Tidy My Mac
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Tidy My Mac vs CleanMyMac, MacKeeper and Mac antivirus apps
Most Macs end up with a cleaner, an uninstaller, an antivirus and a firewall from four different companies. Here is what each of the popular ones does and costs, feature by feature, next to Tidy My Mac.
macOS 26 Tahoe or later · No credit card · Everything runs on your Mac
| Feature | Tidy My MacCleanup + security | CleanMyMacCleaner | MacKeeperCleaner + security | Intego ONE AdvancedAntivirus + cleaner | Malwarebytes StandardAntivirus | Bitdefender Antivirus for MacAntivirus | Norton AntiVirus PlusAntivirus | Avast Premium SecurityAntivirus | BuhoCleanerCleaner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price and trial | |||||||||
| First year | $19.99 | $39.95or $119.95 once | $71.4012-month plan | $45.49sale price | $44.99 | $24.99 | $29.99 | $49.08Cleanup: +$44.99 | $17.99or $25.99 once |
| Years after | $59.99a year | Not publisheddiscounts are first-year only | Not published | $69.99a year | Not published | Not published“may be higher” | $59.99a year | $77.99Cleanup: +$65.99 | Not published |
| Covers | 1 Mac | 1 Mac | 1 Mac | 1 Mac | 1 device | 1 Mac | 1 device | 1 Mac + 1 phone | 1 Mac |
| Free trial | 7 daysno card | 7 days | Free scanone free fix per tool | None30-day refund | 14 days | 30 daysno card | 7 days360 plans, card needed | 60 days | Free versionremoves up to 3 GB |
| Clean up | |||||||||
| One scan for the whole Mac | YesCleanup and security score | YesSmart Care | Yes | PartlySeparate antivirus and cleanup scans | PartlyMalware only | PartlyMalware only | PartlyMalware only | PartlySmart Scan | YesFlash Clean |
| Junk and cache cleaner | YesIncludes developer junk | Yes | Yes | YesSmartClean | No | No | Not stated by the vendor | PartlyCleanup for Mac, sold separately | Yes |
| Large and old files | Yes | Yes | Not stated by the vendor | Yes | No | No | Not stated by the vendor | PartlyCleanup for Mac, sold separately | Yes |
| Visual disk map | YesTreemap | YesSpace Lens | Not stated by the vendor | Not stated by the vendor | No | No | No | Not stated by the vendor | Yes |
| Duplicate files | YesMatched byte for byte | Yes | Yes | Not stated by the vendor | No | No | No | PartlyCleanup for Mac, sold separately | Yes |
| Similar photos | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not stated by the vendor | No | No | No | PartlyCleanup for Mac, sold separately | Yes |
| Applications | |||||||||
| Uninstaller that removes leftovers | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | PartlyCleanup for Mac, sold separately | Yes |
| App updates | YesSecurity fixes first | YesNot App Store apps | Yes | Not stated by the vendor | No | No | Not stated by the vendor | Not stated by the vendor | No |
| Startup items and launch agents | YesWith boot time | Yes | Yes | Not stated by the vendor | No | No | Not stated by the vendor | Not stated by the vendor | Yes |
| Protection | |||||||||
| Real-time antivirus | YesNew files in Downloads and Desktop | PartlyAlerts on new installs, no blocking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Malware scan on demand | YesQuick, Normal and Deep | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Ransomware protection | YesBy behavior and decoy files | No | No | Yes | Yes | YesSafe Files | PartlyNo active blocking on Mac | YesRansomware Shield | No |
| Adware and browser hijackers | YesProfiles, policies and proxies | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not stated by the vendor | Not stated by the vendor | No |
| Per-app outgoing firewall | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | PartlySmart Firewall, per-app control unclear | No | No |
| Blocks phishing and malware sites | YesEvery browser and app | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | YesSafe Web | YesWeb Guard | No |
