CleanMyMac vs BuhoCleaner

BuhoCleaner vs. CleanMyMac—which is the right choice? Do you need a Mac cleaner? Is your Mac running slowly, or does it keep freezing? Are you nearly out of storage, or do you need to free up memory regularly?

If you’ve answered yes to any of those questions, you may need a cleaning app.

If you’re looking for a Mac cleaner, you’ll probably come across CleanMyMac and BuhoCleaner. But are they worth it, and which one is better? Or would you benefit most from another choice, such as MacKeeper’s Safe Cleanup?

In this article, we’ll compare BuhoCleaner and CleanMyMac, including their features, pricing options, and more.

Before we start:

 

BuhoCleaner vs CleanMyMac is one decision. But if you want a Mac cleaner with additional privacy and security features, have you considered MacKeeper? With its Safe Cleanup feature, MacKeeper can free up plenty of space. It can also keep your system safe from malware and even alert you to potential identity theft.

 

How to use MacKeeper’s Safe Cleanup:

1. Download MacKeeper and follow the on-screen instructions to install it.
2. Open MacKeeper, and choose Safe Cleanup from the sidebar.
3. Click Start Scan.
4. When the scan is complete, choose to Review & Fix any security, cleaning, privacy, or performance issues.

CleanMyMac review

The basics about CleanMyMac X:

• It’s a Mac cleaner with added antivirus and privacy protection.
• It can clear out junk files and free up storage space.
• It can also clean your RAM, improving your Mac’s performance.
• Its malware scans can detect and remove adware, viruses, and other malicious software.

Read our full CleanMyMac X review.

1. General information about the company that owns CleanMyMac

CleanMyMac is developed by MacPaw, a Ukrainian company. Founded in 2008, they’re based in Kyiv and Boston.

They also produce several other apps for Mac, including the Unarchiver.

2. CleanMyMac compatibility

CleanMyMac X is compatible with macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) and higher. If you run macOS 10.10, macOS 10.11, or macOS 10.12, you can download one of their older versions with limited support.

3. Features of CleanMyMac

CleanMyMac X has a range of cleaning and maintenance tools, including:

• Cleanup options for System Junk, Mail Attachments, and Trash Bins
• An Uninstaller and Updater for your apps
• A way to disable and uninstall Extensions
• Space Lens, to visualize your storage space
• A way to find and remove Large & Old Files
• A Shredder to securely remove sensitive files

Note from our experts: If you download CleanMyMac from the App Store, you may be unable to access some features due to rules about what can appear in the App Store–App Store downloads aren’t allowed to access certain permissions. Features such as Shredder, Updater, Maintenance, and Photo Junk will be missing. If you want the full version of CleanMyMac X, download it from the developer’s website.

3.1 What additional features does CleanMyMac have

CleanMyMac also includes tools to help with malware removal and privacy protection.

The Malware Removal feature can scan your Mac and remove threats. However, it doesn’t let you schedule malware scans—you have to run them manually.

CleanMyMac’s Privacy feature allows you to clear your browsing history and remove chat history from messenger apps.

Our expert’s tip: If you want more in-depth privacy features, MacKeeper offers a secure VPN service and ID Theft Guard, which alerts you if your information has been involved in data breaches.

4. Pricing CleanMyMac

There are a few pricing options.

Yearly subscription:

• For one Mac: $34.95
• For two Macs: $54.95
• For five Macs: $79.95

One-time purchase:

• For one Mac: $89.95
• For two Macs: $134.95
• For five Macs: $199.95

Hint from our team: If you choose the one-time purchase option, you may need to pay for major CleanMyMac upgrades, which are included with a yearly subscription.

In each case, CleanMyMac X offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. You also get a free seven-day trial.

5. How effective CleanMyMac is

CleanMyMac is simple to use and does a good job at finding junk files. We also ran some tests and found that CleanMyMac X detected malware.

Important: If you’re looking for an alternative reliable Mac antivirus app, MacKeeper’s Antivirus detects and removes 99.7% of known threats.

I tested CleanMyMac’s Smart Scan on my MacBook Air. The scan took about a minute and found 12.77GB of junk.

It categorizes junk files into sections:

• System junk, including user cache files, system and user logs, and language files
• Mail attachments: looking at the Apple Mail app only—it didn’t find any mail attachments in Outlook or other mail apps
• Trash bins, including mail trash bins

6. CleanMyMac customer support

Customers can find answers in MacPaw’s online Knowledge Base. You can also contact the CleanMyMac team through their website live chat feature.

If you’re a corporate customer, there’s also an email address you can use.

7. What are the features of the CleanMyMac interface

When looking at BuhoCleaner vs CleanMyMac, you’ll notice that CleanMyMac has many more options.

The app opens on the Smart Scan page and clearly shows the Scan button.

The sidebar allows you to access any of CleanMyMac’s features, split into a few categories: Cleanup, Protection, Speed, Applications, and Files. In addition, you can also purchase a subscription by clicking Unlock Full Version.

There’s the Assistant button in the top right corner of the app. By clicking it, you launch CleanMyMac’s recommendations for optimizing your Mac.

8. How CleanMyMac affects your Mac

CleanMyMac should improve your computer’s performance. Its ability to find and remove junk files and clean up your RAM should allow you to see improvements in your Mac’s speed almost instantly.

The app’s optimization and maintenance scripts should also help your Mac continue to run smoothly.

In my tests, CleanMyMac didn’t negatively affect my Mac—it didn’t take up too much space, and even when running a scan, I didn’t notice any problems with RAM usage or speed.

