The best CleanMyMac alternatives for 2026

Why people look for a CleanMyMac alternative

CleanMyMac is MacPaw's Mac care suite: cleanup, malware scanning, an uninstaller and updater, duplicate and similar-photo finders, a storage map, cloud and Gmail cleanup, and menu bar monitors. People who look for something else usually give one of these reasons.

• The price model. CleanMyMac is subscription-led. On October 22, 2026 the MacPaw Store listed All-in-One at $39.95 a year or $9.95 a month for one Mac, and Essential Trio at $19.95 a year. A one-time All-in-One license costs $119.95 and covers updates only within the current major version.
• An account. Licenses bought from the MacPaw Store are activated by signing in with a MacPaw Account. Copies from the App Store or Setapp don't need a separate sign-in.
• Data collection. The CleanMyMac privacy policy lists usage analytics through Google, error reporting through Sentry, and log data it describes as mandatory, including cleanup activity logs with file paths and sizes.
• Where removed files go. MacPaw's help pages say files removed from Duplicates and from Large & Old Files are deleted permanently and skip the Trash. For other modules the help pages don't say, and no undo is documented.
• One click. You can review System Junk first, but you can also clean everything it found straight from its tile.

When staying with CleanMyMac makes sense

If you use the breadth, keep it. None of the picks below scan for malware, clean cloud drives or a Gmail inbox, or are included in a Setapp membership. CleanMyMac also runs on macOS 11 and later and is on the Mac App Store.

How we chose

We looked for apps that do the jobs people use CleanMyMac for most: seeing what's large, clearing caches and logs, and uninstalling apps. Every pick can be bought without a subscription or is free, and every one had a release in 2025 or 2026. For each we read the vendor's own pages and noted the price and what happens to the files it removes, as of October 22, 2026. For a row-by-row table against our own app, see MacClearings vs CleanMyMac.

MacClearings

We make MacClearings, a one-person app by Chris Williams, so weigh this section with that in mind. It covers the disk side of CleanMyMac: it shows what's filling your Mac, suggests what can go, finds duplicates, uninstalls apps with their support files, and makes smaller copies of large videos and photos. It leaves out malware scanning, cloud cleanup and system monitors. The Applications inspector shows CPU and memory for a running app, and that's all.

What's different is how it explains and how it removes. Breakdown splits the System Data figure from System Settings into named parts and shows whatever it can't account for as a number. A field guide of about 220 folders says what a folder is, which app made it and whether it comes back. Suggestions has 28 rules, and app and browser caches are never checked for you, because apps rebuild them within days.

Every cleanup goes through one review sheet that lists each item, and only then does MacClearings move anything, always to the Trash. Just before each item moves, it checks again that the item hasn't changed and isn't open in a running app. History has Undo for each cleanup and Put Back for single items, and it measures each cleaned place again after 1, 7 and 30 days, so you can see how much space stayed free.

• Price: $25 once, or $12.50 for the first 25 buyers. One license key, no subscription. See pricing.
• Requirements: macOS 15 or later, Apple silicon and Intel. Direct download, signed and notarized. Not on the Mac App Store.
• Privacy: no account and no analytics in the app. It goes online only for its own updates, the Updates tab in Applications, and license activation.
• Removed files: moved to the Trash after you review them, with Undo and Put Back. MacClearings never empties the Trash, so the space comes back when you empty it. The details are on the safety page.

It isn't for you if you're on macOS 14 or earlier, or if you want malware protection in the same app.

Mole for Mac

Mole for Mac is the closest match to CleanMyMac's scope at a one-time price. It has five tools: Clean, Software (uninstalling, login items and app updates), Optimize, Analyze (a disk treemap) and Status (a live system monitor with a menu bar display). Clean includes a System Data group and cleanup for AI coding tools. A free command-line version, licensed under the GPL, sits alongside it.

• Price: $19 once, and the license activates 2 Macs. Scanning is free, and each paid tool works twice before you buy.
• Requirements: macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon and Intel.
• Removed files: it depends on the tool. In the app, uninstalls and Analyze use the Trash, but cache cleanup is permanent by default; a setting routes caches through the Trash instead. In the command-line version, mo clean, mo purge and mo installer delete permanently, and mo clean empties the Trash by default. There's no undo command.
• Privacy: the vendor says the app has no analytics.

Download it from mole.fit; the project warns about lookalike sites.

BuhoCleaner

BuhoCleaner from Dr.Buho is the most CleanMyMac-like pick here: a one-scan Flash Clean, large files, duplicates and similar photos, an uninstaller, startup items, a file shredder and a menu bar monitor. It runs on Macs as old as OS X 10.10.

• Price: on sale on October 22, 2026 at $25.99 for a lifetime license for one Mac (list $67.99), or $17.99 a year (list $39.99). Prices change with promotions, so check before you buy. The free version removes up to 3 GB.
• Removed files: Dr.Buho's guide describes deletion, not the Trash. It calls uninstalling irreversible, says the disk analyzer removes files completely, and doesn't describe an undo. The Trash is one of Flash Clean's categories, so a Flash Clean can include emptying it.
• Privacy: its policy, last updated May 2023, lists device language, OS version and crash reports.

Pick it if you want a familiar one-click cleaner for less and don't need a way back.

DaisyDisk

If the part of CleanMyMac you used most was the storage map, DaisyDisk does that one job well. It draws your disk as an interactive sunburst, and you drag what you want gone into a collector. It has no cleanup rules, duplicate finder or uninstaller, by design. The stand-alone edition also breaks hidden space into purgeable space, other APFS volumes and local snapshots.

• Price: $9.99 once, for up to 5 personal Macs.
• Requirements: macOS 10.13 or later for the direct edition.
• Removed files: deleted permanently, not moved to the Trash, so the space is free at once. You get five seconds to cancel, and DaisyDisk's guide says it can't restore deleted files.

AppCleaner

AppCleaner replaces one CleanMyMac module, the uninstaller, for free. Drop an app onto its window, review the related files it found, and remove them.

• Price: free, with an optional donation.
• Requirements: 3.7 needs macOS 15. FreeMacSoft still offers 3.6.8 for macOS 10.14 to 15.6.
• Removed files: FreeMacSoft's page doesn't say. A 2015 Macworld walkthrough says the app and its files go to the Trash, where you can put them back until you empty it. We haven't confirmed that for 3.7, and no in-app undo is documented.

OnyX

OnyX covers CleanMyMac's maintenance side for free. It cleans caches, logs and browser files, rebuilds system databases such as Spotlight and LaunchServices, runs maintenance scripts, uninstalls apps, and exposes hidden settings for the Finder, Dock and Safari. It has no disk map, and you download the build that matches your macOS (the one for macOS 27 is Apple silicon only).

• Price: free donationware.
• Removed files: OnyX's site doesn't say whether cleaned items go to the Trash, so read each task before you run it.