| Blocks ads and trackers | YesEvery browser and app | No | YesStopAd extension | Not stated by the vendor | PartlyBrowser Guard extension | PartlyAnti-tracker extension | Not stated by the vendor | Not stated by the vendor | No |
| Scam message checker | YesOn-device, Apple Intelligence | No | No | No | YesScam Guard | PartlyChat Protection | YesGenie | YesAvast Assistant | No |
| VPN | No | No | Yes | PartlyComplete plan | PartlyPlus plan | Partly200 MB a day | PartlyNorton 360 plans | PartlySold separately | No |
| Security and privacy checks | |||||||||
| macOS security settings, scored | YesSIP, Gatekeeper, FileVault and more | No | No | Not stated by the vendor | PartlySecurity Advisor | PartlyAutopilot advice | Not stated by the vendor | PartlySmart Scan | No |
| Alerts for apps with known vulnerabilities | Yes | Not stated by the vendor | No | Not stated by the vendor | No | Not stated by the vendor | No | Not stated by the vendor | No |
| Camera and microphone access | YesGrants and live alerts | PartlyLists and revokes access | No | Not stated by the vendor | Not stated by the vendor | Not stated by the vendor | No | Not stated by the vendor | No |
| Browser history and cookies cleanup | Yes | YesNot Safari in the App Store version | Not stated by the vendor | PartlyOld downloads and Trash | No | No | No | PartlyCleanup for Mac, sold separately | PartlyBrowser data |
| Browser extensions check | YesRated by access, 7 browsers | Not stated by the vendor | PartlyRemoves unused ones | Not stated by the vendor | No | PartlyRemoves unwanted add-ons | No | Not stated by the vendor | No |
| Wi-Fi security check | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Not stated by the vendor | YesNetwork Inspector | No |
| System | |||||||||
| CPU and memory monitor | YesPlus battery and SSD health | Yes | PartlyMemory only | Yes | No | No | No | Not stated by the vendor | Yes |
| Maintenance tasks | YesDNS, Spotlight, font caches | YesNot in the App Store version | Not stated by the vendor | Not stated by the vendor | No | No | No | Not stated by the vendor | Yes |
Each vendor's own pricing and feature pages, checked October 27, 2026. Prices change often and many apps sell at a discount; check the vendor's site before you buy. Tell us about anything out of date at info@tidymymac.com and we will fix it. Product names are trademarks of their owners, who do not endorse this page.
The short version
Cleaners such as CleanMyMac, MacKeeper and BuhoCleaner free up space and remove apps, and some add a malware scan. Antivirus apps such as Malwarebytes, Bitdefender and Norton stop malware and bad websites but leave your disk alone. Intego and Avast do both, but only in their bigger plans or as a second product. Tidy My Mac does all of it in one app: cleanup, an uninstaller, app updates, antivirus, ransomware protection, a per-app firewall, Web Protection and security checks, for $19.99 for the first year.
Tidy My Mac vs CleanMyMac
CleanMyMac from MacPaw is the best-known Mac cleaner, and its cleanup tools (Smart Care, Space Lens, the uninstaller, duplicates and similar photos) cover the same ground as Tidy My Mac's. The difference is protection: CleanMyMac scans for malware and warns about new installs, but MacPaw keeps real-time blocking, the firewall and security checks for its separate Moonlock app. Tidy My Mac adds ransomware protection, an outgoing firewall, Web Protection against phishing and scam sites, and a security score, at about half CleanMyMac's yearly price in the first year. CleanMyMac runs on older macOS versions and is also sold in the Mac App Store and Setapp, with fewer features in the App Store edition.
Tidy My Mac vs MacKeeper
MacKeeper bundles a cleaner, an antivirus, an ad blocker and a VPN. Its free download scans your Mac and lets you fix one thing per tool; the full version is a 12-month or monthly plan. MacKeeper has no ransomware protection, firewall or phishing-site blocking by its own comparison, while Tidy My Mac has all three. If you want a VPN in the same subscription, MacKeeper has one and Tidy My Mac doesn't.
