17 Best Mac Cleaner and Optimization app in 2026 (Free & Paid)

There are several reasons behind Mac’s slow and sluggish performance, so are the ways to optimize it. In the market you can find dozens of tools that promise to optimize and clean Mac, but identifying the best is difficult.

Hence, here we bring you the list of 17 best Mac cleaners to boost Mac’s performance. These apps will not only help optimize Mac but will also help increase system response time and protect it from malware threats.

Why you should use Mac cleaner tools?

All the apps that we recommend here are safe to download and are fully compatible with the latest version of macOS. These apps will help you optimize and clean the clutter from your Mac machine automatically. Plus, they have a dedicated support team to handle customer queries, so you can use any of them without worrying about performance issues.

Top 5 Comparison Table

Here is a quick look at the five leading Mac cleaner and optimization tools available in 2026. This table highlights their key features to help you compare at a glance.

Each tool has strengths that suit different needs. Some focus on deep cleanup, others on ease of use. Your choice depends on what you value most.

How to Choose the Best Mac Cleaner and Optimization App

Selecting the right app means weighing your needs against what each tool offers. Think about how you use your Mac and what problems you need to solve.

1. Cleanup Depth: Some apps remove basic cache and temp files. Others dig into system logs, app leftovers, and hidden junk. Choose deeper cleanup if your storage is tight.
   
2. System Performance Tools: Optimization goes beyond cleanup. Look for features like memory freeing, startup control, and process management if you want speed improvements.
   
3. User Interface: A clear, uncluttered interface makes it easier to find features and run tasks. If you are new to optimization tools, pick one that feels intuitive.
   
4. Free vs Paid Features: Free versions may handle basic tasks, but advanced cleanup and optimization often need a paid plan. Review what comes with each tier.
   
5. Safety and Reversibility: Good apps warn before deleting important files and offer the ability to undo actions. Avoid tools that remove items too aggressively.
   
6. Extra Utilities: Bonus tools like duplicate file finders, large file scanners, and app uninstallers can add value. Decide if these extras matter to you.
   
7. Update Frequency: Regular updates mean better support for new macOS versions and evolving file types. Check how often the developer updates the app.
   
8. Support and Documentation: Reliable support and clear guides help resolve issues and teach you how to get the most out of the tool.
   
   

Before You Move Forward, did you think about these Questions?

Can a Mac cleaner really speed up my Mac?
Yes. Over time, your Mac accumulates cache, logs, and leftover files that take up space and slow down certain tasks. A good cleaner removes these safely and can free up RAM or adjust startup items. The result is often a noticeable improvement in responsiveness.

Is it safe to use free Mac cleaner apps?
Free apps can be safe, but they often offer limited features and may push upgrades to paid plans. Always download from the official site or a trusted app store. Read what the app will remove before confirming any action to avoid losing files you need.

Will a cleaner app delete my personal files?
A reputable app will not delete your personal documents, photos, or media without asking. Most give a review screen before cleanup. Always double-check the list of items marked for deletion and uncheck anything you want to keep.

17 Best Mac Cleaner & Optimization Software for 2026 (Free & Paid)

1. CleanMyMac X

Want to clean your Mac, but don’t want to do it manually? If yes, here is the answer to all your problems. CleanMyMac X is an optimization and cleaning tool for Mac that not only speeds up your system, but it also helps you to disable heavy memory processes. Use Clean My Mac to disable unwanted login items, clean photo junk, manage iTunes junk, remove malware, clean system junk, and more.  Use CleanMyMac X to speed up your Mac instantly.

Features

• Amazing ability to clean junk files, cache memory, and log files
• Can ensure the computer’s performance
• Advanced registry cleaning options
• Smart Uninstaller
• Faster boot time
• Intelligent privacy security

Pros

• Comprehensive ability to clear hibernation entries
• Safe file removal options
• Multi-lingual support
• Can clear unused toolbars and extensions

Cons

• Only limited options available in the trial version
• The presence of a few unwanted features

Device Compatibility: latest OS Catalina

2. CCleaner for Mac

CCleaner for Mac is a popular Mac optimization utility. It is designed to identify and delete bugs, and junk files from your Mac machine. The best part about CCleaner for Mac is that it checks your entire Mac for the files that are making it run slow. This app has a simple and intuitive interface so that the user can easily view the results and confirm the deletion. CCleaner for Mac is one of the best Mac cleaners you should use to keep your system performance intact.

Features

• Impressive ability to clear unwanted trash and junk files
• Secures your browsing activities
• Complete customization option
• Personalized file removal

Pros

• Real-time monitoring features
• Advanced automatic update
• Can analyze your hardware for issues
• Budget-friendly

Cons

• A little complex to navigate
• The free version offers basic cleaning only

Device Compatibility: Mac OS X 10.5 and up

3. EaseUS CleanGenius for Mac

This is one of the free-to-use advanced tools with excellent capabilities and features to optimize your Mac device. Mac Cleanup Software can reduce your CPU usage, clear disk space, and optimize the system for improved performance. Also, this tool can erase duplicate files and unwanted applications.

