2025 Avast Cleanup Review: Is It Worth the Hype?
Is Avast Cleanup Premium worth it? This review discusses the pros, cons, and best alternatives to Avast Cleanup for Mac with hands-on experience.
As someone who relies heavily on my MacBook for both personal and professional use, keeping my system clean, fast, and organized is essential. Among all Mac cleaners on the software market, I decided to try Avast Cleanup for Mac, a product from the well-known antivirus company, to see if it lived up to the hype. You can find my hands-on review in the following content.
Overview of Avast Cleanup for Mac
Avast Cleanup is a premium optimization tool designed to help users clean up junk files, boost performance, and manage system clutter with ease, whether on Windows PCs, Macs, or Android devices. It does offer a free trial version, but that’s not our focus. To unlock and test its full potential, Avast Cleanup Premium is the star of today. Below is a quick overview of its key strengths and weaknesses, pricing, and overall ratings based on my personal experience.
Category | Detail |
---|---|
Pros | Clean Junk |
Pros | Browser Cleaner |
Pros | Uninstall Simulator |
Pros | Automatic Cleaning |
Pros | Undo Center |
Cons | Expensive |
Cons | Overload Features |
Pricing | 1 Device: $65.99/year |
Pricing | 10 Devices: $79.99/year |
Overall Rating | 4.5/5 |
Plans and Pricing
Avast Cleanup for Mac offers two subscription options depending on how many devices you need to cover. Both plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee and do not require a credit card for the free trial.
Which plan is better? The answer is quite easy. The best deal lies in multiple-device owners. At $2.89 per month, you can keep up to 10 devices tidy and clean. However, if you only have one device, say a MacBook, a PC, or an Android phone, the 1-device plan is a bit pricy.
Installation and First Impressions
Downloading and installing Avast Cleanup for my MacBook Pro was fast and hassle-free. Within minutes, I was up and running.
The user interface made a strong first impression. It’s sleek, modern, and very beginner-friendly. The dashboard layout is clear: all core tools like junk cleaning, disk optimization, and program management are neatly listed on the left panel. Clicking each tool leads directly to its function tab, making navigation intuitive, even for someone new to Mac maintenance software.
As soon as I launched the app, Avast guided me to perform the initial scan. It took less than two minutes and immediately identified over 3 GB of clutter, including system caches, app leftovers, and trash bin content.
What impressed me most was how the program categorized these files and gave short, useful explanations for each one. This helped me make informed cleanup decisions without fear of accidentally deleting something important.
For anyone familiar with older versions of Avast, though, the redesigned interface might take a moment to adjust to, but the improved visual structure and efficiency are worth it.
Features I Find Most Useful
Avast Cleanup for Mac is a versatile tool with loads of features, but not every feature counts the same. I’ve chosen five brilliant designs that truly give a hand during my use.
1. Clean Junk
Avast Cleanup's Clean Junk section was the one I used most frequently. It ranks second in the toolbar for a good reason. This feature quickly scanned my MacBook for unnecessary files such as cache data, app logs, system leftovers, broken shortcuts, and browser clutter.
Unlike other Mac cleaners, which only offer one fast-clean option, I particularly liked that Avast let me choose between different cleaning modes:
- Basic Mode: Ideal for safely removing logs, caches, and temp files.
- Custom Mode: Allows manual selection of what to delete, which gives me more control.
Even though the Full Mode isn’t clearly advertised for the Mac version, the flexibility in cleaning made it feel customizable enough for everyday users.
2. Browser Cleaner
Allow me to dive into the Clean Junk section, as four segments are worth exploring. What caught my attention was the browser cleaner.
Safari, Chrome, or any other browsers you use can store piles of useless data over time, including online traces, temporary data, cache, etc. These data often go unnoticed until one day they drag your system down.
That’s why I used Browser Cleaner to clean up cache, cookies, and web history from Safari and Chrome. It helped speed up browsing and even gave me the option to whitelist certain cookies, so I could stay logged into my favorite websites after cleanup.