Tidy My Mac vs Intego
Intego's Mac-only security line is now one app, Intego ONE. The Essential plan is antivirus and a firewall; the cleaner (SmartClean, which replaced Washing Machine) comes with Advanced, the plan in the table. Intego's firewall is strong, but it does not block phishing or scam sites, ads or trackers on the Mac. Tidy My Mac covers both, plus a disk map, duplicates and app updates, for less in the first year and the years after.
Tidy My Mac vs Malwarebytes, Bitdefender and Norton
These are antivirus apps first: real-time scanning, web protection and, for Malwarebytes and Norton, a scam checker. None of them cleans up your disk, removes apps or updates them, and none has a per-app outgoing firewall on the Mac. Their first-year prices are low, but Norton renews at $59.99 for a single device, and Malwarebytes and Bitdefender don't publish their renewal prices for one device. If you already have a cleaner you like, one of them is enough; if you'd rather have one app for both jobs, that is what Tidy My Mac is for.
Tidy My Mac vs Avast
Avast Premium Security covers protection, including ransomware and Wi-Fi checks, and Avast sells Cleanup for Mac on top of it. Together they cost about $94 in the first year and $144 a year after that, against Tidy My Mac's $19.99 and $59.99. In 2024 the US Federal Trade Commission banned Avast from selling or licensing browsing data for advertising, after data collected by its products had been sold; worth knowing if privacy is why you're shopping.
Single-purpose apps
Some people prefer one small tool per job, and there are good ones:
- DaisyDisk ($9.99 once, up to five Macs) draws a disk map like Tidy My Mac's Disk Map, and does nothing else.
- AppCleaner (free) removes an app and its leftovers when you drag it in, like the Uninstaller.
- Little Snitch ($59 once) and LuLu (free, open source) are outgoing firewalls, with more rules and detail than Tidy My Mac's Firewall.
- OnyX (free) runs maintenance tasks, like Maintenance.
Put together, they still leave you without an antivirus, ransomware protection or Web Protection, and with five apps to keep up to date.
Where Tidy My Mac falls short
- It needs macOS 26 Tahoe or later; most of the apps above also run on older versions.
- There is no VPN.
- Real-time protection watches new files in Downloads and Desktop; full scans cover the rest of the Mac. The engine is ClamAV, plus deep malware analysis, which sends files to us for a closer look and can be turned off.
- It is sold only on this site, not in the Mac App Store or Setapp, and covers one Mac per subscription.
How we compared
Every price is the vendor's own US price for one Mac on October 27, 2026, before tax. "Years after" is the renewal price where the vendor publishes it. Features come from each vendor's product and help pages, and from Macworld's reviews where the vendor doesn't say; when we couldn't find out either way, the table shows a question mark rather than a guess. We make Tidy My Mac, so read this page with that in mind, and please write to info@tidymymac.com if something here is wrong.
Questions about choosing a Mac cleaner
If you use CleanMyMac for cleanup, BuhoCleaner and Tidy My Mac cover the same tools. If you also want real protection in the same app, Tidy My Mac adds real-time antivirus, ransomware protection, a firewall and Web Protection, which CleanMyMac leaves to MacPaw's separate Moonlock app.
They do different jobs: a cleaner frees up space and removes apps, an antivirus stops malware and bad websites. macOS has basic malware protection (XProtect) built in, but no ransomware protection, outgoing firewall or phishing-site blocking. You can buy two apps, or one that does both, such as Tidy My Mac, or Intego and Avast in their larger plans.
For the first year, BuhoCleaner ($17.99) and Tidy My Mac ($19.99) are the cheapest in the table, but BuhoCleaner has no protection at all. Watch the renewal price: several vendors discount only the first year and don't publish what you pay after. Tidy My Mac's is $59.99 a year.
For most people, yes: the Firewall shows which apps connect out and the addresses they reach, and cuts any app off in one click. Little Snitch and LuLu offer finer rules, such as allowing an app to reach one server and not others.
Prices and features were checked on October 27, 2026. Vendors change prices and run sales often, so check their sites before you buy, and tell us at info@tidymymac.com if anything here has changed.
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