded that MacKeeper doesn’t use on-access.
MacKeeper vs. CleanMyMac X: Feature Comparison
Cleaning
The primary function of both programs and the centralpromise is cleaning the Mac storage from the so-called junk. Both apps havesimilar classification what junk is:
- System Log Files
- System and User Caches
- Language Files
- Login Items
Besides everything above, both apps offer to remove Mail Attachments and empty Trash. Additionally, CleanMyMac keeps an eye on the Downloads folder because it’s often the largest folder containing unused disk images and various other downloadables.
Both programs offer control over which files to delete (if you are willing to go over thousands of items manually).
In my opinion, CleanMyMac is a little easier to use because it does a better breakdown. For instance, CleanMyMac breaks down Login Items in two sections: Optimization and Broken Login Items.
So, the user understands that Broken Login Items should go away in any case; they are not working anymore. Megastat software download 2016 mac. And with the rest, you can control which ones to remove to speed up the startup time.
Furthermore, CleanMyMac displays Launch Agents separately from Login Items, unlike MacKeeper, which lumps everything together.
That being said, I am not sure that the average Mac user knows which files are safe to remove, and which are not. Also, I believe deleting cache and log files provides only a short time gain because those files will be recreated again and very quickly reach the same sizes.
Fortunately, macOS and most apps running on Macs do a good job keeping their files under control and do not let them fill up the disk space more than needed.
What’s the conclusion? While either program does acomparable job of storage cleaning, I am not convinced that most people willreally benefit from cleaning at all. And there is a chance that users can breaksomething by removing things that shouldn’t be.
Duplicates Finder
![Uninstall Uninstall](/uploads/1/2/6/6/126698293/330774503.jpg)
This function only exists in MacKeeper, and it absolutely useless. The thing with the latest version of macOS, duplicate files do not take additional space on the disk.
You can have ten copies of the same file, even renamed, and Mac will only store one file’s contents.
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The function was useful before Apple made the APFS filesystem default in macOS High Sierra in 2017, but after that, it becameobsolete.
Uninstaller
One function that I like in both apps is Uninstaller. Uninstalling apps on Macs is very simple; just send them to Trash. However, the problem is that moving apps to Trash only deletes the application folder.
If the app creates additional files in other directories, and most apps do, those files will be left there forever. Clash of clans dmg download. In most cases, they do not do any harm; they just stay there, taking valuable space.
Both MacKeeper and CleanMyMac offer a proper uninstallprocess for existing apps. They will make sure that all files will be removedproperly.
Both apps also allow us to deal with leftovers – files leftafter removing apps to Trash without using specialized software.
Again, CleanMyMac does the job a little better because theybreak down various apps into separate buckets: Unused, Leftovers, 32-bit. Theyalso show which apps came from the App Store and which were not.
Also, CleanMyMac allows you to set up a trigger so that whenyou remove the app the old way (move to Trash), it will pop up a message andask if you want to delete it properly.
How useful Uninstaller feature? For someone who downloads and plays with various apps or games, this feature is very handy. On the other hand, if you set up your Mac once and only use it to browse the Internet and work with Google docs, then you may not need it much.
By the way, there is a free tool AppCleaner that does an excellent job of uninstalling apps.
Updater or Update Tracker
MacKeeper and CleanMyMac have a feature which tracks apps thatrequire updates. In most cases, those apps are the ones that you don’t usebecause the apps that were used regularly usually offer to upgrade onstart.
MacKeeper is clearly a winner in this category – itidentified nine apps that require updates vs. CleanMyMac’s two.
How useful is this feature? Well, it won’t hurt. I always suggest keeping software up to date to make sure that security patches were applied as soon as the vendors release them.
Performance and Maintenance
One feature that both apps offer in Performance orMaintenance modes is cleaning or freeing up memory. I have to say that macOS isthe most efficient operating system when it comes to memory management, and anyintervention into this can cause instability in your applications. If not doneright, you may use all unsaved work.
Generally, I would not recommend using any tools to free upmemory. Air parrot 1 download for mac. There, however, exceptions when it may be used. For instance, if youhave memory-hungry apps, such as video editors or games, and the only way tofree up memory to unstuck the app is rebooting the Mac, then free up memoryfunction could be a solution.
But again, there is always a risk of instability, which mayrequire rebooting the computer. So use it at your own risk.
Besides memory clean up, CleanMyMac offers a plethora ofmaintenance tasks:
- Running maintenance scripts
- Speeding up the Mail app
- Reindexing Spotlight Search
- Flushing DNS cache
- Repairing disk permissions – never do this, this function is obsolete
How can an average Mac user know which ones to run and when? CleanMyMac provides usage recommendations for each task, and I found them good enough.
For instance, they suggest flushing DNS cache in case of an inability to connect to some web sites or when the Internet randomly gets slow.
MacKeeper does not have anything like that. On the otherhand, in most cases, most maintenance tasks are unnecessary.
