MacClearings vs DaisyDisk

What each app is for

DaisyDisk is a visual disk analyzer. It draws a disk as an interactive sunburst of rings that you can drill into, with Quick Look on any item. Cleanup is manual: you drag what you don't need onto its Collector and remove it yourself. There are no cleanup rules or suggestions, and that is a choice. DaisyDisk's home page argues against cleaner apps, saying macOS already cleans up after itself and that the caches cleaners remove are soon rebuilt. It scans internal, external and network disks, and it can scan Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and Box.

MacClearings is a disk analyzer and a cleaner, arranged around three questions. Why is my disk full? is Breakdown, Map and Find. Make room is Suggestions, Duplicates, Applications and Compress. What changed is History. Its map is a sunburst or a treemap too. What it adds is what each folder is, whether it comes back, and one review list before anything moves.

Where DaisyDisk is the better choice

• Price. $9.99 once, for up to 5 personal Macs. That is less than MacClearings' launch price of $12.50 and well under its full price of $25.
• Older Macs. The direct edition runs on macOS 10.13 and later, and the Mac App Store edition on macOS 12. MacClearings needs macOS 15.
• Cloud drives. DaisyDisk can scan Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and Box. MacClearings doesn't scan cloud storage.
• Space back at once. DaisyDisk deletes files permanently, so the space is free as soon as it finishes. The stand-alone edition can also purge purgeable space and delete local snapshots. MacClearings explains both and leaves them to macOS, which frees them when it needs room.
• Less to learn. If you only want a map and to decide everything yourself, DaisyDisk does that one job.
• A trial with no time limit. You can scan for as long as you like before buying. Removing files and a few other features unlock with a license.
• The Mac App Store. DaisyDisk is sold there too, though that edition is sandboxed and can't reveal hidden space. MacClearings is a direct download only.

Where MacClearings is the better choice

• A way back. MacClearings moves items to the Trash, never past it. History keeps every cleanup, with Undo for the whole cleanup and Put Back for a single item, as long as it is still in the Trash.
• Explanations, not only sizes. A field guide of about 220 folders says what a folder is, which app made it, whether it comes back, and what happens without it. It appears in the Map's inspector, in chart tooltips, in Find and in Suggestions.
• Suggestions you can read. 28 rules, from caches and logs to developer data and iPhone backups, each say in plain words why their items are usually safe to move. App and browser caches start unchecked, because apps rebuild them.
• Space that lasts. DaisyDisk makes the argument that cleaned caches return. MacClearings measures it: each cleaned place is checked again after a day, a week and a month, History shows how much stayed free, and Suggestions are ordered by it.
• More of the job in one app. Duplicates, an uninstaller that finds an app's support files, video and photo compression, and rules for Xcode, simulators, package managers, editors and project build folders (see MacClearings for developers). DaisyDisk's FAQ says it has no duplicate finder, and it documents no uninstaller or developer presets.

System Data: both explain it

This is where the two overlap most. DaisyDisk's hidden space item splits into purgeable space, other APFS volumes and whatever is still hidden, and its guide explains each one. That needs the stand-alone edition; the App Store edition can only detect hidden space.

MacClearings' Breakdown starts from the volumes macOS reports, the same numbers System Settings uses. It explains apps, your files, app data in your Library, and shared and system data in plain words. Purgeable space, local snapshots and swap are described as space macOS frees on its own, and whatever MacClearings can't see is shown as a number with the reasons.

What happens to the files you remove

DaisyDisk. Items wait in the Collector, where you can preview them and drag them back out. When you press Delete, you have 5 seconds to cancel. After that, DaisyDisk's guide says, the files are removed permanently instead of going to the Trash, and its undelete page says DaisyDisk can't restore them. It points to third-party recovery tools and recommends keeping Time Machine running. DaisyDisk presents this as a benefit, because the space is free at once. System folders can't be added to the Collector at all.

MacClearings. Checked items wait in the Cleanup tray, which remembers them between launches. Review & Clean Up lists every staged item with its size, and only Move to Trash in that list moves anything. Right before moving, each item is checked again. If it has gone, changed since it was measured, is open in an app, or is now protected, it is skipped and you are told why. The rest goes to the Trash, and History records where each item went. The safety page covers the full set of rules.

DaisyDisk, CleanMyMac and MacClearings

DaisyDisk is often weighed against CleanMyMac, and they are different kinds of app. DaisyDisk is a $9.99 map that leaves every decision to you. CleanMyMac, from MacPaw, is a Mac care suite sold mostly by subscription, from $39.95 a year for one Mac as of October 2026, with one-click cleanup, malware protection, an uninstaller and a duplicate finder. Neither documents an undo: DaisyDisk deletes permanently, and MacPaw's help pages say CleanMyMac's Duplicates and Large & Old Files skip the Trash. MacClearings sits between them. It explains the disk like an analyzer, offers suggestions, duplicates and an uninstaller like a cleaner, costs $25 once, and sends everything to the Trash with Undo.

Price: what DaisyDisk costs

As of October 2026, DaisyDisk costs $9.99 once, from its own store or the Mac App Store. The direct license covers up to 5 personal Macs, includes minor updates, and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Its FAQ says a future major version may be a paid upgrade.

MacClearings costs $25 once, or $12.50 for the first 25 buyers, with one license key and a 30-day refund window. There is no subscription and no account. Details are on the pricing page.

Moving over from DaisyDisk

There is nothing to export or import. A few things to know first:

• MacClearings needs macOS 15 or later.
• It won't scan cloud drives, purge purgeable space or remove local snapshots. Breakdown explains those and shows how much macOS will free on its own.
• Give it Full Disk Access if you want everything measured. Without it, macOS hides some folders, such as Mail and Safari data, and MacClearings says what it couldn't see.
• Freeing space takes one more step than you are used to: emptying the Trash once you are sure.