Poor disk space issues can also be resolved efficiently with this genuine software. Users can select the best solution for their problem from a list of available cleanup solutions.

Features

• Can clean browser plug-ins, extensions, and cache files
• May optimize internal memory usage
• Controls the startup applications
• Scheduled boot and shut-down time

Pros

• Capable of finding duplicates
• Perceptive application uninstaller
• Manages disk space easily
• Can monitor your system with ease

Cons

• No free version
• Not suitable for older versions of macOS

Device Compatibility: MacOS 10.13, MacOS 10.12, Mac OS X 10.11, 10.10, 10.9, 10.8, 10.7

4. Nektony MacCleaner Pro

Is your Mac feeling sluggish and bogged down by clutter? Do you want to restore its lightning-fast performance and reclaim valuable disk space? Look no further than Nektony MacCleaner Pro – the professional tool designed to give your Mac a new lease of life. MacCleaner Pro offers a comprehensive suite of features that go beyond ordinary cleanup tools. It optimizes your Mac’s RAM, ensuring smooth multitasking and faster application performance. Experience a significant boost in speed and responsiveness that you won’t believe.

Uncover the hidden culprits behind your Mac’s storage woes with MacCleaner Pro’s in-depth disk space analyzer. Visualize and understand where your storage is going, empowering you to make informed decisions about what to keep and what to remove. Say goodbye to unwanted clutter that accumulates over time. MacCleaner Pro efficiently scans and eliminates unnecessary files, freeing up valuable disk space

Features:

• Boost performance with efficient RAM management.
• Streamlines and optimizes browser experience.
• Safely remove traces of online activity.
• Free up space by eliminating unnecessary files.

Pros:

• Effective junk file removal improves Mac’s performance.
• RAM optimization enhances multitasking and application speed.
• Privacy protection ensures sensitive data remains confidential.
• The User-friendly interface is suitable for all experience levels.

Cons:

• Some users might prefer more customization options.
• Initial scan and cleanup could take time on heavily cluttered systems.

Device Compatibility: macOS 10.13-13 and later.

5. Macube Cleaner

Macube Cleaner is a comprehensive Mac cleaner that keeps your system’s health intact. It comes with numerous useful features to free up valuable disk space and optimize Mac for better performance. Its smart scan feature detects device type and network connection for secure and effective cleaning. It not only works as a cleaner software, but it also helps you protect your online activities by cleaning web history in one click. 

Features

• Cleans all types of junk files including duplicate files
• Effective app uninstaller to remove unnecessary software
• Duplicate files and similar image finder
• Delete large & old files

Pros

• Easily manage add-ons and plug-ins
• Fastest scan engines
• One-click operations to save time
• Keeps your privacy intact

Cons

• No 24-hour chat support
• Doesn’t support old Mac versions

Device Compatibility: OS X 10.11.0 or later

6. Cleaner One Pro

Cleaner One Pro is designed to free up valuable space and de-clutter disk storage in just one click. You can use this advanced Mac cleaner software to speed up system performance significantly. This multi-platform solution works well on Windows too. You can subscribe it to avail services for one or multiple PCs.

Features

• Helps you de-clutter & manage all apps & programs.
• The toolbar feature of the app monitors CPU usage, network usage, and memory usage.
• Cleans junk files, big files, similar photos, and duplicate files.
• It also works as a startup manager to help you manage startup apps & services.
• The file shredder feature of the app helps you erase the hidden leftover files

 Pros

• Comprehensive Mac cleaner solution with tons of useful features
• Interactive visual map to analyze your storage usage.
• Sends you quick recommendations to find & clean junk.
• Useful for both budget and power users

Cons

• Certain privacy & security features could be added for better results.
• The free download has limited cleaning access

Device Compatibility: macOS 10.12 and higher

7. IObit MacBooster 8

Iobit Mac Booster 8 is one of the best all-in-one Mac cleaning software. It cleans up to 20 types of junk files and helps get rid of threats. Plus, MacBooster is capable of optimizing Mac’s hard disk drive to boost its performance. Moreover, its five clean-up tools help to remove tons of junk files, and free up Mac hard disk space to speed up Mac performance. This feature is beneficial for users using smaller SSD hard disks.

