Boost Mac performance with one of these top cleaner apps

A heavy hitter in the clean-sweep stakes is CleanMyMac X by MacPaw. It’s
£34.95/$39.95 for a one year subscription for one Mac, but is currently discounted often discounted to around £30/$30. You can also buy the software outright for a slightly higher price if you don’t fancy getting into a subscription.

This popular utility gathers a number of useful tools all in one package, including a file cleaner that will delete junk and unnecessary cache files, optimisation and maintenance tools, an application uninstaller (so that you delete all the files that the app scatters around your Mac) and a malware remover.

It has a simple layout that offers a variety of functions. These include a general system clean that optimises space by removing temporary files that could be lingering, as well as slimming down unnecessary elements of applications and removing any odds and ends left behind after uninstalls.  

There’s also the ability to search through your Photos, Music, and Mail folders to remove and clean up waifs and strays that could be slowing down your system.

CleanMyMac is a comprehensive package, which offers several additional tools for uninstalling apps cleanly, removing various extensions, improving disk performance, and digitally shredding files that you don’t want anyone to revive.      

We have been using CleanMyMac since we had to delete a lot of files in order to install Big Sur, one of our favourite features is that fact that the tool sits in the menu at the top of the screen so we can see a simple overview of our system at all times, which also means its a simple one-click process to free up memory when RAM is getting low.

All of this functionality doesn’t come free though. There is a free trial version available on the Mac App Store and from
MacPaw’s website, but it restricts the app to only remove files up to a maximum of 500MB – and in the middle of deleting files it will demand you pay the license fee for the app. You can download that limited version and scan your Mac to see just now much space you can save before committing to buying the app.

The license can be transferred to a new machine, so long as the previous installation is deactivated first. 

MacPaw is currently running a 30% discount for students – submit your university email address and receive a download code
here.