Malware Removal
One of the reasons many users download MacKeeper is its Internet Security service.
How good is it? Since I don’t have a lab where I can test various antimalware solutions against 200+ virus samples (and most web sites that review antiviruses don’t have labs either), I have to rely on reputable organizations that specialize on testing antiviruses.
The two biggest names in this area are AV-Test and AV-Comparables. I was able to find only one mention of MacKeeper on AV-Test. Apparently, AV-Test tested MacKeeper in June 2017, and they found that MacKeeper was able to detect 85.9% of malware samples.
For the reference, the industry average is 97.5%. So AV-Test gave MacKeeper a score 0 (zero) out of 6 when it comes to malware detection.
CleanMyMac also offers the Malware Removal feature, but Iwas not able to find any independent study or test at all. https://celestialsouthern130.weebly.com/honda-generator-eu-1000-user-manual.html.
Conclusion: While MacKeeper’s malware detection is below the industry standard, at least it is proven to find some (not all) viruses. O2c player free mac download. Anyway, I would not recommend using either program as a security option.
If you need a suggestion, you can go with Norton 360 (affiliate), US-based antivirus product. It was the of three best antimalware detection programs in my test.
Features Unique To Cleanmymac
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CleanMyMac and MacKeeper are not identical twins, so each ofthem has unique features.
The strength of CleanMyMac X is its cleaning story. TheFiles section contains Space Lens, Large and Old Files, and Shredder.
If you have a smaller disk (128GB or so) on your MacBook,start here.
Space Lens is a visual tool that allows instantly to know which folders taking the most space and zoom in to see their contents.
Large and Old files feature provides a different view with a focus on files. The feature allows us to quickly identify the files that taking up most space and see which unused files can be safely removed.
Both Space Lens and Large and Old Files features areexcellent tools that can help users to reduce the real junk on their diskssignificantly. I like this feature more than System Junk (which may not be safeto use sometimes).
Shredder is a nice tool for those who work with sensitive documents. As you probably know, even deleted documents can be recovered with the use of special tools. To avoid this from happening, you can delete files or folders with Shredder.
CleanMyMac menu is a service that runs on the background. You can access it from the Apple menu bar at the top of the screen. It contains a list of diagnostics tools such CPU, battery, RAM, and network usage and activity. It is also the easiest way to start the CleanMyMac X app or get access to the app Preferences. From here, you can set the Trash limit, after which the app will pop up a message asking if you want to clean Trash.
Features Unique To Mackeeper
MacKeeper’s features that are not available in CleanMyMac:Track My Mac, ID Theft Guard, Private Connect, and StopAd.
Track My Mac, as the name suggests, allows for tracking the Mac in case if it gets lost or stolen. But I am not sure why you would use it, because Apple does a great job tracking its devices for free (link).
StopAd is an ad-blocking extension for Safari and Chrome. I tested the Chrome one, and it works. However, I also have other free extensions that work even better.
Private Connect is a VPN service. I can’t comment on this one because it is not available in a trial version, and I didn’t want to purchase anything (I have a VPN already).
And finally, ID Theft Guard. When it comes to ID theft, I am very careful when choosing a company to perform the service. And frankly, I don’t trust MacKeeper enough to let them track my ID.
And while we are on the subject of trust, let’s see whichapp is safer.
Are Cleanmymac and Mackeeper Safe to Use?
I wrote two articles on this topic and performed extensiveresearch on the subject of safety:
In short, here is what I found.
CleanMyMac is a product of MacPaw, Ukrainian/Californiancompany. The company itself is legit. It was named among the best technologycompanies in Europe in 2019.
I also tested CleanMyMac with four antiviruses, and none ofthem detected it as malware.
On the other hand, MacKeeper’s reputation was tarnished atone point. The original developer of the product, ZeoBIT, agreed to pay $2million settlement in a class-action lawsuit over deceptive claims and falseadvertisement.
The current owner is German firm Kromtech, which was notaccused of any wrongdoing, as far as I know.
I tested MacKeeper with six antiviruses, and three of them, VIPRE Advanced Security, ESET Antivirus and Malwarebytes, identified MacKeeper as PUP – Potentially Unwanted Program and offered to delete MacKeeper from the disk.
Conclusion
In case if you think I am biased toward one program over the other, I have to disclose that I am an affiliate for both. I applied to affiliate programs before I even had a chance to review them, so here are my affiliate links (I would appreciate if you use them if you decide to make a purchase):
And now, the conclusion:
Call me over-cautious, but I would never install anythingthat triggers an alarm in antimalware programs. And since two trusted antivirusprograms flagged MacKeeper, I personally going to stay away from it.
As for CleanMyMac, I like the app. At the same time, I don’tthink it’s good for everyone. Some people will find it helpful, and some willfind it absolutely useless.
If you don’t which camp you belong to, check my full in-depth review of CleanMyMac.
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