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I have bundled these two apps together as they are from the same developer. They do very different thing though.

CleanMyMac – Contrary to popular belief, this is not malware, scareware or any other maliciousware. People have gotten MacKeeper and CleanMyMac confused so many times over the years that they now both have a bad rep. CleanMyMac is solid and reliable software and the developer/company (MacPaw) has never done anything shady that I am aware of. Furthermore, CleanMyMac is notarized by Apple, MacKeeper is not. “Notarization gives users more confidence that the Developer ID-signed software you distribute has been checked by Apple for malicious components.” states the Apple Developer website. With that cleared up, let’s look at some of the useful features the software offers:

I’ve been using CleanMyMac for over a decade and started using it in 2008. Available for both PPC and Intel Macs this app did as promised and has evolved a lot since then. It now offers some of the following features:
• Free up space by finding and deleting old/unused files.
• Uninstall applications
• Trim application fat you don’t need (language files etc)
• Clean up and optimize Photo libraries
• Optimize Mail
• Find available app updates
And much more. It really has come a long way and I use it often.

MacPaw has historically always done their homework. If parts of the system should not be messed with, the app warns you not to mess with it. If certain actions should not be taken, you are warned. CleanMyMac is a very powerful tool however so if you choose to ignore the warnings, you can potentially mess up your system. The same thing goes for a popular maintenance app called Onyx. You need to familiarize yourself with it’s features and know how the macOS works so you can direct it’s power to the right places.

I use CleanMyMac to clean up my own systems (on PPC it’s very nice to be able to strip out Intel code from applications, leaving more space and smoother running apps for the PPC) and it’s my uninstaller of choice. They even offer malware scanning now but I have not tested this feature. Being able to thoroughly uninstall apps is something I put a lot of value in. Being able to update all my apps from within CleanMyMac (opposed to check each app website/updater for updates) is pure gold as well.

You can try out CleanMyMac by going here or clicking the banner above.
CleanMyMacX requires macOS 10.10 or newer.
CleanMyMac3 requires macOS 10.9-10.14
CleanMyMac Classic requires macOS 10.4-10.8
Links to these older versions can be found at the bottom of their site.

The Unarchiver – Not much to say about this app, apart from; “If you don’t have it, you need to get it right now!”. The Unarchiver is another app you can find on all of my machines, noth Intel and PPC alike. It can open pretty much ANY archive without issues. Best of all, it’s free! MacPaw purchased The Unarchiver in 2017 and have since been adding features, making it look and run slick and have still kept it free.
You can check it out here. (OS X 10.7 and higher)
Or for older OS X versions, grab it here.

Two very useful apps I highly recommend!