Disclosure up front: I make Shiny, which appears in this list for the memory-clearing job. I've tried to write this the way I'd want it written if I were the buyer, which means being honest about when CleanMyMac wins and when it doesn't.
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: When your Mac starts feeling sluggish, memory pressure is often the culprit. A memory cleaner frees up RAM by closing background processes your apps left running after you quit them, and asking macOS to release memory it is holding "just in case."
Shiny ($4.99 once): A THEODOREHQ product, so take this entry with the appropriate grain of salt. It lives in your menu bar, one click frees memory, shows you what it freed, covers up to three Macs, no subscription, no telemetry, no popups. Single-purpose, which means the entire app is the memory cleaner. For more detail, see how Shiny compares to CleanMyMac's memory feature specifically.
Memory Cleaner by Nektony (free with paid extras): The free tier is genuinely useful: menu-bar monitor plus a one-click clean button. The paid upgrade adds auto-cleaning by threshold, which is a feature Shiny doesn't have. Nektony is a real software company with a solid reputation. Some telemetry by default and the UI is more cluttered than Shiny's, but it's a solid free choice.
Pick Shiny if you want the simplest, cheapest paid option. Pick Memory Cleaner if you want to start free or need auto-trigger by threshold.
App uninstalling: AppCleaner or Pearcleaner
FreeThe job: When you drag an app to the trash, macOS only removes the main app file. Preference files, caches, and support folders stay behind. An uninstaller finds and removes all of them.
AppCleaner (free): The classic choice. Been around for years, trusted by the Mac community, does exactly one thing well. Drag an app onto AppCleaner and it finds every associated file for you to review before deleting. No subscription, no upsells.
Pearcleaner (free, open source): A newer alternative that's become popular as an AppCleaner replacement. Open source means the code is publicly inspectable, which is reassuring for an app that deletes files. Actively maintained, available on GitHub.
Either is a solid free replacement for 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 that your drive is full is easy. Knowing what is filling it is harder. A disk visualiser maps your storage so you can see at a glance which folders and files are taking up space.
DaisyDisk ($9.99 once): The best disk visualiser on Mac, full stop. The sunburst chart makes it immediately obvious where your storage went. One-time purchase, genuinely polished, faster than anything else at scanning large drives. Worth every cent if you've ever spent 20 minutes hunting for where your disk space went.
Storage Settings (free, built in): Open System Settings, click General, then Storage. Apple's built-in overview shows you categories like Applications, Documents, and System Data. It's basic and slow to scan, but it's free and already on your Mac. Good enough for a quick check.
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 in the background. Occasionally they don't fire (if your Mac is always asleep at 3 AM, for example). Running them manually can clear stale caches and fix minor slowdowns.
OnyX (free): Made by Titanium Software, around since 2003. It is the standard free tool for running maintenance scripts, clearing caches, and tweaking hidden macOS preferences. Trusted by the Mac community for over two decades. Fully free, donationware.
Honest caveat: OnyX's interface is dated and can look intimidating. It has a lot of options, which is great for power users and confusing for everyone else. For the average user who just wants maintenance scripts to run, OnyX works but takes a little getting used to.
OnyX is the free replacement for CleanMyMac's maintenance features. Just stick to the Maintenance tab if the rest feels overwhelming.
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. XProtect checks files as they're downloaded and opened. It runs silently in the background and updates automatically. For most users, this is sufficient.
Malwarebytes Free (free): A well-regarded second-opinion scanner. Useful if you suspect something slipped through, or if you've been downloading from less reputable sources. The free version scans on demand; a paid version adds real-time protection. Run it once to check, then uninstall if everything's clean.
XProtect covers everyday protection. Add a free Malwarebytes scan if you want a second opinion. No paid subscription needed for most users.
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.