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Moving to macleanup

You can run macleanup beside the cleaner you have today. It keeps no shared state with any of them, and a preview deletes nothing, so you can compare the two on your own disk before you drop anything.

Pick the cleaner you use. Each guide says which numbered sections cover what you do there, which commands to preview first, and what you will not find in macleanup. The table at the end of each guide is what that maker's own pages state, with the link and the date. A row they did not state says so.

Last checked .

  • Moving from CleanMyMac. A paid all-in-one Mac maintenance app from MacPaw that cleans junk, checks for malware and manages performance.
  • Moving from DaisyDisk. A disk space analyser that draws your disk as a sunburst map so you can find and delete the largest files yourself.
  • Moving from OnyX. A donationware maintenance utility from Titanium Software with one build per macOS version, covering cleaning, system checks and hidden settings.
  • Moving from AppCleaner. A small drag-and-drop uninstaller from FreeMacSoft that finds the files an app spread around your Mac and deletes them with the app.
  • Moving from CCleaner for Mac. The Mac edition of CCleaner from Gen Digital, with a free tier for junk, duplicates and uninstalls and a paid tier for photo analysis and scheduled browser cleaning.
  • Moving from Pearcleaner. A free, source-available Mac app uninstaller with an orphaned file search, a Homebrew manager and a development environment manager.
  • Moving from Sensei. A paid system monitor from Cindori with a cleaning tab, an uninstaller, drive health reports and benchmarks.
  • Moving from MacKeeper. A subscription Mac suite from Clario that bundles cleanup and an uninstaller with antivirus, a VPN, adware blocking and identity monitoring.
  • Moving from GrandPerspective. An open-source utility under the GPL that draws disk usage as a tree map and lets you delete files and folders from the view.
  • Moving from MacCleaner Pro. A paid bundle of six Nektony cleanup tools, including an app uninstaller, a disk space analyser and a cache and log cleaner.
  • Moving from BuhoCleaner. A paid Mac cleaner from Dr. Buho with a one-tap Flash Clean, an app uninstaller with leftover removal, a disk space analyser and startup item controls.
  • Moving from mac-cleanup-py. An open-source Python command-line script under Apache 2.0 that clears caches and deletes logs through a list of named modules.

Where macleanup falls short​

  • It is not notarised by Apple and is not on the Mac App Store. The app asks you to choose Open Anyway once.
  • Its disk report is text. Section 26 prints folder sizes; there is no visual map.
  • There is no undo. Sections 12, 21 and 24 move items to the Trash. Other direct deletions need a backup: read What gets deleted.

The same comparisons, written for choosing rather than moving, are on the macleanup website.