If you've had a Mac for a while, there's a good chance you've come across an ad for a software called Mackeeper. It's a Cleaning utility originally developed by Zeobit LLC which was acquired by Kromtech Alliance Corp, a German-based IT investment and development company, in 2015. You can check out their website by clicking the button below:
Most positive reviews of it have been found to have been paid for by Zeobit (developers of MacKeeper) in the form of ‘free upgrades’ etc. For example (posted by fellow contributor Softwater), on their Facebook page and on their webpage they have this apparent endorsement from UNC Charlotte.
I'm on the side that says Mackeeper is pretty much useless crap. A long while ago, on my first Mac, I actually bought the software after reading many great reviews, which almost all turned out being phony. I ran the cleaning tool and the antivirus on it many times, and eventually, I noticed my Mac seemed just a little slower than before. The all-new MacKeeper 5 includes cleaning, performance, protection, and privacy tools. Organize your Mac by freeing up gigabytes of space on your hard drive while protecting you from viruses, malware, and identity theft. Look over our reviews, pick the product that suits you best, and get your Mac protected. MacKeeper Review.
Mackeeper has been under some heavy criticism in the Apple community for advertising heavily. In this post, I'll review the tool itself and uncover some of the truths about Mackeeper that will help you decide if it's worth your money or not.
Is Mackeeper a “virus”?
Mackeeper parent company, Kromtech Alliance Corp, advertise their products heavily. That advertising includes annoying popups that sometimes start downloading mackeeper automatically to the user's computer. For this reason, many people label it as a virus that is sneakily trying to install itself on their Macs.
Mackeeper Nedir
The truth is, even if the download automatically starts from a popup, you can still cancel it. If you don't manage to cancel it, the software won't install itself on your Mac unless you open the .dmg file and install it yourself.
Yes, those are seriously aggressive marketing tactics and I think Kromtech should rethink their marketing strategy but I won't call mackeeper a virus just because of that. It is not a virus/scam. It's just that the parent company is notorious for its aggressive advertising campaigns.
Why is Mackeeper disliked in the Apple community?
We live in an age where we'll believe just about anything we read on the internet. Most of the people who bash mackeeper haven't tried it. They just read a negative forum/blog post about it and believe Mackeeper to be whatever the post says. This kind of a chain effect continues and coupled with Kromtech's aggressive advertising, gives Mackeeper a bad name in the Apple community.
This is why I decided to get a license myself and test it out myself on my Mac. Below is my impartial review of some of the tools Mackeeper has.
I also worked out a deal with the Kromtech guys. They've hooked me up with a 66% percent discount on the 2-year plan. That means you can save $240 if you buy it using the link below. It's not just for the 2-year plan though, the discount applies to all plans, even the smallest one.
Now, on with the actual review…
Installation is pretty simple. You download the .dmg file, open it, and follow the on-screen instructions.
Mackeeper Review Reddit Online
Here is how the main screen looks:
Memory Cleaner:
My Mac has 4 gigs of memory and sometimes it struggles to give the best performance due to lack of memory. Running Mackeeper every now and then helps me free up some RAM and that comes in real handy. I just ran the memory cleaner and managed to free almost 400MB of RAM.
Drivers cisco scsi & raid devices. Duplicate Finder:
The duplicates finder detects file copies that take up hard disk space on your Mac. It groups such identical files even if they were renamed so that you can decide to delete them or transfer them to an external storage device to free up hard disk space on your Mac.
You can also group the duplicate files by file types. For example, clicking on “video” tab in the duplicates finder module will only show duplicate video files. Here's a screenshot of the duplicates finder screen:
Smart Uninstaller:
This is a nice handy tool to uninstall apps from your mac properly. Just deleting apps from the “Applications” folder is not enough. This is where Mackeeper comes in. It shows you a list of apps you can choose to uninstall from. Then after uninstalling it, it scans your entire hard disk for leftover files associated to that app and removes them. This not only saves storage space but also helps with the performance of your mac.
Login Items:
This module simply shows you the list of apps that start with your mac. You can add or remove apps in your login items by clicking the + or – sign.
Disk Usage:
The disk usage module scans your hard disk and lists all files and folders present on it along with the size of the folder right next to its name. The folder size is displayed in 4 colors (red, orange, yellow, green) depending on the size of the folder.
