CCleaner for Mac Review: Here’s What to Expect 2025

As someone who works on a MacBook every day and constantly battles clutter from downloads, browser data, and leftover app files, I finally decided to give CCleaner for Mac a shot among many Mac cleaners. CCleaner has been active in the PC cleaning industry for years, and I would love to see for myself whether it truly lives up to the praise. Spoiler: it does, with a few minor hiccups. Below is my full review of CCleaner for Mac.

Is CCleaner Still Trustworthy?

Given its long history and several changes in ownership, you may ask: Is CCleaner still trustworthy in 2025? The answer, in my experience, is yes with good reason.

CCleaner was first launched in 2004 by Piriform Software in London as a lightweight PC optimization tool. Over time, it expanded to macOS, Android, and iOS, offering a broad range of features like app cache cleaning, duplicate file detection, and startup management.

In 2017, Piriform was acquired by cybersecurity giant Avast. This transition brought CCleaner into a larger ecosystem of trusted security and utility software brands. While there were concerns in the past regarding privacy and bundled software, recent versions have shown significant improvements in transparency and performance.

Today, CCleaner for Mac and Windows continues to be actively maintained, regularly updated, and supported by a global user base with over 2.5 billion downloads, so it still holds its ground as a reliable and efficient utility to clean up your Mac.

Pricing Plans

CCleaner for Mac offers several pricing tiers depending on how many devices you want to cover and which extra features you need. I have a MacBook and a Windows PC, so the Professional Plus plan is the best value for me.

CCleaner for Mac offers several pricing tiers depending on how many devices you want to cover and which extra features you need. I have a MacBook and a Windows PC, so the Professional Plus plan is the best value for me. ## Features of CCleaner for Mac

My first impression of CCleaner - the layout is not as flashy as other Mac cleaners, but the pro is that it won’t overwhelm you. Everything is where it should be, simple, minimal, and efficient. Let me walk through some classic features of CCleaner and how they perform.

Clean Clutter

The most iconic feature of all Mac cleaners has to be the Quick Clean. In CCleaner, the Clean Clutter section was the first thing I tried, no surprise. A simple scan revealed there were dozens of GB of junk files on my MacBook, from app cache and log files to trash and web data.

On top of that, I could manually select what I want to remove and what I’d like to keep. CCleaner makes things simple by offering options such as Select all and Select none. There’s one glitch, though. I had to quit several running programs to remove their clutter.

Browser Cleaner

Web browsers often track and store sensitive details, such as cookies, cached files, search history, login credentials, and payment methods.

On one hand, these data can build up and take up significant disk space over time with no warnings. On the other hand, sensitive information can be vulnerable to unauthorized access or misuse. Therefore, regularly cleaning up browsers does a good job of maintaining both optimal system performance and safeguarding your privacy.

With CCleaner for Mac, you have the option to scan and clean individual browsers, be it Safari, Chrome, or Firefox, and manually select the data in particular you want to remove. Say, I prefer to keep the auto-fills intact, so I just wiped out caches and cookies.

Find Duplicates

The Find Duplicates option scans the entire system, including external drives or selected folders (such as your Documents, Pictures, or Downloads folder) for duplicate files.

Once the scan is complete, it shows a comprehensive list of duplicates, sorted by categories like Documents, Pictures, Songs, Videos, and more. I was surprised to see multiple files from different folders that were identical. CCleaner also gives you the option to preview the files and sort by size or modification date, making it easier to decide what to delete.

Uninstall Apps

Most of you uninstall apps on Mac by simply moving them to Trash. However, pieces of app leftovers stay in your system and continue consuming Mac space. CCleaner for Mac helps uninstall by displaying a full list of installed apps along with their file size and last used date.

To make cleanup decisions easier, CCleaner has smart filters, for example, it quickly identifies applications you haven’t opened in over 6 months. These are likely to be outdated or no longer needed, making them strong candidates for removal. It also sorts out the space hogs and apps that take up significant storage (over 1 GB).

Analyze Photos

So far, the most surprising and interesting feature belongs to Analyze Photos. It’s similar to the Find Duplicates tool but takes your photo management to the next level. This feature identifies not just duplicates, but also bad photos that are taking up unnecessary space on your Mac.

The term bad refers to images that CCleaner deems to be of low quality. This includes pictures that are blurred, overexposed, too dark, or simply not visually appealing. I have to admit it’s somewhat subjective, but CCleaner does a solid job of flagging those photos that are unlikely to be cherished memories. Then you can manually go through the results and decide what’s to stay and what’s to delete.

A Few Drawbacks of CCleaner for Mac

That said, not everything was perfect. There are a few points I think need improvement. To start with, when selecting multiple files in the Find Duplicates section, I have to click directly on the checkboxes, which can become tedious when managing a large list of files. It would be much more convenient if I could simply click on the file names themselves to select or deselect them.

Another area where CCleaner falls short is customer support. It’s hard to hear back from their customer support. Maybe that’s the consequence of their priority support scheme. To make things worse, CCleaner doesn’t offer quick access to an in-app help guide or detailed instructions. The online tutorials are helpful, but they’re scattered and not immediately accessible.

Finally, the startup items tool comes with a major downside - it doesn’t offer enough context on the processes you’re about to disable or remove when booting up your Mac. If you’re not careful, you could end up deactivating essential system functions and ruining the whole Mac performance.

Best Alternatives to CCleaner

If CCleaner for Mac’s limitation bothers you, two great alternatives are worth trying: BuhoCleaner and MacCleaner Pro.

BuhoCleaner is fast, lightweight, and perfect for beginners. As an easy-to-use Mac cleanup tool, it simplifies one-click junk cleaning, offers easier duplicate deletion, and takes start-up item management more accurately. Plus, it has an unbeatable free version that covers almost all core Mac cleanup functions, a rare quality in the industry.

MacCleaner Pro, on the other hand, offers clearer insights when managing startup items and duplicates. It comes with detailed descriptions, better control, and built-in guides—something CCleaner lacks. You also get much faster customer support and more transparency during cleanups.

Final Verdict: Is CCleaner Good on Mac?

All in all, my CCleaner for Mac review is overwhelmingly positive with a 4/5 rating. It’s a powerful, focused tool that cleans your Mac without trying to be an all-in-one bloatware. At around $39 per year (with a limited free version available), it’s fairly priced and delivers what it promises. If you're looking for a reliable Mac cleaner that covers everything from app uninstallation to cache cleanup and so on, CCleaner is 100% worth trying.