If you have a Mac you will probably feel it is running quite well. At least my experience with my Mac’s is that they don’t get filled up with junk that slows them down as a Windows PC. But MacPaw thinks their CleanMyMac X software will help you keep it running even better. In this CleanMyMac review I’ll tell you more about it.
For this review I ran CleanMyMac on my 24 inch iMac 2021 with 16Gb RAM and 512Gb SSD. My iMac is running the latest update of macOS Sonoma.
You can buy CleanMyMac for €39,95 ($34,95) for one system for one year at the MacPaw store.
MacPaw, who now?
MacPaw is a company from Ukraine that has been producing software for many years. They specialise in software for Apple devices, but also have tools for Windows (Like CleanMyPC, the Windows equivalent of CleanMyMac). The company developed several tools that will improve your Mac experience in smaller or bigger ways. Tools Like CleanMyMac but also smaller but still interesting stuff like Wallpaper Wizard. They are like Skylum, also a Ukranian software company that makes great apps.
Since the head quarters of MacPaw is located in Kiev, Ukraine it is even more impressive that they manage to keep their software and support running like normal. As a user you won’t notice they have to work from a country that is at war. That alone is worth your support In my opinion.
CleanMyMac X
CleanMyMac X is software that helps keep your Mac running like it came out of the box. That may be a little vague, but it does that by bundling several tools. Let have a Quick Look at what CleanMyMac offers, we will dive in deeper later on in the review:
- Cleaning – getting rid of unused files
- Protection against threats – optimising privacy and getting rid of malware
- System optimisation – making your Mac faster
- App management – updating and deleting apps and all their components
- File utilities – find and delete big or old files. Or scrap files safely
The interface
One thing I like about CleanMyMac is the good looking and easy to use interface. The interface is clean and simple and feels every bit as stylish as native Apple apps. It also uses subtle and nice sounding notification sounds that add to the charm of the software. A nice extra is that it is translated in many different languages and it is even available in a smaller language like Dutch. Of course it also supports Ukranian, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and many other languages. The translations are very well done and feel native, so no worries about that.
When you open the app the first thing you’ll see is the CleanMyMac logo and a big and round ‘scan’ button. Hitting that button will start a smart scan that will scan the most important stuff. Couldn’t be easier.
As you will see CleanMyMac doesn’t do a lot you couldn’t do manually. But it is the ease of the way it does it that makes this so great. You don’t have to dive in to any settings, don’t have to look for files to delete and don’t risk throwing something out that will harm your Mac. That just great.
Cleaning with CleanMyMac
Over time your Mac will gather more and more files, logs, system files and other stuff you may not need but that does take up space on your hard drive. And as a Mac user you will know that drive space comes at quite a price on a new Mac. The software looks at drive space in 3 categories: system files, mail and attachments and your waste bin. Using the cleaning function the first time cleaned up about 30Gb of files, so that is impressive. Most of that were cache files, log files and language files of languages you don’t use. The mail function cleaned up attachments that are also kept in your mail server so don’t have to be kept offline on your harddrive. And the waste bin function keeps your waste bin clean. That isn’t something you can’t do manually, but doing it in CleanMyMac while you are at it is just as easy.
Malware and Privacy protection
The malware protection does a full scan of your system and looks for suspicious files. It is not a full virus scanner, you still need that to have the best active protection against threats. But it will keep your system clean if something suspicious did slip past your virusscanner. The database is kept up to date regularly by MacPaw. I can’t really judge how effective this module is, but any extra protection against malware, adware and other junk is good in my opinion.
Privacy protection cleans up your browser files, like cookies and other traces of your internet usage. Also not something you can’t do manually, but if you use more than one browser it is great to clean up all of them in one go. CleanMyMac can even delete old chat history or saved wifi connections. It will give you a choice of what you want to dump and what you will keep.
System Optimisation
The system optimisation will inform you about ways to make your Mac faster. It does that by simple things like checking all the apps and modules that are started when you Mac boots. The interface lets you choose one by one which ones you want to start up and which you want to turn off. A simple yet effective way to speed up your boot. And did you know that for instance Adobe starts up 7 apps and modules when your Mac boots?
The interface will also show you which apps use a lot of resources on your system. Think apps like Safari, but also other apps like Lightroom or Whatsapp that you forgot to close will show up if they use up your memory or keep your processor occupied.
In the maintenance section you can scan for other problems. Like cleaning up RAM memory by closing apps and modules that aren’t used. It will also clean up DNS cache, re-index spotlight for faster search results and several smaller scripts to speed up your system.
App Management by CleanMyMac
CleanMyMac can help you manage your apps. It can help you update all your installed apps at once, to make sure you are on the latest versions of all apps. This is a good idea for security and stability in most cases, but you can also choose which ones you want to update. So you are still in control.
The app delete function is als very good. In some cases apps will come with a delete function, but most MacOS apps don’t have that option. So you will delete the files from your App folder and hope for the best. But many apps will still leave traces in other folders you will miss using this method. CleanMyMac will help you by finding all related stuff and cleaning it all up in one go.
Files Utility
The files utility will help you find big or old files. So if you need addition space that CleanMyMac can’t clear for you, for instance because it used by documents or images, you can do it yourself. It will show you which files are the biggest and oldest you can delete to free up the most space.
It also offers a shredder function to safely delete files completely, leaving no traces on your SSD that could be recovered. A safe way to discard old personal information that you don’t want falling in the wrong hands.
Using CleanMyMac
Using CleanMyMac is easy. Even if you aren’t an advanced user or if you are new to Mac you wil quickly find your way in CleanMyMac. The simple and clean interface is nice to look at, but it will also tell you exactly what each module or option does. And it does so in terms you will understand and that help you to choose if running the scan or cleanup could lead to unwanted effects.
I believe I’m quite a tech savvy Mac user and tend to keep my system clear of unneeded apps and junk. So I wasn’t expecting CleanMyMac to do much for my system. But still after running CleanMyMac my system felt snappier immediately, it seems it was running at 85-90% of its maximum speed and is back to 100% again. That was unexpected. What surprised me even more was the amount of drive space I was able to free with CleanMyMac. I keep a lot of stuff on my external drives, delete apps I don’t need and keep my waste bin empty as much as I can. But I didn’t expect that so much space was used by cache files, logs, language files and other unneeded stuff. This isn’t stuff you can easily clean up yourself, even if you are an experienced user.
So all-in-all I’m quite impressed by CleanMyMac in that regard. It seems to be a good looking, wel programmed and useful tool that every Mac user should consider. Oh, and at € 39,95 (or $34,95) per Mac per year it’s much cheaper than dumping your Mac for the latest model!
Still not sure if CleanMyMac is right for you? On this page you can also download a free trial version to test for yourself.