Features

• Brilliant potential to remove malware and virus
• Can optimize your Mac performance
• Admirable ability to clean memory and ensure privacy
• Round-the-clock protection

Pros

• Can uninstall applications without any residual files
• Premium defragmentation
• Continuous customer support
• Inbuilt professional network assistance

Cons

• No trial version is available
• Unwanted features explanation

Device Compatibility: OS X 10.9 or later (compatible with macOS Catalina)

8. Avira Optimizer for macOS

Users can avail of outstanding performance from their system by using this best free Mac cleaner software. Avira Optimizer for macOS helps you scan large and least used files, Junk files, temporary files, and residues of the uninstalled application. These unnecessary files can be removed by this software securely to elevate the performance of the drive. This genuine tool has a user-friendly interface with one-click scanning options.

Features

• Single-click clean-up
• Removes junk files and browser caches
• Can locate and delete unused and old files
• Scheduled cleanup

Pros

• Advanced malware protection
• Can monitor CPU usage
• Regular notifications on cleaning
• Can ensure your privacy and optimize your system

Cons

• Slower system performance during the scan
• Cannot clean files in batch

Device Compatibility: MacOS 10.12 or later, 64-bit processor

9. Disk Clean Pro

Another popular Mac cleaner is Disk Clean Pro. This tool includes features like disk cleanup, disk management, and others to prevent Mac slowdowns. Without putting your data at risk, Disk Clean Pro cleans your disk drive. Disk Clean Pro offers features like One Click Cleaning, Duplicate Finder, Internet Privacy, and more. Using the tool is a cakewalk, you can install this best Mac cleaning software to know how efficiently it works.

Features

• Exclusive junk cleaner and log cleaner
• World-class trash cleaner to delete unwanted files
• Powerful partial downloads feature to remove residues of incomplete downloads
• Privacy app to remove traces of your activities

Pros

• Can improve the response time of your system
• Elevated system speed
• Deep and complete cleanup
• May be useful in deleting duplicate files

Cons

• Not compatible with previous versions of OS
• No trial versions

Device Compatibility: OS X 10.6 or later, 64-bit processor

10. Drive Genius 5

A great tool when it comes to defragging and optimizing Mac. This advanced free Mac cleaner scans the system automatically to detect malware and clean up all malicious infections. Moreover, it helps in removing duplicate files and identifying hardware-related problems. In addition to this Driver Genius 5 even repairs logical files and folder errors to avoid imminent problems. Its 3 functional modules, Clean-Up, Protect, and Speed Up help users to optimize and clean their Mac.

Features

• Can optimize the Mac RAM
• Proficiency in editing partitions on macOS
• Inbuilt data shredder tool to remove unwanted files
• May be useful in removing a virus

Pros

• Capable of repartition your drive
• Created secondary startup drives
• Can rebuild files with data
• May be useful in creating a duplicate drive

Cons

• More expensive
• A separate startup drive is necessary for checking your startup

Device Compatibility:  macOS 10.12 & later versions

11. DaisyDisk

simple to use this Mac optimization tool not only allows to view large files but also helps in deleting irrelevant data. DaisyDisk displays an overview of the disks attached so that the user can know the amount of space occupied and free on the disk drive.

This tool by means of a daisy wheel shows all file systems so that it’s easy for the user to know how much space is available. Since all shown data is in real-time, the user can know whether there’s enough space to download a media file or not. This best free Mac cleaner normally takes 10-15 seconds to scan your disk and show an overview.

Features

• Exclusive high-quality user interface
• Provides scan results clearly
• In-built preview options to visualize the function
• Intelligent scanning options

Pros

• One-click operations
• Can portrait the available space on the drive smartly
• May locate and delete large files
• Good trial version capacity

Cons

• Poor cleanup notifications
• Cannot protect against malware

Device Compatibility: macOS 10.10 & later versions

12. OnyX

One of the best free Mac cleaner software offers a wide array of features to remove unwanted junk files that accumulate on your hard disk. With this Mac cleaning app, the user can do a lot from checking the disk to configuring the Apple application. You name it, this app has all the features to help you accomplish the task.

This best Mac optimization tool provides great maintenance tools to run system scripts, remove browser cache, and junk files and erase trash.

Features

• Ability to verify the boot disk
• Can optimize your system memory
• Excellent capability to delete cache files
• Can reconstruct databases

Pros

• More advanced options
• Simple interface
• Completely free
• Compatible with the previous version of OS

Cons

• Cannot secure your online activity
• Lack of basic features

Device Compatibility: macOS 10.2 & later versions

13. AppCleaner

Another best Mac cleaning tool AppCleaner, allows to remove widgets, unwanted files and configuration files. One of its best options is SmartDelete, it functions when you drag the application to Trash. Using the three tabs: Widgets, Applications and Others, you can easily get rid of unwanted files.

