Power Cleaner Studio vs MacKeeper
Antivirus-first cleaner with VPN, ad-blocker, ID-theft monitoring, and 24/7 in-app chat. By Clario Tech.
Power Cleaner Studio
macOS 14+ · native · sandboxed
$9 one-time
Family Sharing across Apple ID · refundable via Apple
Full Free tier · cleanup unlocks with the one-time purchase.
MacKeeper
Limited free trial (one-time scan + week of antivirus)
$10.95 / month (~$130/yr)
As listed on mackeeper.com
Antivirus-first cleaner with VPN, ad-blocker, ID-theft monitoring, and 24/7 in-app chat.
Where we win
- ✓$9 once vs $10.95/month — break-even in under a month
- ✓No history of scareware complaints (their legacy)
- ✓Activity Monitor with one-click quit — they don't have process control
- ✓Built for Mac power users, not 'antivirus subscribers'
- ✓Free tier is genuinely useful, not a 1-week timer
Where MacKeeper wins (honest)
- ◐Bundled antivirus + AV-TEST certified
- ◐Bundled VPN + ad-blocker + ID-theft monitor
- ◐24/7 in-app chat support
- ◐60M+ downloads
Feature-by-feature
Same features across both columns, no asterisks. ✓ = full, ◐ = partial, ✕ = no.
| Feature |
PCS
| MacKeeper |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| One-time purchase (not subscription) | ✓ | ✕ |
| Free tier (forever, not just trial) | ✓ | ✕ |
| Family Sharing across Apple ID | ✓ | ✕ |
| Refund window | — Via Apple | — Varies |
| Trust & privacy | ||
| Zero telemetry / analytics | ✓ | ✕ |
| Sandboxed (Mac App Store distribution) | ✓ | ✕ |
| Works without Full Disk Access | ✓ | ✕ |
| Open-source components | ✕ | ✕ |
| Fuzz-tested dangerous-path corpus | ✓ | ✕ |
| Cleanup | ||
| Junk / cache cleanup | ✓ | ✓ |
| Duplicate finder (SHA-256) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Similar photos (perceptual hash) | ✓ | ✕ |
| App uninstaller + leftover discovery | ✓ | ✓ |
| Curated rules for difficult apps (Adobe etc.) | — yes (15 apps) | ◐ |
| Xcode / Brew / Trash quick-cleanup recipes | — yes (Xcode / Brew / Trash) | ✕ |
| Monitoring | ||
| Live system CPU + RAM + per-process | ✓ | ◐ |
| Menu-bar HUD with sparklines | ✓ | ✓ |
| One-click quit a hungry app | ✓ | ◐ |
| Honest memory-pressure indicator | ✓ | ✕ |
| Disk usage treemap (DaisyDisk-style) | ✕ | ✕ |
| Safety | ||
| Cleanup goes to Trash (recoverable 30 days) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Refuses critical paths (/System, ~/.ssh, …) | — yes (DestructivePathPolicy) | ◐ |
| Review-before-delete sheet | ✓ | ✓ |
| Extras | ||
| MCP server for AI agents (Claude / ChatGPT) | ✓ | ✕ |
| Antivirus / malware scan | ✕ | ✓ |
| Bundled VPN | ✕ | ✓ |
| Ad-blocker | ✕ | ✓ |
| Command-line tool | — yes (pcs-mcp) | ✕ |
What MacKeeper does that inspires our roadmap
We watch every alternative. Here's where MacKeeper pushed our thinking:
- →Dashboard menu-bar quick-actions (we have a sampler; could add quick-clean from menu bar)
- →Smart 'data breach' watch (less relevant for us — privacy product wouldn't add a monitoring service)
See the changelog for what's shipping next.
Try Power Cleaner Studio
Free download — full scan + browse + Activity Monitor. $9 once for the cleanup actions.
Looking for another comparison? vs CleanMyMac · vs CCleaner for Mac · vs Mole