Review Of Mackeeper
Anti Theft:
The anti-theft module serves two purposes. One, it prevents unauthorized access to your mac. Two, it helps you track your mac in case it gets stolen. You set it up once, and in case your mac gets stolen, you can use the web interface on mackeeper's website to track your Mac's location and even take a photo of the intruder/thief using your Mac's iSight camera.
At a Glance
Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Helpful Manu Bar utility
- Several helpful modules to free up storage space or to clear out unnecessary software
Our Verdict
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MacPaw has shot for the stars with its new version of CleanMyMac X, its catch-all Mac utility that serves as a software crud and gunk remover, as well as a malware scanner, macOS extensions manager, and a universal updater for your installed applications.
Since my initial review of CleanMyMac X, MacPaw made some nice improvements, although some features still fall short of what they could be.
Handy modules
MacPaw set out to make its Menu Bar utility much better and has succeeded. A quick click on the icon reveals handy information such as how much space is left on each of your drive partitions, your Mac’s CPU load, how much RAM is available, your computer’s operating temperature, and other useful information. This is a nice touch and the menu can be customized as you see fit.
The modules are the key to CleanMyMac and it’s handy to be able to quickly enable and disable macOS extensions with the Extensions module, or hunt down extraneous files with the Large & Old Files module, which lets you see which files are devouring space and erase them quickly. The Uninstaller module was able to quickly locate and pick off unnecessary applications during testing and accomplished something I’d never seen before in an application removal utility: it removed multiple applications at once, which is quite useful. The Maintenance module handles tasks such as clearing RAM, running maintenance scripts, clearing the DNS cache, and repairing file permissions quickly, tidying up the macOS’ underpinnings as needed.
CleanMyMac X 4.4.1’s new claim to fame is the Space Lens module, which offers a quick look at your hard drive’s most sizable folders. This is where the truth as to what’s eating your drive space comes out, as a 73GB Pictures folder inside your Users folder could stand to be slimmed down a bit.
Malware removal
Unfortunately, the Malware Removal module shot the previous version of CleanMyMac X in the foot, and in the latest version, it does so yet again. MacPaw cites extensive changes to this feature, and I was curious to try it. After installing every questionable piece of adware and malware I could find, I ran the Malware Removal module to see what the utility would find, categorize as suspect, and what it would remove.
The results were not what I had hoped for. In spite of CleanMyMac X 4.4.1 locating 21 potential threats, it missed several suspect programs, including the infamous MacKeeper and Advanced Mac Cleaner, which, once installed, loads itself into your Mac’s startup items, informs you of how many threats it’s noticed, then offers a phone number to call for 24/7 live tech support.
Upon noticing the malware that was still left over after rebooting, I switched over to a free copy of Malwarebytes, which picked up 11 threats during its scan, including questionable applications such as Advanced Mac Cleaner, Advanced Mac Tuner, and MacKeeper, and proceeded to tear them out by the roots. Axium driver download for windows 10.
Even with CleanMyMac X 4.4.1 and Malwarebytes working together, there were some chunks of adware and malware that still needed to be hunted down and removed on their own. A search engine utility had to manually remove from the Safari > Preferences > Extensions settings and a questionable PDF reader had to be uninstalled through CleanMyMac X 4.4.1’s Uninstaller module, which became another chore.
Neither CleanMyMac X 4.4.1 or Malwarebytes was perfect for the task at hand, but after months of development and promises of significant releases and improvements in this feature, the end result was a letdown. Granted, MacPaw isn’t working to be a malware prevention or security company, but they’ve touted this feature as a prominent component of CleanMyMac X and I feel that it gave far too much questionable software a complete pass, leaving behind software that will happily change your search engine settings to route your web traffic through questionable engines or inform you that your Mac is entirely infected and only a strange firm that charges $30 a month to remotely “clean” your Mac is to be trusted.
CleanMyMac X retails for $34.95 for a one-year subscription or $89.95 as a one-time payment for a single user; the MacPaw store offers different purchase tiers depending on license needs. The software is also available in a trial version, which lets you test its modules and clean up to 500MB of system junk at a time.
Mackeeper Review Reddit
Bottom line
Mackeeper Review Reddit Live
CleanMyMac X 4.4.1 has seen some nice improvements and it’s a reliable, speedy way to remove gigabytes of gunk from your hard drive. Its Uninstaller and Updater modules have become admirable in their functionality and utility, but the Malware module is still a wash and five months of development haven’t brought it to a level where I’d feel comfortable recommending it to other Mac users for its intended purpose.