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CCleaner: TL;DR
CCleaner: TL;DR
Being an industry veteran, CCleaner has a robust collection of utilities and a user interface that is relatively simple to understand. You can configure it with a variety of settings to remove only the files you want.
It's a great tool for clearing out lots of junk files for more inexperienced users.
The additional features provided by MacKeeper may still be preferred by more seasoned users.
Pros
The user interface is clear and straightforward.
Large amounts of junk are quickly and easily removed.
Free
Cons
Ugly UI
Some annoying UX issues
Go clean your dirty computer, ya filthy animal. Check out CCleaner by clicking here.
Table of Contents:
Table of Contents:
Mac Cleaner Review 2023: Features, Price and Alternatives
Developers Piriform initially designed CCleaner for Windows-based computers rather than Macs in order to fix registry problems and fragmented hard drives, which are much more of a problem for Windows users. It wasn't until OS X 10.7 Lion that the program was made available on Mac.
Since that time, it has established a niche in the cleaner market for Windows, Mac, and even Android devices. As cleaners go, it's fairly user-friendly and makes clearing cache files, internet history, and arbitrary large files from your Mac simple. You can choose from options that are both free to use and that are paid for.
Since I've used Macs since I was in school, I've used a variety of cleaners, including Avast, OnyX, CleanMyMac X, and Daisy Disk. I am aware that everyone has advantages and disadvantages and that some people are better than others at different things.
What features are most important to you will determine which one you select.
Features
Features
Like other cleaners, once the program is installed, you must grant it full disk access in order for it to run a thorough scan. It simply directs you to the security and privacy option in your Mac's Settings, unlike cleaners like Avast and OnyX which provide instructions on how to do this.
To make changes, you need to go to full disk access and scroll down to where it says "lock." Then select the checkbox next to CCleaner in the right-hand menu. To make the changes effective, you must restart CCleaner.
Cleaner
Cleaner
The interface is nice and easy to understand when you open the program, with four tabs down the side: Cleaner, Tools, Options, and Upgrade.
From the list on the cleaner tab, you can choose to delete any type of file. This includes internet caches, history, and cookies, items in your trash, user downloads, and the font registry cache.
Make sure you don't check the boxes if you want to keep the lists of recently used documents, applications, servers, and locations. This will make them easy to find. You can also choose to get rid of these lists.
When you click "Analyze," the program starts to look through the files. Most of the time, the process takes no more than 15 or 20 seconds. The program will then show you a screen with all the files it has found and decided to delete, along with information about where they came from and how much space they took up.
Strangely, if the cleaner has chosen files you don't want to delete, you can't take them off the list.
You could also uncheck the section where they are and then click Analyze again. This means that if you miss files you want to keep on the first pass, you will need to run the analyzer two or three more times before you can press Run Cleaner and delete the files.
How long it takes to clean up a Mac will depend on how fast it is and how many files need to be deleted. The 2016 MacBook took 49 seconds to finish the tests, which was the longest amount of time. There was more space after deleting 15,876 files, which was 2.49 GB.
Tools
Tools
The tools tab contains a number of functions. The first is uninstall, which you can use to remove any unwanted programs from your Mac.
On the startup tab, you can choose which programs will run when your Mac starts up.
If you work in an industry where security is very important, the erase free space tab will write over the empty space on your hard drive. This means that file recovery programs can't bring back files that have been deleted.
The large files finder will find and delete files that are too big and taking up too much space on your Mac. It can look for files as small as 1 MB and as big as 1 GB or more. But be aware that this process can take a long time to complete. It took 52 minutes to search the test Macbook for files bigger than 1 GB.
The last option is a duplicate file finder which does exactly what it says. It will find and delete any duplicate files for you.
Options
Options
The options tab allows you to customize what the cleaner will and won't delete. Users can choose between standard and secure deletion, set which cookies to remove using the cleaner as well as specifically include or exclude folders.
The remaining options are geared towards users that have upgraded to the professional version. For example, users can set the cleaner to remove specific languages, be notified once the volume of junk files exceeds a specified size, and select which users the cleaner should scan in analyze mode.
Generally, while this option does allow great customization, it shouldn't be used all that often. Most likely, it will be used in the initial configuration after the program installation and not used otherwise.
Pricing
Pricing
The price of upgrading to Pro is currently $29.95 , which allows you to scan all users at once, have real-time monitoring, automatic updates, and a premium technical support service.
As the average user won't need much support or have so many files are users they need extra monitoring, most will be fine sticking with the free version.
Summary
Summary
CCleaner has been around for many years and is a reasonably intuitive program to use. It has a good level of customization without crossing the line and becoming difficult to use.
If you're looking to clean up your Mac, remove old and obsolete files, and securely delete data, then CCleaner definitely gets the job done without requiring an upgrade to the paid version. The analyze and delete programs run quickly, and the program seems stable with no crashes in testing.
I admit, sometimes it’s nice to have the reassurance of progress bars and a full description of how much disk space has been recovered. I found CCleaner easy to use and it completed many of the cleaning and customization tasks I needed well.
However, my experience is that while I initially get sucked in by the visuals I find it irritating having to do some of my cleanup and maintenance tasks in an app like CCleaner then having to switch into OnyX or the macOS itself to complete the rest. Or to get an app like MacKeeper, which alongside classic cleaning tools, has the functionality to remove duplicates and similar photos.
Verdict
Verdict
Overall, CCleaner has a good level of customization and is a program that is fairly intuitive to use. It's excellent for clearing up your Mac, deleting unnecessary files, and safely erasing data. The analyze and delete programs work quickly, and testing indicates that the program is stable as there have been no crashes.
Even though the visuals are appealing, using various apps to finish all of your upkeep and cleaning tasks can be annoying. In addition to standard cleaning tools, OnyX and MacKeeper have advanced functionality that CCleaner lacks, such as tools to remove duplicates and similar photos.
CCleaner is unquestionably worthwhile to try if you're looking for an easy and efficient way to clean up your Mac in light of the above. Beginners will love its comprehensive set of utilities and simple interface, but more seasoned users might prefer an app with more sophisticated features.
CCleaner Alternatives
CCleaner Alternatives
MacKeeper
AvastCleanup
AVG Cleaner
MacCleaner Pro
Daisy Disk
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