MacPaw and Trend Micro come from very different segments of the software industry. The Japanese Trend Micro is a multinational cyber security and defense company founded in Los Angeles, California, its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan and a global presence around the world.

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MacPaw, on the other hand, is an independent Ukranian-based software development company. As such each of their respective Mac optimization programs naturally have their own distinctions, too, but not in the way you might expect. Trend Micro might have the recognition internationally, but it is MacPaw’s software that stands out as one of the most-used cleaning utilities. They both have their strengths, however, whether that’s Dr. Cleaner’s live expert assistance or CleanMyMac’s impressive cleaning capabilities. The question is, which one is the must-have?

My first question I ask is clean what? What are they cleaning on my Mac and what makes it so dirty? I'm always pretty wary of Apps that promise to clean up my Mac because the Mac OS is already pretty good at keeping things clean.

• Cleaner Pro also includes Duplicate Finder and App Uninstaller. 1-click memory optimization. Instantly reclaim memory from closed Apps. Identify Apps that use a significant amount of memory. Quick disk clean from status bar menu. Clean temporary files, including logs, mail caches, iTunes and iOS temporary files.
• Cleaner, designed and developed by Trend Micro, is a Mac application that aims to optimize Mac’s performance by offering a suite of cleaning and monitoring utilities. Those utilities will scan and clean junk files, big old files, and duplicate files.
• May 17, 2018  Download Dr. Cleaner 3.3.5. Optimize how you use your Mac with the help of this brilliant program. Cleaner is a highly useful program to help you optimize your Mac and ensure it's running perfectly at all times. If you have a Mac, you definitely need this program in your life.

Dr. Cleaner Pro

Securing a place in the Mac optimization market is becoming more and more of a challenge – and not just for new entrants – as users look for multi-purpose services that provide the most value for their money. Trend Micro's Dr. Cleaner Pro seeks to deliver that to users looking for a pro-level service, surprisingly offering such a product for the purchase of a one-time license that costs $19.99. Alongside live support, an outstanding feature of Dr. Cleaner Pro that gives assistance via a professional on the other side of a chat screen, there is also a file manager called Disk Map to play around with. This feature delivers visual information about which files occupy the most space.

System Optimizer

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Scanning Results

And while CleanMyMac has the app uninstaller feature, Dr. Cleaner seeks to raise the bar with something dubbed “App Manager”. This feature is not limited to only app removal since it also allows users to choose to remove only the cache files generated by software, with a handy tab for finding out which programs and apps are not up to date.

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Those looking to test Dr. Cleaner themselves can start by downloading the free version from the App Store. If you are looking for more advanced features – such as deep scanning and duplicate file removal – then either upgrade to the Pro version or test the program risk-free for 30 days before you buy.

CleanMyMac

When you combine ease of use with simplicity, the result is always appealing to end-users. This is how MacPaw managed to strengthen its foothold in the Mac optimization market with its CleanMyMac app. Along with the smart cleanup feature that scours the whole Mac for junk and removable files – something that's just not possible with Dr. Cleaner Pro since the program is sandboxed – the software includes several handy features that serve the main purpose of maintaining a storage-optimized computer.

Scan for Junks

Maintenance Options

Every Mac needs the owner's attention from time to time, so instead of having to type code into Terminal (something only advanced users can do) CleanMyMac provides a better alternative with its powerful utilities and scripts that help the system run optimally. Reindex Spotlight, for example, is used in a handful of troubleshooting scenarios, just like repairing disk permissions.

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Both pieces of software take privacy seriously, too, and while Dr. Cleaner runs in a sandbox – the safest option since it prevents any system changes – CleanMyMac takes another approach. The app focuses on allowing users to delete cookies, browsing history, iMessage text, and attachments.

CleanMyMac is available as a free download, but if to get the most out of the software you will need a license key for $39.95.

Conclusion

When it comes to choosing between the two options there are multiple factors to consider, and price isn't necessarily the highest priority; it should be the features that make or break the deal. When you are considering an app, if it’s important that it should remind you to update installed programs and provide live support for your Mac optimization problems or is available for a lifetime license, then Trend Micro will be a good match. However, if you feel it’s more imperative to have a thorough system scan, junk removal, and storage optimization alongside maintenance utilities that can be run from time to time and regular Mac health alerts, then CleanMyMac will be a better fit for you – even if it is much more expensive than Dr. Cleaner. In the end, it's down to your personal preferences, and the good news is that both apps can be tested risk free.

Positives

• Live chat support
• Clean, easy-to-use interface
• Light app size
• Decent pricing
• One-time purchase for a lifetime license

Dr Cleaner Mac App Review

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Negatives

• Confused versioning
• Sandboxing imposes serious limitations

Ccleaner

Trend Micro is an established name in the IT industry, the Japan-based company having built its name over the course of three decades already. Dr. Cleaner is its Mac optimization app and has been available on the App Store since the end of 2014, seeking to serve a growing market of Apple fans looking for ways to optimize their computer's performance, monitor their system, and clean it of junk.

The market is getting crowded, though, and developers are having a hard time coming up with attractive new features to pack into software, but Trend Micro's vast experience has yet again proven to be helpful. By providing instant live chat with Dr. Cleaner Pro users, the app's usefulness increased since this way you’re counting on a real person – a professional developer even – to address any technical problems that users might face while using the app. It’s certainly an interesting addition to the market that might give a reason to explore the service deeper.