3. Uninstall Simulator
Under the Manage Programs section, Uninstall Simulator is definitely an interesting module. Unlike most system cleaners that only offer a basic uninstall tool, where removing an app means it's gone for good, Avast Cleanup for Mac goes a step further with its Uninstall Simulator.
This unique feature lets me evaluate the potential impact of removing a program in a secure, simulated environment. It’s especially useful when I’m unsure whether deleting a particular app might cause unexpected issues or system slowdowns.
Of course, there's also a traditional Uninstaller module, which helps me remove unused apps and reclaim disk space.
4. Automatic Cleaning
One of the most underrated features in Avast Cleanup is its Automatic Cleaning, formerly known as Automatic Maintenance. Once enabled through the Settings panel, this feature allows me to schedule regular system scans that run quietly in the background.
What I like is how customizable it is: you can choose how often scans happen, and exactly what should be cleaned, including registry keys, shortcuts, junk files, browser cache, and cookies. It eliminates the need for manual check-ins and gives you the assurance that your Mac is staying clean without any effort on your part.
5. Undo Center
Surprisingly, Avast Cleanup Premium offers something similar to the Trash. Now with the Undo Center, if I made a cleanup mistake, I could reverse actions like registry cleaning or app hibernation. It didn’t cover everything, though, but it definitely helped prevent permanent missteps.
Things I Don’t Like
While my overall experience was positive, there were a few drawbacks:
Pricing
Compared with its alternatives, Avast Cleanup is a big fortune if you only have one device. There’s a huge price gap between the single-device and the multiple-device plan. Also, it requires an annual subscription, and I would have preferred a one-time purchase option.
Overload Features
Another thing I found less appealing was that Avast Cleanup for Mac tries to do too much. Beyond its core cleaning capabilities, it also offers tools like disk repair, data recovery, and more. Such a broad feature set also comes with a higher memory footprint.
My main goal is to keep my Mac free of junk and running smoothly. The extra features, though potentially useful, made the app feel bulkier than necessary and somewhat diluted the simplicity I usually look for in this kind of software.
Alternatives to Avast Cleanup for Mac
If you feel the same about the cons of Avast Mac cleaner, here are two alternatives I’ve explored that are simpler, more affordable, and more focused.
1. BuhoCleaner
BuhoCleaner is a newer name in the Mac cleaning industry, but trust me, you’ll love its clean design and snappy performance. It covers all the essentials: cache and junk file removal, app uninstallation, duplicate file finder, and real-time system monitoring.
What sets BuhoCleaner apart is its Mac-native feel and streamlined experience. It’s nothing like bloatware, which makes it fast, responsive, and easy to navigate. Pricing is also competitive, with a lifetime license option that appeals to users tired of subscription fatigue.
In contrast to Avast’s bulky suite of tools, BuhoCleaner delivers a cleaning-focused, minimalist experience that some users will find far more satisfying.
2. CCleaner for Mac
CCleaner is one of the most well-known system cleaners out there, and its Mac version brings over many of the same core strengths from the Windows version.
Unlike Avast Cleanup, CCleaner keeps its focus tight on what really matters: removing junk files, managing startup items, clearing browser cache, and cleaning unnecessary system clutter.
It lacks the bells and whistles like data recovery or disk repair, but that’s precisely the appeal - it’s lightweight, straightforward, and gets the job done.
Final Verdict: Is Avast Cleanup Worth It?
In my opinion, yes – if you value ease of use, clear reporting, and effective cleaning. Avast Cleanup for Mac isn’t the cheapest option out there, but it combines a sleek UI with reliable performance.
If you're like me and want a ‘set-it-and-forget-it’ solution to keep your Mac running efficiently, Avast Cleanup is worth considering. Just be prepared to pay for the full version to unlock its real potential.
Clare Phang has been captivated by the world of Apple products since the launch of the iconic iPhone in 2007. With a wealth of experience, Clare is your go-to source for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and all things Apple.