Expert’s rating
Pros
- A handy set of powerful tools
- Access to help and tutorial files available immediately
- Good level of configuration with the application’s modules
Cons
- Some sticker show fees (monthly or annual) can result in some extra charges. One-time purchases fees may also be charged.
- Overzealous marketing efforts in place as multiple options appear to have the user subscribe to the company’s email list
Our Verdict
There’s a good selection of useful tools here, the software doesn’t try to overextend itself, and it does its tasks well, but Nektony has begun asking for a steeper price in a field that typically hasn’t been viewed as something customers would pay a subscription for. It has also become more expensive to purchase one-time licenses and pay licensing fees.
MacCleaner Pro: The Best Price Today
There’s no shortage of Optimization and cleaning utilities for the Mac these days, and while Ukranian developer Nektony’s MacCleaner Pro doesn’t offer the most revelatory set of features, what’s present here is a handy, powerful selection of tools. MacCleaner Pro doesn’t overextend itself by promising to remove malware or move into otherwise esoteric tasks that can’t live up to their promise. These utilities are competent, clever, and run smoothly while delivering what’s promised.
The suite hones in on several modules and functions (MacCleaner Pro itself, App Cleaner & Uninstaller, Disk Space Analyzer, Funter, and Memory Cleaner) and executes them well, albeit at a potentially high price point for some users.
Each module of MacCleaner Pro tools has its own unique features. There is a tutorial system that opens once you activate each module. It’s fairly easy to open a chat window to ask for help or pull up a YouTube instructional video as to how to perform a task.
When you first open MacCleaner Pro, a tutorial system will show you the highlights of each module.
Nektony
Once you give each tool full permissions and access to folders such as Downloads, Desktop, Documents, and others, they’re free to go to work and dig around for files that may be clogging up your Mac.
The general Overview and cleaning up moduleMy MacBook Pro was able to free up over 10 gigabytes of space. The clean-up function clearly labels which files it will remove (email attachments, caches, language files, etc.).).
The Speed up Mac moduleYou can perform tasks like reindexing Spotlight and reindexing Mail. It also allows you to manage your startup apps, Internet plug-ins and browser extensions. This would require some digging into the macOS operating systems. Standard and expert modes allow you to make changes like disabling annoying startup apps, freeing RAM, and disabling browser extension. This won’t turn your Mac into an absolute speed demon, but it helps remove the kludge that makes your Mac run like an iron pig in mud.
The Manage Files module allows for easy viewing and access to assorted file types such as compressed archives, video, audio, pictures, documents, system files, and duplicate files, and it’s easy to hone in on specific files and remove them. Other modules work as expected. I was able easily to locate an old copy of Adobe Premiere, as well as the support files.
Nektony’s Remove duplicate filesIt was a great tool that showed you how many copies of one image could be on your hard drive. I deleted over 700 cached images of one image that were taking up more than 100MB from my hard drive in one instance. The scorecard tracks the space you recover, so you can keep more space open while the program is running.
The Duplicate File Finder module isn’t limited to what’s on your Mac. It was a great tool to find and delete duplicate files in my iCloud account. Duplicate files can sometimes pile up in iCloud storage. The Duplicate File Finder module provided a quick overview of which files were being addressed and could be removed. I was able to clear up gigabytes of space with this, but this module also takes some getting used to as well as customization and you might have to specifically target what you want to remove, as I had to restore some data from a Time Machine archive to get data for an Adobe Premiere file I’ve been working on. This can lead to a bit of a shotgun effect if you’re not careful, and you might want to take the time to specifically hone in on the duplicates you wish to nix from your hard drive or cloud storage space.
In the case Uninstall applications module, it’s easy to locate and remove unwanted applications. A handy toggle allows you to switch between standard mode and expert mode, which allows you to view application components and note where they’re located on your Mac.
With the Analyze disk usage moduleThis tool allows you to easily see which file types take up the most space on Mac. You can then reduce their size. It also showed me the files taking up the largest space on my Boot Camp partition. This was an unexpected benefit.
While I’m running a pretty lean system on my MacBook Pro, the Mac Module CleaningIt was able remove 3.28GB extraneous caches, language files and other files. The application lets you refine your search by choosing the folders that should be cleaned up. While the module was able to get the vast majority of the files, it didn’t have systemwide permissions to remove five small files, which presented a small hiccup that needed to be worked around.
The Funter moduleThe macOS Menu Bar allows you to quickly view and assess junk files, duplicates files, applications, and other large or old files. This allows macOS to display and access hidden files, without the need to use Terminal commands. This is helpful in situations where you have to modify or delete these files. The module’s name may be unusual, but the module itself comes in handy.
Finally, Memory Cleaner moduleIt allows you to free up RAM quickly and monitor which applications are using it up. It is a great tool for freeing RAM not allocated to you.
A one Mac license is available at a one-year subscription for $29.90/£33.26 or one-time purchase for $74.95/£83.24 via the Nektony Store. The MacCleaner Pro 3 suite is a great tool, but the asking price seems high. It’s hard to believe that it will be moving into subscription software when users have traditionally paid one-time fees for utility software. It’s easy enough to transfer your activation license from one Mac to another if needed, but the price tag seems high, even with the company’s specials and deals. The other irritation comes in the form of Nektony’s marketing efforts, and it feels as there’s an overabundance of menus that ask you to sign up to the company’s email list.
Bottom line
MacCleaner Pro stands out among the many utilities. It has a fast response to email inquiries, a great interface, and smooth operation. While it is not the most impressive utility, it has a good interface and good set of utilities. It is well worth your time.
MacCleaner Pro 3 was an excellent successor to the piece of software that surprised everyone in fall 2021. Like its predecessor, the suite hones in on several modules and functions (MacCleaner Pro itself, App Cleaner & Uninstaller, Disk Space Analyzer, Funter, and Memory Cleaner) and execute them well, albeit at a potentially high price point for some users. MacCleaner Pro 3 doesn’t feel like a radical update to its previous version as much as a gradual update, and the tools remain the same, albeit with some improvements and a nice user interface overhaul.
MacCleaner Pro’s price tag is where things get sticky. Mac Cleaner Pro 3 seems to be a little too focused on marketing. Whether or not utility software falls into the category of subscription-based software is debatable and just because the software industry is trending this way doesn’t mean Nektony needs to follow suit. These are handy utilities and they do their job well, but if there’s a sticker shock attached to it, then the company risks scaring potential customers away.
