At a glance
| Job | CleanMyMac | Best alternative | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Memory clearing | ~$40/yr | Shiny / Memory Cleaner | $4.99 once / Free |
| App uninstalling | ~$40/yr | AppCleaner / Pearcleaner | Free |
| Disk visualisation | ~$40/yr | DaisyDisk | $9.99 once |
| Maintenance scripts | ~$40/yr | OnyX | Free |
| Malware scanning | ~$40/yr | Malwarebytes | Free |
Two jobs above also have a free, built-in option: macOS Storage Settings (disk overview) and macOS XProtect (malware scanning, always running).
Why look for alternatives?
CleanMyMac costs around $40 per year. Over five years that's $200. For many people that's a fair price for the convenience of one app. For others, it's a lot to pay when free or cheap tools cover the actual jobs they use.
The more important reason to look: CleanMyMac is a suite. It does memory cleaning, app uninstalling, disk visualisation, maintenance scripts, and malware scanning all in one place. If you only use it for one or two of those, you're paying for features you never open.
Focused tools, built for a single job, are often cheaper, lighter, and better at that one thing.
What CleanMyMac actually does
Before replacing something, it helps to know what you'd be replacing. Here are the main jobs CleanMyMac handles:
- Memory cleaning: frees up RAM when your Mac feels slow. (RAM is the temporary workspace your Mac uses for everything that's running.)
- App uninstalling: removes leftover files when you delete an app, since dragging to the trash misses preference files and support folders.
- Disk space visualisation: shows you what's eating up storage on your hard drive.
- Maintenance scripts: runs built-in macOS upkeep tasks that Apple schedules automatically but that occasionally need a manual nudge.
- Malware scanning: checks your Mac for known threats.
Those are five separate jobs. Each has a focused alternative. You probably only need two or three of them.
The five jobs and the focused tools for each
Memory clearing: Shiny or Memory Cleaner
$4.99 once / FreeThe job: Memory pressure is the usual reason a Mac starts feeling sluggish. A memory cleaner frees RAM by closing background processes apps left running, and asking macOS to release memory it's holding "just in case."
Shiny ($4.99 once): Lives in your menu bar. One click frees memory and shows you what it freed. Up to three Macs, no subscription, no telemetry. See how Shiny compares to CleanMyMac's memory feature.
Memory Cleaner by Nektony (free with paid extras): The free tier covers a menu-bar monitor and a one-click clean button. The paid upgrade adds auto-cleaning by threshold. Some telemetry by default.
Pick Shiny for the simplest, cheapest paid option. Pick Memory Cleaner to start free or if you need auto-trigger by threshold.
App uninstalling: AppCleaner or Pearcleaner
FreeThe job: Dragging an app to the trash only removes the main app file. Preference files, caches, and support folders stay behind. An uninstaller finds and removes them.
AppCleaner (free): The classic choice, trusted by the Mac community for years. Drag an app onto it and it finds every associated file for you to review before deleting.
Pearcleaner (free, open source): A newer, actively maintained alternative. Open source, so the code that deletes your files is publicly inspectable.
Either replaces CleanMyMac's uninstaller. AppCleaner is the classic; Pearcleaner is the modern open-source option.
Disk space visualisation: DaisyDisk or Storage Settings
$9.99 once / FreeThe job: Knowing your drive is full is easy. Knowing what is filling it is harder. A disk visualiser maps your storage so you can see what's taking up space.
DaisyDisk ($9.99 once): The best disk visualiser on Mac. A sunburst chart makes it immediately obvious where your storage went, and it scans large drives fast.
Storage Settings (free, built in): System Settings › General › Storage. Basic and slow to scan, but free and already on your Mac.
DaisyDisk is worth $9.99 if you manage disk space regularly. Storage Settings is fine for occasional checks.
Maintenance scripts: OnyX
Free (donationware)The job: macOS runs maintenance scripts automatically. Occasionally they don't fire. Running them manually can clear stale caches and fix minor slowdowns.
OnyX (free): Made by Titanium Software, around since 2003. The standard free tool for maintenance scripts and cache clearing, trusted for over two decades.
Honest caveat: The interface is dated and can look intimidating. Stick to the Maintenance tab if the rest feels overwhelming.
OnyX is the free replacement for CleanMyMac's maintenance features.
Malware scanning: macOS XProtect + Malwarebytes Free
FreeThe job: Checking your Mac for malware, adware, and other threats.
macOS XProtect (built in, free): Apple ships malware protection with every Mac. It checks files as they're downloaded and opened, silently, in the background.
Malwarebytes Free (free): A well-regarded second-opinion scanner. Useful if you suspect something slipped through. Scans on demand; run once, then uninstall if clean.
XProtect covers everyday protection. Add a free Malwarebytes scan for a second opinion.
The mix-and-match recipe
Here is what a complete replacement stack looks like, priced honestly:
- Memory clearing: Shiny at $4.99 once (or Memory Cleaner free)
- App uninstalling: AppCleaner, free
- Disk visualisation: DaisyDisk at $9.99 once (or Storage Settings, free)
- Maintenance scripts: OnyX, free
- Malware scanning: XProtect (built in) and Malwarebytes, both free
Total if you pay for both Shiny and DaisyDisk: $14.98 once.
CleanMyMac at $40/year over five years: $200.
The savings are large. The tradeoff is managing a few apps instead of one. For most people that is a reasonable deal. For people who want a single app and are happy paying annually, CleanMyMac is a legitimate choice, which brings us to the next section.
When CleanMyMac is still the right choice
CleanMyMac is a polished, well-supported app made by a company that has been doing this for 17 years. There are real reasons to keep it:
- You genuinely use most of its features, not just one or two.
- You strongly prefer one app over juggling several.
- You want phone or chat support from a dedicated team.
- You're on a business machine where the subscription is expensable.
This post is not about bashing CleanMyMac. It's about being honest that a subscription for a feature bundle only makes sense if you use the bundle. If you have read this post and you think "I'd use all five of those features regularly," CleanMyMac may genuinely be the right call for you. It's a genuinely good app. It's just expensive for the jobs it shares with cheaper, focused tools.
For a more direct comparison on memory specifically, see Shiny vs CleanMyMac. For an honest take on whether any Mac cleaner is worth installing, see are Mac cleaner apps actually worth it.
Bottom line
The best CleanMyMac alternative is not a single app. It is a small stack of focused tools, each doing one job well:
- Memory: Shiny or Memory Cleaner
- Uninstalling: AppCleaner or Pearcleaner
- Disk space: DaisyDisk or Storage Settings
- Maintenance: OnyX
- Malware: XProtect plus Malwarebytes if you want a second opinion
Roughly $15 once instead of $200 over five years. Worth considering before auto-renewing.
If you are curious whether your Mac even needs help, the memory cleaner comparison post explains how to tell if memory pressure is actually the issue. And if you want to know whether Mac cleaner apps in general are worth it, this honest review covers that.