9. Advantages and disadvantages of CleanMyMac

If you’re looking at BuhoCleaner vs CleanMyMac, you’ll want to know the advantages and disadvantages of both apps.

BuhoCleaner review

The basics about BuhoCleaner:

• It’s a comprehensive cleaning app and can help speed up your Mac’s performance.
• It can scan for junk files to delete, improving your storage space.
• It can also free up RAM, improving performance quickly.

Read our full BuhoCleaner review.

1. Who owns BuhoCleaner

BuhoCleaner is developed by a company called Dr.Buho, based in Chengdu, China. They were founded in 2020 and have also developed several other apps for macOS and iOS.

2. Which platforms are supported by BuhoCleaner

BuhoCleaner works on macOS 10.10 and upwards.

3. Key features of BuhoCleaner

BuhoCleaner has a range of Mac system cleaning features, including:

• Flash Clean, which can clean your Mac with two clicks
• App Uninstall, an easy way to remove unwanted software from your Mac—or leftover files from previously uninstalled apps
• Large Files, which finds all files larger than 50mb
• Duplicates, which lets you find files or folders with the same size and content
• Startup Items, where you can manage your Mac’s login items
• Disk Space Analyzer, which shows a visual representation of your Mac’s storage space
• Shredder, which securely deletes sensitive data
• Free Up RAM, which clears your Mac’s RAM

3.1 What bonus features does BuhoCleaner have

BuhoCleaner also has two other useful features:

• Reindex Spotlight. Spotlight is the in-built macOS search feature, which you can access by pressing Command + Spacebar. If you’re experiencing any issues with Spotlight, BuhoCleaner can rebuild the Spotlight index to fix problems.
• Flush DNS Cache. If you’re having internet connectivity issues or struggling to load websites, flushing your DNS cache can help.

Our heads-up: BuhoCleaner has various cleaning features. However, if you’re looking for support with privacy and malware, it won’t be able to help. If you want these additional features, we’d suggest a more comprehensive solution, such as MacKeeper.

4. How much does BuhoCleaner cost

BuhoCleaner offers a lifetime purchase, including any upgrades that may be released in the future:

• The Single plan covers one Mac and costs $29.99
• The Family plan covers three Macs and costs $45.99
• The Business plan covers 10 Macs and costs $71.99

There’s also a free trial version. It offers the full functionality of the paid version but limits how much data you can automatically delete—however, you can still delete more files manually.

5. How well BuhoCleaner works

I tested BuhoCleaner on my MacBook Air and BuhoCleaner seems to be very effective as a Mac cleaner.

A Flash Clean scan took less than a minute and found 17.19GB of junk. It used its Smart Select feature to suggest automatically removing 11.1GB of that.

Most of the files it suggested removing were cache files, such as Spotify and WhatsApp.

6. BuhoCleaner customer support

BuhoCleaner has an online knowledge base with frequently asked questions and advice.

You can also contact the support team at Help > Contact Support. This will generate an email with some attachments already added. The email text explains that these attachments provide context about what’s happening in the app.

Important: 

 

If you’d prefer to talk to someone in real-time, you might prefer to use an app with a live chat interface, such as MacKeeper. MacKeeper’s chat is a quick and easy way to discuss your problems with an expert within the app. MacKeeper’s Premium Service also offers 24-hour toll-free phone support.

7. BuhoCleaner application interface

When you first open BuhoCleaner, you’ll notice its very simple interface.

The home screen consists of a sidebar and a main part. It loads with the Flash Clean feature open, and the Scan button is quite visible.

The sidebar contains links to BuhoCleaner’s different features, including:

• Flash Clean
• App Uninstall
• Large Files
• Duplicates
• Startup Items

If you're using the free trial, there’s also an easy link to Unlock Full Version.

However, if you want to use BuhoCleaner’s Disk Space Analyzer or Shredder, or reindex Spotlight, flush your DNS cache, or free up RAM, you can’t do this directly from the sidebar. All of these features are hidden under Toolkit. It’s not as obvious how to reach them, and some users might miss them.

8. How BuhoCleaner affects macOS

BuhoCleaner can potentially free up a lot of space on your Mac. You can delete unwanted data with its Flash Clean and App Uninstall features. Additionally, cleaning RAM and flushing your DNS cache should improve your Mac’s speed and performance.

In my tests, I didn’t notice any negative effects—my MacBook continued to run smoothly even during scans, and it didn’t take up much storage space.

9. Pros and cons of BuhoCleaner

CleanMyMac vs BuhoCleaner: Final comparison

The main difference between CleanMyMac and BuhoCleaner is that CleanMyMac is not only a cleaner—it can also help with malware removal. However, BuhoCleaner is simply a Mac cleaner.

You’ll note that, in my tests, BuhoCleaner found almost 5GB more junk. So, in the battle of BuhoCleaner vs. CleanMyMac, BuhoCleaner is the more effective cleaner.

However, both apps have other features that you might appreciate.

Of course, CleanMyMac and BuhoCleaner aren’t the only choices. If you’re new to Mac cleaners, read our article asking ‘does Mac have a cleanup tool?’

MacKeeper’s Safe Cleanup is a dedicated Mac cleaner. What’s more, it’s part of MacKeeper, which contains a range of tools to optimize your Mac’s security, performance, and privacy.

With MacKeeper, you’ll also benefit from real-time antivirus protection, scheduled scans, and easy-to-use cleaning tools, as well as:

• Stop Ad, a dedicated ad blocker
• Private Connect, a secure VPN for Macs
• ID Theft Guard, which will alert you if your email address has been compromised in a data breach

If you want to optimize your Mac’s performance and your own security, MacKeeper might be the best choice.