AppCleaner Review: Here's My Real Personal Experience

A complete removal of an app on your Mac often involves deleting not only the app itself but also all its support files scattered across different folders. If you only drag an app into the Trash, chances are high that leftover files will remain. A more effective solution is to use a third-party app uninstaller.

I’ve personally tested many Mac app uninstallers on the market. Today, I’d like to share my first-hand experience with AppCleaner, a free and open-source uninstaller, on macOS Sequoia 15.6.1 and macOS Tahoe 26.

Introducing AppCleaner

AppCleaner is a lightweight macOS utility developed by FreeMacSoft. It promises to completely uninstall apps on Mac, including the hidden support files, caches, and preferences that normally get left behind when you just move an app to the Trash.

My First-Hand Experience with AppCleaner

Downloading AppCleaner is straightforward. You just head over to FreeMacSoft’s website and click the version you want.

The download is really small (around 4MB), so it finished within seconds for me. After unzipping, I got the AppCleaner app in my Downloads folder, and I dragged it to Applications so I could access it more easily later.

When I opened AppCleaner for the first time, the interface was simple: just drag and drop the app you want to uninstall.

For testing, I dragged Beyond Compare 2 into AppCleaner. Within a second, it showed me 8 related files that would be deleted, freeing up about 93.4 MB of space. I found it really satisfying to see exactly what files were taking up extra storage, and how much I could recover.

Another feature I discovered is SmartDelete, which you can enable in the preferences. Once it’s turned on, AppCleaner automatically detects when you drag apps into the Trash and pops up to ask if you’d like to remove all the leftover files as well.

I think this is pretty convenient because you don’t always remember to manually drag apps into AppCleaner itself. With Smart Delete, you’re less likely to miss hidden files.

Overall, the process was quick and smooth, and I liked that the app gave me control over what to delete while also offering automation with SmartDelete.

Pros and Cons of AppCleaner

That said, no tool is perfect. After using AppCleaner for a while, here are the main pros and cons I noticed:

Pros:

• Free and open-source.
• Extremely lightweight (just a few MB).
• Very simple to use: drag and drop.

Cons:

• Supports English only.
• Doesn’t support batch uninstall (you have to remove apps one by one).
• No real-time monitoring of leftover files when you delete apps manually.
• The interface looks quite outdated compared to modern Mac apps.
• Limited extra features (just uninstallation, nothing else).

Best AppCleaner Alternative – BuhoCleaner

While AppCleaner works fine for simple app removals, I quickly ran into its limitations. That’s when I tried BuhoCleaner, which has a 4.8 rating on Trustpilot, and I was honestly impressed.

BuhoCleaner isn’t just an app uninstaller. It's a complete Mac cleanup utility. Here are some of the things I liked about it compared to AppCleaner:

• Easily remove multiple apps at once, which saves a ton of time.
• Automatically detect leftover files from previously uninstalled apps.
• Clear caches, large files, duplicates, and even manage startup items.
• Much more polished and user-friendly compared to AppCleaner.
• Optimized for the latest macOS Tahoe and Mac models with M1–M4 chips.
• 24/7 sales and technical support.

Last Words

If you’re just looking for a free, minimal tool, AppCleaner is worth a try. But if you want a more powerful and efficient solution to keep your Mac clean and fast, I’d definitely recommend giving BuhoCleaner a shot. Personally, I find it the best alternative to CleanMyMac.