Features

• Easy to use
• Simple system cleanup
• Can provide complete scan results
• Fast installation options

Pros

• Good ability to clear junk files
• Can clear all files related to the uninstalled application
• Faster response
• Completely free to use

Cons

• No advanced features available
• Less functionality

Device Compatibility: macOS High sierra to Catalina (Version 3.5)

14. iMobie MacClean

This advanced Mac cleaner has all the essential features your Mac requires. It helps de-clutter Mac and increases device’s competence. No longer you will need to clean your Mac manually, this amazing tool promises to do in-depth cleaning and remove unwanted data.

Furthermore, MacClean’s Internet Clean feature shields your Internet activities from snoopy eyes. It removes all cookies, saved passwords, cache and useless website data from all the browsers. You can purchase either a personal or family license as per the requirement.

Features

• New Junk cleanup features
• Can protect your internet activity
• Ability to clear malicious cookies
• Secured operation

Pros

• Can ensure your privacy
• One-click security
• Can remove unnecessary backups
• May be useful in clearing app leftovers

Cons

• Cannot identify all file formats
• Requires separate download for more features

Device Compatibility: macOS Mojave, macOS High Sierra, macOS Sierra, OS X 10.11/10/9/8/7

15. MacCleanse

Next on our list of best Mac cleaner software is MacCleanse. It guarantees cleaning in a fast and effective manner. This app scans your complete Mac for unwanted stuff. The best part of this product is its simple and unique interface.

This advanced Mac optimizer is best for novice users as it offers customization and in-depth scanning. Plus, its uninstaller feature allows uninstalling unwanted applications quickly from your Mac. MacCleanse even has a feature to disable login items that usually slow down Mac or hog CPU usage.

Features

• Safe and secured cleanup
• Customized configurations
• Can provide an elaborate overview of the scan
• May detect all the leftovers

Pros

• Can locate unused and old applications
• Excellent ability to manage and remove an unwanted plug-in
• Good capability to locate duplicate entries
• Automatic system cleanup

Cons

• Lack of malware removal functions
• No inbuilt application updater

Device Compatibility:  Mac OS X 10.13 (High Sierra)

16. OS Cleaner Master

A tool that cleans every inch of your system to optimize it for better performance. OS Cleaner Master can be used to monitor storage, memory and CPU usage. It even checks for crashed apps and firewall status.

A user can use this best free Mac cleaner to explore all of its effective features to clean Mac, delete duplicate files, manage and organize data.

Features

• Can monitor system performance
• Have excellent ability free up more memory
• Ability to remove local copies of emails
• Can identify and clear duplicate files

Pros

• More additional tools
• Can remove unused and crashed applications
• Locate and delete unused and larger files
• Can monitor and maintain your PC

Cons

• Requires additional downloads
• Paid additional downloads

Device Compatibility:  OS X 10.11 or later, 64-bit processor

17. TuneupMyMac

TuneupMyMac’s advanced features and powerful tools help enhance Mac speed with ease and improve your experience exclusively. This is one of the best free Mac cleaner software that helps you deep clean your system storage and recover valuable disk space. It helps you optimize your system hard drive and make your Mac more stable.

Features

• Offers a variety of optimization options
• Advanced shredder feature
• Impressive startup optimization
• Can secure your internal policy

Pros

• Capability to manage large files
• Locate and delete hidden files
• Can clear more hard drive space
• Excellent ability to manage and clear browsing history and cookies

Cons

• No customization options
• Lack of premium support

Device Compatibility: OS X 10.7 or later

Conclusion

Mac cleaner and optimization apps in 2026 are more capable than ever. They do more than delete junk. They help manage storage, free memory, control startup processes, and sometimes improve battery performance. For many users, these tools keep a Mac running smoothly without manual file hunting.

Your choice should match your needs. If you want deep cleanup and powerful options, tools like CleanMyMac X or Nektony MacCleaner Pro deliver. If you prefer free or simple tools, CCleaner for Mac or Macube Cleaner might fit. Assess your needs, try free versions, and pick the tool that makes your Mac easier to maintain and more reliable day to day.

FAQs

Do Mac cleaner apps work on the latest macOS versions?
Most well-maintained Mac cleaner apps are updated regularly to support the latest macOS releases. Tools like CleanMyMac X and Nektony MacCleaner Pro usually adapt quickly to system changes. Still, it is wise to check the app’s update history and compatibility notes before installing, especially after a major macOS upgrade.

How often should I run a Mac cleaner app?
For most users, running a cleaner once every one or two weeks is enough. Frequent deep cleanups are not necessary and can be excessive. Regular light scans help clear cache and temporary files without interfering with normal system behavior.

Do I need both a cleaner and an optimizer app?
In most cases, one well-rounded tool is enough. Many modern Mac cleaners include optimization features like startup control and memory management. Using multiple similar tools can overlap functions and may cause confusion rather than better performance.