Features

It's kind of confusing to begin with because Dr. Cleaner can be downloaded from two sources, and which of the two versions will be installed is dependent on where it is taken from. The free version of Dr. Cleaner is available from the Mac App Store, while the Pro version – with a promising feature set – is available from a dedicated site. For our tests we used the Pro version.

There are several reasons to opt for the Pro version, though. The feature set is much more promising with this version as otherwise the duplicate files finder and the Intelligent App Manager are limited to only scanning the user’s account in the free version. The file shredder is limited to the Pro version, as is the unique live support tool and additional customization preferences such as duplicates, whitelists, and auto select.

System Optimizer

After confirming the user’s home directory, first launching Dr. Cleaner Pro by Trend Micro will automatically display the “System Optimizer” window, presenting clean, easy-to-understand visual information about the Mac's current status. The information is divided into three main columns: one for the memory usage; another for the amount of space that junk files are occupying; and the third for CPU and network usage.

Cleaning

Dr. Cleaner for Mac provides a simple and quick way to remove junk from the computer, you just need to click on the “Clean” button displayed in the system optimizer window. Doing so will empty any Mail cache files, clear away application logs and caches, and delete iTunes temporary files in an instant. Hitting the “System Optimizer” button, however, provides a much deeper level of cleaning: deleting unneeded junk files, system files, large files, duplicate files, apps, and app files.

Scanning Results

To do so Dr. Cleaner opens the main app window and clearly displays each of these functions in a column on the left with the corresponding action button on the right, with a nice animation signaling the scanning process. At this point Dr. Cleaner will neatly display the files it’s flagged for removal, which can then be selected by yourself before deletion.

During our testing the scanning processes for both junk and big files were underwhelming: Dr. Cleaner simply wasn't able to identify a huge chunk of cache files that had piled up from using Spotify. That doesn't make too much sense because the app was otherwise able to detect this junk data using the app manager function, and Spotify wasn't an app requiring admin access. The scan results for big files were poor compared to its competitor’s findings. That’s not what you’d expect from a paid Mac optimization software.

Utilities

There are a number of utilities available with Dr. Cleaner Pro by Trend Micro, such as the useful Disk Map function. By selecting a folder and using the associated graphical information, the app will help you spot which files are taking up space in that specific folder that can then be removed.

Disk Map Feature

App Uninstaller

The app uninstaller has a neat twist, too, which naturally enables app removal but also allows for just the deletion of any cache data. This function is only available to Pro users, however, as is the case with the duplicate files finder and file shredding tools. This means that by downloading Dr. Cleaner from the App Store these services will be greyed out. The results of the duplicate finder were acceptable, although it found fewer duplicates than a dedicated app might.

Dr Cleaner Mac Review

The software even comes with built-in real-time memory usage data, and if the system is suffering from high memory pressure or you’re looking to quickly free up some memory, then Dr. Cleaner will let you optimize your Mac's memory usage.

Pricing

Unlike many of its competitors, users can get a license for Trend Micro's Dr. Cleaner for a one-time payment of $19.99. This is the only pricing option that Trend Micro provides as the purchase page doesn't allow for the number of licenses to be increased prior – therefore meaning there is no option to score a discount with bundle deals.

Trend Micro accepts various payment methods, such as bank cards from the major payment networks – Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express – and PayPal. Those looking for wire transfer or other alternative payment methods such as cryptocurrency will be out of luck here.

Dr Cleaner For Mac

Customer Service

One area in which Trend Micro does succeed is with its customer service. In fact, it’s quite smoothly implemented into the program itself, with the DrAirSupport live chat function available immediately with a click of a button on the system optimization screen. This way you’ll have instant access to answers for whatever technical questions you might have.

Dr. Cleaner Knowledge Base

Sadly Dr. Cleaner’s support engineers aren’t online 24/7 – the difference in time zone could affect availability – and if this is the case simply try a bit later or send an email inquiry. This can also be handled directly within the app itself too, so feel free to shoot an email to support if you need. They will likely answer your question within a reasonable time frame, which in the best conditions means up to roughly 48 hours.

Trend Micro also provides links to the Dr. Cleaner knowledge base and FAQ page on the dedicated site. The knowledge base also encompasses a blog, which is regularly updated with general information about keeping a Mac in optimal shape.

Bottom Line

As Dr. Cleaner by Trend Micro shows, an appealing user interface helps to make the service as a whole appealing, but that isn't enough when you have high expectations from a Mac optimization app. The program helps users to monitor their Mac's pivotal resources such as memory and CPU or even network usage, but its care for privacy – since it is sandboxed software – imposes certain limitations on key features such as junk data removal and cache cleaning.

It's not just the limitation of only accessing a user's home folder that is a problem, either, but also its inability to properly identify caches that have built up with apps running on the Mac. This, combined with the average large and duplicate file finders that are capable of only acceptable results, leads us to conclude that the Pro version of Dr. Cleaner needs some work. For $19.99 you'll get an application that will admittedly help clean a Mac, but it won't take out all of its junk, unfortunately. The live support, however, is great.